CHAPTER 4: The Rise of Sumerian City-States

Mesopotamia:The land between the rivers

• Tigris & Euphrates Rivers• Modern-day Iraq• 1st cities appear In Sumer

LINK: Interactive Timeline & Map

City-States

• Earliest cities date back to 3500 BCE

• Each city was like a small, independent country

• Each had its own ruler• Each had its own

farmlands

A Difficult Environment

Mesopotamians were farmersFarms need water

4 Key Problems:1. Food shortages in the hills2. Uncontrolled water supply on

the plains3. Difficulties building and

maintaining irrigation systems to serve several villages at once

4. Attacks by neighboring communities

Q: What might neighbors fight over?

Food ShortagesBy 5000 BCE there is not enough land in the foothills to grow enough food for everyone

Q: Why did people move to the plains?

Climate:Foothills: mild weather, plentiful rain, timber for building

Plains: dry, little rain, no trees or stones for building, rivers that flood

The plains were called Sumer and the people who lived there were called Sumerians

Uncontrolled Water Supply in the River Valley

• Spring: rain and melted snow from the mountains flood the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers

• Rest of the year: sunbaked soil, dry, hard as stone

• Either too much water or not enough

• Sumerians built levees & dams

Euphrates river canal

Building and Maintaininga Complex Irrigation System

• Canals bring water from the river• Irrigation passed through many villages• Silt clogs canals• Working together helped communities grow

SILTVERY FINE MUD

Village Town City

Attacks by Neighboring Communities

• Cities fought over the right to use water.

• The plains offer no natural barriers for protection.

• Sumerians build walls to protect their cities.

Was Ancient Sumer a Civilization?

CivilizationWriting

Technology

Stable Food Supply

Social Structure

Government

Religion

The Arts

Sumerian Civilization

SUMERCuneiform

Wheel

Plow

Social Class King

Ziggurat

Music

Summary

1. The people of Mesopotamia solved problems in order to live successfully in their environment

2. Their solutions led to building large walled city states

3. Sumer had a complex social structure, government, religion, and culture

4. Sumer was one of the world’s first civilizations