• Ancient Greeks said the valley between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers was called Mesopotamia – “between the rivers”

• Mesopotamia was on the eastern end of an area known as the Fertile Crescent

• This land had rich soil and an abundance of crops so it sustained an early civilization

•Farmers relied on irrigation and drainage ditches

•The Sumerians were the creators of the first Mesopotamian civilization

• Created city-states – city with political and economic control over the surrounding countryside

• Had a number of cities such as Eridu, Ur, and Uruk

• Sumerian cities were surrounded by walls

• Buildings were made out of mud bricks shaped by hand

• They invented the arch and the dome

• The most famous building was the temple

• Temples were center of city physically, economically, and politically

• Early Mesopotamia was a theocracy – a government by divine authority

• Eventually ruling power passed to worldly figures or kings

• They thought kings got their power from the gods

• Economy of Sumerian was farming, trade, and industry

• Three major social groups: nobles, commoners, and slaves

• Sargon was the leader of the Akkadians

• He set up the first empire in world history

• Empire – large political unit usually under one leader that controls many peoples or territories

• Empires are easy to create but hard to maintain

•Hammurabi from Babylon came to power over Mesopotamia

• The Code of Hammurabi was based on a system of strict justice

• The largest focus of the code was on the marriage and family

• Mesopotamia was patriarchal – dominated by men

• Religion was polytheistic – belief in many gods

• Invented cuneiform – system of writing

• The Epic of Gilgamesh – poem that explains everlasting life is only for the gods