World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Chapter 3:
Mesopotamia and the Fertile
Crescent
Section 1
Geography of the Fertile Crescent
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Geography of the Fertile Crescent
The Big Idea
The valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
were the site of the world’s first civilizations.
Main Ideas
• The rivers of Southwest Asia supported the growth
of civilizations.
• New farming techniques led to the growth of cities.
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Main Idea 1: Rivers Support the Growth of Civilization
 Early people settled where crops would grow, which
was near rivers.
 The Tigris and Euphrates rivers are the most
important physical features of the region known as
Mesopotamia.
 Farm settlements in Mesopotamia
eventually developed into civilizations.
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Land Between Two Rivers
 Mesopotamia means “between the rivers” in Greek.
 Mesopotamia is part of a larger area of rich farmland called
the Fertile Crescent, that extends from the Persian Gulf to
the Mediterranean Sea.
 Mesopotamia was divided into two
regions in ancient times: northern and
southern Mesopotamia.
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Rise of Civilizations
 Hunter-gatherer groups settled in Mesopotamia more than
12,000 years ago.
 Annual floods on the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers brought silt that made
the land ideal for farming.
 Silt is a mixture of rich soil and tiny rocks.
 Plentiful food led to population growth and the formation of
villages, and later into the world’s first civilizations.
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Main Idea 2: Farming and Cities – Controlling Water
 Region receives very little rain and flooding was
unpredictable.
 Farmers used irrigation and canals as
a way to control river flow.
Irrigation
A way of supplying water to an area of land
Canals
Human-made waterways
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Food Surpluses and Effects
 Irrigation increased the amount of food farmers produced and
created a surplus, or more food than needed.
 Fewer people needed to farm, so new occupations (jobs)
developed.
 When workers specialize in a particular task or job, a division
of labor is created.
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Section 2:
The Rise of Sumer
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
The Rise of Sumer
The Big Idea
The Sumerians developed the first
civilization in Mesopotamia.
Main Ideas
 The Sumerians created the world’s first advanced
society.
 Religion played a major role in Sumerian society.
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
An Advanced Society
 A people known as Sumerians developed the world’s first
civilization in southern Mesopotamia.
 By 3000 B.C., several hundred thousand Sumerians had
settled in a land they called Sumer.
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
City-States
 Basic political units: consisted of a city (urban) and all of the
surrounding countryside (rural).
 The amount of countryside in each city-state depended on
its military strength.
 Fought each other to gain more farmland
 Built walled cities for protection
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Sargon and the Rise of the Akkadian Empire
 Akkadian society developed just north of Sumer.
 Akkadian king, Sargon, was the first ruler
to have a permanent army.
 Sargon wanted to expand Akkadian
territory and conquered all of the
city-states of Sumer, as well as
northern Mesopotamia.
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Sargon/Akkadia continued
 With these conquests, Sargon established the world’s first
empire – Land with different territories and peoples under a
single ruler.
 Sargon was emperor – ruler of his empire – for more than 50
years.
 After his death, the empire lasted
only a century longer.
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Main Idea 2: Religion Shapes Society
 Religion was the basis for all Sumerian society.
 Sumerians were polytheistic:
 Polytheism is the worship of
many gods.
 Gods had enormous powers.
 Priests, people who performed religious ceremonies,
gained high status in Sumerian society.
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Sumerian Religion continued…
 Each city-state considered one god to be its special protector.





Enlil – lord of the air
Enki – god of wisdom
Inanna – goddess of love and war
Nanna – moon god
Utu – sun god
 Priests performed religious ceremonies in giant temples
called ziggurats – shaped like squared, tiered wedding
cakes.
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Sumerian Social Order
 Social hierarchy: the division of society by rank or
class
 Kings were at the top of the order because they
claimed to be chosen to rule by the gods.
 Social order
 Kings
 Priests
 Skilled craftspeople, merchants, and traders
 Large working class of farmers and laborers
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 Slaves
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Men and Women in Sumer
 Men generally held the political power and made
laws.
 Women generally took care of the
home and children.
 Education was generally reserved for
men, but some upper class women were educated.
 Some women were priestesses in Sumerian temples.
 Enheduanna, a priestess who wrote hymns and
Sargon’s daughter, is the first known female
writer in history.
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Section 3
Sumerian
Achievements
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Sumerian Achievements
The Big Idea
The Sumerians made many advances that helped
their society develop.
Main Ideas
 The Sumerians invented the world’s first writing
system.
 Advances and inventions changed Sumerian lives.
 Many types of art developed in Sumer.
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Main Idea 1: The Invention of Writing
 The Sumerians made one of the greatest cultural advances
in history – they developed writing.
 The cuneiform (kyoo-nee-uh-fohrm) system of writing
involved people using sharp tools called a stylus to make
wedge-shaped symbols on clay tablets.
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Writing continued…
 Earlier writing had used pictographs, or picture symbols.
 In cuneiform, symbols could represent syllables, or parts of
words, and be combined to express more complex ideas.
 First used to keep business records
 A writer, or scribe, kept the records
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Writing continued…
 Sumerians wrote works on history, law, grammar, and math.
 Also created works of literature: stories, proverbs, songs, and
long poems that tell stories of heroes, called epics.
 Famous Sumerian epic poem,
The Epic of Gilgamesh, is a story
of a legendary Sumerian king.
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Main Idea 2: Advances and Inventions
 Development of the wheel
 Used for carts and wagons
 Potter’s wheel
 The plow increased farm production.
 Sewers under city streets
 Math and science
 Number system based on 60
 Names of animals, plants, and minerals
 Used medicines for healing and catalogued medical
knowledge
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki8S5I83Ccc
Chapter 3
Main Idea 3: The Arts of Sumer
Architecture
 Rulers lived in large palaces.
 Most Sumerians lived in houses
with many rooms around a
small courtyard.
 Mud bricks were the houses’
main building blocks.
 A ziggurat, or pyramid-shaped
temple tower, rose above each
city.
The Arts
 Sculptors produced many
statues of the gods for their
temples.
 Jewelry was a popular item
made from imported gold, silver,
and gems.
 Engraved cylinder seals are one
of Sumer’s most famous types
of art.
 Battle scenes
 Show ownership
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 Highly decorative
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Section 4
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Later Peoples of the
Fertile Crescent
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Later Peoples of the Fertile Crescent
The Big Idea
After the Sumerians, many cultures ruled parts of
the Fertile Crescent.
Main Ideas
 The Babylonians conquered Mesopotamia and
created a code of law.
 Invasions of Mesopotamia changed the region’s
culture.
 The Phoenicians built a trading society in the
eastern Mediterranean region.
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Main Idea 1: The Babylonians conquer
Mesopotamia
• Babylon was located on the Euphrates River near what is
today, Baghdad, Iraq.
• In 1792 B.C., Hammurabi became
Babylon’s king.
• He would become the city’s
greatest monarch, or ruler of a kingdom or empire.
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Hammurabi
 Brilliant war leader who brought all of Mesopotamia into his
Babylonian Empire.
 Oversaw building and irrigation projects and improved the tax
system.
 Most famous for his code of laws.
 Ruled for 42 years
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Hammurabi’s Code
 Hammurabi wrote down 282 laws which contained some
ideas still found in laws today.
 Specific crimes brought specific
penalties.
 Social class was taken into account. It was a greater crime
to injure a rich man than a poor one.
 It was unique not only because of how thorough it was, but
also because he wrote it down for all to see.
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Main Idea 2: Invasions of Mesopotamia
 Armies battled for control of fertile land.
 Different peoples ruled Mesopotamia.
 Hittites
 Kassites
 Assyrians
 Chaldeans
 Each group affected the culture of the region.
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
The Hittites & Kassites
 The Hittites were the first to master ironworking, so they
made the strongest weapons of the time.
 They used the chariot, a wheeled,
horse-drawn cart, which allowed
them to move quickly around the
battlefield.
 They were taken over by the Kassites after their king was
assassinated.
 The Kassites ruled for almost 400 years.
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
The Assyrians
 The Assyrians had a strong army that used
chariots and iron weapons.
 They spread terror before battles by
looting villages and burning crops.
 Assyrian kings ruled their empire through
local leaders who each governed a small area.
 The local leaders demanded heavy taxes.
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
The Chaldeans
 The Chaldeans destroyed the Assyrian
Empire in 612 B.C.
 King Nebuchadnezzar (neb-uh-kuhd-NEZ-uhr) rebuilt Babylon
into a beautiful city that had the famous Hanging Gardens.
 They admired the Sumerian culture, studied their language,
and built temples to Sumerian gods.
 Babylon became a center for astronomy.
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ5YPVRn7hA
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Main Idea 3: The Phoenicians (fi-NI-shuns)
 Located at the western end of the Fertile Crescent, in what is
now Lebanon.
 Became excellent sailors and sailed
throughout the Mediterranean
building trade networks, and
founding new cities.
 Grew wealthy from trading
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
Main Idea 3: The Phoenicians continued…
Resources
 Traded:
Expansion of
Trade
 prized cedar
 Excellent sailors
 silverwork
 Traveled around
Mediterranean to:
 ivory carvings
 purple dyed
cloth
 slaves
 Egypt
 Greece
 Italy
 Sicily
 Built great harbors
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Alphabet
 Created one of the
world’s first
alphabets – set of
letters that can be
combined to form
words
 Made writing much
easier for everyone
 Is the basis for the
English language
 Spain
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
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World History: Ancient Civilizations Through the Renaissance
Chapter 3
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