Ancient Mesopotamia
Grade 7 Project
By Chaya Blue
November 15, 2011
What is Mesopotamia?
• Mesopotamia means “Land between the
two rivers.” in Greek. When it says
Mesopotamian civilization, it really means
the four civilizations that existed on
Mesopotamian plain: Sumer, Babylon,
Assyria, and Chaldea.-pg 67 of my Text
book
Geography
• The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers begin in
the mountains of Turkey. Water rushed
down to the hills below, picking up fertile
silt and carrying it to the valley floor.- pg
66 of my Text book
Geography (cont.)
• Except for Springtime floods, Mesopotamia was a
dry land. After the flood waters flowed away, the
people were left with sun-baked lands. The biggest
challenge for the farmers was to find away to control
the water to flow so that it won’t flood nor bake.
Only this way could they make sure their crops
would survive. They found a way to irrigate the land.
At first the people dug away parts of the river banks
so that the water would flood onto their land. They
built dams to make pools and dipped water out of
them with buckets tied to poles. They built dikes ( a
low earthen wall) to direct the flow of water. – pg 70
of my Text book
Geography (cont.)
• The early farmers of Mesopotamia found
the hot, dry climate on the region both a
blessing and a curse. It provided the heat
that many need to thrive but not the rain
fall. In spring, fields flooded after the snow
melted in the mountains. When the water
was gone in late summer, fields baked in
the hot sun.-pg 68 of my text book
Geography (cont.)
• The people of Mesopotamia invented
many tools and techniques to make tier
farming work easier and more productive.
They harnessed animals to pull ploughs.
They placed a shoulder yoke on the oxen
to make them easier to guide. They altered
the plough so that it would turn the soil
and crop into freshly ploughed rows. –pg
81 of my text book
Geography (cont.)
• Uruk stayed an important city for
thousands of years. The people who lived
there are known as Sumerians, and it was
with them that Mesopotamia civilization
really took off.- pg 17 of the Encyclopedia
of the Ancient World (E.A.W.)
Daily Life
• The Sumerians prayed to hundreds of
different gods and goddesses. But each city
had its own special ones and the temple
was known as gods home to the people.
Priests lived in the temple performing
ceremonies, reciting hymns, and prayers.
Temples were also great employers.
Dozens of cooks, craft men, and cleaners
worked there looking after the priests.-pg
21 of E.A.W.
Daily Life (cont.)
• The Sumerians believe their land belonged
to gods not to them. So farmers produce
was donated to the temple and the priests
were put in-charge of collecting, storing,
and distributing it to everyone. To
organize this huge task small army of
scribes and officials was on hand.-pg 21 of
E.A.W.
Economy and trade
• The Mesopotamian woman enjoyed
several freedoms they could own property
and slaves, run businesses and take part in
trading. The communities thrived partly
because of all the hard work of the slaves.
Some people were made slaves after being
trapped in battle. Others sold themselves
or their children into slavery to cover their
depts.-pg 72 of my Text book
Daily Life (cont.)
• the Assyrian kings were great warriors,
and led their armies onto the battle field.
But they also knew now to enjoy
themselves. Several of the kings had zoos
of exotic animals. They also hunted
animals to prove their skills and bravery.pg 37 of E.A.W.
Economy and trade (cont.)
• Because there was plenty of food in
Mesopotamia, some people could make a living
by creating goods or selling their services in
exchange for surplus food. People began to
develop skills in leather work, carpentry, pottery,
metalwork, and weaving. They learned to make
gold rings, statuettes with lapis lazuli and shell
containers. By trading these goods, people make
a good living and the economy thrived.-pg 72 of
me Text book
Economy and trade (cont.)
• Caravans and long ships powered by
square sails and oars carried building
stone from Africa, copper from Cyprus,
gold from Egypt, and cedar from Lebanon.
In trade, the Sumerian offered wool, cloth,
jewelry, oil, and grains.- page 72 of my
Text book
Economy and Trade (cont.)
• Babylon thrived as a trading centre
because it lays in the middle of the main
trade routes. Babylonians caravans
traveled to Persia and Asia minor. Their
ships traded along the rivers and along the
coasts of Arabia and India.-pg 72 of my
Test book
Economy and Trade (cont.)
• Trade with nearby lands brought more
than goods. People also learned about one
another's languages, religion, and
inventions. For example, new ways of
making pottery and tools for farming,
spread quickly through Mediterranean
area after they appeared in Mesopotamia.
This “trade” in ideas helped the
Mesopotamian society.-pg 72 of my text
book
Economy and trade (cont.)
• The Babylonians were one of the first
peoples to exchange money for goods. The
shekel was a silver, copper, or gold coins
that weighed the same as 180 grains of
barley. A mina was worth 60 shekels, an
a talent was worth 60 minas.- pg 73 of
my text book
Economy and trade (cont.)
• The Sumerians used a barter system to
buy and sell goods. Goods were exchanged
for their value in sacks of grain. Scribes,
people who sell their writing skills for a
living, kept records and accounts on clay
tablets. Mesopotamia’s vast net work or
irrigation canals made it easy for traders
to travel.-pg 73 of my text book
Economy and trade (cont.)
• Trade and other peaceful contact enriched
the civilization of Mesopotamia. But other
contact led to warfare. When civilization
traded regularly with its neighbors, it
usually flourished. But if it had many
strong enemies it was usually doomed.-pg
76 of my text book
Economy and trade (cont.)
• The Mesopotamians were the first people
to develop written language. Writing was
mostly used for trade. Education, laws,
history, and literature all became possible
after humans could record their ideas. The
Sumerians developed a form of writing
called Cunieform.-pg 82 of my text book
Art and Architecture
(cont.)
• The Sumerians were wonderful craftsmen. They made
jewelry of precious gold and lapis, fancy chairs, and
unglazed vases they kept water cool. They were not very
good at huge stone sculptures because their artists did
not have stone to work with. But they made beautiful
things with materials on hand. One of the things they did
very well was to create colorful mosaics in intricate and
beautiful patterns using little pieces of painted clay.
Archeologists have found remains of mosaics, helmets,
harps, jewelry, pottery and decorated tablets.- from
http://mesopotamia.mrdonn.org/art.html
Art and Architecture (cont.)
• They made such beautiful pottery that it
became a form of wealth. The pottery was
exchanged for food, clothing, and jewelry.
they had many musical instruments,
including the harp, reed pipes, drums, and
http://mesopotamia.mrdonn.org/art.html
the lyre.- from
Art and Architecture (cont.)
• Sumerian architecture is probably the oldest serious architecture in
the world. People living in the area between the Tigris and the
Euphrates rivers, began to build really big, substantial buildings
about 3500 BC. Because there's practically no building stone in this
area, but there's lots of clay, Sumerian architects built their
buildings out of mud-brick or fired brick. This was so early that the
architects didn't know how to make a big building stay up if it was
hollow inside, so the first big buildings are solid rather than really
useful as buildings. They're more like artificial hills. This is the same
as the Egyptian pyramids, which were built just a little later and are
also pretty much solid inside. Mostly what they built was huge
staircases of mud-brick which are called ziggurats. Each little citystate would build its own ziggurat, partly to please the gods and
partly to show how powerful the town was. On top of each ziggurat,
there was a small temple to Ishtar or Anu or another Mesopotamian
god.- from
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/westasia/architecture/sumeria
n.htm
Art and Architecture (cont.)
• The Sumerians also built town walls around their towns,
which were also built mainly out of mud-brick, and
which could also be solid. (In fact fortification walls
pretty much have to be solid!). The Sumerians in each
city-state built palaces for their kings, too. These palaces
weren't just to live in; they were also storehouses
for wheat and barley and cloth and all kinds of things
that the kings collected as taxes. And of course not only
the king but also his whole family and many slaves lived
in these palaces. The palaces were also made out of mudbrick. Mud-brick buildings like these would look pretty
boring if they just had straight walls, all brown. So the
builders made them look more interesting by creating
areas of dark and light on their walls - the walls went in
and out at regular intervals, making a sort of pattern of
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/westasia/architecture/sumerian.htm
shadows.- from
Government
• With the development of writing, the Mesopotamians
began to write down laws. The best-known set of laws to
the ancient Mesopotamians is the code of Hammurabi.
Hammurabi was a king of Babylon. He brought
prosperity and peace to the city-states he ruled
throughout Mesopotamia. He claimed the gods had told
him to write down laws to make sure the “the strong may
not oppress the weak.” Hammurabi’s code was an
important step toward creating a society in which
everybody’s rights are recognized. The code lists 282
laws. They cover all aspects of peoples daily life,
including family, labor, buying and selling land,
possessions, and trade. Each law has a punishment.from my text book.
Government
(cont.)
• Early Sumerian towns had been governed
by elected officials. But, as towns grew into
cities, the small local organizations that
had looked after daily life grew into huge
governments, with hundreds of officials.
These began to be appointed directly by
powerful men, without consulting
anyone.-pg 20 of E.A.W
Government
(cont.)
• City-states squabbled with each other over
valuable farmland, and petty disputes
sometimes grew into full-blown wars. So
walls for protection, and a warlord, or
lugal, was chosen to lead the fighting. As
wars grew more frequent, lugals stayed in
power for longer. Eventually, they were
recognized as kings and when they died
there sons took over.- pg 20 of E.A.W.