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CHAPTER 4: The Rise of Sumerian City-States

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Mesopotamia:The land between the rivers

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

LINK: Interactive Timeline & Map

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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

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Southern Mesopotamia was NOT an easy place to live!

• A lot of sun = VERY HOT• Very little rain = not enough water• Rivers would flood• Soil was hard and dry• Few trees• Stones were scarce (very few)• Few natural barriers

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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?

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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

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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

8Euphrates river canal

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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

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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.

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Was Ancient Sumer a Civilization?

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Sumerian Civilization

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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