Chapter 2 Section 1 Notes
I. Geography of the Fertile Crescent
A. The Fertile Crescent is an upside down
crescent running from the Persian Gulf north along the Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers to the Coast of Israel
B. The valley between two rivers becomes
known as Mesopotamia “ Land Between the Rivers”
1. Each year the rivers would flood
and leave a rich layer of soil called
silt
C. People began to live there around 4500
B.C. but the Sumerians would settle there around
3500 B.C.
D. Environmental problems
1. Unpredictable floods
2. Sumer was a cluster of small
villages on a plain with no protection
3. Limited natural resources
E. Solutions for problems
1. Irrigation canals
SUMERIAN IRRIGATION
2. For defense they built city walls of
mud brick
3. Traded grain for other natural
resources
II. Sumerians Create City States
A. One of the first groups to form a civilization ( 5
Characteristics )
B. Each of the City-states was
independent, had their own ruler , and
surrounding farm lands
C. Power of Priests
1. Theocracy is a government in
which the religious leader is also the
ruler
2. Priests controlled early government
3. Communicated with the gods
4. Collected taxes
D. How monarchs came into leadership
1. In times of war commanders took
control
2. Gradually commanders took control of standing
armies
3. Eventually commanders
became the full time rulers
4. Dynasty is a series of rulers from
the same family
E. Spread of cities
1. Contact from other peoples help
create more Sumerian Cities
2. Cultural Diffusion is the process of a new
idea or product from one culture to
another
III. Sumerian Culture
A. A religion of many gods
B. Polytheism the believe in many
gods
Reptilian Nature god
Inanna Queen of Beasts
3. gods had human characteristics
4. “Land of No Return”
a. Dismal, gloomy place between
earth’s crust and the ancient sea
C. Epic of Gilgamesh
1. Earliest works of literature,
Gilgamesh’s unsuccessful quest
for immortality
D. Life in Sumerian Society
1. Social classes developed
a. Priest and Kings
c. Fieldworkers majority of people
E. Sumerian Science and Technology
1. Wheel 2. Sail
3. Plow
Sailboat of the Sumerians
4. First to use bronze
5. First system of writing
6. Astronomy, chemical
substances, symptoms of
disease
7. Numbering system based on 6
Sumerian Numbering System
a. 60 minutes , 60 seconds
b. 360 degrees
a. Arches, columns, ramps
IV. The First Empire Builders
A. Sargon of Akkad ( Semitic- Arabic
and Hebrew cross )
1. Around 2350 B.C. Sargon from Akkad from north and conquered the
Sumerians
2. His city state Akkad had long
adopted Sumerian ideas
3. He conquers both territory in the north
and all of Sumer thus creating the
worlds first empire
a. An Empire is when a ruler
conquers one or more city-states
or territory
B. Babylonian Empire
1. Another Semitic group, the Amorites
overwhelm the Sumerians and
start the Babylonian Empire
2. Hammurabi from 1792-1750 B.C.
Rules the Babylonians at its
height
a. Hammurabi’s Code of Laws
Hammurabi and Sample of Laws
1. Reorganized all of the laws of the
Sumerians
2. 282 specific laws
3. Different punishments for rich
and poor