World History / Unit 1: Prehistory and Early River Valley Civilizations
1.3 Mesopotamia
Notes
The first cities grew between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Mesopotamia ("land between the rivers"), mostly in modern Iraq.
- Sumer (about 3500 BCE) had independent city-states such as Ur and Uruk, each with a ziggurat (temple tower) to its patron god.
- Sumerians were polytheistic (believed in many gods) and built irrigation canals to control unpredictable floods.
- Cuneiform, wedge-shaped writing on clay tablets, began about 3200 BCE for record-keeping. The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest written stories.
- Sargon of Akkad (about 2300 BCE) created what is often called the first empire, uniting many city-states under one ruler.
- Hammurabi of Babylon (about 1754 BCE) issued Hammurabi's Code, 282 written laws. Punishments often followed "an eye for an eye" and depended on social class.
- Other inventions: the wheel, the plow, a number system based on 60 (still used for minutes and hours).
Practice
Read the excerpt from Hammurabi's Code: "If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out." (L. W. King translation, 1910) This law shows that the code:
Many laws followed the principle of retaliation, though penalties varied by social class.
Why did Sumerians build irrigation systems?
The rivers flooded unpredictably, so canals and dikes stored and directed water.
Which achievement is correctly matched with Mesopotamia?
Cuneiform is Mesopotamian; hieroglyphics are Egyptian and oracle bones are Chinese.
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