Textbook Notes Pt. 3

• geography of Fertile Cresent
• curved shape & rich land
• Tigris & Euphrates rivers
• living on rivers = unpredictable
• good --> water
• bad --> floods
• silt = rich soil that is good for farming & is left behind after floods
• environmental challenges
• unpredictable floods
• no natural barriers
• limited building material resources (wood, stone)
• solving these challenges
• irrigation ditches
• built mud walls with mud bricks
• traded for things they needed
• had = grain, cloth, tools
• needed = stone, wood, metal
• Sumerians create city-states
• first people to form a civilization
• five characteristics of civilization
• advanced cities
• specialized workers
• complex institutions
• record keeping
• improved tech
• city-state = city and area around it (acts like an independent country)
• have own governments
• ziggurat = pyramid in the center of the city (main building)
• built-in levels
• who is in charge?
• priests because people believed gates to Gods
• sometimes military leaders
• passed to sons if die
• cultural diffusion = one conquers another and bring culture --> cultures mix