Geography of Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia

Multiple Choice

What is the nickname for the area in green?

• Land of Plenty

• Fertile Crescent

• Land of the Sun

• Pearl of the Desert

It's the earliest center of human civilization. It had many city-states, which are separate regions with their own rulers.

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Label the area the The Fertile Crescent and color it green.

Locating Mesopotamia

Open Ended

Mesopotamia traded oils, grains, and cloth for wine, precious metals, and timber. How did they transport the heavy items versus the light items?

Overseas and Land Transport

Many places around the region traded with Mesopotamia. Heavy items were traded by boats and ships while lighter items were carried by land in packs or on animal's backs.

Trade and barter was important because people could not make everything themselves. Scribes were important because they recorded the business transactions.

​Trade and Barter

Match

Match each of the big cities to what they were known for:

• Eridu

• Ur

• Uruk

Oldest city in Mesopotamia, and possibly, world history.

Controlled the trade in the area.

Largest city in Mesopotamia.

• Oldest city in Mesopotamia, and possibly, world history.

• Controlled the trade in the area.

• Largest city in Mesopotamia.

Multiple Choice

The climate in Mesopotamia was very dry and had many droughts. How did the mountains help out?

• Blocked the wind so that crops would not get blown away.

• Trapped seasonal rains and created snow that would send water into the valley.

​Locate the mountain ranges on the map and color them purple. Then label each of them.

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Mountains

Open Ended

Flooding was a natural situation that all river valley civilizations had to deal with. Floods were unpredictable and washed away crops but they also were important to the people. What benefit did flooding provide?

Mesopotamians grew wheat, apples, grapes, barley, figs, melons. and dates. They used a seeder plow to dig furrows in the dirt so they could plant seeds.

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Agricultural Innovations

Fill in the Blanks

In Mesopotamia, there were farmers, potters, weavers, scribes, and traders. All of these extra jobs were made possible because of a _ of food. This allowed the cities to grow as well.

​None of this would be possible without the freshwater rivers that existed in this area. Those rivers are the Tigris and the ...Euphrates River. Label it on your map and color them blue.