Ancient Mesopotamia

• Mesopotamia was located in modern day Iraq​ between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

• People settled between these rivers​ for many reasons, but they were often a source of life.

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​Mesopotamia

​The land between two rivers

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Multiple Select

What are the TWO rivers surrounding Mesopotamia (TWO CORRECT ANSWERS!)

• Amazon

• Tigris

• Nile

• Euphrates

• Mississippi

Poll

Why were the rivers important?

• Transportation

• Trade

• Fishing

• Irrigation

• All of the Above

​Why were the Rivers important?

​Rivers provided many benefits for early civilizations:

​-Irrigation for crops

-Water to drink

-Trade

-Fishing

-Transportation​

Social Studies

Mesopotamia

​The Cradle of Civilization

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• ​Mesopotamia was the birthplace of many things we depend on today: agriculture, written language, government, law, and religion

• ​Mesopotamia is more of a geographic region than one particular civilizations. There were multiple civilizations and empires that existed throughout History here, but they were all bound together by the same culture.

• The people of each civilization within this region used the similar written language, laws and religion.​

Social Studies

Mesopotamia

Reorder

Reorder the following with the EARLIEST empire listed 1st and the LATEST empire 5th

616 BCE - Neo Babylonian Empire

1360 BCE - Assyrian Empire

550 BCE - Persian Empire

2300 BCE - Akkadian Empire

1792 BCE - Babylonian Empire

• Akkadian Empire

• Babylonian Empire

• Assyrian Empire

• Neo Babylonian

• Persian Empire

1

2

3

4

5

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

​City-States

The Region of Mesopotamia was divided up into smaller regions called

city-states.

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City-states would refer to the large population centers (cities) and the surrounding areas and farmland just outside the city.

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These city-states ​operated like small independent countries, having their own laws and government.

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Mesopotamia​

Multiple Choice

What is a city-state?

• An old country

• A city and it's surrounding territory

• Anything that has laws and a government

• A type of social structure

People in Mesopotamia believed in many gods and goddesses...over 1000!!​

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​The belief in many gods is called polytheism

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Many early religions were polytheistic​

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​Mesopotamia

​Religion

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Mesopotamia was an area with a very dry climate. Due to the lack of trees, this meant that most buildings were made of mud bricks instead of wood.

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​Many cities in Mesopotamia had large temples made of these bricks called Ziggurats.

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​Mesopotamia

​Ziggurats

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Mesopotamians came up with one of the earliest known systems of writing, called cuneiform​

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​Mesopotamia

​Writing

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Drag and Drop

One of the first forms of writing was known a​s ​

Placeholder

​ .

Many cities in Mesopotamia had large temples made of these bricks called ​

Placeholder

.

The belief in one single god is known as ​

Placeholder

Drag these tiles and drop them in the correct blank above

cuneiform

hieroglyphics

calligraphy

ASCII

temples

church

Ziggurats

monotheistic

polytheistic

religion

Multiple Choice

The term polytheistic refers to which definition?

• The belief in many gods

• The belief in one god

• The belief in the river god

• The belief in cuneiform

Hotspot

Which of the following dots is the location the Mesopotamia area.