Mesopotamian Achievements

Mesopotamian Achievements

​King Sargon

Open Ended

What is your greatest achievement?

• Developed to record information about trade and tributes.

• Based on earlier form of written language called pictographs. ​

• What's the big deal?

  • Written language allows people to share information over great distances and time. ​

1) Cuneiform

​

Open Ended

HIGHER ORDER THINKING QUESTION: Why would it be useful to have a written alphabet that represents sounds?

• ​Farmers need to control water supply for larger crop yields.

• ​Brick dams were designed to block water from flooding and to store water during the summer.

• The ​blocked water would be collected in multilevel pools called reservoirs.

2) Irrigation

​

Multiple Select

REVIEW REWIND: What are the two rivers the Mesopotamians depended on for survival?

• Nile

• Euphrates

• Amazon

• Tigris

• Mississippi

• Earliest forms are from 3,500 BCE.

• Potters used wheels to shape clay into pottery.

• Later, the Sumerians realized they could turn it sideways for rolling!

• Sledges were used to drag goods before the wheel allowed them to roll. ​

3) The Wheel

​

• Used to poke holes in the soil for seeds.

• More efficient for cultivating the land.

• Crafted from animal horns or pointed sticks.

• What's the big deal?

  • Efficient farming = more food = growing population​

4) The Plow

​

Open Ended

HIGHER ORDER THINKING QUESTION: What are the benefits and drawbacks of using the modern tractor instead of the Sumerian plow?

• Metalworkers melted copper and tin to make the strongest metal at the time - bronze.

• ​They poured the liquids into molds and let it harden.

• Bronze was used to make strong weapons, reliable tools, and beautiful jewelry. ​

5) Metalworking

​

Multiple Choice

What do we call areas of blocked water in multilevel pools?

• Canals

• Reservoirs

• Plows

• Metal Molds

Multiple Choice

Vocab Review: "Belief in many gods" is the definition for which word?

• Monotheism

• Polytheism

• Social Classes

• Tribute

Multiple Choice

Vocab Review: What are pyramid-shaped temples?

• Irrigation

• Synagogues

• Ziggurats

• Mosques

Exit Ticket Question:

• ​What modern technology do you think a time-traveling Mesopotamian would be most fascinated by?

• Answer in 3 complete sentences and think deeper than "phones"!​