The Rise of Sumerian City-States

The name of Mesopotamia comes from its location, which was

• between two rivers
• in mountain foothills
• near a region of many conflicts
• . at the site of the earliest cities

What solution did people in the Zagros foothills find to fix the problem of food shortages?

• building terraces
• moving to the south 
• constructing reservoirs
•  joining villages together

Why did the rivers flood in the spring?

• Heavy rain fell throughout the area
• Strong winds blew from the Persian Gulf
•  Ice that had formed on the rivers broke into bits.
• Snow melted in the mountains where the rivers began

If you were in ancient Sumer, you might see a levee beside a river. Why was the levee built?

• to load barges
• to irrigate crops
• to prevent floods
• to control workers

Why did the villages of Sumer depend on each other?

• They formed caravans to safely visit the mountains.
• They cooperated to keep the water systems working.
• They exchanged different kinds of natural resources
• They had to fight off attacks from empires to the east

Using natural resources found in the environment, Sumerians built strong walls with

• bricks made of mud.
• logs with pointed tips
• reeds cut near the rivers.
• rocks shaped into squares.

The people of Sumer constructed moats to

• get crops to grow better
• protect cities from attack.
• make villagers work together. 
• bring drinking water into towns.

What change, caused by farming in northern Mesopotamia, led people to move south?

• The population increased, and there wasn’t enough food 
• The people fought, and they needed to find new places to live
• The climate changed, and it got too dry to keep living there
• The soil got overused, and plants could no longer grow there

Mesopotamia, is located in the modern country of 

• Iran
• Turkey
• Iraq
• Jordan

Why did farmers clean canals regularly?

• A dirty canal was bad for the tourist industry. 
• A clogged canal could spoil the entire system.
• An unsanitary canal would make villagers ill. 
• All of the above.