Rise of Sumerian City-States

The two largest rivers in Southwest Asia that flow from the mountains in Turkey to the Persian Gulf in the Fertile Crescent

• Euphrates & Nile River

• Tigris & Euphrates Rivers

• Tiger & Eclair Rivers

• Tigris & Nile Rivers

Means "land between two rivers"

• Fertile Crescent

• Euphrates

• Mesopotamia

• Tigris

A wall of earth built to prevent a river from flooding its banks

• moat

• silt

• irrigation system

• levee

A means of supplying land with water

• irrigation

• levee

• silt

• pipe system

An early city that was like a small, independent country with its own laws and government

• city-state

• country-state

• town-city

• country

fine particles of rock

• irrigation

• levee

• soil

• silt

What development caused food shortages in the Zagros foothills?

• overuse of the soil

• change in the climate

• increase in population

• fighting between villages

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

• building terraces

• moving to the plains near the Tigris & Euphrates rivers

• constructing reservoirs

• joining villages together

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

• to load barges

• to make it look nice

• to control workers

• to prevent floods

Why did the Tigris & Euphrates rivers flood in the spring?

• Strong winds blew from the Persian Gulf.

• Snow melted in the mountains where the rivers began.

• Ice that had formed on the rivers broke into bits.

• Monsoons came through the area