WH Unit 1 Ch 2-1

1. Chapter 2 Section 1
Mesopotamia

2. Fertile Crescent
• Land area between the Tigris and Euphrates
rivers.
• Called MESOPOTAMIA or land between rivers
• Located in current day Iraq

3. Government
• Formed city-states….cities that had their own
government
• First people were Sumerians
• Had walls built of mud, used arches and domes
• Center of city was a religious temple called a
ziggurat
• Gods were thought to have ruled the cities making
them a theocracy or a govt. by divine authority
• Later kings took power

4. Empires
• Large political state under the rule of one ruler
• First was started by Sargon
• Babylonian Empire was led by King Hammurabi
• Started the Code of Hammurabi
• 282 laws dealing with all aspects of life
• Was uniform throughout the Babylonian Empire

5. Customs and Traditions
• Patriarchal society
• Society dominated by men
• Women had less rights
• Polytheism
• Belief in many gods
• Cuneiform
• Early system of writing
• Scribes were the first record keepers

6. Sumerian Inventions
• Wagon Wheel
• Potters wheel
• Sundial
• Arch
• Math and Astronomy