Mesopotamia

the land between two rivers

Mesopotamia is also known as

Mesopotamia New Year

a festival that sacrificed a king to the gods. A person was usually chosen to be King for the Day for the special festival.

Fertile Crescent

Mesopotamia is part of an area called

clay

a natural resource that scribes wrote on

Sumerians, Assyrians, and Babylonians

Name the 3 groups of Mesopotamians

Sumer

Babylon was once probably the area of

Akkad

first conquered all of Mesopotamia

skirts

men and women both wore

Merchants, scribes, and craftspeople

Who was in the middle of Mesopotamian society?

Polytheistic

Mesopotamians believed in many gods or were

ghosts and demons

Mesopotamians also believed in

wonder

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were an ancient

bulla, sailboat, arch, plow, wheel, and constellations

Mesopotamians were first at developing

builder and warrior

Characteristics of Gilgamesh

Persian King Cyrus

Who conquered Mesopotamia?

Ur

Sir Woolley excavated what Mesopotamian city?

Henry Rawlinson

Who deciphered cuneiform?

Characteristics of city-states

included city and surrounding villages/farmlands, each independent, priests ruled as religionand government were combined, ziggurat-with a city god, and have a market place

Standard of Ur

the earliest known detailed picture of an army. It includes 2 mosaic panels representing War and Peace

building walls

city-states protected themselves from nomads and others by

kings

ruled city-states

priests

pleased gods

Uruk

Gilgamesh was one of the first kings of the Sumerian city

An

father of all gods

Enlil

god of air

Enki

god of water

Abu

god of vegetation

Ninhursag

mother goddess

Ishtar

goddess of love

5 class levels

1. kings
2. government officials, large land owners, priests
3. merchants, scribes, artisans
4. farmers, herders
5. slaves, debtors

bulla

What did Sumerians use first to keep written records?

picture writing

What is pictographs?

600 symbols

Cuneiform was the first writing system and contained