1. Section 3 Notes

2. Fertile Crescent---arc of land that curves
from the Persian Gulf to the eastern
Mediterranean coast
Named because of the dark, rich soils
Mesopotamia---means “between the
rivers”---Tigris and Euphrates
Sumer was located in the Fertile Crescent
between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers

4. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers frequently
rose in terrifying floods that washed away
topsoil and destroyed mud-brick villages
Epic of Gilgamesh---Sumerian poem that
tells of a great flood that destroys the world
Archaeologists found evidence that a
catastrophic flood devastated the Fertile
Crescent about 4,900 years ago

5.  Around 3200BC, the first Sumerian cities
emerged in the southern part of Mesopotamia
 The Sumerians had few natural resources
and lacked building materials such as timber
and stone
 Sumerians built their houses out of earth and
water
 They made bricks of clay, shaped in wooden
molds and dried in the sun
 The Sumerians made the first wheeled
vehicles!!!

8. Each Sumerian city-state had a distinct
social hierarchy
1. Ruling family and priests; 2. lesser
priests and scribes---merchants and
artisans; 3. peasant farmers; 4. slaves

9. The Sumerians had polytheistic religious
beliefs
The Sumerian gods were thought to
control every aspect of life, especially the
forces of nature
Each city had a ziggurat---a pyramid-
temple where they worshipped their gods

11.  Like the Egyptians, the Sumerians believed in
an afterlife
 However, they saw the underworld as a grim
place from which there was no release
 Differences in geography may explain this
 The floods of the Tigris and Euphrates were
less regular and more destructive than those
of the Nile. As a result, Sumerians may have
developed a pessimistic view of the world.

12. By 3200BC, the Sumerians have invented
what may be the earliest known form of
writing
Cuneiform---used a reed pen to make
wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets
Advances in mathematics---basic algebra
and geometry, divided their hour into 60
minutes, divided their circle into 360