Social Studies (world History power point

1. People of the Fertile CrescentChapter 3 1

2. Middle East Egypt Nile River Tigris River Euphrates River These two rivers would flood like the Nile River and produce fertile soil to the land. 2

3. Fertile Crescent The Crescent shape – the land around the rivers (Tigris and Euphrates)and to the west is called the Fertile Crescent Area was once called Mesopotamia 3

5. Hot, dry land with little rain.

6. Water is scarce (not a lot of)

7. People of the Middle East

8. Sumerians – first people to live in Mesopotamia * lived there from 3500 B.C. to 2000 B.C * good farmers * worked together to irrigate their farms * learned to control floods -built strong walls, stopping river water from covering the land 4

9. Sumerians cont. Created a system to write their words and numbers – - made of many small signs. - wrote on pieces of wet clay – dried the clay in the sun 5

10. Sumerians cont. City States – place where people lived and worked together. -had its own ruler - fought with each other to win control of all of Mesopotamia Believed in many gods – -believed the god let them grow foods and in return the people worked for their god. - gave the gods food and clothing - Priests worked in temples for the god 6

11. Sumerians cont. Priests - Sumerians believed that only priests knew what the gods wanted - people had to obey the priests in order to please the gods - priests were very powerful 7

12. Classes Sumerians divided people into different groups called classes. - every Sumerian belonged to a class - Priests most powerful class - Rich people were also powerful - Workers another class - Slaves were in the lowest class many people were slaves 8

13. Classes Workers Gods Priests Rich People Slaves 9

14. Sumerians Conquered Around 1800 B.C. Sumerians were conquered by people from another part of Mesopotamia -Babylonians -learned much from the Sumerians -write on wet clay -learned to be good farmers 10

15. Babylonians Had a great King – Hammurabi -ruled from about 1792 B.C. to 1750 B.C. -conquered most of the Fertile Crescent -land conquered became part of the Babylonian Empire or Babylonia -they traded with people in Egypt -traded with people in far –off lands 11

16. Hammurabi Famous for putting all of the laws of his empire together. - almost 300 laws - written on a very large stone - stone placed where all the people could read it. - called the Code of Hammurabi 12

17. Codes of Hammurabi Examples of laws - strong people could not hurt weak people - if a man destroyed the eye of another person, that man’s own eye must be destroyed. - women could own land Many laws had to do with land, money, and family life. Written for all Babylonians After Hammurabi died, the Babylonian Empire grew weak. Many people wanted to rule the fertile land and there were many wars. 13