Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is a Greek word which means between the rivers. There are two main rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, and they flow through many varied landscapes.

The Fertile Crescent

The rivers start in high mountains where there is a lot of rainfall. They then rush through grasslands which are important for growing wheat and herding sheep and cattle (Assyria). Their final journey is across a very flat plain (Babylonia) where the only plants are found close to the rivers. Beyond is sandy deserts or dry earth. Here the rivers split into many different streams until the water eventually flows into the sea.

Mesopotamia also known as the Fertile Crescent

Mesopotamia The Fertile Crescent aka The Cradle of Civilization

By 3500 B.C. small farming and fishing villages throughout Mesopotamia were growing into towns and cities as more crops and animals were grown to feed the people. Thus, the beginning of a civilization. Many Mesopotamians were very clever and developed new ways of getting around such as in carts with wheels. The people also came up with a method to help them remember things by inventing a form of writing we call cuneiform. The first people to do this lived in the south and are called the Sumerians. The Sumerians lived in cities surrounded by rich farmland. They travelled to neighboring towns in boats along the rivers and canals that crisscrossed the land. They also led donkeys loaded with goods north along the river banks to exchange for stone and metal. The cities became very wealthy and sometimes war broke out between them. Each city had its own king who was the most important person. He had to lead the army but he was also expected to build temples for the gods who were thought to control the universe.

Sumerians

Cuneiform: Wedge-Shaped Writing

Cuneiform Writing

Schooling The Tablet House

Schooling for the Sumerians began around the ages of 5 or 6. The first thing a student had to learn was to make a tablet and handle a stylus. He had to learn to make a simple cuneiform wedge and then practice the horizontal, vertical and sloping wedges over and over again. The next stage was to learn the basic sign list and the different readings of each sign.

Deciphering Cuneiform

People's names were used by students to learn how to string signs together to build up words. Next the pupil would start to use a school tablet - a round, bunshaped piece of clay.
The teacher would write out three lines on one side of the tablet. The student would have to study these before turning the tablet over and trying to reproduce what the teacher had written. Finally, around the age of ten or eleven, the pupil would be considered a scribe and learn to write literature or use numbers for accounting, measurement, and surveying.

Sumerian Scribes

Tablet House

Babylonian Numbers

Resources: http://mesopotamia.mrdonn.org/powerpoi nts.html