Ancient Mesopotamia

• Mesopotamia was located in modern day Iraq​ between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

• People settled between these rivers​ for many reasons, but they were often a source of life.

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​Mesopotamia

​The land between two rivers

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​Why were the Rivers important?

​Rivers provided many benefits for early civilizations:

​-Irrigation for crops

-Water to drink

-Trade

-Fishing

-Transportation​

Social Studies

Mesopotamia

​The Cradle of Civilization

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• ​Mesopotamia was the birthplace of many things we depend on today: agriculture, written language, government, law, and religion

• ​Mesopotamia is more of a geographic region than one particular civilizations. There were multiple civilizations and empires that existed throughout History here, but they were all bound together by the same culture.

• The people of each civilization within this region used the similar written language, laws and religion.​

Social Studies

Mesopotamia

The Region of Mesopotamia was divided up into smaller regions called

city-states.

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City-states would refer to the large population centers (cities) and the surrounding areas and farmland just outside the city.

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These city-states ​operated like small independent countries, having their own laws and government.

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Mesopotamia​

People in Mesopotamia believed in many gods and goddesses...over 1000!!​

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​The belief in many gods is called polytheism

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Many early religions were polytheistic​

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​Mesopotamia

​Religion

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Mesopotamia was an area with a very dry climate. Due to the lack of trees, this meant that most buildings were made of mud bricks instead of wood.

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​Many cities in Mesopotamia had large temples made of these bricks called Ziggurats.

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​Mesopotamia

​Ziggurats

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Mesopotamians came up with one of the earliest known systems of writing, called cuneiform​

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​Mesopotamia

​Writing

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