Introduction to Mesopotamia

1. Introduction to Mesopotamia

2. Do Now • Turn to page 95 of your textbook • Take out your vocabulary sheets and describe the words • Tributary • Plateau • Alluvial plain • Silt

3. Earliest Civilizations • Developed in the valleys of four major river systems • Tigris and Euphrates Rivers • Nile River • Indus River • Huang He

4. Tigris and Euphrates Rivers • Civilization called Sumer developed in the fertile crescent.

5. Fertile Crescent Today

6. Sumer

7. Tigris and Euphrates Rivers • Tigris and Euphrates Rivers have many tributaries. Both rivers lead to the Persian Gulf. • Area was called Mesopotamia, which means “the land between the rivers.”

8. Tributaries

9. Tributaties

10. Mesopotamia • Northern Mesopotamia sat on the high, flat land of a plateau.

11. Mesopotamia • Southern Mesopotamia lay on the low, flat land of an alluvial plain.

12. Mesopotamia • In the spring, the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers often overflowed. As the floodwaters drained, they deposited soil and tiny rocks on the land to form a new layer of silt.

13. Activity • Turn to page 23 of your Homework and Practice Book. • Use the maps from your textbook to fill in the map.