Mesopotamia

1. Mesopotamia Lesson 2 – Group Notes

2. Twizzlers – p.109 • Cuneiform was written with reed pens & clay tabletsand grew less picture-like as time passed because it was quicker. • Both boys and girls could become scribes, as long as they learned writing and math.

3. Snickers – p.110 • Gilgamesh was a mythical herowhich Sumerians believed was all knowing, a great builder and the strongest and best fighter. • Walls were built around the cities for the following reasons: protection from invaders & flooding/it was marketplace. • The king’s palace’s role in a city-state was the center of government.

4. M & M’s – p.111 • Ziggurats, which were religious templesshowed that religion was important to the Sumerians. • Sargonfrom Kish united the Sumerian city-states. • Sumerians traded farm products for wine and timber.

5. Raisinets – p.112 • The Sumerian Empire collapsed because city states rebelled. • People from Syrian desert moved inwas how a new kingdom emerged. • Hammurabimarched through Mesopotamia in about 1800 B.C. and weakened the Sumerians by damming the Euphrates and controlling the water flow.

6. Skittles – p.113 • A code of law is a written set of laws. • The Code of Hammurabi was the world’s oldest codes of law which was created by Hammurabi. • The Code showed that there were “second-class citizens” in Babylonia by: punishment was harsher for wrong done to a freeman than for wrong done to a poor man or slave.

7. Milky Way p.114 • New Babylon grew because it became the capital of a new Mesopotamian empire. • New Babylon was so magnificent because of the massive walls, 100 foot tall ziggurats, gridded streets, sewer system, and “hanging gardens.”