Transcript Document

5.3 Stable Food Supply
• Complex irrigation system (levees,
dams, canals)
• Invented the plow to prepare the land
for farming.
• Fertile Crescent had great soil for
farming.
• Biggest problem for farmers was the
uncontrolled water supply (until they
created the irrigation system).
5.4 Social Structure
• Upper, Common, and Slaves were the
three classes.
• Upper class were priests, landowners,
and officials. Had larger houses.
• Second class (common) lived in
smaller mud-brick houses. Merchants,
farmers, fisherman.
• Different levels had different jobs.
5.5 Government
• Gods picked the Kings, which gave
them a greater sense of authority.
• Kings had governors to help them.
• King had jobs like enforcing laws,
leading an army, building temples,
making sure the irrigation system was
maintained.
5.6 Religion
• Built temples and ziggurats.
• Sumerians believed gods lived in the
ziggurats.
• Held religious ceremonies with music
and an occasional human sacrifice.
5.7 The Arts
• Includes painting, music, architecture.
• Music was to bring joy to the people
and the gods.
• Metalworkers made weapons, cups,
and decorative items like mirrors and
jewelry.
5.8 Technology
• Most important – the wheel!
• Wheels used on carts for farmers or
chariots for the army.
• Created the arch for buildings. Added
strength and beauty to buildings.
5.9 Writing
• Cuneiform: Latin word for “wedge.”
• Used a wedge-shaped stylus to etch
writing into clay tablets.
• Developed around 2400 BCE.
• Had 2000 symbols but reduced to 700.
• Based on pictographs.
• Writing was done by scribes.