The Fertile Crescent was a quarter moon shaped area extending from the eastern banks of the Mediterranean Sea and curving north to the Persian Gulf.

Mediterranean Sea Tigris River Euphrates River Persian Gulf

The rich land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers supported many farming villages. In the region called Mesopotamia , “the land between the rivers,” several villages grew into cities.

Mesopotamia’s earliest cities rose up in an area called Sumer . People lived and worked together and formed a complex society or civilization.

A civilization is a culture with well developed forms of government, religion and a written language.

The people of Sumer built dikes and dug canals to hold back the flood waters from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Life in cities posed new problems for the Sumerians, and they had to find creative ways to solve them.

These people used technology cities.

, the use of tools and skills, to build One technological advancement made by the Sumerians was the invention of the wheel .

Wheel technology made other inventions possible, including the wheeled cart.

They used domesticated oxen and donkeys to pull heavy loads using the wheeled carts. Wheeled carts were important in moving construction materials!

They were able to build seven-story temples called ziggurats where they worshipped their gods. The Sumerians believed that each city had a god to watch over them and protect them. They also believed that the gods controlled the winds and the rain, the sun, and every part of nature important to an agricultural society.

The Sumerians believed that large harvests were a sign that the gods were pleased with them. They also believed that floods and other natural disasters were signs that the gods were angry with them!!

When large numbers of people live and work together, laws are needed to keep order. In large societies this can be achieved through a system of government.

A government is an organized system that groups use to make laws and decisions.

Sumerian farms produced a surplus, or extra supply of food. This meant they had enough food to barter , or trade, for other things they needed.

Not everyone in Sumer, including the kings, could read or write. Those who could write were called scribes . Often they kept records, wrote letters for other people, and copied down stories and songs.

hand head foot

The needs of a large complex society led to new ways of doing things, or innovations .

Acre (unit for measuring land) Quart to measure wheat & barley Cargo boats with sails for trade Cuneiform (writing system of wedge shaped symbols)

The people of Phoenicia sailed the waters of the Mediterranean Sea in search of goods they needed. As a result, they developed advanced sailing techniques.

The Phoenicians borrowed ideas from the different cultures with whom they came into contact.

The earliest alphabet was developed by the Phoenicians based on writing systems of other ancient civilizations.

The Phoenician alphabet made writing easier because their written symbols stood for single sounds.

Citizens of another early civilization, the Lydians, were the first to use coined money.

Their first coins were the size of red beans, made from a mixture of gold and silver.

These new coins were used and accepted by other civilizations...

…and they were not so heavy that they’d sink the trading ships!

Hammurabi’s most important innovation was a collection of 282 laws called the Code of Hammurabi .

Hammurabi was the powerful king of Babylon.

He improved each of the city-states under his rule by promoting trade and by building and keeping up dikes and canals.

To pay for these projects, Hammurabi charged taxes to his citizens.

+ People could pay taxes in crops or other goods they produced.

Hammurabi appointed tax collectors to gather the taxes. If the tax collector could not get payment from a person, he was forced to pay it himself!!

Hammurabi wrote laws about marriage and divorce, adoption, slaves, murder, stealing, military service, land and business practices, loans, prices and wages!

The Code of Hammurabi made people responsible for their actions. The code said that whoever caused an injury should be punished by being given that same injury. The most famous of these laws was “an eye for an eye.”

What do I need to remember about the Fertile Crescent?

• Mesopotamia • civilization • technology • inventions • ziggurats • government • surplus • scribes • innovations • Phoenicians • Lydians • Hammurabi • Code of Hammurabi