The Land Between Two Rivers
The name Mesopotamia comes from the Greek language and means "the land between the rivers."
These two rivers are the Tigris and Euphrates.
The plain, broad area of flat, open land, that is located between the two rivers is a region called Sumer and spreads over more than 10,000 square miles.
The Sumerians
By 3000 B.C., 12 Sumerian cities dotted the Mesopatamian plain, they were known as city-states and were made up of a city and the surrounding villages and farmland that it controlled.
The earliest Sumerian city-states were ruled by priests and the largest structures built were temples.
The religion of Sumer was polytheism, the belief in many gods. The Sumerians believed that their gods controlled everything and without their help, cities could not be safe, and farmers could not grow crops.
The Sumerians built high walls to keep out mountatin tribes and nomads, people who moved with their flocks and herds. Under the threat of invasion, they needed strong military leaders and each city chose a temporary leader to rule during wars.
The earliest Sumerian city-states were ruled by priests and the largest structures built were temples.
The religion of Sumer was polytheism, the belief in many gods. The Sumerians believed that their gods controlled everything and without their help, cities could not be safe, and farmers could not grow crops.
The Sumerians built high walls to keep out mountatin tribes and nomads, people who moved with their flocks and herds. Under the threat of invasion, they needed strong military leaders and each city chose a temporary leader to rule during wars.
The Beginnings of Writing
The Sumerians invented writing so merchants and traders could keep track of what they bought and sold.
Their first written symbols were pictures of items that were used in trade, such as a bull or a sack of grain.
These symbols are pictographs, or pictures that stand for words or ideas.
Next, the Sumerians exteneded the pictures to make them stand for syllables related only by sound, not meaning.
