MESOPOTAMIAN ACHIEVEMENTS

DO NOW Take out your Homework and Practice Book

and Vocabulary Sheets

List some of the advances you have learned about agriculture. How did these advances help farmers?

AGRICULTURAL TECHNIQUES Innovations: 1. Irrigation (led to surpluses) 2. Bronze-tipped plows 3. Funnels for seeding 4. Shade planting 5. Almanacs

IRRIGATION

BRONZE-TIPPED PLOW

FUNNELS FOR SEEDING

SHADE PLANTING

ALMANAC

MEASUREMENTS Larger farms: farmers and governments

wanted to track things Iku means “the field” Equaled about 37,600 square feet Used to measure land Developed standard units of weight and

volume Carefully planned number system based on

the number 60 Measured time: hours, minutes, seconds 360 day calendar

BUILDING Most lived in simple flat-roofed, mud brick

houses Tallest and largest building was the ziggurat Towns developed around the ziggurat

ZIGGURAT

ACTIVITY Directions: Open to pages 110 and 111 of your textbook.

Copy the picture of the ziggurat and surrounding area. Label the 4 points on your drawing.

1. Builders constructed a ziggurat in layers, each one smaller than the one below it.

2. At the top of a ziggurat stood a shrine to a god.3. Trees and bushes may have covered the

ziggurat.4. Smaller buildings stood along the outside wall

of the ziggurat

WRAP UP What innovations in farming did the

Sumerians create?

What kind of measurements did they create?

What is the significance of the ziggurat? What made the architecture significant?