Chapter 6, Lesson 1, The Land Between Two Rivers (pp. 150-155)

I. The Mesopotamian Plain

• A. The world's first cities arose in Sumer, a region in Mesopotamia.
• B. The Sumerians created irrigation systems to water fields and control floods.

• II. The Remarkable Sumerians

• A. By 3000 B.C., there were 12 great Sumerian cities with thousands of people.
• B. These independent city-states were made up of a city and its surrounding villages and farmland.
• C. In the early city-state, religion and government were combined.
• D. The Sumerians made important advances in government, technology, and communication.

Chapter 6, Lesson 2, The Contributions of the Sumerians (pp. 156-161)

I. The First Kings

• A. The first kings were military leaders chosen to rule during time of war.
• B. Eventually, the leaders became full-time kings as the people believed they were chosen by their city's gods.
• C. Kings took on some of priests' duties.

• II. The Sumerian Religion

• A. The Sumerians believed their many gods controlled everything.
• B. All Sumerians served the gods in different ways.

• III. The Beginnings of Writing

• A. The first Sumerian written symbols were for keeping track of trade.
• B. The were pictographs, or pictures that represent words or ideas.
• C. Later the pictographs were made to represent sounds, which could be combined to show words.
• D. By 2500 B.C., cuneiform was simplified and used this way for 2000 years.
• E. Around 900 B.C. the Phoenicians invented a new writing system with only 22 symbols--the alphabet.

Chapter 6, Lesson 3, The First Empires (pp. 168-173)

I. Sargon of Akkad

• A. Sargon created the world's first empire - a nation and the city-states and nations it has conquered, under one ruler.
• B. The empire grew weaker as the conquered city-states continued to struggle for independence, and invaders from outside the empire attacked.

• II. Rival Empires

• A. Assyria and Babylonia struggled for control of Mesopotamia, until the Babylonian king, Hammurabi, conquered it all.
• B. Hammurabi created a organized set of laws called a code and carved it on stones for all to see.
• C. Mesopotamia continued to be invaded and conquered by other people after Hammurabi's death.

Chapter 6, Lesson 4, New Empires (pp. 175-180)

I. A New Assyrian Empire

• A. By 650 B.C., a new Assyrian empire included lands from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea.
• B. The Assyrians treated conquered peoples cruelly, sending large groups of them far from their homelands.
• C. The Assyrians were not able to build loyalty among the conquered people and faced rebellions.

• II. A New Babylonian Empire

• A. The Chaldeans overthrew the Assyrians in 612 B.C. to found a new Babylonian empire ruled from Babylon.
• B. The Babylonians created wide-spread trade networks and grand building projects, and made great advances in math and science.