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This mosaic art work is in three rows, at the top is the highest class of people, seated and a king. At the bottom is men completing slave labor.

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The Sumerians invented a wedge shaped writing called Cuneiform. The written language was used primarily for recording transactions.

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Every city had a temple or a Ziggurat. In Akkadian, ziggurat means to "rise high"

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This is the city state of Ur, it had a wall around it and was on the Tigris River. The patron god was Nunna, the God of the Moon.

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Before city-states were ruled by a monarchy, the were run by a theocracy. A theocracy was when a religious leader, such as a priest, rules.

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The city of Babylon was surrounded by huge brick walls, grand palaces and temples were located in the center, a beautiful street was built for the people, and a huge ziggurat with a gold roof was located in the center as well. The hanging gardens are rumored to be built by Nebuchadnezzar for his wife to feel less homesick (below).

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Mesopotamia was comprised of city-states, which each had their own government

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These cities of Mesopotamia are very vital because they were the first cities in the Southwest Asia. These cities became centers of civilization that controlled the Tigris and Euphrates Valleys.  And the Government, is that Mesopotamia has the ruler, the Babylonian King Hammurabi, had a code of rules called the Code Of Hammurabi which showed rules for marriage, crimes, and farming

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Each city-state had their own gods that they prayed too. They prayed to gods in a ziggurat. In the city of Uruk they wrote about and believed in Gilgamesh one part man two parts god

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Writing was used to keep track of crops and grain in store houses. It was also used to write law. (Hammurabi's Code was written in cuneiform)

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Mesopotamia had different city-states that had their own government systems and laws. There were three city states: Ur, Uruk and Sumer.  Each city-state's populations ranged from 5,000-20,000 civilians. Because the city states had rising populations and often grew outside of their boundaries, these city states frequently went to war with each other.

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Each city state worshiped there own god, and the sumerians honored all of the gods. Also priest were powerful people (doctors , principals, and made sure everyone behaved). This shows how religous figures were a main part in civilization.

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Inside of almost every empire there were city states that had their own governments and their own religions but were ruled by their empires. Sumeria was the first city state.

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There are clay slabs with writing on it. This writing is past information like possibly a person's crime and punishment that was written in cort. 

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There are clay slabs with writing on it. This writing is past information like possibly a person's crime and punishment that was written in cort. 

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Charlie

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The first city states in Southwest Asia and they were built by the Sumerians and they were Ur, Urk, and Eridu. As cities grew, they gained political and economic control over the lands around them. Cities traded with each other, they agreed to form alliances and they had times of peace. City-states were extremely important to beginning of Mesopotamia.

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Hammurabi's Code of Law

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The Hammurabi Code was a set of laws put in place by the leader at the time, Hammurabi. This proves that Mesopotamia had government.

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the ziggurats were each for a different god, and in Mesopotamia, each city state was for a different god. The whole civilization was ruled by priests in the beginning.

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to take notes and keep trace of things-aidan

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to take notes and keep trace of things-aidan

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Writing was used for keeping track of laws. Laws helped keep cities and empires organized and fair. Punishments for when laws were broken would be written down as well

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They had Hammurabi's code of law and many other cities

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used clay slabs and wrote on them to keep track of things

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Ziggurats, were built to honor the Mesopotamian gods.  Each city state had their own ziggurat and god.

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Sumer had an upper class, middle class, and lower class. Upper class consisted of political figures like Kings, warriors, priests, etc. The middle class had: merchants, farmers, fishers, and artistans.
The lowest class consisted usually consisted of slaves of war, and criminals.
Another example is gender and age. A good example is Hammurabi's code of law. Men are favored more than women. Children are favored less than adults.

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TS                                                    we know that religion was around because ruins of zigurats  where found and old story of god and sculptures of gods where left behind. religions have also been passed down and are still around today they came from this time period and many people still warship these religions.

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TS                                                    we know that religion was around because ruins of zigurats  where found and old story of god and sculptures of gods where left behind. religions have also been passed down and are still around today they came from this time period and many people still warship these religions.

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middle class is like normal people
lower class is slaves and criminals - aidan

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Upper: Kings, Priests
Middle: Skilled Workers, Scribes
Lower: Slaves,Unskilled Workers

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upper class, men and women wore jewlery, people were scribes gov workers, priest and kings.

Most people were Middle class. They were merchants, farmers, fisherman, artist.

Lower class were slaves that were captured during wars, as well as criminals and unskilled workers. They worked for the king, temple and the wealthy.
Slaves were auctioned less then a donkey but more than a cow.

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Hammurabi code was set to make everything fair

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They built temples known as ziggurats

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At the top of the social structure there were the priests, gods, and ruling family. The next level had the merchants and farmers. The last level had slaves, prisoners of war, and those who couldn't pay their dept. In homes and society in general, men were above women.

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Some civilizations had city-states because the land around them made it hard to travel from city to city. A city state had it's own government and had a population of about 5,000 to 20,000 people.

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upper: kings, priests, warriors
middle:  merchants, farmers, fishers
lower: criminals, enslaved people

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Each persons job was considered more important than others in Mesopotamia. Then also some kinds of people were ranked lower like criminals and slaves. Then higher up can be priests, warriors and kings. In the middle could be farmers merchants and consumers, artists, and scribes.

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Each persons job was considered more important than others in Mesopotamia. Then also some kinds of people were ranked lower like criminals and slaves. Then higher up can be priests, warriors and kings. In the middle could be farmers merchants and consumers, artists, and scribes.

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Charlie

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city states were each governed by their own independent government, until the city states were combined. Then, Hammurabi created a code of laws which governed his empire

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The people of Mesopotamia created cuneiform as a form of writing and used painting as depictions of events.

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Individual City-State Gods Beckett Diehl

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Individual City-State Gods Beckett Diehl

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Each city-state had a god that basically represented them, like a mascot. They would build ziggurats in honor of their god.

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Sumer honored many different gods. They were polytheistic and had religious temples called "ziggurats".

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Hammurabi's code was a set of laws (hammurabi was the leader at the time)

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How was cuneiform written & what was its purpose? - Emily

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How was cuneiform written & what was its purpose? - Emily

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Cuneiform was written by cutting wedge shaped marks into damp clay with a sharp reed. They wrote documents that recorded regular life in Mesopotamia, court records, marriage contracts, business dealings and important events. It was a way for them to keep records of their lives and share ideas and information to later generations.

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The people of Mesopotamia had a social structure the highest class were kings, priests and warriors. Middle class had farmers, fishermen and traders. The lowest class has slaves from war, and criminals.

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Mesopotamia had a writing form called cuneiform. Hammurabi's Code of Law was written in it.

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because people were able to specialize in their own jobs, they could create laws and rules to help keep people in line.

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Hammurabi's Code was harsh, for example, eye for an eye and throwing the accused into the river.

Babylon was the most advanced city of its time

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historians found ziggurat and then we learned they were build to honor the gods and only the priest could go to the top of the temple it is closest to the gods.

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Sumerians wrote on clay tablets to keep court records, marriage contracts, business dealings, and important events to

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Upper had kings, priests, warriors, government officials, and scribes.
Middle had merchants, farmers, artisans.
Lower had enslaved people, criminals, and debtors.

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There was the  ziggurat, only special priests could go up because people believed that the god could talk to the priests. In addition, `this shows the government of Theocracy because it was ruled over religious leaders.

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Upper - kings, warriors, priests, and government officials

Middle - merchants, farmers, fishers, and artisans

Lower - enslaved people, war prisoners, and criminals

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Mesopotamians used a writing form called cuneiform, which was made up of 1200 characters. Cuneiform was written by carving marks into clay.

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They Used clay tablets to keep track of history and writing they did this because later in the future we can learn and try to understand what they did and how they lived.

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People used writing to keep track of their belongings and stock, write journals, and easily give directions over long distances

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Men were ranked higher than woman, and children were ranked higher than woman. If a man divorced a woman, they would be ranked just above a slave or a captured worrior form another city-state.

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The land we call Mesopotamia was under the rule of many different empires. An empire is one central government that has a large territory that is broken into many different sections. Each empire had different capital cities, some ended up being burned down (Nineveh).

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Upper: Kings, priests, warriors
Middle:  Merchants, farmers, fishers
Lower: Criminals, enslaved people

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The upper class consisted of kings, priests, warriors and government officials.  The middle class consisted of merchants, farmers, fishers, and artisans. The lowest class were workers captured in war, criminals, and debtors.

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In civilizations, people created Ziggurats, which means "rise high." These were used to pray straight to God, and the Ziggurat was made for priests to use.

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The people of mesopotamia used art to express there problems and situations for there time. They also used writing to record transactions and keep track of what was happening