Agriculture in Mesopotamia

To review…• What are the six vital needs of agriculture

that we talked about?

1. Fields with fertile soil

• You can’t grow plants in any dirt

• The dirt must be rich in nutrients

2. Tools• It’s impossible to have agriculture

without at least some tools

• The tools must be durable and suitable

3. Water

• Of course we need water to grow plants and keep animals!

4. Animals

• Animals can perform work related to agriculture, or they can provide milk, eggs, and meat

5. Fences

• If you want to keep animals, you needfences

• If not, you need somebody who willwatch over the animals both day and night

6. Seeds

• So we want to grow plants, but whichones?

• And where do those plants come from?

And where was Ancient Mesopotamia?

• Ancient Mesopotamia was located mostlyin modern-day Iraq and Syria

How would we describe the geography and climate of the region where Ancient Mesopotamia was located?

Group discussion…• If we know that the region was hot and

dry, which of the six vital needs of agriculture do you think was hardest to attain?

• Today, we will look at how the Ancient Mesopotamians controlled the flow of water

• Mesopotamian farmers found ways to irrigate their lands

Step #1• They dug a part of the river bank to cause

floods on their land

Step #2• They then built dams to form reservoirs

from which they drew water fromcontainers attached to poles

Step #3• They built dikes to control the flow of

water to their fields

• Later, theycreated a complexnetwork of ditches and irrigation canals

Step #4

• It was a good system, but it ended up causing an even more severe problem for the Ancient Mesopotamians!