Name: ________________________Class: _______ Section: _______ Date: ___________

SOMERVILLE SCHOOL, GREATER NOIDA

CLASS XI - HISTORY
CHAPTER-2 WRITING AND CITY LIFE
STUDY MATERIAL AND PRACTICE WORKSHEET

Introduction:
History of Mesopotamia is about the region in southwestern Asia where the world‟s earliest
civilization developed. Mesopotamia is derived from two Greek words „mesos’ meaning middle
and „Potamas’ meaning river. Thus, Mesopotamia means land between the two rivers-Euphrates
and Tigris. However, the region can be broadly defined to include the area that is now
eastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and most of Iraq. The region was the centre of
a culture whose influence extended throughout the Middle East and as far as the Indus
Valley, Egypt, and the Mediterranean. Today it is part of Iraq.

I. Regions and Languages:

In the beginning, the land was called Sumer and Akkad. So the first known language of the land
was Sumerian. It was replaced by Akkadian around 2400 BCE when Akkadain speakers
arrived. From 1400 BCE, Aramaic language emerged which is similar to the Hebrew, which
became widely popular after 1000 BCE and still spoken in parts of Iraq.

1. Write down the meaning of the word „Mesopotamia‟. _______________________________

_______________________________________________________________ (Page 29, Para- 1)

2. The two important rivers of Mesopotamia were ____________________ and _____________

(Page 29, Para- 1)
3. This civilisation was located in present day __________________________ (Page 29, Para- 1)

4. Mesopotamian civilisation is well recognised for its prosperity, ________________________,

___________________, ______________________, _______________________, ___________

and __________________ . (Page 29, Para- 1)

5. Write down the extent of spread of Mesopotamia‟s writing system. Why it was significant?

(Page 29, Para- 1) _______________________________________________________________

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______________________________________________________________________________
6. Present a timeline indicating the presence kingdoms in the urbanised south region of
Mesopotamia. (Page 29, Para- 2)
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7. Write names of various languages that have evolved in the past till date in Iraq. (Page 29,
Para- 2) _______________________________________________________________________
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II. Sources:

Europeans scholars and travellers

look upon Mesopotamia as a kind of
ancestral land due to its references in Archaeological- Buildings, statues, ornaments,
the Old Testament, the first part of graves, tools, seals, tablets, museum
the Bible. For instance, the Book of
Genesis of the Old Testament refers
to „Shimar‟, meaning Sumer- a land
of brick-built cities. Archaeologists
Literary- Written documents, Newspaper articles,
made an attempt to prove the literal Archives
truth of the Old Testaments.

8. In the year __________________ archaeology began in Mesopotamia. (Page 29, Para- 3)

9. At sites like ___________________ and ________________________ excavation continued

for many years. (Page 29, Para- 3)

10. Name the sources that have helped us to understand the civilsation. (Page 29, Para- 3)

______________________________________________________________________________
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11. Mesopotamia was important for Europeans. Why? (Page 29, Para- 4)
______________________________________________________________________________
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12. What did the ancient tablet describe as mentioned in the Bible? (Page 30, Para-5)
______________________________________________________________________________
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13. What focus was laid while reconstructing the history of the civilisation? (Page 30, Para-6)
______________________________________________________________________________
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III. Mesopotamia and Its Geography:

Iraq is a land of diverse environments. In the North-East lays the green undulating plains
gradually rising to tree-covered mountain ranges with clean streams, wild flowers and enough
rainfall to grow crops. Here, Agriculture began between 7000 and 6000 BCE.

In the North- There is a stretch of upland called a steppe, where animals herding offer people a
better livelihood than farming. Sheep and goats produced meat, milk and wool in abundance
In the East-tributaries of the Tigris provide routes of communication in to mountains of Iran

The South is a desert- the place with the first cities and writing emerged. Euphrates and Tigris
(Refer the map given above) carry loads of silt and deposited on the flood fields.
The small channels of Euphrates and Tigris functioned as irrigation canals. Fish was available in
rivers and date-palms gave fruit in summer.
14. In what ways physical features of Mesopotamia shaped its development? (Page 30, Para- 7)
______________________________________________________________________________
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15. Southern Mesopotamia was the most productive despite rain deficit. Justify. (Page 31, Para-
8)

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16. Pastoralist practices along-side the agriculture played key role in the prosperity of the
civilisation. Explain. . (Page 31, Para- 9)

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IV. The Significance of Urbanisation:

 Urban centres involve in various economic activities such as food production trade,
manufactures and services.
 City people were not self-sufficient. The carver of stone seal requires bronze tools, coloured
stones. The bronze tool maker needs metals, charcoal. So they depend on the products or
services of other people.
 The division of labour is a mark of urban life.
 There must be a social organisation in cities. Fuel, metal, various stones, wood etc., come
from many places for city manufacturers. There are deliveries of grain and other food items
from the village to the city. Thus, organized trade and storage is needed. In such a system
some people commands and those others obey
 Urban economies often require the keeping of written records.

Movement of Goods into cities:

 Food resources were abundant in Mesopotamia but lacked stones, wood, metal.
 So they imported wood, copper, tin, silver, gold, shell, stones from Turkey and Iran.
 They exported their textiles and food resources in exchange of imports.
 Transport is also important for urban development
 The canals and natural channels were routes for goods transport. Later, Euphrates became a
world route.

17. Cities were the centres of interaction with large population and economy. How? Give
suitable examples to support your response. (Page 32, Para- 10)

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18. “Division of labour is a mark of urban life”. Analyse. (Page 32, Para- 10)

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19. What examples suggest the presence of social organisation and coordination in the cities?
(Page 32, Para- 11) ______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

20. Maintaining written records was significant feature of Urbanisation. Explain. (Page 32, Para-
11)

______________________________________________________________________________
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21. Discuss whether the city life would have been possible without the use of metals. (Page 32,
Para- 10 & 11)

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22. South of Mesopotamia could flourish in absence of metals and minerals. How? (Page 33,
Para- 12)

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23. List the name of regions from where goods were procured to Mesopotamia. (Page 33, Para-
12) __________________________________________________________________________

24. How does an efficient transport system play a vital role in shaping up the urban
development? Why riverine route holds importance for strong trade relations, (Page 33, Para- 13)

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

25. One of the major characteristics of urban life is its political organisation. (Page 33 & 34)

______________________________________________________________________________
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IV. The Development of Writing:

 Writing began in Mesopotamia in 3200 BCE.

 Cuneiform is derived from the Latin words „cuneus‟, meaning 'wedge' and forma, meaning
'shape‟. The word cuneiform means wedge-shaped letters. Thus, writing was a skilled craft.
Not everyone could do it.
 The Mesopotamian tablets contained picture like signs and numbers.
 Writing began when society needed to keep record of transactions.
 Mesopotamians wrote on tablets of clay.
 Scribe would impress wedge shaped signs on wet clay with the sharp end of a reed.
 Once written, tablets were dried hard in the sun and it would be almost indestructible.
 Once it dried, signs could not be pressed on to a tablet.
 So each transaction required a separate written tablet.
 This is why tablets occur by the hundreds at Mesopotamian sites.
 By 2600 BCE the letters became cuneiform and language was Sumerian.

Writing was used for:

Keeping records
Making dictionaries
Giving legal validity to land transfers
Narrating the deeds of kings
Announcing the changes a king had made in the customary laws of the land
Storing information and of sending messages

The System of Writing

The sound that a cuneiform sign represented was not a single consonant or vowel but syllables
Thus the scribe had to learn hundreds of signs. He had to handle a wet tablet and get it written
before it dried. It conveys visual form of system of sounds of a particular language.

Literacy

King and Very few could read and write. There were hundreds of signs to learn and many of
these were complex. If a king could read, that was recorded in his boastful inscriptions. Writing
reflected the mode of speaking. It was kingship that organised trade and writing
27. What is language? How language is different from script? How can you say that writing is
too a verbal communication? (Page 33, Para 14)
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28. How old are the earliest clay tablets of Mesopotamia? What do they contain? (Page 33, Para
15)
______________________________________________________________________________
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29. What do you mean by Cuneiform? Explain the system of writing. (Page 33 & 34, Para 16)
______________________________________________________________________________
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30. Name the earliest known language of Mesopotamia. What type of material did the Sumerians
write on? (Page 34, Para- 17)
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______________________________________________________________________________

31. Write down the various uses of writing. (Page 34, Para- 17)

______________________________________________________________________________
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32. Describe the Mesopotamian script. (Page 34, Para- 17)

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33. Writing was a skilled craft. Explain. (Page 34 & 35, Para- 18)
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

34. Can complexity of writing be pointed as the main reason behind the limited access of
literacy? (Page 35, Para- 19)

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35. Who was Enmerkar? (Page 35, Para- 19)

36. Uruk was also known as ___________________________. (Page 35, Para- 20)

37. How precious goods were procured from distant lands? (Page 35- 36, Para- 20, 21, 22 & 23)
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
V. Urbanisation in Southern Mesopotamia: Temples and Kings

By 5000 BCE, Settlements began in Mesopotamia. The earliest cities emerged from some of
these settlements.

There were three kinds of cities

Cities that developed Cities that developed

Imperial cities
around temples as centres of trade

Construction and Maintenance of Temples in Mesopotamia- worship place and economic

centers:
 The earliest known temple was a small shrine made of unbaked bricks.
 Temples were the residence of various gods: Moon God of Ur and for Inanna the Goddess of
Love and War.
 Temples became larger over time with several rooms around open courtyards.
 Temples always had their outer walls going in and out at regular intervals.
 The god was the focus of worship.
 People brought grain, curd and fish to god
 The god was the owner of the agricultural fields, the fisheries, and the herds of the local
Community
 Production process such as oil pressing, grain grinding, spinning and weaving of woollen
cloth done in the temple.
 Many tribal had wars over the control of water made chiefs fight and the winner credited it to
temples by offering jewels and precious stones from distant places. This is how urban trade
started.
 Thus temple became the main urban and economic institution by organizing production,
employing merchants and keeping records of distribution and allotments of grain, plough
animals, bread, beer, fish etc.

Role of Kings in Construction and Maintenance of Temples in Mesopotamia

 Archaeological records show that villages were periodically relocated in Mesopotamian history
because of flood in the river and change in the course of the rivers.
 There were man made problems as well. Those who lived on the upstream stretches of a channel
could divert so much water in to their fields that villages of downstream were left without water.
 There was continuous warfare in Mesopotamian village for land and water.
 The victorious chiefs distributed the loot among their followers and took prisoners from the defeated
groups
 They were employed as their guards or servants
 The chiefs also offer precious booty to the gods to beautify temples
 He organise the distribution of temple wealth by keeping records
 This gave the king high status and authority
 War captives and local people had to work for the temple, or for the ruler.
 Those who were put to work were paid rations
 Hundreds of people were put to work at making and baking of clay cones for temples
38. Make a list of various kinds of cities. (Page 36, Para- 24)
______________________________________________________________________________

39. The prime feature of earliest made temple was that (Page 36, Para- 25)__________________
______________________________________________________________________________
40. Temples were the residence of various god: match the column (Page 36, Para- 25)

God of Moon
God of Love Ur, Inanna
God of War

41. Illustrate the structural feature of Temples. (Page 36, Para- 25)
______________________________________________________________________________
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42. Temples gradually became the symbol of urban institution. Analyse. (Page 36, Para- 26)
______________________________________________________________________________
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43. Why did the early Mesopotamian countryside see repeated conflicts over land and water?
(Page 36 & 37, Para- 27)

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44. How did the institution of Kingship come into being? (Page 37, Para- 28)

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45. Give reasons: The leaders in Mesopotamia encouraged the settlement of villagers close to
themselves. (Page 37 & 38, Para- 29)
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46. Highlight the important features of the city of Uruk. (Page 38, Para- 29)

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47. The city of Uruk achieved a technical landmark. Justify. (Page 38, Para- 30)

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VI. Life in the City of Ur.

(a) Family and marriage

 In Mesopotamian society the nuclear family system was the norm.
 The father was the head of the family
 We know little about the procedures of marriage
 A declaration was made about the willingness to marry by the bride's parents.
 when the wedding took place gifts were exchanged by both parties who ate together and
made offerings in a temple
 The bride was given her share of inheritance by her father
 The father's house, herds, fields etc. were inherited by the sons.

(b)Ur was a town and one of the earliest cities excavated in the 1930s
 House, roads and transport
 Narrow winding streets indicate the wheeled carts could not have reached many of the
houses.
 Sacks of grain and firewood would have reached on donkey back
 Town planning and street drains were absent at Ur.
 Instead of drains clay pipes were found in the inner courtyards of houses.
 House roofs sloped inwards and rainwater was channeled via the drain pipes in to sumps in
the inner courtyards.
 People had swept their house hold refuse in to the streets. This made street level rise, and
overtime the thresholds of houses had to be raised so that no mud would flow inside after
rains.
 Light came into the rooms not from windows but from doorways opening in to courtyards.

 Superstitions about houses - As recorded in omen tablets at Ur

 A raised threshold brought wealth;
 A front door that did not open towards another house was lucky;
 If the main door of a house open outwards, the wife would be a torment to her husband

 Town cemetery at Ur
 The graves of royalty and commoners have been found there.
 Very few individuals were found buried under the floors of ordinary houses.

(c) A Trading Town in a Pastoral Zone (Life in the city of Mari)

After 2000 BCE the royal city of Mari flourished.

• Mari was located on the upstream of Euphrates.

• Agriculture and animal rearing were carried out in this region.
• Most of the region was used for pasturing sheep and goats.
• Herders exchanged animals, cheese, leather and meat in return for, metal tools etc. with the
farmers.
• Nomadic groups of the western desert filtered into the prosperous agricultural land.
• Such groups would come as herders, harvest labourers or hired soldiers and settled down
• These included the Akkadians, Amorites, Assyrians and Armaneans.
• The kings of Mari were Amorites and raised a temple at Mari for Dagan, god of steppe.
• Mesopotamian society and culture were open to different cultures
• Thus the vitality of the civilization was of course an inter mixture culture
• Mari is a good example of an urban centre prospering on trade.
• Wood, copper, wine, tin, oil, etc. were carried in boats along the Euphrates between the south
and Turkey, Syria and Lebanon.
• Boats carrying grinding stones, wood, and wine and oil jars, would stop at Mari on their way to
southern cities.
• Officers of this town would go abroad, inspect the cargo and levy a charge of about one-tenth
the value of the goods.

Thus, the kingdom of Mari was not militarily strong but it was exceptionally prosperous.

48. How archaeologists have tried to reconstruct the existence of social differences in the city of
Ur? (Page 39, Para- 31)
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
49. Mention some legal texts that indicate nuclear family concept in the society. What is a
nuclear family? (Page 39, Para- 31)
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50. Describe the town planning of the city Ur. What superstations prevailed in the society? (Page
40, Para- 33- 34)
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51. Which were the two communities in the kingdom of Mari and why was there often a conflict
between them? (Page 41, Para- 35- 36)

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52. Mesopotamian culture was open to different people. How? (Page 41, Para- 37)
______________________________________________________________________________
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53. How was a royal residence planned? What significance did it hold? Explain the purpose of
each unit present inside the palace. (Page 42 & 43)
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______________________________________________________________________________
54. Ruler in Mari had a surveillance system. Why? (Page 44, Para- 38)
______________________________________________________________________________
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55. “Although the kingdom of Mari was not military strong, it was exceptionally prosperous.”
Why? (Page 44, Para- 39)
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VII. Cities in Mesopotamian culture

Mesopotamians valued city life .Many communities and cultures lived side by side. After cities
were destroyed in war, they recalled them in poetry.
The Epic of Gilgamesh reminds us the pride of the Mesopotamians who took in their cities.
Gilgamesh was the ruler of Uruk and a great hero who subdued people far and wide. He got a
shock when his heroic friend died .He then set out to find the secret of immortality. After a
heroic attempt, Gilgamesh failed, and returned to Uruk. There he consoled himself walking along
the city wall, back and forth.

56. Who was the Gilgamesh? Which epic recalls his heroic attempt? Describe the epic in detail.
(Page 45, Para- 40- 41)
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VIII. The Legacy of Writing

The greatest legacy of Mesopotamia is its: Scholarly tradition of time reckoning and
Mathematics:
Calendar Mathematical contribution
The division of the year in to 12 months, Tablets with multiplication and division tables
The division of month in to four weeks Square-square-foot tables
The division of day into 24 hours, Tables of compound interest
The division of the hour into 60 minutes
Solar and lunar eclipses were observed and recorded
There were schools where students read and copied earlier written tablets

Language and its changes:

Mesopotamian languages in the cuneiform script are mostly written on clay tablets.

The principal languages of ancient Mesopotamia were Sumerian, Akkadian and later
Aramaic. The first language they do write is Sumerian. Sumerian is an "agglutinating" language
with no known relatives. It was spoken in South Iraq until it died out, probably around 2000 BC,
giving way to Akkadian;

Akkadain (Assyrian and Babylonian) is members of the Semitic language family, like Arabic and
Hebrew. How far they were mutually intelligible in ancient times is uncertain.

During the 2nd millennium BC (2000 B.C), Akkadian was adopted all over the Near East as the
language of administration. Later in the 1st millennium BC (1000 B.C) it was gradually replaced
by Aramaic.

57. What is the legacy of Mesopotamians to the world? (Page 45, Para- 42-46)

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