Mesopotamia, the land 'between two rivers' | History | Quizalize & Oak National Academy

Starter quiz

What does ancient mean?
- simple
- new
- very old ✓
- 10 years old
Match the labels with the correct definitions.
- CE
  
  ⇔
  
  Common Era - the time since Jesus was born ✓
- BCE
  
  ⇔
  
  Before the Common Era - the time before Jesus was born ✓
- 0 CE
  
  ⇔
  
  the year Jesus was born ✓
Put the following years in order, starting with the oldest.
- 1
  
  ⇔
  
  100 BCE
- 2
  
  ⇔
  
  50 BCE
- 3
  
  ⇔
  
  10 BCE
- 4
  
  ⇔
  
  1 BCE
- 5
  
  ⇔
  
  0 CE
How can rivers help farmers?
- Rivers help animals learn to swim.
- Rivers can provide water for crops. ✓
- Rivers stop diseases spreading.
- Rivers have nutrients for crops. ✓
How does farming help people to live in large groups?
- Farming stops rivers flooding.
- Farming provides a food supply for many people to eat. ✓
- Farmers use up all the land for their fields.
- Farmers keep animals to make people happy.
How do historians study the lives of ancient people?
- They talk to ancient people.
- They cannot find evidence because it is too old.
- They study ancient buildings. ✓
- They read ancient written records. ✓

Match the keywords with the correct definitions.
- Sumer
  
  ⇔
  
  an ancient civilisation ✓
- Sumerian
  
  ⇔
  
  a person who lived in Sumer ✓
- Mesopotamia
  
  ⇔
  
  the place where Sumerians lived ✓
Mesopotamia means the land 'between two ...'.
- 'rivers' ✓
Why were the two rivers important for Sumer?
- The rivers gave Sumer its name.
- The rivers were in Egypt.
- The rivers created fertile land for growing crops. ✓
- The rivers made a desert.
When did Sumer exist?
- 300 BCE
- 3 000 BCE ✓
- 0 CE
- 10 000 BCE
- 3000 CE
Why were the Sumerians successful?
- Sumerians enjoyed living by the rivers.
- Sumerians created a surplus of food. ✓
- Sumer was in a nice warm place.
- Sumer was ancient.
How did Sumerian farmers create a reliable water supply?
- They dug channels and ditches. ✓
- They invented taps.
- They used hoses.
- They moved to Egypt.

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Around 3,000 years before Jesus was born, an ancient civilisation was flourishing between two large rivers.
It was called Sumer, and it sat between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers in a place called Mesopotamia.
These rivers made it an ideal place to grow crops due to the soil being fertile, just like the Nile in Egypt.
The Sumerians did not just rely on the flooding of the rivers to make farming better.
They built ditches and channels to divert water from the rivers to their fields, creating a reliable water supply.

Pupils may think floods are only destructive.

Explain that floodwaters can be very dangerous and cause much damage, but they also bring water and nutrients to the land for growing crops.

Civilisation - a civilisation is when humans live together in large groups in a highly organised way
Sumer - Sumer was an ancient civilisation that existed 5000 years ago in the Middle East
Mesopotamia - meaning 'between two rivers', Mesopotamia is the name given to the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
Reliable - something that is reliable can be trusted and is high in quality
Surplus - surplus means extra or more than is needed