A Sacred Honor Cuneiform in stone A Sumerian girl yawns as she studies her clay tablet Her school day began at sunrise The girl will practice cuneiform all day She needs to read and write well to become a good priestess
City of ur The girl feels lucky to be in school Most Sumerian students are boys But she is training to serve the grain goddess Ashnan She hopes to one day heal people too Many priestesses are also doctors or dentists Becoming a priestess will bring the girl’s family great honor in ancient Mesopotamia
Who Were the Ancient Mesopotamians caspian sea mediterranean sea euphrates river tigris river key Fertile Crescent persian gulf W N s E red sea Think about it How do you think the Fertile Crescent got its name
Ancient Mesopotamia was home to some of the world’s earliest civilizations Its name comes from a Greek word for land between two rivers The region was based between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in the Fertile Crescent Modern-day Iraq and Syria cover most of the area today Ancient Mesopotamian civilization lasted from around 4500 to 539 BCE Several groups rose and fell during these thousands of years The Sumerians Akkadians Babylonians and Assyrians were the most powerful tigris river
