Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Tipping, and I'm really looking forward to learning with you today all about Sumer and other early civilisations, and what made them similar.

So shall we get started? Let's go.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to describe the area of Mesopotamia and how it was farmed by civilisations like the Sumerians.

Before we start, I'd like to introduce you to some keywords.

We'll be using these keywords during the lesson, so it might be a good idea to write those words down.

The key words we'll be using today are civilisation, Sumer, Mesopotamia, reliable, surplus.

I'm gonna say those again and I'd like you to repeat them after me.

Civilisation, Sumer, Mesopotamia, reliable, surplus.

Good job.

Let's think in more detail about what these keywords mean.

Here are definitions for each of our keywords.

A civilisation is when humans live together in large groups in a highly organised way.

Sumer was an ancient civilisation that existed 5,000 years ago in the Middle East.

Meaning "between two rivers", Mesopotamia is the name given to the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Something that is reliable can be trusted and is high in quality.

Surplus means extra or more than is needed.

Pause the video here to make a note of the keywords, and when you are ready to continue, press play.

These are the learning cycles that we'll be working through together in today's lesson.

Who were the Sumerians? Where did the Sumerians live? Why were the Sumerians so successful? In the first learning cycle, we will explore who the Sumerians were.

A civilisation is when humans live together in large groups in a highly organised way.

Sumer is the name of an ancient civilisation that existed thousands of years ago.

The people were called Sumerians, and they lived in a place called Mesopotamia.

In a civilisation, humans work together to farm and to organise themselves to be able to survive and thrive.

Civilisations leave behind evidence in different forms, and historians can use the evidence to understand what the civilisation was like, even ancient civilisations that existed around 3,000 years before Jesus was born like Sumer.

Take a look there at that photo of Sumerian figures.

Historians can find evidence of Sumer from archaeological digs.

Some of the evidence that has survived is pottery made from clay.

Historians can look at this evidence and work out that Sumerians must have invented and used wheels to help them in their work, as the pottery has a very round surface, which can only be made when the clays turned on a wheel.

There is also evidence that Sumerians used wheels to make carts or chariots for transport.

So how did the historians work all of this out? Hmm.

Certainly would've been interesting, looking at all of that evidence and thinking about it.

Some of the earliest evidence left behind by Sumer shows that the civilisation existed before 4000 BCE, and that is as far back as 6,000 years ago.

The Sumerian civilisation lasted until 2000 BCE, which is around 4,000 years ago.

So you can see, taking a look at the timeline that civilisation was around for a long time.

Historians also know from evidence that the Sumerians were excellent farmers, builders of great cities, inventors, and artists.

In fact, the Sumer civilisation left behind some of the earliest recorded stories.

One very important and famous tale is called the Epic of Gilgamesh, an epic tale of an ancient king and his adventures with his friend, Enkidu.

Let's take a look at some of these images.

We've got a photo of a stone building, photo of a carved sculpture, and a photo of a carved story.

How fascinating it would've been to uncover this evidence of the Sumerians.

Let's take a moment now to pause and check our understanding.

Which two of these statements are true? Sumerians lived in a land called Sumer.

Sumerians lived in a land called Mesopotamia.

Sumerians were only farmers.

Sumerians created inventions and impressive art.

Hmm, what do you think? Take a moment.

Have a discussion with your partner.

Pause the video here and press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? Well, if you said that the Sumerians lived in a land called Mesopotamia, and that the Sumerians created inventions and impressive art, you are absolutely right.

Well done.

That brings us to our first learning task of this lesson.

I'd like you to match the words to complete the sentences.

So we have on one side, Sumer was an.

The people were called.

Sumerians lived.

Sumerians built cities and.

On the other side, were great farmers.

Ancient civilisation.

In Mesopotamia.

Sumerians.

So you could have a discussion with your partner and match those up, saying those sentences out loud, reading them a complete ones all the way through.

Or if you'd like to, you could get a pen and some paper, and you could write those sentences out, those complete sentences by matching them up.

Give yourself enough time, pause the video here, and when you are ready to continue, press play.

How did that go? Shall we take a look at what the matches are? So Sumer was an ancient civilisation.

The people were called Sumerians.

Sumerians lived in Mesopotamia.

Sumerians built cities and were great farmers.

Well done, if you are able to match up those sentences to complete them, and for completing that learning task.

We're now ready to move on to the second part of our lesson.

We are going to explore where the Sumerians lived.

The Sumerians lived in a place called Mesopotamia, which in ancient Greek means "between two rivers".

Mesopotamia was the name for the Sumer's land because it was between two rivers, the Euphrates up to the west and the Tigris to the east.

The waters of the Tigris flowed very fast, and the waters of the Euphrates flowed much more slowly.

So take a look at the map there showing Mesopotamia, and you can see the Euphrates River on the west and the Tigris River on the east.

And Mesopotamia is between those two rivers.

The rivers are still there today in a part of the world called the Middle East.

The modern day country of Iraq is where Sumer once existed.

So take a look at the map there.

Can you see where the Middle East is and where Iraq is? Can you see where it is in comparison to Britain? Can you see that there on the map? Hmm.

The rivers are very important for the region as there is an arid climate in the Middle East.

Arid means very dry, and where it is very hard to grow crops for food.

There is desert to the north of Mesopotamia.

However, the land between the two rivers is fertile because the waters of the rivers provide the water and nutrients needed for crops and plants to grow healthily.

The good growing land of Mesopotamia is called the Fertile Crescent.

Let's take a moment to pause here.

Let's take a look at this statement.

Mesopotamia is a desert.

Is that true or false? Take a moment.

What do you think? Hmm? If you said false, you are absolutely right.

Well done.

So how do you justify your answer? We've got two statements here.

There is an arid climate.

Two rivers create fertile land.

Hmm.

So think about Mesopotamia.

Have a discussion with your partner.

Which of these two statements helps to justify your answer of false? Hmm.

Pause the video here and press play when you are ready to continue.

If you and your partner discussed that two rivers create fertile land, you are absolutely right.

Well done.

Now we're ready to move on to our second learning task.

Can you use these words to correctly label the map with the Tigris River and the Euphrates River? Have a look there at that map of Mesopotamia, can you see that the labels for those rivers are missing? So which label goes where? And colour the fertile area of Mesopotamia on the map.

So you might want to use a green to show that fertile area of where crops would grow.

So take some time now, pause the video here to label and colour your Mesopotamia map.

And when you are ready to continue, press play.

How did that go? Shall we take a look at a labelled map? So we've got the Euphrates River, which is on the west, and we've got the Tigris River, which is on the east.

So well done if you've labelled those rivers correctly.

And you can see the fertile area of Mesopotamia here is coloured in green.

So that shows the area in which crops can grow because of those rivers bringing the water and those nutrients.

Well done for completing that learning task.

We're now going to move on to the third part of our lesson.

Why were the Sumerians so successful? Hmm.

Well, the ancient Egyptians had relied on the River Nile to help them grow their crops.

They developed an understanding of the river's flooding and used it to help them.

The Sumer civilisation was also very successful at growing crops like the ancient Egyptians, but the Sumerians did not just rely on flooding to make their farming better.

Sumerian farmers developed ways to control the waters of the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers.

Hmm, I wonder what they did.

Well, they dug channels and ditches to move water towards their farmlands.

This changed the landscape, but also provided a reliable water supply for their crops.

This meant that the Sumerian farmers were able to farm very successfully.

So can you see in that photo how a channel is used to move water towards a farmland? So they'd create that channel from the river towards their land.

Hmm, very impressive.

So in fact, their methods, they were so successful that they were able to grow enough food for many people and had even more food than they needed.

This extra food is called a surplus.

And when there was a surplus, the Sumerian farmers could trade the crops with other people.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding here.

How did the Sumerians create a surplus? They relied on flooding.

They moved to Egypt.

They created a reliable water supply.

Hmm, what do you think? Pause the video here and have a quick discussion with your partner.

And when you are ready to continue, press play.

What did you think? How did the Sumerians create a surplus? If you said they created a reliable water supply, you are absolutely right.

Well done.

They dug those ditches and channels, didn't they? From the rivers towards their farmland.

And doing this, creating that surplus meant that there was more time for other work and activities like building, creating new inventions and storytelling.

This allowed the Sumerians to develop their civilisation even further.

Take a look at a couple of those images there on a clay tablet and metal objects.

So they had much more time on their hands to do other things because they created that surplus that they could trade.

Aisha and Jacob are talking about the Sumerians.

Aisha said, "They stopped farming so they could invent things and make jewellery." Jacob says, "Being such good farmers meant they could also be inventors." Who do you think is correct? Hmm.

Take a moment and discuss with your partner who you think is correct, Aisha or Jacob? Pause the video here and take some time to have that discussion.

And when you are ready to continue, press play.

How did your discussion go? Who do you think is correct? Well, Jacob is correct.

They farmed as well as making things.

So they were such good farmers, they created that surplus, which they could trade, and then they had more time on their hands to be inventors and make jewellery.

So they didn't stop farming.

They were just really good farmers.

Well done if you found out that Jacob was correct.

We're now ready for our final learning task.

Imagine you are a Sumerian farmer.

Tell your friends about how your hard work has helped the Sumer civilisation develop.

Try using these keywords and phrases in your answer.

Channels and ditches, reliable, surplus, more time.

So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to discuss with your partner and tell them how your hard work has helped the Sumer civilisation develop and try to use some of those key words and phrases.

And when you are ready to continue, press play.

How did that go? Shall we take a look at an example? So you might have said something like this.

"I have dug so many channels and ditches to move water towards my farmlands that I now have a reliable water supply to help my crops grow! I now have so many crops, I have a surplus.

This means I have more time to build, invent, and tell stories." Well done if you were able to tell your friends about your hard work and how it's helped the Sumer civilisation develop.

Well done for completing that learning task.

Before we finish this lesson, let's summarise what we have learned about Mesopotamia, the land between two rivers.

We've certainly learned a lot.

Sumer was an ancient civilisation that existed around 3000 years BCE.

Sumerians lived in a place called Mesopotamia.

Mesopotamia lay between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

In modern-day, this is in the country of Iraq.

The rivers provided fertile land for farming.

The Sumerians created a reliable water supply by building ditches and water channels.

Thank you for joining me in the lesson today.

I'm really looking forward to seeing you in the next one.

See you then.