Grade 6 · Social Studies · Lesson 2

Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent

The first true civilization in human history grew up in a region called Mesopotamia, a Greek word meaning "between the rivers." Those two rivers are the Tigris and the Euphrates, which today flow through Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. The wider region is called the Fertile Crescent because its rich, well-watered soil made it ideal for farming — and farming, as we learned in Lesson 1, is the seed of every civilization.

What this lesson teaches

1Locate Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
2Describe the major Sumerian inventions including cuneiform, the wheel, and irrigation
3Explain the significance of the Code of Hammurabi for written law
4Place key events of Mesopotamian history in chronological order

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