Here are the questions for the Ch. 4 Section assignment:

4.2. Mesopotamia: A Difficult Environment

1. List three reasons why it wasn’t easy to live in the part of the Fertile Crescent called Mesopotamia.
2. What were the four major problems Mesopotamians faced as they tried to survive in this environment? 
3. What were two Neolithic farming communities found in the Mesopotamian region? 
4. How many city-states were found in the area known as Sumer?
5. List those city-states. 

4.3. Food Shortages in the Hills

1. In the rolling foothills of what mountain range did Neolithic people start farming?
2. List three reasons why these foothills were a good place to build a Neolithic community?
3. What problems began to arise around 5,000 B.C.E.?
4. Why did the plains around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers hold promise as farming land? 
5. What was the main reason people moved out of the foothills and onto the plains? 
6. What was the name of this region? 

4.4 Uncontrolled Water Supply in the River Valley

1. What was the biggest problem farmers that moved to Sumer faced? 
2. What happened in the plains of Sumer every spring?
3. What was Sumer like the rest of the year?
4. How did the Sumerian farmers solve their problem of an uncontrolled water supply?
5. How do levees work? 
6. What other ways did Sumerians control the water supply? 

4.5. Building and Maintaining a Complex Irrigation System

1. What problem arose as the Sumerians built irrigation systems? 
2. What became a constant problem with the canals?
3. Why was this issue with canals  a problem?
4. What were farmers eventually forced to do?
5. What happened in the villages between 3,500 B.C.E. and 3,000 B.C.E.?
6. About how many people lived in these cities? 

4.6. Attacks by Neighboring Communities

1. What was the major reason the Sumerian cities had conflict with one another?
2. Why were those people living downriver at a disadvantage?
3. How did Sumerians begin to protect their cities?
4. Where did most of the cities citizens live?
5. What happened to the farmers who lived outside the city walls during an attack? 
6. What do historians call these walled cities? 

4.7. From Small Farming Villages to Large City-States

1. What is the basic challenge that needs to be solved by any group of people? 
2. List four specific details that can be seen in the illustration in this section.
3. Looking back at the map in section 4.2, answer the following questions:

• About how many miles long is the Euphrates River according to this map?
• The Tigris and lower Euphrates rivers flow in a generally_________________direction until they reach the body of water called the___________________.
• What major physical feature lies between the waters of the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf?