Vocabulary 1
Belief in more than one god
Polytheism
A wide flat plain in present day Iraq
A community with cities, government, and specialized workers is best defined as what?
A civilization
What metal did the Sumerians use to improve their tools?
Bronze
Another term for a city and the surrounding land it controls is...
City-State
A system of writing that uses triangular shaped symbols that stand for words, ideas, or sounds
Cuneiform
Region of the Middle East that stretches in a large, curved shape from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea
Fertile Crescent
Having extra of something (a crop, for example)
Surplus
A ziggurat is a type of...
What shape could you use to describe the structure of social classes in early civilizations?
Pyramid/Triangle
To supply water to
Irrigate
An independent state that includes a city and its surrounding territory
City-state
Where did the earliest civilizations develop?
In river valleys
Who was at the very bottom of the Sumerian Social Hierarchy?
Enslaved/slaves
Belief in only ONE god
Monotheism
Being separate, or different
Distinct
Tool hooked up to animals to make farming easier
Plow
Which feature of civilization is "large scale projects that benefit the whole society"?
Public works
Why did the earliest civilizations appear in areas like Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley?
Areas were near rivers/water and fertile soil
The term Mesopotamia refers to land between what? two bodies of water?
Tigris and Euphrates River
Group of people living in similar economic conditions
Social Class
A trading system in which people exchange goods directly without using money
Barter
Name at least TWO important resources for early civilizations
Soil, Water, Seeds, Workers
In cuneiform, Sumerian scribes used what to represent words, sounds, or ideas?
Wedge/triangle shaped symbols
Why did priests play an important role in Sumerian city-states?
Believed that only priests could communicate with gods to help the city prosper/do better