Early Humans
Early humans who survived by hunting animals and gathering wild plants.
Who are hunter-gatherers?
The practice of growing crops for food.
What is agriculture?
The region often called the “Cradle of Civilization,” located in Southwest Asia.
What is the Fertile Crescent?
The wedge-shaped writing system developed by the Sumerians.
What is cuneiform?
The Babylonian king famous for creating an early written collection of laws.
Who is Hammurabi?
The movement of people from one place to another.
What is migration?
The process of raising and controlling animals for human use.
What is domestication?
The two major rivers that flowed through ancient Mesopotamia.
What are the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers?
The belief in many gods.
What is polytheism?
Hammurabi's famous collection of laws.
What is the Code of Hammurabi?
The study of past people through objects, buildings, and other physical remains.
What is archaeology?
Communities where people live in one place instead of moving from place to place.
What are permanent settlements?
An ancient civilization in southern Mesopotamia known for developing some of the world's earliest cities.
What is Sumer?
This invention allowed Mesopotamians to record information, trade, laws, and stories.
What is writing?
The main purpose of a written law code was to establish these for society.
What are rules and punishments?
The early period when humans used stone tools and survived mainly by hunting and gathering.
What is the Paleolithic Era?
Extra food or resources left over after people have met their needs.
What is a surplus?
An independent city and the surrounding land it controls, with its own government.
What is a city-state?
This type of social organization ranks people into different levels based on status, wealth, power, or occupation.
What is a social hierarchy?
Hammurabi's laws often prescribed different punishments depending on a person's position in this.
What is the social hierarchy?
The period when humans increasingly farmed, domesticated animals, and established permanent settlements.
What is the Neolithic Era?
When people focus on different jobs, such as farming, pottery, or building.
What is specialization?
This massive stepped temple structure was built in Mesopotamian cities for religious purposes.
What is a ziggurat?
Mesopotamian people built these structures to honor their gods and conduct religious activities.
What are ziggurats?
The Code of Hammurabi is often summarized by the idea of “an eye for an eye.” What does this suggest about its punishments?
What is the idea that some punishments were based on retaliation and proportional retribution?