Mesopotamians
Mesopotamia, the earliest known civilization, was located in the eastern part of this land that sounds like a baked good.
What is the Fertile Crescent?
Sumerian cities were independent and formed city-states. Name one of these that the book mentions.
What is Ur, Uruk, or Eridu?
What is "the cradle of civilization"?
Assyria was a large empire, extending into four present day countries. Name one of the four.
What are Turkey, Syria, Iran or Iraq?
This was the name of the king who led a revolt against the Assyrians.
Who is Nabopolassar?
People in Mesopotamia learned to build dams to control the seasonal floods. Name the method they used.
What is irrigation?
Sumerian people worshipped many gods in a practice known as this.
What is polytheism?
What were the 3 social classes in Sumer and name one type of person who would be in each class?
Lower - slaves, debtors, criminals
Middle - merchants, farmers, fishers, artisans
Upper - Kings, priests, warriors, gov. officials
The Assyrian army was well trained and disciplined. About how many soldiers did their troops number?
What is 50,000?
This was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world and was rumored to be built to please the wife of the king.
What was the Hanging Gardens of Babylon?
The people of Mesopotamia made many useful inventions. The Sumerians were the first to use this to aid in transportation.
What is the wheel?
In the middle of each city-state was a large temple that honored the city's god, called this.
What is a ziggurat?
This is the name of the very first novel written and is based after a king who ruled around 2000 BC.
What is the Epic of Gilgamesh?
What was one of the ways the Assyrians were known for their brutality and what was one key to their success?
Robbed people, set crops on fire, destroyed towns and dams, took tributes from conquered people, drove people from homes. A key factor to their success was iron weapons.
After this king died, a series of weak kings ruled eventually leading to the fall of the empire.
Who is Nebuchadnezzar?
This was the name of the leader of Akkad who conquered the remaining city-states of Sumer around 2340 B.C.
Who was Sargon?
Sumerians created a way of writing called this.
What is cuneiform?
What was the most famous idea from the Hammurabi Code?
What is "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth."
What was one way the Assyrians were similar to other Mesopotamian people?
Law codes, similar writing system, worshipped many of the same gods, large temples with wall carvings.
In 539 B.C., this group of people recognized that the Chaldeans had lost their leadership and they made Mesopotamia part of their empire.
Who were the Persians?
This group of people conquered Mesopotamia and created Babylon, the grandest of cities.
Who were the Amorites?
Name two of the major ways Sumerians advanced math or astronomy?
Place value system based on 60, 60 minute hour, 60 second minute, 360 degree circle, 12 month calendar etc.
Each spring, thousands of people crowded into Babylon to watch a gold statue of this god be wheeled along the street.
Who is Marduk?
This was the name of the Assyrian king who built one of the world's first libraries
What is Ashurbanipal?
Because the Chaldean empire was so large, the king had to collect these two things to keep it going.
What are very high taxes and tributes?