📚 VOCABULARY
The region between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
Mesopotamia
The two rivers that surrounded Mesopotamia.
Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
The way Sumer was organized politically.
Separate city-states
The earliest form of Sumerian writing, based on pictures of objects.
Pictographs
People moved into the Fertile Crescent because of its abundant supply of this resource.
Water
A region of fertile land in Southwest Asia where early civilizations developed.
Fertile Crescent
This fertile material was left behind when rivers flooded.
Silt
The large structures that served as centers of religious worship.
Ziggurats
The Sumerian writing system that developed from pictographs.
Cuneiform
Growing crops successfully helped these population centers emerge.
Cities
A system that brings water to crops.
Irrigation
This feature gave rise to civilization in Mesopotamia by making farming possible.
Fertile soil
The group of people in Sumerian society who held the most power.
Kings and priests
The development that allowed Sumerians to record information and preserve ideas.
Writing
A major result of successful farming that allowed populations to increase.
Population growth
A city and the surrounding land that it controls.
City-state
A major challenge Mesopotamians faced because the Tigris and Euphrates could flood unpredictably.
Flooding
This development allowed people to record information and communicate using symbols.
Writing
The exchange of goods and ideas between different people and cultures.
Trade
The development of cities, trade, writing, and specialized jobs helped create this type of society.
Civilization
A writing system developed by the Sumerians using wedge-shaped marks.
Cuneiform
A way the Sumerians adapted to their environment by bringing river water to their crops.
Irrigation systems
The type of jobs people could take on as cities and civilizations developed.
Specialized jobs
The material early Sumerians commonly wrote on.
Clay tablets
A major resource Sumerians lacked and often needed to obtain through trade.
Natural resources