Sumer Civilization
A wide, flat plain in present-day Iraq that stands between two rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
Mesopotamia
A state containing several countries or territories
Empire
Soldiers who fight while on horseback.
Cavalry
A good or service sold within a country that is produced in another country.
Import
Alphabet
Irrigate
An independent state that works with other states to achieve a shared military or political goal.
Ally
A permanent army of professional soldiers
Standing army
A good or service produced within a country and sold outside the country's borders.
Export
An independent state that includes a city and its surrounding territory.
City-State
A system of writing that uses triangular-shaped symbols to stand for ideas or things
Cuneiform
An idea or way of doing things that is common in a certain culture.
Cultural Trait
A payment made to show loyalty to a stronger power.
Tribute
The art of steering a ship from place to place.
Navigation
DAILY DOUBLE
Pyramid-shaped brick towers used as temples.
Ziggurats
A trading system in which people exchange goods directly without using money.
Barter
A set of laws that governed life in the Babylonian empire.
Hammurabi's Code
Money used as a medium of exchange, usually bills or coins.
Currency
An area ruled by a distant country.
Colony
He declared himself the king of the world in 539 B.C.
Cyrus the Great
DAILY DOUBLE
The belief in more than one God.
Polytheism
The idea that all members of a society-even the rich and powerful-must obey the law.
Rule of law
A carved stone slab or pillar that stands on end.
Stele
The spreading of cultural traits from one region to another.
Cultural Diffusion
This region of the Middle East stretches in a large, crescent-shaped curve from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea.
Fertile Crescent