Geography & Environment
What does the word Mesopotamia mean?
Land between the rivers.
What is a city-state?
A city that governs itself and nearby farmlands.
A person who writes or copies records.
Scribe.
Who created the first empire in Mesopotamia? And what is the name of the empire?
Sargon the great. Akkadian empire
What was the Sumerian writing system called?
Cuneiform.
Name the two rivers that flow through Mesopotamia.
Tigris & Euphrates.
What structure was located in the center of every Sumerian city?
A ziggurat.
Payment made to a ruler to show surrender.
Tribute.
Who wrote a famous code of laws? What empire was he the leader of?
Hammurabi. The Babylonian Empire.
Name one Sumerian invention still used today.
Wheel, plough, sailboat, number system based on 60, etc.
What is silt and why is it important?
Fine fertile soil left by floods; good for farming.
What belief system did the Sumerians follow?
Polytheism — belief in many gods.
A group of territories governed by one ruler.
Empire.
Which empire had a strong, harsh army?
Assyrian Empire.
What did the Mesopotamians build their houses and walls from?
Mud bricks.
What made farming difficult in Mesopotamia?
Unpredictable floods and dangerous droughts.
What were the three social classes in Sumer?
Upper class, middle class, lower class - enslaved people.
A territory governed as a political district.
Province.
Who rebuilt Babylon and created the Hanging Gardens?
Nebuchadnezzar.
What did the Sumerians trade for wood, stone, and metal?
Surplus grain, barley, wheat, and tools they produced.
What system did the Mesopotamians create to control water?
Irrigation (canals and dams). To channel water from a source to their crops.
Why did Sumerian cities become independent city-states?
Mudflats and deserts separated them.
A group of merchants traveling together.
Caravan.
Which empire built one of the world’s first libraries? And under which king?
The Assyrian Empire under King Ashurbanipal.
Which empire influenced later laws in Greece and Rome?
The Babylonian Empire (Hammurabi’s Code).