Sumer
Sumer was located in the southwest portion of this C-shaped region of the world. (Today the region is called the Middle East, and what was Sumer is now Iraq.)
What is the Fertile Crescent?
This king of a city-state in the northern part of Mesopotamia conquered each of the Sumerian city-states, creating the world's first empire. It was called the Akkadian Empire, and it lasted from 2300-2100 BCE.
Who was Sargon of Akkad?
This is how Naram-Sin, Sargon of Akkad's grandson, got people to follow him.
What is he claimed that he was a god?
Sumerians invented this. At first, it was made of stone. It enabled travel across land.
What is a wheel?
With the exception of the Hebrews, or Jews, every ancient civilization had this type of religious worship.
What is polytheism, the belief in many gods?
The most advanced form of society humans are capable of creating.
What is a civilzation?
Sumer had these two rivers running through it, which emptied into this body of water.
What are the Tigris, the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf.
In the 1790s BC, this king of this city-state created the world's second empire by conquering all of Mesopotamia, beginning with the Sumerian city-states.
Who was Hammurabi, king of Babylon?
Born in Ur, this man is described in the Bible as the first to believe in God and the first Jew.
Who is Abraham?
This Sumerian invention enabled large-scale farming and harvesting. (Hint: NOT irrigation)
What is the plow?
This was how the earliest civilizations governed themselves. It kept a city and its surrounding lands under the rule of one independent government.
What is a city-state?
An economy, government, and organized religion are three examples of this aspect of civilization.
What are social institutions?
The Sumerians relied on the Tigris and Euphrates for these four things.
What are water, fertile soil, trade, and mud for the bricks used to build the cities.
This place was the capital of the Babylonian Empire.
What is Babylon?
This era began with humans living as nomadic hunter-gatherers, and ended with them settling down and farming. Its name comes from the material people of the time used to make tools and weapons.
What is the Stone Age?
This invention enabled people to mass produce standard sizes and shapes of pottery.
What is the pottery wheel?
It is a group of formerly independent lands and people brought under the control of one ruler.
What is an empire?
In order for a civilization to develop and endure, people must have the ability to do this.
What is keep written records?
This Sumerian city-state grew extremely prosperous from international trade, thanks to its ideal location. It is also said to be the birthplace of Abraham.
What is Ur?
These two things helped King Hammurabi to ensure that the Sumerians would accept him as their rightful ruler.
The Sumerians, Babylonians and Akkadians are each this.
Who are Mesopotamians?
This Sumerian invention enabled large-scale farming in a region of very little rain. It involved this.
What is an irrigation system using a network of canals that brought water from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers into the fields?
This was used for thousands of years. It was created by the Sumerians and adopted by all other Mesopotamian civilizations, at first for record keeping, and eventually for literature and historical records. It used a stylus made from a river reed to carve wedge-shaped symbols into wet clay.
What is cuneiform?
The development of mathematics, astronomy, architecture, irrigation systems, the wheel and the sail are all examples of this aspect of civilization.
What is advanced technology?
This seasonal and natural process gave rich soil suitable for farming to Sumer.
What is the yearly flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates?
The Babylonians made great advancements in these two fields.
What are astronomy and math?
The name of this time period comes from the material people used for tools and weapons.
What is the Stone Age?
This enabled people to travel by water in any direction, regardless of the current.
What is the sail?
A 3 level multi-purpose step pyramid that served as an archive, storage facility and temple.
What is a ziggurat?
Potters, blacksmiths, farmers, scribes, priests, merchants, weavers, and engineers are examples of this aspect of civilization.
What are specialized workers?
This is the reason civilization began in Sumer before any other agricultural area developed it.
What is its geography? Not one, but two rivers that provided water and nutrients for crops, plus access to the sea and international trade.
Hammurabi's Code is remarkable because of this.
What is it was the first unified, written legal code in the world?
As the first civilizations developed between 4000 and 3000 BCE, this replaced stone as the preferred material for making tools and weapons.
What is Bronze?
This system was based upon the number of fingers on a human hand, the number of sections on each finger, and the length of a river reed.
What is a system of time and measurement based on multiples of 12?
These are the five characteristic that make up a civilization.
What are specialized workers, advanced technology, written language, advanced cities, and social institutions.
As a permanent settlement grows into a city and moves toward becoming a civilization, these two social institutions are always the first to appear.
What are government and organized religion?