This is the English translation of the Greek word Mesopotamia.
What is land between the rivers?
This term describes the worship of many gods, a practice common to most Mesopotamian civilizations.
What is polytheism?
This simple yet revolutionary invention helped transport people and heavy objects over long distances in a shorter amount of time.
What is the wheel?
This term describes the form of government in Mesopotamia where a king or queen rules the entire civilization.
What is a monarchy?
This term describes having more food or goods than what is needed, an outcome of improved farming conditions due to irrigation.
What is surplus?
This is the two-word term for a division of society that is explicitly based upon rank or class.
What is social hierarchy?
This is the modern-day country where the vast majority of ancient Mesopotamia was located, along with Syria.
What is Iraq?
This pyramid-shaped temple tower was the structure in which priests were believed to communicate with the gods.
What is a Ziggurat?
This civilization is credited with creating an early version of the alphabet, a set of letters that can be combined to form words, around 1100 BCE.
A. Akkadians
B. Assyrians
C. Phonecians
D. Babylonians
C. Phoenicians
MR. CLOUTIER TRIVIA
What is Mr. Cloutier's favorite NFL team?
A. New England Patriots
B. Arizona Cardinals
C. Carolina Panthers
D. Green Bay Packers
C. Carolina Panthers
Before money was created in the 600s BCE, the Sumerians used this economic system of directly trading items like grain for lumber or metals.
What is the barter system?
In the Mesopotamian hierarchy, the people at the top possessed the most power, status, and this third valuable resource.
What is wealth?
This region of rich farmland curves between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, stretching from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea.
What is the Fertile Crescent?
MR. CLOUTIER TRIVIA
How tall is Mr. Cloutier?
A. 6'6
B. 6'0
C. 5'11
D. 6'3
D. 6'3
The Sumerians invented this calendar, which used the phases of the moon to measure the length of its 12 months.
What is the Lunar calendar?
The Sumerians were not united, but rather lived in independent groups called this political system that included a city and its surrounding area.
What is a city-state?
This specific group, which includes craftspeople and merchants, held the middle position in the social hierarchy, ranking below priests but above farmers.
A. Warlocks / Magicians
B. Traders
C. Enslaved People
D. Sailors
B. Traders
This gender generally worked inside the home and was primarily responsible for raising their children.
Who are women?
To control the water supply for farming, the Sumerians invented this system of canals and man-made waterways.
What is irrigation?
A Sumerian king is the subject of this long poem, considered one of the oldest stories in world history.
What is the Epic of Gilgamesh?
This massive construction, supposedly built by Nebuchadnezzar II, served as the main ceremonial entrance to the city of Babylon.
A. Zababa Gate
B. Ishtar Gate
C. Marduk Gate
D. Enlil Gate
B. Ishtar Gate
This famous Babylonian ruler is responsible for creating one of the oldest and most comprehensive sets of written laws in history.
Who is Hammurabi?
MR. CLOUTIER TRIVIA
What size is Mr. Cloutier's shoe?
A. 13
B. 15
C. 11
D. 17
B. 15
RIDDLE ME THIS
Answer this riddle that Mr. Cloutier made up on his own! (Not really)
What has a face and two hands but no arms or legs?
A clock
Farmers in southern Mesopotamia depended on the yearly flooding of the rivers to deposit this mixture of small rocks and soil, which fertilized the land.
What is silt?
This major god was known as the God of the Sky.
A. Enlil
B. An/Anu
C. Enki/Ea
D. Ashur
A. An/Anu
This massive construction, built by the Persians, extended at least 1,600 miles and featured a system of postal stations to allow rapid delivery of messages across the empire.
What is the Royal Road?
This king founded the city of Akkad and established the Akkadian Empire, which is historically significant for being the first of its kind.
Who is (King) Sargon?
As skilled sailors and shipbuilders, this civilization established colonies throughout the Mediterranean and helped increase communication and trade in the region.
A. Phoenicians
B. Akkadians
C. Sumerians
D. Babylonians
A. Phoenicians
Men in Mesopotamia generally had more power and access to a greater number of these types of chances or avenues for learning than women.
What are educational opportunities?
MR. CLOUTIER TRIVIA
Where in Rhode Island did Mr. Cloutier grow up?
A. Coventry
B. Providence
C. Warwick
D. Chepachet
A. Coventry
This female goddess was unusual in that she was associated with the powerful, contrasting domains of both love and war.
A. Nanna/Suen
B. Marduk
C. Utu/Shamash
D. Inanna/Ishtar
D. Inanna/Ishtar
The Sumerian creation of cuneiform between 3500-3000 BCE was initially not a literary tool, but specifically served this economic purpose to keep track of taxes and trade.
What was keeping business records (or record-keeping)?
To manage the enormous Persian Empire, King Darius I divided the territory into a specific number of these, which are territories that were governed as political districts.
What are provinces?
This economic concept, meaning workers specialize in particular tasks rather than everyone being a farmer, became possible due to the food surplus.
What is Division of Labor?
The degree of power, status, and wealth a person held was determined entirely by their place in the hierarchy, which was based on this fundamental division.
What is rank or class?