Geography & Rivers
This region’s name means “land between the rivers.”
What is Mesopotamia?
The practice of growing crops and raising animals.
What is agriculture?
A self-governing city and the land around it.
What is a city-state?
This is the practice of believing in many gods.
What is polytheism?
One of the world’s earliest writing systems using wedge marks.
What is cuneiform?
According to quantum mechanics, this famous thought experiment involves a cat that is both alive and dead until it’s observed.
What is Schrödinger’s Cat?
These two rivers made Mesopotamia possible.
What are the Tigris and Euphrates?
Extra food that allows population growth and trade.
What is surplus?
The ruler of a city-state who often claimed god-given authority.
Who is the king?
This stepped temple stood at the center of city life.
What is a ziggurat?
Cuneiform was pressed into these.
What are clay tablets?
If you were falling into a black hole, what color would the universe around you appear to shift toward as you approached the event horizon?
What is red (redshift)?
This fine soil was left behind after floods and helped crops grow.
What is silt?
This farming tool breaks up soil for planting.
What is a plow?
This famous Babylonian created one of the first written law codes.
Who is Hammurabi?
These religious leaders performed ceremonies and offerings.
Who are priests?
Writing helped civilizations by recording these important enterprises. (Hint: They both start with T)
What is trade and taxes?
What’s the only letter that doesn’t appear in the periodic table of elements?
What is “J”?
This crescent-shaped region had rich farmland and early civilizations.
What is the Fertile Crescent?
This invention first helped pottery, then transformed transportation.
What is the wheel?
Hammurabi’s laws were carved onto this tall stone monument.
What is a stele?
Most people had the same job as their parents because of this.
What is a social class system?
Mesopotamia is called this because it had many “firsts.”
What is the Cradle of Civilization?
This metal is liquid at room temperature and was once used in thermometers before scientists realized it was extremely toxic.
What is mercury?
Mesopotamians built these to control water and help farming.
What are canals and levees?
When people focus on one job like artisan or merchant.
What is specialization?
In Mesopotamia, punishments often depended on this.
What is social class?
This group could move up because they learned to read and write.
Who are scribes?
This achievement allowed for the creation of massive bridges, buildings, and even doorways.
What is the arch?
If the entire human race suddenly disappeared, how long would it take for Earth’s atmosphere to return to pre-industrial levels of carbon dioxide?
What is roughly 1,000 years?