Sumerian Inventions
Sumerian Civilization
Sumerian City-States
Life in Sumer
Vocabulary
100
How did sumerian farmers control water?
They invented dikes and irrigation canals.
100
Why did people settle the lands betweent he Tigris and Euphrates rivers?
Floods made the land good for farming.
100
What was the most important building in Ur?
the ziggurat, or temple
100
What did Sumerian merchants do with the Sumer crops?
They traded them for goods from other lands
100
What is a man-made waterway?
canal
200
What two inventions helped the Sumerians travel?
The wheel and the sailboat.
200
What were 3 reasons why the scribes were important in Sumer?
They kept track of taxes, created contracts, and kept trade records.
200
What led to the decline of Sumer?
Fighting among city-states weakened them, so that outsiders could take over.
200
What did Sumerians use to build homes and temples?
mud bricks
200
To bring water to dry land by means of canals is called what?
irrigate
300
What did the call the wedge-shaped form of writing ancient Sumer used for writing?
cuneiform
300
Who brought 1,2oo years of Sumerian city-states to an end?
the Babylonians
300
The king ran the city-states with the help of what three people?
priests, nobles, scribes
300
Who worked in the fields of Sumer?
slaves and other men and boys
300
A wall buildt along a river or sea to hold back the water from low land is called....
dike
400
Why was writing important to Sumerians?
Writing kept track of what they owned; writing led to the invention of a way to measure land, scribes became rich and powerful.
400
What were the highest classes of people in Sumerian society?
priests, scribes, and nobles were the highest classes. priests were rich and powerful; sons of wealthy families were educated; scribes knew how to read and write and were paid well for it; scribes wrote contracts for merchants, and worked in temples and the palace.
400
How can a city also be a state?
It has its own government and surrounding land, makes its own laws, and has its own army.
400
Why do you think that only wealthy Sumerian families could send their sons to school?
Families relied on their children to work from an early age.
400
What was the independent city and the surrounding land it controls called?
city-state
500
What are two things the Sumerians invented a way to measure?
time and land
500
Why was each Sumerian village built around a temple?
The people believed a god or goddess lived in the temple and protected the village.
500
How do you think the Sumerians might have been able to prevent the fall of their cities?
The Sumerians might have tried to bargain with their enemies. They could have hidden their riches outside the cities. The could have explanded thier military and stationed their armies outside the cities.
500
Why were scribes members of the riches and higest class of Sumerian culture?
Scribes had the special skill of writing, which was needed by farmers and merchants.
500
Building used to honor and priase a god or gods
temple
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