Key Terms
People and Places
Early Humans
Mesopotamian Civilization
The First Empires
100
What are artifacts?
things made by humans long ago
100
What is the cradle of civilization?
Mesopotamia?
100
What was the Ice Age?
A period of time when the earth's temperature was extremely cold and great ice sheets covered parts of the earth
100
Who wrote a legal code that covered most areas of daily life?
Hammurabi
100
A mixture of copper and tin is called
bronze
200
What is an empire?
A group of many different lands under one ruler
200
What are two of the oldest known cities?
Jericho and Catal Huyuk
200
What do we call people who study and write about the human past?
Historians
200
What was the Sumerian writing system called?
Cuneiform
200
What is a caravan?
A group of traveling merchants
300
What is an epic?
A long poem that tells the story of a hero
300
What era is known as the "Old Stone Age"?
Paleolithic
300
What was one of the most important advances in early history?
The invention of tools
300
What was Mesopotamia's climate like?
Hot and dry
300
What was the center of the Chaldean empire?
Babylon
400
What is irrigation?
Building dams, channels, walls, and ditches to bring water to crops
400
Who was the Chaldean king that built the Hanging Gardens?
Nubuchadnezzar
400
What big change occurred between the Paleolithic and Neolithic Times?
Domestication of animals and plants for human use, the invention of farming
400
What were artisans?
Skilled workers who made metal products, cloth, or pottery
400
Why did the Chaldean Empire fall?
Persians from the northeast captured the capital city
500
What material did Sumerians use in their building?
Mud bricks
500
What group developed a way of making iron strong enough to use for weapons?
Hittites
500
Why do some historians consider the farming revolution to be the most important event in human history?
People had greater security, they had a steady food supply which increased populations. A reliable food supply also allowed people to focus on things other than survival - arts, tool making, etc.
500
What groups of people made up the middle class in Sumerian society?
Artisans, merchants, farmers, and fishermen
500
Describe some of the military accomplishments of the Assyrians
Using battering rams, tunneling under walls, climbing over walls with ladders, using iron weapons
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