Water & Land
A period when there is not enough rain or snow to grow crops.
What is a drought?
A sharpened reed used by ancient Mesopotamians to press wedge-shaped marks into clay.
What is a stylus?
An independent, self-governing unit made up of a city and the farmland around it.
What is a city-state?
The flat land bordering the banks of a river that often floods with rich soil.
What is a floodplain?
Picture writing used before full cuneiform developed.
What is a pictograph?
A belief in many different gods and goddesses.
What is polytheism?
Fine soil deposited by rivers that makes the land great for farming.
What is silt?
Professional writers and record-keepers in ancient Mesopotamia.
What is a scribe?
A large territory or group of lands and nations ruled by a single supreme leader or emperor.
What is an empire?
Having a climate with hot summers and very little rain.
What is semiarid?
The wedge-shaped writing system developed by the Sumerians.
What is cuneiform?
A system of strict rules created by a Babylonian king to govern daily life and crime.
What is Hammurabi’s Code?
A way of supplying water to land or crops using ditches, canals, or streams.
What is irrigation?
A tall, stepped pyramid-shaped temple built to honor the gods in a Sumerian city-state.
What is a ziggurat?
An advanced stage of human society with cities, specialized workers, and record-keeping.
What is a civilization?
This famous Babylonian king created one of the earliest written codes of law in history, famous for the rule "an eye for an eye.
Who is Hammurabi?