Stone Age to Farming
People in this period were nomadic hunter-gatherers using stone tools
What is the Paleolithic Era?
The earliest cities formed here, between these two rivers
What are the Tigris & Euphrates?
This Babylonian ruler created one of the first written law codes
Who was Hammurabi?
The Nile River’s floods were more this than the Tigris & Euphrates
What is predictable?
This river supported Egypt’s stability
What is the Nile?
Farming and domestication of animals marked this revolution.
What is the Neolithic Revolution?
Sumerians built these massive temple structures at city centers
What are ziggurats?
Hammurabi’s Code is often remembered for this principle of justice.
What is “an eye for an eye”?
These god-kings ruled Egypt with absolute power.
Who are pharaohs?
Both Mesopotamia and Egypt built monumental architecture. What was the main purpose of Sumerian ziggurats compared to Egyptian pyramids?
Ziggurats were temples for worship and rituals; pyramids were tombs for pharaohs
Daily life in the Paleolithic was nomadic; in the Neolithic it included this new type of settlement.
What are permanent villages?
This was the first system of writing, developed in Sumer
What is cuneiform?
Unlike their early trading phase, the Assyrians later became best known for the strength of this institution.
What is their military (powerful armies/conquests)?
The Old Kingdom is most famous for building these massive tombs
What are pyramids?
Match a civilization to its strength:
Sumer
Babylon
Assyria
Egypt
writing
law
trade
pyramids
Sumer = writing
Babylon = law
Assyria = trade
Egypt = pyramids
The Neolithic Revolution led to this key population effect.
What is population growth/surplus?
Sumer’s government was ruled by leaders: religious, political authority, and military name 2 of the 3.
Priest, Kings, and Lugals
Which empire unified Mesopotamia under one central law system?
What is Babylon?
One reason for the collapse of the Old Kingdom was the high cost of these
What are pyramids?
Compare how law unified Babylon vs. how religion/pharaohs unified Egypt.
Babylon= unified under law code of Hammurabi
Egypt= Pharaohs were God-Kings, and had a strong bureaucracy
Compare survival in the Paleolithic vs. stability in the Neolithic
Survival-focused vs. farming surplus/civilization
Why was Sumer inventive but fragile? (why did they fall give me 2 reasons)
city rivalries, no unity, vulnerable to conquest
Compare Assyria’s focus with Babylon’s focus
Assyria = trade/military Babylon = law/government
Name two main causes of the Old Kingdom’s fall besides the pyramids
What are drought/famine and noble rebellions?
Name 2 major leaders we talk about (outside of Hammurabi)
Ashurbanipal & Sargon