Vocabulary
This is the exchange of goods and services by sale or barter. It is driven by the need for resources and the amount of resources the trader has.
What is trade?
This area, located in the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East, is a collection of city-states that are each controlled by different rulers. The name of this place means "the land between the rivers."
What is Mesopotamia?
This had a major role in Mesopotamian society. The people of Mesopotamia practiced polytheism, and would honor their gods and goddesses by naming cities after them, building ziggurats, and making offerings.
What is religion?
This was how the people of Mesopotamia (specifically Babylon) kept track of the days and months of the year. This was lunar and followed the cycle of the moon instead of the sun.
What is a calendar?
This is a long narrative poem that describes heroic deeds. This could be written or passed down orally to tell myths, legends, or religious stories.
What is a epic?
These are the 3 major cities of Mesopotamia, specifically in the ancient empire of Sumer. (3 answers)
What were Eridu, Ur, and Uruk?
This member of the social pyramid was at the top of the pyramid. They had the most power, organized labor, maintained the ziggurats, and made laws for the people. They are in the smallest, but most powerful class on the pyramid.
What is a king?
This story based on one of the Akkadian kings taught historians a few lessons such as the role gods and goddesses played in the people's lives, how strong the ruler in the story was, and how the people saw anything beyond their cities as dangerous or monstrous.
What is The Epic of Gilgamesh?
This is the system of writing widely used in the ancient Middle East. It isn't considered a language, but a set of pictures that stood for objects and ideas.
What is cuneiform?
This is a natural event that acted as a resource for the people of Mesopotamia. There were two of these per year, one in spring and one in winter, which helped make the soil wet and deposited silt to keep the soil fertile.
What is a flood?
These two classes are at the bottom of the social pyramid. They have the most people, but the least power. They usually care for the land and provide food; one of the two classes are usually prisoners of war or receiving punishment for crimes. (2 answers)
What are farmers and slaves?
These are the four metals the people of Mesopotamia learned how to use. They would use these metals to help upgrade their tools. (4 answers)
What is iron, copper, tin, and gold?
This is an ancient religious structure that resembles a pyramid. Most of them were built between 2000-500 BCE throughout Mesopotamia.
What is a ziggurat?
This is the form of economy the people of Mesopotamia practiced, which had people rely on tradition and custom to decide what, how, and who to produce for.
What is a tradition-oriented economy?
This empire of Mesopotamia was famous for their king Gilgamesh, who is the main character of the earliest known written story, The Epic of Gilgamesh.
What is Akkadia / Akkadian Empire?
These are the impacts writing had on the people of Mesopotamia. (4 answers)
What is farmers recording crop patterns and plans for future crops, merchants tracking sales, laws written down, and children learning to read and write?
This is a way of illustrating the social organization of a particular society. People with the most wealth are at the top, while the least are at the bottom.
What is a social pyramid?
These are the mountains that work with the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Mesopotamia. These mountains act as natural irrigation that helped during dry spells in the area. (2 answers)
What is Taurus and Zagros Mountains?
These are the few rights women were allowed to have in Mesopotamian society. (3 answers)
What are being able to own property, can leave their husband on their own, and noble women could learn to read and write?
This was the code of laws in the Akkadian empire, likely created in the 1700s BCE. It was created by the emperor, whose name is part of the code of laws. They believe it was gifted by the god Shamash, but was likely just based on previous legal decisions and ancient Sumerian law.
What is Hammurabi's Code?