Geography and achievements
The surrounding land beyond the Fertile Crescent was harsh and dry.
What is a desert?
The belief in many gods, such as the gods of nature.
What is polytheism?
The Sumerians created this metal by mixing copper and tin.
What is bronze?
These areas or smaller regions were often run by their own government and were often in conflict and warring.
What are city-states?
Working in specific trades like weaving, pottery, and metalworking.
What is specialization?
A system created to stabilize the unpredictable water flow of the rivers, which led to annual flooding.
What is an irrigation system?
The belief in only one god, was developed in ancient Persia.
What is monotheism?
The Sumerian system of writing was made of wedge-shaped characters.
What is Cuneiform?
These Babylonian laws were carved on stone steles and were based on the principle, "an eye for an eye".
What is the Code of Hammurabi?
The Sumerian social class consisted of priest-kings and nobles at the top, merchants, artisans, and farmers in the middle, and laborers and slaves at the bottom.
What is a hierarchy?
The Greek name for the land between two rivers.
What is Mesopotamia?
Temples were built in the middle of city-states that served as places of worship.
What are Ziggurats?
This achievement increased efficiency in farm production.
What is the plow?
The largest, richest, and most powerful empire under the rule of Hammurabi.
What is Babylon?
Extra wheat and barley used to trade with other people.
What are surplus crops?
Mesopotamia lies between these two rivers.
What are the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers?
Animal sacrifices and other offerings, such as wine, were brought to temples to appease the gods.
What are offerings?
The Sumerians' achievement of creating the number of seconds in a minute and minutes in an hour.
What is the base 60 system?
This achievement was initially created for pottery and later for carts and chariots.
What is the wheel?
These funds were collected from their citizens to pay for projects like the Ziggurat temples.
What are taxes?
Rich farmland extending from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea.
What is the Fertile Crescent?
Persian monotheistic religion that believed in the worship of one god, Ahura Mazda.
What is Zoroastrianism?
The first written poem on earth that describes a journey of a Sumerian king who searches for immortality after the death of a friend.
What is The Epic of Gilgamesh?
He conquered the city-states of Sumer and other regions, unifying them and creating the Akkadian Empire.
Who is Sargon?
Sumerian kings were initially religious leaders who became kings because they were in charge of collecting the taxes and surpluses, leading to an increase in wealth and power.
Who are priest-kings?