Vocabulary
what is a cuneiform?
writing developed by the succeeding that used wedge shaped marks in soft clay.
The word Mesopotamia comes from a Greek word meaning what?
Land between the rivers
Sumerians mixed copper and tin to create what strong metal material?
Bronze
What group that sat at The very top of the Mesopotamian social pyramid?
the king
What large pyramid shaped temple was built for the chief God of a city?
A Ziggurat
What is polytheism?
the belief in more than one god.
What two major rivers frame ancient Mesopotamia?
The Tigris and Euphrates river
What two farming tools did the Sumerians invent?
plow and seed funnel
What group occupied the very bottom level of the social pyramid?
Slaves
Who was the Babylonian king who created a famous set of 282 written laws?
Hammurabi
What is irrigation?
The watering of land by artificial means to foster plant growth
What two mountain ranges did rivers and streams feed through?
The Taurus and Zagros mountain ranges
The Sumerians developed a Calendar that divided the year into how many months?
12 months
What group was in the social tear right below the king?
Priest and priestesses
Why did Mesopotamian kings work so closely with priest to stay in power?
Because priest told the people that the gods chose the king to rule
What is silt?
loose sedimentary material with rock particles usually 1/20 millimeter or less in diameter left behind after rivers flood.
What body of water lies at the southeastern end of the Tigers and Euphrates river?
The Persian Gulf
The Sumerians came up with a new way to track time besides dividing the year into 12 months, they based their math in time around what number?
60
What social class level were merchants scribes an artisans in?
upper class
What famous role in Hammurabi‘s code meant that if someone knocked out another person’s eye, they will lose their eye too?
An eye for an eye
What is a city-state?
A political unit consisting of a city and its surrounding countryside.
Why is the fertile crescent no longer fertile today?
dried up rivers and over population
Who were the official writers of Mesopotamia who spent years learning how to write in Cuneiform?
Scribes
What group made up the lower middle level of the pyramid?
Farmers and skilled workers
What leader established the first permanent army and launched a series of war against neighboring kingdoms?
Sargon