VOCABULARY
An independent state with its own traditions, government, and laws
city-state
A system of writing, using wedges and lines
cuneiform
Group of people who control and make decisions for a country or a state
government
Rich, fertile soil
silt
Lengthy period of dry weather that is harmful to crops
drought
Where writing first developed
Mesopotamia
The way a society or civilization is organized based on property, wealth, and rights
social hierarchy
The Mesopotamians settled in a boomerang-shaped area called
Fertile Crescent
Supplying land with water through a network of canals
irrigation systems
A professional writer
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The religious beliefs, language, customs, values, and other ways of life shared by a group of people
culture
These two rivers made Mesopotamian soil rich and fertile
Tigris and Euphrates
Time when there is very little food resulting in starvation
famine
First written set of laws
Hammurabi's Code
The way a country's people manage money and resources for the production of services and goods
economy
Why did the earliest known civilizations develop in the Fertile Crescent?
The rivers created very fertile farmland
A group of people that have a developed system of technology, writing, government, social class, religion, arts, and a stable food supply
ancient civilization
A group of people that developed another system of writing, which included a 22 letter alphabet
Phoenicians
(developed the Phoenician alphabet)
A contribution of one culture to another
legacy
Babylon became an important center of trade because
It was located between cities to the north and south