The land of Ancient Mesopotamia is between what two rivers?
Tigris & Euphrates River
What pyramid-like structures were built in Ancient Mesopotamia to honor gods?
The Ziggurats
Name any achievement of the ancient Mesopotamians.
--Writing system
--12 month lunar calendar, sundials, 60 minute hour, 360 degree circles, astronomy, system of written language
--Farming and Irrigation
--Used wheels, made chariots
--built huge ziggurats
--Made a system of written laws
An early city that was like a small, independent country with its own laws and government is known as a what?
City-state
Mesopotamia developed agriculture to a point where people had more than enough food to eat. What is this called?
Food surplus
--This was important because people could do other jobs besides hunting, gathering food, and growing crops, and is the basis for what we call civilization.
The way a civilization is organized?
Social structure
What is this area of land between two rivers called?
(hints)
--it is roughly shaped like this...
--it is good for growing crops
The Fertile Crescent
The Ancient Mesopotamians worshipped many gods. Believing in more than one god is called what?
Polytheism
How were the Mesopotamians able to grow more food than they needed?
They cultivated the soil, made systems for irrigation, domesticated animals.
Also, the soil was very fertile in the area.
What was the powerful, ruthless empire in Northern Mesopotamia that conquered Babylon using chariots, battering rams, and armored horses.
Assyria
Name jobs that people had in Ancient Mesopotamia.
Merchant
Artisan
Farmer
Priest
Who makes up the Upper Class of Ancient Mesopotamia? What people had the most power in this society?
Kings and Priests
Name any country that exists today that is in the same area where the Ancient Mesopotamians lived long ago.
Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey.
In Ancient Mesopotamia, what does Polytheism mean?
The belief in multiple gods
One King of Babylon compiled laws into a system that is well known today as the world's first system of written laws. What is this system of laws called.
Hammurabi's code
Who created the oldest code of law?
Hammurabi, king of the Babylonian empire
In Mesopotamia each city-state had a marketplace. What were these called?
a Bazaar
The dividing of society based on people's status or worth is known as
a social class or social structure
The rivers in this area were both helpful and dangerous to the people there. How were they dangerous?
They flooded unpredictably in the Spring and swept away villages and crops. The timing and paths of the floods were not the same each year.
What is the name of the epic Akkadian poem that describes a heroic Babylonian King?
The Epic of Gilgamesh
This area didn't have many trees or stones, so they built using _______.
Clay bricks
The name of a state that contains several countries or territories is an
empire
What did Scribes go to school for in Ancient Mesopotamia?
To learn to write
Who makes up the Lower Class of Ancient Mesopotamia?
what are farmers, laborers, and enslaved people
The rivers in this area were both helpful and dangerous to the people there. How were they helpful?
Silt
The higest god of the Mesopotamians was An. He was the god of what?
The Seasons.
He was also known as the divine personification of the sky, king of the gods, and ancestor of many of the deities in ancient Mesopotamian religion.
--He was also known as Anu and Anum.
What written language did Ancient Mesopotamians Create?
Cuneiform
Who was the famous first king of the Akkadians? He is known for his conquests of Sumerian city-states and the first person to rule over an empire?
Sargon
What is someone called when they go to school to learn to write?
Scribes
This type of government means rule by one, and the power was inherited or passed down.
monarchy
Cuneiform was written on _____________ using ____________ as a writing tool
clay tablets and stylus
This guy was the Mesopotamian god of creation, intelligence, crafts, water, seawater, lakewater, fertility, magic, mischief
Enki
Cuneiform is based on an earlier, simpler form of writing that used _______?
Pictures.
These are called pictographs.
This leader had the Hanging Garden of Babylon created
Nebuchadnezzar
Sumer
This King of Persia conquered Babylonia in 539 B.C.
King Cyrus (or Cyrus the Great)