Social Studies
Highly educated professionals who were responsible for writing, reading, and interpreting texts
Scribe
painting and drawing on stone or cave walls that depict words or ideas
Pictograph
a tiered, pyramid-shaped temple tower built that served as a religious and agricultural structure
Ziggurat
one of the two major rivers, a long side the Euphrates, that formed the Fertile land between them.
Tigris-River
one of the major rivers, alongside the Tigris, that formed the Fertile land between them.
A group of people with similar amounts of power and money due to their birth or job
Social Class
a rich and nutritious soil (fertile) that was deposited on the land by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers when they flooded
Silt
a written legal code created by the Babylonian King Hammurabi It was one of the first written legal documents and contained 282 laws.
Code of Laws
an independent, self-governing city that functioned as a small nation, with its own ruler.
City-State
an ancient writing system that was used in the Middle East for over 3,000 years. The word cuneiform comes from the Latin word cuneus, which means "wedge"
Cuneiform
a complex society with cities, government, religion, a writing system, different jobs, and advanced technologies, all developed by people living together in settled communities.
Civilization
the geographical region where the Mesopotamian civilization developed, it's the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Today it's modern-day Iraq, parts of eastern Syria, and southeastern Turkey or known as The Middle East.
Southwest Asia
an ancient civilization founded in the Mesopotamia region of the Fertile Crescent situated between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Sumer
the practice of directing water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, through a network of of canals, onto agricultural fields to provide a controlled water supply for growing crops.
Irrigation
people who bought and sold goods, traveling along established trade routes to move them from one place to another.
Merchant
a large area of land with multiple city-states, where a single ruler, usually a powerful king, held full political control
Empire
The system of producing, distributing, and consuming goods and services within a society, primarily focused on agriculture, household production, and limited trade, often characterized by bartering (exchange a good for another good).
Economy
a skilled worker who made goods such as tools, cloth, and weapons
Artisan
earth walls built along the sides of rivers to prevent flooding and to provide water for irrigation
Levee
the practice of developing farm crops like barely and beans, raising sheep, and utilizing sophisticated irrigation systems to farm
Agriculture