Vocabulary
System of writing that uses triangular-shaped symbols to stand for ideas or things
cuneiform
Mesopotamia is located in modern day...
Iraq
Ur is a city with a government that has a countryside around it, otherwise known as
What is a city-state?
Who created the first empire?
King Sargon
Skilled craftsmen who read and wrote cuneiform were known as ______
scribes
Supply water to crops
irrigate
What was the role of the priest in Sumerian civilization?
communicate with the gods
Mesopotamia was located in this land, named for the way the soil was perfect for farming
What is the fertile crescent?
Mesopotamia lies between which 2 rivers?
Tigris and Euphrates
How did a steady food supply affect the development of Sumerian cities?
It allowed people to stay in one place
What is a ziggurat?
pyramid-shaped brick temples
What is the Greek translation of the word "Mesopotamia"?
land between the rivers
A set of laws that governed life in the Babylonian Empire was called...
Hammurabi's Code
Who were the first ones in Mesopotamia to have iron weapons?
The Assyrians
The Hittites used this in battles, giving them an advantage over their enemies
What is a chariot?
What is polytheism?
The belief in more than one god
What was the main reason that the Sumerians invented writing?
to keep track of what a person owned and for trade records
Name the classes of people in their social hierarchy order
kings, priests, craftsmen/traders/merchants, farmers/laborers/slaves
Sumerian civilization started to crumble when city-states began fighting over_______
the fertile land
An effect of Sargon uniting city-states was____
What is the order of the Mesopotamian empires?
Akkadian, Babylon, Hittites, Kassites, Assyrian, Chaldean
Who developed our first alphabet?
The Phoenicians
The city's and empires were put in charge by a what?
What is a monarch, or king?
With their new language, Sumerians created stories about gods and military victories known as what?
Name one of the developments of the Sumerian people
The wheel, the plow, the sailboat, Cuneiform (world's first system of writing), lunar calendar