Vocabulary
What is a city-state?
This is a city that has its own government and rules its own territory.
What is the wheel?
This invention was used to help people carry supplies and travel more easily.
Who is Sargon?
This leader of the Akkadian people conquered Sumer and created the world’s first empire.
What are the Assyrians?
The people of this empire were known for their well-trained army using iron weapons and horse-drawn chariots.
What are mud bricks?
Builders used this material, which was readily available, to construct homes and temples.
What is Cuneiform?
This is the system of writing that uses wedge-shaped marks etched into clay.
What is 60?
In math, Mesopotamians created a number system that used this number as its base.
Who is Hammurabi?
This Babylonian leader developed a set of laws that was known as Hammurabi's Code.
What are the Akkadians?
The world's first empire was formed when this empire united the city-states under Sargon's rule.
What is the Middle Class?
This class was the largest social group and included artisans, farmers, and merchants.
What is an empire?
This is a large territory governed by one ruler.
What is irrigation?
This is the name for the methods of bringing water to dry land using canals, streams, or pipes.
Who is Ashurbanipal?
This Assyrian leader is famous for having a library built in Nineveh that housed over 30,000 tablets.
What is Babylon?
This city became the largest in the world and a vibrant place full of art and beautiful buildings under Hammurabi's rule.
What is a polytheist?
This is what Mesopotamians were because they worshipped many gods.
What is a Ziggurat?
This is a pyramid-shaped place of worship with a temple found at the very top.
What is bronze?
This material was used to create items and tools by Mesopotamians.
Who is Nabopolassar?
This ruler of the Chaldean Empire successfully overthrew the Assyrian Empire.
What are the Sumerians?
This group of people, who invented the wheel and writing, formed the independent city-states along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
What is the Upper Class?
This class consisted of kings, priests, government workers, and warriors.
What is a surplus?
This is having more of something, like food, than you actually need to survive.
What are stars and planets (or the moon)?
In the field of science, Mesopotamians tracked the movement of these two things in the night sky.
Who is Nebuchadnezzar?
This Chaldean leader rebuilt Babylon and created the Hanging Gardens, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
What are the Chaldeans?
This empire, also called the Neo-Babylonian Empire, used a sundial to measure time.
What is the desert?
besides enemies, wide expanses of this natural feature also separated city-states, making trade and communication difficult.\