Geography
Mesopotamia is the name of an area of land between these two rivers.
What are the Tigris River and the Euphrates River?
(textbook, p. 76-77)
Name two Sumerian inventions that we still use today.
What are [name any two]
- writing - wheel - sailboat - plow
- base-10 number system - geometry
- measurement of time in hours, minutes, seconds
- 12-month lunar calendar
(textbook, p. 81-83)
This was the world's first empire.
What was Akkad (or the Akkadian Empire)?
(textbook, p. 86)
This leader conquered the independent city-states of Mesopotamia to form the world's first empire between 2300 and 2400 BCE.
Who was King Sargon (or Sargon)?
(textbook, p. 86)
This Mesopotamian city was considered the largest and richest in the world, in part because of beautiful "Hanging Gardens" that the king had built there.
What is Babylon?
(textbook, p. 90-91)
This term describes a civilization that expands beyond one city state to conquer and control other cities and lands in a larger territory.
What is an empire (or kingdom)?
(textbook, p. 86)
This region includes Mesopotamia, but is a larger area of fertile land stretching from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea and down into Egypt.
What is the "Fertile Crescent"?
(textbook, p. 77)
This building usually has the shape of a step pyramid. It's a religious shrine that's dedicated to the worship of a city's most important god.
What is a ziggurat?
(textbook, p. 80)
The Chaldean Empire also is called by this other name because its people descended from an earlier empire.
What is the "New Babylonian Empire" (or "Neo-Babylonian Empire")?
(textbook, p. 90)
This Babylonian king wrote a list of laws that covered most areas of daily life in Mesopotamia. That code was named after this king, and it influenced all future civilizations' legal codes to this day.
Who was King Hammurabi (or Hammurabi)?
(textbook, p. 87)
Sumerian artisans became skilled at using this material, even though they didn't have much of the material in Sumer and had to trade with outsiders to get it.
What is metal?
(textbook, p. 81)
These people were the only ones who knew how to read and write in Sumerian civilizations. They went to special schools to learn those skills.
Who were scribes?
(textbook, p. 82)
What is summer?
(textbook, p. 77)
Sumerian city-states sometimes fought against each other over these things.
What are land and resources?
(textbook, p. 79)
This fearsome group had about 50,000 soldiers - including infantry, cavalry, and charioteers.
What was the Assyrian army?
(textbook, p. 88)
Sumerian kings claimed that they were chosen by the gods. In reality, most of Sumer's first kings probably rose from this position in their civilizations.
What is a military leader or war hero?
(textbook, p. 80)
Sumerian metalworkers mainly used bronze, which is actually a combination of these two metals.
What are copper and tin?
(textbook, p. 83)
In Mesopotamian civilizations and empires, the power of a king was hereditary - meaning that it passed from parent to child (father to son). For that reason, the Chaldean king Nabopolassar passed his rule down to this person.
Who was Nebuchadnezzar?
(textbook, p. 90)
This building was located in the highest place in most Mesopotamian cities.
What is a ziggurat?
(textbook, p. 80)
In Sumer, this social class was made up of farmers, fishermen, artisans, and merchants.
What was the middle class?
(textbook, p. 80)
This group revolted against the Assyrian Empire and then formed their own new empire headquartered in the city of Babylon.
Who are the Chaldeans?
(textbook, p. 89-90)
This Sumerian king ruled Uruk around 2,000 BCE, and he became the main character in an "epic" poem that was written in cuneiform and is the world's oldest written story.
Who was Gilgamesh (or what was the Epic of Gilgamesh)?
(textbook, p. 82-83, 84-85)
This Mesopotamian empire was the first to use iron weapons in its military.
What is the Assyrian Empire?
(textbook, p. 88)
This word describes groups of traveling merchants who used camels and other animals to transport goods to buy and sell in Mesopotamian cities.
What are caravans?
(textbook, p. 92)
Sumer was located in an area where the Tigris River and Euphrates River flow into this body of water.
What is the Persian Gulf?
(textbook, p. 78-79)
Most buildings and structures in Mesopotamian cities were made from this material.
What is mud (or mud brick)?
(textbook, p. 79)
These TWO Mesopotamian empires each arose when a city-state's king decided to expand and take over other city-states in Mesopotamia.
What are the Akkadian Empire and the Babylonian Empire?
(textbook, p. 86-87)
This social class of Sumerian civilizations included kings, priests, government officials, and scribes.
What is the upper class?
(textbook, p. 80-81)
These Chaldean scientists studied "heavenly bodies" (moon, planets, stars) to understand their locations and movements. They invented the world's first sundial to measure time, and they invented the seven-day week on a calendar.
Who are astronomers?
(textbook, p. 92)
The city of Babylon had beautiful public streets that weren't just built from mud bricks, but from these two more valuable stone materials.
What are limestone and marble?
(textbook, p. 91)
Merchants followed trade routes across Mesopotamia between these two major bodies of water.
What are the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea?
(textbook, p. 92)
Who were women?
(textbook, p. 80)
King Ashurbanipal built one of the world's first libraries in Nineveh, which was the capital city of what empire?
What is Assyria (or the Assyrian Empire).
(textbook p. 88)
These people were in the upper class of Sumerian civilizations, and they were nearly as powerful as the kings. (In the earliest Sumerian civilizations, they actually were the leaders who chose the kings!)
Who were priests?
(textbook, p. 79-80)
If you accidentally caused the destruction of your neighbor's crops during the Babylonian Empire, then this probably would be your punishment under Hammurabi's Code.
What is replacing the destroyed crops (or paying for them, or being sold into slavery to pay for them)?
(textbook, p. 87)
This group of people formed an alliance with the Chaldeans to help in revolting against the Assyrian Empire.
Who were the Medes?
(textbook, p. 90)
These six modern countries now are located in the area of Mesopotamia (a.k.a. the "Fertile Crescent").
What are Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan? (Textbook, p. 77)
(Egypt also is included by some historians)
This word describes how Sumerian religions worshipped more than one god.
What is polytheism (or polytheistic)?
(textbook, p. 79)
This is a punishment where the Assyrian army required conquered people to pay them money.
What is a tribute?
(p. 88)
This Chaldean king lead a revolt against the Assyrians in about 600 BCE and started the Chaldean Empire.
Who was Nabopolassar?
(textbook, p. 90)
These were political districts of the massive Assyrian Empire, and the king controlled the empire by appointing government officials to run those districts.
What are provinces?
(textbook, p. 88)
The Assyrians learned to make iron from this group of people, which allowed them to build stronger weapons.
Who were the Hittites?
(textbook, p. 88)