Sumer
Sargon of Akkad
Vocabulary
Geography
First Written Language
100

Sumer was made up of independent communities such as Ur, Uruk, Kish, and Eridu.

What are city-states?

100

This ruler is credited with creating the world's first known empire.

Who was Sargon of Akkad?

100

A complex society with organized government, cities, specialized jobs, and other developed institutions.

What is a civilization?

100

Mesopotamia developed between these two major rivers.

What are the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers?

100

This was the name of the Sumerian writing system.

What is cuneiform?

200

The Sumerians called Mesopotamia by this name, meaning "place of civilized lords."

What is Kiengi (Ki-en-gi)?

200

Sargon conquered this civilization located in southern Mesopotamia.

What is Sumer?

200

To tame plants or animals so that they can be used by humans.

What is domesticate?

200

Mesopotamia was part of this larger region known for fertile farmland.

What is the Fertile Crescent?

200

The word "cuneiform" means this.

What is "wedge-shaped writing"?

400

Sumerian city-states frequently fought over these two important resources.

What are territory and water?

400

Sargon maintained 5,400 trained soldiers at Akkad, creating one of history's earliest this. 

What is a professional army?

400

A group of merchants traveling together, often across long distances for trade.

What is a caravan?

400

Because flooding was unpredictable and summers were hot and dry, the Sumerians developed this system to bring water to their fields.

What is irrigation?

400

Sumerians wrote cuneiform by pressing a pointed tool into these.

What are clay tablets?

600

This massive, tiered, pyramid-shaped temple stood at the center of a Sumerian city.

What is a ziggurat?

600

Before becoming a powerful ruler, Sargon served in this trusted position for King Ur-Zababa.

What was a cupbearer?

600

A government system made up of officials and administrators who help manage a state or empire.

What is a bureaucracy?

600

Sumer lacked these two important natural resources, forcing its people to obtain them through trade.

What are stone and wood?

600

A person trained to read, write, and keep records in ancient Sumer held this job.

What is a scribe?

800

This famous Sumerian artifact, excavated from the Royal Cemetery at Ur, has both a "War" side and a "Peace" side.

What is the Standard of Ur?

800

Sargon used these officials, to govern cities throughout his empire.

What are the Citizens of Akkad?

800

A society or empire containing people from several different ethnic or cultural groups.

What is multiethnic?

800

Sumer lacked mountains, seas, and other natural barriers, forcing cities to build these for protection.

What are walls?

800

Before being used for literature and other purposes, writing was first developed in Sumerian cities mainly to keep track of these.

What are inventories of food and trade goods?

1000

This city and its ruler Hammurabi would unite Sumer and Akkad and create the kingdom of the same name.

What is Babylon?

1000

This text was written centuries after Sargon's time in an attempt to explain the fall of the Akkadian Empire.

What is the “The Curse of Akkad”?

1000

Following several conquests, Sargon gained access to mines containing this mineral. It was also known as the "Stone of the Gods."

What is Lapis Lazuli?

1000
These two bodies of water bookend the Fertile Crescent, with one to the north and the other being the end point for the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

What are the Black Sea and the Persian Gulf?

1000

These shapes were used before the cuneiform was created. Examples of these would be a fish or a bird.

What are pictographs?