Geography & Rivers
This Greek word meaning "land between the rivers" is what we call the region in modern-day Iraq.
What is Mesopotamia
This wedge-shaped writing system was pressed into clay tablets and is one of the world's first forms of writing.
What is cuneiform
This first civilization of Mesopotamia settled in the southern region and created independent city-states like Ur and Uruk.
Who are the Sumerians
Mesopotamians believed in many gods, making their religion this type of belief system.
What is polytheism
This highly valued occupation required years of training to learn reading, writing, and record-keeping.
What is a scribe
These two major rivers flow through Mesopotamia and provided water for irrigation.
What are the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers?
The Sumerians invented this circular device around 3500 BC, revolutionizing transportation and pottery-making.
What is the wheel
This Babylonian king is famous for creating one of the earliest written law codes around 1750 BC.
Who is Hammurabi
In what image were the gods of Mesopotamia made in?
What is the image of man?
This person held the highest authority in a Mesopotamian household and made all major decisions.
Who is the father?
This arc-shaped region of fertile land stretched from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea and was perfect for early agriculture.
What is the Fertile Crescent?
What are ziggurats? How were they used?
These massive stepped pyramid temples were built to honor the gods in Mesopotamian city-states.
This fierce military empire was known for its cruelty to conquered peoples and had its capital at Nineveh.
Who are the Assyrians
God called this man to leave Ur of the Chaldeans and go to the Promised Land.
What is Abraham?
Hammurabi believed punishments should match the crime, like "an eye for an eye," which shows which theme of civilization.
What is Justice?
Unlike the predictable Nile floods, Mesopotamian floods had this characteristic that made farming more challenging.
What is unpredictable (or irregular, violent, unexpected)?
The Mesopotamians invented this, which we still use for measuring time and circles today.
What is mathematics
This Neo-Babylonian king rebuilt Babylon, created the Hanging Gardens, and conquered Jerusalem in 586 BC. Spoke to the prophet Daniel.
Who is Nebuchadnezzar II?
When Mesopotamians took a god's statue from a temple and took it back to their own temple, what did they believe they were doing?
What is stealing another city's god.
This oldest known epic poem tells the story of a legendary king of Uruk searching for immortality.
What is the Epic of Gilgamesh?
Because Mesopotamia lacked natural barriers like mountains or deserts, civilizations faced this constant challenge from outside civilizations.
What are invasions (or attacks from enemies)?
What are irrigation canals? What were they used for?
Mesopotamians developed these systems of canals and dikes to control water flow and make farming possible in the dry climate.
What are city-states? How were they important to early Mesopotamia?
These independent cities with their own governments and patron gods often warred with each other in early Mesopotamia.
This Hebrew prophet served in the courts of both Babylonian and Persian kings and was thrown into the lions' den.
Who is Daniel?
At the bottom of Mesopotamian social hierarchy, below even farmers and laborers, were people in this position.
Who are slaves?