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Foy WH Ch. 3 Vocab
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Fertile Crescent | an area of rich farmland in Southwest Asia where the first civilizations began |
| silt | a mixture of fertile soil and tiny rocks that can make land ideal for farming |
| irrigation | a way of supplying water to an area of land |
| canals | a human-made waterway |
| surplus | more of something than is needed |
| division of labor | an arrangement in which each worker specializes in a particular task |
| rural | a countryside area |
| urban | a city area |
| city-state | a political unit consisting of a city and its surrounding countryside |
| empire | land with different territories and peoples under a single rule |
| polytheism | the worship of many gods |
| social hierarchy | the division of society by rank or class |
| cuneiform | the world's first system of writing; developed in Sumer |
| pictograph | a picture symbol |
| scribe | a writer |
| epics | long poems that tell the stories of heroes |
| ziggurat | a pyramid-shaped temple in Sumer |
| monarch | a ruler of a kingdom or empire |
| Hammurabi's Code | a set of 282 laws governing daily life in Babylon; the earliest known collection of written laws |
| alphabet | a set of letters that can be combined to form words |