| Question | Answer |
| Drought | A LONG period of time with little to no rain which can cause food shortages.
Sentence: To combat drought in their new homeland between the rivers, Sumerians created an irrigation system of canals, levees, reservoirs, and dams to keep their crops watered. |
| Famine | Definition: A lack of food
Sentence: A famine was coming to the Zagros Mountains forcing them to down to the plans in-between the two mountains. |
| Surplus | An extra amount of a resource(s) is often used for trading.
Sentence: If a farmer has an extra amount of wheat they would trade it for other resources. |
| Barter | To trade for things people want.
Sentence: If a city-state traded food to another city-state and that city-state in return the city-state gave them gold. |
| City-state | An early walled city with its farmland and government that was like a small, independent country with its for laws, government.
Sentence: Babylon is an early city-state |
| Ziggurat | They were built as temples to honor the gods and goddesses.
Sentence: Early people in Mesopotamia would go to the ziggurats to praise their gods and goddesses. |
| Cuneiform | The first form of writing using a sharpened piece of reed, called a stylus, used on clay tablets
Over time, the use of pictographs changed into complex written language. |
| Cuneiform | Latin word means, “wedge-shaped
One of the most famous scribes was written Enheduanna
It took 12 years to master cuneiform |
| Code of Hammurabi | -Oldest set of written laws in Mesopotamia
-Authored by King Hammurabi of Babylon
- “Eye for an eye” justice
The goal of Hammurabi’s code was to protect the powerless from the power throughout Hammurabi’s new empire. |
| Judaism | -Much of the history of the ancient Hebrews is found in the Torah.
-The earliest Hebrews were shepherds who lived in Mesopotamia
-These early people created a religion called Judaism. |
| Polytheistic Religion | The belief in more than one God, like the ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians |
| Monotheistic Religion | They believed in one God, like the ancient Hebrews |
| The Akkadians: Who was their most famous leader? | Sargon |
| The Akkadians: What were the notable achievements of this leader? | His smart military strategies:
-Formed in tight formations
-Carried shields at the front of the formation
-Behind them stood soldiers with spears
-Spears was thrust from behind the shields. Also, smart political strategies which consisted of |
| The Akkadians: What were the notable achievements of this leader | -Destroying the walls of cities to make it harder for people to
rebel because they had no defensible positions.
-Loyal governors stayed, others were replaced.
-Demanded that sons inherit the power when he died. |
| The Akkadians: What were the notable achievements of these people? | -Akkadian language gradually replaced the Sumerian language.
-They became known for their three-dimensional relief sculptures called steles or steals |
| The Akkadians: When, chronologically, were they in power? | About 2300 BCE - 2100 BCE |
| The Babylonians: Who was their most famous leader? | |
