mesopotamia Word Scramble

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Question	Answer
What is Mesopotamia	the land between Tigris and Euphrates River
? was the first city in the world	Sumer
In what modern country is Mesopotamia located?	Iraq
What type of climate does Mesopotamia have?	desert
Why did the Mesopotamians need to practice irrigation?	They lived in a desert so there was little rain
What causes the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers to flood?	Melting snow in the mountains
Why couldn’t the Mesopotamians farm during the flood?	Their fields were under the flood water
How were the Mesopotamians able to get fertile soil in a desert?	he melting snow brought fertile soil from the rivers
Where was the only place that the Mesopotamians could plant their crops? Why there?	They could only plant crops along the sides of the rivers because that’s where the flood water dumped the fertile soil.
brought water from the river to the fields	Canals:
prevented too much flood water from drowning the plants	Dams
could be opened to flood an entire field	Gates
used to water individual plants	Shaduf:
to store flood water to be used at time when there was little water	reservoir
Why did the Mesopotamians need to flood their fields?	Because the soil was hard
What agricultural tool was invented by the Mesopotamians? What is its purpose?	Plow – to dig rows to plants seeds in
Define artisan	skilled worker
Give two examples of artisans.	Weaver, pottery, blacksmith
How did the invention of irrigation lead to the existence of artisans?	Since there was extra food, not everyone was needed to farm. So people could have other jobs.
In ancient Mesopotamia, how did people obtain items that they could not make?	They traded.
Why did the Mesopotamians invent writing?	To keep track of items that were traded (like receipts)
Define city-state	city that is it’s own country
Why wasn’t Mesopotamia a country?	Each city-state was its own country
What did the Mesopotamians construct building out of? Why did that use that material?	mud brick – since they lived in a desert, there wasn’t much wood or stone
What is a ziggurat?	A temple tower
In what shape are ziggurats built?	A pyramid with steps on the sides
What were ziggurats built out of?	Mud bricks
What was located at the top of the ziggurat?	The temple
Who were the only people allowed inside ziggurats? Why only them?	Priests – Mesopotamians believed that a god lived inside a ziggurat, so only the priests could be in the god’s home.
What empire did Hammurabi rule as king?	Babylonian
A code is a collection of written	laws
How did Hammurabi ensure that all people in his kingdom knew the laws?	He had the laws read aloud on important days, such as festivals
What are written laws necessary?	To keep order in society
When talking about the Code of Hammurabi, why is the phrase “an eye for an eye” is often used?	The punishment was often the same as the crime
Give three specific examples from the Code of Hammurabi to prove that the different social classes received different punishments for the same crime.	A. If an upper class person broke the arm of an upper class person, his arm would be broken. B. If an upper class person broke the arm of a lower class person, he would pay the lower class person a small amount of gold or silver. C. If a lower cla
What is a ziggurat?	A temple tower
Why was a ziggurat built up high like a tower?	To be closer to the gods
The two purposes of a ziggurat were to	worship__ the __gods___ and to store _____food_________.
Who was allowed inside of the building at the top?	priests and kings
Only those people were allowed inside because the ziggurat was believed to be a home for the	god
What is a city-state?	A city that is its own country
What did all of the city-states in Mesopotamia have in common?	language, gods, writing
What is a monarchy?	Government in which a king or queen rules
Why did the Mesopotamians obey the leader in a monarchy?	They believed the king got his power from the gods
How is the next leader in a monarchy chosen?	The oldest son of the king
What is an empire?	A country and all the lands it has conquered
Which wonder of the ancient world was located in the capital city of the Babylonian Empire?	The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Which Babylonian scientists made the first observations of the stars and planets?	astronomers
Why was the Babylonian calendar less accurate than our modern one? Hint: think about what it was based on versus what ours is based on.	Their calendar was based on the moon while ours is based on the sun
What invention involved in the planning of a day did the Babylonians create?	hour
In what language did the Mesopotamians write?	Cuneiform
What shape were the symbols in that writing system?	wedges
Who did people have to pay to do the reading and writing for them?	scribes
Why didn’t people do the reading and writing themselves?	Most people couldn’t read or write
What did they write with?	stylus (sharpened reed)
What did they write on?	Clay tablets

Created by: rlshawhan