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Mesopotamia
vocab/concepts Egypt
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Fertile Crescent | an arc of rich farmland that extends from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. Featured a flat plain of land between 2 rivers |
Mesopotamia | the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers |
irrigation | a way of supplying water to an area or land |
canals | human-made waterways that connect water basins to a network of ditches |
division of labor | a type of arrangement in which each worker specializes in a particular task or job |
Sumerians | people who developed the world's first civilization in southern Mesopotamia |
city-state | a political unit consisting of a city and all of the countryside surrounding it |
Gilgamesh | a king from Uruk, he is best known as a legendary figure in Sumerian literature |
Akkadians | a society that lived just north of Sumer-for a period of time they lived in peace with the Sumerians |
Sargon | an Akkadian king who built a strong permanent army-the army defeated all of the Sumerian city-states and the entire region grew to become the world's first empire |
empire | a land with different territories and peoples under a single rule |
polytheism | the worship and belief in many gods |
monotheism | the worship and belief in only one god |
priests | people who performed religious ceremonies-they we believed to interpret the wishes of the gods and they could make offerings to the gods |
social hierarchy | the division of labor by rank or class -kings, priests, skilled craftspeople, merchants, traders, farmers, laborers and slaves |
Enheduanna | the daughter of Sargon-she was an educated priestess and the first known female writer in history |
cuneiform | the world's first writing system of wedge-shaped symbols-it was written with a sharp tool, stylus, on a clay tablet. first used to keep business records |
scribes | a writer hired by government officials to keep track of trade, records, etc. It was also a way to move up in social class as they were highly regarded |
epics | long poems that tell the stories of heroes-the story of Gilgamesh is a Sumerian example |
Sumerian technical advances | the wheel is the most important-other examples include the plow, water clock, math system based on the number 60 and medical catalogue |
Phoenicians | These people built a trading society in the eastern Mediterranean region. Theyn also used the stars to establish directions at sea. |
Lebanon | This is the present day location of an ancienty society that developed a 22 letter alphabet that the English alphabet is based on today. |
Assyrians | established a library containing legal, medical, religious and literary texts |
Babylonians | wrote down laws with specific punishments |
Chaldeans | King Nebuchadnezzar from this empire rebuilt Babylon into a beautiful city with hanging gardens. They also became a center for astronony . |
Hittites | mastered ironworking to make the strongest weapons of the time |