Ch 3 Vocabulary Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent
Ch. 3 Vocabulary Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent
1. Fertile Crescent: large arc of rich farmland in Mesopotamia 2. Silt: a mixture of rich soil and tiny rocks brought to the land by the flooding of the rivers. 3. Irrigation: a way of supplying water to an area of land. 4. Canals: human-made waterways. 5. surplus: an amount that is more than needed 6. division of labor: an arrangement in which each worker specializes in a particular task or job.
7. rural: countryside areas 8. urban: city areas 9. city-state: a city and all the countryside around it 10. empire: land with different territories and peoples under a single rule 11. polytheism: the worship of many gods 12. priests: people who performed religious ceremonies
13. social hierarchy: the division of society by rank or class 14. cuneiform: the world’s first system of writing created by the Sumerians 15. pictographs: picture symbols 16. scribe: a writer who would be hired to keep track of the items people traded 17. epic: a long poem that tells the stories of heroes 18. architecture: the science of building
19. ziggurat: a pyramid shaped temple tower that rose above each Sumerian city 20. monarch: a ruler of a kingdom or empire 21. chariot: a wheeled horse-drawn cart used in battle 22. potter’s wheel: a device that spins clay as a craftsman shapes it 23. execration: to curse something 24. plunder: to take the property of others by force
25. Epic of Gilgamesh: the world’s oldest epic story. 26. Hammurabi’s Code: a set of 282 laws created by King Hammurabi to be the first code of law 27. Nebuchadnezzar: Chaldean King who built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, an ancient wonder of the world. 28. Sargon – Leader who conquered and created the world’s first empire 29. Sumerians: People who are believed to have created the world’s first civilization in Mesopotamia.
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