MESOPOTAMIA VOCABULARY BY MRS PADGETT MESOPOTAMIA The land

MESOPOTAMIA VOCABULARY BY: MRS. PADGETT

MESOPOTAMIA The land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

SILT The fine soil carried by the rivers and deposited by nearby land.

SUMER A region of citystates in Mesopotamia that was home to the first civilizations.

CITY STATE A political unit made of a city and its surrounding lands.

CUNEIFORM The world’s first system of writing.

EPIC A long narrative poem telling of a hero’s deeds.

NUMBER SYSTEM A system of using numbers for mathematical calculations based on the number 60.

EMPIRE A region with different territories and peoples under a single rule.

PLOW A farm tool having one or more heavy blades to break the soil & make rows for planting.

WHEEL A circular frame or disk that can be solid or spoked.

GILGAMESH King of Uruk, he became a legendary figure in the Sumerian literature.

HAMMURABI’S CODE One of the world’s first law codes by the ruler Hammurabi.

POLYTHEISTIC Believing in many gods.

STYLUS A pointed tool for writing or drawing or engraving.

ZIGGURAT A huge mud-brick “tiered” temple built by ancient Sumerians.

SCRIBE One of the professional record keepers in early civilizations.

PICTOGRAPHS Pictures that stand for words or ideas; picture writing.

CALENDAR Mesopotamia developed a 12 month calendar.

UR An ancient city of Sumer located on a former channel of the Euphrates River.

FERTILE CRESCENT A region stretching from the Persian Gulf northwest up the Tigris & Euphrates rivers.