Unit 2: River Valley Civilizations Flashcards

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and concepts from River Valley Civilizations, including geography, social structures, and writing systems.

Region

An area of land that has common features—Language, culture, government, geographic setting or religion can define a region, as can forests, wildlife, or climate.

Code

An organized list of law

Polytheism

Belief in many gods

Scribe

Professional writer- recorded and preserved important information

Fertile Crescent

A region in Southwest Asia: site of the first civilization. The geographic area of fertile land in the Middle East stretching in a broad semicircle from the Nile to the Tigris and Euphrates.

Hieroglyphics

The written signs and symbols used by Egyptians.

Civilization

The state of human social development and organization that is considered most advanced.

Indus River valley

Major river valley in Asia which flows through present Pakistan.

Irrigation

A method of supplying land with water through a network of canals through artificial means.

Job specialization

An unwritten agreement within a community under which the members most suited perform that occupation.

Pharaoh

A king of ancient Egypt

Papyrus

An early form of paper made from a reed like plant found in the marshy areas of the Nile delta

Social pyramid

A group, or class, that is made up of people with similar backgrounds, income, and ways of living

Silt

Rich, fertile soil

Cuneiform

Writing in Mesopotamia combined symbols to make groups of wedges and lines

Harappa and Mohenjo Daro

Ruins that taught archeologists how carefully the city was planned.

Hammurabi’s code

Written to ensure that everyone knew the laws and the punishments; it included the idea that the strong should not injure the weak.

Sanskrit

An example of an ancient writing system or script used to record languages.