Ancient Civilizations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Hebrews, and Near Eastern Empires

Vocabulary terms and definitions covering the geography, rulers, religion, and political history of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Hebrews, and Near Eastern empires.

Fertile Crescent

A geographic area stretching along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to the Mediterranean Coast.

Mesopotamia

A region meaning "between the rivers" located in modern Turkey and Iraq, characterized by open land and deserts.

City state

A self governing state consisting of a city and surrounding territory.

Theocracy

A form of government where a religious authority is also the political authority.

Priest kings

Hereditary rulers who combined religious and political authorities.

Ziggurat

A pyramid shaped temple located in Mesopotamian cities.

Cuneiform

The first form of writing invented by Mesopotamians, which evolved from pictographs and was written on wet clay.

Polytheism

A religious belief system where many different gods are worshiped.

Empire

A kingdom that controls land beyond its own borders.

Akkadian Empire

The world's first empire, which began in Mesopotamia around 2350 BC.

Hammurabi

A Babylonian emperor famous for creating one of the first legal codes, which was written on eight foot tall stone tablets.

Delta

A triangular area of marshland formed by silt deposits.

Upper Egypt

The elevated region of Egypt located north of the first cataract away from the delta.

Lower Egypt

The farthest north and downriver region of Egypt that includes the Nile Delta.

Narmer

The first Egyptian king of unified Egypt who united Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt around 3000 BC and established the capital at Memphis.

Pharaoh

The ruler of Egypt who held absolute power and was believed to be a god.

Vizier

The chief minister who supervised day to day business and acted as the head of a large bureaucracy in Egypt.

Pyramids

Elaborate tombs constructed during the Old Kingdom for pharaohs to spend eternity in.

Ka

The eternal life force in ancient Egyptian belief.

Book of the dead

A collection of prayers and spells intended to guide the soul after death.

Papyrus

Paper like sheets made from reeds used for writing by Egyptians.

Rosetta Stone

An artifact written in 196 BC and rediscovered in 1799 containing inscriptions in hieroglyphics, Demotic, and Greek, which served as the key to deciphering hieroglyphics.

Champollion

The French scholar who deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphics around the 1820s using the Rosetta Stone.

Hyksos

An invading group that dominated Egypt and brought about the fall of the Middle Kingdom, introducing the war chariot.

Hatshepsut

A female pharaoh of the New Kingdom who was famous for leading trade expeditions.

Thutmose III

Hatshepsut's stepson who conquered Nubia and was suspected by some of killing her.

Amenhotep IV

A New Kingdom pharaoh, also known as Akhenaten, who attempted to establish monotheism centered on the worship of the sun god Aton.

Ramses II

A powerful New Kingdom pharaoh, who had a long reign, led many conquests, and built temples such as Abu Simbel.

Abu Simbel

A temple built by Ramses II as a place to worship the pharaohs.

Valley Of The Kings

The burial site home to tombs of New Kingdom pharaohs such as Ramses II

King Tutankhamun

The son of Akhenaten who became pharaoh at age 9, died at 19, and whose tomb was discovered intact in 1922.

Sea people

Invaders around 1200 BC, suggested by some to be the biblical Philistines, who repeatedly attacked Egypt and contributed to the fall of the New Kingdom.

Torah

The sacred text of Judaism, meaning "law."

Ethical monotheism

The belief that there is one God from whom emanates one morality for all humanity.

Covenant

A mutual promise or pact made between God and his people.

10 Commandments

The basis for the civil and religious laws of Israel given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai.

Abraham

The father of the Hebrews who, according to the Torah, followed God's command to leave Ur in Mesopotamia and migrate to Canaan.

Exodus

The mass departure in which Moses led the Hebrew people out of Egypt across the Sinai Peninsula.

Diaspora

The forced migration or movement of the Hebrews or Jews out of their homeland following the Babylonian conquest in 586 BC.

Hittites

An empire controlling Anatolia skilled in war through their use of superior iron weapons and chariots.

Phoenicians

Mediterranean seafarers and traders famous for red and purple dye, colonies such as Carthage, and developing a writing system that became the western alphabet.

Nineveh

The Assyrian capital city containing stone carvings of hunts and campaigns as well as a library of 20,000 cuneiform tablets.

Chaldeans

The group whose army destroyed Nineveh and whose king Nebuchadnezzar established Babylon as the capital.

Cyrus the Great

A tolerant Persian ruler who expanded his empire over 2,000 miles, respected cultural religions, and allowed the Hebrews to return to Canaan.

Darius the Great

A former bodyguard who became Persian king, founded Persepolis, established the Royal road system, and created an imperial bureaucracy.

Satraps

Governors who ruled over provinces known as starpies in the Persian Empire under Darius the Great.

Zoroastrianism

The ancient Persian religion founded by a prophet named Zoroaster teaching that life is a struggle between good and evil spirits.

Dynasty

A series of rulers or leaders who come from the same family or lineage

Nebuchadnezzar II

Babylonian Ruler, who conquered Jerusalem, destroyed Solomon’s temple, and exiled the Jews