City-States in Mesopotamia and Early Civilizations

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, historical figures, geography, and concepts from the lecture on ancient Mesopotamian city-states and empires.

Fertile Crescent

An arc of land in Southwest Asia between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea that provided some of the best farming in the region.

Mesopotamia

A plain located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers whose name in Greek means "land between the rivers."

Tigris and Euphrates

The two rivers framing Mesopotamia that flow southeastward from the mountains of modern-day Turkey to the Persian Gulf.

Silt

A thick bed of mud left behind when river floodwaters recede, providing rich soil for farming wheat and barley.

Sumerians

The group of people who settled in southern Mesopotamia around 3300 BC and built one of the first human civilizations.

City-state

A city and the surrounding land it controls that functions as an independent country, such as Uruk, Kish, Lagash, Umma, or Ur.

Ziggurat

A pyramid-shaped, walled temple located at the center of Sumerian cities that served as both a place of worship and a city hall.

Dynasty

A series of rulers from a single family who pass their power down from generation to generation.

Cultural diffusion

The process in which a new idea or product spreads from one culture to another.

Polytheism

The belief in more than one god.

Enlil

The powerful Sumerian god of storms and air, feared and described as "the raging flood that has no rival."

Ugallu

Protective demons in Sumerian belief who guarded humans from evil demons that caused disease, misfortune, and misery.

Epic

A long heroic poem that tells the story of a historical or legendary figure.

Epic of Gilgamesh

A famous long Sumerian poem that contains rich accounts of Mesopotamian myths and legends.

Land of no return

The dismal, gloomy realm located between the earth's crust and the ancient sea where Sumerians believed dead souls went.

Base 60 number system

A mathematical system developed by the Sumerians from which modern units for time ($60\,\text{seconds} = 1\,\text{minute}$) and the $360^\circ$ circle stem.

Cuneiform

A system of writing created by the Sumerians that developed from simple symbols into symbols representing ideas and sounds.

Sargon of Akkad

A conqueror who defeated the city-states of Sumer around 2350 BC and created the world's first empire.

Empire

A political entity that brings together several peoples, nations, or previously independent states under the control of one ruler.

Amorites

Nomadic warriors who invaded Mesopotamia around 2000 BC, overwhelmed the Sumerians, and established their capital at Babylon.

Hammurabi

The ruler of the Babylonian Empire from 1792 BC to 1750 BC, whose most enduring legacy is a famous written code of laws.