Ancient Mesopotamia Vocab

Observation

Gaining information using 5 senses

Inference

Drawing a conclusion based on observations

Paleolithic age

Old stone age marked by nomadic hunter gatherers using simple stone tools

Neolithic Revolution

The shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture and settlement

Nomads

Highly mobile people who moved from place to place foraging, or searching for new sources of food

Hunter - gatherers

Nomads who hunted animals and gathered plants for survival

Agriculture

The practice of farming which involves cultivating soils and raising crops

Domestication

Taming wild animals and adapting plants for human use

Irrigation

Building systems to supply water to large areas of farmland to cultivate crops

Catal huyuk

An agricultural village (the forked mound), showed the benefits and disadvantages of a settled life

Civilizations and it’s 5 factors

Complex culture including advanced cities, specialized workers, complex institutions, record keeping, and advanced technology

Institutions

A long lasting pattern of organization in a community

Scribe

A professional writer or record - keeper

Cuneiform

A system of writing invented by scribes

Sumer

Sumer was the place with one of the earliest civilizations located in Mesopotamia

Ziggurat

A massive pyramid shaped temple built to worship their God

Polytheism

The belief or worship of multiple gods

Fertile crescent

A crescent - shaped region in the middle east with highly fertile land

Mesopotamia

The region located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, meaning “land between the rivers”

Tigris

The eastern region of the 2 great rivers that defined Mesopotamia

Euphrates

The western region of the 2 great rivers that defined Mesopotamia

City state

An independent self - governing city and it’s surrounding land

Empire

A single ruler controlling several people, nations, or previously independent states

Cultural diffusion

The spreading of ideas customs and beliefs from one culture to another

Sargon

Ancient Mesopotamian ruler who created the world’s first empire (akkadian)

Hammurabi

The babylonian king famous for his code of laws