Early Civilizations and Mesopotamia

Vocabulary flashcards covering the agricultural revolution, the characteristics of civilization, the case study of Ur in Sumer, and the history of Mesopotamian city-states and empires.

Civilization

A complex culture with five key characteristics: advanced cities, specialized workers, complex institutions, record keeping, and advanced technology.

Specialization

The development of skills in a specific kind of work, made possible by food surpluses.

Artisan

A skilled worker who makes goods by hand, such as jewelry, metal tools, weapons, clothing, or pottery.

Institution

A long-lasting pattern of organization in a community, such as government, religion, and the economy.

Scribe

A professional record keeper in early civilizations who invented and utilized writing systems.

Cuneiform

A system of writing meaning wedge-shaped, invented by Sumerian scribes around 3000 B.C. using a sharpened reed pressed into moist clay tablets.

Bronze Age

The historical period starting in Sumer around 3000 B.C. when people began using bronze, rather than copper and stone, to fashion tools and weapons.

Barter

A traditional way of trading goods and services directly without the use of money.

Ziggurat

A massive, tiered, pyramid-shaped monument meaning mountain of god that served as the center of religious and city life in Sumerian cities.

Stylus

A scribe's writing tool made from a sharpened reed with a wedge-shaped point, used to press symbols into wet clay.

Quipu

A set of colored strings tied with different-size knots at various intervals, used by the ancient Incan civilization as a system of record keeping without writing.

Quipucamayoc

Incan officials who were trained to interpret and use the quipu to keep records of births, deaths, marriages, crops, and historical events.

Bazaar

An open marketplace in a city where merchants and customers meet to trade crops and crafts.

Ur

One of the earliest cities in Sumer, located on the banks of the Euphrates River in modern southern Iraq, home to a flourishing civilization around 3000 B.C.

Leonard Woolley

The English archaeologist whose excavations from 1922 to 1934 at Ur unraveled the culture and history of the ancient Sumerian civilization.

Nanna

The moon god of Ur, worshiped in a sacred court within the city's temple complex.

Nomad

A member of a highly mobile group of people who moved from place to place foraging, or searching, for new sources of food.

Hunter-gatherer

A member of a nomadic group whose food supply depends on hunting animals and collecting plant foods.

Neolithic Revolution

The far-reaching changes in human life resulting from the beginnings of farming, also known as the agricultural revolution.

Slash-and-burn farming

A farming method in which people cut trees or grasses and burned them to clear a field, using the remaining ashes to fertilize the soil.

Domestication

The taming of wild animals for human use as a constant source of food or labor.

Ice Man

A mummified prehistoric traveler preserved in ice for some 5,000 years, discovered in 1991 near the border of Austria and Italy along with a tool kit including a longbow and copper ax.

Jarmo

An archaeological site in the Zagros Mountains of northeastern Iraq where an early agricultural settlement was built about 9,000 years ago, excavated by Robert Braidwood.

Catal Huyuk

An ancient agricultural village in south-central Turkey covering 32 acres that reached its peak 8,000 years ago with 5,000 to 6,000 residents known for obsidian products and shrine worship of a mother goddess.

Civilization

A complex culture with five characteristics: advanced cities, specialized workers, complex institutions, record keeping, and advanced technology.

Specialization

The development of skills in a specific kind of work, such as trading, government, or crafting goods.

Artisan

A skilled worker who makes goods by hand, such as jewelry, metal tools, weapons, clothing, or pottery.

Institution

A long-lasting pattern of organization in a community, such as government, religion, and the economy.

Scribe

A professional record keeper in ancient civilizations who documented tax collections, laws, transactions, and historical events.

Cuneiform

A system of writing meaning "wedge-shaped," invented by Sumerian scribes around 3000 B.C. using a reed stylus pressed into moist clay.

Stylus

A sharpened reed with a wedge-shaped point used by Sumerian scribes to press symbols into moist clay tablets.

Bronze Age

The period in human history, starting in Sumer around 3000 B.C., when people began using bronze rather than copper and stone to fashion tools and weapons.

Barter

A way of trading goods and services directly without the use of money.

Ziggurat

A massive, tiered pyramid-shaped monument meaning "mountain of god," which served as a temple, administrative center, and hub of city life in Sumerian cities.

Quipu

A set of colored strings tied with different-size knots at various intervals, used by the ancient Incan civilization to keep official counts and records without a writing system.

Ur

One of the earliest cities in Sumer, situated on the Euphrates River in southern Iraq, which supported an agricultural economy with large-scale irrigation and a population of around 30,000.

Leonard Woolley

The English archaeologist who excavated the ancient city of Ur from 1922 to 1934, unraveling details of its social classes and culture.

Fertile Crescent

An arc of rich farmland in Southwest Asia extending between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea.

Mesopotamia

A region within the Fertile Crescent whose name in Greek means "land between the rivers," framed by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Silt

A fertile, thick bed of mud left behind when floodwaters from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers recede.

City-state

A city and its surrounding farmland that functions as an independent political unit with its own government and rulers.

Dynasty

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

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 Sumerian god of storms and air, regarded as one of the most powerful gods and feared as "the raging flood that has no rival."

Empire

A political unit in which a number of peoples, nations, or previously independent states are controlled by a single ruler.

Sargon of Akkad

The conqueror who defeated the city-states of Sumer around 2350 B.C. to establish the Akkadian Empire, creating the world's first empire.

Hammurabi

The ruler of the Babylonian Empire from 1792 B.C. to 1750 B.C., known for compiling a uniform written code of laws.

Code of Hammurabi

A collection of 282 specific written laws engraved on stone pillars throughout the Babylonian Empire, regulating community life, property, and crime based on social class.