Module 2 UCSP

Civilization

Societies where people live in cities representing an advanced stage of human development, characterized by agriculture, labor diversification, social stratification, and central government.

Sumerians

First settlers of Mesopotamia ($4500\text{ BC} - 1900\text{ BC}$) who built irrigated canal networks and organized into city-states such as Uruk, Ur, Lagash, Nippur, and Eridu.

Cuneiform

The system of writing developed by the Sumerians in ancient Mesopotamia.

Sexagesimal system

A base-$60$ numerical system created by the Sumerians that established $60$ seconds per minute, $60$ minutes per hour, and $360^\circ$ in a circle.

Ziggurat

A terraced temple tower built in ancient Mesopotamia to connect the earthly realm with the divine.

Sargon I

Founder of the Akkadian Empire ($2334\text{ BC} - 2154\text{ BC}$), who unified Sumerian city-states and created the world's first known empire.

Akkadian imperial postal network

A communication system using clay tablets enclosed in clay envelopes, delivered by Lasimu messengers and donkeys or carts for heavy loads.

Code of Hammurabi

A legal code of $282$ laws inscribed on a $7.5\,\text{ft}$ basalt stele in Babylon, establishing civil and criminal regulations under the principle that the strong must not oppress the weak.

Mursili I

The Hittite king who raided and sacked Babylon, bringing an end to the Old Babylonian Empire in $1595\text{ BC}$.

Assyrian military innovations

Mass-produced iron weapons, heavy cavalry, and advanced siege craft such as battering rams and siege towers.

Ashurbanipal

Assyrian king who collected over $30{,}000$ clay tablets to form the Great Library at Nineveh.

Gate of Ishtar

A grand entrance to ancient Babylon constructed with glazed cobalt-blue bricks and decorated with dragon and bull reliefs.

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, constructed in the Neo-Babylonian Empire by Nebuchadnezzar II for his wife Amytis.

Fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire

Occurred in $539\text{ BC}$ when Cyrus the Great of Persia advanced on Babylon following weak rule by Nabonidus and Belshazzar.