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Chapter 2 Western Asia and Egypt
Section 1 Civilization Begins in Mesopotamia
The Impact of Geography
The Fertile Crescent
The term “Fertile Crescent” is still in use today. Describe it using geographical terms.
How were farmers able to control flooding in the Fertile Crescent?
Why is an abundance of food important to the development of a civilization?
Who were the Sumerians?
The Growth of Religion
The text explains the rationale for the Mesopotamians turned to religion: explain this rationale.
What is a polytheistic religion?
Describe the relationship between the gods and humans in Mesopotamian religion.
City-States of Ancient Mesopotamia
Where in the Fertile Crescent were the Sumerian Cities?
What is a City-State?
Sumerian Cities
What was the major building material used in Sumerian Cities? List examples of their building techniques.
How was the city-state important to people’s identity?
Religion and Rulers
What is a ziggurat? What was usually built on top of it?
List how the temple was important to the city.
How important were the priests and priestesses in ruling? What kind of government were these cities?
Where did the they believe the kings received their power?
Economy and Society
List some examples of the products Sumerians produced.
What is Bronze? List it’s advantages.
How did their economy work? How did they exchange goods?
Wheeled carts made what easier (bold face term)?
List the classes of people and describe what each group did.
The Creativity of the Sumerians
Writing and Literature
What is the wedge-shaped system of writing called?
Which professions used writing?
What class supplied the scribes?
Why was writing important to this civilization? What great work of literature did they produce?
Technology
List six Sumerian inventions.
Describe their number system. How do we use this system today?
Empires in Ancient Mesopotamia
Akkadian and Babylonian Empires
Who was Sargon? What did he establish?
What is an empire?
Who created the Babylon Empire/Kingdom?
The Code of Hammurabi
Describe the strict Justice of the code
How did the code expect public officials to behave? Give an example of consumer protection listed in the code.
What was the largest category of law in the code? Describe how marriages were arranged.
Describe how this society was patriarchal
Section 2 Egyptian Civilization
Geography and Religion
Why was the Nile important to the Egyptians?
The Nile
What is Lower Egypt? Upper Egypt?
What was the “miracle” of the Nile? Why was that important?
How was the river important to transportation? How did it work?
How was Egypt protected, on all sides, from invasion?
How were the Egyptian people different from Mesopotamia?
The Growth of Religion
Why didn’t the Egyptians have a word for religion?
Describe the Egyptians polytheistic religion
Why would Egyptians want to identify with Osiris?
Egyptian Kingdoms
Who was first to unite Lower and Upper Egypt. How did the family continue to rule? (term)
The Old Kingdom
What was the most common title for Egyptian Kings?
Why did the people feel it was important to obey the King?
Describe how Egyptian Bureaucracy worked, define it, & who was the steward of the land?
What is the most notable achievement of the Old Kingdom?
Explain Egyptian belief of life after death, define ka
What is the practice of preserving bodies called? Describe it.
Describe the Great Pyramid at Giza (who , what,)
What facts does the text list about the Great Sphinx?
Middle Kingdom
Describe how Egypt expanded in territory and trade during the middle kingdom.
What was the Pharaohs’ new concern? What did they do to help them?
New Kingdom
Who were the Hyksos? How did they help Egypt?
Who was Hatshepsut?
List Thutmose III accomplishments
Who was Akhenaten what did he change?
Who restored the old gods?
Who restored the New Kingdom back to its furthermost frontiers?
Who tried to restore Egypt’s former glory in the first Century B.C.?
Life in Ancient Egypt
Egyptian Society
The society was organized in what structure?
List the classes and who belonged to which class.
Who owned all the land? Who did they, in turn, grant large sections to?
Daily Life in Ancient Egypt
Outline some of the rights women held in Egyptian society
How were marriages arranged? What were the chief concerns?
Egyptian Accomplishments
Explain Hieroglyphics
What was hieratic script –how did it work? What was its purpose?
Most of Egyptian Literature has been to pass down their culture to us---what was it written on?
Art and Science
How was Egyptian art distinctive?
List mathematical advancements the Egyptians made.
What two bodies did the Egyptians use as guides to create their calendar?
What did expertise in embalming lead to? Give examples of their treatment.
Section 3
New Centers of Civilization
The Role of Nomadic Peoples
What is a pastoral nomad?
How did pastoral nomads pass on new technology? Give examples of the new tech.
Who were Indo-Europeans, What languages did they speak?
What Kingdom did they form in 1750 B.C.
What did the Hittites use to produce weapons?
The Phoenicians
List the Three important cities of the Phoenicians, and list the products they traded.
What kind of empire did they create?
What was their most famous colony?
Phoenician culture is best known for?
Why is it still important (from the question above) who also used it?
The Israelites
The Israelites were minor players in the political sphere, but influenced what?
What is another name for the Hebrew Bible?
Between 1200 and 1000 B.C. they organized into tribes and formed a kingdom known as?
The United Kingdom
Where did King David establish the capital of Israel?
What did King Solomon build? Why was it important?
Give the example of Solomon’s wisdom.
The Divided Kingdom
List the split in the tribes, their respective capitals, and their territory
Who were the ten lost tribes?
Explain the Diaspora (Babylonian captivity)
What did they do once they returned to Judah?
They became known as?
Judaism
What is monotheistic? Give an example.
List their beliefs.
Describe their creator.
What is the covenant, law and prophets according to the Jews?
List what the prophets did from 1000 B.C. to 400 B.C.
How was God’s will unique in Judaism?
Why were the Jews socially separated from other societies?
What was the advantage in the above question, what was the disadvantage?
Section 4 The Rise of New Empires
The Assyrian Empire
What River is Assyria located?
How did they efficiently communicate throughout the empire?
What type of weapons made the Assyrians successful?
What military tactics did the Assyrians use?
What terror tactics did they use?
The Persian Empire
Who was the Chaldean King who took over after the Assyrian Empire fell?
What city did he create into one of the greatest in the ancient world?
Rise of the Persian Empire
Who was the Persian Leader who created the following empire?
How did he show restraint?
Section 4
List how Darius extended the empire. Compare the empire’s size to other empires
Who did Darius come into conflict once he defeated Thrace?
Use the bold face terms and describe the empire’s provinces.
How could the Persians easily travel throughout the empire? (term)
What term was used for the elite infantry and cavalry force? What did the term mean?
The Fall of the Persian Empire and Persian Religion
What is a monarchy? Why did this empire fail? Who defeated them?
Like the Jews, the Persians practiced what kind of religion?