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Mesopotamia
Chapter 2, section 1 pages 28-34
Name _____________________________________
1. Define civilization.
2. Read over page 28. Answer the 2 Examining the Issue questions using your own
opinions.
a. What should be the main purpose of laws: to promote good behavior or to
punish bad behavior?
b. Do all communities need a system of laws to guide them?
3. What is the name of the best farmland in Southwest Asia called?
4. What does Mesopotamia mean?
5. What are the 2 rivers that frame Mesopotamia called?
6. What are three benefits that the rivers provided the people living in Mesopotamia?
7. When did people settle in this region?
8. What were 3 disadvantages to this region?
9. How did the Sumerian solve these problems?
10. What is a city-state?
11. What was a ziggurat and why was it so important?
12. Who led in times of war? How did this position change after 3000 B.C.?
13. What is a dynasty?
14. What is polytheism?
15. How did Sumerians describe their gods?
16. What did Sumerians believe happened after death?
17. What were the 4 levels of Sumerian society starting with most important on the
top?
18. How did social class affect the Sumerian people?
19. Name 5 things Sumerians invented.
20. What was their system of writing classed?
21. What lead the city-states to eventually become the first empires?
22. What is an empire?
23. What was the name of the empire that was created around 2000 B.C.?
24. Who was Hammurabi and when did he rule?
25. Why is Hammurabi so important (most enduring legacy)?
26. How did Hammurabi organize his law code?
27. What did the laws deal with?
28. How did social classes fit into the law code?
29. What principle did Hammurabi’s code reinforce about the government?
30. What happened to the Babylonian Empire?