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Chapter 2: The Fertile Crescent –Study Guide
1. What two rivers are in the land we once called
Mesopotamia?
The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
2. How did the Sumerians keep time?
They invented a calendar based on the moon and stars.
3. Who wrote the first known laws?
Hammurabi
4. Why was Mesopotamia such a good area for growing
crops?
The rivers created rich farmland.
5. What are some of the Sumerians inventions?
The Sumerians invented the wheel, the plow, and a
system of writing.
6. When the Sumerians settled in Mesopotamia, what
was the first thing that they accomplished?
They learned how to farm and domesticate animals.
7. What tools did Mesopotamians use for writing?
They wrote with a reed, called a stylus, on clay tablets.
8. Flooding was controlled in Sumer by:
Flooding was controlled by gated ditches & levees.
9. Why were ziggurats built by the Sumerians?
Ziggurats were built as temples to honor the gods and
goddesses.
10. What was a Sumerian invention that allowed people
to work together to meet basic needs?
They formed city-states.
 Know how to identify main idea in a paragraph
 Know the meaning of positive and negative when it
refers to the effects on things
Know the definitions for:
Myth
Caravan
Cuneiform
Empire
Exile
Famine
Monotheism
Polytheism
Scribe