Download Key Terms and People Fertile Crescent

Unit 2
Mesopotamia
and
the Fertile Crescent
Key terms and people
Key Terms and People
• Fertile Crescent – a large arc of rich
(fertile) farmland
• Silt – a mixture of rich soil and tiny rocks
• Irrigation – a way of supplying water
Key Terms and People
• Canals – human made waterways
• Surplus – more than needed
• Division of Labor – type of arrangement in
which each worker specializes in a particular
task or job
Key Terms and People
• Sargon – Akkadian Emperor who was one
of the first rulers to have a permanent
army
• Empire – land with different territories
and peoples under a single rule
Key Terms and People
• Rural – countryside areas
• Urban – city
• City-State – consisted of a city and all the
countryside around it
• Gilgamesh – one of the Unuk’s kings who
became a figure in Sumerian literature; “The
Epic of Gilgamesh”
Key Terms and People
• Cuneiform – the world’s first system of
writing
• Pictographs – picture symbols
• Scribe - writer
Key Terms and People
• Polytheism – the worship of many gods
• Priest – people who preformed religious
ceremonies
• Social hierarchy – the division of society by
rank or class
• Impact – effect, result
Key Terms and People
• Epics – long poem that tells the story of
heroes
• Architecture – the science of building
• Ziggurat – pyramid shaped temple tower
Key Terms and People
• Monarch – a ruler of a kingdom or
empire
• Hammurabi’s Code – a set of 282 laws
that dealt with almost every part of daily
life
• Chariot – a wheeled horse drawn cart
used in battle
Key Terms and People
• Nebuchadnezzar – Chaldean King who
rebuilt Babylon into a beautiful city with
hanging gardens
• Alphabet – a set of letters that can be
combined to form words