Download Unit 2 – Mesopotamia/Egypt study guide Mesopotamia What does

Unit 2 – Mesopotamia/Egypt study guide
Mesopotamia
1. What does Mesopotamia mean?
a. Between the rivers
2. What are the 2 rivers of Mesopotamia?
a. Tigris & Euphrates Rivers
3. What is a city-state? How were they defended?
a. A city & its surrounding farmlands, with its own leaders & government; city walls
4. What were several geographic conditions of Mesopotamia?
a. Little rainfall; hot & dry; catastrophic flooding; little stone or timber in the area
5. Why is Mesopotamia called the Fertile Crescent or “the cradle of life”
a. It is where the first civilization was found with actual cities & governments. First city in Sumer.
6. How old is the Mesopotamian’s form of writing & why did they create it?
a. Around 3,000 BC
b. It was developed by the people of Sumer
c. It is a series of we3dge shaped letters
d. Cuneiform was created to keep records of trading goods
7. Gilgamesh – ancient Mesopotamian story, about a great king that journeyed the world & fought gods &
monsters. This story make references to a great flood destroying cities
8. Each city-state was protected by a different god, where would you find the temple for that god & what was
it known as? Would you be able to find similar things today? Explain your answer.
a. The center of the city-state; ziggurats
b. Centers of worship (churches) may not be found in the center of the city.
9. Why was cuneiform created & where did they write this language?
a. Cuneiform was created to keep records of trading goods
b. Clay tablets
10. What inventions come out of Mesopotamia? How do we use them today?
a. Wheel, sail boats, first to make a written story (Gilgamesh), writing (cuneiform), calendar,
recognize the concept of 0.
11. Define the following: division of labor, irrigation, barter, surplus, polytheism, monotheism, ziggurat,
Hammurabi’s Code, Cuneiform
a. Irrigation – way of supplying water to an area of land
b. Division of labor – a system in which members of a group perform different tasks based on their
abilities and the needs of the group.
c. Barter – trading between two groups of resources or products
d. Surplus – the amount of something that is more then what is needed.
e. Polytheism – belief in multiple gods
f. Monotheism – belief in one god
g. Ziggurat - a huge mud-brick temple built by the ancient Sumerians to worship their gods &
goddesses
h. Code of Hammurabi- the world's first system of laws, recorded by Hammurabi, king of Babylonia,
about 1780 B.C. “An Eye for an Eye”.
i. People would find these laws inscribed on to a stone pillar that would be placed in the
center of town
ii. The laws were both religious based & society based.
Egypt:
1. What is the difference between Upper & Lower Egypt? How does this relate with the Nile river?
a. Upper Egypt – is the southern part of Egypt
b. Lower Egypt – the northern part of the Nile where it empties into the Mediterranean Sea
2. What are the significant events found in each Egyptian Kingdom?
a. Old – construction of the pyramids
b. Middle – recovery & political stability
c. New – creation of Egyptian Empire
3. The Old Kingdom had a strong government because it was ruled by a theocracy. What is a theocracy?
a. A government run by their religious leaders (priest)
4. Who was the Great Pyramid of Giza built for?
a. Pharaoh Khufu
5. Who in Egyptian society were normally mummified? Why were they put through this procedure? List at
least 2 things that were done during the mummification process.
a. Removed the organs (stomach, intestines, liver, lungs), they were then dried as well as the rest of
the body, the organs were placed into clay jars (each organ was protected by a different god),
6. Why is Pharaoh Hatshepsut different from other Egyptian pharaohs?
a. She ruled as a pharaoh, by pretending to be a man (while her son was very young), she expanded
the empire through trade with its neighbors & not conquest
7. King Tutankhamen “King Tut” ruled from about 1333 BC – 1323 BC. He is often known as the boy king
since he ruled from 8 – 18. We know the most about him & Egyptian burial tombs through the founding of
his tomb.
8. Ramses II was the last powerful Pharaohs that created a strong kingdom through conquering Egypt’s
neighboring countries.
9. How were women treated in Egypt?
a. Women were given a level of freedom, they had more rights than their counterparts
10. How many gods & goddesses could be found in Egypt?
a. 2,000
11. What is papyrus?
a. The Egyptians used river reeds to make paper
12. How are hieroglyphics different from modern languages?
a. They are pictographs, pictures are used for letters & words
13. How were archeologists able to translate hieroglyphics?
a. Rosetta stone
14. What 2 objects were normally found in front of temples? Describe them.
a. Obelisk & sphinx (human head & lion body)
15. Define the following: delta, pharaoh, afterlife, mummies, engineering, trade route
a. Pharaoh – the “king” of the Egyptian kingdoms, translates as “great house”. They were seen as
gods.
b. Delta – the fan shaped landform at the end of the river, where the silt from the river collects
c. Mummies – the bodies of pharaohs that were prepared/preserved for the afterlife
d. Afterlife – the life after death where the pharaohs were judged for their deeds during their life
e. Engineering – applying scientific knowledge to practical purposes “building pyramids”
f. Trade routes – use of river and land routes to move goods
Indus Valley:
16. Which modern country would you find both the Indus valley & the Harappa civilization?
a. Pakistan
17. Why would this valley that led to the development of India be in another country?
a. The boarders of civilizations & countries change over time.
18. The first Indus Valley civilization had 2 major cities – Harappa & Mohenjo Daro. This civilization
focused on culture & the arts. They were able to create ordered cities in a grid pattern.
19. The Aryan civilization the entered the Indus Valley around 1700 BC helped develop the oldest Indian
language. Archeologists have been unable to translate it. It is often called a dead language. Why do you
think they call it a dead language? What other language have we looked at might once have been called a
dead language & how did we eventually learn to read it?
a. It is called a dead language because we cannot read it & no one living speaks it
b. The Egyptian hieroglyphics would have been once considered a dead language until the Rosetta
Stone was found.
20. Who were the 3 main gods of Hinduism? What is an easy way to describe what they represent?
a. Brahma (creator), Vishnu (preserver), Siva (destroyer)
b. They can be seen as representing a life cycle: birth, life, death
21. Caste system:
22.
23. Untouchables – foreigners, criminals, people with diseases. They were seen as “outcastes”, not
allowed in certain areas, & often given polluting jobs ex. burying the dead, disposing of dead
animals, any job that no one else would be willing to do.
24. Explain how the concept or reincarnation & karma are linked together.
a. The Hindu religion was based around the idea of reincarnation (being reborn) what caste or form
you were born into depended on the amount of positive or negative karma a person attained over
their life.
i. Good people were rewarded
ii. Bad people were punished
25. Castes are social classes into which a person is born & lives their entire life. If a person
has a good karma they may be reincarnated into a higher caste.
26. Monsoon – seasonal storms that cause wet & dry seasons, very wet or very dry
27. Subcontinent – large landmass that is part of a continent but considered a separate region.
28. Himalayas – highest mountains in the world, northern border of India
29. Hindu Kush – mountain rang to the northwest of India
30. What are the Indian contributions?
a.
b.
c.
d.
Chess began in India
Invention of number system & zero
Anesthesia (sleeping pills) & inoculations (flu shot)
Metallurgy – science of working with metals & creation of alloys (mixing 2 or
more metals)
e. 1st university
f. Astronomy – study of the stars. Identified 7 of 9 planets. The sun was a star & the
planets revolved around it.
31. What are the four principles of Jainism?
a. Injure no life
b. Tell the truth
c. Do not steal
d. Own no property
32. Who used this main belief of Jainism to enact change through their individual causes?
How were these beliefs used & why do you think they worked so well?
a. Martin Luther King, Jr.& Ghandi used nonviolence to help fight for the end of
segregation & to end British rule of India.
33. What are the 4 noble truths of Buddhism?
a. Suffering & unhappiness are part of human life.
b. People cause their own misery because they want things they cannot have
c. People can overcome desire & ignorance & reach nirvana – state of perfect peace
d. Overcome ignorance & desire by following the 8 fold path
34. What do Siddharta Gautama & Mahavira have in common?
a. They both left a life of luxury to create their own set of beliefs to become better
people.
Extra:
35. What do Mesopotamia, Egypt, & China all have in common?
a. They are all built along rivers & are able to survive through trade & easy access to fresh water.