Chapter 11: Cities, Pyramids, and Palaces

Question 1

Mesopotamia

Answer 1

a region along the course of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers centred in modern Iraq

Question 2

Tigris and Euphrates Rivers

Answer 2

two large rivers that were the focus for the development of Mesopotamian civilization

Question 3

Uruk period

Answer 3

between 4000 b.c. and 3200 b.c. during which the first cities in Mesopotamia were developed

Question 4

Early Dynastic Period

Answer 4

follows the Uruk period during which southern Mesopotamia was home to a series of city-states

Question 5

Uruk

Answer 5

• oldest known city in the world in southern Iraq
• emerged on edge of marshlands in Euphrates valley

Question 6

Marshlands

Answer 6

• swampland with fertile soils
• between Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and built extensive irrigation canals allowing more lands to be cultivated and populations to increase

Question 7

Ziggurat

Answer 7

a stepped pyramid found in many Mesopotamian temple areas

Question 8

Anu Temple Precinct

Answer 8

at Uruk is dedicated to the sky god An, who is often depicted as a star overseeing a king

Question 9

Eanana Temple Precinct

Answer 9

at Uruk is dedicated to a female winged deity Innana often associated with love, sex, war, justice or power

Question 10

3 Sources of Authority in Mesopotamian Society

Answer 10

temple, palace, and city council

Question 11

The Code of Hammurabi

Answer 11

the most extensive of a series of early Mesopotamian legal documents

Question 12

Bevel-rim Bowls

Answer 12

styrofoam cups in Uruk

Question 13

Royal Tombs at Ur

Answer 13

during Early Dynastic period include a wealth of burial offerings along with the skeletons for burial rituals

Question 14

Cuneiform

Answer 14

a writing system in which signs were impressed in wet clay to write the languages Sumerian and Akkadian

Question 15

Akkadian

Answer 15

• the language of Mesopotamia using cuneiform script
• documents found in Egypt written on clay tablets in Akkadian
• during the New Kingdom cuneiform was used as the medium for diplomatic communication
• unclear info from letters of Kings geological location

Question 16

King Tutankhamun

Answer 16

• mother and father were siblings
• had malaria
• died bc of Köhler disease II

Question 17

Cylinder Seals

Answer 17

developed by Mesopotamian scribes to mark ownership

Question 18

Bullae

Answer 18

• earliest written documents
• the number on the bulla is the number of tokens that are inside

Question 19

Habuba Kebira

Answer 19

an Uruk colony located on the upper reaches of the Euphrates River in northern Syria

Question 20

Nile Valley

Answer 20

a swath of lush vegetation descending from the highlands of Ethiopia and standing in sharp contrast to the surrounding desert

Question 21

Upper Egypt

Answer 21

the southern Egyptian Nile River Valley ending in a series of cataracts, or rapids, in the area around the modern border between Egypt and Sudan

Question 22

Lower Egypt

Answer 22

the northern part of the Egyptian Nile River Valley, including the Nile Delta

Question 23

Predynastic Period

Answer 23

when Egypt started to shift towards a state society

Question 24

Narmer Palette

Answer 24

• an artifact discovered at the site of Hierakonpolis
• its two sides show the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under King Narmer

Question 25

First Dynasty

Answer 25

based in Hierakonpolis and Abydos in Upper Egypt

Question 26

Hierakonpolis

Answer 26

one of the two centres of Egypt during the late Predynastic period and the First Dynasty

Question 27

Abydos

Answer 27

the site of the royal cemetery of Egypt during the First and Second Dynasties

Question 28

Ma’at

Answer 28

• concept that combines the virtues of balance and justice
• central importance to Egyptian society

Question 29

Saqqara

Answer 29

• the location of the stepped pyramid
• the first pyramid in Egypt
• used as a sacred burial area

Question 30

King Djoser

Answer 30

the Third Dynasty Egyptian king who constructed the first pyramid in Saqqara

Question 31

Cheops

Answer 31

a Fourth Dynasty Egyptian king who constructed the first and largest pyramid ever built at Giza

Question 32

Cepheren

Answer 32

• a Fourth Dynasty Egyptian king who constructed a pyramid at Giza smaller than Cheops’s
• the Great Sphinx is located alongside the Cepheren valley temple

Question 33

Mycerinus

Answer 33

• the last Fourth Dynasty Egyptian king to build a pyramid at Giza
• smallest pyramid and least polished

Question 34

Giza

Answer 34

the site of the pyramids of Cheops, Cepheren, and Mycerinus—monuments representing the apex of pyramid construction in Old Kingdom Egypt

Question 35

Gilgamesh

Answer 35

• King of Uruk
• the hero in world’s first work of literature called “The Epic of Gilgamesh” about a king’s mythical search for eternal life and his descent into the underworld

Question 36

Kuduru Texts

Answer 36

• writing on fired-clay cuneiform tablets
• used for economic transactions, list names of kings and the places they ruled, events and classification of things

Question 37

Amarna

Answer 37

• a city built by the heretic king Akhenaten and abandoned after his reign
• excavation of this city has provided a unique horizontal exposure of an Egyptian urban centre
• where cunieform tablets were found at Amarna written in Akkadian record trade with Middle East and the Aegean worlds

Question 38

Axum

Answer 38

• Ethiopia
• famous for its standing stones carved in the shape of multi-story buildings
• tall monuments carved from a single block of stone

Question 39

Benin

Answer 39

• Nigeria
• brass plaques

Question 40

Jenne-Jeno

Answer 40

• urban centre in Mali, West Africa, that pre-dates extensive external contact
• important trade centre for caravans coming from Timbuktu to the north

Question 41

Knossos

Answer 41

a site excavated by Arthur Evans that is the largest Minoan settlement