Chapter 2 - Mesopotamia

Question 1

The population increase of the Neolithic Revolution led to what?

Answer 1

The increase of population during the Neolithic Revolution led to the creation of farming villages, which were usually in similar areas to where hunter-gatherers had settled temporarily before to plant crops and graze livestock.

Question 2

From some small settlements grew larger centers called what?

Answer 2

Smaller settlements grew into larger centers called “cities”.

These cities had their own government systems, trade and economics, religious rituals, and cultural ideas.

Question 3

One of the earliest civilizations in World History is this and it started in Southern Mesopotamia.

Answer 3

Ancient Sumer (or Sumeria) was one of the earliest civilizations in world history, which started in Southern Mesopotamia.

The Sumerians settled in this region and the civilization formed at around 3,500 B.C.E..

Question 4

Around 15,000 BCE, what was happening to the world’s climate and how did it affect the Near and Middle East?

Answer 4

Around 15,000 B.C.E., the world’s climate began warming after centuries of Ice Age conditions.

The sea levels began rising, glaciers were melting, and lakes, streams, rivers, and forests started to cover many parts of the world’s landmass.

Question 5

Who are the Natufians?

Answer 5

The Natufians were early people- hunter-gatherers near the Middle East, who lived in the region at around 15,000 B.C.E.

They were the earliest settlers in the Levantine Corridor region and started some of the earliest known communities.

Question 6

What was the Younger Dryas Event?

Answer 6

This event was a catastrophe, where glacial meltwater that had accumulated in a colossal, freshwater lake in Canada had suddenly burst into the Atlantic Gulf Stream, which caused a regression in Europe and Southwestern Asia for the following 1,000 years.

Question 7

Where did the world’s first farming communities exist?

Answer 7

The world’s first farming communities exist in an area called the “Levantine Corridor”, which refers to the area around modern-day Israel-Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and Northern Iraq.

Question 8

What does Mesopotamia mean?

Answer 8

Mesopotamia literally means “The land between the rivers”.

This was a reference by the Greeks to the fact that the land of Mesopotamia was located between the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers.

Question 9

What is the Levantine Corridor?

Answer 9

A strip of land that included most of present-day Israel-Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and Northern Iraq.

The earliest evidence of agriculture was found in this area.

Question 10

What are city-states?

Answer 10

City-states are independent cities, with their own government and structure. Basically, they are societies dominated by one city.

Question 11

When was irrigation introduced into Northern Mesopotamia?

Answer 11

Irrigation was introduced into Northern Mesopotamia from somewhere between 7,500 to 6,000 B.C.E..

Question 12

What was the population of the Sumerian city-states?

Answer 12

Each of the small, competing city-states had populations numbering around 10,000 people, but eventually, the largest of the city-states had as many as 100,000 people.
Name four of the largest and

Question 13

Name four of the largest and most important of the Sumerian city-states.

Answer 13

Four of the largest and most dominant Sumerian city-states included Eridu, Lagash, Ur, and Uruk.

Question 14

What are some highlighted accomplishments of the Sumerian city-states?

Answer 14

• They created the first large cities, some contained upward of 100,000 people.
• They had advanced centers and were encircled for miles by villagers who built canals and provided agriculture for the city.
• They developed the first sophisticated writing system, known as “Cuneiform”.
• Created laws
• Invented the wheel ad the plow
• Horse-drawn chariots in warfare
• Irrigation System
• Bronze tools and weapons

Question 15

Land reaching from Egypt to Mesopotamia is called what?

Answer 15

The land that stretches from Egypt to Mesopotamia is known as the “Fertile Crescent.”

Question 16

What was the written language in Mesopotamia and when did it develop, if it existed?

Answer 16

Cuneiform was an ancient written language developed by the Sumerians living in Ancient Mesopotamia.

It was the first sophisticated form of writing seen in history.

It developed starting around 3,500 B.C.E. and was a script written in wedge-shaped characters.

Question 17

What was the ratio of urban dwellers to Agrarian villagers in Sumerian societies?

Answer 17

For every urban dweller, there were 10 or 20 Agrarian villagers who lived around the cities in Sumerian societies.

Question 18

Trade was centered on what commodities?

Answer 18

Trade was centered on metals and foodstuffs, with grain above all. Other commodities that were essential to life were also imported.

Question 19

Which occupations required education and a degree of formal training?

Answer 19

Scribes, bookkeepers, and priests required education and a degree of formal training due to the fact that these jobs were prestigious and required some literacy and apprenticeship.

Question 20

What is polytheism?

Answer 20

Polytheism is the belief that there are many gods, and the Sumerians believed in a host of nature gods.

Question 21

What are ziggurats?

Answer 21

Ziggurats are stepped pyramids (elevated temples) which Ancient Mesopotamians built in honor of their gods. The gods were thought to reside in these great temple complexes.

Question 22

Mesopotamian gods were perceived to act in what manner to people? Why?

Answer 22

Mesopotamian gods were perceived to act in an unpredictably and cruel way towards the Mesopotamian people, due to natural problems. For example, there was the unpredictability of rivers’ annual floods, as well as the climate changes.

Question 23

Are there traces of ethics in Mesopotamian religions? Why/Why not?

Answer 23

There are no traces of ethics in the Mesopotamian religions because the demands of the gods had no direct relationship with what good or evil was being done on Earth besides offerings and ritual acts from the people to ensure the regularity of natural cycles, on which agriculture depended on.

Question 24

Why were priests so important in Sumerian societies?

Answer 24

The Mesopotamians believed that pleasing the gods was important for the stability of the natural cycles, and often, it was the priests that would serve as the interpreters of the will of the gods. The professionally trained priests had to ritually pray and make offerings to the gods on behalf of the city-state’s welfare.

Question 25

What are Lugals?

Answer 25

Lugals were the true rulers of the city-states for a time (kinglike figures), who replaced the priests that preceded them.

Question 26

Hammurabi’s Code

Answer 26

First written laws (a code). These were written by Hammurabi, king of the Old Babylonian Empire (1792 - 1750 B.C.E.).

• Severe penalties that fit the crime
• Penalties that varied by class
• Focus on marriage, crime (killing or stealing), and the family.
• Patriarchal society

Question 27

What were the first settlers in Sumeria?

Answer 27

The first settlers were not Sumerians but people of unknown origin whom archaeologists have termed the Ubaid people. This term came from the excavated mound of al-Ubaid. (Ubaid Period)

Question 28

Periods/Empires in Ancient Mesopotamia:

Answer 28

• Ubaid Period (c. 6500 to 3800 B.C.)
• Sumerian city-states (c. 3800 B.C. to 2300 B.C.)
• Akkadian Empire (ca. 2340 to 2100 B.C.E.)
• Hammurabi’s Empire of Old Babylonia (1792 to 1750 B.C.E.)
• Neo Assyrian Empire (c. 900 to 609 B.C.)
• Neo Babylonian Empire (626 to 539 B.C.)
• Fall of Babylon to the Persian Empire (539 B.C.)

Question 29

Timeframe of the Ubaid Period and the Sumerian city-states?

Answer 29

Ubaid Period (c. 6500 to 3800 B.C.)
Sumerian city-states (c. 3800 B.C. to 2300 B.C.)

Question 30

Timeframe of the Akkadian and Hammurabi’s Empires?

Answer 30

Akkadian Empire (ca. 2340 to 2100 B.C.E.)
Hammurabi's Empire of Old Babylonia (1792 to 1750 B.C.E.)

Question 31

Timeframe of the Assyrian/Babylonian Empires?

Answer 31

Neo Assyrian Empire (c. 900 to 609 B.C.)
Neo Babylonian Empire (626 to 539 B.C.)
Fall of Babylon to the Persian Empire (539 B.C.)

Question 32

Cuneiform

Answer 32

An ancient written language developed by the Sumerians living in Ancient Mesopotamia that became the first sophisticated form of writing seen in history.

It developed starting around 3,500 B.C.E. and was a script written in wedge-shaped characters.