Fertile Crescent Flashcards
Before the rise of civilization people were nomadic. What does this mean?
They traveled from place to place hunting and gathering food
- How was the behavior of nomadic people regulated?
Through unwritten customs
- How did ancient people progress in their social organization?
Nomadic clans to villages to city-states to empires
- The first civilizations developed near these two rivers.
The Tigris and Euphrates
- Why did the first civilizations develop in river valleys?
Because annual flooding left silt on the surrounding land which enriched the soil
- How did the first farmers cope with challenges posed by rivers?
They learned to control flooding and use irrigation systems
- What was the name of the area that gave birth to the first civilizations?
Mesopotamia
- What do all civilizations need to survive and grow?
Resources
- What was the first civilization of the ancient world?
Sumer
- What are the five key elements of civilization?
I) Centralized Government;
2)Organized Religion; 3) Arts, Architecture, and Public Works; 4) Job Specialization and Social Classes; and 5) Writing
- What does polytheistic mean?
Believed in many gods and goddesses
- How did the Hebrews differ from other ancient people?
Were monotheistic, not polytheistic
What was the most important religious duty of ancient citizens
To keep their gods happy
- What were temples in the Fertile Crescent called?
Ziggurats
- What stood at the top of each Ziggurat?
A shrine to the chief god or goddess of the city
- Why did ancient rulers build large palaces and temples?
To make the citizens believe in the power and strength of the rulers and gods
What claim did ancient rulers claim to justify their authority?
The will of the gods
- What does it mean when we say that rulers in the ancient world were hereditary leaders?
Leadership was passed from father to son
- What caused conflicts among the first civilizations of the Fertile Crescent?
They competed to control land and water
- What developed as a result of the need to control the rivers, collect taxes, and build public works projects?
The first centralized governments in history
- List any three groups of people who developed civilizations in the Fertile Crescent.
Akkadians, Assyrians, Babylo11ians, Hebrews, Hittites, Medes, Persians, Phoenicians, and Sumerians
- What tasks did the first organized governments perform?
Write laws, collect taxes, provide food supply, and maintain defense
- Why were the first laws written?
To regulate the behavior of people who were now strangers to one another in cities
- In the ancient world, who was specially trained to read and write?
A scribe
- What did ancient people invent to record grain harvests and keep accurate records of the seasons?
Writing
- How did ancient rulers use public works projects to ensure the cities’ food supplies?
Built irrigation systems, roads, and bridges and kept records of harvests
- How did ancient rulers use public work projects to provide for the defense of the city?
Built walls around the city to protect it from attack
How did cities change the way people worked?
People specialized in jobs for the first time
Why were people able to specialize in jobs in early civilizations?
Surpluses in food meant that not everyone had to search for food
Ranking people according to their jobs led to this
The development of the first social classes
