geography Flashcards
Mesopotamia
A Greek word meaning land between the rivers.
> Location of the 1st Civilization
Also known as Fertile Crescent
Fertile Crescent
A large arc of rich or fertile farmland
> Also known as Mesopotamia
Silt
A mixture of soil and rocks that is very fertile.
>Used for farming
Irrigation
A way of controlling water for farming
> Prevents flooding
Supplies water
Division of Labor
A system that Divides people into Jobs
> People accomplish different tasks
EX: Merchants & Farmers, Scribes
Empire
Independent territories that make up a civilization .
> Sumer, Babylonia, & Assyrian
Social Hierarchy
A system that divides people into classes based on the job of your family .
>Highest-Rank = TOP KING
>Lowest-Rank = BOTTOM SLAVES
Cuneiform
The world’s first system of writing .
> Used for keeping records
Scribe
A job of a person who wrote on clay tablets to keep records.
> Very important job during Ancient Mesopotamia time
Ziggurat
A pyramid-shaped temple
> Used for religious ceremonies
> Believed to be where the Gods lived
Surplus
Producing more goods or crops than needed
>Extra goods were used for trade
Hammurabi’s Code
The first set of 282 laws created by King Hammurabi
Characteristics
had writing, had settled communities in the form of villages, planted their own food, had domesticated animals, and had different orders of workers.
Religion
Mesopotamian religion was polytheistic, with followers worshipping several main gods and thousands of minor gods.
Society
Men and women both worked in Mesopotamia, and most were involved in farming. Others were healers, weavers, potters, shoemakers, teachers and priests or priestesses.
