Mesopotamia Flashcards
Euphrates
River in Mesopotamia
Tigris
River in Mesopotamia
Uruk
Early urban center in Mesopotamia c. 50k population around 2900 BC
Eridu
Early urban center in Mesopotamia c. 4k population around 4000 BC; a famous temple dominated the city, possibly the Tower of Babel in the Old Testament
Epic of Gilgamesh
Epic story of a Sumerian king looking for immortality
Innana (Sumerian) / Ishtar (Akkadian)
Goddess of love and fertility in Mesopotamian religion
An
Sumerian sky / creator god
Shamash
Sun god and god of justice
Eanna Complex
Temple complex dedicated to Inanna at Uruk - some 15k laborers worked ten hours a day for five years to complete the project
Akkad
Urban center in northern Mesopotamia, became the dominant center round 2350 BC
Sargon
Akkadian king who created the first territorial kingdom in Mesopotamia
Hammurabi (1792 - 1750 BC)
Babylonian king famous for his code and for creating a large empire centered on Babylon
Ziggurat
Sumerian temple
Amorite and Aramaic
Semitic languages spoken in northern Mesopotamia
Bala Taxation System
A form of a advance budgeting used by the city Ur - each province’s contribution was calculated in advanced on the basis of its agricultural potential.
Hittites
People from Anatolia (in Turkey) who mastered chariot warfare and sacked Babylon in 1595 BC
Suppiluliuma I (1344 - 1322)
The founder of the most successful Hittite ruler of the New Kingdom
Hurrians
Population group in northern Mesopotamia, developed their own state called Mittani. They emphasized horsemanship and they may have been responsible for the spread of horsemanship throughout the Near East.
Nebuchadnezzar I (1125 - 1104)
King of Babylon during the Isin Dynasty, took revenge on Elam, sacking their capital Susa and recovering Marduk’s statue taken by the Elamites from Babylon in 1158.
