Mesopotamian Civilisation Flashcards
The cities of Sumer were?
Kish, Uruk, Ur, Lagash
Babylonia?
Babylon
Assyria?
Assur, Nineveh
The Mesopotamians believed in the Divine …..?
Divine Right Theory of Kingship
The only difference between the Egyptians and the Mesopotamians were….
That the Mesopotamians never believed that their kings were real gods
What did they believe their king were? Example?
They believed their kings were semi-divine, such as hero-king Gilgamesh who was both human and divine
Mesopotamian society was broadly divide into _____ parts. The _____, the _______ and the ______.
Three. Upper-end, middle level and lower end
Upper end : ________________
Middle level : ________________
Lower end : ___________________
King, members of royal family, priests and high officials
Farmers, artisans and traders
slaves
Mesopotamians lived in a _______________ society
Patriarchal
_____ society means?
The father was the head of the family. Boys were sent to school to study. Girls had to stay at home with their mothers to learn housekeeping and cooking, and to look after the younger children
The town city was divided into three parts. Name these parts.
The sacred area, the walled city on a mound and the outer town.
In the centre of a town, a sacred area called the ______ was built.
Ziggurat
At the top of this sacred thing, was a ______, dedicated to the patron ____________________.
Temple,
God of the city
_______ and ________ were built in the sacred area.
Offices, storehouses
The walled city and outer town were ___________ areas.
Residential
Houses of different _____ were built. Some houses had a centre ________ with rooms around it.
Sizes, courtyard
___________ was the main occupation of the Mesopotamians.
Agriculture
The people depended on the ___ rivers, the ______ and the _________ which provided _____ for _____________.
two, Tigris, Euphrates, water, agriculture
They built a highly developed ___________ system to make sure there was constant supply of _____.
irrigation, water
The Mesopotamians cultivated _____. They also grew ______, ______ and ______.
Wheat. barley, pulses and fruits.
The Mesopotamians controlled floods by constructing dams and _________.
Aqueducts
Early settler used ______ ploughs to soften the soil before planting crops.
Wooden
In order to increase agricultural ______, the __________ was invented
yield, ox-drawn plough
_________ with wheels were used to transport ______.
Wagons, goods.
Due to the presence of the rivers, _________ also developed as an occupation.
fishing
They ______ animals such as cow, ____ and ______.
domesticated, goat, sheep.
The wealth of the cities of Mesopotamia came from its ______________ and ________________.
merchants, craftspeople
Mesopotamia did not have many ___________ resources.
Natural.
The Mesopotamians traded mostly in ______ and ________ in exchange for ________, ______, and metals.
grain, textiles, stone, timber.
Before coinage was introduced, the basic mediums of exchange in Mesopotamia were ____ (measured by _______) and ______ (measured by weight).
grains, volume, silver
The Tigris and ______ rivers were the means of transport and _______.
Euphrates, communication
The Mesopotamians traded goods as far as _____, Asia and _______.
Africa, Europe
The Mesopotamians believed in many gods. Each city had its own special god or goddess. The king was considered the representative of ___ on Earth.
God
Hundreds of _____ have been excavated in parts of Mesopotamia.
Graves
What gives us information about Mesopotamian burial habits?
The graves that have been excavated in parts of Mesopotamia, give information about Mesopotamian burial habits.
What objects suggests that the Mesopotamians believed in life after death?
The weapons, ornaments and vessels found in the grave suggests that Mesopotamians believed in life after death.
What did the Mesopotamian people develop (Arts and Crafts)?
metal and copper-working, glass and lamp-making, pottery-making and weaving.
What were Palaces decorated with?
Palaces were decorated with expensive metal, copper, and bronze
What was used for making armours and weapons, like swords, daggers, maces and spears, later?
Iron
The study of ancient Mesopotamian architecture is based on ________________ ___________.
archaeological evidence
The most notable architectural remain from early Mesopotamia are the temple complexes at ____, __, _______ and _______.
Uruk, Ur, Assyria, Babylon
Mesopotamian buildings had ______, _____ and columns - these structures contributed greatly to development in the field of ___________.
arches, domes, architecture
Mesopotamian houses were constructed with ___ bricks’, ___ plaster and wooden _____.
mud, mud, doors
What was another name for temple towers?
Ziggurat
What did temple towers represent and what were they made of?
They represented Pyramids and were made of sun-baked bricks.
They looked like human made ________ soaring high above the Earth.
What is the ‘they’?
Fill in the Blank
They = Ziggurat/temple towers
Blank = Mountains
Each ______ had several stories apart from the temple at the top, they were used as schools, observatories, granaries and ______ for ______.
Ziggurat, centres, trade
The Ziggurat at __ is considered to be the best preserved one.
Ur
Another example of the Mesopotamian architecture is the Hanging Gardens of ________.
Babylon
Supposedly built by ________________ II.
Nebuchadrezzar
The Hanging Gardens were thought to be situated near the _____ ______ in Babylon.
Royal Palace
People in Mesopotamia had time for _______ activities such as hunting, boxing and wrestling.
Leisure
The Mesopotamians were the first to write on ____-____ tablets using a _____-shaped stylus made from reed, bone or ____.
Soft-clay, wedge, metal
Their script is known as the __________ script.
Cuneiform
The word __________ literally means _____ - shaped.
Cuneiform, wedge
Since pictures were used as words, the script was also called _____.
Pictogram
The ____ tablets that were used for writing were baked in the fire and hardened. Each tablet was like the page of a _____.
clay, book
Their script has been ___________ and is one of the main source of information about the Mesopotamians.
Deciphered
The Babylonian astronomers developed a systematic approach to __________.
Astronomy
They worked out a 12 - month calendar based on the cycles of __________ __ ___ _____.
Phases of the Moon
The year was divided into two seasons, which were?
Summer and Winter
The Mesopotamians used an advanced _______ ______.
Numeral system
Aspects of this system have heavily influenced modern-day _________.
Mathematics
The first wheeled vehicles were invented by the Mesopotamians around ________ ____.
3500 BCE
Name the contribution done by the Mesopotamian civilisation without which the world would have not been the same today.
Wheeled vehicles
Hammurabi, the king of Babylon, is famous today for his set of Laws, called ____ __ ______.
Code of Hammurabi
What is one of the most earliest set of laws?
Code of Hammurabi
__________________ is also one of the best preserved documents of ancient Mesopotamia.
Code of Hammurabi
Through these codes, the king could look after the ____, the poor and the needy
Weak
The code is carved on a nearly ______ - feet high stone column
Eight
It list ___ case laws dealing with family, economy, civil and criminal cases.
282
Moreover the code prescribes different punishments depending upon the ________ of the offence.
Severity
Which civilisation was the earliest of the river valley civilisation?
Mesopotamian
What modern day features can be traced back to the Mesopotamian Age.
Society and culture
Yet, this civilisation declined and disappeared. The forces of nature defeated human ______.
Effort
Some historians say that the soil became less fertile and people lost their names of livelihood and moved away These could be the reasons of Mesopotamian _______.
Decline
Others speak of invasion by the _______ of _______.
Hittites, Anatolia.
The cuneiform script, numeral system, wheeled vehicles and code of Hammurabi, are examples of _____?
Contributions to modern society
_______ _______ contributed greatly to the development in the field of agriculture
Mesopotamian structures
