Sunday, Monday Flashcards
What two rivers is Mesopotamia?
Tigris and Euphrates.
What is Mesopotamia in Greek?
‘Between the rivers.’
Where does the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flow out of?
The Persian Gulf.
What is Mesopotamia like today?
Destroyed cities and towns.
What is the definition of vast?
Immense; extensive.
What was the greatest city on earth?
Babylon.
What is the definition of swarming?
Large crowd; large mass.
What was the second greatest city in the land?
Nineveh.
What was Nineveh the capital of?
The capital of Assyrians.
Who was ahead of the Egyptians?
The Sumerians were ahead of the Egyptians.
What is the definition of excavation?
To uncover by digging.
By what time did they already know how to shape bricks, build houses, and build temples?
3100 BC.
Where was Abraham born?
City of Ur.
What time did the tombs of Ur date at?
Around the same time as Cheops’s Great Pyramid in Egypt.
What is the definition of Astonishing?
Extremely surprising; impressive; amazing.
What were the harps decorated with?
Bull’s heads.
Where are the treasures located now?
British Museum in England. University of Pennsylvania. Museum of Baghdad in Iraq.
What is the script on the clay tablets called?
Cuneiform.
What did they find in the tombs?
Round seals and inscribed clay tablets.
What does cuneiform mean?
Wedge-shaped.
How do they harden soft clay tablets?
They bake them in ovens.
Who was the hero that fought battles with monsters and dragons?
Gilgamesh.
What deeds did the King’s boast about?
“…the temples they have built for all eternity, and all the nations they have conquered.”
What book material did Mesopotamian’s not know about yet?
Papyrus.
What did merchants record on their tablets?
“…business dealings—contracts, receipts, and inventories of goods…”
Who were good traders?
Babylonians, Assyrians, and Sumerians.
What is the oldest law-book?
Code of Hammurabi.
Who was one of the first Babylonian King’s to rule over the whole region?
King Hammurabi.
When did King Hammurabi live?
Around 1700 BC (3700 years ago).
How many years ago was 1700 BC?
3700 years ago.
What is the definition of deed?
An action that is performed intentionally or consciously.
What is the definition of eternity?
Infinite or unending time.
What is the definition of inscription?
Words inscribed, as on a monument or in a book.
What is the definition of engraved?
Cut or carve on the surface of a hard object.
What do most of their statues and reliefs show?
“…kings out hunting or inspecting kneeling captives bound in chains, or foreign tribes-people fleeing before the wheels of their chariots, and warriors attacking fortresses.”
What describes the kings?
Forbidding, long black ringlets, and rippling beards.
Who does it sometimes show they are making sacrifices to?
Baal, the sun god, or to the moon goddess Ishtar or Astarte.
What are the names of the moon gods?
Ishtar and Astarte.
What did the Babylonians and Assyrians worship?
The Sun, moon, and stars.
When did they record stars they saw in the skies?
Clear and warm nights.
What shape did they think the earth was?
A flat disk.
What did they think the sky was?
A hollow sphere cup over the earth that turned over it once each day.
What “stars” are close to earth and revolve around the sun?
Planets.
What did they think of planets?
Powerful beings whose positions influenced the destinies of men.
What is the Greek name for the belief in stars?
Astrology.
What did Mars mean?
War.
What did Venus mean?
Love.
What planet represents Saturday?
Saturn.
What star represents Sunday?
Sun.
What planet represents Monday?
Moon.
What were the other days named after?
They were named after gods.
What is the definition of forbidding?
Unfriendly or threatening in appearance.
What is the definition of ringlets?
A lock of hair hanging in a cork-screw shaped curl.
What is the definition of vault?
A roof in the form of an arch or a room or chamber used to store valuable things.
What is the definition of constellation?
A group of stars forming a recognizable pattern.
What buildings did Babylonians and Sumerians erect from the ground?
Ziggurats.
Describe a ziggurat.
“Tall, broad towers made up of terraces piled one on top of another, with formidable ramps and steep, narrow staircases.”
What did people come to ask the priests?
Their fortune.
When did the earliest kings live in the region where the Tower of Babel was?
As long ago as 3000 BC, and the last around 550 BC.
Who was the last great Babylonian king?
King Nebuchadnezzar.
When did King Nebuchadnezzar live?
He lived around 600 BC.
What was King Nebuchadnezzar remembered for?
His feats of war.
Who did King Nebuchadnezzar fight against?
He fought against Egypt.
What was King Nebuchadnezzar greatest deeds?
His huge canals and water cisterns.
Why did King Nebuchadnezzar make huge canals and water cisterns?
So he can retain the water and irrigate the land so that it becomes rich and fertile.
Why did the land become a desert wasteland and marshy plain today?
The canals became blocked with silt and the cisterns filled with mud.
What is the definition of venerable?
Worthy of respect because of dignity.
What is the definition of formidable?
Awesome; threatening; overwhelming.
What is the definition of cistern?
A storage tank for water; a container for rainwater.
What is the definition of irrigate?
To furnish water for growing plants.
What is the definition of silt?
Extremely fine particles carried by water.
