Ch 3 The Sumerians

The world's first civilization?

• Sumer
• Mesopotamia
• Fertile Crescent
• Iraq

True or False:  The flooding of the rivers in Mesopotamia was both good and bad.

• True
• False

How do rivers provide dangers to early civilization?

• Flooding
• Hurricanes
• Famine
• Waves

independent state that includes a city and its surrounding territory

• country
• civilization
• city-state
• village

system of writing that uses triangular-shaped symbols to stand for ideas or things

• hieroglyphs
• cave paintings
• alphabetic monograms
• cuneiform

Which is a Sumerian achievement?

• irrigation systems and writing
• wheel and sail
• development of bronze
• all are correct

On what did Sumerian farmers depend in order to grow crops? 

• heavy rains that frequently fell across the region
• violent floods caused by heavy rainfall during spring
• canals they built to bring river water to their fields
• snow in distant mountains they brought to their fields

For what initial purpose did the Sumerians develop the world's first writing system?

• to remember their history
• to honor the gods 
• to keep business records
• to praise their king

What common item of life today was invented by the ancient Sumerians? 

• agriculture
• indoor plumbing
• paper 
• the wheel

What was the main purpose of a ziggurat? 

• as a place for religious services
• as a place to go in time of attack
• to mark the center of the city
• to be the city's marketplace