Mesopotamia Vocabulary

Large arc of rich and fertile farmland; location of first civilization

• Empire

• Cuneiform

• Fertile Crescent

• Ziggurat

Independent territories that make up a civilization (Sumer, Babylonia, Assyrian)

• Polytheism

• Empire

• Pictographs

• Social Hierarchy

Picture symbols that represented objects/words/phrases

• Cuneiform

• Ziggurat

• Irrigation

• Pictographs

Consists of a city as the political center and all surrounding countryside.

• City-state

• Empire

• Polytheism

• Social Hierarchy

A pyramid-shaped temple - used for religious ceremonies

• Surplus

• Division of Labor

• Polytheism

• Ziggurat

Producing more goods or crops than was needed

• Used for trade or storage

• Cuneiform

• Surplus

• Fertile Crescent

• Silt

The world’s first system of writing

Used for keeping records on clay tablets

• Division of Labor

• Silt

• Cuneiform

• Polytheism

A System that Divides People into Jobs - some are builders, some are priests, some are merchants, some are farmers, etc.

• Division of Labor

• Irrigation

• Social Hierarchy

• Surplus

A way of controlling water for Farming

• Fertile Crescent

• City-state

• Polytheism

• Irrigation

The belief in many gods - different gods for different aspects of life.

• Irrigation

• Polytheism

• Cuneiform

• Ziggurat