Mesopotamia Vocabulary

A pyramid-shaped temple - used for religious ceremonies

• Surplus

• Division of Labor

• Polytheism

• Ziggurat

The world’s first system of writing

Used for keeping records on clay tablets

• Division of Labor

• Silt

• Cuneiform

• Polytheism

What is a scribe?

• belief in more than one god/goddess

• person who keeps written records

• government where a king rules with absolute power

• various jobs people do within their community

What does the word civillization mean?

• a city

• a waterway built across land for navigation or irrigation

• a culture in an advanced state of development that has cities, arts, religion, government, social classes, writing, etc..

• A large territory in which several groups of people are ruled by a single leader or government.

What is irrigation?

• Particles found in fertile soil

• Two rivers that run side by side

• Having more than you need

• a system that supplies dry land with water through ditches, pipes, or streams

What is a city-state?

• a city that governs itself and its surrounding territory

• The name of the writing that was created in Sumer

• Soil that is good for growing crops

• Another name for farming

What is an empire?

• A person who writes information down

• A form of government created by the Sumerians

• A for of government that is for the people

• a large territory or group of many territories governed by one ruler

The word "Mesopotamia" means

• middle of the fertile crescent
• land in the middle of the desert 
• land between the rivers
• land north of the sea

Complex societies that have organized governments, culture, and writing

• city-states

• empire

• Mesopotamia

• civilization

What is irrigation?

• the movement of people from one place to another

• a way of watering crops

• a collection of laws

• a river in the Middle East