WorksheetsChapter 4 Test - Mesopotamia 3000 B.C. to 500 B.C.
Total questions: 38
Worksheet time: 20mins
Map of Ancient Mesopotamia
Look at the map. Using what you have learned about Sumerian civilization, what can you infer about the advantages of Sumer’s location?
Sumer was in the south; so Sumerian farmers enjoyed a longer growing season.
Access to rivers and the Persian Gulf, plus the invention of the sailboat, may have provided faster transportation routes for trading.
Because of its location, Sumer was protected from Asian enemies in the north and Arab enemies in the south.
Limestone from the rivers was a rare resource that could be traded for wood.
Which of the following describes the people who first settled on the plain of the Tigris–Euphrates valley in 7000 B.C?
people fleeing the Assyrian army
Sumer farmers who raised livestock on a seasonal basis
hunter-gatherers who settled temporarily during planting season
hunter-gatherers who depended on their environment for food
What accomplishment of the early Mesopotamian cultures resulted in a long-term solution to seasonal climate changes?
supplying water to fields with dams and canals
building retaining walls around the entire farming settlement
settling farther from the rivers to prevent damage to homes and fields
growing a surplus of food and developing a way to store it to prevent famine
How did Sumerians use the resources in their climate when building their cities?
Due to the environment, early Sumerians built cities that were isolated from each other.
They built tall ziggurats to keep people off the scorching ground and away from mudflats.
They combined reeds and mud to form bricks for building homes and city walls.
Most middle-class Sumerians farmed land on the city-state perimeter.
From the Code of Hammurabi
If a son strike his father, his hands shall be hewn off.
If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out. [An eye for an eye]
If he break another man’s bone, his bone shall be broken.
If he put out the eye of a freed man, or break the bone of a freed man, he shall pay one gold mina.
Which statement best describes the nature of the code?
The punishment should fit the crime.
The slightest infraction will incur severe punishment.
The laws are simple and made to be broken.
The code shows an improvement over Sumerian culture.
From the Code of Hammurabi
If a son strike his father, his hands shall be hewn off.
If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out. [An eye for an eye]
If he break another man’s bone, his bone shall be broken.
If he put out the eye of a freed man, or break the bone of a freed man, he shall pay one gold mina.
What effect did these codes have on the further development of civilizations?
They kept the city under strict rule.
They showed other civilizations how not to function.
They introduced the written law that would be used as a basis later in ancient history.
They shaped emerging civilizations through the use of fear.
Compare the motivation of King Sargon to the motivation of King Nabopolassar:
Which statement correctly identifies the leader by matching him to his motivation for invading?
Leader #1 is Sargon and he wanted to unite the city-states under one empire.
Leader #1 is Nabopolassar and he wanted revenge for Sumer atrocities.
Leader #2 is Nabopolassar and he wanted to restore Hammurabi’s Code.
Leader #2 is Sargon and he wanted to restore the beautiful city of Babylon.
How did the Assyrians use the technologies of the Hittite people for their own gain?
They crafted swords made out of silver.
They invented the slingshot, which was easy to carry.
They learned how to use iron for making spears.
They made their own bows and arrows and dipped the arrows in bronze.
Which group rebelled against the Assyrians?
Babylonians
Chaldeans
Sumerians
Hittites
Who wrote a legal code that covered most areas of daily life?
Gilgamesh
Hammurabi
Nebuchadnezzar
Nineveh
Sumerian artisans, merchants, farmers, and fishers made up this group.
business class
lower class
middle class
upper class
Code of Hammurabi
“If any one be too lazy to keep his dam in proper condition, and does not so keep it, if then the dam break and all the fields be flooded, then shall he in whose dam the break occurred be sold for money, and the money shall replace the corn which he has caused to be ruined.”
The code states that the punishment for allowing one’s dam to flood everyone’s fields is
to be sold into slavery.
to pay a fine to replace ruined crops.
to rebuild the dam.
to receive 60 lashes in the public square.
“Now, compared to the outside, the streets [of Nippur, circa 2100 B.C.] are narrow, cool, and dark. But it's a mud-brick town. There's some dust around. After passing through a residential area [where people live] in the lower town, you'd climb the mound, maybe stop and buy some bread to munch on, a flat bread like pita. There’s a bakery there. Five or six ovens are turning out maybe 1,500 loaves a day. . . . You might move on to the outer walls of the ziggurat . . . and it looks magnificent [wonderful], standing above everything in the city, with its temple on top.”
—Dr. McGuire Gibson, Splendors of the Past: Lost Cities of the Ancient World
According to this selection, what material is the town built of?
clay
mud brick
stone block
wood
The Fertile Crescent includes parts of the modern countries of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan.
True
False
How did physical characteristics influence the settlement of ancient Mesopotamia? Select all that apply.
People settled in the river valleys.
People migrated by sea from Europe to the Arabian Peninsula.
People settled on the flat terrain instead of the sides of mountains.
People settled along the coast.
How might a Sumerian boy have replied to the question, "What did you do in school today?"
Select all that apply.
I painted pictures on papyrus.
I used geometry to measure a field.
I practiced my multiplication tables.
I marked degrees in a 360-degree circle.
The Sumerians believed in __ . While they worshipped all the gods, each city-state had its own god. City-states often built a ziggurat, or large temple to honor this god. The top of the building was the god's home. Only special __ were allowed to enter this area. These people were the first rulers of Sumer. Later, Sumer became a monarchy and was ruled by __ , who claimed they got their power from the city-state's god.
Monotheism, kings, priests
Daoism, priests, kings
Deism, philosophers, priests
Polytheism, priests, kings
Select the correct event into the Mesopotamian historical chronological order below.
1. People settle in Mesopotamia.
2. Settlers migrate to a plain of the Tigris-Euphrates valley.
3. ?
4. City-states arise in Sumer
5. Ur, Uruk, and Eridu become centers of civilization.
Akkadians invent the cuneiform writing system.
Persians conquer the Sumerians.
Sumerians invent the cuneiform writing system.
Assyrians create a road system.
Which factors spurred economic growth of Babylonia during the Chaldean Empire? Select all that apply.
canals and roads
iron production
building projects
taxes and tributes
__ is to library as __ is to law code.
Ashurbanipal, Hammurabi
Sargon, Nabopolassar
Ashurbanipal, Sargon
Nabopolassar, Sargon
Select the correct event into the Mesopotamian historical chronological order below.
1. Sargon conquers Sumerian city-states and forms an empire.
2. The Amorites conquer Mesopotamia and build Babylon.
3. Hammurabi creates a set of laws, called Hammurabi's Code.
4. The Assyrians create an empire that is divided into provinces.
5. Nabopolassar revolts and reclaims his former kingdom.
6. ?
7. The Persians capture Babylon and make it part of their empire.
Babylon becomes the capital of the Chaldean Empire.
Assyrians retake the Babylonian empire.
Persians surrender to the Babylonians.
The Chaldeans go to war with the Egyptians.
Which was an ancient writing system that involved cutting wedge-shaped marks into clay?
cuneiform
Cyrillic
hieroglyphics
Sargon
To support Babylon’s building projects and military, Nebuchadnezzar
stole from neighboring city-states.
started wars throughout the region.
collected very high taxes from his people.
required traveling merchants to pay tribute to Babylon.
These people built a great army as large as 50,000 soldiers to protect their lands from invasion.
Assyrians
Babylonians
Chaldeans
Egyptians
“If an ox be a goring [charging with horns] ox, and it shown that he is a gorer [horned animal that charges in a dangerous way], and he do not bind his horns, or fasten the ox up, and the ox gore a free-born man and kill him, the owner shall pay one-half a mina in money.”
—Code of Hammurabi, Article 251
According to the excerpt, the owner of an ox that gores a man must pay money if
it is known that the ox is a gorer.
the man binds the ox’s horns.
an enslaved person is harmed.
the ox dies.
The Epic of Gilgamesh was a long poem written in
cuneiform.
English.
Indo-European.
hieroglyphics.
One factor that contributed to the success of the Assyrian army was its _________ weapons.
bronze
gold
iron
steel
Assyria was made up of the land between the Persian Gulf and the
Caspian Sea.
Euphrates River.
Nile River.
Red Sea.
Shin-eqi-unninni, Gilgamesh
“The gods shook like beaten dogs, hiding in the far corners of heaven. [The goddess] Ishtar screamed and wailed [cried out moaning or screaming]: ‘The days of old have turned to stone: We have decided evil things in our assembly [council]! Why did we decide those evil things in our assembly? Why did we decide to destroy our people? We have only just now created our beloved humans; we now destroy them in the sea!’ All the gods wept and wailed along with her. All the gods sat trembling and wept.”
—Shin-eqi-unninni, Gilgamesh, Tablet 11
According to this excerpt, what “evil thing” did the gods decide in their assembly?
to tremble and weep
to turn to stone
to beat animals
to destroy their people
Tukulti-Ninurta I, Assyrian king
"I brought about the defeat of his armies, his warriors I overthrew. In the midst of that battle my hand captured Kashtiliash, the Kassite king. I trod [stepped upon] on his royal neck with my feet like a footstool. I brought him stripped and bound before Ashur my lord. Sumer and Akkad to its farthest border I brought under my sway [control]. On the lower sea of the rising sun I established the frontier [border] of my land."
—Tukulti-Ninurta I, Assyrian king, as quoted in Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia arid the Ancient Near East
In the passage, whom did Tukulti-Ninurta serve?
Akkad
Ashur
Kashtiliash
Sumer
How many tablets of stories and songs to the gods did the Assyrian library at Nineveh hold?
250
2,500
25,000
250,000
What made it possible for the Chaldeans to take back power from the Assyrians?
Many Assyrians had died of disease.
The Assyrians were fighting one another.
The Assyrians were conquering other lands.
The Assyrians were no longer trading with the Hittites.
The Chaldean Empire is also sometimes called the
Akkadian Empire.
Assyrian Empire.
Mesopotamian Empire.
New Babylonian Empire.
Throughout history, which two factors have influenced where people settle?
building supplies and nearby trade ports
animals for hunting and average temperature
drinking water and the ability to grow crops
population density and business opportunity
Why has Mesopotamia been called the “cradle of civilization”?
It competed with other civilizations when it came to trade.
It was the beginning of organized human society.
It had many natural resources to trade with.
Its city-states all had well organized militaries.
What large body of water borders the western portion of the Fertile Crescent?
The Persian Gulf
Caspian Sea
The Mediterranean Sea
Red Sea
Why would people choose to build a civilization on the plain between the two rivers?
The plain is mountanous which was good for herding.
There would be water for crops & a flat landscape for farming & building.
The rivers never flooded and they never suffered from droughts.
The area produced timber which was good for building houses.
A group of lands or kingdoms governed by one ruler is an
empire
dictatorship
government
city-state
