| A | B |
|---|
| Agriculture | working the land in order to grow plants on it |
| City-state | independent political units that control areas of surrounding farmland |
| Civilization | complex socities |
| Class | a group of people who make about the same amount of money |
| Cuneiform | wedged-shaped writing with over 800 signs |
| Domestication | taming and raising of wild animals |
| Empire | a state in which a single ruler controls several kingdoms or territories through military force |
| Homo sapiens | biological classification of humans |
| Hunter-gatherers | people who lived off wild game, plants, fish, fruit, seeds, and honey |
| Polytheistic | worship of many gods |
| Prehistoric | before history was written down |
| Silt | fine particles of soil |
| Specialization of Labor | specific skilled jobs that contribute to the entire community |
| Surplus | producing far more than is needed |
| Ziggurats | huge pyramid shaped temples |
| Message-Relay System | A message communication system invented by the Assyrians to keep city states under control |
| The Code of Hammarubi | a set of 282 laws written by the king of Babylon |
| Fertile Crescent | Area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf that was home to the earliest agricultural socities |
| Gilgamesh | King of Uruk that an epic poem was written on 12 clay tablets |
| Cylinder Seals | A form of art that was used in ancient times as a signature on documents |
| Mosaics | a form of art in Mesopotamian culture that uses a series of geometric shapes |
| Relief Sculptures | a form of art that engraved images into stone |
| Epic | a long adventure poem usually involving gods and adventures |
| migrate | to travel in search of food |
| glacier | a sheet of ice |
| Paeolithic | earliest phase of the stone age marked by hunting animals and gathering plants |
| Neolithic | later phase of the stone age marked by the development of agriculture and the domestication of animals |
| Irrigation | A series of canals or ditches used to transport water from the river to the fields. |
| Euphrates / Tigris | rivers in Mesopotamia that flood annually causing the land to be fertile |
| Mesopotamia | the first civilization that emerged in the Fertile Crescent around 2500 BC |
| Battering Ram | invention of Assyrians used to knock down city walls |
| Scribe | a person who could read and write |
