| A | B |
|---|
| cuneiform | a form of wedge-shaped writing used in ancient times |
| famine | a shortage of food that leads to widespread hunger |
| artisans | craftspeople |
| fertile | rich |
| scribe | a professional writer |
| divine kingship | a belief that the right to rule is god-given |
| bartering | exchanging goods and services for other goods and services |
| drought | a time of little or no rain |
| natural resources | resources |
| city-state | a city that has its own form of government and traditions |
| economy | the production and consumption of goods and services in a society |
| civilization | groups of people who have a complex and organized society within a culture |
| empire | a large territory |
| irrigation | a method of watering crops |
| Torah | the first five books of the Hebrew bible |
| cultivate | to prepare land for growing crops |
| Judaism | the religion practiced by the Hebrews |
| region | an area on Earth with common physical features |
| ziggurat | a series of stacked rectangular platforms that formed a huge pyramid-shaped structure that supposedly reached from Earth to the heavens |
| society | an organized community with established rules and traditions |
| polytheism | the worship of many gods |
| conquer | to defeat |
| dynasty | a ruling family |
| Code of Hammurabi | a set of 282 laws established by Hammurabi that helped to govern Babylon |
| covenant | an agreement |
| monotheism | belief in one god |
| descendant | people who are born into later generations in the same family |
| synagogue | Jewish house of worship |
| Judaism | one of the first monotheistic religions; the religion practiced by Jews |
| Ten Commandments | a set of laws that provided guidance for the worship of God and for moral behavior |
| Lydia | people who lived in western Asia and probably invented the region's first coins by 500 B.C. |
| Abraham | a shepherd who lived in Ur and is considered to be the first Jew |
| Sargon | a Mesopotamian king who was the first empire builder and founder of the Akkadian dynasty in 2334 B.C.E. |
| Ashurbanipal | the well-educated king of Assyria from 688 to 627 B.C. who personally led Assyria to control nearly all of the Fertile Crescent |
| Moses | the Hebrew man who led the Hebrews out of Egypt across the Sinai desert to freedom sometime between 1200 and 1400 B.C.E. |
| Gilgamesh | the legendary king of Uruk around 2700 B.C. who was said to be 2/3 god and 1/3 human |
| Hammurabi | shrewd king of Babylon in 1792 B.C.E. who established a code of laws |
| Nebuchadnezzar II | king of Babylon in 605 B.C. who expanded the Babylonian empire and built massive structures |
| Enheduanna | Sargon's daughter who became high priestess of Ur |
| Ur-Nammu | the Sumerian king who ruled the last and most successful dynasty of the city-state Ur around 2100 B.C.E. |
| Shulgi | the son of Ur-Nammu who helped Ur flourish in business |
| Deborah | a Hebrew judge and prophet who encouraged a military leader to gather the tribes of Israel to attack the Canaanites; her prediction that a woman would win the war came true between 1200 and 1125 B.C. |
| David | Jewish king who united the tribes and founded a new kingdom called Israel around 1000 B.C.E. |
| Solomon | son of King David who built a temple in Jerusalem to house the Torah and to serve as a place of worship; known as a wise ruler |
