| A | B |
|---|
| 1700 BC | Jacob and family journey to Egypt |
| 1800 BC | Rise of Hammurabi and Babylon |
| 2000 BC | the Golden Age of Ur begins |
| 2000 BC | Call of Abraham from Sumer |
| BC | before the birth of Christ |
| AD | Anno Domini: in the year of our Lord |
| dispersion | the scattering of people over the earth |
| Middle East | the part of the world where Africa, Asia, and Europe meet |
| Abraham | the father of the nation of Israel |
| Abraham was a descendant of | Shem |
| Abraham lived in | Ur |
| Ur was one of the most important cities | in the land of Sumer |
| fertile crescent | an area in the Middle East known for its ability to grow crops and because its shape resembles a crescent moon |
| made the fertile crescent fertile | The Tigris and Euphrates |
| Tigris | "arrow"; it flows as straight as an arrow out of the mountains of the north until it empties into the Persian Gulf |
| Euphrates | "that makes fruitful" |
| c. | circa or around |
| Mesopotamia | "the land between the rivers" |
| Hamitic people | descendants of Ham |
| Sargon | Akkadian king who conquered the Sumerians |
| canals, dams, and dikes | Sumerian irrigation |
| the earliest form of government | kingship |
| first people known to have used the wheel | Sumerians |
| The Sumerians developed the system of dividing | time |
| Sumerian numbers were based on | 60 |
| The Sumerians' greatest accomplishment | writing |
| The Sumerians were the first people after the flood | to use writing |
| The Sumerians wrote with a | stylus |
| wedge-shaped writing | cuneiform |
| polytheists | worshipers of many gods |
| monotheists | worshipers of one god |
| humanists | make man into god |
| Anu | Sumerian god of the sky |
| the most important part of a Sumerian city | ziggurats |
| ziggurats | towers built in tiers or stages, each stage smaller than the one beneath, all atop a large mound of clay or debris |
| What did the Sumerians do at the top of the ziggurats? | tried to reach heaven to offer thanks, praises, and sacrifices to their gods |
| Nanna | Sumerian moon god |
| empire | rule by one city or people over other cities or peoples |
| Babylong | became the center of a new empire |
| Babylonia | Sumer and the surrounding lands |
| Hammurabi | conquered the surrounding kingdoms and united all of Mesopotamia under his rule in 31 years |
| bureaucracy | an organized group of people appointed by a ruler to help him govern |
| laws | rules people follow in living together |
| promulgation | making laws known |
| equality under the law | all people who commit the same crime should be punished in the same way |
| Inanna | Ishtar, the goddess of love |
| Marduk | chief god of the city of Babylon who became king of all the gods |
| Canaan | the center of the ancient world |
| Megiddo/Armageddon | the last battleground of world history |
| Patriarchs | Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the founding fathers of Israel |
| Israel | Abraham's descendants |
| nation-state | a nation or people living in its own land with its own government |
| Baal | chief god of the Canaanites |
| Sodom and Gomorrah | cities in which the evils of the flesh reach such extremes that God destroyed them with fire and brimstone |
| nomads | wandering herdsmen with no permanent home |
| Joseph | Jacob's favorite son |
