| A | B |
|---|
| scribe | a professional writer |
| city-state | a city with its own traditions and its own government and laws; both a city and a separate independent state |
| polytheism | the belief in many gods |
| myth | a traditional story; in some cultures a legend that explains people's beliefs |
| Sumer | the site of the earliest known civilization; located in Mesopotamia, in present-day southern Iraq; later became Babylonia |
| Mesopotamia | an ancient region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Southwest Asia |
| Fertile Crescent | a region in Southwest Asia; site of the world's first civilizations |
| Tigris River | a river in Iraq and Turkey |
| Euphrates River | a river flowing south from Turkey through Syria and Iraq |
| empire | many territories and peopl who are controlled by one government |
| caravan | a group of traders traveling together |
| bazaar | a market selling different kinds of goods |
| Nebuchadnezzar II | king of the New Babylonian empire from about 605 B.C. to 561 B.C. |
| Babylonia | an ancient region around southeastern Mesopotamia and between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers; now present-day Iraq |
| Assyria | a historical kingdom of northern Mesopotamia around present-day Iraq and Turkey |
| New Babylonian empire | a rivival of the old Babylonian Empire stretching from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea |
| code | an organized list of laws or rules |
| cuneiform | a form of writing that uses groups of wedges and lines; used to write several languages of the Fertile Crescent |
| Hammurabi | king of Babylon from about 1792-1750 B.C.; creator of the Babylonian empire; established one of the oldest codes of law |
| Hammurabi's code | one of the oldest codes of law; based on the idea of "an eye for an eye" |
