| A | B |
|---|
| priests | a powerful class because they knew what the gods wanted |
| classes | the division of people into different groups of importance |
| crescent | a shape like the letter 'C' |
| scarce | not enough; hard to find |
| city-states | civilizations that had their own rulers and fought with each other |
| good for farming | fertile |
| conquer | to take control with military force |
| Middle East | an area in Africa and Asia that includes Egypt and present-day Iraq |
| Tigris and Euphrates | rivers in the Middle East |
| wet clay | the material on which the Sumerians wrote their words and numbers |
| Mesopotamia | the land between the two rivers in the Middle East |
| Babylonians | the people who conquered the Sumerians |
| Hammurabi | an important king of Babylonia |
| Code of Hammurabi | almost 300 laws that were put together and written |
| Fertile Crescent | the land around the Tigris and Euphrates and to the west that has good soil |
| Sumerians | first people to live in Mesopotamia |
| to tame for use by humans | domesticate |
| cuneiform | system of writing of the Sumerians |
| ziggurat | a temple at the center of each Sumerian city |
| to build ditches and canals to bring water from rivers to dry land | irrigate |
| civilization | a society of a certain time and place |
| temple | a place of worship in Mesopotamia |
| examples of Sumerian classes | gods, priests, rich people, workers, slaves |
