| A | B |
|---|
| Neolithic Era | New Stone Age. This is the time period in which people learned farming and the domestication of animals. |
| Domestication | The process of changing plants or animals to make them more useful to humans. |
| Agriculture | Farming - This innovation allowed people to produce their own food. |
| Civilization | A complete society with a stable food supply, specialization of labor, a government, and a highly developed culture. |
| Mesopotamia | The area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. |
| Fertile Crescent | A large arc of rich, or fertile, farmland that extends from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. |
| Silt | A mixture of rich soil and tiny rocks that is deposited when rivers flood. This makes the land great for farming |
| Irrigation | A way of supplying water to an area of land. |
| Canals | Human-made waterways that were used to bring water from the rivers to the fields. |
| Surplus | When farmers had more food than they needed. |
| Division of Labor | An arrangement in which each worker specializes in a particular task or job. |
| Rural | Countryside areas |
| Urban | City areas |
| City-State | A political unit that consisted of a city and all the countryside around it |
| Gilgamesh | One of Uruk’s kings who became a legendary figure in Sumerian literature. |
| Sargon | The ruler of the Akkadians, who created the world’s first empire. |
| Empire | Land with different territories and peoples under a single rule. |
| Polytheism | The worship of many gods. |
| Priests | People who performed religious ceremonies. |
| Social Hierarchy (Social Classes) | The division of society by rank or class. |
| Cuneiform | The world’s first system of writing. |
| Pictographs | Picture symbols that represent objects. |
| Scribe | A writer who used cuneiform to keep business records. |
| Epics | Long poems that tell the stories of heroes. |
| Architecture | Designing and erecting buildings. |
| Ziggurat | A pyramid shaped temple tower. |
| Monarch | A ruler of a kingdom or empire. |
| Hammurabi’s Code | A set of 282 laws that dealt with almost every part of daily life. |
| Chariot | A wheeled, horse-drawn cart used in battle. |
| Nebuchadnezzar | The most famous Chaldean king who rebuilt Babylon into a beautiful city. |
| Alphabet | A set of letters that can be combined to form words. |
