| A | B |
|---|
| artisans | Skilled workers. |
| Babylon | A city built by the Amorites in the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley. |
| city-state | An ancient city and the farmland around it. |
| culture | Way of life |
| cuneiform | Sumerian writing made up of hundreds of markings shaped like wedges. |
| empire | A group of states under one ruler. |
| Gilgamesh | A legendary priest-king who was thought to have traveled the world, performing great acts of courage. |
| Hammurabi | The king of Babylon, best known for his code of law. |
| hereditary | Passed down from parent to child. |
| levee | Raised areas of soil used to keep back floodwaters. |
| Mesopotamia | "The land between two rivers." |
| Meaning of ziggurat | "mountain of god" or "hill of heaven" |
| priest-king | Leaders who were also high preists |
| reform | Improvement |
| reign | Period of power |
| Sargon I | A ruler from an area in northern Mesopotamia known as Akkad; created the world's first empire. |
| scribe | Professional writer |
| Sumer | A region of southern Mesopotamia where the earliest known civilization on earth developed. |
| surplus | Extra |
| ziggurat | A temple made up of a series of square levels, each smaller than the one below it. |
