| A | B |
|---|
| Agriculture | cultivation of plants and other life forms for food, also called farming |
| Bronze Age | time when people began using bronze, rather than copper and stone, to create tools and weapons |
| Civilization | a complex culture with five characteristics: advanced cities, complex institutions, specialized workers, record keeping, and advanced technology. |
| Cuneiform | a system of writing "wedged shaped" invented by the Sumerian scribes |
| Diaspora | dispersal of Jews driven from their homeland into exile |
| Dynasty | series of rulers from a single family |
| Monotheism | belief in one God, Hebrews were the first to practice |
| Irrigation | bringing water to dry land by digging ditches or canals |
| Mesopotamia | means "land between the rivers", Tigris and Euphrates rivers |
| City-state | a city that with its surrounding territory forms an independent state |
| Phoenicians | great sailors, "carriers of civilization", first alphabet |
| Polytheism | belief in many gods |
| Torah | (in Judaism), the law of God as revealed to Moses and recorded in the first five books of the Hebrew scriptures |
| ziggurat | means "mountain of god" pyramid-shaped monument, steps built over time, only priests go to the top |
| Fertile Crescent | an area of rich farmland in Southeast Asia between Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea |
| Monarchy | a single person, called a king, ruled in a government |
| Theocracy | type of government in which rule is based on religious authority |
