| A | B |
|---|
| What does nomadic mean? | to travel from place to place hunting and gathering food |
| How was the behavior of nomadic people regulated? | through unwritten customs |
| How did ancient people progress in their social organization? | nomadic clans to villages to city-states to empires |
| The first civilizations developed near these two rivers | the Tigris and the Euphrates |
| Why did the first civilizations develop in river valleys? | because annual flooding left silt on the surrounding land which enriched the soil |
| How did the first farmers cope with challenges posed by rivers? | they learned to control flooding and use irrigation systems |
| What was the name of the area that gave birth to the first civilizations? | Mesopotamia |
| What do all civilizations need to survive and grow? | resources |
| What was the first civilization of the ancient world? | Sumer |
| What are the five key elements of civilization? | centralized government; organized religion; arts, architecture, and public works; job specialization and social classes; and writing |
| What does polytheistic mean? | Believed in many gods and goddesses |
| How did the Hebrews differ from other ancient people? | they were monotheistic, not polytheistic |
| What was the most important religious duty of ancient citizens? | To keep their gods happy |
| What were temples in the Fertile Crescent called? | Ziggurats |
| What stood at the top of each Ziggurat? | A shrine to the chief god or goddess of the city |
| Why did ancient rulers build large palaces and temples? | To make the citizens believe in the power and strength of the rulers and gods |
| What did the ancient rulers claim to justify their authority? | The will of the gods |
| What does it mean when we say that rulers in the ancient world were hereditary leaders? | Leadership was passed from father to son |
| What caused conflicts among the first civilizations of the Fertile Crescent? | They competed to control land and water |
| What developed as a result of the need to control the rivers, collect taxes, and build public works projects? | the first centralized governments in history |
| List any three groups of people who developed civilizations in the Fertile Crescent | Akkadians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Hebrews, Hittites, Medes, Persians, Phoenicians, and Sumerians |
| What tasks did the first organized governments perform? | Write laws, collect taxes, provide food supply, and maintain defense |
| Why were the first laws written? | To regulate the behavior of people who were now strangers to one another in cities |
| In the ancient world, who was specially trained to read and write? | A scribe |
| What did ancient people invent to record grain harvests and keep accurate records of the seasons? | Writing |
| How did ancient rulers use public works projects to ensure the cities' food supplies? | Built irrigation systems, roads, and bridges and kept records of harvests |
| How did ancient rulers use public work projects to provide for the defense of the city? | Built walls around the city to protect it from attack |
| How did cities change the way people worked? | People specialized in jobs for the first time |
| Why were people able to specialize in jobs in early civilizations? | Surpluses in food meant that not everyone had to search for food |
| Ranking people according to their jobs led to this | The development of the first social classes |
