| A | B |
|---|
| Akkadians: | Semitic people of northern Mesopotamia who conquered the city-states of Sumer in 2334 B.C. and controlled the region for about 200 years until the Sumerians regained their independence. |
| Anatolia: | the larger part of modern Turkey in Asia; term commonly used by the ancient Greeks and Romans for what is now Turkey; also called Asia Minor. |
| Aramaic: | a Semitic language widely spoken in the Fertile Crescent in ancient times until replaced by Arabic; the lingua franca of the region from the 7th century BCE to the 7th century CE |
| artisan: | a skilled worker; one who can create objects of beauty or usefulness by hand and by using tools. |
| Assyrians: | Semitic people who originated thousands of years ago along the upper Tigris River and used iron weapons and chariots from 800 B.C. to 600 B.C. to conquer a large empire that included the Levant, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and parts of Anatolia and Persia. |
| Canaan: | in ancient times the land later called Palestine that lies between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River and Dead Sea; the biblical land to which the Israelites came after they fled from Egypt. |
| Carthage: | the North African empire established in the 9th century B.C. by Phoenician traders from the Middle East who settled in what is now Tunisia. |
| Chaldeans: | Semitic people who established a new Babylonian Empire in Mesopotamia by defeating the Assyrians; people who flourished under King Nebuchadnezzar until the empire was conquered by the Persians. |
| Christianity: | religion that evolved from Judaism and centered on a belief in the divinity of Jesus; developed after the death of Jesus when disciples spread his teachings beyond Palestine to gentiles in Anatolia, Greece, and Rome. |
| cuneiform: | wedge-shaped characters, usually pressed into clay with a stick; one of the first forms of writing developed by the Sumerians around 3300 B.C.; symbols could represent objects and ideas; the prevailing form of writing in the Middle East for thousands of years. |
| Diaspora: | the forced dispersal of the Jews from their homeland in Palestine, first by the Chaldeans in 586 B.C. and then by the Romans in 70 A.D.; the establishment of Jewish communities throughout the Roman Empire and later throughout Europe. |
| dynasty: | a succession of rulers of the same descent; a powerful family or group that holds power for a long time. |
| Fertile Crescent: | a semi-circular belt of land that can support agriculture in a region of Southwest Asia that is mostly desert or semi-arid land; an important route for cultural diffusion and migration in ancient times; the western part of the Fertile Crescent receives adequate rainfall from the Mediterranean Sea; the region at the north of the crescent also receives rainfall because westerly winds are not blocked by mountains; the eastern part of the crescent between the Tigris River and Euphrates River is a plain that can support agriculture with irrigation from the rivers. |
| gentiles: | those who are not Jewish. |
| Hebrew: | the Semitic language of the Jews in biblical times that fell into disuse for 2,500 years after the Babylonian Captivity, except as the language of religion, learning, and literature; revived as the official and the spoken language of Israel. |
| hieroglyphics: | a system of writing developed in ancient Egypt in which pictorial symbols are used to represent objects, ideas, and sounds. |
| Hittites: | civilization from 1600 BCE to 1200 BCE centered in Anatolia that established an empire in Southwest Asia; believed to be among the first people who learned how to smelt iron. |
| Indo-Europeans: | tall, fair-skinned people who originated in the Caucasus region and spread west throughout Europe and east to Persia and India between 2000 B.C. and 1500 B.C.; their family of languages comprise most of the languages of Europe, Farsi, and other languages of Iran, and languages on the subcontinent of India; the ancestors of the Persians and Hittites of ancient times; sometimes called Aryans. |
| Judaism: | the religion developed among the ancient Hebrews based on a belief in one God and an ethical code revealed to them by Moses and the prophets, written down in the Torah, and interpreted over the centuries by rabbis; the cultural, social, and religious practices of the Jews. |
| Kush: | the first African kingdom to develop in ancient times after Egypt; the land south of Egypt along the upper Nile conquered by the Egyptians around 1500 B.C. and independent by 1000 B.C.; an empire that continued as a major trading center in what is now Sudan until 350 CE |
| Levant: | general term for the eastern Mediterranean coastal region between Egypt and Turkey, now made up of Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, and northwest Syria. |
| lingua franca: | the common spoken language in a region where many ethnic groups speak their own distinct languages or dialects; the language of commerce and everyday communication for groups speaking different languages. |
| Lydians: | people of a small kingdom in northwest Anatolia who first began using coins made of an alloy of silver and gold as a medium of exchange. |
| Mesopotamia: | Greek for "the land between the rivers"; refers to the region in ancient times between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers where civilization first developed between 4000 B.C. and 3500 B.C.; now part of Iraq, Mesopotamia was the homeland in ancient times of the Sumerians, Babylonians, Akkadians, and Assyrians. |
| monotheistic: | a belief in one God instead of many gods; a characteristic common to Christianity and Judaism in ancient times when most religions were polytheistic. |
| Mosaic law: | the laws of Moses; an ethical code and religious beliefs announced to the Jews by the prophet Moses as revelations from God and recited as oral tradition until written down; the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament. |
| Palestine: | meaning "the land of the Philistines," a people who came from the sea in ancient times to control land on the Mediterranean coast; the name used for the region for thousands of years until the independence of Israel; the region that now includes Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, and western Jordan; Canaan in ancient times. |
| Persians: | Indo-Europeans who migrated south from the Caucasus region between 4,000 and 3,500 years ago to settle in the region that later became Iran; people who established the largest empire in ancient times before that of Alexander the Great. |
| pharaoh: | a king of ancient Egypt who was also worshipped as a god. |
| Phoenicians: | trading and seafaring people who lived in ancient times on the Mediterranean coast of the Middle East in what is now Lebanon; colonizers who settled on the coast of North Africa in the 9th century B.C. to establish the city of Carthage in what is now Tunisia; people who spread the alphabet throughout the Mediterranean. |
| polytheistic: | the worship of many gods. |
| prophet: | in religious terms, one who receives revelations from God and proclaims them to the people; Moses and Jesus were major prophets. |
| scribe: | in ancient times, a person whose skill was to read and write cuneiform or hieroglyphic writing; one who maintained public records, and reading and writing for the rest of the population that was illiterate. |
| Semitic: | a subgroup of Afro-Asiatic languages that includes Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic; also refers to people who speak Semitic languages. |
| Sumerians: | people of lower Mesopotamia who created the first civilization in human history between 4000 BCE and 3500 BCE |
| Torah: | the first five books of the Old Testament, the primary body and wisdom of Jewish law believed by Jews to have been revealed by God to Moses on Mount Sinai and transmitted by him to the Jewish people; the scrolls containing the first five books of the Bible and used in religious rituals. |
| ziggurats: | stepped pyramids made of sun-dried bricks in Mesopotamia that served as temples to the gods; some of the steps were wide enough to form terraces with plantings; a shrine was at the top where priests made offerings to the gods. |
| Zoroastrianism: | a religion founded in the 6th century B.C. that became widespread in Persia and Mesopotamia in ancient times; worship of a supreme god, Ahura Mazda, who enlists the good deeds of followers in the eternal struggle of good against evil and light against darkness; the dominant religion of Persia until the Arab conquest; a religion that influenced Christianity. |
