| A | B |
|---|
| civilization | a centralized society with developed forms of religion, ways of governing, and learning |
| technology | The skills and knowledge to make products or meet goals. |
| ziggurat | a huge mud-brick temple built by the ancient Sumerians |
| government | an organized system that groups used to make laws and decisions |
| city-state | a city and its surrounding farmlands, with its own leaders and government |
| monarchy | The system of government in which one person (usually a king or a queen) has complete authority. |
| authority | The right to command or influence. |
| surplus | extra supply |
| merchant | A person who buys or sells things to make a living. |
| social class | A group that has a particular amount of importance in a society. |
| scribe | a person who writes |
| innovation | a new way of doing things |
| conquer | to take over |
| empire | a conquered land of many people and places governed by one ruler |
| emperor | the ruler of an empire |
| taxation | the practice of requiring people to pay taxes to support a government |
| Code of Hammurabi | the collection of laws organized by Hammurabi for the people of Babylon to follow |
| equal justice | fair treatment under the law |
| monotheism | a belief in one God |
| covenant | an agreement |
| Ten Commandments | a set of laws for responsible behavior, which according to the Bible, were given to Moses by God |
| Judaism | the religion of the Jewish people |
| Torah | Jewish scriptures; the first five books of the Bible |
| colony | a settlement separated from, but under the control of, a home country |
| cultural diffusion | the spread of ideas from one place to others |
| barter | the exchange of one good or service for another |
| money economy | an ecomonic system based on money rather than on barter |
| Hammurabi | Babylonian ruler who established a tax system to support the government |
| Sargon | the first person to rule an empire in Mesopotamia |
| Assyrians | an empire which had a great desire to control trade routes in southwestern Asia |
| Abraham | known for believing in only one God |
| cuneiform | wedge-shaped letters written on soft-clay tablets developed by the Sumerians |
| Phoenicians | people who developed a system of writing based on symbols that stood for sounds |
| Mesopotamia | the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers |
| Moses | leader of the Israelites who led them out of Egypt |
