| A | B |
|---|
| monotheism | belief in one god |
| covenant | solemn agreement or promise |
| Bible | sacred writing of the Jews, Christians |
| nomad | one who travels for survival |
| Diaspora | scattering of the Jews worldwide |
| synagogue | Jewish house of worship |
| rabbi | Jewish religious scholar |
| polytheism | worship of many gods |
| empire | form of government; one ruler controls several kingdoms |
| city-state | an independent city and its surrounding farmland |
| ziggurat | pyramid shaped temple |
| cuneiform | a system of writing |
| class | a group with the same social status |
| silt | bits of soil carried by a flowing river |
| irrigation | supplying water to dry land by using canals or ditches |
| surplus | more than what is needed |
| specialization of labor | process whereby people become skilled at different jobs |
| civilization | complex society with government, arts, writing, and religion |
| prehistoric | before history was written down |
| homo-sapiens | scientific name for humans |
| hunter-gatherer | a member of a culture that does not raise its own food but has to hunt for animals and gather plants etc. |
| agriculture | working the land to grow plants |
| domestication | the taming and raising of wild animals |
| biosphere | the earth's surface and all the things that live on it |
| landform | a feature of the earth's surace |
| steppe | a plain once covered with wild grasses; usually found in northern Asia |
| geography | the study of the earth and its people |
| region | an area with a single common feature |
| tundra | a treeless plain in the Arctic region |
| climate | an area's typical weather pattern |
| savanna | a plain with scattered trees, seasonal rains, in tropical and subtropical areas |
| atmosphere | a mixture of gasses that surround the earth |
| culture | the distinguishing features of a community, including arts, customs, and technology |
| ritual | a repeated ceremony deriving from a belief |
| belief | an idea accepted as true by a community or family |
| site | a location of an excavation |
| fossil | remains of an animal or plant found in earth or rock |
| artifact | object giving clues to past cultures |
| archaeologist | studies the reamins of past cultures |
| anthropologist | studies people and their cultures |
| global village | world in which technology has shrunk distances between people |
