| A | B |
|---|
| scribe | a professional writer |
| Fertile Crescent | a region in Southwest Asia; site of the first civilizations |
| city-state | a city that is also a separate, independent state |
| polytheism | the belief in many gods |
| myth | a traditional story; in some cultures, a legent that explains people's beliefs |
| Mesopotamia | "between the rivers" |
| Tigris and Euphrates | a rivers bordering Mesopotamia |
| empire | many territories and peoples controlled by one government |
| Babylon | the capital of Babylonia; a city of great wealth and luxury |
| caravan | a group of traders traveling together |
| bazaar | a market selling different kinds of goods |
| battering ram | a powerful weapon with a wooden beam mounted on wheels |
| code | an organized list of laws and rules |
| Hammurabi | the king of Babylon, created the Babylonian Empire |
| cuniform | groups of wedgesa dn lines used to write seveal languages of the Fertile Crescent |
| alphabet | a set of symbols that represent the sounds of the language |
| monotheism | the belief in one god |
| famine | a time when there is so little food that many people starve |
| exile | to force someone to live in another country |
| covenant | a promise made by God |
| Moses | an Israelite leader whom the Torah credits with leading the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan |
| prophet | a religious teacher who is regarded as someone who speaks for God or for a god |
| diaspora | the scattering of people who have a common background or beliefs |
