Unit 2 Mesopotamia Visual Vocabulary

Fertile Crescent A large arc of fertile farmland surrounded by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers

SILT A mixture of rich soil and tiny rocks that’s good for growing crops

Irrigation A man-made way of supplying water to an area of land

Surplus Producing more than needed

Division of labor An arrangement in which each worker specializes in a particluar task or job.

City-State Consisting of a city and all the countryside around it

Empire Land with different territories and people under single rule

Polytheism The worship of many gods

Priest People who perform religion ceremonies

Social Hierarchy The division of society by rank and class

Cuneiform The world’s first system of writing using wedge-shaped marks

Pictographs Picture symbols

Scribe Ancient writers that kept records

Epics Long poems that told the stories of heroes

Ziggurat An ancient religious temple that resembles a pyramid

Monarch The ruler of a kingdom or empire

Hammurabi’s Code Was the set of 282 laws that dealt with almost every part of daily life