Mesopotamia Unit Assessment: Study Guide

You need to know-Chapter 4

❖ Vocabulary:

Irrigation: A means of supplying land with water

silt: Fine particles of rock. Great for soil, makes it fertile!

City-state: An early city that was like a small, independent country with its own laws and
government

❖ You need to understand the following…

● Sumerian communities were called city-states because they each had their own
ruler and farmland.

● Farming was difficult on the plains of Sumer because there was either too much
or too little water.

● Sumerians used levees, dams and canals to control the amount of water for
farming.

● After floods, silt was left behind and made the soil fertile (great for crops).
However, one problem with silt was that it clogged the irrigation canals.

● The Sumerians built walls around their cities to protect themselves against
attacking neighbors. They fought over water rights.

● What does it mean to have a stable food supply? there is enough food for all of
the people all the time?

You need to know-Chapter 5

❖ Vocabulary:

Social Structure: The way a civilization is organized

cuneiform: Writing that uses wedge-shaped characters

Scribe: A person who writes

Monotheism: Belief in one god

Polytheism: Belief in many gods

 ziggurat: ancient Mesopotamian temple tower with outside staircases and a shrine at the
top; built to honor the gods

culture: A characteristic of civilization that includes the beliefs and behaviors of a

society or a group of people

❖ You need to understand the following…

● Why was the plow an important achievement? It was technology (an invention)
that made farming easier.

● Scribes were important to Sumerian government: wrote down the laws; also
recorded receipts for goods; worked for the temples, for kings and other noble
families and for merchants who needed to keep track of trades.

● Music was important to Sumerians because it brought joy to the gods and people.

You need to know-Chapter 6

❖ Vocabulary:

empire: A large territory in which several groups of people are ruled by a single
leader or government

economy: The way a region or country uses resources to produce and sell or trade
goods and services to meet people’s needs and wants

siege: A military blockade and attack on a city to force it to surrender

❖ You need to understand the following…

● Sargon conquered many city-states and created Mesopotamia’s first empire.

● Hammurabi is best remembered for his code of laws.

● The Assyrians are best known for their new weapons, sculptures and war
strategies(siege tactics).

● Nebuchadnezzar II is best known for the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

● Why did Mesopotamian empires collapse? The empires had difficulty with
controlling such a large area.

● The chronological order of the four empires of Mesopotamia, from first to fourth, is
Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian.