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12 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Cuneiform |
The worlds first written language. Means "wedge-shaped" Originally invented to keep records of supplies and agriculture surplus Sumerians wrote on wet clay tablets with the point of a reed then dried in the sun
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Ziggurat |
The most important building in the city state. A massive stepped tower with a temple on the top of it. Each city-state had its own god. It was believed that the god lived at the top of the temple. |
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Epic of Gilgamesh |
An ancient story or epic written in Mesopotamia more than 4000 years ago. The first known work of great literature and epic poem. Includes a story very similar to Noah and the Ark (great flood) in the Old Testament of the Bible. Gilgamesh is thought to have been a historical king in Sumer. |
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Social Hierarchy |
system of ranks |
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Cultural Diffusion |
The spread of ideas, customs, and technologies form one people to another. |
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City-State |
Sumerians lived in walled city-states along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. A city state is an independent city and the land surrounding it. |
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Pictographs |
Cuneiform started as simple pictographs and eventually evolved into the wedge-shaped writing. |
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Polytheistic |
Sumerians believed in many gods, so they were polytheistic. Like the Egyptians they believed the gods represented natural forces. The gods were also connected with certain planets. |
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Fertile Cresent |
Has dark rich soils and golden wheat fields Became a cross road where people and ideas met and mingled. |
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Mesopotamia |
The first known civilization in the Fertile crescent. Means"between the rivers"
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Silt |
Rich layer of soil that was left behind after the annual flood. |
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Scribe |
Scribes were the only ones who could read and write and served as priests, record keepers and accountants. |
