Mesopotamia Vocabulary

1. A city that has its own government and rules over its own territory.
2. Political districts in which officials are chosen to govern and enforce the rulers laws. Theocracy. A form of government in which priests and/or kings rule in the name of god or a deity as the supreme ruler. Polytheism. A belief in many gods. Ziggurats. Massive religious temples built by the Sumerians. Cuneiform. Sumerian writing consists of wedge shaped marks cut into damp clay tablets. Scribe. Record keepers who held honored positions in society. Epic. Long poems that tell story’s of heroes. Irrigation. Method of supplying water to an area of land or crops. Silt. A mixture of rich soil and tiny rocks. Fertile. Capable of producing abundant crops
3. Meaning "the land between rivers" located in the eastern part of the Fertile Crescent. Fertile Crescent. A region of the Middle East, that stretches in a large crescent shaped curve, from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea.

1. are complex societies. They have cities, organized governments, art, religion, class divisions, writing systems, etc.
4. Territories and groups of people from different lands under one single rule.