Transcript Ancient Mesopotamia

Ancient Mesopotamia
Vocabulary
Fertile Crescent
A large arc of
rich, or fertile,
farmland
between the
Tigris &
Euphrates Rivers
Silt
A mixture of
rich soil and
tiny rocks
Irrigation
A way of
supplying
water to an
area of land
Surplus
More than
needed
Divison of labor
Each worker
specializes in a
particular task
or job
City-state
A city and
all the
countryside
around it
Polytheism
The worship
of many gods
Social hierarchy
Division of
society by
rank or class
Cuneiform
The world’s
first system of
writing
Hammurabi’s Code of Law
A set of 282
laws that dealt
with almost
every part of
daily life