AP World History Vocab Ancient Mesopotamia – Flashcards

One of the best known individuals from ancient Mesopotamia. He ruled in 2750 B.C. for about 126 years. And he lead his community in it's conflict with Kish, a nearby city. He was the fifth king of the city of Uruk. But, he was a figure of Mesopotamian mythology, and folklore. He was the central figure Epic of Gilgamesh. According to those stories, the gods granted Gilgamesh the perfect body and gave him super human strength, and courage. He was "the man to whom all things were known." and "saw mysteries and knew secret things." These stories also showed that the ancient Mesopotamian's had a writing system.

Gilgamesh's cherished friend, who sought fame with Gilgamesh. He helped Gilgamesh kill an evil monster, rescued Uruk from a raging bull, and matched wits with gods. In spite of him being heroic he offended the gods and got sentenced to death.

It promoted the emergence of social class. For order, settled agricultural peoples recognized political authorities, then built states here. This place attracted a lot migrants, such as the ancient Hebrews, who settled in the regions cities and adopted these people's ways. This place's name comes from two Greek words which mean, "the land between rivers," which refers to the fertile valley in between the Tigris and Euphrates river, in modern day Iraq. Because of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, early cultivators that by tapping these rivers, building reservoirs, and digging canals, they could irrigate fields.

Settled agricultural peoples recognized political authorities and built states throughout Mesopotamia.The establishment of states encouraged the creators of empires to increase the states extended their power and security by imposing their rule on neighboring lands. People / Trade Plenty of food / Specialization of Labor

A land in the southern half of Mesopotamia. By 3,000 B.C. This land had a population of 100,000 people. The people of this land were the dominate people of Mesopotamia. The wealth of this place attracted migrants from other regions. Around 4,000 B.C. population increased so much that this place created the first city-states.

These people were called this because of the languages they spoke, which were, Akkadian, Aramaic, Hebrew, and Phoenician. Languages, like these spoken today are Arabic and Hebrew. These people were nomadic herders who went to Mesopotamia from the Arabian and Syrian deserts.

Because agriculture was so crucial to the welfare of urban residents all the cities became these. These things not only controlled public life within the cites but, also looked over affairs in surrounding regions.

These are distinctive stepped pyramids that housed temples and alters to the principal local deity. In the city of Uruk, a massive one of these and a temple complex went up about 3,200 B.C. in honor of the fertility goddess Inanna. Scholars have calculated that it's construction required the services of 1500 laborers working 10 hours per day for 5 years. Almost all Mesopotamian these, were built this way.

He was the creator of the first empire in Mesopotamia. He began his career as a minister to the King Kish. At about 2334 B.C. he organized a coup against the king. He recruited an army and went on the offensive against the Sumerian city-states.

He was one of the most prominent of the later conquerors of Mesopotamia. He styled himself as, "King of the four quarters of the world." he reined from 1,792 B.C. - 1750 B.C. He instituted less refiners but more regular taxes were collected by the officials.

Hammurabi sought to maintain his empire by providing it with a code of law. He borrowed liberally from his predecessors in compelling the most extensive and most complete Mesopotamian law code.

"Law of retaliations" Offenders suffered punishment resembling their violations. "Eye for an eye." The code however took amount of social standing when applying the principle judges relied on their judgement deciding on the outcome of a case.

Imperial rule returned to Mesopotamia because of these people. They had a powerful and intimidating army. These people appointed officers by their skill, merit, and bravery, not by family. This empire had also invaded not only Mesopotamia but also, Syria, Palestine, much of Anatolia, and most of Egypt. They also followed laws much like those established in the code of Hammurabi. 900 B.C. - 600 B.C.

Taking advantage of their local trade routes running both north-south and east-west. The Assyrians built flourishing cities at Assur and this. This place also had the largest library and ancient times.

Greatest king of the Assyrian Empire. This king got the Assyrian plenty of riches to create an area for nerds. (A.K.A a library) The largest copy of the Epic of Gilgamesh was at the library of Nineveh.

For half a century, from 600 B.C. - 550 B.C. the Babylon once again dominated Mesopotamia. During the New Babylonian empire sometimes called this. The New Babylonians are similar to the Assyrians.

He was a king who reigned from 605 B.C. - 562 B.C. He lavished wealth and resources from his capital city.

When one of the king's wives longed for flowering shrubs from her mountain homeland, Nebuchadnezzar had them painted in terraces above city walls and these of Babylon have symbolized the cites luxuriousness ever since.

About 4,000 B.C. Mesopotamia metalworkers discovered that if they alloyed copper and tin they could make much harder and stronger implements. Experimentation with copper metallurgy this led to the invention of this. This had immediate impact on military affairs, as craftsmen turned swords, spears, axes, shields, and armor out of this recently made metals.

After about 1,000 B.C. Mesopotamian's began to manufacture tools with this as well as bronze. Craftsmen from Hittie developed techniques of foraging exceptionally strong tools out of this.

The first use of this probably took place about 3,500 B.C. and Sumerians were building wheeled carts by 3,000 B.C. Wheeled carts and wagons enabled people to haul heavy loads of bulk goods- such as grain, bricks, and metal ores, - over much longer distances than human porters within a few centuries it had became the standard mean of overland transportation.

Increasing specialization of labor, and long-distance trade, provided cities with many more opportunities for the accumulation of wealth. Social distinctions in Mesopotamia became much more sharply defined in the neolithic villages. In early Mesopotamia the ruling classes consisted of kings and nobles who won their positions because of their valor and success as a warrior. Community members originally voted for their kings but royal status soon became hereditary as kings arranged for their sons to succeed them. Nobles were mostly members of royal families and class supporters of kings. Amount of land equals wealth.

These people mostly worked as peasant cultivators in the countryside or land owned by their families although some worked as builders craftsman or professionals such as physicians or engineers. They pay taxes!

These people had fewer options than than free commoners because they possessed no property. They usually worked as agricultural laborers on estates owned by others, including kings, nobles, or priestly communities and they owed a portion of the production to their land owners. They paid taxes. This is how most people lived throughout history.

They came from three main sources: prisoners of war, convicted criminals, and heavily in debt individuals who sold themselves into slavery in order to satisfy their obligations. Some slaves were out of the agricultural laborers on a estate of Nobles but most were domestic servants in wealthy households many masters free their slaves with the financial bequest.

While recognizing difference of rank wealth, and social status Mesopotamians also built this that vested authority over public and private affairs with adult men. Within their households men decided the work of their family and marriage arrangements for their children.

In spite of there is so important legal status, women made their influences felt in Mesopotamian society. At ruling courts women sometimes advised kings and their governments. A few woman wielded great power as high priestesses who manage the estates belonging to their temples.

Beginning about 2000 BC the Sumerians developed a system of writing that used graphing symbols on wet clay. Because the stylus left lines and wedged shape marks known as cuneiform a term that means wedged shaped in Latin.

Mesopotamians establish formal schools because this great deal of time and concentrated effort to learn cuneiforms writing. Mesopotamian scholars devoting themselves to the study of astronomy and mathematics. Astronomy was important because it helped them prepare accurate calendars, which and turn enabled them to chart the rhythms of the season's and determine the appropriate time for planting and harvesting crops. They used mathematician to survey agricultural lands and distribute them to the proper owners or tenants.

North of Israelites Kingdom and Palestine these people occupied a narrow coastal plain between the Mediterranean Sea and the Lebanon mountains. They spoke a Semitic language referring to themselves as Canaanites and their land as Canaan. Their meager land didn't permit the development of a large agricultural society, after 2500 BC the Phoenicians turned increasingly to industry and trade. They traded with Mesopotamia and other people's and they provided much of the cedar timber furnishings and decorative items that went into the Israelites temple in Jerusalem.

The Phoenicians' tradition also illustrates the creative adaptation of Mesopotamian practice to their own needs. For a millennium or more they relied on cuneiform writing to preserve information, and they compiled a vast collection of religious, historical, and literary writings. By 1500 BC Phoenician scribes had devised an early alphabetic script consisting of 22 symbols representing continents the Phoenicians had no symbol for vowels. Alphabetic writing spread widely as when Phoenicians traveled and traded throughout the Mediterranean basin. And later centuries alphabetic writing spread to central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and ultimately throughout most of the world.

Mesopotamians and their neighbors all dealt frequently with peoples far beyond southwest Asia. Among the most influential of these people in the third and second millennium BC with those who spoke Indo-European languages. During the 18th and 19th centuries linguists noticed that many languages of Europe, southwest Asia, and India featured remarkable similarities in vocabulary and grammatical structure. Ancient languages displaying these similarities included, Sanskrit, old Persian, Greek, and Latin. Because of the geographical regions these tongues are found, scholars referred to them as Indo European language.

They were the most influential Indo-European migrants. About 1900 BC these people migrated towards the Central plain of Anatolia, where they impose their language and rule on the lands inhabited. After 1200 BC the unified Hittites state dissolved, as waves of invaders attacked societies throughout the eastern Mediterranean region.

The Hittites were responsible for two technological innovations the construction of light, horse drawn war chariots and the refinement of iron metallurgy— that greatly strengthened their own society and influenced other people throughout much of the ancient world. About 2000 BC the Hittites fitted chariots with spoked wheels, which were much lighter and more maneuverable then Sumerian wheels.

While the Hitties were building a state in Anatolia other Indo-European speakers migrated from Steppe to different regions. Some went to Central Asia, venturing as far as the Tarim Basin. By 2000 BC stunning evidence of these migrations came to light recently when archeologist excavated burials of individuals with European features in China Xinjiang's Provence.

They migrated to the Iranian plateau. They herded animals, cultivated grains and directed themselves into case classes of rulers priest and commoners

Filter to northern India, they built powerful states on fastens of their horse base military technologies and later their possession of iron weapons migrated to India with population created Hinduism.