Egypt, Mesopotamia, Fertile
Crescent Test Review
Sumer
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Developed cuneiform
Invented the wheel
Built Ziggurats
City States
Polytheistic
Epic of Gilgamesh
Babylon
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Code of Hammurabi
Capital was Babylon
Adopted Sumerian gods
Expanded public works projects
Hittites
• Indo Europeans
• Developed iron weapons
• Revolutionized warfare
Assyrians
• Brutal treatment of enemies and
fierce warriors
• Improved weapons and siege tactics
• Established large empire
• Developed road networks
• Built one of the world’s first libraries
Chaldeans/Neo Babylonian
Empire
• Restored Babylon
• Hanging Gardens of Babylon
• Captured Jerusalem and brought
Jewish slaves back to Babylon
Phoenicians
• Traders who traveled throughout the
Mediterranean
• Carriers of Civilization
• Spread ideas and technology
throughout the Mediterranean
• Developed the alphabet
Dynasty
• Power/rule passed one from one family
member to another
Theocracy
• Government run by religious leaders
Cuneiform
• Wedge shaped form of writing
developed by the Sumerians
Hieroglyphics
• Form of writing using pictures to
represent letters and concepts
Egyptian View of the Afterlife
• Positive view
• Reflected the favorable geographic
characteristics of the Nile River Valley
Sumerian View of the Afterlife
• Feared gods
• Saw gods as unpredictable
• View of the afterlife was gloomy and
bleak
• Reflected the unpredictable nature of
their world
Effects of Geographic Factors
in Sumer
• Lack of natural barriers promoted
cultural diffusion
Effects of Geography on Egypt
• Natural barriers protected Egypt from
invasion and movement of large groups
of outsiders
• Limited cultural diffusion
• Promoted development of unique
Egyptian culture