Study Guide
Here is what you need to know:

Standards: Click on the Social Studies Rubrics link on my webpage to see the standards being assessed and how they will be scored.

Study questions:
1. How did flooding impact life?
                a.  Positives: gave fertile soil
                b. Negatives: washed away homes and crops, unpredictable at times, could not live too close to river
2. Why is Mesopotamia known as the Fertile Crescent?
                a.  It is crescent shaped and the land is very fertile from the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers.
3. Why did people have to leave their original settlements?
                a. There was a food shortage since the population grew so much, so people moved to the foothills for more space.  
                    Once there, there was flooding from the rivers, so people had to learn to irrigate.  When they irrigated, they 
                    controlled the water, which meant that other villages were under their control, so attacks happened between 
4. What was the first form of writing, and why was it so important?
                a. Cuneiform: helped communicate and write down records - taxes.
5.  Is Mesopotamia Hierarchical or Egalitarian?
                a. Hierarchical because a small group of people ruled and everyone else followed.  (Looks like a triangle)
6.  What was the effect of laws?
                a.  People now had order, there was someone in charge, their was a clear social class order.

1. specialization of labor: choice of job
2. Cuneiform: first form of writing
3.  Mesopotamia: Cradle of Civilization, Land Between Two Rivers
4.  Tigris River: one of 2 main rivers in Mesopotamia
5. Euphrates River: one of 2 main rivers in Mesopotamia
6.  Domesticate: tame wild plants and animals
7.  technology: tools made
8.  cause:  the why
9.  effect: what happened 
10. surplus: extra resource
11: settlement: band or group/population of a civilization
12: culture: clothing, food, language, music, art, education, job, recreation...
13: political achievement: government change that impacted life
14: technological achievement: tool/resource that impacted life
15. cultural achievement: cultural aspect that impacted life
16.  irrigation: a way to control flooding: canal, ditch, channel, reservoir, dam 
17. Sumer: first civilization inside Mesopotamia
18. Hierarchical: Society with a few in charge and the majority of the population following
19: Egalitarian: Society where everyone is equal
20. Hammurabi: Leader who made the first laws
21: Social classes: how people are ranked in their society