SOCIAL STUDIES OUTLINE

 

CHAPTER 2              THE FERTILE CRESCENT

 

Section 1: Land Between Two Rivers

 

I. Writing

 

-The first known schools were set up in _________________ over

 ___________________ years ago.

 

-Sumerian schools taught boys-and possibly a few girls - the new

 invention of ___________________________.

 

-Graduates of the school became ________________, or professional 

 _______________________

 

-_____________________ were important because they kept records

 _______________________________________________________.

 

-The writings ____________________________left behind help to

  tell the story of this early civilization. 

 

II. The Geographic Setting

 

-Sumer was located in a region called ­­­­­­­­­_________________________.

 

-____________________________ had rich soil and life-giving rivers.

 

-Sumer’s central location within the ancient world drew many

 _____________________________ from other regions.

 

-Sumer became one of the most ________________________ areas

 of the ancient world.

 

-Mesopotamia’s name describes its location. The word Mesopotamia

 comes from two Greek words that mean ______________________ “_______________________________________________________.

 

-Mesopotamia lay between the ______________________ and

 ____________________ rivers

 

- Mesopotamia is part of the ____________________________, a

  region in Southwest Asia that was the site of the world’s first

  civilization.

 

-The area eastward from the Mediterranean Sea to the coast of

  Mesopotamia to the Persian Gulf is shaped like a ______________

  ______________________. The rivers of this _________________

  _____________________________region helped to make it one of

  the best places in Southwest Asia for ________________________.

 

-The _________________ and _____________________ rivers were

  the source of life for the peoples of Mesopotamia. In the spring,

  ________________________________ picked up tons of topsoil as

  it rushed down from the mountains and flooded the

  land. Farmers grew ___________________ in this soil.

 

-The rivers also supplied _____________, ___________ for building,

  and tall, strong reeds used to make _____________________.

 

-The floodwaters, racing down without warning, also swept away

  people, animals, _________________, and ________________.

 

III. The First Cities

 

-As farming succeeded in Mesopotamia, food surpluses encouraged

 the __________________________________________________.

 

-By ___________ B.C., some of the earliest known cities arose in the

 southern region of Sumer, along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

 

-Each Sumerian city acted as a _____________________________,

 with its own special _________________________, its own

 _____________________, and, eventually, its own _____________.

 

-Sumerian houses faced away from the crowded streets onto inner

 courtyards where families are and children played. On hot nights,

 people slept outdoors on their ____________________________.

 _______________ supplied light for Sumerian homes.

 

 

-IV. Sumerian Religion

 

-Religious, social, and economic activities all took place at the 

  __________________________.

 

-Ziggurats were __________________________________________

 and some were more than ____________ stories high. At the top of

 each was a ___________________. The Sumerians believed that

 gods descended to the earth using the ziggurat as a ____________.

 

-The people of Sumer were ____________________, that means

  they worshiped many gods and gods and goddesses.

 

-Poly-, a Greek prefix, means “________________.” Theism means

 _____________________________________________. 

 

-The Sumerians honored their gods in religious ceremonies. Temple

  priests washed ______________________________ before and

  after each meal was offered.

 

-Food was often eaten after it was presented to the gods. Perhaps

 the worshippers thought that by eating the offering, they would be

 ______________________________________________________.

 

-Unfortunately for Sumer, its _______________ became its downfall.

 

-Sumerian states fought each other over __________ and the use of

 ___________________________________.

 

 

 

 

-Around 2300 B.C., Sumer was conquered by the armies of

 neighboring ________________________. Their ruler, _________

 _______________, united the Sumerian

 city-states and improved Sumer’s government and its military.

 

-Sumer remained united for about _______ years. It fell to a

 northern rival, ______________________, in the 1700s B.C.

 

 

 

Section 2: BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

 

I. The Two Empires of Mesopotamia

 

-The biggest and most important Mesopotamian civilizations were the

  empires of _____________________________________________.

 

-The beautiful city of ___________________ was the center of the

 Babylonian empire. This empire reached its height around ________

 B.C.

 

-The Assyrians, named after the northern city of _____________,

  began expanding their lands in the ___________’s B.C. By the

  ___________’s B.C., they controlled a large empire.

 

-The Babylonians and Assyrians had two things in common. In their

  quest for riches, _______________________________________.

  And in the enjoyment of their riches, they built ________________

  where _________________________________ were highly valued.

 

II. The Babylonian Empire

 

-A Babylonian king named ___________________________ created

 the Babylonian Empire by uniting the cities of Sumer. Then he

 conquered lands all the way to _____________________________.

 

-Under Hammurabi’s steady rule, Babylon created a system of 

 ___________________________________ throughout the empire.

 

-Babylon’s location made it a crossroads of _________________.

 

-In about 1760 B.C., Hammurabi conquered the city of _________

 and seized ____________________________________________.

 

-By about ______________ B.C., the empire first conquered by

 _____________________ had shrunk and was finally destroyed. 

 

III. The Empire of the Assyrians

 

-Since they were constantly defending themselves, the Assyrians

 became ____________________________________.

 

-By 650 B.C., Assyria had conquered a large empire that stretched

 across the Fertile Crescent, from the _________________________

 _______________________________________________________.

 

-The Assyrians were clever warriors. They invented the ___________

 __________________and had expert _________________________

 and ___________________________________________________.

 

-Assyria’s capital of ______________________ became a city of

 great learning.  It had a remarkable library that held thousands of

 clay tablets with writings __________________________________.

 

 

-The ___________________ and ___________________ joined

  together to defeat the Assyrian Empire in _____________ B.C.

 

IV. Babylonia Rises Again

 

-Under the _________________________, Babylon rose again to

 even greater splendor. It became the center of the New Babylonian

 Empire.

 

-King Nebuchadnezzer II rebuilt the city of Babylon which the

 _______________________________ had destroyed.

 

-Under the rule of the Chaldeans, the New Babylonian Empire

 became a center of learning and science. Chaldean astronomers

 charted __________________________________________ and

 ____________________________________________________ .

 

-In 539 B.C., the New Babylonian Empire fell to the ___________

 led by ______________________________, but the city of Babylon

 was spared.

 

 

SECTION 3: THE LEGACY OF MESOPOTAMIA

 

I. Hammurabi’s Code

 

-Hammurabi ruled __________________________ from about 1792

 to 1750 B.C. He set down rules for everyone in his empire to follow.

 These rules are known as _________________________________.

 The Code told the people of Babylonia how to settle conflicts in all

 _________________________________________.

 

-Hammurabi’s Code, which was based partly on earlier

 ____________________ codes, contained ________ laws organized

 into categories such as trade, labor, property, and family.

 

-Hammurabi’s Code was based on the idea of “_________________

 _________________.” In other words, punishment should be similar

 to the crime committed.

 

-However, the code did not apply ______________ to all people. The

 harshness of the punishment depended on how important the victim

 and the lawbreaker were. The higher the class of victim, _________

 _______________________________________________________. 

 

 

 

 

 

II. The Art of Writing

 

-Writing first developed in _____________________________

 around _________________ B.C. Long before Hammurabi issued his

 code, the people of _________________ had developed a system of

 writing.

 

-Writing met the need _______________ had to keep ___________.

 

-Since only a few people could write, it was one of the most valuable

 skills in the ancient world. ____________________ held positions of

 great respect in Mesopotamia.

 

-The scribes of Sumer recorded sales and _____________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________.

 

-None of these records were written on _______________, however.

 ________________ had not yet been invented. Instead, the scribes

 of Mesopotamia kept their notes and records on _______________.

 

-The Tigris and Euphrates rivers washed __________ down from the

 mountains each year, and scribes shaped the soft, wet _______ into

 tablets. When the ____________ dried, it was a permanent record.

 

-Like most inventions, writing developed _____________________.

 Long before the Sumerians invented writing, they used shaped

 pieces of clay as _____________ or _________________ to keep

 records of how many animals were bought and sold or how much

 food had been grown. By_____________ B.C., this form of

 recordkeeping had developed into writing.

 

-At first, written words were symbols that represented ___________

 ___________. As people learned to record ideas as well as facts, the

 symbols changed.

 

-Eventually, scribes combined symbols to make groups of wedges

 and lines known as ___________________.

SECTION 4: MEDITTERRANEAN CIVILIZATIONS

 

I. Phoenician Sea Power

 

-_______________ was the major city in a region called Phoenicia.

 

-Phoenicians had settled in a land that had limited but very important

 resources. Besides the murex snails from whose glands they

 extracted _____________________ to color clothes, they had a

 great amount of dense _____________________. They sold their

 dyed ___________ and ______________ to neighboring peoples.

 

-In time, the Phoenicians controlled ________________ throughout

 much of the Mediterranean. From about ________ to __________

 B.C., Phoenicia was a great sea power.

 

-Trade brought valuable goods from lands around the Mediterranean

 Sea to the Phoenician cities of ____________ and ______________.

 

-The Phoenicians relied on ___________ to help them conduct trade.

 They developed a writing system that used just _____________________ symbols to represent the sounds of the language. It forms the basis of many ________________________ used today, including _________________.

 

-In the Phoenician alphabet, each letter stood for ________________

 _______________________ sound.

 

-The simpler Phoenician alphabet was far easier to learn than

 ____________________. Before the alphabet, only highly educated

 scribes were ______________________________. Now many more

 people could write using the new alphabet.

 

-The alphabet simplified _________________ between people who

 spoke different __________________. The Phoenician sea trade, in

 turn, helped the alphabet to _____________________. 

 

 

II. The Rise of the Israelites

 

-South of _______________________, a small band of people settled

 in the hills around the Jordan River valley. Called Hebrews at first,

 they later became known as _______________________. 

 

-Much of what is known about the early history of the Israelites

 comes from stories told in the _______________ or Hebrew Bible.

 

-The Israelites traced their beginnings to ______________________.

 For hundreds of years, they lived as ______________________ and

 _____________________ who grazed their flocks outside Sumerian

 cities.

 

 

-According to the Torah, a leader named Abraham taught his people

 to practice _____________________________, a belief in one god.

 

-The Torah says that God told Abraham to leave ________________

 and settle elsewhere.

 

-The Torah goes on to say that _______________________ led the

 Israelites from Mesopotamia to settle in the land of _____________.

 

-According to the Torah, a __________________ then spread across

 Canaan. The _______________ caused the Israelites to flee south to

 ________________________.

 

-In __________________, the Israelites lived well for a few hundred

 years. But then, an ______________________ king forced them into

 labor after he got suspicious of their power.

 

-According to the Torah, an Israelite leader named _____________

 led his people out of Egypt. The Israelites departure out of Egypt is

 called the ______________________________.

 

-For the next forty years, the Israelites wandered through the desert

 of the __________________________________________________.

-The Torah says that while in the desert, God gave the Israelites the

 __________________________________________, a code of laws.

 

-Eventually, the Israelites returned to __________________. As they

 moved farther north, they were able to settle in many parts of

 _____________________________.

 

-They united under their first king, ______________, who defended

 them against their ____________________.

 

-The next king, _______________, established his capital in the city

 of _______________________________.

 

-After David ___________________, his son, __________________,

 inherited the kingdom. After _______________________ death, the

 country split into ______________ kingdoms. The northern

 kingdom was called ____________________. The southern kingdom

 took the name of _______________________.

 

-The divided kingdom was ripe for invasion. Its neighbor, _________,

 conquered the Israelites and gained control of _________________.

 

-In _________ B.C., the Israelites resisted _____________________

 rule. In response, the _______________________ exiled thousands

 of people to distant parts of their empire.

 

-The _________________ controlled ______________ until 612 B.C.,

 when Assyria was conquered by the _________________________.

 Judah then fell under the control of the Chaldean Babylonians.

 

-Later, in __________ B.C., the King of _________________ rebelled

 against the Chaldeans. King ________________________________

 responded by destroying the capital city of ____________________

 and exiling the people of Judah to Babylonia.

 

 

 

 

SECTION 5: JUDAISM

 

I. The Beliefs of Judaism

 

-The early _____________________ came to believe that God was

 taking part in their ________________________.

 

-The Torah records events and laws important to the Israelites. It is

 made up of five books. They are called _______________________

 _______________________________________________________

 and _________________. Later, Christians adopted these books

 as the first five books of the ________________________________.

 

-Most ancient people thought of their gods as being connected to

 ___________________________________. The Israelites, however,

 believed that God is ____________________. They believed that

 God knows ___________________ (omniscient) and has complete

 __________________________ (omnipotent).

 

-According to the Torah, God promised Abraham that his people

 would become _____________ and build __________________.

 

-At the heart of Judaism are the ___________________________.

 The Israelites believed that God delivered the _________________

 to them through _______________.

 

-Some _________________________ set out religious duties toward

 God. Others are rules for ______________________________.

 

-In addition to the ____________________________________, the

 Torah set out many other laws. Some had to do with everyday

 matters, such as how ____________________________________.

 Others had to do with ______________________.

 

-Some laws protected ______________. One of the Commandments,

 for instance, requires that __________________ be treated with

 _______________________. But, as in many other religions, women were considered to be of lower ______________________ than men. 

 

-Prophets are ______________________________ who are regarded

 as speaking for ________________.

 

-The Israelites were told by their _________________ that all people

 were ___________________ before God. In many ancient societies,

 a ruler was seen as a _______________. To the Israelites, however,

 their leaders were _______________. King’s had to _____________

 God’s law just as shepherds and merchants did.

 

 

II. The Effects of Judaism

 

-After their exile from _________________ in 587 B.C., the Jews, or

 people who followed _____________________, saw their homeland

 controlled by various foreign powers, including the _____________.

 

-The _______________ drove the Jews out of their homeland in A.D.

 135. As a result, the Jewish people scattered to ________________

 ________________________________.

 

-The Romans carried on the Jewish _______________________, the

 scattering of a group of people begun by the ___________________

 and _____________________.

 

-Wherever they settled, the Jews preserved their _______________.

 They did so by living together in ____________________________,

 taking care to obey their ________________________, worshipping

 at their _________________, and following their _______________.

 

-__________________ marks a time when Israelites believed their

 children were spared from _____________________. Death “passed

 over” them, and they were led out of __________________ by

 ________________________.

 

-Judaism had an important influence on two later religions,

 ____________________________________. Both religions have

 their beginnings in ________________________.

 

-Both faiths originated from the same _________________________.

 

–Both were _____________________________.

 

-Jews, Christians, and followers of Islam all honor __________________,      _________________, and the ____________________.

 

 

USE YOUR NOTES TO COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING SECTION.

 

-The first _____________ of the Torah are Genesis, Exodus,

 Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

 

-Genesis comes from a Greek word that means ________________

 _________________________________.

 

-Exodus comes from a word that means _______________________.

 

-Leviticus means “________________________________________”.

 It was a manual for ______________________________________.

 

-Numbers comes from the Greek word _____________________,

 which means ___________________. It is called this because it

 contains the figures for a __________________.

 

-Deuteronomy comes from a Greek word that means

 ______________________. It is the _________________ giving of

 the ______________________.