Why did the first civilizations develop near river valleys?	Rivers flooded and made the soil fertile, gave fresh water to crops and people, and later helped move things like crops from place to place.
What does the name Mesopotamia mean, and where is it today?	It means "between rivers." It is the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, mostly in modern-day Iraq.
Why is Mesopotamia called the cradle of civilization?	It was one of the first places farming developed, it sat at the crossroads of other early civilizations, and it made big advances in technology, architecture, religion, and writing.
Who were the first civilization in Mesopotamia, and when did they appear?	The Sumerians, in southern Mesopotamia, starting around 4000 BCE.
What famous invention is linked to the Sumerians?	The wheel. The first wheel ever discovered dates to about 3500 BCE in Sumer.
What was a ziggurat, and what does it tell us about Sumerian religion?	A huge structure at the center of a city with a temple on top. The Sumerians were polytheistic, and their gods took human form.
Who was Sargon the Great?	The ruler who built the Akkadian Empire around 2350 BCE, possibly the first empire in the world. He controlled both northern and southern Mesopotamia.
What happened to the Sumerian language after the Akkadian Empire took over?	Sumerian slowly died out as a spoken language, and Akkadian became the main language. Akkadian was written in cuneiform script.
What is Hammurabi most famous for?	The Code of Hammurabi, one of the earliest written codes of law. It worked almost like an early constitution and influenced later laws, including biblical law.
What was the Assyrian Empire, and what happened to it?	An Akkadian-speaking empire named for the town of Ashur. At its peak it controlled much of the Middle East, then it collapsed in the 7th century BCE.
Who was Nebuchadnezzar II?	The most famous ruler of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. He is known for taking the early Jewish people captive, called the Babylonian captivity.
Who ended the Neo-Babylonian Empire, and what did that end?	The Persians under Cyrus the Great, in the 6th century BCE. According to biblical accounts, this ended the Babylonian captivity.
fertile	Good for growing crops. River floods left the soil around Mesopotamia fertile.
civilization	A large, organized society with things like cities, government, religion, and writing.
crossroads	A place where many different people and cultures meet and mix. Mesopotamia sat at the crossroads of early civilizations.
polytheistic	Believing in many gods. The Sumerians were polytheistic.
cuneiform	The wedge-shaped writing script developed by the Sumerians, one of the first written languages.
empire	A group of lands and peoples ruled by one powerful leader or government. The Akkadian Empire may have been the first.
Semitic	A family of related languages that includes Akkadian, Aramaic, Arabic, and Hebrew.
captivity	Being held as a prisoner. The Babylonian captivity was when Nebuchadnezzar II held the early Jewish people.