AP World History-Chapter 2

Assyrians

Southwest Asian people who built an empire that reached its height during the 7th and 8th centuries BCE, Powerful Army, well structured state

Cuneiform

Written language of the Sumerians, probably first written script in world

Gilgamesh

Legendary king of the Mesopotamian city-state of Urak

Epic of Gilgamesh

World's oldest complete epic literary masterpiece

Hebrews

Semitic speaking Nomadic tribe, influential for monothiestic belief in Yahweh

Mesopotamia

Between the Rivers"- Tigris and Euphrates, Sumer and Akkad were two of the earliest societies

Patriarch

Leader of the Greek Orthodox Church, split with the Pope and Roman Catholic Church

Sumerians

Earliest Mesopotamian society

Sumer

An ancient region of southern Mesopotamia which rose around 3300 B.C. The first empire that ruled in Mesopotamia and is credited with inventing writing.

Hammurabi

King of the Babylonian empire; creator of the Code of Hammurabi, one of the world's oldest codes of law.

Israelites

The early ancestors of the Jewish people

Jews

Term originally used to describe the people who resettled in the area of Judah following the Babylonian Exile; most commonly used to refer to followers of Judaism, Monothiestic

Phoenicians

Important trading people who lived on the coast of the eastern Mediterranean, started the greek alphabet

Hittites

A people from central Anatolia who established an empire in Anatolia and Syria in the Late Bronze Age. With wealth from the trade in metals and military power based on chariot forces, the hittites vied with New Kingdom Egypt over Syria