This page offers additional resources for students who wish to learn more about Western Asia and Egypt from 3500 to 500 BCE.
Key Terms, People, and Places
| city-state | Uruk | Ramses II | Jerusalem |
| ziggurat | Babylon | Cleopatra VII | satrapy |
| theocracy | dynasty | Nile River | satrap |
| empire | pharaoh | Lower Egypt | monarchy |
| patriarchal | bureaucracy | Upper Egypt | Assyrians |
| polytheistic | vizier | Giza | Nebuchadnezzar |
| cuneiform | mummification | pastoral nomad | Persians |
| Sumerians | hieroglyphics | monotheistic | Cyrus |
| Akkaddians | hieretic script | Indo-Europeans | Darius |
| Sargon | Menes | Hittites | Immortals |
| Hammurabi | Hyksos | Phoenicians | Zoroaster |
| Tigris River | Hatshepsut | Israelites | Assyrian Empire |
| Euphrates River | Akhenaton | King Solomon | Persian Empire |
| Mesopotamia | Tutankhamen | Isaiah | Royal Road |
| Fertile Crescent | Ramses II | Palestine |
ANCIENT EGYPT
Main Ideas
1. The Sumerians in Mesopotamia, who settled between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, were among the first groups to build a civilization and a system of writing.
2. The Sumerians formed city-states and created forms of communication that affect our lives today.
3. Early Egyptian civilization was stable and prosperous due, in large part, to the Nile river.
4. The Egyptians built large monuments and pyramids to honor the deaths of the pharaohs.
5. Ancient Egyptian history is divided into three major periods: Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms.
6. The decline of the Egyptians and the Hittites allowed a number of small kingdoms and city-states to emerge.
6. The Israelites emerged as a distinct people.
7. The Israelites did not create an empire, but they left a world religion, Judaism, that later influenced the belief systems of Christianity and ISlam.
8. The powerful Persian Empire emerged in Southwest Asia and brought many years of peace and general well being to its people.
Additional Resources
Ancient Mesopotamia
http://mesopotamia.lib.uchicago.edu/
http://hypermedia.educ.psu.edu/k-12/edpgs/su96/meso/mesopotamia.html
http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/ (British History Museum)
Mr Donn's Ancient Mesopotamia for Kids
http://mesopotamia.mrdonn.org/
Ancient History Sourcebook - Mesopotamia
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/asbook03.asp
Global Connections - The Middle east
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/globalconnections/mideast/index.html
Ancient Egypt - The British History Museum
http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/
Mr Donn's Ancient Egypt for Kids
http://egypt.mrdonn.org/
BBC History - Ancient Egyptians
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/
History.com - Ancient Egypt
http://www.history.com/topics/ancient-egypt