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Fertile Crescent in Southwest Asia, between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea (includes Mesopotamia and the lands facing the Mediterranean) it is a curved shape region with rich land Mesopotamia "land between the rivers" it is a plain found in the Fertile Crescent city-state a city and its surrounding lands functioning as an independent political unit dynasty a series of rulers from a single family cultural diffusion the spreading of ideas or products from culture to another polytheism a belief in many gods empire a political unit in which a number of peoples or countries are controlled by a single ruler Hammurabi reigned over the Babylonian Empire during its peak from 1792 B.C. to 1750 B.C. His most enduring legacy is the code of laws he put together delta a marshy region formed by deposits of silt at the mouth of a river Narmer Most evidence points to this king who united Upper and Lower Egypt pharaoh a king of ancient Egypt, considered a god as well as a political and military leader theocracy a government in which the ruler is view as a divine figure or a government controlled by religious leaders pyramid a massive structure with a rectangular base and four triangular sides, like those that were built in Egypt as burial places for Old Kingdom pharaohs mummification a process of embalming and drying corpses to prevent them from decaying hieroglyphics an ancient Egyptian writing system in which pictures were used to represent ideas and sounds papyrus a tall reed that grows in the Nile delta, used by the ancient Egyptians to make a paperlike material for writing on subcontinent landmass that includes India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh monsoon seasonal winds that dominated India's climate. From October to February, winter monsoons from the northeast blow dry air westwards across the country. From middle of June to October the winds shift and these monsoons blow eastward from the southwest, carrying moisture from the great rain clouds. Harappan civilization Indus Valley civilization is sometimes called this because of the many archaeological discoveries made at that ancient city loess fertile yellowish silt deposited from the Huang He oracle bones animal bones and tortoise shells on which priests had scratched question for the gods then applied a hot poker to it, which caused it to crack. The priests then interpreted the cracks to see how the gods had answered. Mandate of Heaven the divine approval that royal authority came from heaven. a just ruler had divine approval and a wicked or foolish king could lose it and so lose the right to rule mandate-a command or instruction from a higher authority dynastic cycle the pattern of rise, decline, and replacement of dynasties feudalism a political system in which nobles, or lords are granted the use of lands that legally belong to the king. In return, the nobles owe loyalty and military service to the king and protection to the people who live on their estates