TERMS

Akkad: the northern part of the southern Mesopotamian plain, and the name of the
             brilliant dynasty centered there between about 2330 and 2190 BC

Akkadian language: A Semitic language spoken in Mesopotamia from the 3rd to 1st millenium BC

Alabaster:  fine-grained gypsum or calcite, often white or translucent

Apotropaic: warding off evil

Babylonia: Southern Mesopotamia

Cella: the room in a temple where the statue or symbol of the god was worshipped

Chlorite: steatite or soapstone

Chronology: a dating system

Cone mosaics: wall decoration using baked clay colored cones

Cuneiform: Wedge shaped writing used in Mesopotamia by impressing a stylus into clay

Cylinder seal: A cylinder engraved with a design, which was impressed onto wet clay when the seal
                      was rolled over it
Dynasty: line of rulers, usually from the same family

Gilgamesh: Legendary ruler of the city of Uruk, Epic of Gilgamesh is a poem recording his deeds

Neolithic: New Stone Age ­ period in which stone tools were used and agriculture was adopted

Obsidian: volcanic glass, used for cutting tools

Onager: type of wild ass living on the steppes of the Near East

Sherd: broken fragment of pottery

Stamp seal: an engraved seal which is "stamped" into wet clay to leave an impression

Stele: a stone monument, usually inscribed and/or sculpted

Sumer: southern part of Mesopotamia

Tablet: Cushion-shaped clay or stone object upon which cuneiform was inscribed

Tell:Arabic for mound (remains of a settlement) Huyuk in Turkish

Ziggurat: high mound with temple atop it