After Sumer: Akkad, Assyria and the Babylonian empires

Grade 6 Social Studies Worksheet

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Assyria, an empire on the Tigris

   Topic	What we know
   Homeland	the city of Ashur, on the west bank of the Tigris River in northern Mesopotamia
   Capitals	Ashur stayed the old religious capital; kings also ruled from Nimrud (Kalhu), Khorsabad and then Nineveh
   Strong kings	from the 800s to the 600s BCE, Assyrian armies controlled the main trade routes
   Running the empire	governors ran the provinces; under Ashurbanipal, no governor was appointed without the king being consulted
   The library	Ashurbanipal (ruled 668 to 627 BCE) collected texts at Nineveh into the first systematically organized library in the ancient Middle East
   The end	Babylonians and Medes together brought the empire down; Ashur and Nineveh fell in 612 BCE

   Below the chart: about 20,720 tablets and fragments from the library are now in the British Museum in London. Sennacherib (ruled 704 to 681 BCE) made Nineveh the capital. The Assyrian king Sargon II (ruled 721 to 705 BCE) is a different person from Sargon of Akkad.

2. 1.

   Beside which river was Assyria's homeland, Bo asks?

   • The Euphrates, beside Babylon in the south
   • The Nile, in northern Egypt
   • The Tigris, in northern Mesopotamia
   • The Tigris, in southern Mesopotamia
3. 2.

   How were Assyria's provinces run, by the chart, Esme asks?

   • Governors ran them, with the king consulted on appointments
   • Medes ran them for the king from the 800s BCE
   • Each province chose a king of its own each year
   • The library's scribes ran them from Nineveh's palace
4. 3.

   Who ruled first, Sargon II or Ashurbanipal, Luz asks?

   • Sargon of Akkad, from about 2340 BCE
   • They ruled Assyria together
   • Sargon II, from 721 BCE
   • Ashurbanipal, from 668 BCE
5. 4.

   About how many years passed from the end of Ashurbanipal's reign to the fall of Nineveh, Milo asks?

   • About 15 years before his reign ended
   • About 1,239 years
   • About 15 years
   • About 56 years
6. 5.

   What brought the Assyrian empire down, by the chart, Noah asks?

   • Cyrus II of Persia
   • The Babylonians, alone
   • Babylonians and Medes, together
   • The Medes, alone
7. 6.

   Ashurbanipal gathered a library. Which effect does the note show, Pia asks?

   • The library brought the empire down in 612
   • Most texts from Mesopotamia survive today
   • About 20,720 of its tablets and fragments survive
   • The library made Nineveh the capital
8. 7.

   Why can we study Ashurbanipal's library today, Ren asks?

   • The Akkadians copied it for later readers
   • Ashurbanipal wrote the texts himself
   • The library still stands open at Nineveh
   • Thousands of its tablets survive in a museum
9. 8.

   A museum label written this year describes a library tablet. What kind of source is the label, Tala asks?

   • A primary source, since it hangs in a museum
   • A secondary source, written much later
   • Not a source, since museums do not write
   • A primary source, since it is about an old tablet
10. 9.

    What kind of source are the library's own clay tablets on Assyrian learning, Zee asks?

    • Not sources, since clay cannot hold writing
    • Secondary sources, since they are in London now
    • Secondary sources, since this chart describes them
    • Primary sources, made at the time
11. 10.

    Which is a primary source on Ashurbanipal's reign, Ari asks?

    • This compare chart about Assyria, made for the class
    • A modern map of where Nineveh stood long ago
    • A museum web page about the library, written this year
    • A clay tablet from his library at Nineveh