Mesopotamia Trivia Quiz Questions With Answers

Interesting trivia quiz about ancient Mesopotamia.

Mesopotamia Trivia Quiz Questions With Answers

What is Mesopotamia?
A: Mesopotamia is a historical region in Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system.

The Sumerians and Akkadians dominated Mesopotamia from the beginning of written history (c. 3100 BC) to when?
A: The fall of Babylon in 539 BC, when it was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire.

It fell to whom in 332 BC?
A: Alexander the Great.

After his death, it became part of what?
A: The Greek Seleucid Empire.

Around 150 BC, Mesopotamia was under the control of what empire?
A: The Parthian Empire.

Mesopotamia became a battleground between whom?
A: The Romans and Parthians.

In AD 226, the eastern regions of Mesopotamia fell to whom?
A: The Sassanid Persians.

Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of what?
A: The Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC.
Mesopotamia encompasses the land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, both of which have their headwaters where?
A: In the Taurus Mountains.

Both rivers are fed by numerous tributaries, and the entire river system drains what?
A: A vast mountainous region.

Why do overland routes in Mesopotamia usually follow the Euphrates?
A: Because the banks of the Tigris are frequently steep and difficult.

The area is generally lacking in what?
A: Building stone, precious metals and timber.

The demands for labor has from time to time led to population increases that push the limits of what?
A: The ecological carrying capacity.

Alternatively, military vulnerability to invasion from marginal hill tribes or nomadic pastoralists has led to periods of what?
A: Trade collapse and neglect of irrigation systems.

The pre-history of the Ancient Near East begins in what period?
A: The Lower Paleolithic period.

In the long span of this period, Mesopotamia housed some of the worlds most ancient what?
A: Highly-developed and socially complex states.

The earliest language written in Mesopotamia was what?
A: Sumerian.

Along with Sumerian, what other languages were also spoken in early Mesopotamia?
A: Semitic.

Akkadian came to be the dominant language during the Akkadian Empire and the Assyrian empires, but what language was retained for administrative, religious, literary and scientific purposes?
A: Sumerian.

Different varieties of Akkadian were used until the end of what period?
A: The Neo-Babylonian period.

Akkadian fell into disuse, but both it and Sumerian were still used where?
A: In temples for some centuries.

The last Akkadian texts date from when?
A: The late 1st century AD.

Early in Mesopotamia's history, what was invented for the Sumerian language?
A: Cuneiform.

Cuneiform literally means what?
A: Wedge-shaped, due to the triangular tip of the stylus used for impressing signs on wet clay.

The standardized form of each cuneiform sign appears to have been developed from what?
A: Pictograms.

Akkadian gradually replaced what as the spoken language of Mesopotamia?
A: Sumerian.

Sumerian continued to be used as a what, until the 1st century AD in Mesopotamia?
A: Sacred, ceremonial, literary, and scientific language.

Mesopotamian mathematics and science was based on what?
A: A sexagesimal (base 60) numeric system.

This is the source of what?
A: The 60-minute hour, the 24-hour day, and the 360-degree circle.

The Sumerian calendar was based on what?
A: The seven-day week.

This form of mathematics was instrumental in early what?
A: Map-making.

The Babylonians also had theorems on how to do what?
A: Measure the area of several shapes and solids.

From Sumerian times, temple priesthoods had attempted to associate current events with certain what?
A: Positions of the planets and stars.

The Babylonian astronomers were very adept at mathematics and could predict what?
A: Eclipses and solstices.

Mesopotamian astronomers worked out a 12-month calendar based on what?
A: The cycles of the moon.

They divided the year into how many seasons?
A: Two seasons: summer and winter.

When do the oldest Babylonian texts on medicine date back to?
A: The Old Babylonian period in the first half of the 2nd millennium BC.

Along with contemporary Egyptian medicine, the Babylonians introduced what concepts?
A: Diagnosis, prognosis, physical examination, and prescriptions.

The symptoms and diseases of a patient were treated through therapeutic means such as what?
A: Bandages, creams and pills.

If a patient could not be cured physically, the Babylonian physicians often relied on what, to cleanse the patient from any curses?
A: Exorcism.

They were one of the first “what”, in the world?
A: Bronze Age societies.

Palaces were decorated with hundreds of kilograms of what?
A: Copper, bronze, and gold.

Also, copper, bronze, and iron were used for armor as well as for what?
A: Different weapons such as swords, daggers, spears, and maces.

During the Parthian or Sasanian periods, what was invented?
A: The Baghdad Battery, which may have been the world's first battery.