Grade 6 SS Midterm 2024

One sunny afternoon, the 6th grade class of Harmony Middle School sat huddled around a large wooden table. Their history assignment involved a collection of primary and secondary sources about ancient Egypt. Primary sources, such as papyrus scrolls inscribed with hieroglyphs, offered them firsthand accounts of life and culture in the Nile Valley. Secondary sources included well-respected textbooks and scholarly articles, written by historians who had deeply studied ancient Egypt. Natalia squinted at the ancient map, tracing the network of the Nile with her finger, while Josh and Lila poured over a translated excerpt from the 'Book of the Dead'. Lily and Sam debated over different interpretations by historians. As they dug deeper into their intrigue-filled assignment, they felt like detectives unveiling mysteries of an ancient world. Together, they were piecing together an image of an advanced civilization thousands of years in their past.

DOCUMENT #5

In 1754 B.C., Hammurabi conquered and united all the cities of Mesopotamia under his rule. Although he was a brutal warrior, his greatest achievement was his code of laws, which he had engraved on a towering stone monument. Hammurabi’s Code was not the first, but it was the most complete set of laws that has survived. It is important because it created a set of rules that helped to govern a civilization while trying to protect people even if they had little political power. It called for different punishments based on the class of the lawbreaker and the victim of the crime. In the Code, punishments often fit the crime by demanding and “eye for an eye” or a “tooth for a tooth”.

The following are three of the 282 laws in the Code of Hammurabi:

• Law # 229. If a builder builds a house for some one, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built fall in and kill its owner, then that builder shall be put to death.

• Law # 230. If it kills the son of the owner, the son of that builder shall be put to death.

• Law # 231. If it kills a slave of the owner, then he shall pay slave for slave to the owner of the house.

DOCUMENT #6

Sumerians and Akkadians practiced polytheism, the worship of many gods. They believed that keeping the gods happy was the key to their own happiness and prosperity(success). On the other hand, if the gods were angry, they might bring suffering and disaster. Sumerians built huge temples called ziggurats. They believed these temples linked Earth with the heavens and linked people with the gods.

DOCUMENT #8

We know about the pharaohs of ancient Egypt because of the written records that were left. These records were kept in hieroglyphics, a system of writing that was based on pictures. Unlike Sumerian cuneiform writing, hieroglyphics represented ideas or objects, but could also stand for sounds. They could be carved into clay or stone, but could also be written on to papyrus, the first paper, which was developed by the Egyptians and made it easier to keep records.

DOCUMENT #9

Ancient Egypt

Using the map of Ancient Egypt, answer questions 31-35 below.