History · Unit 2

The First Civilizations

Cities, writing and the first states

A city is not just a big village. It needs food coming in from elsewhere, a way of recording who owns what, and someone with the authority to settle disputes - and those three needs produced writing, law and kingship almost together.

The unit covers Mesopotamia, the first cities and the Indus Valley. The Indus is the most interesting case precisely because its script has never been deciphered, so a large, planned, plumbed civilisation remains substantially unreadable.

This unit breaks down into 20 short steps and 120 questions, starting at difficulty 1 and building to 3. Below you can see exactly what it covers, how the path is structured, and worked examples with explanations.

Steps: 20
Questions: 120
Difficulty: 1-3

What this unit covers

The Invention of Writing
The First Cities
The Indus Valley
Kings and Laws
Mesopotamia

Where this fits

Follows Prehistory and Early Humans. Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome all build on the ideas introduced here.

Where people slip

Writing was invented for accounting, not for literature. The earliest tablets are receipts, and the poetry came centuries later.

How the unit is structured

The First Civilizations runs as 20 short steps that unlock in order. 15 are practice rounds and 5 are challenge rounds that pull together everything before them. Questions start at difficulty 1 and climb to 3 as you progress.

Step 1 · easierStep 20 · harder

Challenge rounds

Example questions

30 real questions from this unit, with the answer and the reason behind it, grouped by what they practise. There are 120 in the unit altogether.

Kings and Laws

Multiple choiceLevel 1
1. Hammurabi is famous for creating one of the first written...?
- Sets of lawscorrect
- Maps of the world
- Musical songs
- Alphabets
Hammurabi's code was one of the earliest written sets of laws in history.
Guess the numberLevel 2
2. About what year was the Code of Hammurabi written? (BCE)
Answer: -1750 BCE
Hammurabi's law code was written around 1750 BCE in the city of Babylon.
Build the sentenceLevel 3
3. Build the sentence about Hammurabi's famous laws.
Answer: Hammurabi wrote one of the earliest known law codes
The Code of Hammurabi, from Babylon around 1754 BCE, is one of the earliest known written collections of laws.
Fill the blankLevel 3
4. The world's first empire is usually credited to ____ of Akkad, who united the Sumerian city-states around 2334 BCE.
- Sargoncorrect
- Hammurabi
- Gilgamesh
- Ur-Nammu
Sargon of Akkad conquered and united the Sumerian city-states, creating what is often called history's first empire.
Match the pairsLevel 3
5. Match each Mesopotamian ruler or figure to the city or empire linked with them.
Answer: Hammurabi = Babylon; Sargon = The Akkadian Empire; Gilgamesh = Uruk; Ur-Nammu = Ur
Hammurabi ruled Babylon, Sargon founded the Akkadian Empire, Gilgamesh was the legendary king of Uruk, and Ur-Nammu ruled Ur.
Odd one outLevel 3
6. Which of these does NOT belong with the Assyrian Empire?
- The Great Pyramid of Gizacorrect
- The city of Nineveh
- A powerful, disciplined army
- King Ashurbanipal
The Great Pyramid of Giza was built in Egypt; Nineveh, a strong army and King Ashurbanipal all belong to Assyria.

Mesopotamia

Build the sentenceLevel 1
7. Build the meaning of the word 'Mesopotamia':
Answer: land between the rivers
Mesopotamia means the land between the rivers.
Fact or fibLevel 1
8. Early people settled near rivers partly because the water helped their crops grow.
Answer: True
Rivers gave water for drinking, farming and travel, so many early settlements grew beside them.
Fill the blankLevel 1
9. Mesopotamia lay between the Tigris and the ____ rivers.
- Euphratescorrect
- Nile
- Amazon
- Ganges
Mesopotamia grew up between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
10. Mesopotamia was part of a curved band of rich farmland often called the...?
- Fertile Crescentcorrect
- Iron Triangle
- Golden Circle
- Silk Ring
The Fertile Crescent was a curved area of good farmland stretching across the Middle East.
Odd one outLevel 2
11. Which of these does NOT belong with Mesopotamia?
- The Nilecorrect
- The Tigris
- The Euphrates
- The Fertile Crescent
The Nile is the river of Egypt, while Mesopotamia sat between the Tigris and Euphrates in the Fertile Crescent.
Guess the numberLevel 3
12. Around which year did the Late Bronze Age collapse take place? (Use a negative number for BCE.)
Answer: -1200 BCE
The Late Bronze Age collapse occurred around 1200 BCE, as trade networks and several states broke down.

The First Cities

Fill the blankLevel 1
13. A tall stepped temple tower in a Sumerian city was called a ____.
- zigguratcorrect
- pyramid
- castle
- cathedral
A ziggurat was a stepped temple tower at the heart of many Mesopotamian cities.
Fact or fibLevel 2
14. The Phoenicians were skilled sea traders whose home cities included Tyre and Sidon.
Answer: True
The Phoenicians lived in coastal city-states such as Tyre and Sidon and traded widely across the Mediterranean.
Match the pairsLevel 2
15. Match each early invention to what it was used for.
Answer: Wheel = Moving heavy loads; Plough = Turning the soil; Ziggurat = A temple to the gods; Canal = Watering crops
Wheels moved loads, ploughs turned soil, ziggurats were temples, and canals carried water to crops.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
16. A ziggurat was a large stepped structure. What was it mainly used as?
- A temple to the godscorrect
- A royal prison
- A market hall
- A city wall
Ziggurats were tall stepped temples built to honour the gods at the centre of a Sumerian city.
Choose all that applyLevel 3
17. Historians often list several features that mark a society as an early civilization. Which of the following are usually included?
- Permanent citiescorrect
- A system of writingcorrect
- Specialised jobs beyond farmingcorrect
- Monumental architecturecorrect
- A fully nomadic lifestyle
- A complete absence of government
Cities, writing, specialised labour, organised government and monumental buildings are common markers of early civilization.
Odd one outLevel 3
18. Three of these are commonly listed as features of an early civilization. Which one is the odd item out?
- Cave paintingscorrect
- Permanent cities
- A writing system
- Organised government
Cave paintings belong to much earlier prehistoric hunter-gatherers, while cities, writing and government mark early civilizations.

The Indus Valley

Choose all that applyLevel 2
19. Which of these were features of Indus Valley cities? (Choose all that apply.)
- Streets laid out in a grid patterncorrect
- Covered drains for waste watercorrect
- Brick houses of similar sizecorrect
- Giant stone pyramids for kings
Indus cities had grid streets, covered drains and brick houses, but not stone pyramids for kings.
Fill the blankLevel 2
20. Two of the biggest Indus Valley cities were Harappa and ____.
- Mohenjo-darocorrect
- Babylon
- Athens
- Memphis
Harappa and Mohenjo-daro were two of the largest and best-planned cities of the Indus Valley.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
21. The Indus Valley civilization grew along the Indus River in what is now...?
- Pakistan and Indiacorrect
- Egypt and Sudan
- Italy and Greece
- China and Korea
The Indus Valley civilization developed along the Indus River in the area of modern Pakistan and northwest India.
Odd one outLevel 2
22. Which of these was NOT a feature of Indus Valley cities?
- Giant stone pyramidscorrect
- Straight, planned streets
- Covered drains
- Brick houses
Indus cities had planned streets, covered drains and brick houses, but they did not build giant stone pyramids.
Picture questionLevel 2
23. 🧱 Indus Valley builders made mud bricks that were all the same size. What did this help them do?
- Build neat, planned cities
- Sail across the sea
- Write on clay
- Melt iron
Using bricks of a standard size helped the Indus people build neat, carefully planned cities.
Sort into groupsLevel 2
24. Sort each thing into the civilization it belongs to.
Answer: Cuneiform writing = Mesopotamia; Ziggurats = Mesopotamia; Mohenjo-daro = Indus Valley; The Great Bath = Indus Valley
Cuneiform and ziggurats come from Mesopotamia, while Mohenjo-daro and the Great Bath come from the Indus Valley.

The Invention of Writing

Fill the blankLevel 1
25. Scribes pressed wedge shapes into soft ____ tablets to write.
- claycorrect
- paper
- glass
- wooden
Cuneiform was written by pressing a reed tool into soft clay tablets that were then dried.
Multiple choiceLevel 1
26. What is the name of the writing system invented in ancient Mesopotamia?
- Cuneiformcorrect
- Hieroglyphics
- The alphabet
- Braille
Cuneiform, made of wedge-shaped marks, was one of the world's first writing systems.
Fact or fibLevel 2
27. Many cuneiform tablets have survived because the clay was baked or dried hard.
Answer: True
Hardened clay tablets last a very long time, so thousands still survive for us to study today.
Match the pairsLevel 2
28. Match each Mesopotamian term to its meaning.
Answer: Cuneiform = Wedge-shaped writing; Scribe = Trained professional writer; Ziggurat = Stepped temple tower; Stele = Inscribed stone pillar
Cuneiform was the wedge-shaped script, a scribe was a trained writer, a ziggurat was a stepped temple, and a stele was an inscribed stone pillar.
Choose all that applyLevel 3
29. What were some of the main uses of writing in early Mesopotamia?
- Keeping accounts of goods and tradecorrect
- Recording lawscorrect
- Writing literature such as epicscorrect
- Taking photographs of people
- Broadcasting the radio news
Writing began mainly for record-keeping, then expanded to record laws, letters and literature.
Guess the numberLevel 3
30. Roughly in which year did the earliest cuneiform writing appear in Sumer? (Use a negative number for BCE.)
Answer: -3200 BCE
The first cuneiform writing developed in Sumer around 3200 BCE, mainly to keep records of goods.

Where these questions come from. Each unit starts as a plan of the concepts it should cover and the difficulty it should span. Questions are written against that plan with AI assistance, then checked by a validator that rejects anything without a single defensible answer, an explanation, or plausible wrong options. How we write questions sets out the whole process, and corrections are fixed in the bank and reach the site and the app the same day.

How you practise

This unit mixes 17 different question formats, so you are recalling and applying rather than recognising the same layout every time.

Build the sentence
Choose all that apply
Fact or fib
Fill the blank
Guess the number
Listen and choose
Match the pairs
Multiple choice
Odd one out
Picture question
Put in order
Sequence recall
Sort into groups
Spell it
Tap the pairs
True or false
Type the answer

Practise The First Civilizations

120 questions across 20 steps. Start with step one and crawl at your own pace.

Play this unit

Read about The First Civilizations

Explainers from our blog on what this unit covers. Each one ends with real questions from the bank.

How Cuneiform Changed Life in Early CitiesCuneiform began as a practical system for tracking goods and work. Over time, it grew into a flexible form of writing used for laws, letters, stories and learning.July 26, 2026 · 5 min read

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