Ch. 10 -- An Explosion Of Complexity

Question 1

Amratian/Nagada I

Answer 1

Time period in predynastic Egypt

Upper Egypt – 5750-5650 ya

Question 2

City-state

Answer 2

Political entity characteristic of some early civilizations, especially in Mesopotamia

Central population center dominates the surrounding hinterlands, & the wealth of the countryside flows into the city where it is concentrated in the hands of the elite classes

Question 3

Civilization

Answer 3

Cultures exhibiting social stratification, labor & craft specialization, a food surplus used to support a political and/or religious elite, monumental construction, and a system of record keeping

Question 4

Class society

Answer 4

Societies rigidly stratified into social levels

Question 5

Cuneiform

Answer 5

Early form of written records in Mesopotamia, involving the impression of standardized symbols on wet clay

Earliest writing

Question 6

Dagga

Answer 6

A high-quality, clay-based building material used in Southern Africa

Question 7

Deffufa

Answer 7

Monumental mud-brick towers built by the inhabitants of the ancient Nubian civilization of Kerma located south of the third cataract of the Nile in modern Sudan

Question 8

Envelope

Answer 8

Name given to clay containers used to store clay tokens in the Middle East beginning 5500 ya

Question 9

Hieroglyphic

Answer 9

A writing system in which pictorial symbols are used to convey a particular sound, object, or idea - or some combination of these three things

Question 10

Knossos

Answer 10

Enormous and impressive site representing the culmination of Minoan civilization

Question 11

Kush

Answer 11

The Egyptian name for the land south of their territory

Question 12

Late Gerzean (Nagada II, Maadian)

Answer 12

Time period in predynastic Egypt

Nagada II = 5400-5300 ya in Upper Egypt

Maadian = 5400-5300 ya in Lower Egypr

Question 13

Mastaba

Answer 13

Mud-brick structures built over the tombs of a developing elite in Egypt before the pharaohs

Question 14

Minoan

Answer 14

Name given to the early European civilization that evolved on the island of Crete

Question 15

Monumental work

Answer 15

Large-scale, communal construction projects characteristic of civilizations

Question 16

Mycenaeans

Answer 16

Southern European civilization that followed the Minoans and preceded the Greeks

Question 17

Nagada III

Answer 17

Time period in predynastic Egypt

5300-5100 ya in both Upper & Lower Egypt

Question 18

New Temple Period

Answer 18

Culture period defined for Minoan Crete dating from 3650-3420 BP

Followed catastrophic earthquake that damaged the temple at Knossos but marks a fluorescence of Minoan culture

Question 19

Nubia

Answer 19

The territory south of the ancient Egyptian nation

Question 20

Omari A

Answer 20

Time period in predynastic Egypt

5750-5650 ya in Lower Egypt

Question 21

Rosetta Stone

Answer 21

Key to deciphering Egyptian written language

Question 22

Social stratification

Answer 22

Pattern of social integration in which individuals are placed into a hierarchy of social levels

The presence of a hierarchy of differences in status and wealth in a society

Question 23

Specialization of labor

Answer 23

Cultural pattern in which some individuals can focus all or most of their labors on some specialty

Characteristic of complex civilizations

Question 24

State

Answer 24

Class societies

Ruling class controls the populace by coercion and force - power to levy and collect taxes, establish & enforce laws, and conscript people to do the work of the state

Question 25

System of record keeping

Answer 25

Any symbolic system for keeping track of economic transactions, historical events, religious rules, etc.

Question 26

Token

Answer 26

Small pieces of shaped clay or inscribed tags of bone or ivory that represent early steps in the development of a written language

Question 27

Tumuli

Answer 27

An artificial pile of earth, often placed over an individual’s grave

Question 28

Ubaid

Answer 28

Name given to the culture of southern Mesopotamia at 6300 BP