Ch. 10 -- An Explosion Of Complexity Flashcards
Amratian/Nagada I
Time period in predynastic Egypt
Upper Egypt – 5750-5650 ya
City-state
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
Civilization
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
Class society
Societies rigidly stratified into social levels
Cuneiform
Early form of written records in Mesopotamia, involving the impression of standardized symbols on wet clay
Earliest writing
Dagga
A high-quality, clay-based building material used in Southern Africa
Deffufa
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
Envelope
Name given to clay containers used to store clay tokens in the Middle East beginning 5500 ya
Hieroglyphic
A writing system in which pictorial symbols are used to convey a particular sound, object, or idea - or some combination of these three things
Knossos
Enormous and impressive site representing the culmination of Minoan civilization
Kush
The Egyptian name for the land south of their territory
Late Gerzean (Nagada II, Maadian)
Time period in predynastic Egypt
Nagada II = 5400-5300 ya in Upper Egypt
Maadian = 5400-5300 ya in Lower Egypr
Mastaba
Mud-brick structures built over the tombs of a developing elite in Egypt before the pharaohs
Minoan
Name given to the early European civilization that evolved on the island of Crete
Monumental work
Large-scale, communal construction projects characteristic of civilizations
Mycenaeans
Southern European civilization that followed the Minoans and preceded the Greeks
Nagada III
Time period in predynastic Egypt
5300-5100 ya in both Upper & Lower Egypt
New Temple Period
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
Nubia
The territory south of the ancient Egyptian nation
Omari A
Time period in predynastic Egypt
5750-5650 ya in Lower Egypt
Rosetta Stone
Key to deciphering Egyptian written language
Social stratification
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
Specialization of labor
Cultural pattern in which some individuals can focus all or most of their labors on some specialty
Characteristic of complex civilizations
State
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
System of record keeping
Any symbolic system for keeping track of economic transactions, historical events, religious rules, etc.
Token
Small pieces of shaped clay or inscribed tags of bone or ivory that represent early steps in the development of a written language
Tumuli
An artificial pile of earth, often placed over an individual’s grave
Ubaid
Name given to the culture of southern Mesopotamia at 6300 BP
