Chapter 1 Flashcards
Occupying at least 90% of human history
Hunting and Gathering
A belief all objects, whether animate or inanimate, such as animals, trees and rocks, possess an impersonal supernatural power
Animatism
Simple gathering, supplementary to hunting and gathering
Horticultural
The domestication of animals in semi-nomadic lifestyle
Pastoral
Societies whose economics are based on maintaining crops and farmland.
Agricultural
Coined Money
Specie
The belief in or worship of more than 1 God.
Polytheism
By around 3,000 B.C. Sumerians had established 12 independent “city-states” in southern mesopotamia in a region called the…
“Fertile Crescent”
Sumerian cities had a significantly recurring problem, that of the spread disease
As a result of contaminated water
Cities never developed…
A system of waste disposal
Devastating floods =
Sophisticated irrigation systems
Necessitated the creation of a centralized government.
The need to organize workers for construction and maintenance of the canals
Compare and contrast: Similarities
-Life centered around religion
-Both polytheistic (worship of more than 1 God)
Compare and contrast: Contrast
-Sumerians; unpredictable power of the gods (behave like overgrown children)
i.e. unleashing devastating floods and wars on humans for no rational reason
-Egyptians; see their gods as benevolent and helpful
-Sumerians; built the Ziggurats to pacify the gods thus avoiding diving punishment
-Egyptians; The pyramids were constructed as burial complexes at which Egyptians could worship Egypts gods-kings after they die
King supreme responsibility was to…
Ensure justice
Main structure in every city was the temple to the gods called
Ziggurats
Metallurgy had advanced to the point of making constant raiding which could conclude with the virtual extermination of the losing side
Bronze age
3 Main reasons for slavery
a. prisoners of war
b. voluntarily selling themselves (escape starvation or safety debts)
c. born a slave
In 3,500 B.C. the Sumerians invented a form of writing called
Cuneiform
Sumerians built the ziggurats…
to pacify the gods thus avoiding diving punishment
Was Sumers greatest contribution to Western Civilization
Invention of written language
Creates the first recorded Empire in Western Civilization
Sargon the great
The Assyrians major impact on Western Civilization
The development of long distance trade
The Babylonians major impact on Western Civilization
Established written laws known to the people
