Chapter 1 Vocab Flashcards
The long period of time before people invented writing
Prehistory
Experts in the study of how people loved in the historical past
Historian
Objects made by humans such as clothing, coins, artwork, and grave sites
Artifacts
The past and present study of humans
Anthropology
Refers to the way of life of a society. Includes its beliefs, values and practices
Culture
Study of past people and cultures through their material remains
Archaeology
A person who studies archaeology
Archeologist
Anthropologists that started searching for clues to the human past in a canyon
Mary and Louis Leakey
A deep canyon in Tanzania that anthropologists started searching in for clues abt the human past
Olduavi Gorge
skills and tools people use to meet their basic needs and wants. Anything that makes ur life easier
Technology
Anthropologist who found additional evidence of early hominids
Donald Johansson
A historic find found by Donald Johansson. First in tact skeleton found. She stood upright. Named after beatle song
Lucy
Earliest group of hominids
Australopithecines
Means handy man. Name for group of hominids. Named this because they were thought of as the first hominids to make stone tools
Homo Habilis
Means upright man. Group of hominids given this name because their skeletons show they were fully upright walkers. Discovered fire but didn’t master it
Homo erectus
Neanderthals and early modern humans. Mastered fire
Homo sapien
Says that homo sapiens first lived in Africa and then migrated into other areas of the world
Out of Africa theory
Homo sapiens that lived mostly in Europe and Western Asia
Neanderthals
The period from 2 million bc to 10,000 bc
Paleolithic age/ old Stone Age
People who move from place to place in search of food
Nomads
Belief that spirits inhabit plants, animals, or other natural objects
Animism
From 10,000 B.C. to the end of prehistory
Neolithic age/ New Stone Age
The change in human societies from hunting and gathering to a more settled way of life based on agriculture and the domestication of animals
Neolithic revolution
To raise them in a controlled way that makes them best suited to human use
Domesticate
a large, walled village built between 10,000 B.C. and 9000 B.C.
Jericho
an early Neolithic village in modern-day Turkey, may have had 6,500 inhabitants living in rectangular mud-brick homes
Catakhuyuk
The goods left over after all needs have been met
Surplus
Civilization that rose along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East
Sumer
Spread by floodwaters it renewed the soil in the river valleys keeping it fertile
Silt
Sparse dry grasslands that nomadic herders tended cattle
Steppes
The belief in many gods
Polytheistic
Skilled craftspeople who made pottery, finely carved statues, or woven goods
Artisans
Rely on custom or tradition and tends not to change over time
Traditional economy
Simple drawings that look like the objects they represent
Pictographs
Specially trained people who could read and write
Scribes
The spread of ideas, customs, and technologies from one people to another
Cultural diffusion
Political unit that includes a city and its surrounding lands and villages
City-state
Group of states or territories controlled by one ruler
Empire
Coordinate public work projects such as bridge and dam construction. Establish laws and organize defense
Organized Government
Belief in one or more gods or goddesses. Institution of rituals
Complex religion
Different types of jobs that leads workers to specialize one one task
Job specialization
Ranked groups are based on job or economic standing
Social classes
Artwork that expresses a society’s talents, beliefs, and values
Arts and architecture
Large scale projects for the mutual benefit of a city and its people
Public Works
Structured writing system initially used by governments and religious leaders to record important information
Writing
