exam Flashcards
“Near __________ somebody was once digging a pit when they came across a bone, deep down under the ground. It was a human bone. A lower jaw.”
Heidelberg, in Germany
How did the skull discovered in Germany differ from our human skulls?
“Instead of a forehead like ours, it just had two thick ridges above the eyebrows.”
What gives “prehistory” its name?
It comes before history.
Which examples of materials did scientists find that change slowly but regularly over a very long period of time?
woods, plants and volcanic rock
Why do historians call it the “Stone Age”?
“And because of these stone tools we call this time the Stone Age.”
About how long did the Neanderthal people inhabit the earth?
two hundred thousand years
About how long ago did the Neanderthal people appear in prehistory before our ancestors?
seventy-thousand years earlier
What was the climate like during The Stone Age?
Winters were longer and summers shorter.
“Do you know what __________ invented? … They invented talking.”
Cavemen
What was invented or developed by prehistoric people?
“…clothes, houses and tools, plows to plow with, grains to make bread with, cows for milking, sheep for shearing, dogs for hunting and for company, bows and arrows for shooting and helmets and shields for protection…”
How long did The Ice Age last?
Many tens of thousands of years!
What reasoning did the writer give for why cavemen drew and painted in caves?
To summon creatures like a magic spell
Because forests were dangerous places in those days, home to large numbers of wild animals, such as wolves and bears, prehistoric people built __________.
Pile dwellings
What were “pile dwellings”?
Huts on stilts rammed deep in the mud in the middle of lakes
What did prehistoric people invent and decorate with patterns and fire in ovens?
Clay pots
What did the cavemen learn to do in the warmth once the ice retreated to the high mountains?
To plant grasses and then grind the seeds to make a paste to bake in the fire: bread
Around 4000 BC, prehistoric people discovered a more convenient way of making tools: __________.
They discovered metals
Which metal did prehistoric people use that “has a nice shine” but is “soft and gets blunt more quickly than stone”?
Copper
Prehistoric people “discovered that if you add just a little of another, very rare, metal, it makes the copper stronger. That metal is __________.”
Tin
Prehistoric people mixed __________ and __________ together to make __________.
Tin, copper, bronze
“Near __________ somebody was once digging a pit when they came across a bone, deep down under the ground. It was a human bone. __________.”
Answer not listed
How did the skull discovered in Germany differ from our human skulls?
Instead of a forehead like ours, it just had two thick ridges above the eyebrows.
What gives “prehistory” its name?
It comes before history.
Mesopotamia resided between which two rivers?
The Tigris and the Euphrates
The name Mesopotamia is Greek for what?
land ‘between the rivers.
Which of the following two cities existed in Mesopotamia?
Nineveh and Babylon
One such mound, standing in the desert, is all that remains of __________, once the greatest city on earth, a city swarming with people who came there from every part of the world to trade their wares.
Babylon
Upstream, at the foot of the mountains, sits another. This was __________, the second greatest city in the land … [the capital of] of the Assyrians.
Nineveh
Which quality do historians and archaeologists think demonstrates a culture?
towns and tradesmen, noblemen and kings, temples and priests, administrators and artists, writing and technical skills
Which of the following items was not discovered in the burial sites at Ur?
A silver shield designed with rubies
Archaeologists discovered the ruins of which city beneath rubble mounds near the Persian Gulf, the city that the Bible states was where Abraham was born?
Ur
Archaeologists learned that people in the plains near the Persian Gulf had already learned to shape bricks from clay and build houses and temples by what year?
3100 BC
What did people discover inscribed in clay tablets?
Cuneiform
Into what did the Mesopotamians inscribe their signs?
Soft clay
What did the Epic of Gilgamesh describe his battles against?
monsters and dragons
With thanks to recorded business dealings, who do historians know were great traders in Mesopotamia?
Sumerians
Which Mesopotamian ruler left a long and important inscription engraved in stone?
Hammurabi
When did King Hammurabi live?
1700 BC
The planet Mars is named after the god of what?
War
The planet Venus is named after the goddess of what?
love
Which of the following pictures did the Babylonians and Assyrians portray in their statues?
inspecting kneeling captives bound in chains, or foreign tribes-people fleeing before the wheels of their chariots, and warriors attacking fortresses
In which of the following ways were the Babylonians and Assyrians kings portrayed in their statues?
forbidding, and have long black ringlets and rippling beards
To which gods and goddess did the Babylonians and Assyrians make sacrifices?
Baal, the sun god, or to the moon goddess Ishtar or Astarte.”
Which ancient Mesopotamian cultures observed the stars and gave names to constellations?
The Babylonians and the Assyrians
What is the name of the tall, broad towers that the Sumerians and Babylonians built to be nearer to the stars?
Ziggurats
Which of the following qualities is attributed to the Babylonian and Sumerian strange buildings?
These are tall, broad towers made up of terraces piled one on top of another, with formidable ramps and steep, narrow staircases. Right at the very top was a temple dedicated to the moon, or one of the other planets. People came from far and wide to ask the priests to read their fortunes in the stars, and brought offerings of great value.
What were Nebuchadnezzar’s “truly greatest deeds”?
His digging of huge canals and water cisterns
Against whom did Nebuchadnezzar fight and bring home a vast number of foreign captives as slaves?
Egypt
Where was the Jewish Civilization located in ancient times?
Between Egypt and Mesopotamia
The Jewish people were first conquered and ruled by the __________, and then the __________ would invade.
“First it would be conquered and ruled by the Egyptians, and then the Babylonians would invade.”
What is a “monotheistic herdsman”?
Monotheism: The doctrine or belief that there is only one God.
Herdsman: A man who herds, tends, or manages livestock.
In what way did the Ancient Jews make history rather than being part of history?
“They didn’t just become part of history, they made history—and by that I mean they shaped the course of all history to come. And this special something was their religion.”
Which of the following would the Ancient Jews not describe their God as creating?
Songs and stories
Complete the Sentiment: The Ancient Jewish God “was he who raged furiously against them in the storm, but he never __________.”
Abandoned his people
Complete the Sentiment: “And the songs of their deeds, which were the deeds of their god, are the __________.”
Old Testament of the Bible
Where is the story of Abraham located, and where is Abraham from?
Genesis, Ur
Abraham was probably alive at the same time as whom?
King Hammurabi
Name This Biblical Story: “God was angry at their pride and stopped them … by making them all speak different languages so that they could no longer understand one another.”
The Tower of Babel
What is the Tower of Babel about?
Babylonian ziggurats
Which biblical figure was sold yet became a counselor and minister to the pharaoh?
Joseph, Son of Jacob
Name the Biblical Book: “And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor: and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick…”
Exodus
“In the end, __________ led [the Jews] out of Egypt into the desert … From there they tried to win back the promised land—that is, the land in which their ancestors had lived since the time of Abraham.”
Moses
“And finally, after long, cruel, and bloody battles, they succeeded. So now they had their own small kingdom, with its capital: __________.”
Jerusalem
The Jews’ “first king was __________, who fought against a neighboring tribe, the __________, and died on the battlefield.”
Saul, Philistines
“__________ was a wise and just king who ruled soon after 1000 BC” and who “built the first Temple of Jerusalem.”
Solomon
