Exam 3 Flashcards
Artificial mound; ancient town site
Tell
Dark fertile soil that receives floods along the Nile
Black Lands
Western and Eastern deserts on either side of the Nile River Valley
Red Lands
North (downriver) in the delta of the Nile River
Lower Egypt
Narrow floodplain of the Nile, South of the delta
Upper Egypt
Provinces/Territorial divisions in Upper and Lower Egypt ruled by nomarchs
Nome
Two kingdoms joined by force or coercion
Unification
The head of state and state region in Egypt
Pharaoh
Summer (June - September); When Egyptians worked for the pharaoh to pay their taxes; Flooding season
Inundation Season
the process by which a society or place reaches an advanced stage of social and cultural development and organization
Civilization
a rectangular stepped tower, sometimes surmounted by a temple
Ziggurat
Person who studies and interprets ancient inscriptions
Epigrapher
Between 3500 and 3000 B.C. in Mesopotamia when thousands moved into towns with successful irrigation systems and productive agriculture
Uruk Period
A Sumerian Innovation; Used as a “book-keeping” system; represented trades and deals in agricultural goods, including domestic animals and plants
Clay Tokens
Included 12 months, 365 days, and 3 seasons based on the behavior of the Nile River
Egyptian Calander
Crown of Upper Egypt
White Crown
Crown of Lower Egpyt
Red Crown
A writing consisting of symbols that stand for an object or an concept
hieroglyphics
Central concept associated with pharaohs; idea that encapsulates everything in the universe the is orderly and just; symbolized by white ostrich feather
Ma’at
an ancient Egyptian tomb rectangular in shape with sloping sides and a flat roof; “room over a tomb”
Mastaba
Begins as a mastaba gut grows as more, smaller mastabas are added on top
Stepped Pyramid
Rivers can flood unpredictably and at times when crops may already be planted which is seen as punishment from the gods
Flooding in Sumer
River floods predictably and has its own season dedicated to it; it is seen as a gift from the gods
Flooding in Egypt
River has flooded historically with devastating results
Flooding in China
Middle Neolithic period group’s culture along the middle Yellow River; evidence for social distinctions based on grave goods; rammed-earth buildings; Patrilineal/Patrilocal
Yongshao culture
Pottery made that included inscriptions of pictographs and ideographs; importance of scapulimancy and important ancestor spirits
Longshan culture
build a framework then fill it with earth and then stamp and beat it down; packed so tightly that it holds together; doesn’t absorb water
Rammed-earth
use of animal shoulder bones/turtle plastrons in divination; early version involved the careful prep. of the bones by thinning them and drilling holes in them before submitting them to fire to produce crack patterns that could be interpreted
Scapulimancy
a loosely compacted yellowish-gray deposit of windblown sediment of which extensive deposits occur; gives the “Yellow” river its color
Loess
An object that translated Egyptian hieroglyphics using Egyptian demotic and Ancient Greek; contained a cartouche with Ptolemy’s name
Rosetta Stone
Egyptian artifact depicting the king who unified upper and lower Egypt
Narmer Palette
City that with its surrounding territory forms an independent state; Sumeria; independent political and economic systems for each city
City-State
A single city with a single form of governance; Egypt
Territorial-state
the southern part of Mesopotamia; the site of city states which became part of ancient Babylonia
Sumer
Region lying in the alluvial plains between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
Mesopotamia
based on “super-households” in which kin-based households are combined with nonkin labor
oikoi economy
Early pictographs on clay tablets depict commodities (Wheat, donkeys) and marks for quantities, earliest one’s record info. about transactions, using a stylus to make wedge-shaped symbols in damp clay tablets; symbols changed over time ending in this language
Cuneiform
How do the glyphs in hieroglyphic writing systems represent
language?
Glyphs that represent sounds; an alphabet
Ritual vessels made from bronze
Shang Dynasty innovations
Pyramids/Elite tombs, Measurements and Mathematics (multiplication tables),
Egyptian Innovations
Clay Token for record keeping, early pictographs on clay tablets, cuneiform language
Sumerian Innovations
How was irrigation farming in Mesopotamia different from farming in the Nile River Valley?
In Mesopotamia, large workforces needed to maintain irrigation systems, Egyptian farming relied of the predictable flooding of the Nile River
Did millet require irrigation in the Yellow River Valley?
No, it was dependent on rainfall
Little rainfall and farming depended on irrigation, clay was primary source of building with wood imported from the Levant region
Geographic Feature of Mesopotamia that affected culture
Distinctive dry and wet seasons, along banks of the Nile river whose flooding was necessary for farming, stone from surrounding deserts used for monument construction
Geographic features of Egypt that affected culture
Isolated from other ancient civilizations, Gobi desert to the North, Tibetan Plateau to the West, Himalayan Mountains to the East, and the Sea to the East; Yellow river allowed domestication of grain
Geographic features of China that affected culture
Western coast of the Mediterranean (Levant Region), large amounts of wild grain that allowed for stationary settlements
Geographic features of the Fertile Crescent that affected culture
In southern Mesopotamia, first city-state, developed between 3500 and 3000 B.C., massive building projects, and sacred precincts with temples and palaces
Archeological site of Uruk
City that contained cemetery with elaborate royal burials, 2600 to 2350 B.C.,
Archeological site of Ur
Site on the West side of the Nile river, was the site of the stepped pyramid complex of the third dynasty, 2650–2575 BCE
Archeological site of Saqqara
Site on West Side of the Nile River, was the site of 3 large well-known pyramids, as well as smaller pyramids, during 4th dynasty, 2613 to 2494 BCE
Archeological Site of Giza
Large urban site in China with evidence for an elite enclosure with palace complexes, hoses, and graves
Archeological Site of Erlitou
Site of the late Shang capital city in the Yello River region of northern China; Rammed-earth palaces and temples
Archeological Site of Anyang
How does a city differ from a village or town?
A city is a large and densely populated urban area that may include several independent administrative districts.
What characteristics do archaeologists look for to identify a state-level society/civilization?
large population centers; monumental architecture and unique art styles; shared communication strategies; systems for administering territories; a complex division of labor; and the division of people into social and economic classes
