HUMAN HISTORY - BCE Flashcards
PALEOLITHIC
Meaning
Beginning
Significance
End
Meaning Old Stone Age - HUNTER GATHERERS
Beginning: 2.6M BP
Significance: hunter gatherers only but with stone tools
End: 20,000-10,000 BCE First agriculture started the Mesolithic
OUT OF AFRICA THESIS
Thesis Date
This Thesis posits that modern man (Homo sapiens) first arose in Africa and began migrating to other parts of the earth approximately 50,000 years ago.
MESOLITHIC
Meaning
Beginning
Significance
End
Meaning: Middle Stone Age with AGRICULTURE
Beginning: ~20,000-10,000 BCE First agriculture (different times in different locations)
Significance: During the Mesolithic Era agriculture became prevalent. Semi-permanent small villages were established. There is also evidence of extensive animal domestication during this period.
End: with the rise of Neolithic, or Stone Age Cities ~10,000 BCE first PROTO-CITIES Jericho Çatalhöyük ~4000 BCE Sumerian CITY STATES in Mesopotamia
[Mesolithic has different time spans in different parts of Eurasia. It was originally post-Pleistocene, pre-agricultural material in northwest Europe about 10,000 to 5000 BCE, but material from the Levant (about 20,000 to 9500 BCE) is also labelled Mesolithic.]
BERING LAND BRIDGE
Where
When and why opened and closed
Size
Sometime after 14,500 years BCE It is believed that a small human population of at most a few thousand arrived in Beringia from eastern Siberia during the Last Glacial Maximum before expanding into the settlement of the Americas.
This would have occurred as the American glaciers blocking the way southward melted, but before the bridge was covered by the sea about 9,000 years BCE
Was huge, the size of BC + Alberta
NEOLITHIC
Meaning
Beginning
Significance
End
Meaning: New Stone Age with CITIES
Beginning: ~10,000 first Proto-cities (different dates in different locations)
Significance: The Neolithic Era saw the development of more permanent villages and the first cities, many of which contained walls and defensive fortifications. Plants were further domesticated, public works such as canals were established to assist in agriculture, and animal herding became prevalent.
End: ~3000 BCE Beginning of the Bronze Age in Mesopotamia, Egypt, etc.
PROTO-CITY
Why are they called a ‘Proto’ city?
Two distinguishing features
A proto-city is a large village or town of the Neolithic such as Jericho and Çatalhöyük (Cha-tal-HOO-yik) and also any prehistoric settlement which has both rural and urban features.
A proto-city is distinguished from a true city in that it lacks planning and centralized rule. For example, Jericho evidently had a class system, but no roads, while Çatalhöyük apparently lacked social stratification. This is what distinguishes them from the first city-states of the early Mesopotamian cities in the 4th millennium B.C.
PROTO-CITIES
Name two of the oldest
Give their oldest dates
Locations
Pronunciations
9600 BCE Jericho, near Jerusalem, near the Dead Sea
7500 BCE Çatal Höyük (Cha-tal-HOO-yik), in central southern Anatolia
Name the very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic proto-city settlement in central southern Anatolia.
Date began
Date flourished
Date ended
Meaning
Çatalhöyük (Cha-tal-HOO-yik)
Began: 7500 BCE
Flourished: 7000 BC
Ended: 5700 BC
from Turkish çatal “fork” + höyük “mound”)
ÇATAL HÖYÜK
Pronounciation
Dates
Location
Meanimg
Began: 7500 BCE Cha-tal-HOO-yik
Location: Southern Anatolia
Flourished: 7000 BC Was a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic proto-city settlement.
Ended: 5700 BC
Meaning: from Turkish çatal “fork” + höyük “mound”)
FIRST CITY-STATES
Date
Location
Significance
How is it different to what came before?
~ 4000 B.C.
Location: Sumerian City States in Mesopotamia
Significance: First “Civilisation”
A City State is distinguished from a Proto-City in that had planning and centralized rule. For example, Jericho evidently had a class system, but no roads, while Çatalhöyük apparently lacked social stratification. End:
MESOPOTAMIA
Where is it?
Mesopotamia is the region between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers in the south of modern-day Iraq. It is the eastern arm of the Fertile Crescent.
FIRST CIVILISATION
Date began
Location
Significance
Date: ~4000 BCE
First civilisation was the Sumerian City-States in Mesopotamia
A City State is distinguished from a Proto-City in that had planning and centralized rule. For example, Jericho evidently had a class system, but no roads, while Çatalhöyük apparently lacked social stratification.
SUMERIA
Date began
Significance
Began: c. 4000 BCE.
Significance: The first civilization (“cities with law and order”) was Sumeria and rose in Mesopotamia, which is the region between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers in the south of modern-day Iraq. Sumeria was a collection of city-states. Not an Empire. End:
SUMERIA
Location
Date began
Began: c. 4000 BCE.
Location: Mesopotamia
Significance: Was a collection of city-states, often considered the first civilisation.
CUNEIFORM FIRST DEVELOPED
Date
Civilisation
Meaning
Date: 3300 BCE
Civilisation: Ancient Sumerians
Meaning: Cuneiform refers to the wedge-shaped writing developed by the ancient Sumerians. Initially developed for the purposes of recordkeeping, cuneiform became a way to transfer early literature and legal codes.
ANCIENT EGYPT
Dates
Ancient Egypt can roughly be dated from 3200 BCE to 330 BCE
BRONZE AGE
Beginning
Meaning
Significance
End
Beginning: 3000 BCE The Bronze Age began around 2000-3000 B.C. in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus River Valley, and slightly later in other areas.
Meaning: Copper and Tin together make the much harder Bronze. Needs temperatures of around 1000deg C
Significance: The Bronze Age marks man’s first significant use of writing and metals like bronze and copper.
End: Iron Age at its earliest in 1200-1100 BC in Italy, the Balkans, the Caucuses, Anatolia
THE GREAT FLOOD
What really happened
Date
Where did it happen, city where it’s been studied
Names of three rivers
2900 BCE: Simultaneous flooding of the KURUN, Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, studied at SHURUPPAK. It would seem to have been a localised event caused through the damming of the KURUN river through the spread of dunes, flooding into the TIGRIS, and simultaneous heavy rainfall in the NINEVEH (NIN-eh-vah) region, spilling across into the EUPHRATES. Would have flooded all the cities of Sumeria.
2700 BCE: Gilgamesh, ruler of Uruk, travelled to speak to a wise sage (Oot nah PISH tim) who was a survivor of the flood. A poem was composed, The Epic of Gilgamesh.
2200 BCE: It was finally written down.
1000 BCE: The Hebrew Bible in the time of King David included the story of Noah
GREAT FLOOD -> NOAH TIMELINE
Date of Flooding
Date Epic (who and where) is composed
Date Epic is written down and language
Date and author of Hebrew bible
2900 BCE: Simultaneous flooding of the Karyn, Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, studied at Shuruppak.
2700 BCE: Gilgamesh is king of Uruk. He travels to meet the sage Utnapishtim (Oot nah PISH tim), who had survived the Great Flood. Poems are composed about it.
2200 BCE: Epic of Gilgamesh, a poem in ancient Akkadian, is written down.
1000 BCE: Hebrew Bible, written during the period of King David’s reign, includes the story of Noah.
THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH
Location
Dates
Significance
Historicity
Location: Uruk in Sumeria
Date: 2700 BCE
Significance: As old as 2100–2000 BCE, the Epic of Gilgamesh is an Akkadian poem that is considered the first great work of literature. In the epic, Gilgamesh is a demigod of superhuman strength who builds the city walls of Uruk to defend his people and, after the death of his friend Enkidu, then travels to meet the sage Utnapishtim (Oot nah PISH tim), who had survived the Great Flood.
The great flood was probably from the simultaneous flooding in 2900 BCE of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. (Uruk was next to the Euphrates river.) It would seem to have been a localised event caused through the damming of the Kurun through the spread of dunes, flooding into the Tigris, and simultaneous heavy rainfall in the Nineveh region, spilling across into the Euphrates. Given the similarities in the Mesopotamian flood story and the Biblical account, it would seem that they have a common origin in the memories of the Shuruppak account. Established civilizations in Egypt and China and Israel were not impacted by any widespread or global flood during the time of Gilgamesh or Noah’s Ark. Gilgamesh’s supposed historical reign is believed to have been approximately 2700 BCE, shortly before the earliest known written stories. The discovery of artefacts associated with Aga and Enmebaragesi of Kish, two other kings named in the stories, has lent credibility to the historical existence of Gilgamesh. The earliest Sumerian Gilgamesh poems date from as early as the Third Dynasty of Ur (2100–2000 BCE). One of these poems mentions Gilgamesh’s journey to meet the flood hero, as well as a short version of the flood story. The earliest Akkadian versions of the unified epic are dated to ca. 2000–1500 BCE. Due to the fragmentary nature of these Old Babylonian versions, it is unclear whether they included an expanded account of the flood myth; although one fragment definitely includes the story of Gilgamesh’s journey to meet Utnapishtim. The “standard” Akkadian version included a long version of the story and was edited by Sin-liqe-unninni sometime between 1300 and 1000 BCE. {
OLDEST SURVIVING WRITINGS
Dates
Significance
2500-2300 BCE
End of ‘Prehistory’ The oldest written texts date to sometime between the 26th and 24th centuries BCE
AKKADIAN EMPIRE
Who began it
Location
Dates
Beginning: Around 2200 BCE, Sargon the Great conquered several of the Sumerian city-states of Mesopotamia, merging them into the Akkadian Empire. The Akkadian Empire was the first of the world’s empires.
End: 2050 BCE: Some 150 years the empire was established, it collapsed for reasons historians continue to theorize about.
SARGON THE GREAT
Empire Dates
Why ‘Great ‘?
Akkadian Empire
Beginning: around 2200 B.C., he conquered several of the Sumerian city-states of Mesopotamia, merging them into the Akkadian Empire.
The Akkadian Empire was the first of the world’s empires.
End: 2050 BCE: Some 150 years the empire was established, it collapsed for reasons historians continue to theorize about.
CYRUS THE GREAT vs SARGON THE GREAT
Dates
Empires
Why Great?
SARGON: 2200 BCE, Akkadian Empire.
He conquered several of the Sumerian city-states of Mesopotamia, merging them into the first of the world’s empires.
CYRUS: 550 BCE: Achaemenid Empire
The first Persian Empire, it became larger than any previous empire in history. He respected the customs and religions of the lands he conquered, through proxy ‘satraps’ and established a very successful model for establishing a government working to the advantage and profit of its subjects.
WORLD’S FIRST EMPIRE
Name
Dates
Location
Founder
Akkadian Empire
~2200 BCE
Mesopotamia
Sargon the Great conquered several of the Sumerian city-states, merging them into the Akkadian Empire. The Akkadian Empire was the first of the world’s empires.
2050 BCE: Some 150 years the empire was established, it collapsed for reasons historians continue to theorize about.
Base-60 Numbering System
Who
Why
When
Math is a prerequisite for understanding and predicting the movement of the planets. Planetary movement was an essential component of Mesopotamian religion. As part of their mathematical development, the Mesopotamians developed the base-60 numbering system, which is still used in navigation and to tell time.
Well preserved tablets, mostly from 1800 to 1600 BCE, cover topics that include fractions, algebra, quadratic and cubic equations and the Pythagorean theorem. The Babylonian tablet YBC 7289 gives an approximation of Pi accurate to three significant sexagesimal digits (seven significant decimal digits).
HAMMURABI
Dates
Empire
Famous for
1792-1750 BCE
A powerful Babylonian emperor.
Hammurabi’s law code is among the earliest recorded legal systems, and it could be quite harsh. The famous “eye for an eye” required the loss of an eye if one caused someone else to lose an eye, even accidentally.
OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
Dates, Why began?
MIDDLE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
dates, why began?
Why ended?
2025 BCE: after the collapse of the Akkadian Empire
14th Century BCE: the fall of the Old Assyrian Empire -> Middle Assyrian
934 BCE: establishment of the Neo-Assyrian Empire
ANCIENT ANATOLIAN EMPIRES
Before Alexander
In Order
Hittites 1600 BCE - 1178 BCE
Lydians 1178 BCE - 546 BCE
Achaemenids 546 BCE - 330 BCE
Macedonians 330 BCE (Alexander the Great)
THE HITTITE EMPIRE
Dates
Location
Began
Conquered by
1600 BCE: began in Hattusa in central Anatolia
1178 BCE: Conquered by the Assyrians [Middle Assyrians, Who?]
The PHOENICIANS
Dates
Location
Significance
Who Conquered
1500 BCE began
Location: Started in the Eastern Mediterranean in the west of the Fertile Crescent and established city-states along the coastline of what is now Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Syria, and south-west Turkey.
They were a prominent maritime empire with a far-flung trading network that ranged as far as Spain and North Africa.
539 BC: conquered by Persian King Cyrus the Great
THE HITTITE EMPIRE
Date of Furthest Extent
Date and name of Famous Battle
1350 BCE: Spread to cover Anatolia and into upper Mesopotamia. They were among the first to use iron weapons and pioneered the use of chariot warfare.
1274 BCE: The Battle of Kadesh, against the Egyptians under Ramses II, is the first historical battle for which sufficient records exist that historians can analyze tactics and formations. [Who was the ?]
