Mesopotamia Flashcards
What does the term patriarchy mean?
A social system whre men have more power an access to resources than women and some men are dominant over other men.
A Confusion moral saying from ancient China asserts that “men _____ and women ______. Why did this division of labor take place and what impact did it have on gender hierarchy.
plow, weave
Spinning and weaving were generally done indoors, involved simpler tools and allowed the woman to do other things while plowing was harder labor and done outside. This role may have led men to be inheritors of family land.
In the story of the iceman, how long ago did he die? _______. His diet tells us that he lived in what kind of society?________ What kind of technology was he carrying with him?_________ Did he die a natural death? ________
5300 years ago
hunter/agricultural society that allowed specialization
copper axe, arrow heads, arrows and a bow
No
As early as 7,000 BCE, how many people were living in some of the villages in the Fertile Crescent? What is the common explanation for why places like Stone henge were constructed?
As many as 10,000 residents
Probably calendric, astronomical, and/or religious purposes.
Around 5,000 years which major new technology was developed and why was it developed?
Writing. To record taxes, inventories and payments amongst other things.
In the 5th century BCE, a Greek named ______ coined the term history to describe his inquiry into the past. Today we would call his methodology “_____”. He also wrote down his histories and consulted ______.
Herodotus
Oral Histories
written documents
History became associated with the invention of ______ and ________ and _______ was used to explain the time before this invention.
writing and written documents
prehistory
When evaluating which written sources should survive via copying, what kinds of sources tended to be chosen? What type were not?
A) political and military events involving major powers, records of religious traditions, those that come from perceived important authors.
B) daily life of ordinary people
Even thought many are now discarding the idea that a uniform process is required for a “civilization” to develop, everyone still agress that “about 5,000 years ago a new human ______ appeared.
Society
What explanation does the textbook provide for the initial appearance of “the state?”
Cities concentrated people and power, and they required more elaborate mechanisms to make them work than had small agricultural villages and foraging groups.
States first developed in Mesopotamia and they featured larger ______, a division of _____ and growth of cities.
populations, labor
The division of labor that plow agriculture led to the creation of social _________, division between rich and _______, elites and common _______. The Diamond thesis is an attempt to explain why there is so much inequality in the world.
hierarchies
poor
peoples
The southern part of Mesopotamia was known as ________, where irrigation led to the appearance of agricultural villages such as _____.
Sumer
Uruk
Uruk had a population of around_____.
50,000 people
The monumental architecture in these cities took the form of step-pyramids known as _______, and it was inspired by their religious beliefs
ziggurat
Religious beliefs which included a belief that there were many gods - later became known as _______.
Polytheism
The Sumerians developed a system of writing based on pictographs called_________.
cuneiform
Which Sumerian mathematical advance have impacted the ways in which we measure time?
They used a numerical system based on units of sixty, ten and six from which we derive our division of hours into sixty minutes, and minutes into sixty seconds.
The first epic poem, and some would argue the world’s first piece of literature, was entitled _____________.
The epic of Gilgamesh.
in 2300 BCE, the Sumerians were invaded from the north by forces led by a chieftain named ___________, who build the new capital city named _____________.
Sargon
Akkad
After the Sumerian invasion, the dominant Mesopotamian Empire was centered in the city of____________, and the most famous leader was name _____________.
Babylon
Hammurabi
Hammurabi encouraged the worship of _________ as the main deity.
Marduk
The word petro means ______ and the word glyphs means _____.
rock, writing
Petroglyphs are found all over the world and were frequently use by pre-historic peoples who lacked a written language, for various purposes:
religious, story-telling, etc.; written into the rock, not on
It is estimated that the Jeffers Petroglyphs were produced by Native Americans who lived in the region ______ years ago.
5000
We have no idea how they “referred” to themselves, but we do know that the Cheyenne, Ioway, Otoe, Ponca, Omaha and Dakota Indians lived in this region when ________ first arrived in 1650.
Europeans
Dart throwing tools known as ______ have been found in this region of the present-day Monnesota that date back 12,000 years ago; we know that ____ started roaming the region 9,000 years ago.
Atlatl, Bison
In the Dakota creation story, THE Great Mystery _____ was the creator of the Earth (______) and ancestor of all things. _______ (Rock) is always to be listened to and respected
Wakan Tanke, Makoi, Inyan
_______ were gifted spiritual leaders and it was believed that they could enter the rock and receive medicine or help from the spirits.
Shaman
In the Dakota culture, ______ symbolozies the gift of life.
Turtles
Shamans left their ______ when they emerged from the rock. ______ represented earth, universal power and/or drums.
hand prints, circles
Wavy lines may have depicted lightening bolting from the all-seeing eyes of the _____ or _______, considered guardians of sacred places.
Thunderbirds, snakes
The atlatl increased the ___ and ____ of the dart and was used for hunting.
range, velocity
Hammurabi’s law was ______ based.
Code
Michael Wood defines civilization as _______.
Life in cities
What does Michael Wood mean when he says that civilization has become a problem?
Overuse of resources,
Climate change,
Weapons of Mass Destruction
Today many would argue that the _ has prevailed because it has provided answers to basic questions that are widely accepted, but the study of other civilizations provides ___ answers and remains valuable
West, alternative
Civilization arose independently in areas like __ and ___, and those civilizations provide a ___ to western civilization.
India, China, counter-point
Wood contends that civilizations feature at least four essential characteristics.
1) Cities
2) Writing
3) Large Population
4) Ceremonial Buildings
All four of Michael Wood’s civilization characteristics appear in the “Fertile Crescent”, which currently is the location of a country known as ____.
Iraq
Civilization appeared along the ____ and ___ Rivers, in an area often called ____ (which means land between the rivers)
Tigris, Euphrates, mesopotamia
The people who created the Mesopotamian civilizations were called the ___. Remains of their civilization go back as far as ____ years.
Sumerians, 6000
The Sumerians were probably the first to invent a system of ___
Writing
The first city in the world was named___ and one of its primary functions was to serve as a center for ___activities; its walls were ___ feet high.
Uruk, religious, 50
A ten-fold increase in ___ strained and ultimately destroyed the Mesopotamian ________.
population, environment
Mesopotamia is where the first ___ was invented, and the world’s first literature, the ______ was written.
wheel, Epic of Gilgamesh
When Gilgamesh asks for eternal life, what advice is he given?
It does not exist, focus on this life
The oldest continually inhabited city in the world is ____. The ___ was the center of the town and it currently is an ___ city.
Inbil, temple, Islamic
Around ___ BC, Sumer suffered economic collapse and was attacked.
2000
A refugee from the Sumer collapse, _______ from ____.
Abraham, Ur
Abraham is viewed as an early ___ and recognized as a founding figure in the religions of __, __ & __.
Judaism, Christianity and Islam
Judaism presents Abraham as the first man to make a ___ with God.
Covenant
Which contentions are made in Genesis Chapter 12?
Abraham’s people will be a great nation and all of his descendants will be blessed; promised land.
Which details concerning the covenant between God and Abraham are detailed in Genesis Chapter 17?
Male circumcision, a son is promised
The Middle East is the birthplace of Judaism, Christianity and ___.
Islam.
By 700 AD, ___ armies brought Islam into the “Fertile Crescent”
Arab
In the 8th century the city of ___ was founded - it soon became the wealthiest city of the world.
Baghdad
While the Europeans were living in mud huts, the Islamic cultures kept the knowledge of the classical ___ civilization alive and passed it on to the West.
Greek
In 1258 AD the ___ attacked ___ and destroyed much of its cultural legacy.
Monguls, Baghdad
Isolated from the West, the cradle of the first civilization missed out on such formative events as the ___ and the ___ Revolution of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and Newton.
Renaissance, Scientific
By the end of the 16th century, Iraq was at the ___ of its existence
bottom
In the 18th century, when the West embraced ___, ___ and ___, the Islamic world failed to modernize.
representative government, capitalism, cultural pluralism
The contrast between former ___ and current ___ is one of the primary causes of so-called Islamic terrorism
greatness, humiliation
As late as 1921 Iraq was still much like it had been in ancient times, and then ___ was discovered.
oil
Former Iraq leader Saddam Hussein tried to fashion himself as warlord from Iraq’s ancient past - complete with monumental ___ that extolled his triumphs.
art, statues, monuments
