Midterm 1 cards

Question 1

Why limit individual autonomy? This city was built like a wall (houses with no streets). Example of a pristine state.

Answer 1

Catalhuyuk

Built for military defense? Murals suggest also built for economic cooperation

Question 2

Why limit individual autonomy? City built with no walls. Example of a pristine state.

Answer 2

Caral (2000bc)

pristine state!

Built for trade (reason for state formation)

* pyramids and no walls. 2000 bc. 10000-12000 people. oldest city in America

* good trade location (in peru between coast and highlands)

* produce textiles and fishing nets

Question 3

year of the rise of FIRST CONTINUOUS STATES in near east?

Answer 3

3000 BC. Ur and Uruk

Question 4

Minoan palace recunstructed retratedly by Sir Arthur Evans

1. ) Name?
2. ) Date?
3. ) other important info: what is it made of? who runs it? What is its geopolitical context? why did it arise? etc.

Answer 4

1. ) Knossos
2. ) palace first constructed 1900 B.C.
3. )

Knossos. Legendary house of the minotaur labyrinth

giant cretan palace. Built among olive trees/orchards
olives can only grow in very fertile/green areas (not Egypt or mesopotamia)
core massively power states need crete for olives
Cretan civilization begins to really flourish around the same time as middle kingdom egypt (a new flourishing period in Egypt)
palace built of cut fitted stone.
trading by 2100-2150 BCE. Administrative/trade practices possibly imported from Egypt
Knossos had massive storerooms collected from taxes and trade
cretan palaces have no identifiable thronerooms/kings
Minoan palaces are super powerful places. We have evidence for lots of trade and drinking and partying. Taxation, power. But not kings or violence necessarily

We also find evidence of social stratification in burials.

What we rarely find is anything martial or military oriented.

Question 5

1450 Near Eastern World

1. ) who makes up near eastern world?
2. ) and who are they descended from?
3. ) why are they important?

Answer 5

Akkadian Empire dissolves into four successor states

1. ) (Hittites, Mittani, Assyria and Babylonia)
2. ) Akkadian Empire & previous city-states (Ur, Uruk, etc)
3. ) World Systems Theory/trade with egypt. These CORE STATES need trading partners. They need BRONZE they need WOOD and they need OLIVES. Peripheries like GREECE/crete develope to feed them and eventually compete when situations change.

Question 6

Minoan Pottery

1. ) name?
2. ) Appearance?
3. ) global significance?
4. ) fun time functions?

Answer 6

1. ) Kamares Pottery
2. ) distinctive black & white colors
3. ) found around near east. evidence of cretan trade
4. ) evidence of palace feasts or diplomacy.

Question 7

Middle Minoan

1. ) time period?
2. ) Writing system?
3. ) 4 Main palaces?
4. ) Why is LINEAR A difficult to translate?

Answer 7

1. ) 2100-1500 BCE
2. ) North: Cretan Hieroglyphics South: Linear A
3. ) Knossos, Malia (north)

Phaistos, Zakros (south) see image

4.) because we only have scattered shipping tblets that don’t give much context as to what they mean

Question 8

Egyptian Pharaoh of Egyptian middle kingdom (1929-1895 BCE) who recorded a diary of his daily actions

1. ) Name?
2. ) Why is he important?

Answer 8

1. ) Amenemhat II
2. ) •Mit Rahina Inscription shows that Egypt and core states traded on a massive scale. He also potentially records trade with Crete

•Lots of Military Activity

Question 9

Minoan town next to a palace.

1. ) what is the town’s name?
2. ) what palace is it next to?
3. ) languages of tablets?
4. ) Why does prof think it exists?

Answer 9

1. ) Hagia Triada (modern name)
2. ) Phaistos
3. ) Linear A&B
4. ) prof thinks that people don’t like to live right on the coast, so phaistos established Hagia Triada as a sort of trading port depot. It used to be closer to the coast and they could deal with potential pirates etc there.

Question 10

Collapse of Middle Minoan

1. ) when did it occur?
2. ) two reasons
3. ) Cultural Changes?

Other info

Answer 10

1. ) Middle minoan began 2150 ends 1550 (process of collapse completed 1450)
2. ) santorini eruption 1600/ loss of trade routes. Also possible Mycenaean invasion/cultural exchanges lead to conflict
3. ) Mycenaean influences increase. Possible invasion

Other info: fewer and poorer quality pottery pieces. Evidencce of increased violence (destruction layers)

Question 11

Pilkington’s Domino Theory

A: what is it?

1. ) example in near east
2. ) Greek world example

Answer 11

A:You may originate a new model of state formation, but you may fall victim to your neighbors who learn from it.

1. ) Ur and Uruk go to other cities farther up the tigris/uphrates. Then eventually an empire forms and etc. but ur/uruk no longer as important
2. ) •That Mycenaean culture ultimately overwhelms Minoan culture is an example of the domino effect.

Question 12

Grave Circles

1. ) When/where are they located? Who’s burials are they?
2. ) How are they different from later burials?
3. ) Social and political things:
   - how are men? how are women?
4. ) Grave Goods

Answer 12

1. ) Mycenae: inside palaces (intramural) 17th-16th c bce
2. ) Not beehive (tholoi)

3.) Evidence of Social and Political Stratification
•Males are warrior burials.
•Females are high status/ females buried with men
4.) LOTS of METAL. Martial imigagery. Evidence of military organization (hoplitesque). Gold, silver, chariots, bows/arows, SHIELDS, engravings, hunts, minoan art, etc etc.

Question 13

Mycenaeans and Palaces

1. ) when did early Mycenaean palaces begin?
2. ) features? Economic style?
3. ) tombs
4. ) artistic style

5.) rulers & name of important political room

6. ) Most important economic goods?
7. ) Piracy
8. ) religion

Answer 13

1. ) 1600
2. ) Mycenaea in mountains, protection from attackers
   - thick walls and “lion’s gate,” good choke point
   - More of a command economy than minoan style redistributive

although evidence of communal land for grazing

3. ) early period were “grave circles” (intramural/ inside palaces). Later tholos/beehive tombs
4. ) big noses, almost “exclusively violent” militaristic (emphasis on bronze

weaponry, hunting, chariots, influences from near east, influences from Minoans)

5. ) Kings (wanax) rule from throne rooms MEGARON
   - not absolute in power, but rather

power derived from control of resources

6. ) likely flocks of sheep for making textiles as well as olives for foreign trade & domestic consumption. Textiles traded for ore from ore mountains. sheep in mountains olives in middle grain in lowlands. Also WINE. jugs had characteristic octopus style, “like a wine label” lol but true
7. ) Mycenaeans were excellent pirates. Historical memory of piracy in the odyssey?
   - O-ka tablets suggest coastl piracy/”taxation” fortress with official sanction and military structure
8. ) Approximately later Greek pantheon of gods. Cow sacrifice (only parts you don’t eat!)

Question 14

Peer Polity Competition

1. ) general definition
2. ) Where was it first seen?

Answer 14

• Competition between states powerful enough to defend themselves but with no ability to mobilize enough people or innovate enough technology to unify the cultural sphere
• Always worried about and trying to 1 up neighbors

first present in Mycenae? later found in classical Greece

Question 15

knossus after collapse

1. ) Who’s there?
2. ) What’s the economy like?

Answer 15

1. ) Minoans Mycenaeans. Knossos is ONLY PALACE LEFT ON CRETE
2. ) Extractive. Designated palace collectors use tablets like tax forms
   - tablets say what needs/should be collected from individuals. Usually only last a few years though evidence of debts exists

Libear B(?)

Question 16

world during a transformative time:

1. ) Who emerged in Greece, Near East and Egypt around 1600-1500?
2. ) who is in the middle of Egypt and Hittites?
3. ) signicficance of new global system

Answer 16

1. ) Mycenaeans, Hittites and New Kingdom Egypt
2. ) Ugarit :(
3. ) Mycenaean society built around metal/bronze. Periphery to supply Egyptian/hittite core states. Bronze armor needed to control stone throwing populace. PALACES FULL OF BRONZE WEAPONS (evidence of necessity/reliancce on that for power projection).

Question 17

New Mycenaean Late Helladic tombs

1. )name/structure
2. )location (significance?)
3. ) Type of masonry?
4. ) Religious significance?
5. ) time period

Answer 17

1. ) Beehive tombbs/
2. ) Outside of city (extramural)
   - suggests greater power/control by Mycenaean kings
3. ) “Cyclopean”
4. ) ancestor worship? Do not seem like static/sealed tombs
5. ) Mound tombs (1600) Tholos (1500)

Question 18

Linear B Tablet features:

1. ) Where are they found?
2. ) What period of time do they represent?

Answer 18

1. ) palaces in clumped/specialized areas with very specific trade/vocation related information
2. ) Last year of palace operations / outstanding debts. Tablets are only found iff they have been “fired” by fires that destroy palaces.

Question 19

Mycenaean City that is not Mycenae or Knossus

1. ) name?
2. ) administrative political structure
3. ) Land & Estates
4. ) towns
5. ) Skilled crftsman & scribes (and significance)

Answer 19

1. ) Pylos
2. ) Divided into two provinces (basically the hither and thither provinces) and 16 districs. Provinces have governor (damokoros. root of “demos”?). Districts have administrator and vice administrator. Multiple types of sub province level land divisions
3. ) Large estates (kotona) leased to peasant-like people? Estate grants given by palace? Elite estate owners and “slaves of god” peasants who work them. Form of feudalism?
4. ) Towns: not directly administered by palace, perhaps supply men to palace as a sort of tax. Can have local chieftans
5. ) Palace supplies you, you supply palace. You (craftsman) get relative freedom and autonomy, a bit of surplus materials as well as housing. Scribes always moving around palace. Significance? Palace has lots of need for goods, AND KNOWS WHAT IT NEEDS. they order very specific items from the craftsmen (recorded on linear b tablets). Also, king reads all the tablets. direct rule, real monarchy.

Question 20

Mycenaean Art: Warrior Vase & Vaphio cups

1. ) year?
2. ) significance?

Answer 20

1. ) 1200 BCE for warrior vase, 1600-1450 for cups
2. ) Warrior vase suggests coordination in equipment/formations and a possible elite warrior class in Mycenaean society. 1300s Mycenaea much much stronger than 1500s Mycenaea. Vaphio (gold) and other cup pictures suggest high importance placed on drinking. Possibly at awesome religious festivals where people get smashed and have a good time. Power to control meat and wine is power to control people’s loyalty.

Question 21

The EPIC CYCLE

1. ) How many parts? How many extant?
2. ) Why does Homer still exist while others disappear?
3. ) Epic cycle is the story of what?
4. ) Iliad composed when? Odyssey?
5. ) importnce to Greeks
6. ) sung by bards before writing rediscovered
7. ) What is iliad basically about?
8. ) What is the Odyssey basically about?

Answer 21

1. ) 2/8 extant with fragments of others.
2. ) Perhaps homer kept because of his modern/beautiful language/style. Birth of modern western literature? Use of allegory and metric poetry
3. ) story of events and people related to the Trojan War
4. ) Iliad likely earlier than odyssey. Both before 800. Why? ODYSSEY SHOWS COLONIZATION as well as advanced sailing techniques. Iliad a bit less sophisticated maybe in terms of thought?
5. ) foundational story of Greek civilization. Religious and cultural significance.
6. ) sung by bards yo. they would memorize the whole thing and then sing a bit each recital
7. ) The wrath of achilles. Achilles, Agamemnon, and the struggle to take troy. Interplay bw gods and men.
8. ) Odysseus and his pirating romps abroad in mythical lands as well as his wife and son in Ithaca and their struggles waiting for him

Question 22

“Minoan Pompeii”

1. ) Name & location in Aegean & when destroyed
2. ) Function in Aegean according to theory
3. ) Significance of destruction?
4. ) Art

Answer 22

1. ) Akrotiri (Santorina volcano explosion), located in cyclades, destroyed 1600
2. ) Functioned as a main trade/transshipment hub for Minoan civ between core states and other peripheries (middle Kingdom, near east and other actors)
3. ) According to theory, Loss of Akrotiri meant that Crete was no longer as well placed in the Aegean as Greece itself to trade with the core states. Other islands in Cyclades still important for transshipment, but they are closer to Mycenaea than to Crete
4. ) Beautiful art frescoes and artifacts found in Akrotiri show mostly signs of peaceful and trade life. Boats (prof thinks are trade mission) as well as boxing, beautiful animals and cool shit. Must have been a VERY wealth community, confirming importance to transshipment trade between core states.

Question 23

Super Early Mycenaeans

1.) Founding and significance?

Answer 23

1.) 3000-2800 Indo-Europeans called Mycenaeans migrate to the Greek peninsula and found some early sites with social stratification (in southern Laconia). They are initially overshadowed by Cretan Minoan culture but around 1600 (with the weakening of Minoan state), they begin to increase in prominence.

Question 24

Troy as problematic history

1. ) name of _ empire site in Anatolia that ppl think might be Troy? When?
2. ) Reasons in favor of epic cycle truth?
3. ) Roman author/work that confirms burning of Troy absent from our epic cycle?
4. ) problems with site: What caused the site to be burned? Who excavated it?
5. ) Ahhiyawa

Answer 24

1. ) Wilusa, Hittite Empire, 13th Century
2. ) Logical area for early Greek colonization attempts. Greeks later do colonize it. Destruction layers around 13th century
3. ) Virgil, Aenid
4. ) German Archeologists ruined the site. Troy mound was in 9 main layers, the archaeologists at the time basically leroy jenkinsed their way to the Troy layer and destroyed the archaeological context. May have been burned by earthquake or other non-war causes. Every other site also burned!
5. ) Hittite word for annoying pirates in Wilusa. Ppl think it might be Hittite for “Achaean”, but who knows?

Question 25

GREEK DARK AGES (follows Mycenaean collapse)

1. ) Dates
2. ) 3 disappearances
3. ) Why1: Global core meltdown
4. ) Why2: Natural disasters

Answer 25

1. ) 1150-850 BCE
2. ) Disappearance of material culture, writing and urbanization (palaces, feudal monarchy, etc)
3. ) New Kingdom collapses (1250-1050). Egypt Fractures into several priest kingdoms. Hittite empire collapses 12th century into tiny city-states. TRADE BECOMES MORE DIFFICULT
4. ) Earthquakes and earthquakes and fires oh my! Buildings collapse inwards implying earthquake damage. This happens like 3 times

Question 26

Myth of Dorian Invasion

1. ) Who What Where
2. ) Why is wrong?

Answer 26

1. ) The Dorians, supposedly a northern people descended from hercules (Heracleidae) invade south and f shit up for the Mycenaeans. They do sound pretty barbaric after all
2. ) contemporary myth likely from Athenians or the like who think Spartans sound like northern hicks. Also b/c dorian settlements correspond with obvious Mycenaean ruins.
   - Basically it makes sense to Greeks so it becomes their version of history even wrong.

Question 27

Mycenaean collapse and Earthquakes

1. ) when is first? When is last?
2. ) walls
3. ) Also tsunamis and floods

4.) port as evidence for earthquake collapse

Answer 27

1. ) First earthquakes in 1240, 1200-1190 final destructions
2. ) Wall strengthening throughout destruction period (1300-1200
   - most likely because of natural disasters and internal conflict. Mycenaean palaces obviously strong enough to operate DURING their destruction.
3. ) silt deposits yo
4. ) Kalamianos Port: used to be connected to mainland and was valuable port but earthquakes fd that up for them

Question 28

IRON

1. ) when does it emerge wide scale?
2. ) advantages
3. ) Disadvantages

Question 29

SEA PEOPLES

1. ) First Mentioned?
2. ) Associated with?
3. ) Who are they

Answer 29

1. ) Egyptian records start mentioning sea peoples in 1277 BCE
2. ) Raiding and Burning. (For example, Ugarit:(
   - MASSIVE MIGRATIONS as well
3. ) Many think Mycenaeans were sea people (see Burning of Troy), but they were probably not any one specific people.

Question 30

Ugarit!

1. ) Where?
2. ) How does it fall?
3. ) Important letters and significance
4. ) language

Answer 30

1. ) Had been part of Hittite Empire. Close to Egypt border in Near East/Levant
2. ) in 1215-1180 the Sea peoples come in just a few ships and ravage Ugarit and its king Ammurapi (like hammurabi).
3. ) Amurrapi’s 4 letters to the Hittite king (addressed as to “father”), indicate botht that Ugarit’s armed forces were serving in defenses abroad and that nobody was able to defend Ugarit against a mere 7 sea people ships. Also the sea people weren’t very nice.
4. ) hittite uses a written semitic language ancestral to Hebrew and important to Jewish history

Question 31

Report of Wenamun

1. ) Who
2. ) When?
3. ) Places visited?
4. ) Significance

Answer 31

1. ) Wenamun, a priest of Amun-Ra from upper egypt, a land not controlled directly by pharaoh
2. ) C1070 written by Egyptian priest
3. ) From upriver kingdom to
   - Tanis where pharaoh/representtives are to
   - Dor (sea peoples?)to
   - Byblos
4. ) Shows the effects that the Sea Peoples had on commerce; Fractured empires, now just City-States; Fracturing means that the voyage requires lots of negotiation, endless hurdles, time wasted; Illustrates why Material Culture declined after the collapse of the Egyptian New Kingdom and Hittite Empires due to difficulties in trade. Also shows the changing religious dynamic in Egypt.