Midterm 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.”
“Near Heidelberg, Germany 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.”
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 and plants and volcanic rocks
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?
“They were different than from the Neanderthal people who … inhabited the earth for about 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
Which of the following were not 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
Why do historians call it the “Stone Age”?
The primitive peoples built stone tools.
About how long did the Neanderthal people inhabit the earth?
About two hundred thousand years
About how long ago did the Neanderthal people appear in prehistory before our ancestors?
“They were different from the Neanderthal people who appeared about seventy thousand years earlier …”
How long did The Ice Age last?
Many tens of thousands of years!`
What did the cavemen learn to do in the warmth once the ice retreated to the high mountains?
“But gradually the earth grew warmer and the ice retreated to the high mountains, and people—who by now were much like us—learned, with the warmth, to plant grasses and then grind the seeds to make a paste which they could bake in the fire, and this was bread.”
Which metal did prehistoric people use that “has a nice shine” but is “soft and gets blunt more quickly than stone”?
“Copper has a nice shine, and you can use it to make arrowheads and axes, but it is soft and gets blunt more quickly than stone.”
When did Menes rule over Egypt?
“It is 3100 BC (that is, 5100 years ago), when, as we believe, a king named Menes was ruling over Egypt.
What were the rulers of Ancient Egypt called?
Pharaohs
Of what did the Egyptians not sing in praise of their river four-thousand years ago?
Creating the beans
What was the Ancient Egyptian writing system called?
Hieroglyphs
Why did the Egyptians preserve all their ancient traditions over the centuries and the priests make sure that no son did anything his father had not done before?
“…preserving all their ancient traditions over the centuries. Their priests made quite sure that no son did anything his father had not done before him. To them, everything old was sacred.”
Which body of water did the Ancient Egyptians worship?
The Nile
Which of the following do we not attribute to pharaohs?
They were immensely powerless.
Who was the sun god in Ancient Egypt?
Amon
Who was the god of the Kingdom of the Dead?
Anubis was the god of the Kingdom of the Dead.
“In honor of their gods, they chiseled majestic stone statues, as tall as __________, and built temples as big as __________.”
“In honor of their gods, they chiseled majestic stone statues, as tall as a five-story house, and built temples as big as towns.”
What are the tall pointed granite stones placed outside of temples in Ancient Egypt called?
“Obelisks are the tall pointed stones cut from single blocks of granite and placed in front of temples.”
Which of the following describes a belief that the Ancient Egyptians had in their religion?
A man’s soul left his body when he died, and for some reason, the soul continued needing that body, and would suffer if it crumbled into dust.
Which of the following was not a method that the Ancient Egyptians used to preserve the bodies of the dead?
They bandaged them with long strips of papyrus so that they wouldn’t decay.
Why did Ancient Egyptians put in food and furniture and clothes in the tombs and create paintings on the walls from the life of the departed?
A tomb was intended to be a dwelling for the soul when it returned to visit its body.
Which of the following is not an example of how Egyptians “knew what they were doing”?
How they used great nets to catch geese on the Nile
Based on the discoveries found in noblemen’s tombs, how did the king reward his faithful ministers?
Decorations
Which two objects were combined to write “Osiris” in hieroglyphs?
A throne and an eye
Which three languages are found on the Rosetta Stone?
Ancient Greek, Egyptian Hieroglyphs, and another Egyptian dialect
What material did Ancient Egyptians use for their writing?
“They wrote on long strips of this papyrus, which were then rolled up into scrolls. A whole heap of these scrolls has survived.”
How long did Ancient Egypt’s empire last?
Nearly 3000 years
Which pharaoh attempted to change Ancient Egypt’s culture?
Akhenaton
Which animal head did the god of the Kingdom of the Dead have?
“The Kingdom of the Dead had its own god, Anubis, and he had a jackal’s head.”
Which of the following did Akhenaton not do as ruler?
He had the walls of his palace painted in the traditional style.
Which is not related to Akhenaton?
He taught his people of the gods that existed.
“Wise words are rarer than __________, yet they come from the mouths of __________ who __________.”
emeralds, poor slave girls, turn the millstones
When did Menes rule over Egypt?
5100 years ago
Of what did the Egyptians not sing in praise of their river four-thousand years ago?
“You water the plains and have the power to feed all cattle. You quench the thirsty desert, far from any water. You bring forth the barley, you create the wheat. You fill the granaries and storehouses, not forgetting the poor.”
What was the Ancient Egyptian writing system called?
Hieroglyphs
Which of the following do we not attribute to pharaohs?
“They were called pharaohs. A pharaoh was immensely powerful. He lived in a great stone palace with massive pillars and many courtyards, and his word was law. All the people of Egypt had to toil for him if he so decreed.”
Who was the god of the Kingdom of the Dead?
Anubis
“In honor of their gods, they chiseled majestic stone statues, as tall as __________, and built temples as big as __________.”
a five-storey house, towns,
What are the tall pointed granite stones placed outside of temples in Ancient Egypt called?
Obelisks
Which of the following describes a belief that the Ancient Egyptians had in their religion?
A man’s soul left his body when he died, and for some reason, the soul continued needing that body, and would suffer if it crumbled into dust.
Which of the following was not a method that the Ancient Egyptians used to preserve the bodies of the dead?
They bandaged them with long strips of papyrus so that they wouldn’t decay.
Which of the following is not an example of how Egyptians “knew what they were doing”?
How they pumped water into ditches as a primitive plumbing system
Based on the discoveries found in noblemen’s tombs, how did the king reward his faithful ministers?
“In noblemen’s tombs, we can see embassies thriving from abroad, laden with tribute, and the king rewarding faithful ministers with decorations.”
Which two objects were combined to write “Osiris” in hieroglyphs?
A throne and an eye were combined to write “Osiris” in hieroglyphs.
Which three languages are found on the Rosetta Stone?
Ancient Greek, Egyptian Hieroglyphs, and another Egyptian dialect were found on the Rosetta Stone.
What material did Ancient Egyptians use for their writing?
Papyrus
Which animal head did the god of the Kingdom of the Dead have?
A jackal’s
Which of the following did Akhenaton not do as ruler?
“The ancient temples were shut down, and King Akhenaton and his wife moved into a new palace. Since he was utterly opposed to tradition, and in favor of fine new ideas, he also had the walls of his palace painted in an entirely new style.”
Which is not related to Akhenaton?
He invested time in the gods and the culture’s mysterious rituals.
“Wise words are rarer than __________, yet they come from the mouths of __________ who __________.”
emeralds, poor slave girls, turn the millstones
Mesopotamia resided between which two rivers?
The Tigris and the Euphrates
The name Mesopotamia is Greek for what?
“…it was called Mesopotamia, which is Greek for the 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 not think demonstrates a culture?
For a long time it was thought that the Egyptians were the first people to have everything that goes to make up what we call 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?
“…such as that of the hero Gilgamesh and his battles with 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 Venus is named after the goddess of what?
“Venus, love”
Which of the following pictures did the Babylonians and Assyrians not portray in their statues?
Warriors praying for victory
In which of the following ways were the Babylonians and Assyrians kings not portrayed in their statues?
They sat upon jeweled thrones
To which gods and goddess did the Babylonians and Assyrians make sacrifices?
“[The Babylonians, and Assyrians after them,] are also sometimes shown making sacrifices to 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 not attributed to the Babylonian and Sumerian strange buildings?
At the very top was a temple dedicated to the Nebuchadnezzar, or one of the other Mesopotamian rulers
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
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.
“One such mound, standing in the desert, is all that remains of Babylon, once the greatest city on earth, a city swarming with people who came there from every part of the world to trade their wares.”
Upstream, at the foot of the mountains, sits another. This was __________, the second greatest city in the land … [the capital of] of the Assyrians.
Upstream, at the foot of the mountains, sits another. This was Nineveh, the second greatest city in the land. Babylon was the capital of the Babylonians—that’s easy enough to remember—Nineveh was that of the Assyrians.
Which quality do historians and archaeologists not think demonstrates a culture?
Palaces and visitors
Which of the following items was not discovered in the burial sites at Ur?
Magnificent harps decorated with lions’ heads
What did people discover inscribed in clay tablets?
“However, the inscriptions were not in hieroglyphs, but in a totally different script … cuneiform, meaning wedge-shaped.”
Into what did the Mesopotamians inscribe their signs?
“Books made of papyrus were unknown to Mesopotamians. They inscribed these signs into tablets of soft clay, which they then baked hard in ovens.”
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?
“It is the oldest law-book in the world, and is known as the Code of Hammurabi.”
When did King Hammurabi live?
1700 BC
The planet Mars is named after the god of what?
“Some planets were believed to bring good luck, others misfortune: Mars meant war and Venus, love.”
The planet Venus is named after the goddess of what?
Love
Which of the following pictures did the Babylonians and Assyrians not portray in their statues?
Priests inspecting kneeling captives bound in chains
In which of the following ways were the Babylonians and Assyrians kings not portrayed in their statues?
They looked forlorn
To which gods and goddess did the Babylonians and Assyrians make sacrifices?
Baal and Ishtar
Which ancient Mesopotamian cultures observed the stars and gave names to constellations?
“For both the Babylonians and the Assyrians worshiped the sun and the moon, and also the stars. On clear, warm nights, throughout the year and over centuries, they observed and recorded everything they saw in the skies.”
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 not attributed to the Babylonian and Sumerian strange buildings?
Sturdy columns that upheld ornate balconies where priests stood
What were Nebuchadnezzar’s “truly greatest deeds”?
“And yet his truly greatest deeds were not his wars: he had huge canals and water cisterns dug in order to retain the water and irrigate the land so that it became rich and fertile.”
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?
“The One and Only God, Creator of heaven and earth, sun and moon, land and river, plant and beast, and all of mankind as well.”
Complete the Sentiment: The Ancient Jewish God “was he who raged furiously against them in the storm, but he never __________.”
“It 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 __________.”
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
