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
