Midterm 2 Flashcards

Question

Explain Complexity and Pre State societies

Answer 1

Middle Neolithic Megalithic Monuments  Most appear after 6,000 years ago.  Independent European innovation.  Coastal Europe; seldom more than ~150 km from the coast.  About 50,000 megalithic tombs survive today.  Hundreds of thousands of megalithic tombs in Neolithic Europe

Answer 2

 7,000-year-old monument consisting of ~100 standing stones, some up to 2 metres tall.  Arranged around an open oval space.  Revealed by extreme drought conditions in 2019; site inundated by dam construction in 1930s.  One stone (dolman) is carved with an anthropomorphic form on one side & may feature an early “map” etched onto the other.  Thought to have once had a roof covering & to have been used as a grave space.  Orientation to the summer solstice would have illuminated any ancestral remains briefly each year.

Answer 3

ChamberTombs:  Walled & roofed with large stones.  Burial structures.  Multiple (even numerous) individuals.  Reused over time.  Bones often moved about inside.  Evidence for ritual activities inside. Passage graves:  Megalithic chamber under a round mound, entered through a long megalithic passageway.  Re-usable. Gallery graves:  Long rectangular chamber, usually under a rectangular mound.  Re-usable. Dolmens:  Smaller.  Covered by a mound; not reused.  Single standing stones (Menhirs).  Rows of standing stones.  Circles of standing stones.  A shift from communal, descent- group orientation to acceptance of individuals of high status (?)  Probably used by a single related clan of settled farmers, over many generations.  Probably served as a visible marker of their connection to that territory.  Lends legitimacy to group’s territorial claim.

Answer 4

● A ring of massive standing stones on the Salisbury Plain, England. ● Construction of Stonehenge attributed to Romans, Druids, Danes, Greeks. ● Some see it as the product of mystical forces or “earth mysteries”. ● Archaeological research demonstrates that its not a single monument, but a sequence of monuments built over time.

Answer 5

● Stonehenge was developed through a series of stages. ● Construction began in the Late Neolithic ~5000 BP. ● Stonehenge continued to be developed until the Early Bronze Age ~3500 years ago. ● Major archaeological project conducted over a 10-year span in early 2000s is altering our understanding of construction history. ● Traditional view: three major phases of development.

Answer 6

Phase 1 ● The Earthwork Circle. ● The first monument at Stonehenge was a round ditch: ● The ditch enclosed an area 110 metres in diameter. ● Slight embankments were built up inside and outside of the ditch. ● Wooden posts were erected in a ring of holes called Aubrey holes, dug along the inside of the ditch. ● Phase 1 dates to the Late Neolithic, about 5000 B.P. Phase 2 ● Burials & Timber Structure. ● Ditch & Aubrey holes largely filled in during this phase. ● Human remains, including remains from cremated burials, are found in the fill of both the ditch & some of the Aubrey holes. ● A structure of standing timber posts was constructed near the centre of the monument. ● Phase 2 dates to the Late Neolithic, 5000-4500 years ago. Phase 3 ● Stone Monument. ● The monumental stones that are the most impressive aspect of Stonehenge were erected in a series of six sub-phases. ● Phase 3 occurred during the Early Bronze Age, 4500-3500 years ago. Phase 3a ● The Bluestones, ring of standing stones about 2.0-2.5 m high at the centre of Stonehenge. ● Source is the Preseli Mountains, Wales, over 240 km away. ● Why these stones had a value to justify such enormous effort is a mystery. Phase 3b ● Sarsen Circle and Trilithons. ● Sarsen Circle: stone monoliths set up around the perimeter of Stonehenge. ● Sarsen: a very hard sandstone found 30km from Stonehenge. ● Circle of sarsen stones was capped by lintels made of solid blocks. ● Trilithons are another set of sarsen monoliths set up in a horseshoe arrangement inside the Sarsen Circle, each capped by a lintel. ● Trilithons are massive, about 7 metres high. Phases 3c-f ● Rearranging Bluestones & Digging Holes. ● During these phases the bluestones were reorganized & a series of holes was dug in concentric circles around the site. ● One set of bluestones was set up in the shape of a horseshoe inside the trilithons & another set erected between the trilithons & Sarsen Circle. ● Two concentric rings of pits were excavated outside of the monument.

Answer 7

 Our understanding of Stonehenge – particularly the construction history – is in a state of flux, undergoing change on a regular basis as new data & analyses become available.  Recent data suggest that both the bluestones & possibly the entire plan of Stonehenge may originate in a slightly earlier monument from Wales called Waun Mawn.  Current view is that the bluestones did not just originate in Wales, but were actually part of this earlier monument, deliberately moved to Stonehenge within a few generations of its construction.

Answer 8

 Excavations between Stonehenge & the nearby Avon River revealed the location of a once existing stone circle – dubbed Bluestonehenge – consisting of bluestones that were later moved to Stonehenge itself.  Construction date for Bluestonehenge is still unclear.  Appears to be close in time to construction of the Avenue ditches, connecting Stonehenge to nearby Amesbury, a much larger henge structure.  Approximate timing (4475-4360 BP) suggested to connect to arrival of outsiders (referred to as “Beaker folk” into Britain)

Answer 9

 Recent research suggests that at least some of the Sarsen stones at Stonehenge occurred naturally.  The heel stone & stone 16 are not shaped, placed near areas of large- scale ancient digging.  Naturally occurring along a solstice axis, these two stones may be responsible for the entire geometry of Stonehenge.  Although at least some of the Sarsen at Stonehenge was local, recent chemical & geological analysis shows that the origin of most of these specimens (50 of 52) lies elsewhere.  Chemical signatures strongly suggest that an area some 25 km north of Stonehenge – known as West Woods, Wiltshire – is the most likely source of the bulk of the enormous construction stones.

Answer 10

 Bush Barrow burial, near Stonehenge.  Skeleton with prestige artifacts.  A gold lozenge that fastened his cloak was on his chest.  A bronze dagger adorned with an intricate handle design hung from his belt.  Microscopic elements, smaller than the head of a pin, were used in forming dagger handle.  More than 1,000 years before the invention of any form of magnifying glass  Argued that children did the manufacturing, because adults rarely retain that level of visual acuity.

Answer 11

 A woodhenge discovered in Yorkshire may have had a very different kind of ritual purpose.  ~4,000 years old, large circle, rectangles at edges & a pile of small stones in middle.  Rectangles at edges were bases for either wood pole buildings or simple benches.  Central pit filled with burnt stones, suggesting they were brought in after heating.  Possibly used for cremation?  Also possibly used for heating water to create a sauna or sweat bath, used ritually by many societies.

Answer 12

 Recent re-analysis of cremated remains from Aubrey Holes brought surprising results.  At least 10 of the 25 individuals studied appear to have lived in western Britain, probably Wales, near the source of the Bluestones.  Suggests that perhaps these people not only brought the Bluestones to Stonehenge, but also proceeded to settle, live, & die there.

Answer 13

 Megaliths are widespread throughout western Europe, the Mediterranean, & northern Europe.  Question: are these independent inventions, or does the idea spread?  Recent re-analysis of dates suggests that the idea may originate in Brittany (NW France) & spread throughout the rest of Europe.  Megalithic burials appear originate ~6,500 years ago in Brittany, developing over a period of 250-300 years, then spreading.  Implies widespread use of boats.

Answer 14

● Many view Stonehenge as a mystery waiting to be unlocked. ● There is no lack of explanations for the monument: ● Prehistoricobservatory? ● Druidsanctuary? ● Stonehenge must have had a ritual function and many aspects of its arrangement correspond to celestial orientations. ● However, multiple meanings/uses of the site occurred over time. ● There is no single meaning for Stonehenge—It was used for over 80 generations.

Answer 15

3 major cultures: 1. Ancestral Puebloan (AKA Anasazi) 2. Mogollon 3. Hohokam  “Anasazi” translates as “ancient enemy.”  Concentrated in “4-Corners” area.  Northern Arizona/New Mexico.  Southern Colorado/Utah.

Answer 16

 Unclear, although they seem to have developed out of local archaic culture.  Transition begins about 1500 BC.  Linked to use of corn agriculture.  Earliest farmers did not make pottery, but relied on basketry.  Referred to as Basketmaker peoples.  Later Basketmaker culture continued to use baskets, but less frequently.  Ceramics began to replace baskets as the preferred type of container.  This trend continued for the remainder of prehistory, where pottery was predominant.

Answer 17

 Once crops were harvested, food storage became important.  Underground storage pits protected preserved crops from insects, rodents, & other animals.  Pits were typically lined, covered with slabs of stone & sealed with adobe.

Answer 18

 Around AD 750, the Ancestral Puebloan culture changed.  Basketmaker groups with pithouses were replaced with above-ground structures called pueblos.  These were small initially, but eventually grew into very large room blocks, with dozens (sometimes hundreds) of rooms.  Between AD 750 and 900, populations begin to increase.  Villages become permanent, occupied year round.  Agriculture is enhanced through the use of irrigation canals.  Pithouses still in use, although above-ground structures are also present.

Answer 19

 Ceremonial structures.  Usually subterranean.  Typically round, although early kivas sometimes square.  Used for religious & other communal purposes.  Pit room completely below-ground.  Roofed, with a central rectangular opening at ground-level.  A hearth, wind deflectors, & a ventilator (opening at top center) also present.

Answer 20

 Changes between AD 900 & 1150.  Population increase.  Large-scale sites with populations of up to 5,000 people.  Construction of planned towns with connecting roads.  Widespread trade and transport of goods.  AD 900 - 1150.  Chaco Canyon sees major occupation during this time.  Chaco is an important regional centre, and may have even functioned more as a ceremonial centre than a residential area.  Suggests tremendous importance of area, although we are unsure why.  Sandstone blocks were quarried for construction.  Timber used in construction transported from distances of hundreds of miles.  Assembled 15 major complexes which remained the largest buildings in North America until the 19th century.  Construction within Chaco Canyon indicates a great deal of planning.  Structures are aligned with astronomical phenomena, such as solar and lunar cycles.  Indicates generations of observation.  Buildings separated by many miles – out of visual contact with each other – are also aligned to each other and to astronomical phenomena.  Indicates ability to perform mapping survey-style calculations.

Answer 21

 Immense complexes of rooms are called"Great Houses.“  Architectural styles changed through time, but Great Houses maintained core traits.  Great houses averaged more than 200 rooms each, some up to 700 rooms.  Large individual rooms ,with high ceilings.  Well-planned with large construction phases, rather than incremental growth.  Large Chacoan buildings did not have the meticulous designs until after about AD 1030.  When this change occurred, buildings took on a combination of planned architectural designs, geometry, astronomical alignment, engineering, and landscaping.  Resulted in public architecture.

Answer 22

 Considerable debate about the function(s) of Chaco Canyon.  Few researchers feel it was a residential village.  Most argue it was a ceremonial complex, with a small local population and annual influxes of people making “pilgrimage” to this sacred area for ceremonies.  Some small residential sites around the Great House complexes within Chaco Canyon.  Chaco Canyon happens to lie along a line of lunar alignment, which may have given the area mystic significance.

Answer 23

 Chacoan roads excavated to bedrock or soil.  Most suspected roadways have no “topographic expression”.  Roads frequently follow terrain, although linearity was clearly a focus of the roadway construction.  Misconception that many Chacoan roads, including the Great North Road, went “nowhere.”  Many roads radiated out & appeared to end after only a few kilometers.  However, they pointed to other places–Great Houses, Outliers, or other prominent features on the landscape like buttes or mesas.  Function debated. Two arguments: 1. Chacoan roads were primarily utilitarian, main roads used to transport goods, especially timber. 2. Chacoan roads were non-utilitarian, demonstrating the existence of overarching political authority within region.

Answer 24

 Oral history claims Chaco Canyon had “kings” with great power over the people.  The Great Houses were their residences.  Little or no evidence Great Houses were temples.  Monumental buildings indicate authority over people.  Smaller Great Houses part of a regional bureaucracy.  Exotic Goods indicate trade, some from great distances.  Chief is not a Native American word; some Native people refer to the elites as “kings” and the Great Houses as “palaces.”  Their power and authority is displayed in the construction of the large “Great Houses” and public works such as irrigation projects and road building.  Smaller Great Houses spread across the landscape were most likely kin-based local leaders controlling the surrounding populations, much like a government bureaucracy; probably reported to the Chaco Canyon Elites.  Chaco as an egalitarian, communal society based on religion is out of line with the archaeological evidence.  Some agreement that religion played a part, but some researchers see a stratified political community that organized and administered a huge regional state.  The exact nature of that state is still in question.

Answer 25

 Archaeologists have long wondered whether there is evidence for hereditary leaders in places like Chaco Canyon.  Recent research (Feb 2017) on ancient DNA (aDNA) from several Pueblo Bonito elite burials suggests that this practice was present.  Room 33 functioned as a crypt, with human remains added to it over time.  The earliest burial within, Burial 16, is one of the richest ever discovered in western North America.  >11,200 turquoise beads; >3,300 shell beads; a conch trumpet; abalone shells from the Pacific Cost found with skeleton.  Additional remains interred above this individual, also with prestige items.  aDNA studies of 9 elite burials from Room 33 in Pueblo Bonito show virtually no differences.  This demonstrates that all of these individualsare blood relatives.  Variations in the dates of the burials leads researchers to suspect that this represents a matrilineal descent line (mother to daughter).

Answer 26

 By AD 1130, Chaco Canyon loses its position of power and inf luence, along with most of its population.  Climate change is thought to have led to the emigration of Chacoans.  Chaco Canyon was eventually abandoned.  Probably as the result of a fifty- year drought beginning around AD 1130.

Answer 27

 Occupation of Mesa Verde as old as Chaco Canyon; settlements move to cliffs ~AD 1100.  Around the time of the Chacoan collapse & abandonment, Mesa Verde grows substantially.  Results in the creation of famous cliff dwellings.  Towers were built near kivas; used as lookout posts?

Answer 28

 Mesa Verde settlements move from top to cliffs ~ AD 1100.  Famous for cliff dwellings.  Houses situated in caves or below rock overhangs along canyon walls.  Structures made of blocks of sandstone, typically plastered with adobe (mud).  Reflects regional trend towards population aggregation and the use of highly defensible living areas during the AD 1200s.  Not everyone in the region lived in cliff dwellings.  Canyon rims are covered with multi-family structures, many of substantial size due to population increases.  Both surface & cliff dwellings preferred to use window & door openings in a T-shape, a design first seen at Chaco Canyon.

Answer 29

 A stone bench ran entirely around the circular room a few feet up from the floor; at intervals along the bench were 5 or 6 stone pilasters supporting the roof beams.  Mesa Verde kivas are ~3-4 m in diameter, but deep enough that a person could stand upright beneath the cribbed roof – wooden beams laid between pilasters in the kiva wall, forming a polygonal framework around the top of the wall.  Cribbing left only a central smoke / access hole.  Set into the floor were a firepit & a smaller hole called a sipapu.  The sipapu is a symbolic portal commemorating the opening through which the first ancestors of the Puebloan peoples emerged into this world.  Fresh air supplied by a ventilator shaft set in a side wall & separated from the fire by a stone deflector.

Answer 30

 Two constants of the late occupation: increasing population & climate change.  Both caused stress on the communities.  Mesa Verde began to be abandoned by the late AD 1200s, experiencing a 24 year drought; area nearly devoid of human population by AD 1300.  Unclear where people went, although they may have simply moved into other areas of the southwest.  There is some evidence for post- abandonment hunting at Mesa Verde, but not for any substantial re-occupation.

Answer 31

 Although many of the great pueblos were abandoned by the early 1300s, some continued to be occupied  These took on a different appearance.  In many cases these were carved into cliffs, rather than built onto them.

Answer 32

 Once thought that the pueblo societies of the northern Southwest all collapsed at once.  Single cause was sought.  Now: multiple collapse events, all triggered by local conditions.  Over-population and prolonged drought seem to be a common theme.  Puebloan peoples did not disappear.  Appear to have moved to different regions.  There are modern puebloan cultures in places like Zuni and Hopi Pueblos.  Some modern southwest groups, such as the Navajo and Apache, only migrated into the area after about AD 1400.

Answer 33

 Mimbres refers to a tradition within a sub-region of the Mogollon culture area, primarily during the "Classic Mimbres phase" AD 1000-1130.  People constructed single-story room blocks usually arranged around plazas, along with rectangular Great Kivas for community use.  Mimbres people typically buried their dead in a squatting position beneath their house floors, with bowls placed over the head of the deceased.  These bowls–many of which show prior use–were ritually “killed” by punching a hole in the bottom.  11th-12th C. Mimbres people began producing black- on-white pottery using representational forms & complex geometric designs that are much admired by collectors.  What inspired the Mimbres women potters to create this new style is unknown.

Answer 34

 Black-on-white Mimbres pottery was a local development, common after A.D. 900; naturalistic designs after 1000.  Studies of clay & temper demonstrate that pottery was made in many locations, perhaps most villages; it was moved / traded across the region & beyond.  Modern Pueblo pottery is made mostly by women; one female burial recovered with pottery-making equipment suggests this apply to the past.  Mimbres pottery found in many contexts.  Most whole bowls recovered from burials, where they were placed over the deceased's head  Majority show use wear, indicating use in daily life before burial.  Mimbres ceramics are sometimes imperfectly round.  Bowls only decorated on the insides, with exteriors simply plain brown clay body.  Designs, painted in black-on-white, most frequently geometric; show certain similarities to the geometric designs of Ancestral Puebloan black-on-white pottery, but also local inventions.  Many Mimbres geometric designs distinct due to a sense of visual movement – as though the bowls were intended to be turned in the hands to appreciate the graphic imagery.  Designs include geometric patterns, human, animal, & insect forms, appearing as single images, inverted pairs, & quartered designs.  Images are often realistic but presented with a sense of whimsy; many vessels show genre scenes – everyday activities such as hunting parties or women, recognized by their string aprons or anatomical features, tending children or training macaws.  Macaws were imported from farther south & raised for their highly prized scarlet feathers.  Some researchers argue that men painted at least some of the designs, as some vessels depict rituals carried out by men.  Other researchers argue that, because birth scenes are anatomically unusual (or even incorrect), they were likely painted by people unfamiliar with the details of birth, probably men.  Naturalistic designs are stylized, but not inaccurate.  Many show details, almost like naturalist field guides, that allow us to identify the particular species being depicted.  Many of the fish depicted in Mimbres pots are saltwater species.  Suggests some people traveled more than 350 miles, from the Mimbres region to the California coast.

Answer 35

 Settled in Sonoran Desert of central & southern Arizona around 200 CE.  Extensive irrigation canals permitted agriculture in this arid region, permitting fields of corn, cotton, tobacco, agave, & amaranth.  Also engaged in long-distance trade networks, extending north into the Great Plains, west to California, & southward into parts of Mexico.  Traded commodities such as salt, shell, carved stone, & macaw feathers.  From their Mesoamerican trading partners, the Hohokam seem to have borrowed architectural concepts for ball courts & platform pyramids, along with many varieties of portable material culture.

Answer 36

 Canals excavated using hand tools.  Extremely labour-intensive.  Although these are quite different from public architecture – a typical hallmark of complex society – the Hohokam canals do indicate a social system with centralized authority.  It would be impossible to construct extensive canals without some kind of central authority.

Answer 37

 Hohokam villages called rancherias–large, square-to-rectangular pit houses developed directly out of earlier local traditions.  Individual residential structures were excavated 40cm below ground level; floors compacted or plastered, had a circular, bowl-shaped clay-lined hearth near entry.  Clusters of houses opening onto common courtyard; interpreted as extended family groups.  Social stratification appearing by AD900 or so, suggested by different house sizes, and ornate grave goods in some cases.

Answer 38

 Mexican influence present.  Trade goods from Mexico.  Copperbells  Mosaic artworks  Stone mirrors  Exotic birds such as macaws.  Construction of ball courts, similar to Mexican sites.  Ball courts may also have functioned as general ritual areas, perhaps dance platforms.

Answer 39

 Increasing population growth resulted in a need for increased organization and political authority.  Social complexity appears to have been fully present, with an elite class, and probably increasing social stature for craftspeople.  Platform mounds appear, and may be associated with an upper class and have some ritual/ceremonial function.

Answer 40

 By the 13th Century, Hohokam structures were beginning to change.  Hohokam peoples traditionally built pithouses, and did so for hundreds of years.  Around AD 1150 or so, above- ground houses appear in the area, along with a new pottery type.  This has been viewed by some as an invasion of outside peoples (called Salado), into the Hohokam heartland.

Answer 41

 Communities from this time period usually had clusters of adobe-walled compounds, typically ranging from 5 to 25 compounds.  Communal buildings were present at the centre of these compounds, often taking the form of Great Houses, such as that seen at Casa Grande or Pueblo Grande.  In the middle 1300s, there were a series of floods, which resulted in deepening river beds and rendering the man-made canals ineffective.  The canals required continuous extensions into the upstream areas.  Additional flooding damaged the canal systems further, destroying areas that could not be rebuilt.  This rendered hundreds of miles worth of canals useless for agriculture.

Answer 42

Situated within a large walled enclosure 128m by 79m were several multiroom structures & a tall rectangular building known as Casa Grande. Three-story rectangular structure, 18m by 13m footprint, sitting a top a 2 m platform. Built~1350CE; used for about a century before the Hohokam abandoned the site. Building functions unknown, although it was aligned for viewing solstice & equinox sunrises & sunsets over their 18.5- year cycles. Walls would have been smoothed with plaster coats & painted. No murals survived the 600 years of abandonment & weather, although early visitors described seeing wall paintings: in 1908 Fewkes recorded seeing a fragment of a mural in one of the Other buildings in the compound, which he described as figures of "birds and other animals, painted in red."  Between AD 1130 and 1300, populations congregate in small settlements in this wide fertile valley.  Settlements expanded during the 14th century, ultimately resulting in multi-storied communities which may have housed up to 2,500 people.  Paquimé is aligned on roughly the same longitudinal axis as Chaco Canyon & Aztec Ruin, with an error of only a few miles.  The similarities among these sites may indicate a ceremonial connection among the ruling elites of these sites, possibly moving from one site to another.  The settlement featured T-shaped doorways & stone disks at the bottom of ceiling support columns, both distinctive of Puebloan architecture.  Living spaces evidently varied greatly in size, and buildings may have originally been up to six or seven stories.  Excavations in one compound produced eggshell fragments, bird skeletons & traces of wooden perches.  Suggests that the community raised birds, argued to be either scarlet macaws, important in Mesoamerican rituals, or turkeys, or both.  Casas Grandes was burned around 1340, & almost completely rebuilt during the 14th century.  Multi-storied apartment buildings replaced the smaller dwellings.  Paquimé was abandoned in the early 15th century.

Answer 43

 Pottery has a white or reddish surface, with ornamentation in blue, red, brown or black.  Effigy bowls & vessels formed in the shape of a painted human figure.  Pottery was traded into modern New Mexico, Arizona, throughout northern Mexico.

Answer 44

 Accounts of early encounters with North American Indigenous Populations portrayed these people as either childlike in their simplicity or – when it suited larger nationalist objectives – as brutish savages standing in the way of progress.  1840s: rapid westward expansion brought European settlers into contact with many Indigenous groups & led to widespread displacement of these peoples.  Movement westward also brought first Euro-american encounters with monumental architectural sites like Cahokia, Hopewell, & Serpent Mound.  Many dismissed the idea that these mounds could possibly have been made by Native Americans, claiming a wide variety of other (frequently white & European) sources.  Popular sources included the following:  Toltecs  Aztecs  Vikings  Giants  Atlanteans  Lack of evidence for any of these cultures ever having been in North America was explained away by the assumption that they had been displaced by the primitive tribes.  Such rationalizations were politically expedient: if the Indians could be viewed as having destroyed previous, preferably white civilizations, then the annihilation of these "populations & the destruction of their cultural works seemed justified.  All of this was justification for removing the natives from their ancestral lands.  Mounds were routinely destroyed to make way for agricultural lands, and later developments.  Few mounds are left today, and fewer are intact.

Answer 45

 Dates to at least 3,500 years ago; occupied for centuries.  Consists of 6 curved earthen ridges along with several mounds of varying sizes & shapes, from 2 – 13 m high.  Embankments are divided into six unequal sectors by four broad aisles & a 90 m long causeway on the southwest that runs westward almost to the platform mound known as the Ballcourt Mound.  Bird Mount is the largest mound at Poverty Point.  Vaguely T-shaped structure built 1450 - 1300 BCE.  Structure has three component parts: rectangular mound, platform, & connecting ramp.  Mound & platform shape seen by some as a bird in f light, the rectangular western mound as the outstretched wings & the lower eastern platform as a tail.

Answer 46

 Centuries of agricultural use & modern highway construction have reduced the earthwork ridge heights & widths dramatically.  Excavations within the embankments yielded postmolds, indicating that wooden structures might have been built on top of the earthworks.  Fire pits, household refuge, worked stone & pottery fragments, & figurines recovered from the earthworks indicate these may have been residential platforms.

Answer 47

 “Adena”:“places remarkable for the delightfulness of their situations” in Hebrew; estate name where culture discovered.  Consists of local traditions combined with early stages of sharing cultural traits – primarily burials & ceremonial behaviours – over long distances.  At the heart of many Adena mounds was a circular or rectangular mortuary chamber.  These crypts were constructed with log floors, roofs, & walls, the last being formed of paired logs set upright into the earth.  Circular structures also had four central posts, forming a square bay, to support the peak of the roof.  A few structures also had a second inner row of posts & exterior posts flanking the entrance.  Once these original crypts had been filled, additional burials were often added to the mound at various levels; periodically the entire structure would be given a dirt cap to maintain a conical shape.  Adena sites known primarily from the central Ohio Valley area.  Agriculturalists, relying on maize.  Pottery makers.  Extensive trade network, including materials such as copper and marine shells.  Trade networks extended from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast.  Best known for mounds; few remain.  20 to 300 feet in diameter.  Functioned as burial sites, but may also have been used as ceremonial centres, markers, gathering places.

Answer 48

 Adena Mound was among first to be scientifically excavated instead of being plundered for artifacts, & this excavation demonstrated that it was constructed in two stages.  Stage 1: conical mound 6 m high & 28 m in diameter built over a rectangular log tomb chamber 4 m by 3 m, sunk 2 m below ground level, containing the remains of twenty-one individuals.  Stage 2: mound was enlarged – 2 m higher 15 m in diameter.  Second layer contained 12 later burials, placed throughout the new construction rather than in a tomb chamber or under bark coverings.

Answer 49

 Most burials contained items of personal adornment.  Copper bracelets, shell bead necklaces, etc.  Argued to be status markers, as not all burials contain such items.  Also discovered were stone tablet fragments with carvings.  Thought to be templates for stamping images onto clothing, or for tattooing.

Answer 50

Within earliest section of the Adena Mound, a unique human effigy pipe was discovered, placed near the left hand of one of the buried individuals.

Answer 51

 Mobile groups often have poorly defined territorial boundaries.  They have closely-guarded central core areas, typically including main villages and cemeteries.  Burial monuments are prominent, but relatively simple to build.  Requires no formal leadership, just short-term organization.  Probably acted as centres for a dispersed society.  Burials show that some people had higher status than others, based on artifacts.  These are argued to have been big men, who acquired status throughout their lifetime.

Answer 52

 Finely made artifacts, often made from exotic materials.  Barrel-shaped, effigy, and tubular pipes.  Gorgets: stone, copper, mica.  Mica cut-outs.  Copper bracelets, rings.  Bird effigy spear-thrower weights.  Engraved tablets.

Answer 53

 Adena “outlier” sites have been found in a number of areas.  Similarities appear related to burial practices & rituals.  Connections with Adena probably based on trade networks & exchanges for things used by big men & shamans rather than population movements.

Answer 54

 Hopewell culture appears to develop out of Adena culture in many areas of Ohio, Illinois, & the Eastern Woodlands.  Adena does not disappear in all areas, overlapping with Hopewell in parts of Ohio & Kentucky for ~300 years. Hopewell differs from Adena in that:  Produced more elaborate earthworks.  Burial practices spread farther around the Eastern Woodlands.  Trade networks much larger.

Answer 55

 Vast, complex earthworks.  Elaborate inventory of beautiful artifacts.  Use of exotic raw materials imported from great distances.  Luxury goods acquired through a far- reaching exchange network.  Burial mounds, but with a difference.  Variety of shapes of earthworks, including square, circular, octagonal, & irregular shapes.  Some as large as 1,640 feet in diameter.  Some connected complexes of multiple shapes, flanked by earthen walls.

Answer 56

 Constructed on a crescent-shaped spur of land, part of an ancient meteor impact crater; the resulting rock formations suggest a snake's head & undulating form.  May have inspired the shape of the structure.

Answer 57

 Ritual gift giving – big men exchanging exotic (and thus valuable) items.  Clans – fictive kin ties between distinct groups probably arose as a means of developing and strengthening trading ties.  Long-Distance Quests:  Shamans probably undertook long distance quests.  Visits to exotic places, magical sources of items such as mica, obsidian, marine shell, and so forth. Chalcedony Flint Grizzly Bear Teeth Pipestone Galena Flint Mica Quartz Crystal

Answer 58

 Serpent Mound is unique to Ohio, but there are other effigy mounds.  These are still burial mounds, but usually shaped like animals.  Birds, serpents, wolves, elk, bears, turtles, & other forms.  Grave offerings typically not elaborate.

Answer 59

 After Hopewell, but before Mississippian, beginnings of platform mound building.  Flat-topped, rectangular mounds.  Not used for burials, but elevated bases for buildings.  Multiple construction stages.  Similar to larger pyramids in Mesoamerica, but not connected to these.

Answer 60

 Southeastern sites have evidence of social ranking.  Fine houses on platform mounds.  Mounds also functioned as:  Council houses  Charnel houses  Temples  Public ritual areas.  Mounds arrayed around plazas.

Answer 61

 Largest city north of Valley of Mexico.  Ritual & administrative center in the fertile flood plain of the Mississippi.  At its height, the city encompassed an area of 13 square km, with an urban population estimated at 15,000 with an affiliated regional population of perhaps 50,000 or more.  Layout reminiscent of Mesoamerican city plans: Central ritual district surrounded by residential areas organized according to craft production specialty – bead & shell pendant lapidary, weaving, pottery- making, weapons manufacture.  Central focus was "Monks Mound“.  On each of its four sides, aligned to the cardinal directions, were four plazas, the largest being the Great Plaza on the south.  Additional mounds located in both the ritual district & the suburbs; these included truncated platforms, terraced pyramids, conical & oval forms, and ridgetop or "hayrick" structures.  Platform & conical mounds often associated with plaza-like spaces; could also be solitary structures.  Long, rectangular-based, narrow summitted ridgetop "hayrick" structures thought to have been boundary markers of some type.  ~120 earthen structures once stood within the confines of Cahokia; only about forty of these have survived.  Beyond mounds & plazas, the remains of four wooden circles or henges have been located west of the central ceremonial district.  Thought to have been used to track solstices & equinoxes.

Answer 62

 Largest structure north of the Valley of Mexico.  Unusual multi-terraced design with platforms of different sizes & heights; it rises from a 12 m high, rectangular basal platform 240 by 317 m.  Second level stands nearly 8 m higher than the base.  Third platform added another 9 m to overall height.  Third level slightly off-center, creating a long, narrow platform on its west side.  In the southeast corner of the third terrace stood a conical structure, estimated at 3 m high.  Fourth level originally supported a wooden temple or other structure, surrounded by a palisade or a wall made of tree trunks set upright into the ground.  Original height of fourth level unknown; the area was disturbed by monks' farming activities.  Unlike Mesoamerican pyramids protected by veneers of stone & with their mass stabilized by interior posts, stone piers & retaining walls, Monks Mound is built entirely of layers of clays & soils.  Clays are problematic because they swell when wet & shrink when dry, which could ultimately lead to the failure of the mound.  Architects seem to have been aware of the problem, taking steps to counteract it, incorporating layers of limestone cobbles to improve drainage within the structure.  Attempted to improve water resistance by building interior & exterior clay-coated retaining walls & buttresses.  Traces of puddled clay on the exterior suggest that the structure originally may have been coated with this water-resistant material.  Mound overlooked the 47-acre Great Plaza to the south, along with 16 considerably smaller mounds located within the plaza space.  The plaza, smaller mounds, & Monks Mound were enclosed by a tall six-sided, palisade with towers set every 21 m along the eastern side.  Wall defined Cahokia's sacred precinct & screened sacred rituals from the uninitiated.  Also functioned defensively in times of war.

Answer 63

 Artifacts associated with high ranking elites were widespread across the major centers of the Southeast.  Referred to as the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex.  Some literature refers to this as the Southern Cult or Buzzard Cult.  Probably relied on down-the-line trade of luxury items between chiefs & clan leaders.  Figurines & pipes made in Cahokia have been found in elite burials in the Caddoan area of the southeastern Great Plains.  This may indicate direct contact.  Warfare & ancestors common themes in artwork.  Warriors often depicted carrying trophy heads & wearing costumes mimicking birds of prey.  Pottery frequently depicts wetlands animals.  Human head pots also present.

Answer 64

 Etowah Mounds, Georgia:  Chert swords  Embossed copper plates  Carved shell gorgets  Carved marble statues.  Statues show us about dress & hair styles from the area & period.

Answer 65

 1933: A group of six treasure hunters calling themselves the Pocola Mining Company, took a two-year lease on the property with the intention of digging the mounds for antiquities.  Tunneling into the mounds, unearthing & selling off hundreds of artifacts ranging from ceramic vessels, effigy pipes, beads, tools, & weapons.  Not interested in the textiles & feathers they found, considering them not valuable & tossed these aside.  1935: Lease almost up & with increasing pressure from the University of Oklahoma, which was trying to stop the destruction, the Pocola miners attacked the last undisturbed structure, "Craig’s Mound."  Began using dynamite to speed up the “excavation”.  Mound contained 1,100 skeletons, which the miners loaded up into wheelbarrows & dumped outside the tunnel entrance.  When everything valuable was removed from the mortuary chamber, miners dynamited their tunnels.  Spiro is argued to be a trade centre, linking Mississippian cultures with western area & Mesoamerica.  Olivella shell beads from the gulf of California.  Other shells from gulf of Mexico.  Obsidian from Pachuca, north of Teotihuacán, near modern-day Mexico City.

Answer 66

 Mound 108m long consisted of 4 conjoined structures containing earthen-walled buildings.  Tallest peak10mhigh.  Enclosed the "Great Mortuary" a circular earthen-walled building measuring 35 m diameter.  Immediately to the south of the"Great Mortuary" was a cremation basin followed to the south by burial chambers.  "Great Mortuary" held thousands of offerings of beads, textiles, tools, weapons, engraved shell cups, copper ear spools & cut outs, & effigy pipes.  These elite goods showed Spiro to be an important trade centre, despite its peripheral location.  Effigy pipes were high-status items brought in from Cahokia, where they had been made around 1100 CE.

Answer 67

 Cahokian pipes are incredible sculptures.  Size & weight suggest for ceremonial use.  Red fire clay Human Effigy Pipe from Craig's Mound depicts a nude male figure bending to smoke from a frog effigy pipe, illustrating exactly – and humorously – how these pipes were used.  The anatomical details of the crossed-legs & arms bent at the elbow are well rendered, as is the expressive face of the figure.  Two openings in the back of the figure:  Upper is the bowl.  Lower is the opening for the wooden stem that would be inserted when the pipe was smoked.

Answer 68

1. Elaborated political and religious power. 2. Clear social ranking. 3. Planned public architecture. 4. A group of highly specialized craftsmen. 5. Control and active participation in inter-regional trade networks. 6. Complex intellectual achievements, such as a sophisticated, codified iconography for the permanent recording of certain concepts or events.

Answer 69

 Eridu site, southern Iraq.  Series of temples built atop one another, dedicated to Enki, the water god.  Offerings to god consist of fish.  Temples were key part of origin of complex society.  Priests and administrators oversaw land & labour management, food distribution, ritual.  Burials often contained grave goods, including figurines with lizard-like heads. * Successive temples of the Ubaid period at Eridu, south Iraq: temples of increasing size & elaboration were built atop each other over a period of several centuries. * Culminates in the grand structure of level VII. * This architectural sequence is good evidence for continuity of cult in a specific location.

Answer 70

● Uruk is the oldest known city in the world. ● Largest site in landscape densely settled with smaller towns. ● Covered 2.5 km2 & population of 20,000-40,000 at its height. ● The city grew around its central temple precinct. ● Temples were build of limestone and bitumen, both imported. ● Many temples were build on platforms, precursors to ziggurats.

Answer 71

Space is well-defined in Uruk.  Large-scale temples & associated administrative & residential buildings for priests and officials.  Open spaces for gatherings or worship.  Specialized craft production zones for ceramics, stonework, & metalwork.  Housing areas.  Both archaeology & ancient texts suggest that many aspects of daily life in ancient Uruk were controlled by elites.  Ideology & legitimacy of elites based in massive religious buildings.  Core of Uruk was complex called Eanna precinct.  Worship of Inanna, goddess of war and love.

Answer 72

 Area dominated by a series of massive temples with large open courts.  Many wall faces decorated with stone or clay cones pushed into the mud-brick structures.  Whole area had been severely truncated prior to later re- building.  Structures did not stand to a great height when excavated.

Answer 73

 Dramatic rise in regional population and number of settlements.  Development of city states focused around temples.  Development of conflict between these city states.  Development of complex economy and exchange networks.  Importing copper, gold, silver, jewellery stones, stone for vessels and sculpture, wood, etc.  Complex organization of long-distance exchange.  Transport by ship along the river and canals.  Centralized storage & control of trade goods in each city's temple.  Trading colonies in foreign territories.  The Plow & wheeled cart.  Fast potter’s wheel (vs. the slow wheel or tournette). Allowed mass production of ceramics.  Simplification and decline in craftsmanship of ceramic production.  Sophisticated copper casting (open molds, lost wax).

Answer 74

 Appearance of bevelled-rim bowls.  Enormous quantities of broken bevelled-rim bowls were found filling rooms & banked up against walls of temple buildings.  So many, & so ugly, that in many early projects they were not even counted.  Mass-produced; chaff-tempered.  Apparently made by pressing into a crude mold, maybe a hole in the ground.  Intended to be disposable?  Several more-or-less standardized sizes.  Ration distribution?  Standardized offerings?  Suggests a managed economy.  Appearance of cylinder seals (stamp seals already in use).  Used to “sign” transactions; demonstrate ownership.  Source of pictographic information regarding:  Form of upper levels of temples (that no longer exist)  Boats  Uruk culture spread through development of long-distance trade:  Throughout Mesopotamia, into the Zagros of Iran, & north & west into Syria / Turkey.  Traded with Egypt.  Received timber, olive oil, silver from Anatolia.  Received lapis, gold from Afghanistan.  Established “merchant colonies” which seem to exhibit most of the same goods found in Sumer.

Answer 75

 Rebuilding of temples had resulted in tall platforms with temples on top – first ziggurats.  One of the important temples was the “white temple” atop the “Anu ziggurat” at Uruk.  Rebuilt 6 times over 500 years; platform stood 50 feet high.  Estimated 7,500 person-years to build Anu ziggurat (monumental architecture).  Eanna ceremonial precinct at Uruk covered 9 hectares.  Limestone temple built on foundation of limestone from Arabian plateau 60 km away.  Appearance of other (competing) city-states: Ur, Nippur, Kish, and Eridu.

Answer 76

 Earliest examples of writing (pre- cuneiform):  Southern Mesopotamia from the Eanna temple precinct.  Northern Mesopotamia from Tell Brak (slightly earlier than Uruk).  Found in storage areas; relate to accounting of goods in storage, payments, lists of workers, & so on.  Later, also found in private houses, associated with seals.  “Pre-cuneiform”: earliest signs were made by scratching lines on clay tablets, mostly representing tokens & objects.  Cuneiform developed by the Early Dynastic period (2900-2350 BC).

Answer 77

● Cuneiform writing system first developed during the Uruk period. ● Written by impressing signs into wet clay using a stylus. ● Originated as a pictographic script. ● Each “picture” represented a term or concept. ● By Early Dynastic, cuneiform symbols were used to represent syllables. ● Cuneiform was used to write several different languages. ● Both highly functional & artistic simultaneously. * Trend is for signs to become less pictorially representative through time as writing speed& familiarity with signs developed. * Cuneiform script was used to write a host of often unrelated languages throughout its 3000- year history in Southwest Asia: Sumerian, Akkadian (with its many dialects), Ugaritic, Hittite, Hurrian, Elamite, & Urartian.

Answer 78

● Earliest cuneiform documents recorded ownership and economic transactions. ● Cylinder seals, carved with images & writing. ● Used by scribes to mark ownership & to ensure that closed rooms or vessels remained so. ● Over the course of 2000 years, the use of cuneiform expanded to include recording of epics, histories, dictionaries, mathematical treatises, letters.

Answer 79

 Use of cuneiform marks beginning of the historic period.  Period of Hyper-urbanism – villages abandoned for city life.  Southern Mesopotamia divided into:  Sumer in the south, and  Akkad (or Agade) in the north  By the end of the Early Dynastic, Uruk:  Enclosedbyacitywall  Population ~ 50,000

Answer 80

 Early Dynastic period sees developmentof independentcity- states.  Cities each control an area of agricultural & pastoral land.  First appearance of written lists of kings and dynasties.  Language of texts is called Sumerian, & is no longer used.  Sumerian city-states practiced irrigation farming, cutting & maintaining canals from the rivers.  Conflicts between neighbouring states often based on control of land & water.  Despite presence of cities, nomadic pastoralists were still present.  Despite independence, Sumerian city-states have remarkably similar material culture.  Pottery, jewelry, statues, seals, size & shape of mud-bricks are consistent throughout region.  Suggests a high degree of social interaction.  City-states varied in size:  Small (30 acres or less) such as Abu Salabikh.  Very large (nearly 1000 acres) such as Al-Hiba (ancient Lagash).  Dead were buried under plaster f loors in houses.  Some specialized cemeteries present.  Most famous cemetery is at city of Ur.  Each city had services and facilities including:  A major temple.  A residence for the ruler & his family.  A city wall with gates.  Craft & production workshops.  Domestic quarters for the population.

Answer 81

 Secular, military, royal residence compound of a king.  Hereditary kings first appear.  Highly pronounced social stratification:  Large cemetery near the large ziggurat at Ur.  More than 2000 graves (as many as 8000?), and 16 royal graves .  Royal Tombs at Ur long famous for chilling scenario of young soldiers & courtesans who loyally took poison to die with their mistress.  Re-analysis of two of the original skulls (using CT scans) suggests a different process.  Victims were participants in an elaborate funerary ritual during which they were felled with a sharp instrument, heated, embalmed with mercury, dressed & laid ceremonially in rows.

Answer 82

 Discovered in the royal cemetery of Ur, this 45 cm long trapezoidal wooden box was decorated with mosaics of lapis lazuli, shell, & red limestone.  Depicts key scenes from a flourishing city-state, likely seen from the eyes of the ruler.  One side depicts taxation: citizens line up to offer produce, sheep, & other livestock as taxes to the king, who feasts on the these with his court.  Opposite side depicts the king’s army – funded by taxes – smiting Ur’s enemies.  Both scenes illustrate an idealized & highly efficient government.  Also demonstrates that taxation (or tribute – using goods or services rather than currency) is universal among state -level societies.  Standard also provides insight into warfare, particularly the tools used therein.  Based on text descriptions, conf licts appear to have functioned more as a display of power than as a means of inf licting massive casualties.  Main tools of war: carts drawn by asses or oxen; axes; spears; arrows.

Answer 83

Three sources of authority (govt) in Mesopotamia: The temple ● a permanent installation at the heart of the city. ● the deity to which the temple was dedicated was a basic element of the city’s identity. The palace ● duties of the king included maintenance of the temple and military leadership of the city. ● King had jurisdiction over regulation of commercial activities, punishment for violent acts, and aspects of family life. The city council ● evidence indicates the council selected the king. ● probably had other civic decision-making functions as well.

Answer 84

● Clear disparities in wealth & privilege among members of society. ● Clothing and hairstyle were used to mark status.

Answer 85

 Sargon of Agade (King) succeeded in conquering all of northern and southern Mesopotamia, including the cities on the Sumerian plain.  Forges the first regional state in Mesopotamia with a well- equipped, professional army.  Such armies were already being established in the Early Dynastic III period.  Also established a system to control the city.  Awarded captured land to his supporters.  Put local agents in charge of conquered cities, supported by a garrison of soldiers.  Unlike earlier “rulers”, he actually controlled the conquered cities. Akkadian control began to disintegrate by 2200 BC.  Partly due to a 300 year drought.

Answer 86

 Natural resources plentiful near the Nile.  Practically everything & everyone existed along the river.  Transportation was relatively simple because of the river.  Everyone had boats.  Drifted north (downstream) with the current.  Sailed south (upstream against the current) using the prevailing northerly winds.

Answer 87

 Our knowledge of Egyptian culture is very largely a ref lection of the history of its archaeological investigation:  Due to highly restrictive geography, communities tend to be built one upon the other on the flood plain.  Lots of recycling of materials for rebuilding, and mixing of previous occupations.  Many early communities are buried under metres of silt, or below the present water table.

Answer 88

 Pre-Dynastic Egyptian towns and cities seem to have often had specialized functions.  Administrative centres.  Cult centres.  Craft production centres.  Military bases.  Some probably combined several roles.  All closely tied to agriculture.  Competition for agricultural and other assets led to conf lict.  Eventually resulted in socio- economic inequality, although exact timing and pathway are both unclear.  Earliest dynasty appears about 3100 BC.  Based on control of limited geographic areas & elite figures using a combination of secular & sacred authority.  Different elite figures were rivals for power.  Pre-dynastic Egypt does have contact with Mesopotamia.

Answer 89

 Some Nile villages grew at the expense of others, such as Hierakonpolis, which developed from a small village into an area of one hundred acres & a population of several thousand.  A pottery industry developed in Hierakonpolis, & pottery manufactured there has been discovered at sites all along the Nile.  It is likely that the demand for this pottery led to the growth of the town, along with the wealth of the people who owned the pottery kilns.  Hierakonpolis is where we first see large tombs– perhaps those of the wealthy pottery barons.  Tombs were sometimes carved out of bedrock & covered with small, crude pyramids of earth.  Finely crafted goods were placed in the tombs of these men, perhaps for use in the afterlife.  Hierakonpolis best known from burials (typical of pre-dynastic & very early dynastic sites).  Burial practices for the highest-status people became increasingly elaborate.  Earliest pharaohs buried in a royal cemetery complex in the desert at a location known as Abydos.  High-status burials were in rectangular underground chambers with mudbrick walls.  Highest-status burials started to have "mastabas", or bench-like rectangular mounds built over them.  As the mastabas increased in size over time, pharaohs began to build stepped mastabas – one block on top of another – culminating in a stepped pyramid.

Answer 90

 Unification of Upper & Lower Egypt into a single kingdom marks the start of the Early Dynastic Period.  Traditionally attributed to a king known as Menes or Meni, although all records come from considerably later periods, the New Kingdom & Ptolemaic period.  A votive palette, given in offering at the Temple of Horus in Hierakonpolis by a king named Narmer from Abydos, often understood as a statement of the unification of Egypt under Menes.

Answer 91

 Palette of Narmer found in a cache of sacred objects at the Temple of Horus at Hierakonpolis.  Palette is 63.5 cm long, a size impractical for daily use.  Inscriptions on both the obverse (front) & reverse (back) of the palette give the donor’s name, Narmer, written phonetically with the catfish (nir) & chisel (mr) glyphs).  Inscriptions on the Narmer Palette make it one of the earliest examples of the use of hieroglyphic writing.  Among earliest expressions of a formal canon – a set of rules for representation – seen in Egyptian art.  Relief carvings on both sides of the palette are ordered by registers, forming a narrative of conquest & victory.  The importance of each actor depicted is indicated by the use of hierarchical scale & view.  Significant personages – kings, priests, court officials – are both larger & shown in composite view: frontal torso & eye with the head & limbs in profile.  Inconsequential figures are small & rendered strictly in profile.  Beginning on the reverse of the palette, the conquest narrative begins in the upper register.  Narmer is shown wearing the hedjet – the tall, white, bowling-pin-shaped crown of Upper Egypt – a royal beard, & a belted linen kilt with a bull's tail hanging off, along with a row of pendants shaped as the head & horns of cattle.  Narmer enacts the capture ritual, seizing the enemy king by the hair with one hand while preparing to smite him with the mace in his other hand.  Above the captive we see the papyrus symbol of by the falcon-god Horus of Lower Egypt, divine protector of the pharaoh.  The importance of Narmer’s captive is demonstrated by the inclusion of his hieroglyphic name, Wash, & by his size relative to Narmer.  Kneeling he comes almost to Narmer’s waist.  Were he standing, the captive would be nearly as tall, thus reiterating the significance of Narmer’s conquest as his defeat of an equal.  The palette front provides a victory statement divided into three registers:  Uppermost, Narmer appears wearing the deshret – the red, rear-peaked crown with a curlicue of Lower Egypt – holding his mace in a nonaggress1ve posture.  In his other hand he holds a f ly whisk, a symbol of royal authority.  Narmer walks in a victory procession, preceded by a priest & 4 bearers carrying sepat banners; Sepat, or nome, were originally autonomous states that became administrative districts after unification.  These banners may be a reference to city-states ruled by, or allied with,Narmer.  The procession seems to be reviewing the enemy dead, laid out in two rows of five bodies each shown in aerial perspective.  All prisoners are decapitated with their severed heads placed between their feet.  The dead may represent towns brought under Narmer's control during the military campaign.  Depicted above the bodies are a wooden boat (referring to trade?) & the hawk god Horus grasping a banner in its talons.  The second depicts a pair of mythical felines, variously identified as leopards or lions, intertwining their necks, possibly as a representation of the unification of the Two Lands.  The bottom register shows a large bull, a metaphor for the power of the king, which butts his head against a walled city as a final reiteration of victory.

Answer 92

 The Egyptians kept accurate historical records of their kings.  The Royal Canon of Turin contains the names of some 300 pharaohs, including the duration of their reigns, sometimes to the exact numbers of years, months, & even days.  List traces Egyptian kingship for 958 years, all the way back to Narmer.  It shows a system of connected family lineage of descent from father to son, pharaoh to pharaoh.

Answer 93

 Often suggested that appearance of hieroglyphs occurred too soon after pre- cuneiform in Sumer to be coincidence.  Egyptian system is so different that it cannot have derived from pre-cuneiform.  Normally read right to left, opposite of pre- cuneiform.  Can be read left to right, with signs reversed!  Egyptian writing recorded only consonants, not vowels, unlike pre-cuneiform.  Little evidence of early development  Even in the earliest examples, the basic symbol system was already pretty well developed.  Suggested that hieroglyphics may have been invented by a single individual, maybe after encountering Mesopotamian writing.  Development of Egyptian writing: hieroglyphics.  Rosetta stone.  Inscription of a document in three languages:  Hieroglyphic.  Demotic (a late form of Egyptian writing).  Greek (which could be read)

Answer 94

 Earliest Egyptian royal tombs were mastabas; derived by the Arabic word for “bench.”  Ancient Egyptians placed great importance on the preservation of the body as a dwelling place for the Ka (life force) in the afterlife.  This meant that the permanence of tomb structures was paramount.  Tombs were referred to as “Houses of Eternity” or as “House of a Million Years” because the Ka, after death, was expected to dwell there for all time.  During Old Kingdom, architectural permanence was equated with mass.  Manufacturing mud-bricks & constructing massive tombs was a time consuming; most rulers began tomb construction early in their reigns.  To facilitate interment at the appropriate time, a shaft was built into the centre of the mastaba for lowering of the remains.

Answer 95

 Old Kingdom’s pioneering architect was Imhotep.  Imhotep served Djoser as vizier, architect, scribe, sculptor, medical doctor, & high priest of Heliopolis, earning him a share of the income of the temple.  Djoser's "House of Eternity“ was conceived as a standard mastaba but instead of using sun- dried brick, Imhotep chose to use stone.  This marked the first-time stone was used in Egyptian funerary architecture.  Realizing the structural potential of stone, Imhotep redesigned & enlarged the building, changing it from a simple mastaba into a stepped pyramid with six levels – each essentially a mastaba stacked upon the previous.

Answer 96

 Following Djoser’s death, several pharaohs ruled for short periods of time.  In 2613 BC, Sneferu became the new pharaoh, and began the construction of his own funerary monument (south of Saqqara, at a location known as Meidum).  His goal: another stepped pyramid, although with7 platforms.  During construction, Sneferu changed his plans, initially adding an 8th platform, then changing the entire exterior shape to a f lat, triangular shape, with a common apex at the top 92 m tall.  This transitional form was never actually completed, as Sneferu decided to build his funerary monument in a different locality entirely (Dashur).  Materials used in the Meidum pyramid were stripped & used for other construction projects.

Answer 97

 The choice to alter the shape of the Meidum pyramid led to more serious issues.  This was the first attempt to build a true pyramid, with four triangular faces leading to a common apex.  The designers used a slope far too steep (greater than 70°), ultimately rendering in the pyramid incompletable.  This shows that pyramid construction was a learning curve, not something that appeared fully formed.  Moving on from the Collapsed pyramid, Sneferu called for the construction of a true pyramid, this time at Dashur.  This design called for surfaces sloped at 54.5°, a more stable design than the attempts at Meidum.  Unfortunately, this pyramid was constructed with 3 of its corners resting on stable bedrock – & the 4th resting on unstable gravel.  This unstable design resulted in one corner settling lower than the others, deforming the walls of the burial chamber.  Rather than abandoning the project, the builders changed the angle of the exterior walls from 54.5° to 43.5°, meaning that less material (& less weight) was required to reach the apex, which was now lower.  The project was completed, but the changing angles resulted in an oddly-shaped pyramid, now referred to as the Bent Pyramid.  The Bent Pyramid – like the Collapsed Pyramid that preceded it – demonstrates a process of trial-and- error.  This process is hardly surprising given the sheer magnitude of building a pyramid, & clearly shows the humanness of the builders  More importantly it demonstrates very clearly that the process of constructing true pyramids was not something that was achieved overnight.

Answer 98

 Khufu (son&heir of Sneferu) commissioned the largest pyramid tombs, The Great Pyramid.  Foot print only 11m 3 larger than Red Pyramid.  Steeper 51° angle permits height of 146.5m.  Construction used an estimated 2.3 million massive limestone blocks, weighing up to 16 tons.  Massive blocks maneuvered into place using ropes, pulleys, & levers to move them up earthen ramps & into position.  Inner structure consisted of more roughly cut & laid limestone blocks held together with gypsum mortar; outer shell of precisely cut white Tura limestone.  Outer casing stripped during the Middle Ages; used to build the city of Cairo.  Pyramid is slightly lopsided, with west wall 14cm longer than others.  Within the pyramid were three chambers: 1. A box-like, beam-roofed subterranean chamber. 2. A gable-roofed “queen’s chamber”. 3. A pink granite, corbel-vaulted “King’s chamber” in the center of the structure, which held the pharaoh's red granite sarcophagus.  Chambers accessed by a series of passageways or galleries equipped with blocking systems to deter thieves.  Imaging similar to x-rays discovered a large void in the pyramid above the grand gallery that may be a previously unknown fourth chamber.

Answer 99

 Pyramids functioned more than just as a symbol, they played a huge role in the economy.  Massive construction projects required massive labour forces, including specialists of many kinds.  Analysis of pyramid construction demonstrates ancient Egyptians were expert in:  Mathematics and astronomy  Surveying  Quarrying  Transportsystems  Engineering  Architecture  Construction methods  Stone masonry

Answer 100

 The Great Sphinx, first colossal sculpture of the ancient world, is a hybrid creature with the body of a couchant lion & a human head.  Situated near the lower end of the causeway running from Khafre’s Mortuary Temple to his valley temples.  Face traditionally thought to be Pharaoh Khafre, partly due to proximity in front of his pyramid & also because it wears the pharaonic nemes striped head cloth, representing the flaring hood of the cobra goddess Wadjet.  Sculpture is designated shesep-ankh or "living image,” strengthening the identification of the sculpture with the pharaoh.  Some Egyptologists believe the sphinx to have been cut during the reign of Khufu or an even earlier pharaoh.  The first recorded reconstruction was during the reign of Thutmose IV (r. 1401-1391 BCE), who cleared away the desert sand & had the fallen casing stones replaced.  A beard may have been added at this time to stabilize the head & the sculpture may have been painted.  Traces of pigment found on the sphinx, & on what is believed to be a portion of its beard, show that the face & body were red; the nemes head cloth was yellow with blue stripes; the eyebrows & beard were blue to suggest the lapis lazuli beards of gods.  Around 500 BCE a new layer of masonry was added to the upper part of the sphinx's body, tail, & headdress.

Answer 101

The Sphinx’s nose was shot off at the order of the visiting French general, Napoleon Bonaparte.  Thisisnottrue;thenosewasalready gone when Napoleon visited the region in 1798–1801. There are hidden chambers beneath or within the monument in which spectacular secrets of the ancient world were housed, perhaps left behind by residents of the Lost Continent of Atlantis, as described by Edgar Cayce.  Explorers & archaeologists have identified three real chambers at the base of the Great Sphinx; these are historically known & contain no records or anything else. The Great Sphinx is substantially older than archaeologists claim.  Geologist Robert Schoch claims that the erosion seen on the sphinx is caused by water rather than windblown sand; the climate around Giza has not seen appropriate climatic conditions for this amount of rainfall since at least 5500 BCE or perhaps 7500 BCE – nearly 10,000 years ago.  Argument rejected by Egyptologists for several reasons: A. Positioning & style of the Great Sphinx match it perfectly with the culture & era of the Giza pyramids, about 2500 BCE. In other words, the Great Sphinx is not a surprising monument for that time period. B. The Great Sphinx appears to be an integral part of the funerary complex of the pharaoh Khafre. The face of the Great Sphinx is a pretty close approximation of other artistic depictions of Khafre.

Answer 102

 Reason for dissolution of power of the Old Kingdom Dynasties unclear.  May be partly due to period of drought that gave greater power to the Nomarchs who maintained water systems for agriculture & oversaw food production / distribution.  Nomarchs became the Pharaohs.  Two separate power bases:  Theban dynasty ruled the south.  Herakleopolitan dynasty ruled the north.

Answer 103

 During the Sixth Dynasty, Egypt saw the decline of the power of the central government in Memphis & an increase in that of the regional administrators or nomarchs.  Shift in balance of power reflected in changes to burial practices of provincial officials.  Earlier they would have been buried in the mastaba necropolises associated with the pharaoh’s mortuary complex.  By dynasty’s end, provincial officials were building tombs in their nomes more elaborate than those built around Memphis.  During the First Intermediate Period, the kings continued to rule from Memphis but had little power beyond the capital.  It was not until the thirty-ninth year of the reign of the Mentuhotep II (c. 2055- 2004 BCE) that Egypt was reunited, & monumental royal tombs were again constructed.  Rather than resume building pyramids, Mentuhotep II created an entirely new type of funerary monument.  Earlier Theban rulers had carved saff – row tombs – into the escarpment at el- Tarif in the northern end of the Theban necropolis.  Mentuhotep II's temple was the prototype for several later temples.  Classic period of Egypt.  Mentuhotep II of Thebes defeated the northern dynasty and reunited Egypt.  Ruled for half a century.  Development of infrastructure.  Pharaohs concerned with consolidating borders.  Built numerous fortifications.  Mentuhotep II also concerned with expanding trade relationships with the middle east.  Successful attempt to increase agricultural production & reliability.  Part of a much larger project of development and integration of rural areas – an effort towards national unity.  Golden age of pyramid building was over.  Pyramid building declined in scale & quality. Middle kingdom collapsed during a series of exceptionally high flood years when the Nomarchs again gained power

Answer 104

 Another interval of weak centralized rule.  13th Dynasty: far northern town of Avaris became an important trading center, drawing peoples from the Sinai & Palestine, along with a group referred to (by the Greeks) as Hyksos.  The Hyksos took control of Lower Egypt, ruling for 108 years until driven out by Ahmose I.  After chasing the Hyksos into Syria, Ahmose I engaged militarily with the kingdom of Kush, to secure that border.  Ultimately, Ahmose I established buffer zones around Egypt, fortifying frontier cities to prevent further foreign incursions.  Long believed that Hyksos were outside invaders.  Recent research suggests they actually represent an uprising of people of foreign origin who were living within Egyptian society.

Answer 105

 18th – 20th Dynasties: period of great prosperity.  Ahmose 1 & successors built an empire covering Libya, Syria, Nubia, & part of north-western Assyria.  Riches that poured into Egypt–especially gold from Nubia – financing one of the most creative artistic eras.  Old temples were renovated & enlarged.  New mortuary complexes were built.  New sanctuaries were constructed to honor gods other than Amun.  New media for art: glass-making was discovered by makers of Egyptian faience (sintered quartzite ceramics).  Relaxation of old representational canons, resulting in dynastic sculptures that were slender, occasionally executed fully in the round.  Resulted in an entirely new–and somewhat androgynous – representational style

Answer 106

 Tomb of this short-lived 18th Dynasty pharaoh (c. 1332–1322 BC) was found in the Valley of the Kings, on the west side of the Nile near Thebes, in 1922.  Its contents have shed considerable light on ancient Egyptian beliefs, rituals, technology, art, and other aspects of this remarkable society. The reason that the tomb of Tutankhamun was so small was because he died unexpectedly at a young age. Its discovery was so significant as it wasn’t looted like the other tombs were.

Answer 107

 Cleopatra lived from 69-30 BC.  Was of Greek descent.  One of at least 7 Cleopatras in history.  Ruled Egypt as the last active pharaoh, but did so during the Roman Empire.  Lived closer to modern day than to the time of the pyramids.

Answer 108

 Complex technology, requiring knowledge of mining ore, metal extraction, forging, etc.  Later metallurgy was specialized knowledge, & ritual involved in the process of production.  Smelting & other production areas located at a distance from the community.  Certain behaviours, including sex, were abstained from during metal production cycles.  Metallurgy plays a crucial role in the development of political power, & status differentiation.  Long-distance trade was occurring between villages & distant coastal areas.  Presence of metals made it easier for people to gain cattle, exotic goods, & other prestige items.  Local leaders (chiefs) had specialized access to exotics & farm land.  Chiefs gained wealth through tribute, when settling disputes, & through bride-prices – compensation for allowing their daughters to marry.

Answer 109

 AD 1000: Bambandyanalo site (near Schroda).  New culture: Leopard’s Kopje, based on ceramics.  New manner of village organization (Central Cattle Pattern):  Central Kraal (cattle pen) with huts around.  Chief & his wives on one side, everyone else on the other side  Central kraal also used as a community meeting area.  Where the chief resolved disputes within the community.  At Bambandyanalo, the kraal eventually seems to cease to be used for cattle, & exists strictly for political purposes.

Answer 110

 Banbandyanalo abandoned early 1200s.  New location at site called Mapungubwe.  Site referred to as a capital of a state.  Mapungubwe densely populated, with an estimated 5,000 people at its height.  First site with stone-walled structures built for elites.  Also first with stone walled structures in the centre of town.  Referred to as Zimbabwe pattern.  At Mapungubwe, the elite ruler lives in isolation from the rest of the village.  Other members of his family dealt with day-to-day matters, such as resolving disputes.  Ruler’s home consists of a stone- walled residence (palace), a rainmaking ceremony area, & an area of royal graves.  Trade continues to play an important role.  Local trade provided wealth through cattle, iron, copper, & certain grains.  Long-distance trade with coastal areas including trade for ivory.  Glass beads begin arriving, & have their origins in Asia.  Mapungubwe abandoned ~1300.

Answer 111

 Great Zimbabwe develops into a large town (1800 acres) by AD 1300.  Population estimated at ~18,000 people.  Like Mapungubwe, the ruler lived in a stone-walled structure atop the hill, while the commoners lived in daga (a mixture of dung & mud) huts.  Rulers lived in the hill complex, with a variety of stone-walled enclosures.  Below the hill was a court, & a massive structure called the great enclosure.  A perimeter wall separated these elite areas from the rest of the village.  Although ivory was still an important trade item, when Zimbabwe became important, gold was becoming much in demand.  Gold production was occurring in the area, & gold was traded over great distances.

Answer 112

 Pattern in China is similar those seen elsewhere.  Agriculture & animal domestication correlate with increasing population sizes.  Villages grow larger.  First evidence for craft specialists.  One early Neolithic culture is called Liangzhu.

Answer 113

 In China, the Liangzhu culture goes through this process between roughly 5500 & 3200 years ago.  Craft specialists produce fine ceramics, baskets, woven silk items, & jade carvings.  Most settlements are near rivers, which are used for transportation.

Answer 114

 Greater complexity appears with the Longshan culture (5,000-4,000 years ago).  Walled villages – mentioned in much later histories – appear to date to this culture.  Elite burials are present during this time, including some with hundreds of offerings. By end of Longshan culture, we see:  Defensive walls.  Rich burial assemblages.  Metallurgy.  Increased numbers of artifacts relating to conflict.  Craft specialization in ceramic & jade artifact production.  Suggests growing population densities & warfare.  Nearing state-level society.

Answer 115

Xia Dynasty  Argued to be first dynasty in China, known from historic texts & archaeology.

Answer 116

 Shang dynasty initially only known from historic texts.  Discovered archaeologically at site of Anyang, the last Shang Capital.

Answer 117

* Excavations at Anyang uncovered remains of a massive burial ground. * Over 1,000 simple burials & 11 deep burial pits reached by ramps. * Large numbers of sacrificial victims, some with their heads buried separately from their bodies, found in the pits.

Answer 118

 Shang Dynasty kings utilized oracle bones to a great extent.  More than 150,000 have been recovered.  Oracle bones are created by heating pits below the bones, & then observing cracks.  Questions were posed prior to heating, & cracks interpreted. * Discovered when inscribed bones began to appear on the antiquities market. * Oracle (inscribed) bones used by Shang kings for * Divination of events. * >150,000 inscribed bones recovered. * Is the earliest record of systematic writing from China. * Provides unique perspective into the lives of the Shang Dynasty .  Turtle plastron (underside of a turtle shell) used to divine the success of hunting expeditions by a Shang Dynasty prince named Prince You.  Incisions are an early Chinese script.  Desired outcomes were inf luenced by the sacrifice of humans or animals to the divine royal ancestors.  An earlier Shang city is Zhengzhou.  City walls enclosed 335 hectares.  Within the walls were specialist workshops for  Bronze  Bone  ceramics  Cemeteries  A palace with a moat

Answer 119

* Contemporary with Anyang was site of Sanxingdui. * Famous for two pits filled with spectacular artifacts. * Sanxingdui was a major centre & location of a large urban settlement.

Answer 120

 Earliest evidence of writing from a site called Jiahu.  Dates to 6500 BC.  Turtle shells with inscriptions.  By Shang Dynasty, writing used pictograms to represent objects & ideas.  This early script can be read, & discusses issues concerning the Royal court.  Concerns of the court included making sacrifices to ancestors.  Usually animal sacrifice in the temple.  Military campaigns were also discussed:  “This season, the king should attack the Shu, because he will gain assistance on this occasion”.

Answer 121

Power of the Shang rulers: * Legitimacy rested on role they fulfilled by performing rituals. * Power of divination was reserved for the ruler, who possessed the vessels necessary for performing rituals. * Power of the rulers f lowed from their connecting the human world with the divine. * Elaborate rituals of feasting & sacrifice used by Shang rulers to harness the power of their ancestors & of divine forces. Shang sites: * Elite burials focus on feasting. * Contrasts earlier periods where feasting was found in burials of all people. * Reflects social stratification of the ancestral world during the Shang Dynasty. * Sacrifice distinct from feasting; complete animals are interred. * Animals found in sacrificial pits: * dogs, pigs, cattle, horses, & elephants. * Humans also sacrificed in large numbers. * Large sites have produced extensive evidence for sacrifice. * Some pits have both animal & human sacrificial victims.

Answer 122

 Qin Shi Huangdi (august Emperor of Qin): first emperor of China.  Name China derives from Qin (pronounced chin).  Qin created 36 provinces, each controlled by a governor.  Adopted common script.  Created uniformity in weights & measures, wheel gauges for vehicles, currency.  Legal system was also applied everywhere.  Began construction of Great Wall along northern borders, to repel the marauding horsemen of the area.  Qin Shi Huangdi is most famous for his remarkable burial tomb.  The burial chamber has never been excavated, but is described in texts.  “The roof reflected the heavens in pearls, while the ground displayed the extent of the empire with rivers of f lowing mercury.”  Subterranean chambers surrounding the tomb were filled with life-sized terracotta replicas of the emperor’s armies.  Infantry, chariots, cavalry, & a command centre were represented.  Soldiers once thought to be mass produced, but individually painted & armed.

Answer 123

 Construction of defensive walls was a common practice during the Period of Warring States.  With unification, hundreds of thousands of workmen were deployed in the north to begin the construction of a massive wall.  Wall was to defend China against the Xiongnu, warrior horsemen from Mongolia.  Wall has been extended, embellished, & repaired for over 2000 years, up to the present.  Recent research suggests that the Northern Line – overlooking Mongolia – was not actually defensive.  Rather, this may have been used for monitoring the movements of people, livestock, or both.

Answer 124

 Northwestern portion of South Asia.  Bounded by the Himalayas in the northeast.  The mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan the west and northwest.  The Bay of Bengal to the southwest.  Thar Desert to the east.  Indus river system drains the runoff from the Himalayas.  Enormous annual fluctuations in volume.  Causes unpredictable, large-scale flooding.  Results in frequent changes to river course.  Though unpredictable, floods come at convenient time - June thru September.

Answer 125

 Neolithic  Mehrgarh I  Mehrgarh II  Mehrgarh III  Early Harappan (Early Indus) Period  Mehrgarh IV-VII  Mature Harappan Period  Late Harappan Period

Answer 126

 Cultures highly variable .  Earliest occupations were apparently temporary, of mobile people.  Earliest domesticates appear to be wheat, barley, sheep, goats, cattle probably introduced from Mesopotamia and Levant.  Robert Wenke suggests wheat and sheep in Baluchistan by 7000 BC.  Mud-brick architecture appears shortly after 4500 BC (Earlier at Mehrgarh).  Copper appears (rare needles, blades), along with wheel-made pottery, possibly as early as ~4300 or 4200 BC.

Answer 127

 One of the better known chronologies comes from the site of Mehrgarh.  Functions as a general chronology for the Neolithic.  Mehrgarh situated on edge of the Indus river system

Answer 128

 Mud-brick houses from the beginning.  Agriculture.  Barley,dates.  Wheat (a local variety, apparently not imported).  Grain harvesting:  Sickles; blades set in handles with bitumen.  Grindingstones.  Cattle, water buffalo.  Sheep and goat (wild?).  Pottery by 6000 BC.  Rare copper (one bead) and lead (a perforated pendant[!]).

Answer 129

 Cotton appears.  “Box-buildings": possibly grain storage?  6x6.5m (20x21feet) typical.  If these were used for grain storage, this would be very early evidence of storing surplus.  Box-buildings are often not aligned with adjacent ones, as if not part of a single plan.  Not a single, centralized, controlled storage place?  Foundations for buildings with wooden plank floors?  Not obviously associated with anything special like a temple.  Clearly not mortuary.  A few burials.  Some have personal ornaments, like beaded headbands, earrings.  Ornaments buried with infants.  Long-distance trade already:  Indicated by turquoise beads in burials.  Conch shells from the Arabian sea.  Lapis seals.  Lapis comes only from Afghanistan, far to the north, so it implies long- distance exchange.  Seals themselves may indicate that people were keeping track of goods

Answer 130

 Box-buildingscontinue.  Trade increased in:  Turquoise  Lapis  Conch  Other stones  Use of copper increased.  People probably first settled out on the plain ~ 4500 BC, but this is still poorly known.

Answer 131

 Initially, cultures throughout Indus differed from place to place.  These increase in uniformity over time.  Indus plain began to be more densely settled by farmers.  Rise in population, but the evidence is scanty. Agriculture  Wheat (several kinds) & barley.  Lentils and peas.  Cattle, sheep, goats, water buffalo.  Lots of sickle blades with sickle gloss.  Indicates a lot of grain harvesting (and probably also cutting grasses for other things, like thatch and fuel).  Some towns had a raised "citadel."  Large rectangular artificial platform of mud brick, with non- residential buildings on top.  Usually located to one side of the residential part of town.  Name “Citadel” may be misleading.  Not necessarily mainly for defence, although access was limited.  Possibly grain storage warehouses, buildings for public ceremonies, administration, or...?  Many early Indus towns were walled.  Examples include Rahman Dheri, Kot Diji, Kalibangan, Harappa.  Thought to have been relatively independent, self- sufficient.  Shared craft styles:  Potterystyle(KotDijian)  Copperworkingtradition  Very minor social stratification in burials, housing, etc.

Answer 132

 One of the better known settlements of the Early Harappan period.  33 km (20 miles) from the Indus river today, but when occupied, the river flowed right by it.  Massive defensive wall, lower part built of stone from the outcrop the site is on, upper part of mud brick; preserved to 4- 5 m high.  Wall used for defense, animal protection, or flood control?  Around 2900 BC, a pottery style developed that is also found at other sites far from Kot Diji.  Style was first identified and named here ("Kot Dijian").  Kot Diji is not necessarily the center from which the style spread

Answer 133

 Recently it has become apparent that Harappa has a different urban plan from Mohenjo-daro.  While the latter has a citadel mound in the west & lower town in the east, Harappa has at least four separate walled mounds centred on a central depression.  Other differences are also apparent between the square podiums of Mohenjo-daro’s “granaries” & the rectangular Harappan ones.

Answer 134

 Roughly rectangular mudbrick walled city or large town.  About 30 meters from the river at the time; now by a dry channel.  Standardized brick size 3:2:1(21 x 14 x 7 cm?) (different from later Harappan standard 4:2:1).  Some pottery similar to “Kot Dijian”.  Continuity at Kalibangan:  Bronze Age city represented by a citadel mound to the west & a lower town compound to the east.  Earlier settlement under the citadel mound, followed an identical plan.

Answer 135

Appearance coincides with:  Construction of the Royal Graves at Ur in Mesopotamia  Earliest pyramid building of Old Kingdom in Egypt.  Declines shortly before the beginning of Egyptian Middle Kingdom Appears to have been a dramatic change from the Early Harappan Period. At end of Early Harappan period, several settlements suffered site- wide fires, then were rebuilt. New construction was in more orderly Harappan style. Kot Diji suffered two massive fires around 2500 BC. Evidence of widespread fire at Kalibangan & other sites  After fires, pottery styles were mixed, with old styles continuing, but mostly the new Harappan style.  Possible that Kot Diji & the other cities were sacked & then rebuilt by Harappans.  In peripheral areas, Harappan pottery coexisted with local styles.  In peripheral areas, Harappan pottery coexisted with local styles.  Suggests that Harappan people (or goods) moved into regions that already had their own independent development.  In those areas, Harappan culture is "intrusive." May indicate:  Conquest?  Newly started or increased trade?  Harappan outposts or colonies? Most of the population probably lived outside the city, farming wheat & barley without formal irrigation.  Rise of big cities & complex settlement pattern.  Highly uniform artifacts, city planning, & architecture.  Becomes hard to distinguish artifacts or building layouts from site to site.  Standardized styles of pottery, jewellery, seals, & other items over a vast area.

Answer 136

 A “cubit” of around 52 cm  A “long foot”

Answer 137

 Most towns had a “citadel” on west side of site.  Citadel typically enclosed by a wall with big corner buttresses/bastions, and buttresses along length of wall.  Large structures on top presumed to be administrative buildings.

Answer 138

 Many cities have a “granary.”  May be located on citadel or next to it.  Built to allow air flow underneath to prevent rot and spontaneous combustion.  May or may not actually be granaries, still uncertain.  Little evidence of wooden superstructure or grain in the foundations.  Could be due to chances of preservation.

Answer 139

Sunken rectangular bath (looks like swimming pool), wide steps leading down into it. Has a drain.  Presumably filled with water carried from a large well in an adjacent room.  Generally argued that it related to ritual bathing, as was important in later times in India and still is today.  Only known from Mohenjo-daro; if other sites had similar baths, they have not been found yet.

Answer 140

 Harappan society looks egalitarian.  Some variation in housing (1 vs. 2 story, some basic size differences).  Granaries (warehouses?) suggest accumulation of vast stores of wealth.  If they are, in fact, granaries.  Burials tend to have little in them, but there have been some differences in quantities of graves items.  No "royal" tombs.  Certain kinds of goods rarely, if ever, turn up in Harappan burials.  Metals & jewelry are both rare in burials  However, metals have been found in caches under house floors.

Answer 141

 Some parallels with later Indian beliefs suggest that Indus religion may have been the origin (or part of the origin) of Hinduism.  Ritual cleanliness.  The "priest" figure with garment off one shoulder.  In historic times, this was an indication of piety.  Seals show a “Lord of the Beasts” figure that many see as an early version of the god Shiva.

Answer 142

 Generally assumed to represent one or more state(s).  Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, and the two other large sites would be "capitals" or major centers.  Kalibangan, Kot Diji, etc. would be secondary centers.  Many or most people would live in tiny hamlets or scattered farms around the countryside.

Answer 143

 Society did not suddenly disappear.  Several sites in Baluchistan burned around the end of the Mature Harappan period.  Sprawled skeletons in a street of Mohenjo-daro might indicate warfare.  Invasion by foreigners is no longer taken seriously as a cause of the decline of Harappan civilization.  Extremely little evidence of anyone else suddenly appearing there.  Conflict (maybe internal) could well have been involved.  Or plague?  Harappa had a final stylistic phase that seems to ref lect some foreign inf luence, particularly from Iran.  Nevertheless, by the end of the Late Harappan, the cities were permanently abandoned.  Sumerian records ceased to mention trade with Meluhha.  Harappan tradition largely disappeared.  Harappan civilization was truly lost and forgotten until archaeologists rediscovered it.

Answer 144

 Centres on the Bayon, a temple embellished with gigantic stone heads.  These are thought to represent the king as Buddha.