Set #5 Flashcards
Explain the importance and rise of horse domestication for life on the steppes.
The early history of the horse’s domestication is unclear, but by c. 700 BCE, horses were extremely important on the steppes, and were bred in large numbers. They were ideal animals for people who had to move over vast distances to find suitable pasture for their livestock, because they not only provided transportation, but also meat and even milk. By this same time, the steppes peoples were also very effective at fighting on horseback, possibly having copied the techniques of the Assyrians. Crucial to the development of their fighting prowess was the composite bow and stirrups. The composite bow is a short bow that is easy to fire from horseback, yet also very powerful. The stirrup, which probably originated on the steppes around the second century BCE, made it easier to ride well in full armor. Steppe armies were skilled at launching sudden mounted attacks – usually raids rather than attempts at territorial conquest – and overran rival settlements with ease. Although some campaigns, such as the Cimmerian attack on Asia Minor c. 690 BCE, were large-scale onslaughts, many raids were small affairs.
Who were the Scythians?
They were a group of steppe peoples who had migrated from Central Asia to southern Russia by the 7th century BCE. Their warriors fought with bows, arrows, and axes. They wore felt caps and, except for some aristocrats, no armor. The Scythians possessed sizable territories at different periods, including a large area of the Middle East. One group, the “Royal Scythes”, controlled an area around southern Russia, where stunning grave finds of gold artifacts point to a well-developed Scythian culture. By the 2nd century CE, the Scythians had been quashed by the Sarmatians, who were in turn defeated by the Huns.
Who were the Kushans?
A steppe people who migrated from the fringes of Mongolia to the western steppe, into lands once part of the Achaemenid Persian Empire and the empire of Alexander the Great. Like the Parthians, the Kushans developed a settled, sophisticated culture that readily incorporated Greek, Persian, and Indian influences.
Who were the Xiongnu?
Also known as the Hsiung-nu, they were a loose gathering of different steppe peoples (including some Scythians) whose warriors were raiding China by the third century BCE. Some aspects of their culture seem to have been adopted from the Chinese regimes they attacked. The Xiongnu were a dominant force in Central Asia for five centuries.
Describe similarites between different American cultures in the period from the 1st century BCE and 400 - 600 CE. What was one of the most important civilizations of this period?
Advanced American societies in this era had much in common: quarrying stone, creating beautiful artifacts, and worshiping multiple gods usually linked to nature (for example, the jaguar, the sun, and the moon). South American cultures were more advanced in their use of metals, but it was a Mesoamerican culture – the Maya – that left the most powerful and enigmatic monuments.
Describe the “Classic” period of Maya culture.
The “Classic” period of Maya culture is normally dated from c. 300 to 900 CE. It flourished over a wide swath of Central America, especially the Yucatan and Guatemala’s steamy lowlands. At its heart stood a large number of important cities. Originally ritual centers, many grew into populous city-states. The Maya built huge, often pyramidal stone temples, such as those at Tikal in Guatemala and showed a great talent for carved stone reliefs. Cities also featured palaces, open plazas, terraces, and courts where a sacred ball games involving the use of only the head, hips, and shoulders were used to direct a rubber ball to its target. Religious ritual played a large role in Maya life. They practiced many forms of “auto-sacrifice” (self-mutilation involving the piercing of body parts), but more extreme scenarios involving torture and human sacrifice seem to be highly inaccurate and sensationalized.
Describe the Maya writing system and calendar.
Although the Olmecs developed a form of writing, some consider that the Maya should be credited with the first “real” Mesoamerican writing because theirs was more closely connected with actual speech. Their system comprised over 800 glyphs (symbols). The Maya also had a sophisticated calendar – porbably using older Olmec concepts. This incorporated advanced astronomical knowledge that included plotting the positions of the sun and moon and predicting solar eclipses. Their calendar had two main cycles: a 260-day sacred year (13 cycles of 20 days) and a 365-day solar year (18 months of 20 days each, plus an “unlucky” 5-day period, which the Maya spent appeasing the gods).
Describe Monte Alban and Teotihuacan.
The Zapotec civilization of southern Mexico created their major center at Monte Alban. The ruins of the city’s sacred and political center, dating mainly from c. 300 CE onward, show that this was another highly sophisticated society. A great central plaza is surrounded by monumental platforms, pyramids, staircases, and terraces. Other buildings include a ball court and an observatory. The architecture at Monte Alban shows influences from another significant cultural center, that at Teotihuacan, a huge city northeast of present-day Mexico City that flourished c. 300 - 600 CE and had cultural links across Mesoamerica.
Describe Peruvian societies up to about 600 CE.
The people of southern Peru’s Paracas peninsula were a mainly agricultural people, but were also extraordinarily talented weavers and embroiderers. Their art is preserved in the beautiful cloaks that the Paracas wrapped around mummified bodies. The Nazca people lived on Peru’s southern coast, with an important center at Cahuachi in the Nazca Valley. They created irrigation systems to support intensive grain production, as well as puzzling “lines” in the desert that remain a mystery today. On Peru’s northern coast, the Moche built a great administrative and religious complex at Sipan. Formidable warriors and inventive artists, they also created advanced valley irrigation techniques.
Describe the origins of Hinduism, the main gods of Hinduism, and the religious works of literature associated with Hinduism.
The oldest of the five world religions, Hinduism has a very wide range of traditions but no formal system of beliefs. The origins of the religion can be traced back to about 1500 BCE, when it is believed that Aryan horsemen from Central Asia invaded the Indus Valley in northern India, accompanied by a creator god Indra and a pantheon of lesser deities. These were the Vedic gods, who feature in the “Vedas”, the 3,000-year old sacred texts that are central to the development of Hinduism. The religion evolved to focus on three main gods: a senior, somewhat remote deity called Brahma; Vishnu the creator; and Shiva the destroyer, along with their cohorts or shaktis. From the 6th century BCE, Brahmanism became the dominant form of Hinduism and triggered the composition of the Brahmanic, Epic, and Puranic literature, including the great texts of the “Mahabhrata” and “Ramayana”.
Describe the origins of Buddhism.
Buddhism emerged not as a belief in a god, but rather as an ascetic way of life. Its teachings involve the belief that death marks the transition to a new earthly life – reincarnation. The only way to escape this painful cycle of death and rebirth, known as “samsara”, is to achieve perfection, which is accompanied by an extinction of passions, or “nirvana”. Buddhism partly evolved as a reaction against polytheistic Hinduism and attracted a body of disciples willing to practice asceticism. The historical Buddha, in contrast to earlier wholly mythical figures, was born into the Shakya clan in northeast India (modern Nepal) in about 563 BCE. After his death around 483 BCE, his original companions established the “Theravada” (“doctrine of the elders”) school that would become the basis of more conservative Buddhist teaching.
Describe the origins of Judaism and major events in its history up to 70 CE.
Judaism, the monotheistic religion of the Jews, evolved from the earlier, ritualistic, temple-based cult attributed to Moses. The ancestors of the Jews, the wandering Israelite tribes or “habiru”, literally “people with no fixed abode”, later known as Hebrews, came together under Moses and settled in Palestine. In 587 BCE, Jerusalem, the city that the legendary King David had made the capital of Israel, was destroyed by the Neo-Babylonians and the Israelite elite deported to Babylon. Cyrus the Great allowed the exiles home in 539 BCE to form a religious state based on the Hebrew book of law (the Torah) and the Jewish religion flourished, first under Persian control, then under Alexander the Great. When one of Alexander’s successors, Antiochus Epiphanes, tried to introduce aspects of Greek cults, the resulting uprising led to a dynasty of priest-kings, the Hasmoneans. In 63 BCE Greater Judea was incorporated into the Roman order, and hard times followed, culminating in 70 CE when much of the population of Jerusalem was scattered.
Describe the origins of Christianity.
Although there is no evidence that Jesus envisaged founding a religious movement, his death on the cross, which Christians believed atoned for humanity’s sins, created the early Christian church. The first Christians met in private houses and had no formal dogma; only after several decades did formal places of worship appear. The new religion endured spates of often bloody persecution from orthodox Jews and also from Roman emperors, notably Nero in 64 CE and Domitian at the end of the 1st century CE. Rather than destroying the religion, however, persecution had the effect of reinforcing the convictions of its devotees.
Describe the origins of Islam.
Islam emerged in the 7th century CE. It recognizes the transcendental god of Christianity and Judaism, but by the name Allah. The Prophet Muhammad promoted a doctrine based on personal divine revelation, which was incorporated into the holy book of Islam, the Qur’an.
Describe the spread of Hinduism.
Hinduism was firmly established on the Indian subcontinent by 700 BCE. From around 600 BCE, belief in reincarnation was established and Hinduism spread on a wave of popular fervor from India into Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and Malaysia. It reached Indonesia and the Philippines in about the 1st century CE. Hinduism also evolved into a wide range of branches and sects, each devoting itself to a particular deity or aspects of a deity. The largest and most universal of these were the Vaishnava and Shaivite movements, worshiping the two main creator deities, Vishnu and Shiva. Much of the burgeoning popularity of Hinduism also stemmed from the set of religious texts known as the Puranas, committed to writing in 450 - 1000 CE but known in oral tradition much earlier. Despire a multitude of different facets, Hinduism became a powerful cohesive force among people who were disparate in language, culture, and social position.
