Unit 1 Flashcards
What are disadvantages of farming?
- changes/alterations to environment
- hard to do
- social inequality
What does BCE mean?
Before common Era.
What does CE mean?
Common Era.
What is Beringia?
A landbridge connecting Siberia to the Americas.
What are homo sapien sapiens?
Modern humans.
What are hominins?
Ancestors of homo sapien sapiens.
What were characteristics of neanderthals?
- Longer clavicle
- wider structure
- thicker
What is religion?
A belief system that holds divine power and people’s future.
What does paleolithic mean?
Old stone age?
What does neolithic mean?
New stone age.
What was the last continent to be populated by humans?
The Americas
What is a city-state?
A city and the surrounding land that functioned as an independent entity.
What is a dynasty?
Series of rulers from a single family or bloodline.
What hs polytheism?
Belief in dieties.
What is social stratification?
The existance of different social classes in a group.
What is a ziggurat?
A religious, trapezoidal, temple. It showed the mesopotamians were capable of math.
What were some major inventions of the mesopotamians?
The wheel, sail and plow.
How did the political structure of Mesopotamia change over time?
It went from a priest in charge to a king in charge of each city-state.
What are 3 very important facts about writing in Mesopotamia?
- For the upper class
- First time history was recorded
- Created jobs
What are nomads?
People that constantly travel, have no home, and attacked Mesopotamians.
What are the advantages of farming?
- controlled food supply
- food surplus
- job specialization
- can be practiced all over
What is a pharaoh?
The king of Egypt who was viewed as a living god
What is a theocracy?
A type of government in which rule is based on religious authority.
What is a pyramid?
Stricture designed to serve as a tomb for deceased pharaohs.
What is mummification?
Embalming and drying if a corpse to prevent decaying.
What is the last place to be populated by humans?
The Americas
What do historians use to study early humans?
To study early humans, historians use archeaological evidence to reconstruct history, and now we can derive information from DNA and use carbon 14 dating.
During what time period did neanderthals exist and what were their physical characteristics.
Neanderthals existed about 150,000 years ago. The neanderthals faces, skulls, and bodies were longer and broader than homosapiens. They were shorter, but stronger.
What did Neanderthals use ocher for?
Neaderthals used ocher to color the soil.
What was the mitochondrial eve?
Using mtDNA, scientists have identified a single female ancestor known as mitochondrial eve.
What caused the population of anatomically modern humans to change?
The development of agriculture
Describe the settling of Asia between 80,000 and 60,000 BCE?
The humans settling from Africa modified their tool, speech, and watercraft to adapt. The probably followed coastlines, rivers, and lakes for water access.
What evidence is there that early man practiced some kind of religion?
They buried their dead and colored the soil.
What is being depicted in the cave art from Chauvet, France?
Extraordinary paintings of animals that may have been hunted.
What is a subcontinent?
A large landmass that sets it apart from to rest of its continent
Which rivers were in the Indus river valley, what did they do and where were they?
The Indus river is in the west, and the Ganges in the east, civilization was centered around these rivers.
What was monsoon season?
A time during the late summer and fall with extremely heavy rains.
Which directions did the wind blow during different times of the year in the Indus River Valley?
NE in the spring and SW in the fall/winter.
What were the two large cities in the Indus River Valley?
Harappa and Mahenjo-Daro
What was the writing system like in the Indus Valley?
- 400-450 symbols/pictograms
- Animals
- Clay seals found traded with mesopotamia
- Undeciphered
What are monsoons?
Seasonal winds that affect the climate and way of life.
Why was the Indus Valley so hot?
The mountains blocked cold air
How were the Indus Valley cities planned/structured?
The were built in a grid pattern and a fortress built on a brick platform overlooked each city(probably center of givernment and religion).
What were the houses like in the Indus Valley cities?
- Houses were made of oven baked bricks
- Each house had at least one bathroom with plumming to sewers
- Houses rose several stories and had enclosed courtyards
How did sewage become a problem and what did people do about it?
Sewage started to pile up under the city and disease started to spread, so the Harappans started to make sewage flow away from them.
What was trade in the Indus Valley like?
They traded with others, including mesopotomians. They traded bronze/copper tools, gold jewelry, cotton, shells, ivory, clay pots, and silver containers.
How and when did Indus Valley Civilization collapse?
Not much is known about the collapse around 1500 BCE due to lack of written records.
What are the three theories about why the Indus Valley civilization collapsed?
- Giant earthquake changes course of rivers
- Outsiders coming in and taking over, little evidence if produced weapons by Indus Valley people
- Environmental disaster
Who is the largest cotton producer for most of world history?
India
What did most people do as an occupation in Indus Valley civilization?
They farmed
Are the Indus Valley people the ancestors of the people currently living there today?
No
Why is the Huang He river called the Yellow River?
When the silt on the river rose it looked yellow.
How much of China is mountains and what is the mountain range called?
1/3 mountains, the Himilayan mountains.
What climate was in northern China and what is the name of the area.
It was desert, it was called the Gobi desert.