Unit 1: Chapter 1, 2, 3, 7

Question 1

Socially transmitted patterns of human action and expression.

Answer 1

Culture

Question 2

The study of past events and changes in the development, transmission, and transformation of cultural practices.

Answer 2

History

Question 3

The historical period characterized by the production of tools from stone and other nonmetallic substances.

Answer 3

Stone Age

Question 4

The period of the Stone Age associated with the evolution of humans.

Answer 4

Paleolithic

Question 5

The period of the Stone Age associated with the ancient Agricultural Revolution(s).

Answer 5

Neolithic

Question 6

People who support themselves by hunting, fishing, and gathering wild edible plants and insects.

Answer 6

Foragers

Question 7

The change from food gathering to food production that occurred between 8000 and 2000 BCE. Also known as the Neolithic Revolution.

Answer 7

Agricultural Revolutions

Question 8

The geological era since the end of the Great Ice Age around 13000 years.

Answer 8

Holocene

Question 9

Structures and complexes of very large stones constructed for ceremonial and religious purposes in Neolithic times.

Answer 9

Megaliths

Question 10

The people who dominated southern Mesopotamia through the end of the third millennium BCE.

Answer 10

Sumerians

Question 11

Family of related languages long spoken across parts of Western Asia and Northern Africa. In antiquity these languages included Hebrew, Aramaic, and Phoenician. The most widespread modern member of the family is Arabic.

Answer 11

Semitic

Question 12

A small, independent state consisting of an urban center and the surrounding agricultural territory. A characteristic political form in early Mesopotamia, Archaic and Classical Greece, Phoenicia, and early Italy.

Answer 12

City-state

Question 13

Babylon

Answer 13

The largest and most important city in Mesopotamia. It achieved particular eminence as the capital of the Amorite king Hammurabi in the eighteenth century BCE.

Question 14

Amorite ruler of Babylon. (r. 1792-1750 BCE). He conquered many city-states in southern and northern Mesopotamia and is best known for a code of laws, inscribed on a black stone pillar, illustrating the principles to be used in legal cases.

Answer 14

Hammurabi

Question 15

In the governments of many ancient societies, a professional position reserved for men who had undergone the lengthy training required to be able to read and write using cuneiform, hieroglyphics, or other early, cumbersome writing systems.

Answer 15

Scribe

Question 16

A massive pyramidal stepped tower made of mud bricks. It is associated with religious complexes in ancient Mesopotamian cities, but its function is unknown.

Answer 16

Ziggurat

Question 17

Small charm meant to protect the bearer from evil. Found frequently in archaeological excavations in Mesopotamia and Egypt, these small charms reflect the religious practices of the common people.

Answer 17

Amulet

Question 18

A system of writing in which wedge-shaped symbols represented words or syllables. It originated in Mesopotamia and was used initially for Sumerian and Akkadian but later was adapted to represent other languages of Western Asia. Literacy was confined to a relatively small group of administrators and scribes.

Answer 18

Cuneiform

Question 19

The central figure in the ancient Egyptian state. Believed to be an earthly manifestation of the gods, he used his absolute power to maintain the safety and prosperity of Egypt.

Answer 19

Pharaoh

Question 20

Egyptian term for the concept of divinely created and maintained order in the universe. The divine ruler was the earthly guarantor of this order.

Answer 20

Ma’at

Question 21

A large, triangular stone monument, used in Egypt and Nubia as a burial place for the king. The largest of these, erected during the Old Kingdom near Memphis, reflect the Egyptian belief that the proper and spectacular burial of the divine ruler would guarantee the continued prosperity of the land.

Answer 21

Pyramid

Question 22

The capital of Old Kingdom Egypt, near the head of the Nile Delta. Early rulers were interred in the nearby pyramids.

Answer 22

Memphis

Question 23

Capital city of Egypt and home of the ruling dynasties during the Middle and New Kingdoms. Monarchs were buried across the river in the Valley of the Kings.

Answer 23

Thebes

Question 24

A system of writing in which pictorial symbols represented sounds, syllables, or concepts. It was used for official and monumental inscriptions on ancient Egypt. Because of the long period of study required to master this system, literacy was confined to a relatively small group of scribes and administrators.

Answer 24

Hieroglyphics

Question 25

A reed that grows along the banks of the Nile River in Egypt. From it was produced a coarse, paper-like writing medium used by the Egyptians and many other peoples in the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East.

Answer 25

Papyrus

Question 26

A body preserved by chemical processes or special natural circumstances, often in the belief that the deceased will need it again in the afterlife.

Answer 26

Mummy

Question 27

Site of one of the great cities of Indus Valley civilization of the third millennium BCE. It was located on the northwest frontier of the zone of cultivation (in modern Pakistan.)

Answer 27

Harappa

Question 28

Largest of the cities of the Indus Valley Civilization, centrally located in the extensive floodplain of the Indus River in contemporary Pakistan.

Answer 28

Mohenjo-Daro

Question 29

An ambiguous term often used to denote more complex societies but sometimes used by anthropologists to describe any group of people sharing a set of cultural traits.

Answer 29

Civilization

Question 30

Olmec

Answer 30

The first Mesoamerican civilization. Between ca. 1200 and 400 BCE, the Olmec people of central Mexico created a vibrant civilization that included intensive agriculture, wide-ranging trade, ceremonial centers, and monumental construction. The Olmec had great cultural influence on later Mesoamerican societies, passing on artistic styles, religious imagery, sophisticated astronomical observation for the construction of calendars, and a ritual ball game.

Question 31

Llama

Answer 31

A hoofed animal indigenous to the Andes Mountains in South America. It was the only domesticated beast of burden in the Americas before the arrival of Europeans. It provides meat and wool. The use of llamas to transport goods made possible specialized production and trade among people living in different ecological zones and fostered the integration of these zones by Chavín and later Andean states.

Question 32

Iron Age

Answer 32

Historians’ term for the period during which iron was the primary metal for tools and weapons. The advent of iron technology began at different times in different parts of the world.

Question 33

A people from central Anatolia who established an empire in Anatolia and Syria in the Late Bronze Age. With wealth from the trade in metals and military power based on chariot forces, the ______ vied with New Kingdom Egypt for control of Syria-Palestine before falling to unidentified attackers ca. 1200 BCE.

Answer 33

Hittites

Question 34

Hatshepsut

Answer 34

Queen of Egypt (r. 1473-1458 BCE). She dispatched a naval expedition to Punt (possibly northeast Susan or Eritrea), the faraway source of myrrh. There is evidence of opposition to a woman as a ruler, and after her death her name and image were frequently defaced.

Question 35

Akhenaten

Answer 35

Egyptian pharaoh, originally referred to as Amenhotep IV. (r. 1353-1335 BCE). He built a new capital at Armana, fostered a new style of naturalistic art, and created a religious revolution by imposing worship of the sun disk Aten.

Question 36

Ramesses II

Answer 36

A long-lived ruler of New Kingdom Egypt (r 1290-1224 BCE). He reached an accommodation with the Hittites of Anatolia after a standoff in battle at Kadesh in Syria. He built on a grand scale throughout Egypt.

Question 37

Prosperous civilization on the Aegean island of Crete in the second millennium BCE. The _______s engaged in far-flung commerce around the Mediterranean and exerted powerful cultural influences on the early Greeks.

Answer 37

Minoan

Question 38

Site of a fortified palace complex in southern Greece that controlled a Late Bronze Age kingdom. In Homer’s epic poems, ________ was the base of King Agamemnon, who commanded the Greeks besieging Troy. Contemporary archeologists call the complex Greek society of the second millennium BCE “___________.”

Answer 38

Mycenae

Question 39

Shaft graves

Answer 39

A term used for the burial sites of elite members of Mycenaean Greek society in the mid-second millennium BCE. At the bottom of deep shafts lined with stone slabs, the bodies were laid out along with gold and bronze jewelry, implements, weapons, and masks.

Question 40

Linear B

Answer 40

A set of syllabic symbols, derived from the writing system of Minoan Crete, used in the Mycenaean palaces of the Late Bronze Age to write an early form of Greek. It was use primarily for palace records, and the surviving ______ _ tablets provide substantial information about the economic organization of Mycenaean society and tantalizing clues about political, social, and religious institutions.

Question 41

Neo-Assyrian Empire

Answer 41

An empire extending from western Iran to Syria-Palestine, conquered by the Assyrians of northern Mesopotamia between the tenth and seventh centuries BCE. They used force and terror and exploited the wealth and labor of their subjects. They also preserved and continued the cultural andn scientific developments of Mesopotamian civilization.

Question 42

Mass deportation

Answer 42

The forcible removal and relocation of large. I hers of people or entire populations. The mass deportations practiced by the Assyrian and Persian Empires were meant as a terrifying warning of the consequences of rebellion. They also brought skilled and unskilled labor to the imperial center.

Question 43

Israel

Answer 43

In antiquity, the land between the eastern shore of the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, occupied by the Israelites from the early second millennium BCE. The modern state of ______ was founded in 1948.

Question 44

Hebrew Bible

Answer 44

A collection of sacred books containing diverse materials concerning the origins, experiences, beliefs, and practices of the Israelites. Most of the extant text was complied by members of the priestly class in the fifth century BCE and reflects the concerns and views of this group.

Question 45

What was the first major civilization in South America and when was it?

Answer 45

The Chavin from 900-250 BC

Question 46

What was the capital of the Chavin?

Answer 46

Chavin de Huantar

Question 47

Where was Chavin and what two unique areas did it cover?

Answer 47

The Chavin were along the Pacific coast of Peru. They covered the Peruvian coastal plains and Andean foothills.