World Archaeology Exam 2 Flashcards
Mesopotamia’s environment
- The Alluvial plains of Iraq and North Syria.
- Bounded by deserts and mountains.
- Very little rainfall, but home to the Tigris and Euphrates River, lakes, and deltas.
How did Mesopotamian (Neolithic) farmers adapt to their little rainfall?
- Farmers settled near the Tigris and Euphrates River.
- Farmers built ditches, water gates, and canals that spanned up to 3 miles.
How did Mesopotamian farming practices damage the environment?
The canals caused salt build up, leading to salt pollution of the land, water, and crop.
Upper vs. Lower Egypt
Upper: Full of Valleys (Black lands) and Deserts (Red lands) and consisted of the upper nile. Home to the Nubians.
Lower: Much wetter and consisted of the Nile Delta, which flooded seasonally in late summer.
Why did Mesopotamians need to trade?
Lack of resources in alluvial plains.
What Neolithic civilizations made up Mesopotamia?
Sumer, Assyria, Akkad, Eridu, Uruk Culture, and Ur.
Eridu
- Neolithic Mesopotamian, 6750BP
- Theorized to be a religious site due to mud brick “keyhole” houses surrounding the church.
- Approx. 5000 population.
Agriculture in Ancient Egypt
Used the seasonal flooding of the Nile to grow crops. Mainly grew wheat and barley, along with maintaining cattle like cows, pigs, sheep, etc.
Uruk Culture
- Mesopotamian Neolithic
- Walled Sumerian cities acting as political and religious centers. Approx. 100 small communities depended on the Capitals.
- Urbanization, 30k–50k population, and social classes.
- Barter system: Civilians offered labor or goods to the city in exchange for food rations.
- Cuneiform: Used to document numbers, laws, and history.
- Kings are also religious leaders.
Cuneiform
Mesopotamian writing system of wedge marks on clay tablets.
Sumer
- Mesopotamian Neolithic, 5000BP
- Urbanized, approx. 80% of population lived in walled Capitals.
- Aristocracy/high class
- Ziggurats
- Kings are also religious leaders.
- Hammurabi’s Code, both legal rule from the King and religious word from the Gods
- Contained Ur and Uruk.
What is a Ziggurat?
A rectangular stepped tower of Mesopotamian design and worship.
Life in Neolithic and Predynastic Egypt
Multiple cultures were spread out among the Upper and Lower Nile. Eventually, they all started engaging with each other and playing a real-life game of “Monopoly”.
Nubia
- Modern Sudan
- Engaged in trade with Lower Egypt
- Known for their deposits of Gold
- 2000 BCE - 1504AD
Ur
- Mesopotamian Neolithic, Sumerian 4600BP
- 24k–34k population.
- Known for elaborate tombs and burial rites.
- Sir Leonard Woodley excavated 16 tombs and 2000 commoner graves. His finds went to the British Museum.
Tell al-Raqa’l
- Mesopotamian Neolithic, Sumerian 4800BP
- Rural. 30–60 population.
- Silos held enough grain to feed 500 people for a year.
Assyria
- Mesopotamian Neolithic, 9000BP
- Also had Ziggurats
Neolithic
- Starts 10,000 BP
- Introduced agriculture, pottery, class differences, and warfare.
Upper Paleolithic
- Starts 40,000BP and ends 10,000BP (Neolithic).
- Microliths, hunters and gathers, and nomadic settlements.
Nekhan Culture
- Beer brewing, pottery kilns
- Elite activities, especially burials
- Believers of Horus: A deity with a falcon head that their pharaoh embodied.
Abu Hureyra
- Syria, near Euphrates River.
- Upper Paleolithic to Neolithic (13K BP–9000 BP)
- Originally nomadic hunters and gatherers.
- Home to the first farmers.
Narmer
Is believed to be the first to unify all of Egypt into one kingdom
Catalhoyuk
- Turkey. Neolithic 9000 BP
- Home to advanced Bronze Age technology.
- Had mud brick homes, fire pits, storage areas, and waste areas.
Narmer Palette
- Depicts Egypt’s first Pharaoh wearing a white crown, with further depiction of him defeating his enemies with Horus as a witness.
- On the other side, he is wearing a red crown and victorious over decapitated prisoners.
King Scorpion
- Predynastic ruler of Egypt
- Has depictions of him as a ruler
Jericho
- Jordan Valley, Israel. Neolithic
- Domed housed. Cities protected by walls and ditches.
- Graves were within city lines under houses, buildings, and paths.
- Jericho skulls: Plastered skulls and figurines kept as trinkets and decoration.
How does Michael Wood define “civilization?”
A settlement rich with advancement, culture, and history.
Great Sphinx
Ancient statue that watches over the pyramids of Giza. Made by and in the likeness of Khafre.
Giza
-Home to the pyramids
- Capital of the Old Kingdom.
Thebes
Ancient Capital of Egypt during the New Kingdom period
Old Kingdom of Egypt
- 3100 - 2180 BCE
- Kings
- Bureaucracy
- Rural population dominant.
- Population of Old Kingdom perhaps 1.2 million, with only 5% in urban centers.
- Major collapse around 2200 BCE with no known main cause.
Middle Kingdom of Egypt
- 2040-1640 BCE (or shorter)
- Incursions into Nubia
- Small pyramids (clay bricks rather than stone), within larger memorial complexes, more emphasis on temples
New Kingdom of Egypt
- 1640-1070 BC
- Civil war with ‘hyksos’ rulers in Delta
- Introduction of bronze weapons, bronze tools, horse, and chariots
In which period did Egypt try to build a larger empire into the Middle East?
The Middle Kingdom period
Was Egyptian life based in rural or urban settings?
It was mostly based in rural settings, although there were some urban settings.
Why was magic so important in burial rituals, and what was the purpose of mummies?
- Burials are part of their beliefs in the afterlife. They believed that, whatever you’re buried with, will be carried over into the afterlife.
- The Egyptians believed that the mummified body was the home for this soul or spirit. If the body was destroyed, the spirit might be lost.
What did Djoser have built that was so revolutionary?
- He had them build a pyramid inside an enclosure with a throne in it
- His pyramid is classified as the first ‘step pyramid’
- It was made of stone instead of mud bricks
How much labor and raw materials was required to build Khufu’s pyramid?
Thousands of laborers and thousands more raw materials
Khufu
The Pharaoh who built one of the pyramids of Giza to be buried in and preserve his legacy
How did the pyramids function?
- The pyramids contained burial chambers where the pharaoh’s body would rest.
- They also contained treasured items the pharaoh would need in the afterlife.
- The pyramids are surrounded by mastabas, or smaller, older pyramids.
How did Saddam Hussein use Mesopotamian symbols and sites?
- Saddam Hussein was the fifth president of Iraq who believed himself to be the descendant of Babylonian ruler, Nebuchadnezzar II.
- He conducted reconstruction of Babylon and added stamped bricks with his name and monuments of his image beside such monuments of Nebuchadnezzar II.
Great Zimbabwe
-South-central Africa.
-Mid-thirteenth century AD
-Largest and most famous Karanga site.
-The area is rich in raw materials and is mainly composed of large granite hills.
-Stone walls, structures, terraces, and enclosures.
-Monopolization of coastal and long-distance trade.
-Textiles and metalworking were prominent.
Jenne-Jeno
-Located in the Inland Niger Delta close to the Niger river.
-200 BC
-Lacked raw materials, which encouraged trade.
-Traded fish and animal products for Iron ore. This trade route spanned at least 50 km—evidence of blacksmiths working with the iron ore at furnaces.
-Urbanized
How were trade routes and camels important to the kingdoms of West Africa?
They were used to transport goods across the desert and connect distance trade centers.
From what area did some farming technology reach Neolithic Europe?
Appearance in Greece and Balkans around 9000 BP
Bandkeramik Culture
-Northern Europe.
-Small communities along river valleys.
-Longhouses, up to 46 m long. Used by extended families and their livestock.
-Thatch roofs, wattle and daub (sticks and clay) walls.
When and where did Megalith culture occur?
-Date to ca 4000-2000 BC, the beginning of the “Bronze Age.” Many appear to have been built ca. 4000 BC.
-Western and Northern Europe
Gallery grave
A megalithic tomb lacking an entrance passage, the burial room(s) form the entire internal structure.
Dolmen
A generic term for a Megalithic tomb/chamber with a roof.
Passage grave
A megalithic tomb entered via a long, low, narrow passage that opens into a more expansive room, usually near the center of the structure.
Sickle polish
A clear polish that forms along the edges of flakes and blades that are used to cut reeds, grass, wheat, and other long-stemmed plants.
Cenotaph
A grave that does not contain a skeleton.
Charavines
- A Neolithic lakeside village
- Noticed in 1906 when the tops of hundreds of large wooden posts were seen under the water, approximately 100 m (330 ft) off the shore of Lake Paladru
Who were the bog people?
- Hundreds of individuals have been found in the peat bogs of northern Germany and southern Scandinavia, dating to the centuries around the birth of Christ.
- Very well preserved due to the environment.
Knossos
-Largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete.
-3000 BC
-Lots of sophisticated and extensive rooms for storage, living spaces, political arrangements, bathhouses, etc.
-Destroyed multiple times.
What does the Varna site say about early European metalworking and class differences?
-When excavating the site, archaeologists thought they found copper, but in reality, it was gold
-Graves may have been those of religious or political leaders or merchants.
- The heads of the bodies in the graves were facing the Black Sea
-Functional space was carefully designed and separated according to residential, administrative, storage, religious, and manufacturing uses.
Who is the “Iceman,” and when did he live, and how did he die?
-He lived 5300 years ago
-He was an individual who was traveling over the Alps until he succumbed to the freezing temperatures (the border of Italy and Austria)
How can we learn things about the “Iceman” from his body, tattoos, and associated belongings?
-The items that were with him show that he might have lived in a hunting/gathering society (a bow and quiver of arrows, bowstrings, bone points, a needle, a hafted copper axe, a wooden rucksack frame, two birchbark containers, a hafted knife of flint and its sheath, several flint tools (including a scraper, an awl, a flake, and a tool for pressure-flaking flint), a net (perhaps for catching birds), a piece of ibex horn, a marble pendant, and birch fungus)
-Tattoos were clearly visible on his back and right leg (therapy for arthritis?)
- X rays revealed several broken ribs
-suffered from arthritis in his neck, lower back, and right hip.
Vix
A Celtic, princess burial from the Iron Age
Maiden Castle
In Dorset, England, showing the fortifications of multiple walls and ditches. This high hill has archaeological remains from the Neolithic through the Roman period.
Hallstatt
-The earlier Celtic period, approximately 800–500 B.C., was centered in Austria, southern Germany, and the Czech Republic.
-During the early Iron Age, salt and iron mines in these regions led to economic boom times.
La Tene
-The La Tène period followed Hallstatt.
-The major concentrations of sites from this period are found in eastern France, Switzerland, southern Germany, and the Czech Republic.
- The Celtic Iron Age came to an end in most of western Europe around 50 B.C. with the Roman conquest, led by Julius Caesar.
With what historic group do we associate La Tene people?
The Celtic People
What sort of grave goods were placed in the tombs of elite individuals of Hallsatt and La Tene?
- Baltic Amber beads
- Locally made bronze brooches,
- And other pins and jewelry.
How do Megaliths relate to annual events?
Some Megaliths are thought to predict/correlate to solar eclipses, equinoxes, and cycles of the moon.
How urbanized or centralized were La Tene people?
-more centralized
-a stratified society
-lots of trade
From where was the stone at Stonehenge taken?
-The earliest stones (bluestone) at the site are from a source in western Wales.
-Sarsen Stones. These rocks are from a source only 20 miles away from Stonehenge.
When and where was Minoan Civilization?
-Minoan culture in Crete
-2000-1200 BC
When and where did Mycenaen civilization occur?
-Mycenaean sites in southern Greece and western Turkey.
-1600-1200 BC
What were the essential foods for the Aegean Bronze age?
-Wheat, barley, lentils, grapes.
-Grains, wine grapes, oil.
North vs. South China
-North China: North China–Huang Ho River. 9000 BP. Milder, drier summers. Pottery was for graves.
-South China: Yangtze River. Hotter and wetter summers. 9000 BP. Pottery was decorative.
Shang
- Ca. 4000-3000 BP (to 1027 BC).
- Develops out of Longshan.
- Had elite tombs full of jade, bone, bronze, and ceramic artifacts.
- Used oracle bones.
Longshan
-North China.
-Ca. 4700-4000 BP.
- Known for “black pottery.” Fine pottery and copper vessels.
-Scapulomancy.
-Rammed earth walls. Towns up to about 42 acres in size.
- Violence due to class differences evident by black pottery.
Zhou
-1027 to 221 BC
-Development of major urban centers.
-Iron work
-Local currency–the shape of knives and spades, for example.
-Lack of central authority by the late Zhou
Angkor & Angkor Wat
- Known as the largest pre-industrial society in the world.
- Angkor Wat: A massive Hindu temple. The largest religious temple in the world.
Indus Valley Civilization
- A Bronze Age civilization.
- Known for urban city planning, baked brick houses, and waterway systems.
- Harappa and Mohenjodaro were two major walled cities of the IVC
- Had written language.
