ANT Final

La Venta Site

-Center of olmec moves here -Rose to prominence after San Lorenzo -Small island in a swamp -Large pyramid, 105 ft high -Colossal heads, thrones, and jade mosaic offerings -trade connections and craft speacialization

Tribes

100-1000 people, no definite mobility factor, egalitarian+, kinship is important (Clans- descent groups, appear), political decisions at and above residential group, collectors, pastoralists or horticulturalists

Teotihuacán

100-120k people, multiethnic and multilingual, crafts and military, huge pyramids (Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon) and market area, apartment compounds, no writing system, no clear palace/ royal tombs, but evidence of specialization and social stratification, city gets burnt down at their elite structures to end it

Chiefdoms

1000s-10,000 people, ranked societies with ascribed (birth) status, no social mobility, agriculture, kinship important but descent is most important, redistributive economic systems (taxes of food surplus to chief and chiefs gives back prestige goods to people), political decisions with at least a 2 tiered decision making hierarchy

States

10k-100ks, stratified society (ascribed status in descent and occupation), kinship subordinated to Institutions (gov, tells you what to do), state has power to punish laws, labor drafts, market economies, intensified agriculture, 4 tiered settlement and decision making hierarchy

Mayan Calendar Systems

2 calendars: 260 day calendar- important for divination and giving names, ritual calendar, 365 day calendar- close to solar year; both used at same time, calendar round- didn't have the same day for 52 years (mayans retired at 52 bc of this)

Bronze Age in SW Asia

3000-1200 BC, new bronze technology (additive: copper+ tin), used for weapons,

Early Dynastic Period

3100-2370 BC, Sumerian civilization with multiple city-states, palaces, trade with boats along Persian Gulf, cuneiform writing (syllables and constants) and writing outside of economic

Uruk period

4100-3100BC, temple elites separate themselves from society, settlement hierarchies appear- state prototypes

Which of the following hypotheses has not been proposed to explain the high level of centralization in the early Egyptian state?

An emulation of early Mesopotamian statecraft strategies. Water control, circumscription and small proportion of cultivable land - farmers could not just leave if they did not want to pay taxes, and the need for defense have all been proposed as reasons why the early Egyptian state was highly centralized.

Gerzean period of Predynastic Egypt

An increase in specialized production of pottery, stonework, and metal objects The depiction of certain individuals wearing crowns, which appear to mark them as rulers of independent polities Increased interaction with Uruk-period settlements in Southwest Asia A dramatic increase in socioeconomic inequality

Tenochtitlan

Aztec capital, aztec where forced to island, isolated, had schools for boys and girls, pocheta were long distance traders and spies, military important, empire across most of central Mexico, warrior societies

Multilineal Evolution Groups

Bands, Tribes, Chiefdoms, and States

Which of the following is not true of Shang bronze-working technology and products?

Bronze was used primarily to make utilitarian goods, such as agricultural tools; Bronze was used to make elaborate food vessels, some weaponry, and a few specialty objects like musical instruments during Shang times. The techniques of bronze-working are different from those developed in SW Asia and Europe, and they appear to be indigenous developments. Bronze artifacts are primarily associated with the elite in the highly stratified Shang state. Utilitarian implements continued to be made from stone, shell, bone, and coarse clay - they were not made from bronze

The Chalcolithic is known for the addition of ____________________ to the suite of materials used by ancient societies in SW Asia

Copper; To make use of this new material, people had to first recognize it in its natural state and develop technology to extract the metal from its ore. Copper artifacts are quite rare during most of the Chalcolithic, as the extraction/manufacturing techniques were still developing and people were likely recycling their copper tools and weapons.

China Neolithic Period

Daxi culture, nucleated villages within wall circle, pottery, violence in area thus the walls

Predynastic period

Egypt was separated in power from the Upper and Lower sections.

King Tutankhamun

Egyptian pharaoh who ruled from age 7 to 17; his tomb was discovered (nearly untouched) in 1922, very wealthy tomb despite being so young and not accomplishing much (shows kinship mattered)

Ahkenaten

Egyptian pharaoh; tried to convert Egypt to monotheism, depicted in feminine ways

Early Bronze Age China

Erlitou Period, Shang Dynasty and Zhou Dynasty

True or False: Evidence suggests that Egyptian civilization followed a similar developmental path as every other ancient civilization around the world, including Mesopotamia.

False, Egyptian civilization developed differently from Mesopotamia and other pristine states. The Egyptian state was remarkably stable and centralized over a very long period of time.

True or False: The 'Ubaid settlement at Eridu was made up entirely of houses (domestic architecture).

False, Most of the buildings at Eridu were houses with a very important exception: the small, t-shaped structure that appears to be an early temple.

True or False: Early Egyptian hieroglyphic writing served essentially the same purpose as proto-cuneiform in Mesopotamia.

False, The earliest Egyptian writing recorded kinship relationships and the accomplishments of rulers, while proto-cuneiform was entirely concerned with economic transactions. The development of an Egyptian writing system may have been played a part in the consolidation of political power in the hands of rulers.

True or False: The process of mummification was likely open to every Egyptian of any class.

False, mummification provided important benefits to people in the afterlife. The process was very expensive, however, in terms of both materials and the labor of specialists, and only the upper classes of ancient Egypt could afford to prepare their bodies in this way.

True or false: The pyramids of Egypt and the ziggurats of Mesopotamia were essentially the same in construction and function.

False: Mesopotamia used them to regulate the area, control food/irrigation etc, Egypt used them to honor their Pharaohs

True or False: Interaction with early Mesopotamian city-states was the most important factor leading to the development of Chinese civlization.

False; State-level society, with all the trappings of civilization, was an indigenous development from Neolithic farming villages in China. Interactions with Western cultures did occur -- as demonstrated by the adoption of Southwest Asian cultigens, such as wheat and barley, by Chinese societies -- but these interactions are not viewed as "prime movers" in the development of Chinese civilization.

True or False; Early states in China resembled those of Mesopotamia: multiple, independent city-states dividing up a larger region into smaller political territories

False; The early states of China more closely resembled the early territorial states that developed in Egypt. Chinese capitals controlled large areas of the surrounding countryside and consolidated considerable territory under their political rule.

True or False: Uruk pottery is characterized by finely made and highly decorated vessels, which carry on the potting traditions of the Halaf and 'Ubaid periods.

False; The pottery of Uruk is typified by unpainted vessels that are often crudely made. These vessels were thought to be mass-produced by specialists using the potter's wheel and molds, which were widely adopted at this time. Beveled-rim bowls are particularly common and may have served as ration containers for laborers. The focus on functional/utilitarian vessels over the finely crafted products of previous times suggests that pottery may have lost its role as an indicator of status and wealth.

True or False: Chinese writing developed from a notation system used to keep track of economic transactions and accounts

False; Unlike Mesopotamian writing, the Chinese script was closely tied to elite political, ritual, and military activities from its beginning. The earliest surviving written Chinese symbols occur on oracle bones and elite vessels, which were used only by the highest strata of Shang society

True or False: The developmental sequence from the Epipaleolithic Natufians to the Pottery Neolithic peoples in SW Asia is an unbroken line of continuity, where subsistence strategies and settlement patterns were stable over thousands of years.

Fasle; There is a great deal of continuity between the Natufians and the Pre-Pottery Neolithic peoples that followed them, but there is a major disruption that happens at the transition to the Pottery Neolithic. Many settlements that were occupied for thousands of years were abandoned. Over-exploitation of the environment and climate instability may have contributed to this collapse/reorganizaiton.

Uruk site

First Real City, irrigation agriculture, monumental architecture, job specialization, appearances of temple managers in art, ex. White Temple made of mud brick, early writing system (pictographs and tokens), seals depict scenes of administration, pottery not fancy/important

Saqqara and Giza

Giza: where great pyramids are built from the Old Kingdom Saqqara: step pyramid site, early form of pyramids and first monument in Egypt, shows how it was a process to develop the ideal pyramid formation through trial and error

Egyptian Writing

Hieroglyphs (symbols=words) used to talk about leaders and their power, had shorthand hyratic for economic stuff

2nd Intermediate Period

Hyksos invade Valley and overthrow Pharaoh, centralized authority goes away again, Hyksos rule as Egyptians until real Egyptians expel them

Strategies of Intensive Agriculture

Infrastructure/Technology: irrigation, fertilizer, raised fields, drained fields, terracing, pesticides Human Actions: deforestation, crop rotation, scheduling, soil transfer, mixed cultivation

Which of the following statements is not true about pottery?

It is not helpful for constructing chronologies - we need radiocarbon dating for that: We could not anchor those chronologies to specific years without additional evidence, but we could discover which styles were older and younger, and we used that information to place archaeological sites in chronological sequence. Pottery is an additive technology that creates a new material that is more than the sum of its constituent parts, can be used by archaeologists to understand trade between ancient societies, can be used as a medium to express aspects of cultures, such as religion and worldview

Increases in social ranking, the development of large walled settlements, and scapulimancy -- the practice of using heat-cracked animal bones to divine the future -- are developments associated with which period of the Chinese Neolithic in the Yellow River Basin?

Longshan

China Late Neolithic

Longshan Culture, Yellow river basin= millet farming, social stratification shown in burial, use of jade, dragon imagery, specialized drinking vessels, oracle bones used for fortune telling- early form of writing

Merimde Site

Lower Egypt, suggests beginnings to traditions and political power, Maine heads- symbolic weapons later used to symbolize power in rulers

Which of the following technologies, which were very important to ancient civilizations in the Old World, did Mesoamerican societies lack?

Mesoamerican civilizations arose without the benefits provided by wheeled vehicles. This relates to the lack of appropriate animals in the area for use as beasts of burden, they had pottery, intensive agriculture and monuments

Narmer

Narmer is 1st Pharaoh of Egypt and wears both White Crown of Upper and Red Crown of Lower Egypt to show he rules all and unified the state

The __________________ were one of the oldest complex societies in Mesoamerica. Their ancient ceremonial centers are located along the Gulf Coast of present-day Mexico.

Olmec;The Gulf Coast Olmec were one of the first Mesoamerican complex societies to create enduring monuments to their leaders, in the form of colossal basalt heads

How Elites Gained Power in China

Original Grift and Control over Surplus Food Hypotheses

The dynasty that unified China, however briefly, into a vast empire in 221 B.C. is known as the ____________________.

Qin

Mesopotamian temples were religious centers, but they were also involved in a number of secular (non-religious) activities. Which of the following is not thought to have been directed by the temple institutions during the 'Ubaid period?

Raids on neighboring towns to procure resources; The temple in the 'Ubaid period was central to many aspects of the economy (irrigation, crafts, and food distribution) in Mesopotamian towns, but there is no indication that temples were involved in directing or organizing violence against neighboring communities.

'Ubaid Period

SW Asia, development of early temples/ non home developments

Ur site

SW Asia, early dynastic period, royal tombs filled with jewelry, another empire, showed the importance of warfare and rulers at the time

Chalcolithic

SW Asia, introduction of copper, copper was recycled because it was so rare in this area and technology was just developing

The world's first empire was created by _______________________________ (three words), who conquered and unified the city-states of Mesopotamia into a larger regional government.

Sargon of Akkad; Sargon of Akkad was the first ruler to effectively conquer and integrate the previously independent cities of Mesopotamia. The creation of this empire began a cycle of political unification and fragmentation that was repeated over thousands of years in this area of the world.

Amarna Site

Shows the remains of the capital city from under Ahkenaten's rule- the monotheist king

he largest pyramids built by the ancient Egyptians date to the period of four dynasties known as

The Old Kingdom

The Qin Dynasty was responsible for;

The construction of the Great Wall The standardization of the Chinese writing system The creation of an authoritarian state that harshly ruled and controlled its subjects; Despite these benefits in efficiency, the Qin Dynasty is widely seen as a brutal, authoritarian regime that harshly ruled its citizens and destroyed many earlier written records.

The earliest Mesopotamian writing was primarily concerned with _______________________ matters.

The first written records from Uruk, which are the earliest know examples of writing in the world, record economic transactions and lists of commodities and occupations. This early writing system later developed into cuneiform, which was used to write about a much wider array of topics.

SW Asia Pre-pottery to Pottery Periods

There is a great deal of continuity between the Natufians and the Pre-Pottery Neolithic peoples that followed them, but there is a major disruption that happens at the transition to the Pottery Neolithic. Many settlements that were occupied for thousands of years were abandoned. Over-exploitation of the environment and climate instability may have contributed to this collapse/reorganizaiton.

True or False: The Chinese urban pattern of establishing a central monumental precinct -- walled off from the residences of commoners and industrial areas -- was established at the early Shang capital Ao.

True; Much of the first Shang capital Ao is covered by the modern city Zhengzho, but excavations confirm the existence of a walled, central elite precinct surrounded by commoner houses and manufacturing areas. Potentially dangerous crafts -- such as bronze and pottery manufacture, which involve fire -- were practiced outside the precinct. A similar pattern is documented at the late Shang capital An-yang.

True or False: The Early Dynastic period in Mesopotamia saw the growth of several autonomous city-states, with each controlled by rulers and royal families.

True; Several city-states emerged during the Early Dynastic period. Competition increased between city-states and warfare became more organized and lethal with the invention of bronze weapons and wheeled military vehicles (chariots and battle-wagons). No city was able to gain control over Mesopotamia for any substantial length of time during this period.

Post Classic Mesoamerica

Tula, Chichen Itza, Tenochtitlan and Aztec Empire

Qin Dynasty

Unifying China into one empire, beginning the Great Wall, Terracotta Army (projects made through slave labor), standardized writing, measurements, coins and laws, established standing army

True or False: The process of consolidating Upper and Lower Egypt under the rule of the pharaohs took a considerable amount of time and resources.

Upper and Lower Egyptian societies developed separately for about two thousand years before their unification under Narmer. The cultural and political differences could not be immediately papered-over by a new ruling elite, and pharaohs of the first two dynasties spent over 500 years building outposts and temples throughout Egypt to integrate the area into a cohesive kingdom. Elite marriages between Upper and Lower Egyptian families were probably also used to build stable social bonds - not unlike the royal marriages of later Medieval Europe, or Game of Thrones, for that matter

By the end of the 'Ubaid, ___________________ emerged as the first Mesopotamian city with a population greater than 10,000 people and massive public architecture.

Uruk was the first city to emerge on the Mesopotamian plains. It was only one town among many others throughout most of the 'Ubaid period, but it rapidly expanded into a densely populated urban center by 3100 B.C.

Valley of Kings Site

Valleys where kings in the New Kingdom were buried to avoid looting and tomb robbing

Pottery

additive technology (more than sum of parts), used to understand trade and build chronologies, expresses culture and values

Tikal

apart of mayan lowlands with independent city-states, occasionally unified but no mayan empire! 90k people in city, concentrated in downtown otherwise dispersed, stelae and altars that have glyphs that describe scenes and history, connection to teotihuacan- military, diplomatic? someone from Teo rules in Maya and his son is depicted as a Mayan

Mayan Ball Game

athletic competition with deep religious significance, game not the exact same everywhere but variations were present, ballcourts over continent show it's relevance

Preclassic Mesoamerica

beginnings of social complexity, people settle and begin farming because less regular rain, large trade networks, Olmec and mayan cultures

the official symbol of the Zhou state.

bronze cooking pot or ting cauldron/ cooking vessel

Tula

conquest state, columns on temples, monumental stone carvings, heart sacrifice statues,

Hierakonpolis site

craft speacialization, cemeteries show differences in wealth between people's tombs, Upper Egypt

San Lorenzo

early Olmec capital, giant stone head figures, no temples or pyramids, power was shown in their sculptures

Zhou Dynasty

early empires? iron working which was more accessible to all people, bronze cooking pot was symbol of dynasty, large irrigation and navigation canal investments, massive pop. with cities over 100k, lineage and kinship matter in the growth of bureaucracy and state power

Archaic (Early Dynastic) Period (c. 3100-2686 B.C.)

first state arrives,

Control Over Surplus Food Hypothesis

food is central to Chinese culture, oracle bones placed near food vessels, control food= source of power

Old Kingdom

great pyramid builders, Pharaohs were divine gods, pyramids were tombs and monuments for their Pharaoh, bureaucracy under Pharaoh grew

The use of [x] for making agricultural tools and the construction of large [y] systems led to large increases in the Chinese population during Late Zhou times.

iron, irrigation; Iron, unlike bronze, was widely adopted for making agricultural tools by 600 B.C. Large-scale irrigation systems were constructed around this time, and the increased agricultural output from these technological advancements enabled rapid population growth

New Kingdom

large expansion and powerful state/empire, kings stop being buried in monuments and instead hide their tombs in valleys to prevent theft (still doesn't help)

Olmec

large stone carvings, pyramids with flat tops, portable art with were jaguar figures (possible deities), altars used as thrones, possible writing bc of plaque with symbols and roller stamps, some symbols look like mayan symbols, sister culture to other Mesoamerican cultures; similar but not origin

Bands

least complex, highly mobile, smallest population @ >100, status is achieved, foragers, political control in residential group, kinship is most important element

SW Asia Temples

managed the intensification of agriculture especially with irrigation, religious and economic centers, created elites in the people who controlled the temple bc they controlled land people and trade, redistribution center for food and crafts, some ziggurats (stepped towers)

El Mirador Site

massive pyramid, stone imagery depicts divine kingship and tradition, walled city, many temples and palaces = social stratification

Chichen Itza

mayan style, no rivers so get eater from sonotae pits that had gold and copper thrown inside, biggest ball court in Mesoamerica

Shang Dynasty

much larger state than Erlitou's, bronze used mostly for food vessels 2 capitals: 1st Ao- walls around city, palace and wooden houses inside city, pottery kilns, bronze foundry and bone workshop outside of city for safety, 2nd Anyang- royal cemetery Xibeigang with larger tombs showing stratification and largest tomb at cemetery is surrounded by other dead people and buried with bronze and oracle bones

Egypt's different path to statehood

no monuments until after unification, people are dispersed across region, single political system across all, had religious centers to maintain people, was a stable state for much longer time than Mesopotamia

S American Writing

no writing system, Inca had "quipu" a system of knotted strings to record information

After the collapse of the Old Kingdom and the breakdown of centralized state authority, power in Egypt devolved to the ____________________, which were originally provinces ruled by governors under the control of the central bureaucracy.

nome

Classic Mayan

not peaceful, proof of torture, war like culture despite the importance of tracking time was to them

1st Intermediate Period

old kingdom fails probably due to climate change leading to the Nile not flooding, centralized gov weakens and power goes to governors/nomes, towns appear

Chinese and SE Asia Writing

oracle bones used for scapulimancy (divination or fortune telling)- symbols written on bone, bone put in fire and cracks were interpreted for future

Erlitou

palace residences show stratification in people's life style, bronze and oracle bones concentrated at palace site, Xia Dynasty associated (not necessarily first dynasty)

Mesoamerican Writing

pictographs used to record history?

Late Zhou Dynasty

political fragmentation, territories ruled by governors rather than central gov, bronze work, beginning of Silk Road, Confusious ideologies of government, Warring states and shifting capitals

Polished stone maceheads may represent symbols of [x] in Predynastic Egypt. The recovery of maceheads at several sites in Upper Egypt during the Amratian period suggests that multiple independent [y] developed and competed for resources and power at this time.

power; polities (Independent political units)

Importance of the Nile

predictable floods that make soil fertile, Egyptians connected floods to Gods/upper power, if people were good it would flood properly, Pharoh's role to balance floods/ ma'at

Intensive agriculture

produces more crops from same amount of land or by creating more land space. creates more food that makes storage, pop. growth, trade, and job specialization

Maya Preclassic

public architecture, participated in trade networks, interaction important for increasing complexity, not an empire!

Classic Period MesoAmerica

rise of cities and states, Teotihuacán and Tikal, fall of Teo and Maya "collapse" make balkanization in area

SW Asian Writing

started to record economic transactions, Uruk used pictographs and tokens(shaped rock as words), Sumerian had cuneiform writing with constants and syllables (more abstract less pictographs)

Maya Long Count

system of reckoning to the "0 Date", thought to be at 3114 BC, k'in = day, winal= 20 k'in, tun= 18 winal, k'atun= 20 tun, bak'tun= 20 k'atun. Add units as they build up, line = 5 dot = 1 and can be put before a unit

Sargon of Akkad

unified Mesopotamia as an empire from 2334-2279 BC through conquer, empire crumbles and city states become independent again --> becomes a cycle of empire and independent city-states

Middle Kingdom

unified state again but pharaohs aren't as powerful as they were before (semi-divine), expansion of territory

Original Grift

used oracle bones to con their was into power/ shape the country, oracle bones associated with elite