From the Origins of Agriculture to the First River-Valley Civilizations
Paleolithic Age
"Old Stone" Age, c. 250,000 BCE -c. 8000 BCE
When did the Indus Valley Civilization first develop?
2600 -1900 BCE (first settled c. 5000).
Ziggurats
A massive pyramidal stepped tower made of mud bricks. It is associated with religious complexes in ancient Mesopotamian cities, but its function is unknown.
City-State
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.
Hieroglyphic
A system of writing in which pictorial symbols represented sounds, syllables, or concepts. It was used for official and monumental inscriptions in ancient Egypt
Cuneiform
A system of writing in which wedge-shaped symbols represented words or syllables. It originated in Mesopotamia and was used initially for Sumerians and the Akkadians
When did agriculture arise in china?
Agriculture developed in China about 2000 years after Mesopotamia; in the Americas it arose around 2500 BCE.
Other than farming, what sparked from the Agricultural Revolutions?
Animal domestication also occurred at this time, depending on which animals were available.
What does the discovered archeology from the Indus Valley Civilization indicate?
Archaeology indicates long-distance trade with Mesopotamia
What was the city of Babylon founded by?
Babylon was founded by another Semitic people, the Amorites.
What did caves reveal about the artistic portion of the Stone Age?
Cave wall paintings from about 17,000 years ago in France depict hunters using these types of tools.
How did the Stone Age deal with death, religious wise?
Ceremonial burials implied a belief in an afterlife of some sort.
What most likely led people of the Neolithic Age to stop hunting/foraging practices?
Changes in the environment that caused wild animals and plants to become more scarce.
What did Sumerians build frequently when they first settled in Mesopotamia, other then ziggurats? Provide examples.
City-states, such as Ur, Uruk, and Lagash, which consisted of an urban center and outlying agricultural territories.
What was a disadvantage of domesticating animals?
Closer contact to animals increased the transfer of diseases between animals and humans.
Where were pastoralists most common?
Common in central Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Parts of Africa.
What were the most important domesticated animals in Afro-Eurasia?
Dogs, cats, goats, sheep, cattle, horses, chickens, and pigs
How were Egypt's kings looked at?
Egyptian Kings were seen as gods incarnate
Ma'at
Egyptian term for the divine order of the universe.
During the Paleolithic age humans migrated from Africa to....
Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas.
What was Egypt divided into when it first became civilized?
First divided into the up-river, southern, Upper Egypt and the down-river, northern, Lower Egypt
How did food surpluses effect population growth?
Food surpluses led to population growth, and the ability to feed specialized workers (metalsmiths, priests, warriors, rulers, scribes, etc.).
How was the Nile essential to Egypt?
Food, trade, and transportation.
What were the two most important cites from the Indus Valley Civilization?
Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro.
What form of writing was used in Egypt?
Hieroglyphic writing was used
Did the Agricultural Revolutions occur globally after the switch to agriculture?
It did not occur globally or concurrently; not everyone started planting crops at the same time.
What technology was available to the Indus Valley Civilization?
Metalworking, writing, irrigation, and pottery.
Neolithic
Neolithic ("New Stone") Age, c. 8000 BCE.; The period of the Stone Age associated with the ancient Agricultural Revolution(s). It follows the Paleolithic period.
What important river dominated Egypt?
Nile River
Pastoralists
Non-settled groups of nomads who herded domesticated animals and did not participate in crop-based agriculture.
What agricultural centers arose later on from the first centers?
Other early agricultural centers included Mesoamerica (Mexico & Central America), in the Andes Mountains of modern Peru, and in the highlands of New Guinea.
How was the Neolithic Age associated with Agricultural Revolutions? What did it lead to?
People began deliberately planting and harvesting crops. This led to permanent settlements and the eventual end of hunting/foraging practices.
What political tension erupted during Egypt's earlier civilization times?
Political tension often arose between the king and the bureaucracy and priesthood.
How did Egypt view religion?
Religion was polytheistic, and much of its activities focused on the afterlife.
Describe religion during the Paleolithic era.
Religions were usually animistic (nature gods and powers) and polytheistic.
Where did the first agricultural centers arise from? Name each.
Rivers in Mesopotamia (currently Iraq), Egypt, the Indus River Valley in South Asia, the Yellow River Valley in East Asia.
Hammurabi
Ruled Babylonians from 1792 -1750 BCE, is famous both for his military strength and the law code he helped to create.
The Akkadians
Semitic people who intermingled with Sumerian society.
How did social and political systems between men and women differ?
Social and political systems tended to be patriarchal, with men wielding power. Women tended to rule only through connections to men (marriage or supervising sons).
What role did social stratification play during these times?
Social pyramids arose in many societies, with elites (rulers and religious leaders) at the top and craftsmen, merchants, laborers and slaves toward the bottom.
What did Sumerians believe religiously?
Sumerian religion was polytheistic, with gods embodying forces of nature. They often built huge temples, called ziggurats.
What was Egypt's nickname?
The Gift of the Nile
What was Mesopotamia often referred to?
The Land Between Two Rivers
What people settled in Mesopotamia after the Sumerians?
The Semites (Akkadians)
What group of people, Semites or Sumerians, eventually dominated the other?
The Semites came to dominate Mesopotamia, adopting Sumerian culture and technology but overshadowing the Sumerians themselves in power politically and in general.
What did Sumerians initially framework in Mesopotamia?
The Sumerians created the cultural, societal, and religious framework that dominated the area for millennia.
Where did Mesopotamia lie between?
The Tigris and the Euphrates
Agricultural Revolutions
The change from food gathering to food production that occurred between ca. 8000 and 2000 B.C.E. Also known as the Neolithic Revolution.
How did the Indus Valley Civilization reach its end?
The cities were abandoned, due likely to environmental changes.
Sumerians
The earliest city-dwellers in Mesopotamia, they built cities between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers by 5000 BCE.
Sargon of Akkad
The first leader to build an empire that dominated all of Mesopotamia, around 2350 BCE.
How were forager/hunter bands developed?
The groups usually had family connections.
What are two different areas of contrast in Egypt?
The inhospitable desert (the "red land") and the agriculturally-rich Nile basin (the "black land").
Babylon
The largest and most important city in Mesopotamia. It achieved particular eminence as the capital of the Amorite king Hammurabi in the eighteenth century B.C.E.
What lead to writing in early civilization? Provide examples.
The need to catalog and organize food and other supplies eventually led to the invention of writing Sumerian cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphics, Indus Valley script, etc.
What animals were domesticated in the Americas?
There were very few domesticable animals present in the Americas; the Chavín in the Andes domesticated llamas and alpacas.
How did Sumerians better innovate Mesopotamia?
They expanded irrigation technology, created the first recorded writing (cuneiform), and were among the first people to create bronze.
How did Pastoralists benefit and help communication travel around the world?
They helped to connect settled areas and transfer technology and beliefs to different areas; sometimes this was done peacefully, other times very much not.
How did people live during the Stone Age (pre-civilization)
They lived in small hunter/forager bands that hunted animals and gathered edible plants.
What did the death of many Egyptian kings eventually lead to?
This led to the creation of elaborate royal tombs, culminating in the creation of the Pyramids around 2500 BCE.
What did greater population lead to?
To the need for codified systems of laws to be written.
What are some of the popular tools found from pre-historic times in the Stone Age?
Tools included stone and wooden implements such as the spear, bow & arrow, club, and stone axe.
What role did Sumerian women have in Mesopotamia in comparison to men? x4
While men dominated society, women could still own property, control her dowry, and engage in trade. Some also worked outside the household.
How did women's rights in Egypt differ from those of Mesopotamia?
Women were generally treated more respectfully than in Mesopotamia—a few even ruled as Queens (though this was very, very rare).
Was Babylon stable?
Yes, Babylon remained a center of power for centuries.