HIST 150 Midterm Exam
Only during the late third millennium BCE did people harness horses with cheek pieces and mouth bits in order to facilitate the control of horses and their use for transportation. The horse chariots combined innovations by both nomads and settled agriculturalists. The horse chariot slashed travel time between capitals. The mobility, accuracy, and shooting power of warriors in horse-drawn chariots tilted the political balance.
Analyze the impact on Afro-Eurasia of the domestication of horses and the invention of the chariot. How did these developments affect both nomadic and settled peoples?
In Mesopotamia, those who wielded new writing tools were scribes; from the very beginning they were near the top of the social ladder, under the big man and the priests. Scribes connected visual symbols with sounds, and sounds with meanings, and they discovered they could record messages by using abstract symbols or signs to denote concepts (cuneiform). City life and literacy gave rise also to written narratives, the stories of a "people" and their origins. In Egypt, the fact that few individuals were literate heightened the scribes' social status. Both in Egypt and Mesopotamia, they were drafting historical records and literacy compositions. Egyptians used two forms of writing: hieroglyphs and hieratic writing. In the Indus River valley, they had a script of about 400 symbols. Most of what remains of the Indus Valley script appears on a thousand or more stamp seals and small plaques excavated from the region. The Harappans did not produce King Lists.
Compare technological developments, including writing (scribes) and other technologies (such as the use of bronze and jade), in the various river-basin societies.
Nomads were drawn to the agricultural settlements and they brought innovations, such as bronze and other goods, from the west. Yangshao villagers had to move frequently because they practiced slash-and-burn agriculture. Once having exhausted the soil, residents picked up their belongings, moved to new lands, and constructed new villages. In the second millennium BCE, the Longshan people created elaborate agrarian systems along the Yellow and Yangzi rivers that were similar to earlier irrigation systems along the Euphrates, Indus, and Nile.
Contrast the agricultural developments in East Asia with those taking place in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley during 3500 - 2000 BCE.
The Vedic peoples were masters of copper and bronze metallurgy and wheel making. They were also deeply religious. They worshipped a host of deities, the most powerful of which were the sky god and the gods that represented horses. They also brought elaborate rituals of worship, which set them apart from the indigenous populations. As they mixed agrarian and pastoral ways and borrowed technologies from farther west, their population expanded and they began to look for new resources. They marched south and easy, each wave of occupation involving violence, but the invaders did not simply dominate the indigenous peoples, but, instead, the confrontations led them to embrace many of the ways of the vanquished.
Contrast the formation of territorial states in Egypt and Mesopotamia with the impact of Vedic peoples in South Asia.
Shang kings used a personalized style of rule, making regular trips around the country to meet, hunt, and conduct military campaigns. They moved their capital as the frontier expanded and contracted. Advanced Shang metalworking was vital to the Shang territorial state. Because copper and tin were available from the North China plain, only short-distance trade was necessary to obtain the resources that a bronze culture needed. The casting of modular components that artisans could assemble later promoted increased production and permitted the elite to make extravagant use of bronze vessels for burials. Shang rulers practiced ancestral worship, which was the major form of religious belief in China during this period. The technique involved diviners' applying intense heat to the shoulder bones of cattle or to turtle shells and interpreting the cracks that appeared on these objects as auspicious or inauspicious signs from the ancestors regarding royal plans and actions. On these oracle bones, scribes subsequently inscribed the queries asked of the ancestors to confirm the diviners' interpretations.
Contrast the formation of the Shang state in East Asia with developments happening at the same time in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and South Asia. Explain the role of metallurgy and oracle bones in supporting Shang authority.
A microsociety is a small-scale, fragmented, and dispersed community that had limited interaction with others. In the tropical or subtropical environment in the South Pacific, Austronesians cultivated dry-land crops, irrigated crops, and tree crops. Island hopping led the adventurers to encounter new food sources, but the shallow waters and reefs offered sufficient fish and shellfish for their needs. They shared a common culture, language, technology, and stores of domesticated plants and animals. The Minoans and the Mycenaeans developed an expanding trade network and distinctive cultures. In the Minoan culture, worship on the islands focused on a female deity, the "Lady," but there are no traces of large temple complexes. It is unclear whether these societies had full-time scribes. There was significant regional diversity within the small area. The Mycenaean culture was more war-oriented than that of the Minoans. The Mycenaean material culture emphasized displays of weaponry, portraits of armed soldiers, and illustrations of violent conflicts.
Define the term microsociety. Compare and contrast Polynesian microsocieties of the South Pacific with the Minoans and Mycenaeans of the Aegean.
A territorial state is a centralized kingdom organized around a charismatic ruler. Territorial states emerged and thrived in Egypt, Southwest Asia, the Indus River Valley, and in East Asia.
Define the term territorial state. In what areas of Afro-Eurasia did this new form of political organization emerge and thrive?
Beginning around 1200 BCE, another prolonged period of drought gripped Afro-Eurasia, causing social upheavals and migrations and utterly destroying settled societies and long-established governments. Many regions that had enjoyed rapid population growth in the second millennium BCE now found themselves unable to support such large numbers, forcing peoples to leave their homes in search of food and fertile land. In Egypt, low Nile floods forced pharaohs to spend their time securing food supplies and repelling Libyans from the desert and "Sea People" marauders from the coast. In Anatolia, Hittite kings dispatched envoys to the rulers of all of the major agricultural areas, pleading for grain shipments to save their starving people. The dust storms reduced the soil's ability to retain moisture and led to a sharp decline in soil fertility. The violent movement of peoples, driven in part by climate change, disrupted urban societies and destroyed the administrative centers of kings, priests, and dynasties. Invaders assaulted the urban centers and territorial kingdoms, causing the collapse of many of these once powerful states. The upheavals caused by these migrations opened the way for new empires to develop, but only after centuries of turmoil and decline. Technological innovations were crucial in reconstructing communities that had been devastated by drought and violent population movements. Advances in the use of pack camels, seaworthy vessels, iron tools for cultivation, and iron weapons for warfare facilitated the rise of empires. The camel helped to open up trade routes across Afro-Eurasia. When the technology to smelt and harden iron advanced, iron tools and weapons replaced those made of bronze. The expansion of the first empires depended on military might, and control of expanded territories required new administrative techniques. The Neo-Assyrians used mass deportations to break resisters' unity, to provide slave labor in parts of the empire that needed manpower, and to integrate the realm. Over 300 years, they constructed an infrastructure of roads, garrisons, and relay stations throughout the entire territory, making it easier to communicate and to move troops.
Describe how climate change, migrations, technological developments, and administrative innovations contributed to the formation of empires in the later second millennium BCE.
Pastoral nomads were horse-riding clans who migrated across vast distances. Transhumant herders lived closer to agricultural settlements and migrated seasonally to pasture their livestock. They brought horses and new technologies that were useful in warfare and religious practices and languages. The most vital breakthroughs that nomadic pastoralists transmitted to settled societies were the harnessing of horses and the invention of the chariot, a two-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle used in warfare and later in processions and races.
Explain the differences between pastoral nomads and transhumant herders. How did each shape Afro-Eurasian history during the second millennium BCE?
Nearly all genetic cousins to Homo sapiens had become extinct about 25,000 years ago, so with their physical agility and superior cognitive skills, they were ready to populate the world. Hunters and gatherers could find enough food in about three hours of foraging each day, thus affording time for other pursuits such as relaxation, interaction, and friendly competitions with other members of their bands.
How did Homo sapiens come into being? In what ways did hunting and gathering shape the dynamics of early human communities?
In Mesopotamia, to obtain materials for constructing and embellishing their cities with their temples and palaces, they had to interact with the inhabitants of surrounding regions. Maintaining trade contacts was easy, given their open boundaries on all sides. The area became a crossroads for the peoples of Southwest Asia. Trade and migration contributed to the growth of cities throughout the river basin. In the Indus Valley, some of the Harappan trading towns nestled in remote but strategically important places. Because the demand for gemstones and metals was high on the Iranian plateau and in Mesopotamia, control of their extraction and trade was essential to maintaining the Harappans' economic power. To facilitate trade, rulers relied not just on Harappan script but also on a system of weights and measures that they devised and standardized.
How did long-distance trade influence the political, economic, and technological development of urban societies in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley?
Amenemhet I elevated a formerly less significant god, Amun, to prominence. The king capitalized on the god's name, which means "hidden," to convey a sense of his own invisible omnipresence throughout the realm. Because Amun's attributes of air and breath were largely intangible, believers in other gods were able to embrace his cult. Amun's cosmic power appealed to people in areas that had recently been impoverished. Ahmosis successfully used horse chariots against invaders and became pharaoh. He assembled large, mobile armies and drove the Hyksos back. Diplomats followed in the army's path, as the pharaoh initiated a strategy of interference for statecraft and an international diplomatic system that future Egyptian kings used to dominate the eastern Mediterranean world. During Hatshepsut's reign, there was little military activity, but trade contacts flourished. She proclaimed herself king, ruling as coregent until she died two days later. As scarcities mounted, transhumant peoples began to press in upon settled communities more closely. Mesopotamian city dwellers were scornful of the rustic migrants that they called Amorites invading their cities. While they may have been "foreigners" to those living in the urban centers of Mesopotamia, they were not strangers. Around 2000 BCE, Amorites from the western desert joined allies from the Iranian plateau to bring down the Third Dynasty of Ur, which had controlled all of Mesopotamia and southwestern Iran for more than a century. These Amorites and their allies founded the Old Babylonian kingdom. The most famous Mesopotamian ruler of the period was Hammurapi. He implemented a new system to consolidate power, appointing regional governors to manage outlying provinces and to deal with local elites. Balancing elite privileges with the needs of the lower classes, the king secured his power. Hammurapi's Code, with its "eye-for-an-eye" reciprocity of crime and punishment, is an example of this balancing act. The Code places an emphasis on the king's control, as divine agent, over public matters; the vital role of the family in orderly relations; and the rights and responsibilities of each social class.
How do Amun-Re, Ahmosis, and Hatshepsut contribute to an understanding of Egypt as a territorial state? Explain the role of the Amorites and Hammurapi's Code in the formation of territorial state in Mesopotamia.
Natural selection is when members of a species with certain randomly occurring traits that are useful for environmental or other reasons survive and reproduce with greater success than those without the traits. Thus, biological evolution does not imply progress to higher forms of life, only successful adaptation to environmental surroundings. For hominids, like the rest of the plant and animal world, survival required constant adaptation, the ability to alter behavior and to innovate, finding new ways of doing things. Hominids had to keep pace with the changing physical environments or else risk extinction.
How do natural selection and adaptation play a role in evolution?
Towns emerged and agriculture advanced, but not with the leaps and bounds of the great river-basin civilizations. The Aegean, Anatolia, and Europe had a distinctive warrior-based ethos. Settlements in the Americas and sub-Saharan Africa were smaller and remained based around agriculture. The inhabitants moved beyond stone implements and hunting and gathering, but they remained more egalitarian than river basin people.
Identify shared characteristics of settlements in Europe, Anatolia, the Aegean, the Americas, and Africa between 5000 and 2000 BCE.
Use of language, ability to draw, made music
In what ways are humans, Homo sapiens, different from our hominid ancestors?
In Mesopotamia, they created temples where they adored their gods. They had royal powers and social hierarchies. Egypt had dynasties, pharaohs, pyramids, cosmic order, gods, priesthood, and magical power. The Indus Valley had political and ritual activities, dynasties/kingdoms, and created cities. The emergence of cities as population centers created the urban-rural divide. Where cities appeared alongside rivers, people adopted lifestyles based on specialized labor and the mass production of goods. In contrast, most people continued to live in the countryside, where they remained on their lands, cultivating the land or tending livestock, though they exchanged their grains and animal products for goods from the urban centers.
In what ways did cities in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley differ from pastoral nomadic communities? How did the development of these cities introduce a hitherto unknown urban-rival divide?
Sometime around 1640 BCE, the Hyksos overthrew the unstable Thirteenth Dynasty. The victorious Hyksos did not destroy the conquered land, but adopted and reinforced Egyptian ways. Ruling as the Fifteenth Dynasty, the Hyksos asserted control over the northern part of the country and transformed the Egyptian military. In the early second millennium BCE, the chariot warrior groups of Anatolia grew powerful on the commercial activity that passed through their region; chiefly the Hittites. Hittite lancers and archers rode chariots across vast expanses to plunder their neighbors and demand taxes and tribute. In 1274 BCE, they fought the Egyptians at the Battle of Qadesh. Hittite control was central to balancing power among the territorial states that grew up in the river valleys.
In what ways did the Hyksos and Hittites influence territorial state formation in Egypt and Mesopotamia? How does the Battle of Qadesh offer an example of that interaction?
Confucius (551 - 479 BCE) was very much the product of the violent Spring and Autumn period. Serving in minor governmental positions, he believed the founders of the Zhou dynasty had established ideals of good government and principled action. Confucius's teachings stemmed from his belief that human beings behaved ethically not to achieve salvation or heavenly reward, but because it was their human makeup to do so. Confucius saw family and familial submission as the foundation of proper ethical action, including loyalty to the state and rulers. HIs idea of modeling the state on the patriarchal family became a bedrock principle of Confucian thought. Confucius established many of the major guidelines for Chinese thought and action: respect for the pronouncements of scholars, commitment to a broad education, and training for all who were highly intelligent and willing to work, whether noble or humble in birth. Confucius's ethical teachings were preserved by his followers in The Analects. Confucius proposed a moral framework stressing correct performance of ritual, humaneness, loyalty to the family, and perfection of moral character to become a "superior man".
Information to know for Confucius quote.
Australopithecines - walked upright, skull contained a brain within the ape size range, jaw and teeth were human-like, long arms (hanging halfway from hips to knees, suggesting bipedalism) Homo habilis - Bipedal, larger brains, made flaked stone tools Homo erectus - large brain capacity, walked truly upright, development of extended periods of caring for their young, used fire, ability to travel long distances
What are some of the distinctive features of hominids, especially australopithecines, Homo habilis, and Homo erectus?
In Mesopotamia, peoples living along the Tigris River and Euphrates River controlled floodwaters and refine irrigation techniques. Mesopotamians established the world's first large cities, featuring powerful rulers, social hierarchies, and monumental architecture. Mesopotamia was the birthplace of writing. In Egypt, the people used the Nile River waters to irrigate their lands and create a bountiful agriculture. Egyptian rulers known as pharaohs unify their territory, establish a powerful state, and develop a vibrant economy. Egyptians built magnificent burial chambers (pyramids) and worshipped a pantheon of gods. In the Indus Valley, South Asian peoples harnessed the Indus River and created cities like Harappa and Mohenjo Daro. Peoples dwelling in the basins of this area controlled the waters' flow and expanded agriculture. They developed elaborate cultures.
What are some similarities and differences among the cities and city-states that developed in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley?
The images helped the early humans to define themselves as separate from other parts of nature. The Venus figurines demonstrate that successful reproduction was a very important theme. Only Homo sapiens had the cognitive abilities to produce the abundant sculptures and drawings of this era, thus leaving a permanent mark on the symbolic landscape of human development. They marked the dawn of human culture and a consciousness of men's and women's place in the world.
What do cave art and the so-called Venus figurines suggest about the values of human communities prior to the agricultural revolution?
Pastoralism is the herding of domesticated animals. Transhumant herders were closely affiliated with agricultural villages whose inhabitants grew grains, which required large parcels of land. They produced both meat and dairy products, as well as wool for textiles, and exchanged these products with the agriculturalists for grain, pottery, and other staples. They moved their livestock seasonally, pasturing their flocks in higher lands during summer and in valleys in winter. The nomadic pastoralist way of life was characterized by horse-riding herders of cattle and other livestock. They often had no fixed home, though they often returned to their traditional locations. They moved across large distances in response to the size and needs of their herds. They domesticated horses and developed weapons and techniques that at certain points in history enabled them to conquer sedentary societies.
What is pastoralism, and how did varying types of pastoralists (both transhumant herders and nomadic pastoralists) interact with settled agricultural communities?
Water was the key to settlement, since predictable flows of water determined where humans settled. Reliable water supplies allowed communities to sow crops adequate to feed large populations. The river basins -- with their fertile soil, irrigation, and available domesticated plants and animals -- made possible the agricultural surpluses needed to support city dwellers. In these regions humans farmed and fed themselves by relying on intensive irrigation agriculture. Along river basins, most people continued to live in the countryside, where they remained on their lands, cultivating the land or tending livestock, though they exchanged their grains and animal products for goods from the urban centers. The steppe environment could not support large-scale farming, so those communities came to focus on animal breeding and herding. As secondary pursuits they continued to fish, hunt, and farm small plots in their winter pastures. As their herds increased, these horse-riding nomads had to move often to new pastures, driving their herds across vast expanses of land.
Where and how did river basins contribute directly to the emergence of cities, from 3500 - 2000 BCE? What were some similarities and differences in irrigation techniques among these early civilizations?
About 12,000 years ago, around 10,000 BCE, a fundamental shift occurred in the way humans produced food for themselves. Around the same time, a significant warming trend that had begun around 11,000 BCE resulted in a profusion of plants and animals. In areas with abundant wild game and edible plants, people began to observe and experiment with the most adaptable plants. The process of plant domestication probably began when people noticed that certain edible plants retained their nutritious grains longer than others, so they collected these seeds and scattered them across fertile soils. Plant domestication occurred when the plant retained its ripe, mature seeds, allowing an easy harvest. People used most seeds for food but saved some for planting in the next growing cycle, to ensure a food supply for the next year. Dogs were the first animals to be domesticated. Around 9000 BCE, they provided an example of how to achieve the domestication of other animals and, with their herding instincts, they helped humans to control other domesticated animals. The animals accepted their dependence because the humans fed them. Since controlling animal reproduction was more reliable than hunting, domesticated herds became the primary source of protein in the early humans' diet. The people moved the animals to new pastures on a seasonal basis.
Where, when, and how did the agricultural revolution take place, and what were the results? Describe the process of plant and animal domestication and how that led to settled agriculture (via both innovation and borrowing).
In an attempt to explain where they came from; they all draw on a particular society's knowledge and beliefs to offer an account of human and universal origins.
Why do human communities produce creation narratives and what do creation narratives have in common?