WTWA Chapter Three
The passage titled Adviser Zichan of Zheng's Compilation of Laws (149-150 WTWA) is an excerpt of a letter from a government leader in one kingdom to a government leader in a neighboring kingdom. The author is expressing his opinion on whether written laws are good for society. How do you think his letter ends? Pick the passage that is most in keeping with his point of view about written laws.
"I have heard that 'when a state is about to fall, it has numerous regulations.' Surely it refers to this sort of situation." This ending indicates that the author's main point is that written legal codes are bad. Written laws (in his view) encourage subjects to use tricks to avoid punishment, rather than trying to be morally good people. He sees the creation of a written legal code as a sign of the overall downfall of any society.
Territorial states were only one form of political organization in this time period. Complete this passage about an alternative form of organization.
A microsociety is a small-scale, fragmented, dispersed community that lives in relative isolation from other societies. Minoan and Mycenaean culture in the Aegean and Austronesian settlements in the South Pacific are examples of this kind of community from the second century BCE.
Complete this sentence about the interaction between environment and human societies in the mid-second millennium BCE. A fresco depicts a port city.- on
A volcanic eruption on the Mediterranean island of Thera probably contributed to the decline of the Minoan society.
Read the Code of Manu (c. 200 BCE) excerpts in the chapter, pages 148-149. Identify each of the following behaviors as either "acceptable" or "not acceptable" according to this primary source.
Acceptable: -A woman's husband left home for a religious pilgrimage 10 years ago and never returned. She remarries. -A healthy woman gave birth to four daughters and no sons. Her husband of 20 years takes another wife, in hope of having sons. Not Acceptable: -A woman's father forbids her from marrying, instead keeping her at home to care for her parents -A woman's husband sent her back to her family, and she remarries..
Which of the following statements about Amun-Re is supported by the text?
Amun-Re was the omnipresent king of the Egyptian gods, and the pharaoh's power over Egypt was justified and supported by his connection to Amun-Re. Amun-Re rose in prominence in tandem with the rise of the Middle Kingdom, which was based at Thebes. Amun-Re was originally associated with that city.
After reading the text, watch this brief video about pastoral nomads, transhumant herders, and settled communities. What does the chariot demonstrate about interactions between these communities?
Chariots show cooperation and economic interchange between pastoral nomads and settled peoples.
Match each cultural attribute with the correct microsociety.
Minoan: -worship primarily focused on a female deity -sprawling airy palaces, with no fortifications or natural defenses Mycenaean: -a cultural emphasis on warrior culture and use of the war chariot -a centralized government with bureaucratic hierarchy and full-time scribes
If a person from 1980 BCE (during Amenemhet I's reign of Middle Kingdom Egypt) traveled through time to 1475 BCE (during Hatshepsut's reign of New Kingdom Egypt), which aspects of Egyptian society would be familiar to him or her, and which aspects would be new?
New: -methods of making weapons and ceramics -Egypt's expansionist tendencies and powerful military Familiar: -Egyptians' fear of drought and reliance upon Nile flooding a kingdom-wide devotion to Amun-Re and the massive temple at Thebes -trade connections beyond the Nile River basin
The groups that migrated into the Indus River valley became known as Vedic peoples in reference to which of the following?
Their religious chants, known collectively as the Veda.
True or False: One significant way that early territorial states differed from city-states was that they had defined borders that encompassed both urban areas and the rural regions beyond them.
True. Egypt, the Babylonian kingdom, and Shang China were all territorial states. The ruler in each region exercised control over multiple dense settlements as well as the rural lands between them.
When Vedic peoples migrated into regions of South Asia, how did they change the societies they conquered? How did those societies change them? Match each change to the appropriate category.
Ways Verdic peoples changed South Asian cultures: -They devised standard weights and measures to improve trade. -They imported an Indo-European language (Sanskrit). -They introduced new domesticated animals. Ways South Asian changed Verdic culture: -They introduced iron-bladed plows. -They shifted the way wealth was measured, from livestock-based to land-based.
Place the following military developments in chronological order.
1) Bridle, mouthpiece, and reins. 2) Spoked wheels made of wood. 3) Iron wheel rims. 4) Relatively inexpensive iron armor for infantry and horse-mounted cavalry.
What messages do these images communicate? Image A page 110, mural. Image B on page 1120, carved steel image. A) A chest from King Tutankhamun's tomb depicts him in a war chariot. B) The stone stele on which Hammurapi's Code of Laws was carved shows Hammurapi, standing to receive the laws from Shamash, God of the Sun. Match each message to one or both of the images.
Chest from King Tutankkhamun's tomb: -The leader is a great conqueror. -The leader deserves to rule because he is greater than all other humans. Hammurapi's Code of Laws: -The leader is wise. -The leader deserves to rule because he has a direct connection to the gods. Both: -Social order and organization are important to the success of our society.
How did the Hyksos' control of northern Egypt transform the region?
Correct Answers: - The Egyptian state began to actively defend its borders. -The Egyptian military mastered the use of the horse chariot. -Egypt involved itself in the political affairs of communities in the Eastern Mediterranean. Incorrect Answers: -Egypt experienced a significant ethnic shift, effectively becoming a land of Southwest Asians rather than Africans. -The Egyptian state was dismantled and replaced by a state that stretched from southern Egypt through the Levant and into modern Greece, all under the rule of the Hyksos.
What do the Amarna letters reveal about interactions between the Egyptian, Babylonian, and Hittite kingdoms?
Correct Answers: -Diplomatic relationships included marriages and gift exchanges, in addition to treaties. -The governments of these three territorial states engaged in frequent written communications. Incorrect answers: -The Battle of Qadesh ushered in a century of unceasing warfare between the three kingdoms. -Before roughly 1250 BCE, the three major territorial powers in the region were unaware that the others existed.
What kinds of evidence convinced historians that climate changes underlay the collapse of Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Indus Valley societies?
Correct Answers: -Hydroclimatic reconstructions showing a 1,000-year-long precipitation decrease in the Indus River valley help explain the shrinking of cities toward the end of that period. -Soil samples from Mesopotamia showing a period of extreme drought help explain the abandonment of cities. -Sedimentation studies showing very low Nile floods are supported by concurrent written records of starvation. Incorrect Answers: -Sedimentation studies showing very low Nile floods help explain fossils of humans who evolved to drink smaller amounts of water.
According to the chapter text and the excerpt from Instruction to Vizier Rekhmire, how did the Egyptian government function on a day-to-day basis?
Correct Answers: -The Egyptian government used strict hierarchy and orderly procedures to function efficiently. -The vizier (not the pharaoh) administered the government bureaucracy, managing many of the day-to-day tasks of governing the Egyptian kingdom. Incorrect Answers: -The vizier had to win the approval and support of Egyptian subjects by showing compassion and mercy. -The vizier managed his extensive workload by delegating important decisions and judgments to trusted appointees.
Just as Indo-European nomads brought language, horses, and war chariots to agricultural societies across Afro-Eurasia, Austronesian oceangoing nomads in the South Pacific spread a common material culture. Which of the following are elements of this Austronesian legacy?
Correct Answers: -outrigger canoes -yams, breadfruit, and bananas -pigs Incorrect Answers: -Bronze-working -Polynesian writing
Consider the image on page 128. What aspects of the Shang government does this piece provide physical evidence for?
Correct Answers: -power, showing it could exact tribute in the form of mining labor -wealth, showing it could divert bronze away from military uses toward luxuries Incorrect Answers: -geography, showing it controlled all the regions where bronze could be mined -beliefs, showing it engaged in divination for political purposes
Match each political characteristic with the appropriate region.
Egypt: -The leader's power was legitimized by his connection to a powerful deity.: -The political organization consisted of a highly centralized state with a strong bureaucracy. Mesopotamia: -The political organization consisted of a federation of city-states with regional leaders. .-The leader's power was legitimized through his connection to mythical local heroes.
True or False: Before climate change forced them into closer proximity with Mesopotamian cities, transhumant herders like the Amorites were unknown to those urban populations.
False. Amorites lived in fairly close proximity to Mesopotamian cities and engaged in trade with them even before the climate changes of the second millennium BCE.
True or False: Microsocieties were completely isolated from the material goods and cultural developments of neighboring peoples.
False. Microsocieties engaged in trade and communication with others but were not tied to them through a centralized state structure. See the map on page 136 of WTWA, which illustrates trade routes throughout the Mediterranean during this time period.
Before the Hyksos invasion ended the Middle Kingdom, nomadic cultures had no impact on Egyptian society.
False. Pastoralist values influenced the Middle Kingdom cult of the pharaoh, which regarded the Egyptian leader as a shepherd whose duty was to care for his flock (the Egyptian people).
True or False: Consider the image (age 133 WTWA) and then evaluate the statement below. This bas-relief stone carving is part of the Borobudur Buddhist monument on the island of Java, in Indonesia. It was carved in the eighth century CE. Therefore, it was quite likely carved by an artist who was one of the original settlers of Java.
False: Java was settled by Austronesian migrants by 2000 BCE, more than 2,500 years before this piece was carved.
How was Shang China similar to and different from Egypt's New Kingdom?
Similarities: -the vertical loom for making textiles -improved bronze-working Differences: -steel-smelting technology -corn, tomatoes, and potatoes
Which group of Indo-European migrants settled in Anatolia, forming territorial states that used chariot-based warfare to challenge Egypt and Mesopotamia?
The Hittites.
