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42 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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History |
account of events |
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Historical Period |
Period for which written records were kept |
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Pre-History |
Period before written records |
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When does History Begin? |
Irish Archbishop Usher in mid 17th century - based on biblical life spans and time periods - calculates that the world and history began in 4004 BC |
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Age of Enlightenment |
archaeology led to prehistory |
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Culture |
traditions, values, passed from generation to generation |
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Things that distinguish culture |
- cemeteries: patterns in burial - tools (axe heads) - weapons (arrow heads) - weaving, textiles: different styles, techniques, stories told, material, skills passed on, clothing made for climate, has to be taught/learned - cave paintings |
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Civilization |
Urbanized, state-level societies - writing, metal working, specialization of crafts - institutions to govern a group of people (leaders, police, religious institutions, class system, laws and regulations) - interdependent with the hinterland - can't have civilization without culture |
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City |
area with high population density, interdependence with the hinterland |
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State-Level |
more than just a group of people living together, has some institutions that help or try to govern a group of people |
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Neolithic Age |
Period from 9600-4500 BC in middle east - within first few generations temperature at a more modest rate for the next 2000 years - Hamlets flourished |
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Key Elements of an Agrarian Society |
- Polished stone tools, agriculture, animal domestication, sound dried bricks, plaster pottery |
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When was the transition from foraging to farming complete? |
~6500 BCE |
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Euphrates |
- Present day Iraq - Where the turbulent Tigris and tranquil Euphrates met there were swamps, lagoons and marshes which supported rich plant and animal life - where the first farmers settled (Ubaid culture 6000-4000 BCE) - Spring floods just when crops were ready to be harvested - crops had to be protected - softened soil and took away salty which over time caused fields to become infertile - irrigated farming in lower Mesopotamia with predictable water supplies were more abundant than rain fed fields |
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Nile |
- late summer, fall floods - silt carried by the Nile fertilized fields every year instead of every second year like in Mesopotamia - Water table was lower and there was less danger of salt rising - First agricultural settlements appeared in Fayyum, a swampy depression off the Nile, around 5200 BCE - By 3500 BCE, agriculture had spread down the NIle |
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Early towns in Lower Mesopotamia |
- villages developed into towns between 5500 - 3500 BCE
- administered themselves through local assemblies (Puhrum) - Irrigated fields produced more harvest - for nearly two millennium towns regulated agriculture through communal cooperation - First-class distinctions (social) along the lines of wealth appeared |
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Sharecroppers |
Farmers who received seed, animals, and tools from landowners in exchange for up to 2/3 of harvest |
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Nomads |
people whose livelihood was based on herding of animals and moving with their animals from pasture to pasture depending on the seasons, they lived in rent camps |
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Assembly |
Gathering of wither all inhabitants or the most influential persons in town; later, in cities, assemblies and kings made decisions on important fiscal or juridicial matters |
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Chalcolithic (copper age) |
Begins around 4300 BCE |
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Temples |
- Wealthy landowners took possession of places of ritual and sacrifice and built large temples, mansions, workshops and granaries- eventually landowning priestly families stopped making fools and turned this over to specialized craftspeople |
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City-state |
place of more than 5000 inhabitants with non-farming inhabitants (craftspeople, merchants, administration), markets, and a city leader capable of compelling obedience to his decisions by force - dominant land owner priest created entourage of armed men wielding police power |
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Uruk |
First city in Mesopotamia ~ 4000-2900 BCE - first plow - introduced potters wheel - two and four wheeled carts - invented bronze - cities centred around temples - overseen by a priest-king - long distance trade - Pictograms - 3500 BCE - Ziggurats - 2900 BCE - biggest city in the world |
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Bronze Age |
3300-1200 BCE in the middle east |
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Cuneiform Writing |
invented by administration in the bureaucracy to simplify accounting and distribution (approximately 3450 BCE) Scribes wrote on clay tablets using signs for sounds and objects History could be recorded for the first time |
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Hassauna Culture |
Upper Tigris - 6000-5250 BCE - settled agricultural lifestyle - villages of several hundred people - adobe (clay and straw mix) houses built around central courtyard - dryland farming - fallow rotation |
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Dryland farming |
includes practices such as - fallow rotation - one crop takes two seasons to regrow - contour plowing to reduce runoff - planted lower yielding, but heat and drought resistant crops |
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Halaf Culture |
Euphrates river, Upper Mesopotamia - 6100 - 5400 BCE - Seal stamps - Public buildings consisted of circular chambers (tholoi) approached through long, rectangular entrance halls - dryland farming - Circular houses built of mud brick or mud plastered reed |
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Sammara Culture |
Tigris River - 6000 - 4800 BCE - evidence of irrigation - large population - introduction of large loaf shaped mud bricks that allowed the construction of more homogenous buildings - some cities had fortified walls |
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Ubaid Culture
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Lower Mesopotamia - 5400 - 4000 BCE - earliest settlement of alluvial plain of Lower Mesopotamia - same culture found in Eridu - initially derived from Sammara culture - large villages with rectangular multi-room houses -tools made of fired clay - Elite: chieftains, priestly class, successful farmers, heads of families - first irrigation projects (4700 BCE) - spread out and replaced Sammara and Halaf culture peacefully (4500-4000 BCE) |
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What are inherent problems of large scale urbanization? |
- emphasis on grain production could lead to unbalanced diets - inadequate waste disposal increased susceptibility to communicable diseases such as malaria, small pox and plague |
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How farmers destroyed the environment? |
- deforested land - soil blew away - fertilization with human and animal waste, watering with brackish water from storage ponds led to gradual salinization |
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Ziggurat |
massive raised platform topped with a temple to honour the creator god An - expanded in seven stages until it became "the white house" which was 70 ft high |
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Sumerian Mindset |
- pessimists because they thought the gods didn't care about them - attempted to organize their world as much as possible as a result - attempted to impose their own system of control on the gods - divination - used a number system based on the number 60 - negative view of afterlife - only gods had a pleasurable immortality - grave offerings were seized by demons |
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Divination |
mystical means of discovering the intentions of the gods |
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Sumerian Gods |
An - father of the gods, god of the universe Enlil - god of air, storm and sky Enki - Water god Nanna - moon god Utu - sun god Inanna - fertility goddess Ki - An's spouse Ninlil - Enlil's spouse Ninth - Enki's spouse |
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Sumerian Civilization |
- Coincides with Early Dynastic Period - Sumer home to 20 principal cities - each city under the protection of a god - political disunity - ideograms (2900 BCE) - Symbols represented syllables, consonants and other sound combinations (2600 BCE) |
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Sumerian King List |
Sumerian catalogue of legendary and historical kings (3000 - 2300 BCE) - occasionally includes brief descriptions of events - Includes a flood similar to the flood of moses in the bible |
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Urban development in Sumer |
- 2600 BCE conflicts broke out because of expanding population and pressure to expand their economic productivity - 3000 BCE smaller cities consolidated into larger ones |
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Nobles |
served as generals and administrators - a class of priests oversaw temples and properties of gods |
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Sumerian Economy |
- Bartar - gold and silver traded by weight - talents, mina's and shekels - centralized warehouses - bureaucratic government - demand for raw materials through trade |
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Semitic Peoples |
2300 - 1200 BCE - pastoralists - assimilated much of the culture of the Sumerian people |
