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MPCS9thStudyGuide/Final/chs1-9

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What are the different steps in hominid development?
Australopithecines, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Neanderthal, and Cro-Magnon
What is the nickname of Neanderthal?
Neanderthal
What is a city-state?
a city and the surrounding land it controlled and functioned much as an independent country does today
Who was Hammurabi?
ruler who brought the Babylonian Empire to its peak and is known for his code of laws
What were some important Summerian inventions?
arithmetic and geometry used to erect city walls and irrigation systems, architectural inventions such as arches, columns, ramps and pyramid-shaped designs, and cuneiform - a system of writing on tablets used to record oldest written records, scientific investigations in the areas of astronomy, chemistry, and medicine
What was Theocracy?
government in which rule is based on religious authority
What are the characteristics of Neanderthal?
200,000 to 30,000 B.C., found in Europe and Southwest Asia, brain size 1,450 cubic centimeters, first to have ritual burials
What were some inventions of the Homo erectus?
used intelligence to develop technology - became skillful hunters - invented sophisticated tools for digging, scraping, and cutting - first hominids to migrate or move
What was the Neolithic Revolution?
time of agricultural revolution causing far reaching changes in human life resulting in the beginnings of farming. Shift from food gathering to food-producing culture - great breakthrough in history
When did the "Old Stone Age" take place and what are characterisitcs of it?
it was the Paleolithic age and lasted from about 2.5 million to 8000 BC - stone chopping tools date back to this age
What were some inventions of the Homo habilis?
first to make stone tools
What is a dynasty?
a time in which military rulers became full-time rulers and passed their power onto their sons, who eventually passed it onto their heirs - this was a series of rulers from a single family
What are the charactertistics of Homo erectus?
1.6 million to 30,000 B.C., found in Africa, Asia, Europe, brain size 1,000 cubic centimeters
When did the "New Stone Age" take place and what are characterisitcs of it?
it was the Neolithic Age and began about 8000 BC and ended as early as 3000 BC - people who lived during this second phase of the stone age learned to polish stone tools, making pottery, growing crops, and raising animals
What type of scientists were Mr. and Mrs. Leaky?
anthropologist
What is an archaeologist?
specially trained scientist who works like a dectective to uncover the story of prehistoric people - sift through dirt in small plots of land analyzing the existing evidence such as bones and artifacts
What is the nickname of Homo erectus?
upright man
What are some advantages of living in Mesopotamia?
some of the best farming land with rich, fertile soil, floodwaters would leave behind a layer of silt which made the land very fertile, rivers could be used for irrigation, frequent surpluses from crops allowed villages to grow
What was a ziggurat?
a pyramid-shaped monument "mountain of gold" - the exterior had a flight of perhaps 100 mud-brick stairs leading to the top. At the peak, priests conducted rituals to worship the city god who loomed over Ur
What was the Hammurabi Code?
a single, uniform code of laws (282 specific laws) that helped unify diverse groups within the empire. Consisted of existing rules, judgements, and laws and was engraved in stone with copies placed all over the empire
What was the social structure in Summer?
it was a city-state with a government controlled by the temple priests, kings. landholders, and some priests were at the highest level, wealthy merchants ranked next, majority of ordianary Summerian people were in the next level and worked with their hands in the fields and workshops, and finally the lowest level of Summerian society were the slaves
What was the Chinese system of writing?
a system of characters in which each character generally stood fot one syllable or unit of language
What was slash and burn?
a type of farming in which they cut trees or grasses and burned them to clear a field - the ashes that remained fertilized the soil. Farmers would plant crops for a year or two and then move to another area of land. After several years - trees and plants grew back until another farmer repeated the process.
What were some inventions of the Cro-Magnons?
created art
What is a paleonotologist?
scientist who studies fossils looking for evidence of early life preserved in rocks - use complex techniques to date ancient remains
What was the advantage of the Chinese system of writing?
there were practically no links between the spoken language and the written language - one could read Chinese without being able to speak a word of it - major advantange was that people in all parts of China could learn the same system of writing - even if their spoken languages were very different - this helped unify a large and diverse land and made control much easier
What was the Paleolithic Revolution?
time of technological advances in stone tools, introduction of art, and beginnings of a language
What is known about the Indian civilizations?
believed that people were farming in this area in about 3200 BC. By 2500 BC they were laying bricks for India's first cities. They built strong levees to keep water out of their cities. They had a sophisticated sytem of city planning - have found the ruins of more than 100 settlements. The cities were laid out on a precise grid system with a fortified area called a citadel. Buildings were constructed of brick. These early engineers also created sophisticated systems of plumbing and sewage systems. The uniformity of the cities suggests these people had a strong central government. They did have a system of language, but it has been impossible to decipher it. Found carved stones and pottery with some 400 symbols that make up this language. They had remarkable uniformity in religion and culture. Artifacts such as clay and wooden children's toys suggest a prosperous society and their is little to suggest warfare - leading one to believe there was limited conflict. They conducted thriving trade with peoples in the region. Around 1750 BC the Indus valley cities began to decline.
What was the purpose of pharaohs?
the Egyptian god-kings who were thought to be almost as splendid and powerful as the gods of the heavens. They stood at the center of Egypt's religion as well as its government and army - bore full responsibility for the kingdom's well-being and was his duty to promote truth and justice
What are some disadvantages of living in Mesopotamia?
unpredictable flooding and times of almost no rain when land became a desert, no natural barriers for protection, limited resources - building materials and other necessary items were scarce or hard to find
What is cuneiform?
a system of writing created by scribes or professional record keepers that consisted of pictographs or symbols of the objects they represented "wedge-shaped"
What was the Fertile Crescent?
area located between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea is southwest Asia, dry region with an arc of land that provided some of the best farming in southwest Asia, word means "Land Between the Rivers," good soil attracted settlers here
What were some inventions of the Neanderthal?
first to have burial rituals
What is another name for the civilization of the Indus Valley?
the Harappan Civilization because many discoveries have been made in Harappa
Why were Mr. and Mrs. Leaky "history makers?"
they made a major imapct on the study of human origins with their discovery of prehistoric footprints during an expedition to Tanzania in East Africa that resembled those of modern humans preserved in volcanic ash - their efforts turned a sideline of science into a major field of scientific inquiry
What is known about the civilizations of the Indus Valley?
historians know the least about this civilization as they have not yet deciphered the Indus system of writing. Most of what is known is from archaeological digs - it is believed that at its height - the civilization of this area influenced an area much larger than did either Mesopotamia or Egypt
What are the characteristics of Cro-Magnon?
40,000 to 8,000 B.C., found in Europe, brain size 1,400 cubic centimeters, fully modern humans, created art
What was the purpose of the Nile?
it brought yearly flooding to the Mesopotamia - the river would rise and spill over its banks - the floods left behind a rich deposit of fertile black mud called silt
What was the purpose of hieroglyphics?
a more flexible system of writing in Egypt developed by the scribes - used to record information about the Egyptian civilization
What are the characteristics of a civilization?
they have specialized workers (scribes, farmers, teachers), a form of record keeping (cuneiform tablets - recorded business and historical events as well as cutoms and traditions), advanced technology (the wheel, plow, bronze weapons), advanced cities((Uruk, Lagash,a nd Umma), and complex institutions (formal governments, priests, rigorous forms of education - sytem for training scribes)
What is the nickname of Homo habilis?
man of skill
What are the characteritics of Homo habilis?
2.5 million to 1.5 million B.C., found in East Africa, brain size 700 cuber centimeters, first to make stone tools
What does an anthropologist study?
study the culture of unique way of life for a given people looking at the artifacts found at archaeological digs to recreate a picture of early people's cultural behavior
What is polytheism?
belief in more than one god
What are the characteristics of Australopithecines?
4 million to 1 million B.C., found in southern and eastern Africa, brain size 500 cubic centimeters, and first humanlike creature to walk upright
What was the Mandate of Heaven?
the divine approval of a just ruler - used to justify the conquest of the Zhou leaders as they declared that the final Shang king had been such a poor leader that the gods had taken away the Shang's rule and given it to the Zhou. a justification that developed over time into a broader view that royal authority came from heaven
Describe the civilization in Summer.
first civilizaiton, located in Mesopotamia, believed every city belonged to a god that governed the city, had a form of record keeping - invented cuneiform - relied on new technology to make tasks easier - metal workers, Bronze Age began in here
Describe the civilization in Ur.
earliest city in Sumer, well-defined social classes, rulers as well as priests had great power, wealthy merchants, advanced culture, cultivation of fields/farming, large-scale irrigatin systems, dirt roads, artisans and metal workers using bronze, thriving trade - bazaar or marketplace, beginnings of bartering, temple was center of city life
What were some inventions of the Australopithecines?
first to walk upright
What are several types of scientists who work together to make discoveries about how prehistoric people lived?
archaeologists, anthroplogists, and paleontologists
What was Feudalism?
a political system in which nobles or lords granted the use of lands that legally belong to the king and in return the nobles owe loyalty and military service to the king and protection to the people who live on their estates
What was the purpose of the pyramids?
these were to be the eternal tombs where the kings would reign forever - served as the resting place for the kings of the Old Kingdom after death
What is the nickname of Cro-Mangnon?
none
What is culutral diffusion?
process in which a new idea or product spreads from one culture to another
What were some of the first city-states?
Uruk, Kish, Lagash, Umma, and Ur

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