Ancient History Midterm Vocabulary
Terms
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- Geography
- the study of people, their environment, and their resources
- Latitude
- distance north or south of the equator; measured in degrees
- Longitude
- distance east or west of the Prime Meridian; also measured in degrees
- Prehistory
- the period of time before writing was invented
- Archaeologist
- a scientist who studies the lives of early peoples by analyzing objects they left behind
- Artifact
- an object made by human beings
- Anthropologist
- a scientist who studies the way people organize societies
- Fossil
- evidence of plant or animal life preserved in rock
- Paleolithic Age
- the Old Stone Age during which nomads developed spoken languages, basic religious beliefs, flint tools, and learned how to control fire. The end of the Paleolithic Age marks the end of the last of the four ice ages
- Neolithic Age
- the New Stone Age during which people abandoned the nomadic way of life in order to establish farming settlements, domesticate animals, elaborate on previously basic religions, governments, class systems, and methods of record-keeping. Also, the Neolithic era embodies the establishment of polytheism, theocracy, a fundamental culture, and the Agricultural Revolution.
- Agricultural Revolution
- mankind's transition from nomadic life to growing food and domesticating animals (as well as the invention of pottry, weaving, bronze tools, and the establishment of permanent settlements.
- Nomad
- a person who travels in search of food
- Glacier
- a thick sheet of ice that spread down from polar regions during the ice age
- Technology
- the tools and skills people use
- Bronze
- a hard metal composed of copper combined with tin; developed in the late Neolithic Era
- Silt
- a soil rich in minerals deposited by flooding rivers
- Polytheistic
- believing in many gods
- Scribe
- a person who knows how to read and write
- Culture
- the customs, ideas, and ways of life of a certain people
- Lascaux, France
- a famous archaeological site that is home to several caves filled with Cro-Magnon art of the Neolithic Age
- Australopithecines
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-the first of the hominids
-opposable thumb
-frequent/convenient use of tools
-native to southern and eastern africa
-500 cc brain - Homo Habilis
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-second hominid (after Australopithecines)
-handyman/man of skill
-first to make/use tools of stone(lava rock)
-native to Eastern Africa
-700 cc brain - Homo Erectus
-
-walks erect/upright
-used tools more than habilis
-first to control fire
-first to migrate
-native to Africa, Asia, and Europe
-1000 cc brain - Neanderthal
-
-had ritual burials
-complex society
-first to use caves
-had religion
-basic language
-'husky folk'
-not direct ancestors of Homo Sapiens (Cro-Magnon are)
-native to Europe and Southwest Asia
-14500 cc brain - Cro-Magnon
-
-first to invent cave art
-our closest relatives
-smarter than Neanderthals (had bigger brain IN PROPORTION TO BODY)
-tracked preferred vegetation
-sculpted venuses
-native to Europe
-14,000 cc brain - Radio-Carbon Dating
-
-method of dating artifacts
-all living things absorb radio-active C14
-C14 changes to C12
-everty 5,800 years, C14 decreases in half
-C12 replaces C14 - Binomial Nomen Clature
- method of naming species according to ancestry (derived from Latin)
- Hominid
- a bipedal creature who walks upright
- Lucy
- a full-grown female Australopithecines Africanus discovered by Donald Johanson
- Fodder
- food grown to feed animals
- UNESCO
- United Nations Education Scientific Cultural Organization; promotes peace via education, science, and culture
- Looter
- someone who illally takes pieces of archaeological importance and sells them either to museums or on the antiquities market
- Flooding
- when rivers or nearby bodies of water overflow, either benefitting or disturbing everyday life in that region. For instance flooding can deposit silt on the land but can also crush cities and farm settlements
- Tigris
- the river in western asia that runs parallel to the Euhprates; Mesopotamia lies between these two rivers
- Euphrates
- the river that runs parallel south of the Tigris; Mesopotamia lies between these two rivers
- Commodity
- something useful that can be turned commercial;can be illegally resold/laundered
- City-State
- an independent town or city and its surrounding countryside cooperating for mutual defense
- Sumer
- the first organized society in Mesopotamia that made such contributions to early civilization as the ziggurat, city-state government, the sail, the wheel, and a complex irrigation system. Sumer was later united with Akkad by Sargon.
- Ziggurat
- a 6-7 story temple that is home to the god of each city (the ziggurat was meant to be the home of the gods as well as the ladder they used to descend to the earth)
- Cuneiform
- the wedge-shaped writing of the ancient Sumerians that later developed from pictograms to ideograms
- Epic of Gilgamesh
- a famous Sumerian collection of poems narrating several character's conflict with life and death (this later influenced works such as The Odyssey)
- Fertile Crescent
- the arch of land that stretches from the Persian Gulf to the Meditteranean Sea and is notorious for its rich, fertile soil. Nickname=Crossroads of the World, few natural barriers, frequently overrun by invaders, led to constant exchange of ideas
- Akkadians
- The group of Mesopotamians to inhabit the fertile crescent after the Sumerians
- Akkad
- the region that joined with Sumer to form the first empire. The people of Akkad borrowed many things from Sumerian culture such as cuneiform, Sumerian government, and religious beliefs.
- Semitic
- originally nomads from Arabia who speak a semitic language
- Sargon
- the talented Akkadian ruler who united Akkad and Sumer to form the world's first empire. He also extended flood control and irrigation in Mesopotamia.
- Ur
- the chief city-state of Sumer that attempted to reunite the city-states after civil war that resulted from Sargon's death.
- Babylon
- the empire ruled by Hammurabi that replaced the Akkads in Mesopotamia (second empire)
- Hammurabi
- the great ruler of Babylon who compiled Hammurabi's code;establishing the first unified code of laws
- Hammurabi's code
- the first unified code of laws that was a collection of 282 laws regarding family, property, labor, etc. The principal behind these laws was 'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth'
- Hittites
- the group of invaders that conquered Hammurabi's Babylon and brought to Mesopotamia their powerful military tactics and an extensive knowledge of iron work (the Hittites were conquered by the Assyrians)
- Assyrians
- the group of invaders that conquered the Hittites and created the third empire (after the Babylonians. The Assyrians were the most feared and hated among the invaders;they were vicious conquerors and conducted a harsh, efficient government.
- Ninevah
- the capital of the Assyrian empire at which Assurbanipal built a great library which stored over 22,000 clay tablets of Sumerian and Babylonian cuneiform
- Assurbanipal
- the leader fo the Assyrians
- Medes
- the group of Mesopotamians who joined with the Chaldeans to overthrow the Assyrians and rebuild Babylon
- Chaldeans
- the group of Mesopotamians who rebuilt Babylon after the downfall of the Assyrians under the command of Nebuchadnezzar
- Nebuchadnezzar
- the ruler of the Chaldeans who rebuilt Babylon in Mesopotamia Proper as a symbol of his power and latwer extended the empire across the Fertile Crescent. Nebuchadnezzar also built the Hanging GArdens of Babylon within his massive palace for his wife who hated the flat plains of Mesopotamia
- Hanging Gardens of Babylon
- the beautiful gardens that Nebuchadnezzar built within his massive palace for his wife who hated the flat plains of Mesopotamia and longed for the Median mountains of her home
- Persians
- the fourth and final empire of Mesopotamia. The persians conquered New Babylon after the death of Nebuchadnezzar
- Cyrus the Great
- the reamarkable Persian military leader and king of the Persian empire which he expanded to include the Fertile Crescenta and Asia Minor. Cyrus was a wise ruler who tolerated some self government and respected the beliefs and customs of his people.