Nicholas Rivero
AP WH
08/25/11
Period 4
Chapter 1: Study Guide
Terms
1. Culture: socially transmitted patterns of action and expression. Material culture refers to
physical objects, such as dwellings, clothing, tools, and crafts. Culture also includes arts, beliefs,
knowledge, and technology.
2. Foragers: People who support themselves by hunting wild animals and gathering wild edible
plants and insects.
3. Animal domestication: domestication of animals, as well as plants, occurred independently
in various parts of the world and it proceeded at the same time as plants.
4. Pastoralism: it was a way of life that mostly that mostly depended on grazing livestock.
5. matrilineal/patrilineal lineages: matrilineal lineages are large kinship or marriage units
owned by the mother, while patrilineal lineages are kinship or marriage units owned by the
father.
6. Megaliths: large stone structures constructed for ceremonies and religious purposes in the
Neolithic Era.
7. Civilizations: sometimes used by anthropologists to describe any group of people. It is also
used to denote more complex societies.
8. Babylonian Creation Myth: it stated that humankind existed only to serve the gods.
9. City-state: a small, independent state surrounded by agricultural territory with an urban area
in the center.
10. Lugal: lugal was referred to a as a “big man,” but nowadays it’s what we would call a king.
11. Cuneiform: A system of writing in which wedge-shaped symbols represented words or
syllables. It originated in Mesopotamia and was used initially for Sumerian and Akkadian but
later was adapted to represent other languages of western Asia. Because so many symbols had to
be learned, literacy was confined to a relatively small group of administrators and scribes.
12. Dynasty: a sequence of rulers from the same group.
13. Hammurabi’s Law Code: a series of aggressive military campaigns. It provided judges
with a lengthy set of examples illustrating the principles to be used in deciding cases.
14. Scribes: In the governments of many ancient societies, a professional position reserved for
men who had undergone the lengthy training required to be able to read and write using
cuneiforms, hieroglyphics, or other early, cumbersome writing systems.
Nicholas Rivero
AP WH
08/25/11
Period 4
15. Anthropomorphic gods: gods that are like humans in form and conduct. The gods had
bodies and senses, sought nourishment from sacrifice, enjoyed the worship and obedience of
humanity, and experienced the human emotions of lust, love, hate, anger, and envy.
16. Ziggurat: a multistory, mud-brick, pyramid shaped tower approached by ramps and stairs.
17. Amulets: small charms meant to protect the bearer from evil.
18. Technology: It normally refers to the tools and processes by which humans manipulate the
physical world.
19. Cataract: a series of impassable rocks and rapids.
20. Pharaoh: the central figure in the ancient Egyptian state. Believed to be an early
manifestation of the gods, he used his absolute power to maintain the safety and prosperity of
Egypt.
21. Ma’at: Egyptian term for the concept of divinely created and maintained order in the
universe. Reflecting the ancient Egyptians’ belief in an essentially beneficent world, the divine
ruler was the earthly guarantor of this order.
22. Pyramid/ The Great Pyramid: A large, triangular stone monument, used in Egypt and
Nubia as a burial place for the king. The largest pyramids, erected during the Old Kingdom near
Memphis with stone tools and compulsory labor, reflect the Egyptian belief that the proper and
spectacular burial of the divine ruler would guarantee the continued prosperity of the land/ an
age in which lasted a century. However, building the pyramids lasted for millennia.
23. The Old Kingdom/ Middle Kingdom/ New Kingdom: during the old kingdom, the tombs
of officials lay near the monumental tomb of the king so they could serve him in death as they
had in life/ during the middle kingdom, Egypt adopted a more aggressive stance toward Nubia.
Egyptian rulers sought to control the gold mines in the desert east of the Nile River and to cut out
the Nubian middlemen who drove up the cost of luxury goods from the tropics/ during the new
kingdom, Egyptians penetrated more deeply into Nubia.
24. Hieroglyphics: A system of writing in which pictorial symbols represented sounds,
syllables, or concepts. It was used for official and monumental inscriptions in ancient Egypt.
Because of the long period of study required to master this system, literacy in hieroglyphics was
confined to a relatively small group of scribes and administrators. Cursive symbol forms were
developed for rapid composition on other media, such as papyrus.
25. Rosetta stone: an inscription from the second century B.C.E. that gave hieroglyphic and
Greek versions of the same text. It gives us the ability to read hieroglyphics nowadays.
Nicholas Rivero
AP WH
08/25/11
Period 4
26. Papyrus: A reed that grows along the banks of the Nile River in Egypt. From it was
produced a coarse, paper-like writing medium used by the Egyptians and many other peoples in
the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East.
27. Mummy/ mummification: A body preserved by chemical processes or special natural
circumstances, often in the belief that the deceased will need it again in the afterlife. In ancient
Egypt the bodies of people who could afford mummification underwent a complex process of
removing organs, filling body cavities, dehydrating the corpse with natron, a light-colored
mineral, and then wrapping the body with linen bandages and enclosing it in a wooden
sarcophagus, a stone or marble coffin often containing sculpture and inscriptions.
Individuals
28. Sumerians: people who inhabited southern Mesopotamia during the third millennium
B.C.E. They created many fundamental elements of Mesopotamian culture, including irrigation
technology, cuneiform, and religious conceptions. They were taken over by their Semitic
successors.
29. Semites: the descendants of the nomads. They lived in harmony with the Sumerians until
the Greeks arrived in the late fourth century B.C.E. They adopted their culture, and sometimes
had positions of wealth and power.
30. Hammurabi: he was the Amorite ruler of Babylonia. He conquered many northern and
southern city-states in Mesopotamia and is best known for his Hammurabi Law Code, which was
inscribed on a black stone pillar, describing the principles to be used in legal cases.
31. Menes: a ruler from the south, and when he died, they buried him in a rectangular flattopped tomb made of mud brick to ensure the well-being of their spirits.
Places
32. Lascaux: in Southeastern France, they discovered a cavern with many paintings of animals
that were proved to be extinct. That proved that there was human creativity back then.
33. Çatal Hüyük: is present-day Turkey and dates back to 7,000-5,000 B.C.E. It is a Neolithic
town that was a center trade for the obsidian located in Central Anatolia. The art of this place
reflects a continued fascination with hunting; remains indicate that agriculture was the mainstay
of the economy.
34. Mesopotamia: its name means “land between the rivers.” Coincidentally, it lies between
the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers in Southern Asia. The Semites and Sumerians lived together in
Mesopotamia.
Nicholas Rivero
AP WH
08/25/11
Period 4
35. The Fertile Crescent: the first domestication of plants and animals occurred nearby
Mesopotamia, in the Fertile Crescent. The Fertile Crescent is a region that contains northern
Syria and southeastern Anatolia.
36. Nile Delta: Most of Egypt’s population lives in the Nile Delta. It contains bleak deserts of
mountains, rocks, and dunes occupying the remaining 90 percent of the country. The ancient
Egyptians distinguished between the low-lying, life-sustaining “Black Land” with its dark soil
and the elevated, deadly “Red Land” of the desert.
37. Upper Egypt/ Lower Egypt: Upper and Lower Egypt were named in a way that lower
Egypt is actually northern Egypt, and vice versa. It was named like this because the Nile Rivero
flows northward, so they relied on the direction being opposite.
38. Memphis: The capital of Old Kingdom Egypt, near the top of the Nile Delta. Early rulers
were interred in the nearby pyramids.
39. Thebes: Capital city of Egypt and home of the ruling dynasties during the Middle and New
Kingdoms. Amon, patron deity of Thebes, became one of the chief gods of Egypt.
40. Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro: one of the great cities of the Indus River Valley is Harappa.
It was located on the northernmost frontier of the zone of cultivation, and it may have been a
center for acquiring natural resources from Afghanistan and Iraq/ largest city of the Indus River
Valley. It is centrally located in the extensive flooding area of the Indus River in Pakistan.
Periods/ Eras
41. The Great Ice Age (Pleistocene Epoch): a long period that ice covered most of Asia,
North America, and Europe.
42. Stone Age: a historical period characterized by the production of tools from stone and other
nonmetallic minerals and materials. There are two major subdivisions: The Paleolithic and the
Neolithic period.
43. Paleolithic Period: most commonly referred to as the Old Stone Age, the Paleolithic Period
lasted up until 10,000 years ago and started about three years after the end of the last Ice Age.
44. Neolithic Period: It is referred to as the New Stone Age. It is associated with the origins of
agriculture. It followed the Paleolithic period.
45. Agricultural Revolutions: resulted in the spread of new crops, improvements in cultivation
techniques and livestock breeding, and the joining of small holdings into large farms, from which
tenants and sharecroppers were forcibly expelled. It fell into the era of the Neolithic Period.
Nicholas Rivero
AP WH
08/25/11
Period 4
Works of Art or Literature
46. The Epic of Gilgamesh: it shows both the determination and the value to the community of
the kings. Gilgamesh is referred to as the king of Uruk. He stirs anger by demanding sexual
favors from new brides, but the community he rules relies on his immense courage, strength, and
wisdom. In this book, Gilgamesh walls the city with bricks, putting his name on each and every
brick. His quest to the faraway Cedar Mountains reflects the king’s role in accessing valuable
resources.
47. The Egyptian Book of the Dead: it is present in many excavated tombs and it contains
many rituals and spells to protect the journeying spirit. One of the rituals is to weigh the heart,
since it’s believed to be the source of emotion, intellect, and personality.
Questions to Outline
2. Hunting and gathering, which is also known as foraging, is more reliable rather than
domesticating. To begin with, you don’t need to be constantly taming the animals. Hunting and
gathering, combined with the proper skills, dedication, and patience will guarantee a kill and a
meal. Since domestication of animals takes as much time as foraging, and requires just as much
work, you might think that they’re the same. Actually, they’re not. To maintain a lot of animals
is more tiring than hunting. For foraging, all you need is courage, a spear or poison-pointed bow
and arrows, and an empty stomach.
5. In Egypt, slavery was very limited and was of little significance. But humane treatment
softened the burden of slavery, as did the possibility of being freed. In Mesopotamia, slaves also
played a very limited role in the economy. So, in conclusion, although Mesopotamia and Egypt
used slaves, it was very limited and played a low economic role in both places.
6. The indicators of a civilization are as follows: “(1) cities as administrative centers, (2) a
political system based on defined territory rather than kinship, (3) many people engaged in
specialized, non-food-producing activities, (4) status distinctions based largely on accumulation
of wealth, (5) monumental building, (6) a system for keeping permanent records, (7) longdistance trade, and (8) sophisticated interest in science and art.”