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Basic _____________
Unit 1 Vocabulary: EARLY HUMANS & MESOPOTAMIA
1) Ancient history: stories of the distant past, from the earliest humans to the first great
civilizations
2) Social scientists: scholars who study human society; considered “history detectives”,
such as archeologists, historians, anthropologists, and geographers
3) Archeologist: an expert who studies the past by examining objects that people have
left behind
4) Historian: an expert who studies and records the past
5) Anthropologist: a scientist who studies human development and culture
6) Geographer: an expert who studies the Earth and creates maps of its natural and
human-made features
7) Artifact: an object made or used by people in the past
8) Prehistoric: occurring before history was recorded or written down
9) Ritual: an action or tradition that takes place during a ceremony, such as during a
religious ceremony
10) Hominid: a prehistoric human
11) Capabilities: skills, abilities, or talents
12) Remains: a dead body or the bones of a dead body
13) Biped: a two-footed animal
14) Migrate: to move from one geographic region to another
15) Land bridge: a piece of land connecting two continents
16) Australopithecus Afarensis: “Southern Ape”; “Lucy”; 3 feet tall biped which lived
approximately 3-4 million years ago
17) Homo Habilis: “Handy Man”; could make tools and lived in groups about 1.5-2 million
years ago
18) Homo Erectus: “Upright Man”; used fire and more complex tools; lived 1.8 million –
200,000 BCE; longest living group
19) Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis: “Wise Man”; large brains and extremely strong,
made better tools and lived/traveled in groups; lived 230,000 – 30, 000 BCE
20) Homo Sapiens Sapiens: “Doubly Wise Man”; created better tools, built shelters, and
made clothing; first artists; lived 35,000 – 12, 000 BCE
21) Paleolithic Age: the first period of the Stone Age from about 2 million years ago to
around 8000 BCE (also known as the Old Stone Age)
22) Neolithic Age: the later part of the Stone Age from 8000-3000 BCE (also known as the
New Stone Age)
23) Domesticate: to train wild animals to be useful to humans
24) Agriculture: the business of farming
25) Trade: the business of buying and selling or exchanging items
26) Ore: a mineral mined for its valuable uses
27) Mesopotamia: “land between two rivers”; located in the present-day Middle East
28) Sumer: an area in the southern part of Mesopotamia where cities first appeared
29) Sumerians: ancient people who lived in the geographic region of Sumer
30) City-state: an early city that was like a small independent country with its own laws
and government
31) Irrigation system: a means of supplying land with water
32) Levee: a wall of earth built to prevent a river from flooding its banks
33) Culture: a characteristic of civilization that includes the beliefs and behaviors of a
society or group of people
34) Civilization: a culture marked by developments in the arts, sciences, government, and
social structure
35) Social structure: the way a civilization is organized
36) Technology: the use of tools and other inventions for practical purposes
37) Status: importance
38) Chariot: a two-wheeled vehicle pulled by a horse
39) Scribe: a person who writes
40) Ziggurat: an ancient Mesopotamian temple tower
41) Lyre: a small harp made of a wooden sound box and strings
42) Arch: an upside down U or V-shaped structure that supports weight above it, as in a
doorway
43) Cuneiform: writing that uses wedge-shaped characters
44) Pictograph: a symbol that stands for an object
45) Empire: a large territory in which several groups of people are ruled by a single
leader or government
46) Capital: a city that is the center of government
47) Tribute: wealth sent from one country or ruler to another as a sign that the receiver is
superior
48) Stele: carved stones containing three-dimensional sculptures
49) Siege: a military blockade and attack on a city to force it to surrender
50) Aqueduct: a pipe or channel that brings water from distant places
51) Bas-relief: a sculpture in which the image projects out from a flat surface
52) Astronomy: the study of stars and planets
53) 4 Empires which ruled Mesopotamia: AKKADIAN, BABYLONIAN, ASSYRIAN, NEOBABYLONIAN