WHAP Exam Review
Period 1
8000 B.C.E. to around 600 B.C.E.
Chapters 1-6
Key Concepts
• Big Geography and the Peopling of the Earth
• The Neolithic Revolution and Early Agricultural
Societies
• The Development and Interactions of Early
Agricultural, Pastoral and Urban Societies
The Big Picture
• Think Themes! See AP syllabus
• Think GRAPES!
• Civilization---What is it? What makes a
civilization?
• Change---What causes change?
• Human Interaction with Environment---Where do
they live? Why they move? Defense? How do
civilizations interact with others? Technology?
Nomads
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Foraging societies (hunting –gathering)
Concerns were shelter and food
Language
Fire
Tools (stone)
Pastoral societies (animal herding)
Neolithic Revolution: stay put and farm, villages to
cities to civilizations, specialized workers led to class
systems, used animals for farming, technology (tools
for farming, pottery, weaving, wheels, carts, sails,
METALLURGY, etc.)
River Valley Civilizations
• Water source
• Fertile soil
• Transportation
RVCs---Mesopotamia
• Land between rivers---Tigris and Euphrates
• Irrigation
• Sumer---cuneiform, 12-month calendar, base 60 math,
polytheistic, ziggurats
• Sargon of Akkad---first empire
• Babylon---Hammurabi’s Code
• Hittites---iron weapons
• Assyrians---capital at Nineveh
• Chaldeans---King Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt Babylon
• Persian Empire---big! Great Royal Road
• Others nearby: Lydians=coined money; Phoenicians=sailors,
purple dye, alphabet; Hebrews=Judaism (monotheistic)
RVCs---Egypt
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The Nile=predictable floods
Old, Middle and New Kingdoms
Pharaohs, pyramids, hieroglyphics, trade
Polytheistic---afterlife, mummification
Women---Queen Hatshepsut, more rights than other
lands
• Social Structure---Pharaoh, priests, nobles,
merchants, artisans, peasants, slaves
• Conquered by Assyrians and Persians
• What brings empires/civilizations down?
RVCs---Indus
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Indus River
More isolated due to mountains, still invaded
Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro---major cities
Planned cities, plumbing, potter’s wheel
Abandoned???
Aryans: nomadic tribe, horses, reincarnation,
polytheistic, Vedas and Upanishads, caste
system, later becomes Hinduism
RVCs---China
• Yellow (Huang He, Hwang Ho) and Yangtze
• Shang Dynasty: defensive walls, chariots,
isolated, believed they were center of the world,
ethnocentric, bronze, pottery, silk, decimal
system
– Patriarchal, veneration of ancestors
• Zhou Dynasty: long dynasty, Mandate of Heaven,
dynastic cycle, feudalism, led to period of
warring states
RVCs---Bantu???
• Africa on Niger River
• “Stateless society”
• MIGRATED!!! South and east away from
Sahara, due to climate changes
• Spread language group (Bantu)
• Why do people migrate?
Early MesoAmerica/Andean S. America
• Olmec: 1200 to 1400 B.C.E., urban society, corn,
beans, squash, irrigation, large-scale buildings,
polytheistic, writing and calendar
• Chavin: 900-300 B.C.E., polytheistic, near coast
so had seafood too, metals in tools and weapons,
llamas
• They are in an entirely different part of the world
with no contact of the other civilizations. So???
• Not in River Valleys! So???
Major Belief Systems
• Polytheism
• Judaism=Monotheism
Technology
• Farming tools-ploughs, hoes, rakes, wheel
• Irrigation-dikes, canals, plumbing, sewage
systems
• Metallurgy-copper, bronze, iron
• Pottery
• Wheeled chariots
• Architecture-pyramids, ziggurats, temples
• Crafts, jewelry
• Record keeping-writing, calendars, math
Role of Women
• Women lose power when people settle, no
equal share of work
• Societies become patriarchal
Big Picture
• Civilizations---Key Traits
• Civilizations---Fall
• Change---trade, conquest, spread of belief
systems, technology (innovation vs. adaption)
• Human Interaction with Geography---how did
they change their surroundings to meet their
needs, human need to control/explain nature,
in religion too (protection to internal peace)