| Term | Definition |
| Paleolithic Age | "Old Stone Age"; First use of stone tools until about 10,000 B.C.E. |
| Neolithic Age | "New Stone Age"; About 10,000 years ago marked by advances in the production of stone tools. Shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture |
| Bands | Basic unit of social organization among foragers, includes fewer than 100 people. Nomadic, small, mobile, kin-based groups with little differential power. Neolocal residence. minimal division of labor and gender stratification. Shamanic religions. Primus entre pares. Example -: Eskimos, Tiwi, Washo, Kung. |
| Neolithic Revolution | Agricultural Revolution; the major change in human life caused by the beginnings of farming-that is by people's shift from food gathering to food producing |
| Domesicated | To tame, or to train to be a friend or contributer to society. |
| Tigris and Euphrates River | The two rivers that housed the fertile cressent and gave ancient peoples water. |
| Mesopotamia | an ancient region of southwest Asia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in modern-day Iraq |
| Sumer | A group of ancient city-states in southern Mesopotamia; the earliest civilization in history. |
| Gilgamesh | a legendary Sumerian king who was the hero of an epic collection of mythic stories |
| City-State | a city with political and economic control over the surrounding countryside |
| Ziggurat | a temple tower of the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians, having the form of a terraced pyramid of successively receding stories |
| Cuneiform | an ancient wedge-shaped script used in Mesopotamia and Persia |
| Sargon I | The first emperor of Sumer |
| Hammurabi | a famous emperor of Mesopotamia. Ruled from 1792-1750B.C. Made a black stone tablet containing 282 laws. One of the first time ever that a code of laws has been presented to the people of the empire. |
| Empire | a group of countries under a single authority |
| Nile River | River that runs the entire distance South to North in Egypt. |
| Old Kingdom | the age of pyramids. when Egypt attained its first continuous peak of civilization complexity and achievement |
| Osiris | Egyptian god of the underworld and judge of the dead |
| Pharaoh | the title of the ancient Egyptian kings |
| Pyramids | Large Egyptian tombs. |
| Embalming | Proccess to keep dead bodies from decaying. |
| Middle Kingdom | no more pyramids, pharoh had less power, & they traded with outside countries |
| New Kingdom | 18th-20th dynasties - rulers like Akhenaton, Hatshepsut, Tuthankhamen These rulers were in the 18th dynasty(called the Amarna Period) |
| Thutmose III | Hatshepsut's stepson; he brought Egypt to the height of its power |
| Hatshepsut | queen of egypt (1503-1482). after husband's death (Thutmose II), she bestowed the title of pharaoh on herself and adopted all pharaonic customs, including wearing the false beard |
| Hieroglyphic | Egyptian writing bassed on pictures. |
| Papyrus | paper made from the papyrus plant by cutting it in strips and pressing it flat |
| Canaan | the ancient region lying between the Jordan, the Dead Sea, and the Mediterranean: the land promised by God to Abraham |