| Term | Definition |
|---|
| archaeology | the scientific study of historic or prehistoric peoples and their cultures by analysis of their artifacts, inscriptions, monuments, and other such remains, esp. those that have been excavated. |
| anthropology | study on human culture and works |
| prehistory | human history in the period before recorded events, known mainly through archaeological discoveries, study, research, etc.; history of prehistoric humans. |
| hominids | earliest humanlike creatures existed in africa 3-4 million years ago (aka australopithecines) |
| neanderthal man | a type of homo sapien; first to burry the dead (100,000-30,000BC) |
| homo sapiens | third and crucial stage in human development; around 250,000 years ago; |
| ice age | the reason that might have caused the diffusion of humans from asia to austrailia and from asia to north america |
| paleolithic age | age of hunting and gathering (2,500,000-10,000BC) during this time men hunted wild animals, while women bore and rose chidren fire was founded in this age, also tool making |
| neolithic age | also called the "new stone age", (10,000-4,000BC) during this time period there was a huge agricultural revolution in which people did not have to move when the animals moved instead they stayed in one spot and domesticated animals, which is important for people to settle |
| bronze age | about 4,000-3,000BC where people found out how to heat metal bearing rocks so that they could melt and shape into weapons, in this specific age there is a founding of a type of metal that is created by combining copper and tin |
| mesopotamia | aka (the land "between two rivers") those two rivers are the tigris and the euphrates. the creators of this civilization are the sumerians they made it in 3,000 BC very religious, viewed gods as living realities who affected all aspects of life. each city-state in this culture was sacred and linked to a diety |
| tigris river | the river to the north east of mesopotamia |
| euphrates river | the river to the south west of mesopotamia |
| fertile crescent | encompassed the land with access to water. Enabling flood management and irrigation systems. |
| tribe (clan) | a group of people united by ties of descent from a common ancestor, community of customs and traditions, adherence to the same leaders |
| ziggurat | most prominent building in a sumerian city was a temple, which was dedicated to the chief god or goddess of the city often built atop a massibe stopped tower |
| sargon 1 | leader of the akkadians overran the sumerian city-states and established a dynastic empire. empire included> all of mesopotamia and the lands westard to the mediterraneanm when he died his successors could not hold onto the empire so it collapsed due to attacks from neighboring hill peoples |
| akkad | north of the sumerian city-states it's leader was sargon 1 |
| hammurabi's empire | had a well diciplined army of foot soldiers who carried axes, spears and copper or bronze daggers the used the divide and conquer technique, and gained control of Sumer and Akkad and reunited mesopotamia, almost to the borders of sargon called himself "the sun of bbylon, king who has made the four quarters of the world subservient" |
| hammurabi's code | it is a collection of 282 laws fo centuries had regulated people's relationships with one another in the lands of mesopotamia reveals a society with a system of strict justice |
| upper and lower egypt | divided till the old kingdom, there were nomes or provences in which the two areas of egypt where divided 22 in one region and 20 in the other causing potential rivalry |
| nubia | a rich source of gold for egyptians in africa |
| giza | there are many pyramds here one of them is the great pyramid of khufu |
| cuneiform | "wedge-shaped" system of writing using a reed stylus they made wedge shaped implrssions on clay tablets, which where then baked in the sun |
| epic of gigamesh | great epic poem of Mesopotamian literature includes an account by utnapishtim (mesopotamian versian of Noah and the ark) |
| egypt | a great culture that had very great achievements, for example the huge pyramades made by hand. its religion was one of a universal cosmic scheme and the the pharaoh was the divine being whose function was to maintain its stability its art was formulaic were the art had a plot and story and they used hieroglyphics to depict objects of importance and that had sacred at the time went through a old middle and new kingdom |
| sphinx | in egypt a figure of an imaginary creature having the head of a man or an animal and the body of a lion. |
| old kingdom (egypt) | first egyptian royal dynasty under a king called menes, united both upper and lower egypt into a single kingdom (politically) they where already united phisically through the nile river an age of prosperity and splendor capital was Memphis ended by a period of chaos when rival dynasties fought |
| middle kingdom (egypt) | a period of stability created when Mentuhotep created when defeating the ruler of Heracleopolis and reuniting egypt centered around the 12 dynasty Amenenhet 1 a vizier (a person in charge of bureaucracy) who established himself and his successors as pharaoh the nome structure was reorganized the pharoahs were now viewed as shepard kings instead of god-kings sent military expiditions to explore palestine and syria ended by invasion by the Hyksos a semitic-speaking people though the invasion ended the kingdom it introduced bronze to egypt |
| new kingdom (egypt) | Ahmose 1 defeated the hyksos from egypt and brought forth this kingdom durring this time period Egypt was the most powerful state in the ancient near east Thutmosis 1 expanded Egypt's borders to the south by conquering the African kingdom of Nubia, Thutmosis 3 launched 17 military campaigns into palestie and phoenicia they occupied these lands but allowed the native princes to rule Amenhotep 3 the great grandson of thutmosis 3 brought egypt to its highest power. But by the end of his reign he faced the hitites and his son amenhotep 4 was even less capable to deal with their military threat finally ramses 2 restores egyptian power one last time, but the invasion of the sea peoples ended his reign and the kingdom |
| khufu | a 13 acre pyramid in giza |
| khafre | this pyramid stands next to khufu in giza |
| osiris | a land deity who is a symbol of resurrection later on there was a cult dedicated to him reserved for the rich because it included muffification which was expenisve, but after the middle kingdom it spread and all could join |
| isis | a land deity wife of osiris who found the pieces of his body and restored him to life |
| re (ra) | worshiped by the egyptians who had a human body and head of a falcon >god of the sun |
| akhenaten | aka amenhotep he introduced the worship of aten the god of the sun disk and tried to make everyone worship aten but it failed and he lost syria and palestine because he was too busy with aten |
| hatshepsut | she was a woman that was a pharoah, her reign was prosperous the statues of her show her as clothes as a male and bearded like a king she was addressed " his magesty" |
| ramses 2 | this person put egypt back into power for the final time before the invasion of the "sea people" destroyed egptian power and drove them back to thier original borders |
| hieroglyphics | meaning " priest-carvings" or "saced writings" were signs that depicted objects and had a sacred value at the time |
| megaliths | greed for "large stone" the first structure was buit in 4,000 BC the most famous one is Stonehenge which was built around the bronze age |
| indo-europeans | refers to people who used a language derived from a single parent tounge including>greek, latin, persian, sanskrit, and the germanic languages |
| hittite empire | suppiluliumas 1 was the ruler of this empire he established control from western turkey to northern syria they where also the first people to use iron weapons |
| sea peoples | destroyed the hittite empire came from the west at around 1,200 BC |
| sumarian civilization | this civilization's people built mesopotamia and viewed thier kings as divine in origin, in their cities they had ziggurats contained three major social groups: nobles, commoners, and slavers nobles> royal and priestly officials and thier families commoners> nobles' clients who worked for the palace and temple estates and other free citizens who worked as farmers, merchants, fishers, scribes, and craftspeople slaves> belonged to palace officials who used them mostly in building projects, temple officials who used them to weave cloth and grind grain and rich land owners who used them for farming and domestic work |
| ma'at | a spiritual precept that conveyed the idea of truth and justice, especialy right order and harmony |
| nefertiti | prophet who predicted the first intermediate period of chaos another name for this person is Nefer-Rohu |
| tutankhamen | handed the government back to Thebes |
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