Chapter 3 - The Mediterranean and Middle East 200-500 BCE

Question 2

Iron Age

Answer 2

Historians’ term for the period during whichiron was the primary metal for tools and weapons. The advent of iron technology began at different times in different parts of the world.

Question 3

Hittites

Answer 3

A people from central Anatolia who establishedan empire in Anatolia and Syria in the Late BronzeAge. With wealth from the trade in metals and Military power based on chariot forces, the Hittites vied with New Kingdom Egypt for control of Syria-Palestine before falling to unidentified attackers ca. 1200 B.C.E.

Question 4

Hatshepsut

Answer 4

Queen of Egypt (r. 1473–1458 B.C.E.). She dispatched a naval expedition to Punt (possibly northeast Sudan or Eritrea), the faraway source of myrrh. There is evidence of opposition to a woman as ruler, and after her death her name and image were frequently defaced.

Question 5

Akhenaten

Answer 5

Egyptian pharaoh (r. 1353–1335 B.C.E.).He built a new capital at Amarna, fostered a newstyle of naturalistic art, and created a religious revolution by imposing worship of the sun-disk.

Question 6

Ramesses II

Answer 6

A long-lived ruler of New Kingdom Egypt (r. 1290–1224 B.C.E.). He reached an accommodationwith the Hittites of Anatolia after a standoff in battle at Kadesh in Syria. He built on a grand scale throughout Egypt.

Question 7

Minoan

Answer 7

Prosperous civilization on the Aegean islandof Crete in the second millennium B.C.E. The Minoans engaged in far-flung commerce around the Mediterranean and exerted powerful cultural influences on the early Greeks.

Question 8

Mycenae

Answer 8

Site of a fortified palace complex in southernGreece that controlled a Late Bronze Age kingdom.In Homer’s epic poems, Mycenae was the baseof King Agamemnon, who commanded the Greeksbesieging Troy. Contemporary archaeologists call the complex Greek society of the second millennium B.C.E. “Mycenaean.”

Question 9

shaft graves

Answer 9

A term used for the burial sites of elite membersof Mycenaean Greek society in the mid-secondmillennium B.C.E. At the bottom of deep shafts lined with stone slabs, the bodies werelaid out along with gold and bronze jewelry, implements,weapons, and masks.

Question 10

Linear B

Answer 10

A set of syllabic symbols, derived from thewriting system of Minoan Crete, used in the Mycenaean palaces of the Late Bronze Age to write an early form of Greek. It was used primarily for palace records, and the surviving Linear B tablets provide substantial information about the economicorganization of Mycenaean society and tantalizingclues about political, social, and religious institutions

Question 11

Neo-Assyrian Empire

Answer 11

An empire extending from western Iran to Syria-Palestine, conquered by the Assyrians of northern Mesopotamia between the tenth and seventh centuries B.C.E. They used force and terrorand exploited the wealth and labor of their subjects.They also preserved and continued the cultural andscientific developments of Mesopotamian civilization.

Question 12

mass deportation

Answer 12

The forcible removal and relocation of large numbers of people or entire populations. The mass deportations practiced by the Assyrian and PersianEmpires were meant as a terrifying warning of theconsequences of rebellion. They also brought skilled and unskilled labor to the imperial center.

Question 13

Library of Ashurbanipal

Answer 13

A large collection of writings drawn from the ancient literary, religious, and scientific traditions of Mesopotamia. It was assembled by theseventh-century B.C.E. Assyrian ruler Ashurbanipal. The many tablets unearthed by archaeologists constitute one of the most important sources of present-day knowledge of the long literary tradition of Mesopotamia.

Question 14

Israel

Answer 14

In antiquity, the land between the eastern shoreof the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, occupied by the Israelites from the early second millennium B.C.E. The modern state of Israel was founded in 1948.

Question 15

Hebrew Bible

Answer 15

A collection of sacred books containingdiverse materials concerning the origins, experiences, beliefs, and practices of theIsraelites. Most of the extant text was compiled by members of the priestly class in the fifth century B.C.E. and reflects the concerns and views of this group.

Question 16

First Temple

Answer 16

A monumental sanctuary built in Jerusalemby King Solomon in the tenth century B.C.E. to be the religious center for the Israelite god Yahweh. The Temple priesthood conducted sacrifices,received a tithe or percentage of agriculturalrevenues, and became economically and politically powerful.

Question 17

monotheism

Answer 17

Belief in the existence of a single divineentity. Some scholars cite the devotion of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten to Aten (sun-disk) and his suppression of traditional gods asthe earliest instance. The Israelite worship of Yahweh developed into an exclusive belief in one god, and this concept passed into Christianityand Islam.

Question 18

Diaspora

Answer 18

Greek word meaning“dispersal,” used todescribe the communities of a given ethnic group living outside their homeland. Jews, for example, spread from Israel to western Asia and Mediterranean lands in antiquity and today can befound throughout the world.

Question 19

Phoenicians

Answer 19

Semitic speaking Canaanites livingon the coast of modern Lebanon and Syria in thefirst millennium B.C.E. From major cities such as Tyre and Sidon, Phoenician merchants and sailors explored the Mediterranean, engaged inwidespread commerce, and founded Carthage and other colonies in the western Mediterranean.

Question 20

Carthage

Answer 20

City located in present-day Tunisia, foundedby Phoenicians ca. 800 B.C.E. It became a major commercial center and naval power in the western Mediterranean until defeated by Romein the third century B.C.E.

Question 21

Neo-Babylonian kingdom

Answer 21

Under the Chaldaeans (nomadic kinship groupsthat settled in southern Mesopotamia in the earlyfirst millennium B.C.E.), Babylon again became amajor political and cultural center in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C.E. After participating in the destruction of Assyrian power, the monarchs Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar took overthe southern portion of the Assyrian domains.