Semester 1 Final Part 1 Flashcards
1
Q
What family does Australopithecus belong to?
A
hominid—a creature belonging to the family Hominidae, which includes human and human-like species.
2
Q
What is an example of an Australopithecus?
A
Lucy - Lucy and other australopithecines would seem short, hairy, and limited in intelligence. They stood something over 1 meter (3 feet) tall, weighed 25 to 55 kilograms (55 to 121 pounds), and had a brain size of about 500 cubic centimeters. (The brain size of modern humans averages about 1,400 cc.)
3
Q
How did Australopithecus compare to other apes and animal species that made them unique?
A
They walked upright on two legs, which en-
abled them to use their arms independently for other tasks. They had well-developed hands with opposable thumbs, which enabled them to grasp tools and perform intricate operations. They almost certainly had some ability to communicate verbally, although analysis of their skulls suggests that the portion of the brain responsible for speech was not very large or well developed.
4
Q
Where did Australopithecines establish themselves throughout?
A
With the aid of their tools and intelligence, australopithecines established themselves securely throughout most of eastern and southern Africa.
5
Q
How were Paleolithic societies somewhat equal to gender?
A
All members of a Paleolithic group made important contributions to communities survival, men went on hunting expeditions, and women gathered plants, roots, etc.
6
Q
What was the Agricultural Revolution also known as?
A
known also as the Neolithic era, starting twelve to six thousand years ago, it encouraged the growth of edible crops and domesticated animals.
7
Q
What was one of the earliest metals humans worked with systematically?
A
Copper, copper occurs in many regions around the world and was easily malleable.
8
Q
By 6000 B.C.E. what did Neolithic villagers discover with what they could do to copper?
A
That they could use heat to extract copper from its ores and allows it also to easily be worked with.
9
Q
By 5000 B.C.E. what else did they find when heating copper?
A
They could now heat it high enough to melt copper and pour into molds, they could now make knives, axes, hoes, and weapons
10
Q
Who was Gilgamesh?
A
The fifth king of the city of Uruk
11
Q
He was the subject of numerous poems and legends, and Mesopotamian bards made him the central figure in a cycle of stories known collectively as what?
A
The Epics of Gilgamesh
12
Q
The stories that make up the Epic of Gilgamesh recount the adventures of this hero and his cherished friend _____ as they sought fame. They killed an evil monster, rescued Uruk from a ravaging bull, and matched wits with the gods.
A
Enkidu
13
Q
The place-name Mesopotamia comes from two Greek words meaning what?
A
“the land between the rivers,” and it refers specifically to the fertile valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in modern-day Iraq.
14
Q
Where was Sumer located?
A
In the southern half of Mesopotamia
15
Q
By about 5000 B.C.E. what had the Sumerians constructed?
A
an elaborate irrigation network that helped them realize
abundant agricultural harvests.
16
Q
Beginning around 4000 B.C.E., as human numbers increased in southern Mesopotamia, the Sumerians built what?
A
The world’s first cities; settlements, the Sumerian
cities were centers of political and military authority, and their jurisdiction extended into the surrounding regions; it also contained markets; served as cultural centers where priests maintained organized religions and scribes de-
veloped traditions of writing and formal education.
17
Q
For almost a millennium, from 3200 to 2350 B.C.E., a dozen Sumerian cities like what dominated public affairs in Mesopotamia?
A
Eridu, Ur, Uruk, Lagash, Nippur, Kish, and others
18
Q
The earliest Sumerian governments were probably assemblies of what?
A
prominent men who made decisions on behalf of the whole community. When crises arose, assemblies yielded their power to individuals who possessed full authority during the period of emergency. These individual rulers gradually usurped the authority of the assemblies and established themselves as monarchs.
19
Q
Hammurabi also sought to maintain his empire by providing it with what?
A
a code of law, Hammurabi borrowed liberally from his predecessors in compiling the most extensive and most complete Mesopotamian law code.
20
Q
Hammurabi’s laws established high standards of behavior and stern punishments for violators. What did they prescribe?
A
They prescribed death penalties for murder, theft, fraud, false accusations, sheltering of runaway slaves, failure to obey royal orders, adultery, and incest. Civil laws regulated prices, wages, commercial dealings, marital relationships, and the conditions of slavery.
21
Q
The code relied heavily on the principle of lex talionis, which means what?
A
the “law of retaliation,” whereby offenders suffered punishments resembling their violations.
22
Q
In the Hammurabi code, if a noble destroyed the eye or broke the bone of another noble, he would have his own eye destroyed or bone broken, but if a noble destroyed the eye or broke the bone of a commoner, what happened?
A
the noble merely paid a fine in silver.
23
Q
After the collapse of the Babylonian empire, what empire was one among many jockeying for power and position in northern Mesopotamia?
A
Assyrian state
24
Q
After about 1300 B.C.E. Assyrians gradually extended their authority to much of what?
A
southwest Asia
25
At its high point, during the eighth and seventh centuries B.C.E., the Assyrian empire embraced not only Mesopotamia but also what?
Syria, Palestine, much of Anatolia, and most of Egypt.
26
Moses embraced monotheism: he taught that there was only one god, known as Yahweh, who was a supremely powerful deity, the creator and sustainer of the world. What did Yahweh expect?
He expected his followers to worship him alone, and he demanded that they observe high moral and ethical standards. In the Ten Commandments, a set of religious and ethical principles that Moses announced to the Israelites, Yahweh warned his followers against destructive and antisocial behaviors such as lying, theft, adultery, and murder.
27
The original homeland of Indo-European speakers was probably the steppe region of what?
of modern-day Ukraine and southern Russia, the region just north of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. The earliest Indo-European speakers built their society there between about 4500 and 2500 B.C.E.
28
What provided Indo-European speakers with a means of expanding far beyond their original homeland.
Horses; as they flourished in southern Russia, Indo-European speakers experienced a population explosion, which prompted some of them to move into the
sparsely inhabited eastern steppe or even beyond the grasslands altogether.
29
Indo-European society began to break up about 3000 B.C.E., as migrants took their horses and other animals and made their way to new lands. When did it stop?
Intermittent migrations of Indo-European peoples continued until about 1000 C.E.
30
Some of the most influential Indo-European migrants in ancient times were who?
Hittites. About 1900 B.C.E. the Hittites migrated to the central plain of Anatolia, where they imposed their language and rule on the region’s inhabitants.
31
The Hittites were responsible for two technological innovations, what were they?
the construction of light, horse-drawn war chariots and the refinement of iron metallurgy—that greatly strengthened their society and influenced other peoples throughout much of the ancient world.
32
Where else did Indo-European peoples migrate into?
Some went east into central Asia, venturing as far as the Tarim Basin (now western China) by 2000 B.C.E.
33
After 5000 B.C.E. what place experienced a long-term climatic change that profoundly influenced social organization and agriculture throughout the
region.
the northern half of Africa; Although it considerably fluctuated, the climate generally became much hotter and drier than before.
34
The Sahara desert, which as late as 5000 B.C.E. had been cool and well watered enough to support human, animal, and vegetable life, became increasingly arid and uninhabitable. This process of desiccation turned rich grasslands into what?
into a barren desert, and it drove both humans and animals to more hospitable regions.
35
What did Egyptians view their pharaohs as?
Egyptians associated the early pharaohs with Horus, the sky god, and they often represented the pharaohs together with a falcon or a hawk, the symbol of Horus.
36
Later they viewed rulers as offspring of ____, a sun god, so that the pharaoh was a son of the sun.
Amon
37
Gradually, however, Egypt came under the pressure of foreign peoples from southwest Asia, particularly a Semitic people whom Egyptians called what?
the Hyksos (“foreign rulers”).
38
What information survived about the Hyksos?
they were horse-riding nomads with horse-drawn chariots, they also used bronze weapons and bronze-tipped arrows
39
Hyksos rule provoked a strong reaction especially in Upper Egypt, where disgruntled nobles organized revolts against the foreigners. Who did they work with?
Working from Thebes and later from Memphis, Egyptian leaders gradually pushed the Hyksos out of the Nile delta and founded a powerful state known as the New King-
dom
40
What women took the title of the pharaoh in 1473 B.C.E., serving as co-ruler with her stepson Tuthmosis III.
Queen Hatshepsut (reigned 1473–1458 B.C.E.)
41
In an effort to present her in a way that was familiar, what did they do to Queen Hatshepsut?
a monumental statue of Queen Hatshepsut depicts her wearing the stylized beard traditionally associated with the pharaohs.
42
Bronze was even less prominent in Nubian societies than where?
in Egypt.
43
By 3000 B.C.E., use of bronze implements became widespread in Egypt only after the seventeenth century B.C.E., when what happened?
the Hyksos relied on bronze weapons to impose their authority on the Nile delta. After expelling the Hyksos, Egyptians equipped their forces with bronze weapons, and the imperial armies of Tuthmosis and other pharaohs of the New Kingdom carried up-to-date bronze weapons like those used in Mesopotamia and neighboring lands.
44
During the centuries after 1000 B.C.E., however, the southern Nile societies made up for their lack of bronze with the emergence of large-scale production of what?
iron
45
Who had developed techniques for forging iron in Anatolia about 1300 B.C.E., but iron metallurgy in Africa arose independently from local experimentation with iron ores, which are plentiful in sub-Saharan Africa?
The Hittites
46
The earliest traces of African iron production discovered by archaeologists date from about 900 B.C.E. where?
the Great Lakes region of East Africa (modern-day Burundi and Rwanda) and also on the southern side of Lake Chad (in modern-day Cameroon).
47
The original Bantu language was one of many related
| tongues where?
in the larger Niger-Congo family of languages widely spoken in West Africa after 4000 B.C.E.
48
The earliest Bantu speakers inhabited a region embracing the eastern part of modern-day what?
Nigeria and the southern part of modern Cameroon. Members of this community referred to themselves as Bantu (meaning “persons” or “people”).
49
What did Bantu peoples cultivate?
They cultivated yams and oil palms, they also kept goats and raised guinea fowl, traded regularly with hunting and gathering peoples who inhabited the tropical forests.
50
For everyday communication, the Aryans relied on a related but less formal tongue known as what?
Prakrit
51
The earliest of those orally transmitted works were what?
The Vedas, which were collections of hymns, songs, prayers, and rituals honoring the various gods of the Aryans.
52
There are four Vedas, the earliest and
| most important of which is the what?
Rig Veda, a collection of some 1,028 hymns addressed to
| Aryan gods.
53
The Vedas represent a priestly perspective on affairs: the word Veda means what?
“wisdom” or “knowledge” and refers to the knowledge that priests needed to carry out their functions.
54
Lawbook of Manu, dealt with what?
it dealt with proper moral behavior and social relationships, including sex and gender relationships.
55
What did the Lawbook Manu also specify?
The Lawbook also specified that the most important duties of women were to bear children and maintain wholesome homes for their families.
56
When did humans first start appearing in East Asia?
Human beings appeared in East Asia as early as four hundred thousand years ago. At that early date, they used stone tools and relied on a hunting and gathering economy like their counterparts in other regions of the earth.
57
What Chinese dynasties made one of the first efforts to organize public life in China on a large scale?
Xia dynasty
58
Ancient legends credit what person as the dynasty’s founder, with the organization of effective flood-
control projects: thus here, as in Mesopotamia and Egypt, the need to organize large-scale public works
projects helped to establish recognized authorities and
formal political institutions.
the sage-king Yu
59
By the late years of the third millennium B.C.E., however, much larger regional states began to emerge. Among the most important were which dynasties?
Those of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, which progressively brought much of China under their authority and laid a political foundation for the development of a distinctive Chinese society.
60
Heavenly powers granted the right to govern was known
| as what?
the “mandate of heaven” which was given to an especially deserving individual known as the son of heaven. The ruler then served as a link between heaven and earth.
61
As long as he did so, the heavenly powers would approve of his work, the cosmos would enjoy a harmonious and well-balanced stability, and the ruling dynasty would retain its mandate to govern. If a ruler failed in his duties what happened?
chaos and suffering would afflict his realm, the cosmos would fall out of balance, and the displeased heavenly powers would withdraw the mandate to rule and transfer it to a more deserving candidate.
62
Chinese ruling houses emulated the Zhou
| dynasty by claiming the mandate of heaven for their rule and emperors took the title "___ __ _____.
"son of heaven"
63
When the imperial house of Qin ended the chaos of the Period of the Warring States and brought all of China under tightly centralized rule in 221 B.C.E., the victorious emperor ordered what to happen?
the destruction of all writings that did not have some immediate utilitarian value.
64
The Qin emperor spared works on divination, agriculture, and medicine, but he condemned those on what?
poetry, history, and philosophy, which he feared might inspire doubts about his government or encourage an independence of mind.
65
One of the first societies in Mesoamerica was whom?
The Olmecs
66
From 8000 to 7000 B.C.E. the Olmecs—the region from the central portion of modern Mexico to Honduras and El Salvador—had begun to experiment with what?
the cultivation of beans, chili peppers, avocados, squashes, and gourds.
67
Even their proper name is unknown: the term Olmec
| meaning what, did not come from the ancient people themselves, but derives instead from what?
(meaning “rubber people”) which was derived from the rubber trees that flourish in the region they inhabited.
68
Early Mesoamerican peoples had what kind of diet?
a diet rich in cultivated foods, but they did not keep as many animals as their counterparts in the eastern hemisphere.
69
Darius divided his realm into what?
twenty-three satrapies—administrative and taxation districts governed by satraps. Yet the Achaemenids did not try to push direct rule on their subjects: most of the satraps were Persians, but the Achaemenids recruited local officials to fill almost all administrative posts below the level of the satrap.
70
The Achaemenid rulers relied on two measures to discourage the possibility of satraps taking over, what were they?
First, each satrapy had a contingent of military officers and tax collectors who served as checks on the satraps’ power and independence. Second, the rulers created a new category of officials—essentially imperial spies—known as “the eyes and ears of the king.”
71
After Alexander died, his chief generals fought among themselves and struggled to take over the conqueror’s realms. Who was his successor?
In Persia, the victor was Seleucus, formerly commander of an elite guard corps in Alexander’s army, who dominated the territories of the former Achaemenid empire and ruled them from 305 to 281 B.C.E.
72
Like Alexander, Seleucus and his successors retained what?
the Achaemenid systems of administration and taxation as well as the imperial roads and postal service. The Seleucids also founded new cities throughout the realm and attracted Greek colonists to occupy them.
73
Confucius believed that the best way to promote good government was to fill official positions with individuals who were both well educated and extraordinarily conscientious. Thus Confucius concentrated on the formation of what he called what?
junzi—“superior individuals”—who took a broad view of public affairs and did not allow personal interests to influence their judgments.
74
What did Xunzi believe?
Xunzi also believed that it was possible to improve human beings and restore order to society. This fundamental optimism was a basic characteristic of Confucian thought.
75
In an effort to reassert his authority, Qin Shihuangdi ordered what?
execution for those who criticized his regime, and he demanded the burning of all books of philosophy, ethics, history, and literature.
76
What books did Qin Shihuangdi spare?
His decree exempted works on medicine, fortune-telling, and agriculture on the grounds that they had some utilitarian value. The emperor also spared the official history of the Qin state. Other works, however, largely went into the flames during the next few years.
77
The First Emperor took his policy seriously and enforced it earnestly. In the year following his decree, Qin Shihuangdi sentenced some 460 scholars residing in the
capital to what?
to be buried alive for their criticism of his regime, and he forced many other critics from the provinces into the army and dispatched them to dangerous frontier posts.
78
Much of the reason for the Han dynasty’s success was the long reign of the dynasty’s greatest and most energetic emperor, who was this?
Han Wudi, the “Martial Emperor,” who occupied the imperial throne for fifty-four years, from 141 to 87 B.C.E
79
What did Han Wudi pursue in his empire?
Han Wudi ruled his empire with vision and vigor. He pursued two policies in particular: administrative centralization and imperial expansion.
80
In 9 C.E. he did just that: announcing that the mandate of heaven had passed from the Han to his family, he seized the throne. Wang Mang then introduced a series of wide-ranging reforms that have prompted historians to refer to him as what?
the “socialist emperor.”
81
In spite of that campaign, Ashoka is much better known as what instead of a conqueror?
a govenor
82
Where did Ashoka establish his capital of the Mauryan Empire?
He established his capital at the fortified city of Pataliputra (near modern Patna), where a central administration developed policies for the whole empire.
83
As a result of Ashoka’s policies, what happened in his empire?
the various regions of India became well integrated, and the subcontinent benefited from both an expanding economy and a stable government.
Ashoka encouraged the expansion of agriculture—the foundation of the empire’s wealth—by building irrigation systems.
He encouraged trade by building roads, most notably a highway of more than 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles)
linking Pataliputra with Taxila, the chief political and commercial center of northern India, which offered access to Bactria, Persia, and other points west.
Ashoka also provided comforts for administrators, merchants, and other travelers by planting banyan trees to provide shade, digging wells, and establishing inns along the roads
84
India fell under the rule of Greek-speaking conquerors from where?
Bactria—Alexander of Macedon’s imperial heirs who had mingled with local populations since establishing an independent Bactrian kingdom in the third century B.C.E.
85
So members of the Charvaka sect believed that the gods were what?
were figments of the imagination, that brahmins were charlatans who enriched themselves by hoodwinking others, and that human beings came from dust and returned to dust like any other animal in the natural world.
86
What do the Charvakas' believe?
The Charvakas’ beliefs clearly reflected the increasingly materialistic character of Indian society and economy.
87
What did Mahavira's followers refer to him as?
These disciples referred to Mahavira as Jina (“the Conqueror”) and borrowing from this title his followers referred to themselves as Jains.
88
The Jains believed that almost all occupations in-
| evitably entailed what?
violence of some kind: farming involved the killing of pests and the harvesting of living plants, for example, and crafts such as leather tanning depended on the slaughter of animals. Thus for most people, Jainism was not a practical alternative to the religion of the Brahmins.
89
the Jains did not recognize social hierarchies based on varna or jati. It is not surprising, then, that their faith became popular especially among whom?
members of lower castes who did not command much respect in the traditional social order, including merchants, scholars, and literary figures.
90
A short poetic work known as the Bhagavad Gita (“song
| of the lord”) best illustrates what?
both the expectations that Hinduism made of individuals and the promise of salvation that it held out to them.
91
The Bhagavad Gita is a self-contained episode of the Mahabharata. It presents a dialogue between whom?
Arjuna, a Kshatriya warrior about to enter battle, and his charioteer Krishna, who was, in fact, a human incarnation of the god Vishnu.
92
In his dialogue Republic, for example, Plato sketched an ideal state that reflected his philosophical views. What were his ideas?
Because philosophers were in the best position to understand ultimate reality, and hence to design policies in accordance with the Form or Idea of justice, he held that the best state was one where either philosophers ruled as kings or kings were themselves, philosophers.
93
How did European philosophers feel about Christianity and Greek rationality?
Until the seventeenth century C.E., most European philosophers regarded the Greeks as intellectual authorities. Christian and Islamic theologians alike went to great lengths to harmonize their religious convictions with the philosophical views of Plato and Aristotle.
94
What were Consuls that were made by Roman nobility?
Consuls were elected by an assembly dominated by hereditary aristocrats and wealthy classes, known in Rome as the patricians, and they served one-year terms.
95
What are latifundia and who owned them?
Conquered lands fell largely into the hands of wealthy elites, who organized enormous plantations known as latifundia. Because they enjoyed economies of scale and often employed slave labor.
96
What two brothers were the chief proponents of social reform in the Roman republic?
The chief proponents of social reform in the Roman republic were the brothers Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus.
97
What did the Gracchi brothers do that resembled what Wang Mang did in imperial Han dynasty?
the Gracchi brothers worked to limit the amount of conquered land that any individual could hold. Those whose lands exceeded the limit would lose some of their property, which officials would then allocate to small farmers.
98
Indeed, fearing that the brothers might gain influence over Roman affairs, their enemies had them both what?
assassinated—Tiberius in 132 B.C.E. and Gaius in 121 B.C.E.
99
Who had Octavian defeated in a naval battle at Actium in Greece?
Octavian defeated his principal rival, Mark Antony, who had joined forces with Cleopatra, last of the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt. He then moved quickly and efficiently to consolidate his rule
100
How was Augustus's government a monarchy disguised as a republic?
Like Julius Caesar, Augustus ruled by centralizing political and military power. Yet he proceeded more
cautiously than had his patron: Augustus preserved traditional republican offices and forms of government and included members of the Roman elite in his government. At the same time, though, he fundamentally altered the nature of that government.
He accumulated vast powers for himself and ultimately took responsibility for all important governmental functions.
He reorganized the military system, creating a new standing army with commanders who owed allegiance directly to the emperor—a reform that eliminated problems caused during the late republic by generals with personal armies.
He also was careful to place individuals loyal to him in all important positions.
101
Who is Spartacus?
In 73 B.C.E., the escaped slave Spartacus assembled an army of seventy thousand rebellious slaves. The Roman army dispatched eight legions, comprising more than forty thousand well-equipped, veteran troops, to quell the revolt.
102
Who is Mithras?
Among the most popular of these religions of salvation was the cult dedicated to the Persian deity Mithras. In Zoroastrian mythology, Mithras was a god closely identified with the sun and light.Mithras less with the sun than with military virtues such as strength, courage, and discipline, and the cult of Mithras quickly became exceptionally popular among the Roman armed forces.
103
Who was Paul of Tarsus?
The principal figure in the expansion of Christianity beyond Judaism was Paul of Tarsus, a Jew from Anatolia
who zealously preached his faith, especially in the Greek-speaking eastern region of the Roman empire. Paul taught a Christianity that attracted the urban masses
104
What lost much of its credibility with the fall of the Han dynasty?
Confucianism
105
What did people turn to at the fall of the Han dynasty instead of Confucianism?
Daoism and Buddhism
106
Who were the "barracks emperors?"
During the half century from 235 to 284 C.E., there were no fewer than twenty-six claimants to the imperial throne. Called the “barracks emperors,” most of them were generals who seized power, held it briefly, and then suddenly lost it when they were displaced by rivals or by their mutinous troops.
