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AP World History Chapter 1 Flashcards

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8438152023CivilizationAn ambiguous term ofter used to denote more complex societies but sometimes used by anthropologists to describe any group of people sharing a set of cultural traits.0
8438152024CultureSocially transmitted patterns of action and expression. Material culture refers to physical objects, such as dwellings, clothing, tools, and crafts. Culture also includes arts, beliefs, knowledge, and technology.1
8438152025HistoryThe study of past events and changes in the development, transmission, and transformation of cultural practices.2
8438152026Stone AgeThe historical period characterized by the production of tools from stone and other nonmetallic substances. It was followed in some places by the Bronze Age and more generally by the Iron Age.3
8438152027PaleolithicThe period of the Stone Age associated with the evolution of humans. It predates the Neolithic period.4
8438152028NeolithicThe period of the Stone Age associated with the ancient Agricultural Revolution(s). It follows the Paleolithic period.5
8438152029ForagersPeople who support themselves by hunting wild animals and gathering wild edible plants and insects.6
8438152030Agricultural RevolutionThe changes from food gathering to food production that occurred between ca. 8000 and 2000 B.C.E. Also known as the Neolithic Revolution.7
8438152031MegalithsStructures and complexes of very large stones constructed for ceremonial and religious purposes in Neolithic times.8
8438152032SumeriansThe people who dominated southern Mesopotamia through the end of the third millennium B.C.E. They were responsible for the creation of many fundamental elements of Mesopotamian culture, such as irrigation technology, cuneiform, and religious conceptions, taken over by their Semitic successors.9
8438152033SemiticFamily of related languages long spoken across parts of Western Asia and Northern Africa. In antiquity these languages included Hebrew, Aramaic, and Phoenician. The most widespread modern member of the Semitic family is Arabic.10
8438152034City-StateA small independent state consisting of an urban center and the surrounding agricultural territory. A characteristic political form in early Mesopotamia, Archaic, and Classical Greece, Phoenicia, and early Italy.11
8438152035BabylonThe largest and most important city in Mesopotamia. It achieved particular eminence as the capital of the Amorite king Hammurabi in the eighteenth century B.C.E. and the Neo-Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in the sixth century B.C.E.12
8438152036HammurabiAmorite ruler of Babylon (r. 1792-1750 B.C.E.). He conquered many city-states in southern and northern Mesopotamia and is best known for a code of laws, inscribed on a black stone pillar, illustrating the principles to be used in legal cases.13
8438152037ScribeIn the governments of many ancient societies, a professional position reserved for men who had undergone the lengthy training required to be able to read and write using cuneiforms, hieroglyphics, or other early, cumbersome writing systems.14
8438152038ZigguratA massive pyramidal steeped tower made of mud bricks. It is associated with religious complexes in ancient Mesopotamian cities, but it's function is unknown.15
8438152039AmuletSmall charm meant to protect the bearer from evil. Found frequently in archaeological excavations in Mesopotamia and Egypt, amulets reflect he religious practices of the common people.16
8438152040CuneiformA system of writing in which wedge-shaped symbols represented words or syllables. It originated in Mesopotamia and was used initially for Sumerians and Akkadian but later was adapted to represent other languages of Western Asia. Because so many symbols had to be learned, literacy was confined to a relatively small group of administrators and scribes.17
8438152041BronzeAn alloy of copper with a small amount of tin (or sometimes arsenic), it is harder and more durable than copper alone. The term Bronze Age is applied to the era-the dates which vary in different parts of the world-when bronze was the primary metal for tools and weapons. The demand for bronze helped create long-distance networks of trade.18
8438152042PharaohThe central figure in the ancient Egyptian state. Believed to be an earthly manifestation of the gods, he used his absolute power to maintain the safety and prosperity of Egypt.19
8438152043Ma'atEgyptian term for the concept of divinely created and maintained order in the universe. Reflecting the ancient Egyptians' belief in an essentially beneficent world, the divine ruler was the earthly guarantor of this order.20
8438152044PyramidA large, triangular stoke monument, used in Egypt and Nubia as a burial place for the king. The largest pyramids, erected during the Old Kingdom near Memphis with stone tools and compulsory labor, reflect the Egyptian belief that the proper and spectacular burial of the divine ruler would guarantee the continued prosperity of the land.21
8438152045MemphisThe capital of Old Kingdom Egypt, near the head of the Nike Delta. Early rulers were interred in the nearby pyramids.22
8438152046ThebesCapital city of Egypt and home of the ruling dynasties during the Middle and New Kingdoms. Amon, patron deity of Thebes, became one of the chief gods of Egypt. Monarchs were buried across the river in the Valley of the Kings.23
8438152047HieroglyphicsA system of writing in which pictorial symbols represented sounds, syllables, or concept. It was used for official and monumental inscriptions in ancient Egypt. Because of the long period of study required to master this system, literacy in hieroglyphics was confined to a relatively small group of scribes and administrators. Cursive symbol-forms were developed for rapid composition on other media, such as papyrus.24
8438152048PapyrusA reed that grows along the banks of the Nile River in Egypt l. From it was produced a coarse, paper like writing medium used by the Egyptians and many other people's in the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East.25
8438152049MummyA body preserved by chemical processes or special natural circumstances, often in the belief that the deceased will need it again in the afterlife. In ancient Egypt the bodies of people who could afford mummification underwent a complex process of removing organs, filling body cavities, dehydrating the corpse with natron, and then wrapping the body with linen bandages and enclosing it in a wooden sarcophagus.26
8438152050HarappaSite of one of the great cities of the India Valley civilization of the third millennium B.C.E. It was located on the northwest frontier of the zone of cultivation (in modern Pakistan) and may have been a center for the acquisition of raw materials, such as metals and precious stones, from Afghanistan and Iran.27
8438152051Mohenjo-DaroLargest of the cities of the Indus Valley civilization. It was centrally located in the extensive floodplain of the Indus River in contemporary Pakistan. Little is known about the political institutions of Indus Valley communities, but the large scale of construction at Mehenjo-Daro, the orderly grid of streets, and the standardization of building materials are evidence of central planning.28

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