Terms related to the Classical and Foundations Era
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| 203338093 | city-state | A 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. | 0 | |
| 203338100 | Hieroglyphics | A system of writing in which pictorial symbols represented sounds, syllables, or concepts. 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. | 1 | |
| 203338102 | Homonid | The biological family that includes humans and humanlike primates. | 2 | |
| 203338110 | Monotheism | Belief in the existence of a single divine entity. Some scholars cite the devotion of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten to Aten (sun-disk) and his suppression of traditional gods as the earliest instance. The Israelite worship of Yahweh developed into an exclusive belief in one god, and this concept passed into Christianity and Islam | 3 | |
| 203338111 | Neolithic | The period of the Stone Age associated with the ancient Agricultural Revolution (s). It follows the Paleolithic period. | 4 | |
| 203338112 | Nomadism | A way of life, forced by a scarcity of resources, in which groups of people continually migrate to find pastures and water. | 5 | |
| 203338117 | Pharaoh | The 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. | 6 | |
| 203338123 | Scribe | In 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. | 7 | |
| 4760900996 | Tigris and Euphrates | Two rivers around which Mesopotamian civilization arose, beginning withe Sumeria | 8 | |
| 4760902434 | Fertile Crescent | Geographic region including Mesopotamia and the eastern coastline of the Mediterranean Sea | 9 | |
| 4760903429 | Sumeria | Earliest known civilization dating back to at least 5000 BCE and featuring a cuneiform writing system, large ziggurats, and a complex political system. | 10 | |
| 4760906605 | Polytheism | The belief and worship of more than one god/goddess | 11 | |
| 4760907694 | Ziggurat | Large, steppe pyramids built in Mesopotamia as temples | 12 | |
| 4760908578 | Cuneiform | World's oldest known writing system from Sumeria comprised of wedge-shaped marks made in wet clay tablets | 13 | |
| 4760910554 | Epic of Gilgamesh | Arguably the world's oldest written story, this epic tale concerns the tale of a Sumerian king and his interaction with the gods. | 14 | |
| 4760913915 | Hammurabi | Babylonian ruler best known for his legal code and reorganized tax system | 15 | |
| 4760916039 | patriarchal | Dominated by men | 16 | |
| 4760916480 | Phoenicians | Civilization of city-states located in the Western Fertile Crescent; best known as great merchants and sailors; founded the first alphabetic script | 17 | |
| 4760920801 | Hebrews | Pastoralists from Canaan once enslaved by the Egyptians; later known as Israelites or Jews | 18 | |
| 4760922527 | Jewish Diaspora | Spreading out or scattering of Jews throughout the Middle East and Mediterranean regions | 19 | |
| 4760923224 | Nile | River serving as the geographic center of Egyptian civilizatiion | 20 | |
| 4760924695 | Mummification | Egyptian religious rite involving the preservation of the dead | 21 | |
| 4760925495 | Papyrus | Nile plant that was mashed into an early form of paper for record keeping | 22 |
