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| 4130578929 | Ziggurat | A Mesopotamian stepped pyramid. Unlike an Egyptian pyramid, this was a solid structure of baked brick, an artificial hill at the summit of which stood a temple. | 0 | |
| 4130579953 | Zhou Dynasty | Period of Chinese history from 1122 to 256 B.C.E. | 1 | |
| 4130580950 | Xia Dynasty | A legendary series of monarchs of early China, traditionally dated to 2200-1766 B.C.E. | 2 | |
| 4130581752 | Uruk | The largest city of ancient Mesopotamia. | 3 | |
| 4130582921 | Teotihuacán | The largest city of ancient Mesoamerica; flourished around 500 C.E. | 4 | |
| 4130584560 | Son of Heaven | Title of the ruler of China, first known from the Zhou dynasty. It acknowledges the ruler's position as intermediary between heaven and earth. | 5 | |
| 4130585654 | Shang Dynasty | Period of Chinese history from 1766 to 1122 B.C.E. | 6 | |
| 4130586669 | Salinization | The buildup of minerals in soil, decreasing its fertility; can be caused by long-term irrigation. | 7 | |
| 4130587780 | Quipu | A series of knotted cords, used for accounting and perhaps as a form of writing in the Norte Chico civilization. | 8 | |
| 4130589297 | Pyramid | Monumental tomb for an Egyptian pharaoh; mostly built during the Old Kingdom (2663-2195 B.C.E.). | 9 | |
| 4130590067 | Phoenicians | A civilization in the area of present-day Lebanon, creators of the first alphabetic writing system. | 10 | |
| 4130590913 | Pharaoh | A king of Egypt. The term literally means "the palace" and only came into use in the New Kingdom, but it is generally employed in reference to all ancient Egyptian rulers. | 11 | |
| 4130591581 | Patriarchy | Literally "rule of the father"; a social system of male dominance. | 12 | |
| 4130592402 | Oracle bones | In Chinese civilization, animal bones that were heated and the cracks then interpreted as prophecies. The prophecies were written on the bone and provide our earliest written sources for ancient China. | 13 | |
| 4130592860 | Olmec Civilization | An early civilization that developed along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico around 1200 B.C.E. | 14 | |
| 4130593530 | Nubia | A civilization to the south of Egypt in the Nile Valley, noted for development of an alphabetic writing system and a major ironworking industry by 500 B.C.E. | 15 | |
| 4130594874 | Norte Chico | Region along the central coast of Peru, home of a civilization that developed in the period 3000-1800 B.C.E. | 16 | |
| 4130599096 | Mohenjo-Daro | A major city of the Indus Valley civilization; flourished around 2000 B.C.E. | 17 | |
| 4130599834 | Minoan Civilization | An advanced civilization that developed on the island of Crete around 2500 B.C.E. | 18 | |
| 4130600521 | Mesopotamia | The "land between the rivers" Tigris and Euphrates, in what is now Iraq. | 19 | |
| 4130601662 | Mandate of Heaven | The ideological underpinning of Chinese emperors, this was the belief that a ruler held authority by command of divine force as long as he ruled morally and benevolently. | 20 | |
| 4130602090 | Indus Valley | home of a major civilization that emerged in what is now Pakistan during the third millennium B.C.E., in the valleys of the Indus and Saraswati rivers, noted for the uniformity of its elaborately planned cities over a large territory | 21 | |
| 4130603114 | Hyksos | A pastoral group of unknown ethnicity that invaded Egypt and ruled in the north from 1650 to 1535 B.C.E. Their dominance was based on their use of horses, chariots, and bronze technology. | 22 | |
| 4130603703 | Hittites | An Indo-European civilization established in Anatolia in the eighteenth century B.C.E. | 23 | |
| 4130604196 | Hieroglyphs | Ancient Egyptian writing system; literally, "sacred carvings"—so named because the Greeks saw them prominently displayed in Egyptian temples. | 24 | |
| 4130604915 | Hebrews | A smaller early civilization whose development of a monotheistic faith that provided the foundation of modern Judaism, Christianity, and Islam assured them a significant place in world history. | 25 | |
| 4130605622 | Hatshepsut | Ancient Egypt's most famous queen; reigned 1472-1457 B.C.E. | 26 | |
| 4130606046 | Harappa | A major city of the Indus Valley civilization; flourished around 2000 B.C.E. | 27 | |
| 4130607009 | Epic of Gilgamesh | The most famous extant literary work from ancient Mesopotamia, it tells the story of one man's quest for immortality. | 28 | |
| 4130608144 | cuneiform | Wedge-shaped writing in the form of symbols incised into clay tablets; used in Mesopotamia from around 3100 B.C.E. to the beginning of the Common Era. | 29 | |
| 4130609371 | Cradle of civilization | Commonly used term for southern Mesopotamia (in present-day Iraq). | 30 | |
| 4130610148 | Code of Hammurabi | A series of laws publicized at the order of King Hammurabi of Babylon (d. 1750 B.C.E.). Not actually a code, but a number of laws that proclaim the king's commitment to social order. | 31 | |
| 4130610758 | teosinte | The wild ancestor of maize. | 32 | |
| 4130611520 | stateless society | Village-based agricultural societies, usually organized by kinship groups, that functioned without a formal government apparatus. | 33 | |
| 4130612438 | Secondary products revolution | A term used to describe the series of technological changes that began ca. 4000 b.c.e., as people began to develop new uses for their domesticated animals, exploiting a revolutionary new source of power. | 34 | |
| 4130613350 | Pastoral society | A human society that relies on domesticated animals rather than plants as the main source of food; nomads lead their animals to seasonal grazing grounds rather than settling permanently in a single location. | 35 | |
| 4130614627 | Mesopotamia | The valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in present-day Iraq. | 36 | |
| 4130615093 | Jericho | Site of an important early agricultural settlement of perhaps 2,000 people in present-day Israel. | 37 | |
| 4130616030 | Intensification | The process of getting more in return for less; e.g., growing more food on a smaller plot of land. | 38 | |
| 4130616897 | Horticulture | Hoe-based agriculture, typical of early agrarian societies. | 39 | |
| 4130617834 | Fertile Crescent | Region sometimes known as Southwest Asia that includes the modern states of Iraq, Syria, Israel/Palestine, and southern Turkey; the earliest home of agriculture. | 40 | |
| 4130618469 | Domestication | The taming and changing of nature for the benefit of humankind. | 41 | |
| 4130619209 | Diffusion | The gradual spread of agricultural techniques without extensive population movement. | 42 | |
| 4130620634 | Chiefdom | A societal grouping governed by a chief who typically relies on generosity, ritual status, or charisma rather than force to win obedience from the people. | 43 | |
| 4130621556 | Çatalhüyük | An important Neolithic site in what is now Turkey. | 44 | |
| 4130624242 | Bantu | An African-language family whose speakers gradually became the dominant culture of eastern and southern Africa, thanks to their agricultural techniques and, later, their ironworking skills | 45 | |
| 4130625688 | Austronesian | An Asian-language family whose speakers gradually became the dominant culture of the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Pacific islands, thanks to their mastery of agriculture. | 46 | |
| 4130626833 | Agricultural Revolution | Also known as the Neolithic Revolution, this is the transformation of human (and world) existence caused by the deliberate cultivation of particular plants and the deliberate taming and breeding of particular animals | 47 | |
| 4130627609 | Shaman | In many early societies, a person believed to have the ability to act as a bridge between living humans and supernatural forces, often by means of trances induced by psychoactive drugs. | 48 |
