From Hunting and Gathering to Civilizations, 2.5 million-1000 B.C.E.: Origins
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| 10777889472 | Hunting and Gathering | Means of obtaining subsistence by humans before the mastery of sedentary agriculture; normally typical of tribal social organization |  | 0 |
| 10777889473 | Neolithic | The New Stone Age between 8000 and 5000 B.C.E.; period in which adaptation of sedentary agriculture occurred; domestication of plants and animals accomplished |  | 1 |
| 10777889474 | Nomads | Cattle- and sheep-herding societies normally found on the fringes of civilized societies; commonly referred to as "barbarian" by civilized societies |  | 2 |
| 10777889475 | Culture | Combination of ideas, objects, and patterns of behavior that result from human social interaction |  | 3 |
| 10777889476 | Neolithic/Agricultural/Agrarian revolution | Occurred between 8000 and 5000 B.C.E.; transition from hunting and gathering to sedentary agriculture |  | 4 |
| 10777889477 | Pastoralism | A nomadic agricultural lifestyle based on herding domesticated animals; tended to produce independent people capable of challenging sedentary agricultural societies |  | 5 |
| 10777889478 | Mesopotamia | Literally "between the rivers"; the civilization that arose in the alluvial plain of the Tigris-Euphrates river valleys |  | 6 |
| 10777889479 | Sumerians | People who migrated into Mesopotamia circa 4000 B.C.E.; created the first civilization within the region; organized area into city-states |  | 7 |
| 10777889480 | Cuneiform | A form of writing developed by the Sumerians using a wedge-shaped stylus and clay tablets |  | 8 |
| 10777889481 | City-state | A form of political organization typical of Mesopotamian civilization; consisted of agricultural hinterlands ruled by an urban-based king |  | 9 |
| 10777889482 | Ziggurats | Massive towers usually associated with Mesopotamian temple connections |  | 10 |
| 10777889483 | Babylonian Empire | Unified all of Mesopotamia circa 1800 B.C.E.; collapsed due to foreign invasion circa 1600 B.C.E. |  | 11 |
| 10777889484 | Hammurabi | The most important Babylonian ruler; responsible for codification of the law |  | 12 |
| 10777889485 | Pharaoh | The term used to denote the kings of ancient Egypt; considered a god as well as a political and military leader. The term, "great house" refers to the palace of the pharaohs |  | 13 |
| 10777889486 | Pyramids | Monumental architecture typical of Old Kingdom Egypt; used as burial sites for pharaohs |  | 14 |
| 10777889487 | Hieroglyphs | Form of writing developed in ancient Egypt; more pictorial than Mesopotamian cuneiform |  | 15 |
| 10777889488 | Monotheism | The exclusive worship of one god; introduced by Jews into Middle Eastern civilization |  | 16 |
| 10777889489 | Phoenicians | Seafaring civilization located on the shores of the eastern Mediterranean; established colonies throughout the Mediterranean; extensive trade, communication networks, early alphabetical script |  | 17 |
| 10777889490 | Harappa and Mohenjo Daro | Major urban complexes of Harappan civilization; laid out on planned grid pattern |  | 18 |
| 10777889491 | Aryans | Indo-European nomadic, warlike, pastorialists who replaced Harappan civilization |  | 19 |
| 10777889492 | Huanghe (Yellow) River Basin | Site of the development of sedentary agriculture in China |  | 20 |
| 10777889493 | Shang | 1st Chinese dynasty |  | 21 |
| 10777889495 | Paleolithic | The period that ended about 3,000 years after the end of the last Ice Age, it lasted until about 10,000 years ago. (Old Stone Age) The period of the Stone Age associated with the evolution of humans. It predates the Neolithic period. |  | 22 |
| 10777889498 | Polytheism | Belief in more than one god | 23 | |
| 10777889499 | Nile River | Principal water source of water flowing through North Africa (site of sophisticated cultural development); flooded regularly and enriched the soil in the process | 24 | |
| 10777889500 | stone age | the earliest known period of human culture, marked by the creation and use of stone tools and other nonmetallic substances | 25 | |
| 10777889501 | foragers | Food collectors who gather, fish, or hunt | 26 | |
| 10777889502 | city-state | A sovereign state comprising a city and its immediate surrounding area | 27 | |
| 10777889503 | Babylon | an ancient city of Mesopotamia known for its wealth, luxury, and vice. | 28 | |
| 10777889504 | Hammurabi | Babylonian king who codified the laws of Sumer and Mesopotamia (died 1750 BCE) | 29 | |
| 10777889505 | scribe | a person who copies or writes out documents; often a record keeper | 30 | |
| 10777889506 | cuneiform | A form of writing developed by the Sumerians (Mesopotamia) using a wedge shaped stylus and clay tablets. | 31 | |
| 10777889507 | bronze | A metal that is a mixture of copper and tin | 32 | |
| 10777889508 | paleolithic | stone age period when human used stone tools and survived by hunting and foraging | 33 | |
| 10777889509 | venus figurines | paleolithic female figurines that emphasize physical attributes associated with femininity | 34 | |
| 10777889510 | pastoralism | the process of domestication, raising, and herding of animals | 35 | |
| 10777889511 | specialization of labor | people in civilizations could be assigned different jobs and statuses in society due to having a surplus of food | 36 | |
| 10777889512 | patriarchy | the idea that males have a right to rule and reign over states and families | 37 | |
| 10777889513 | civilization | large scale communities that had certain characteristics in common such as: recordkeeping, complex institutions (government, economy, organized religion), cities, specialization of labor, long-distance trade, technology | 38 | |
| 10777889514 | Euphrates and Tigris | two principle Mesopotamian rivers | 39 | |
| 10777889515 | Sumer | earliest Mesopotamian city state | 40 | |
| 10777889516 | Babylon | second oldest Mesopotamian city state, succeeds Sumer, most important king was Hammurabi | 41 | |
| 10777889517 | Hammurabi's Code | first law code in the world, of Babylonia, dealt with legal contracts and responsibility for wrong doing | 42 | |
| 10777889518 | bronze metallurgy | alloy of copper, tin, and zinc, this metal began to be produced from about 2800 BCE improved military equipment, agricultural knives, and plows | 43 | |
| 10777889519 | iron metallurgy | a changeable metal, less hard than bronze, but more flexible, developed around 1500 BCE by the Hittites | 44 | |
| 10777889520 | cuneiform | a very early form of writing, from Sumer in Mesopotamia, done by pressing a cone-shaped stylus into soft clay | 45 | |
| 10777889521 | Epic of Gilgamesh | epic Mesopotamian poem that highlights the stresses of civilization | 46 | |
| 10777889522 | Egypt | a founding civilization along the Nile in Northeastern Africa | 47 | |
| 10777889523 | Hieroglyphics | Egyptian writing (pictographs & symbols representing sounds+ideas) | 48 | |
| 10777889524 | Harrappa & Mohenjo Daro | Two early, very large, and complex Indus Valley city states. Little is known about these but their size and complexities imply central planning. | 49 | |
| 10777889525 | Indus River | River in Northern India on which the first Indian civilizations were built; flooded twice a year in a predictable manner | 50 | |
| 10777889526 | China | earliest civilization in Asia | 51 | |
| 10777889527 | Huang He and Yangzi He | two rivers in China that supported early civilization | 52 | |
| 10777889528 | Shang Dynasty | The dominant people in the earliest Chinese dynasty for which we have written records (ca. 1750-1027 B.C.E.). Ancestor worship, divination by means of oracle bones, and the use of bronze vessels for ritual purposes were major elements of this culture. | 53 | |
| 10777889529 | Judaism | Monotheistic (belief in one god), founded by Abraham, code of law found in the Torah (first 5 books of the Bible), led to the development of two other Abrahamic religions: Christianity and Islam. | 54 | |
| 10777889531 | Mandate of Heaven | A political theory of ancient China in which the emperor is given the power to rule by a divine sources. This tie could be severed by ineffectual rule | 55 | |
| 10777889532 | Oracle bones | bones on which the ruling class in China wrote questions and had them divined by the priestly class | 56 | |
| 10777889538 | irrigation systems | replacement or supplementation of rainfall with water from another source in order to grow crops | 57 | |
| 10777889539 | Indus River Valley Civilization | an ancient civilization thriving along the Indus River in what is now Pakistan and western India. This civilization is also sometimes referred to as the Harappan or Harappa-Mohenjodaro Civilization of the Indus Valley, in reference to the excavated cities of Harappa and Mohenjodaro | 58 |
