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| 4850148570 | Neolithic Revolution | the adoption of agriculture by humans, who had been hunter-gatherers. This is the split between the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) and Neolithic (New Stone Age) | 0 | |
| 4850152076 | Code of Hammurabi | oldest known law code; created by Mesopotamian (Babylonian) king and punishments dependent on social class | 1 | |
| 4850156738 | Tigris and Euphrates | the major rivers of Mesopotamia; they're reason Greeks named it "land between the rivers." Irregular flooding led Mesopotamians to believe the gods were fickle and unfriendly to humans | 2 | |
| 4850159435 | Nile | major river of Egypt; owing to its importance in providing rich soil and water for irrigation, Greek historian Herodotus called Egypt "the gift of the _________" Regular flooding and easy agriculture led Egyptians to have a more positive worldview than Mesopotamians | 3 | |
| 4873163480 | patriarchy | male control of women, facilitated by male desire to know their children were actually theirs and by agriculture replacing female gathering of wild plant foods with male-centric heavy farmwork. | 4 | |
| 4873167804 | Sumerians | the founders of the oldest civilization in Mesopotamia | 5 | |
| 4873169488 | Harappa | namesake city of the river-valley civilization centered on the Indus River in India; one of two major cities | 6 | |
| 4873171226 | polytheism | belief in many gods | 7 | |
| 4873172856 | monotheism | belief in one god | 8 | |
| 4873174028 | Judaism | monotheistic religion founded by Abraham (called by God in Mesopotamia) and Moses (who led the Hebrews from Egypt and gave the Ten Commandments | 9 | |
| 4873177024 | pyramid | gigantic tombs of Egyptian pharaohs; construction took decades and required well-organized labor force | 10 | |
| 4873179728 | ziggurat | towering Mesopotamian temples | 11 | |
| 4873180745 | llama | the only large domesticated animal of the Americas | 12 | |
| 4873192186 | Phoenicians | trading people of the eastern Mediterranean; they invented the alphabetic writing system | 13 | |
| 4873196080 | foragers | another term for hunter-gatherers; earliest human lifestyle, before agriculture | 14 | |
| 4873200953 | Mandate of Heaven | Chinese belief invented by the Zhou that taught a ruler had the blessing of God/the gods so long as they ruled justly; used to justify their overthrow of the Shang Dynasty | 15 | |
| 4873207106 | Mohenjo-Daro | one of the two major cities of the Harappan civilization; known for huge water-storage facility "The Great Bath" (NOT "The Pool That Ruled") | 16 | |
| 4873217520 | family relationships | The basis for Confucius's ideas of social organization--the relationship between the father and son, for example, is the basis for the relationship between the Emperor and his people. | 17 | |
| 4886186904 | Hittites | Indo-European people that brought iron-working to the Middle East; their territory was centered in Asia Minor | 18 | |
| 4886204567 | hieroglyphics | Egyptian formal writing system; used pictures | 19 | |
| 4886206130 | cuneiform | Mesopotamian stick-like writing system | 20 | |
| 4886209174 | Yu | legendary Xia emperor who controlled the great floods; if he existed at all, he would have lived during the Neolithic Period. | 21 | |
| 4886219655 | pastoralism | alternative to agriculture; lifestyle of mobile herding of livestock. Nomadic peoples like the Mongols, Turks, etc. practice this lifestyle | 22 | |
| 4886225676 | pharaoh | king of Egypt; believed to be incarnation of god in his own lifetime who would become another god upon his death. The ultimate authority in Egypt | 23 | |
| 4886232838 | Gilgamesh | legendary Mesopotamian ruler who built the wall of Uruk; fought and befriended the wild man Enkidu and sought immortality | 24 | |
| 4886236158 | Xia Dynasty | legendary first dynasty of China; might not have actually existed | 25 | |
| 4886239271 | Shang Dynasty | first historical dynasty of China; written records exist in form of "oracle bones" | 26 | |
| 4886242140 | Zhou Dynasty | Second historical dynasty of China; invented "Mandate of Heaven" to justify their takeover and had decentralized feudal government | 27 | |
| 4886254032 | Laws of Manu | early document describing the Hindu caste system, used to regulate Indian society | 28 | |
| 4886255733 | Analects of Confucius | Collection of the writings of Confucius; written down after his death | 29 | |
| 4886259294 | chariot | horse-drawn wheeled war machine originating in Central Asia; used by Hyksos to conquer Egypt. Also used by Shang and Zhou warrior-aristocrats | 30 | |
| 4886264896 | Fertile Crescent | band of fertile territory stretching from Mediterranean to Persian Gulf; includes Mesopotamia | 31 | |
| 4890315805 | writing | the use of signs or symbols to record communication; allows for retention of knowledge across generations, record-keeping, etc. | 32 | |
| 4891818123 | ancestor veneration | Chinese practice of honoring ancestors to get them to speak to gods on their behalf; included burying items with them in their graves. | 33 | |
| 4891826259 | Confucius | Chinese philosopher who sought to organize society based on familial relationships; lived during civil unrest of later Zhou period | 34 | |
| 4891829676 | Daoism | Chinese philosophy that emphasizes harmony with nature and not struggling | 35 | |
| 4900450807 | Hammurabi | Babylonian king known for his law code | 36 | |
| 4900455143 | periodization | dividing history in key turning points--the division of the Old Stone Age and New Stone Age using the development of agriculture as the key turning point is one such example | 37 | |
| 4900461112 | Indus Valley | site of the Harappan culture | 38 | |
| 4900463497 | Huang He | Yellow River in China; site of the Xia (maybe), Shang, and Zhou | 39 | |
| 4900481224 | synthesis | when one brings in evidence from outside the relevant time period or discipline to support a historical argument--for example, DNA evidence connecting Native Americans with Siberian natives to prove the migration over the land bridge or using fossil pollen to prove there were droughts at the end of the Bronze Age | 40 | |
| 4900488676 | stratification | organization of society into social classes or ranks--the Code of Hammurabi divides the Babylonians into three ranks, for example | 41 |
