Vocabulary for Chapter 1, AP World History
432917370 | Hunting and Gathering | Means of obtaining sustenance by humans before the mastery of sedentary agriculture; normally typical of band social organizations. | |
432917371 | Civilization | Societies with reliance on sedentary agriculture, ability to produce food surpluses, and existence of nonfarming elites, along with merchant and manufacturing groups. | |
432917372 | Paleolithic | The Old Stone Age, ending in 12,000 B.C.E.; characterized by use of evolving stone tools and hunting and gathering for sustenance. | |
432917373 | Neolithic | The New Stone Age, between 8,000 and 5,000 B.C.E; the period in which adaptation of sedentary agriculture occured; domestication of plants and animals accomplished. | |
432917374 | Nomads | Cattle/Sheep herding societies normally found on the outskirts of civilized societies; commonly referred to as "barbarians" by civilized societies. | |
432917375 | "Savages" | Societies engaged in either hunting and gathering for sustenance or in migratory cultivation; not as socially structured or specialized as civilized/nomadic societies. | |
432917376 | Culture | Combination of ideas, objects, and patterns of behaviors that result from human social interaction. | |
432917377 | Homo sapiens | The species of humanity that emerged as most successful at the end of the Paleolithic. | |
432917378 | Neanderthals | Species of genus homo that disappeared at the end of the Paleolithic. | |
432917379 | Band | A level of social organization normally consisting of between 20 and 30 people; nomadic hunters and gatherers; labor divided on a gender basis. | |
432917380 | Agrarian Revolution | Occured between 8,000 and 5,000 B.C.E.; transition from hunting and gathering to sedentary agriculture. | |
432917381 | Natufian Complex | Pre-agricultural culture; located in present-day Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon; practiced collection of wild barley and wheat to supplement game; large settlement sites. | |
432917382 | Matrilocal | A culture in which young men go live with the bride's family upon marriage. | |
432917383 | Matrilineal | Family descent and inheritance traced through the female line. | |
432917384 | Pastoralism | A nomadic agricultural lifestyle based on herding domesticated animals; tended to produce independent people capable of challenging to sedentary agricultural societies. | |
432917385 | Mesopotamia | Literally translates as "between the rivers"; the civilization that arose in the alluvial plain of the Tigres-Euphrates river valleys. | |
432917386 | Potter's Wheel | A technological advance in pottery making; invented about 6,000 B.C.E; encouraged faster and higher quality ceramic pottery products. | |
432917387 | Sumerians | People who migrated into Mesopotamia about 4,000 B.C.E; created the first civilization within region; organized area into city-states. | |
432917388 | Cuneiform | A form of writing developed by the Sumerians using a wedge shaped stylus and clay tablets. | |
432917389 | City-State | A form of political organization typical of Mesopotamian civilization; consisted of agricultural hinterlands ruled by an urban based king. | |
432917390 | Yahweh | The single god of the Hebrews; constructed a convenant with Jews as his chosen people. | |
432917391 | Monotheism | The exclusive worship of one god; introduced by the Jews into Middle Eastern civilizations. | |
432917392 | Epic of Gilgamesh | The first literary epic; written down in about 2,000 B.C.E; introduced the story of the Great Flood. | |
432917393 | Ziggurats | Massive towers usually associated with Mesopotamian temple connections. | |
432917394 | Animism | A religious outlook that recognizes gods in many aspects of nature and appeases them in order to help control and explain nature; typical of Mesopotamian religions. | |
432917395 | Sargon I of Akkad | Ruler of city-state Akkad; established the first empire in Mesopotamian civilization in about 2,400 B.C.E. | |
432917396 | Babylonian Empire | Unified all of Mesopotamia in about 1,800 B.C.E.; collapsed because of foreign invasion in about 1,600 B.C.E. | |
432917397 | Hammurabi | The most important Babylonian ruler; responsible for codification of the law. | |
432917398 | Aknenaton | Egyptian pharoh of the New Kingdom; attempted to establish monotheistic religion in replacement of the traditional Egyptian pantheon of gods. | |
432917399 | Pyramids | Monumental architecture typical of Old Kingdom Egypt; used as burial sites for pharohs. | |
432917400 | Mummification | Act of preserving the bodies of the dead; practiced in Egypt to preserve the body for use in the afterlife. | |
432917401 | Hieroglyphs | Form of writing developed in ancient Egypt; more practical than Sumerian cuneiform (the Mesopotamians). | |
432917402 | Patriarchal | Societies in which women defer to men; societies run by men and based upon the assumption that men naturally controlled political, economic, and cultural life. | |
432917403 | Kush | African state that developed along the upper reaches of the Nile in about 1,000 B.C.E.; conquered Egypt and ruled it for several centuries. | |
432917404 | Minoans | A civilizaiton that developed on Crete in about 1,600 B.C.E.; capital at the palace complex of Knossos. | |
432917405 | Mycenae | The first civilization to emerge on the Greek mainland; destroyed in about 1,000 B.C.E. | |
432917406 | Phoenicians | Seafaring civilization located on the shores of the eastern Mediterranean; established colonies throughout the Mediterranean. | |
432917407 | Hittities | An Indo-European people who entered Mesopotamia in about 1,750 B.C.E.; destroyed the Babylonian Empire; swept away in about 1,200 B.C.E. | |
432917408 | Huanghe or Yellow River Basin | Site of the development of sedentary agriculture in China. | |
432917409 | Mesoamerica | Mexico and Central America; along with Peru, site of development of sedentary agriculture in the western hemisphere. | |
432917410 | Jericho | Early walled urban culture based on sedentary agriculture; located in modern Israel-occupied West Bank near Jordan River. | |
432917411 | Catal Huyuk | Early urban culture based on sedentary agriculture; located in modern southern Turkey; larger in population than Jericho and had a greater degree of social structure. | |
432917412 | Bronze Age | From 4,000 to 3,000 B.C.E.; increased use of plow and metalworking; development of wheeled vehicles and writing. |