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| 2883319846 | 3500-3000 BCE | Beginnings of Mesopotamia, Egyptian, and Norte Chico civilizations | 0 | |
| 2883326099 | 3400-3200 BCE | Nubian kingdom of Ta-Seti | 1 | |
| 2883331356 | 3200-2350 BCE | Period of independent Sumerian city-states | 2 | |
| 2883336445 | 2663-2195 BCE | Kingdom Egypt (high point of pharaoh's power and pyramid building) | 3 | |
| 2883340720 | 2200-2000 BCE | Beginnings of Chinese, Indus Valley, and Central Asian (Oxus) civilizations | 4 | |
| 2883344742 | 2070-1600 BCE | Xia dynasty in China (traditionally seen as first dynasty of Chinese history) | 5 | |
| 2883347228 | After 2000 BCE | Epic of Gilgamesh compiled | 6 | |
| 2883349231 | 1900-1500 BCE | Babylonian Empire | 7 | |
| 2883351803 | 1792-1750 BCE | Reign of Hammurabi | 8 | |
| 2883355403 | 1700 BCE | Abandonment of Indus Valley cities | 9 | |
| 2883358711 | 1550-1064 BCE | New Kingdom Egypt | 10 | |
| 2883360755 | 1200 BCE | Beginnings of Olmec civilization | 11 | |
| 2883362830 | 760-660 BCE | Kush conquest of Egypt | 12 | |
| 2883365285 | 586 BCE | Babylonian conquest of Judah | 13 | |
| 2883368281 | By 500 BCE | Egypt and Mesopotamia incorporated into Persian Empire | 14 | |
| 2888472208 | When and where did the first civilizations emerge? | • Emergence of the first civilizations was a global phenomenon that happened independently in seven major locations around the world (IMPORTANT TO NOTE: ALL NEAR RIVERS) and in a number of smaller expressions as well. The seven major locations were: 1. Sumer in Mesopotamia, by 3000 B.C.E. 2. Egypt in the Nile River valley, by 3000 B.C.E. 3. Norte Chico along the coast of central Peru, by 3000 B.C.E. 4. Indus Valley civilization in the Indus and Saraswati river valleys of present-day Pakistan, by 2000 B.C.E. 5. China, by 2200 B.C.E. 6. Central Asia/Oxus, by 2200 B.C.E. 7. The Olmec along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico near present-day Veracruz in southern Mexico, around 1200 B.C.E. • In addition, other smaller civilizations also flourished, including the Nubian civilization that emerged south of Egypt in the Nile River valley, and the large city in China known as Sanxingdui, which arose separately but at the same time as the more well-known Shang dynasty. | 15 | |
| 2888472994 | What accounts for the initial breakthroughs to civilization? | • Civilizations had their roots in the Agricultural Revolution, which allowed communities to produce sufficient food surpluses to support large populations and the specialized or elite minorities who did not themselves produce food. • Scholars have posited many theories as to why some agricultural societies formed into civilizations and other did not, including a need to organize for large-scale irrigation projects; the efforts of favored groups to protect their privileges; the needs of warfare; and the influence of trade. • Robert Carneiro combines several of these factors to argue that: 1. The growing density of population, producing more congested and competitive societies, was a fundamental motor of change, especially where rich agricultural land was limited either by geography or by powerful competing societies. 2. Such settings provided incentives for innovations, such as irrigation or plows that could produce more food, because opportunities for territorial expansion were not readily available. 3. These same environments generated intense competition among rival groups that led to repeated warfare. A strong and highly organized state was a decided advantage in such competition. 4. Since losers could not easily flee to new lands, they were absorbed into the winner's society as a lower class. 5. Successful leaders of the winning side emerged as an elite with an enlarged base of land, a class of subordinated workers, and a powerful state at their disposal. | 16 | |
| 2888476100 | What was the role of cities in the early civilizations? | • Political and administrative centers • Centers of culture including art, architecture, literature, ritual, and ceremony • Marketplaces for both local and long-distance exchange • Centers of manufacturing activity | 17 | |
| 2888477068 | In what ways was social inequality expressed in early civilizations? | • Wealth • Avoidance of physical labor • Clothing • Houses • Manner of burial • Class-specific treatment in legal codes | 18 | |
| 2888479019 | In what ways have historians tried to explain the origins of patriarchy? | • Transition from hoe and digging-stick agriculture (mostly women) to more intensive agriculture with animal-drawn plows and more intensive large-herd pastoralism (tasks that men were better able to perform) • The growing population of civilizations meant that women were more often pregnant and even more deeply involved in child care than before. • Men, because they were less important in the household, were available to take on positions of economic, religious, and political authority associeties grew more complex. From these positions men shaped the values and practices of their societies in a manner that benefited them at the expense of women. In this development lay the origin of the ancient distinction between the realm of the home, defined as the domain of women, and the world of public life, associated with men. • Women had long been identified with nature because of their intimate involvement in reproduction, but civilization valued culture and the human mastery of nature through agriculture, monumental art and architecture, and the creation of large-scale cities and states. Some scholars have suggested that, as civilizations developed, women became associated with an inferior dimension of human life (nature), while men assumed responsibility for the higher order of culture. • Large-scale military conflict with professionally led armies was a central feature of the First Civilizations. • With military service largely restricted to men, the needs of warfare served to enhance the power and prestige of a male warrior class. • The emergence of private property and commerce also may have shaped the status of women. • Restrictions on women's sexual activity became central to ensuring that offspring of the male head of household inherited family property. Moreover, the buying and selling associated with commerce was soon applied to male rights over women, whether as slaves, concubines, or wives. | 19 | |
| 2888485531 | How did Mesopotamian and Egyptian patriarchy differ from each other? | • In Mesopotamia by the second millennium B.C.E., written law codified and sought to enforce a patriarchal family life. The law supported unquestioned authority of men while offering women a measure of paternalistic protection. Central to these laws was the regulation of female sexuality by men. • Women in Mesopotamian civilization were sometimes divided into two sharply distinguished categories: (1) respectable women, those under the protection and sexual control of one man, who were often veiled outside the home; and (2) nonrespectable women, such as slaves and prostitutes, who were often forbidden to wear a veil. • Powerful goddesses of early Mesopotamian civilization were gradually relegated to home and hearth, to be replaced by male deities, who were credited with the power of creation and fertility and viewed as the patrons of wisdom and learning. • While Egypt was still a patriarchal society, it afforded women greater opportunities than did Mesopotamia. • Women in Egypt were recognized as legal equals to men. They were able to own property, sell land, make their own wills, sign their own marriage contracts, and initiate their own divorces. • Royal women occasionally exercised significant political power as regents for their young sons or, more rarely, as queens in their own right. • Women were not veiled in Egypt, and art depicting married couples showed women and men in affectionate poses as equal partners. | 20 | |
| 2888486884 | What were the sources of state authority in the First Civilizations? | • Citizens recognized that the complexity of life in cities or densely populated territories required some the authority to coordinate and regulate the community enterprises, such as defense and irrigation. • State authorities frequently used force to compel obedience. • Authority in early civilizations was often associated with divine sanction. • Writing and accounting augmented state authority by defining elite status, conveying prestige on the literate, providing a means to disseminate propaganda, strengthening the state by making accurate record keeping possible, and giving added weight to orders, regulations, and laws. • Grandeur in the form of lavish lifestyles of elites, impressive rituals, and the building of imposing structures added to the perception of state authority and power. | 21 | |
| 2888488455 | In what ways might the advent of "civilization" have marked a revolutionary change in the human condition? And in what ways did it carry on earlier patterns from the past? | • In terms of revolutionary change to the human condition: • New, more stratified social hierarchies defined many groups of people, including women and slaves, as inferior, while a small elite secured unprecedented power, wealth and prestige. • Urban centers created a new environment for humans to live in. • Monumental architecture and art offered new ways to express oneself. • Literacy transformed how information was stored and retrieved. • New specialist professions emerged offering individuals new work opportunities. • In terms of earlier patterns: • In terms of the Neolithic period, the production of food through agriculture remained the primary occupation of most of the population. • The family remained an important component of the social order. • Humans continued to practice religions and express themselves through art. | 22 | |
| 2888490870 | In what ways did Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations differ from each other? | • The Mesopotamian outlook on life viewed humankind as caught in an inherently disorderly world, subject to the whims of capricious and quarreling gods, and facing death without much hope of a life beyond. By contrast, Egypt produced a more cheerful and hopeful outlook on the world, wherein the rebirth of the sun each day and of the river every year assured Egyptians that life would prevail over death. • Mesopotamian civilization adversely affected its environment through deforestation, soil erosion, and salinization of the soil. This ecological deterioration weakened Sumerian city-states, facilitating their conquest and the shift of Mesopotamian civilization permanently north from its original heartland. By contrast, Egypt produced a more sustainable agricultural system that lasted for thousands of years and contributed to the continuity of its civilization. • Mesopotamia and Egypt also differed in settlement patterns. Some 80 percent of the population of Sumer lived in urban environments because of the need for protection in an unstable world. In Egypt, cities were primarily political, religious, and market centers, with most people living in agricultural villages along the river. This was possible in part because Egypt's greater security made it less necessary for people to gather in fortified towns. • The political system in Sumer, the first Mesopotamian civilization, consisted of independent city-states that frequently warred among themselves and were subject to unexpected attack from the outside. This instability, along with environmental degradation, weakened the civilization and led to its ultimate conquest by outside powers. By contrast, Egypt unified early in its history under the pharaoh, the head of a strong divine-right monarchical system. While over time the pharaohs declined in real power, the political tradition helped Egypt to maintain unity and independence with only occasional interruptions for 3,000 years. • Underlying these contrasts were the very different rivers along which the two civilizations developed and the geographic locations in which they emerged. The Nile proved a more predictable river, one whose yearly floods facilitated agricultural production. Meanwhile, the Tigris and Euphrates were more unpredictable, bringing fertility but also on occasion destruction through flooding. Moreover, the Nile River valley was more protected from invasion than was Mesopotamia. The Nile was surrounded by deserts, mountains, seas, and cataracts that limited the possibility of outside invasion, while Mesopotamia lacked any serious obstacles to travel and suffered from frequent invasions. The certainty and security enjoyed by Egyptians had an impact on their civilization, just as the uncertainty and insecurity experienced by Mesopotamians influenced their civilization. | 23 | |
| 2888499333 | Which of the following have scholars advanced as a possible explanation for the emergence of patriarchy in the First Civilizations? | Emergence of large-scale warfare with professionally led armies | 24 | |
| 2888502294 | Kingship in the First Civilizations often | depended on the belief that the position of the king was divinely ordained | 25 | |
| 2888503448 | Which of the following First Civilizations experienced the greatest cultural continuity from its earliest formation to modern times? | China | 26 | |
| 2888506447 | Which of the following shows the relationship between religion and government in the First Civilizations? | Hammurabi claimed that his law code was inspired by Marduk, the chief god of Babylon | 27 | |
| 2888515797 | Which civilization did not rely on grain-based agriculture? | Norte Chico | 28 | |
| 2888518885 | Why did Egypt began to lose power? | Pharaohs began to lose power when some lords tried to take over | 29 | |
| 2888523900 | incantation | a chant; the repetition of statements or phrases in a way reminiscent of a chant | 30 | |
| 2888571803 | fetters | chains or ropes used to prevent escape | 31 | |
| 2888576363 | Hammurabi | was from Mesopotamia; first to write down rules | 32 | |
| 2888580976 | We know about the Indus Valley people because | of their houses; they traded as far as Mesopotamia. We know because of the tag;seals (elephant) marked when trading. | 33 | |
| 2888632406 | What distinguished "civilizations" from earlier Paleolithic and Neolithic societies? | • Far larger populations • Cities with populations in the tens of thousands • Powerful states that could compel obedience and wage large-scale warfare • Much greater inequality in economic function and wealth • More elaborate class and gender hierarchies • Monumental architecture • Written literature and complex calendars | 34 | |
| 2888637203 | How did the various First Civilizations differ from one another? | • In terms of government, the Indus Valley civilization differed from the others by not offering evidence of powerful centralized rule, while the way that rulers legitimated their positions in other First Civilizations varied. • In terms of social hierarchy, while all possessed more hierarchical societies with greater inequalities than the societies that they emerged from, the number of slaves in each society varied as did the restrictiveness of the patriarchal system. • In terms of writing, all developed a form of writing but Norte Chico's quipu was a less sophisticated system than many of the others. • In terms of technology, Norte Chico and the Mesopotamian civilizations possessed less developed metallurgy. • In terms of urban living, Mesopotamia was more urbanized than the other civilizations, while Norte Chico possessed the smallest cities. | 35 | |
| 2889376760 | Following an invasion, Egypt | was controlled by Kush for 100 years. | 36 | |
| 2889383100 | What invention lessened the guarantee of safety to which Egypt was accustomed? | the chariot | 37 | |
| 2889398011 | Unlike modern nations, no early civilizations had | definite boarders. | 38 | |
| 2889425279 | Why is evidence of toys in the Indus Valley significant? | Toys show that there were people who could make and sell toys, whose time was not consumed by agriculture or another activity to sustain themselves. This is evidence of specialized jobs which proves there has been surplus. This ultimately proves that in the Indus Valley, there was a civilization. | 39 | |
| 2889488243 | Which of the 7 original civilizations was the most thoroughly urbanized? | Mesopotamia (80% of people lived in urban centers) | 40 | |
| 2889513199 | writing/literature | a major arena for social and political conflict | 41 | |
| 2889524023 | Which civilization was most lenient with the rights of women? | Egypt. Women were legal equals with men. | 42 | |
| 2889529752 | Preferable offspring gender | male | 43 | |
| 2889534491 | 6 main specialized jobs (the first ones) | scholars, officials, merchants, priests, artisans, scribes | 44 | |
| 2889538091 | Main 3 male-only job types | political, military, and religious | 45 | |
| 2889546041 | Scribes | considered a noble profession; were literate; wrote down taxes | 46 | |
| 2889558336 | Where all cities conquered to become civilizations? | No, some cities melded together for common needs to become a civilization | 47 | |
| 2889574800 | Kingship | holy; divine; sacred; power | 48 | |
| 2889640770 | The Agricultural revolution led to | Surplus which led to civilizations | 49 | |
| 2889651462 | How did civilizations show that they had power? | Architecture (churches, ziggurats, pyramids) ; the more you have the more you have to protect | 50 | |
| 2889666963 | If you want to see a present day ziggurat where would you go? | Iraq (Used to be Mesopotamia) | 51 | |
| 2889671491 | Indoor latrines | Indus Valley (sewage system) | 52 | |
| 2889729691 | Prisoners of war | kept as slaves | 53 | |
| 2889916102 | Epic of Gilgamesh | tells us about Mesopotamian's attitude about life and death | 54 | |
| 2890533107 | quipu | a series of knotted cords used for counting (Norte Chico); alternate of writing | 55 | |
| 2890557284 | Indus Valley | a series of small republics, ruled by priests, an early form of a caste system; left because they ran out of resources | 56 | |
| 2890587377 | Mandate of Heaven | China; ruled the monarch as long as he governed with benevolence and maintained social harmony among his people. Noble family would take over if something bad happened like a flood because the gods obviously aren't happy with the present ruler. | 57 | |
| 2890726697 | The Negative confession shows that | one people pure of heart can go to heaven | 58 | |
| 2890749235 | Olmec is a | Mother culture; the "mother civilization" of Mesoamerica | 59 | |
| 2890770943 | Writing started off as | accounting | 60 | |
| 2890777753 | Uruk | Largest city in Indus Valley; mother country | 61 | |
| 2890785965 | Early pastoral societies had | rivalries | 62 |
