Week II: Beginnings of civilisation

Key words list

[terms that came up in this week's readings and/or lectures; should be helpful in reviewing

and are (for the most part) among the things Every Educated Person Should Be Familiar With.

NB: you are not expected to memorize all of these terms for the exams. You should, rather, use the terms (clustered into meaningful groups) as mnemonic prompts for studying. If you know the history of the places & periods discussed each week, the terms listed should look familiar & hopefully help you in organizing your thoughts about the material. Memorizing the lists without understanding the context of each term is not going to be helpful.]

 

Alexander the Great

Anatalia / Anatolia -- Asia Minor

Assyria -- Babylon -- (Neo-)Assyrian 'empire' -- Guteans -- Medes & Persians

astronomy/astrology -- math

bias ≠ prejudice

Bible -- Old Testament

Black Athena -- Martin Bernal

Bronze & the Bronze Age -- Iron Age

Canaan(ites) -- Palestine -- Israel -- Judea & Samaria -- the Holy Land

Çatal Höyük

city-state -- polis (Gk; pl. poleis > Eng politics) -- civitas (Lat; pl. civitates > Eng civilisation)

covenant (Hb brit, lit. "alliance, pact") -- prophet (Hb navi)

cultural ecology

cultus (Lat. > Eng cult, culture, cultivation)

cuneiform ("wedge-inscribed" writing) -- hieroglyphs ("sacred images") -- inscriptions -- alphabet -- scribe

Cyrus 'the Great' -- "Cyrus Cylinder" -- Darius I

domestication -- irrigation

Egypt -- "Two Lands" -- Upper / Lower Egypt -- Black / Red Land

'empire' (= state controlling many different people; ≠ empire in the technical sense used of Rome [see Week IV])

Fertile Crescent -- Mesopotamia -- (ancient) Near East -- Levant

grave goods

Hatshepsut -- Amenhotep IV / Akhenaton -- Tutankamon

Hebrews / Israelites / Jews -- Judea

hierarchy ("sacred order")

Hittites

hunter-gatherers -- pastoralists -- (semi)nomads -- agriculturalists

Hyksos

Jericho

language families: Semitic -- Hamitic -- Indo-European (I-E)

Lascaux

Maat (Egyptian: "justice," "order," "what is right") -- ka ("spiritual double") -- Book of the Dead

Marduk

Mediterranean

Mediterranean polyculture: complex agricultural system involving cultivation of grains, vines & olives

metallurgy

mummification -- mummies

Natufians

Neanderthals

Neolithic revolution

Nile (river) -- Atbara, Blue Nile, White Nile (rivers) -- First Cataract

Osiris -- Isis -- Seth -- Horus -- Re/Ra -- Amon-Ra -- the Aton -- Heliopolital Ennead (nine gods of Heliopolis)

Ötzi

palaeolithic ("old stone") -- neolithic ("new stone)

papyrus -- flax (> linen)

Persian Great King -- satrap / satrapy

Plutarch -- Herodotus -- Manetho

polytheism ('worship of many gods") -- henotheism ("worship of one god among many") -- monotheism ("worship of one god")

prehistory -- history ≠ historiography

primary sources -- secondary sources

Sargon -- Nebuchadnezzar II -- Senacherib

Sumer -- Akkad(ia) -- Babylon -- Assyria

syncretism ("mixed belief") -- anthropomorphism (modelling [of gods, e.g.] on humanity)

theocracy -- royal insignia (stripped off Babylonian king in annual ritual)

temples -- tombs

Tigris and Euphrates (rivers)

T-O maps

Upper & Lower Egypt -- Elephantine & Delta/Fayyum -- Giza -- Thebes & Memphis -- Old, Middle, and New Kingdom -- Dynasties 1-31 (or 0-33)

Yahweh / Jehovah

ziggurat -- pyramid -- obelisk

Zoroaster / Zarathustra -- Zoroastrianism -- Ahura Mazda