Neolithic Revolution and Mesopotamian Civilization

Ch. 1and 2 - Study Guide

Section 1-2: Turning Point – The Neolithic Revolution

Vocabulary

Old Stone Age(Paleolithic)Neolithic PeriodNomad

Animism Neolithic Revolutiondomesticate

Major ideas

  • What changes in lifestyle did farming create for the people of the Neolithic period?
  • What new kinds of technologies were invented to help with and adapt to a farming lifestyle?

  • Tools
  • Measurement of time
  • Pottery
  • Textiles

  • What is the importance of the cities of Jericho and Catalhuyuk?

Reading: The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race

  • Theories about:
  • Advantages of farming
  • Disadvantages of farming
  • Ideas about the Hunter/Gatherer lifestyle that challenge our conventional wisdom.
  • i.e., How was hunting and gathering perhaps a better choice for early humans than farming
  • Why/how was farming adopted (especially if hunting/gathering provided a better lifestyle)

Section 1-3: Beginnings of Civilization

Vocabulary

Surplus

Traditional economy

Steppe

Polytheistic

Pictograph

Cultural diffusion

City-state

Empire

Major Ideas

  • Why did the first civilizations arise around rivers?
  • What advantages did rivers provide?
  • What ideas needed for “civilization” were needed because of living near rivers?
  • What are the basic features of civilization? Be able to describe each (some are easy; others not so much.

  • Government
  • Complex religion
  • Job specialization
  • Social classes
  • Arts and architecture
  • Public works
  • Writing

  • In what ways does cultural diffusion happen?

Section 2-1: The City-States of Ancient Sumer

Vocabulary

Ziggurat

Cuneiform

Pictographic

Phonetic

Fertile Crescent

Mesopotamia

Polytheism

City-State

Epic of Gilgamesh

Major ideas

  • How did geography influence the development of the civilizations in the Fertile Crescent?
  • What advances in did the Sumerians contribute to civilization?
  • How did cuneiform develop?
  • What do historians/archeologists mean by an “amoral” religion?
  • How did geography force the Sumerians to develop complex government?

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Section 2-2: Invaders, Traders, and Empire Builders

Vocabulary

Hammurabi

Codification

Empire

Barter economy

Nebuchadnezzar

Satrap

Theocracy

Civil Law

Criminal Law

Monotheism

Alphabet

Colony

Major ideas

  • Why was Hammurabi’s Code so important to our laws today?

  • Codification
  • Influence on the Hebrews
  • Civil vs. Criminal Law

  • What technological advance helped the Hittites and the Assyrians gain an empire? Why?
  • How did the Persians unite their large empire?
  • What is an “ethical” religion?
  • Why do some think that Zoroastrianism is the “grandfather religion” of other faiths today?
  • Why are the Phoenicians considered the “carriers of civilization”?
  • What made the Phoenicians good candidates to be considered the “carriers of civilization”?

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Section 2-5: Roots of Judaism

Vocabulary

Monotheism

Abraham

Torah

Talmud

Patriarchal

Diaspora

Babylonian Captivity

David

Ten Commandments

Major Ideas

  • What makes the Hebrew’s beliefs so different from the other religions of the time/area?
  • How did the Babylonian Captivity affect the religion and the beliefs of the Hebrews?
  • Why do the Hebrews think of the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea as the “promised land”?
  • Beyond a religious document, what is the importance of the Talmud and Torah?