World History Unit 1 terms

Animism

the belief that a degree of spirituality exists not only in people but also in plants, inanimate objects, and natural phenomena

Venus Statues

Venus figurines are small, stylized statuettes of women dating from the Upper Palaeolithic period (roughly 40,000–10,000 BCE) found across Europe, parts of Asia, and even Siberia Wikipedia+1. The term “Venus” is a modern label, applied loosely to these objects because they resemble the Roman goddess of beauty and fertility, though they predate such myths by tens of thousands of years

Hunter-gatherers

people who survive by employing the strategies of hunting animals and gathering wild plants rather than by planting crops and raising livestock

Fertile Crescent

a crescent-shaped geographical area in the Middle East where agriculture first flourished

Paleolithic Age

the period of time beginning as early as 3.3 million years ago until nearly twelve thousand years ago, when our distant pre-human ancestors began using stone tools for a variety of purposes

City-State

an independent political entity consisting of a city and surrounding territory that it controls

Cuneiform

a phonetic writing system based on the sounds of words and invented by the Sumerians in about 3000 BCE

Epic of Gilgamesh

The most famous lugal in all Sumer in this early period was Gilgamesh of Uruk, whose legendary exploits were recounted later in fantastical form in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Hieroglyphics

a complex writing system developed around 3000 BCE in which written symbols represented both sounds and ideas

Hieratic

a simplified form of hieroglyphics employed by Egyptian scribes for recording everyday documents such as receipts and contracts

nomarch

In world history, particularly in the context of ancient Egypt, a nomarch was a provincial governor responsible for overseeing a nome — an administrative district or province within the Egyptian kingdom

Papyrus

a type of paper Egyptians made from a common reed plant growing along the Nile

Pastoralist

nomadic people who rely on herds of domesticated animals for subsistence

Pharaoh

the title of the Egyptian ruler, translated as “big house”

Ziggurat

an immense stepped tower with a flat top built of mud-brick that served as a temple in Sumerian cities

Sumer

The fourth millennium BCE in Sumer was also a period of technological innovation. One important invention made after 4000 BCE was the process for manufacturing bronze, an alloy of tin and copper, which marked the beginning of the Bronze Age in Mesopotamia. Earliest civilization in Mesopotamia

Hatshepsut

Acting as regent for the infant pharaoh, Hatshepsut inaugurated a very unusual period in Egyptian history. Rather than merely rule in the background as a typical regent would, she proclaimed herself co-regent with her stepson and soon assumed the title of pharaoh.

Hittites

In this weakened state, Babylon was sacked by a new emerging power, the Hittites, and the dynasty of Hammurabi came to a definitive end. Unlike the Babylonians, the Hittites were not from Mesopotamia, nor were they members of the Semitic language group. Rather, they were an Indo-European-speaking group that emerged as a powerful force in Anatolia starting in the 1600s BCE. Their

Harrapans

a term describing the ancient Indus valley civilization, named for one of its largest cities and the first to be discovered by archaeologists

Satrapy

one of twenty governing districts in Persia administered by royal governors called satraps, who answered directly to the king

Akhenaten

Under Amenhotep III’s heir Amenhotep IV, the emphasis on Aton reached its fullest extent. Amenhotep IV built a new city downriver from Thebes that he called Amarna, “the place where the solar orb is transformed.” It was also known as Akhetaton. The following year, he changed his own name to Akhenaten, meaning “the transfigured spirit of the solar orb,” and moved himself and his entire family to the new city. Akhenaten later closed the temples of the other major Egyptian gods and ordered representations of them destroyed and their names chiseled off monuments.

Sea People

Many of the problems the envoy described were symptoms of the Late Bronze Age Collapse and were out of Egypt’s control. One of the consequences of this larger civilizational decline was that large numbers of migrants, such as those who attacked the envoy, were sweeping across the eastern Mediterranean bringing chaos and destruction. An Egyptian inscription from 1208 BCE described them as “coming from the sea,” which has led modern scholars to refer to them as the Sea Peoples

Daoism

a Chinese religion that emphasized veneration of nature, the cosmos, and mysticism

Brahmanism

A later series of treatises known as the Upanishads, written by a priestly class called Brahmans, developed new expressions of the Vedic religion, gradually transforming it into what many scholars refer to as Brahmanism. These new expressions include samsara and karma.

Legalism

a school of philosophical thought that helped dynasties such as the Qin use uniform laws and codes to reform and strengthen rulers

Karma

a Hindu concept emphasizing the influence of good deeds and moral behavior on a person’s status in life and rebirth after death

Khan

a title claimed by warrior-kings to unite various tribes into powerful confederations and empires

Ramayana

world. Texts such as the Mahabharata and Ramayana glorified ideas about duty, valor, and performing a proper role in society.

Mahabharata

The Mahabharata is possibly the longest poem even written, with over 200,000 verse lines describing the lives and conflicts of several noble families. One of the main women featured in the stories is Draupadi, known for her beauty and morality. This eighteenth-century watercolor painting depicts a story in the epic when Draupadi’s enemies attempt to humiliate her by stripping her naked.

Baghavad Gita

The Bhagavad Gita (“Song of God” or “Song of the Lord”) is one of the most important religious and philosophical texts in Hinduism, and one of the most influential works in world history World History Encyclopedia. It is part of the Indian epic Mahabharata, set during the Kurukshetra War between the Pandavas and Kauravas. The story unfolds as a dialogue between Prince Arjuna and Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, who serves as Arjuna’s charioteer