Chapter 4: Early Humans and Beginning of Civilisation

A comprehensive vocabulary flashcard set covering early human evolution, archaeological terms, prehistoric periods, and major ancient river-valley civilisations.

Biological Evolution

The gradual physical and genetic changes through which early ancestors, known as australopithecines, evolved into modern human beings ($\text{Homo sapiens}$).

Cultural Evolution

The process by which humans adapted to their surroundings during the Quaternary Period (the last $26\,\text{lakh years}$) by developing tools, techniques, and technology.

Australopithecines

Early human ancestors whose name derives from australis meaning southern and pithecus meaning primates, who evolved into modern humans.

Homo sapiens

Modern human beings who evolved in Africa around $300,000\,\text{years ago}$ and developed complex technologies.

Hominin

A group that includes modern humans and early human-like ancestors, also referred to as tool makers.

Homo erectus

An upright or bipedal human ancestor with stone tools like handaxes and cleavers, and the first hominin to exit Africa around $2\,\text{million years ago}$.

Homo habilis

An early human ancestor known as 'handy man' who lived in Africa $2\text{ to }6\,\text{million years ago}$ and made chopper stone tools.

Old World

The geographical area consisting of Africa, Asia, and Europe containing the oldest human settlements of the earliest Palaeolithic period.

Extra-corporal Limbs

Tools created by early humans that functioned as extensions of the human body to perform tasks hands alone could not accomplish.

Fossil

The preserved remains, traces, or impressions of plants, animals, or humans from the distant past that slowly turned into stone under layers of earth.

Palaeolithic Period

Also known as the Old Stone Age (palaeo = old, lithic = stone), characterized by a hunting-gathering lifestyle and the use of simple stone tools.

Mesolithic Period

A transitional phase between hunting-gathering and agriculture characterized by the use of microlithic (tiny stone) tools and aquatic food gathering.

Neolithic Period

The New Stone Age, marked by a shift from hunting-gathering to agriculture, settled life, domestication of animals, and the use of polished stone tools.

Chalcolithic Period

The Copper and Stone Age, characterized by the use of copper alongside stone tools and early metallurgy.

Bronze Age

A period characterized by the development of bronze metallurgy (mixing copper and tin to make bronze), expansion of trade, towns, and early civilisations.

Iron Age

A period characterized by widespread use of iron metallurgy (smelting and working iron), resulting in stronger tools and weapons.

Attirampakkam

An early Palaeolithic site in Tamil Nadu, India, dated to about $1.5\text{ to }1.7\,\text{million years ago}$.

Isampur

An early Palaeolithic site in Karnataka, India, dated to $1.2\,\text{million years ago}$.

Burin

A distinctive stone tool or engraver used to engrave symbolic features on bones and shells such as ostrich eggs.

Neolithic Revolution

The gradual transition from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a food-producing way of life through the domestication of select plants and animals and establishment of village settlements.

Mehrgarh

The oldest Neolithic site and earliest agricultural village in the Indian subcontinent, located on the Bolan River in present-day Pakistan dating back to about $7000\,\text{BCE}$.

Sindhu Lipi

The undeciphered pictographic script of the Sindhu–Sarasvatī (Indus Valley or Harappan) Civilisation found on seals and pottery.

Gabarbands

Check dams built across small streams by Early Harappans in the foothills of Baluchistan to enhance irrigation.

Mesopotamia

Meaning 'land in between', the Greek name for the land drained by the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in West Asia.

Fertile Crescent

The crescent-shaped foothills of the Zagros and Taurus mountains stretching from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf, known for high agricultural potential.

City-State

A sovereign state centred around a city that rules its surrounding territories.

Ziggurat

A tower-like stepped pyramid-shaped temple in Mesopotamian cities with a holy temple at the top, surrounded by royal storehouses, palaces, and city treasuries.

Cuneiform

One of the earliest writing systems, developed by the Sumerians around $3200\,\text{BCE}$, created by pressing a wedge-shaped stylus into soft clay tablets.

Meluhha

The region identified with the Sindhu–Sarasvatī civilisation in Akkadian cuneiform trade records.

Code of Hammurabi

A foundational compilation of rules and regulations for civil and social conduct compiled by King Hammurabi of Babylonia.

Papyrus

An ancient Egyptian writing material made by cutting, criss-crossing, pressing, drying, and polishing strips of the inner trunk of the papyrus plant.

Rosetta Stone

A giant black stone discovered in $1799$ containing writing in three scripts (including Greek), which enabled Jean-François Champollion to decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics in $1822$.

Kemet

The name ancient Egyptians used for their land, meaning 'the black', coming from the rich black river valley soil.

Mastaba

A rectangular structure placed over an ancient Egyptian burial chamber, which laid the foundation for building stepped pyramids.

Ka

The ancient Egyptian concept of a person's spiritual double that lived on after death if the physical body was preserved.

Mummification

The Egyptian process of preserving a deceased body by removing internal organs (except the heart), drying with natron, oiling, and wrapping in linen.

Oracles

Symbols carved on animal bones and tortoise shells in ancient China that were heated until they cracked to foretell the future and record historical events.

Silk Route

The extensive trade route named after silk, which became a major item of external trade during the Han dynasty around the $2^{\text{nd}}\text{ century BCE}$.