Notable Groups and Civilizations & Cultures (and All Notable Facts inc. Languages, Politics/Policies, Military, Events, Religion, Economy, Social Structure, Art, Architecture, Music, Philosophy, Writings, etc.)

2000 BCE - 1200 BCE - Apennine Culture (All Facts)

• Located in central and southern Italy

• Characterized by “inhumation burials”

1900 BCE - 1500 BCE - Erlitou Culture (All Facts)

• Group of people that constructed a palace

  • on a platform of earth in the namesake city near Yenshi in Henan (Honan), a site which has already been occupied for several centuries

  • whose inhabitants

    • use bronze to make carefully crafted ritual vessels as well as a variety of tools and weapons

    • produced fine jade work

1800 BCE - 200 BCE - Nuragic Civilization (All Facts)

• Typified by the construction of cone-shaped towers of uncertain purpose known as “nuraghe” (hence the name)

• Characterized by

  • extensive working of bronze

  • trade in bronze items such as daggers, swords, bracelets, and axes

  • trade with Mycenaean Greece, Crete, and Cyprus

1700 BCE - 1150 BCE - Terramare Culture (All Facts)

• Characterized by villages protected by earthworks and moats

• Characterized by rectilinear streets and houses sometimes erected on pilings

1700 BCE - 500 BCE - Lapita Culture (All Facts)

Group of people who

• established themselves across a wide swathe of islands in Melanesia who migrated there from the Bismarck of Archipelago

• tended to build their settlements in coastal areas or on small offshore islands

• reared pigs and cultivated root crops such as yams and taro, as well as nut and fruit bearing trees, many of which they brought with them from their homeland in the Bismarck Archipelago

• collected shellfish and hunted green sea turtles and fish with intricately designed shell hooks

• whose diet included chicken, pigs, and dogs; which they brought with them from their homeland in the Bismarck Archipelago

• who carried with them a number of distinctive stones including obsidian and their own unique style of pottery ware

1300 BCE - 750 BCE - Urnfield Culture (All Facts)

• Located in Europe north of the Alps, in which the 400-year recession in the Mediterranean has scarcely affected the economy; it was a way of life which spread from central to north and west Europe

• Characterized by a burial ritual in which the body is burnt and the cremated remains are put in the namesake type of pottery, to which it is placed in a large cemetery of pots each with his own namesake burial object and other objects left with the dead, called the namesake, which is also from which the namesake derives its name

• Characterized by the use of “peat bogs” for the deposit of “votive offerings”

  • Torques, bracelets, ankle rings, and human corpses of both sexes; were contained inside them

  • The people in them are known as the “bog people”

• Group of people in which bronze production has soared as

  • new deep mines for copper were opened up

  • mercenaries introduced new techniques of making sheet-bronze armor and helmets

  • bronze swords have become plentiful

• Group of warriors who learned techniques of fighting on horseback

• Group of landowners, where better crops were grown with the latest varieties of wheat being grown over the winter

• Group of field-surveyors, which are dominated by hillforts, which are fortresses of earth and timber where the warriors feast and drink from gold and bronze vessels

• Lived in hierarchical societies based on agricultural villages

1200 BCE - 700 BCE - Villanovan Culture (All Facts)

• Civilization that was centered in Bologna in Central Italy around 770 BCE

• Offshoot of central-European Urnfield Culture

• They lived in villages of huts on hills

• Their way of life was based on agriculture, but they were also keen traders and metalworkers

• They valued martial art, maintaining a detachment of combat cavalry

• Characterized by use of pottery urns, sometimes in the shape of huts, that contained cremated remains

  • They cremated their dead and consigned their ashes to urns

  • Reintroduced “inhumation burials” in chamber tombs used by aristocratic elites

• Collected

  • Amber necklaces from the Baltic

  • Bronze armor from the Greek world

900 BCE - 250 BCE - Chavin Culture (All Facts)

• Society which emerged and dominated in the Andes in Peru which reached as far as the Moche Valley north and Nazca Valley south, it was centered on the namesake, “de Huantar” site, a magnificent temple which the people in the society built

• Its people were skilled at work in stone, pottery, gold, and textiles

• It was characterized by a feline deity cult from which social, military, and religious practices were derived

• Group of people who dedicated a large temple complex to a feline deity cult at their namesake city on the eastern slopes of the Cordillera Blanca in northern Peru where animal and human sacrifice was practiced

• Group of people from Peru who traded with coastal settlers

• Society which soon decayed as the people shifted to the Peruvian desert

800 BCE - 100 BCE - Paracas Culture (All Facts)

• Society which emerged on the Southern Pacific coast in Peru

• Characterized by their curious burial rituals in which dead men’s bodies were mutilated and preserved

  • Dug subterranean vaults through desert rock to fill with precious “mummy bundles” of their dead

  • The hot dry desert climate there helped in the mummification process

• Characterized by their mummification process which involved the removal of the internal organs, after which the body was tied up in a fetal position and circular holes are gouged out of the top of the skull of the corpse with bone tools

  • “Mummy bundles” of these bodies were brought from north and south of the peninsula to be buried in the tomb at the namesake Caverns

• Characterized by its people having created exquisite fabric designs and colors

• At its namesake Necropolis

  • Vaults were filled with a rich assortment of burial offerings including gold ornaments, weapons, pottery, and textiles

  • Long mantles were packed with beautifully embroidered cotton and brightly patterned textiles woven in elaborate designs

500 BCE - 200 CE - Nok Culture (All Facts)

• Located in Taruga in the namesake valley in Nigeria

• Characterized by its use of iron implements in the place of stone tools, thus revolutionizing farming life and society there

  • Its sophistication was made possible by the manufacture and use of Iron, which provided the technology to clear the forest and produce an agricultural surplus, thus allowing the general population to fulfill their spiritual and artistic ambitions

• Their blacksmiths were revered by the general population as having stolen fire from the gods and possessing magical powers

  • As a result, they made full use of their new prestige by becoming the religious leaders in the region and forging a very strict hierarchical society

    • This resulted in subdued behavior by the people

• Characterized by their having made beautiful terracotta figures including

  • Humans, whose faces were elaborately stylized

  • Animals including elephants, monkeys, and snakes; who were made naturalistically and possibly derived from wood-carving styles

• Characterized by an ornate dress style that did not distinguish itself sexually

500 BCE - 100 CE - Adena Culture (All Facts)

• Society in Ohio that built towns and villages

• Characterized by the burial mounds they built for their dead

200 BCE - 800 CE - Nazca Culture (All Facts)

• Society which emerged on the narrow coastal plain between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean

• Society which was well-organized

  • Its capital was at Cahuachi

    • Featured a 20-meter-high stepped-pyramid which dominated the city and in which power was centered

• Characterized by its irrigation canals, which spread outwards from the namesake river by which it was centered around

  • Its survival depended on effective irrigation

  • Maize crops flourished there

  • Farming techniques were developed

• Characterized by their textiles which were

  • bright

  • multi-colored

  • jaguar-embroidered

    • Its people had a religion that worshipped the jaguar

• Characterized by their pottery which

  • was gaily painted

  • was molded and decorated as trophy heads

  • depicted their mythical being / namesake god

100 BCE - 500 CE - Hopewell Culture (All Facts)

• Society in eastern North Africa

• Characterized by

  • Trade

  • Use of Copper

  • Smoking of Tobacco

Urartians / Urartu Kingdom (All Facts)

• People that migrated to, settled, and comprised the namesake Neo-Hurrian kingdom in modern-day Armenia on the northern fringes of the Assyrian Empire

• Founded by Sardur I

• Characterized by their

  • well-organized farming infrastructure, with secure granaries and artificial lakes and reservoirs that removed the threat of drought

  • world-famous metalworkers

• Was the main enemy of Assyria, they collapsed and were defeated by Sargon II and the Assyrians by 714 BCE

Phrygians (All Facts)

• Were an ancient Indo-European speaking people who migrated from Thrace in the Balkans into the Anatolian plateau by invading it and sacking the Hittite Empire’s capital there, Hattusas (Boghazkoy) around 1200 BCE

Sardinians (All Facts)

• Emerged around 800 BCE, they were located on the namesake island (now a part of Italy)

• Characterized by

  • its distinctive architecture and sculpture

    • Their sculptors created bronze statues of men, animals, and divinities; including a “great goddess” portrayed as a woman cradling a child in her arms

  • dry-stone towers that they built in the shape of truncated cones and surrounded by stone walls

Thracians (All Facts)

• Were an ancient Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe and Anatolia by 715 BCE

• Were a nomadic people

  • Their families fled to Eastern Europe after crossing the Caucuses mountains after having been forced from their lands by the Scythians

  • They moved from their native steppe region beyond the Black Sea with herds of fine and highly-bred horses

• Were known for their high-standard craftsmanship

  • This was due to their land that they settled in having been rich in gold, silver, and copper deposits

  • They were known for their fine filigree work in silver and gold, especially in the standards they set fashioning jewelry, helmets, and breastplates decorated from these precious metals

    • Their eastern influences were reflected in the unusual combinations of human and animal subjects that these gold and silver pieces depicted

  • One example was their production of a characteristic bronze stag

  • At the height of their power, their craftwork and treasure was internationally famous

• One of the few civilizations in history in which its leaders used the ability to generate items of wealth as a weapon in campaign to win allies and influence friends

Etruscans (All Other Facts)

• Were influential to the founding and development of Roman Civilization and its culture, but they were not Romans themselves

  • Eventually helped build the city of Rome during the Roman Kingdom period

    • The last 3 Kings of Rome during the Roman Kingdom belonged to this civilization

  • Some might consider them a link between the Villanovans and the Romans

    • However, they were their own people who just happened to migrate into and inhabit the lands of the future Romans

  • Culturally characterized by their borrowing of both Villanovan and Greek / Hellenistic influence

  • People-group that the Romans had to fight off who made attempts to retake the city of Rome

• Descended from Asiatic immigrants who arrived by sea from the eastern Mediterranean, Near East, and/or Anatolia and established settlements, and eventually city-states, in Etruria (Tuscany) in Italy by the time of the end of the Hittite Empire

  • Eventually integrated with the Villanovan people, spreading their knowledge of gold-working there among other skills

• They consisted of 12 independent cities that did not form a unified whole

  • Each city was ruled by a “lucumo” (King)

  • The King was

    • A political and religious leader

    • supported by a warrior aristocracy

  • Some cities developed into aristocracies or oligarchies

  • These city-states were united in a religious league, but each controlled their own destiny, which allowed itself to grow both economically and militaristically in a unique way

  • Their metallurgical knowledge helped them develop iron weapons that allowed them to rule much of the central peninsula of Italy through the kings of small city-states

• Enjoyed the good life: had banquets with men and women together

  • Had musicians and dancers

  • Had no privacy

• Women enjoyed considerable liberty prior within their society

• Civilization which began to decline in the 390’s BCE as Rome overtook it in power and influence to the rest of Italy

  • Underwent a series of changes as their namesake land was integrated into the Latin world

Etruscans (Writing)

• Used an alphabet developed from that of the Greeks to write a non-Indo-European language that is still undeciphered and their names cannot be derived from any known language

• Their alphabet would be brought into Rome by their namesake Kings of the Roman Kingdom period

• Their city-states were introduced to alphabetical writing by Greek settlers from Euboea around 690 BCE

  • As a result, they adopted the Chalcidian version of the Greek alphabet to transcribe their own language onto stone, bronze, wood, papyrus, and even gold

  • Taken from the Greeks, they passed this alphabet onwards to the Romans

• Their language was based on the Greek alphabet, their culture distinctly Hellenic in its origins

Etruscans (Art)

• Were known for their statuary

  • Characterized by their use of terracotta rather than stone or bronze

  • Their statuary developed more lifelike and rhythmical forms under Greek influence

• Their most famous statuary work was the terracotta Apollo located at their Temple of Veii

  • Characterized by its being rendered with a feeling of charm and physical strength

  • Its face is lit up by almost eyes and a mysterious smile

• Characterized by its realistic and spontaneous qualities, it experienced a major shift after Rome had invaded their lands and began the decline of their civilization around the 390’s BCE

Etruscans (Military History)

• Conflicts

  • Early history of expansion into North and South Italy

  • Came into conflict with the Greeks of Southern Italy

  • Collaborated with the Carthaginians to resist Greek intrusions into their markets

  • Gained a foothold in Corsica after the Battle of Alalia

  • Suffered several defeats at the hands of the Greeks

  • Lost their holdings south of the Tiber River

  • Lost their holdings of the Po River Valley at the hands of the Celts

• Their heavily-armored soldiers used chariots to expand south into Campania in Italy

Etruscans (Economy)

• Was

  • Highly developed

  • Based on trade and manufacturing

  • Admired for their metalwork, especially in Iron

• They developed their own iron-working culture

  • They did this while busily exploiting ore deposits on the island of Elba

• Were skilled traders, having established strong trading with the Greeks (in Sicily) and Phoenicians

  • Some of the best-preserved Greek pottery comes from Etruria rather than Greece

• Expanded into the Po River Valley and began to exploit the rich soil there

• If the Greeks were the best pot-makers during their time, they were the best metalworkers

Etruscans (Culture)

• Elements of its culture were borrowed by the Romans including

  • Its “century” system of organizing its armies

  • Its gladiatorial games

  • Its military “triumphs”

Etruscans (Religion)

• Established on the belief that the natural world was controlled by divinities who could be influenced to a particular course of action

• To ascertain the will of the gods, they used divination, based on an interpretation of signs received from the gods

  • Their priests took “auspices” (inspecting flights of birds) for indications of the outcome of future events, among other signs

• Had a vision of the afterlife that was similar to that of the Egyptians in that life after death was a perpetuation of all the best aspects of life on Earth

• Tuchula, Vanth, and Charun were the Demons of the Underworld

  • Vanth is a demon

  • Charun is the guide

Etruscans (Death)

• “City of the Dead”

  • Constructed by their aristocrats

  • Marked by groves of cypress trees comprising hundreds of multi-roomed stone-cut underground tombs

  • The walls of the tombs had carved into them implements that were used in everyday life; instead of putting artifacts in their tombs, they carved their artifacts into their tombs

  • Characterized by marble coffins or sarcophagi that contained the remains of married couples who remained united in death just as they had been united in life

  • Built big underground tombs with big mounds of Earth over them planted with Cyprus trees at the top

  • Some of the best Greek pots are found in Greek tombs

  • Most of the tombs were robbed

• Their tomb paintings

  • reflected Villanovan and Hellenic influences

  • Showed portraits of the dead men and their wives at banquets

  • Showed scenes of daily life with vivid pictures of boating, fishing, and hunting

• Funerals

  • Marked by athletic contests, such as wrestling matches, in honor not only of the death but also of the gods of the underworld

  • Their wrestling-like funeral games to celebrate their dead influenced the Roman gladiators

• Decline in political affairs (Celts invade the North, Greeks invade the South) is reflected in their funeral practices, which evolve with a more sinister tone

  • They begin to feat that the uncertainty in their earthly lives might follow them after death, and therefore developed rituals intended to appease the demons of the underworld

  • The funeral games now involved ritual fights-to-the-death and were accompanied by human sacrifice

  • Their understanding of the afterlife is affected:

    • They are unhappy in this life AND in the afterlife

    • Got to sacrifice humans to get a good deal

      • So they please the demons before they die so they do not get tortured

    • You have to sacrifice humans in order to please the demons

    • The wrestling marches turn into fights to the death

---

• Their tombs testify to the strong belief they held that the spirit survives after death

• Their dead were interred in barrow-like tombs with everything necessary for a comfortable life in the afterworld

• Characterized by their

  • having represented the material needs of the dead in pictorial form

  • extremely realistic paintings, which were designed to re-create the forces of life such as birds and vegetations, together with a funerary portrait

• Practiced cremation, with some believing that it was the point at which the soul was liberated from the shackles of life towards a celestial sphere

  • Placed the ashes of their dead into

    • “house-shaped” urns

    • vases representing the face of the dead person

• Funerary practices shifted after their civilization sets in decline due to the Roman invasions

  • Burials replaced cremation

  • Sarcophagi replaced funeral urns

Samnites (All Facts)

Mamertines (All Facts)

Sabines (All Facts)

• Fierce alliance of pastoral peoples living in the Apennines that long coveted Latium’s access to the sea, its fertile land and winter pastures

• Sought the salt available to the Romans at Ostia

• By 450 BCE, they were prepared to accept Romanization

  • However, the Romans adopted one of their gods called Sancus

• During their countless campaigns against the Romans, they often succeeded in getting to the city walls

  • On one occasion, they actually occupied the Capitoline Citadel on the Capitoline Hill itself before Rome could call in allies from Tusculum to assist in their ejection from the Citadel

Saharans (Subgroups)

• Composed of several peoples including the

  • Adyrmachidae

  • Giligammae

  • Asbustae

  • Macea (wore mohawks)

  • Nasamonians (nomadic herders who harvested wild dates and locusts)

  • Gindanes (had women who wore leather aklets for each lover they had had)

  • Logotphagi

  • Machylans

  • Auseans

  • Gaetuli (known for horses and purple dye; inhabited the region between the Atlas Mountains and the Saharan oases)

  • Numidians

  • Garamantes

  • Berbers

Saharans (All Facts)

• Group of herders driven from their pastures north into the Magreb, south into west and central Africa, and east into Egypt due to the fierce heat, constant drought, and ever-advancing sands of the namesake region

  • This gradual migration has profoundly influenced the outlying regions

    • In west and central Africa, they brought new agricultural techniques

    • In Egypt, they brought about an agricultural revolution due to the need to feed the growing population there

• Wherever they went, they threatened political upheaval and potential anarchy

• Occupied by mixed farmers

• Inhabitants used caves as shelters and their cave paintings tell the story of the region’s decline

  • The earliest paintings show elephants, rhinoceros, and the extinct Bubalus antiquus, which was replaced by domestic cattle

  • The latest paintings show men on horse-drawn chariots

• Their north-south trade by two-wheeled horse chariots thrived by 670 BCE, stimulated by trade with Carthage and the production of copper and iron

Saharans (Technology)

• As the namesake region they inhabited gradually turned to desert, they adapted by using camels instead of horses for trade, as horses became increasingly impractical to use

Numidians (All Facts)

• Occupied areas closer to the coast

• Famous for their calvary

Garamantes (Settlements)

• Best known people of the deeper Sahara Desert at the time of the early Roman Kingdom days

• Had several towns, of which the most important was Garama (Germa today)

• Had a large number of smaller fortified settlements, with preserved walls over 10 feet high

• Were occasionally raided by members of nearby settled areas

Garamantes (Lifestyle)

• Were primarily peaceful farmers who pursued agriculture in the oases of desert regions with minimal rainfall by utilizing

  • Wells

  • Cistern water storage

  • Elaborate irrigation systems

    • “Foggara” - artificial channels 2-5 feet large and 130-feet deep that were constructed to access fossil water sources

• Raised wheat, figs, dates, olives, and grapes

Garamantes (Economy)

• Were the primary beneficiary of trans-Saharan trade, primarily focused on the exchange of slaves

• Were both transporters and consumers of trade goods, enjoying a long period of economic prosperity based on the exploitation of both commerce and agriculture

Berbers (All Facts)

• Lived on the fringes of the Sahara south of the densely popular coastal regions

  • Those who lived more to the north practiced settle agriculture

  • Those in the South led oasis-based nomadic lives, keeping herds of cattle, sheep, and goats

  • Camels introduced around the 100’s CE

• All of the people groups spoke Afro-Asiatic languages, a North African linguistic group

• Regularly recruited into the Carthaginian and Roman armies

Nabataean Arabs (All Notes)

• Oasis-based Arabs who inhabited the dry territory between Syria and Arabia from the Euphrates River to the Red Sea; they extended their control all the way to Syria and Damascus

• First appeared in the period after the Jewish Liberation in Babylon in the 500’s BCE

• Were able to retain their independence due to their familiarity with desert life

  • Were able to ward off the Seleucids in the late 300’s BCE

  • From Petra, they continued to spread their commercial empire far and wide and maintain their independence against all newcomers

• Expanded to occupy the port city of Aqaba

• Grew rich from the caravan trade which was developing in their lands, which included

  • incense and myrrh

  • Persian pearls

  • Indian spices and cotton

  • Chinese silk

• Gained a reputation as pirates

• Raised horses

• Expanded the construction of their capital city of Petra

  • It lay hidden in great folds of mountains

  • Created out of the wealth they had

  • Created out of hollowed caves out of the sides of ravines

  • Created the whole city out of rock with villas, temples, markets, and tombs

• Their gods were represented as simple blocks of stone, some of which were made out of cliffs or mountain tops

Nabataean Arabs (Economy)

• Benefited from commerce between east and west

• Engaged in trade with

  • Southern Arabia for frankincense, myrrh, and spices

  • Egypt for Bitumen

• Their capital city of Petra was the center of a camel-trading network that extended across the Persian Gulf to Damascus and to the Red Sea

Nabataean Arabs (Technology)

• Graced by an extensive system of water collection that preserved water from flash floods in cisterns for use during dry periods

• Had sophisticated irrigation techniques that maximized the effect of the minimal rainfall allowing for the cultivation of date palms and balsam poplar

Nabataean Arabs (Writing)

• Developed a written language using the Aramaic alphabet, which had developed out of the Phoenician alphabet

• A cursive form of their script would evolve to become the Arabic alphabet

• Their Aramaic alphabet featured added characters that indicated the presence of vowels

• Although none of their literature or documents survive, a high literacy rate among their population is suggested given that what does survive is lots of graffiti

Olmecs (All Facts)

• Society which was located and which developed on the east coast of Mexico

• Characterized by their

  • Distinctive great basalt heads, which reached up to 12 feet in height and were placed next to their pyramid temples

    • These huge sculptures carved in the Gulf of Mexico spectacularly demonstrate the devotion inspired by their religious cults

    • Its colossal sculpted heads looked out over the Gulf of Mexico

  • Distinctive sculptures made from jade, terracotta, and bone, which depicted their religious beliefs and fat eunuchs with innocent expressions as well as jaguars and serpents

  • Accurate calendar they designed from their study of the stars

• Their most famous pyramid temples were those of La Venta, San Lorenzo, and Tres Zapatas in the Central American region of Mexico

  • The interiors of these buildings were decorated with finely carved pillars, altars, and coffins

• Society that learned how to count, calculate, and write

• Their ideas and beliefs eventually spread to neighboring eastern and central Mexico and further afield to central America, as far as Guatemala and El Salvador

• Centered at Remojadas, Tres Zapotes, and El Tajin

Zapotecs (All Facts)

• Society which emerged in Mexico around 500 BCE

• Built a famous city at Monte Alban on the west coast of Mexico

• Built Temple complexes in the valley of Oaxaca in southern Mexico

• The namesake mountaintop was flattened and levelled and the temples have been designed around a large plaza

• Its settlers

  • evolved distinctive styles of pottery, sculpture, and architecture

  • formalized astronomical observations and a calendar system

Mixtecs (All Facts)

• Society which emerged in Mexico around 1500 BCE until 1500 CE

• Characterized by carpeting their buildings with exquisite mosaics

Khoisan People (in the BCE)

• Settled in the area around the modern-day Cape of Good Hope (on the coast of South Africa)

• Domesticated dogs to be used for hunting for the first time around 1000 BCE

• Bambata Towel

  • Characterized by its thin clay body and intricate decoration

  • Was a product of this group and the Bantu people

• Their herding culture spread, together with the speaking of northern Kalahari variants of their namesake languages as far as the south coast of Africa, by 100 BCE

Bantu People (in the BCE)

• Gained influence in what is not Zambia and Angola

• Spoke the namesake language

• Characterized by their “Stumpa” pottery

• Characterized by their use of iron metallurgy

  • This knowledge of ironworking soon spreads elsewhere, to West Africa, where it penetrated the forest belt running along the West African coastal hinterland by 370 BCE

  • Brought the first iron tools to the Zimbabwean plateau

• Settled with Khoisan-speaking herders who were still using stone tools at the time

• Were farmers

• Emerged around 380 BCE - 370 BCE

• Bambata Towel

  • Characterized by its thin clay body and intricate decoration

  • Was a product of this group and the Khoisan People

Cuiculico / Tlatico (All Facts)

• Located in central Mexico, they formed a cult based on the worship of a female fertility deity and in which they construct a pyramidal mound around 550 BCE

Ancient Germans (All Facts)

• Their peasant farmers established the first settlements in the central lowlands of northern Europe, where ironworking was developed around 600 BCE

Aetolians (All Facts)

• Felt frustrated at the political reorganization of Greece by Rome, which had declared all Greek cities free

Teotihuacan (All Facts)

• Largest and most populous city in the Americas by 170 BCE and by 180 CE

  • It was nestled in the folds of the Mexican plateau and spread over the entire namesake valley

  • Located in the middle of the neck of Mexico, on the crossroads between North and South America 

• It was known at the time as the “City of the Gods”

• City of 5-10K inhabitants in 170 BCE

  • City which took shape following a massive population explosion 

  • By 180 CE, the city’s population grew to 100K people

  • By 400 CE, the city’s population grew to 250K people and it was the sixth largest city in the world (by population) 

• Covered 3.5 square miles in 170 BCE and then covered 11 square miles by 180 CE 

• In 170 BCE, it was cut into two by one grand avenue leading to its Pyramids of the Sun and Moon

  • The avenue was lined with lesser pyramids and palaces where the ruling caste of priests lived

    • The palaces were build around courtyards, with walls of stone bright with murals

      • The vast wall paintings depicted jaguars as priests and other mythical beings, and priests recited sacred texts

  • The Pyramids of the Sun and Moon were constructed around 100 CE

• By 180 CE, the grand avenue was ennobled by even grander pyramids, all adorned with the namesake city’s symbol: the plumed serpent 

• Its wealth was based on making knives and tools from obsidian, the hard volcanic rock

• It became a major cultural and commercial capital of Central America by 180 CE 

  • Its wealth was based on making knives and tools from obsidian, the hard volcanic rock

  • Its agricultural, manufactured, and philosophical exports were found all over Central America

  • It cult of the plumed serpent spread all over Central America

  • By 400 CE, it exerted a strong cultural influence on Mayan city-states including Tikal and the Zapotec capital of Monte Alban 

• By 180 CE, it colonized Kaminaljuyu in Guatemala (a Mayan city-state at one point)  

• Reached new heights of prosperity, especially in the Maya area where numerous city-states developed and rival dynastic families ruled by 295 CE 

• By 400 CE, people from the area set up colonial or trading posts 5600 miles away at Kaminaljuyu 

• By 500 CE, it was the largest city in the Americas

  • It was both a political capital and a religious one, where thousands of pilgrims flocked there every year, many of whom stayed there and swelled the underclass in the inner city

  • It consisted of nearly 250K people

    • It was rigidly hierarchical;

      • High priests lived in its mansions and palaces along its prestigious “Avenue of the Dead”

      • The proletariat was squashed into inner city rabbit warrens

      • The middle class occupied the suburbs

    • This would soon lead to the first ever revolution within the city

Tochari (All Facts)

• Group of Scythian warriors that invaded

  • the Seleucid satrap of Bactria by 146 BCE

  • Sogdiana, the kingdom to the north of Bactria, in the 150’s BCE

Sakas (All Facts)

• Group of Scythian warriors that invaded the Punjab from Baluchistan and Sind

Lusitanians (All Facts)

• Tribe in Spain

• Resisted Roman advance into Spain

  • Were led by Viriathus

    • He was originally a shepherd

    • He waged a successful campaign against the Romans

    • Secured a favorable peace with Rome and was recognized by them as an ally

Celtiberians (All Facts)

• Celtic tribes of Spain

• Resisted Roman advance into Spain

• Resisted Cimbrian, Teutonic, and Ambronic invasion into Spain

Celto-Ligurians / Salluvii (All Facts)

• Tribe / Subtribe that attacked the people of Massalia (Marseilles) in a series of attacks around 123 BCE

• They were suppressed by the Romans and their suppression brought Rome’s military campaigns in Gaul to a successful conclusion

Maputo (All Facts)

• Its pottery was associated with the early users of iron in Africa and was made in the namesake location by 70 BCE, and derived from Malawi, eastern Tanzania, and Kenya

Mochica People (All Facts)

• Located on the northeast coast of Peru

• Were known for habitually chewing the coca-leaf, which grew in abundance in their society

• Their regular coca rituals were recorded on painted ceramics showing

  • the coca-ritual itself

  • the bag in which the coca-leaves were collected

  • figures wearing ritual clothing

  • their local namesake god, a cat-like being with a belt with snake-like forms dangling from it

• Characterized by painted ceramics that depict

  • a battle scene with the taking of captives for sacrificial beheading

  • domestic scenes

  • house-forms

  • figures holding vessels

  • a man with a cat

  • a figure pecked by vultures

  • a curious “moon animal”

• Depicted scenes were

  • Painted on flat surfaces

  • Molded

  • Hand-modelled

  • shown with a wide variation in form

  • sometimes depicted in a strip of overlapping illustrations

• Characterized by their potters who mastered remarkable techniques which

  • Were possibly acquired from previous cultures like the Huantar and Recuay

  • Included modelling in high-relief with low-relief created by stamping

• Had some of the finest artisans and craftsmen in the Americas at the time, around 10 BCE

Moche Culture (All Facts)

• Spread south from the Chicama and Moche valleys in the narrow arid coastal strip of Peru

• It extended itself from the Andres Mountains to the Pacific Ocean

• In its namesake valley are temples dedicated to the Sun and Moon, which were cut by roads and irrigation canals

  • The Temple to the Sun

    • Was 150 feet high

    • Was built with 50M bricks

    • Contained frescoes painted in seven different colors that repeated realistic motifs that were used in Mohican ceramics, which depicted people and animals in everyday tasks

• Its empire collapsed in 600 CE as a result of

  • Wari Expansion

  • A major environmental change which caused its canals that irrigated the city to silt up

Arawak (All Facts) 

• Located in the Caribbean including Jamaica, Cuba, and Hispaniola

• Originated from the Orinoco River basin

  • They made their way in dug-out canoes down the length of the Orinoco River

• Migrated to the Antilles

• They settled in the island that they called Iguana (San Salvador) and spread out to many of the West Indian islands including Jamaica and Cuba

• Gradually drove out the earlier Ciboney settlers of the islands around 1 CE

• Their canoes were an essential part of their life as they were used for

  • Migration

  • Trade

  • Fishing

  • Hunting

  • Transport of food

• They were skilled farmers that grew

  • Edible crops like

    • Maize

    • Sweet Potatoes

    • Bean Crops

    • Peanuts

    • Peppers

    • Pineapples

  • Non-edible varieties of plants from which body-painting dies were produced

• They developed skilled irrigation techniques

• They used wooden farming implements including

  • Digging stick - used for planting

  • Broadsword - used for

    • cutting

    • as a weapon

• Their religious rituals included 

  • Playing with rubber balls

  • Human sacrifice

Ancient Colombians / Ecuadorians (All Facts)

• Learned to smelt platinum at very high temperatures around 1 CE

Dacians (All Facts)

• People that inhabited the territory in the southeast corner of the Adriatic Sea during the 0s CE

Nok (All Facts) 

• People group of Ancient Nigeria, they were descendants of the early Black people who emigrated southwards during the desiccation of the Sahara and were the first to use iron in West Africa 

• Characterized by their exquisite terracotta sculpture, a culmination of their namesake agricultural revolution brought about b y their iron instruments, which thus enriched their culture 

• They were an Iron Age culture located on the Bauchi and Jos Plateaux in Nigeria whose influence spread throughout the region 

Madagascar (All Facts)

• Its first human settlements were established around 100 CE - 200 CE

• Its settlers were mostly Malayo-Polynesian sailors, from south Borneo in Indonesia

• Trade across the Indian Ocean to East Africa and offshore islands has brought various items to the namesake region including

  • Bananas

  • Coconuts

  • Yams

  • Xylophones

Mogollon Indians (All Facts)

• People who developed an increasingly sophisticated craft of pottery-making

  • They made jars and bowls by coiling clay and smoothing the vessels into their final shape with pebbles, giving their wares a characteristic distinctive dimpled finish

  • They eventually added painted decoration to their pottery

  • They also made clay pipes and tiny clay dolls

  • Probably in initially learnt from neighboring Mexican tribes, so they likely did not develop the skill from scratch themselves

• They were located in the southwest region of North America

• They had eked out a living in mountainous terrain surviving on nature

• Remained reliant on food that they could gather from the wild eating seeds, roots, nuts, and occasional fruits along with meat, a rare luxury

• They lived in small villages of pit houses, some of which were partly underground, in which their entrances faced east to catch the rays of the early morning sun

Isaurians (All Facts) 

• Warrior nomad people from the mountains of southern Anatolia 

• They revolted against Byzantine Emperor Anastasius, who put an end to their power in Constantinople after they were crushed in the Battle of Cotyaeum in 492 

• The threat they posed to the Byzantine Empire was removed and their mountain strongholds were pacified during the reign of Emperor Anastasius in 498 

• Two of their men were influential to Byzantine Political History including

  • Tarasicoodissa, (a non-Nicene) who became Byzantine Emperor Zeno

  • Illus, a (Nicene) patrician who revolted against Byzantine Emperor Zeno

Hagha Dynasty (All Facts)

• Dynasty that ruled from the Sahel savannah region

• Dynasty characterized by its trade in gold and salt by camel trains to North Africa

Listed in this set because their existence is not supported by Wikipedia

Anasazi (All Facts)

• Culture that emerged in modern-day Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico that constructed its villages on cliffs for protective reasons around 500 CE

Wari (All Facts) 

• Culture / Civilization based in the Ayacucho Valley of the central Andean region

• Expanded its power by conquest as far as the northern coastal region of Peru and the Nazca area to the South around 500 CE

Tiahuanaco (All Facts)

• Culture / Civilization based in Bolivia, centered on the southern coast of Lake Titicaca

• Shared religious and cultural beliefs with the Wari

• Built up a large empire whose power derived from its control of trade in hallucinogens for ceremonial purposes

• Highest city in the world at its time, at 12,000 feet

• Its influence gradually extended into Argentina and Chile

Bulgars (All Facts)

• Turkic People who absorbed the remaining Huns

• They ravaged Thrace around 502, unopposed by the Eastern armies which they had already defeated in 493 and 499

• A great horse of them ravaged Thrace and Macedonia again and reached the walls of Constantinople in 540

  • They then returned home with their booty

Bantu People (in the CE) 

• Society in Africa that was prominent in the western foothills of the Drakensberg Mountains in southern Africa around 540 CE

• These farmers 

  • Were immigrants from northern Africa

  • Owned sheep, cattle, goats, and dogs

  • Used iron and copper implements

  • Made pots and ceramics decorated with intricate motifs

• Their women

  • Had elaborate hairstyles

  • Adorned themselves with many-colored bead necklaces held together by thin copper bands and facial incisions

• Society which was organized along tribal lines

• Society in which, every year, the youth of the community marked the arrival of adulthood with sacred initiation rates

• Society which placed terracotta heads on high totem poles which rose above the villages and stayed there throughout the ceremony before being returned to the pits where they were kept for safety 

  • These terracotta heads were as exquisite and elaborate as the hairstyles of its women

  • The same motifs that adorned on the terracotta heads appeared on the cheeks of their women 

Avars (All Facts)

• Created the first Mongol Empire shortly after 400 CE

• Founded two states,

  • One based in Mongolia (eastern Turks)

  • One based in Zungaria (western Turks)

• Broke ties with the enormous Turkish race around 560

• These developments caused the namesake confederation of tribes to migrate towards the Caucuses mountains around 560

• By 561, they appeared on the Danube River frontier of the Byzantine Empire for the first time

• By 580, the Slavs recognized their supremacy in the Balkans

• Their military efforts include

  • 567 - Worked with the Lombards to crush the Gepids, taking over Gepid territory on the middle Danube River

  • 582 - Byzantine Emperor Tiberius II surrendered Sirmium to them and paid them a huge tribute to safeguard the rest of the Balkans

  • 592 - Began fighting against Maurice and the Byzantines

  • 617 - Along with the Avars, they arrived beneath the walls of the imperial capital of Constantinople and ravaged Constantinople’s suburbs 

    • They had completely overran the Balkans, with only a few towns still under Byzantine control 

  • 626 - Allied with the Sassanids to launch a combined assault on Constantinople, but their fleet was destroyed and their “kagan” (ruler) raised the siege, so Constantinople was saved 

• In 619, they were bought off by Emperor Heraclius to stop attacking the Byzantine Empire in order that he could focus on repelling the threat of Khosrow II and the Sassanids 

Slavs (All Facts) 

• Generally from Central and Eastern Europe

• Settled the lands abandoned by Germanic tribes who had fled from the Huns and their allies

• By 550, they had began threatening the Danube River frontier of the Byzantine Empire 

• By 580, they settled in the Balkans where they recognized Avar supremacy 

• By 592, they began to fight against Maurice and the Byzantines 

• In 617, along with the Avars, they arrived beneath the walls of the imperial capital of Constantinople and ravaged Constantinople’s suburbs 

  • They had completely overran the Balkans, with only a few towns still under Byzantine control 

Hohokam Culture (All Facts)

• Culture that emerged in the southwest desert of modern-day Arizona

• It showed signs of Mexican influence

• Social organization was at a chieftainship level

• At its cities of Snaketown and Pueblo Grande ball courts were erected

• At its city Mesa Grade low pyramid-type buildings were constructed

Marajo Island (All Facts)

• Located in the mouth of the Amazon River

• Social organization developed at a chieftainship level there around 600 CE

• Very large and elaborate pottery styles were produced there

Western Turks (All Facts) 

• Founded a vast empire based in Zungaria in 589

• Took control of the Silk Road in 589 

Khazars (All Facts)

• Turkic Tribe

• Their military efforts include

  • 627 - Allied with Heraclius and the Byzantines to defeat Khosrow II and the Sassanids in the Battle of Nineveh

Cahokians / Cahokia (All Facts)

• City founded in southern Illinois around 610 CE

• City whose most distinctive feature was large number of flat-topped mounds of various sizes

  • Some of these mounds were associated with plazas, which provided the focus of civic and ceremonial life

  • Some served as platforms for major buildings including

    • Residences of the community leaders

      • Community leaders derive their power and authority from the belief that they embody sacred forces

    • Shrine houses or “temples” dedicated to the veneration of ancestors of the elite

      • The bones of rulers and their close relatives were placed in the temple shrines after death

• It was a religious, political, and economic center with prosperous quarry and salt industries

• City which became one of the most heavily populated of the communities that sprang up during that time in the central Mississippi valleys

• City which was attractive for settlement due to its climate, which was ideal for maize, which was best suited to hoe agriculture

• City in which societal organization was at a chieftainship level

• City which established outlying colonies and trading posts