Chapter 1: Origins

Agriculture

Agriculture

________ requires much more labor, and early farmers were less healthy than foragers.

Greco Roman ideas

________ about the West were passed on to people who lived in western and northern Europe, who saw themselves as the inheritors of this classical tradition and thus as the West.

Sumerians

________ wrote numbers as well as words on clay tablets, and some surviving tablets show multiplication and division problems.

Sargon

________ tore down the defensive walls of Sumerian cities and appointed his own sons as their rulers to help him cement his power.

agricultural cycle

The rhythms of the ________ and patterns of exchange also shaped religious beliefs and practices.

Paleolithic period humans

In the ________ throughout the world lived in ways that were similar to one another.

Amenhotep III

________ was succeeded by his son, who took the name Akhenaten (r. 1351- 1334 b.c.e .)

nineteenth century

During the ________, archaeologists coined labels for eras of the human past according to the primary material out of which surviving tools had been made.

Homo sapiens

________ invented highly specialized tools, made regular use of fire, and migrated.

Mathematics

________ was not just a theoretical matter to the people living in Mesopotamia, because the building of cities, palaces, temples, and canals demanded practical knowledge of geometry and trigonometry.

Sheep

________ and goats allowed themselves to be herded, and people developed a new form of living, pastoralism, based on herding and raising livestock.

Ramesses II

In 1258 ________ and the Hittite king Hattusili III concluded a peace treaty, which was recorded in both Egyptian hieroglyphics and Hittite cuneiform.

Scribes

________ could combine pictographs to express meaning.

pharaoh Ramesses II

The ________ engaged in numerous campaigns to retake Egyptian territory in Syria.

Scribal schools

________ were primarily intended to produce individuals who could keep records of the property of temple officials, kings, and nobles.

Hammurabis code

________ provides a wealth of information about daily life in Mesopotamia.

Pictographs

________ were the forerunners of the Sumerian form of writing known as cuneiform (from the Latin term for "wedge shaped,) "used to describe the indentations made by a sharpened stylus in clay.

Intentional crop

________ planting first developed around 9000 b.c.e, in the area archaeologists call the Fertile Crescent, which runs from present- day Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan north to Turkey and then south and east to the Iran- Iraq border.

Foragers

________ began planting seeds in the ground along with gathering wild grains, roots, and other foodstuffs.

Hammurabi

________ gave careful attention to marriage and the family.

Tigris

The Sumerians and later civilizations built their cities along the ________ and Euphrates Rivers and their branches.

Historians

________ can use epic poems to learn about various aspects of a society, and to that extent epics can be used as historical sources.

Slaves

________ were a source of physical power for their owners, providing them an opportunity to amass more wealth and influence.

Hammurabis

________ most memorable accomplishment was the proclamation of an extensive law code, introduced about 1755 b.c.e.

Mesopotamians

Like the ________, the Egyptians were polytheistic, worshipping many gods of all types, some mightier than others.

Crop

________ raising and pastoralism brought significant changes to human ways of life, but the domestication of certain large animals had an even bigger impact.

Marriage

________ was a business arrangement, just as in Mesopotamia, arranged by the couples parents, and seems to have taken place at a young age.

Hyksos

The ________ brought with them the method of making bronze and casting it into tools and weapons that became standard in Egypt.

Çatal Hüyük

________, in what is now Turkey, shows evidence of trade as well as specialization of labor.

important materials

All metals were expensive and hard to obtain, however, so stone, wood, and bone remained ________ for tools and weapons long into the Bronze Age.

Egyptians

________ considered the sun- god Ra the creator of life.

Nile

The Egyptians based their calendar on the ________, dividing the year into three four- month periods: akhet (flooding), peret (growth), and shemu (harvest)

Nile Delta

Egyptian scribes actually created two writing systems: one called hieroglyphic for engraving important religious or political texts on stone or writing them on papyrus made from reeds growing in the ________, and a much simpler system called hieratic that allowed scribes to write more quickly.

Hittites

Information about the ________ comes from archaeological sources, and also from written cuneiform tablets that provide details about politics and economic life.

major element

The rivers supplied fish, a(n) ________ of the Sumerian diet, reeds, which were used for making baskets and writing implements, and clay.

Babylon

________ grew great because of its commercial importance and the sound leadership of a dynasty of Amorite rulers.

Civilizations

________ had cities, laws, codes of manners and social conduct, and scientific, philosophical, and theological beliefs.

political power structures

The ________ that developed in Egypt came to be linked with the Nile.

pharaohs wife

The ________ was associated with Isis, for both the queen and the goddess were regarded as protectors.

Hammurabi of Babylon

________ (r. 1792- 1750 b.c.e .)

Thousands of cuneiform tablets

________ testify to centuries of commercial and cultural exchanges with Mesopotamia, and eventually with Egypt, which rose to power in the Nile Valley.

major floods

To prevent ________, the Sumerians created massive hydraulic projects, including reservoirs, dams, and dikes as well as canals.

Islamist radicals

________ often describe their aims as an end to Western cultural, economic, and political influence, though Islam itself is generally described, along with Judaism and Christianity, as a Western monotheistic religion.

Akkadians

________ adapted cuneiform writing to their own language, and Akkadian became the diplomatic language used over a wide area.

Nile Valley

In addition to scribes, the cities of the ________ were home to artisans of all types, along with merchants and other tradespeople.

Greek civilization

________ grew up in the shadow of earlier civilizations to the south and east of Greece, especially Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Western civilization

________ has been shaped by interactions with other societies, cultures, and civilizations.

Mesopotamians

________ found their lives lightened by holidays and religious festivals.

Marriage

________ was apparently not celebrated by any rit­ual or religious act; it seems to have been purely a legal contract in which a woman brought one third of her familys property to the ________.

Egyptians

To ancient ________, the king embodied the concept of maat, a cosmic harmony that embraced truth, justice, and moral integrity.