Hunters, Farmers, and Ancient Egypt Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary practice flashcards defining key historical terms, proper nouns, and concepts from hunter-gatherers, early farmers, and early civilisations in Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt.

Creation narratives

Stories about a god or gods making the Earth and people, such as the story of Adam and Eve or the Chinese story of Pangu.

Theory of Evolution

The scientific answer explaining that species slowly change and adapt to their environment over time, formulated by 19th-century scientist Charles Darwin.

Homo sapiens

The Latin name for our human species, which evolved in Africa around 300,000 years ago.

Out of Africa theory

The theory stating that Homo sapiens slowly spread out of Africa across the entire world over tens of thousands of years.

Neanderthals

An extinct species of humans that lived in Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia who were smaller and stronger than Homo sapiens and well-adapted to cold climates.

Flores Man

An extinct human species discovered on the Island of Flores in Indonesia that stood only 1.1 metres tall.

Culture

What people think and do, encompassing language, clothing, religion, and art.

Ice ages

Very cold geological periods during which thick ice covered large portions of North America, Europe, and Asia.

Hunter-gatherers

People who obtained their food by hunting wild animals, fishing, and gathering wild berries, mushrooms, and fruit.

Nomads

People who have no fixed home and move from place to place to follow their food supply.

Stone Age

The historical era in which hunter-gatherers lived, named after stone tools which survived decay unlike bone, antler, ivory, or wood.

Cave paintings of Lascaux

Prehistoric cave artwork created around 17,000 years ago and discovered in 1940 by French teenager Marcel Ravidat.

Trijntje

A Dutch hunter-gatherer living around 5500 BC whose tribe inhabited a river dune in winter, hunted beavers and birds, fished, and used canoes.

Ötzi

A frozen mummy found in the Alps in 1991 who died around 3300 BC and functioned as both a hunter-gatherer and an early farmer.

Domestication

The practice of capturing wild animals and breeding them for human use rather than hunting and killing them.

Animal husbandry

The systematic agricultural practice of keeping and breeding livestock.

Agriculture

The combined economic activity of cultivating plant crops and practising animal husbandry.

Fertile Crescent

A region in the Middle East where the agricultural revolution began around 10,000 BC with crops like wheat, barley, and emmer.

Mesopotamia

A Greek term meaning 'the land between rivers,' located between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.

Silt

A rich layer of fertile clay deposited on farmland when river floodwaters recede.

Irrigation

The engineering practice of digging canals to transport river water to dry agricultural fields.

Agricultural surplus

An excess quantity of food produced beyond what a farming community requires for its immediate survival.

Bartering

The direct exchange of goods and services between trading partners without utilizing money.

Agricultural urban society

A society that emerges as agricultural villages expand into cities due to craftsmen and traders establishing settlements around central markets.

Cuneiform

An ancient system of writing composed of line symbols created by the Sumerians around 3300 BC.

Prehistory

The era of human existence before the invention of written records.

Hieroglyphs

An ancient Egyptian writing system composed of small picture-symbols written on papyrus and stone structures.

Rosetta Stone

A key historical artifact discovered in 1799 that enabled Jean-François Champollion to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Scribe

A literate individual trained in reading and writing who worked as a civil servant for governmental or religious administration.

Akkadian

The wide-reaching language of Mesopotamia, named after the ancient city of Akkad.

Lingua franca

A common language adopted by diverse ethnic groups to communicate for commercial trade and international diplomacy.

Pharaoh

The supreme sovereign ruler of ancient Egypt who was venerated as a living god and the earthly embodiment of Horus.

King Narmer

The ruler who unified Lower and Upper Egypt around 3100 BC to establish Egypt's first dynasty as its first pharaoh.

Dynasty

A sequence of monarchs belonging to the same ruling family lineage.

Ramesses II

An Egyptian pharaoh known as 'Ramesses the Great' who ruled for 67 years and constructed extensive temples and monolithic statues.

Thutmose III

An Egyptian pharaoh who expanded Egypt's boundaries and wealth through territorial conquests.

Egyptian social pyramid

The hierarchical social order of ancient Egypt, ranked from top to bottom as Pharaoh, Priests, High civil servants, Soldiers, Low civil servants & merchants/craftsmen, Farmers, and Enslaved people and prisoners of war.