600 BCE - 600 CE Unit 0 Practice Flashcards

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering key religious, political, and cultural concepts from 600 BCE to 600 CE based on the lecture notes.

Upanishads, Mahabharata, and Ramayana

The South Asian texts central to the codification of Hinduism.

Theravada vs. Mahayana

The major split in Buddhism that is a crucial topic for South Asian history.

Legalism

An East Asian school of thought that competed with Confucianism and Daoism during the Qin and Han periods.

Indian Ocean merchants

The group primarily responsible for the spread of Hinduism and Buddhism into Southeast Asia.

The Babylonian exile

The event most associated with Judaism's codification, including the Torah, synagogue system, and diaspora communities.

Zoroastrianism

The official state religion of the Persian Empire.

Judea

The Roman-controlled region where Christianity originated.

Plato, Aristotle, and Stoicism

Greek philosophical traditions that functioned as quasi-secular meaning-making systems in Europe.

$$312\,CE$$

The year Constantine converted to Christianity.

$$380\,CE$$

The year Christianity became the official state religion of Rome.

Alexandria

A center in North Africa known for the synthesis of Greek philosophy, Judaism, and early Christianity.

Carthage

A center of Punic and Phoenician religious tradition destroyed by Rome in $146\,BCE$.

Chavín de Huántar

An Andean site that served as a religious pilgrimage and cultural unification center.

Olmec

A Mesoamerican tradition characterized by jaguar deities and monumental architecture that laid the foundation for later belief systems.

Syncretism

The cultural fusion of different traditions, such as the Greek and Indian artistic fusion found in Gandharan Buddhist sculpture.

Three Obediences

A Confucian concept describing the gender hierarchy in East Asia.

Varna/caste system

A South Asian hierarchy that functioned as both a religious and social structure.

Ashoka

The Maurya Empire ruler who used Buddhist edicts to project moral authority across his empire.

Mandate of Heaven

A Chinese political concept used to justify dynastic rule and the legitimacy of its potential loss.

Achaemenid Persian Empire

The empire known for satrapies, the Royal Road, and a policy of tolerance documented on the Cyrus Cylinder.

Parthian Empire

The empire that succeeded the Achaemenids and served as Rome's eastern rival.

Gupta Empire

A South Asian empire associated with a Hindu revival and a "Golden Age" characterized by decentralized rule.

Qin Dynasty

A short-lived Chinese dynasty known for its use of Legalism and administrative standardization.

Funan

An early Indianized kingdom that emerged in the Mekong Delta of Southeast Asia.

$$476\,CE$$

The year identifying the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.

Kingdom of Kush/Meroe

An independent African empire known for its Meroitic script and significant iron production.

Teotihuacan

A major Mesoamerican urban center with wide cultural influence but a poorly understood political structure.

$$30-40\%$$

The estimated percentage of the Italian population enslaved under the Roman Empire.

Merchants

The group that ranked lowest in the Han social hierarchy despite often possessing wealth.

Qanats

Persian underground irrigation channels that enabled agriculture in arid regions.

$$80,000\,km$$

The approximate extent of the Roman road network.

Cai Lun

The Han Chinese official credited with refining paper around $105\,CE$.

Antonine Plague

A disease outbreak in Rome ($\sim 160s-180s\,CE$) roughly simultaneous with an epidemic in Han China, likely spread via the Silk Road.

Maya script

The only fully developed writing system in the Americas during the period of $600\,BCE$ to $600\,CE$.

Maya Long Count calendar

A sophisticated Mesoamerican intellectual achievement with no parallel in the Americas at the time.