River Valley Civilizations Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering major concepts, locations, terms, and social practices of early River Valley Civilizations.

Fertile Crescent

A moon-shaped strip of land stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf that provided excellent farmland in the modern-day Middle East.

Mesopotamia

A region located within the Fertile Crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, meaning "land between 2 rivers".

City-states

Political units formed by the Sumerian Civilization consisting of a central city and the land surrounding it.

Ziggurats

Stepped pyramids with a temple at the top built by the Sumerian Civilization.

Cuneiform

The Sumerian system of writing in which symbols represented complex ideas.

Polytheism

The belief in more than one god, practiced by Sumerian city-states where each city-state had its own god.

Hammurabi's Code

A set of rules and consequences addressing daily life in Babylon based on "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" principles, featuring different punishments based on social class and gender.

Patriarchy

A system meaning "the rule of the father," characterized by autocratic rule by the male head of a family and male dominance in political leadership, moral authority, and control of property.

Phoenician Alphabet

A 22-symbol alphabet created by the Phoenicians to simplify record-keeping, which spread throughout the Mediterranean and influenced later writing systems.

Cultural Diffusion

The spreading of culture from one group or region to another.

Shang Dynasty

The first Chinese dynasty (1700-1000 BCE) from which there are written records.

Oracle Bones

Usually sheep or turtle bones used by Shang Dynasty kings and high priests to communicate with the spiritual world or tell the future.

Mandate of Heaven

The belief that effective rulers in China received the authority to rule from Heaven, but ineffective rulers would lose this authority and be overthrown by a new dynasty.

Harappan Civilization

Another name for the Indus Valley Civilization, known for its major carefully planned cities.

Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro

Major cities of the Indus Valley Civilization that were carefully planned on a grid pattern and featured elevated brick fortresses.

Sati

A patriarchal practice in early Indian society in which a "proper" widow throws herself onto her husband's funeral pyre.