the bane of my existence

what does Mesopotamia mean? what is another name for mesopotamia?

the land of the 2 rivers. fertile crescent

what 2 rivers ran through ancient Sumer/Mesopotamia?

tigris (east) and euphrates (west)

name the most important city states in ancient sumer

ur, akkad, babylon

what natural disaster gave ancient sumerians the most trouble?

flooding

How did ancient sumerians overcome problems they faced during their time?

built walls for protection, irrigation systems, and traded with other tribes

what is cultural diffusion

when a new idea or product spreads from one culture to another

what was the afterlife of ancient sumer like?

the eat dust ad clay for eternity

what kind of religion did the sumerians practice?

anthropomorphic polytheism

what were the gods of ancient sumer like? who was the most powerful god?

acted like humans meaning they weren’t perfect. enlil was most powerful

why were city state religions in ancient sumer always at war?

wanted to prove their god was better

jobs women could have in ancient sumer bc they had more rights than any women of that time

merchants, farmers, scribes or artisans

how did kings come to power in sumer?

they were former military leaders the people wanted in power

what empire did hammrabi rule over?

babylon

name 3 achievements of ancient sumerians

wheeled vehicles, astronomy, military formations

what direction does the nile flow? through what areas?

north from upper egypt in the south to lower egypt in the north

why were floods from the nile good for ancient Egypt?

pushed silt up, making it good for farming and keeps famine away

what helped ancient egpytians overcome the desert?

horses

who unified egpyt? how do we know?

scorpion/Narmer wore a combined crown of upper and lower egpyt

what does pharaoh mean

great house

nomes ruled over nomarchies, how man divisions were there in ancient egpyt?

42

pharaoh was seen as a reincarnation of god that runs both heaven and man, what is this called?

a theocracy

out of the 2000 egpytian gods, name 4 and their significance

ra the sun god, anubis god of the underworld, osiris was king of the gods and iris was is wife

main focus of Egyptian religion

conquering death

what were pyramids? what kingdom in ancient egypt built them?

tombs built by the old kingdom

what is the book of the dead

a book of cheat codes with the answers to all processes in the afterlife buried w/ the dead

hieroglyphics of ancient egyptian were both _____, ____, and ____

alphabetical, pictorial, and logographical

first to translate ancient egyptian found on the Rosetta stone

jean François champollion

in the Indus river valley settlement, what controlled the weather? what was the weather like?

Himalayas either brought monsoons or drought

why were ancient egpytians so advanced in medicinal practices?

the mummification process

the first intermediate period occurred under what kingdom?

old kingdom

the second intermediate period occurred under what kingdom?

middle kingdom

the hykso of the middle kingdom brought what to Egypt?

composite bow, horses, chariots

after the new kingdom, name the empires in order that conquered egypt

persian, greek, roman

Harrapan cities were ____ ___ and had _____

planned out, plumbing

why don’t we know a lot about Harappan civilization?

we cannot translate their language

1st theory of harappan government

single state government (1)

2nd theory of harappan government

no single ruler, each city had its own government (2)

3rd theory of harappan government

no rulers and everyone had equal status (3)

we do not know the religious outlook of Harrapans, but we believe they might have been a _____

theocracy

name 3 tech advances made by the harrapans

weights, games, earliest known dentistry

1st theroy of what happened to the harrapans

natural disaster from river changing course (1)

2nd theroy of what happened to the harrapans

the land was overworked (2)

3rd theroy of what happened to the harrapans

aryan invaders from the north (3)

why do some historians believe the xia dynasty never existed?

no evidence of writing, mostly scratches and pictures

what did the xia dynasty leader yu the great do

controlled flood waters of yellow river

erlitou culture is believed to be apart of the xia dynasty, what got this started?

catastrophic flood in 1920 BC

the shang dynasty had a strong concept of ___, later incorporating it into religious culture

family

name 3 of the innovatons from the zhou dynasty

canals, coined money, casted iron

what led to the fall of the zhou dynasty?

divison and warfare between the states

god of he shang dynasty

shangdi

explain oracle bones from the shang dynasty

ask the bone a question, crack the bone and get the answer, then write everything down on it

what ancient Chinese dynasty had a class system similar to medieval Europe?

shang

what did the jinsha and sanxingdvi do?

made gold masks and did divination like the shang

what dynasty overthrew the shang? who was their leader?

zhou under di xin

the zhou practiced feudalism, what is it?

a political system in which nobles/lords were granted the use of lands legally belonging to the king

what is the dyanistic cycle of chinese dynasties called

mandate of heaven