Classics103 Exam #1

A.D.

Anno Domini (“Year of our Lord”)

prehistory

pre-writing

paleolithic

2.6 mya-10,000 BCE

old stone age

epipaleolitic

“outer paleolithic”
transition to neolithic in fertile crescent

local domestication, rise of village economy

mesolithic

“middle stone age”

transition to neolithic outside of fertile crescent

chalcolithic

“copper stone age”

late neolithic/early bronze age transition

raw copper ores

bronze age

3300-1200 BCE

ends with Battle of Kadesh

homo sapiens

anatomical modern humans

appear in africa 250,000 years ago

rapidly colonize the planet and replace+interbreed with earlier human species

behaviorally modern humans

when humans begin to have complex tools, art, evidence of religion

first evidence in Biombos Cave in South Africa 70,000-100,000 years ago (late stone age)

hominin

entire family of human organisms, any bipedal species originating from african apes

archaic hominin: any species other than homo sapien (neanderthal)

site formation processes

erosion

deposition

disturbance- holes in stratigraphic layers

kinds of deposits

alluvial- running water (clay, gravel)

colluvial- rock slides

eolian- wind transported (sand, silt)

terminus post quem (TPQ)

no earlier than

reference point before known event

terminus ante quem (TAQ)

no later than

reference point after a known event

fertile crescent

“cradle of civilization”

where plants and animals were first domesticated in the first Neolithic Villages and first Bronze Age Cities

region of Mesopotamia includes east asia minor, the levant, lower egypt

hoyuk/tel/tepe

“hill”

Chatalhoyuk

Neolithic village in Turkey

7500-5600 BCE

Gobekli Tepe

9600-8000 BCE

feasting sites where many animal bones were found

wild cattle disappear and then smaller (domesticated) cattle appear

Jericho

pre-pottery neolithic village

tower of jericho used for astronomy

Uruk

first true city

4000-3500 BCE

lacked obvious social stratification based on architecture

Sumer

4000-3500 BCE

Primary civilizations based on

food production

water control

locally based, not influenced by anything else

List of pristine primary civilizations

Mesopotamia: Uruk, Sumer

Egypt: Memphis

Maya: Nakbe

Inca: Cuzco

China: Shang Dynasty, Anyang

Indus Valley: Harappa

Secondary civilizations

based on trade

less uniformity

Knossos

Cretean minoan palace

blue baboons at palace picking saffron —> associated with mensturation drug in egypt

^ shows cultural connection

Mycenae

late bronze age, colonized crete 1430-1400 BCE

used linear B

sacked all minoan palaces except knossos which they made their capital

etruscan

north italy, became romans

phoenicians

introduce greeks to simplified alphabet, made writing accesible

brought glass and cool boats

later wiped out by romans

hittite/hatusa

Bronze age civilization that spread mesopotamian style urbanism to the Anatolian peninsula after 1650 BC

spoke oldest indo-european languages

son gets assissinated —> battle of Kadesh (1274 BCE) —> bronze age collapse

cuneiform

complex writing system developed in Sumer

indo-european and semetic regimes

two prominent languages in mediterranean

indo-european wrote left to right and semetic wrote right to left

early economies based on livestock —> common words are livestock words (wheel, horse)