Time Period 0: Foundations Classical Era Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, historical figures, empires, and concepts from Time Period 0: Foundations (Classical Era 600bce - 600ce).

1. Artifacts

2. Paleolithic

Period

3. Neolithic

Revolution

Objects made by a human being, typically an item of cultural or historical

interest; tools, bones, stone, etc.

Also called the Old Stone Age; period in human pre-history (a time before

writing) distinguished by the original development of stone tools.

Also known as the Agricultural Revolution; this was a wide-scale transition

of many human cultures during the Neolithic period (New Stone Age) from

a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to one of agriculture and settlement,

making an increasingly larger population possible.

4. Monotheism

5. Bronze Age

6. Civilization

The belief that there is only one God.

A historical period that was characterized by using bronze, specifically the

making of weapons and artifacts made from copper and tin (bronze), and

which also coincides with the beginning of the first civilizations.

The stage of human social and cultural development and organization

that is considered most advanced.

5 Characteristics of a Civilization:

1. Advanced Cities

2. Specialized Workers

3. Complex Institutions (Religion, Government, etc.)

4. Record Keeping

5. Advanced Technology

7. Specialization of

Labor

Social differentiation or Division of Labor. In Neolithic society different

people had different jobs to perform to help their civilization/society grow.

Ex- Metal workers, pottery workers, farmers, soldiers, religious and political

leaders, etc.

This was possible because of the food surpluses due to changes in

Agriculture. This also leads to Social Stratification or Social Class Divisions.

8. Hunter-gather A member of a nomadic people who live chiefly by hunting and fishing, as

well as harvesting wild food.

Egalitarian, small communities and population who would move from

place to place according to the environment. They had no political

system, and economic distribution was more equal.

9. Agriculture

10. Surplus

The art and science of cultivating the soil, growing crops and raising

livestock.

An amount of something left over when requirements have been met, an

excess of production or supply over demand.

Name__________________________________________________________________Period______

TIME PERIOD 0: FOUNDATIONS

Ancient Era: 8000bce – 600bce

11. Domestication

12. Pastoralism

The process of taming an animal and keeping it as a pet or on a farm. It

can also refer to the cultivation of a plant for food.

A form of animal husbandry, by nomadic people who moved with their

herds.

Livestock is herded in order to find fresh pastures on which to graze.

13. Kinship groups A family, clan, or other group based on blood relationship.

14. Patriarchal

A system of society or government controlled by men. Also a social

organization in which the father is the supreme authority in the family, clan,

or tribe.

15. Artisans

16. Merchants

17. Social

Stratification

A worker in a skilled trade, especially one that involved making things by

hand.

A person who trades in commodities produced by other people. Involved

in business or trade.

System in which society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy.

Ex- Social Class pyramids

18. Ethnocentrism Belief that one’s own culture is superior to all others and is the standard by

which all other cultures should be measured.

19. Matriarchal

20. Metallurgy

21. Cultural

Diffusion

A form of social organization in which a woman is the head. Hereditary

lineage is traced through the mother rather than father.

The process of working with metals to create individual parts, assemblies,

or large-scale structures.

The spread of ideas, customs, and technologies from one people or place

to another.

22. Mesopotamia Meaning the land between two rivers (Tigris & Euphrates) in modern day

Iran, it is considered the world’s first civilization. Also known as the Fertile

Crescent.

23. Sahara

24. Desertification

A vast desert of northern Africa extending east from the Atlantic coast to

the Red Sea and south from the Atlas Mountains and the Mediterranean

Sea into the Sahel.

The process by which fertile land becomes desert, typically as a result of

drought, deforestation, or inappropriate agriculture.

Name__________________________________________________________________Period______

TIME PERIOD 0: FOUNDATIONS

Ancient Era: 8000bce – 600bce

25. Indus River

Valley

26. Deforestation