Chapter 1: Prehistory

Prehistory

The field of historical investigation focused on the period before the invention of written language, which occurred approximately $5,000$ years ago.

Radiocarbon dating ($C14$ dating)

A method developed in the 1940s used to date organic archaeological materials by measuring the amount of radioactive carbon remaining in the sample.

Potassium-argon dating

A technique used to date human origins by analyzing the terrain in which artifacts are found rather than the organic material itself, allowing for dating back millions of years.

Bipedalism

The ability to walk upright on two legs, a trait that emerged in hominid ancestors in Africa between $8$ and $6$ million years ago.

Hominids

A broad term referring to all Great Apes, including modern humans and their extinct ancestors.

Hominins

A specific term used for modern humans and their more recently extinct ancestors.

Turnover-pulse hypothesis

A geological theory suggesting that environmental changes during the Pliocene epoch led to the evolution of species with adaptations for grasslands, such as angled knee joints and arched feet.

Oldowan Industry

The first widely used toolset, lasting from $2.6$ to $1.5$ million years ago, consisting of quartz pebbles made into choppers and sharp stone flakes.

Beringia

A landmass, now divided by the Bering Strait, that connected North America and Asia during the last Ice Age and served as a route for the peopling of the Americas.

Clovis point

A unique and sophisticated arrowhead shape found throughout North America, serving as clear evidence of widespread human presence by $10,500$ years ago.

Neolithic Revolution

The major shift from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one based on agriculture and the domestication of plants and animals.

Natufian Adaptation

An early precursor to agriculture in the Levant ($c. 12,500 - 9,500$ BCE) where residents began sedentary living and increased their consumption of wild grains.

Civilization

A complex society characterized by food surpluses, higher population densities, social stratification, systems of taxation, labor specialization, regular trade, and accumulated learning.

Ziggurat

A solid rectangular tower made of sun-dried mud bricks, serving as a platform for a temple and the dwelling place of a city's main deity in Sumerian cities.

Cuneiform

One of the world's earliest written scripts, consisting of wedge-shaped marks made on clay tablets, developed by the Sumerians around $3200$ BCE.

Lugal

The Sumerian term for a king who established control over multiple city-states through military conquest or inheritance.

Scribes

Specially trained individuals in ancient civilizations who generated written records, including financial transactions, court proceedings, and literary texts.

Akkadian Empire

The first empire in Mesopotamia, founded by Sargon of Akkad in approximately $2334$ BCE, which brought together various city-states under a single authority.

Hammurabi’s Code

A collection of $282$ laws etched into a stele by the Babylonian King Hammurabi, establishing common standards of behavior and the principle of retaliation ("an eye for an eye").

Monotheism

The religious belief in a single, universal god, a concept pioneered by the Israelites in their worship of Yahweh.

Covenant

A binding pact between God and the Israelites, such as the Sinai Covenant where the Israelites agreed to obey God's laws, including the Ten Commandments.

Diaspora

A term referring to a scattered people, such as the Jews who were forced into exile from their homeland by various conquests.

Desiccation

The process of drying out, specifically the drying of the Sahara Desert between $6000$ and $3500$ BCE that pushed populations toward the Nile River Valley.

Hieroglyphics

An ancient Egyptian writing system combining pictograms and phonograms, primarily used for ritual and official elite histories.

Amarna Period

A brief era in Egypt ($c. 1350 - 1325$ BCE) under Pharaoh Akhenaten characterized by state-sponsored monotheism focused on the sun god Aten.

Cataracts

Shallows, rocks, and rapids in a river that are generally impassable by boat, such as those found along the Nile River.

Western Deffufa

A large, mud-brick structure located at the Nubian capital of Kerma that likely served as a significant temple for the community.

Meroitic

A locally-created written script developed by the Kingdom of Kush that replaced Egyptian Hieroglyphics by $300$ BCE and remains largely untranslated by modern scholars.

When did bi-pedal hominids first appear in Africa according to the prehistory chronology?

8 – 6 million years ago

What major development occurred 2.6 million years ago in hominid history?

Homo habilis began to use tools.

What dating technique invented in the 1940s allowed archaeologists to date organic materials up to 40,000 years old?

Radiocarbon dating (or C14 dating)

What technique allows archaeologists to date human origins back millions of years by dating the surrounding terrain instead of organic material?

Potassium-argon dating

Which geologic era lasting from 24 – 2 million years ago saw grassland expansion that prompted hominids to move out of the forest?

The Miocene era

What transformation during the Pliocene epoch led to adaptations like angled knee joints and arched feet among grassland animals?

The turnover-pulse hypothesis

Which hominid species became stockier and more powerful to survive icy conditions before disappearing 28,000 years ago?

Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthals)

What was the Younger Dryas event?

A drop in global temperatures around 12,000 BCE accompanied by a corresponding change in vegetation distribution.

By 25,000 years ago, which species was the only surviving hominin?

Homo sapiens sapiens

What landmass once connected North America and Asia, allowing mammoth hunters to settle on both sides?

Beringia

What uniquely shaped arrowhead provides the clearest evidence of widespread human population in North America by 10,500 years ago?

The Clovis point

What was the first widely used toolset, lasting from 2.6 to 1.5 million years ago and consisting of flaked quartz riverside pebbles?

The Oldowan Industry

Which hominid species first used fire about 1.6 million years ago?

Homo erectus

What archaeological site in the Czech Republic showed evidence of a society using mammoth remains for meat, fuel, construction, jewelry, and art?

Dolni Vetoniçe

Who were the late Pleistocene foragers in West Asia that harvested wild wheat and barley to make porridge?

The Kebarans

Which Syrian settlement cultivated rye when wild food staples disappeared during the Younger Dryas event?

Abu Hureya

Which settlement north of the Dead Sea reached a population in the hundreds around 9000 BCE and featured a protective mud-brick wall and tower?

Jericho

Which Anatolian plateau settlement reached several thousand inhabitants by 7,000 BCE and featured uniform houses with interior wall paintings?

Çatalhüyük

What projectile point developed in the 9,000s BCE produced wounds found on unearthed skeletons near Jericho?

The Khiam Point

How did the domestication of draft animals around 4,000 BCE alter gendered labor roles?

Food production became primarily men's domain because herding was incompatible with childrearing.