ARC Unit 3

Archaeological evidence for a “tribal scale” society

An adult/elderly female burial with some high value or exotic trade items

With the adoption of agriculture, we see increases in what ways?

Territoriality and warfare

Writing and accounting systems

Social inequality

Population and settlement size

___________ societies lack evidence for social stratification. They are often small scale, mobile foragers

Egalitarian

Investigating relationships among people, densely populated city centers, surrounding natural environments refers to the study:

Urbanism

Bands

Cultures with basic status distinctions based on age or gender, not inherited

Tribes

Horticultural or pastoral economy; organized by village life and/or kin group with very limited authority

Cheifdoms

Ranked societies with hereditary inequality; two or three tier settlement hierarchy, some social stratification, and ascribed social status

States

Highly stratified, complex societies with evidence of writing and long distance trade

T/F- A child burial that has many high-value, exotic trade items not often found in other burials of that culture is good evidence that the child had “acheived status”

False

T/F- Today, archaeologists use V.G. Childe’s 10 traits of state level society, which he described as an “Urban Revolution” to determine the level of an ancient civilization’s complexity

False

Many ancient civilizations developed around ______, because in these places it was possible to effectively produce _______, which in turn supported many other aspects or “symptoms” of these civilizations

River valleys; surplus food

Originating from aspects of the natural environment in Egypt, ancient Egyptian ideology is based on the fundamental principles of

Chaos and order

The Narmer tablet and the Scorpion Macehead discovered at Hierakonpolis

Are evidence of power and authority in Egypt’s Early Dynastic period

How did the Egyptian state/leaders maintain power and authority

Religion: pharaoh was ‘Son of Horus’ and god on earth

Writing: access to writings was restricted to elites

Economics: priests and scribes controlled access to food and labor

Military: unification of the state by military conquest

Sneferu’s “Bent Pyramid” is one example of trial and error in early attempts at pyramind building in ancient Egypt. What mistakes were made when constructing leading to shape and stability issues

Stones were placed haphazardly, not in rows

The foundation was laid on sand, not solid stone

They started out at too steep of an angle

What monuments were built during the Old Kingdom in Egypt

Great pyramid of Giza

The great Spinx

Explain the relationship between Nile flooding and the construction of the Great Pyramid

Regular flooding of the Nile allowed “downtime” for farmers to work on the pyramid

The Egyptian pyramids were tombs for pharaohs, and were an important part of their beliefs about there afterlife. Which came first, the construction of pyramids, or the intentional mummification of human remains?

Mummification

What kind of archaeological evidence has been identified as part of investigations of the construction process for Egyptian pyramids

Wooden sleds for sliding stone blocks along ramps

Boats for floating stone blocks down the Nile river

Copper drills, saws, and chisels

Dolerite hammerstones

Cities with breweries, bakeries, and toolshops for workers and their families

The _____ hypothesis for state formation is based on the idea that irrigation for agriculture was needed in Southern Mesopotamia, but not Northern Mesopotamia

Hydraulic

Archaeologists have investigated competition, interaction, and trade among complex cheifdoms in northern and southern Mesopotamia prior to the development of the Sumerian stae around 5,000 BC by

Examining the production and movement of elite ceramics of the Halafian and U’baid cultures

The ____ site in Southern Mesopotamia had small public temple during the U’baid period

The early city ____ developed in that area later as part of the Sumerian state. Leaders there built the Anu Ziggurat and White Temple atop it

Eridu, Uruk

Robert Carniero’s multivariate theory of state formation can be summarized as:

Food production in a circumscribed area leads to population growth and warfare, then state formation

Ziggurats and temples in ancient Mesopotamia were

Used. for religious purposes by elites who had religious and economic authority

redistribution centers for agricultural produce or rations in clay bowls and craft goods

Places that provided help after floods, dust storms, or crop failures

associated with food storage facilities

Refers to both the culture and time period of the Eridu site which had a small public temple. It preceded the development of the earliest state in Mesopotamia

U’baid

T/F- Different environmental and cultural factors, and varying levels of population pressure and conflict, led to different paths toward state formation worldwide. There is no single cause for the origins of ancient states

True

Which of the following traits is a precondition for the development or formation of state societies

Technological capabilities to meet the needs of many people in an urban setting

social stratification of classes, including status differences evidence in material culture

diverse subsistence and resource availability with potential for a food surplus

social and economic exchange networks, such as trading and political alliances

T/F- The Sumerian civilization was made up of competing city states such as Ur and Uruk

True

The “beveled rim bowl” is a diagnostic archaeological artifact that provides evidence for ____ in the Sumerian state

Economic power: laborers were provided standard rations in exchange for their work

T/F- The site of Tell Banat, which is the location of the White Monument, is a present-day Syria. This location was at the center of the Sumerian state in Southern Mesopotamia in the third millennium B.C., in the Early Bronze Age

False

T/F- The White Monument '“renovation” is evidence of military authority of Tell Banat’s leaders. It is also an example of monumental architecture, another way that leaders legitimize their power.

True

What is the main interpretation of the “White monument” described in the reading?

It was a military memorial for a standing army of professional soldiers

The example of Tell Banat shows the importance of archaeologists carefully documenting their excavations with maps, field notes, photographs, and other ways of showing how artifacts and features were associated. Why was this important for Tell Banat’s excavations?

Tell Banat was excavated in advance of a dam’s construction, which flooded the area

The storehouse of the Tell Banat artifacts was destroyed by ISIS

The White Monument was constructed in at least _____ distinct phases, with only the final construction phase showing use as a military monument

In the last phase, the evidence of ______________indicates that fallen individuals may have been exhumed from other graves or retrieved from battlefield sites and then reburied in the monument

Three; partial adult skeletons

What evidence supports the archaeologists’ interpretation that the individuals buried within the White Monument in 2450 BC '“renovation” where individuals who died in a battle in which Tell Banat was victorious, rather than the bodies of enemies that they defeated?

Presence of “ammo”

Burial of donkey-like animals that may have pulled battle wagons

Burial of individuals in defined areas or patches

The elites of Indus Valley sites like Harappa showed their high social status by:

wearing ornaments made of precious material

Why do archaeologists think that the Indus Civilization went into decline during the “Localization Era”

Changes to monsoon patterns led people to adopt more rural lifestyles and relocate