A History of Asia: Chapter 1 - Prehistoric Asia

Questions

1. What is the “Neolithic revolution” and what are its distinguishing features? Why are pottery fragments important in telling us about the earliest societies?

2. What factors help us explain the rise and fall of the Indus Valley civilizations? What is known about its relation to Sumer and to the Aryan culture?

3. Although Southeast Asia is a distinct cultural region. It continues to share with both China and India. How did this blending occur? What made southeast Asia distinct from its Asian neighbors? What did it share with them? How did Southeast Asia potentially contribute to the development of Chinese civilization?

4. What role did the migrations of populations by land and by sea into already settled regions play in the development of Asia’s civilizations?

5. Why did China’s initial center of civilizations develop in north China? What did the Yellow River contribute to these developments?

6. How were Korea and Japan connected in prehistoric times?

7. What were the characteristics of Japan’s Jomon culture?