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Prehistory, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Assyrians, Persians
Chapter 1: Origin of Civilizations in West Asia and North Africa and
Chapter 2: Small Kingdoms and Mighty Empires in the Near East
Terminology
- Paleolithic
- Neolithic
- Gatherer/Hunters
- Settled Agriculture
- cuneiform
- Hammurabi's Law Code
- pharaoh
- pyramid
- Hyksos
- Sea Peoples
- Indo-European
- Yahweh
- Ahuramazda
- Magi
- satrap
- Babylonian Captivity
- "Purple People"
- Cyrus the Great
- Torah
Focus Questions
- Be able to compare and contrast the methods of obtaining food in Paleolithic and Neolithic social groups.
- Be able to explain what factors brought about the transition to settled agriculture.
- Explain how settled agriculture paved the way for civilization.
- Be able to give two different descriptions of civilization.
- What were the key points of Mesopotamian and Egyptian religions? Compare and explain the attitudes of the two peoples toward their deities.
- Be able to describe and discuss similarities and differences between the Assyrian and Persian empires.
- Describe and compare Zoroastrianism and the Jewish religion.
Bonus Readings:
Three web sites about prehistory:
Women's History web site, units 2 (Paleolithic People) and 7 (Egypt.)
and Dawn of Man.
There is also a reading about Zoroastrianism available.
Bonus questions on tests will come from these readings.
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Chapter 2: The Foundation of Indian Society
Chapter 3: China's Classical Age
Chapter 7, pp. 181-187b: early Han Dynasty
Terminology
- Harappan
- Aryan
- caste system
- samsara
- karma
- dharma
- moksha
- 4 Noble Truths
- 8-fold Path
- Anyang
- logographic
- Mandate of Heaven
- Era of Warring States
- Confucius
- Legalism
- Daoism
Focus Questions
- What does (and doesn't) archaeology tell us about the earliest Indian civilization?
- What effects did the conquests by the Persians (and then Greeks) have on the development of Indian society and government?
- Be able to summarize major accomplishments and events of the Shang, Zhou, Qin, and early Han dynasties.
- Know the fundamentals of both Buddhism and Hinduism.
- Be able to discuss the different types of government in the four Chinese dynasties studied.
- Be able to describe the changes in
Confucianism over the centuries.
Link(s): An interesting piece about the Indus Script.
Additional information:
** Additional information about Hinduism
Buddhism's 8-fold Path to Self-Transformation
This is not an orderly list to be followed; it does not represent a set of stages. One should be working on all areas at the same time.
Right, or righteous, living should be the goal in all the following aspects:
Chapter 5 � Greece and the Hellenistic World
The following is a sort of an outline/study guide. These are key points I expect you to be familiar with. They WILL be covered in lecture, but you should read the chapter so that the events and terminology are somewhat familiar when I mention them. You are responsible for knowing lecture material AND text commentary on these subjects.
Periods of early Greek history:
Minoan, Mycenean, Greek Dark Ages, Archaic Period, Classical Period, and Hellenistic World.
You should know approximate dates for each of these, locations (if specific), political and cultural characteristics of these periods, plus why and how they ended.
Comparison of Sparta and Athens
You need to know the key differences in attitudes toward the citizens and the state.
What were the various types of government that began to appear and develop in the Archaic Period?
What effect did geography have on the Greek political development?
The Persian and Peloponnesian Wars
With any war I want to know - the underlying cause
- the immediate cause (what act set if off?
- who was involved?
- who won?
- what were the long-term consequences of the war?
Hellenic Greek Culture
Philosophers and philosophies: - Hippocrates
- Socrates
- Plato
- Aristotle
Dramatists: - Aeschylus
- Sophocles
- Euripides
- Aristophanes
Political and historical terms: - Delian League
- Pericles
- Solon
- Herodotus
- Thucydides
What�s the difference between Hellenic and Hellenistic?
What were the effects of the Macedonian conquest?
Hellenistic philosophies and philosophers:
- Epicureanism
-
Stoicism
- Cynicism
Hellenistic people and philosophies of Science:
Aristarchus- Archimedes
- Eratosthenes
- Dogmatics
- Pragmatics
>Identifications for names and terms listed above
Note: some terms have more than one identification.
- "father of mmodern medicine"
- author of anti-war play Lysistrata
- author of Medea
- author of Oedipus trilogy
- author of Orestes trilogy
- defensive alliance against Persia
- divine law supersedes human law, even if it seems unfair
- emphasis on drugs and medicine
- epistemologist--how you know is more important than what you know
- first empiricist philosopher
- geographer
- he calculated earth's circumference
- his plays were satires
- his interests included everything
- historian of the Peloponnesian Wars
- historian of the Persian Wars
- invented the catapult
- improved knowledge of anatomy
- leader at the height of Athenian power
- made Delian League the heart of a growing Athenian empire
- pupil of Plato
- pupil of Socrates
- said the sun was at the center of the Solar System
- scientist from Syracuse
- wrote a constitution that satisfied neither rich nor poor
- wrote about an ideal society
- wrote about flawed characters
- wrote about the agony of being caught in conflict
Possible Bonus Questions
Compare Epicureanism and BuddhismBased on pp.118-119, describe Greek slavery.
Plato readings are now posted.
Study Guide � Rome
Ch. 6 and part of 8
Terminology:
- Roman Senate (early)
- Consul
- Etruscans
- Romulus and Remus
- Patricians
- Plebians
- Hannibal
- Carthage
- Pax Romana
- princeps civitas
- Diocleteian
- tetrarchy
- Justinian
- Byzantine Empire
- Sasanid Kingdom
- schism
- corpus juris civile
Bonus Terms:
- Zama
- Scipio Africanus
- ius gentium
- ius civile
- praetor
- paterfamilias
- latifundia
- Sallust
- Virgil
- Livy
- Ovid
- Horace
- icons
Thought Questions:
What influence did Byzantine culture have on the making of Europe?
What effects did the Mediterranean conquests have on the Romans themselves?
How did the Roman Empire get divided into Eastern and Western halves? Were the halves equal in population, cultural development, and/or political development? Explain.
How did the government differ in the Early Republic, Late Republic, Early Empire, and late Empire?
What factors contributed to the collapse of the Roman Republic?
What factors contributed to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire?
What brought about the eventual end of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire?
Bonus Topic: see page 231.
Study Guide - Christianity and Islam
Note: this is the first draft of the list. The terms will stay pretty much the same, but I'll be adding some questions later.
Christianity terms
- Pharisees
- Sadducees
- Zealots
- Essenes
- Jesus Sect
- mystery religions
- Pontius Pilate
- Nicene Creed
- St. Augustine
- Petrine Doctrine
- City of God
- Paul of Tarsus
Thought Questions
Discuss the various aspects of Christianity that made it attractive to the Romans. What aspects of the Roman Empire made it easier for missionaries to proselytize throughout the Empire?
Islam terms
- Mecca
- Median
- Qur'an
- hadith
- 5 PIllars of Islam
- predestination
- hijra
- jihad
- Sharia
- Umayyad
- Abbasid
- Shi'ite
- Sunni
- dhimmis
Islam Thought Questions
What were the leadership problems following the death of Muhammad? Know the issues AND the leaders (both individuals and dynasties) in the correct sequence.
Bonus terms for both topics:
- coenobitic monasticism
- typikon
- hegoumenos
- eremite
- Nestorians
- Arians
- monophysites
- Ka'be
- Khadija
- Aisha
- Abu Bakr
- Umar
- Uthman
- Mu'awiya
- ulama
Bonus essay
Be able to discuss the origins of Western Christian monasticism (p. 218) and how it differed from monasticism in the Greek Orthodox world (p. 220).
A more or less required reading about Women in Islam, Christianity, and Judaism can be found online Paperlet 4 will come from this source.
AND--see how much you know about Islam--take this BBC quiz.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa
Terms
- Axum
- Great Zimbabwe
- Ghana
- Mali
- Mansa Musa
- Songhai
- Swahili Coast
- Sundiata
Thought Questions
How did the Sahara Desert affect the development of civilizaions in Sub-Saharan Africa?
What were the effects of the rise of Islam on the various SSA kingdoms and centers of civilization?
What were the differences between the trans-Atlantic and trans-Saharan slave trades?
What were the effects of the trans-Atlantic slave trade on Western Africa?
Bonus Readings
In the readings from African Womene South of the Sahara pay special attention to the sections on Kinship Systems and The Household and the State. (This is on reserve at the library.)
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How do I write an ID?
An ID needs to have three significant, relevant pieces of information about the topic, put together in 1-3 sentences. It should use no more than 1/3 of a page.
A couple of samples follow:
VEDAS are ancient stories (epics) from the Aryans. Originally passed down orally, they were eventually written down and are the principal source of our information about early Indian society and culture.
Although there is no historical record of the XIA Dynasty, according to myth and legend it was the first to unite a group of N. China tribes. The Xia had carved jade and wood and they domesticated silkworms. They were taken over by the stronger Shang.
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