| A | B |
|---|
| steppes | dry grasslands that stretch north of the Caucasus Mountains |
| Hittites | a group of Indo-European speakers that occupied Anatolia who dominated Southwest Asia for 450 years; adopted Akkadian language; made chariots and iron weapons |
| Aryans | an Indo-European group of people who migrated into India; created the Vedas; they were tall and lighter skinned people; no writing system; organized a caste system |
| Vedas | four collections of religious rituals, used in Hindu faith |
| Dasas | town dwellers who lived in communities protected by walls |
| Brahmins | priests in Aryan society |
| Varna | skin color |
| caste system | social system based on skin color in India |
| Upanishads | a sacred text written by Hindu teachers in the Hindu religion |
| moksha | a state of perfect understanding of all things in the Hindu religion |
| reincarnation | a process where an individual soul or spirit is born again and again until moksha is achieved |
| karma | good or bad deeds that come back to a soul |
| Siddhartha Guatama | founder of Buddhism; an Indian prince who saw suffering past the palace walls; gave up title to find enlightenment |
| enlightenment | wisdom |
| Buddha | what Siddhartha Guatama was known as, meaning "the enlightened one" |
| Four Noble Truths | Four main ideas that help one to achieve enlightenment; Buddhism |
| The Eightfold Path | a guide to behavior to help you reach enlightenment; Buddhism |
| nirvana | the release of selfishness and pain |
| stupas | mound-like places where Buddhist worship |
| silk roads | a system of roads across Asia used for trade |
| Minoans | a powerful seafaring people located on Crete, who dominated trade and made the finest pottery of their time |
| Phoenicians | a group of powerful traders who came after the Minoans, living in a number of city-states around the Mediterranean Sea; shipbuilders who created the alphabet |
| Palestine | a place occupied by the Phoenicians and later Romans located at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea |
| Canaan | the ancient home of the Hebrews found in Palestine |
| Hebrews | a group of people later called the Jews; their beliefs influenced Christianity and Islam |
| Jews | also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East; followers of Judaism |
| Torah | the first 5 books of the Hebrew Bible |
| Abraham | the "father" of the Hebrew people; God promised he would be the father of many nations |
| monotheism | a belief in one God |
| covenant | a promise between God and a person, namely Abraham |
| the Exodus | an event where the Hebrews fled Egypt where they were being held in slavery; it is a celebrated Jewish holiday |
| Moses | the man who led the Exodus; brought the Ten Commandments |
| Ten Commandments | God's law found in the Bible |
| Mount Sanai | the place where Moses received the 10 Commandments |
| 12 Tribes | the 12 families that were descended from Abraham |
| Philistines | a warring group of people in conflict with the Hebrews |
| Israel | the kingdom of the Jews |
| David | one of the Jews' greatest kings, helped unite kingdom of Jewish people |
| Soloman | one of Israel's greatest kings, known for his building program and for fuling fairly |
| Judah | a kingdom created after the Jewish kingdom split; located in the southern part of the kingdom |
| Nebuchadnezzar | a great Babylonian king who attacked the Egyptians and Jerusalem |
