| A | B |
|---|
| Homo-sapiens | early humans who emerged in Africa 100,000 to 400,000 years ago |
| nomads | hunters and gatherers who moved from place to place (migrated) in search of food |
| artifacts | old objects (tools, weapons, pottery, jewelry) made by humans |
| Paleolithic Era | Old Stone Age- nomadic people invented the first tools, simple weapons crafted from stone, learned to make fire, lived in clans, and developed an oral language and cave art |
| prehistory | time period before written records, the era before people invented writing systems |
| fossils | old organic (once living) substances that turned to stone |
| glaciers | large sheets of ice that spread across northern Europe and America |
| archaeology | the study of early people through the examination of their physical remains |
| Agricultural Revolution | the shift from a nomadic life to a settled life when people learned to domesticate plants and animals |
| carbon dating | the scientific process of determining the age of fossilized material by using radioactivity to test for trace amounts of organic matter |
| Neolithic Age | New Stone Age-a time when early humans began to build permanent structures and settlements |
| Stonehenge | an example of a Neolithic structure (a circle of gigantic rocks) created during the Bronze Age in England |
| pictograms | early simple drawings that represented words |
| river valley civilizations | first permanent settlements in the Neolithic Era in Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, and China |
| Egypt | a civilization along the Nile River in northeastern Africa where pyramids were built |
| Mesopotamia | city-states and civilizations that arose between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers (now the nation of Iraq) where the first known laws were recorded and the wheel was invented |
| Indus Valley | Indian civilization that began in northwestern India near the Hindu Kush Mountains and the Khyber Pass (now the nation of Pakistan |
| Huang He | the Yellow River in eastern Asia where the Shang civilization arose (first permanent Chinese settlement) |
| scribes | specially trained people who learned to read, write, and keep official records |
| artisan | a skilled craftsman trained in a specific field (potters, blacksmiths, weavers, etc) |
| bureaucracy | a system of managing government through departments that are run by appointed officials |
| city-state | a political unit ruled by an independent ruler that included a city and its surrounding lands and villages |
| empire | a large area of territory that was controlled by one ruler or king |
| cultural diffusion | the spread of ideas, customs, and technology from one people to another through migration, trade, and warfare (also known as enculturation) |
| delta | a triangular area of marshland formed by the deposits of silt at the mouth of some rivers |
| dynasty | a ruling family |
| pharaoh | an Egyptian ruler |
| vizier | the chief minister or adviser to the Egyptian ruler |
| polytheism | the belief in many gods |
| monotheism | the belief in one god |
| barter economy | the exchange of one set of goods or services for another without using money |
| Fertile Crescent | a great arc of land from the Persian Gulf to the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea (from the present-day nations of Iraq to Israel) |
| Phoenicia | a seafaring settlement along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea where the first alphabet was created |
| Kush (Nubia) | a civilization that existed south of Egypt on the Nile River |
| Hebrews | the first monotheistic people; they lived in the area in Southwest Asia (Middle East) around the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea (present-day Israel) |
| Code of Hammurabi | the first example of a kings collection of written laws and punishments (carved in stone pillars in Babylon) |
| Ten Commandments | the moral laws of the Hebrews that were handed down to Moses |
| colony | a territory settled and ruled by people from a distant land |
| civil laws | rules that address private rights and matters |
| prophets | spiritual leaders who interpret messages a divine being |
| hieroglyphics | Egyptian form of picture writing that used papyrus, ink, and a stylus |
| cuneiform | Sumerian and Mesopotamian writing that used wedge shaped marks made on clay tablets |
| pyramids | large Egyptians structures made of stone that were used as tombs |
| ziggurats | structures in Sumer and Babylon (Mesopotamia) similar to a pyramid, but made with clay bricks, with steps and terraces, and were used as temples |
| Rosetta Stone | a flat black stone that holds carvings in hieroglyphics, demotic, and Greek that provided clues to decode (decipher) Egyptian writing |
| mummification | Egyptian process of preserving a dead body |
| Behistune Rock | carvings on huge cliff in Iran that helped decode cuneiform |
| Torah | sacred writings (holy book) for Hebrews (Jews) |
| Judaism | first monotheistic religion, developed by the Hebrews (Jews) in Jerusalem |
| diaspora | the forced migration or scattering of a group of people |
