Download Early Humans Vocabulary - Hewlett

Chapter 1 – Section 1
The First Civilizations – Early Humans
Historians – are the people who study and write about the
human past
Archaeologist – scientists who hunt for evidence buried in the
ground
Artifacts – weapons, tools and other things made by humans
that are used by archaeologist to study the past
Anthropologists – study how humans developed and how they
related to one another
Nomads – people who regularly move from place to place
Technology – tools and methods to help humans perform tasks;
first used by Paleolithic people
Domesticate – to tame animals and plants for human use
Jericho – one of the earliest known communities which is in the
West Bank located between what is now known as Israel and
Jordan
Catal Huyuk – well-known Neolithic community in presentday Turkey. Home to 6,000 people between 6700BC and 5700
BC
Specialization – the development of different kinds of jobs
Chapter 1 – Section 2
The First Civilizations – Mesopotamian Civilization
Civilizations – complex societies with cities, organized governments, art, religion, class divisions
and a writing system
Mesopotamia – “land between the rivers” (Tigris and Euphrates Rivers) Flat plain which lay in
the eastern part of the Fertile Crescent, a curving strip of land that extends from the
Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf in what is now known as southern Iraq
Irrigation - a system of dams, channels, walls, waterways, and ditches used to bring water to
the field in order to allow farmers to grow food and support the population
Sumer – a region in southern Mesopotamia consisting of many cities in about 3000BC
City-state – city and land around it which had its own government and not part of any larger
unit
Artisans – skilled workers who made metal products, cloth or pottery
Cuneiform – the writing of the people of Sumer; consisted of hundreds of wedge shaped marks
cut into damp clay tablets with a sharp ended reed
Scribes – record keepers who held honored positions in society often going on to become
judges and political leaders
Sargon – king of the Akkadians who set up the world’s first empire which lasted for more than
200 years
Babylon – a city in Mesopotamia built by the Euphrates River which quickly became the center
of trade
Hammurabi – Babylonian king (in 1792BC) who began conquering cities to the north and south
and created the Babylonian Empire; best known for his law code, or collection of laws