Download Topics: 1. Paleolithic Age [Old Stone Age] 2. Neolithic Age [New

Social Studies 10R
Study guide for test #1
Topics:
1. Paleolithic Age [Old Stone Age]
Nomads- people who move from place to place
Hunter-gatherers-people who moved in search of food
People tended to live is small groups
2. Neolithic Age [New Stone Age]
Prehistory- time before written language
“Slash and Burn” – clear land for farming
3. Neolithic Revolution [Agricultural Revolution]
Change from hunter-gatherers to farming
Change from nomadic life to permanent settlements
Domestication of plants and animals
Led to development of villages and later cities
Food surplus lead to increased population
4. Characteristics of Civilizations
Cities [public works]
Record keeping- writing systems allowed history to be recorded
Job specialization/social classes
Complex organizations [government and religion]
5. River Valley Civilizations
Nile, Tigris-Euphrates, Indus, Yellow
Rivers provided irrigation and transportation
Allowed early civilizations to grow and succeed
6. Mesopotamia [Fertile Crescent]
“Land between two rivers” –Tigris and Euphrates
Location of earliest civilization
a. Sumer
Organized into city-states
Polytheistic [belief in many gods]
o Built ziggurats [temples] to worship gods
Writing system [Cuneiform]- wedge shaped writing done by scribes; each
shape represents an idea
b. Babylonia
Code of Hammurabi
o First written set of laws
o Based on principle of “an eye for an eye”
c. Phoenicians
Created the alphabet based on sounds
Traded with groups along the Mediterranean
d. Assyrians
7. Egypt
Developed along the Nile River
o Nile provided fertile soil and water for irrigation
Deserts provided natural barriers
History is divided into 3 kingdoms
Viewed pharaohs as gods
Ra, sun god, most important
Belief in afterlife
o Mummification to preserve body
Hieroglyphics- writing system
Built pyramids as tombs for pharaohs
o Needed an organized government, supply of stone, excellent
math and engineering skills