Characteristics
Dates
1. Farming and the domestication of plants and
animals
2. Polishing of stone tools
3. Settlement of farming villages
4. Increase in types of activities, trade, and
differences in wealth
5. Pottery, weaving, and the plow
1. Middle East 8000 BC
Neolithic
Revolution
Vocabulary
1. Agriculture – growing of
food on a regular basis
2. Domestication – adaptation of
animals for human use
3. Prehistory – before written record
Characteristics
1. Nomads
Dates
1.
2.
3.
4.
Irrigation leads to food surpluses
Development of division of labor
Rise of the first cities and civilizations
Development of government and religious
institutions
5. Emergence of social classes
6. Invention of record keeping/writing
Vocabulary
Key People
1. 3500 – 1600 Mesopotamia/Fertile Crescent
2. 3000 – 2000 Egypt
3. 2500 -1700 Indus River Valley
4. 3950 – 1000 Chinese River Valley
River Valley
Civilizations
1. Complex Institutions - any
sort of governing structure
that controls the behavior of people
around it.
2. Civilizations – is a form of human culture
in which some people live in cities, have
complex social institutions, use dome form
of writing, and are skilled at using science
and technology.
Key People
1. Specialized Worker
Characteristics
Dates
1. Flat land and river floods allow farming
2. Complex society with government and
religion develops in Sumer.
3. Military empires conquer and rule parts of the
Fertile Crescent.
4. Societies develop new laws, pattern of trade,
and religions.
Vocabulary
1. 3000 BC Sumerians establish independent
cities
2. 1792 -1750 BC Babylonian Empire under
Hammurabi
3. 1500 Babylonian Empire ends
Mesopotamia
1. Ziggurat – temple
2. Theocracy
3. Polytheism
4. Code of Hammurabi –
uniform code of laws
Key People
1. Hammurabi
Achievements
1. Sailboat
2. Irrigation
3. Wheel
4. Calendar
5. Bronze
Characteristics
Dates
1. Ruled by pharaohs aided by a bureaucracy
2. Polytheistic religion with emphases on the
afterlife
3. Mummification and extravagant burials
4. Hieroglyphic writing system
5. Distinctive forms of art and sculpture
6. Major advances in science and medicine
1. 3100 BC Unite upper and lower Egypt
2. 2540 BC Great Pyramid built
3. 1200 BC New Kingdom is invaded and falls
Egypt
Vocabulary
1. Pharaoh – God-king
2. Hieroglyphics
3. Mummification
Key People
1. King Tut
Achievements
1. Written numbers
2. Geometry
3. Stone columns
4. Calendar for flooding cycle
5. Advanced medicine
Characteristics
Dates
1. Urban civilization characterized by large
cities, such as Harappa and Mohenjo Daro
2. Uniformity of city planning and cultural
elements suggests presence of a central
authority
3. Traded manufactured goods with people of
Central Asia, Arabia, and Mesopotamia
4. Writing never translated
Vocabulary
1. Hinduism
2. Caste System
3. Vedas – sacred text of
Hinduism
Indus River
Valley
1. 2500 start of Indus civilizations
2. 1750 decline due to change of Indus
River
3. 1500 Aryans settle in Indus
Key People
1. Aryans
Achievements
1. Grid system
2. Sophisticated plumbing
3. Sewage system
Characteristics
1.
2.
3.
4.
Dates
Ruled by emperors
Religion centered on ancestor worship
Skilled at working with bronze
Developed China’s first writing system and
lunar calendar
1. 1750 BC Shang Dynasty begins
2. 1045 End of Shang Dynasty
Shang Dynasty
Vocabulary
1. Dynasty – Ruling Family
2. Aristocracy – upper class whose wealth is
based on land and whose power is passed
on from one generation to another.
Key People
Achievements
1. Bronze work
2. Silk
3. Writing system based on symbols
Characteristics
Dates
1. Took power from Shang, claiming
authority under the Mandate of Heaven
2. Learned to work iron, strengthened
army
3. Confucianism and Daoism helped
shape patterns of Chinese thought
Vocabulary
1. 1045 BC Zhou dynasty
2. 403 BC Period of Warring States
begins
3. Zhou dynasty ends
Zhou Dynasty
1. Confucianism
2. Daoism
3. Mandate of Heaven
Key People
Achievements
1. Iron tools
Characteristics
Dates
1. Greek society was organized into independent
city—states each with its own government,
laws, and customs
2. Two of the largest city-states were Athens, the
birthplace of democracy, and Sparta, which
developed a military society
3. The Greeks established colonies throughout
the Aegean and Mediterranean worlds and
came into conflict with the
Persian Empire
1. 500 BC Classical Greece flourishes
2. 431 BC Great Peloponnesian War
begins
3. 405 Athenian Empire is destroyed
4. 323 BC Alexander the Great dies
Greece
Vocabulary
1. Democracy - government
controlled by its citizens, either
directly or indirectly
2. Oligarchy -rule by a few, especially when rule
is based on wealth
3. Hellenistic - blend Greek cultures with eastern
culture
Key People
1. Alexander The Great
2. Archimedes
3. Eratosthenes
4. Pythagoras
Achievements
1. Philosophy – Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
2. Architecture - Columns
3. Longitude and latitude
Characteristics
Dates
1. Roman Republic governed by elected official
2. Problems within the Republic led to the
Republics breakdown
3. Julius Cesar one of the last emperor is
assassinated
4. Empire founded in 27 BC by Augustus
followed by Pax Romana
5. Emperors become absolute ruler to try to stop
the decline
6. Diocletian divides the empire in half
7. West falls to invaders
1. 509 Rome becomes a republic
2. 450 BC The 12 Tables is
Rome’s first code of laws
3. 44 BC Julius Cesar assassinated
4. 33 AD Jesus dies
5. 180 AD Pax Romana ends
6. 476 fall of the Roman Empire
Rome
Vocabulary
1. Republic - power is in the
hands of representatives and
leaders are elected by the people
2. Twelve Tables
3. Patricians
4. Plebians
5. Pax Romana
Key People
1. Julius Cesar
2. Jesus
3. Paul
4. Constantine
Achievements
1. Architecture -aqueduct, concrete, coliseum,
dome
2. Latin
Characteristics
Dates
1. Founded by Shi Huangdi; united China
2. Strong, centralized government and harsh
laws based on Legalism
3. Persecution of Confucianists; burning of
Confucian texts
4. Standardization of laws, writing , weight
and measures
5. Many building projects
including Great Wall
1. 256 – 202 BC – Qin Dynasty
Qin Dynasty
Vocabulary
Key People
1. Shi Huangdi
1. Legalism – stressed punishment over
rewards
Achievements
1. System of highways
2. Irrigation networks
Characteristics
Dates
1. Founded by Liu Bang; reunited China
2. Government and society based on Confucian
values
3. Under Emperor Wudi, development of a civil
service system and expansion of the empire
4. Golden age of Chinese civilization
5. Growth of trade over Silk Roads and other
routes
6. Spread of Buddhism from India to China
Vocabulary
Han Dynasty
1. Silk Road - Connected
China, India, and the
Middle East. Traded goods
and helped to spread culture.
1. 202 BC – 9 AD Han Dynasty
Key People
1. Liu Bang
Achievements
1. Invention of paper
2. Civil service exam
Characteristics
Dates
1. Founded by Chandragupta Maurya; united
much of India
2. Under Chandragupta, strong government
control with an organized bureaucracy and spy
network
3. Under Ashoks, expansion of empire;
promotion of Buddhism, and building of new
wells and roads.
4. Declined after Ashoka’s
death
1. 302 BC – 232 BC Mauryan Empire
Mauryan Empire
Key People
Vocabulary
1. Buddhism- A religion
founded in India by Siddhartha
Gautama which teaches that the most
important thing in life is to reach peace by
ending suffering.
1. Chandragupta Maurya
2. Ashoka
Achievements
1. Improved roads
2. Spread of Buddhism
Characteristics
Dates
1. Founded by Chandra Gupta; reunited
northern India
2. Height of empire under Chandra Gupta II
3. Golden age of Indian civilization
4. Promotion of Hinduism and Hindu
temples
5. Declined in part because of
Invasion of Huns
2. 320 AD – 550 AD Gupta Empire
Gupta Empire
Key People
Vocabulary
1. Golden Age of Hinduism
1. Chandra Gupta
Achievements
1. Astronomy
2. Medicine
3. Mathematics