History Detectives
An ancient necklace was made and worn by people. What kind of historical clue is it?
Artifact
A person picks wild figs for the next meal. Is this hunting or gathering?
Gathering
What is a long period with very little rain called?
Drought
What was a trained writer in ancient Sumer called?
Scribe
What valuable building material did Phoenicians obtain from their cedar forests?
Timber (wood)
What kind of scientist studies past people by examining objects they left behind?
Archaeologist
What do we call people who survive by hunting animals and collecting wild plants?
Hunter-gatherers
Between which two rivers did Mesopotamia develop?
Tigris and Euphrates
What was the Sumerians' system of wedge-shaped writing called?
Cuneiform
On which sea did Phoenician merchants build their trading network?
Mediterranean Sea
A sailor writes a journal about a storm he experienced. What type of source is his journal?
Primary source
A community plants crops and raises goats. What practice includes both activities?
Agriculture (farming)
Farmers dig channels to carry river water toward distant fields. What are these channels called?
Canals
A harvest produces more grain than the community needs. What is the extra amount called?
Surplus
A coastal community has little farmland. What basic need could it meet by trading its wood and cloth with farming communities?
Food (crops or grain)
A historian combines ancient journals into a book written today. What type of source is the new book?
Secondary source
People gradually change wild plants and animals to make them more useful to humans. What is this process called?
Domestication
A river overflows and leaves behind rich soil mixed with tiny rocks. What is this material called?
Silt
Some people farm while others build houses, make tools, or produce pottery. What is this arrangement of work called?
Division of labor (accept job specialization)
A trader combines a small set of letters to write many different words. What kind of writing system is he using?
An alphabet
At an ancient campsite, animal bones have cut marks and sharp stone blades lie nearby. What activity most likely connects these clues?
Preparing animals for food (accept cutting meat or butchering animals)
A group must plant, weed, and guard the same fields throughout the growing season. What kind of settlement would make this work easier?
A permanent settlement
Match each problem with the better solution: dry fields and flooded fields; canals and raised riverbanks.
Dry fields: canals. Flooded fields: raised riverbanks.
A city's potters and builders work all day without growing their own crops. What must farmers produce to support these workers?
A food surplus (enough extra food to feed other workers)
Merchants visit a distant port. Later, people there use letters similar to the merchants' letters. What activity most likely helped spread the writing system?
Trade (sea trade)