Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia means the land between two rivers, both with unpredictable flooding - these are their names.
What are the Tigris and Euphrates?
Unlike the Mesopotamian city-states, ancient Egypt was organized under a central government ruled by a priest/god-king known as this.
What is a pharaoh?
Although apparently both complex and advanced - we know less than we could about Harrapa for this reason.
What is an undecipherable written language?
The idea that as one dynasty falls to corruption and natural disasters another will rise - all as the will of the gods/ancestors.
What is the Mandate of Heaven?
The belief that the soul survives death an is born again in a new body.
What is reincarnation?
This was the form of writing in Mesopotamia - one of the factors that lead us to call them a civilization.
What is cuneiform?
One of the reasons hieroglyphs (and demotic script) were an improvement over cuneiform was they where written not on stone but on this surface.
What is papyrus?
One of the most interesting things about the Harrapan cities is their advanced city planning in this area.
What are drains and sewers?
Respect for these people (especially the male one) was one of the most important aspects of ancient Chinese culture.
Who are one's parents?
This is the ultimate goal of Buddhists - a plane of peace and happiness.
What is Nirvana?
Placement of these structures in the center of most Mesopotamian city-states tell us of the importance of religion to that civilization.
What is a ziggurat?
Because Egypt's ruler was both high priest of their religion and the head of their government we call their type of governmental organization this style.
What is a theocracy?
This is the term for the unpredictable and often violent storms in the Indus River Valley.
What are monsoons?
The first dynasty in ancient China was the Xia, but the one we know more about, famous for their works of bronze was this one.
What is the Shang Dynasty?
The collection of a soul's good and bad deeds.
What is karma?
This socio-anthropological phenomena allowed technological and other innovations to spread between Mesopotamian and other civilizations.
What is cultural diffusion?
This Egyptian technological innovation allowed them to better predict flooding and other seasonal changes.
What is a solar calendar?
The Indus river was the first with advanced civilizations in what is now India and Pakistan - what is the second (only in India).
What is the Ganges River?
This was a unique feature feature of Chinese writing - allowing it to me learned in a multilingual empire.
What is that it was different than any spoken language?
The foundational text of the Hebrew faith (and the first five books of the Christian bible)
What is the Torah?
The region of Mesopotamia allowed for great farming and the domestication of crops and animals - we believe this was crucial for them becoming a complex civilization because it led to this - that then allowed more people to have time to invent awesome stuff like complex governments and written languages.
What are food surpluses?
One of the important aspects of a complex civilization: Egypt developed people with skills like brain surgery - allowing for this kind of work is known as this.
What is specialization?
What is the Hindu Kush?
This dynasty overthrew the Shang with their weapons of iron.
What is the Zhou Dynasty?
The cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth in the Hindu and Jain traditions.
What is samsara?