Time and Dates
This abbreviation means "Before Christ" and is used to label years before year 1
BC (Before Christ)
Name one main food source for nomadic hunter-gatherer groups.
Examples: wild plants, berries, nuts, fish, wild animals.
What does "domestication" mean when talking about plants or animals?
Domestication = taming and breeding plants/animals for human use.
Name two of the key characteristics of a civilization.
culture, stable food supply, government, technology, religion, writing, social structure.
What is Culture?
Culture = the shared beliefs, customs, arts, and ways of life of a group of people.
The letters CE stand for this phrase that is the non-religious equivalent of AD.
CE = Common Era
List one basic hunting weapon used by early hunter-gatherers.
Examples: spears, bows and arrows, clubs, axe, sickle.
Name one plant and one animal that were commonly domesticated in early agricultural societies (you may list examples).
Examples: wheat, barley, rice; sheep, goats, cattle.
Why is a stable food supply important for the development of civilization?
Stable food supply supports larger, settled populations and allows people to plan and build permanent structures.
What is a "decade"?
Decade = 10 years (example: the 1990s are the decade from 1990–1999).
Historians write "c." before a year to mean this word that shows the date is approximate.
Circa (about/approximately)
Give one purpose fire served in hunter-gatherer societies besides cooking.
Examples: warmth, protection from predators, light, making tools (hardening wood), social gathering.
What is a "barter economy"? Give a brief definition.
Barter economy = trading goods and services directly without money.
What role did writing play in early civilizations?
Writing recorded laws, keeping trade records, and preserving stories/history.
Explain the difference between AD and BCE.
AD (Anno Domini) counts years from the traditional birth of Christ; BCE (Before Common Era) counts years before year 1 and is a non-religious labeling.
How many years are in one century?
100 years.
Describe one reason hunter-gatherers moved from place to place (why were they nomadic?)
Because they followed food sources and seasonal resources; they moved when food ran out.
Explain how food surpluses led to labor specialization.
Surpluses allowed some people to stop farming and take specialized jobs (craftspeople, leaders), which increased skills and complexity.
Explain how government and social structure are connected in early civilizations.
Governments made rules and organized labor; social structure arranged people into roles that governments often enforced.
What is meant by "technology" in the context of early civilizations?
Technology = tools and methods people develop to solve problems (example: plows, irrigation systems).
If an event happened in 1500 BCE, in which millennium did it occur? (Give the ordinal number, e.g., "2nd millennium BCE")
2nd millennium BCE (1500 BCE is in the 2nd millennium BCE, which covers 2000–1001 BCE)
Explain one limitation of hunter-gatherer life that spurred the development of agriculture.
Limitations: unpredictable food supply, small group size, inability to build permanent settlements — agriculture offered a more reliable food supply.
Give two new types of shelter or clothing materials that became possible because of agriculture (e.g., materials made from domesticated plants or animals).
Examples: woven cloth from flax or wool from sheep; mud-brick or timber houses built because food surpluses supported permanent settlements.
Choose three characteristics and describe how they are related when a civilization forms:
Technology (improves farming), Writing (records and laws), Religion (unifies people) — together they help coordinate large communities.
The term "social structure" describes how people in a society are organized. Give two different ways early civilizations might have organized people (examples: by job, by class, by family group, etc.) and explain one effect of that organization.
Examples: by occupation (farmers, artisans, priests) or by class/status (elite rulers vs. commoners); effect: organizes labor and power, which can lead to inequality or more efficient production.