Geography and the Environment
The Rise and Fall of Civilizations
Innovation and Achievements
Laws, Politics, and
Social Interaction
Religion, Economies,
and Cities
100

The first civilizations all settled near this geographic feature.

What is a major river?

100

The early civilizations all needed this to grow their populations and develop cities and job specialization. 

What is a surplus?

100

This process involves selecting and changing a wild plant or animal so that it can be grown or raised locally.

What is Domestication?

100

This terms refers to a system for ranking groups of people in a society, usually based on wealth, religion, ethnicity, or other factors...

What is a Social Hierarchy?

100
a community whose economy is based on producing and maintaining crops and farmland.

What is an Agrarian Society?

200

Meaning “between two rivers” in Greek, this early civilization was located in geographic region known as the Fertile Crescent.

What is Mesopotamia?

200

Just like today, the early civilizations all faced this environmental phenomenon which contributed to their decline and collapse.

What is climate change?

200

This form of written language was made up of hundreds of small pictures carved on monuments and pottery, mostly for ceremonial and religious purposes.

What are Hieroglyphics?

200
Written on a large stele, or stone pillar, this is ancient text is considered to be the first example of legal codes.

What is Hammurabi's Code?

200

This type of society is typically characterized by the belief in or worship of more than one god...

What is a polytheistic society?

300

This historical region includes parts of Central America and the Yucatan Peninsula prior to the arrival of Europeans.

What is Mesoamerica?

300

This civilization established a system of city-states, built splendid pyramids and temples, and created a sophisticated calendar and number system before almost completely disappearing around 950 CE.

What is the Maya Civilization?

300

This process involves bringing in water from canals or other man-made means, rather than relying on rainfall alone.

What is irrigation?
300
A nation or territory that is considered to be an organized political community under one government.

What is a State?

300

The Silk Road was a series of important trade routes that connected remote cities and civilizations primarily across this continent...

What is Asia?

400

Domesticating local animals and clearing out forests to create farmland is an example of humans ______ their environment. 

What is ADAPTING to or MODIFYING their environment?

400

Another word for "food scarcity," climate change, crop failures, and overpopulation often led to this disastor in a number of ancient civilizations.

What is a famine?

400

This system of writing helped scholars and historians decipher the language of ancient China and provided important information on the late Shang dynasty.

What are Oracle Bones?

400

Historians and archeologists found no evidence of kings or palaces in the remains their cities so it’s possible that this Civilization was run by a number of wealthy families rather than a central ruler.

What is the Indus River Valley Civilization?

400
Under the rule of Hammurabi, this ancient city grew into a large empire that conquered much of Mesopotamia.

What is Babylon or Babylonia?

500

Farming in North Africa was possible because the Nile River’s annual flooding deposited this fertile, nutrient-rich soil on the riverbanks.

What is Silt?

500

In ancient China, dynasties often rose and fell. Once a new dynasty claimed power, the new ruler would typically claim that the previous dynasty had lost this title, meaning they lost the favor of the gods. 

Hint: Hammurabi claimed something similar in Mesopotamia.

What is the Mandate of Heaven?

500

Ancient Egyptians developed a technique for making this common everyday object from a plant, found along the bank of the Nile.

Hint: Provide both the invention and its name derived from the plant.

What is Paper; Papyrus?

500

This political practice involves the negotiation between multiple states or governments.

What is diplomacy?

500

This major religion arrived in West Africa via trade and cultural diffusion, and  eventually replaced animism and other indigenous practices as the dominant belief system in the region.

What is Islam?