Study Guide for World History Test #2 of Quarter 1 – Unit 2

Characteristics of a Civilization

a. Name the five characteristics of a civilization:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

b. Be sure that you can provide and recognize examples of each of the five characteristics.

River Valley Civilizations

Mesopotamia/Sumer

a. Why did people settle in Mesopotamia?

a. Be able to locate each of the following on a map:

1. Tigris River 4. Sumer 7. Ganges River 10. Red Sea 2. Euphrates River 5. Nile River 8. Huang He River 11. Yangtze River 3. Mesopotamia 6. Indus River 9. Mediterranean Sea 12. Nubia

b. The Mesopotamian river valley civilization formed along the following river(s):

c. What were three problems encountered by people who settled in Mesopotamia AND how did they address each of these problems?

1.

2.

3.

d. What is a dynasty?

e. What was the earliest form of writing developed by the Mesopotamians?

f. What was the type of writing developed by the Mesopotamians that they created using clay and a tool known as a stylus?

g. What is shown in the image to the left AND what was its purpose?

h. Describe the role of priests in Sumerian civilizations.

i. Explain what a city-state is and why it is relevant to life in Sumer.

j. What is the meaning of the term “monotheistic”?

k. What is the meaning of the term “polytheistic”?

l. Were the Mesopotamians polytheistic or monotheistic?

Ancient Egypt

a. The ancient Egyptian civilization formed along the following river:

b. Why did people settle along the river you named in "a"?

c. In which direction does the Nile River flow?

d. The rulers of ancient Egypt were known as __________________________________.

e. What is a theocracy?

f. What did the ancient Egyptians believe about the pharaohs?

g. What did the ancient Egyptians believe about the afterlife?

h. Were the ancient Egyptians monotheistic or polytheistic?

i. Name the four Egyptian gods we learned about in class and provide a brief description of each.

1.

2.

3.

4.

Indus River Valley

a. The Indus River valley civilization formed near the ________________________ River.

b. What helped to protect people who settled in this area from invasion?

c. What is one reason we learned in class why we do not know as much about the Indus River valley civilization as we know about the other three river valley civilizations that we covered in class?

Hunag He River Valley

a. The Huang He river valley civilization formed between the _____________________ River (also known as the Yellow River) and the ______________________ River.

b. What are three dynasties we learned about in class that existed in the Huang He river valley?

c. What was the Mandate of Heaven?

d. Explain the religious beliefs of the people who lived in the Huang He river valley.

Phoenicians

a. Where did the Phoenicians live?

b. Did the Phoenicians ever unite together and form a country? If not, how did they live?

c. What are three accomplishments of the Phoenicians that we learned in class?

1.

2.

3.

Nubia

a. Nubian kingdoms acted as a trade corridor for goods traded between

_________________________________ and _______________________________.

b. With which other civilization that we learned about in class did the Nubians interact extensively?

Hebrews

a. Much of our knowledge about the early history of the Hebrews is found in the __________, which contains written records and beliefs of the Jews.

b. Were the Hebrews monotheistic or polytheistic?

c. What is the name of the Hebrews' religion?

d. Where did the Hebrews settle?

e. Under three kings (Saul, David and Solomon), the Hebrews united and formed the kingdom

of ________________________________. King David established the capital of this

kingdom at the city of ___________________________________________.