Ancient World - World History to 1500 - HIST 111 Resource Guide

Selected E-Books

Who's Who in Ancient Egypt, Routledge by Michael Rice
Call Number: Credo Reference

General History

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Africa
Second-largest continent (after Asia), straddling the equator and lying largely within the tropics. Africa's first great civilization emerged in ancient Egypt in c.3400 BC. Carthage was founded by Phoenicians in the 9th century BC.
Ancient Egypt
Ancient civilization, based around the River Nile in Egypt, which emerged 5,000 years ago and reached its peak in the 16th century BC. Ancient Egypt was famed for its great power and wealth, due to the highly fertile lands of the Nile delta, which were rich sources of grain for the whole Mediterranean region.
Ancient Egyptian Civilization
From Chambers Dictionary of World History
Predynastic Period; Early Dynastic Period; Old Kingdom; First Intermediate Period; Middle Kingdom; Second Intermediate Period; New Kingdom; Third Intermediate Period; Late Period
Carthage
Ancient Phoenician port in North Africa founded by colonists from Tyre in the late 9th century BC. A leading trading centre, it was in conflict with Greece from the 6th century BC, and then with Rome, and was destroyed by Roman forces in 146 BC at the end of the Punic Wars.

Markers of "Civilization"

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Settlement
Collection of dwellings forming a community.
Architecture
Art of designing structures.
Agriculture
The practice of farming, including the cultivation of the soil (for raising crops) and the raising of domesticated animals. Agriculture developed in the Middle East and Egypt at least 10,000 years ago.
Irrigation
In agriculture, artificial watering of the land. Early improvements for raising water included counterbalanced poles with attached water vessels, and adaptations of the wheel and of a pump called the Archimedes' screw.
Pottery
The baked-clay wares of the entire ceramics field. Pottery is one of the most enduring materials known to humankind; in most places it is the oldest and most widespread art.
Fermentation
Alcoholic fermentation is a process that was known to antiquity. Before 2000 B.C. the Egyptians apparently knew that crushed fruits stored in a warm place would produce a substance with a pleasant intoxicating power. By 1500 B.C. the production of beer from germinating cereals (malt) and the preparation of wines from crushed grapes were established arts in most of the Middle East.
Poetry
Originally an oral tradition, poetry was a method of story-telling and communication in non-literate societies and held much cultural significance as a method of spreading mythologies and religions
Alphabet
Practically all existing alphabets are believed to be commonly descended from a Semitic alphabet used by the Syro-Palestinian Semitic peoples in the last centuries of the second millennium BC and during the first millennium.
Mathematics
Deductive study of numbers, geometry, and various abstract constructs. The earliest records of mathematics show it arising in response to practical needs in agriculture, business, and industry.
Metallurgy
Science and technology of metals and their alloys.
Slavery
Institution based on a relationship of dominance and submission, whereby one person owns another and can exact from that person labor or other services. The institution of slavery extends back beyond recorded history.
War
Act of force, usually on behalf of the state, intended to compel a declared enemy to obey the will of the other.
Imperialism
Evidence of the existence of empires dates back to the dawn of written history in Egypt and in Mesopotamia, where local rulers extended their realms by conquering other states and holding them, when possible, in a state of subjection.

People

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Tutankhamun
Eighteenth Dynasty king of Egypt who came to the throne aged nine and reigned from 1334 bc to 1325 bc. The outstandingly preserved treasures of his tomb were discovered in 1922.
Akhenaten
King of the Eighteenth Egyptian Dynasty, Akhenaten reigned from approximately 1360 to 1343bce. Akhenaten is notable for having briefly replaced the entire Egyptian pantheon with a single deity, the Aten, the physical manifestation of the sun.
Nefertiti
(flourished 14th century BC) Queen of Egypt and wife of Akhenaton (r. 1353-36 BC).
Ramses II
The Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II was born to Seti I and Queen Tuya in 1279 bce. He is most often remembered for the ambitious building projects and aggressive war campaigns he conducted, and for solidifying Egypt’s legacy in the world.
Hamilcar Barca
D. 229 or 228 B.C., Carthaginian general. Father of Hannibal.
Cleopatra
69 B.C.–30 B.C., queen of Egypt, one of the great romantic heroines of all time.
Hannibal
Carthaginian general, one of the great military leaders of antiquity.

Mythology and Religion

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Mythology
[Greek,=the telling of stories], the entire body of myths in a given tradition, and the study of myths. Although there is no specific universal myth, there are many themes and motifs that recur in the myths of various cultures and ages.
Polytheism
Belief in a plurality of gods in which each deity is distinguished by special functions. Polytheistic worship does not imply equal devotion or importance to each deity.
Pantheism
Name used to denote any system of belief or speculation that includes the teaching "God is all, and all is God." Pantheism, in other words, identifies the universe with God or God with the universe.
Monotheism
From Bloomsbury Guide to Human Thought
Monotheism means belief in one all-powerful God who is distinct from the world but at the same time involved in it.
Ritual
In religious devotion or service, the practice of certain set formulas that either mark a particular important event in a person's life - such as birth rituals or death rituals - or form a patterned daily, weekly, or annual cycle. Rituals are usually understood to hold deep symbolic meaning.
Astrology
Study of the relative position of the planets and stars in the belief that they influence events on Earth. A strongly held belief in ancient Babylon, astrology spread to the Mediterranean world, and was widely used by the Greeks and Romans.
Divination
From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Practice of foreseeing future events or obtaining secret knowledge through communication with divine sources and through omens, oracles, signs, and portents.
Religion
A system of thought, feeling, and action that is shared by a group and that gives the members an object of devotion; a code of behavior by which individuals may judge the personal and social consequences of their actions; and a frame of reference by which individuals may relate to their group and their universe.

Culture

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Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World were selected by the ancients themselves as being astonishing examples of human creativity and construction.
City State
An independent political unit consisting of a city and surrounding countryside. The first city-states were in Sumer, but they reached their peak in Greece.
Monarchy
Government in which a single person holds a varying degree of legislative (law-making) and executive (administrative) power. Where such government has no constitutional checks or limits, it is known as absolutism, or absolute monarchy.
sarcophagus
[Gr.,=flesh-eater], name given by the Greeks to a special marble found in Asia Minor, near the territory of ancient Troy, and used in caskets. It was believed to have the property of destroying the entire body, except for the teeth, within a few weeks. The term later generally designated any elaborate burial casket not sunk underground.
Mausoleum
A sepulchral structure or tomb, especially one of some size and architectural pretension, so called from the sepulcher of that name at Halicarnassus, Asia Minor, erected (c.352 B.C.) in memory of Mausolus of Caria.
Cremation
Disposal of a corpse by fire. It is an ancient and widespread practice, second only to burial. It was noted in Greece as early as 1000 B.C. and was the predominant mode of corpse disposal by the time of Homer.
Wine
Alcoholic beverage made by the fermentation of the juice of the grape. So ancient that its origin is unknown, wine is mentioned in early Egyptian inscriptions and in the literature of many lands.
Alchemy
Ancient art of obscure origin that sought to transform base metals (e.g., lead) into silver and gold; forerunner of the science of chemistry.

Culture and Mythology

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Egyptian Myth
From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth
The cycle centred on nine gods, the Ennead: Ra the Sun (in his manifestation as Atum the creator) and four pairs of his descendants: Shu and Tefnut; Geb and Nut; Aset (Isis) and Osiris; Set and Nebthet.
Osiris
Ancient Egyptian god, the embodiment of goodness, who ruled the underworld after being killed by Set. The pharaohs were believed to be his incarnation.
Sphinx
Mythological creature, depicted in Egyptian, Assyrian, and Greek art as a lion with a human head. One of the oldest monuments is the Great Sphinx at El Gîza, Egypt, which was probably built about 2900-2750 BC.
Mummification
Dead human or animal body preserved by embalming or by unusual natural conditions. Refers primarily to the burials found in Egypt, where the practice of mummification was perfected over the centuries to an extreme of elaboration.
Pyramid
The pyramids of Egypt were built around 2000 bc as royal tombs on a gigantic scale – it has been calculated that the largest of them, the great pyramid, was originally 147 metres (481 feet) high.

Languages

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Indo-European Family
Family of languages having more speakers than any other language family.
Sanskrit
Language belonging to the Indic group of the Indo-Iranian subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Indo-Iranian).
Prakrit
Any of a number of languages belonging to the Indic group of the Indo-Iranian subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Indo-Iranian).
Indo-Iranian
Subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages, spoken by more than a billion people, chiefly in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka
Anatolian languages
Subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages; the term "Anatolian languages" is also used to refer to all languages, Indo-European and non-Indo-European, that were spoken in Anatolia in ancient times.
Afroasiatic languages
Family of languages spoken by more than 250 million people in N Africa; much of the Sahara; parts of E, central, and W Africa; and W Asia

Ages

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Stone Age
The developmental stage of humans in prehistory before the use of metals, when tools and weapons were made chiefly of stone, especially flint.
Bronze Age
Stage of prehistory and early history when copper and bronze (an alloy of tin and copper) became the first metals worked extensively and used for tools and weapons.
Iron Age
Developmental stage of human technology when weapons and tools were made from iron.

Places

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Ethiopia
The first kingdom for which there is documentary evidence is that of Aksum (Axum), a kingdom which probably emerged in the 2d cent. A.D., thus making Ethiopia the oldest independent country in Africa and one of the most ancient in the world.
Sahara
It was not until c.3000 B.C. that the Sahara transformed into its present arid state. The camel was introduced probably in the 1st cent. A.D. and facilitated occupation by nomads.
Nubia
Ancient state of NE Africa. At the height of its political power Nubia extended, from north to south, from the First Cataract of the Nile (near Aswan, Egypt) to Khartoum, in Sudan.
Nile River
Considering the great importance of the Nile to Egypt, it is not surprising that in ancient times it was deified, and it has always been regarded with the utmost reverence. Each year the Nile floods its banks and the height of the flood has been recorded annually since at least 3600 BC.
Thebes
The earliest monuments in the city itself date from the 11th dynasty (c. 21st century BC), when the rulers of Thebes united Egypt and made Thebes the capital of Upper Egypt.

Selected Streaming Videos from Stafford Library

Ancient Egypt
This program sheds light on this enigmatic empire, offering information on the god-kings, the construction of the pyramids, religions and cults, mummification and burial rites, the Rosetta Stone, and the vast treasures of Tutankhamen.