Ancient Civilisations

is the answer because pictograph is a pictorial symbol for a word or phrase. They were used as the first known form of writing. They were discovered from Egypt and Mesopotamia from before 3000 BC.

a) is not the answer because logographic is the written character of a word

c) is not the answer because by definition, “ideographic is something that uses a symbol to describe it without a word or sound.”

d) is not the answer because stratigraphic images are used in geology which is concerned with the study of rock layers (strata).

is the answer because mummification is the sophisticated method developed by the ancient Egyptians to preserve a dead body for the afterlife. The process includes embalming and stripping of the dead body.

a) is not the answer because Sarcophagus is a stone coffin, typically decorated with a statue or writing and connected with the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Rome, and Greece.

b) is not the answer because Hyksos were the Fifteenth Dynasty rulers. In Egyptian Hyksos means "ruler(s) of distant countries. Josephus mistranslated Hyksos as "Shepherd Kings". They were probably from West Asia.

d) is not the answer because by definition “polytheism is the worship of or belief in multiple deities, which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religions and rituals”.

is the answer because cuneiform was the Written language of Sumerians which can be traced back to 8000 BC. This early writing consisted of making specific marks in wet clay with a reed implement.

a) is not the answer because pictograph is a pictorial symbol for a word or phrase. They were used as the first known form of writing. They were discovered from Egypt and Mesopotamia from before 3000 BC.

b) is not the answer because hieroglyphic (Greek for "sacred writing") was a character of the ancient Egyptian writing system. Logographic scripts that are pictorial in the form in a way significant of very old Egyptian are also sometimes called "hieroglyphs".

c) is not the answer because sonogram is a medical examination of scanning the human body. It is an ultrasound exam that uses high-frequency sound waves to scan a woman's abdomen and pelvic cavity, making a picture (sonogram) of the baby and placenta.

is the answer because Harappans were ignorant about Iron. they used bronze and copper instead. They only domesticated dogs and cats, humped and shorthorn cattle, domestic fowl, and possibly pigs, camels, and buffalo.

a) is not the answer because of the Harappans domesticated Asian elephant. They imported gold from Afghanistan.

c) is not the answer because the Harappans imported silver from Afghanistan or northwestern India (present-day Rajasthan state). It is not known whether the Harappans raised woolly sheep

d) is not the answer because Harappans knew about cattle like oxen, bullocks, cows, and buffaloes and domesticated them in large number. There are no clear indications about the usage of platinum by Harappans.

is the answer because The Dancing Girl figurine was sculpted using the lost wax process, which includes making a mould and pouring molten metal into it.

a) is not the answer because jars were made by pottery method. Bowls, jars, vessels - in various colors such as red, orange, brown, black and cream were also made.

b) is not the answer because the priest king figure is made using metal or clay.

d) is not the answer because Bronze statues were made by the “lost wax technique”.

is the answer because Hammurabi, the sixth king of Babylon belonging to the first Amorite dynasty (1792–1750 BCE), achieved distinction as a great lawmaker.

a) is not the answer because the Akkadians together with The Sumerians (including Assyrians and Babylonians) dominated Mesopotamia from the start of written history (c. 3100 BC).

b) is not the answer because (ii) is incorrect. The hieroglyphic system is the script of Egyptians.

c) is not the answer because (iii) is incorrect. The Euphrates does not drain into the Mannar Gulf.

is the answer because (iii) is correct. The invention of gun powder is popularly listed as one of the "Four Great Inventions" of China.

a) is not the answer because (i) is incorrect. Yellow River is the second longest in China after the Yangtze River. Yellow river is called the sorrow of China.

b) is not the answer because (ii) is incorrect. It was the state Chu who first built the wall. It was during the Qin Dynasty .To defend the invasions

from northern invaders, Emperor Qin Shi Huang had all the walls (Great Wall of China) connected up.

d) is not the answer because (iv) is incorrect. Lao-Tzu (also known as Laozi or Lao-Tze) was a Chinese philosopher attributed with founding the philosophical system of Taoism.

• Sumerian period is about 4000 B.C.

• The Assyrian period was in the 25th and 24th centuries BC. The Sumerian-speaking peoples of Mesopotamia under the Akkadian Empire, lasted from c. 2334 BC to 2154 BC.

• The Akkadian period lasted 200 years from 2300 BC to 2100 BC

• The Babylonian period is about from 2000-1600 BC.

a) is the answer because (A) explains (R):

• The Indus Valley Civilization also existed about the same time period of Assyrians which were a part of Mesopotamian civilization.

• Meluḫḫa or Melukhkha is the Sumerian name of a prominent trading partner of Sumer.

• It was during the Middle Bronze Age.

• Its identification remains an open question.

• Most historians relate it to the Indus Valley Civilization.

• Indications are there for goods-transportation from Sumer to Lothal Gujarat in western India and later shipped from there to Oman, Bahrain, and Sumer.

the Sphinx

hieroglyphic writing

Hammurabi Code

Lao Tze (c. 604–521 BCE)

terracotta

a) is correct.The tank called the Great Bath at Mohenjo-Daro is a significant structure, well cemented with several adjacent rooms.

b) is incorrect because the hero Gilgamesh is referred to in the initial ever epic on the earth. He may have been a king of Sumeria.

c) is incorrect because the terracotta figurines and dancing girl made of copper suggest the artistic skills of Harappans.

d) is incorrect because the Egyptians devised the solar calendar system. This calendar was introduced as early as 4200 BCE.

a) is correct. Amon has the position of King of Gods. It developed to the point of virtual monotheism where other gods became signs of him.

b) is incorrect because the fortified Sumerian cities had the temples called Ziggurats at its center.

c) is incorrect because the great Sphinx is a massive lime stone image of a lion with a human head in Egypt.

d) is incorrect because the invention of the potter’s wheel is credited to the Sumerians.

a. Pharaoh - The Egyptian king

Pharaoh is the common title of the Kings of ancient Egypt

b. Papyrus - A kind of grass

Papyrus plant was used extensively for writing purposes in ancient Egypt.

Papyrus is also the name given to the paper produced out of it.

c. Great Law - Hammurabi

Hammurabi, the sixth king of Babylon, belonging to the first Amorite dynasty (1792–1750 BCE), achieved distinction as a great lawmaker.

d. Gilgamesh - the oldest written story on Earth

the hero Gilgamesh is referred to in the initial ever epic on the earth. He may have been a king of Sumeria.

e. The Great Bath - Mohenjo-Daro maker

The tank called the Great Bath at Mohenjo-Daro is a significant structure, well cemented with several adjacent rooms.

The Egyptians did extremely well in art and architecture. Their writing also appears as a form of art. The artistic skills of Egyptians are seen in:

• sculptures

• paintings

• carvings

• pyramids

The pyramids are massive monuments. They are great pieces of artistic architecture. They were built between 2575 and 2465 BCE. They are built as tombs of mourning to the Pharaohs. The Pharaohs are the royal monarchs of ancient Egypt. The great pyramids near Cairo are known as the Giza Pyramids. Pyramids are considered to be one of the wonders of the world. The pyramids manifest the following skills of the Egyptians:

• Engineering skills

• architectural ability

• human resource excellence

• Management skills.

The Great Sphinx of Giza is one of the largest sculpture in the world. It is a massive limestone image of a lion with a human head. It was built in the time of Pharaoh Khafre.

The equipped Sumerian cities had the temples called Ziggurats at its center.

The Sumerian civilization had numerous city-states.

The features of Ziggurats are:

1) Ziggurat, pyramidal stepped temple tower that is an architectural and religious structure

2) Ziggurats were not places for public worship or ceremonies.

3) They were believed to be a residence for the gods

4) Each city had its own patron god.

5) The temple was under the control of the priests.

6) The ziggurat was always built with a central part of mud brick and an exterior covered with baked brick.

7) it was from approximately 2200 until 500 BCE.

8) The ruler performed the role of the chief priest.

9) The rulers and priests were at the top of the social hierarchy.

10) The scribes, merchants, and artisans were next in the hierarchy.

11) The scribes maintained the account of the taxes and the priests collected the taxes.

12) The temples acted as storerooms of the taxed commodities.

The peasants remained attached to the temples in the earlier phase of Mesopotamian civilization. Later the peasants became free from that association. Not all people were allowed to live in the cities. Ziggurats were characteristic of the major cities of Mesopotamia (now mainly in Iraq).

a) The sixth Babylonian king, Hammurabi, enacted the Hammurabi code.

b) The Code of Hammurabi is a well-preserved Babylonian code of law of ancient Mesopotamia,

c) It is dated back to about 1754 BC.

d) It is one of the oldest interpreted writings of significant length in the world.

e) Hammurabi Code is an important legal document

f) It specifies the laws related to various crimes.

g) It has 282 provisions specifying cases

h) The cases are related to family rights, trade, slavery, taxes, and wages.

i) It is carved on a stone. The stone portrays Hammurabi as accepting the code from the Sun god Shamash.

j) It was a compilation of old laws based on retributive principles.

k) The ‘eye for an eye’ and ‘tooth for tooth’ form of impartiality is used in the Hammurabi Code.

a) The Great Wall of China is one of the wonders of the world.

b) The "Long Wall" has a long history — more than 2,300 years.

c) It was built in different areas by different states/dynasties

d) It was also built to protect the silk trade route by road.

e) It was an initial massive effort undertaken for the protection of China from the Mongols.

f) The attempts started in 220 BCE under Qin Shi Huang.

g) It ran for over 20,000 kilometers covering the hills and plains

h) The walls extended from the border of Korea ( east) to the Ordos Desert (west)

i) The Workers in wall construction included soldiers, peasants, rebels

j) Materials were stone, soil, sand, brick

k) Material delivery was by hand, rope, cart, goat.

1. Civilization is the stage of human social betterment and organization which is regarded as developed or advanced.

By definition, civilization is “the process by which a society or place reaches an advanced stage of social development and organization”.

2. Egyptian civilization

a) Indus valley civilization

b) Mesopotamian civilization

c) Chinese civilization

3. a) In the early civilization periods, there was a surplus food production by the farmers in the fertile regions.

b) It supported the livelihood of a large number of people.

c) The people other than cultivators of crops engaged in artisanal activities such as making of bronze tools, ornaments, and pottery.

d) Priests, scribes, nobles, rulers, administrators and craft persons played important roles in the civilization.

4. a) Society progressed

b) huge buildings were made

c) architecture expanded

d) the art of writing developed

e) and science and technology advanced

f) Culture flourished.

1. a) The Egyptians supposed that there is a life after death.

b) Therefore, they founded it essential to preserve the dead body.

c) The art of preserving the dead body is known as mummification.

d) Pyramids and tombs were built to preserve the body of pharaohs i.e. royal kings.

2. a) The methods of embalming, or treating the dead body, that the ancient Egyptians used is called mummification.

b) Using special procedures, the Egyptians removed all moisture from the body,

c) Then they left only a dried form of the body which is not easy to get decayed.

The seven steps of the process:

1) Step 1: Announcement of Death

2) Step 2: Embalming the Body

3) Step 3: Removal of Brain

4) Step 4: Removal of Internal Organs

5) Step 5: Drying Out Process

6) Step 6: Wrapping of the Body

7) Step 7: Final Procession.

3. Egyptians practiced polytheism. They worshipped many super-powers. The main Gods were:

• Amon

• Re

• Seth

• Thoth

• Horus

• Anubis

The other beliefs were:

1) The Sun god, Re, was the major one.

2) The Sun god was called Amon.

3) Amon was considered to be the king of the gods.

4) Anubis is the god of death, connected to embalming of the dead.

5) Anubis is considered the protector of the dead and portrayed with a jackal head.

6) Thoth was the god of writing and learning. He has the bird-head of ibis.

4. 1) The Great Sphinx is the contribution of Egyptian civilization.

2) It is a mythical creature with the head of a human and the body of a lion.

3) It is considered as disloyal and merciless.

4) Its construction is as a massive limestone image of a lion with a human head.

5) It is built in the time of Pharaoh Khafre.

6) It is one of the largest sculptures of the world

7) It measures seventy-three meters in length and twenty meters in height.

Hieroglyphics and cuneiform are languages. They are written languages. These languages had an important social function and they cultivated feelings of group identity and harmony. The culture, traditions and shared values are conveyed and preserved through these languages.

HIEROGLYPHICS

Hieroglyph is a Greek word which means "sacred writing". It was a character of the ancient Egyptian writing system. It is a logographic writing system. The Egyptians used the language for a period of 4000 years. Altogether there are over 700 different hieroglyphs.

Origin and development

1) The hieroglyphic script originated before 3100 B.C.

2) It was at the very onset of pharaonic civilization.

3) It lasted for nearly 4000 years.

4) The last hieroglyphic inscription in Egypt was written in the 5th century A.D

5) For almost 1500 years after that, the language was incapable to be read.

Inscriptions

1) Hieroglyphs were written on papyrus,

2) The language was carved in stone on tomb and temple walls,

3) It was used to beautify many objects of cultic and daily life use.

Language range

1) some of the letters represent sounds or syllables;

2) Others serve as determinatives to explain the meaning of a word.

Language scope

1) Its discovery proved to be a crucial link in unlocking the mysteries of Egyptian hieroglyphs

2) In 1822, Jean-François Champollion made re-translation of the hieroglyphic signs

3) It allowed the modern study of Egyptian language to begin.

Uses

1) For keeping records

2) For documenting buildings and actives

3) For recording events and stories

Types and style

1) Hieroglyphic

Used in religious writing

2) Hieratic

Used in paintings and manuscripts

3) Demotic

Used in everyday type of writing

Appearance

1) Language has a column-like structure

2) There were symbols also.

CUNEIFORM

Cuneiform is the Latin word, meaning ‘wedge’. It is the mode of writing using a wedge-shaped style.

Origin and development

1) Cuneiform is a system of writing first developed by the ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia

2) The period is from c. 3500-3000 BCE.

3) It is regarded as the most significant among the many cultural contributions of the Sumerians

4) It is the greatest among those of the Sumerian city of Uruk

5) The language advanced in the writing of cuneiform c. 3200 BCE.

Inscriptions

1) Make impressions on a clay surface

2) It is also written on stone and stony surfaces

3) it is also seen in metal and wax

4) It represented details of trade goods and domestic animals on clay tablets.

Language range

1) The language is semanto-phonetic

2) The symbols consist of phonograms,

3) It represents spoken syllables,

4) It indicates the category to which a word belonged to and logograms which represent words.

Language scope

1) This language had about 1,000 older texts and 400 later texts

2) Many of the symbols had numerous pronunciations.

Uses

1) To represent trade goods

2) To mark livestock (on clay tablets).

Types and style

1) It developed from the pictographs and other symbols

2) The early texts were written vertically from top to bottom,

3) By 3,000 BC the direction changed to left to right in horizontal rows.

4) The signs were rotated 90° anticlockwise and made mainly by wedges.

Appearance

1) It is seen as wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets

2) It is written by means of a blunt reed (slender-leaved plant of the grass family) for a stylus.

Sumerian is not linked to any other known language so is classified as an isolated language. Sumerian cuneiform is the earliest known writing system.

Language is inherent to the expression of culture. Both these languages- hieroglyphic and cuneiform had the intrinsic records of the culture and custom of their period.

Chinese philosophy has an elongated history of several thousand years. Chinese Philosophy refers to any of several schools of philosophical thought in the Chinese tradition. It includes including Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism, Buddhism, and Mohism.

These Chinese poets and philosophers also contributed to Chinese civilization:

1) Lao Tze,

2) Confucius,

3) Mencius,

4) Mo Ti (Mot Zu) and

5) Tao Chien (365-427 CE).

6) Sun- Tzu (author of the work called Art of War)

7) The Spring and Autumn Annals is the official chronicle of the state at the time. It was composed in the early 4th century BC,

8) Lao Tze (c. 604–521 BCE) was the master library-keeper of Chou state. He was the founder of Taoism. He argued that craving is the root cause of all evils.

9) The Yellow Emperor’s Canon of Medicine is considered China’s earliest written book on medicine. It was written during the time of the Han Dynasty.

10) Confucius (551–497 BCE) was a Chinese philosopher and a political reformer. He advocated that:

11) cultivation of one’s own personal life is very important

12) He said, “If personal life is cultivated, family life is regulated; and once family life is regulated, national life is regulated.”

13) Mencius (372–289 BCE) ,another philosopher travelled throughout China and offered his guidance to the rulers.

CHINESE LITERATURE

1) Chinese literary works include

2) Fiction

3) Philosophical and religious works

4) Poetry

5) Scientific writings.

The major developments in Chinese literature are:

1) Shang Dynasty (about 1700-1050 BC) — the growth of Chinese Writing

2) Zhou Dynasty (1045-255 BC) — fundamental Philosophical and Religious Literature

3) Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) — Literary tragedy and Legalism

4) Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) — Scientific and Historical Texts

5) Tang Dynasty (618-907) — Early Woodblock Printing and poems

6) Song Dynasty (960-1279) — Early Woodblock Printing, Travel Literature, Poetry, Scientific Texts, and the Neo-Confucian Classics

7) Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) — Drama and Great Fictional Novels

8) Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) — Novels

9) Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) — Novels and Pre-modern Literature

10) Modern Era (1912-present) — Westernized Literature

Thus it is clear that there is a massive influence on Chinese in the fields of philosophy and literature. Chinese literature and philosophy are infinite subjects that span thousands of years. One of the appealing things about Chinese literature is that much of the serious literature and philosophical records were composed using an official written language that is called Classical Chinese.

1) POTS OF INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION

2) TABLETS AND SEALS

3) A PIECE OF INSCRIPTION

4) SCULPTURE

5) MATERIALS

PICTURES OF INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION

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