Summary: An Introduction To The Ancient World | 9780815372417 | Lukas de Blois, et al

Read the summary and the most important questions on An Introduction to the Ancient World | 9780815372417 | Lukas de Blois; R. J. Van Der Spek

• 1 The Origins of the Civilisations of Egypt and Mesopotamia

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• Which civilisations emerged just before 3000 BC?

  - Mesopotomia (Iraq) on the banks of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. 
  - Egypt on the banks of the Nile

• What were the rise of these civilisations characterised by?

  - Increasing urbanisation
  - The birth of states
  - The invention of writing

• Where did people in the Old and Middle Stone Ages live off?

  People lived off what they happened to come across, off the animals they hunted and the plants they gathered.

• What had men improved by the end of the Middle Stone Age (10000 BC)? What did that mean?

  - Man had improved his tools to such an extent that he was able to make more efficient use of natural resources. 
  - That meant that some groups of people could remain in one area for a longer period of time, sheltered from the elements in primitive huts or caves.

• What was the next step in man's development?

  The next step in man's development was the transition to an entirely new way of life, characterised by a greater control of nature: man started to cultivate the cereals which he had until then always gathered as wild plants, and domesticated the animals which he had hunted in the past.

• When did the Neolithic period start and what is it characterised by?

  Around 10000 BC. It was characterised by the use of ground stone tools and more efficient use of natural resources.

• Which kinds of argiculture are distinguished?

  Rainfall and irrigation agriculture.

• What are prerequisites for rainfall agriculture? Where was it practiced?

  An annual precipitation of at least 250 mm.
  This form of agriculture could be practised only in Iran, northern Iraq, northern Syria and the coastal Mediterranean.

• Who had to rely on irrigation agriculture?

  Egypt and southern Mesopotamia

• What made rainfall agriculture vulnerable?

  A slight decrease in rainfall will immediately lead to a food crisis and a more protracted change in climate will have major social and political consequences.