Flashcards

Study guide

  1. Learn the maps! Knowing where sites and geographical features are located is extremely important. Place them within modern countries, to connect the ancient world with the modern.
  2. Learn the pictures! This book is well illustrated with maps, plans, and line drawings and photographs of buildings and objects. To compare one city and its features with another, you should aim to have a mental storehouse of images available to inspect when you are taking an exam, writing a paper, or just thinking about what you have been learning. Stocking your mental storehouse means memorizing the pictures, together with the basic information that identifies them (name; place; date made or found; artist or architect, if known). Each person has his or her favorite technique for memorizing pictures. Find a technique that works for you. Be warned: there are no shortcuts.
  3. Learn the dates! Dates, or chronology, are an important factor in structuring our understanding of what went on in times past. Learning dates may seem an unbearably mechanical task, however, and some students are allergic to doing so. Nonetheless, it’s worth the effort. Happily, as you become familiar with the different civilizations, your familiarity with key dates will automatically increase. Consult the timeline in the book and on this website; it should help you understand the chronological relationships between the civilizations and cities examined in the book. For exams and papers, your instructor will make clear the degree of precision you need to master; precision may well be valued more highly in the later historical periods than in earlier prehistory.
  4. Spend some time getting a basic familiarity with the geography of the Near East. Consult a relief map in color to see clearly the contrasts between mountains, fertile areas, and deserts.
  5. What are the basic features of the Neolithic Revolution? When and where and why did they develop?
  6. Jericho. When did the PPNA and PPNB phases occur? What are the main architectural features of PPNA and PPNB Jericho? Describe them. What do the fortifications, the houses, and the finds tell us about the appearance of the town, the society, their relations with the outside world, their economy, and their religion?
  7. Çayönü. Which phases of the Neolithic are represented at this site? When do they date? Of the many subphases discovered, which architectural features strike you as the most unusual?  Describe them and explain why.
  8. Göbekli Tepe. Describe the architectural features of this site and the imagery found on its stone piers. What sorts of beliefs and ceremonies might these finds indicate? 
  9. Çatalhöyük. Should Neolithic Çatalhöyük be considered a city, a town, or a village? Support your answer by citing evidence found at the site.

Useful websites

  • Çatalhöyük excavations: http://www.catalhoyuk.com
  • Göbekli Tepe excavations: http://www.dainst.org
    [The website of the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut / the German Archaeological Institute. Click on Research, then on Turkey, then on Göbekli Tepe.
  • http://www.metmuseum.org/toah
    [Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, “a chronological, geographical, and thematic exploration of the history of art from around the world, as illustrated by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection.”  Starts with art from the Neolithic period.]

Images

Figure 1.1

Figure 1.1

The Near East: Neolithic towns

Figure 1.2

Figure 1.2

The Fertile Crescent in the earlier PPNB, ca. 7500-6500 BC

Figure 1.3

Figure 1.3

Tower with staircase, PPNA, Jericho

Figure 1.4

Figure 1.4

Anthropomorphic figurine, PPNB, Ain Ghazal. Archaeological Museum, Amman

Figure 1.5

Figure 1.5

Overall site plan, Çayönü

Figure 1.6

Figure 1.6

Plans, Neolithic and Chalcolithic levels, Çayönü

Figure 1.7

Figure 1.7

Plan, Central area (in 2007), Göbekli Tepe

Figure 1.8

Figure 1.8

Complex C (foreground) and Complex B, Göbekli Tepe

Figure 1.9

Figure 1.9

Partially excavated Stele from Complex D, Göbekli Tepe

Figure 1.10

Figure 1.10

Houses (reconstruction), Çatalhöyük

Figure 1.11

Figure 1.11

House shrine (reconstruction), Çatalhöyük

Figure 1.12

Figure 1.12

Erupting volcano and town, wall painting, Çatalhöyük. Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara

Figure 1.13

Figure 1.13

Seated fat woman (goddess?), terracotta figurine, Çatalhöyük. Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara