Key Terms for Global Prehistory
Key terms for the Harappan Civilization:
Key terms for the “Ambum Stone”:
Key terms for Olmec:
Key terms for the Tomb of Fu Hao:
Key terms for Chavín de Huántar:
Key terms for Nok:
In the ancient Mesopotamian and Indus Valley cultures, a small, cylindrical stone incised with a figural scene, design, and/or inscription. When the seal was rolled across wax or wet clay, the resulting raised image served as a mark of ownership or an authenticating signature.
A storehouse or room in a barn for threshed grain or animal feed.
Two of the major cities of the Indus Valley Civilization during the Bronze Age.
The Indus River Valley Civilization, 3300-1300 BCE, also known as the Harappan Civilization, extended from modern-day northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India.
See: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/world-history-beginnings/ancient-india/a/the-indus-river-valley-civilizations
Fired, unglazed clay, used for sculpture. Also spelled terra cotta.
A technical and political process concerned with the use of land and design of the urban environment that guides and ensures the orderly development of settlements and communities.
Having a human-like form or attributes.
a heavy tool with a rounded end, used for crushing and grinding substances such as spices or drugs, typically in a mortar.
Having an animal-like form; a term describing works of art based on animal shapes.
Jade is the term for two different semiprecious minerals: nephrite and jadeite. Jade is usually light green, but it can also be white or yellow. It has been a sought-after material in Asian art since Neolithic times. It was also greatly valued for jewelry in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and in the Maori culture of New Zealand.
"Middle America" is a historical and cultural region extending from the southern part of North America to the Pacific coast of Central America. It includes central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, and parts of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.
The Olmec culture (c. 1200-400 BCE) was distinct from the Maya, with their own language and traditions, although they likely traded with the earliest Maya settlements to obtain certain luxury materials like jade.
See: https://smarthistory.org/olmec-colossal-heads/
Olmec part-man, part-jaguar creature identified by its human-like form combined with a down-turned mouth, an elongated feline snout and a cleft head.
A term describing objects offered to a god or goddess at a sacred place, such as a temple. Common types of votive offerings include statues, figurines, vessels, weapons, crowns, animals, foodstuffs and candles.
An alloy of copper and tin.
Ox bones or tortoiseshells used by shamans of the Shang dynasty to write requests on them to royal ancestor spirits, asking for guidance on important events or information about the future.
See: https://smarthistory.org/oracle-bone/
The Shang is the earliest dynasty in Chinese history that can be verified through written and archaeological evidence. Established around 1600 B.C.E., it was centered in north China along the Yellow River valley, the so-called cradle of Chinese civilization. This area was ruled by one centralized government—the Shang royal family. The Shang kings ruled the kingdom from the capital city. They moved their capital many times before finally settling near the modern city of Anyang, where they stayed from about 1300 B.C.E. to 1050 B.C.E.
See: https://smarthistory.org/shang-dynasty-introduction/
“bones of the ancestors.”
Chavín de Huántar is an archaeological and cultural site in the Andean highlands of Peru occupied from c. 1200 -400 BCE.
Spanish for "great spear."
Western African culture, located in the current day Nigeria, 700-300 BCE.
