JOHN CLYDE M.

RANCHEZ (Junior High)

THE BEGINNINGS OF CIVILIZATION – BYZANTINE AND ISLAMIC CIVILIZATIONS

THE BEGINNINGS OF CIVILIZATION
PREHISTORY – the period of time before people kept written records
ARTIFACTS – objects shaped by human beings
FOSSILS – human or animal bones and teeth and other traces left in rocks by plants and animals
ARCHEOLOGISTS find and study artifacts
ARCHEOLOGICAL DIG – site where ancient objects are deeply buried
Carbon-14 Dating made by Willard Libby (1948)
Paleolithic Age – people are NOMADS
NEANDERTHAL – valley in Germany, belief of life after death
CRO-MAGNON – southern France, famous at cave paintings; Don Marcelino and daughter Maria 1879
FOUR ICE AGES – ten thousand years each;
Neolithic Age – farming and established villages; Egypt to Mesopotamia
ARTISANS – people with skills in specialized crafts
CATAL HUYUK – first known farming village
COPPER - first metal used
BRONZE AGE – copper + tin
MESOPOTAMIA – 5,000 years ago; region between Tigris and Euphrates
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION – developed on the banks of Nile River
INDIAN CIVILIZATION – Indus River
CHINESE CIVILIZATION – Yellow River/ Yang Tze
SUMERIANS – nomads from the mountains (MESOPOTAMIA)
SUMER – Sumerians mixed with farming people and Southern Mesopotamia
POLYTHEISM – worshipping many gods
ZIGGURAT – large temple per city-states
CUNEIFORM – Sumerian scribe; record-keeping
SARGON the GREAT - 2350 B.C. conquered Sumer making it the first empire
EPIC OF GILGAMESH - longest and earliest literary works by an Unknown Babylonian poet

Readings in the Social Sciences

JOHN CLYDE M. RANCHEZ (Junior High)

UR-NAMNU – ruler of UR 2100 B.C.; first written laws adopted by Hammurabi

HAMMURABI – The Code of Hammurabi
EGYPT – “the gift of the Nile”
OSIRIS – god of Nile; feather, life after death
MENES – established the first dynasty in Egypt
PHAROAH – a ruler; more than a King
HYKSOS – Princes from Foreign Lands
THUTMOSE II – ruled the new Kingdom
HATSHEPSUT – first great woman ruler; daughter of Thutmose II
AMENHOTEP IV – Adopted the name Akhenaton
AKHENATON – “It is well with Aton”
ATON – god of love, justice and peace.
RAMESES – married the daughter of the Hittite King to maintain the New Kingdom
HIEROGLYPHICS - A form of picture writing; Egyptian form of writing
TOMBS – home for the dead
MINOAN CIVILIZATION – seafarers, export wine, honey, and olive oil
MYCENAEANS – ruled Mycenae
MYCENAE – richest town
HELLENIC AGE – great age of Greek civilization after Greek’s dark ages; HELLAS
DELPHI – where the famous oracle can be found
OLYMPIA – famous athletic games were held every 4 years; 40,000 spectators
HOMER – the Iliad and the Odyssey
COLONIES – settlements in other lands
POLIS – Greek city-states; politics and Metropolitan
SPARTANS – warriors
ATHENS - commercial and cultural center of Greece
DEMOCRACY – Athens creation; rule by the people
TYRANT – the sole ruler of a polis; a person who rules harshly

Readings in the Social Sciences

JOHN CLYDE M. RANCHEZ (Junior High)

OSTRAKON – a piece of broken pottery where votes are written

PELOPONNESIAN WAR – great war between the city-states of Greece
ALEXANDER OF MACEDONIA – “Alexander the Great”
Alexander died in Babylon of a fever
PINDAR – wrote poems to honor victors in athlete games and heroes killed in battle
SAPPHO – established school of music and singing for young women
Writers of Greek tragedy: Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides
ARISTOPHANES – famous Greek comic dramatist
HERODOTUS – “father of history”
THUCYDIDES – believed that the historian must search for human motives and natural causes; factual
reporting
PARTHENON – largest building in Greece; temple of Athena
PHIDIAS – sculptor of statue of Athena and Zeus
THALES – scientist; concluded that water is the basic element of nature
PYTHAGORAS – believed that the universe was arranged according to mathematical laws
DEMOCRITUS – nature was made up of tiny atoms
HIPPOCRATES – “Hippocratic Oath”, medicine
SOCRATES – “The unexamined life, is not worth living”; question-and-answer method
PLATO – student of Socrates; questions government and democracy; The Republic
Aristotle’s POETIC – examined what made plays good or bad
Aristotle’s RHETORIC – outlined the ways how to be a good speaker
Aristotle’s POLITICS – examined different form of government; “Political society exists for the sake of
noble actions”
EUCLID – earlier knowledge of geometry
ERATOSTHENES – estimated Earth’s circumference with accuracy
ARISTARCHUS – argued that the Sun was the center of the universe
ARCHIMEDES – famous inventor of Catapult
EPICUREANISM – Epicurus described how to live free of pain, suffering, and untroubled lives.
EPICUREAN – someone whose main interest is in pleasure, especially eating

Readings in the Social Sciences

JOHN CLYDE M. RANCHEZ (Junior High)

STOICISM – The individual should accept what life brings and remain indifferent to pain, pleasure, and
unhappiness (Zeno)
TIMETABLE
ROME: From Republic to Empire
B.C.
509 The Romans establish a republic
490-287 Plebeians gain civil rights and written laws
264 – 241 First Punic War: Rome acquires provinces
• THE ROMAN REPUBLIC AND EMPIRE
218 – 202 Second Punic War: Hannibal is defeated
149 – 146 Third Punic War: Carthage is destroyed
60 The first Triumvirate is formed
49 Caesar marches on Rome
44 Caesar is assassinated
• THE ROMAN REPUBLIC AND EMPIRE
31 Octavian becomes ruler of Rome
27 Rome becomes an empire under Augustus; the Pax Romana begins
A.D.
117 The empire reaches its greatest extent
180 The Pax Romana ends
• THE ROMAN REPUBLIC AND EMPIRE
TIMETABLE
The Late Roman Empire
A.D.
180 The Pax Romana ends when Commodus takes the throne
285 Diocletian divides the empire
312 Constantine grants Christians religious toleration in the Roman empire
• THE ROMAN REPUBLIC AND EMPIRE
330 Constantine builds Constantinople as the capital of the empire

Readings in the Social Sciences

JOHN CLYDE M. RANCHEZ (Junior High)

376 The Visigoths cross the Danube and settle in the empire
376 The Visigoths defeat the Romans at Adrianople
• THE ROMAN REPUBLIC AND EMPIRE
392 Christianity becomes the official religion of the empire
410, 455 Barbarians attack and loot the city of Rome
476 The Western Roman Empire collapses
The Early Middle Ages
German customs replace Roman ways
Roman law is written; Germanic law is unwritten
Germanic judges used trial by ordeal to determine guilt
There was a rich oral tradition of songs and legends; Roman schools disappeared
6th to 8th century – “Dark Ages”
Germans had been converted to Christianity
Peter – the first bishop of Rome
Pope Gregory I – both spiritual and political affairs
Latin – language in Christian churches
Charles Martel – Charles the Hammer; son of Pepin II
Pepin the Short – “King of the Franks”; protect churches
Charlemagne – “Charles the Great”; promotes learning and expands his kingdom
- “Emperor of the Romans”;
- December 25, 800 by Pope Leo III
• The Early Middle Ages
Louis the Pious – Frankish nobles resisted his rule
“Treaty of Verdun” : Kingdom was divided
– West: Charles the Bald;
- East: Louis the German
Viking raiders terrorize Europe: came from Norwegians, Swedes, Danes
Magyars – nomads from Central Africa

Readings in the Social Sciences

JOHN CLYDE M. RANCHEZ (Junior High)

Feudalism – political system of medieval Europe; lords granted land to other noble in return of loyalty,
military assistance, and services
Fief – land granted by a feudal lord to another noble
Vassal – noble who receive the land
“Peace of God” and “Truce of God” – warfare was not allowed in a certain day of a week and many
times of a year
Serfs – peasants who farmed the lord’s land
Manor – a small village in the lord’s estate
Manorialism – basic economic system
Feudalism – basic political system
Serfdom – serf’s way of life
Medieval Europe at Its Height
Three-field system – two lands were planted; one land unplanted for cultivation
Windmills, water wheel, water mill, horse collar and horseshoe, wheelbarrow, anchors, and rudder
Guilds – organizations formed by merchants and master artisans
Apprenticeship to master artisans – seven years
Journeyman – the apprentice as day laborer who worked for a master for a daily wage
Charters – document in which a lord gave the people of a town the right to set up their own laws and
establish their own system taxes
Middle Class – merchants and master artisans with their families
Claudius (early England) – conquered Britain; then inhabited by Celtic people
Anglo – Saxon England – the reign of Angles and Saxons including the Jutes
The Anglo Saxon Chronicle – record of events in England
William the Conqueror – duke of Normandy; Normans descendants of Vikings
Domesday Book - record of counted number of farms and animals; basis for taxes
Henry II and Matilda (daughter) – starts legal system
Matilda – Common Law in England
Magna Carta sealed by King John (Richard I’s brother the Lion-hearted)
1. Taxation only with representation

Readings in the Social Sciences

JOHN CLYDE M. RANCHEZ (Junior High)

2. Right to trial
3. Limits Power of Monarchs
Parliament – a meeting/ session; seeking advice from landowners, churchmen, nobles, and
representative
Edward I – used parliament to suppressed barons’ rebellion; “Model Parliament
Limited monarchy – a government in which limits are set on monarch’s powers
Principles:
1. English subjects had certain liberties
2. The king could not violate those liberties
3. The power to govern not rested to the king alone but with King and Parliament together
• Medieval Europe at Its Height
Absolute Monarchy (France) – a government in which the monarch has complete power
Heresy – the holding of beliefs that the Church considered wrong
Inquisition – tribunal of Roman Catholic Church (1232-1820) created to discover and suppress heresy
Thomas Aquinas – Summa Theologica; both reason and Christian teachings came from God
Albert Magnus – “Albert the Great”; teacher of Aquinas; scientist
Roger Bacon – scientist; light traveled faster than sound; optics and light rays
Everyman – famous morality play
Nacular languages – French Spanish, Italian, and Rumanian
Beowulf – oldest great literary work in a vernacular language
Song of the Nibelung – describes the rivalry between medieval kingdoms
Divine Comedy – Dante Alighieri; poet’s journey through hell, purgatory, and paradise
The Canterbury Tales – Geoffrey Chaucer; vivid picture of everyday life in medieval England
Romanesque structures – massive walls –short windows; rounded archs
Joan of Arc inspires the French during the Hundred Years War of England and France
Louis IX – “the Spider”
Houses of York – white rose
House of Lancaster – red rose (backed king Henry)
War of the Roses

Readings in the Social Sciences

JOHN CLYDE M. RANCHEZ (Junior High)

Constantinople – new capital city of Roman Empire 330 A.D.

Justinian – first great Byzantine ruler
“Greek Fire” – new invention; fiery explosive liquid shot from tubes used to set enemy ships on fire
Constantinople falls to Turks

Readings in the Social Sciences