GEP1005 HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION I

Weekly Assignment 1

What does the term "Mesopotamia" mean?

Between the rivers.

Which of the following can be example to the Mesopotamian states or empires?

All of them; a, b & c.
The Sumerians, the Akadies, the Babylonians and the Assyrians

Why scribes had superior position in Mesopotamian society?

Since cuneiform was difficult to learn, learning it scribes became the only class who could keep
records of the Mesopotamians.

What is the most important point in the codification of Hammurabi that affected the nature of ruling
in various countries in the following centuries?
He entrusted the king divine right to rule.

What was the political structure of Sumerian civilization?

City state

What is the name of the Sumerian writing system?

Cuneiform

The written script of Mesopotamian civilizations was

Cuneiform

What does the term polytheistic mean?

Believing in more than one god.

Where is the Fertile Crescent?

Mesopotamia

Around 3500 B.C., the first civilization was established in the region of Mesopotamia called
Sumerian

Weekly Assignment 2

What is the most distinctive contribution of the Phoenicians to the humanity?

Their alphabet that became ancestor to the Greek and Latin alphabets.

Which religion emerged in the Middle East and challenged polytheism of the region?
Judaism.

What was the political structure of the Egyptian Civilization?

Centralized.

What was the name of the first known African state other than Egypt?
Kush.

What is the geographical location of Minoan Civilization?

Crete

Egyptians had written…

On papyrus, which was a material made from a certain kind of plant.

Mycenaean people...
Were at the height of their power between 1400 and 1200 BC.
Enlarged their cities, trade, and established colonies in the eastern Mediterranean.
Both a & b

The Hebrew people...

Were the Semitic languages speaking people in the Mediterranean with Monotheistic religion,
Judaism?

Which of the following gives the most accurate information about the Egyptian writing system?
The writing system appeared in Egypt about 3000 B.C.
Egyptian alphabet is called hieroglyphic alphabet.
Both a & b

Which of the following most accurately describes the literary traditions in Egyptian and
Mesopotamian civilizations?
Egyptians did not produce an epic tradition, unlike the Mesopotamians.

The image in the below ancient coin depicts.

Cleopatra

Which of the following cities was the capital of Minoan civilization?

Knossos

Weekly Assignment 3

The group that invaded India as early as 1600 B.C was the…
Aryans

Which of the below is not among the reasons of the collapse of the Harappa civilization?
Civil wars and social unrest.

Why did the Harappans were open to invasions by other civilizations?

Poor weaponry.

Who were the religious leaders/highest priests in ancient India?

Brahmans.

The Harappan civilization developed along what river valley system?

Indus

What is the name given to the sacred book in ancient India?

Vedas

What was the first civilization to emerge in the Indian subcontinent?

Aryan
The two river systems serving as the basis for India's civilization were the…
Indus and Ganges.

Which mountain range carved out the Indus River system?

The Himalayas

Which was not true about Sikhism?

It was a religious belief of an aristocratic class.

What characteristics of the Aryans provided them to rule over peoples they occupied?
Mobility and military courage.

Which was one of the centers of Indus Civilization?

Harappa

Weekly Assignment 4

What is Analects?
Sayings of Confucius

Why did large territorial states emerge in China?

All the answers, a, b & c

Ancient Chinese people wrote on the

Tortoise shells, animal bones, bronze

What was the political structure of China in the Bronze Age?

City State

Around which river the irrigation systems were established in China?

Yellow river

What did Confucius criticize?

Cruelty, disorder, and discord in the Chinese society.
What was the name of the kingdom that was established in China in the early Bronze Age?
Shang.

Which dynasty did provide political unification of China after the foundation of various territorial
states?
Qin.

The first records of China begin in the dynastic period of...

Shang

Why did large territorial states emerge in China?

Expansion of population and agriculture necessitated the emergence of large territorial states
Rise of commerce
The rise of a new style army. All answers

What is Shangdi?
The name of the first king of ancient china
The name of the Supreme Being in ancient China
Which of the following civilizations is not correctly associated with the river valleys they arose?
China-Ganj

Weekly Assignment 5

In which century did the Greeks reach demos?

5th century B.C.

What does Greek Dark Ages (1100-800 B.C) mean?

The era when Dorians invaded the mainland of Greece
Which of the following most accurately describes the main difference between Athens and Sparta?
While military, strict discipline and aristocratic rule dominated in Sparta; direct democracy and
commercial values dominated in Athens.
Who were the Elamites
non-Indo-European speaking native people in the neighboring regions of Mesopotamia.

Who was Cyrus the Great?

Persian ruler who established massive Persian Empire in 550 B.C. and began to attack Greek city
states

The person responsible for the creation of the unified Persian Empire around 550 B.C. was
Cyrus the great

Which one of these names is not an Ancient Greek Philosopher?

Cyrus the Great

Why did Cyrus the Great want to capture Greek city states?
In order to obtain the wealth and trade networks of the Greek civilization

Whose army defeated Lydian and Babylonian Kingdom and proceeded to the west?
Cyrus the great

What is hoplite phalanx?

Armed soldier in Ancient Greece

Why was the Delian League formed in Ancient Greece?

To prepare against the threat coming from Persia

In Ancient Greece, people believed that...

Certain gods regulated natural forces and established social order

The religion in Ancient Greece was...

Polytheistic

What cannot be said about the Demos tradition in Ancient Greece?

Everybody could participate in Demos

When did İnstitutional Patronage in Science start in Ancient Greece?

With the Hellenistic Period

What is the political rule in Ancient Greece?

City States

Which Persian ruler marched in to Athens and burned the city?

Xerxes

What does polis mean in Greek?

City

What were the two leading city states in Ancient Greek Civilization?
Athens and Sparta

What was the key stimulus for the revival of Greek Civilization after its “dark ages”?
Trade

Demo’s means
For people

Which of the following most accurately describes the period between 700 and 500 B.C in Greek
civilization?
Economic and social problems dominated ancient Greek city states and tyranny was established

Who were the Dorians?

A group of Indo-European speaking people who invaded the mainland of Greece around 1100 B.C.

Alexander the Great...

Wanted the Greek and Asian institutions to merge together.
Settled Macedonian and Greek officials to Middle Eastern holding of Macedonian Kingdom.
Encourage intermarriage between Greeks and Egyptians, Persians and other native people.
All the answers; a, b & c
Who were the parties of the Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.)?
Athens-Sparta

The winner of the Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.) was...

Sparta

What happened to Alexander the Great’s empire after his death?

It was divided into three (Egypt, Mesopotamia, Macedonia and Greece) and ruled by his three main
generals.

During the Hellenistic period New Greek cities and kingdoms were founded in the Near &Middle East
& Egypt. The most prominent ones were
Pergamon, Rhodes, Antioch, Alexandria

What was the capital of the Achaemenid Empire?

Persopolis

Weekly Assignment 6

What does "aristocracy" mean?

Rule of the best.

What does agora mean in the ancient Greek cities?

Market and gathering place.

What did the Greek philosophers suggest people in the ancient times?
Making rational observation was necessary in order to understand nature and society
In the ancient Greek society, it was believed that Apollo was
The god of the sun and light in the Greek mythology

In the ancient Greek society, it was believed that Zeus was

The creator or father God in the Greek mythology.

What did classical Greek philosophy stress in order to understand universe?

Observation and skepticism

What are "Iliad" and "Odyssey"?

Homer’s two great epics, in which he told about the Trojan War and narrated features of the Greek
society

In Homers great epics İliad and Odyssey, the Trojan war was narrated as between
Greeks and Trojans

It is believed that the writer of Iliad and Odyssey was...

Homer

Why Greek temples always face east?

To make the rising sun light the statues inside

In the ancient Greek society, it was believed that Poseidon was…

The god of sea, inspiring war or human love & beauty in the Greek mythology

Which Greek philosopher was accused of teaching doubt and skepticism and sentenced to death in
399 B.C?
Socrates

What are the three orders of the classical Greek architecture, which dominated the language of the
modern architecture?
Doric, Ionic, Corinthian

Socrates was tutor of … Plato

Which of the following most accurately describes the position of women in the ancient Greek society?
Although women were depicted as powerful figures in mythology, they held inferior position in the
ancient Greek society.

Sedentary means...
Settled in a certain place

Which of the following was not a Greek city-state?

Florence
The mythos of Greek culture was established by the wide acceptance of two great poems, the...
Iliad and the Odyssey
Weekly Assignment 7

Who established a civilization in Italy in pre-Roman period?

Etruscans

Who was Marcus Licinius Crassus?

A consul in the Roman Republic

Who did transform the Roman Republic to the Empire?

Julius Caesar

Rome’s expansionist policies led to

The emergence polarization and conflict in the society between rich and poor, land owner and
landless

Who was Tiberius Gracchus?

The tribune, who suggested land reform and social legislation in favor of poor and gained support of
ordinary people.

The Roman Republic captured Carthage and its colonies between 264 and 146 B.C in the wars called
Punic Wars
The Roman expansion led to
Serious economic and social problems for the people of the Empire.

Who was in conflict with the consul Marius in the Roman Republic?
Sulla

What does Punic mean?

Phoenician

The language of the Etruscans was

Not Indo-European

In order to consolidate its power in western Mediterranean, the Romans had to:
conquer Carthage

Which consul declared himself dictator in the Roman Republic to make reforms in the Roman
government in 88 B.C.?
Sulla

Which area did Roman Republic capture in order to consolidate its power in the Western
Mediterranean?
Carthage and its colonies

What is the name of the Roman alphabet?

Latin

The Roman expansion led to

Serious economic and social problems for the people of the Empire
Invasions of Germanic tribes
Which of the following does not indicate the problems of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century?
The fall of the Republic

Weekly Assignment 8

The religion of the Roman people during the Roman Republic was...
Polytheistic

Which of the following most accurately describes the situation in Rome in the years following the
death of Julius Caesar?
Roman Empire was in chaos, there were series of civil wars in the Middle Eastern and Egyptian lands
of the Empire.

Who did say “I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble”?
Augustus Caesar

What is the name of the river that the Germanic tribes attacked to the Roman domains from west?
Rhine

Which of the following is not an example for Roman architecture?

Parthenon in Athens

Which of the following did indicate the problems of the Roman Empire?
The end of the Roman expansion around 180 CE.
Spread of devastating epidemics plague in the 2nd CE.
Recurrent civil wars for the throne since there was no principle for succession.
The answers; a, b & c

Which of the following most accurately describes Diocletian’s ruling?

a. He divided the vast territory of the Empire into four to be ruled by four rulers
b. He struggled to establish a centralized ruling structure
c. He considered presence of Christians as source of separatism and destruction in the Empire and he
conducted atrocities against them.
Two of the answers; a & c
Which of the following did not indicate the problems of the Roman Empire after 180 B.C?
Increase in the welfare of the peasants
By the 3rd century, many peasants surrendered their land to the big land lords in order to have
military and judicial protection against the rules of imperial rule and invaders. This meant
Growing decentralized power

Which of the following most accurately describes the impact of the invasions on the Western part of
the Roman Empire?
Both A & B
City life was deteriorated and life in the Western Roman Empire became increasingly rural.
Robber bands emerged and they prevented trade.
Which Roman Emperor established Constantinople as the second capital city of the Roman Empire?
Constantine the Great

From which rivers did the Germanic tribes attack Roman domains?
From Rhine and Danube
In contrast to the rulers of Sumer, the rulers of Egypt were considered to be...
God-kings

Weekly Assignment 9

Which of the following is true for Mecca?

All the answers; a, b & c

What did happen to the Abbasid rule after the influential caliph Harun's death?
Various civil wars broke out among his sons and authority of caliphs was deteriorated

Who did drive out Arab armies from the French border in 732?
Charles Martel

Which adversary empires’ weakness contributed to the spread of Islam?

Sassanian and Byzantine Empire

Conquering Syria and capturing capital city Damascus, who did end the Umayyad Empire?
Abbasids

What did the Quraysh Treaty provide?

It ended the conflict between the followers of the prophet Muhammad and the Quraysh merchants

Which of the following can be regarded as the contribution of the Abbasids to humanity?
Islamic learning
They introduced Europe translations of classical Greek works about medicine, astronomy,
geometry...
Their building of great opulent mosques is regarded as architectural contribution.
All of the answers; a, b, c

Which of the following most accurately describes the ruling characteristics of the Abbasid Empire?
All the answers; a, b & c

What does the word Shia mean?

Followers of Ali

Which of the following most accurately describes the ruling characteristics of the Umayyad Empire?
Two of the answers; a & b
a. Only Arab Muslims were allowed to take place in bureaucracy and army
b. Mawali suffered because of discriminatory ruling of the Umayyads.

Which of the following is NOT true for Mecca?

Mecca is located in the mountainous region along the Tigris.

What was the reason of the conflict that led to a war between the forces of Ali and muawiye?
The succession for the Islamic leadership

Which wars did eliminate rival clans against Islam and provide consolidation of the Islamic
community?
Ridda

This conflict between Ali’s followers and Umayyads is called

Sunni and Shia split

Which of the Abbasid rulers was in contact with Charlemagne?

Harun

Which of the following most accurately describes the principle of succession for being caliph in Islam?
There was no established rule about the selection of caliph.

Who did establish the dynastic Umayyad Empire? Muawiye.

When the Ottomans had a victory against the Byzantine army in 1302
Bapheus.

Under the rule of which emperor did the Byzantine Empire reach to peak in terms of territorial
borders?
Justinian.

Modernization in Ottoman Empire was mainly?

Religious conservatives.

Weekly Assignment 10

Under the rule of which Byzantine emperor the city’s fortification walls was built from 408 to 450?
Thedosius II

What was the most important decision of the Council of Nicaea?

Trinity was approved as the official religious doctrine of the empire

What was the aim of the construction of Constantinople's fortification walls between 408 and 450?
In order to defend the city against Hun attacks

With whose invasions did the Byzantine Empire struggle with between 5th and 11th centuries?
Huns, Persians, Arabs, Bulgarians, Russians

Which of the following is NOT among the events that occurred in the Byzantine Empire between 6th
and 10th centuries?
Latins invaded Constantinople in the 4th crusade

Under the reign of which Byzantine emperor Hagias Sophia was constructed in the form that we see
today?
Justinian

What was iconoclasm?

Rejection of using icons during the Christian worship in the Orthodox Church

Who did siege and seriously threat Constantinople in the middle of the 7th and early 8th century?
Arabs

What does the Great Schism of 1054 mean?

The split between Eastern and Western Churches

Where was Constantine Great buried?

Church of the holy apostles

MORE

Hattutas present day Boğazköy was…

Capital city of the Hittite empire

Croesus was the powerful king of...

Lydian Kingdom

Who invaded the lydiak kingdom?

Persians

When and under whose rule did the Hittites defeat Babylonian empire?
During the old kingdom period circa (1620 – 1590 BC) under the rules of Marsulis 1

What did happen in Constantinople between 1204 and 1261?

Latins established a short lasted Latin Kingdom

Who did fight in the Milvian Bridge War?

Constantine- Maxentius

What was the aim of the Delian League?

To fight and resist against the Persian invasions

Who was Constantine the Great?

The founder of Constantinople

What is the significance of Manzikert defeat in terms of the Byzantine Empire?

Byzantine Empire lost its authority in Anatolia and main sources of tax revenue and territories, which
supplied most of the Empire’s food

Which one is not a Hellenistic city?

Rome

Along which river was the Chinese civilization emerged?

İndus River

The Greek alphabet was adapted from the.......

Phoenicians.

Sumerian cities.......
Were basically colonies established by people migrated from the mainland Greece.

Which factor most influenced a person’s social position in early Indian societies?
Birth

The first great heroic poem of early civilizations was

Iliad
Pyramids were built by the pharaohs in order to....
House themselves and their family members after death.

Which of the following cannot be said about Çatalhöyük around 6000 B.C.?
In Çatalhöyük people were never settled, it was a passage for the nomadic tribes.

Who was the famous king and law-maker of the Babylonian Empire?
Hammurabi

What was the capital city of the Phrygians?

Gordion

Who did attack and put and to the rule of Phrygians?

Gimmerians

From where did the Phrygians enter into Anatolia?

From west, from Danube and Macedonia
What was the name of the civilization which emerged about 1600 B.C. on Crete?
Minoan

Which one of the following is not among the results of the Agricultural Revolution?
Sedentary life
Development of nomadic lide
Population growth

Which of the following was the capital of the Hittite Empire?

Hattusash

The group that invaded India as early as 1600 B.C was the …
Aryans

Sumerians developed the use of mathematics for.......

Trade
Organizing rituals
Agriculture
Both A and C

Which one is a Hellenistic city?

Pergamon

Did Chinese civilization consist of agricultural communities?

Yes

Which one is not a Hellenistic Kingdom?

Mauryan

Why rivers are considered so important to the development of the first civilizations?
They encouraged the growth of agriculture.

Was there political centralization in Ancient Greece? NO

Was Hellenistic Science utilitarian? NO
Was Ancient Greece a river valley civilization? NO

The first great heroic poem of early civilizations was ...

Epic of Gilgamesh

Which one is not a Chinese philosophy?

Zorastrianism

Which one is not a duty of the Pharoah?

To provide educational services.

In Paleolithic age, people…

Discovered fire

During the Neolithic Period, earliest societies appeared in...

Middle East

Who invaded the Lydian Kingdom?

Persians
Archeological evidence revealed that
Troy was a very big city with its large citadel and superpower of its age

Who were the group of Indo-European speaking people who settled in Anatolia around 1700 B.C and
established an extensive Empire?
Hittite

Which Hittite emperor did unite the Hittite territories and extend the borders of the Hittite Empire in
1380 B.C.?
Suppiluliuma

Achaeans were?
The native Greek inhabitants who lived in Attica area of the mainland Greece after the fall of
Mycenaean civilization.

What was the..... 1600 B.C. on Crete..?

Minioan

What kind of democracy was adopted in Athens?

Direct democracy

What is the name of the first known international treaty in the history of humanity?
Kadesh
1. Around 2000 B.C, a group of people called the Phoenicians settled on the eastern Mediterranean
coast, on today’s Lebanon. True
2. Ionians who were from Asia Minor and the Greek Islands, were a trading society True
3. The Middle East was the first region to move from the Neolithic Age to the Bronze Age. True
4. People of the Middle East invented potter's wheel around 6000 B.C. This enabled them to produce
higher quality ceramics. True
5. Governors & priests constituted the elites of the Sumerian society. True
6. Political organization of China was city-state in the Bronze Age. True
7. Confucius was not a religious teacher like Buddha, but a social philosopher. True
8. The writing System of the Sumerians called cuneiform. They developed it around 3500 B.C. True
9. The famous king, Hammurabi (r. 1792-1750 B.C) unified much of Mesopotamia, which lacked
political unification until his reign. True
10. About 1600 B.C. a civilization in Crete emerged. This Bronze Age civilization on Crete is called
Minoan. Its capital was Knossos. True
11. The Crimean War destroyed the concert of Europe… True
12. In the Chinese civilization moon, sun, earth, rain, wind, and clouds were natural deities. True
13.

14. The religion in Chinese civilization was based on astronomy.

False

15. The Hellenistic period was characterized by a new wave of Greek colonization; it means New
Greek cities and kingdoms were founded in the China.
False

16. Chinese Kings were accepted as Gods.

False