Test Bank for The Making of the West Combined

Test Bank for The Making of the West (Combined Volume) 7e Lynn Hunt, Thomas Martin, Barbara Rosenwein, Bonnie Smith (All Chapters Download link at the end of this file)

Chapter 1

• How did Near Eastern peoples explain and deal with a harsh climate and unexpected, devastating floods?

ANSWER: Answer would ideally include the following. Near Eastern peoples believed that powerful gods controlled all aspects of life and the environment. Because floods and other disasters came without warning, Near Eastern religious beliefs held that the gods would send such disasters as punishment if they became angry. Near Eastern peoples attempted to appease the gods by performing sacrifices and building magnificent temples. Near Eastern peoples also dealt with the harsh climate and unpredictable floods by devising the technology necessary to irrigate the arid flatlands with water channeled from the river, as well as vast systems of canals to control flooding.

• Who served as slaves in the Near East, and what role did they play economically and socially?

ANSWER: Answer would ideally include the following. Slaves stood at the bottom of the social ladder in the Near East. They were a remarkably diverse group: some were foreigners enslaved as captives in battle or in raids; others sold themselves or were sold by creditors to escape starvation or to pay off debts; and some were simply born to slaves. Slaves had virtually no rights—they could be sold, beaten, and even killed at will. Their masters, however, could choose to free them, and under certain conditions slaves were able to purchase their freedom. They worked as household servants, craft producers, and farm laborers, although much of the significant labor for Near Eastern city-states was done by free laborers.

• What does the Epic of Gilgamesh tell us about Mesopotamians' attitude toward human and divine power?

ANSWER: Answer would ideally include the following. The hero of the Epic of Gilgamesh has to struggle with the gods' power, his own physical power, and his power as king. When he abuses his power by forcing the women of Uruk to sleep with him or by insulting a goddess, the gods use their power to punish him. And even though he is strong and is a king, Gilgamesh cannot avoid death; he realizes that immortality for human beings comes only from their achievements—in Gilgamesh's case, building the great city of Uruk. In addition, civilization required that power be tamed, just as the wild man Enkidu had to be tamed before he could become friends with a civilized man such as Gilgamesh.

• Why was cuneiform developed, and how did it enrich Sumerian culture?

ANSWER: Answer would ideally include the following. Cuneiform developed out of the use of simple pictures to represent real objects. Created as a means of keeping financial accounts, cuneiform became a fully formed script with symbols that represented sounds and words, not just objects. After mastering these complex symbols, scribes used cuneiform to amass information about the natural world, foreign languages, and mathematics. Cuneiform preserved the world's oldest written poetry by Enheduanna, the daughter of King Sargon of the city of Akkad.

• Why was the discovery and use of bronze so important?

ANSWER: Answer would ideally include the following. Bronze—an alloy of copper and tin—developed as metallurgy and became more sophisticated. Bronze made superior weapons and tools because it held 1 / 3

its shape and edge better than copper, and bronze made both weapons and jewelry more decorative.The use of bronze also made gender differences more obvious because metal weapons were associated with the masculine pursuits of warfare and hunting. Finally, the introduction of metal implements gave society a new way to indicate wealth and status.

• What examples of class and gender discrimination were found in Hammurabi's code of laws?

ANSWER: Answer would ideally include the following. The code divided society into three groups: free persons, commoners, and slaves. Punishments depended on the relative classes of the criminal and the victim. According to the code, the punishment for physically injuring a social equal was “an eye for an eye,” but a free man who killed a commoner was merely fined. Causing a free woman to miscarry merited twice the fine that causing a common woman to miscarry would incur. As for gender distinctions, a man could divorce his wife for any reason, but a woman could divorce her husband only for cruelty.

• Which features of Egyptian culture and society enabled the Egyptians to endure internal conflict and external

invasion?ANSWER: Answer would ideally include the following. The Egyptians benefited from their physical location, their ability to support their economy without either external trade or war, and their own values of tradition and stability. Geographically, the regular flooding of the Nile helped them to provide for their own needs so that, though they benefited from trade, they were not dependent upon it. Because they were not a warrior culture, they were not dependent upon war for economic support. The physical features of Egypt also protected it from external attacks. With desert to the west and south, the Red Sea to the east, and the Mediterranean to the north, Egypt was vulnerable to attack only by water. Treasuring tradition, stability, and religious values, the Egyptians were less prone to internal strife than were other ancient cultures.

• Why do some scholars believe that Hittite women shared leadership positions with men?

ANSWER: Answer would ideally include the following. Archaeologists have uncovered graves of Hittite women buried with weapons, suggesting that these women were warriors and held a powerful position in society. Later documents, treaties, and letters give Hittite queens a prominent place, suggesting that at least some women continued to act in public affairs.

• What were Linear A and Linear B, and what does the presence on Crete of palace records written in Linear B

tell us?ANSWER: Answer would ideally include the following. Although further research is required to confirm, scholars believe that Linear A was the script used on Crete to write an Indo-European language known as Minoan. Linear B, used by the Mycenaeans from the Greek mainland, was a pictographic script that was based on Linear A but was used to write Greek. The fact that Linear B replaced Linear A as the language for keeping official palace records on Crete long before the final destruction of the palace at Knossos suggests that the Mycenaeans were controlling Crete long before the end of Minoan civilization.

• Who were the Sea Peoples?

ANSWER: Answer would ideally include the following. Historians use the term Sea Peoples to refer to the seaborne invaders responsible for a wave of violence in the eastern Mediterranean between 1200 and 1000 B.C.E. Precisely who the Sea Peoples were is not known, but they appear to have been a coalition of many different groups. They probably included Greeks, mercenary soldiers, and others who were professional raiders. The Sea Peoples were responsible for devastating attacks in Greece, Egypt, Anatolia, and Babylonia.

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• What benefits and what drawbacks did the Neolithic Revolution bring to human life?

ANSWER: Answer would ideally include the following. Benefits included a more reliable source of food, shelter, better tools, and a higher standard of living. Permanent settlements supported larger, more prosperous populations than those of hunter-gatherer communities. The creation of agricultural surpluses allowed for people to specialize in the arts, architecture, textile production, and trade.Drawbacks included societies becoming more hierarchical. Women were no longer considered equal in society, as patriarchy became the rule. Humans were also faced with new challenges, including developing and maintaining extensive and elaborate systems of irrigation.

• Discuss the factors that made possible the emergence of cities and civilizations in Mesopotamia.

ANSWER: Answer would ideally include the following. It appears that climate change and the domestication of animals made possible the emergence of agriculture in Mesopotamia, a region in the Fertile Crescent. Particularly on the sun-baked plains of southern Mesopotamia, successful agriculture depended on developing and mastering complex systems of irrigation. Food surpluses made possible greater population growth, increased the number of craft producers, and ultimately led to the creation of cities. Most cities were, in fact, city-states, in which growing urban centers, though surrounded by walls, were nonetheless linked to the countryside around them. Mesopotamia consisted of many independent city-states, each with its own central political authority. These cities included marketplaces, which were usually built on trade routes located near harbors or well- traveled overland routes. The cities also featured giant religious temples known as ziggurats.Mastering irrigation and creating successful agriculture required the establishment of divisions of labor. Increasing social and economic complexity led to social and political hierarchies, the creation of centralized authority, and rule by kings, who typically stood at the front of efforts to defend and seize more territory. To keep the peace at home and regulate the economic activity of their subjects, kings also helped create systems of law.

• Compare and contrast Near Eastern and Egyptian religions. What did they have in common? How did they

differ? Explain how the Tigris/Euphrates and Nile River valley settings of the two civilizations influenced their religious beliefs.ANSWER: Answer would ideally include the following. Societies were polytheistic, with gods frequently represented by objects in nature or emotions. Both societies believed that the gods controlled the weather as well as the good and the bad that the weather brought to humans. Kings in both societies were said to be divine or at least partially divine. The Egyptian king was considered a divinity in human form, identified with the hawk-headed god Horus. To please the gods and avoid incurring their wrath, kings in both societies needed to carry out certain religious obligations, and the people in both societies were expected to behave in certain ways. The Egyptian deities were far more benevolent and helpful to human beings than were the Near Eastern divinities, who frequently behaved like overgrown children. The Near Eastern divinities were capricious, capable of unleashing devastating floods on humans for no rational reason. In the Egyptian pantheon, the goddess Maat provided justice for the world, as long as the king ruled properly. In this vein, Near Eastern peoples built temples called ziggurats to honor their chief gods; the huge and elaborate construction of the ziggurats reflects the Near Eastern peoples’ desire to pacify the gods and thus avoid divine punishment. Egyptian pyramids, in contrast, were part of burial complexes at which Egyptians could worship Egypt's god-kings after they died. The Egyptians' strong belief in the afterlife shows in the extreme care taken to decorate these tombs and amass valuable grave goods to help the pharaoh reach the afterlife and live there comfortably. The desert climate was harsh and unforgiving. Though the Near Eastern cities were located on the fertile plains near the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, these plains were subject to devastating and unpredictable flooding. In contrast, the Nile flooded annually and peacefully; this flooding was the source of fertility for the soil along

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