CLA 2323 Lecture 1: CLA2323 lecture notes May 3 and 5 (1)
Document Summary
Glossary archaeology: the systematic study of the past through discovery and interpretation of material remains. Mesopotamia: now = iraq, encompassing the paired river valleys of the tigris and euphrates. A seedbed of early civilization, mesopotamia hosted the bronze age cultures of sumer and babylon. These people were not greek, but, as it happens, the name mesopotamia ( the land between the rivers ) comes to us from the greek language. Stone age: the prehistoric era ending around 3000 b. c. that saw the earliest stages of human technology. Called stone because its most distinctive material remnants are worked-stone tools. (metal tools would follow in later centuries. ) Its distinctive material remains include tools and weapons made from the metal bronze, an alloy of copper and tine. The bronze age saw progress, organization, and centralized authority in different centers across the whole near east and eastern mediterranean, starting in.