Study Questions: Part 1

Short Answer Questions

1. Hittites
The Hittites were nomadic peoples living in the region lying between the Mediterranean and Black sea, an area known as Anatolia. They established two kingdoms- the Old and the New Hittite Kingdoms between 1800 and 1200 BCE. Anatolia was home to many nomadic societies with difference clans who built strong, often fortified villages/towns but where frequent conflicts were common. Much of their culture was borrowed from urban cultures from the peoples living in Southwest Asia. The Hittites had strong, well organized armies mainly composed of chariot warriors. Starting around 2nd millennium BCE, the Hittites grew powerful through expansions of their territories mainly through conquest of their neighboring societies, who were made subjects and forced to pay tributes and taxes. The Hittite kind Harrusilis I successfully unified various chariot warrior groups, thus resulting in a strong, centralized aristocratic empire. They successfully defeated and conquered such strong kingdoms as Babylonia and northern Syria around 1595 BCE. They later invaded Egypt, engaging them in the Battle of Oadesh around 1274 BCE.

2. Oracle Bones
These were animal bones used as divination objects in the society during the Shang Dynasty in East Asia. The Shang was a territorial state that lasted from around 1600 to 1045 BCE and had strong beliefs in myths. Here, divination was done using animal bones (oracle bones), which were used to communicate with ancestors and foretelling the future. These bones would be burnt and the cracks that developed in them would be interpreted to obtain some meaning. Also, scribes would inscribe questions on the dray bones and then obtain answers from the ancestors.

3. Indo- European languages
These were languages that were a combination of languages native to Asia and those coming from eastern European regions. The mother of these languages is believed to have been the Sanskrit, a language that came with the Vedic people, a nomadic society called the Aryans from Inner Eurasia between 1400 and 1200 BCE, who introduced horses and other domesticated animals.

4. Hatshepsut
Hatshepsut was a female ruler in Egypt during the New kingdom era (1550- 1069 BCE) and the mother of Pharaoh Thutmosis II. Because the son was very young when he took over, Hatshepsut acted as his regent, thus commanding the military and expanding trade outwards to as far as Nubia in the south and Levant and the Mediterranean in the north. During her era, trade was the key aspect of expansion as there were little military activities.

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