| Bayon | The spectacular temple complex in the center
of the ancient Khmer city of Angkor Thom that
is covered with images of Hindu gods, bas-reliefs,
columns, and colonnades.
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| central place | As used in the field of cultural geography,
the geographic focal point of a political entity.A
large city or ceremonial center with religious structures
often are central places for states or chiefdoms.
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| city-state | A political entity characteristic of some
early civilizations, especially in Mesopotamia. A
central population center dominates the surrounding
hinterlands. The wealth of the countryside
flows into the city, where it is concentrated in the
hands of the elite classes.
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| cuneiform | An early form of written records in
Mesopotamia, involving the impression of standardized
symbols on wet clay. Dating to close to
6,000 years ago, cuneiform is the earliest writing in
the world.
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| cylinder seal | Mesopotamian system of impressing
symbolic notation onto wet clay with a marked
cylinder.
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| deffufa | Monumental mud-brick towers built by the
inhabitants of the ancient Nubian civilization of
Kerma located south of the third cataract of the
Nile in modern Sudan. Kerma dates to more than
3,500 years ago.
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| envelope | Name given to clay containers used to
store clay tokens in the Middle East beginning
5,500 years ago. The clay tokens were of various
shapes and used as an information storage system,
the different shapes representing different categories
of goods—jars of oil, sheep, cattle, and so
on. Markings were made on the clay envelope to
indicate the kind and number of tokens they contained.
Ultimately, the tokens were eliminated and
these markings developed into the world’s first
writing system.
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| Funan | The name given to the earliest civilization in
southeast Asia, established in Cambodia during the
first century A.D. by merchants from India.
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| hang-t'u | The Chinese term for stamped or pounded
and compacted earth used to make structures.
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| hieroglyphic | A writing system in which pictorial
symbols are used to convey a particular sound, object,
or idea—or some combination of these three
things.
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| Khmer | Local name given to the civilization of
Southeast Asia dating to after A.D. 800. The great
temple cities of Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat
represent the culmination of this civilization at
around A.D. 1000.
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| Knossos | An enormous and impressive site representing
the culmination of Minoan civilization.
The temple at Knossos was built beginning in 3880
B.P. and at its height covered an area of about
20,000 m2 (close to 5 acres) and had 1,000 rooms
built up to three stories and, in some sections, four
stories high.
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| Kush | The Egyptian name for the land south of their
territory. Kush began at the first cataract of the Nile
in southern Egypt and extended to the sixth cataract,
near the modern Sudanese city of Khartoum.
lacustrine Having to do with lakes.
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| Lung shan | A Chinese culture that followed the Neolithic
Yang-shao. Dated to 5000 B.P., Lung-shan
sites are larger, with evidence of substantial hangt’u
construction. Lung-shan cemeteries have produced
clear evidence of a socioeconomically strati-
fied society. Lung-shan laid the foundation for
China’s first complex state, the Shang.
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| mastaba | Mud-brick structures built over the tombs
of a developing elite in Egypt before the pharaohs.
They became larger through time, were stacked on
top of each other, and ultimately evolved into the
pyramid tomb emblematic of ancient Egyptian
civilization.
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| Minoan | The name given by Sir Arthur Evans to the
early European civilization that evolved on the island
of Crete. The temple at Knossos is the bestknown
manifestation of this culture.
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| monumental works | Large-scale communal construction
projects characteristic of complex societies.
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| Mycenaeans | A southern European civilization that
followed the Minoans and preceded the Greeks.
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| New Temple Period | The culture period for Minoan
Crete dating from 3650 to 3420 B.P. It followed a
catastrophic earthquake that badly damaged the
temple at Knossos and marks a florescence of Minoan
culture.
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| Nubia | The territory south of the ancient Egyptian
nation, primarily between the first and sixth
cataracts of the Nile, from southern Egypt to
Sudan. The ancient Egyptians called this area
Kush.
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| scapulimancy | A process of divining the future, popular
in ancient China, in which the scapulae (shoulder
blades) of animals are burned and the pattern
of burning and breakage is “read” by a diviner.
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| seal | A carved or molded symbol (on a ring, stamp,
or cylinder) that was impressed into soft clay to
leave one’s official mark. Used in early Mesopotamia
as a system of record keeping. (See also
cylinder seal.)
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| social stratification | A pattern of social integration
in which individuals are placed into a hierarchy of
social levels. The presence of a hierarchy of differences
in status and wealth in a society.
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| specialization of labor | A cultural pattern in which
some individuals can focus all or most of their
labors on some specialty: metalworking, pottery
manufacturing, stoneworking, weaving, architectural
design, and so on. By specializing, these individuals
can become quite proficient at their craft,
art, or science. The specialization of labor is characteristic
of complex civilizations.
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| state | A class society, often rigidly stratified into social
levels. The ruling class controls the populace
not by consensus but by coercion and force. The
rulers in a state society have the powers to levy and
collect taxes, to establish and enforce laws, and to
conscript people to do the work of the state.
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| system of record keeping | Any symbolic system that
usually, but not always, involves some form of
writing for keeping track of economic transactions,
historical events, religious rules, and the like.
A fundamental need in complex civilizations.
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| tumuli | (sing., tumulus) An artificial pile of earth,
often placed over an individual’s grave.
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| Ubaid | The name given to the culture of southern
Mesopotamia at 6300 B.P. Irrigation canals constructed
by the Ubaidic people made agriculture
possible, and larger settlements grew up in the
Mesopotamian floodplain at this time. Evidence of
the growing power of the religious elite is seen at
Ubaidic sites, with wealth becoming concentrated
in the temples.
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2003 McGraw-Hill Higher Education