CCD  HISTORY 101 - History of Western Civilization 1

    Ancient Times    What You Should Know

The What You Should Know page for each study section is not what you should know before the class, but rather what I think you should know once you've finished the class.

As students, we take it for granted that we should know whatever it takes to pass the exam. However I don't give exams (some have claimed my classes are nothing but one long exam!). I feel it's important for you as the student to have some sense of what out of the great flood of information you will learn is central or crucial.

If you have learned what I intend for you to learn, then you should be able to speak or write at least something, at least somewhat coherently, on each of the items here.

Used another way, if you find at the end of the section that there are one or more points that don't ring a bell, then you ought to go back and review the sources, because we really did touch on each of them.

Ø (Optional) Prehistory

  • Fossil evidence of hominid evolution

  • Genetic information on early human and Neanderthals

  • Major tool assemblage classification systems

  • Origins of Art

  • Origins of Language

  • Origins of Religion

  • Hunting and Gathering adaptation

    • material culture

    • gender roles

    • social stratification

    • human ecology

Ø (Optional Choose one:) Early Mesopotamian City States, Ancient Egypt, Minoan, Mycenae, Hittite or Harappan Civilization

  • Location
  • Origins and Influences
  • Environmental Adaptations
  • Material Culture
  • Architecture
  • Social Structure
  • Writing and Literature
  • Religious Beliefs

Ø Greece

  • Rise and organization of the Greek city-state, especially Athens and Sparta
  • Origins of Athenian Democracy (Solon through Pericles)
  • Persian and Peloponnesian Wars
  • Alexander and the Hellenistic Era
  • The big names and ideas in Greek drama, philosophy, and science
  • Greek religion and mystery cults

Ø Rome

  • Early Rome (Etruscans, Kingdom, early Republic)
  • Roman conquest of Italian Peninsula
  • Struggle of the Orders
  • Roman constitution
  • Punic Wars
  • Roman Revolution (fall of the Republic)
  • Roman Empire
  • Rise of Christianity