Practice Final

ANT 308

 

Spring 2010

 

Directions:  Try to complete this practice final by the morning of Monday, April 26.  I will post answers online on the afternoon of that day.  

 

Define three of the following six terms, and describe how they are important to Old World archaeology:

 

1)      Amenhotep III

The father of Akhenaton (Amenhotep IV) who is best known for having himself declared a god during his own lifetime, beginning the royal support of Aten, and giving an unusual amount of trust and power to his non-Great Wife of Amon, Tiy.  He is important because he give insight into the early reign of Akhenaton, and the conditions in Egypt during the late XVIIIth dynasty.

 

2)       Kerma culture

A complex Nubian culture that clearly reached state level during the 2nd Intermediate period in Egypt.  It controlled its own trade, and as a result was wealthy and powerful.  It allied with the Hyksos, as the Kerma rulers knew that if Egypt was completely reunified, Egypt would again work to subjugate Nubia.  The Hyksos lost the civil war, despite Kerma intervention, and one of the first actions of the new XVIIIth dynasty was the invasion and colonization of Nubia.  It is important because it shows the relationship between Egypt and Nubia—generally, only one could be powerful at one time, and Nubia became more centralized during periods of Egyptian chaos and distraction.

 

3)      Kot Diji phase

A period in Indus Valley culture from about 2800-2600 BC—it’s between the Ravi phase and before the peak Harappan period.  It is important because it is the beginning of the Classic Indus Valley culture. 

 

4)      Shortugai

The Indus Valley settlement located in the Afghani mountains near the source of lapis lazuli.  It was almost certainly a colony constructed for the purpose of extracting and trading the resources of the mountainous region for trade.  It is importance because it shows how the Indus culture got their lapis lazuli, cedar, and carnelian, and shows a high degree of centralized authority and planning.

 

5)      Segmentary lineage

The kinship system that is most common among nomadic (and some non-nomadic) groups.  In this system, everyone in the group reckons their descent back to a fictive ancestor, and then transfers their allegiance to the senior male in their kin line, moving up the generations—father, then grandfather and his descendents, descendents of the great-grandfather and so on (the best example is the tribes of Israel in the Bible).  It is important because it is an extremely flexible kinship system that allows a wide range of activities and social structures, many of which are seen in the nomadic state cycle of central Asia

 

6)      Kurgan

Kurgan culture is actually a whole series of pastoralist cultures across central Asia, all of which are marked by a particular type of tomb.  The body is buried in a larchwood chamber, along with many burial goods and often animal sacrifices.  A mound or cairn is built over the chamber, and the whole tomb becomes a landmark.  It is important because it shows the spread of nomadic pastoralist cultures, and is often one of the primary types of remains from these cultures.

 

 

Please write an essay on one of the following two topics:

1)      Explain how and why the 2nd Intermediate period occurred, and how and why it ended.

 

The 2nd Intermediate period probably occurred in two separate waves. 

A.                A period in which Egypt split into nomes, similar to the 1st Intermediate period, and a group of Levantine immigrants took control of Lower Egypt, and became the XIVth dynasty, which coreigned with the XIIIth dynasty in Upper Egypt.  This period shows evidence of an influx of refugees from outside Egypt, famine and some internal unrest.  Presumably, the refugees were due to the advance of chariot-riding invaders into the Middle East and Levant region.

B.                 This famine, disease, and civil war may have allowed the Hyksos, who were invaders from the Levant using both the chariot and the composite bow, to invade Egypt with even less trouble than they would have had anyway.  The Hyksos took over Lower Egypt, and became the XVth dynasty.  In response, Upper Egypt broke into the Abydene dynasty (based at Abydos) and the XVIth dynasty (based at Thebes).  The Hyksos took out the Abydene dynasty fairly rapidly, which is why they don’t rate a number, and eventually conquered the Theban dynasty as well.  Eventually, Thebes rebelled again, founding the XVIIth dynasty, which coexisted with the Hyksos for some time.  Apparently by the end of the XVIIth dynasty, the Thebans had managed to steal the chariot and bow technologies.  After several generations of war between the Thebans and the Hyksos, with the Nubians allying with the shepherd kings, the Hyksos were conquered and their capital at Avaris was burned.  The new, unified dynasty based at Thebes was the XVIIIth dynasty, and the beginning of the New Kingdom.

 

The reason for the beginning of the Intermediate period was probably refugees from the Middle East, famine, disease, and the fact that nomarchs were allowed to collect their own taxes towards the end of the Middle Kingdom, which was always a non-centralizing influence.  The reason for the successful invasion of the Hyksos was overwhelming military technology invading at a time when Egypt was weakened in the first place.

 

The reason for the end of the Intermediate period is probably due to the defensibility of Thebes, the fact that chariots would tend to be less overwhelming in Upper Egypt, and the fact that the Thebans had managed to adopt the new military technology themselves.

 

 

2)      Compare and contrast the Indus Valley culture and Egyptian culture in terms of trade, political structure, and social complexity.

 

There are two ways to organize this—you can either do it by country, or by topic.  Either one is fine, as long as you stick to it.  Here is a ‘by topic’ version. 

a.       Trade  

                                                               i.      Indus Valley—trade was important to the Indus Valley culture, which clearly had trade expeditions to Dilmun and Sumer, where the chronicles write about the strange people who washed all the time.  They formed colonies (Shortugai) to extract and trade for the resources of the Afghani mountains, which formed the bulk of their exports.  It is not known what the Indus Valley people got from their trade, but it was probably perishable, since none of it has ever been found in the archaeological record.  The Indus was, in a way, the trade conduit by which many Afghani resources made their way to the markets of the rest of the Middle East.  It was still possible for some goods to get to Mesopotamia overland, however, through modern Iran.

                                                             ii.      Egypt—Likewise, Egypt was a kind of trade conduit for the goods of Nubia and central Africa—notably gold, ivory, slaves, and animal skins.  Egypt largely traded for wine, wood, and olive oil, none of which grew effectively in the Nile Valley.  The trade of the Indus and Egypt were quite similar, in that both were trading away raw resources from a neighboring region, over which they had control over the major ports, and both were trading in perishable luxury goods.  Unlike the Indus, there was no real way for the Nubian goods to get to the markets outside of through the Nile, so the Egyptian stranglehold on Nubia was much stronger than the Indus hold over the highlands.

b.      Political Structure

                                                               i.      Indus—definitely a state, possibly run by a group of high-caste individuals.  The degree of standardization and city planning at Indus sites clearly suggests a state structure, even though no obvious palace or temple has been identified.

                                                             ii.      Egypt—definitely a state, run by a divine king with solar aspects.  The pharaoh delegated authority to vizier (prime minister), nobles, generals, and priests, but could almost always remove these individuals from power (unless the pharaoh was having serious problems).  The pharaoh was believed to be the embodiment of the ma’at of the nation, and thus his activities and life affected the flow of the Nile, the timing of the floods, and nature itself.

c.       Social Complexity        

                                                               i.      Indus—definitely social differentiation, as seen in the different qualities of jewelry.  However, nearly everyone was buried with the same degree of burial goods, and houses are generally close to the same size for everyone.  May have been a caste-based society, but the exact mechanics of the social complexity of the Indus are very poorly known.

                                                             ii.      Egypt—extremely socially differentiated culture, with the semi-divine pharaoh, nobles, and priests making up the upper class, and scribes and merchants making up the middle class.  The lower classes were probably literate by the New Kingdom, and had a fair amount of freedom and a good way of life, but were usually farmers who did the bulk of the actual work of the country.  Social mobility was possible, particularly if someone went to scribe school.