Ancient History flashcards

What this deck covers

• Beliefs and Rituals (7 cards, 3 dot points)

  • Beliefs, religion and the gods in Greece and Rome (SACE Stage 2 Ancient Studies) (2)
  • Death, burial and the afterlife in New Kingdom Egypt (SACE Stage 2 Ancient Studies) (2)
  • Religion and belief in the ancient Near East (SACE Stage 2 Ancient Studies) (3)
• Power and Conflict (13 cards, 5 dot points)

  • Military conflict: Alexander the Great and Macedonian conquest (SACE Stage 2 Ancient Studies) (3)
  • Military conflict: the Greco-Persian Wars (SACE Stage 2 Ancient Studies) (2)
  • Military conflict: the Punic Wars and Roman expansion (SACE Stage 2 Ancient Studies) (3)
  • Political power and authority in democratic Athens (SACE Stage 2 Ancient Studies) (3)
  • Political power and authority: Augustus and the fall of the Republic (SACE Stage 2 Ancient Studies) (2)
• Social Structures and Everyday Life (13 cards, 5 dot points)

  • Economy, trade and daily life in the Roman world (SACE Stage 2 Ancient Studies) (3)
  • Social structure and power in New Kingdom Egypt (SACE Stage 2 Ancient Studies) (3)
  • Social structures and slavery in Classical Athens (SACE Stage 2 Ancient Studies) (2)
  • Society and government in Han dynasty China (SACE Stage 2 Ancient Studies) (3)
  • Women, family and everyday life in the ancient world (SACE Stage 2 Ancient Studies) (2)
• Sources and Historiography (9 cards, 3 dot points)

  • Analysing and evaluating ancient sources (SACE Stage 2 Ancient Studies) (3)
  • Archaeology and material culture as evidence (SACE Stage 2 Ancient Studies) (3)
  • Historiography and reconstructing the ancient past (SACE Stage 2 Ancient Studies) (3)

Sample cards from this deck

1. Definition

   Religion and belief in the ancient Near East (SACE Stage 2 Ancient Studies)

   Define Ziggurat

   A ziggurat was a Mesopotamian temple tower built as a series of receding stepped platforms with a shrine on top.

2. Definition

   Military conflict: Alexander the Great and Macedonian conquest (SACE Stage 2 Ancient Studies)

   Define Hellenistic world

   The Hellenistic world is the era after Alexander's death (from 323 BCE) in which Greek language, culture and rule spread across the former Persian Empire under Alexander's successor dynasties, blending Greek and eastern traditions in kingdoms such as Ptolemaic Egypt and the Seleucid realm.

3. Definition

   Economy, trade and daily life in the Roman world (SACE Stage 2 Ancient Studies)

   Define Patron-client relationship (clientela)

   Clientela was the network of mutual obligation linking a wealthier, higher-status patron with lower-status clients. Clients offered political support, votes and public deference; patrons offered protection, money, food and legal assistance.

4. Definition

   Analysing and evaluating ancient sources (SACE Stage 2 Ancient Studies)

   Define Primary versus secondary source

   A primary source originates within the period or event being studied and offers direct evidence of it. A secondary source is a later account or interpretation that analyses primary evidence.

5. Key fact

   Beliefs, religion and the gods in Greece and Rome (SACE Stage 2 Ancient Studies)

   Tell me about A religion of ritual, not creed

   Ancient Mediterranean religion had no single sacred book, no congregation of believers and no demand for inner faith. What mattered was correct practice: performing the right rites, to the right gods, in the right way.

6. Definition

   Military conflict: the Punic Wars and Roman expansion (SACE Stage 2 Ancient Studies)

   Define Province (provincia)

   A provincia was a territory outside Italy placed under Roman administration and governed by a magistrate, usually paying taxes to Rome. Sicily, won in the First Punic War, became Rome's first province, beginning the overseas empire that the Punic Wars created.

7. Definition

   Social structure and power in New Kingdom Egypt (SACE Stage 2 Ancient Studies)

   Define Maat

   Maat was the Egyptian concept of cosmic order, truth, balance and justice. The pharaoh's central duty was to uphold maat against chaos, and this religious idea justified the entire social and political hierarchy, presenting the king's rule as essential to the order of the universe.

8. Definition

   Archaeology and material culture as evidence (SACE Stage 2 Ancient Studies)

   Define Stratigraphy

   Stratigraphy is the study of the layers (strata) of soil and debris that accumulate on a site over time. Because later material normally lies above earlier material, the sequence of layers establishes the relative order of events and the context that dates the objects found within each layer.

9. Key fact

   Death, burial and the afterlife in New Kingdom Egypt (SACE Stage 2 Ancient Studies)

   Tell me about Beliefs about the soul and the afterlife

   Egyptian belief held that a person was made of several elements that had to be sustained after death, including the ka (life force, needing offerings of food and drink), the ba (the mobile personality, often shown as a human-headed bird), and the akh (the transfigured, effective spirit the deceased hoped to become).

10. Definition

    Political power and authority in democratic Athens (SACE Stage 2 Ancient Studies)

    Define Direct democracy

    Direct democracy is a system in which citizens themselves make political decisions, rather than electing representatives to decide for them. In Athens, citizens personally voted in the Assembly, sat on juries and held office by lot, so power was exercised by the citizen body itself rather than delegated.