historynerd94's definitions

Holocene

The geological era since the end of the Great Ice Age about 11,000 years ago.

Most researchers today, however, believe that climate change drove people to abandon hunting and gathering in favor of pastoralism and agriculture. So great was the global warming that ended the last Ice Age that geologists gave the era since about 9000 B.C.E. a new name: the Holocene.

by HistoryNerd94 November 15, 2010

Megaliths

Structures and complexes of very large stones for ceremonial and religious purposes in Neolithic times.

Assemblages of megaliths (meaning "big stones") seem to relate to religious beliefs.

by HistoryNerd94 November 22, 2010

Paleolithic

The period of the Stone Age associated with the evolution of humans. It predates the Neolitic period.

Among the major subdivisions, the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) lasted until 10,000 years ago.

by HistoryNerd94 November 4, 2010

Civilization

An ambiguous term often used to denote more complex societies but sometimes used by anthropologists to describe any group of people sharing a set of cultural traits.

Scholars agree that political, social, economic, and technological phenomena are indicators of civilization.

by HistoryNerd94 September 26, 2010

Scribe

In the governments of many ancient societies, a professional position reserved for men who had undergone the lengthy training required to be able to read and write using cuneiform, hieroglyphics, or other early, cumbersome writing systems.

Male domination of the position of scribe—an administration or scholar charged by the temple or palace with reading and writing tasks—further complicates efforts to reconstruct the lives of women.

by HistoryNerd94 December 21, 2010

Renaissance

The intellectual and artistic flowering in Europe during the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries sparked by a revival of interest in classical antiquity.

The Renaissance celebrated human possibility.

by HistoryNerd94 December 30, 2011

Agricultural Revolutions

(Ancient) The change from food gathering to food production that occured between ca. 8000 and 2000 B.C.E. Also known as the Neolithic Revolution.

The term Agricultural Revolutions is more precise because it emphasizes the central role of food production and signals that the changeover occured several times.

by HistoryNerd94 November 12, 2010