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
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 25, 2010
The Portuguese colonized Brazil under the terms of the Treaty of Tordesillas, a 1494 agreement dividing the Americas between Spain and Portugal.
by HistoryNerd94 January 04, 2012
The period of the Stone Age associated with the evolution of humans. It predates the Neolitic period.
by HistoryNerd94 November 04, 2010
The long struggle (ending in 1492) during which Spanish Christians reconquered the Iberian peninsula from Muslim occupiers.
Columbus finally sold his plan to Isabel and Ferdinand, the monarchs of Castile and Aragon, who had married and united their kingdoms. In 1492, the couple had succeeded in conquering Grenada, the last Muslim-controlled province in Iberia, ending a centuries-long struggle known as the reconquista.
by HistoryNerd94 January 01, 2012
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 13, 2010
A small independent state consisting of an urban center and the surrounding agricultural territory. A characteristic political form in early Mesopotamia, Archaic and Classical Greece, Phoenicia, and early Italy.
The term city-state refers to a self-governing urban center and the agriculture territories it controlled.
by HistoryNerd94 December 17, 2010