This sheet is a glossary. It contains definitions of several terms related to sedentarization.
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DEFINITIONS |
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Illiterate, illiteracy |
A person who cannot read or write. Not knowing how to read or write. A person who is unable to read or write or has great difficulty in doing so. |
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Synonym of arrival. The arrival of something important. |
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Triangular-tipped reed used by the early Mesopotamians to write on clay tablets. |
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A term for written language transmitted live over the Internet. |
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A collection of writings recounting heroic adventures set in a historical context. |
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To fertilise. This means that the land can be cultivated with the help of an external resource. In this case, it's a river. The river leaves essential minerals for crops when it floods the land. |
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A wall surrounding a town to protect it. It can also be used to define a group of buildings used to defend a territory. |
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Type of management chosen by those in power. (democracy, kingship, etc.) |
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A social organisation that defines bottom-up power relationships. In other words, the higher you go in the hierarchical pyramid, the more power you have. |
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Ideographic writing is a writing system that represents a word or an idea. It is made up of ideograms, each representing a specific word or idea. |
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Who can neither read nor write. |
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Buildings and institutions that enable an area and its citizens to function (e.g. roads, aqueducts, schools, railways, hospitals, etc.). |
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Organisation with official status, whose role is precise and recognised. |
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Status of a person who is a member of the royal family or holds a title in the hierarchy. |
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Phonetic writing is a writing system made up of images representing sounds, generally syllables. |
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Pictographic writing is a writing system made up of small images representing something concrete. These are very simple drawings that symbolise objects, animals or people. |
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Belief in the existence of several gods (e.g. a polytheist religion). |
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Generally defined as the period during which man has left no written traces. It therefore begins with the appearance of man (around 3 million years ago) and ends with the beginnings of writing or engraving (between 5000 and 3500 BC according to various sources). Not all commoners or people began writing at the same time. |
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Synonymous of king, queen.
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A building usually forming part of a religious complex. A zigurats is a pyramid with several storeys, the top of which housed a temple. |
The concepts covered in these sheets go beyond those seen in secondary school. They provide additional information for those who are curious to know more.