Around 2299 BCE, several Neolithic cultures along the central course of the Yellow River were drawn into an organized state for the first time. This state was the product of both military conquest and convergence through trade among Bronze Age peoples who came to be ruled by a dynastic monarchy called the _____, about whom little is known.

According to Chinese religious belief, the key to societal welfare was the king's ability to discern his ancestors will and appease them. To accomplish this, they used _____, which provide us with some of the earliest examples of Chinese writing.

From its origins around 1250 BCE, the Chinese written language soon developed a huge vocabulary of signs that had no picture equivalents and were not alphabetic. These characters are called _____, or "words in signs".

The greatest artistic achievement of the ancient Chinese was undoubtedly their _____.

With China's incessant need to defend itself against the nomads along its borders, the importation of the _____ from Western Asia led to a technical breakthrough of the first rank: a harness or collar that allowed a horse to pull with the full strength of its shoulders and body without chocking. This type of harness transformed the value of horses, not only in warfare but also as beasts of burden.

Royal workshops turned out all manner of weaponry, vessels, and statues, and reached an apex of perfection in Shang times. Much of it was produced using the lost method of __________, a technique that allowed greater production and more delicacy of form and design than that used in the West, where hammering and forging methods were practiced.

The _____ opened up huge areas of northern and central China to agriculture, enabling unprecedented growth of both the economy and population during the Zhou era.

The high demand for _____ made it an obvious target for government control and an important source of revenue for Chinese emperors, who need to support their large armies. There have been estimates of 50 to 80 percent of the emperors' treasuries have come from this monopoly.

From its inception, _____ was a craft specifically associated with women in Ancient China.

The great model for Confucius's politics was __________.

Confucius insisted on benevolence and righteousness (ren and yi) as their chief virtues of human society, especially for those serving in public roles. A corps of official educated on Confucian principles came into existence. These shi-- or _____, as the West later called them-- were the actual administrative class of China for 2000 years.

_____ is a philosophy centered on nature and following "the Way". This more passive philosophy has a skeptical attitude toward knowledge that meant it was often best to do nothing rather than act on the basis of limited information, and seeing the best government as the least government.

In the later Zhou Period, sometimes called the __________, many rival philosophies arose to challenge Confucian views.

The Chinese philosophy of government called _____ taught that most people were inclined to evil selfishness and that it was the task of government to restrain them and simultaneously guide them toward a well-ordered society. This was to be administered through the use of a system of rewards and punishments, given through a code of laws that were public and were to be impartially enforced for all subjects.

The first Americans were migrants from Asia that came in three to four waves between 20,000 and 10,000 BCE. These people crossed a narrow land bridge during the last ice age called the __________.

The _____ was amongst the earliest-known hunting cultures, dating between about 1,000 and 8,000 BCE. Named for their use of large and deeply notched, leaf-shaped spearheads, which early Native Americans used to kill their mega-fauna prey.

After the climate became progressively drier around 9,000 BCE and the mega-fauna son disappeared, hunters turned increasingly to bison, elk, and deer as their prey, and the smaller, fluted Folsom points as spearheads. Overtime the Folsom hunters attached them to the tips of spear throwers called _____.

Native American societies east of the Mississippi River, called the __________, emerged from the Archaic period and improvised novel forms of livelihood that helped give rise to the Neolithic revolution north of the Rio Grande River.

The best known of the Woodland civilizations were the __________, known best for their burial practices of covering the dead under large mounds of earth.

In the New World, drier conditions fostered a gradual transition from hunting and gathering to food production. __________ spread along trade routes that connected Mesoamerica with Peru to the south with North American. This crop eventually became the staple grain in the Native American diet throughout the Western Hemisphere.

The main Andean carbohydrate staple, the freeze-dried potato from the highlands, provided more energy per acre than most other crops. In addition, the Andean people raised guinea pigs and ate the meat of _____.

During the early phases of the Neolithic Revolution, Native Americans lived in villages that included a type of dwelling called a __________. Although varied according to available material, these structures typically consisted of a framework of wooden poles thatched with tree branches and leaves, or animal hides, built over a shallow pit.

Andeans used ______ (knotted ropes) to calculate and record data.

During the Chavin era, widespread use of the _____, a small but sure-footed pack animal, fomented trade and led to the construction of roads.

The __________ (ancestors of Polynesians, Indonesians, Malaysians) migrated to coasts and islands of the Pacific Ocean, circa 3000 BCE. This group used stone and shell tools, built outrigger canoes, developed uncanny navigation skills, and valued exploration and colonization, thus spreading Neolithic culture and developing trade networks.

The __________, 1500 BCE, inhabited the islands north of New Guinea, were descendants of Polynesians and built large double-hulled outrigger canoes that could carry colonizers to distant islands.

The __________ were a Semitic tribal group who emerged from nomadism in what is now northern Iraq in the twelfth century BCE, following the decline of the Hittite monarchy based in Turkey.

Assurbanipal (one of the last Assyrian kings) built the largest _____ of ancient times.

The unwarlike ________, a small but significant Semitic people, became the greatest maritime traders and colonizers of the ancient Near East.

The Phonecians' most notable contribution came in the linguistic field. They were the first to use a __________, a system of twenty-two written marks ("letters"), each of which corresponded to a specific consonant sound of the oral language.

What we know of the ancient Twelve Tribes of the Hebrews is derived in large part from the _____, or Hebrew Bible.

Israel remained under the leadership of Saul, David, and Solomon between circa 1020 - 930 BCE. The height of Israel's power occurred under the leadership of _____, who is most known for expanding political and military establishments, trade, and the building of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

A failed rebellion in 722 BCE against an Assyrian army of occupation resulted in the scattering of the Israelites far and wide (the first _____, or scattering) and the eventual loss of them to history.

Jewish believers in a powerful messiah who would liberate Israel, who were therefore unwilling to bend before any nonbeliever, were called _____. This created tensions between the Jewish nation and their Roman overlords resulting in rebellion.