VOCABULARY  HISTORY

1.     courtesan = an prostitute with an upper-class clientele

2.     triumph = a parade for a general who killed 5,000 or more of the enemy.

3.     tribute = paying a country so that it will not come back and defeat you again.

4.     BC = Before Christ

5.     BCE = Before the Common Era

6.     AD = Anno Domini (in the year of the Lord)

7.     CE = Common Era

8.     terra cotta = clay, reddish, like the pots we put plants in.

9.     insula (e) = an “island” of tenement housing for the poor in Rome.  It was as big as a city block at times.

10.   tenement building  = housing for those who are not wealthy.

11.   patricians = the upper class people of Rome

12.   clients = the people who went to the rich patricians for jobs.

13.   plebeians (plebs for short) = the poor of Rome.

14.   augers =  those priests who could predict the future by reading signs in nature.

15.   auguries = the predictions

16.   diviners = people who can tell the future.

17.   catacomb = the caves below Rome where people hid.

18.   artisan = one who is a maker of things with one’s hands, a craftsperson.

19.   formidable fighting machine = powerful fighting machine

20.   barbarian = one who speaks a different language, and has no written language.

21.   preemptively deter = to strike before the other, to do as a precaution

22.   decimate = every tenth person was killed

23.   testuda = tortoise maneuver

24.   serpentine parade = curved like a snake parade

25.   anarchy = the absence of law and order, no one is ruling

26.   zealots = people dedicated to a cause

27.   skewered to death = run through with a spear

28.   fringe benefits

29.   plunder = to destroy the enemies towns and rob them of their wealth.

30.   Soldiers shared the booty = wealth.

31.   vexed = bothered

32.   after your glorious coup = after your military takeover.

33.   rudis = sword earned by gladiator representing his freedom.

34.   Commodus and his progeny will rule for a thousand years = Commodus and his future offspring will …

35.   Raymond Dart was vindicated (proven correct)

36.   Louis Leakey

37.   Jane Goodall, Mary Leakey, Don Johanson

38.   decapitated = to lose your head

39.   arduous (very hard) work goes on into the night

40.   prehistory = before people could read or write

41.   bipedalism = walking on two feet.

42.   primeval = original, ancient

43.   quarry = prey, an animal that is hunted.

44.   The elephant’s weight precludes (prevents) it from getting up.

45.   Hold the forest in great reverence (great holiness).

46.   optimal zone

47.   marginal zone

48.   pictograph

49.   ideogram

50.   cuneiform

51.   sexigesimal

52.   Paleolithic,

53.   Mesolithic,

54.   Neolithic

55.   Primary document

56.   Secondary document

57.   theocracy

58.   polytheistic

59.   mineret

60.   contemporaneous with John the Baptist

61.   Moabite Stone, bonni hamada tribe

62.   Bedouins were wary of the westerners

63.   corroborating evidence

64.   despotic king

65.   lex talionis   = eye for an eye

66.   besiege = surround a city and cut off its supplies

67.   deluge = huge flood

68.   primal tale = original

69.   cataclysmic = disasterous

70.   sepulcher = stone coffin

71.   retainers = helpers of a leader, king or queen.

72.   papyrus = paper made from reeds

73.   silt = a rich soil on a riverbed

74.   antagonistic = marked by fighting, holding bad feelings for another.

75.   portcullis = in Egyptian architecture, a large slab of rock forming a blockage in a doorway and dropped into place through slots.  Usually the portcullis is made from iron.

76.   cataclysmic = disasterous

77.   Crete was redolent (suggestive, scented) with myth

78.   bull vaulting = jumping over a bull

79.   amphora = large clay storage jars

80.   fresco = a painting that are put onto a drying cement wall.

81.   diaphanous blouses = see through blouses

82.