1. What advances did human beings make during the Paleolithic and Neolithic ages? What was the Neolithic Revolution?
2. What is meant by civilization? Under what conditions did it emerge?
3. What Sumerian achievements served as the foundation of Mesopotamian civilization?
4. What role did religion play in Mesopotamian civilization?
5. What were the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, and New Kingdom?
6. What role did the pharaoh play in Egyptian culture?
7. How did religion affect Egyptian civilization?
8. Who was Akhenaton? What did he try to accomplish, and what was the historical significance of that effort?
9. What were the important imperial states of the Near East before Persia? What were the distinctive characteristics of these empires?
10. How did the Persian empire give unity to the Near East?
11. What advances in science did Near Eastern civilization make? How were these advances limited by a mythmaking world-view?
12. What elements of Near Eastern civilization were assimilated by Western Civilization.