World History

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HIST/ENGR 108, SUM22

Study Guide for the mid-term exam

• You will be given three topics, out of which you have to choose only one.

• Answers must be in short essay form (no less than three full paragraphs, or 500-600 words).

• Try to keep a logical track in your explanations: Start with a short but clear reference to the background of the topic, then explain the topic as clear as you can, and finally, specify its

importance/influence. In this final section, do not employ general expressions such as “the discovery of

X had a profound influence on Y”, or “many fields in physics benefited from the invention of X”. You

have to explicitly mention the results.

• Each prompt contains a few sub-questions. You have to answer ALL questions asked in the prompt.

Topics:

1. In the article “The Reign of the Farmer,” McClellan and Dorn explain two alternative paths toward food production after Paleolithic era: one from gathering to cereal horticulture (gardening), and then

to plow agriculture; the other from hunting to herding and pastoral nomadism.

a) What caused these two paths of food production?

b) What were the social, technological, scientific and cultural results of the first path, which was

based on agriculture?

2. Read Lindberg’s chapter “Science before the Greeks” and explain the specifications of the oral cultures: their interpretation of natural phenomena, their cosmology and cosmogony, causality, and

history. Explain the role of writing in development of analytical studies, philosophy, and science.

3. Read the article “Alexandria and After”, and explain: What are the "Hellenic" and ‘Hellenistic periods’?

a) Explain the characteristic features and importance of Hellenistic Period in the history of science

and technology.

b) Explain major developments in

-Mathematics,

- Natural sciences,

- Astronomy, and

- Technology in the Hellenistic Period.

4. Read the posted articles by Brier, and Müller-Römer and answer the following questions:

a) What are the current mostly accepted theories of pyramid construction? b) Explain the main questions/problems in both theories. c) How does each theory address the main question(s) in pyramid construction?

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5. Based on McClellan’s article (in McClellan, James E.; Dorn, Harold, “Alexandria and After”)

explain:

d) The possible causes of the decline of science and natural philosophy at the end of the Greco-Roman era.

e) The process of decline of science and natural philosophy from the beginning of the Roman period to the fall of the Roman Empire.

6. What was the Eudoxean model of geocentric spheres and why did Eudoxus propose that? What was

Aristarchus’ Model? Why was Aristarchus's model not accepted? Why was Aristarchus threatened with

charges of impiety?