Test Review. Prehistory and Antiquity

PREHISTORY

1. The Palaeolithic period:
It started about one million years ago.
Human beings were hunters and gatherers.
They were nomads and lived in caves or huts.

2. The Neolithic period:
It started about seven thousand years ago.
Human beings lernt to cultivate plants and domesticated animals.
They became sedentary and built the first settlements.

3. The Age of Metals:
It started about six thousand years ago.
Human beings learnt to use metals.
They used cooper, bronze and iron.
Their settlements became villages. The chieftains ruled the villages.

4. Prehistoric heritage:
Prehistoric human beings made serveral contributions to civilisation:
Fire
Pottery
Cloth

PRE-ROMAN PERIOD

1. The Iberians and the Celts:
Three thousand years ago two important tribes inhabitated the Iberian Peninsula:

The Iberians.
They lived on the Mediterranean coast.
They were organised into tribes governed by a king.
There were warriors, farmers, craftsmen, merchants and slaves.
The Celts.
They lived in the northern and western parts of the peninsula.
They were organised into tribes.
Tribes were made up of clans. Clans were made up of families.

2.Tartessians and early colonisers.

The Tartessians.
They lived in the sothern part of the peninsula, in the Guadalquivir valley.
They were expert metalworkers, great travellers and salt producers.
The Phoenicians.
They came from Asia.
They formed colonies on the southern coast.
The Greeks.
They came to trade ceramics for metals.
They settled on the northeast coast.
The Carthaginians.
They were merchants from nothern Africa.
They came to trade metals and cloth.

ROMAN HISPANIA

1. Conquest of the Iberian Peninsula.
The Romans conquered the Iberian Peninsula in the year 218 B.C.
The Romans didn’t coquered the whole peninsula at the beginning, they fought those tribes for many years.
In the year 19 B.C. the Romans completed the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula.

2. Roman Rule.
The Romans named the peninsula Hispania, and made it a part of the Roman Empire.
The Romanisation happend when the inhabitants of the peninsula adopted the roman language and customs.
During the Romanisation the governor of Hispania was a Roman. He kept order and unity and collected taxes.

3. Society in Hispania.
Freemen: They had rights, they could take part in the government, vote and own land.
Slaves: They had no rights and were the property of freemen. In Hispania those who fought against the Romans became slaves.