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Themes In World History Chapter 2 Writing And City Life

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NCERT Solution For Class 11 History Themes In World History

Writing And City Life Here is the CBSE History Chapter 2 for Class 11 students. Summary and detailed explanation of the lesson, including the definitions of difficult words. All of the exercises and questions and answers from the lesson's back end have been completed. NCERT Solutions for Class 11 History Writing And City Life Chapter 2 NCERT Solutions for Class 11 History Writing And City Life Chapter 2 The following is a summary in Hindi and English for the academic year 2021-2022. You can save these solutions to your computer or use the Class 11 History.

Question 1

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Mention the significance of the following inventions in the development of human civilization.

(i) The Invention of Potter's Wheel

(ii) The Invention of Spinner's Wheel

(iii) The Invention of Cart Wheel

(iv) The Art of Writing

Solution

(i) The Potter's Wheel : With the invention of Potter's wheel man started making pots and utensils. It also helped in the storage of grain and other foodstuffs.

(ii) The Spinner's Wheel : With this invention, man started spinning and weaving. In this way, production of cloth started and it was a big step towards civilization.

(iii) The Cart Wheel :The invention of the cart wheel increased the mobility of man. It also made easy for him to carry heavy loads from one place to another.

(iv) The Art of Writing :The discovery of the art of writing helped man to keep records for the future generation. It was also helpful in the correspondence of message.

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Question 2

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Why is there never any shortage of food even in times of drouhgt ? Mention the facts regarding the Hadza.

Solution

1. The Hadza are a small group of hunters and gatherers, living in the vicinity of Lake Eyasi, a salt, rift-valley lake. The country of the eastern Hadza, dry, rocky savanna, dominated by thorn scrub and acacia trees is rich in wild foods.
Animals are exceptionally numerous and were certainly commoner at the beginning of the century. Elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo, giraffe, zebra, waterbuck, gazelle, warthog, baboon, lion, leopard, and hyena are all common, as are smaller animals such as porcupine, hare, jackal, tortoise and many others.
All of these animals, apart from the eiephant, are hunted and eaten by the Hadza.The amount of meat that could be regularly eaten without endangering the future of the game is probably greater than anywhere else in the world where hunters and gatherers live or have lived in the recent past.
2. Vegetable food : roots, berries, the fruit of the baobab tree, etc. - though not often obvious to the casual observer, is always abundant even at the height of the dry season in a year of drought.
The type of vegetable food available is different in the six-month wet season from the dry season but there is no period of shortage. The honey and grubs of seven species of wild bee are eaten; supplies of these vary from season to season and from year to year.
3. Sources of water are widely distributed over the country in the wet season but are very few in the dry season. The Hadza consider that about 5-6 kilometres is the maximum distance over which water can reasonably be carried and camps are normally sited within a kilometre of a water course.
4. Part of the country consists of open grass plains but the Hadza never build camps there. Camps are invariably sited among trees or rocks and, by preference, among both.
5. The eastern Hadza assert no rights over land and its resources. Any individual may live wherever he likes and may hunt animals, collect roots, berries, and honey and draw water anywhere in Hadza country without any sort of restriction
6. In spite of the exceptional numbers of game animals in their area, the Hadza rely mainly on wild vegetable matter for their food. Probably as much as 80 per cent of their food by weight is vegetable, while meat and honey together account for the remaining 20 per cent.
7. Camps are commonly small and widely dispersed in the wet season, large and concentrated near the few available sources of water in the dry season.
There is never any shortage of food even in the time of drought.

Question 3

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What is meant by the word “Mesopotamia? What were the important centres of this civilization ?

Solution

Mesopotamia is a Greek word which means ‘The land between the two rivers'. It was so called because the whole area of Mesopotamian civilization was planked by the two rivers, Tigers and Euphrates.

The important centres of this civilization were Sumer, Babylonia, Akkad and Assyria.

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Question 4

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___________ is a Greek word which means ‘The land between the two rivers'.

Solution

Mesopotamia

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Question 5

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Discuss the script used by the ancient Mesopotamians.

Solution

The first writing of the ancient Mesopotamians, was in the form of pictograph signs, symbols and pictures. But drawing pictures was not an easy thing.

Later on, they specified particular signs for some particular word and thing. Their next step was to make these scripts phonetic. They used to write with a stylus made of reed on clay tablets which they baked until they became hard.

The script used by the Mesopotamians is known as cuneiform script.

Question 6

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Mention the chief social classes into which the Mesopotamian society had been divided.

Solution

The Society was mainly divided into three classes :

1. The Higher Class : This class represented the King and his relations, the priests and the Government officials.

2. The Middle Class : This class consisted of the landlords, the merchants, the craftmen and the shopkeepers.

3. The Lower Class : In this class there were the farmers, the labourers, the prisoners of war and the slaves.

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Question 7

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Describe the contribution of the Mesopotamian civilization to world.

Solution

The contributions:
1. The Mesopotamians were the first people to introduce the use of the potter's wheel to the world.

2. They were the first to enter into written trade agreement.

3. They also introduced to the world the idea of a written Code of Law.

4. They were the first people to divide a day into 24 hours, an hour into 60 minutes and a minute into 60 seconds.

5. They were first to develop a script and established the libraries and reading rooms.

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Question 8

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Who were the first people to divide a day into 24 hours, an hour into 60 minutes and a minute into 60 seconds?

Solution

The Mesopotamians.

Question 9

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Discuss the Sacred Temples (Ziggurats) of Mesopotamia.

Solution

The Sacred Temples:

(i) Each city of Mesopotamia had its separate protector God. The people built sacred temples or ziggurats or ‘Hill of Heavens’ on the artificial high hill in memory of their patron God in the centre of the city.

(ii) Every big temple had a huge tower like multi-storeyed building. Out of these ziggurats, the prominent ones were the temple of the Moon God Mannar at Ur the temple of the Sun God shams at Lagash and the Temple of God Enlil at Nippur.

These were multi-storeyed buildings where the upper floor was successively smaller than the lower one.

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Question 10

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What is called the 'Sacred Temples' of Mesopotamia?

Solution

Ziggurats or Hill of Heavens.

Question 11

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Write a brief note on the code of Hammurabi.

Solution

Hammurabi was a famous king of Babylonia. He got prepared the world's first Code of Laws. He also got it engraved on a very big stone shaft in the form of 282 articles.

These laws were connected with trade, exchange of money, payment of taxes, theft, murder etc. Most of the laws were based on the principal of 'An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth'.

Question 12

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Why do we say that it was not natural fertility and high levels of food production that were the causes of early Urbanisation?

Solution

Urbanisation :

1. Cities and towns are not just places with large populations. It is when an economy develops in spheres other than food production that it becomes an advantage for people to cluster in towns. Urban economies comprise besides food production, trade, manufactures and services.

2. City people, thus, cease to be self-sufficient and depend on the products or services of other (city or village) people. There is continuous interaction among them. For instance, the carver of a stone seal requires bronze tools that he himself cannot make, and coloured stones for the seals that he does not know where to get: his ‘specialisation’ is fine carving, not trading. The bronze tool maker does not himself go out to get the metals, copper and tin. Besides, he needs regular supplies of charcoal for fuel. The division of labour is a mark of urban life.

3. Further, there must be a social organisation in place. Fuel, metal, various stones, wood, etc., come from many different places for city manufacturers. Thus, organised trade and storage is needed. There are deliveries of grain and other food items from the village to the city, and food supplies need to be stored and distributed.

4. Besides, many different activities have to be co-ordinated: there must be not only stones but also bronze tools and pots available for seal cutters. Obviously, in such a system some people give commands that others obey, and urban economies often require the keeping of written records.

Question 13

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Which of the following were necessary conditions and which the causes, of early urbanisation, and which would you say were the outcome of the growth of cities:
(a) highly productive agriculture, (b) water transport, (c) the lack of metal and stone, (d) the division of labour, (e) the use of seals, (f) the military power of kings that made labour compulsory ?

Solution

Cities and towns are not just places with large populations. It is when an economy develops in spheres other than food production that it becomes an advantage for people to cluster in towns.
Following are the necessary conditions for urbanisation-
(i) Highly productive agriculture.
(ii) Water transport.
(iii) The division of labour.

Causes of early urbanisation -
(i) Lack of mental and stones.
(ii) The use of seals.
(iii) The military power of kings that made labour compulsory.

Outcome of growth of cities-
(i) Efficient transport system.
(ii) Trade and system developed.

Question 14

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Why were mobile animal herders not necessarily a threat to town life ?

Solution

The reasons :
1. Agriculture and animal rearing were carried out close to each other in this region. Some communities in the kingdom of Mari had both farmers and pastoralists, but most of its territory was used for pasturing sheep and goats.

2. Herders need to exchange young animals, cheese, leather and meat in return for grain, metal tools, etc., and the manure of a penned flock is also of great use to a farmer. Yet, at the same time, there may be conflict.

Why were mobile animal herds not necessarily a threat to town life ?

Fig : Man tending a herd of Animals

3. A shepherd may take his flock to water across a sown field, to the ruin of the crop. Herdsmen being mobile can raid agricultural villages and seize their stored goods. For their part, settled groups may deny pastoralists access to river and canal water along a certain set of paths.

Question 15

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Why would the early temple have been much like a house ?

Solution

The early temple:
1. Early settlers (their origins are unknown) began to build and rebuild temples at selected spots in their villages. The earliest known temple was a small shrine made of unbaked bricks. Temples were the residences of various gods : of the Moon God of Ur, or of Inanna the Goddess of Love and War Constructed in brick temples became larger over time, with several rooms around open courtyards.

Some of the early ones were possibly not unlike the ordinary house - for the temple was the house of a god. But temples always had their outer walls going in and out at regular intervals, which no ordinary building ever had.

2. The god was the focus of worship : to him or her people brought grain, curd and fish (the floors of some early temples had thick layers of fish bones). The god was also the theoretical owner of the agricultural fields, the fisheries, and the herds of the local community.

In time, the processing of produce for example, oil pressing, grain grinding, spinning, and the weaving of woollen cloth was done in the temple.

3. Organiser of production at a level the household, employer of merchants and keeper of written records of distributions and allotments of grain, plough animals, bread, beer, fish, etc., the temple gradually developed its activities and became the main urban institution. But there was also another factor on the scene.

Why would the early temple have been much like a house ?

Fig : A temple of a later period, C. 3000 BCE.

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Question 16

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Of the new institutions that came into being once city life had begun, which would have depended on the initative of the king.

Solution

The new institutions that came into being with the beginning of city life include trade, temple, sea making, sculpture, and the art of writing. All these institutions depend on the initiative of the king.

Question 17

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What do ancient stories tell us about the civilization of Mesopotamia.

Solution

Ancient stories of Mesopotamia are valuable sources of information.

According to the Bible, the Flood was meant to destroy all life on earth However, God chose a man, Noah, to ensure that life could continue after the Flood. Noah built a huge boat, an ark.

He took a pair each of all known species of animals and birds on boards the ark, which survived the Flood. There was a strikingly similar story in the Mesopotamian tradition, where there principal character was called Ziusudra or Utnapishtim.

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Question 18

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Examine some of the important facts regarding the Mesopotamian seals.

Solution

The facts of the Mesopotamia seal:
1. In Mesopotamia until the end of the first millennium BCE, cylindrical stone seals, pierced down the centre, were fitted with a stick and rolled over wet clay so that a continuous picture was created.

Mention some of the important facts regarding the Mesopotamian seals.

Fig : Five early cylinder seals and their impressions.

2. They were carved by very skilled craftsmen, and sometimes carry writing : the name of the owner, his god, his official position, etc.

3. A seal could be rolled on clay covering the the string knot of a cloth package or the mouth of a pot keeping the contents safe. When rolled on a letter written on a clay tablet, it became a mark of authenticity. So the seal was the mark of a city dweller's role in public life.

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Question 19

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What do you know about the time division of time in Mesopotamia ?

Solution

The division:
(i) The division of the year into 12 months according to the revolution of the moon around the earth, the division of the month into four weeks, the day into 24 hours, and the hour into 60 minutes - all that we take for granted in our daily lives has come to us from the Mesopotamians.

(ii) These time divisions were adopted by the successors of Alexander and from there transmitted to the Roman world, then to the world of Islam, and then to medieval Europe.

(iii) Whenever solar and lunar eclipses were observed, their occurrence was noted according to year, month and day. So too there were records about the observed positions of stars and constellations in the night sky.

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Question 20

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'Mesopotamians valued city life in which people of many communities and cultures lived side by side'. Discuss

Solution

Mesopotamians valued city life in which people of many communities and cultures lived side by side:

1. The most poignant reminder to us of the pride Mesopotamians took in their cities comes at the end of the Gilgamesh Epic, which was written on twelve tablets. Gilgamesh is said to have ruled the city or Uruk some time after Enmerkar.

2. A great hero who subdued people far and wide, he got a shock when his heroic friend died. He then set out to find the secret of immortality, crossing the waters that surround the world.

3. After a heroic attempt, Gilgamesh failed, and returned to Uruk. There, he consoled himself by walking along the city wall, back and forth. He admired the foundations made of fired bricks that he had put into place.

4. It is on the city wall of Uruk that the long tale of heroism and endeavour fizzles out. Gilgamesh does not say that even though he will die his sons will outlive him, as a tribal hero would have done. He takes consolation in the city that his people had built.

Question 21

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Describe the Palace at Mari of King Zimrilim. Why is was so famous ?

Solution

The Palace at Mari of King Zimrilim:

1. The great palace of Mari was the residence of the royal family, the hub of administration, and a place of production, especially of precious metal ornaments.

2. It was so famous in its time that a minor king came from north Syria just to see it, carrying with him a letter of introduction from a royal friend of the king of Mari, Zimrilim.

3. Daily lists reveal that huge quantities of food were presented each day for the king's table: flour, bread, meat, fish, fruit, been and wine. He probably ate in the company of many others, in or around courtyard 106, paved white.

4. You will notice from the plan that the palace had only one entrance, on the north. The large, open courtyards such as 131 were beautifully paved. The king would have received foreign dignitaries and his own people in 132 a room with wall paintings that would have awed the visitors.

5. The palace was a sprawling structure, with 260 rooms and covered an area of 2.4 hectares.

What do you know about the Palace at Mari of King Zimrilim? Why is was so famous ?

Fig : The Palace at Mari of King Zimrlim (1810-1760 BCE)

Question 22

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Describe the well-known facts regarding Ur, one of the earliest cities to have been excavated.

Solution

Facts regarding Ur:
1. Ur was a town whose ordinary houses were systematically excavated in the 1930s Narrow winding streets indicate that wheeled carts could not have reached many of the houses. Sacks of grain and firewood would have arrived on donkey-bac.

Narrow winding streets and the irregular shapes of house plots also indicate an absence of town planning. There were no street drains of the kind we find in contemporary Mohenjodaro

Drains and clay pipes were instead found in the inner courtyards of the Ur houses and it is thought that house roofs sloped inwards and rainwater was channelled via the drainpipes into sumps* in the inner courtyards

2. This would have been a way of preventing the unpaved streets from becoming excessively slushy after a downpour.

3. Yet people seem to have swept all their household refuse into the streets, to be trodden underfoot! This made street levels rise, and over time the thresholds of houses had also to be raised so that no mud would flow inside after the rains.

Lightcame into the rooms not from windows but from doorways opening into the courtyards: this would also have given families their privacy.

There were superstitions about houses, recorded in omen tablets at Ur: a raised threshold brought wealth; a front door that did not open towards another house was lucky; but if the main wooden door of a house opened outwards (instead of inwards), the wife would be a torment to her husband!

Mention some of the facts regarding Ur, one of the earlest cities to have been excavated.

4. There was a town cemetery at Ur in which the graves of royalty and commoners have been found, but a few individuals were found buried under the floors of ordinary houses.

Question 23

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Describe in brief, the development of Mesopotamian writing.

Solution

The development of writing:
(i) The first Mesopotamian tablets, written around 3200 BCE, contained picture-like signs and numbers. These were about 5,000 lists of oxen, fish, bread loaves, etc. - lists of goods that were brought into or distributed from the temples of Uruk, a city in the south.

Clearly, writing began when society needed to keep records of transactions -because in city life transactions occurred at different times, and involved many people and a involved many people and a variety of goods.

(ii) Mesopotamians wrote on tablets of clay. A scribe would wet clay and pat it into a size he could hold comfortably in one hand. He would carefully smoothen its surfaces.

With the sharp end of a reed cut obliquely, he would press wedge-shaped (‘cuneiform) signs on to the smoothened surface while it was still moist. Once dried in the sun, the clay would harden and tablets would be almost as indestructible as pottery. When a written record of, say, the delivery of pieces of metal had ceased to be relevant, the tablet was thrown away.

(iii) Once the surface dried, signs could not be pressed onto a tablet : so each transaction, however minor, required a separate written tablet.

This is why tablets occur by the hundreds at Mesopotamian sites. And it is because of this wealth of sources that we know so much more about Mesopotamia than we do about contemporary India.

(iv) By 2600 BCE or so, the letters became cuneiform, and the language was Sumerian. Writing was now used not only for keeping records, but also for making dictionaries, giving legal validity to land transfers, narrating the deeds of kings, and announcing the changes a king had made in the customary laws of the land.

Sumerian, the earliest known language of Mesopotamia, was gradually replaced after 2400 BCE by the Akkadian language. Cuneiform writing in the Akkadian language continued in use until the first century CE, that is, for more than 2,000 years.

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Mock Test Series

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Themes In World History Chapter 2 Writing And City Life

NCERT Solution For Class 11 History Themes In World History

Mention the significance of the following inventions in the development of human civilization.

(i) The Invention of Potter's Wheel

(ii) The Invention of Spinner's Wheel

(iii) The Invention of Cart Wheel

(iv) The Art of Writing

Why is there never any shortage of food even in times of drouhgt ? Mention the facts regarding the Hadza.

What is meant by the word “Mesopotamia? What were the important centres of this civilization ?

___________ is a Greek word which means ‘The land between the two rivers'.

Discuss the script used by the ancient Mesopotamians.

Mention the chief social classes into which the Mesopotamian society had been divided.

Describe the contribution of the Mesopotamian civilization to world.

Who were the first people to divide a day into 24 hours, an hour into 60 minutes and a minute into 60 seconds?

Discuss the Sacred Temples (Ziggurats) of Mesopotamia.

What is called the 'Sacred Temples' of Mesopotamia?

Write a brief note on the code of Hammurabi.

Why do we say that it was not natural fertility and high levels of food production that were the causes of early Urbanisation?

Why were mobile animal herders not necessarily a threat to town life ?

Why would the early temple have been much like a house ?

Of the new institutions that came into being once city life had begun, which would have depended on the initative of the king.

What do ancient stories tell us about the civilization of Mesopotamia.

Examine some of the important facts regarding the Mesopotamian seals.

What do you know about the time division of time in Mesopotamia ?

'Mesopotamians valued city life in which people of many communities and cultures lived side by side'. Discuss

Describe the Palace at Mari of King Zimrilim. Why is was so famous ?

Describe the well-known facts regarding Ur, one of the earliest cities to have been excavated.

Describe in brief, the development of Mesopotamian writing.

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Themes In World History Chapter 2 Writing And City Life

NCERT Solution For Class 11 History Themes In World History

Mention the significance of the following inventions in the development of human civilization. (i) The Invention of Potter's Wheel(ii) The Invention of Spinner's Wheel(iii) The Invention of Cart Wheel(iv) The Art of Writing

Why is there never any shortage of food even in times of drouhgt ? Mention the facts regarding the Hadza.

What is meant by the word “Mesopotamia? What were the important centres of this civilization ?

___________ is a Greek word which means ‘The land between the two rivers'.

Discuss the script used by the ancient Mesopotamians.

Mention the chief social classes into which the Mesopotamian society had been divided.

Describe the contribution of the Mesopotamian civilization to world.

Who were the first people to divide a day into 24 hours, an hour into 60 minutes and a minute into 60 seconds?

Discuss the Sacred Temples (Ziggurats) of Mesopotamia.

What is called the 'Sacred Temples' of Mesopotamia?

Write a brief note on the code of Hammurabi.

Why do we say that it was not natural fertility and high levels of food production that were the causes of early Urbanisation?

Why were mobile animal herders not necessarily a threat to town life ?

Why would the early temple have been much like a house ?

Of the new institutions that came into being once city life had begun, which would have depended on the initative of the king.

What do ancient stories tell us about the civilization of Mesopotamia.

Examine some of the important facts regarding the Mesopotamian seals.

What do you know about the time division of time in Mesopotamia ?

'Mesopotamians valued city life in which people of many communities and cultures lived side by side'. Discuss

Describe the Palace at Mari of King Zimrilim. Why is was so famous ?

Describe the well-known facts regarding Ur, one of the earliest cities to have been excavated.

Describe in brief, the development of Mesopotamian writing.

Mock Test Series

NCERT Book Store

NCERT Sample Papers

Entrance Exams Preparation

Mention the significance of the following inventions in the development of human civilization.

(i) The Invention of Potter's Wheel

(ii) The Invention of Spinner's Wheel

(iii) The Invention of Cart Wheel

(iv) The Art of Writing