I. Identifications (20 points, 8 of the 25 terms below will appear on the final examination)

cuneiform	Maat	helots	Srivijaya
Mithra	Peloponnesus	Fuero Juzgo	Shi
Toledo	Parthians	Guild	Silk Roads
Horus	Tang Taizong	Rig Veda	Etruscans
Admonitions for Women	Hyksos	Legalism	Almoravids
Sadducees	jihad/crusade	Delian League	Ibn Battuta
Xiongnu

II. Essays:
General Instructions:: Remember, the main goals here are three in number: 1) make sure you identify and then utilize at least one of the primary sources we’ve covered in class in at least one of your essays (which means in your preparation identifying those sources that would be appropriate); 2) make certain that you develop an argument or overall point that you want to make for each of the three questions and 3) make sure that you support each of the points you make in the essay with some kind of evidence, whether from the primary source(s) you choose or from another source (like lecture or the textbook). When I grade the essays, I will be measuring performance based on the above three goals in addition to the particular requirements of each question.

A. Synthetic/Comparative Essay (40 points)

As you all should know by now, one of the essays on the final examination will be on a topic of your choosing. For those who do not yet know, the themes from which you have to choose are as follows: 1) Urban & Rural Society 2) Church/Established Religion 3) Heresy/Unorthodox Religion 4) Gender and Sexual Relations. Having chosen your theme, you need to be able to write an essay by the date of the final examination that does the following things. First, it must be comparative, i.e. explore your chosen topic across different cultures. One of the cultures must be post-classical Europe, 1100-1400. Then you must choose one classical and one ancient culture. I will allow you freedom to choose the society with which you are most comfortable. Second, the essay must identify the major developments and/or events (which means not everything is of major importance!) for each society that pertain to your chosen topic. Third, the essay must clearly divide those developments and/or events that are common or similar in each era as regards to your topic from those things that are unique to each society as regards your topic. Fourth, the essay must present an original thesis that identifies an overall pattern of change for the developments and events you examine. Let us say, for example, that your topic was the role of intellectuals from 3000 B.C.E.-1400 C.E. Well, a possible thesis here might run as follows (and do not use this thesis in your essay!): Because religion has always dealt with the way people cope with the world around them, the first intellectuals in most societies were priests. As the understanding of the world became an end in itself, however, a tension arose between those who remained priests and those who took on other tasks, such as running government bureaucracies. Different societies coped with this tension in different ways, but it was always present in the pre-modern era. Please be certain that each of the four requirements listed above is met as I don’t want to grade people down for not following directions!

B. Analytical/Interpretive Essay (40 points, I will choose one of the three essay topics below)

1. In the period from 600-1500 C.E. India and Europe shared much in common: politically they were dominated by compact, but powerful states (with the exception of the reigns of Charlemagne and Harsha); religious institutions with varying degrees of public acknowledgment (Hindu temples in India and Christian churches in Europe) provided the only extensive social and cultural bonds across each of these regions; both regions had important and interactions with Islam that were positive and negative; and both regions had influence on other areas of Eurasia. Using the Iberian peninsula and the Indian states of the Sultanate of Delhi, Vijayanagar and the Chola Kingdom as case-studies, explain why Indian states tended to influence other cultures indirectly and peacefully while Europe tended to interact with other cultures through crusade and conquest, especially after 1100 C.E.
   
   
2. It is only in the last two weeks of this term that we have returned to the large and complex continent of Africa. As you have learned this is mainly because social and political organization in Africa did not produce as many historical documents as Eurasia (the same being true of societies in the Americas as well) until the post-classical era. The reason for this was that social organization through kin-groups dominated Africa until the rise of the post-classical empires such as Mali. Given your knowledge of the rise of the first empires in Eurasia, evaluate the following statement and write an essay in support of or against it: The fact that Africa’s first empires emerged later than anywhere else in nearby Eurasia had no impact on the development of these empires in the post-classical era. Cultural interaction is the great equalizer, eventually allowing those who may have been behind to catch up rapidly and even become the teachers of those who had once been ahead of them.
   
   
3. Between 500 and 1500 C.E. nomadic peoples played an important and at times dominant role in Eurasia, influencing such things as societal integration, societal composition, the impact of epidemic disease and the development of economies and states. Using two fundamentally different case-studies (i.e. examples of nomadic peoples and their impact on a region of Eurasia) write an essay in which you argue either that nomads were a positive influence or a negative influence on the development of Eurasia (measured according to whether their actions promoted integration or disintegration).

III. Conditions For Taking the Final Examination.

I have adopted the policy below for the final examination as an insurance policy for everyone. I want everyone to have the same chance as everyone else on the final examination.

1. You must use a blue-book.
2. You must bring nothing into the examination except something with which to write, preferably a pen. No book-bags, papers, notes etc.
3. To the extent possible you must sit every other seat on examination day.
4. Anyone not adhering to the above three conditions will not be allowed to sit the examination.