The ruling dynasty in Iran between 550 and 330 B.C.E. The Achaemenids , whose founder was from the region of Perisa in the southwest of modern-day Iran, ruled the Persian empire and at its height in the fifth century B.C.E. governed a population estimated at 30-35 million people.

(@485-425 B.C.E.) Greek-speaking historian born in Halicarnassus. Author of The Histories,

The earliest surviving written records in China.

The name for the 887 statues, probably of ancestral leaders, made from tufa volcanic rock and erected on Easter Island around 1000. The largest are more than 70 feet (21 m) high and the heaviest weighs 270 tons.

Formerly seen as a one-way stream of influence in which non-Greek peoples adopted Greek language, education, sculpture, architecture, and other customs, but more recently understood as a two-way process, with non-Greeks and Greeks influencing each other.

a 9-inch long football-shaped piece of clay - one of the most famous primary sources in history. Created around 539 B.C.E., it allowed the peoples originally resettled by the Neo-Babylonian Empire to return to their homelands.

(469-399 B.C.E.) a great philosopher who believed that virtue was the highest good. He developed a method of instruction still in use today, in which teachers ask students questions without revealing the answers.

The Shang dynasty.

(1932-2010) Native of Satawal Island in the Caroline islands who studied traditional Polynesian navigation as a child and successfully guided a reconstructed double-hulled canoe from Hawai'i to Tahiti in 1976.

The largest city in the Americas before 1500, covering 8 square miles (20 sq km), located some 30 miles (50 km) northeast of modern-day Mexico City. Was occupied from around 200 b.c.e. to 650 c.e. and had an estimated population at its height of 40,000-200,000.

The third Achaemenid ruler, Darius, divided his empire into provinces ruled by governors called...

(429-347 B.C.E.) A student of Socrates and a teacher of Aristotle who used the Socratic method in his teaching, which emphasized ethics. He believed that students should use reason in choose the correct course of action.

The successor to the Shang dynasty that gained the Mandate of Heaven.

A complex society (1200-400 b.c.e.) that arose on the Gulf of Mexico coast from modern-day Veracruz to Tabasco. Known particularly for the massive colossal heads hewn from basalt.

A seagoing people who, around 900 B.C.E., expanded outward from their base on the Mediterranean coast of modern-day Lebanon. Their alphabet, which used only letters with no pictorial symbols, is the ancestor of the Roman alphabet.

Iranian religion which taught that a host of good deities and evil demons, all in perpetual conflict, populate the spiritual world. It's primary text was called The Avesta.

(460-395 B.C.E.) Author of History of the Peloponnesian War

The Chinese belief that Heaven chose the rightful ruler and communicated that choice via victory in civil war.

The first northern people (800-1450) to build large urban centers in the Mississippi River Valley.

(flourished 480 b.c.e.) The woman ruler of Halicarnassus, on the Aegean coast of modern-day Turkey, who fought with the Persians against the Greeks at the Battle of Salamis.

The ruling dynasty (224-651 c.e.) of Iran who defeated the Parthians and ruled for more than four centuries until the Islamic conquest of Iran. Introduced innovations such as nonsatrap royal lands and government support of Zoroastrianism.

(r. 336-323 b.c.e.) Son of Philip of Macedon. He defeated the last Achaemenid ruler in 331 b.c.e. and ruled the former Persian empire until his death.

The term for the main tenets of the thought of an important scholar, which emphasized the role of ritual in bringing out people's inner humanity (a quality translated variously as "benevolence, "goodness," or "man at his best."

One of the few surviving sources in the Mayan language, this oral epic features a series of hip ballgames between the gods and humans. Originally written in Mayan glyphs, it was recorded in the Roman alphabet in the 1500s.

Named for a site in Melanesia, a low-fired brown pottery with lines and geometric decorations made with a pointed instrument. In use between 1500 and 1000 B.C.E, it reveals the direction of migration into the Pacific.