Chapter 1:

1-     What physical and behavioral adaptations and innovations characterized human evolution?

2-     In the absence of written sources, what have scholar learned about the Paleolithic economy, adaptations to the natural world, and technological innovations?

3-     In what ways does the Neolithic agricultural economy reveal humans’ increasing intent and ability to manipulate the natural world to their advantage?

4-     Why did Australian aborigines, in contrast to many of the world’s other peoples, choose not to farm?

Chapter 2:

1-     How do historians explain the rise of cities?

2-     How and why did the rise of the city lead to more hierarchical society in early Mesopotamia?

3-     Why did ancient peoples develop writing systems, and what has been the enduring impact of this invention on intellectual expression?

4-     What were the main features of the first international order, and what developments explain its rise and fall?

5-     In what ways did the early history of Egypt contrast with that of the ancient states of Southwest Asia?

Chapter 4:

1-     How did Egyptians and Nubians interact in the two imperial periods that united them politically?

2-     What kind of power structure did the Assyrians impose on their subjects, and how did it lead to cultural assimilation in the empire?

3-     What imperial vision and style of the government marked the rise of the vast Persian Empire and allowed it to endure for more than two hundred years?

4-     To what degree and in what ways did the peoples of Israel and Judah accept or reject the influences of the empires they confronted?

Chapter 5:

1-     What significant political and cultural developments emerged in Greece in the early first millennium B.C.E?

2-     What cultural innovations appeared in Greece during its Classical age?

3-     How did Hellenism affect the peoples of Greece, North Africa, and Southwest Asia?

4-     How did the lives and livelihoods of the peoples of Atlantic Europe differ from those of the Mediterranean peoples?

Chapter 6:

1-     How did the new religious ideas of the last centuries B.C.E. suit the social and political structures of India?

2-     How did the geographical location and trade relations of the Kushan Empire affect its cultural traditions?

3-     How did the early Chinese philosophers come to have a long-lasting influence on the intellectual development of the region?

4-     How did southern Indians developments differ from those in other parts of Asia?