Transcript Ancient Southwest Asia and Egypt

The Ancient
Period
• CIVITAS (Latin)
• Social body of citizens unified by law
• Community defined by the rule of law
• Words from Civitas
• Civilization
• Civilian
• Civilize
• Civilized
• Civil
• Cite (French)
• Ciudad (Spanish)
• “Complex Culture involved in living within Cities”
 Ancient Period, c. 4500 – 1500 BCE
 Alternate name is Bronze Age
 Bronze Age replaces stone, wood, bone tools
 An age of many inventions, innovations
 Begins from the rise of the first cities
 Begins with the rise of writing, formal institutions
 States were small, the focus was on the local
 Minimal interactions – trade, war, migrations
 Classical Period, c. 1500 BCE – 500 CE
 Begins with the use of iron: called the Iron Age
 Age saw the rise of the world’s core cultures
 Interactions, exchanges increased significantly
 Rise of cosmopolitan cultures across large regions
 Dominated by large, multi-national empires
 Society was increasingly hierarchical, patriarchal
 Elites were usually warrior aristocracies
 Civilization spread, diffused to a wider region
 Stage 1
 Nomads overrun sedentary area
 Nomads intermarry with locals
 Stage 2
 Nomadic group becomes sedentary
 Nomadic culture blends with sedentary culture
 New culture rises to greater heights
 Stage 3
 Culture begins to age, weakens
 Government less effective, corruption, high taxes
 Stage 4
 Culture overrun by new nomadic group
 The Continuity of Civilizations
 Despite new invasions, common Cuneiform civilization preserved
 Despite changes in Dynasties, Egyptian culture continued
 Sumerian City-states
 Ruled city and immediate surrounding countryside
 Small, independent but not totally autonomous
 Local differences but much similarity
 Run originally by priests, then warrior-kings
 Aristocratic nobles assisted kings
 Akkadian Empire
 Conquest state – state rose through conquest
 Tribute state
 Akkad demanded tribute
 Akkad permitted local autonomy if no revolts
 Cuneiform culture of Sumer but Semitic
 Ever larger conquest empires arose
 Egypt
 Three periods called Kingdoms
 First two periods, Old and Middle are ancient
 New Kingdom is an empire ruling into SW Asia
 Pharaoh became increasingly “human”
 Priests had enormous power in government
 Babylonian and Assyrian Empires
 Conquest, tribute empires
 Old Babylonian Empire: Hammurabi’s Code
 Assyrian Empire used terror, regular army
 Hittites
 Indo-European Chariot people
 Settled in Anatolia around 1800 BCE
 Adopted Sumerian cuneiform culture
 Borrowed Mesopotamian gods
 Codified their laws and history
 The Hittite Empire
 Arose around 1400 BCE
 Conquered Anatolia, Upper Mesopotamia, Syria
 Disintegrated around 1180 BCE
 Numerous Neo-Hittite States
 Some Key Differences
 Introduced horses, chariots into region
 Introduced ability to work, use iron tools, weapons
 Their arrival begins Iron or Classical Age
 Queens and women had many rights in Hittite society
 Signed first historical peace treaty with Egypt after stalemated war
 Ruling Classes
 Royalty
 Aristocracy
 Nobility
 Formed land owners, bureaucrats
 Priests and Military
 Groups came out of aristocracy
 Some talented commoners
 Other Classes
 “Free” classes
 Merchants
 Artisans
 Intellectuals
 Scribes
 Peasants and serfs
 Slaves
 Patriarchal
 Males dominate society
 Greatest influence of male is in public arena
 Patrilocal
 After marriage, wife lives with husband’s family
 Wife “abandons” old family for husband’s family
 Polygamous
 Men could have more than one wife
 Polygamy was an elite condition
 Poor usually had one wife
 Male Roles
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Governmental and military
Most religious roles
Intellectual roles
Farmers and craftsmen
 Female Roles: Public vs. Private
 Women had no public role but predominates in raising family
 Women tended however to dominate in cloth, textile making
 Religious
 Polytheism
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Previous animism replaced by written teachings about religion
Development of priests, formal structures, architecture
Anthropomorphism of nature
Priests hold great power, own land, temples
 Divine Right vs. Theocracy
 Intellectual
 Cuneiform and Hieroglyphics
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Early writing was extremely complex
Scribes or an elite class
They alone can write
Important to rulers, priests, merchants
 Literatures: Gilgamesh, Book of the Dead
 Arts and Architecture
 Public Architecture, public art
 Both symbolized power, influence of rulers
 Also symbolized influence of a god or a state
 Art Conventions very rigid
 Man is a tool maker and user
 The ability to make and use tools
 Man innovates to meet needs, deficiencies
 Sumer is major source of first inventions
 60 of the world’s first inventions
 From writing to wheels to numbers to sails
 Metallurgy
 Sumer arose during Ancient or Bronze Age
 Classical Age begins with the Iron Age
 Mathematics and Sciences
 Egyptian surveying, mathematics, medicine
 Mesopotamian science
 Man alters his environment
 More pronounced in Mesopotamia
 Environment is unpredictable, harsher
 Irrigation, dikes, dams, sluices
 Not that common in Egypt
 Agriculture alters environment
 All societies were overwhelmingly agrarian
 Heavy agriculture increases human population
 Some crops really deplete soil
 Cities are artificial and alter environment
 Extreme concentration of humans in small space
 Wastes, diseases concentrated
 Movement
 Human migration: pastoralists, mass migration
 Semites: Arabs, Jews, Hyksos, Phoenicians
 Hamites: Kush, Axumites
 Nilo-Saharans
 Indo-Europeans: Hittites, Cimmerians
 Indo-Iranians: Hurrians, Medes/Persians
 Culture, social blending
 Disruptions
 Exchanges such as Trade, Diseases
 Goods and skills exchanged
 Ideas, diseases exchanged
 War
 Interaction increases as resources scarce
 As technology improves, so does war
 Diplomacy
 Diplomacy arises as conflicts increase
 1st Treaty in history between Egypt, Hittites