Transcript Chapter 2 - Early Societies in Southwest Asia and the Indo

Chapter 2
Early Societies in Southeast
Asia and the Indo-European
Migrations
Civilization Defined
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Cities/Urban
Political/Military system
Social Hierarchy
Economic/Job Specialization
Complex Religion
Written language
“Higher Culture” – Art & Architecture
Public Works
Early
Mesopotamia
Sumerians
3000-2000 B.C.E.
• “Between the Rivers”
– Tigris and Euphrates
• Modern-day Iraq
• Cultural continuum of “fertile crescent”
• Sumerians the dominant people
The Wealth of the Rivers
• Nutrient-rich silt
• Key: irrigation
– Necessity of coordinated efforts (reservoirs,
canals, dikes, dams)
– Promoted development of local governments
– City-states
• Sumer begins small-scale irrigation 6000
BCE
• By 5000 BCE, complex irrigation networks
– Population reaches 100,000 by 3000 BCE
• Attracts Semitic migrants, influences
culture
Sumerian City-States
• Cities appear 4000 BCE
• Dominate region from 3200-2350 BCE
– Ur (home of Abraham, see Genesis 11:28),
Nineveh
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Ziggurat - home of the city god
Divine mandate to Kings
Regulation of Trade
Defense from nomadic marauders
The Ziggurat of Ur
Ziggurat at Ur
 Temple
 “Mountain
of
the Gods”
Example of Defensive Walls
Sumerian Religion Polytheistic
Enki
Innana
Anthropomorphic
Gods
Political Decline of Sumer
• Semitic peoples from northern Mesopotamia
overshadow Sumer
– Sargon of Akkad (2370-2315 BCE)
• Destroyed Sumerian city-states one by one, created
empire based in Akkad
• Empire unable to maintain chronic rebellions
• Hammurabi of Babylon (1792-1750 BCE)
– Improved taxation, legislation
– Used local governors to maintain control of city-states
• Babylonian Empire later destroyed by Hittites
from Anatolia, c. 1595 BCE
Akkadian Empire
Hammurabi
The upper part of the stele
of Hammurabi’s code of
laws
Legal System
• The Code of Hammurabi
• Established high standards of behavior
and stern punishment for violators
– lex talionis – “law of retaliation”
– Social status and punishment
– women as property, but some rights
Hittite Chariot and Soldiers
Later Mesopotamian Empires
• Weakening of central rule an invitation to
foreign invaders
• Assyrians use new iron weaponry
– Beginning 1300 BCE, by 8th-7th centuries BCE
control Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, most
of Egypt
• Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (r. 605-562)
takes advantage of internal dissent to
create Chaldean (New Babylonian) Empire
– Famously luxurious capital
The Hanging Gardens by
Martin Heemskerc, 16th C.
Mesopotamian Empires, 1800-600
BCE
Technological Development in
Mesopotamia
• Bronze (copper with tin), c. 4000 BCE
– Military, agricultural applications
• Iron, c. 1000 BCE
– Cheaper than bronze
• Wheel, boats, c. 3500 BCE
• Shipbuilding increases trade networks
Sophisticated Metallurgy Skills at
Ur
Social Classes
• Ruling classes based often on military prowess
– Originally elected, later hereditary
– Perceived as offspring of gods
• Religious classes
– Role: intervention with gods to ensure fertility, safety
– Considerable landholdings, other economic activities
• Free commoners
– Peasant cultivators
– Some urban professionals
• Slaves
– Prisoners of war, convicted criminals, debtors
Patriarchal Society
• Men as landowners, relationship to status
• Patriarchy: “rule of the father”
– Right to sell wives, children
• Double standard of sexual morality
– Women drowned for adultery
– Relaxed sexual mores for men
• Yet some possibilities of social mobility for
women
– Court advisers, temple priestesses, economic activity
• Introduction of the veil at least c. 1500 BCE
Development of Writing
• Sumerian writing systems form 3500 BCE
• Pictographs
• Cuneiform: “wedge-shaped”
– Preservation of documents on clay
– Declines from 400 BCE with spread of Greek
alphabetic script
Cuneiform: “Wedge-Shaped”
Writing
Cuneiform Writing
Deciphering Cuneiform
Sumerian Scribes
“Tablet House”
Uses for Writing
• Trade
• Astronomy
• Mathematics
– Agricultural applications
• Calculation of time
– 12-month year
– 24-hour day, 60-minute hour
Mesopotamian Literature
• Epic of Gilgamesh, compiled after 2000
BCE
• Heroic saga
• Search for meaning, esp. afterlife
• This-worldly emphasis
Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh Epic Tablet:
Flood Story
The Early Hebrews
• Patriarchs and Matriarchs from Babylon, c.
1850 BCE
• Parallels between early biblical texts,
Code of Hammurabi
• Early settlement of Canaan (Israel), c.
1300 BCE
– Biblical text: slavery in Egypt, divine
redemption
• On-going conflict with indigenous
populations under King David (1000-970
BCE) and Solomon (970-930 BCE)
Egypt's king,
Ramses II, written
about in the Old
Testament, is now
thought to have
reigned between
1290-1224 B.C.E.
This Egyptian wall
art depicts Ramses
holding what is
suspected to be
three slaves. One is
black, one appears
to be East Asian,
and the third, in the
foreground, appears
to be Semitic. The
blacks and Semite
came from close by.
The East Asian
leaves us
wondering.
David and Goliath by Caravaggio, 1600
Michelangelo's
David
David with the Head of
Goliath,
c. 1450/1455,
Andrea del Castagno
Model of Solomon’s Temple
Moses and Monotheism
• Hebrews shared polytheistic beliefs of
other Mesopotamian civilizations
• Moses introduces monotheism, belief in
single god
– Denies existence of competing parallel deities
– Personal god: reward and punishment for
conformity with revealed law
– The Torah (“doctrine or teaching”)
Foreign conquests of Israel
• Assyrian conquest, 722 BCE
– Conquered the northern kingdom
– Deported many inhabitants to other regions
– Many exiles assimilated and lost their identity
• Babylonian conquest, 586 BCE
– Destroyed Jerusalem
– Forced many into exile
– Israelites maintained their religious identity
and many returned to Judea
The Phoenicians
• City-states along Mediterranean coast
after 3000 BCE
• Extensive maritime trade
– Dominated Mediterranean trade, 1200-800
BCE
• Development of alphabet symbols
– Simpler alternative to cuneiform
– Spread of literacy
Israel and Phoenicia , 1500-600 BCE
Indo-European Migrations
• Common roots of many languages of
Europe, southwest Asia, India
• Implies influence of a single IndoEuropean people
– Probable original homeland: modern-day
Ukraine and Russia, 4500-2500 BCE
• Domestication of horses, use of Sumerian
weaponry allowed them to spread widely
Indo-European Migrations 3000-1000 BCE
Implications of Indo-European
Migration
• Hittites migrate to central Anatolia, c. 1900
BCE, later dominate Babylonia
• Influence on trade
– Horses, chariots with spoked wheels
– Iron
– Migrations to western China, Greece, Italy
also significant