Transcript Slide 1

CHAPTER 1
The First Civilizations
and the Rise of Empires
I.
The First Humans
II. Agricultural Revolution
III. Emergence of Civilization
IV. Mesopotamia
a)
Sumerian
b)
Akkadian
c)
Amorites
V. Egyptian
VI. New Centers of Civilizations
a)
Nomadic
b)
Phoenicians
c)
Hebrews
VII. Rise of New Empires
a)
Assyrian
b)
Persian
VIII.Conclusion
I. The First Humans
CHRONOLOGY OF THE FIRST HUMANS AND THEIR CIVILIZATIONS
BC and BCE – religious versus secular, otherwise no difference in usage.
BC – Before Christ
BCE – Before Common Era
Years ago:
1,500,000
250,000 - 30,000
200,000 - 150,000
Homo Erectus
Homo sapiens
Homo sapiens sapiens
Australopithecines
"upright human being"
Fire used around 500,000 ya
"wise human being"
1) Neanderthal (Neander
Valley in Germany)
"wise, wise human being"
Africa
Left Africa for Europe and
Asia
Europe, Middle East
By 10,000 BC, homo sapiens
sapiens replaced Neanderthal
and had settled around much of
what had been settled/found.
4,000,000 - 3,000,000
Hominids
From
2,500,000 -
PALEOLITHIC
AGE
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Paleolithic - old stone; JAVA man, PEKING man, Neanderthal man, Cro-Magnon man
Neolithic - new stone
Bronze - use of bronze
Years ago: 10,000
10,000 - 4,000
4,000 - 3,000
3,000 - 1,200
Homo sapiens sapiens
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Ice Age ends.
Agricultural
Revolution
Systematic Agriculture
begins between 8,000
- 7,000 BC
- writing begins circa
7060
PALEOLITHIC AGE
ENDS.
NEOLITHIC -----------
Significant technical
developments: tools,
metals.
Invention of wheel circa
3000
Concentration of people in
Mesopotamia and Egypt
-emergence of civilization
- 3500 - 3000 BC
Approx 3000+ BC Sumerians
Approx 3000 BC - Egyptians
Approx 2000 BC – Akkadians
Approx 1800 BC –
Babylonians
Approx 1750 BC – Hittites
Approx 1200 BC – Phoenicians
& Hebrews
Approx 700 BC – Assyrians
Approx 600 BC - Persians
---AGE. BRONZE AGE
------BRONZE AGE.
IRON AGE ---
1st Stage:
Hominids
FROM AFRICA - East and South Africa
Australiopithecines
Simple stone tools
 3-4 million years ago
2nd Stage:
Homo Erectus
From same area
 1.5 million years ago
More tools and more varied tools
First to leave Africa and moved into Europe and Asia
3rd Stage:
Homo Sapiens (wise human being)
 250,000 ya
Two branches off of homo sapiens
Neanderthal (Nender Valley, Germany)
Dated to 100,000 and 30,000 bce
Relied upon variety of stone tools
First to bury their dead
Homo sapiens sapiens (wise wise human being)
First anatomically modern humans
Dated 200,000 – 100,000
II. Agricultural Revolution
III. Emergence of Civilization
Civilization: a complex culture in which large numbers of humans share a
number of common elements
Basic Characteristics of Civilization:
-Urban revolution: cities become focal point for politics, economics, social, and
cultural
-distinct religious structures
-new political and military structures
-new social structures
-Economics:
King
Upper class – usually priests
Political leaders
Warriors
Free men
Slaves
-development of writing
-artistic/intellectual developments
- complexity of materials collected increased
The basic characteristics – writing and cities
IV. Mesopotamia
Little rain 0-10 inches per year, but soil rich by layers of silt over centuries
a) Sumerians
Time Period:
3000 BC – 2350 BC
Region:
1st people to create a Mesopotamian civilization
(made up of cities located in a river valley).
Language:
Social Structure: 3 major groups – highly stratified
With changes in society came technological advances
Leadership:
Kings so unruly, according to EPIC OF GILGAMESH, gods created wild man Enkidu to
subdue King.
Kings were representative of city god – highest ruler and judge
held privileges and responsibilities
Cities:
By 3000 BC - Eridu, Ur, Uruk, Umma, Lagash
Cities built with walls, defensive towers strategically placed.
URUK – marvel of engineering – 900 towers
Gender Roles:
Womens roles:
Mens roles:
Religion:
gods venerated equally – of conquered
Gods ruled cities – King of city eventually became linked with the god
Ultimately became divine
Temple – most prominent bldg in city
Uruk – becomes most important
Religious owned most land, worked by peasants.
Treatment of gods
Legal:
Economy:
agricultural, also woolen textiles, pottery, metalworks, some trade
Notables:
Epic of Gilgamesh
DO NOT COPY
The story of Gilgamesh addressed the mystery of why men had to die while gods lived
forever, and it was a story about human audacity and willfulness against the will of the gods.
Gilgamesh = 2/3 god, 1/3 human. Enkidu created by god Anu.
The story begins with a barbarian named Enkidu coming out of the wilderness. Enkidu was
Gilgamesh's opposite: Enkidu had been living in the untamed wilds and was happy living
with the animals he had befriended; Gilgamesh lived among people in the sophisticated city
and because of his willfulness was estranged from the people he ruled.
From Uruk, Gilgamesh sent a temple prostitute to seduce Enkidu, and Enkidu lost his
innocence -- vaguely similar to Eve giving Adam the apple of knowledge, which in this
instance was explicitly carnal. The prostitute gave Enkidu bread fit for a god and wine fit for
royalty, and she introduced him to Gilgamesh. Enkidu and Gilgamesh became friends and
attempted great feats together, including the killing of a god in the form of a bull, a god who
was the bringer of droughts to their valley. The great mother goddess, Ishtar -- a goddess seen
in the heavens as the planet Venus -- thought that in killing the bull, Gilgamesh and his friend
had exercised too much willfulness and that as punishment either the barbarian or Gilgamesh
had to die. It was Enkidu who died, and following his death Gilgamesh was heartbroken and
lost himself by wandering from town to town.
Story of the flood, eternal life (plant), and death
b) Akkadian (2350 – 2100)
–
Sargon 2334 – 2279 BC –
• King of Akkad. 55 yr reign.
– Akkadian Empire, c. 2340-2100 B.C.E.
– Semitic people
– Sargon around 2340 B.C.E. overran the Sumerian cities and
established an empire over most of Mesopotamia
– Empire falls about 2100 B.C.E
Religious:
Economy:
Women’s Roles:
Men’s Roles:
c) Amorites or Old Babylonians:
1792 BC – 1750 BC
Conquered Sumerians and Akkadians
Rules by Hammurabi
Code of Hammurabi – 282 Laws
Code of Hammurabi
282 laws
-written so as to not be arbitrary
-eye for an eye
-standards for professions: public officials had numerous duties,
responsibilities.
-Consumer protection
-sought to protect women and children / focus on family matters
-sexual promiscuity permitted – for men.
-reorganized and consolidated previous laws in order to maintain the
established social / economic order.
ALSO devised most sophisticated mathematical system based on
numerical system of 1-60 (we use hours and minutes - 60), Quadratic
equation (used in computing amounts of materials for bldg)
When Hammurabi died, his son lost ½ the kingdom in revolts and thus
weakened, fell to Hittites
WILL RETURN TO HITTITES, but let’s return to a few of Hammurabi’s laws
…
CODE OF LAWS
1. If any one ensnare another, putting a ban upon him, but he can not prove it, then he
that ensnared him shall be put to death.
2. If any one bring an accusation against a man, and the accused go to the river and leap
into the river, if he sink in the river his accuser shall take possession of his house.
But if the river prove that the accused is not guilty, and he escape unhurt, then he
who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the
river shall take possession of the house that had belonged to his accuser.
3. If any one bring an accusation of any crime before the elders, and does not prove what
he has charged, he shall, if it be a capital offense charged, be put to death.
4. If he satisfy the elders to impose a fine of grain or money, he shall receive the fine that
the action produces.
5. If a judge try a case, reach a decision, and present his judgment in writing; if later error
shall appear in his decision, and it be through his own fault, then he shall pay twelve
times the fine set by him in the case, and he shall be publicly removed from the
judge's bench, and never again shall he sit there to render judgement.
6. If any one steal the property of a temple or of the court, he shall be put to death, and
also the one who receives the stolen thing from him shall be put to death.
7. If any one buy from the son or the slave of another man, without witnesses or a
contract, silver or gold, a male or female slave, an ox or a sheep, an ass or anything,
or if he take it in charge, he is considered a thief and shall be put to death.
First settlement around 4000 BC
Over 2500 years, most stable civilization the western world had ever known.
Included 31 dynasties grouped into four periods
V. Egyptian
Divine Kingship
The Importance of Religion
Inseparable element of the world order
Polytheistic
Sun gods and land gods
Sun god worshiped as Atum in human form
Egyptian ruler took the title “Son of Re”
King  Pharoh
HORUS (sky and falcon god)
RA (sun god)
AMEN-RE
OSIRIS (god of the dead)
Mummification – important for return of spiritual ka
Hyksos - result was the Egyptian use of bronze for improved tools and weapons,
more effective methods of warfare which enabled the Egyptians to establish the New
Kingdom and expand their empire, use of horse-drawn war chariots, significant
increase in Egyptian imperialism.
Ahmose I
Empire – Somalia, Nubia, Palestine, Syria
Hatshepsut 1490-1468 BC
Amenhotep IV 1364 – 1347 BC
TUTANKHAMEN
VI. New Centers of Civilization
By 6500 BC, Agriculture had spread into the Balkan peninsula
By 4000 BC, humans in what is now France, central Europe, Mediterranean area had
domesticated animals
Between 3200 – 1500 BC – the druids ended up with very large stones (megalithic
constructions) throughout Britain. These megalithic constructions were also evident
as far north as Scandinavia and as far south as Corsica and Malta.
a) Role of Nomadic People
Herding, hunting, gathering, limited farming
Indo_Europeans were most significant nomadic people.
Indo-Europeans from somewhere in the steppe region north of the Black
Sea or in southwestern Asia
b) The Phoenicians
Palestine
Ports of Byblos, Tyre, and Sidon
Traders
Alphabet
Established colonies
Skilled sea travelers
c) Hebrews
Time Period: Between 1200 and 1000 B.C.E emerged as distinct people
Region: South of the Phoenicians
Language: Semitic speaking
Social Structure:
Yet important as source of origin for major world religions – Judaism,
Christianity and Islam
Jewish history written in Old Testament - Doubt as to veracity of material in
Old Testament today because historians believe ti was written LONG after events
and do not reflect the TRUE history of the Hebrews.
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Leadership:
– Between the origins of the nomadic peoples later known as Hebrews and King
Solomon, Hebrews worshipped many gods … tree god, stone god …
polytheistic.
– Solomon King, united tribes, monotheistic
• He expanded power and government, expanding the army, which in turn
expanded control of area.
• Solomon best known for his WISDOM, and the building of religious sites
– After Solomon’s death, division and tension between groups
– Northern tribes and Southern tribes separate
Gender Roles:
Religion: Polytheistic until Solomon. Temple housed the Ark of the Covenant
– Yahweh
» Created nature but not in nature
» God of mercy and love
» Spoke through Moses
– Covenant, law, the prophets
Legal:
• Economy:
• Cities: Samaria, Jerusalem
• Military:
– Kingdom of Israel w/capital at Samaria (10 northern tribes)
– Kingdom of Judea with capital at Jerusalem (2 southern tribes)
– In 772 BC, Assyrians destroyed Samaria, Hebrews dispersed (10 lost
tribes)
– Southern Kingdom managed for awhile, paying tribute to Assyrians,
and as Assyrian power declined, a new enemy appeared – Chaldeans.
Chaldeans defeated Assyrians, destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC. Many
were deported to Babylonia (Psalm 137)
• Notables: Chaldeans conquered by the Persians, and Hebrews returned
and with help of Persians rebuilt.
VII. The Rise of New Empires
a) Assyrians
Time Period: 800 -600 BC
Region: Syria and Palestine, Babylon and southern Mesopotamia
Language:
Social Structure: System of communication, assimilated Mesopotamian civilization
Not fearful of assimilation of those of different religious beliefs or political
THEIR language gave them their identity.
Leadership: King Ashurbanipal (669-626 B.C.). Kings held absolute
power.
Military: Use of iron weapons, create an empire by 700 B.C.E.
Well organized army -- infantrymen and war chariots
Conventional and guerilla, Use of terror, lay siege to cities
iron swords, lances, metal armor, and battering rams
In 772 BC, Assyrians destroyed Samaria.
Gender Roles:
Religion:
Legal:
• Economy: farming, trade (middlemen), canal built between Nile and Red
sea begun
• Cities:
• Art/Literature:
– ritual/ceremonial scenes - realism. Also important was their relief
sculptures (contribution to future civilizations and art world).
– Nineveh: poetry, history, astronomy, astrology, and medicine,
instructions for grammatical translation of Summerian texts into a
Semetic language. Over 22,000 tablets.
• Notables:
– Sargon II (721-705 BC), who forcefully relocated Hebrews.
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Excerpts from the Code of the Assyrians.
I.2. If a woman, whether the wife of a man or the daughter of a man, utter vulgarity or indulge in low talk, that
woman bears her own sin; against her husband, her sons, or her daughter they shall have no claim.
I.7. If a woman bring her hand against a man, they shall prosecute her; 30 manas of lead shall she pay, 20 blows
shall they inflict on her.
I.8. If a woman in a quarrel injure the testicle of a man, one of her fingers they shall cut off. And if a physician bind
it up and the other testicle which is beside it be infected thereby, or take harm; or in a quarrel she injure the other
testicle, they shall destroy both of her eyes.
I.9. If a man bring his hand against the wife of a man, treating her like a little child, and they prove it against him,
and convict him, one of his fingers they shall cut off. If he kiss her, his lower lip with the blade of an axe they shall
draw down and they shall cut off.
I.12. If the wife of a man be walking on the highway, and a man seize her, say to her "I will surely have intercourse
with you," if she be not willing and defend herself, and he seize her by force and rape her, whether they catch him
upon the wife of a man, or whether at the word of the woman whom he has raped, the elders shall prosecute him,
they shall put him to death. There is no punishment for the woman.
I.13. If the wife of a man go out from her house and visit a man where he lives, and he have intercourse with her,
knowing that she is a man's wife, the man and also the woman they shall put to death.
I.14. If a man have intercourse with the wife of a man either in an inn or on the highway, knowing that she is a
man's wife, according as the man, whose wife she is, orders to be done, they shall do to the adulterer. If not
knowing that she is a man's wife he rapes her, the adulterer goes free. The man shall prosecute his wife, doing to
her as he likes.
I.15. If a man catch a man with his wife, both of them shall they put to death. If the husband of the woman put his
wife to death, he shall also put the man to death. If he cut off the nose of his wife, he shall turn the man into a
eunuch, and they shall disfigure the whole of his face.
I.16. If a man have relations with the wife of a man at her wish, there is no penalty for that man. The man shall lay
upon the woman, his wife, the penalty he wishes.
I.18. If a man say to his companion, "They have had intercourse with they wife; I will prove it," and he be not able
to prove it, and do not prove it, on that man they shall inflict forty blows, a month of days he shall perform the
king's work, they shall mutilate him, and one talent of lead he shall pay.
I.20. If a man have intercourse with his brother-in-arms, they shall turn him into a eunuch.
I.21. If a man strike the daughter of a man and cause her to drop what is in her, they shall prosecute him, they shall
convict him, two talents and thirty manas of lead shall he pay, fifty blows they shall inflict on him, one month shall
he toil.
I.26. If a woman be dwelling in the house of her father, and her husband have died, any gift which her husband
settled upon her---if there be any sons of her husband's, they shall receive it. If there be no sons of her husband's
she receives it.
I.32. If a woman be dwelling in the house of father, but has been given to her husband, whether she has been
taken to the house of her husband or not, all debts, misdemeanors, and crimes of her husband shall she bear as if
she too committed them. Likewise if she be dwelling with her husband, all crimes of his shall she bear as well.
I.35. If a woman, who is a widow, enter into the house of a man, whatsoever she brings with her---all is her
husband's. But if a man enter in to a woman, whatsoever he brings---all is the woman's.
b) Persians
Time Period: 6th century BC
Region: Persia – centering in North and South
Around 1000BC Aryan tribes from the North move in to the region
TWO TRIBES
Medes: moved west and NW to Media (their rise was
during 6th century)
Persian: went south to edge of Tigris river
• Language: Indo European
• Social Structure:
– Cyrus II, Conqueror of Babylon.
• Bureaucracy had had 20-40-60 years to develop and was well
established. Didn't appreciate his attempts to change the system.
• In a monument to himself was going to change capital of empire to
Persepolis.
• Colossal glorification to himself
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Man headed bulls and lions
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Staircases with stone warriors from captured empires
(Assyrians)
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Egyptian columns
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Greek relief and decoration
– Civil Administration and the Military
• Divided into 20 provinces
– Satraps collected tribute, responsible for justice and security
• Roads
– Royal Road stretched from Sardis to Susa
• Professional army with a core of 10,000 cavalry
• Leadership:
• Cyrus (559-530 B.C.E.)
• Cambyses (530-522 B.C.E.)
• Darius (522-486 B.C.E.)
• To this point in history - the largest empire on earth.
• Cyrus was careful to respect the institutions and beliefs of his new
subjects.
• Cyrus required little of subjects (in conquered lands)
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Established provinces with Governors (of their choosing)
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Required tribute and obedience from subjects OTHERWISE free
to do as will.
• Tribute: Persian system of satrapies was a system of collecing tribute
based on a region's productive capacity.
• Cyrus' son then adds to his father's empire and adds Egypt followed by
Medes and Babylonian attempts to seek independence (defeated but
interest grows)
• Darius: (reigned 522 - 486BC) Expanded Empire to Maccedonia then
stopped.
• Gender Roles:
• Religion:
– It was during this time that Zoroastrianism began
– god of light
– Ahurmazda, the creator, gave all humans free will
and the power to chose between right and wrong
• COMMONALITY with Judaism – good and evil
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Legal:
Economy: mineral wealth, particularly iron.
Cities: Babylon
Notables: rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem and other
religious structures.