Transcript Mes-Egy-Overview

History of Western Civilization
First Civilizations:
Africa and Asia
(3200 B.C.–500 B.C.)
An Introduction to Mesopotamia
Archeologists estimate that, in
ordinary circumstances, the
activity of gathering in
temperate and tropic areas
provides 75 to 80% of the total
calories consumed, with
hunting providing the balance.
In existing hunting and
gathering cultures, women
usually do most of the
gathering, while the men
specialize in hunting.
Domestication can be defined as a
“…primitive form of genetic engineering in
which certain plants and animals are brought
under human control, their objectionable
characteristics eliminated, their favorable
ones enhanced and in the case of animals,
can be induced to reproduce in captivity.”
In the Near East, many varieties of
the wild cereal grasses, wheat and
barley, shown below were
exploited as major food sources.
In contrast to hunting and gathering as a mode of life,
agriculture means modifying the environment in order to
exploit it more effectively.
Agriculture alters both the animals and plants it
domesticates.
Ultimately, it changes the very landscape itself.
Domestication of Animals
Uruk: a substantial ceremonial hub by 3500 B.C.
Uruk
The State and Urban Revolution:
In the city-state (or state), kin and tribal loyalties are,
by definition, subordinated and replaced by political
ties…. What makes a city-state different from an
agricultural town is the synergy created by its people
interacting with each other on the basis of political
relationships rather than traditional blood ties.
City-States of Ancient Sumer
• How did geographic features influence
the civilizations of the Fertile Crescent?
• What were the main features of
Sumerian civilization?
• What advances in learning did the
Sumerians make?
The Fertile Crescent
The Fertile Crescent is the fertile
land between the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers.
The first civilization in the Fertile
Crescent was discovered in
Mesopotamia, which means land
between the rivers
The first Sumerian cities emerged
in southern Mesopotamia around
3200 B.C.
Tigris Now
Tigris Now
Euphrates now
Euphrates Now
Euphrates Now
Sumerian Civilization
GOVERNMENT
City-states with
hereditary rulers.
Ruler led army in war
and enforced laws.
Complex government
with scribes to collect
taxes and keep
records.
SOCIAL
STRUCTURE
Each state had
distinct social
hierarchy, or
system of ranks.
RELIGION
Worshiped many gods.
Believed gods
controlled every aspect
of life.
Most people were
peasant farmers.
Saw afterlife as a grim
place. Everybody
would go into darkness
and eat dust.
Women had legal
rights; some
engaged in trade and
owned property.
To keep the gods happy,
each city built a
ziggurat, or pyramid
temple.
Ziggurats
Ziggurats
Sumerian Advances in Learning
• Developed cuneiform, believed to be the
earliest form of writing.
• Developed basic algebra and geometry.
• Made accurate calendars, essential to a
farming society.
• Made the first wheeled vehicles.
Invaders, Traders, and Empire Builders
A series of strong rulers united the lands of the Fertile
Crescent into well organized empires.
Again and again, nomadic warriors invaded the rich
cities of the Fertile Crescent. Some looted and burned
the cities. Others stayed to rule them.
2300 B.C. –Sargon, the ruler of Akkad, conquered
Sumer and built the first known empire.
1790 B.C.–Hammurabi, King of Babylon, united the
Babylonian empire.
Tiglath-Pileser I
King of Assyria during
Middle Assyrian period (1114 – 1076 BCE).
Cultivated fear
Ascended the throne at the time when a people known as the
Mushki or Mushku (Meshech of the Old Testament), probably
Phrygians, were thrusting into Asia Minor (now Turkey).
Their invasion constituted a serious threat to Middle Eastern
civilization because Asia Minor was the principal source of iron,
which was then coming into general use.
Tiglath-pileser defeated 20,000 Mushki in the Assyrian province
of Kummukh (Commagene). He also defeated the Nairi, who
lived west of Lake Van, extending Assyrian control farther into
Asia Minor than any of his predecessors had done.
Tiglath-Pileser I
First campaign: occupied Assyrian districts-Upper
Euphrates
2nd campaign: Assyrian forces penetrated into the
mountains south of Lake Van and then turned
westward to receive the submission of Malatia.
5th year: Tiglath-Pileser attacked Comanan
Cappadoci
-- placed record of victories engraved on copper
plates in fortress built to secure his Cilician conquests.
Next: Aramaeans of northern Syria.
Made way as far as the sources of the Tigris.
Tiglath-Pileser I
The control of the high road to the Mediterranean
was secured by the possession of the Hittite town of
Pethor at the junction between the Euphrates and
Sajur.
Then proceeded to Gubal (Byblos), Sidon, and finally
to Arvad where he embarked onto a ship to sail the
Mediterranean, on which he killed a nahiru or "seahorse" (which translates as a narwhal) in the sea.
Passion for the “chase.”
Great builder: Initiated restoration of temple of
gods Ashur & Hadad @ Assyrian capital of Assur.
Tiglath-Pileser I
He subdued various seminomadic Aramaean tribes living
along the routes to the Mediterranean and reached the
Syrian coast, where the Phoenician trading cities paid him
tribute.
Egypt, closely linked by trade with the Syrian coast, made
overtures of friendship. After 1100 Tiglath-pileser
conquered northern Babylonia.
The latter part of his reign a period of retrenchment, as
Aramaean tribesmen put pressure on his realm.
Died in 1076 BC
Succeeded by son Asharid-apal-Ekur.
Later kings Ashur-bel-kala and Shamshi-Adad IV were also
his sons.
The Code of Hammurabi
Hammurabi’s code was the first attempt by a ruler to
codify, or arrange and set down in writing, all of the laws
that would govern a state.
One section codified criminal law, the branch of
law that deals with offenses against others, such
as robbery and murder.
Another section codified civil law, the branch
that deals with private rights and matters, such
as business contracts, taxes, and property
inheritance.
Warfare and the Spread of Ideas
• Conquerors brought ideas and technologies to the
conquered region.
For example, when the Hittites conquered
Mesopotamia, they brought the skill of ironworking to
that region.
• When the conquerors were in turn conquered, they
moved elsewhere, spreading their ideas and
technologies.
For example, when the Hittite empire was itself
conquered, Hittite ironworkers migrated to other regions
and spread the secret of iron making across Asia, Africa,
and Europe.
The Beginnings of Writing
Farmers needed to keep records.
The Sumerians were very good farmers.
They raised animals such as goats and cows (called
livestock).
Because they needed to keep records of their
livestock, food, and other things, officials began
using tokens.
The Beginnings of Writing
Tokens were used for trade.
Clay tokens came in different shapes and sizes.
Represented different objects.
For example, a cone shape could have represented a
bag of wheat.
Tokens were placed inside clay balls that were sealed.
*If you were sending five goats to someone, then you
would put five tokens in the clay ball.
*When the goat arrived, the person would open the
clay ball and count the tokens to make sure the
correct number of goats had arrived.
The number of tokens began to be pressed on the outside of
the clay balls.
Many experts believe that this is how writing on clay tablets
began.
The Beginnings of Writing
A system of writing develops.
The earliest form of writing dates back to 3300 B.C.
People back then would draw "word-pictures" on
clay tablets using a pointed instrument called a
stylus.
These "word-pictures" then developed into wedgeshaped signs.
This type of script was called cuneiform (from the
Latin word cuneus which means wedge).
The Beginnings of Writing
Who used cuneiform?
*Not everyone learned to read and write.
*The ones that were picked by the gods were called
scribes.
*Boys chosen to become scribes (professional
writers) began study at age of 8.
They finished when they were 20 years old.
*Scribes wrote on clay tablets and used a triangular
shaped reed called a stylus to make marks in the
clay.
*Marks represented the tens of thousands of words
in their language.
THE ORIGINS OF WRITING:
Tokens are small geometric clay objects (cylinders,
cones, spheres, etc.) found all over the Near East from
about 8000 B.C. until the development of writing.
The earliest tokens were simple shapes and were
comparatively unadorned; they stood for basic
agricultural commodities such as grain and sheep.
THE ORIGINS OF WRITING:
A specific shape of token always represented a specific
quantity of a particular item.
For example, "the cone ... stood for a small measure of
grain, the sphere represented a large measure of grain, the
ovoid stood for a jar of oil." (Before Writing 161).
Two jars of oil would be represented by two ovoids, three jars
by three ovoids, and so on.
Thus, the tokens presented an
abstraction of the things being
counted, but also a system of
great specificity and precision.
With the development of cities came a more complex
economy and more complex social structures.
This cultural evolution is reflected in the tokens, which begin
to appear in a much greater diversity of shapes and are
given more complicated designs of incisions and holes.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CUNEIFORM:
The Sumerian writing system during the early periods
was constantly in flux.
The original direction of writing was from top to bottom,
but for reasons unknown, it changed to left-to-right very
early on (perhaps around 3000 BCE).
This also affected the orientation of the signs by rotating
all of them 90° counterclockwise.
Another change in this early system involved the "style"
of the signs.
The early signs were more "linear" in that the strokes
making up the signs were lines and curves.
But starting after 3000 BC, these strokes started to
evolve into wedges, thus changing the visual style of the
signs from linear to "cuneiform".
Cuneiform
Cuneiform
Cuneiform
CODE OF HAMMURABI
Collection of the laws and edicts of the
Babylonian King Hammurabi, and the earliest
legal code known in its entirety.
A copy of the code, engraved on a block of
black diorite nearly 2.4 m (8 ft) high, was
unearthed by a team of French archaeologists
at Susa, Iraq, formerly ancient Elam, during
the winter of 1901–2.
The block, broken in three pieces, has been
restored and is now in the Louvre in Paris.
CODE OF HAMMURABI
Composition of the Code
The divine origin of the written law is
emphasized by a bas-relief in which the king is
depicted receiving the code from the sun god,
Shamash.
The quality most usually associated with this
god is justice.
The code is set down in horizontal columns of
cuneiform writing: 16 columns of text on the
obverse side and 28 on the reverse.
The text begins with a prologue that explains the
extensive restoration of the temples and
religious cults of Babylonia and Assyria.
CODE OF HAMMURABI
Composition of the Code
The code itself, composed of 28 paragraphs,
seems to be a series of amendments to the
common law of Babylonia, rather than a strict
legal code.
It begins with direction for legal procedure and
the statement of penalties for unjust accusations,
false testimony, and injustice done by judges;
then follow laws concerning property rights,
loans, deposits, debts, domestic property, and
family rights.
CODE OF HAMMURABI
Composition of the Code
The sections covering personal injury
indicate that penalties were imposed for
injuries sustained through unsuccessful
operations by physicians and for damages
caused by neglect in various trades.
Rates are fixed in the code for various
forms of service in most branches of trade
and commerce.
CODE OF HAMMURABI
A Humane Civil Law
The Code of Hammurabi contains no laws
having to do with religion.
The basis of criminal law is that of equal
retaliation, comparable to the Semitic law of
“an eye for an eye.”
The law offers protection to all classes of
Babylonian society; it seeks to protect the
weak and the poor, including women, children,
and slaves, against injustice at the hands of
the rich and powerful.
CODE OF HAMMURABI
A Humane Civil Law
The code is particularly humane for the time in
which it was promulgated; it attests to the law
and justice of Hammurabi's rule. It ends with
an epilogue glorifying the mighty works of
peace executed by Hammurabi and explicitly
states that he had been called by the gods “to
cause justice to prevail in the land, to destroy
the wicked and the evil.”
CODE OF HAMMURABI
A Humane Civil Law
He describes the laws in his compilation
as enabling “the land to enjoy stable
government and good rule…”
…And, he states that he had inscribed
his words on a pillar in order “that the
strong may not oppress the weak, that
justice may be dealt the orphan and the
widow.”
CODE OF HAMMURABI
A Humane Civil Law
Hammurabi counsels the downtrodden in
these ringing words:
“Let any oppressed man who has a
cause come into the presence of my
statue as king of justice, and have the
inscription on my stele read out, and
hear my precious words, that my stele
may make the case clear to him; may he
understand his cause, and may his heart
be set at ease!”
The Persian Empire
Cyrus the Great and his successors conquered the largest
empire yet seen, from Asia Minor to India.
Emperor Darius unified the Persian empire.
Drew up single code of laws for empire.
Had hundreds of miles of roads built or repaired to aid
communication and encourage unity.
Introduced a uniform system of coinage and encouraged a
money economy.
Before it was a Barter economy-exchanging one set of
goods or services for another.
The Phoenicians
Occupied string of cities along the eastern
Mediterranean coast.
Made glass from sand and
purple dye from a tiny sea
snail.
Called “carriers of
civilization” because they
spread Middle Eastern
civilization around the
Mediterranean.
Most important contribution:
Invented the alphabet. An
alphabet contains letters
that represent spoken sounds.
The Phoenicians
UNIT EXAM
Based on PowerPoint & Online Readings
<1> Readings
Gilgamesh
Tiglathpiliser I
<2> PPT
Agricultural
Fertile Crescent
Sumerians
Development Of Writing
Hammurabi Code
Persians
Phoenicians
<3> Map Segments