Transcript The Wonders of World Civilization I MESOPOTAMIA Birthplace

Chapter 2
Early Societies in Southeast
Asia and the Indo-European
Migrations
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Civilization Defined
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Urban
Political/military system
Social stratification
Economic specialization
Religion
Communications
“Higher Culture”
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Civilization and
the Means of Production
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Essential element: concentration of wealth
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Agriculture
Control over natural resources
Development of ancient civilization
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not hunter-gatherer economics
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Origins and Spread of Agriculture
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Mesopotamia
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“Between the Rivers”
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Tigris and Euphrates
Contemporary Iran, Iraq
Cultural continuum of
“fertile crescent”
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The Wealth of the Rivers
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Nutrient-rich silt
Key: irrigation
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Sumer begins small-scale irrigation 6000 BCE
By 5000 BCE, complex irrigation networks
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Necessity of coordinated efforts
Promoted development of local governments
City-states
Population reaches 100,000 by 3000 BCE
Attracts Semitic migrants, influences culture
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Sumerian City-States
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Cities appear 4000 BCE
Dominate region from 3200-2350 BCE
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Ur (home of Abraham, see Genesis 11:28), Nineveh
(see Jonah)
Ziggurat home of the god
Divine mandate to Kings
Regulation of Trade
Defence from nomadic marauders
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The Ziggurat of Ur
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Political Decline of Sumer
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Semitic peoples from northern Mesopotamia overshadow
Sumer
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Sargon of Akkad (2370-2315 BCE)
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Hammurabi of Babylon (1792-1750 BCE)
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Destroyed Sumerian city-states one by one, created empire based in
Akkad
Empire unable to maintain chronic rebellions
Improved taxation, legislation
Used local governors to maintain control of city-states
Babylonian Empire later destroyed by Hittites from
Anatolia, c. 1595 BCE
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Legal System
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The Code of Hammurabi (18th c. BCE)
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282 items
lex talionis (item 196: “eye for an eye”)
Social status and punishment
women as property, but some rights
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Later Mesopotamian Empires
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Weakening of central rule an invitation to foreign
invaders
Assyrians use new iron weaponry
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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
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Famously luxurious capital
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Mesopotamian Empires
1800-600 BCE
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Technological Development in
Mesopotamia
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Bronze (copper with tin), c. 4000 BCE
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Iron, c. 1000 BCE
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Military, agricultural applications
Cheaper than bronze
Wheel, boats, c. 3500 BCE
Shipbuilding increases trade networks
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Social Classes
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Ruling classes based often on military prowess
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Religious classes
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Role: intervention with gods to ensure fertility, safety
Considerable landholdings, other economic activities
Free commoners
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Originally elected, later hereditary
Perceived as offspring of gods
Peasant cultivators
Some urban professionals
Slaves
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Prisoners of war, convicted criminals, debtors
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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
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Development of Writing
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Sumerian writing systems form 3500 BCE
Pictographs
Cuneiform: “wedge-shaped”
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Preservation of documents on clay
Declines from 400 BCE with spread of Greek
alphabetic script
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Uses for Writing
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Trade
Astronomy
Mathematics
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Agricultural applications
Calculation of time
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12-month year
24-hour day, 60-minute hour
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Mesopotamian Literature
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Epic of Gilgamesh, compiled after 2000 BCE
Heroic saga
Search for meaning, esp. afterlife
This-worldly emphasis
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The Early Hebrews
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Patriarchs and Matriarchs from Babylon, c. 1850
BCE
Parallels between early biblical texts, Code of
Hammurabi
Early settlement of Canaan (Israel), c. 1300 BCE
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Biblical text: slavery in Egypt, divine redemption
On-going conflict with indigenous populations
under King David (1000-970 BCE) and Solomon
(970-930 BCE)
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Moses and Monotheism
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Hebrews shared polytheistic beliefs of other
Mesopotamian civilizations
Moses introduces monotheism, belief in single
god
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Denies existence of competing parallel deities
Personal god: reward and punishment for conformity
with revealed law
The Torah (“the teaching”)
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Foreign conquests of Israel
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Civil war
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Assyrian conquest, 722 BCE
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Northern tribes: Israel
Southern: Judah
Exiles Israel: ten lost tribes
Babylonian conquest, 586 BCE
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Additional exile of many residents of Judah
Returned later than century
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Israel and Phoenicia, 1500-600 BCE
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The Phoenicians
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City-states along Mediterranean coast after 3000
BCE
Extensive maritime trade
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Dominated Mediterranean trade, 1200-800 BCE
Development of alphabet symbols
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Simpler alternative to cuneiform
Spread of literacy
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Indo-European Migrations
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Common roots of many languages of Europe,
southwest Asia, India
Implies influence of a single Indo-European
people
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Probable original homeland: contemporary Ukraine
and Russia, 4500-2500 BCE
Domestication of horses, use of Sumerian
weaponry allowed them to spread widely
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The Indo-European Migrations
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Implications of Indo-European Migration
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Hittities migrate to central Anatolia, c. 1900 BCE, later
dominate Babylonia
Influence on trade
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Horses, chariots with spoked wheels, use of Iron
Iron
Migrations to western China, Greece, Italy also significant
Influence on language and culture
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Aryo, “noble, lord”
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Aryan, Iranian, Irish
Caste system in India
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