Transcript Ancient Near East

Ancient Near East
Egypt, Mesopotamia, & The Hebrews
Egypt
• Nile: World’s longest river
• Herodotus: Egypt=“gift of the Nile”
• Overflowed on regular, annual basis:
– Fertile land
– Sense of order
• Egypt protected by desert & sea
• From about 3100 BCE, for 3000 yrs.
Mesopotamia
• Tigris and Euphrates Rivers—Fertile
Crescent
• Mesopotamia=“the land between the two
rivers”
• Overflow unpredictable
– Sense of instability
• Exposed plains
– Open to invasion
Mesopotamia
• Beginning with Sumer, about 3500 BCE
• First cities: Uruk, Ur, Kish, Nippur, Lagash
• Unlike Egypt, Mesopotamia was a series of
civilizations
Hebrews
• Tribal people who migrated from Fertile
Crescent to Canaan (Israel) after 2000 BCE
• After 1700 BCE migrated to Egypt, and
enslaved
• Around 1300 BCE returned to Canaan (the
“Exodus”)
Religion
God & Creation
Egypt: God & Creation
• At beginning of time, Nile produced mound
of silt and sun god emerged from it
• this sun god (Amon, Re, Aten) gave birth to
the other gods (19)
• Amon gives ankh (“life”)
Egypt: God & Creation
• Akhentaten’s Reform (30): monotheism
• The power of the sun’s rays: in 1.17 the
rays end in hands
• marked by a change in the visual arts,
movement toward realism
Queen Nefertiti
Mesopotamia: God & Creation
• Man created through violence & strife
• Apsu (sweet waters) and Tiamat (bitter
waters) give birth to Lahmu and Lahamu
(Note: As in Egypt, silt precipitates)
• Anshar and Kishar (horizon of sky and
earth) give birth to Anu (god of sky) who
gives birth to Ea (wisdom).
Mesopotamia: God & Creation
• Tiamat prepares for war.
• Marduk is Supreme Commader to fight
Tiamat (bitter waters).
• Upon slaying Tiamat, Marduk splits open
Tiamat’s body to make sky and earth.
• Marduk makes man as a work of
“cosummate art” for the “faithful service”
of the gods.
Statuettes, Abu Temple, Iraq
Ziggurat
Hebrews: God & Creation
• Supreme Creator, who existed before the
physical world, with ethical charge (47):
ethical monotheism (48)
Genesis
• Genesis 1: God created “man” last. God
created “man” male and female: put them
over the earth to subdue/master it.
• Genesis 2: God creates man first (out of the
soil), then the garden, the animals, then the
woman.
Religion
Morality & Afterlife
Egypt: Polytheism
Anubis
Egypt: Isis & Osiris
• Isis—Osiris Set (Osiris’ evil brother):
chopped Osiris into pieces and threw in Nile
• Isis: puts Osiris back together again and
brings him back to life
• Horus: revenge on Set—becomes ruler of
Egypt
Osiris: king of the dead
Isis: mother goddess
Horus: the falcon god
The Eye of Horus
Myth of Isis & Osiris
• Pharaohs associated with Horus, the
avenging son of Isis & Osiris
• The myth supported a belief in resurrection
of the dead—not only for the pharaoh but
for commoners as well
The Step Pyramid
Pyramids at Giza
The Valley of Kings
Book of the Dead
Mesopotamia: Epic of Gilgamesh
• Gilgamesh, 2/3 god and 1/3 man, has lost
his best friend Enkidu.
• Gilgamesh is heartbroken, and he also fears
his own death, so goes on a journey to his
father Utnapishtim, who has eternal life, to
see if he can gain it too.
Epic of Gilgamesh (2)
• First he needs to seek out the permission of
Man-Scorpion to pass through the mountain
• He hangs out with Siduri, maker of wine,
for a while, then eventually reaches
Utnapishtim, who informs Gilgamesh that
all is impermanent.
Epic of Gilgamesh (3)
• Gilgamesh asks Utnapishtim how he got
everlasting life, and Utnapishtim relates the
story of the flood and how he managed to
survive and save mankind.
• Gilgamesh goes with Urshanabi the
Ferryman to check out the plant that brings
everlasting youth, but in the end a serpent
snatches it away.
Hebrews: Morality & Afterlife
• Ten commandments: the consequences for
bad behavior are not in an afterlife but in
this life and in future generations—see 49;
See also Jeremiah on 51.
• “eye for eye, tooth for tooth” (49)
• responsibility to enemies (49)
Hebrews: Afterlife
• Hebrew attitude toward the afterlife was
uncertain: see Job 53
Government & Social Order
Egypt: Gov/Society
• Union of Upper and Lower Egypt shown on
Palette of Narmer (22-23).
• Narmer was the first pharaoh. Pharaoh:
“great house”
• Theocracy: pharaoh ruled in the name of
the sun god
• Pharaoh identified with Horus and
symbolized by the falcon
Horus→ sky god; god of Egypt
Egypt: Gov/Society
• Land was sacred: ruled by the pharaohs in
the name of the gods—worked by the
peasants and slaves.
• System: theocratic socialism: harvest
shared by community
Egypt: Gov/Society
• Authority went from the pharaoh to the
husband of the pharaoh’s daughter—thus
sometimes sons would marry their sisters in
order to get the thrown. (Property passed
through women)
Egypt: Social Structure
• Pharaoh
• Vizier: top bureaucratic official
• Merchants traders, builders, scribes (middle
class)
• Peasants
• Slaves: unfree: captured enemies,
criminals, debtors
Canon of Proportion
Mesopotamia: Gov/Society
• City-states united under Sargon I, creator of
first empire
Sargon I
Stele of Hammurabi
c. 1760 BCE
The Standard of Ur (ca. 2700 BCE)
Hebrews: Gov/Society
• after 2000 BCE : Abraham: covenant: “I
will be your God; you will be my people”
• Chosen People
• Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (aka Israel=“soldier
of God”)
Hebrews
• After 1700 BCE: into Egypt
• C. 1300 BCE Moses leads out of Egypt to
Canaan, but Canaan is occupied
• Samuel, Saul, and David battle the
Canaanites; David conquers them
Hebrews: Gov/Society
• 960-920 BCE—Solomon establishes
Jerusalem, builds a temple for the Ark of the
Covenant (50)
• Israel divided North and South
– North: Israel
– South: Judah
Babylonian Captivity
• Nebuchadnezza invades Jerusalem, takes
Hebrews (Jews) into captivity in Babylon
(586-538 BCE)
• Book of Job probablywritten during this
time
Hebrews
• 538 BCE: return from captivity
• Jews later ruled by Persians, Greeks, and—
after a short independence—by the Romans
• 70 CE: Temple destroyed again, this time
by Romans after Jewish revolt
• 1948 CE: state of Israel established
Hebrews: Gov/Society
• Social order reflects covenant between God
and the Hebrews.
• The Jewish father has a patriarchal bond
with his family; the Hebrew king represents
God, divinely appointed
• Prophets (50)