Transcript Late Neolithic and Mesopotamia PPT

Life in Neolithic Communities
Why did the Agricultural Revolution Occur?
• Obvious advantages
• Climate change leads people to abandon hunting and gathering in
favor of agriculture or pastoralism
• Great Ice Age Ends:
• Temperate lands become exceptionally warm between 6000BCE-2000BCE
• Allows people to adopt agriculture
• Shortages in Middle East caused dry spell; population growth also
could be a factor for food production
• Wild grains are not as accessible unlike in Australia, Americas, and Northern
Eurasia
Disadvantages to Being a Farmer
• Work longer and harder
• Clear and cultivate land
• Guide herds to pastures
• Guard herds from predators
• Diet is less varied and nutritious
• Shorter in height;
• Likely to die at an earlier age than Paleolithic
• More exposed to Diseases
Advantages to Being a Farmer
• Less likely to starve
• Can store food between harvests
• Small surplus = higher survival rate during natural crisis (e.g. drought)
• Organized around kinship
• Marriage
• Nuclear families start to emerge
• How did Farmers displace Foragers?
• Gradual infiltration; non-violent
• A generation could have repopulated all of Europe between 6500-3500BCE
Society (S)
• Farming communities expand through kinship and marriage
• Parents and children lived in separate households
• Lineages (clans) – acted together to defend common interests/land.
• Patrilineal- trace descent through the father
• NOT PATRIARCHY (rule of men)
• Matrilineal- trace descent through the mother
• NOT MATRIARCHY (rule of women)
• Most early farmers lived in small villages (these continue to grow)
• Towns have grander dwellings and ceremonial buildings
• A place to store food until next harvest
Society (S)
• Farmer’s usually made most of their buildings, tools and containers during
their spare time
• In larger communities, craft specialists created buildings, tools, and
containers.
• Examples of Complex Neolithic Societies:
• Jericho (West Bank of Jordan River)—located near a natural spring
• Evidence of complex buildings and forts
• Mud-brick dwellings  rectangular buildings with plastered walls and floors
• Catal Huyuk (Central Turkey)—32 acres
• Mud-brick rooms with elaborate decorations
• No defense wall
• Entered homes through ladders (holes in the room)
Create a PERSIAN Chart for: Catal Huyuk
• Traded obsidian (volcanic rock)
• Other crafts: pottery, woven baskets, cloths, leather, wood
• House sizes varied
• No evidence of social classes
• No centralized political structure
• Crops: emmer wheat, barley, vegetables
• Animals: pigs, goat, sheep
• Still ate wild foods (acorns, wild grains, game animals)
PERSIAN Chart Cont’d
• Wall Paintings (similar to cave paintings) still reveal importance of
hunting
• Men are buried with weapons of war and hunting
• For every 2 homes, there is a religious shrine
• Horned bulls, female breasts, goddesses, leopards, handprints
• More plump female deities (gods) > male deities
• Rituals: burned legumes, grains, and meat for offerings
• No evidence of live animal sacrifice
• Metal-Working is popular during late Neolithic Period
PERSIAN Chart, Cont’d
• Catal Huyuk used copper and lead—in other parts of the world, people
started using silver and gold
• Do not replace stone tools or weapons
• Used for decoration or ceremony … does this mean status??
• Created extra food for non-farmers (preists and artisans)
Religion (R)
• Burial sites start to emerge
• Early ancestor worship
• Example: Ancient city of Jericho
• Food Gatherers’ religion centered on sacred groves, springs, and
animals.
• Pastoralists religion: worship the Sky God
• Controlled rain and its migration
• Farmers religion: Earth Mother (female) – source of new life
Megaliths (A)
• Big Stone
• Discovered in Egyptian desert
• Burial Chambers used during Neolithic Period for ancestors, calendar
circle, and pairs of upright stones that frame the rising sun on the
summer solstice.
• Important: cycle of the seasons
• Example: Stonehenge in England
• ~2000BCE
• Communal burial chambers
Mesopotamia
Use PERSIAN Chart to take notes!
Mesopotamia – Near Geographic
• Land between the rivers
• Located between the Euphrates and Tigris River
• Originates in the mountains of eastern Anatolia (Modern Turkey) and
empties itself to Persian Gulf
• Current day Iraq
• Even though Agriculture existed in the Fertile Crescent, it did not arrive
in Mesopotamia until 5000 BCE
• Farming depended on irrigation due to hot/dry climate
Irrigation and Farming Practices (S, I, N)
• Irrigation = artificial provision to crops
• Why? Natural Springs could be sudden and violent and came at the wrong time of the year
• Floods changed course of rivers
• Learned to construct canals to carry water to their fields
• Farmers are using ox-drawn plows to turn over the earth with a funnel attached to it—funnel
measured amount of seeds into furrow
• Barley = main crop
• Date palms = food, fiver, wood
• Garden plots = vegetables
• Reed plants could be woven into mats, baskets, huts, boats, etc.
• Fish-dietary staple
• Herds of sheep
• Goats = wool, milk, meat
• Donkeys = originally domesticated in NE Africa
Sumerians and Semites
• Sumerians = people living in Mesopotamia at the “start” of the historical period
• Written evidence exists
• Created framework of civilization
• Dominated Mesopotamia from 4th and 3rd Millennia BCE
• Semitic = family of related languages long spoken across parts of western Asia
and Northern Africa.
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Include: Hebrew, Aramaic, Phoenician, modern Arabic
Lived in peace with Sumerians—adopted culture and succeeded in their society
By 2000BCE became politically dominant
Akkadian (language) dominated Sumerian (even though culture was still Sumerian)
• Other Groups: Kassite (mountain people), Elamites, Persians (Iran)
Cities, Kings, and Trade (S, P)
• Villages and cities
• Cities evolved from villages
• City-State = a small independent state consisting of an urban center and the surrounding agricultural
territory.
• Farmers = food
• Urban residents = specialized in crafts, pottery, art, clothing, weapon, tools, etc.
• Other jobs = serving gods, administrative duties
• Farming families banded together for protection
• Worked together: shared tools, inter marriage
• Trade
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Specialists depended on surplus of food
Cities collected crop surpluses from villages and provided rural districts with military protection
Uncultivated land (e.g. desert) was a buffer zone
Disputes: land, water, moveable property
Irrigation System (I, S)
• Opened new land to agriculture by building and maintaining irrigation
networks.
• Canals brought water to fields from rivers
• Dams raised water levels
• Drainage ditches carried water away from flooded fields before it became harmful
• Successful operation = large number of people to work together
• Other examples of coordination:
• Harvest
• Sheep shearing
• Fortification walls
• Large public buildings
• Warfare
Religious Leaders and Political Leaders (P, R)
• Not much information about Political institutions
• Evidence of assembly (sort of like a council)
• Two centers of Power:
• 1. Temple
• 2. Palace of the King
• Each city had 1+ centrally located temple that housed a cult of the deity
(deities) who watched over their community
• Cult = set of religious practices
• Temples had a lot of land and stored gifts from worshippers
• Leading priests played a big role in political and economic affairs
Religious and Political Leaders (P, R)
• Lugal (Big Man)—modern day version of a king
• 3rd millennium BCE
• Sumerian cities
• Theory: certain men chosen by the community to lead armies extended their
authority during peacetime in key judicial and rituals functions
• Temple location = heart of the city
• Priests and temples = cool because of wealth and religious mystique
• Gradually become dependent on the palace
• King becomes earthly representative of the deity
Religious and Political Leaders (P, R)
• Responsibilities of the king:
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Upkeep and building of temples
Proper performance during ritual
Maintaining city walls and defenses
Extending/Repairing irrigation channels
Guarding property Rights
Warding off outside attackers
Establishing justice
Early Regional Empires: Sargon
• City-states start dominating others
• Sargon = ruler of Akkad (city)
• First to unite many cities under one kind and capital
• Had 4 successors of a span of 120 years
• Razed walls of conquered cities
• Installed governors backed by garrisons of Akkadian troops
• Gave land to soldiers to ensure loyalty
• Cuneiform = system of writing in Sumerian to express their own language
• Akkadan state falls – we don’t know why (2230BCE)
• Sumerian language and culture remain dominant
Early Regional Empires: Third Dynasty of Ur
• 2112-2004 BCE
• 5 kings – flourished for a century through marriage and conquest
• Were not as extensive as Akkadian
• Had tight control by rapidly expanding bureaucracy
• Obsessed with recordkeeping
• Efficient central government:
• Communication: messengers, nice road stations
• Official calendar, standardized weights and measures
• Uniform writing practices
• Fall of Dynasty:
• Nomad incursions + Elamite attack from the SE ended their reign
Early Regional Empires: Babylon
• Founded by Semitic Amorites
• Hammurabi: launched military campaigns
• Babylon becomes capital of “Old Babylonian” state
• Stretches beyond Sumer and Akkad into north and northwest
• Code of Hammurabi (18th c. BCE)
The Code of Hammurabi (P)
• Inscribed on a polished black stone pillar
• Contained lengthy set of examples illustrating principals to use in cases
• Three social divisions:
• 1. the free, land owning class
• 2. the class of dependent farmers and artisans (primary work force)
• 2. slave class –employed in domestic service
• Most offenses were met with severe physical punishments (even death)
• Mostly reserved for slave class
• Penalties depended on which class you belonged to
Trade (E)
• Conquests = need for vital resources
• Alternative to conquest = trade
• Long-distance commerce flourished in most periods
• Evidence of using boats in rivers and sea trade found in 5th millennium
BCE
• Wool, barley, vegetable oil were exported for:
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wood from Lebanon and Syria
Silver from Anatolia
Gold from Egypt
Copper from E. Mediterranean and Oman
Tin from Afghanistan
Precious stone from Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan
Trade (E)
• 3rd millennium BCE:
• Merchants are primarily employed by the palace or temple
• **these are the only two places that can finance, organize, transport and protect their
goods**
• Merchants exchanged surplus food from estates of kings or temples for raw
materials luxury goods
• 2nd millennium BCE:
• More commerce came into the hands of independent merchants
• Guilds appear = cooperative associations formed by merchants
• Items are being bartered and value is being places to fixed weights and precious
metal (silver) or measures of grain
Mesopotamian Society (S)
• Social Classes:
• Urban civilizations = social divisions
• Factors that enabled people to be wealthy:
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Rise of cities
Labor specialization
Centralized power
Use of written records
• Temple leaders, kings = controlled large agricultural estates
• Palace admin collected tax
• Elite class = a lot of land
• Soldiers and religious officers get land for their service
Slaves and Peasants (S)
• Slavery is not prevalent or fundamental to economy at this point
• Most slaves come from mountain tribes
• Captured in war
• Sold by slave traders
• Couldn’t pay their debts
• Not chained –but had a distinctive hairstyle
• Compensated with food and oil in quantities proportional to their age, gender
and tasks
• Peasants lived in homes made of mud brick and reed (not durable)
• Illiterate = no written record of their lives
• Same thing can be said about life of women, most scribes were men
• Few metal possessions
Women (S)
• After agriculture prevails H-G, women lose social standing and
freedoms
• Why were women valued in H-G societies?
• Mesopotamia relied on heavy labor for food production (done by men)
• More food = more kids  women’s job/role
• Since they were taking of kids all day, they didn’t have any specialized skills
• Could own property, maintain control of dowry, engage in trade
• Dowry: a sum of money given to the bride by her father to support her new home
• Worked outside the home: textile factories, breweries, prostitutes,
tavern keepers, bakers, fortune tellers
Women (S)
• Non-elite women stayed at home helped with
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Farming
planted vegetable gardens
cooked, cleaned
fetched water
tended the household fire
wove baskets, textiles
• Standing women steadily declines in 2nd millennium BCE
• Rise of urbanized middle class and increase in private wealth
• Laws favored men and husband rights
• Men could take a second wife if first did not produce children
• usually monogamous relationships, this changes in later Mesopotamian society
• Marriage alliances arranged between families made women instruments for increasing
family wealth
• “God’s Bride” –early example of nuns
Gods, Priests and Temples (R)
• Gods
• Sumerian gods embody religion
• Semites equated their deities to that of the Sumerians
• Same (or similar) rituals
• Anthromorphic –gods were like humans in form and conduct
• Thought gods had bodies and senses
• Sought nourishment from sacrifice
• Enjoyed worship and obedience of humanity
• Mesopotamians feared their gods—thought they were responsible for
natural disasters and wanted to make them happy
State Religion (R)
• There is record of public/state-organized religion
• Cities built temples and showed devotion to deities who protected the
community
• The temple precinct with a high wall contained the shrine of the chief
deity
• Had open air plazas, chapels for lesser gods, housing, dining facilities
• Offices for priests and other staff
• Ziggurat—a massive pyramid stepped tower made of mud bricks
• Function and symbol is unknown
Temple (R)
• god’s residence
• Cult statue inside = life force of deity
• Priests knew and met every need of the divine image
• Babylonian Creation Myth – humankind is created from the blood of a
vanquished rebel deity in order to serve gods
• Babylon = chief god = Marduk
Priests (R)
• Priesthood was hereditary (passed down to sons)
• Families lived on rations of food from deity’s estates
• Status for priests depended on where they were in the line—also in their
specialized function
• Highest priest = central acts in rituals
• Other jobs for priests
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Make music for the gods
Exorcising spirits
Interpret dreams
Examined the organs of animals (to predict the future)
Reading patterns in the rising smoke
Religion of the Common People (R)
• Do not know as much: did commoners have access to temple?
• Amulets = small charm meant to protect the bearer from evil
• Lots of evidence of amulets = widespread belief in magic
• Headaches were caused by demons
• Giving gifts to the gods gave information about the future
• Elite and commoners came together during festivals
• New Year’s Festival – spring time in Babylon (new agricultural cycle); 12 days
Technology and Science (T)
• Technology
• techne = skill or specialized knowledge
• Refers to tools and machines that humans use to manipulate the physical world
• Wheeled carts and sled like platforms dragged by cattle were used to
transport goods
• In the south—boats and barges dominated (near the river)
• In the north—donkeys were chief pack animals for overland caravans
before the the camel came around 1200BCE
• Mesopotamians imported metals—skilled in metallurgy
• Metallurgy = concerned with the properties of metals and their production and
purification
• Bronze = refining ores containing copper and alloying them with arsenic or tin
Technology and Science (T)
• Bronze was poured into molds, producing tools and weapons
• Sharper, likely to break and easily fixed
• Clay was used to make dishes and storage vessels (4000 BCE)
• Potter’s wheel: a revolving platform spun by hands or feet
• Made it possible for rapid production of vessels with precise and complex shapes
• Mud Bricks = dried in the sun/baked in the oven (more durable)
• Primary building material
• Needed practical knowledge of engineering and architecture
• RWC: reed mats that Mesopotamian builders laid between the mud-brick layers of ziggurats
served the same stabilizing purpose as girders would today.
Writing (T, A)
• Writing is a broader category of technology
• Arrived in Mesopotamia before 3300 BCE
• Originated from a system of tokens used to keep track of property
(sheep, cattle, cart wheels)
• People couldn’t keep track as wealth accumulated and commercial transactions
increased
• Eventually they just used pictures—which were written symbols
• Each symbol represented an object and could also stand for the sound of the word
for that object if the sound was part of a longer word
Writing (T, A)
• Pressing the point of a sharpened reed into a moist clay tablet
• Cuneiform (wedge-shaped)
• Years of training and practice
• Old Babylonian period—more people can read and write due to growth of private
commerc
• Writing = primary proof of legal actions
• Texts were written about political, literary, religious and scientific topic
• Cuneiform = not a language; form of writing
• Developed for Sumerian language and adapted
Warfare (P)
• Nonprofessional militias of able-bodied men
• Powerful states built up armies of well trained, well-paid, full time
soldiers.
• Early 2nd millennium BCE horses appeared in W. Asia
• Horse-drawn chariot is popular
• Chariots with a driver and archer could easily over power enemies
Math and Science
• Used a base-60 number system
• This is origin of the seconds and minutes we use today
• Advances in the mathematics and careful observation of the skies
made the Mesopotamians sophisticated astronomers.