Transcript Ancient Civilizations

Ancient Civilizations:
Egypt and Mesopotamia
Egypt
• Geography
• 550 miles long, 15 miles
on both sides of Nile
• Nile floods once a year
leaving rich soil
• Early Government
• Needed to control
flooding and for
irrigation
• Build dams, reservoirs,
and canals
• Eventually formed two
kingdoms
• Upper and Lower Egypt
• 3100 BC Menes united
the two
• He was first Pharaoh
Egyptian Life
• Absolute Monarchy/ Theocracy
• Pharaoh was the gods’
representative on Earth
• Made laws, built canals and public
buildings, set taxes,
• Assisted by nobles and priests in a
bureaucracy
• Class System
• Nobles, Priests
• Lower classes
• Peasants and slaves
• Could not participate in
government
• Religion
• Polytheistic
• Preserved bodies with
mummification
• Pharaohs in Pyramids
Contributions of Egypt
• Architecture and Engineering
• Pyramids, temples with columns
• Art
• Cheerful and colorful frescoes,
huge statues, gold jewelry, pottery
• Hieroglyphic writing
• Began as pictographs
• First “paper” called papyrus
• Translated with Rosetta stone which
has Hieroglyphic and Greek writing
on it
• Science
• 365 day year
• Set bones, prescribed drugs,
understood much about the body
because of mummification
Mesopotamia
• The “land between the rivers”
• Also known as the Fertile Crescent
• Located between the Tigris and Euphrates
Rivers
People of Mesopotamia
• Sumerians
• Organization
• Independent city-states around
3500 BC
• ruled by a king
• often warred with each other
• Contributions
• Cuneiform writing
• Used a reed stylus on clay to
make wedge shaped symbols
• System of numbers based on 60
• We use this today with telling
time
• Architecture
• Sumerians built pyramid like
temples called Ziggurats
Babylonians
• King Hammurabi Took over Sumer around
1900 BC became Babylonian Empire
• Contributions:
• Code of Hammurabi
• One of the earliest written law codes
• “Eye for an eye” punishment
• Lower class/women punished more
severely than upper class/ men (unequal)
• Astronomy
• Believed stars affected their lives BUT
learned to predict eclipses and recognize
planets
• Religious literature
• Epic of Gilgamesh: one of the earliest
creation stories
• Describes creation of man and
woman and building an ark before a
great flood
Hebrews
• History
• 1400 BC Semitic speaking people from Arabian Desert settled in
Palestine
• Driven out of their land by Assyrians, exiled to Babylon (Persians
later allowed them back to Palestine)
• Moses led them out of slavery in Egypt, received Ten
Commandments from God
• Jewish Diaspora, driven from their homeland in exile
• Contributions
• Monotheism
• Old Testament
• High moral principles
• Ten Commandments
• “what is hateful unto thee do not do unto others”
• Covenant of Abraham
• “father” of Judaism
• Made a covenant (agreement) with God
• Hebrew will worship no other God
• Hebrews are God’s chosen people
Phoenicians
• 1200 BC, Semitic Speaking
people from North of Palestine
• Skilled shipbuilders and
navigators
• Traded throughout Mediterranean
and to Europe and Africa
• Contributions
• “Missionaries of Civilization”
• Brought Mediterranean culture and
products to less advanced regions
• Traded Purple Dye made from
crushed snail shells
• Alphabet
• Based on sound with 22 letters;
Phonetic Alphabet
• Eventually becomes the alphabet
we use
Assyrians
• 800 BC, Semitic Speaking
People from Northern
Mesopotamia
• First to have iron weapons
• siege towers, and battering
rams
• Used terror and cruelty
• Took over from Tigris to Egypt
• Contributions
• Library at Nineveh
• Remains of documents have
given us much information
about ancient Middle East
• Military roads to move troops
quickly