Transcript Topic3PP - swofford.org

UNIT 1: Foundations
8000 B.C.E.–600 C.E.
Topic 3
Basic features of early
civilizations in different
environments: culture, state, and
social structure
Activator
• Complete the SPRITE worksheet on the
earliest civilizations.
Mesopotamia
Culture
 Independent innovation that passed to Egypt/Indus
4000 BCE bronze, copper
Wheel, irrigation canals
3500 Sumerians – cuneiform – first writing – stylus – objects > sounds
Number system – 60 – movement of heavenly bodies
 navigation
 time
 Architecture – ziggurats – 1) glory of civilization, 2) many
gods
Clay primary building material
 First epic – Epic of Gilgamesh – 1) great flood story
King’s quest to achieve immortality
 great traders
State
• Unpredictable flooding – need for government – irrigation
• City-states – controlled city + surrounding area
• Geography – lack of natural barriers – invasion – defensive
walls
• Conflicts over water/property rights
• Akkadians/Babylonians – spread Sumerian culture
– Code of Hammurabi – first written law code
• Different rules for gender/social classes
• Very harsh, favored upper class
• Systematic, consistent set of regulations, not arbitrary will of a ruler
• After 900 BCE –Assyrians and Persians ruled
• king-like figure – lugal “big man”
Social Sturcture
• Ruled by elite, rulers, priests
• Farmed by slaves – could purchase freedom
• Patriarchal – men could sell wives/children to
pay debts
– 1600 BCE women wearing veils
– But…women could gain power courts, priestesses,
scribes, small business
Egypt
Culture
• 3000 BCE – Nile River
• pharaoh – pyramids – tombs for self/families
– Decorated w/ colorful paintings
• polytheists – afterlife > mummification
– Egyptian Book of the Dead – what happened to soul, how to reach happy
– afterlife > mummification and tombs
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bronze tools weapons after Mesopotamia
Kush – independent innovation iron – spread to Egypt
some trade w/ Kush and Mesopotamia
hieroglyphics – from trade contacts Mesopotamia
– papyrus – paper making
• geography – protected – could create unique civilization
• less urban than Mesopotamians
• 365 day calendar, medicine, math, astronomy
State
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Nile overflowed annually – predictable
irrigation led to organization/government
agricultural villages engaged in trade
pharaoh – king – power
– living incarnation of sun god
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geography – protected from invading people
beginning 3100 when Menes unites Upper and Lower Egypt
2040-1640 BCE Middle Kingdom – culturally dynamic
New Kingdom – 1500 – regained from foreign invaders Hyksos –
focused on military
• by 900 in control of foreign invaders – internal disorder, invasions
Social Structure
• Social classes, but commoners could enter
government service – rise in social status
• Patriarchal, but women had some privileges
– Women sometimes acted as regents for young rulers,
priestesses, scribes
– managed household finances/education of children
– right to divorce husbands/alimony
– could own property
– Queen Hatshepsut
Indus – 2500 BCE Indus River - Pakistan
Culture
Streets laid out in precise grid – houses had
running water/sewage
Harappan writing not deciphered – much
unclear
active trade w/ Indus valley and Sumer – ores
from one place found in others
blend of Aryans and Indus valley people
affected future course of history
quite large – size of France/urbanized
State
unpredictable flooding
Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro
Because of similarities of cities, tightly unified,
centrally controlled
Overtaken by Indo-Europeans – Aryans
Already dying out – 1) river change or 2)
earthquake, 3) erosion of soil 4) salt in wells
whole societies – all over – Harappa and
Mohenjo-Daro only tip, last
Social Structure
little known – Dravidians relatively egalitarian
not as patriarchal
Aryans – based it on color – Varnu
Aryans eventually control politically, but
Dravidians would win out culturally
Shang – most isolated – Huange He valley –
Yellow River – “China’s Sorrow”
Culture
 Isolated by deserts, mountains, and seas –
unpredictable flooding
Still some trade w/ Southwest Asia and South Asia
 Shang Dynasty (1766-1122 left written records)
Knowledge of bronze metallurgy – from Southwest Asia
Strengthened Shang war machine
1000 BCE Ironworking
Fortune telling and ancestor worship started here
 Palaces/tombs built for emperors
 Writing – oracle bones
Oracle scratch person’s question on bone/shell – heat it
Resulting cracks read to learn message from gods
State
 Dynasties
 Central rule to oversee irrigation/flood-control projects
 Walled cities – center of cultural, military, economic – set
precedent in villages
 Zhou replaced Shang – “mandate of heaven” – if leader
governed wisely and fairly, he could claim right to divine
rule
Warrior aristocracy
fought northern/western neighbors – barbarians – expanded empire
 Tradition of central authority
 Began as small agricultural cities along Yellow River
Social Structure
Stratified – ruling elites, artisans, peasants,
slaves
Patriarchal – father needs to know children
are his
Subservient
multiple marriages
preference for sons - infanticide
ancestor worship
Matrilineal society before Shang
Mesoamerica and Andean South
Culture
 lacked knowledge of wheel
 Olmecs/Maya – pyramids/temples
 Polytheistic
 Cultural diffusion – maize, terraced pyramids
 Calendars
 Ball game on a court
 Quetzalcoatl – god who would return to rule world in peace
 Mayan reached height in 300 CE
 system of writing – pictographs
 value of zero
 astronomy – predicted eclipses
 length of year within a few seconds
State
small city-states – ruled by kings – fought
against each other
Prisoners of war – slaves/sacrifices to gods
lack of pack animals/geography prevented
communication
Inhabitants cooperated for irrigation systems
Rugged terrain of Andes prevented central
gov’t from organizing
Social Structure
• Elite class of rulers/priests vs. commoners and slaves
Geography
not in valleys of major rivers
smaller rivers/streams near oceans
no large animals/beasts of burden – llama
biggest animal – human labor
Questions to Ponder
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Importance of bronze? Iron?
Reasons why cities are important to civilization?
How was Sumeria politically organized?
What event/happening do most historians begin the history of Egypt?
On what did Egyptian civilization depend?
How did ancient Egypt civilization and the Mesopotamian civilization
resemble each other? How did they differ?
What major similarities did the four great river systems have in common?
Where are they? What differences do they have?
Major characteristics of the Shang dynasty?
What was the longest Chinese dynasty and what were the factors for its
longevity?
What were the major civilizations in Classical Mesoamerica? Major
reasons why pastorialism did not develop in the Americas?