Chapter 1: The First Civilizations
- Civilization first appeared approximately 3500 years before the Common Era
- Common Era: period following the traditional date of the birth of Jesus
- The first human-like creatures whose remains have been discovered date back to around six and a half million years
- Varieties of the modern species of humans appeared around 100,000 years ago
- Spread across the Eurasian landmass and Africa
- Earliest humans: Neanderthals
- Some historians believe that the Paleolithic era was a peaceful golden age in which women had a dominant role in social organizations despite having no evidence backing their claim
- Culture was increasingly determinant in human life during upper Paleolithic era
- (ca. 35,000-10,000 B.C.E..)
- Paleolithic people developed speech, religion, and artistic expression
- Abstract and symbolic thought was represented by wall paintings, small clay and stone figurines of women, and decorated stone and bone tools
- Hunters might have painted images of animals to make sure such species would be plentiful
- Figurines of women might reflect concern about human and animal fertility
- Sedentarization and the agricultural revolution were fundamental changes in human culture
- Began independently
- Continued for roughly 5000 years
- Broad-Spectrum Gathering
- People stayed put and exploited the seasonal sources of food instead of constantly traveling in search of food
- Fish, wild grains, fruits, and game
- People in the Jericho community built and rebuilt their mud brick and stone huts over generations
- It is unknown why settlement lead to agriculture which was riskier than hunting and gathering
- Specialization in few species of plants or animals could lead to starvation due to severe weather or diseases
- Infant mortality decreased and life expectancy rose in settled communities
- Young and old members of the tribe or community were useful with simple agriculture tasks
- Population growth put pressure on the local food supply
- Gathering activities demanded formal coordination and organization
- Led to the development of political leadership
- Leadership and perception of safety prevented the traditional breaking away to form other similar communities
- Settlement started to encourage cultivation of plants and domestication of animals
- Plants: barley and lentils
- Animals: pigs, sheep, and goats
- Expansion of food supply allowed for development of sedentary communities
- The people of the Neolithic era (New Stone Age) organized sizable villages
- Agriculture was portable
- In large communities, bonds of kinship that united small hunter-gatherer bands were supplemented by religious organizations
- Helped control and regulate social behavior
- Innovations such as the chariot were used for transport and aggressive warfare
- Symbolic of the culture of the early civilizations (first civilizations in western Eurasia)
- Upland regions of the north received the most rainfall
- Rainfall is nonexistent in the south
- Survival in region needed planning and mobilization of manpower which was possible through centralization
- Driven by need, a new civilization was created
- Small settlements became common
- Towns such as Eridu and Uruk, in what is today Iraq
- Cities supplemented their resources by raiding their more prosperous neighbors
- Populations of the towns rose
- Men and Women developed new technologies and new social and political structures in cities
- Created cultural traditions like writing and literature
- Epic of Gilgamesh (first great heroic poem, composed before 2000 B.C.)
- Archaeologists uncovered remains of the ramparts of Uruk
- Stretch over five miles
- Protected by 900 semicircular towers
- Surpassed the great medieval walls of Paris in size and complexity, built 4000 years later
- Protective walls enclosed around two square miles of houses, palaces, workshops, and temples
- A true urban environment with first city being Uruk
- Urban immigration increased the power, wealth, and status of two groups
- First group were religious authorities responsible for the temples
- Second group was the emerging military and administrative elites
- The decision to enter the city wasn’t always voluntary and was usually forced by the ruling classes
- Mesopotamians formed a highly stratified society
- Various groups shared unequally in the benefits of civilizations
- Slaves were the primary victims of civilization (prisoners of war)
- Peasants lived little better lives than slaves with them having lost their freedom to the religious or military elite
- Soldiers, merchants, and workers and artisans who served the temple or palace were better off
- Net level in hierarchy were the landowning ree persons
- Avoe all of these were the priests
- Kings were powerful and feared; seen as representatives of the Gods
- Urban life redefined the role and status of women who had had roughly the same roles and status as men in the Neolithic period
- Women exercised private authority over children and servants within the household in the cities
- Men controlled the household and dealt with the wider world
- Trade networks were extended into Syria, the Arabian Peninsula, and India for metal and stone
- The pattern of patriarchal households predominated by 1500 B.C.E.
- Public control of the house, family, city, and state was largely in male hands
- Major technological and conceptual discoveries took place due to the need to feed, clothe, protect,and govern growing urban populations
- The greatest invention of the early cities was probably writing
- By 3500 B.C.E. government and temple administrators used simplified drawings
- Pictograms
- Thousands of pictograms survived in the ruins of Mesopotamian cities
- The first tablets were written in Sumerian
- Each pictogram represented a single sound which corresponded to a single object or idea
- Pictograms developed into a true system of writing
- The writing took on its characteristic wedge (cuneiform)
- Scribes began to use cuneiform characters to represent concepts
- Such developments were revolutionary
- Scribes used the same symbols to write in Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, and Persian
- Tablets were later used to preserve contracts, maintain administrative records, and record significant events, prayers, myths, and proverbs
- Writing allowed for those who mastered it to achieve greater centralization and control of the government
- Reinforced memory, consolidating, and expanding the achievements of the first civilizations and transporting them to the future
- Writing was power
- Writing served to increase the strength of the king in Mesopotamia
- Mesopotamian gods had the physical appearance and personalities of humans and human virtues and vices
- Great gods included Nanna and Ufu who were protectors of Ur and Sippar
- The gods of the sky, the air, and the rivers were at the top of the pantheon
- Mesopotamians believed that the role of mortals was to serve the gods and feed them through sacrifice
- They assumed that the gods lived in a structured world that operated rationally
- The king was the ruler and highest judge as the was the representative of the city’s god
- King’s held privileges and responsibilities appropriate to his position
- Responsible for the construction and maintenance of religious buildings and the complex system of canals
- Commanded the army
- The rulers of Ur, Lagash, Uruk, and Umma fought amongst themselves for control of Sumer from 3000 B.C.E. until 2300 B.C.E.
- Sargon, King of Akkad was the most important figure in Mesoptamian history
- Built on conquests and confederacies of the past to unite, transform, and expand Mesoptamian civilization
- Son of a priestess
- Conquered Ur, Lagash, and Umma
- Spread the achievements of Sumerian civilization
- From 2000 B.C.E. on, the political and economic centers of Mesopotamia were in Babylonia and Assyria
- Hammurabi expanded his state through arms and diplomacy
- Expanded his power south as far as uruka nd north as far as Assyria
- The king was responsible for regulating all aspects of Babylonian life
- Dowries, contracts, agricultural prices, wages commercy, money lending, and professional standards for physicians and architects
- Each social group had its own rights and obligations in proportion to its status
- Husbands ruled their households but didn't’ have unlimited authority over their wives
- Women could initiate their own court cases, practice trades, and hold public positions
- The Law Code held veterinarians, architects, physicians, and boat builders to the standards of professional behavior
- Babylonians developed the most sophisticated mathematical system known prior to the 15th century C.E. to handle the economics of business and government administration
- Hammurabi’s kingdom fell to the Hittites
- An Indo-European people, speaking a language that was a part of linguistic family that included most modern European languages
- Near the Mediterranean in Lower Egypt, the Nile spread across a mashy delta more than 100 miles wide
- The earliest sedentary communities in Nile Valley appeared on the western margin of the Nile Delta around 4000 B.C.E.
- Ancient Egyptian history is divided into 31 dynasties, regrouped in turn into 4 periods of political centralization
- Pre and Early dynastic Egypt (ca. 3150-2770 B.C.E.)
- The Old Kingdom (ca. 2770-2200 B.C.E.)
- The Middle Kingdom (ca. 2050-1786 B.C.E.)
- The New Kingdom (ca. 1560-1087 B.C.E.)
- Time gaps between the periods were full of disruption and political confusion called intermediate periods
- Divine kingship was the cornerstone of Egyptian life
- Initially, the King was an incarnation of Hours (sky and falcon god)
- Later, the king was identified with the sun god Ra and Osiris the god of the dead
- The King was obliged above all else to care for his people
- The King’s commands preserved maat which was the ideal state of the universe and society (condition of harmony and justice)
- The Kings of the Old Kingdom were divine administrators
- Women of ancient Egypt were more independent and more involved in public life when compared with those of Mesopotamia
- Egyptian women owned property, entered legal contracts, conducted their own business, and brought lawsuits
- Had an integral part in religious rights
- Weren’t segregated from men in their daily activities
- Shared in the economic and professional life of the country except for them being excluded from education
- The role of bureaucracy was ato administer estates, channel revenues and labor towards vast public works projects, and administer estates
- King Zoser, founder of the Old Kingdom built the first of the pyramid temples
- Egypt’s material and human resources were transformed and focused due to building and equipping the pyramids
- Artisans were trained
- Engineering and transportation conflicts solved
- Quarrying and stone-working techniques perfected
- Laborers recruited
- More than 70,000 workers from the Old Kingdom were employed in building the great temple-tombs
- Feeding the pyramid laborers drained most of the country’s agricultural surplus
- All resources of the kingdom went to regulating existing cults and establishing new ones
- All wealth, labor, and expertise was spent on the temples, reinforcing hethe position of the king
- The absolute power of the king declined
- Demand for consumption by court and cults forced agricultural expansion into areas with poor returns (decreased flow of wealth)
- Egyptian royal authority collapsed entirely by around 2200 B.C.E.
- Foreigners along with Egyptians benefited from the greater access to power and privilege in the Middle Kingdom
- Hyksos adopted the traditions of Egyptian kingship and continued the tradition of divine rule
- Hyksos kings introduced military technology and organization into Egypt
- Egyptian military tactics were transformed
- Ahmose I forged an empire
- Him and his successors extend the frontiers of Egypt with their newfound military
- Despite Hatshepsut and her successors’ attempts, the Egyptian Empire was never as grand as its kings claimed it to be
- Expanded political frontiers meant increased trade and interaction with the rest of the ancient world
- Religion was the heart of royal power and the the only limiting force
- Amenhotep IV was the most controversial ruler of the New Kingdom
- Attempted to abolish the cult of Amen-Ra along with all the other traditional gods, priesthoods, and their festivals
- Moved his capital from Thebes to Akhetaten
- Changed his own name to Akhenaten
- Akenaten temporarily transformed the aesthetic of Egyptian court life while trying to reestablish royal divinity
- Akenaten could command acceptance of his radical break with Egyptian stability
- His innovations annoyed Egyptian elites
- Dynastic continuity ended after Tutankhamen
- New military dynasty seized throne
- Internal issues allowed Hittites to expand south at Egypt’s expense
- Sargon’s Semitic Akkadians and hammurabi’s Amorites created Mesopotamian states
- Adopted the ancient Sumerican cultural traditions
- Majority of Semitic people lived a life radically different from those of the floodplain civilizations
- After 2000 B.C.E. small Semitic bands spread into what is today Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine
- Done under patriarchal chieftains
- Lived on the edge of civilization
- Occasionally participated in the trade that united Mesopotamia and the towns of the Mediterranean coast
- Hebrew history recorded Msopotamian traditions as the stories of the flood, legal traditions strongly reminiscent of those of Hammurabi, and the worship of gods in high places
- Women were treated as distinct inferiors (basically as property) in Abramhams’ clan
- A small band of Smitic slaves left Egypt for Sinai and Canaan in the thirteenth century B.C.E.
- Exodus
- Became the formative experience of the descendants who had taken apart and those later joined them
- Hebrew tradition of Exodus embodied two themes
- Israelites swept into Canaan, took advantage of the vacuum of power left by the Hittite-Egyptian standoff and then destroyed or captured the cities of the region
- Some local populations welcomed the Israelites
- In some places indigenous people were slaughtered
- Israel was a loosely organized confederation of tribes during its first centuries
- Focal point was religious shrine at Shiloh
- Shrine housed only a chest known as the Ark of Covenant which contained law of Moses and mementos of the Exodus
- Isrealites’ disorganized political tradition placed them at a disadvantage when fighting their neighbors
- Philistines defeated Israelites
- Captured Ark of Covenant
- Occupied most of their territory
- Isrealite religious leaders reluctantly established a kingdom to consolidate their forces
- First king was Saul and second was David
- Religious leaders known as prophets called upon rulers and people to reform their lives and return to Yahweh
- Some prophets were killed
- Established a tradition of religious opposition to royal absolutism
- United Kingdom did not survive Solomon’s death
- Northern region broke off to become the kingdom of Israel
- Starting in the 9th century B.C.E. a new Mesoptamian power (Assyrians) began a campaign of conquest and unprecedented brutality
- Hebrew Kingdoms were one of many victims
- Assyrians destroyed kingdom of Israel and deportant thousands of its people to upper Mesopotamia
- Isaelites replaced temple worship with study of the Toray during their exile
- Yahweh was understood to not be just one god among many but the one universal God, creator, and ruler of the universe
- Peresians allowed people of Judah to return to their homeland and rebuild their temple
- The hope for a Davidic messiah was more universal
- Assyrian state that destroyed Israel tied together the floodplain civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt
- Assyrian Empire was an integrated state
- Conquered regions were reorganized and remade on the model of the central government
- Assyrian plain north of Babyloniah ad been the site of a small Mesopotamian state threatened by semi-nomads and great powers like the Babyylonains and later the Hittites
- Early expansion gave rise to internal revolt and external threats
- Revolt made way for ascension of Tiglath-pilser III (greatest empire builder of Mesopotamia since Sargon)
- Tiglath-pilser and successors transformed structure of Assyrian state and expanded its empire
- Created model for empire that would later be copied by Persi and macedonia
- Theirs was the first true empire
- Combined all traditional elements of Mesopotamian statecraft with new religious ideology and social system to create framework for lasting multiethnic imperial system
- Created most developed military-religious ideology of any ancient people
- Restructured his empire
- Deported and resettled separatist movements
- Maintained control of conquered people through policy of unprecedented cruelty and brutality
- Imperial military and administrative system created by Assyrians became blueprint for future empires
- Hatred of system inspired brutality that lead to destruction of Assyrian Empire
- Babylonians joined forces with the Medes to attack and destroy nineveh
- Babylonians modeled their imperial system on that of their predecessors (Assyrians)
- Persian conquers were a lasting power in the Fertile Crescent
- Indo-European Persians and the Medes settled in Iranian plateau late in the second millennium
- Initially dominated by Assyrian rulers seeking military support
- Medes became major power in region after helping defeat Assyrians
- Zoroastriansim was a powerful element in Persian civilization
- Monoestheistic religion founded by Zoroaster
- Center of faith as worship of Ahura Mazda (“Lord of Wisdom”) from whom all good things in the universe derive
- Taxes extracted from far-flung Persian territories were relatively light
- Persians normally protected local customs, religion, and society
- Legacy of first 3000 years of civilization is more than a tradition of imperial conquest, exploitation, and cruelty
- Said legacy includes basic structure of Western civilization
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