The Ancient Near East: The First Civilizations

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Chapter 1 The Ancient Near East The First
Civilizations
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The Spread of Homo sapiens sapiens 1. It is
estimated that the earth is as much as six
billion years old. Creatures like human beings
appeared in the last three to five million years.
The earliest of these, called hominids, lived in
Africa. Known as Australopithecines, these first
hominids lived in East and South Africa. Unlike
other animals, the hominids were capable of
passing from one generation to the next a
culture. 2. About 1.5 million years ago the
second stage of human development occurred with
the appearance of Homo erectus ("upright human
beings"). These hominids used more sophisticated
tools than Australopithecines and were the first
to leave Africa and move into both Europe and
Asia. Being nomadic, they followed animal
migrations and vegetation cycles. 3. The use
of fire as a source of heat and light in caves
and a means to cook began about 500,000 years
ago. 4. Homo sapiens ("wise human being") made
their appearance about 250,000 years ago. By
about 100,000 B.C. there had developed two groups
of Homo sapiens -- Neanderthal and Homo sapiens
sapiens ("wise, wise human beings"). Remains of
the Neanderthal (first found in the Neander
Valley in Germany) have been discovered in both
Europe and the Middle East. This specie has been
dated between 100,000 and 30,000 B.C. They
relied on a variety stone tools and in Europe,
Neanderthals buried their dead. Neanderthals
also made clothes from the skins of animals
killed for food. Homo sapiens sapiens, on the
other hand, appeared in Africa between 200,000
and 150,000 years ago. About 100,000 B.C., they
began migrating out of Africa. By 30,000 B.C.
the Homo sapiens sapiens had displaced the
Neanderthals who became extinct. Interbreeding
between the two races may have occurred. 5. The
spread of Homo sapiens sapiens was a very slow
process with people in small bands of twenty or
thirty people advancing beyond their old hunting
grounds at a rate of two or three miles per
generation. What drove these people to migrate
is unknown but two factors may have been that of
seeking a more certain food supply and pressure
from competing groups for the same resource area,
the loser moving on. Over tens of thousands of
years these mobile Homo sapiens sapiens came to
populate the world. By 10,000 B.C. the process
was completed. 6. The last stage of world
occupation by Homo Sapiens Sapiens came about
15,000 years ago when Asians made their way into
North America. Driven by a search for a greater
food supply or perhaps pursued by other groups,
the first occupants crossed by way of Beringia
connecting Siberia and America. This bridge may
have been either land as a consequence of lower
sea levels or ice due to the ice age.
Questions 1. How did the hominids develop and
spread to populate the world? 2. What
distinguished the various hominids?

• The Spread of Homo Sapiens Sapiens

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• The First Humans
• Australopithecines, c. 2-4 million years ago
• East and South Africa
• Homo erectus, c. 100,000-1.5 million years ago
• upright human being
• Europe and Asia
• Homo sapiens (wise human being)
• Neanderthal, c. 100,000-30,000 B.C.
• Neander valley of Germany, Europe and Middle East
• Homo sapiens sapiens, c. 200,000 B.C.
• wise, wise human being
• Africa

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The Development of Agriculture 1. Throughout
early hominid development, the people were
hunters, fishers, and gatherers, but not
producers of food. The division of labor was
according to gender. Men were the hunters,
fishers, tool and weapon makers, and warriors.
Women, less mobile due to childbearing and
accompanying responsibilities, smaller in
stature, and with less strength, gathered nuts,
berries, wove baskets, and made clothing. It was
in their capacity as gatherers that women
probably discovered how to plant and care for
seeds. 2. The Age of Agriculture, during the
Neolithic (New Stone) Revolution, began
following the end of the last ice age around
10,000 B.C.E. and would last to about 4000 B.C.E.
The shift to agriculture was slow and probably
lasted from about 10,000-7000 B.C.E.
Accompanying the domestication of grains was also
the gradual domestication of many animals such as
dogs, pigs, cows, goats and sheep. 3. Between
8000 and 7000 B.C.E. agriculture appeared
independently in five different areas the Near
East about 8000 B.C.E. in China, Africa, and
Mesoamerica about 4000 B.C.E. and in India by at
least 3600 B.C.E. In the Near East the
revolution was centered on wheat, barley, and
lentils. Wheat was also the standard in India.
Millet and rice were cultivated in southern Asia
and China. In Mesoamerica, beans, potatoes, and
corn were domesticated. Millet and yams were key
in western Africa. 4. The growing of crops led
to the establishment of permanent settlements.
One of the oldest known agricultural villages was
Jericho in Palestine dating from about 8000
B.C.E. By 3000 B.C.E. when writing was invented,
there were urban civilizations in the valleys of
the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Mesopotamia,
the Nile River in Egypt, the Indus River Valley
in India, and the Yellow River basin of China.
The Mesoamerican urban civilizations would
develop in the first millennium
C.E. Questions 1. Examine the transition from
hunting-gathering to agriculture. 2. Why was
there a sexual division and labor and what were
the consequences of this?

• The Development of Agriculture

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• The Hunter-Gatherers of the Old Stone Age
• Paleolithic Age, c. 2,500,000-10,000 B.C.
• Nomadic people
• Division of labor
• Fire, 500,000 years ago
• Cave Paintings
• The Agricultural Revolution (c. 10,000-4000
  B.C.E.)
• Neolithic (New Stone)Revolution
• Mesolithic (Middle Stone) Age (c. 10,000-7000
  B.C.)
• Independent development, 8000-7000 B.C.
• Near East wheat, barley , lentils
• Southern Asia rice, millet
• Western Africa millet, yams
• Middle America beans, potatoes, corn

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• Middle East, 8000 B.C.E.
• Jericho
• Turkey
• Çatul Hüyük, 6700-5700 B.C.
• Villages and towns
• Division of labor
• Writing
• Metalworking
• Copper
• Copper tin bronze, 3000-1200 B.C.
• Iron

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The Ancient Near East 1.
Protoneolithic culture developed independently in
northern Syria and the Jordan Valley at Jericho
near the Dead Sea in Palestine. Existing as early
as by 8000 B.C.E., Jericho covered several acres
by 7000 B.C.E. Massive fortified walls 6 feet 6
inches at the base and at some places 20 feet
high surrounded the city. Enclosed within the
wall were the houses of the two thousand
inhabitants. In the north on the central plateau
of Asia Minor above the Taurus Mountains was the
Neolithic town of Çatal Hüyük which covered about
thirty-two acres and housed about six thousand
inhabitants living in one story mud-brick houses
built around inner courtyards. Reaching its
zenith between 6700 and 5700 B.C.E., the
community apparently grew wealthy due to trade in
obsidian that was used in jewelry, mirrors, or
knives. With adequate rainfall and both plants
and animals to domesticate, agriculture
apparently began in these plains rather than the
river valleys. 2. The headwaters of the Tigris
and Euphrates Rivers are found in the mountains
of Armenia (modern Turkey). The land between the
two rivers is a rolling plateau broken by
limestone suitable for pasturage. Beyond the
Tigris are wooded hills and fertile, well-watered
valleys. The Euphrates flows over a course of
about 1675 miles while the Tigris winds for
almost 1150 miles and joins the Euphrates about
120 miles from the Persian Gulf at the Shatt
al-Arab. Subject to rains, tributaries, and the
melting snow in the Zagros Mountains between
April and May, the two rivers irregularly flood
leaving deposits of rich alluvial silt in the
swamps of the delta. Such conditions fostered
the necessity for water management through
irrigation and drainage canals. This required
both population concentrations (cities) and
organizational and bureaucratic controls. One of
the earliest cities was Uruk near the Euphrates.
It occupied an area of about a thousand acres and
was surrounded by a six-mile long wall with
defensive towers every thirty to thirty-five
feet. The housing consisted of both the flats of
peasants and larger dwellings of civil and
religious officials. 3. Overland trade routes in
Mesopotamia usually followed the Euphrates
because the banks of the Tigris are frequently
steep and difficult. The excellent location of
Babylon allowed it to dominate the trade of
Mesopotamia. Merchants followed the Tigris north
to the lands of Assyria and Armenia while the
Euphrates led northwest to Syria, Palestine, and
the Mediterranean. 4. The early residents of
Mesopotamia, the Sumerians, arrived at the mouths
of the Tigris and Euphrates around 4000 B.C.E.
and by 3000 B.C.E. had created a number of
independent city-states, most notably Ur, Uruk,
and Lagash. Vulnerable due to the ease of
invasion from the north and constant warring over
land and water rights, Semites from Akkad
conquered the area. By 1700 B.C.E., the Sumerian
element was completely submerged due to the union
of Mesopotamia by the Amorite (Semite) Hammurabi
(1792-1750 B.C.E.) of Babylon. 5. The Hittites,
Indo-Europeans, arrived in Asia Minor about 2700
B.C.E. By about 1750 B.C.E. the Hittite Empire
had extended itself to Babylon where the dynasty
of Hammurabi was extinguished. Hittite strength
came from being the first in the Near East to
master the technology of smelting iron. This
gave them both a military and commercial
advantage. The empire disappeared about 1200
B.C.E. in part due to the attack of marauders
called the "Sea People." Question 1. What
physical and geographical characteristics might
affect development of organized society?

• The Ancient Near East

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• Emergence of Civilization
• Characteristics of Civilization
• Urbanization
• Religious structure
• Governmental bureaucracy
• Military structure
• Social structure based on economics
• Materialism
• Writing

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• Civilization in Mesopotamia
• The City States of Ancient Mesopotamia
• Eridu, Ur, Uruk, Umma, Lagash
• Ziggurat
• Theocracy
• Sumerian city-states, c. 3000-2350 B.C.
• Wheel
• Social groups
• nobles
• commoners
• slaves

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• Empires in Ancient Mesopotamia
• Early Dynastic Age, 3000-2340 B.C.
• Akkadian Empire, c. 2340-2100 B.C.
• Sargon
• Third Dynasty of Ur, c. 2112-2000 B.C.
• Amorites (Old Babylonians)
• Code of Hammurabi

• 282 laws
• Principle of retribution
• Consumer protection
• Slavery
• Commerce and trade
• Women

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• Culture of Mesopotamia
• Religion
• Ziggurat
• Epic of Gilgamesh
• Writing
• Cuneiform (wedged shaped)
• Literature
• Epic of Gilgamesh
• Uruk
• Enkidu
• Utnapishtim
• Mathematics and Astronomy
• Base of 6 and 10
• Geometry
• Calendar 12 months

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Ancient Egypt 1. The Nile River flows north
almost 4200 miles from its southernmost source in
modern-day Burundi in central Africa. In ancient
times, the arable portion of the Nile Valley
extended about 800 miles upriver from the mouth.
The river floods every spring from about June to
the end of October over a narrow strip of land
that is never more than thirteen miles wide.
Catch basins built by the Egyptians trapped water
over the soil that allowed the salt to settle.
Because the color of the soil left by the
flooding Nile is black, Egyptians called their
country Kemet which means black. 2. At the Nile
Delta about one hundred miles from the
Mediterranean Sea, the river splits into a number
of branches that flow to the sea. This
territory, north of Memphis, is called Lower
Egypt while the land upstream to the south along
a narrow ten to twenty mile wide valley, is
referred to as Upper Egypt. Like the delta of
the Tigris and Euphrates, engineering works were
required to make full use of the waters. Unlike
the Tigris and Euphrates that required large
population centers to help control the
unpredictable rivers, massive intervention was
not needed. For this reason, the population
remained rural. 3. Granite and sandstone for
building were mined near the First Cataract.
Minerals came from the hills and deserts to the
east. Nevertheless, Egypt lacked copper and
timber that were acquired from Sinai and
Palestine. The Nile Delta was the source of salt
for Egypt 4. The Nile was reflected in the
Egyptian creation myth which declared that before
creation there was a watery void and then, just
as the Nile recedes leaving little hillocks of
mud, the primeval watery void subsided leaving an
island hillock upon which sat the creator-god
Atum who brought into existence all other beings
and phenomena of the universe. (John A. Wilson,
The Culture of Ancient Egypt, p. 59) 5. For
administrative purposes, the Old Kingdom was
divided into twenty-two provinces in Upper Egypt
and twenty in Lower. After 2000 B.C.E., most
pharaohs made Thebes their capital. The temples
to Amon and tombs of the pharaohs and their
queens were built into cliffs at nearby
Luxor. 6. South of the delta is Memphis, the
capital of the Old Kingdom (2700-2200 B.C.E.).
North of the capital is Djoser's Pyramid, the
first pyramid to be built, and Giza where the
Great Pyramid and the Sphinx are located. These
pyramids served as burial places for the pharaohs
of the Old Kingdom. The largest of the pyramids
is Khufu (Cheops) dating from about 2540 B.C.E.
Standing 481 feet high and 756 feet on each side,
it covers thirteen acres and is composed of 2.3
million stone blocks averaging 2.5 tons each.
The pyramid was covered with limestone blocks
(subsequently removed for building Cairo). The
four sides coincided closely to the four points
of the compass. 7. During a religious struggle
in which the worship of Aton was introduced and
the temples of rival gods were closed, Amenhotep
IV or Akhnaton (1367-1350 B.C.E.) sought to
lessen the power of the priesthood of Amon-Re at
the capital of Thebes by moving the center of
government two hundred miles north to Akhetaton
(near modern Tell-el-Amarna) where an immense
temple to Aton was built. Questions 1. What
impact did the Nile have upon Egyptian
civilization? 2. Describe how the physical
environment of Mesopotamia and Egypt differed and
the manner in which this might contribute to the
emergence of different civilizations.

• Ancient Egypt

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• Egyptian Civilization The Gift of the Nile
• Nile River
• Old and Middle Kingdom
• Upper and Lower Egypt united, 3100 B.C.E.
• Old Kingdom, 2700-2200 B.C.E.
• Divine kingship
• Maat
• Administration
• Middle Kingdom, 2050-1650 B.C.E.
• Intermediate Period of Chaos, c. 2200-2050 B.C.
• Pharaoes

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• Culture of Egypt
• Spiritual life in Egyptian Society
• Religion
• Osiris and Seth
• Book of the Dead
• The pyramids
• First pyramid, King Dyoser
• King Snefru
• Great Pyramid
• Art and writing
• Hieroglyphs

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• Chaos and a New Order New Kingdom, 1567-1085
  B.C.
• Intermediate Period, c. 1652-1567 B.C.
• Hyksos
• Bronze Age
• New Kingdom
• Tutmosis III, c. 1480-c. 1450
• Amenhotep III, c. 1412-1375 B.C.
• Amenhotep IV (Akhnaton), c. 1364-1347 B.C.
• Tutankamon, 1347-1338 B.C.
• Ramesses II, c. 1279-1213 B.C.
• Daily Life in Ancient Egypt
• Women
• Hatshepsut
• Children