Early Civilizations

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Early Civilizations

• Chapter 1

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History or Prehistory?

• Prehistory
• What happened prior to writing
• Oral tradition or pictograph  
• History
• Systematic record of what people have done in
  the past
• Relies on memory
•  Archeology
• Anthropology

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Spread of Homo Sapiens
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Paleolithic Age

• Appearance of first hominids to 8,000 B.C.E
• Neanderthal man
• Flourished in western Germany
• Came to an end with Homo Sapiens
• Coincided with last Ice Ages

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Neolithic Age

• Agricultural Revolution
• 7,000 B.C.E.
• Middle East
• Spread to Asia and Africa

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Changes in Lifestyle

• People settled down permanently
• Privately owned land
• Systematized regulation
• Specialization of labor
• Enlarge public role for women

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Irrigation Civilizations

• Mesopotamia
• Egypt
• India
• China

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Metal and Its Uses

• First metal used was soft copper
• Combined with lead and tin ores to form bronze
• Harder and more resistant to weather
• Difficult to obtain and expensive

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Metallic Ages

• Bronze Age
• Western Asia - 7000 B.C.E. to 1500 B.C.E.
• Ended with smelting of iron
• Iron Age
• Key metal in history
• Cheaper, lasts longer
• Iron ore one of most common ores
• By 1200 B.C.E. - Iron smelting

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The Iceman

• September 1991 - ideas about history changed
  again

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Fertile Crescent
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Mesopotamia

• land between rivers
• Eastern half of Iraq
• Sumerian Civilization (5000 B.C.E.)
• Not Semitic language family
• By 3000 B.C.E., extended rule to
  Semite-inhabited lands
• 2300 B.C.E., one rule by Sargon the Great

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Writing

• The Evolution of Writing
• Moved from pictography to using abstract marks
• Beginning of Phonetic language
• Cuneiform

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Mathematics and Medicine

• Math based on units of 60
• Basic geometry and trigonometry
• Calendar based on movement of moon
• Medicine dangerous - penalty

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Religion and Afterlife

• Religion
• Polytheistic
• Gods like super-humans
• Ziggurats
• Epic of Gilgamesh

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Law and Government

• Law and Government
• Hammurabi
• Gave code of laws
• Work survived into our time

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Successors to Sumer

• Successors after conquest of Sargon
• Long series of foreign invasions
• Akkadians
• Amorites
• Hittites
• Assyrians
• Chaldees
• Persian Empire

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Decline

• Decline of Mesopotamia
• Mesopotamia - conquest by Persians
• Not impressed by Mesopotamian culture
• Ninth century C.E. - rise of Islam
• Not until 20th century

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Egypt Uniqueness

• Possessed everything needed
• Egyptian ruling class developed superiority
  complex toward foreigners
• Isolation had drawbacks
• Not prepared when invasion did come
• Eventually a weakness lost ability to adapt

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The Pharaoh Egypts God-King

• Religious beliefs reflected environment
• 3100 B.C.E., middle and lower Nile valley came
  under one ruler
• Horus
• Pharaoh
• Government Under the Pharaoh
• Bureaucracy - noble landowners
• Hyksos
• Dynasties

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Periods

• Old Kingdom (3100-2200 B.C.E.)
• Most fertile and successful kingdom
• First Intermediate
• Middle Kingdom (2100-1650 B.C.E.)
• Country extended up the Nile to the south
• Trade became more extensive
• Second Intermediate
• New Kingdom (1550-700 B.C.E.)
• Called Empire
• Ended with arrival of Kushites, Nubians, and
  finally Persians

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Cultural Achievements

• Pyramids (2600 2100 B.C.E.)
• Enormous statues of pharaohs mastered use of
  stone
• Fresco painting, mummification, hieroglyphics

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Religion and Eternal Life

• Polytheistic 3,000 separate names for gods
• Amon Ra god of sun
• Isis goddess of the Nile
• Osiris god of the afterlife
• Horus symbol of the pharaoh
• Ptah god of all life on earth
• Ka life essence of person
• Priests played an important role in Egyptian
  culture
• Akhenaten, introduce monotheism to Egyptians (sun
  god)

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Contrasts

• Mesopotamia
• Violent change
• Crossroads
• Multi-cultural
• Cradle of later Western traditions and beliefs

• Egypt
• Stability
• Protected
• unified nation with one culture

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The Near East

• Between Nile Valley and the Sumerians
• Cultural overlap
• Contributions of civilization impressive

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Hittites

• Known but unknown
• Genesis 15 19-20  the land of the Kenites, the
  Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the
  Perizzites, the Rephaim,
• Discovered 1834 found 1906
• Indo-Europeans 1800 B.C.E - 1200 B.C.E
• Anatolia (Turkey)
• Iron smelting

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The Phoenicians

• Semitic tribe - now Lebanon
• Greatest maritime traders
• Defeated at Carthage
• Absorbed
• Phonetic alphabet

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The Hebrews

• Abraham
• By 1500s B.C.E., established in Canaan
• Exodus from Egypt
• Encountered Philistines and Canaanites
• King Davids rule

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King Solomon

• Solomon
• Revolt after his death split nation in two
• Judah- north
• Conquered by Assyria
• Israel - south
• Babylonian Captivity
• Later fell to Persia, Greece, and Rome

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Jewish Religious Belief

• Jewish Religious Belief and its Evolution
• Monotheistic
• Yahweh or Jehovah
• Distinct
• Covenant
• Formalized system of ethics

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A Changing Theology

• Concept of Yahweh changed
• Only god and universal god
• A just god
• Omnipotent and omniscient
• Personal deity
• Messiah or redeemer
• Zealots

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The Assyrian Empire

• Entered history around 900 B.C.E.
• Northern Iraq
• Chief town Nineveh
• Militarily talented - influenced art
• Experts in siege warfare
• Mass exportation of conquered peoples
• Destroyed in 612 by Chaldees

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The Persians

• Present day Iran
• Migrated from central Asia into Iran
• Learned basics of agriculture
• World empire

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The Persian Empire

• The Persian Empire
• United under Cyrus the Great
• By 525, extended from India to Nile Valley
• Satrapies
• Zarathustra
• Darius I
• Introduced stable coinage system
• Mistake of challenging Greeks

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Summary

• Geography important
• Agriculture key to towns
• Conquest common
• Means to transfer culture