Ancient Civilizations

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Ancient Civilizations

• Ancient World History
• Mr. Reams

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ASSYRIANS

• After 800 B.C. the Semitic-speaking Assyrians
  from northern Mesopotamia embarked on a policy of
  expansion. Having learned from the Hittites, the
  Assyrians were the first to outfit armies
  entirely with iron weapons.
• To besiege cities, they devised new military
  equipment - moveable towers and battering rams.
  For 500 years they terrorized the region, earning
  a lasting reputation as one of the most warlike
  people in history.
• Assyrian Bull

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Assyrian Brutality

• The Assyrians terrorized their enemies by
  deliberately employing cruelty and violence. They
  also employed terror in ruling their subject
  peoples - ruthlessly suppressing rebellions and
  deporting rebellious populations from their
  homelands. Assyrian rulers even boasted of their
  brutal treatment of the peoples they conquered.

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Assyrians
               

• Despite their brutality, Assyrian rulers
  encouraged a well-ordered society with their
  capital at Nineveh. They were the first rulers
• to develop extensive laws regulating life within
  the royal household. Riches from trade and war
  loot paid for the splendid palaces in
  well-planned cities. The women of the palace,
  though, were confined in secluded quarters and
  had to be veiled when they appeared in public.

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Other Assyrian Contributions

• 1. Government. The Assyrians a) divided their
  empire into provinces, each administered by a
  governor responsible to the all-powerful king,
  and b) built military roads to move troops
  quickly to any part of the empire.

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The Library

• At Nineveh, King Assurbanipal founded one of the
  first libraries. He ordered his scribes to
  collect cuneiform tablets from all over the
  Fertile Crescent. Those tablets have given modern
  scholars a wealth of information about the
  ancient Middle East.

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The End of Assyrian Days

• In 612 B.C., shortly after Assurbanipal's death,
  neighboring people joined forces to crush the
  once-dreaded Assyrian armies. King Nebuchadnezzar
  revived the power of Babylon and created a new
  Babylonian Empire referred to as the Chaldean
  Empire.

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PHOENICIANS
                              

• From 1200 to 800 B.C. the Semitic-speaking
  Phoenicians lived and prospered on the
  Mediterranean coast north of Palestine.
• Chief cities Tyre and Sidon.
• They gained fame as sailors and traders. They
  occupied a string of cities along the
  Mediterranean coast, in what is today Lebanon and
  Syria.

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Phoenicians (cont.)

                                                            
                         

• Contributions to Civilization Manufacturing and
  trade. The coastal land, though narrow, was
  fertile and supported farming. Still, the
  resourceful Phoenicians became best known for
  manufacturing and trade.
• They made glass from coastal sand.
• From a tiny sea snail, they produced a widely
  admired purple dye, called "Tyrian purple" after
  the city of Tyre, which became their trademark.
  It became the favorite color of royalty.

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Phoenicians (cont)

• Phoenicians also used papyrus from Egypt to make
  scrolls, or rolls of paper, for books.
• The words Bible and bibliography come from the
  Phoenician city of Byblos.
• Phoenicians traded with people all around the
  Mediterranean Sea. To promote trade, they set up
  colonies from North Africa to Sicily and Spain.

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Phoenicians

• Missionaries of Civilization. Due to their
  sailing skills, the Phoenicians served as
  missionaries of civilization, bringing eastern
  Mediterranean products and culture to less
  advanced peoples. A few Phoenician traders braved
  the stormy Atlantic and sailed as far as England.
  There, they exchanged goods from the
  Mediterranean for tin.
• About 600 B.C., one Phoenician expedition may
  have sailed down the Red Sea and then followed
  the African coast around the southern tip. That
  historic voyage was forgotten for centuries. (In
  the late 1400's, Europeans claimed to be the
  first to round the southern tip of Africa.)

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Phoenicians

• The Alphabet. As merchants, the Phoenicians
  needed a simple alphabet to ease the burden of
  keeping records. They therefore replaced the
  cumbersome cuneiform alphabet of 550 characters
  with a phonetic alphabet, based on distinct
  sounds, consisting of 22 letters. After further
  alterations by the Greeks and Romans, this
  alphabet became the one we use today!

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Persians

• The Persians created an empire, the largest yet
  seen in the ancient world, extending 3,000 miles.
  The empire flourished for 200 years. Persia is
  located in present-day Iran.

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Persians

• In 539 B.C., Babylon fell to the Persian armies
  of Cyrus the Great. Cyrus and his successors went
  on to conquer the largest empire yet seen. The
  Persians eventually controlled a wide sweep of
  territory from Asia Minor to India, including
  what is today Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Afghanistan,
  and Pakistan.

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Persians

• In general, the Persians were tolerant of the
  people they conquered. They respected the customs
  and religious traditions of the diverse groups in
  their empire.

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Persians

• The real unification of the Persian empire was
  accomplished under the Persian emperor Darius,
  who ruled from 522 B.C. to 486 B.C. A skilled
  organizer, Darius set up a government that became
  a model for later rulers. He divided the Persian
  empire into provinces, each headed by a governor
  called a satrap. Each satrapy, or province, had
  to pay taxes based on its resources and wealth.
  Special officials, "the Eyes and Ears of the
  King," visited each province to check on the
  satraps.

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Persians

• Like Hammurabi, Darius adapted laws from the
  people he conquered and drew up a single code of
  laws for the empire.
• To encourage unity, he had hundreds of miles of
  roads built or repaired. Roads made it easier to
  communicate with different parts of the empire.
• Darius himself kept moving from one royal capital
  to another. In each, he celebrated important
  festivals and was seen by the people.

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Persian Economy

• To improve trade, Darius set up a common set of
  weights measures. He also encouraged the use of
  coins, which the Lydians of Asia Minor had first
  introduced. Most people continued to be part of
  the barter economy, exchanging one set of goods
  or services for another.
• Coins, however, brought merchants and traders
  into an early form of a money economy, replacing
  barter with the exchange of money. By setting up
  a single Persian coinage, Darius created economic
  links among his far-flung subjects.

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Religion

• Religious beliefs put forward by the Persian
  thinker Zoroaster
• (soh roh AS tuhr) also helped to unite the
  empire. Zoroaster lived about 600 B.C. He
  rejected the old Persian gods. Instead, he taught
  that a single wise god, Ahura Mazda, ruled the
  world. Zoroaster taught that
• a) Ahura-Mazda was constantly fighting Ahriman,
  the spirit of darkness and evil.
• b) Those supporting Ahura-Mazda by living
  virtuously will reach heaven those following
  Ahriman will be punished in hell.
• c) Goodness will eventually prevail, and the
  world will achieve eternal peace.
• Zoroaster's teachings form the basis of the
  Persian Bible, the Avesta or Zend-Avesta. Two
  later religions that emerged in the Middle East,
  Christianity and Islam, stressed similar ideas
  about heaven, hell, and a final judgement day.

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Hebrews

• The Hebrews were among the many peoples who
  occupied the Fertile Crescent. Living at the
  crossroad of civilization, they came into contact
  with many people and ideas. Over time, the
  Hebrews developed their own ideas, which
  reflected a blend of many traditions.
• The early Hebrews came to believe that God was
  taking a hand in their history. As a result, they
  recorded events and laws in the Torah their most
  sacred text. Like many Mesopotamian peoples, the
  Hebrews told of a great flood that devastated the
  land. They believed that God had sent the flood
  to punish the wicked.

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A nomadic people

• According to the Torah, the Hebrews had lived
  near Ur in Mesopotamia. About 2000 B.C., they
  migrated, herding their flocks of sheep and goats
  into a region known as Canaan (later called
  Palestine).
• The Book of Genesis tells that around 1800 B.C. a
  famine in Canaan forced many Hebrews to migrate
  to Egypt. There, they were eventually enslaved.
  In time, Moses, the adopted son of the pharaoh's
  daughter, led the Hebrews in their escape, or
  exodus, from Egypt. For 40 years, the Hebrews
  wandered in the Sinai Peninsula. After Moses
  died, they entered Canaan and defeated the people
  there, claiming for themselves the land they
  believed God had promised them.

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The kingdom of Israel.

• By 1000 B.C., the Hebrews had set up the kingdom
  of Israel. Among the most skillful rulers of
  Israel were David and Solomon. According to
  Hebrew tradition, David was a humble shepherd who
  defeated a huge Philistine warrior, Goliath.
  Later, David became a strong, shrewd king who
  united the feuding Hebrew tribes into a single
  nation.
• David's son, Solomon, turned Jerusalem into an
  impressive capital. He built a splendid temple
  dedicated to God, as well as an enormous palace
  for himself. King Solomon won praise for his
  wisdom and understanding. He also tried to
  increase Israel's influence by negotiating with
  powerful empires in Egypt and Mesopotamia.

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Division and Conquest

• The kingdom of Israel paid heavy price for
  Solomon's ambitions. His building projects
  required such heavy taxes and so much forced
  labor that revolts erupted soon after his death
  about 930 B.C. The kingdom then split into Israel
  in the north and Judah in the south.
• Weakened by this division, the Hebrews could not
  fight off invading armies. In 722 B.C., Israel
  fell to the Assyrians. In 586 B.C., the
  Babylonian armies captured Judah. King
  Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the great temple in
  Jerusalem and forced many Hebrews into exile in
  Babylon. During their captivity, the Hebrews
  became known as the Jews.
• Years later, when the Persia ruler Cyrus
  conquered Babylon, he released the Jews from
  captivity. Many Jews returned to Palestine, where
  they rebuilt King Solomon's temple in Jerusalem.
  Yet, like other small groups in the region, they
  continued to live under a series of foreign
  rulers, including Persians, Greeks, and Romans

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Religious Beliefs

• In time, Hebrew beliefs evolved into the religion
  we know today as Judaism. Judaism differed in
  fundamental ways from the beliefs of nearby
  peoples

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Belief in one true God.

• Judaism was monotheistic, teaching a belief in
  one God. At the time, most other people
  worshipped many gods goddesses. A few religious
  leaders, like Zoroaster in Persia and the
  Egyptian ruler Akhenaton, believed in a powerful
  diety. However, their ideas did not have the
  world-wide impact that Hebrew beliefs did.
• The ancient Hebrews prayed to God to save them
  from their enemies. Many other ancient people had
  also turned to particular gods or goddesses as
  their special protectors. But they thought of
  such gods as tied to certain places or people.
  The Hebrews believed in an all-knowing,
  all-powerful, male God who was present
  everywhere.

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A chosen people

• Jews believed that God had made a covenant, or
  binding agreement, with Abraham. As a result,
  Jews considered themselves to be God's "chosen
  people." Moses later renewed this covenant. He
  told the Hebrews that God would lead them to
  Canaan, the "promised land," in exchange for
  their faithful obedience.

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The Ten Commandments

• At the heart of Judaism are the Ten Commandments,
  laws that Jews believed God gave them through
  Moses. The laws set out both religious duties
  toward God and rules for moral conduct toward
  other people.

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Other Laws

• The Torah set out many other laws. Some dealt
  with everday matters such as cleanliness and food
  preparation. Others were criminal laws. Like
  Hammurabi's Code, many Hebrew laws required an
  eye for an eye. At the same time, preachers
  called on leaders to enforce laws with justice
  and mercy.
• Some laws were meant to protect women. The Ten
  Commandments, for example, made respect for
  mothers a basic law. Still, as in many other
  religions, most laws treated women as subordinate
  to men. The male head of a family owned his wife,
  or wives, and his children. A father could sell
  his daughters into marriage, and only a husband
  had the right to seek a divorce.
• Early in Hebrew history, a few women leaders,
  such as the judge Deborah, won honor and respect.
  Later on, however, women were not allowed to
  participate in many religious ceremonies.

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Justice and morality

• Often in Jewish history, prophets, or spiritual
  leaders, emerged to interpret God's will. The
  prophets warned that failure to obey God's law
  would lead their people to disaster.
• Prophets preached a strong code of ethics, or
  moral standards of behavior. They urged both
  personal morality and social justice, calling on
  the rich and powerful to protect the poor and
  weak. All people, they said, were equal before
  God. Unlike many ancient societies where the
  ruler was seen as a god, Jews saw their leaders
  as fully human and bound to obey God's law.

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Scattering of a Civilization

• Almost 2,000 years ago, many Jews were forced to
  leave their homeland in Palestine. This diaspora,
  or scattering of people, sent Jews to different
  parts of the world. Wherever they settled, Jews
  maintained their identity as a people by living
  in close-knit communities and obeying their
  religious laws and traditions. These traditions
  set Jews apart from other people. Yet they also
  helped them survive centuries of persecution.