The Ancient

1
SOUTHWEST ASIA AND EGYPT

• The Ancient
• and
• Classical Periods

2
PERIODIZATIONS

• Ancient Period, c. 4500 1500 BCE
• Alternate name is Bronze Age
• Bronze Age replaces stone, wood, bone tools
• An age of many inventions, innovations
• Begins from the rise of the first cities
• Begins with the rise of writing, formal
  institutions
• States were small, the focus was on the local
• Minimal interactions trade, war, migrations
• Classical Period, c. 1500 BCE 500 CE
• Begins with the use of iron called the Iron Age
• Age saw the rise of the worlds core cultures
• Interactions, exchanges increased significantly
• Rise of cosmopolitan cultures across large
  regions
• Dominated by large, multi-national empires
• Society was increasingly hierarchical,
  patriarchal
• Elites were usually warrior aristocracies
• Civilization spread, diffused to a wider region

3
CYCLE OF CIVILIZATION

• Stage 1
• Nomads overrun sedentary area
• Nomads intermarry with locals
• Stage 2
• Nomadic group becomes sedentary
• Nomadic culture blends with sedentary culture
• New culture rises to greater heights
• Stage 3
• Culture begins to age, weakens
• Government less effective, corruption, high taxes
• Stage 4
• Culture overrun by new nomadic group
• The Continuity of Civilizations
• Despite new invasions, common Cuneiform
  civilization preserved
• Despite changes in Dynasties, Egyptian culture
  continued

4
THE RISES AND FALLS
5
1st STATE STRUCTURES

• Sumerian City-states
• Ruled city and immediate surrounding countryside
• Small, independent but not totally autonomous
• Local differences but much similarity
• Run originally by priests, then warrior-kings
• Aristocratic nobles assisted kings
• Akkadian Empire
• Conquest state state rose through conquest
• Tribute state
• Akkad demanded tribute
• Akkad permitted local autonomy if no revolts
• Cuneiform culture of Sumer but Semitic

6
2nd STATE STRUCTURES

• Ever larger conquest empires arose
• Egypt
• Three periods called Kingdoms
• First two periods, Old and Middle are ancient
• New Kingdom is an empire ruling into SW Asia
• Pharaoh became increasingly human
• Priests had enormous power in government
• Babylonian and Assyrian Empires
• Conquest, tribute empires
• Old Babylonian Empire Hammurabis Code
• Assyrian Empire used terror, regular army

7
CATALYSTS FOR CHANGE

• Hittites
• Indo-European Chariot people
• Settled in Anatolia around 1800 BCE
• Adopted Sumerian cuneiform culture
• Borrowed Mesopotamian gods
• Codified their laws and history
• The Hittite Empire
• Arose around 1400 BCE
• Conquered Anatolia, Upper Mesopotamia, Syria
• Disintegrated around 1180 BCE
• Numerous Neo-Hittite States
• Some Key Differences
• Introduced horses, chariots into region
• Introduced ability to work, use iron tools,
  weapons
• Their arrival begins Iron or Classical Age
• Queens and women had many rights in Hittite
  society
• Signed first historical peace treaty with Egypt
  after stalemated war

8
CLASSICAL EMPIRES
9
SOCIAL STRUCTURES

• Ruling Classes
• Aristocracy
• Royalty
• Nobility
• Priestly and Military
• Groups came out of aristocracy
• Some talented commoners
• Other Classes
• Free classes
• Merchants
• Artisans
• Intellectuals
• Peasants
• Slaves

10
GENDER STRUCTURES

• Patriarchal
• Males dominate society
• Greatest influence of male is in public arena
• Patrilocal
• After marriage, wife lives with husbands family
• Wife abandons old family for husbands family
• Polygamous
• Men could have more than one wife
• Polygamy was an elite condition
• Poor usually had one wife
• Male Roles
• Governmental and military
• Most religious roles
• Intellectual roles
• Farmers and craftsmen
• Female Roles Public vs. Private
• Women had no public role but predominates in
  raising family
• Women tended however to dominate in cloth,
  textile making

11
CULTURAL

• Religious
• Polytheism
• Previous animism replaced by written teachings
  about religion
• Development of priests, formal structures,
  architecture
• Anthropomorphism of nature
• Priests hold great power, own land, temples
• Divine Right vs. Theocracy
• Intellectual
• Cuneiform and Hieroglyphics
• Early writing was extremely complex
• Scribes or an elite class
• They alone can write
• Important to rulers, priests, merchants
• Literatures Gilgamesh, Book of the Dead
• Arts and Architecture
• Public Architecture, public art
• Both symbolized power, influence of rulers
• Also symbolized influence of a god or a state
• Art Conventions very rigid

12
TECHNOLOGY

• Man is a tool maker and user
• The ability to make and use tools
• Man innovates to meet needs, deficiencies
• Sumer is major source of first inventions
• 60 of the worlds first inventions
• From writing to wheels to numbers to sails
• Metallurgy
• Sumer arose during Ancient or Bronze Age
• Classical Age begins with the Iron Age
• Mathematics and Sciences

13
COMPARE PYRAMIDS ZIGGURATS
14
DEMOGRAPHY/ENVIRONMENT

• Man alters his environment
• More pronounced in Mesopotamia
• Environment is unpredictable, harsher
• Irrigation, dikes, dams, sluices
• Agriculture alters environment
• All societies were overwhelmingly agrarian
• Heavy agriculture increases human population
• Some crops really deplete soil
• Cities are artificial and alter environment
• Extreme concentration of humans in small space
• Wastes, diseases concentrated

15
INTERACTIONS

• Movement
• Human migration pastoralists, mass migration
• Semites Arabs, Jews, Hyksos, Phoenicians
• Hamites Kush, Axumites
• Nilo-Saharans
• Indo-Europeans Hittites, Cimmerians
• Indo-Iranians Hurrians, Medes/Persians
• Culture, social blending
• Disruptions
• War
• Interaction increases as resources scarce
• As technology improves, so does war
• Diplomacy arises as conflicts increase
• Exchanges such as Trade, Diseases
• Goods and skills exchanged
• Ideas, diseases exchanged
• Diplomacy
• 1st Treaty in history between Egypt, Hittites

16
SMALL GROUPS, BIG CONTRIBUTIONS

• Hebrews
• Origins
• Semitic pastoralists on fringes of Fertile
  Crescent
• Abraham is the patriarch or founding father
• Ethical Monotheism
• A Persons actions dictate a persons eternal
  reward
• God made a contract (covenant) with the Jews
• If the Jews would follow the code of conduct,
  they were saved
• There is only one God have no false gods before
  Me
• Phoenicians
• Semitic coastal dwellers along Lebanese mountains
• Land could not support people through agriculture
• Phoenicians become merchants, artisans Cloth,
  Dye, Metallurgy
• Created an Alphabet Aleph and Beth to improve
  communication
• Established trading colonies across Mediterranean

17
THE WORLD OF THE PHOENICIANS AND JEWS
18
AFRICAN BEGINNINGS

• Kush-Meroe
• Origins
• Afro-Asiatic peoples on Upper Nile
• Conquered by Egypt
• Late migration of Nilo-Saharans into area
• Later migration overwhelmed people
• A Kingdom
• After Old Kingdom, became independent
• Had an Egyptian culture with local variations
• Developed an iron based, gold rich trading,
  military state
• Conquered Egypt but driven out by Assyrians
• Continued to exist, trade with Persians, Greeks,
  Romans
• Eventually converted to Christianity c. 300 CE
• Axum
• The Mystery of their Origins
• Some think the culture migrated across the Red
  Sea from Yemen
• Yemeni civilizations were Semitic trading states
  active in East Africa
• Some think the culture arose independently from
  indigenous peoples
• c. 300 CE

19
BUILDINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW
Church at Lalibela, Axum
Obelisk, Axum
Pyramids of Kush-Meroe
20
WHO WERE THE NUBIANS?
Egyptian tomb Painting showing Groups living
in Region.
Pharaoh Piye of Kush After he conquered Egypt,
26th Dynasty