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Ancient History
Near East
Iron Age
1200BCE
Urban
Revolution
3500BCE
Bronze Age
Classical Age
600BCE
Innovative Sites
of the Near East
Ancient Sumer
Ancient Egypt
What physical features had the most
significant impact on the development
of Mesopotamia?
• Tigris & Euphrates Rivers (alluvial plain-silt,
destructive flooding)
• Plain of Shinar (farming, ease of movement)
What other features, with less significance, may
have eventually influenced Mesopotamia?
•Mediterranean Sea
•Red Sea
•Persian Gulf
•Arabian Desert
Metallurgy
Bronze
• Iron
• 3000 BC-2500 BC
• stronger and more
durable metal than
copper
• mixing copper with tin,
creates bronze.
• Originated in Fertile
Crescent
•
•
•
•
1200 BC
replaced bronze making
Iron is harder than bronze
techniques spread
outward from Asia Minor
to West Asia, Europe,
and Africa
Sumerian Life
Royal Tombs of Ur
Uruk Period: 3500BC
•First City-State
•Organized around temple (ziggurat)
Patron God/Goddess
•Growth in Population and
Nucleation (clustering)
(50,000 people by 3100BC)
•Increased Complexity among institutions…
Sumerian Development
Consider…
Irrigation
Demography
Technology
Economic Organization
Writing
Secularization of Government
Social Organization
Irrigation
Small
irregular
locally
managed
networks
Consolidation into a
few large
networks, each
centrally
coordinated by a
city-state
Technology
Slow potters
wheel
Standardized
vessel shape
Copper
metallurgy
Utilitarian
metallurgy to
include Bronze
Tools &
weapons
Metals used in
Elite Burials
Social Organization
Nobles (administrators,
priests, merchants)
Commoners (Landless
peasants, artisans,
slaves)
Fluidity among lower 3
groups
Royal Cemetery of Ur
Distinctions dramatic
between Nobles and
commoners
Economic Organization
Temple
Economy
Standardized
volumes
Increased
specialization
Increased Trade
Wood Utilitarian
and precious
stones &
metals
imported
Grain & textiles
exported
Deals with
economic
accounts:
List of workers,
goods, receipts,
etc.
Pictographs,
ideographs
Stylus
Writing
Cylinder seals noneconomic matters
Cuneiform Tablets
deal with
economic and
non-economic
matters
Religion, Politics,
etc.
Secularization
Competition
Kings – lugal
Elected &
temporary
Lugal becomes
permanent
Steward of the
gods
At the expense of
priesthood
How would you
summarize the
important
developments and
legacy of the
Sumerians?
Ancient Egypt
Innovative site
Africa’s cradle of civilization
Size & Demography
Pre-dynastic: 500,000 people
(cities @ 15,000)
New Kingdom: 5 Million?
(cities @ 100,000s)
No more than 15 miles on each side of
Nile
Total sq miles: 14,000
(no larger than Estonia)
Cities
42 Nomes or Sepat
Patron God/Goddess
Nomarch
Directed irrigation, administration
Most people lived in surrounding
countryside, not city
Specialized function (temple,
protection) - interdependence
Pharaoh
No concept of ‘state’, instead…
Identification with Pharaoh as
divine, in charge of all aspects of
civilization (military, religion, etc)
Developed bureaucracy (vizier,
nomarchs)
Hereditary succession (dynasty)
Some Famous Egyptian Pharaohs
Narmer Palette (Narmer or Menes)
Amenhotep, or
Akhenaten
Henotheism or Monotheism?
Some Famous Egyptian Pharaohs
Hatshepsut
Tutankhamon
1479 to 1458 BC
1336-1327 B. C. E.
Ramses II
1279-1212 B. C. E.
Chronology & Dating
Kingdom: periods of relative stability and central rule of Pharaoh
Intermediate: periods of instability, lack of strong central authority
and/or invasions
Proto-dynastic – Unification (Menes or Narmer?)
Old Kingdom- 2600BC – 2150BC capital @ Memphis
Middle Kingdom 2100 -1640 (Hyksos Invasion)
New Kingdom 1570 – 1293 capital @ Thebes
Religion
Polytheistic, anthropomorphic
Creation stories - Mythology
Afterlife, Mummification,
Temples, Cults
Pharaoh as protector of Ma’at
concept of order, harmony
Egyptian Gods & Goddesses
Osiris
Isis
Horus
Amun Re
Fusion of
Horus and
Amun -Re
Aten heresy
Egyptian Book of the Dead
Famous Pyramids
@ Dahshur Necropolis
Giza Necropolis
Plan of the Great Pyramid
of Khufu
Preparation for
the Afterlife
Mummification
Egyptian Mummies
Seti I
1291-1278 B. C. E.
Queen Tiye,
wife of
Amenhotep II
1210-1200 B. C. E.
Ramses II
1279-1212 B. C. E.
Temple Complex at Karnak
Writing
Hieroglyphics
(‘sacred’ ‘signs’ – ancient Greek)
3100BC: 1st signs of written language
(appeared on ivory, clay vessels)
Cartouche
Hieratic (sacred writing – developed along side hieroglyph)
By 7th Century BCE : Demotic
Papyrus
Egyptian Scribe
Papyrus  Paper
Hieratic Scroll
Piece
Papyrus Plant
Champollion & the Rosetta
Stone
hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek
Written in 196 B.C.E.
Egyptian Nobility
Social Order
•Limited social mobility was possible
•Slavery was a product of debt or capture during
war, not race
•All Egyptians — from pharaohs to farmers — gave
gifts to the gods.
Hesire,
Chief of Doctors
at the court of the
Pharoah Djoser.
Scenes of Ancient Egyptian
Daily Life
the Arts
Frontalism
Symbolism
Many Genres: painting, sculpture, pottery,
jewelry, architecture ,music
Many purposes: panegyric poems and monuments
to glorify their pharaoh - songs and music for workers and
farmers for daily life
Book of the Dead
Instructions from the Vizier Ptahotep
Egyptian Woman
Mirror
Perfume
Whigs
Comparison/Contrast
What are the similarities between
the innovative sites of Sumer
and Egypt?
What are the differences between
the innovative sites of Sumer
and Egypt?
How would you
summarize the
important
developments
and legacy of
the Egyptians?