Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Greater Iran wikipedia , lookup
Black Egyptian hypothesis wikipedia , lookup
Post-classical history wikipedia , lookup
Afrocentrism wikipedia , lookup
Universal history wikipedia , lookup
Civilization wikipedia , lookup
Ancient Egyptian race controversy wikipedia , lookup
Cradle of civilization wikipedia , lookup
Pre-Columbian era wikipedia , lookup
History of the Americas wikipedia , lookup
History of the world wikipedia , lookup
M. Cistaro 4/4/16 ANCIENT NEAR EAST Near East • The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: – Mesopotamia (modern Iraq, southeast Turkey, southwest Iran, northeastern Syria and Kuwait) – Ancient Egypt – Ancient Iran (Elam, Media, Parthia and Persia) – Anatolia/Asia Minor and Armenian Highlands (Turkey's Eastern Anatolia Region, Armenia, northwestern Iran, southern Georgia, and western Azerbaijan) – Levant (modern Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, and Jordan) – Cyprus – Arabian Peninsula. ANCIENT NEAR EAST ANCIENT NEAR EAST - Terms • “Fertile Crescent” • “Cradle of Civilization” • Cuneiform • Ziggurat • Epic of Gilgamesh ANCIENT NEAR EAST - Terms • “Fertile Crescent” – A crescent-shaped region containing the comparatively moist and fertile land of otherwise arid and semi-arid Western Asia, the Nile Valley and Nile Delta. • “Cradle of Civilization” – A term referring to locations where, according to current archaeological data, civilization is understood to have emerged. • Cuneiform – Cuneiform script is one of the earliest systems of writing, distinguished by its wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets, made by means of a blunt reed for a stylus. The name cuneiform itself simply means "wedge shaped", from the Latin cuneus "wedge" and forma "shape." • Ziggurat – Ziggurats ("to build on a raised area") were massive structures built in the ancient Mesopotamian valley and western Iranian plateau, having the form of a terraced step pyramid of successively receding stories or levels. – Notable ziggurats include the Great Ziggurat of Ur near Nasiriyah, Iraq; the Ziggurat of Aqar Quf near Baghdad, Iraq; the now destroyed Etemenanki in Babylon. • Epic of Gilgamesh – The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia. Dating from the Third Dynasty of Ur (circa 2100 BC), it is often regarded as the earliest surviving great work of literature. ANCIENT NEAR EAST - Terms ANCIENT NEAR EAST - Terms • “Fertile Crescent” – A crescent-shaped region containing the comparatively moist and fertile land of otherwise arid and semi-arid Western Asia, the Nile Valley and Nile Delta. • “Cradle of Civilization” – A term referring to locations where, according to current archaeological data, civilization is understood to have emerged. • Cuneiform – Cuneiform script is one of the earliest systems of writing, distinguished by its wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets, made by means of a blunt reed for a stylus. The name cuneiform itself simply means "wedge shaped", from the Latin cuneus "wedge" and forma "shape." • Ziggurat – Ziggurats ("to build on a raised area") were massive structures built in the ancient Mesopotamian valley and western Iranian plateau, having the form of a terraced step pyramid of successively receding stories or levels. – Notable ziggurats include the Great Ziggurat of Ur near Nasiriyah, Iraq; the Ziggurat of Aqar Quf near Baghdad, Iraq; the now destroyed Etemenanki in Babylon. • Epic of Gilgamesh – The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia. Dating from the Third Dynasty of Ur (circa 2100 BC), it is often regarded as the earliest surviving great work of literature. ANCIENT NEAR EAST - Terms ANCIENT NEAR EAST - Terms • “Fertile Crescent” – A crescent-shaped region containing the comparatively moist and fertile land of otherwise arid and semi-arid Western Asia, the Nile Valley and Nile Delta. • “Cradle of Civilization” – A term referring to locations where, according to current archaeological data, civilization is understood to have emerged. • Cuneiform – Cuneiform script is one of the earliest systems of writing, distinguished by its wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets, made by means of a blunt reed for a stylus. The name cuneiform itself simply means "wedge shaped", from the Latin cuneus "wedge" and forma "shape." • Ziggurat – Ziggurats ("to build on a raised area") were massive structures built in the ancient Mesopotamian valley and western Iranian plateau, having the form of a terraced step pyramid of successively receding stories or levels. – Notable ziggurats include the Great Ziggurat of Ur near Nasiriyah, Iraq; the Ziggurat of Aqar Quf near Baghdad, Iraq; the now destroyed Etemenanki in Babylon. • Epic of Gilgamesh – The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia. Dating from the Third Dynasty of Ur (circa 2100 BC), it is often regarded as the earliest surviving great work of literature. ANCIENT NEAR EAST - Terms HERODOTUS & Significance • According to Herodotus, at the top of each ziggurat was a shrine, although none of these shrines have survived. • One practical function of the ziggurats was a high place on which the priests could escape rising water that annually inundated lowlands and occasionally flooded for hundreds of miles, for example the 1967 flood. • Another practical function of the ziggurat was for security. Since the shrine was accessible only by way of three stairways, a small number of guards could prevent nonpriests from spying on the rituals at the shrine on top of the ziggurat, such as initiation rituals such as the Eleusinian mysteries, cooking of sacrificial food and burning of carcasses of sacrificial animals. • Each ziggurat was part of a temple complex that included a courtyard, storage rooms, bathrooms, and living quarters, around which a city was built. CAD rendering of Sialk's largest ziggurat based on archeological evidence. ANCIENT NEAR EAST - Terms • “Fertile Crescent” – A crescent-shaped region containing the comparatively moist and fertile land of otherwise arid and semi-arid Western Asia, the Nile Valley and Nile Delta. • “Cradle of Civilization” – A term referring to locations where, according to current archaeological data, civilization is understood to have emerged. • Cuneiform – Cuneiform script is one of the earliest systems of writing, distinguished by its wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets, made by means of a blunt reed for a stylus. The name cuneiform itself simply means "wedge shaped", from the Latin cuneus "wedge" and forma "shape." • Ziggurat – Ziggurats ("to build on a raised area") were massive structures built in the ancient Mesopotamian valley and western Iranian plateau, having the form of a terraced step pyramid of successively receding stories or levels. – Notable ziggurats include the Great Ziggurat of Ur near Nasiriyah, Iraq; the Ziggurat of Aqar Quf near Baghdad, Iraq; the now destroyed Etemenanki in Babylon. • Epic of Gilgamesh – The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia. Dating from the Third Dynasty of Ur (circa 2100 BC), it is often regarded as the earliest surviving great work of literature. ANCIENT NEAR EAST • • • • • • Summary Political Evolution Religion Culture Technological Developments BIG IDEAS Overview – What’s Going On? • • • • • • • • • • • • • 5000 BC Wheel and Plow invented 4000-3000 BC Egyptian Priests invent writing 3000 BC Stonehenge erected 3000 BC Bronze Age begins 3100 BC Cuneiform writing invented 1867 BC Babylon founded by Amorite dynasty 1700 BC Windmills invented for irrigation purposes 1600-1360 BC Egypt dominates the region of Canaan and Syria 1250 BC Hebrews establish a kingdom in Palestine 1200-1050 BC Collapse of the Bronze Age 1041 BC Jerusalem designated the capital of the Kingdom of Israel 1000 BC Iron Age begins 600 BC Babylon conquered; Cyrus the Great creates the Persian Empire Overview – What’s Going On? Specifically in the Ancient Near East? • Broad overview • Specifics for exam Overview – What’s Going On? Specifically in the Ancient Near East? • The history of the ancient Near East begins with the rise of Sumer in ~4000 BC. • The date it ends varies: the term covers the Bronze Age and the Iron Age in the region until either the conquest by the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BC or that by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC. • I’ll split the difference and say ~500 BC. Overview – What’s Going On? Specifically in the Ancient Near East? • It was here that intensive year-round agriculture was first practiced, leading to the rise of the first dense urban settlements and the development of many familiar institutions of civilization, such as social stratification, centralized government and empires, organized religion and organized warfare. • It also saw the creation of the first writing system and law codes, early advances that laid the foundations of astronomy and mathematics, and the invention of the wheel. • During the period states became increasingly large, until by the end the region was controlled by military empires who had conquered a number of different cultures. 3500 BC 3500 BC • Farming has been established for thousands of years in the Middle East, and in the river valleys of ancient Mesopotamia the first true civilization in world history of mankind is appearing, that of the Sumerians. • The Sumerians live in large communities of many thousands of people - the first cities. Along with many other advances they are developing the techniques of writing, on which most future human progress will depend. • A second civilization is also beginning to emerge, that of Ancient Egypt in the Nile Valley. 2500 BC 2500 BC • In the previous thousand years, the influence of Mesopotamian civilization has spread far and wide, carried by the trade networks radiating outwards from the Sumerian cities. Towns and cities are now scattered over a large part of the Middle East, with outlying regions such as Asia Minor and Iran being drawn into the orbit of urban civilization. • The second great civilization of the ancient world is now well established. Situated in the Nile valley, Egypt has already produced some of the most famous structures in all history, the great Pyramids of Giza. 1500 BC 1500 BC • The past thousand years have seen many upheavals in the Middle East, particularly in Mesopotamia and surrounding regions. Tribes from the fringes of the old civilizations have come in to create new states and empires: the Hittite, Mitanni and Babylonian empires are ruled by Indo-European speakers from the north and east. These states are joined by the New Kingdom of Egypt to form the leading powers of the region. • These centralized states are home to highly sophisticated - and already ancient - civilizations, with a complex commercial life, bureaucracies, and well-organized armies based on a new technology, the chariot. The struggles between them dominate the history of the Middle Eastern world at this period. 1000 BC 1000 BC • Over the past 500 years, great changes have wracked the Middle East. The old powers of the ancient Middle East - Egypt, the Hittites, Assyria and Babylon - have all been devastated by invaders from outside their borders. The eclipse of these states has allowed new peoples, particularly the Phoenicians and Israelites, to come to the fore. Their achievements will have an enduring impact on world history. • Several major advances in civilization have taken place in region in recent centuries. Firstly, iron has come into widespread use, probably starting somewhere in Asia Minor. Secondly, the alphabet has been developed, again probably in Asia Minor but soon to be spread by Phoenician merchants around the Mediterranean and Middle East. A third occurrence of world significance is the appearance of the monotheism, carried into history by the Israelite tribes. Finally, the camel has been domesticated recently. This tough animal is helping new trade routes across the Arabian desert to come into use. 1000 BC 1000 BC • Hittites, Assyria and Babylon - have all been devastated by invaders from outside their borders. The eclipse of these states has allowed new peoples, particularly the Phoenicians and Israelites, to come to the fore. Their achievements will have an enduring impact on world history. • Several major advances in civilization have taken place in region in recent centuries. Firstly, iron has come into widespread use, probably starting somewhere in Asia Minor. Secondly, the alphabet has been developed, again probably in Asia Minor but soon to be spread by Phoenician merchants around the Mediterranean and Middle East. A third occurrence of world significance is the appearance of the monotheism, carried into history by the Israelite tribes. Finally, the camel has been domesticated recently. This tough animal is helping new trade routes across the Arabian desert to come into use. 500 BC 500 BC • The history of the Middle East over the past 500 years or so has been one of imperial powers following one another in succession: first the Assyrians, then the Babylonians and Medes, and now the Persian empire, the largest state in the history of the Ancient World. This now covers the entire region and beyond. The Lydians, Phrygians and Ionian Greeks of Asia Minor, the Phoenicians and Jews (newly restored to their homeland) of Syria and the Levant, the Egyptians, the Babylonians of Mesopotamia, and the different Iranian peoples, are now all under one regime. • This succession of great empires – and the policy that the Assyrians and Babylonians pursued of re-settling conquered peoples in scattered groups throughout their territories - has resulted in the upheaval of populations on a vast scale. As a result, old languages have vanished and Aramaean has become the lingua-franca of the region. With its simple-to-learn alphabet, this has greatly stimulated international trade and inter-regional communications. Linguistics • Note: Mr. C loves linguistics. • It is useful to map out when things change. • I like to think of it as fingerprinting or dating layers of dirt in the ground in order to figure out how old something is or when a certain event happened. • You can use linguistics a lot in History, and I will. ANE - Political Evolution • Sumer, located in southern Mesopotamia, is the earliest known civilization in the world. • It lasted from the first settlement of Eridu (late 6000’s BC) until the rise of… • The Akkadian Empire, founded by Sargon the Great, lasted from the 24th to the 21st century BC, and was regarded by many as the world's first Empire. The Akkadians eventually fragmented into Assyria and Babylonia. • Assyria (late 3000’s BC) and Babylon (early 2000’s BC) ANE - Political Evolution Sumer: 4100–2900 BC • By the late 4th millennium BC, Sumer was divided into about a dozen independent citystates, which were divided by canals and boundary stones. • Each was centered on a temple dedicated to the particular patron god or goddess of the city and ruled over by a priestly governor (ensi) or by a king (lugal) who was intimately tied to the city's religious rites. ANE - Political Evolution Sumer: 4100–2900 BC ANE - Political Evolution Akkadian: 2270–2083 BC • The Akkadian Empire was the first ancient Semitic empire of Mesopotamia, centered in the city of Akkad and its surrounding region, also called Akkad in ancient Mesopotamia. • The empire united all the indigenous Akkadianspeaking Semites and the Sumerian speakers for the first time under one rule. The Akkadian Empire controlled Mesopotamia, the Levant, and parts of Iran, sending military expeditions as far south as Oman. ANE - Political Evolution Akkadian: 2270–2083 BC • The Akkadian government formed a "classical standard" with which all future Mesopotamian states compared themselves. • It is the first Mesopotamian “empire”. • The empire was bound together by roads, along which there was a regular postal service. • Clay seals that took the place of stamps bear the names of Sargon and his son. ANE - Political Evolution Akkadian: 2270–2083 BC • Starting in 2800 BC we see Akkadian used in texts. • Upon Sargon rising to power Akkadian becomes the dominant language (c. 2270–2215 BC), but even then most administrative tablets continued to be written in Sumerian, the language used by the scribes. • Akkadian and Sumerian coexisted as vernacular languages for about one thousand years, but by around 1800 BC, Sumerian was becoming more of a literary language familiar mainly only to scholars and scribes. ANE - Political Evolution Akkadian: 2270–2083 BC Map of Iraq showing important sites that were occupied by the Akkadian Empire. ANE - Political Evolution Akkadian: 2270–2083 BC • After the fall of the Akkadian Empire, the Akkadian people of Mesopotamia eventually coalesced into two major Akkadian speaking nations: Assyria in the north, and, a few centuries later, Babylonia in the south. ANE - Political Evolution Assyrian: 2025–1393 BC • Assyria became a regionally powerful nation in the Old Assyrian Empire from the late 21st century to the mid 18th century BC. • Following this, it found itself under short periods of Babylonian and Mitanni-Hurrian rule in the 18th and 15th centuries BC respectively. • From the mid 18th century BC, Assyria came into conflict with the newly created city state of Babylon. ANE - Political Evolution Babylonia: 1894–1595 BC • By the late 4th millennium BC, Sumer was divided into about a dozen independent citystates, which were divided by canals and boundary stones. • Each was centered on a temple dedicated to the particular patron god or goddess of the city and ruled over by a priestly governor (ensi) or by a king (lugal) who was intimately tied to the city's religious rites. ANE - Political Evolution Babylonia: 1792–1750 BC • Hammurabi conducted major building work in Babylon, expanding it from a small town into a great city worthy of kingship. • He was a very efficient ruler, establishing a bureaucracy, with taxation and centralized government. ANE - Political Evolution Babylonia: 1792–1750 BC ANE - Political Evolution Babylonia: 1792–1750 BC • The armies of Babylonia under Hammurabi were well-disciplined. • The conquests of Hammurabi gave the region stability after turbulent times and coalesced the patchwork of states of southern and central Mesopotamia into one single nation, and it is only from the time of Hammurabi that southern Mesopotamia came to be known historically as Babylonia. ANE - Political Evolution Babylonia: 1792–1750 BC • Hammurabi’s greatest achievement is probably his codex. • These codes were based on Sumer, but also were improved too. • See SOURCE BOOK for reading on the Code of Hammurabi. ANE - Political Evolution Babylonia: 1792–1750 BC • Dating back to about 1754 BC, it is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world. • The sixth Babylonian king, Hammurabi, enacted the code, and partial copies exist on a seven and a half foot stone stele and various clay tablets. • The code consists of 282 laws, with scaled punishments, adjusting "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" (lex talionis) as graded depending on social status, of slave versus free man. ANE - Political Evolution Babylonia: 1792–1750 BC • In 1901, a copy of the Code of Hammurabi was discovered on a stele by J. De Morgan and V. Scheil at Susa, where it had later been taken as plunder. That copy is now in the Louvre. • PERSONAL OBSERVATION: If it can be picked up and stolen, it will often end up in the Louvre. For all their talk, France loves to plunder art from antiquity, but so does England. ANE - Religion • Ancient civilizations in the Near East were deeply influenced by their spiritual beliefs, which generally did not distinguish between heaven and Earth. • They believed that divine action influenced all mundane matters, and also believed in divination (ability to predict the future). • Omens were often inscribed in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, as were records of major events ANE - Religion • The religions of the ancient Near East were mostly polytheistic. • There are broad practices that these religions often hold in common: – Purification and cleansing rituals – Sacrifices (plant and animal sacrifice, libations, rarely, but prominently in mythology, human sacrifice) – Polytheism (Though Egypt and Greece were Henotheistic societies) – State (city-state)–sponsored religions (theocracy) – Sacred prostitution – Divination – Magic (invocations, conjuring, and talismans) ANE - Religion • Identification of the Gods and Goddesses with heavenly bodies—planets and stars, besides Sun and Moon—and to assigning the seats of all the deities in the Heavens is found in AssyroBabylonian religion. • The personification of the Sun and the Moon— was the first step. • This eventuially led to identifying the planet Venus with Ishtar, Jupiter with Marduk, Mars with Nergal, Mercury with Nabu, and Saturn with Ninurta. ANE - Religion ANE - Culture ANE - Culture ANE - Technological Developments • You need to remember (you will see this later in Greece and Rome) technology, and inventions will often rely on the geographical area. • In Babylonia, an abundance of clay, and lack of stone, led to greater use of mudbrick; Babylonian temples were massive structures of crude brick, supported by buttresses, the rain being carried off by drains. ANE - Technological Developments • One such drain at Ur was made of lead. The use of brick led to the early development of the pilaster and column, and of frescoes and enameled tiles. • The walls were brilliantly colored, and sometimes plated with zinc or gold, as well as with tiles. • Painted terra-cotta cones for torches were also embedded in the plaster. ANE - Technological Developments • Tablets dating back to the Old Babylonian period document the application of mathematics to the variation in the length of daylight over a solar year. • Centuries of Babylonian observations of celestial phenomena are recorded in the series of cuneiform tablets known as the 'Enūma Anu Enlil'. ANE - Technological Developments • The oldest significant astronomical text that we possess is Tablet 63 of 'Enūma Anu Enlil', the Venus tablet of Ammi-saduqa, which lists the first and last visible risings of Venus over a period of about 21 years and is the earliest evidence that the phenomena of a planet were recognized as periodic. • The oldest rectangular astrolabe dates back to Babylonia c. 1100 BC. ANE - Technological Developments An astrolabe is an elaborate inclinometer, historically used by astronomers, navigators, and astrologers. Its many uses include locating and predicting the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars, determining local time. ANE - Technological Developments Of course theirs was rectangular and probably looked more like this: ANE - Technological Developments • The oldest Babylonian (i.e., Akkadian) texts on medicine date back to the First Babylonian Dynasty in the first half of the 2nd millennium BC although the earliest medical prescriptions appear in Sumerian during the Third Dynasty of Ur period. • Along with contemporary ancient Egyptian medicine, the Babylonians introduced the concepts of diagnosis, prognosis, physical examination, and prescriptions. ANE – BIG IDEAS • Formation of cities. • Simplification and PUBLICATION of laws for everyone to read (even if they were illiterate), it is a big deal that the law is open to all. • The environment is harsh and capricious, therefore the religion, art, and culture is equally harsh and capricious.