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PREHISTORY
• The period before history--prehistory-- is the period for which
we have no written records.
• Archaeologists and anthropologists create theories based on this
information.
ARCHAEOLOGY
• Archaeology studies the structure of past societies by analyzing
the artifacts--tools, household items, weapons, buildings,
artworks, religious figures, and any other tangibles that people
have left behind.
• By studying tools and weapons scientists create theories about
the economic and military structures of a society.
ANTHROPOLOGY
• Anthropology focuses more on culture by studying artifacts and
human remains-human fossils.
• Examining bones and hides tells us about the diet of people.
SCIENTIFIC METHODS
• Archaeologists and
anthropologists use scientific
methods to create their theories.
• One of most important scientific
tasks is dating prehistorical
artifacts and fossils.
– Radio carbon datingaccurately measures up to
50,000 years old
– Thermoluminescencemeasures accurately up to
200,000 years old
– DNA & Blood Molecule- gives
information about the
societies of prehistory.
AUSTRALOPITHECINES
• Australopithecines called the southern apes were discovered by
Donald Johanson.
• They lived in Africa three to four million years ago.
• They made stone tools and were the first hominids, creatures
that walked upright.
HOMO ERECTUS
• Homo erectus marks the next stage of human development.
• This species dates from about 1.5 million years ago.
• These hominids used larger and more varied tools, and were the
first to move into parts of Europe and Asia.
• They could migrate into colder areas because they were the first
to use fire deliberately for cooking and to keep warm.
HOMO SAPIENS
• Homo sapiens, which means wise human beings, emerged about 250,000
years ago.
• Two groups developed from Homo sapiens: Neanderthals and Homo
sapiens sapiens.
• The current theory purports that the Neanderthals eventually died out.
HOMO SAPIENS SAPIENS
• Homo sapiens sapiens were the first group of hominids that
looked like us.
• They appeared in Africa between 150,000 and 200,000 years ago.
• All humans today belong to this subspecies of Homo sapiens.
PALEOLITHIC AGE
• A basic distinguishing feature of human beings is making and
using tools
• Early tools were made of stone.
• The term Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) designates the earliest
period of human history.
• The Paleolithic Age is from 2,5000,000 to 10,000 B.C.E. (Before.
Common. Era.)
PALEOLITHIC PEOPLE
• Paleolithic people hunted game and gathered nuts, berries,
fruits, and wild grains.
• Over the centuries they developed better hunting tools like
spears, bows and arrows, harpoons, and fishhooks.
PALEOLITHIC LIFE
• Paleolithic people were nomads, they moved from place to place,
following the vegetation cycles and animal migrations.
• Most of their life was organized around and devoted to finding
food.
EGALITARIAN LIFESTYLE
• Paleolithic men and women were roughly equal because they
both shared the vital responsibility of finding food
• Both men and women found food, with men hunting (30% of
calories) and women gathering (70% of calories).
• Women gathered fruits, nuts, berries and other plants close to
camp because of their responsibility for bearing and raising
children.
• Men hunted close to the camp also but were equally likely to
travel a distance in order to make a kill.
• Both made decisions that affected the group.
TECHNOLOGY
• The word technology refers to what we make to sustain
ourselves and control our environment.
• Stone tools were made by using a harder stone like flint to create
an edge on another stone.
• The most common early stone tool was the hand axe.
• Later Paleolithic people added a handle to the stone axe.
• These tools were used to kill and butcher animals, cut plants, dig
roots, and cut branches to build shelters.
SHELTERS
• Early shelters were in caves.
• Later Paleolithic people fashioned houses and huts, often using
wood as a frame that was then covered with hides from animals.
• Sometimes they also used large animal bones as frames for their
houses.
FIRE AND ICE
• Paleolithic people used fire systematically as long ago as 500,000
years.
• Fire gave warmth, it fostered a sense of community, it scared
away wild animals, flushed out animals for hunting and was
used to cook their food.
• Fire was especially important as a source of warmth during the
Ice Ages, the most recent of which lasted from about 100,000 to
8,000 B.C.E.
PALEOLITHIC ART
• Paleolithic people created art, indicating that art is important to the
life of human beings.
• One of the largest discoveries of Paleolithic art, done between 25,000
and 12,000 B.C.E., is at Lascaux, France.
PALEOLITHIC CAVE ART
• Most Paleolithic art is found in underground caves.
• Most of the images are of animals.
• These paintings were used in magical or religious rituals to bring about
a successful hunt.
NEOLITHIC AGE
• Human survival depends on the systematic growing and storing
of food, an accomplishment of the people of the Neolithic Age.
NEOLITHIC BEGINNING
• After the end of the last Ice Age, around 8000 B.C.E., the
Neolithic Revolution began.
• The world Neolithic is Greek for “new stone.”
• The revolution was a change from hunting and gathering to
systematic agriculture.
SYSTEMATIC AGRICULTURE
• Systematic agriculture means planting crops and domesticating
(taming) animals for food, clothing, and work.
• Some historians believe that this first agricultural revolution
was the single most important event in human history.
DEVELOPMENT OF CIVILIZATIONS
• The ability to acquire food regularly gave humans greater control over
their environment and made it possible to give up nomadic ways of life
for settling into communities, a vital step in the development of
civilization.
MESOAMERICANS
• Systemic agriculture developed all over the world between 8000
and 5000 B.C.E.
• Mesoamericans are the inhabitants of present-day Mexico and
Central America.
• They grew beans, squash and maize (corn), also referred to as
the “3 sisters.”
PERMANENT SETTLEMENTS
• Systematic agriculture gave rise to permanent settlements,
which historians call Neolithic farming villages.
• Two major villages were Jericho, Palestine and Catal Huyuk, in
present-day Turkey.
CATAL HUYUK
• Archaeologists found 12 products that were grown in Catal
Huyuk and evidence of widespread domestication of animals.
• They also found shrines and statues of gods and goddesses.
• These show that religion was gaining importance during the
Neolithic period.
COMPLEX COMMUNITIES
• The Neolithic period brought many important changes:
– More complex communities were developed
– Trade caused people to specialize
– A division of labor developed
– Basic crops were first cultivated
– Cloth was first woven.
INCREASED TRADING
• Because of increased food production and storage, people had
more food than they needed.
• These surpluses allowed some people to do work other than
farming.
• Artisans made such things as jewelry and weapons.
• The selling of these items fostered increased trade.
SOCIETAL CHANGES
• Men became more active in farming and herding, which took
them away from the home.
• Women did more domestic tasks like weaving.
• As men took on more responsibility for obtaining food and
protecting settlements, they played a more dominant role.
BRONZE AGE
• Between 4000 and 3000 B.C.E., people learned to use metals.
• First they used copper.
• Then people mixed copper and tin to make bronze, a more
durable metal.
• Historians call the period when bronze was in widespread use (
3000 to 1200 B.C.E.) the Bronze Age.
CULTURE & CIVILIZATION
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Culture is a people’s way of live.
A civilization is a complex culture.
The first civilizations and cities developed in river valleys.
Historians have identified six characteristics of civilization
– Cities
– Government
– Religion
– Social Structures
– Writing
– Art
RULERS
• The first governments were led by monarchs (kings or
queens)who organized armies to protect their subjects and made
laws to regulate their lives.
• Many rulers claimed their power came from the gods.
• Some rulers even claimed to be gods themselves.
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
• Social structures developed based on economic status.
• Rulers, priests, officials, and warriors were the upper classes
• A class of priests developed to perform rituals for pleasing the
gods.
• Below them was a class of free farmers, traders, artisans, and
crafts people.
• At the very bottom were the slaves and servants.
WRITING & ART
• Writing was used to keep records and for creative expression
through literature.
• Arts such as painting and sculpture were developed to portray
natural forces or gods and goddesses on temples and shrines.
THE FERTILE CRESCENT
• Mesopotamia (the land between 2 rivers), is a valley between the Tigris
and Euphrates Rivers.
• These rivers often overflow and leave silt, which makes the soil rich for
an agricultural society.
SYSTEMATIC FARMING
• Developing consistent agriculture required controlling the water
supply.
• People in Mesopotamia developed a system of drainage ditches
and irrigation works.
• Careful farming methods resulted in large food supplies and
made possible significant population growth and the emergence
of civilization in Mesopotamia.
ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA
• Ancient Mesopotamia covered three general areas:
– Assyria
– Akkad
– Sumer
• Several different ethnicities lived in these areas.
• Mesopotamian civilization involved many peoples.
• The Sumerians developed the first Mesopotamian civilization.
THE SUMERIANS
• By 3,000 B.C.E. the Sumerians had formed a number of citystates centered around cities such as Ur and Uruk
• These states controlled the surrounding countryside politically
and economically.
• City-states were the basic political unit of the Sumerian
Civilization.
SUMERIAN ARCHITECTURE
• The Sumerians built largely with mud bricks (adobe).
• Using them they invented the arch and the dome and built some
of the largest brick buildings in the world.
ZIGGURAT
• The most important building in each city was the temple.
• The temple was built on top of a massive stepped tower called a
ziggurat.
• Sumerians believed gods and goddesses owned and ruled the
cities.
• In the beginning, the Sumerian state was a theocracy, a
government ruled by divine authority.
SOCIAL HIERARCHY
• Priest and priestesses were important figures politically as well
as religiously.
• Ruling power passed from the hands of kings, who traced their
authority back to the gods.
ECONOMY
• The Sumerian economy was agricultural, but manufacturing of
metalwork and trade of wheat were also important.
• The Sumerians are credited with the invention of the wheel
around 3,000 B.C.E. and this greatly facilitated trade.
SOCIAL CLASSES
• The Sumerian city-states had three classes;
– Nobles- included the royal family, royal officials, priests and
their families.
– Commoners worked for large estates as farmers, merchants,
fishers, and craftspeople.
– Slaves worked on large building projects, wove cloth, and
worked the farms of the nobles.
FIRST EMPIRE
• The Akkadians lived north of the Sumerian city-states.
• They were considered Semitic people because they spoke a
Semitic language.
• Around 2340 B.C.E. the leader of the Akkadians, Sargon,
conquered the Sumerian city-states and set up the world’s first
empire.
SECOND EMPIRE
• An empire is a large political unit that controls many peoples
and territories.
• The rise and fall of empires is an important part of history.
• In 1792 B.C.E. Hammurabi of Babylon, a city-state south of
Akkad, established a new empire over much of both Akkad and
Sumer.
FIRST SYSTEM OF WRITTEN LAW
• The Code of Hammurabi is one of the world’s most important
early systems of law.
• It calls for harsh punishments against criminals.
• The principle of retaliation; “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a
tooth,” is fundamental in Hammurabi’s code.
THE LAW
• Hammurabi’s code punished public officials who failed in their
duties or were corrupt.
• It also had consumer protection provisions, for example, holding
builders responsible for the quality of their work.
• If a building collapsed and killed anyone other than a slave, the
builder was executed.
• Damages had to be paid to people injured.
FAMILY LAW
• The largest group of laws in the code covered marriage and the
family.
• Parents arranged marriages, and the bride and groom had to
sign a marriage contract to be officially married.
PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY
• Hammurabi’s code expresses the patriarchal nature of
Mesopotamian society.
• Women had fewer privileges and rights than men.
• The code enforced obedience of children to parents.
• For example, a father could cut off the hand of a son who had hit
him.
ANCIENT BELIEFS
• Due to the harsh physical environment and famines,
Mesopotamians believed that the world was controlled by
destructive supernatural forces and gods.
POLYTHEISM
• The Mesopotamians were polytheistic because they believed in
many gods and goddesses.
• 3,000 gods have been identified through archaeology and
anthropology.
CUNEIFORM
• The Sumerians were important inventors.
• They created a system of writing called cuneiform (wedgeshaped),
• They used a reed stylus to make wedge-shaped markings on clay
tablets.
• Writing was for record keeping, teaching, and law.
REED STYLUS
SCRIBES
• A new class of people who wrote and made copies were called
scribes.
• Being a scribe was the key to a successful career for an upperclass Mesopotamian boy.
• Writing also passed on cultural knowledge from generation to
generation, sometimes in new ways.
LITERATURE
• The Epic of Gilgamesh, the most important piece of Mesopotamian
literature, teaches the lesson that only gods are immortal.
• Gilgamesh is wise and strong, a being who is part human and part god.
• Gilgamesh befriends a hairy beast named Enkidu.
• When Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh feels the pain of his friend’s death, and he
searches for the secret of immortality.
• He fails.
TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION
• The Sumerians invented important technologies, such as the
wagon wheel.
• In mathematics they invented a number system based on 60, and
they made advances in applying geometry to engineering.
• In astronomy, the Sumerians charted the constellations using
their number system of 60.
GEOGRAPHY OF EGYPT
• Running over 4,000 miles, the Nile is the longest river in the
world.
• It begins in the heart of Africa and runs north to the
Mediterranean
• The northern part is called Lower Egypt and the southern part is
called Upper Egypt.
THE NILE RIVER
• The most important fact about the Nile is that it floods each
year, enriching the soil around it.
• The surplus of food Egyptian farmers could grow in this fertile
soil made Egypt prosperous.
• The Nile was also the highway that enhanced transportation
and communications.
• In these ways the Nile was a unifying geographical influence on
Egypt.
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS
• Religion gave the Egyptians a sense of security and timelessness.
• He Egyptians were also a polytheistic society.
• Two groups of gods-the land gods and sun gods-were especially
important.
SUN GOD
• The Sun was worshipped as a source of life.
• The Sun god was named Atum or RA.
• The Egyptian ruler was called Son of RA, the sun god in earthly
form
OSIRIS & ISIS
• Two important river and land gods were Osiris and Isis.
• They were husband and wife.
• Isis brought Osiris back to life after his brother, Seth, had cut up
his body into 14 pieces.
• Osiris had an important role as a symbol of rebirth, whether
after physical death or through the rebirth of the land when
flooded by the Nile.
• Isis’s bringing together the parts of Osiris’s body each spring
symbolized the new life that the floods brought.
MAJOR PERIODS
• Historians divide Egyptian history into 3 major periods of
stability, peace, and cultural flourishing:
– Old Kingdom
– Middle Kingdom
– New Kingdom
• Periods of upheaval and chaos fell between them
MENES DYNASTY
• Egyptian history began around 3100 B.C.E. when Menes created
the first royal dynasty in Egypt.
• A dynasty is a family of rulers.
• Their right to rule is passed on through the family.
THE OLD KINGDOM
• The Old Kingdom lasted from 2700 to 2200 B.C.E. Egyptian rulers
became known as pharaohs.
• Pharaoh means “great house” or “palace.”
PHARAOHS
• Egyptian pharaohs had absolute power.
• They were aided first by their families and by then a large bureaucracyan administrative organization of officials and regular procedures-that
developed during the Old Kingdom.
THE VIZIER
• The vizier was the steward of the whole land.
• He held the most important position next to the pharaoh.
• The vizier headed the bureaucracy and reported directly to the
pharaoh.
• Egypt was divided into 42 provinces, each with its own governor.
THE PYRAMIDS
• The pyramids were built during the Old Kingdom.
• They served as tombs for the pharaohs and their families.
• They contained food, weapons, artwork, and household goods for
the person in the afterlife.
MUMMIFICATION
• Egyptians believed that a person’s spiritual body could survive the
death of the physical body if the physical body were properly preserved
through mummification.
• The mummy of Ramses the Great has remained intact for 3,000 years.
• Symbols of Osiris decorate his coffin.
GIZA
• The largest pyramid was for King Khofu, built around 2540
B.C.E. in Giza.
• It covers 13 acres.
• Historians are still amazed at the builders’ precision.
• Huge stones are fitted so closely that a hair cannot be pushed
between them.
THE GREAT SPHINX
• The Great Sphinx is also at Giza. It has the body of a lion and
head of a man.
• Most historians believe that the Sphinx was built there to guard
the sacred site.
THE MIDDLE KINGDOM
• The Middle Kingdom was between 2050 and 1652 B.C.E.
• Egyptians later portrayed this time as a golden age.
• Egypt expanded into Nubia, and trade reached into
Mesopotamia and Crete.
THE GOLDEN AGE OF EGYPT
• During this period of time the pharaohs had a new concern for
the people.
• The pharaoh was now portrayed as a shepherd of the people.
• He was expected to build public works and provide for the
people’s welfare.
• Swampland was drained and a new canal connected the Nile
River and the Red Sea.
HYKSOS
• Invasion by the Hyksos people of Western Asia ended the Middle
Kingdom.
• Egyptians learned to use bronze and horse-drawn war chariots
from the Hyksos.
THE NEW KINGDOM
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The New Kingdom lasted from 1567 to 1085 B.C.E.
During this period Egypt created an empire.
The New Kingdom pharaohs were tremendously wealthy.
The first female pharaoh, Hatshepsut, and others built fabulous
temples.
• Hers is at Deir el Bahri, near Thebes.
AKHENATON
• Akhenaton tried to make Egyptians monotheistic and worship
only the sun god.
• Many believed this change would upset the cosmic order and
destroy Egypt.
• Akhenaton’s religious reforms caused upheavals that led the
Egyptians to lose their empire.
TUTANKHAMEN
• King Tut or Tutankhamen restored the old gods and polytheism.
RAMSES II THE GREAT
• During the rule of Ramses II, from 1279 to 1213 B.C.E., Egypt
regained some of her empire.
• New invasions by the “Sea Peoples” then ended the Egyptian
Empire once and for all.
• He New Kingdom collapsed in 1085 B.C.E.
CLEOPATRA VII
• For the next thousand years, Libyans, Nubians, Persians, and
Macedonians dominated Egypt.
• The pharaoh Cleopatra VII unsuccessfully tried to reassert Egypt’s
independence.
• Her alliance with Rome brought defeat, her suicide and Roman rule
over all of Egypt.
THE UPPER CLASS
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Egyptian society was organized like a pyramid.
The pharaoh was at the top.
He was surrounded by a ruling class of nobles and priests.
They ran the government and managed their extensive land and
wealth.
THE MIDDLE AND LOWER CLASSES
• The next class was made up of merchants and artisans.
• Below them was a class of peasants, who usually worked land
held by the upper class, and provided revenues, military service,
and forced labor for the state.
FAMILY LIFE
• Egyptians married young.
• The husband was the master, but the wife ran the household and
educated the children.
• Women kept their property, even in marriage.
• Marriages could end in divorce, which included compensation
for the women.
• Some women were merchants, priestesses, and even pharaohs.
WRITING
• Writing emerged in Egypt around 3000 B.C.E.
• Egyptians used a system called hieroglyphics which used
pictures and abstract forms.
• Later, Egyptians used a simplified version called hieratic script.
• Hieratic script was written on papyrus.
HIERATIC SCRIPT
• Hieratic script was used for record keeping, business
transactions, and the general needs of daily life.
• Because of these tasks, the class of scribes was very important in
Egypt.
• Upper-class boys trained to be scribes from age 10.
• The training took many years.
ART & ARCHITECTURE
• Pyramids, temples, and other monuments show the architectural
and artistic achievements of the Egyptians.
• For their monumental building projects and their vital surveys
of flooded land, Egyptians made important advances in
geometry.
• They even calculated area and volume.
SCIENCE AND MEDICINE
• Because of mummification, Egyptians became experts in human
anatomy.
• Archaeologists have discovered directions from Egyptian doctors about
using splints, bandages, and compresses for treating fractures and
wounds.
• Other ancient civilization acquired medical knowledge from the
Egyptians.
PASTORAL NOMADS
• Pastoral nomads lived in groups on the fringes of civilizations.
• They hunted, gathered, did small farming, and domesticated
animals.
• They moved along regular routes to pasture their animals.
• Sometimes they overran settled communities and established
states.
INDO-EUROPEANS
• Indo-Europeans were one of the most important groups of
pastoral nomads.
• The term Indo-European refers to peoples who spoke languages
derived from the same parent language.
• Indo-European languages include Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, and
the Germanic languages.
THE HITTITES
• One Indo-European group melded with natives in Anatoliamodern day Turkey-to form the Hittite kingdom.
• Between 1600 and 1200 B.C.E., the Hittites created an empire in
western Asia.
• Its capital was Hattusha, in modern Turkey.
• They were the first Indo-Europeans to use iron.
• When the Hittite Empire was destroyed, smaller-city-states and
kingdoms emerged in the area of Syria and Palestine.
THE PHOENICIANS
• The Phoenicians were an important
new group in this area.
• The Phoenicians lived on a narrow
band of the Mediterranean coast
only 120 miles long.
• After the downfall f the Hittites and
the Egyptians, the Phoenicians
began to assert their power.
Modern Day Lebanon
PHOENICIAN TRADERS
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The Phoenician power base was trade.
They were prominent traders because of their ships and seafaring skills.
Trading took the Phoenicians as far as Britain and Africa’s west coast.
The Phoenicians set up colonies.
Carthage in North Africa is the most famous Phoenician colony.
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THE ALPHABET
The Phoenicians are also known for their alphabet of 22 letters.
They could spell out all the words in the Phoenician language.
This alphabet was passed on to the Greeks.
The Roman alphabet we use is based on Greek.
THE ISRAELITES
• The Israelites were a Semitic people living in Palestine along the
eastern Mediterranean Sea.
• Archaeological evidence indicates they emerged as a distinct
group between 1200 and 1000 B.C.E.
• The Israelites soon established a kingdom known as Israel.
JUDAISM
• The Israelites were not particularly important politically.
• Their main contribution to history was their religion, Judaism.
• Judaism still flourishes as a major religion, and it both
Christianity and Islam are rooted in Judaism.
Judaism ranked by the
amount of followers in
each country.
KING SOLOMON & JERUSALEM
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Israel ruled Palestine.
Its capital was Jerusalem.
King Solomon who ruled from 970 to 930 B.C.E.
Solomon was known for his wisdom.
Most importantly, he built the temple in Jerusalem.
To this day the Jewish people take this temple as the symbolic
center of Israel and Judaism.
ISRAEL & JUDAH
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After Solomon, the kingdom divided into two parts.
The Kingdom of Israel was made up of ten tribes.
The Kingdom of Judah was made up of two tribes.
In 772 B.C.E., the Assyrians conquered and scattered the 10 tribes of
Israel.
• They lost their Hebrew identity.
• It is this event that gave rise to t he idea of the “10 lost tribes” of Israel.
DIASPORA
• The Chaldeans conquered Assyria and the Kingdom of Judah,
destroying the temple of Solomon in 586 B.C.E.
• Many upper-class captives were sent to Babylonia.
THE JEWS
• Judaism was unique in western Asia and Egypt.
• Its most distinctive feature is its monotheism.
• The ideas of Judaism were written down, so people besides
priests and rulers could have religious knowledge and know
God’s will.
• The Jews also would not accept the gods or goddesses of their
neighbors.
THE ASSYRIANS
• The Assyrians of the upper Tigris River formed the Assyrian
Empire by 700 B.C.E.
• They were known for their military prowess.
• Their military power came from using iron and a large, welldisciplined army of infantry, cavalry, and archers, often on
chariots.
• They also used terror to subdue people, laying waste to people’s
lands and torturing captives.
ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
• A king with absolute power ruled the Assyrian Empire.
• The empire was organized well with local officials directly
responsible to the king.
• They developed an efficient communication system in order to
administer their empire by setting up a network of posts with
horses carrying messages that took only one week to reach
anywhere in the empire.
NEBUCHADNEZZAR
• After the Assyrian Empire collapsed, the Chaldean king
Nebuchadnezzar made Babylonia the leading state of western
Asia.
• Babylon became one of the greatest cities of the ancient world.
• Babylonia did not last long; the Persians conquered it in 539
B.C.E.
CYRUS
• The Persians were a nomadic, Indo-European people living in
what is today southwest Iran.
• One family unified the different groups.
• One member, Cyrus, ruled from 559 to 530 B.C.E.
• He captured Babylon, treating his new subjects with noteworthy
restraint, and he allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem.
DARIUS
• Cyrus’ son Darius extended the empire into India and Europe.
• Darius created the largest empire the world had ever known.
SATRAP
• Darius strengthened the Persian government by dividing the
empire into 20 provinces, called satrapies.
• A satrap was the governor of the province responsible for
collecting taxes, handling legal matters, and recruiting soldiers.
ROYAL ROAD
• The Persians established a communication system using horses
and regular posts known as the Royal Road, from Lydia to the
empire’s capital at Susa.
THE IMMORTALS
• Much of the Persian power was due to its military.
• The empire had a standing army from the entire empire.
• At its core was an elite group called the Immortals because
anyone who was killed was immediately replaced.
• The Immortals were made up of ten thousand each of cavalry
and infantry.
PERSIAN DECLINE
• The Persian Empire declined for a set of reasons common to the
decline of empires.
• The kings became more isolated at court and lived lives of
tremendous luxury.
• They levied high taxes that weakened the people’s loyalty.
POWER STRUGGLE
• Factions were struggling for control of the throne.
• Of the nine rulers after Darius, six were murdered in plots.
• These bloody struggles weakened the Persian monarchy and
Alexander the Great conquered Persia during the 330s B.C.E.
ZOROASTER
• The most original Persian cultural contribution was its religion
of Zoroastrianism.
• Persian tradition says that Zoroaster was born in 660 B.C.E.
• He had visions that caused him to be declared a prophet.
• His teachings were written in the sacred book of Zoroastrianism,
the Zend Avesta.
ZOROASTRIANISM
• Zoroaster taught monotheism.
• The universe was permeated by the good of the supreme god
Ahuramazda, who brought all into being and an evil spirit
named Ariman.
• People have a free will to choose between the two but eventually,
good will triumph over evil.
• In the last judgment at the end of the world, good and evil will
separate.
• The good will go to a happy eternal life, and the evil to
damnation.