Download Origin of Civilizations in West Asia and North Africa

Mesopotamia
Origins of Civilization and
Emerging States
“The land between two rivers”
Between 7000BCE and 5000 BCE (910,000 years ago) peoples settled and
began irrigation farming in the region of
the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
 By 3500 BCE several cities had emerged
from these settlements under independent
kings.
 Ancient texts reveal much about social
order, law, cosmology, and history.

Chronology
Farming in Mesopotamia begins at least as
early as 7000 years ago and possibly 9000
years ago. First best evidence at Jarmo.
 Eridu 5500BC-1800 BCE
 Ubaid period from 4500 BCE
 Uruk 4000BC-500 BC
 Early Dynastic Period, Sumeria from 3200
BCE (use of bronze for tools)

Tell Choga Mami. Ubaid period. Samarrans pre date the Sumerians.
Tell Choga Mami. Oldest house in Mesopotamia at 7500 years old



Gilgamesh Epic
We are told by the narrator
that Gilgamesh was the 5th
King of Uruk “of the great
walls.”
The tale was written as if
retold from oral histories by a
narrator.
The story contains accounts
later adopted into Hebrew and
Jewish sacred texts, forming
the basis of Biblical liturgy.
Sculpture of
“Gilgamesh” ?
His “real” story is that
of mankind coming to
understand mortality.
The epic also contains
intriguing
geographical
information of great
value to
archaeologists.
Gilgamesh epic is more than history. It
represents great themes in the human
condition--loyalty, vanity, loss of
innocence, love, facing mortality, greed
and avarice…
 It also contains tantalizing evidence of
ancient geography.
 One text describes “the deluge” and
building of an “ark” to carry the seed of all
living things.

Key developments in
Mesopotamia
Invention of writing
 Invention of the wheel*
 Invention of “history”

– King lists
 Inventories
– Battles fought and won
 Epic hero tales (see Gilgamesh)
Invention of literature
 Codified laws (Code of Hammurabi)

First schools
 12 month calendar, base 60, geometry
 First farmer’s almanac
 First fables
 First “congress” of a senate in two
chambers (elders and men of military age)
 First tax cut

Some Cool Pics
Clay tablet written with
cuneiform script
Temple worshiper
votive.
Clay tablet letter
inside clay protective
envelope.
Map of the
city-State of
Nippur, 1300
BC
During this
period the
Hittites had
spread their
empire into
Mesopotamia
and Egypt.
Cylinder seals (and the rolled impression) from 3400-3200 BC
Babylonian seal. Circa
1000 BC. Craved from
chalcedony.
Babylonian seals from
ca. 800 BC. Carved
from chalcedony and
rock crystal (capped
with gold).
Two different statues of
Gudea of Lagash, great
builder of cities and
traveler. (Inspiration for
the character
Gilgamesh?)
Entrance to great
Zigaurat of
Babylon.
(reconstruction)
Sumer: The first
Successful agriculture, river management
 Writing, cuneiforms

Polytheistic
 Ziggurats
 Ur, Erech, Kish 3000 BCE
 Overthrown by Akkadians 1700 BCE

Civilizations of
significance
Mesopotamian neighbors

Phoenicians 3000 BCE -500 BCE
– sailors and traders

Hebrews and Jews 2000 BCE --– literate traditions

Egyptians 5000 BCE- 200CE
– builders and planners
Egypt, the Land of the Pharaohs
(3100-1200 BCE)

“The gift of the Nile”(page 16)
– fertile floods

The God-King of Egypt
– 3100 BCE Upper and Lower
Egypt are united by Menes
– After Menes, Egyptian history
is divided by dynasties, or
families of kings (historians
use periods page 18)
– Would eventually combine as
one god


Amon-Ra
Religion was polytheistic
 Amon-most powerful (sky
god, caused Nile to flood and
North wind to blow, fairness)
 Ra-very powerful (creator of
life, associated with Horus)


Dry air allowed for
preservation: past is
never far from the
present
Osiris (god associated
with the Nile) died each
year. Isis brought him
back with the help of
Anubis (god of
mummification)(page 18)
 Osiris becomes king of the
dead (weighed human
hearts)
 Life did not end with
death
 Historians look to sources
like the Book of the Dead
to examine beliefs.
–Pharaoh – considered to be Horus in human form
Horus is the son of Osiris
Pharaoh becomes one with Osiris after death
God on earth (not like Mesopotamian kings)(page 19)
Social mobility, but unlikely
The Hyksos in Egypt (1640-1570 BCE)
Hyskos-“ruler of the uplands” began to settle on the Nile
Conflicting stories about their settlement in Egypt (page 21)
Brought Bronze making to the Egyptians
The New Kingdom: Revival and Empire (1570-1075 BCE)
18th dynasty was on a role: pushed out the Hyskos, claimed land
in Palestine and parts of Syria in the northeast.
1st Egyptian empire
Famous Pharaohs
King Tut
Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti were monotheists (Aton above all
else), religion seriously flawed.

Hittites
– Existed the same time
as Egyptian empire
– Similar to the
Egyptians
– “brothers”