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The Ancient Near East
study notes for Humanities
[these are intended to supplement,
not replace, lecture notes and
assigned readings]
Akkad was a city on the northern Euphrates, eventually including the
surrounding territories. Between 2360 and 2350 B.C., it became the most
powerful city-state in the region. Two great kings reigned during the prominent
years: Sargon and Naram-Sin. Between 2180 and 2150 B.C., Akkad became
less significant, as it was subsumed into the Babylonian Empire.
Sumer was a kingdom ruling the southern half of Mesopotamia; it arose around
3100 B.C., and was dominant during eras: first, between 2900 and 2300 B.C.,
and again between 2100 and 2000 B.C.; Sumer was dissolved around 1784
B.C. when it was incorporated into Babylonia. Ur was a leading Sumerian city.
Babylon was a city on the Euphrates, in what is now Iraq, and the center of
Babylonia, a polytheistic society from start to finish. Babylonia arose when
Sumer and Akkad merged. Written records about Babylon date back to
between 2350 and 2294 B.C., and the city became politically important between
1900 and 1830 B.C. The first era of Babylonian supremacy came during the
rule of Hammurapi (1792 to 1750 B.C.), but Babylon declined quickly after that,
and the Hittites took over the area around 1600 B.C., and it was not until the
era between 1156 and 1025 B.C. that it again became a regional superpower,
partly under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar I. Gradually, Babylon fell under the
power of the Assyrians, and became a vassal state to them, with brief periods
of rebellion. During these periods, the Babylonians would form alliances with
other powers to gain some measure of political independence, which was,
however, usually very short-lived; e.g., a brief alliance with Hezekiah, king of
Judah, shortly prior to 701 B.C. Shortly after that same year, the Assyrian king
Sennacherib gravely damaged the city of Babylon. The city gained its third and
final era of power between 625 and 539 B.C., marked by the famous “hanging
gardens”, partly under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II, who besieged and
conquered the city of Jerusalem in 597 B.C., and again in 586 B.C., whereupon
large numbers of Israelites began to live in Babylon as servants. The end of
Babylon came in October 539 B.C., during the reign of Nabonidus and his son,
The A.N.E., page 1
Belshazzar, when the city surrendered without fighting to Cyrus the Persian.
Babylon continued as a part of the Persian empire. Babylon, like modern
Arabic-speakers, was Semitic in language and culture.
Persia dates back to at least 843 B.C., when it was mentioned as an enemy of
the Assyrian empire. Cyrus rose to power around 640 B.C., and conquered the
Medes, much of Asia Minor, Babylon, and the Levant. His son added parts of
what is now India, and so the Persian empire became very large; after the son
of Cyrus died, Darius I ruled the empire, and even advanced occasionally to
points north of the Danube River. The Persians were defeated in their attempts
to conquer Greece in 492 and 480 B.C., by which time Xerxes was ruling the
empire. The Persian empire ended after being defeated by Alexander the Great
between 334 and 323 B.C. Geographically, Persia corresponds to modern Iran.
Originally, Persia embraced Zoroastrianism, and various forms of polytheism,
astrology, and magic. Eventually, Christianity emerged as the common belief
system, until the invasion of Moslem armies imposed Islam on the area
sometime after 600 A.D. The Persians were Indo-European in language and
culture, unlike their modern conquerors.
Assyria was named after its capital city, Assur, on the Tigris. The town itself
dates back to 2800 B.C., but became politically powerful, rivaling the Mitanni
empire, only several centuries later. It was a polytheistic society. The first era
of Assyrian political importance ended around 1076 B.C., when it shrank to a
small strip of land along the Tigris. Starting in 935 B.C., the second era of
power, sometimes called the neo-Assyrian empire, began, and lasted until 609
B.C.; it occupied Egypt, parts of Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia,
and Iran. Around 722 B.C., Ninevah became the capital city. Ahaz, king of
Judah, and a vassal to Assyria, asked Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III to help
defend Judah against Syria’s central city-state Damascus between 738 and 734
B.C.; the king of Israel was also a vassal to Assyria; later, citizens from the
kingdom of Israel were deported to Assyria as servants, and Assyrian
effectively ended this kingdom. Another, later, Assyria king, Sennacherib,
defeated Babylon, and besieged Jerusalem, but eventually was content to have
Jerusalem as a vassal, rather than destroy it. Assyria eventually fell under the
combined pressure of Egypt, Arabia, the Medes, and Babylon.
Israel existed as a kingdom from shortly before 1000 B.C. until around 500
The A.N.E., page 2
B.C.; it had existed as a tribal confederation for about four hundred years prior
to that. Around 1900 B.C., ethnic Hebrews from the southern half of the
Euphrates had migrated, via the fertile crescent route, pausing briefly in
Canaan, and settling in Egypt, eventually becoming servants or slaves there.
Emigrating several centuries later, these Hebrew tribes settled in Canaan,
naturalizing as citizens some of the local inhabitants; territory was divided
according to tribal allegiance, and the tribes governed themselves. The nation
united into the kingdom of Israel, only to split about a century later; the northern
kingdom kept the name Israel, and the southern half was known as Judah. The
northern kingdom fell to Assyria in 722 B.C., and the southern half was
captured by Babylon in 587 and 586 B.C. The inhabitants of the southern
kingdom were captives in Babylon for approximately seventy years, but were
then freed when Cyrus the Persian defeated Babylon. Returning to their home,
Judah was reconstituted as a province, first of the Persian empire, then of the
Macedonian empire of Alexander, then of the Seleucid empire, and finally of
the Roman empire. Socially, the nation began as a largely polytheistic society
with only a small minority of monotheists, but ended as a monotheistic culture;
its history is the narrative of a slow and difficult assertion of monotheism over
polytheism.
The Hittites were based in Asia Minor, and left behind details written histories
of their culture in the form of cuneiform clay tablets. Their kingdom began
around 1750 B.C., and from 1380 to 1200 B.C., they expanded as far south as
Syria, where they fought the Egyptians. The Hittites were Indo-Europeans and
polytheists.
Canaan is the territory now called Lebanon and Israel; the Canaanites
inhabited that territory, and were subject to large empires and invading forces.
The term “Canaanite” can sometimes be used to refer to more than one ethic
group, there having been a diversity in the area. The word is sometimes used as
a synonym for Phoenicians. When the Hebrews moved into the area around
1500 B.C., some Canaanites were naturalized into Israelite citizenship, others
were displaced, some remained as local resistance movements, of which a
portion was casualties in the fighting.
The Philistines migrated from the Aegean region when the Mycenaean
civilization collapsed; they were one of several groups who did this, and these
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groups are collectively known as the Sea Peoples. Cruising the coast of the
Mediterranean, looking for a new homeland, they settled, sometime shortly after
1190 B.C., on the coast of Canaan. They were, therefore, Indo-European in
language and culture.
Syria was an area between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean; Damascus
was one of the major cities. It attacked Israel several times prior to 738 B.C.;
the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III between 738 and 734 B.C.
Note the following spelling variations, and be able to explain them using
the word “transliteration”:
Nebuchadnezzar = Nebuchadrezzar
Belshazzar = Balthasar
Hammurapi = Hammurabi
The A.N.E., page 4