Download Intro to Humanities Lecture 1 Civilization before the Greeks

Intro to Humanities
Lecture 1
Civilization before the Greeks
By David Kelsey
The Humanities
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The study of human civilization with a focus on culture
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The study of how western cultures developed their value systems…
In this class:
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We will focus on the study of philosophy in western culture and how it relates to other
aspects of history and culture in the west…
Culture
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Culture:
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What remains after a society has vanished: their value system
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The dreams, hopes and visions of the individuals making up a society
Value system:
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Ideals, what the people take as of value, what’s important
Western Civilization
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Multicultural:
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It has assimilated elements of every advance culture in the west
Examples in scientific and technological achievements and politcal or economic
viewpoints…
Art
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What is art?
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Intention
Creative or abstract thought
The expression of emotion or attitude in a medium
The emergence of early culture
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Stone Age (40,000-3,000 B.C.)
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The Paleolithic Age (40,000-18,000 B.C.)
The Mesolithic Age (10,000 B.C.)
The Neolithic Age (8,000 B.C.)
Bronze Age (3,000 B.C.)
Iron Age (1,000 B.C.)
Mesopotamia
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Civilization begins around 8000 B.C. in the valleys between the Tigres and
Euphrates Rivers
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Sumer…
See map on Page 11
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About 8000 B.C. some nomadic Mesopotamian tribes settled into permanent
villages where they became wholly dependent on their animals and crops
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The establishment of agriculture changed civilization:
– Permanent houses
– Privately owned lands
– The Defense of those lands
– The calendar: recording the floods…
– Buying and selling of crops
The Sumerian Period
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3000-2350 B.C.
Credited with inventing the first written language, Cuneiform
Believed in a polytheistic religion:
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the gods were immortal and quite like humans at times: childish and petty.
The gods were arranged in a hierarchy: An (head of the pantheon), Enlil (God of the
atmostphere) and Inanna (Queen of heaven)
Natural phenomena were attributed to the Gods
Sumerian Achievments
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Multiplication
Division
Square and cube roots
The 10 and 60 base systems
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Epic of Gilgamesh
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The first story in history to have a central character with a name and personality
Originally sketched by the Sumerians, reworked by the Akkadians and shaped
into its final form by the Babylonians
The story of a half legendary king, Gilgamesh, whom the Gods propose to
chastise
To humble the king, the Gods create Enkidu
Enkidu and Gilgamesh meet in combat and it ends in a draw
They then go on adventures together
Enkidu dies, a misadventure provokes the wrath of the Gods, in the arms of
Gilgamesh, who is left alone to face the meaning of life and death.
Gilgamesh hears that Utnapishtim possesses the secret to eternal life.
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So Gilgamesh tracks him down and finds the thorny plant.
Gilgamesh celebrates by bathing in a nearby pool.
Just then a serpent comes up from the water and carries the plant away. The snake
has stolen immortality from Gilgamesh and he weeps…
The lesson: life ends in nothingness…
Old Babylonia
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Old Babylonia: 1900-1500 B.C.
The state was centered on the city of Babylon
Consisted of the territories of Sumer and Akkad
Hammurabi
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1792-1750
Developed a code of laws
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Wanted to “bring order to my people and so that I might free them from evil and wicked men,
that I should defend the weak from the oppression of the mighty.”
282 regulations
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Many crimes punishable by death
An eye for an eye
The Assyrian Empire
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1076-612 B.C.
The first militaristic state in history
The “lord of the world”
Upon capturing an enemy town, Assurnasirpal II’s policy was to have his
soldiers round up surviving inhabitants, cut off their hands and feet and leave
them in the town square to bleed to death…
Conquered Babylon in 689 B.C. and Egypt in 670 B.C.
A coordinated effort by the Babylonians, Medes and a group of Palestinians
defeated the Assyrians in 612 B.C..
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They disappeared…
The Persian Empire
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539-331 B.C.
Under Cyrus the Great (539-530 B.C.) the Persians absorbed Medes then the
Lydian kingdom ruled by Croesus.
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Cyrus’ son Cambyses conquered Egypt in 525 B.C.
The greatest empire the world had ever seen
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The royal road extended from one end of the persian empire to the other, 1600 miles.
Zoroastrianism
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Zoraster: the prophet
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Born around 660 B.C.
Wrote the Gathas in which he declares Ahura Mazda the creator and holy spirit
The conflict of good and evil will end when Ahura Mazda overcomes Ahriman (the evil
one)
An ethical monotheistic religion which was originally a personal religion
Egypt
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The first national state
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The gift of the Nile
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750 miles long and 10 miles wide
The White Nile originated in Lake Victoria
The Blue Nile originated in Lake Tana
Egypt was a theocracy:
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The pharoah was a living god and whom life, safety and prosperity depended
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Was immortal contrasting with humans who were mere mortals…
Maat: you must follow the will of the Gods. Right action was important
Egyptians were concerned with death because they loved life and wished it to continue
after death…
Life and religion were inseparable which lead to a very ethical way of life for the
Egyptians…
Religion
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Ra:
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The sun God. Also called Amon-Re
Osiris:
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God of the Nile and later God of the Underworld
The story of Osiris:
• Osiris was murdered by his wicked brother Set
• Isis, his wife, restored him to life.
• Osiris then rose but later descended to the nether world as judge of the dead.
• This lead people to believe in the promise of personal immortality.
Differences between Egypt
and Mesopotamia
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The Egyptians believed in reincarnation while the Mesopotamians believed that
the soul died with the body
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Mesopotamia’s polytheism was pragmatic and self serving
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With the Egyptians, living a happy life here and after death was the focus which
lead to an essential Ethical life…
Egyptian dynasties
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In about 3100 under King Narmer the 2 kingdom’s of lower and upper Egypt
were united…
The Old Kingdom: (2686-2181 B.C.)
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Dynasties III-VI
The Pyramid age: the 4th dynasty
The Sphynz and the Great Pyramid at Khufu
The New Kingdom (1570-1085 B.C.)
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The Hyskos invasion in the 18th century pushed the Egyptians toward imperial
conquests
Military might became the basis of rule
More on Egypt
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Egyptian temples:
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Visual symbols of the wealth of the pharaohs and the power of the gods
Built entirely of stone
Were usually build on the flat banks of the nile
Amenhotep
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Reigned 1379-1362
By his reign Egyptian religion was becoming debased and its ethical foundation
reduced as superstition and magic grew, which resulted in increased power of the
priesthood
Amenhotep drove the priests from their temples, confiscated their property and ordered
the names of the traditional Gods removed throughout
He then commanded the people to worship a new God called Aten, changed his name
to Akhetaton and ordered all worship be directed to him personally.
His son-in-law was the infamous King Tut…