Download Ancient Near East Notes

Ancient History
Near East
Iron Age
1200BCE
Urban
Revolution
3500BCE
Bronze Age
Classical Age
600BCE
Innovative Sites
of the Near East
Ancient Sumer
Ancient Egypt
What physical features had the most
significant impact on the development
of Mesopotamia?
• Tigris & Euphrates Rivers (alluvial plain-silt,
destructive flooding)
• Plain of Shinar (farming, ease of movement)
What other features, with less significance, may
have eventually influenced Mesopotamia?
•Mediterranean Sea
•Red Sea
•Persian Gulf
•Arabian Desert
Sumerian Life
Royal Tombs of Ur
Uruk Period: 3500BC
•First City-State
•Organized around temple (ziggurat)
Patron God/Goddess
•Growth in Population and
Nucleation (clustering)
(50,000 people by 3100BC)
•Increased Complexity among institutions…
Sumerian Development
Consider…
Irrigation
Demography
Technology
Economic Organization
Writing
Secularization of Government
Social Organization
Irrigation
Small
irregular
locally
managed
networks
Consolidation into a
few large
networks, each
centrally
coordinated by a
city-state
Technology
Slow potters
wheel
Standardized
vessel shape
Copper
metallurgy
Utilitarian
metallurgy to
include Bronze
Tools &
weapons
Metals used in
Elite Burials
Social Organization
Nobles (administrators,
priests, merchants)
Commoners (Landless
peasants, artisans,
slaves)
Fluidity among lower 3
groups
Royal Cemetery of Ur
Distinctions dramatic
between Nobles and
commoners
Economic Organization
Temple
Economy
Standardized
volumes
Increased
specialization
Increased Trade
Wood Utilitarian
and precious
stones &
metals
imported
Grain & textiles
exported
Deals with
economic
accounts:
List of workers,
goods, receipts,
etc.
Pictographs,
ideographs
Stylus
Writing
Cylinder seals noneconomic matters
Cuneiform Tablets
deal with
economic and
non-economic
matters
Religion, Politics,
etc.
Secularization
Competition
Kings – lugal
Elected &
temporary
Lugal becomes
permanent
Steward of the
gods
At the expense of
priesthood
How would you
summarize the
important
developments and
legacy of the
Sumerians?
Ancient Egypt
Innovative site
Africa’s cradle of civilization
Size & Demography
Pre-dynastic: 500,000 people
(cities @ 15,000)
New Kingdom: 5 Million?
(cities @ 100,000s)
No more than 15 miles on each side of
Nile
Total sq miles: 14,000
(no larger than Estonia)
Cities
42 Nomes or Sepat
Patron God/Goddess
Nomarch
Directed irrigation, administration
Most people lived in surrounding
countryside, not city
Specialized function (temple,
protection) - interdependence
Pharaoh
No concept of ‘state’, instead…
Identification with Pharaoh as
divine, in charge of all aspects of
civilization (military, religion, etc)
Developed bureaucracy (vizier,
nomarchs)
Hereditary succession (dynasty)
Egyptian Pharaohs
Narmer Palette (Narmer or Menes)
Chronology & Dating
Kingdom: periods of relative stability and central rule of Pharaoh
Intermediate: periods of instability, lack of strong central authority
and/or invasions
Proto-dynastic – Unification (Menes or Narmer?)
Old Kingdom- 2600BC – 2150BC capital @ Memphis
Middle Kingdom 2100 -1640 (Hyksos Invasion)
New Kingdom 1570 – 1293 capital @ Thebes
Egyptian Gods & Goddesses
Osiris
Isis
Horus
Religion
Polytheistic, anthropomorphic
Creation stories - Mythology
Afterlife, Mummification,
Temples, Cults
Pharaoh as protector of Ma’at
concept of order, harmony