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WORLD HISTORY
CHAPTER 2
The Ancient Middle East
The first civilization of the ancient Middle East began in an area of
southern Mesopotamia called Sumer.
Mesopotamia was the area between
the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. They called it that because the meaning of
Mesopotamia is “land between two rivers. “ The two rivers originate in
the Armenian Plateau and run into the Persian Gulf. What was once
Mesopotamia is now mostly Iraq.
Mesopotamia lies in the Fertile Crescent, an area of rich soil that
stretches, in a crescent shape, from the Mediterranean Sea to the
Persian Gulf. The people of this area always had a stable food supply
because of the fertile soil. The Fertile Crescent has often been called
the “crossroads of the world” because it commands access to three
continents. It was subject to frequent invasions because of this. It
was difficult to unite the Fertile Crescent under one ruler, because
many different peoples migrated there.
Sumer was ruled by the Sumerians for over a thousand years. Invaders
eventually conquered Sumer and Sumerian civilization ceased to exist.
However, they created many lasting features of Mesopotamian civilization
such as cuneiform and the wheel.
The Sumerians developed city-states. A city-state is an independent
city or town and the surrounding countryside. Some important citystates were Ur, Erech and Kish. Later on these city-states constantly
fought, and conquered one another, over land and water.
As the city-states grew, there became a greater demand for scribes.
Scribes wrote down important information, such as laws and business deals.
Merchants and governments needed them to keep their records. Priests
set up schools to train them as the demand rose. There was also a need
for a complex network of dikes and canals in Mesopotamia. Well-run
governments developed because of this. The government needed to
supervise these tasks.
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WORLD HISTORY
Each city-state had a temple called a ziggurat. These temples were
built so that their gods could use them as ladders to earth. The
Sumerians were polytheistic, that is, they worshipped many gods. Each citystate had its own god along with other gods. The Sumerians believed that
only priests knew how to please the gods, and since they believed they
were dependent upon gods for food and protection, the priests became
rulers. Later on, military leaders became stronger because of the constant
fighting among city-states and eventually took over as rulers.
The Sumerians used cuneiform, wedge shaped writings, to write down
laws and to record business deals. They used clay for their cuneiform
inscriptions. They wrote on it when it was wet and then baked it. They used
a stylus, a sharpened reed instrument, for writing. They also used wheels
on war chariots and carts. They were the first ones to do so. The wheel
made it possible to travel further, thus enabling them to trade with far off
places. Trade made their cities very wealthy.
The sexagesimal, based on the number 60, system of the Sumerians still
appears in modern day measurements, such as timekeeping. The 60-second
minute and the sixty-minute hour are two examples. The twelve-month
calendar was another accomplishment that was achieved because of the
need for keeping track of seasonal changes, so that they could plan
their farming schedule.
They had a gloomy outlook on the afterlife because of frequent
invasions and natural disasters. They thought that these happenings
were punishments by the Gods. They didn’t have very high expectations
for the afterlife because of this.
A man named Sargon founded the first empire. He called himself “Lord
of the Four Quarters of the World.” Sargon was a very talented military
leader. He was a soldier from Akkad, a city that gained power around 2350
B.C. After his reign, civil war resumed and the Akkadian dynasty collapsed
because of invasions.
An Amorite named Hammurabi created another empire. The capital was
established at Babylon. Hammurabi was a very successful warrior and
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WORLD HISTORY
administrator. His most enduring legacy was a code of laws carved on a
stone column. It was called the Code of Hammurabi, and it represents the
first effort of an empire to record all its laws.
The Hittites took over the Fertile Crescent in about 1550 B.C. They
were known for being the first to use iron for weapons, which gave them a
huge advantage over others who did not yet have this technology. They
tried to keep their method of iron working a secret, but eventually others
learned their technique. The time when everyone started using iron is called
the Iron Age.
The next group of people to take over the Fertile Crescent was the
Assyrians. They destroyed Babylon. They used money that they got, in one
way or another, from the people they conquered, to build their new capital,
which was at Ninevah. King Assurbanipal built the world’s first library, with
writings on clay tablets, in Ninevah.
The Chaldeans were the next group of people to establish an empire in
the Fertile Crescent. Their king was Nebuchadnezzar. He rebuilt the city
of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar’s wife was homesick and did not like the
Mesopotamian landscape, so he designed one of the Seven Wonders of the
World, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, to remind her of her homeland.
The Persians conquered Babylon in 539 B.C. They were ruled by Cyrus.
Cyrus’s son-in-law, Darius, divided the Persian Empire into twenty
satrapies, or provinces. Each one was ruled by it’s own governor.
The Persians are know for building the Great Royal Road, which ran from
Asia Minor to Susa. They built elaborate roadways so that they could travel
faster, thus making communication quicker.
They also took on a new religion called Zoroaster. Zoroaster was the
founder of this religion, hence the name. According to Zoroaster, the
forces of good and evil were at war and each person had to choose which way
to go. The Zend Avesta, the sacred book of Zoroastrianism, contained
religious ideas of Zoroastrianism that later influenced Hebrew and
Christian concepts.
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Independent states also had an impact on civilization. In fact, the
Phoenicians were called the “carriers of civilization”. They were ardent
traders. They settled in many cities along the water. Carthage, in
northern Africa, was one of the many cities they occupied that had a very
lively trade industry.
The Phoenicians also created a relatively easy to use alphabet. Their
letters were easier to draw than the Aramaean or Egyptian letters. It was
based on the Aramaean style of writing, which was based on Egyptian
hieroglyphics. The alphabet we use was created from the Phoenician
alphabet.
The chart below shows how some of the letters developed. For example,
the letter K developed from the cupped hand, and the letter Q
developed from the monkey. The Egyptian symbol for house probably
became a symbol for the B sound because the Aramaean word for house
was “beth,” which begins with a B sound. The use of a simplified
alphabet made it easier for people to read and write. This probably led
to a more democratic society, because it made people more equal. If
everyone could read and write, they could play a more active role in
society.
The Lydians were also very eager traders. Their capital, Sardis, was full
of trade activity. The Lydians introduced coined money as a means of
exchange, thus creating a money economy, an economic system based on
money exchange rather than barter.
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WORLD HISTORY
The Hebrews ruled another independent state. They settled in Palestine
and called their kingdom the kingdom of Israel. They believed Palestine was
given to them by God. One of their leaders, Moses, gave them the Ten
Commandments. David ruled the kingdom of Israel for about 70 years, and
his son Solomon succeeded him. Solomon had many building projects, but his
most famous was the temple he built in Jerusalem.
The Hebrews wrote the Old Testament to record their history. The
first five books of the Old Testament are called the Torah. The
Hebrews’ ethical worldview grew out of the Torah, which included the
Ten Commandments. They were the first to develop a belief in one God.
The Hebrews believed that God had revealed the laws to Moses,
thereby making a covenant, or binding agreement, with them.
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