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Chapter 2: Early Societies in Southwest Asia and the Indo-European Migrations
 The Quest for Order
 In the 4th millennium bce, human pop increased rapidly in Mesopotamia
 With no previous experience I running a society, they created states and governments that brought social and political order
 Successful political and military organization allowed them to build regional empires and extend their authority over
neighbors
 Mesopotamia: “The Land Between the Rivers”
 Mesopotamia comes from Greek: “The land between the two rivers” of the Tigris and Euphrates
 One of four ancient river valley civ areas which all shared:
 Dry soils
 Warming and drying areas following the ice age
 Seasonally flooding rivers (allowed for irrigation)
 While Mesop received little rainfall, the Tigr/Euphr brought freshwater to the area
 Small-scale irrigation began in Mesop after 6000 bce
 Sumer
 Irrigation led to pop., attracted migrants
 Pop. grew especially in southern Mesop in Sumer
 Likely that Sumerians were migrants looking for farming
 By 5000 bce, had elaborate irrigation + abundant harvest
 Near 100k ppl by 3000 bce
 Dominant people of Mesop
 Semitic Migrations
 The wealth of Sumer also attracted migrants
 Mostly they were Semitic peoples- speakers of the Semitic family of languages
 Akkadian, Aramaic, Hebrew, and Phoenician herders from the desert
 Around 4000 bce the Sumerians built the world’s first cities
 Centers of political and military authority (diff from Neolithic settlements)
 Economic centers with markets
 Priests and scribes developed religion, writing, formal education
 Sumerian City-States
 From 3200-2350 bce, Sumerian cities dominated public affairs in Mesopotamia
 Eridu, Ur, Uruk, Lagash, Nippur, Kish
 These cities created states, formal gov’t institutions that wielded authority throughout their territories
 Cities became city-states due to importance of surrounding agriculture
 Extended their authority to surrounding farming areas
 Gov’ts organized construction of monumental architecture
 Palaces, temples, defensive walls
 Particularly important were the ziggurats, stepped pyramids of temples and altars to the principal local deity
 Even more important were the irrigation systems that supported farming (which supported the urban ppl)
 Gov’t was needed to organize the large-scale projects
 Had to build defensive walls to protect from outside enemies
 Mesopotamia has few natural geographic barriers
 Sumerian Kings
 Earliest gov’t likely assemblies of prominent men
 When crisis arose, they yielded power to an individual with full authority
 These individuals slowly took authority from the assemblies, made themselves kings
 Each city-state had its own ruler
 The Course of Empire
 As early as 2800 bce, conflict between Mesopotamian city-states often led to war
 In an effort to move beyond constant conflict, a series of conquerors attempted to build empires to establish order after
2350 bce
 Sargon of Akkad
 Creator of empire was Sargon of Akkad
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Organized a coup against the king of Kish (he was his advisor), and conquered the Sumerian city-states one by one and
placed them under his administration
 Empire: A New Form of Political Organization
 Relied on his personal presence to maintain stability
 Traveled with his armies throughout the realm
 Seized control of trade routes and supplies of natural resources
 Needed money to support his army and gov’t
 At the high point of the empire, it embraced all of Mesopotamia
 The empire weakened after generations of rule due to:
 Chronic rebellion
 Invasions by outside forces
 Collapsed by 2150 bce
 Hammurabi and the Babylonian Empire
 Most important later conqueror was the Babylonian King Hammurabi
 The Babylonian Empire dominated Mesopotamia until 1600 bce
 Improved on Sargon’s admin by relying on a central bureaucracy and regular taxation
 Stationed deputies in conquered cities
 Hammurabi’s Laws
 Hammurabi also created stability by providing a code of law
 The code relied on lex talionis, “law of retaliation”
 Punishments resembled the original crime
 The code also relied on an account of social standing
 The first codified and written law code (borrowed much of it from previous kings)
 Despite his advancements, the wealth of Babylon attracted invaders
 The Hittites from Anatolia defeated the Babylonians
 For several centuries, SW Asia was full of turmoil as the areas became part of different empires
 The Later Mesopotamian Empires
 Imperial rule returned to the area with the Assyrians
 Built a powerful army by organizing into units and having professional officers
 Used cavalry and horse-drawn chariots (from Hittites)
 The Assyrian Empire
 After about 1300 bce the Assyrians gradually extended their authority
 Used iron weapons to strengthen their army
 King Ashurbanipal (r. 668-627 bce) ruled over the strongest period of Assyrian domination
 Relied of the admin techniques of Babylon, followed law codes a la Hammurabi
 Created a library that preserved most of the Mesop lit, including the Epic of Gilgamesh
 Assyrian rule was extremely unpopular in the non-core areas, facing rebellions
 A combination of internal unrest and external assault brought the empire down in 612 bce
 Nebuchadnezzar and the New Babylonian Empire
 For half a century (600-550 bce), Nebuchadnezzar reigned as the New Babylonian Empire (Chaldean)
 Created the Hanging Gardens of Babylon
 By this time, Mesopotamia had been overtaken by neighbors in terms of weapons and admin techniques
 Lost control of their own fate by the mid-6h century bce
 The Formation of a Complex Society and Sophisticated Cultural Traditions
 Specialization proliferated as cities emerged
 Mesop economy became diverse, with trade linking the region with distant areas
 Clearly defined social classes emerged as a small group of ppl concentrated wealth and power
 Developed a patriarchal society that created authority in adult males
 Also created sophisticated cultural traditions, beginning with systems of writing
 Economic Specialization and Trade
 Bronze Metallurgy
 One of the most important developments of specialization
 Around 4000 bce, Mesop ppl discovered they could alloy copper with tin to create the stronger bronze
 Had an immediate impact on military affairs- new weapons were more powerful
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 Long-term impact on farming
Iron Metallurgy
 After about 1000 bce, they also began to create iron tools
 Iron metallurgy was made viable by the Hittites and soon spread
 Since iron was much cheaper and a stronger metal, it quickly became the choice for weapons and tools
The Wheel
 The first use of the wheel took place around 3500 bce, w/Sumerians building carts around 3000 bce
 Enabled the transportation of bulk goods over longer distances
 Quickly spread beyond the realm of Mesopotamia
Shipbuilding
 By 3500 bce Mesop had built watercrafts that could go into the Persian
Shipped out: Woolen textiles, leather goods,
Gulf
sesame oil, jewelry to India
 By 2300 bce, were trading with the Harappan society of India via sailing
Received: Copper, ivory, pearls, semiprecious
The Emergence of a Stratified Patriarchal Society
stones from India; silver from Anatolia; gold from
Social Classes
Egypt; tin from Persia; lapis lazuli from
 Agriculture enabled humans to accumulate wealth
Afghanistan
 Created distinctions between the more and less wealthy
 Cities provided even more opportunities for wealth creation due to
specialized labor and long-distance trade
 Ruling classes of kings and nobles won their role due to military success
 Early Sumerian kings considered semi-gods amongst their people
Temple Communities
 Closely allied with the rulers were the priests
 Many times were younger relatives of the rulers
 Intervened with the gods on behalf of their communities to ensure good fortune
 In exchange, they received food, drink, and clothing from the community and lived in the temple
 The temples themselves generated wealth from land and workshops
 B/c of their wealth, the temple dwellers were able to live comfortably
 Served as a place to store wealth and helped finance trade ventures
Free Commoners
 Mostly worked as countryside peasants on land owned by their families
 Some also worked in the cities as artisans
Dependent clients
 Possessed no property
 Worked on land owned by others, paying the owner in crops
 Both free commoners and dependent clients paid taxes that supported the ruling class, temple, and military
 Also provided labor services for large-scale construction projects
Slaves
 Slaves were either prisoners of war, convicted criminals, or indebted individuals who sold themselves into slavery
 Most were domestic servants in wealthy households
 Many were granted freedom after several years of good service
Patriarchal Society
 Mesop built a patriarchal society that gave authority of all affairs, public and private, to adult men
 Decided the work of the family, made marriage arrangements
 Ruled as kings and policy decisions rested in their hands
Women’s Roles
 At ruling courts women sometimes advised kings
 A few women became high priestesses who managed the temple’s enormous wealth
 Some became scribes with a formal education
 Could also pursue certain jobs
 No records of women rulers
The Development of Written Cultural Traditions
 The world’s earliest known writing system came from Mesopotamia
 4th millennium bce, Sumerians created a system of pictographs to track trade and taxes
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Cuneiform Writing
 About 2900 bce, Sumerians developed a more flexible system of writing than pictographs
 Known as cuneiform, “wedge-shaped”
 Inscribed on wet clay tablets that were dried and hardened
 Cuneiform continued for 3000 years
 Education
 Most education was vocational to work in a specific trade or craft
 Established formal schools for writing
 Most from the schools would become scribes or gov’t officials
 Astronomy and Mathematics
 Literacy rapidly expanded knowledge
 Mesop scholars devoted themselves to astronomy and mathematics
 Used for better agricultural production
 Astronomy helped them create accurate calendars, chart the seasons, and create planting schedules
 Math was used to survey farmland and allocate them properly
 Divided the year in 12 minutes
 Created the time system we use today
 The Epic of Gilgamesh
 Used writing to investigate intellectual and religious problems and abstract ideas
 Best known of these is the Epic of Gilgamesh from the Babylonian Empire
 The tales of Gilgamesh and Enkidu explore friendship, relations between humans and gods, and the meaning of life and
inevitability of death
 The Broader Influence of Mesopotamian Society
 Mesop greatly influenced people far beyond the area
 Other peoples adopted their ways selectively and adapted them to their needs
 The broader impact shows that complex farming societies organized around cities had strong potential to influence distant
communities
 Hebrews, Israelites, and Jews
 Best-known of this influence involved Hebrews, Israelites, and Jews who preserved their history in a collection of sacred
writings
 Hebrews spoke the ancient Hebrew language
 Israelites were a branch of Hebrews in Palestine after 1200 bce
 Jews were from southern Israelites who inhabited the kingdom of Judah
 The Early Hebrews
 Earliest Hebrews were pastoral nomads between Egypt and Mesop during 2 nd millennium bce
 Started to settle a little in Mesop while they thrived
 The Hebrew patriarch Abraham was from the Sumerian city of Ur, then migrating to northern Mesop about 1850 bce
 Abraham’s descendants continued to use large aspects of Mesop people- their laws borrowed lex talionis from Hammurabi’s
code
 Also had a devastating flood story, which was a variation of a story from the Epic of Gilgamesh
 Migrations and Settlement in Palestine
 The scriptures do not offer reliable historical accounts, but the memories and interpretations were collected into a body of
writing after 800 bce
 According to this, some Hebrews migrated to Egypt during the 18th century bce; about 1300 bce, they departed under the
leadership of Moses and went to Palestine
 Organized into a loose federation of twelve tribes known as the Israelites; fought bitterly with the other inhabitants of
Palestine, carving out an area for themselves
 Eventually moved from their tribal structure to a Mesop-style monarchy that brought the twelve tribes under unified rule
 During the reigns of King David (1000-970 bce) and King Solomon (970-930 bce), Israelites dominated the area between
Syria and the Sinai peninsula
 Built an elaborate and cosmopolitan city at Jerusalem and entered into diplomatic relations with the neighboring powers
 Moses and Monotheism
 The Hebrew scriptures teach that after Moses, the religious beliefs of Israelites developed along distinct lines
 Early Hebrews had many of the same gods as the Mesop (animism)
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Moses embraced monotheism, teaching that there was only one god, Yahweh, who was the creator and sustainer of the
world
 All other gods were figments of the human imagination
 Built a temple in Jerusalem instead of a ziggurat
 Yahweh was also a personal god, expecting his followers to worship him alone and have ethical standards
 The Ten Commandments were a set of religious and ethical principles that Moses announced to the Israelites
 A detailed legal code after the death of Moses instructed the Israelites to provide relief and protection for widows, orphans,
slaves, and the poor
 The teachings were compiled in a set of holy scriptures known as the Torah which outlined Yahweh’s laws and is role in
creating the world
 Also taught Yahweh punished or rewarded the community as a whole
 Archaeological evidence shows the Israelites maintained communities in central Palestine after 1200 bce, forming several
small kingdoms after 1000 bce
 No indication that Israel conquered all of Palestine, interacting and intermarrying with the other peoples
 Actually honored some of the local gods
Assyrian and Babylonian Conquests
 Israelites placed more emphasis on devotion to Yahweh as they suffered political and military defeats
 After King Solomon, tribal tensions led to a division of the community into the kingdom of Israel in the north and kingdom
of Judah in the south in the land of Judea
 9th century bce, the kingdom of Israel came under pressure from the Assyrians, having to pay tribute to them
 In 722, the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom and deported many of its inhabitants to other regions
 Most of these migrants assimilated and lost their identity
 Judah retained independence temporarily- the New Babylonian Empire defeated the Assyrians, conquered Judah, and
destroyed Jerusalem in 586 bce
 They too were forced to leave, but kept their religious identity and many of them eventually returned to Judaea, becoming
known as the Jews
 Their devotion to Yahweh only intensified in this period of turmoil
 Prophets urged the Israelites to rededicate themselves to the faith; were moral and social critics who blasted their compatriots
for their materialism, their neglect of the needs, and their interest in fertility gods and nature deities; Yahweh would send
conquerors to humiliate them and enslave them (Assyrians and Babylonian conquests as proof)
The Early Jewish Community
 Those who returned to Judea reorganized several small Jewish states as tributaries to the large SW Asian empires post-6th
century bce
 They also built a distinctive religious community based on their special connection with Yahweh, their devotions to the
teachings, and their concern for justice and righteousness
 Enabled the Jews to maintain a strong sense of identity as a people distinct from Mesop and others even as they participated
in the larger complex society of SW Asia
 Would also profoundly influence Christianity and Islam
The Phoenicians
 North of the Israelites’ kingdoms were the Phoenicians on the coastal plain
 They spoke a Semitic language and referred to themselves as Canaanites and their land as Canaan
The Early Phoenicians
 Ancestors of the Phoenicians migrated to the Med coast and settled after 3000 bce
 Series of independent city-states ruled by local kings
 Major cities (Tyre, Sidon, Beirut, Byblos) had major influence over the area; by 10 th century bce Tyre dominated southern
Phoenicia
 For the most part, the Phoenicians were concerned with commercial opportunities rather than state building; often subject to
the Egyptians and Mesopotamians
Phoenician Trade Networks
 The Phoenicians influenced not through military, but through their large maritime trade and communication networks
 Did not have enough land for an agricultural society, so after 2500 bce the Phoenicians turned to industry and trade
 Traded overland with the Mesop and others, providing much of the materials for the temple in Jerusalem
 Soon they began to engage in maritime trade, importing food and raw materials for artisan goods and works of art
 Had a special reputation for brilliant red and purple textiles from mollusk that were from the waters of Phoenicia
 Excellent sailors and best shipwrights of the time
 Dominated Mediterranean trade between 1200 and 800 bce
 Established colonies in Rhodes, Cyprus, Sicily, Sardinia, Spain, and north Africa
 Sailed far in search of raw materials and exotic items
 Took them beyond the Med- went to the Canaries, coastal ports in Portugal and France, and even the British isles
 Went all the way down the west coast of Africa to the Gulf of Guinea
 The Phoenicians largely adopted Mesop cultural traditions
 Each city built temples to its favored deities
 Alphabetic Writing
 For a millennium, the Phoenicians depended on cuneiform to preserve info, compiling a large amount of writings
 By 1500 bce, Phoenician scribes had developed an early alphabetic script of 22 symbols representing consonants (no vowels)
 More people were able to became literate- less time in education to learn an alphabet than thousands of pictures
 Spread widely by the Phoenicians merchants- 9th century bce the Greeks modified it and added vowel symbols
 Romans later adopted the Greek alphabet and passed it along to the European heirs
 Later spread to central Asia, South Asia, SE Asia, and ultimately most of the world
 The Indo-European Migrations
 Mesop and their neighbors frequently dealt with people from regions beyond SW Asia
 Among the most influential were those who spoke Indo-European languages; their migration throughout much of Eurasia
profoundly influenced historical development in SW Asia and the larger world
 Indo-European Origins
 Indo-European languages
 During the 18th-19th centuries, linguists noticed many languages of Europe, SW Asia, and India featured similarities in
vocabulary and grammatical structure
 Included Sanskrit, Old Persian, Greek, and Latin and their modern equivalents
 Because of the geographic area where these languages were found, scholars referred to them as Indo-European languages
 It was inconceivable that these languages independently adopted these structures
 The only persuasive explanation was that all these speakers were descendants of ancestors who spoke a common tongue and
migrated from their homeland
 As the migrants created separate communities, they evolved along different lines while keeping much of their ancestors
vocabulary
 The Indo-European homeland
 The original homeland of Indo-European speakers was probably the steppe region of modern-day Ukraine and southern
Russia, north of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea
 The earliest Indo-European speakers built their society between 4500-2500 bce
 Lived mostly by herding cattle, sheep, and goats, while cultivating barley and millet in small quantities
 Also hunted horses, which flourished in the grassland of the Eurasian steppe
 Horses
 Indo-European speakers were able to domesticate horses around 4000 bce, originally as a source of food before being used
for riding
 By 3000 bce, Sumerian knowledge of bronze metallurgy and wheels had spread to the Indo-Europe homeland
 Soon, they had figured out how to hitch horses to carts, wagons, and chariots
 The possession of horses magnified the power of the Indo-Europeans; once they had domesticated horses, Indo-Europeans
were able to exploit the grasslands of southern Russia
 Also enabled them to develop transportation tech that was much faster
 Finally, provided them with a tremendous military advantage
 Many groups of Indo-Europeans considered themselves superior to others
 Indo-European Expansion and its Effects
 The Nature of Indo-European Migrations
 Horses provided Indo-Europeans with a means of expansion far beyond their homeland
 Experienced a population explosion, prompting some to move into the sparsely inhabited eastern steppe or beyond the
grasslands altogether
 Earliest Indo-Euro society broke up around 3000 bce; intermittent migrations continued until about 1000 ce
 These were mostly small groups migrating resulting in the spread of Indo-European languages and communities, setting the
foundation for further expansion
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The Hittites
 Some of the most influential Indo-European migrants in ancient times were the Hittites
 About 1900 bce they migrated to the plains of Anatolia where they imposed their language and habits on the inhabitants
 During the 17th and 16th centuries, they built a powerful kingdom and built a relationship with Mesop peoples; traded with
Babylon and Assyria, adapted cuneiform to their language, and accepted many of their deities
 In 1595 bce, the Hittites toppled the mighty Babylonian empire, and for several centuries were the dominant power in SW
Asia
 Between 1450-1200 bce, their authority extended to eastern Anatolia, northern Mesop, and Syria down to Phoenicia
 After 1200 bce the Hittite state dissolved, yet the identity survived along with their language
War Chariots
 The Hittites were responsible for two major technological innovations- the construction of horse-drawn war chariots and
the refinement of iron metallurgy- that greatly strengthened their society and profoundly influenced other peoples
throughout much of the ancient world
 About 2000 bce, Hittites fitted chariots with recently invented spoked wheels, much lighter than the Sumerian wheels
 Crucial in their campaign to conquer Anatolia, and the Mesop soon added chariot teams to their armies, and the Assyrians
made effective use of chariots
 Chariots became the elite strike force in armies from Rome to China
Iron Metallurgy
 After 1300 bce, the Hittites refined iron metallurgy, enabling them to produce effective weapons cheaply and in large
quantities
 Cast iron was too brittle for use as tools and weapons; Hittites discovered that by heating iron in a bed of charcoal, then
hammering it, you could forge strong, durable implements
 Hittite methods spread quickly and eventually spread throughout all of Eurasia (Sub-Saharan Africa and China probably
invented iron metallurgy on its own)
 In both of these cases, the Hittites were not the inventor but built on Mesop precedents; owever, their influence and
innovations cannot be understated
Indo-European Migrations to the East
 Some Indo-Europeans went east into central Asia as far as the Tarim Basin by 2000 bce
 Archaeologists in the 1980s discovered burials of individuals with European features in China’s Xinjiang province
 Descendants of these migrants survived in central Asia and spoke Indo-Euro languages until well after 1000 ce; most of them
were eventually absorbed into societies of Turkish-speaking peoples
Indo-European Migrations to the West
 One wave of migrations took them into Greece after 2200 bce, with their descendants moving into Italy by 1000 bce
 By 2300 bce some Indo-Europeans had made their way into central Europe (Germany, Austria), by 1200 bce into western
Europe (France), and shortly after to the British Isles, the Baltic region, and the Iberian peninsula
 These migrants depended on a pastoral and agricultural economy- none of them built cities or organized large states
 For most of the first millennium bce, Indo-European Celtic peoples dominated Europe north of the Med with similar
languages and religions
 They recognized three main social groups: military ruling elite, small group of priests, and a large class of commoners
 Most of the commoners tended to herds and cultivated crops, but some also worked as miners, craftsmen, or producers of
metal goods
 Celtic peoples traded copper, tin, and handicrafts throughout much of Europe
Indo-European Migrations to the South
 Another later wave of migrations established an Indo-European presence in Iran and India
 About 1500 bce, the Medes and Persians migrated into the Iranian plateau, while people known as the Indo-Aryans moved
into northern India
 They herded animals, cultivated grains, and divided themselves into classes of rulers, priests, and commoners
 Unlike the Celts, the Aryans soon built powerful states with their horse-based military tech and possession of iron weapons