Download First Civilizations: Africa and Asia 3200BCE – 500BCE

First Civilizations:
Africa and Asia
3200BCE – 500BCE
Babylonian Lion
City-States of Ancient Sumer
I. Geography of the Fertile
Crescent
- Mesopotamia – “between
the rivers” area with
terrible floods
- The Epic of Gilgamesh –
narrative poem where a
great flood destroyed
(4,900 yrs ago flood
evidence)
- 3200BCE – Sumerian
Cities emerge (south) –
clay bricks were building
blocks for the cities.
- Sea and river traders and
land traders (invented
wheeled vehicles!).
II. Sumerian Civilization
- The ruler was in charge of
maintaining city-walls and
irrigation systems, leading armies,
leading religious ceremonies,
serving gods, and enforcing laws.
- Scribes collected taxes and kept
records.
- Hierarchy – system of social ranks
(ruling family, officials, priests –
merchants, artisans – peasant
farmers, slaves).
- Women shifted from honored and
independent to dependent on
men, but kept some rights such as
trading and property ownership.
- Gods were polytheistic that acted
like humans (ate, married, had
families).
- To keep gods happy, each city built
a ziggurat (pyramid temple) for
ceremonies and sacrifices.
- Afterlife was seen as a pessimistic
place (dust, mud, blackness).
III. Advances in Learning
- Writing – Cuneiform –
wedge shaped marks
on clay tablets used
for goods records
and became more
complex for poems,
treaties, contracts,
etc.
- Scribes/scholars
developed basic
algebra and
geometry, hour
system, 360 degrees
system, and
calendars.
- Passed on culture and
developments to
Greece and Rome!
Invaders, Traders, and Empire
Builders
I. Ruling a Large Empire
- 2300 BCE – Sargon of Akkad
(middle) invaded Sumer – first
empire!
- The empire died with Sargon but he
started a movement to unite all of
Mesopotamia under one ruler.
- 1790 BCE – Hammurabi of Babylon
united much of Meso. – created
the Code of Hammurabi (300
laws on a stone pillar) – first to
codify laws (set down in writing).
- Criminal law – eye for an eye, life
for a life!
- Civil law (private rights) – protect
the powerless (women and
children)
- Hammurabi also improved irrigation,
trained an army, encouraged God
(Marduk) over all other gods.
II. Warfare and the Spread of
Ideas
- Conquerors uprooted the defeated and
helped to spread ideas!
- 1400 BCE – Hittites moved into
Mesopotamia and learned to extract
iron from ore to make cheaper,
stronger, and more weapons than
others – tried to hide their discovery
- 1200BCE – secret is revealed and
brings about the Iron Age!
- 1100 BCE – Assyrians became fiercest
warriors with a well-organized
society.
- Women were confined and heavily
clothed, extensive laws of lifestyles,
and huge palaces were built.
- King Assurbanipal – first library with a
collection of stone cuneiform tablets.
- 612 BCE – Nebuchadnezzar revived
Babylonian empire – built the
Hanging Gardens to please his
homesick wife.
Hanging Garden of Babylon
III. Persian Empire
- 539 BCE – Cyrus the Great
conquered Asia Minor to India and
promoted tolerance (respect all
customs and traditions in the
empire).
- 522-486 BCE – Darius set up
satraps (governor of a province).
- Moved from a barter to money
economy (use of coins or bills for
payment).
IV. Phoenician Sea Traders
- Became known for manufacturing
and trade – glass, purple (tyrian)
dye.
- To promote trades, they set up
colonies (territory settled and
ruled by people from another
place).
- known as Carriers of Civilization! –
came up with the first alphabet
(22 consonant sounds/symbols).
Ancient Kingdoms of the Nile
I. Geography of the Nile River
- “Gift of the Nile” – without the
Nile, Egypt would be swallowed
up by desert
- Nile flows from south to northYearly Floods
- Rain in the spring at the source of
the Nile in Central Africa caused
a yearly flood of the Nile.
- The yearly flood covered the land
with silt (nutrient rich soil)
- Upper Egypt – located in the
South, stretched from the first
cataract (waterfall) to within 100
miles of the Mediterranean
- Lower Egypt covers the delta
region
- Delta – a triangular region of
marshland formed by deposits
of silt at the mouth of the river
- Menes, king of Upper Egypt,
united Upper and Lower Egypt
II. Old Kingdom (2700 BCE –
2200
BCE)
- Pharaohs – Egyptian rulers often
thought to be a god
- Pharaohs in the Old Kingdom
organized a strong central
government
- Pharaoh’s job to instill justice and
order
- Vizier – chief minister who advised
the Pharaoh about official matters
A. Pyramids
- Built at Giza during Old Kingdom
- Great Pyramid was tallest structure
in world until Eiffel Tower was built
around 4000 years later
- Pyramids symbolized the wealth of
Ancient Egypt because of the
cost, resources, and organization
it took to construct
- Farmers often worked on the
Pyramids when not
planting/harvesting
III. Middle Kingdom (2050 BCE –
1800 BCE)
- Power struggle, crop failure, and
cost of pyramids led to fall of Old
Kingdom
- Characterized by inconsistent floods
from the Nile and turbulent politics
IV. New Kingdom (1550 BCE – 1100
BCE)
- At height of New Kingdom, empire
stretched to the Euphrates River
- Hatshepsut was a woman who
ruled as Pharaoh from 1583 BCE
– 1482 BCE
- Ramses II was the most powerful
ruler of the New Kingdom and
during his reign Egypt enjoyed
great wealth and prosperity as
well as military conquests.
- After Ramses II died, Egypt went
into decline and fell to invaders
from Assyria, Persia, Greece, and
Rome.
V. Egypt and Nubia
- Nubia (also known as
Kush) bordered
Egypt to the south
and the two empires
were trading partners
and also fought each
other occasionally.
- During a 100 year
period, Nubia even
conquered Egypt.
Egyptian Civilization
I. Egyptian Religion
- Amon-Re – The chief god of
the sun.
- Pharaoh was closely linked
to the sun god and was the
only one who could
conduct ceremonies to
Amon-Re
- Osiris – Murdered by brother
Set
- Isis – Wife of Osiris
- Set – God who murdered his
brother, Osiris
- Horus – Falcon headed god
- Anubis - Jackal headed god
- Ankh – a cross like symbol
that symbolized good
health
II. Belief in Afterlife
- After death, the soul would be
tested by Osiris. Osiris would
weigh the heart (thought to be
the soul in Ancient Egypt)
would be weighed against a
feather (which was the symbol
of truth and justice). If the
scale balanced, the soul would
pass on to the afterlife, if there
was imbalance, the soul would
face annihilation
- Mummification – the
preservation of the dead
- People were often buried with
objects they would need for the
afterlife
- Mummification was very
expensive and typically
reserved for Pharaohs or those
who could afford the process.
III. Egyptian Society
- Most Egyptians were
farmers, who in the offseason would serve the
Pharaoh as builders or
warriors.
- Egypt grew in trade,
artisanship, and warfare
with other cities – both
brought new ideas,
money, and riches
(jewelry, furniture, and
fabrics).
- Women – could inherit
property, enter business
deals, buy and sell
goods, obtain a divorce,
work outside the home
(textiles, priests), etc.
IV. Egyptian Learning
- Hieroglyphics – picture writing
on stone that became more
complex (from pictograms to
ideograms - symbolized
actions or ideas).
- Then they moved to demotic
(simpler, everyday writing
style) on papyrus (Nile based
plant).
- Rosetta Stone – Greek,
demotic, and hieroglyphic on
one black stone that helped
decipher the languages.
- Decoded in the early 1800’s by
Jean Champollion – helps us
read all Egyptian artifacts now.
- Skilled in medicine through
mummification (knew how the
body worked)
- Also, developed a calendar
(similar to ours) and
mathematics (pyramids).
V. Arts and Literature
- Paintings –bodies
forward and eyes
looking sideways
with pharaohs
larger.
- Architecture –
Pyramids, Great
Sphinx, Karnack
(Romans).
- Literature – hymns,
prayers, proverbs
to Gods, poems,
folk tales (The Tale
of Sinuhe).