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Chapter One: The Beginnings of Civilization Mesopotamia Egypt Early Greece Defining “Civilized” • • • • • • Urban life: permanent constructions System of regulatory government Class distinction (wealth and occupation) Tools/skills --> production/trade Written communication Shared system of religious belief ** Not a value judgment! “So-called primitive people can live a fruitful life.” ** Origins of Western Civilization • Paleolithic World View (Old Stone Age) (Began1 million to 1 ½ million years ago and ended around 8000 BCE) • Homo-Erectus– Constant search for food and shelter • Art • Religion • Neanderthal – fist to bury the dead • Neolithic Civilizations (Late Stone Age) (Began around 8,000 BCE) • Domestication of animals • Cultivation of vegetation-Farming • Community • Pottery • War / Weaponry Lascaux, France, Dates: 150,00 to 13,000 BCE Realistic - a bulge on the rock – used to define the hump of an animal, making it more realistic. Venus of Willdendorf, Austria c. 28,000 to 23,000 BCE Mostly women – birth, life, fertility The Bronze Age (3000-1000 B.C.E.) Use of Bronze became widespread Mesopotamia – different people • • • Sumerian (3500-2350 B.C.E.) Semitic (2350-612 B.C.E.) • Egypt – one general group of people, united. • Aegean Cultures – two main groups Sumerian Culture • Agricultural/Urban settlements • “Fertile Crescent” – Tigris/Euphrates Rivers • Writing/record-keeping: Cuneiform • Shared system of religious belief • Civil ruler / Religious rulers Epic of Gilgamesh • Gilgamesh ruled at Uruk (Irak) c. 2700 B.C.E. • FIRST WRITTEN LANGUAGE - Composed in Sumerian (2000 B.C.E.) on cuneiform tablets • Series of Legends - Pessimistic work • Asserts universal questions about human existence • Secretes of Immortality Semitic Culture Semitic – from Shem one of Noah’s sons Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Phoenicians • Akkadian Period • King Sargon and descendants (2350-2150 B.C.E.) • Focus on HUMAN achievement • Gutian (Iran) invasion / return to tradition • Babylonian Legacy • King Hammurabi • Assyrians • Culmination of Mesopotamian culture Mesopotamia Ziggurats – terraces, different from Egyptian pyramids They were temples. This was built in Ur, around 2100 BCE Sumerian Ruler 2100 BCE Steele of Hammurabi – 1780 BCE Sun God dictates law to the King. Below in cuneiform, The Law Code of Hammurabi Fall of Mesopotamia • Medes conquered the Mesopotamians around 612 BCE. • Nomadic warriors • Conquered and absorbed by Persians • Persians • Nomadic warriors • Conquered by Alexander the Great B.C.E.) (330 Ancient Egypt • 31 dynasties / 4 groups: • • • • Old Kingdom (2700 B.C.E.) Middle Kingdom (1990 B.C.E.) New Kingdom (1570 B.C.E.) Late Period (1185-500 B.C.E.) Ancient Egyptian Culture • Unified and consistent • Resistant to change • Worldview affected by external events Political Structure • Pharaoh • • • • Head of the central government Regarded as a living god Exercised absolute power Ordered and controlled visible world • Priests • Preservation of religious beliefs • Divine kingship of Pharaohs Egyptian Religion • Obsession with immortality / life after death • Deities, subdeities, nature spirits • Responsible for all aspects of existence Egyptian Art • Principal function of artists: to produce images of deities (gods) • Form of worship - Standards set forth by Pharaoh • Artists also provided temples and shrines for honoring deities The Old Kingdom • Imhotep • First architect known to history • Pyramids • Funerary monuments for pharaohs, upper class • Mummification • Preservation of the body was necessary for the survival of the soul Great Age of the Pyramid • Pyramids at Giza (Dynasty IV) • Cheops • Chefren • Mycerinus • Who built the pyramids? • Farmers • Slaves Great Sphinx – 2575 to 2525 BCE Akhenaton and Nefertiti and Three of Their Children Around 1370 BCE Queen Nefertiti c. 1355 BCE Death Mask of Tutanhkamen c. 1323 BCE Temple of Ramses 1275 BCE Four Statues – Remses’ Military Achievements Small statues of Mother, Wife and Children Aegean Culture GREEKS • Crete • King Minos / Knossos – excavated in 1899 • Where the Labyrinth that housed Minotaur (half man, half beast – from Minos wife and a bull) • Cyclades Islands • Bronze tools • Imaginative/humorous pottery • Marble statues/idols Cycladic Idol 2500 BCE, Marble The Bronze Age in Crete (Greeks) • Early Minoan • Contacts with Egypt and Mesopotamia • Scattered Towns Middle Minoan • • • • Evolution of large urban centers Art = lively and colorful Little interest in monumental art Writing system of hieroglyphic signs [Image 1.22] Palace of Minos at Knossos [Image 1.25] Wasp Pendant Wasp Pendant Gold – two wasps, Minoan 1700 BCE [Image 1.27] Snake Goddess Snake Goddess From the Palace at Konososs , c. 1600 BCE [Image 1.28] Funerary Mask Funerary Mask 1500 BCE Mycenaean Mycenaean Culture • Heinrich Schliemann, 1870-1873 • The Trojan War (1250 B.C.E.) • Strongly influenced by Minoan Culture • Art = preoccupied with death and war • Fall of the Mycenaean empire (1200 B.C.E.)