Download PP text- L 3-4

Civ IA- PowerPoint text- Lectures 3-4
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Lecture 3- Early (Western) Civilizations
I)
Mesopotamia: basic and empires
II)
Egypt: basic and kingdoms
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IDs:
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Irrigation
Ziggurat
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Human mortality
Cunieform
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“tribute”
Sumerian culture
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Hammurabi
Hittites
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Maat
Memphis
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Pyramids
Middle Kingdom
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Thebes
foundations
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Hyksos
New Kingdom
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“Civilization” and the Urban Revolution:
4 basic components
Political
- irrigation→
organization
Religious
- ancestor worship→
elemental gods
Economic/social
- surplus
- specialization
Cultural
- pictographs
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Urban Revolution- Mesopotamia
Political:
Need for cooperation on irrigation
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The Fertile Crescent
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Mesopotamian irrigation (ca. 4000 BC)
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Sumerian Palace (ca. 1792 BC)
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Urban Revolution- Mesopotamia
Political
Religious:
Elemental gods
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Elemental abstraction: Fertility goddesses
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Urban Revolution- Mesopotamia
Political
Religious:
Elemental
- sun, wind, rain, etc.
Ziggurat and resources
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Examples of Ziggurats
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Urban Revolution- Mesopotamia
Political
Religious:
Supernatural
Ziggurat and resources
Land ownership
Polytheistic
Worship
Human mortality
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Gilgamesh
Epic poem of Mesopotamia
(Excerpts available on MyFranciscan website)
Quest for immortality
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Urban Revolution- Mesopotamia
Political
Religious
Economic/social:
Mostly agricultural
Specialization and surplus
Technology- plows, wheels, etc.
Trade routes
Inventories and writing
- cunieform- “wedge-writing”
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Urban Revolution- Mesopotamia
Political
Religious
Economic/social
Cultural:
Writing - symbolism
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Pictograms- Cuneiform
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Babylonian numbers
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City of Uruk
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Sumerian Empires
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Consolidation and religion: Sumerian gods
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Consolidation and laws:
Hammurabi’s Code
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Spread of the Hittites- c. 1600 BC
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II) Early Egypt
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Egyptian Civilization
C. 4000 BC
Gradual flooding- milder
Politics- Pharoah
Religion- Maat:
- security and balance
Economy- trade
Culture- Hieroglyphics
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Hieroglyphics
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Old Kingdom
Starts c.2800 BC
Pharoah in charge
- “gatekeeper”
Servants
Pyramids
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Zoser’s Pyramid
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The Pyramids at Giza (c. 2575 BC)
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Great Pyramid of Khufu (interior)
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Boat from Khufu’s tomb
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Egyptian View of the Afterlife (for commoners) during the Old Kingdom
“How said the descent in the Land of Silence. The wakeful sleeps, he who did not
slumber at night lies still forever. The scorners say: The dwelling-place of the inhabitants of the West is
deep and dark. It has no door, no window, no light to illuminate it, no north wind to refresh the heart.
The sun does not rise here, but they lie every day in darkness. . . . The guardian has been taken away to
the land of Infinity.
“Those who are in the West are cut off, and their existence is misery, one is loathe to go
to join them. One cannot recount one’s experiences but one rests in one place of eternity in darkness.”
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Old Kingdom
Starts c.2800 BC
Pharoah in charge
- “gatekeeper”
Servants
Pyramids
Ends c. 2200 BC
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Middle Kingdom:
“Intermediate Period”
Middle Kingdom
C. 2050- 1700 BC
Limits on the pharoah
Bureaucracy
Ethics
Religious foundations
Hyksos invasion
c.1720 BC
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The Hyksos Empire
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New Kingdom
(1550-1200 BC)
Expulsion of Hyksos
Egyptian imperialism
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Egyptian Empire during the New Kingdom
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New Kingdom
(1550-1200 BC)
Expulsion of Hyksos
Egyptian imperialism
Attempt to restore absolute rule (Amenhotep IV)
- Tutankamon
General Crisis of the Ancient World (c. 1300 BC)
Lecture 4- The Early Hebrews
I)
Origins and Evidence
II)
Exodus
III)
Invasions and Exile
IDs:
Scriptural history
Oral tradition
textual criticism
Monolatry and monotheism
Abraham
Ishmael
sacrifice
Decalogue
Reconquest
Judges
Debate on kings
Prophets
David and Solomon
Kingdom of Israel
Merneptah Stele
Using the Bible as History
Advantages:
Detailed
Comprehensive
Qualifications:
Time of writing
Symbolic language
Composite work
Documentary hypothesis
“Wellhausen hypothesis”- 1876
Passages written at different times and with different agendas
Four different contributing traditions:
J, or Jahwist
E, or Elohist
P, or Priestly
D, or Deuteronomist
Distinguished through names for God (Yahweh, Elohim, etc.)
Also style, themes, criticisms, subjects
Catholic teaching on documentary hypothesis
"[T]extual criticism ... [is] quite rightly employed in the case of the Sacred Books ... Let the interpreter
then, with all care and without neglecting any light derived from recent research, endeavor to
determine the peculiar character and circumstances of the sacred writer, the age in which he lived, the
sources written or oral to which he had recourse and the forms of expression he employed."
- Encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu, 1943.
Hebrew Origins
Semitic tribes
Abram
Early Hebrew theology
Monolatry
Monotheism
Hebrew Origins
Semitic tribes
Abram
Migration- Hebron
Mesopotamian roots:
Cities
Events
Early law
Abraham and Sarah
Abraham and Hagar
Genesis 21:13
Ishmael
“But the slave girl’s son I will also make into a nation, for he is your child too.”
(Genesis 21:13)
Abraham and Isaac
Canaanite tradition
- sacrifice of 1st-born son
God’s instructions:
New type of sacrifice
Isaac, Abraham, and Jacob
Travel with Hyksos?
Third Egyptian Kingdom
Enslavement
Moses
Exodus
II) Exodus
Moses and Yahweh’s Commandments
The Decalogue and Distinction
Divine nature
New nature of Hebrew God
“Compassionate and gracious, patient, ever constant and true. . . Forgiving wickedness,
rebellion, and sin, and not sweeping the guilty clean away; but who punishes sons and grandsons to the
third and fourth generation for their fathers’ iniquity.”
- Exodus 34:6-7
Contrast with Mesopotamian gods?
The Decalogue and Distinction
Divine nature
- covenant
Absolute law
(ethics)
Social equality
Special protection
“Reconquest” of Canaan
Religion and Violence
"You shall destroy all the peoples ... showing them no pity." (7: 16)
"... All the people present there shall serve you as forced labour." (20:12)
"... You shall put all its males to the sword. You may, however, take as your booty the women, the
children, the livestock, and everything in the town -- all its spoil -- and enjoy the use of the spoil of your
enemy which the LORD your God gives you." (20:14-15)
The Book of Deuteronomy
“And everyone who would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, was to be put to death, whether small or
great, whether man or woman.” 2 Chronicles 12-13
“Reconquest” of Canaan
“Shrine” of the Ark of Covenant
“Reconquest” of Canaan