Chapter 2 Early Civilizations

Levant

refers to areas adjacent to the eastern Mediterranean; in the ancient world, it comprised roughly the area from southern Anatolia through coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean south and westward to the Egyptian delta

divine kingships

right to even more power and access to resources, power that they legitimized by claiming special relationships with, or even descent from, gods

What are the legacies of Ancient Egypt?

stone-carving techniques, hieroglyphics, the use of papyrus, their knowledge of the length of a solar year, and their construction methods, influenced the ancient world and still inspire awe. -ability to produce agricultural surpluses

prophets

teachers, who spoke on behalf of god and set moral and ethical standards for the whole community.

Aten

one of many deities worshipped during the Middle Kingdom, was elevated to the creator god associated with sunlight, the foundation of all life

Valley of Kings

pharaohs and Egyptian elites preferred burial site that was located across the Nile River from Thebes

ostraca

pieces of broken pottery and chips of limestone, for less formal notes and communications

Nebuchadnezzar II

- Nebuchadnezzar II, who ruled from 605 - 562 BCE, was a ruthless leader. -gained notoriety for destroying the city of Jerusalem and deporting many of the city's Jews to Babylon. -rebuilt Babylon with fortresses, temples, and enormous palaces.

Describe how the Israelites and their traditions have been influential.

- a "golden age," associated with the creation of a unified, wealthy state with its new capital in Jerusalem -well-developed religious traditions, political power vested in a king, monumental architecture, and administrative innovations - maintained a strong military, multiple tributary states, long-distance trade networks, and well-established diplomatic relationships with foreign states.

pyramids

- contained tombs for the pharaohs and their wives -marvels of engineering, built on a massive scale to honor the pharaohs and usher them into the afterlife.

Kerma

- endured in Upper Nubia for almost a thousand years. -people lived in smaller villages -developed industries, especially in mining, metalworking, and pottery - linked interregionally through trade to its tributary villages, to dynastic Egypt, and to sub-Saharan Africa -oversee river trade

Assyrian Empire

- saw its height of power at the end of the first millennium to the seventh century BCE, was larger than any empire that preceded it -had a large army (with perhaps as many as 150,000 soldiers) that utilized a core of infantry, a cavalry, as well as chariots

Amarna Period

-1350 to 1325 BCE, stands out for its state-sponsored monotheism. -The prominence of Aten and Akhenaten's exclusive access to him

New Kingdom

-1530 BCE -saw an era of Egyptian imperialism, changes in the burial practices of pharaohs, and the emergence of a brief period of state-sponsored monotheism under the Pharaoh Akhenaten.

How did the United Kingdom of Israel develop and who were its key leaders?

-King Saul -Kind David -Solomon

Sumerians

-a temple complex or a ziggurat was usually the visual focus of the urban landscape. -In addition to attending to the religious needs of the community, temples complexes also owned land, managed industries, were involved in trade, and acted as banks. believed that their entire city belonged to its main deity, and built a massive temple, the most important building in the city, to be the dwelling place of their city's main god or goddess.

cuneiform

-a written script of wedge shaped marks, around 3200 BCE -one of the earliest, if not the very first, written script in the world

Old Kingdom

-construction of pyramids -increased trade and remained a relatively peaceful period -did not have a standing army and faced few foreign military threats. -extension of the pharaoh's power, especially through the government's ability to harness labor and control trade.

Nile River

-flows south to north, fed by two main river systems: the White Nile and the Blue Nile -

Describe the major innovations of the New Kingdom

-large standing army -expansive empire - -newfound perspective on the afterlife which was not just associated with pharaohs and kings but for all

Explain why the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers were significant for ancient Mesopotamians

-provided rich and fertile soil -provided water to the regions -supported agricultural surpluses and population growth -facilitated trade

What continuities were evident throughout Dynastic Egypt?

-relative equality of women and men -Egypt had stable population numbers, -consistent social stratification, pharaohs—who exercised significant power -a unifying religious ideology, which linked the pharaohs to the gods.

Middle Kingdom

-reorganization of the state's bureaucratic apparatus to control -access to more trade goods, and the organization of trade shifted so that professional merchants took a leading role in developing new trade routes. - administrative reorganization -military expeditions -state's infrastructural repair.

What does the Epic of Gilgamesh tell scholars about Mesopotamian values, views of the environment, and conceptions of the afterlife?

-the epic describes a very gloomy afterlife where "people see no light, they sit in darkness," - reflecting Mesopotamian beliefs that the afterlife was miserable for all, even those who had lived virtuously. -it portrays the environment as potentially violent and hostile as in its flood story

Mesopotamia

An ancient region of south-western Asia in present-day Iraq, lying between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Its alluvial plains were the site of the civilizations of Akkad, Sumer, Babylonia, and Assyria.

Exodus

God tasked Moses with leading his people out of Egypt, a flight to freedom

How did Sargon of Akkad attempt to bring together and control the people within their realms?

He had statues, stellae (tall, upright pillars), and other monuments built throughout his realm to celebrate his military victories and to build a sense of unity within his empire.

Explain the central beliefs of Judaism that are evident in the early written tradition

The ideas that there is a single, universal god and that his laws apply to everyone have been defining tenets of other monotheistic religions. -Subsequent written and oral traditions, like the Talmud, reflect further development of Jewish beliefs, ethics, laws, and practice.

How did the Nile River and the region's climate and geography influence the development of Egyptian civilization?

The winds also blow north to south, in the opposite direction of the river flow, thus facilitating trade and contact between Upper Egypt (to the south) and Lower Egypt (to the north) -The course of the Nile River definitely impacted settlement patterns, while the river also allowed for trade and the development of larger agricultural communities.

Compare the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt.

These civilizations had common elements, including food surpluses, higher population densities, social stratification, systems of taxation, labor specialization, regular trade, and written scripts.

empire

a large territory, encompassing numerous states, ruled by a single authority

Meroe

a location with well-watered farmland and some distance between it and Egypt

Sumerian Kings List

a manuscript that listed early kings and described their reigns

Meroitic

a new locally created written script replaced the use of Egyptian Hieroglyphics by 300 BCE.

diaspora

a scattered people who desire to return to their homeland

ziggurat

a solid rectangular tower made of sun-dried mud bricks.

Kush

ancient kingdom in Nubia, located at the confluences of the Blue Nile, White Nile and River Atbara in what are now Sudan and South Sudan. -

How did King Hammurabi attempt to bring together and control the people within their realms?

associating him with justice his code of law also attempted to unify people within the empire and establish common standards for acceptable behavior

Describe Egypt's intermediate periods.

characterized by political upheaval and military violence, the latter often at least partially resulting from foreign invasions

Which characterizations of civilizations were seen in Ancient Egypt?

cleared trees and built dykes, canals, and early irrigation systems -used these methods to quadruple the amount of cleared, arable land and could support population densities of up to one thousand people per square mile. -separate burials for the settlement's elite, the oldest known painted tomb -remnants of a large-scale brewery, capable of -claiming control over the environment as rainmakers or commanders of the floods

Hammurabi's code

collection of 282 laws. One particularly influential principle in the code is the law of retaliation, which demands "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." The code listed offenses and their punishments, which often varied by social class.

desiccation

drying out of areas not adjacent to the Nile River

civilization

idealized images of ancient empires, monumental architecture, and the luxurious lives of ruling classes.

cataracts

impassable by boat due to their shallows, rocks, and rapids.

covenant

indicating their special relationship with God, and it remains one of the most important aspects of the Jewish faith

The Ten Commandments

list of rules instructing the Israelites to worship only him, keep the Sabbath, and honor their parents. The -also prohibit idolatry, blasphemy, murder, adultery, theft, dishonesty, and coveting.

Western Deffufa

made of mud-bricks, which likely served as a temple.

city-states

the basic organizational structure of Sumerian civilization in the third millennium BCE where urban centers were able to draw on more resources.

monotheism

the belief in one God

Nubia

the city where the Egyptian army had also pushed into taking Kush southward to the fourth cataract of the Nile River - site of an early civilization

Describe the legacies of the civilization in ancient Mesopotamia

these empires brought together diverse communities, often by military conquest and force. The empires facilitated trade, and spread ideas and culture. Their rulers developed administrative, military, and other techniques to try to ensure compliance and recognition of their authority.

Explain the significance of pyramids

to emphasize their relationship to the divine and facilitate their ascent to the gods after their earthly deaths

polytheistic

to worship multiple gods or goddesses

Palette of Narmer

used to date the unification of Egypt, shows signs that King Narmer legitimized his rule, in part, by claiming a special relationship with the gods

Hieroglyphics

written text, combining pictograms (a pictorial symbol for a word or phrase) and phonograms (a symbol representing a sound), during the period of unification.