Mesopotamia/Egypt 9500 - 1550 BC

Levant

A geographic and cultural region consisting of the eastern Mediterranean between Anatolia and Egypt. It includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan ,Palestine, Israel and the Sinai Peninsula.

Empire

A kingdom or state that controls foreign territories. Because an empire, by definition, brings together different peoples, it serves as a cauldron of cultural encounters that often transform not only the conquered peoples, but also the conquerors themselves.

Ziggurat

A massive, pyramidal, stepped tower upon which a temple dedicated to the chief god or goddess of a Sumerian city was built. It served to remind all inhabitants of the omnipresent gods who controlled their commerce and their very destiny.

Assyrian Empire c. 900 - 612 BCE

Located on the upper Tigris river. A Semitic-speaking people who exploited the use of iron weapons to establish an empire by 700 B.C. Had a great ability to conquer. Used various military tactics and a climate of terror to conquer. Mixed with other peoples. Ashur (Assur) was the capitol city.

Middle Kingdom (2040 - 1720 BCE)

Mentuhotep II reunifies upper and lower Egypt, restores ma'at, moves the capital to Thebes (the sacred city to the god Amon, the supreme sun god) and establishes a vigorous new monarchy based on centralized administration to handle the daily business of government which brought about prosperity and stability. Trade, art and literature flourished. Egypt also built strong armies to defend herself against her neighbors. Egyptian kings forged economic networks with cities in the Levant, Crete, Punt, and Mesopotamia. They had especially strong ties to Nubia.

Technological Innovation

Metallurgy c. 4500 BCE - the art of using fire to shape metal. The plow c. 5000 - 4000 BCE - developed in Mesopotamia and spread to Europe c. 2600 BCE allowed for the expansion of agriculture.

Types of Power

Military, economic, political, religious

The Pyramids

Monuments that reflected Egyptian emphasis on the afterlife. The pyramid contained compartments where the king could dwell in the afterlife in the same luxury he enjoyed during his life on Earth. During the Old Kingdom period King Djoser (c. 2668 - 2649 BCE) built the first pyramid complex near Memphis. The construction of elaborate pyramids, such as the Great Pyramid at Giza, stopped after 2400 B.C.E. probably because of the expense.

Sumer c. 3000 BCE

Nestled between the Tigris and Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia the Sumerian civilization emerged as the people learned to control the rivers for flood protection and crop irrigation through cooperative efforts at building levee and channel systems.

Cuneiform c 3100 BCE

One of the earliest known systems of writing. It emerged in Sumer as a system of pictographs used for record keeping. In time the pictorial representations became simplified and more abstract as the number of characters in use grew smaller. By the 2nd century AD, the script had become extinct. Cuneiform documents were written on clay tablets, by means of a blunt reed for a stylus. The impressions left by the stylus were wedge shaped, thus giving rise to the name cuneiform "wedge shaped."

Re

One of the most important Egyptian deities. Re journeyed across the sky every day in a boat, rested at night, and returned in the morning to resume his eternal journey. By endlessly repeating the cycle of rising and setting, the sun symbolized the harmonious order of the universe that Re established. Re's cosmic journey could continue only if ma'at was maintained.

Amun

Patron deity of Thebes after the rebellion against the Hyksos. Amun acquired national importance expressed in his fusion with the sun god Ra. As Amun-Ra he retained chief importance throughout the New Kingdom as the champion of the poor or troubled and central to personal piety. His position as king of gods developed to the point of virtual monotheism where other gods became manifestations of him. With Osiris, Amun-Ra is the most widely recorded of the Egyptian gods.

Mesopotamian Wisdom Literature

Pessimism pervaded Mesopotamian life. The unpredictable waters of the rivers brought flooding or drought. Windstorms and thunderstorms also ravaged the land. With no natural barriers to invasion Mesopotamians lived in an atmosphere of anxiety which permeated their civilization. Contributing to this sense of insecurity was the belief that the gods behaved capriciously, malevolently, and vindictively. What do the gods demand me? Is it ever possible to please them? Mesopotamians had no reassuring answers to these questions for the god's behavior was a mystery to mere human beings. In this poem the sufferer tries to do everything that he believes that god's want of him but cannot escape misfortune.

Aten

Pharaoh Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV) disliked the power of the temple of Amun and advanced the worship of Aten a deity whose power was manifested in the sun disk. He moved his capital away from Thebes and reestablished it at Akhetaten (Amarna is the archaeological site of the remains of the city), but this abrupt change was very unpopular with the priests of Amun, who now found themselves without any of their former power. The religion of Egypt was inexorably tied to the leadership of the country, the pharaoh being the leader of both. The pharaoh was the highest priest in the temple of the capital, and the next lower level of religious leaders were important advisers to the pharaoh, many being administrators of the bureaucracy that ran the country. When Akhenaten died, the priests of Amun-Ra reasserted themselves. His name was struck from Egyptian records, all of his religious and governmental changes were undone, and the capital was returned to Thebes.

Amorites (old Babylonians)

Semi-nomadic peoples who invaded Mesopotamia from the steppes to the west and north about 2000 BCE which led to the downfall of Ur and gave rise to the kingdom of Babylon under Hammurabi.

Predynastic and Early Dynastic (10,000 - 2680 BCE)

Small, autonomous villages (Nomes) appeared along the banks of the Nile between 5000 - 4000 B.C.E. By 3500 B.C.E. they survived through agriculture, herding and trading which fostered a shared culture. By 3000 B.C.E. towns had merged into two kingdoms: Upper Egypt in the south and Lower Egypt in the north under King Narmer to form the Old Kingdom.

Enuma Elish - The Babylonian Genesis

The Mesopotamian poem of creation. Marduk the chief god of Babylon challenges Tiamat, the goddess of oceanic waters, to combat and destroys her. He then rips her corpse into two halves with which he fashions the earth and the skies. Marduk then creates the calendar, organizes the planets and stars, and regulates the moon, the sun, and weather. Marduk then creates humankind to do the work for the gods.

Paleolithic Age to 10,000 BCE

The Paleolithic Age is the prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the development of stone tools and covers roughly 99% of human technological prehistory. Humans grouped in bands, and subsisted by hunting and gathering. They began to produce art and engage in religious and spiritual behavior. No settled existence.

The beginning of food production c. 8000 BCE

The first food-producing communities emerged in southwest Asia: the Fertile Crescent, northern Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Anatolia (Turkey).

Enkidu's dream about the condition of the dead

The people sit in darkness. Dust is their food and clay is their meat. They are clothed like birds, they see no light, they sit in darkness. Those who once were kings are now like servants.

Second Intermediate Period 1650 -1550

The second time Egypt fell into disarray. It is best known as the period when the Hyksos invaded lower Egypt. The Hyksos and the Canaanite immigrant community from which they emerged brought with them into Egypt the ability to make bronze which meant new possibilities in agriculture, craft production, and war (the horse drawn chariot, compound bow).

The consolation Siduri and Utnapishtim offer Gilgamesh.

They tell Gilgamesh that he will never find eternal life. Rather he should fill his belly with good things, dance and be merry, cherish little children, and make his wife happy for this too is the lot of man.

Ma'at

Truth, wisdom, justice, stability. Ma'at was the way the gods had made the world -everything in its proper place, everything the way the gods wanted it to be. The king's essential task was to maintain ma'at, to keep things in order and harmony. Ma'at is represented by a feather.

Chaldeans (New Babylonians) c. 605 -562 BCE

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Osiris, Isis and Horus

A mythical god (god of the afterlife, underworld, the dead), brother and husband of Isis, and the posthumous father of Horus, who was killed and chopped into bits by his evil brother Seth. Isis brings him back to life and becomes pregnant by him before he dies yet again. Isis later gives birth to Horus. Horus then avenges his father by defeating Seth and reclaiming the Egyptian throne. All Egyptian Kings, then, embodied Horus during their reign. Horus is portrayed as a falcon. This story emphasizes the divinity of the King and the central theme of the Egyptian world view: the struggle between the forces of chaos and order. In defeating Seth, Horus overcame chaos and restored ma'at to the world.

ka, ba

A protective and guiding spirit which each person was thought to have, life-force; personality

First Intermediate Period 2181- 2155 BC

About this time the Old Kingdom state collapsed. Egypt simultaneously suffered political failure and environmental disaster. One cause of this decline was the rise in power of the provincial nomarchs. As their positions became hereditary they held onto power in their respective provinces and grew increasingly powerful, influential, and more independent from the king. The end of this period occurs when Mentuhotep II reunites lower and upper Egypt under a single ruler. During this period the Egyptians developed the concept of a final judgment - those deemed righteous would live like gods in the afterlife.

Hymn to Aton

Aknenaten's glorification of Aton whose gifts to mankind include: life itself, food, creator of seed in women and makes fluid into men, maintains life in the womb, gives breath to all that are made, supplies all the necessities, and sets everyone in their place.

Culture

All the ways humans adjust to their environment, organize their experiences, and transmit their knowledge to future generations. It is a web of interconnected meanings that enable individuals to understand themselves and their place in the world.

Pharaoh Amenhotep IV 1369 -1353 BCE

Also known as Akhenaten (son of Aton the sun god). His divinity approached monotheism.

Book of the Dead

An Egyptian funerary text used from the beginning of the New Kingdom that consists of a number of magic spells intended to assist a dead person's journey through the Duat or underworld and into the afterlife.

Mesopotamia c. 3100 - 1500 BCE

An ancient region in west Asia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, now part of Iraq, in which city-states and empires were formed (Sumer to Babylon) which ultimately gave rise to Western civilization. Bronze age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the Akkadian Babylonian and Assyrian empires. Intellectual development in the form of writing, astrology / divination, mathematics.

Civilization

An urban culture with differentiated levels of wealth, occupation, and power. Cities, warfare, writing, social hierarchies and advanced arts and crafts.

Foundations of Civilization Timeline

150k years ago Modern humans appear in Africa 45k Humans spread through Africa, Asia, and Europe 15k Ice Age ends 11k Food production begins in southwest Asia 9.5 - 3k Settled villages, domesticated plants and animals, trade appear in Mesopotamia, Anatolia and Egypt

Civilization in Egypt Timeline

2680 Earliest pyramids built; Old Kingdom emerges 2200 Collapse of the Old Kingdom; First Intermediate Period begins 2040 Mentuhotep II reunites Egypt; Middle Kingdom begins 1720 Disintegration of the Middle Kingdom; Second Intermediate Period begins 1650 Hyksos rule begins 1550 Ahmose I expels the Hyksos; New Kingdom begins 1480 Hatshepsut rules as female pharaoh 1351 Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten) monotheism, Aten worshipped as the only god 1150 Collapse of the New Kingdom

Hammurabic Code c. 1750 BCE

282 laws developed by the Babylonian king, Hammurabi in an effort to present a social ideal of justice. They are the world's oldest complete compendium of law. Many of the laws focused on the irrigation system that made agriculture possible. The code reflected the social hierarchy by drawing legal distinctions between classes of people (freemen, common people, and slaves). The code emphasized the responsibility of public officials and carefully regulated commercial transactions. There is a strong focus in the code on family matters and the patriarchal structure of society. The code introduced the idea that the punishment must suit the crime. Women were not devoid of all legal rights.

Mesopotamia Timeline

3500 BC Cities growing across Mesopotemia 3000 Sumer 2300 Sumerian cities united by King Sargon of Akkad 2000 Ur destroyed by Amorites 1800 Hammurabi unites much of Mesopotamia 1200 Assyrians conquer much of Mesopotamia 1000 Assyrians begin reconquest of Mesopotamia 600 Assyria destroyed by Chaldeans Babylon rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar II 500 Mesopotamia becomes part of the Persian empire

Uruk

A Sumerian city hailed as "the first city in human history." Population 50k in a 10 mile radius. An economic center for crafts and long distance trade. Based on a redistributive economy in which agricultural resources were redistributed for labor and trade.

New Kingdom (1550 - 1150 BCE)

As a result of the rule of the Hyksos, Egypt attempted to create a buffer between the Levant and itself attaining its greatest territorial extent. The new Kingdom also expanded far south into Nubia and held wide territories in the Near East including Palestine and Syria. This period saw the expansion of Egypt's army and resulted in a peak in Egypt's power and wealth. They believe that forces of chaos resided in foreign lands where the Pharaoh had not yet imposed his will and that it was their responsibility to crush these people and bring order to the world. Pharaoh became the form of address for the person who was king and they were all buried in the same geographic area called the valley of the King's. During this time Amenhotep IV (who changed his name to Akhenaten) worshipped Aten exclusively and thereby introduced monotheism.

Nomes and Nomarch

Autonomous city states which later began to unify. At the head of each nome stood a nomarch. The position was at times hereditary. When the national government was strong, nomarchs were the king's appointed governors. When the central government was weak - such as during foreign invasions or civil wars - individual nomes would assert themselves. Conflicts between these different hereditary nomarchies were common during the First Intermediate Period - a time that saw a breakdown in central authority, until one of the local rulers was once again able to assert control over the entire country as pharaoh.

Bronze Age c 4,000 - 1,000 BCE

Between the Stone Age and the Iron Age, characterized by the use of weapons and implements made of bronze (copper alloyed with tin). In addition the period continued development of writing and other features of urban civilization. Cities, professional classes (soldier, scribe, politician), intensive agriculture and long distance trade.

Akkadian Empire c. 2350 - 2200 BCE / Sargon

Centered in the city of Akkad and surrounding regions in Mesopotamia it united all the indigenous Akkadian speaking Semites and the Sumerian speakers under one rule. A cultural symbiosis developed between the Sumerians and the Semitic Akkadians The Akkadian Empire reached its political peak between the 24th and 22nd centuries BC, following the conquests by its founder Sargon of Akkad (2334-2279 BC). Akkad is regarded as the first empire in history.

Civilization Checklist

Cities, warfare, writing, social hierarchies, advanced arts and crafts.

Egypt: Distinctive Features

Depended for its survival on the northerly flowing Nile River and the fertile delta where it enters the Mediterranean. The floods which deposited the silt in the delta, ideal for growing crops, occurred predictably between July and August. Egypt was securely located between two dessert regions that barricaded it from foreign conquest. The stability of Egyptian history helps to explain the confidence and optimism of its culture.

Vizier

During the new Kingdom Egypt amassed a vast empire that was maintained with administrative skill and diplomatic innovation. The administrators of upper and lower Egypt called Viziers raised taxes, drafted men to fight in the army and work on the pharaohs building projects. He also decided when to open the canal locks on the Nile, supervised the treasury and the warehouses into which produce was paid as taxes.

Hieroglyphics

Egypt was a redistributive economy. The job of keeping track of the king's possessions and supervising food production fell to scribes who were trained in hieroglyphic writing. Hieroglyphs represent both sound (as in our alphabet) and objects as in a pictoral system. Scribes had great power in the kingdom.

Scarab

Egyptians began to see the final judgment as a problem. How could one enjoy life and yet be assured of living like a god for eternity? To be sure that they pass the final judgment Egyptians had themselves buried with a special scarab. This small figure of a dung beetle carried a magic incantation that prevented the heart from testifying against the individual in the final judgment. It was a kind of false weight, a finger on the scales, a way to deceive the gods and ensure passage to the afterlife.

Growth of Civilization

Evolved through agriculture and animal domestication during the Neolithic Age and led to settled forms of communities and thus to civilization itself. This in turn led to interaction among communities and thus to trade and the spread of ideas and technology.

Epic of Gilgamesh c. 2000 BCE

Gilgamesh is the legendary king of Uruk. Part god and part man Gilgamesh harasses his subjects and they beg the gods to distract him. They send in Enkidu to fight Gilgamesh. After the fight they become best friends and battle monsters and outwit the gods. After Enkidu's death Gilgamesh sets out to find the secret to living forever. In the end immortality eludes him. Now a mere mortal he becomes a wiser king. He realizes that he must die but that his fame may live on so he seeks to leave behind him his magnificent city that will live forever in human memory. The story demonstrates the Mesopotamian world view on the capriciousness of the gods, the hostility of nature and the unpredictability of human existence. It offers no hope of heaven only resignation to life's unpredictability and the chance of finding some sort of reward during one's short time here.

Gilgamesh's reaction to Enkidu's death

Gilgamesh wept over Enkidu and then began to rage. Gilgamesh caused all the people of Uruk to weep. He then let his hair grow long and lamented for seven days and seven nights.

Old Kingdom (2680 - 2200 BCE)

Immediately follows the unification of Lower and Upper Egypt c. 3100 BC. It was a period of internal security and prosperity. In the capital city of Memphis the Egyptian kings became the focal point of religious, social and political life. They were acknowledged as devine; gods on earth who ruled on behalf of the other gods. During this period the pyramids were constructed.

Neolithic Revolution c. 10,000 - 4,000 BCE

Latest part of the stone-age beginning in the middle-east (but later elsewhere) during which human interaction with nature led to food production through crop cultivation and domestication of animals. Advent of settled communities and the development of religion, trade, record keeping (writing).