Sumerians

1
Sumerians

• Politically organized in city-states circa 2500
  BCE
• Warrior-kings, temple priests ruled the rest of
  the population/distributed wealth
• Built large irrigation chanels
• Viewed themselves as particularly favoured by
  Gods among many other peoples

2
Sumerian Religion

• Tall buildings-- ZIGGURATS-- dedicated to Gods
• Each city had her own God and wars were waged in
  his/her name
• Great sums of money were give to temples as
  sacrifice

3
The Epic of Gilgamesh

• The first account of the story of the Great Flood
• Told in Sumerian originally but later spread
  amongst other peoples/languages
• About Sumerian beliefs on proper behaviour, human
  limitations and possibilities and immortality

4
Sumerian contributions to culture/science

• The Wheel, including the potters wheel
• Cuneiform writing
• Math counting system using 60 in multiples of
  ten, e.g. for measuring time lunar calendar.
• Great architects/engineers ziggurats, palaces,
  irrigation channels
• Astrology

5
Akkadians

• 3000 BCE migrated from the Levante to Mesopotamia
• Spoke a Semitic language but absorbed many
  culture featres of Sumerians a Sumero-Akkadian
  culture emerged
• 2340 BCE Sargon (the ture king) united Sumerian
  city-states and other peoples of the area between
  Eastern Mediterranean cost and the Persian Gulf,
  creating the first multi-ethnic empire
• 2220 the Empire at its largest revolts by the
  subjected peoples to re-gain their independence

6
Akkadians (cont.)

• The Ruler as a semi-divine being (a practice
  borrowed from Sumerians), and became deified
  after his death
• New ways of raising finances to keep the empire
  taxation of the subjects, leasing of land, import
  taxes on raw materials coming from foreign lands
• LONG DISTANCE TRADE was given great emphasis and
  attention tradesmen linked lands between India
  and Southern Arabia
• C. 2100 BCE A Sudden and chaotic downfall of the
  Empire

7
The city of Ur

• A new dynasty united Sumerian cities 2112-2095
  BCE
• Centralized administration/taxation, control of
  long-distance trade
• Ur-Nammu complied the first collection of laws in
  Mesopotamia Concern for care and social justice
  to poorer subjects
• Elaborate temples, sacrifices to Gods, the king
  as God
• 2000 BCE Amorite invasion ended the Ur-Nammu
  dynasty and empire

8
Assyrians

• 2000 BCE established Ashur -- the first Assyrian
  city on the upper Tigris
• Spoke a semitic language related to Akkadian
• International trade -- the backbone of economy
• Bronze-making
• Assyrians controlled trade in metals between
  Anatolia, Messopotamia and S.W. Asia
• Detailed recordings of commercial dealings
• An assembly of leading merchants held great power
  over economic and political matters
• Assyrian Kings power limited to religious
  functions, system of justice, irrigation works,
  walls and other public projects
• 1762 BCE conquered by HAMMURABI

9
Hammurabi and the Babylonian Empire

• King HAMMURABI 1792-1750 BCE gained control of
  the entire Mesopotamia due to his extremely
  careful diplomatic moves
• The Law Code of Hammurabi the most complete
  earliest full law code surviving in history
• Contained 282 articles deals with economic life
  (irrigation often cited) class distinctions
  property laws, etc.
• Punishment must be commensurate with the crime
• A wealthy, free upper class, not tied to the king
  or temples merchants, sailors, farmers, enjoying
  a unique status in all of ancient Mesopotamia
• KING-the most important person in the Empire
• 1500 BCE the Empire collapsed, partially due to
  heavy taxes and popular discontent

10
EGYPT

• FOUR PERIODS
• Pre-dynastic 10,000-3000 BCE
• The Old Kingdom 3000-2000 BCE
• The Middle Kingdom 2040-1785 BCE
• The New Kingdom 1600-1100 BCE
• Intermediate periods times of turmoil, chaos and
  political disruption between dynastic periods.

11
THE NILE

• The most important geographical,
  economic/agricultural, cultural and ideological
  component of the Egyptian life

12
Pre-Dynastic Egypt

• 5000-4000 BCE first villages/settlements around
  the Nile
• 3500 BCE fully settled
• Collapes of ecological balance people pushed to
  farm ever nearer to the Nile
• A very wealthy class emerges the importance of
  lineage
• First practicies of mummification
• A Professional merchant class (along the Nile
  river) a shared, common culture, but constant
  wars between rulers of city-states along the
  river.
• 3000 BCE two major kingdoms Upper and Lower
• 3100 King Narmer united the two Kingdoms into
  one Old Kingdom started

13
The Old Kingdom 3000-2200 BCE

• Memphis the new capital
• The Egyptian King the focal point of social,
  religious and political life
• Semi-divine kingship literate bureaucracy
  (scribes) centralized taxation long-distance
  trade
• The King is God his presence reassured the
  Eyptians of divine order and protected against
  disorder and destruction
• Scribes years of learning but great power once
  there, keeping records and running the
  bureaucartic machine
• Papyrus
• Priests from wealthy families owned great
  estates, including those of temples had great
  political power

14
Religion

• Polytheistic
• Some important deities
• Ra the Sun God
• Apopis the evil serpent
• The King, who shared in Ras divine nature,
  ensured that justice ruled
• Osiris god of the dead but also of resurrection,
  symbols of natural cycle, the cyle of the Nile
• Great emphasis on the afterlife Pyramids

15
Pyramids

• C. 2800 BCE tombs for the kings, including
  objects, attendants, women, etc. buried along for
  the afterlife
• C. 2689 new architectural experiments the
  pyramide structures
• King Djoser (founder of the Old Kingdom) built
  the first pyramid Step Pyramid (6 steps to
  heaven)
• 2600 BCE the Pyramide of Cheops at Giza (the
  greatest)
• C. 2400 the construction of great pyramids
  stopped, due to the grest expense, but smaller
  structures continued to be built

16
The Middle Kingdom2040-1785 BCE

• 2200 BCE collapse of the Old Kingdom
• 2040 Menuhotep from Thebes established a new
  unified Egypt the Middle Kingdom
• Less despotic rule
• More upward mobility
• More care for the subjects of lower ranks, more
  public projects
• But overall a less secure/calm attitude towards
  the world a more paranoid psycology about the
  outside world
• Trade with Syria-Palestine and Nubia great care
  for long-distance trade
• Trade as a means of cultural exchange

17
Europe

• Slower to settle due to geographic conditions
• 2500 BCE most of Europe had moved from
  hunter-gathere societies to agro-pastoral ones
• 5000 BCE Linear pottery culture
• Megalithic tombs
• 4500 BCE new metallurgical techniques

18
The Battle Axe culture

• 3000-2000 BCE flourished in Europe
• The Kurgan culture at the edges of the Russian
  steppes
• Warrior culture, the first to domesticate the
  horse
• Perhaps bearers of a proto-Indo-European
  language