The Ancient Near East

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The Ancient Near East

• The Birth of Civilization and the Origins of Life
  in the Ancient Near East

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I. The Birth of Civilization in Western Asia

• Cities vs. Villages
• Earliest cities emerge in Mesopotamia
• Importance of cooperation in irrigation
• Militarism produced rulers
• The role of religion

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I. The Birth of Civilization (cont.)

• Standing in awe of the divine
• Religion organized society
• Temples were complex institutions
• Mesopotamia was civilized by 3200 B.C.E.

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Civilization The stage in human organization
when governmental, social and economic
institutions have developed sufficiently to
manage the problems of order, security, and
efficiency.
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II. Mesopotamian Civilization
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A. Ancient Sumer (3200-2000 BC)

• Southwestern territory of the Valley
• Independent cities conquered by Sargon the
  Great around 2300 BCE
• Unpredictable Weather Conditions
• Evolution of view of the Sumerian gods

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A. Ancient Sumer (cont.)

• Significance of Sumerian Temples
• Invention of the Wheel (around 3200 BCE)
• Invention of cuneiform writing
• Very Hard language to learn
• Earliest Sumerian literature
• --worlds oldest poetry

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B. Old Babylonia (2000-1600 BCE)

• Invasion of semitic language groups like the
  Amorites
• Most famous Amorite ruler Hammurabi
• Hammurabis Code of Law
• -- An Eye for an eye
• -- Let the Buyer Beware
• Procedures in Amorite trials

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B. Old Babylonia (cont)

• Some sense of justice
• Some sense of a welfare state
• The Epic of Gilgamesh
• Introduction of personal religion
• Major mathematical achievements
• Babylonian social life

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C. The Dark Age (1600-1300 BCE)

• Reasons for the fall of the Amorites
• Horse-drawn chariots challenge traditional
  ox-drawn chariots
• Invasion of the Hittites
• Kassite Occupation
• Prestige of Iron weapons and implements
• Assimilation of previous cultural accomplishments

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The Assyrian Empire (1300-612 BCE)

• Semitic language group settling in the north
  Tigris area as early as 3000 BCE
• Became skilled in chariot warfare and began to
  conquer neighbors
• Reign of Sennacherib (705-681 BCE)

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D. The Assyrian Empire (cont)

• The Assyrian capital city Nineveh
• Palace Library
• Assyrians known for brutality in warfare
• --only Mesopotamian civilization to submit to a
  queen
• Brutality of Assyrian art

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D. The Assyrian Empire (cont)

• Assyrian brutality produced hatred and rebellions
  among subjugated peoples
• Sophisticated, far-sighted and effective military
  organization
• --invented concept of a corps of engineers
• The defeat of the Assyrians and the destruction
  of Nineveh

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E. New Babylonia (612-539 BCE)

• Medes and Chaldeans defeat the Assyrians in 612
  BCE
• Most famous Babylonian ruler was Nebuchadnezzar
• The defeat of Belshazzar by the Persians in 539
  BCE

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E. New Babylonia (cont)

• The ancient city of Babylon
• The Ishtar Gate
• The Hanging Gardens
• Babylonian astronomical achievements
• Not astrologers
• Babylonian court astronomers and their diaries

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III. Egyptian Civilization

• Picture of serenity and stability
• Long periods of peace
• Smiling Egyptian statuary
• Reasons for Egyptian stability
• Centrality of the Nile River
• --khed meaning to go downstream
• --khent meaning to go upstream

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A. Political History Under the Pharoahs

• Divided into 6 Eras
• Archaic Period1st Pharoah
• Old Kingdom PeriodBuilding of 1st pyramid and
  era of royal absolutism
• First Intermediate Periodcentral authority
  disappeared

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A. Political History (cont)

• Middle Kingdom PeriodGolden Age of royal
  cooperation with middle class and democratization
  of religion
• --concept of maat
• Second Intermediate PeriodHyksos invasion
• New Kingdom PeriodEra of Empire and the Exodus
  of the Israelites

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B. Egyptian Religion

• Polytheism to Quasi-Monotheism back to Polytheism
• Significance of the Sun God Amon-Re and Osiris,
  the God of the Nile
• Pharoah was the representative of Amon on earth
• Cult of Osiris personified the life-giving power
  of the Nile

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B. Egyptian Religion (cont)

• Mummification and the Hereafter
• Egyptian polytheism took many forms including the
  worship of animals
• Stress on ethics in Egyptian religion
• Amenhotep institutes the worship of Aton around
  1375 BCE
• --Queen Nefertiti
• King Tut restores worship of old gods

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C. Egyptian Intellectual Achievements

• Hieroglyphics
• Importance of the Papyrus Plant
• Experimentation in all sorts of literature
• Interested in practical sciencecalendar
  unrivalled until the time of Julius Caesar
• Medical Achievements
• Mathematical Achievements

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D. The Splendor of Egyptian Art

• Sudden appearance of the Pyramids
• Pyramid of Khufu
• Reasons for the voluntary labor that built the
  pyramids
• Temple Building replaces Pyramid Building during
  the Middle Kingdom
• --Temple of Karnak

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D. Egyptian Art (cont)

• Statues of Pharoahs were colossal in size
• Rigidity and impassiveness symbolized Egyptian
  love of stability
• Anatomical distortion was practiced
• Akhenatons naturalistic revolution in art
• --Famous bust of Nefertiti

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E. Social and Economic Life in Ancient Egypt

• Class system in Ancient Egypt
• Huge gap between the rich and the poor
• Treatment of Women
• Economic system built on agriculture
• Trade flourished after 2000 BCE
• Early Egyptian factories
• Egyptian Business Innovations
• --invented deeds, contracts and wills
• --oldest known currency in history

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IV. The Persian Empire (539 BCE on)

• Far-sighted Diplomats who allowed subjects to
  practice native customs and religionsCyrus the
  Great allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem
• Persians gave the Ancient Near East political
  unity and cultural diversity
• The rule of Cyrus the Great

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IV. The Persian Empire (cont)

• Later Rulers Darius and son Xerxes
• Efficient administration of a huge empire
• Persian Road system
• Aramaic language
• Wealthy and Distant Royal Absolutism
• Early Persian Religion
• Introduction of Zoroastrianism (circa 600 BCE)