The Ancient Near East: Peoples and Empires

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Chapter 2 The Ancient Near East Peoples and
Empires
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• On the Fringes of Civilization
• Impact of Indo-Europeans
• North of the Black Sea or southwestern Asia
• Migrations about 2000 B.C.
• Hittites
• Asia Minor and Anatolia
• Suppiluliumas, c. 1380-1340 B.C.

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Palestine in the First Millennium B.C. 1.
Phoenicia was centrally located on the main trade
routes between Egypt, Asia Minor, and
Mesopotamia. The first Phoenicians (Canaanites)
established their urban centers at Sidon, Byblos,
and Ugarit about 3000 B.C. 2. From the
Hittites, the Phoenicans learned how to smelt
iron and passed the techniques west to the Greeks
and south to the African continent. The
Phoenician urban civilization also served as a
center for manufacturing, the skills of which
were learned from the conquering Egyptians who in
return were influenced by Phoenician cults and
religious ideas. 3. Phoenician culture was
influenced by Babylonian mythological stories of
the beginning of the world, the birth of the
gods, and the creation of humanity. It may have
been through the Phoenicians that the Babylonian
origin myths were passed to the Hebrews and
Greeks. 3. The northern Phoenician coast is
isolated by the Lebanon Range but approachable
from the sea by a series of harbors at Tyre,
Sidon, and Byblos. By about 2000 B.C. Byblos was
supplying Egypt with timber from nearby forests.
It also traded Egyptian papyrus which the Greeks
called byblos after the city from which it came
(biblia came to mean book in Greek). The port
went into decline after 1100 B.C. as Tyre and
Sidon became more powerful. Before 1100 B.C.,
Tyre was controlled by Egypt and traded with the
people of Asia Minor and the Aegean. 4.
Palestine is about 150 miles long and less than
10,000 square miles in area. The coast is
harborless and except for the rich Plain of
Esdraelon the land is barren limestone. Although
the area had neither sufficient rainfall, means
of irrigation, or economic resources, its
location on the chief trade routes from east to
west was an invitation to migrating people from
the deserts and the mountains. As Palestine
became a battleground for stronger nations, the
culture of the region came to reflect the
influence of Babylon, Egypt, and the Hittites.
5. The name Hebrew may come from the ancient
Semitic word abar meaning "to cross or pass over"
and perhaps refers to the passage of Abraham and
his followers into Canaan across the Syrian
Desert from Ur. 6. The Semitic Israelites began
their exodus from slavery in the Nile Delta about
1230 B.C. Crossing a series of shallow lakes,
they drove south down to the barren, rock-strewn
Sinai, the Wilderness of Zin. At Mt. Sinai their
God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. About 1200
B.C. the Israelites crossed the Jordan River into
Canaan where they came into conflict with the
Philistines who were part of the Sea Peoples who
had settled the coastal plain of Palestine. The
wars forced the scattered Israelite tribes to
unite under a king. Once the Philistines were
defeated, Israelites split into two halves in
the north, Israel with its capital at Samaria,
and in the south, Judah centered in Jerusalem.
7. The Assyrians (see Acetate 6, Map 2.2)
overran Israel, destroying the capital of Samaria
in 722 B.C. Many Hebrews were dispersed to parts
of the Assyrian Empire where they merged with
neighboring people, gradually losing their
identity. Questions 1. What role did the
Phoenicians play in cultural diffusion? 2. How
did the environment and contact with other people
shape the Israelites

• Palestine in the First Millenium B.C.

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• The Hebrews The Children of Israel
• The United Kingdom
• Saul, c. 1020-1000 B.C.
• David, c. 1000-970 B.C.
• Solomon, c. 970-930 B.C.
• Temple of Jeerusalem
• Ark of the Covenant
• The Divided Kingdom
• Kingdom of Israel
• Samaria
• Kingdom of Judah
• Jerusalem
• Assyria

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• The Spiritual Dimensions of Israel
• Yahweh
• Hebrew Bible
• Torah, first five books
• Covenant, Law and Prophets
• Covenant with Yahweh
• Obedience to the law of God
• Prophets
• Social Structure of the Hebrews
• Men of rank and influence
• People of the land
• Commerce by foreigners
• Slaves

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• Family
• marriage
• women
• divorce
• children
• Neighbors of the Israelites
• Philistines
• Phoenicia
• Traders
• Colonies
• Alphabet

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The Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires 1. The
Armenian highlands and the plains of Babylon
bound the lands of ancient Assyria on the north
and south. In the east, the Zagros Mountains
lying just beyond the Tigris River hemmed in
Assyria. These geographical roadblocks kept the
Assyrians from ever permanently expanding north
and east. To the west, however, the absence of
natural boundaries and strong powers after the
demise of the Hittite Empire permitted Assyrian
expansion to the Mediterranean. 2. Mesopotamia
and the surrounding lands were satisfactorily
endowed but those of Assyria were not. Although
iron deposits were present, the Assyrians had to
seek other mineral resources from Armenia,
Persia, central Asia Minor, the Danube region,
and Egypt. Nevertheless, the Assyrians generally
remained inland focusing on military affairs and
agriculture. With regular rainfall, Assyria was
a land of farming villages with few significant
cities. Foreigners generally carried on
trade. 3. The Assyrians were a Semitic-speaking
people who were vassals of foreign rulers. They
were dominated by the Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni
from 1650-1360 B.C. When the Hittites destroyed
the kingdom of Mitanni, the Assyrians became
independent after 1360 B.C. Complete
re-assertion of Assyrian power was achieved under
Tiglath-pileser I (c. 1115-1077 B.C.) 4. The
aggressive nature of the Assyrians may have been
due to threats from neighbors, experiencing
attacks from the war-like tribes to the north and
east and the Babylonians to the south. These
threats prompted political cohesion and
militarism. By 700 B.C. the Assyrian Empire
controlled Mesopotamia, Elam, parts of the
Iranian plateau, parts of Asia Minor, Syria,
Palestine, and Egypt down to Thebes. The
Assyrian army used a variety of tactics including
guerrilla and siege warfare as well as terror,
especially laying waste the land of enemies by
destroying dams, burning crops, cutting down
trees, obliterating towns, and committing
atrocities against the people. Such policy was
generally reserved for those who were already
part of the empire and then rebelled. Prisoners
of newly conquered territories were often
deported from their lands to Assyria where the
objective was to repopulate areas decimated by
warfare. Over the course of three centuries some
four to five million people were deported to
Assyria resulting in a very racially and
linguistically mixed people. 5. The
Chaldeans rose in Babylonia after successfully
allying with the Medes from Iran to sack the
Assyrian capital Nineveh. Later, the Chaldeans
defeated Egypt to control Syria and Palestine and
would eventually sack Jerusalem, carrying off the
Jews to Babylon. 6. Babylonia became wealthy due
to its location on the trade routes crossing
Mesopotamia, a strong agriculture, and a
developed textile and metals industry. An
eight-mile wall, encircled by a moat filled from
the Euphrates surrounded the capital of Babylon.
The city was adorned with temples and palaces
including the Hanging Garden, which consisted of
terraces and an artificial mountain upon which
was a lush garden irrigated by water piped to the
top. In 689 B.C. the city was sacked by the
Assyrians. Questions 1. How did the geography
of the Near East have an impact on the character
and nature of the Assyrians and Chaldeans? 2. Why
did the subject peoples resent Assyrian rule?

• The Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires

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• The Assyrian Empire
• Tiglith-pileser I (c. 1115-1077 B.C.)
• Tiglith-pileser III (744-727 B.C.)
• Ashurbanipal (669-626 B.C.E.)
• Military machine
• Army
• pioneer corps
• guerrilla warfare
• siege
• terror tactics
• Iron weapons
• Horse-drawn war chariots
• Society and culture

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The Persian Empire at the Time of Darius 1. The
original homeland of the Persians was Persis in
the southwestern corner of modern Iran. It is a
land of stark contrasts. The western coast along
the Persian Gulf is narrow and harborless.
Hemming in this hot arid region to the east are
abrupt mountains rising to six thousand feet.
Beyond the mountains is a high plateau broken by
valleys, which are fertile and blessed with
adequate rainfall. Here in a temperate climate a
considerable population could be supported.
Nevertheless, this was not the basis for an
empire since there was no outlet to the sea and
the only routes west were through the mountain
roads to Susa and Babylon. 2. The harshness of
Persis is characteristic of all of Persia. High
mountains that isolate the interior from the sea
surround a vast central plateau, which extends
from the Tigris-Euphrates valley in the west to
the Indus valley in the east. On this broad
plain lay scattered oases and two immense salt
deserts (Dasht-i-Lut and Dasht-i-Kavir covering
some 38,000 square miles) which physically form a
barrier between the east and west. 3. The
Dasht-i-Kavir southeast of the Caspian Sea is
mostly covered with salt instead of sand and is
devoid of water or plant life. Facing the
impossible desert, nomads migrating into Persia
from central Asia and the steppes of Russia would
either turn eastward to India or westward to
Mesopotamia. 4. The Royal Road stretched from
Sardis in western Lydia to the chief capital of
Susa. A distance of 1600 miles, there were
stations placed about every fourteen miles so
that messengers could get fresh horses. The
journey could be made in a week. In addition,
there were a number of trunk roads linking such
places as Memphis, which tied into the highway.
Later, the Royal Road was extended another three
hundred and fifty miles to the new capital of
Persepolis built by Darius. The road was also
used for commerce and contributed to the
continuation of the flow of goods between east
and west. 5. Darius (521-486 B.C.), after a year
of civil war, began strengthening the empire. He
built a canal linking the Red Sea and the
Mediterranean by way of the Nile, campaigned into
western India extending Persian territory to the
Indus River, and conquered Thrace making the
Macedonian king a vassal. In 499 B.C. the Ionian
Greek city states revolted against the Persians
and after receiving aid from the mainland Greeks
invaded Lydia and burned the provincial capital
of Sardis (see Acetate 10, Map 3.3). The rebels
were ultimately punished and Darius invaded the
Greek mainland culminating in his defeat at the
Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. Questions 1. How
did the geography of Persia affect not just the
Persians but also other people? 2. How did Darius
bring the Persian Empire to its zenith?

• The Persian Empire at the Time of Darius

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• Neo-Babylonian Empire
• Nebuchadnezzar III (605-562 B.C.)
• The Persian Empire
• Cyrus the Great (559-530 B.C.)
• Cambyses (530-522 B.C.)
• Darius (521-486 B.C.)
• Government
• Satrapies (provinces)
• Royal road Sardis to Susa
• Persian king
• Army
• Immortals (cavalry)
• Infantry
• Zoroastrianism