ARKY Ancient Civilizations

First Ancient Civilization Research

Nabondius, last king of Babylon excavated temple of Ur in Mesopotamia. Political motive

Italian Renaissance

Rediscovered Greek and Roman texts, beginning of Antiquaianism, not good archaeology

Ciriaco de Pizzicolli (1391-1452)

25 years studying classic texts, later lead to records of these sites, works partly published, systematic

Grand tour (17th to 19th century7

Renaissance ideas spread from Italy across europe

Antiquarianism

Collection of antiquities for the sake of it. British museum. Looting

Modern Archaeology

Study of human past through the recovery of material and spatial evidence including material culture

Texts

Provide information about ancient states, societal workings, what they thought

Civilization

Complex societies that archaeologists usually refer to as states

Complexity

Sophistication of social, economic and political organization

States

Kinship not main principal, true government, state authority backed by force, significant economic specialization, social inequality

City-states

Hub of commercial, ritual, and social activity of people within different classes

Territorial states

Cities as political centres where elites lived. Rest of population in rural areas

Cities

Defined, central, independent, archaeological variability

Why do cities need central authority

Resolve disputes, acquire and redistribute resources, build needed infrastructure, ideology to legitimate authority

Origins of agriculture

No single geographic origin, started about 10000 years ago, eventually led to large scale food production

Domesticated plants

Wheat, barley, rye, millet, sorghum, potato, yam, taro, bananas

Childe theory: urban revolution

Metallurgy, full time specialists, cities, food from hinterlands, craft and trade, economic specialization, central authority, class based society, despots/priest kings

Surplus: irrigation theories

Many early states evolved in dry river valleys, floods produced surplus that led to exchange

Hydraulic states theory

Irrigation led to central authority, requires group to organize, voluntary authority, eventually corrupt, collection basins

Technology and trade stimulate states theory

Need to trade stimulated long distance exchange, opportunity for emergent elite, prestige goods and shared ideology

Warfare: Carniros Environmental Circumscription model

Fertile farmland, limited, population increasing pits pressure on food sources, have to capture land. Moves to bottom hierarchy when captured

Economic power

Ability to create specialized workforce and to organize surplus storage and distribution

Social power

Development of ideologies that binds unrelated people

Political power

Tied into social and religious ideology and inequality

Core of cities

Temples, pyramids, plazas, used for religious practices

Political power

Ability to impose authority through administration and military who are not their kin, spiritual economic physical security

Internal state structure

Hierarchy as social difference, ethnically diverse, sometimes overthrown

Cycling states

Internal differences and competition causes states to rise and fall, new larger policies can develop from state collapse

Collapse and Sustainability

Stars require enormous organization, tend to be fragile, multiple factors can lead to collapse

Gobekli Tepe

In Turkey, worlds oldest megaliths, pre-pottery, first evidence of permanent human settlement, no evidence of agriculture or dense settlements

Gobekli Tepe site layout

15m high 20 acre tell on a limestone plateau. Prominent landmark in the region. Good visibility. WouldVe had lots of cereals and grazing animals. T shaped monolithic pillars, 4 circular compounds, featured carvings of animals and insects with some humanoid figures.

Gobekli Tepe Site characteristics

• was used intermittently over a period of 1600 yrs, abandoned around 8000 BCE

• after abandonment were deliberately backfilled with refuse including bones

• Backfilling helped preserve carvings

Gobekli Tepe daily life

• Hunter gatherers

• Hunting of gazelles in midsummer/autumn

• Stone grinding tools

• Cooking in stone bowls or baskets

• cannot be considered a large village or early city

Gobekli Tepe site function

• “Worlds first temple”

• Cult-ish

• Carved animals are “protectors of thedead”

• 700 bone fragments - deep grooves in skulls

• Ritual and feasting events

• Some domestic buildings and rainwater harvesting systems

Gobekli Tepe site construction

• hundreds of people to move a single pillar

• could’ve been a smaller group though constructing with ropes, rocks and lubricant

Mesopotamia

• alluvial plain between Tigris and Euphrates rivers (modern Iraq, Syria, Turkey)

• Fertile Crescent (preceded by origin of agriculture by about 10k years)

• Near eastern domesticates (wheat, barley, dates, lentils, olives, oranges, onions, cattle, etc)

Greater Mesopotamia: Northern Plain

foothills of Taurus and Zagros mountains - enough rain to grow crops without irrigation

Greater Mesopotamia: Southern Plain (Akkad and Sumer)

Flat alluvial plain that requires irrigation (little rainfall). New alluvium deposited every year.

Hydraulic state theory as it relates to Mesopotamia

• Organization of irrigation led to the development of city states

• Irrigation needed to farm floodplain

• Voluntary submission to central authority

• Authority controls water

Early floodplain settlement

• scrub areas and marshlands supported hunter gatherer populations

• farmers began to settle along rivers

• arrived with pottery and copper

• obtained copper ore and obsidian from Anatolia

Reductionism

Analyzing something complex in terms of something more simple

Single cause fallacy

Overgenralization tied to assuming there is only one cause to something complex

Period

Categorizes large scale development in human culture over a broad timeframe often based on technologies utilized by these past populations

Phase

Specified time frame at a particular site within a defined region connected to related feature, artifacts, etc in the same stratigraphic layer

Halaf Phase

6100-5100 BcE

Foothills/uplamds (Iraq and Syria)

Rain fed farming

Develops into indigenous groups

Adopted Ubaid culture around 5000BCE

Hassuna Phase

• First farmers in northern plain

• Moved from mountains into foothills then settles river valleys

• Some irrigation

• Build mud-walled buildings with courtyards

Samara phase

• copper age

• Choga Mami earliest evidence of irrigation about 4600 bce

• Tell es-Sawwan - multiroomed brick buildings and grain storage

• Pottery

Ubaid phase

• 6000-4200 BCE

• Foundation of Mesopotamian civilizations

• First farmers settled southern plain

• Beiginning of temples, irrigation, agriculture

Ubaid 0

• initial phase, overlaps with Samarra

• Earliest known village is Oueili (6000 BCE)

• Relied on irrigation

• Located near marshland

Eridu

• According to Sumerian creation story, first settlement to ride from primordial sea

• Unwalled settlements

• Sailing

• Early forms of temples

Eridu temple

Built in phases each phase being larger, elaborate residences for priests

Temple Institution

• Focus of Ubaid society

• Housed patron gods and religious authority

• Organized irrigation, allocation, trade

• Large land holders and employers

Temple Authority

• priests and priestesses

• Early officials had limited influence

• Authorities grew more powerful

• Allocate water rights

• Provided luxury items to reinforce status

Ubaid trade

Produced agricultural surplus and pottery and traded for timber, stone, copper,

Ubaid society

• self sufficient

• Evidence of some groups with more wealth

• Differences in status

Uruk Period

4200-3100 BCE

Uruk Revolution

• first urban centres and city states emerge

• Writing

• Wheeled vehicles

• Craft specialization

• Expansion of trading networks

• Centralized religious and secular control

• Clear evidence of social hierarchy

Mesopotamian cities: tells

• Most Mesopotamian cities

• Artificial mounds on the plain

• Created by build up and collapse of mud brick buildings and rubbish of city dwellers

• Many became stranded in deserts as rivers changed

Uruk (Warka)

• First true urban centres

• Worlds first true city

• 40-80000 people at peak

• 4 tiered settlement hierarchy

White Temple and Anu Ziggurat

• Anu (sky god)

• Eanna precinct (courtyard and structures related to Ianna/Ishtar)

• Increasing labour to build structures

White temple

• limestone

• Decorated with cone mosaics

• Earlies evidence of cuneiform writing from Eanna precinct

Ziggurat

Stepped, formed pyramids with temples on top. 80000 person days to build. Needs centralized authority. Authority power reflected I. Size

Secular rulers

• clear evidence of govt organization in Uruk period

• Images of subduing enemies

• Mostly of men

• Ruled by charismatic or military power

• Provide offerings to deity

Priests

• divine future through dreams and entrail readings

• Records of sacrifices and divinations

• Secular rulers held in check by priests

Secular architecture

Separate temple and palace

Uruk economy

• goods and trade within cities

• Craft production goods moved by donkey caravans

Copper

Appeared about 3500 BCE, Used for tools and warfare

Uruk innovations

• undecorated utilitarian wares

• Potters slow wheel

• Bevel rimmed bowls

Stage one: Mesopotamian writing

Began in 7000 BCE, clay tokens, ideographs

Mesopotamian writing stage 2

• Bullae

• Encased tokens/impressions

• Single transaction

Mesopotamian writing stage 3

• Tablets

• 3-2000BCE

• Mostly economic

• Syllabic

• Gradually replaced with cuneiform around 3100 BCE

Cuneiform

• Wedge shaped writing system

• Written left to right

• Most were illiterate

• Standardized record keeping

Cylinder seals

Used by person of authority to witness trade actions

Mesopotamian religion

Oldest literature of any religion

Polytheistic

Deities

• lived inside idols in temples

• Taken to events

• Dressed and given offerings

End of Uruk theories

Either abrupt cold and wet period or arrival of east Semitic tribes

Plain division sumeric period

Sumer (south)

Akkad (north)

Nature of ceremony civilization

• Multi ethnic

• Shared common culture/writing system

• Sumerian was the language spoke

Nippur

• most important centre in Mesopotamia

• Essential for political control

• Home of god Enlil

Sumerian city states

• defensive brick wall, central temples

• Often faced rivers

• Mud brick houses

Technology and Economy - Sumer

Agriculture and textiles

Bronze Age

Improved agricultural production and ware fare

Sumerian texts

King-list - concept of unified kingships. Shifting power

Utnapishtim and the great flood

Sumerian version of Noah’s arc

Cemetery of City of Ur

Just outside Urs sacred precinct, 2500 burials, 16 royal graves

Royal burials

• tombs with gold

• Names and titles on objects

• Gold helmet and sheet metal masks

• Musical instruments, models, games

Queen Puabi

• stone burial chamber

• Buried with attendants

• Surrounding death pit of men (59 sacrifices)

Sumerian jewelry

• lost wax technique

• Gold, silver, copper, bronze, electrum

Sumerian Afterlife

• Believed that it was unpleasant

• Needed to bring items from life

• Burial goods indicate differences in diet

Akkadian Empire

• Development of public propaganda in monuments and inscriptions

• ONE KING

Sargon

• son of priestess let adrift in reed basket

• Baby was found and raised as a ruler

• Conquers king of Uruk

• Agade (near modern Baghdad)

Naram Sin of Akkad

• declares himself divine

• King of 4 quarters

• Undermines temple authority

Imperial Ur

2112-2004 BCE

Earliest law codes in ziggurats

Shulgis Law Code

• Divided society into free and slaves

• Written in first person as voice of justice to all

Code of Hammurabi

• 1800 BC

• Similar to Ur code

• Penalties and responsibilities