ANCIENT NEAR EAST & The Epic of Gilgamesh

SELU/SLU HIST 1017 HONORS WESTERN CIVILIZATION UNIT 1

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Tigris R.

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Euphrates R.

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Mediterranean Sea

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Red Sea

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Nile R.

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Dead Sea

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Sea of Galilee

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Aegean Sea

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Hellespont

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Black Sea

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Lake Van

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Persian Gulf

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Caspian Sea

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Babylonia under the Kassites

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the Kingdom of the Mitanni

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the Hittite Empire

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the Egyptian Empire

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the Mycenaean expansion

In addition to evidence of food storage, art, and technology, Çatalhöyük also shows that its inhabitants combined honoring the dead with burial rites, suggesting a belief in the afterlife.

evidence of belief in the afterlife

Forms of writing did not begin to develop until around the year 3200 B.C.E., and so were unknown to the earliest sedentary societies.

True

In addition to evidence of food storage, art, and technology, Çatalhöyük also shows that its inhabitants combined honoring the dead with burial rites, suggesting a belief in the afterlife.

True

There is evidence of a dominant priestly caste at Çatalhöyük.

False

Until humans began to establish agricultural settlements, they had to hunt or gather enough food for survival, migrating over time or from season to season.

True

Before the earliest civilizations emerged, human beings

moved constantly or seasonally in search of food

Scientists have determined that early humans were incapable of speech and other forms of communication, including music and art.

False

What was one environmental impact of the transition from subsistence food gathering to agriculture?

It increased the incidence of disease

The close proximity of humans and animals in early civilizations led to the development and spread of zoonotic diseases.

True

The end of the Ice Age was the precondition for the emergence of agriculture: that is, it created the conditions for it.

True

Intensified contacts between human and animals—as well as increased human contact with insects and bacteria—is a byproduct of agriculture.

True

Intensified agriculture had numerous positive effects on the environment, including an increase in the number of trees and density of forests.

False

Reliance on agriculture had a number of consequences for early civilizations, including new challenges. What was one?

It produced new gender divisions, as surplus food enabled women to produce more children, while men ceased to play an equal role in child care.

Sedentary societies with surplus food supplies and increased fertility also depended on a growing labor force. As a result, women were encouraged to have and raise more children, while men performed other kinds of labor.

True

Surplus food supplies and improved nutrition decreased fertility and the birthrate of early civilizations.

False

Reliance on agriculture in early civilizations did not create good conditions for domesticating animals

False

The massive temples that were built in Sumerian cities like Uruk served many purposes. In addition to honoring the gods of the city, they were

storehouses managed by elites.

Temples combined the functions of asserting religious, economic, and political power, all of which depended on the control of the urban food supply.

True

The massive temples that were built in Sumerian cities like Uruk honored the god of the city and housed the poor.

False

Temples were impressive monuments to a city’s wealth, but they were not designed for military defense.

True

There is no evidence that temples would have been used to entomb the dead.

True

The development of cuneiform, the Sumerian script of ancient Mesopotamia, was characterized by a transition from

pictograms representing physical objects to more abstract symbols.

Surviving clay tablets have been dated, and they show a gradual development from realistic representations of objects to a smaller number of more abstract symbols that could be inscribed more quickly.

True

Mesopotamians, like Gudea, believed that purification rituals had to occur during the building of temples for the gods.

True

Gudea, as other Sumerian leaders did, used enslaved people to build his temple, the Eninnu, for Ningirsu. Yet, during this process, enslaved people were to be treated with more kindness and less violence as part of an effort to purify the city, making it ready for the gods.

True

The Book of Exodus established laws regarding the sale and keeping of enslaved people as well as punishments proportional to crimes.

True

Slavery was a key facet of both Sumerian and Hebraic society, especially as these societies developed more sedentary lifestyles. How was slavery understood in these societies?

Although enslaved people could be bought, branded, and traded in both societies as other goods were, both the Sumerians and the Hebrews recognized enslaved people as worthy of basic human rights.

Only men could be enslaved in Sumerian and Hebraic society.

False

The Hebrews believed that enslaved people were property and below human. They had no regard for the physical well-being of enslaved people.

False

In Sumerian civilization, lugals, like the legendary Gilgamesh, were

successful warlords who exploited the city’s wealth.

One of the main points of the legend showcasing the exploits of Gilgamesh is that even lugals are not immortal.

True

Lugals often contributed their wealth to the city's priestly caste, as they still saw themselves as mere servants of the gods.

False

During the Bronze Age, the Sumerians developed an array of new technologies. What was one of the factors driving these innovations?

the need to tame unruly waterways and counter the harsh conditions of their environment

The Sumerians developed vigorous long-distance trading networks with many regions, especially those rich in the copper and tin needed to make bronze.

True

The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers were unpredictable, and the climate could be variable, so many of the Sumerians’ innovations, from irrigation ditches to timekeeping to seed drills, were designed to counter the effects of these environmental fluctuations.

True

During the Bronze Age, the Sumerians were in a technological competition with the Egyptians, driving both civilizations towards new innovations.

False

The Sumerians regarded their gods as capricious, not (so far as we know) as sources of technological inspiration.

True

The first attempts at empire building in Mesopotamia included

Sargon’s appointment of his daughter as a priestess uniting the temples and gods of two cities.

Although Sargon’s people, the Akkadians, had their own language, they adopted cuneiform and other aspects of Sumerian culture.

True

Early empires like that of Sargon and Shulgi depended on the exaction of massive tribute payments from dependent cities.

True

Sargon took steps to create a common religious culture in Sumer by promoting the worship of certain gods and initiating the practice of installing an imperial daughter as chief priestess of multiple temples.

True

No steps were taken by Sargon to create a common religious culture in Sumer, worship of multiple different gods and a variety of practices was encouraged.

False

Early empires were dependent on slavery, and indeed anyone in the ancient world could become enslaved through a variety of misfortunes (sold to pay debts, captured in war, etc.).

True

Hammurabi’s law code exemplifies methods for governing a complex urban society. Its remarkable features include

the use of writing to publicize his status as a lawgiver and protector.

Although Hammurabi designed his code for all of the peoples he claimed to govern, there were separate categories of law for elites, craftsmen, agricultural laborers, and enslaved people.

True

Hammurabi’s laws provided some protections for women, but there was a double standard when it came to sexual promiscuity: men would not be punished, but women who were proven unfaithful to their husbands would be put to death.

True

Hammurabi's law code exemplifying methods for governing a complex urban society remarkably includes the relaxation of the death penalty for adulterous women.

False

Hammurabi’s code allowed both men and women to end a marriage for cause.

True

Many known rulers before Hammurabi used writing as a tool of power and influence.

False