Sumer: Geography, Settlement, and Origins

• Four of the first civilizations emerged in river valleys; Mesopotamia is the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Southwest Asia. The Greek-derived name Mesopotamia means "between rivers." The Fertile Crescent overlaps Mesopotamia and extends along the Mediterranean coast.
• Geographic advantages:
  • Regular flooding deposited silt, creating very fertile soil.
  • Warm climate and abundant water supported early farming.
• Sumerians migrated into Mesopotamia sometime before 5000\ \mathrm{B.C.E.} and settled among people already living there, eventually creating the civilization of Sumer.
• Early irrigation infrastructure:
  • Canals to carry river water to fields
  • Dams to control unpredictable floods
• By 3000\ \mathrm{B.C.E.} some Sumerian cities housed 2{,}000{-}10{,}000 people; by 2700\ \mathrm{B.C.E.} the largest city Uruk had about 50{,}000\, residents.
• The first complex governments arose to coordinate irrigation and flood control.
• Sumer, while not a modern country, formed the core foundation for later Middle Eastern civilizations and influenced the broader ancient world.

Sumerian City-States: Government, Religion, and Society

• Each Sumerian city and its controlled land formed a city-state; cities were independent with their own government.
• Original rulers were city-state priests, who allocated fields, distributed temple crops, and managed trade.
• City-states grew and competed for land and water, leading to wars.
• Defense evolved: massive stone walls and organized armies.
• Over time, military leaders (kings) became more important than priests; rulers who controlled territory became kings of kingdoms.
• Religion and politics blended: kings were also high priests, providing social stability by acting as a perceived link between people and the gods.

Sumerian Religion and Cosmology

• Sumerians were polytheistic; they believed gods controlled natural forces.
• Priests interpreted gods’ will, directed temple worship, and offered prayers and offerings to win divine favor.
• Floods were central to Sumerian life; gods’ favor in rainfall determined crop success.
• Monumental religious architecture dominated cities: temples and altars built into large stepped pyramids called ziggurats.
• Afterlife belief: Dead were thought to turn to dust; no concept of reward/punishment after death as in some later cultures.

Sumerian Economy, Trade, and Technological Innovation

• Intensive farming produced an agricultural surplus, enabling a division of labor.
• Non-farming crafts flourished: pottery, weaving, bronze work, and other crafts.
• Surplus facilitated extensive regional and interregional trade.
• Trade routes included sea travel by seven-person canoes to the Mediterranean and across the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea.
• Major trade goods:
  • Gold from Egypt; tin from Persia
  • Beads, wood, resin, lapis lazuli, obsidian from distant lands (originating as far as Southeastern Africa, e.g., present-day Mozambique)
  • Pearls, copper, ivory from India
• Artistic output often had religious significance; crafts reflected wealth and religious devotion.

Sumerian Social Structure and Gender Roles

• Social stratification intensified with wealth; nobles and wealthy landowners rose alongside priests and kings at the top.
• Middle class included merchants, farmers, and professionals (e.g., architects).
• Hired workers formed the lower class.
• Slaves at the bottom: around 40\% of city populations may have been slaves (captives or debt slaves).
• Women in Sumer:
  • Upper-class women could own property and have income separate from their husbands.
  • Education: boys attended school; girls educated at home.
  • Marriages were arranged by men.

Writing, Record-Keeping, and Intellectual Life

• The world’s first writing system, cuneiform, emerged to manage surplus, record keeping, and later literature and history.
• Cuneiform involved marks carved on wet clay tablets; once baked, markings were durable.
• A dedicated class of scribes emerged to master cuneiform and to preserve records and myths.
• The Epic of Gilgamesh (one of the oldest known works of literature) originated in this era.

Sumerian Inventions and Intellectual Legacy

• Innovations in farming and technology:
  • Carts and metal plows, sundials, and a 12-month calendar aimed at predicting floods.
  • A number system based on the number 60 (sexagesimal system), which explains why we divide circles into 360 degrees, time into 60 minutes per hour, and seconds into 60 parts.
• The Epic of Gilgamesh: originally composed on 12 clay tablets in cuneiform; concerns the adventures of King Gilgamesh of Uruk (circa 2750{-}2500\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}).

Sumerian Decline and Legacy

• Sumerian city-states lacked geographic barriers and faced invasions from outside groups; invasions helped dissolve the Sumerian political structure.
• By around 2300\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}, Sumerian city-states fell to invading powers, but Sumerian culture formed the core and foundation of later Mesopotamian empires.

The Babylonian Empire and Hammurabi

• After the Sumerian era, a new wave of powers emerged; the Babylonians rose around 1900\ \mathrm{B.C.E.} and built a large empire under Hammurabi.
• Hammurabi centralized rule, reorganized the tax structure, and created a state-wide system to support irrigation and agriculture.
• Hammurabi’s Code: a collection of 282 laws carved on stone monuments; written for public visibility.
  • Core principle: "an eye for an eye"; punishments were meant to fit the crime, with precise and standardized justice.
  • The Code aimed to provide stability and reduce vengeance by replacing personal retribution with a public legal system.
• Babylonian society and culture:
  • Religion continued Sumerian influences; Babylonian society remained patriarchal.
  • Women could engage in commerce, trade, and even scribal work; marriages were arranged by parents.
  • Astronomy and a lunar calendar flourished; fortune-telling and astrology linked to religious practice.

The Phoenicians and the Alphabet

• The Phoenicians inhabited parts of present-day Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, with a strong naval capacity around 3000\ \mathrm{B.C.E.} and peak periods 1200{-}1100\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}.
• Trade network across the Mediterranean; Carthage emerged as a major Phoenician outpost.
• The Phoenicians developed an alphabetic script around 1000\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}, a 22-letter system that represented sounds rather than symbols for ideas.
• Their alphabet influenced the development of the Greek and Roman alphabets and, by extension, much of the Western world’s written language.

The Hebrews: Origins, Monotheism, and the Diaspora

• Hebrew civilization centers on the region of Canaan (present-day Israel, Palestine, and Lebanon).
• Key figures and events:
  • Abraham and the migration to Canaan (~ 2000\ \mathrm{B.C.E.})
  • Moses, leading the exodus from Egypt (~ 1300\ \mathrm{B.C.E.})
  • The Ten Commandments.
• Monotheism: early Hebrews transitioned from polytheism to belief in a single God.
• Diaspora and exile:
  • Division into two kingdoms weakened political power.
  • Conquests by Assyrians and Babylonians led to forced dispersal (the Jewish Diaspora).
  • Persian conquest in 539\ \mathrm{B.C.E.} allowed some return to Jerusalem and tolerance for religious diversity; later dispersal continued under less tolerant rulers.
• Jewish diaspora contributed to the spread of Jewish ideas and culture globally.

Africa: Climate Zones, Egypt, Nubia, Kush, and Axum

• Africa’s climate zones (four major ones):
  • Mediterranean along the northern edge
  • Desert: Sahara in the north and Kalahari in the south
  • Rain forest: central to western Africa, about 10% of the continent
  • Savanna: broad grasslands north and south of the rain forest; major savanna bands near the tropics
• The Nile and ancient Egypt:
  • The Nile’s annual floods deposited fertile silt; long valley suited wheat and barley, papyrus use for writing material, and irrigation.
  • After ~ 1968\ \mathrm{A.D.}, the Aswan Dam reduced annual Nile floods.
  • Egypt learned agriculture and irrigation (likely influenced by Mesopotamian methods) and learned from neighbors in wheel, plow, bronze, and writing.
• Early agricultural and political development in Egypt:
  • Agriculture and pastoralism emerged around 6000{-}5000\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}; towns grew with surplus.
  • Egypt’s geography allowed transportation via the Nile for local and regional trade.
• Early government and unification:
  • Desertification and population growth led to local chiefs uniting into two kingdoms: Lower Egypt (north) and Upper Egypt (south).
  • Around 3100\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}, Menes united the two kingdoms and established Memphis as the capital.
• Periodization in Egyptian history:
  • Old Kingdom (approx. 2660{-}2160\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}): strong central government, pyramids built as tombs; pharaohs seen as gods’ representatives; mummification and preservation of the body.
  • Middle Kingdom (approx. 2040{-}1786\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}): renewed art, literature, and temple-building; irrigation expansion; borders extended; Mentuhotep II reuniting Egypt and moving the capital to Thebes; a shift toward welfare-state-style governance.
  • Hyksos invasion (~ c. 1650\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}): introduced horse-drawn chariots and improved bows.
  • New Kingdom (approx. 1570{-}1070\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}): Egyptians regained independence, expanded south into Nubia and north into Mesopotamia; Akhenaton (Amenhotep IV) briefly attempted monotheism; Ramses II expanded the empire; later invasions by Libyans, Kushites, Assyrians, Persians, Macedonians, and Romans contributed to decline; independence regained only in modern times.
• Egyptian society and gender:
  • Social hierarchy: royal family, nobles, priests; artisans; farmers; slaves.
  • Legal equality among classes, but rigid social mobility.
  • Women enjoyed relatively greater rights (own property, contract rights; some served as priestesses or held other posts); two women became pharaohs (e.g., Hatshepsut, Cleopatra).
• Religion and afterlife:
  • Polytheistic (gods such as Ra, Osiris, Isis).
  • Afterlife belief evolved from pharaoh-focused to broader inclusion; mummification to preserve bodies for the afterlife; Book of the Dead.
• Writing and learning:
  • Hieroglyphics by about 3000\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}; papyrus as a writing material; Book of the Dead contained in tombs.
• Egyptian science and technology:
  • Monumental architecture (pyramids and temples) built with simple tools and surveying; geometry and measurement refined for construction.
  • Numerical system based on ten; knowledge of fractions; calendar with 365 days; mating of religious and astronomical observations to daily life.
• Nubia, Kush, and Axum:
  • Nubia (Upper Nile) traded with Egypt; provided gold, ivory, incense, cattle, and slaves; Nubians adapted Egyptian-style pyramids and religion but retained some unique deities and alphabetic scripts.
  • Kush (southern Egypt) became powerful, conquered Egypt briefly; later trade with Rome, India, and Arabia; Meroë became a major center; iron production and deforestation affected power—Axum later rose in the region.
  • Axum (present-day Ethiopia): agricultural economy; trade along the Red Sea with India, Arabia, and the Roman Empire; Christianity established as official religion under King Ezana in 330\ \mathrm{A.D.}; Axum expanded into parts of the Arabian Peninsula; decline around 600\ \mathrm{A.D.} but Christianity persisted.

Indus River Valley Civilizations

• Two major urban centers: Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro (c. 2500{-}2000\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}).
• Features of Harappan society:
  • Planned urban layout with sophisticated drainage and private toilets connected to municipal sewage; division of labor evident in architecture and craft specialization (jewelers, potters, architects, artists).
  • Indus script remains undeciphered; written language appears pictographic and possibly linked to Dravidian languages.
• Trade and economy:
  • Harappans engaged in long-distance trade by sea and land with Sumer and Egypt, and with eastern India.
• Agriculture and environment:
  • Rural hinterlands supplied cities with crops, enabling urban surplus and complexity.
• Environmental challenges and decline:
  • Deforestation and soil erosion likely contributed to environmental degradation.
  • Indus River’s unpredictability (floods) and possible earthquakes may have contributed to the decline.
• Aryan migrations and integration:
  • Aryans (Indo-European speaking) from Central Asia introduced horses to the Indian subcontinent and gradually settled and farmed, intermixing with Dravidian populations.
  • By 500\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}, silver and copper coins introduced trade expansion; writing system (Sanskrit) developed later, with the Rig-Veda as a key corpus.

Aryan and Dravidian Beliefs in South Asia

• Aryan language and sacred literature: Sanskrit; Rig-Veda (knowledge) as a core text; Brahmins gained authority through ritual duties.
• The Upanishads (800–400 B.C.E.) introduced central Hindu concepts:
  • Brahma: universal soul connecting all beings; the ultimate reality.
  • Atman: individual soul; not separate from Brahma; too much emphasis on individual self is transcended.
  • Dharma: righteous duties; karma: fate; moksha: liberation from the cycle of birth and rebirth.
• Interactions between Aryan and Dravidian beliefs blended to form foundational Hindu ideas.

China’s First Civilizations: Xia, Shang, and Zhou

• Geography and early development:
  • Two major rivers: Huang He (Yellow River) and Yangtze (Chiang Jiang).
  • Huang He carries yellow loess soil; flood control and early farming by Neolithic communities along the Yangtze and Huang He; silk production begins around 3000\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}; domestication of chickens and pigs; early copper and jade craftsmanship.
  • Geography provided natural barriers—Gobi Desert to the west and the Himalayas to the southwest.
• Yu and the Xia Dynasty (legend to archaeology):
  • Yu the Great (c. roughly 2100\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}) organized flood control, roads, and defense zones and passed power to his son, initiating the Xia Dynasty (~400\ years).
  • The Xia Dynasty’s historicity remained uncertain for long; later archaeological findings have provided evidence of its existence.
• The Shang Dynasty (c. 1750{-}1045\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}):
  • Economic base: agriculture with peasants; crafts in pottery, bronze work, ivory and jade; chariot warfare and bronze weaponry; monopoly over copper and tin and thus bronze production.
  • Capital cities and strong centralized authority; religious power and political power concentrated in the king.
  • Oracle bone script: early writing used for divination; ancestor worship central to religion; human offerings and even animal sacrifices accompanied rulers.
  • Science and culture: standard measures and calendars; 365-day year; notable bronze craftsmanship; early musical instruments.
• The Zhou Dynasty (c. 1045{-}256\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}):
  • Overthrow of the Shang by Wu of the Zhou; long dynasty (~ 900\ years).
  • The Mandate of Heaven: the idea that a ruler’s authority comes from divine approval; natural disasters or social upheaval can indicate the loss of the mandate and justify overthrow.
  • Feudal structure: regional rulers governed territories under the king; a system that promoted mutual defense but could erode central control as local powers grew.
  • Advances: iron technologies, crossbows, iron swords; improved irrigation and road networks; expansion of territory; early use of cavalry (mounted warfare).

Early American Civilizations and Pacific Cultures

• The First American Civilizations:
  • Chavin (c. 1000{-}200\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}) in the Andean valley; ceremonial center at Chavin de Huantar; temple drainage to prevent floods; shamanic interpretations of sculptures; urban centers with thousands of inhabitants; early metallurgy of gold, silver, copper; early writing (glyph-based) and calendars; strong religious unity but weak political centralization.
  • Olmec (c. 1200{-}400\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}) in Mesoamerica: agricultural core with maize, beans, squash, and later avocado; reliance on rivers and trade networks; colossal basalt heads; monumental pyramids and ball games possibly with religious significance; development of a calendar, a numbering system with zero, and the first writing system in the Americas. Their language and symbols influenced later Maya and Aztec cultures, though later writing systems did not derive directly from Olmec scripts.
• Easter Island and Oceania:
  • Austronesian-speaking peoples migrated across the Pacific, reaching New Guinea, Taiwan, the Philippines, and eventually across vast ocean distances to Polynesia, including Samoa, Hawaii, Easter Island, and New Zealand.
  • Eastern Pacific routes: double-hull canoes enabled long-distance voyages; agricultural practices spread with crops like yams and taro; Easter Island developed clan-based leadership and large stone statues (moai) with ancestor-related significance; deforestation and resource strain contributed to societal decline by the time Europeans arrived in 1722 C.E.
  • The Austronesian expansion also included movements westward to Madagascar, introducing crops like pigs, chickens, yams, and taro to new regions.

Thematic Perspectives: Why Civilizations Rise and Fall

• Historians have proposed several frameworks for explaining rise and decline:
  • Oswald Spengler’s cyclical view (Rise and Decline): civilizations cycle like seasons—spring (agriculture expansion), summer (urban growth), autumn (centralized governments and large cities), winter (materialism and decline). Also argued as a cyclical pattern of power.
  • Fernand Braudel’s long-distance connections: civilizations grow through networks of trade and communication across the globe.
  • Christopher Dawson’s emphasis on religion as a civilizational glue and creator of relationships.
  • Felipe Fernandez-Armesto’s view that civilizations are responses to local environmental challenges and opportunities.

Key Terms by Theme (Selected Highlights)

• Environment: Tigris and Euphrates, Mesopotamia, Fertile Crescent, loess, Nile River, loess, Sahara, Kalahari, Huang He, Yangtze, Gobi Desert, desertification
• Economy: division of labor, barter, trade networks, currency development (early copper coins in China)
• Culture and Religion: polytheism, monotheism (Hebrews), ziggurats, temples, Book of the Dead, Upanishads, Brahma, moksha, karma, dharma
• Writing and Literature: cuneiform, hieroglyphics, Phoenician alphabet, Sanskrit, Rig-Veda, cuneiform tablets, papyrus, the Epic of Gilgamesh
• Social Structure: city-states, kingdoms, feudalism ( Zhou ), noble classes, peasants, artisans, scribes, slaves, gender roles
• State-Building: city-states, empires (Sumer, Babylon, Phoenicia, Egypt, Kush, Axum, Indus, Shang), Mandate of Heaven, dynastic cycles
• Technology and Science: plows and carts, sundials and calendars, base-60 number system, geometry, irrigation, bronze technology, crossbow
• Geography and Environment: river valleys, climate zones, natural barriers, trade routes, maritime networks

Notable Chronology Snapshots (Selected Highlights)

• Sumer: early urbanization by 5000\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}; large city Uruk by 2700\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}; peak populations around 50{,}000 in the largest cities by 2700\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}; decline around 2300\ \mathrm{B.C.E.} due to invasions.
• Epic of Gilgamesh: composed on 12 clay tablets, dating to the Sumerian era (circa 2750{-}2500\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}).
• Hammurabi and the Code: 282 laws; public engravings; dated to the Babylonian Empire (early 2nd millennium\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}).
• Egyptian chronology: Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom; pharaohs as divine rulers; pyramids built mainly during the Old Kingdom; Akhenaton’s attempted religious reform around 1350\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}; Ramses II reigned around 1290{-}1213\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}; decline by successive invasions in later centuries.
• Chinese dynasties: Xia (legendary/early), Shang (c. 1750{-}1045\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}), Zhou (c. 1045{-}256\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}); Mandate of Heaven becomes foundational for legitimizing rulers; iron technology emerges in the Zhou era; crossbow and cavalry enhance military power.
• Indus Valley: Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro flourishing around 2500{-}2000\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}; sophisticated urban planning and sanitation; undeciphered writing system.
• Aryan migration and language shift: Sanskrit; the Upanishads forming doctrinal foundations of later Hindu thought; important social and linguistic changes in the Indian subcontinent.
• Oceania and the Pacific: Austronesian expansion began 5000{-}2500\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}; long-distance seafaring, island colonization, and agricultural diffusion; Easter Island’s deforestation and societal stress by the era of European contact.

Connections to Foundational Principles and Real-World Relevance

• The shift from city-states to empires illustrates how governance and administrative systems scale as populations and resources grow.
• Writing systems emerge to solve complex record-keeping needs, enabling taxation, governance, religion, and literature across vast regions.
• Trade networks connect distant cultures, spreading technologies (bronze, writing, numeration), ideas (religion, law), and cultural exchange that shape civilizations for centuries.
• Environmental management (irrigation, flood control, urban planning) is a recurring driver of growth and collapse across civilizations.
• Religious ideas profoundly influence political authority, social norms (e.g., gender roles), and cultural production (art, architecture, literature).
• The concept of legitimacy (e.g., Mandate of Heaven, divine kingship, law codes) helps explain how rulers justify power and maintain stability or experience decline.

Equations, Numbers, and Formulas (LaTeX)

• Population data and sizes:
  • Sumerian city populations by 3000\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}: 2{,}000{-}10{,}000 per city; Uruk by 2700\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}: 50{,}000 inhabitants.
• Calendar and time measures:
  • Sumerian calendar: 12 months in a year.
  • Modern time conventions traced to Sumerian base-60 numeration: 60 as a base for minutes/seconds/hours and 360 degrees in a circle.
• Law and punishment (conceptual): Code of Hammurabi with 282 laws; example punishment structure described as an "eye for an eye" with specific penalties for property damage and homicide (narrative description, not a numeric formula).
• Geometry and measurement (Egypt): geometry used to construct pyramids; calendar of 365 days; fractions and a base-10 number system.
• Iron and bronze technologies: shifts in weaponry and tools associated with the adoption of iron and bronze production technology (no explicit numeric formula, but denoting the adoption of new technologies around the late 2nd millennium B.C.E.).

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