Kingdoms in Mesopotamia and Kemet

Sumer

  • these leaders began to see themselves as kings
  • once in power, the royal leader sought to make his position independent from the local assemblies
  • he claimed divine or sacred sanction for his kingship
  • the earliest king known by name was Enmebaragesi of Kish, who ruled around 2500 BCE
  • Kish was located in the southern region of Mesopotamia
  • sumer emerged between 3500 and 3000 BCE
  • the Sumerian civilization likely gave rise to the earliest form of writing called cuneiform

Uruk

  • the largest city in Mesopotamia
  • this city had walls more than 20 feet tall and a population about 50,000 by 3000 BCE
  • in the center of the city was a stepped pyramid or ziggurat, which could be seen for miles
  • Sumerian cities were later absorbed into the larger empires of Akkadia, Babylon, and Assyria

Akkadia

  • the first royal dynasty to bring the cities together in a unified state - numbering about 2 million inhabitants (2340 - 2150 BCE)
  • Sargon was the first major king (2334 -2279 BCE)
  • at its height, his empire stretched from Mesopotamia into Asia Minor and Syria, earning him the distinction of creating the world’s first empire

Babylonia

  • the best-known king of Babylonia was Hammurabi (1792 - 1750 BCE), who ordered the engraving of the entire code of Babylonian law onto a 7ft slab of basalt
  • he had harsh laws (tavern owners who overcharged customers who failed to notify authorities were to be drowned and priestesses caught in taverns were to be burned to death)

Kemetic Kingdoms

  • the first Egyptian city was Hierankopolis, founded around 3000 BCE. Smaller cities dotted the river downstream
  • the rules of these cities began to develop small-scale kings
  • among these first kings were Menes, Narmer, and Aha
  • Most scholars claim that Menes and Narmer were the same person and that Narmer is the one who unified upper and lower Egypt into one nation and established the first dynasty (3100 - 2613 BCE). He chose Memphis (near modern Cairo) as his capital.

The Nile river flows to the North. - If you go down the river, you’re heading North. This is why Upper Egypt was on the bottom and lower Egypt is on the top.

Divine Kingship

  • the first king that claimed divine birth from Kemet’s founder God, Heru (Horus), the falcon-headed deity
  • as God on Earth, the king upheld the divine order of justice and peace for all, known as Maat (a Goddess)

Hieroglyphs, Bureaucracy, and Pyramids

  • Around 3500 - 3200 BCE, administers and scribes developed hieroglyphic writing in Kemet.
  • Hieroglyphic writing was limited to royal inscriptions
  • Hieratic, a less elaborate version, was used in bureaucratic
  • The writing material used in Kemet was papyrus, made from a special kind of Kemetic reed
  • Medu Neter (African for Writing of the Gods)

Bureaucracy

  • a system of government in which most of the important decisions are made by state officials rather than by elected representatives
  • at the beginning of the Old Kingdom, heavy Nile flooding enabled the Kemetic kings to expand agriculture on their lands
  • The most bureaucratic achievement of the Old Kingdom was the Great Pyramid of Khufu

Great Pyramid

  • allegedly constructed by Pharoah Khufu (reigned 2589 - 2566 BCE)
  • 479 feet high

Hatshepsut: A Queen that called herself a Pharoah because she wanted to rule as a king

Temple of Karnak

  • the world’s largest ancient religious site

Ma’at: the divine order of justice and peace for all

  • 42 principles