Ancient Civilizations: Mesopotamia and the Bronze Age

The focus will initially be on the ancient Near East (Middle East).
Later, the discussion will move to the Greeks, Romans, Middle Ages, and the Renaissance.
Before 4,000 BCE, civilizations emerged with the development of settled communities or villages.

Anthropologists call this period the Stone Age.
People made tools and weapons from stone, bone, and wood.
Metalworking was not yet known.
The Stone Age is divided into:
- Paleolithic (Old Stone Age)
- Neolithic (New Stone Age)

Transition from nomadic hunter-gatherers/pastoralists to settled communities occurred 10,000 to 12,000 years ago (10,000 - 8,000 BCE).
Nomadic hunter-gatherers:
- Lived in egalitarian bands (20-50 people).
- Roamed, hunting animals, catching fish, and gathering plants.
Neolithic Revolution:
- People farmed and managed domestic animals.
- Historians call agriculture and domestication of animals the "farming package."
- This led to permanent settlements and food surpluses.
- Some people were pastoralists, herding animals, while others were farmers.

Settlements marked a turning point in the human-environment relationship.
Farmers channeled streams for irrigation.
By 4,000 BCE, knowledge of agriculture spread from the Fertile Crescent to Europe.
Food surpluses allowed specialization in architecture, arts, crafts, metalwork, textile production, and trade.
Development of agriculture in the ancient Near East led to specialization and diversification of the economy.

In Turkey, around 9,000 BCE (11,000 years ago), organized groups erected stone monuments to worship gods and started growing food nearby.
By 4,500 BCE, widespread villages existed throughout the ancient Near East.
Settled communities emerged in Europe somewhat later.

From 4,000 BCE to 1,000 BCE is known as the Bronze Age.
Bronze (tin and copper combination) was used for tools and weapons.
Civilization developed in ancient Mesopotamia (Iraq) after 4,000 BCE.
Later, it appeared in Egypt (late fourth millennium BCE) and the Indian Subcontinent (around 2,500 BCE).
Around the same time, civilization also developed in China, but the focus will mostly be on Western civilizations.

Development of hierarchy, where some people ranked higher than others.
Hierarchy became more common during the Neolithic period.
In the Tigris and Euphrates River Valleys (Mesopotamia) and the Nile River Valley (Egypt), irrigation systems were needed to control water.
Control required a power structure or government.
Most governments were monarchies.
City-states of ancient Mesopotamia were run by kings who also served as chief priests.
In Egypt, society was run by kings and the priesthood.
Life revolved around cities, which were small (e.g., ancient Mesopotamian cities had populations of around 20,000).

City-state: an urban center exercising political and economic control over the surrounding countryside.
The city-state was a building block of civilizations in the ancient Near East: Greeks, Romans, and medieval/Renaissance Europe.

Civilization developed in Mesopotamia after 4,000 BCE.
The Sumerians in Sumeria (Southern Mesopotamia) developed city-states.
- Small populations (20,000+)
- Controlled the surrounding countryside.
- Developed writing and social structures.
- Implemented a redistributive economy where the king and officials ran the economy and distributed goods.

Will continue with the Bronze Age, focusing on the Sumerians, Akkadians, and Babylonians.
Then will move on to other ancient Jewish peoples, including the Persians, Phoenicians, Hebrews and Greeks.