Introduction to Ancient Mediterranean History: From Human Origins to Early Urbanization

Course Overview and Administration (History 110)

• Instructor Introduction: The course is taught by Dr. Francois Rozzi.

• Course Format: History 110 is delivered through asynchronous lectures. Students are provided with a series of recordings every week, and the specific time of the class is irrelevant due to this asynchronous nature.

• Communication: Students can reach Dr. Rozzi via email to schedule appointments for meetings, which can occur either in person or via Zoom. Contact information for the Teaching Assistant (TA) is also available on the syllabus.

• Scope and Content: This course covers the most extensive chronological period of any history class at the university, which is a standard approach for introductory ancient history in North America. Its content focuses on:

  • Geography: The Mediterranean world, beginning with Mesopotamia and Egypt, then moving to Greece and Rome.

  • Chronology: Spanning from roughly $3000\text{ BC}$ to the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the $5\text{th century CE}$.

  • Themes: The course is an introductory survey that covers social features including religion, government, and politics.

• AI Policy: The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for this class is strictly prohibited. Tests are administered on Canvas and are timed such that students will not have sufficient time to consult notes or external tools for every question; thorough study is mandatory.

• Assessment and Grading:

  • Tests: There are two tests weighted at $25\%$ each.

    • Test 1: May 20 (content is not cumulative).

    • Test 2: June 3 (content is not cumulative).

    • Format: A mix of short-answer questions and longer-form responses based on lecture materials. Tests remain open for the entire day of the scheduled date on Canvas.

  • Discussion Posts: Due every Friday at $5\text{ PM}$.

    • Requirement: Respond to a specific question about that week’s lecture material.

    • Length: Approximately $150\text{ words}$ (one paragraph).

    • Grading: Marks are awarded for decent effort and completion.

  • Final Examination: Administered via Canvas in June. This exam is cumulative and mirrors the structure of the tests but in a longer format.

• Required Material: The recommended textbook is Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations by Matheson.

  • Edition: The third edition is preferred; earlier editions are usable but may have differing page numbers.

  • Availability: Physical or online versions are available at the bookstore.

Historical Context and Chronological Fundamentals

• Chronology Conventions:

  • Before Common Era (BCE/BC): Years count down toward zero (e.g., the year May precedes the year April).

  • Common Era (CE/AD): Years increase (e.g., $2026$ followed by $2027$).

  • Centuries: The $21\text{st century}$ includes years starting with $20$. Similarly, the year $90$ is in the $1\text{st century}$, and the years $120\text{--}121$ are in the $2\text{nd century}$.

• Periodization: Terms such as "Classical Period" or "Early Roman Empire" are modern constructs created by historians for convenience. Ancient peoples would not have recognized these labels.

  • Example: The end of antiquity is traditionally dated to the fall of the Western Roman Empire in $476\text{ CE}$. People living through that year would not have consciously felt they had moved from antiquity into the Middle Ages; this is a retrospective naming convention.

Primary and Secondary Historical Sources

• Methods of History: Historians reconstruct the past using primary sources, which are pieces of evidence surviving from the time period under study.

• Primary Sources:

  • Literary Sources: Written documents including inscriptions on stone or pottery, graffiti, and official texts.

  • Correspondence: Examples include wooden tablet letters written in Latin by Roman officers stationed in Great Britain to their families.

  • Ancient Historiography: Texts by famous ancient authors that were continuously copied throughout history and thus preserved.

  • Archaeological Sources: Physical traces such as buildings, roads, coins, amphorae, and shipwrecks.

• Source Criticism: Primary sources are not always factual. Historians must question, compare, and interpret them.

  • Example of Embellishment: An inscription claiming a king ruled for $200\text{ years}$ is likely mythological or an embellishment, as biology does not support such claims.

• Secondary Sources: These are works written by professional modern historians (typically holding PhDs).

  • Peer Review: Scholarly books and articles undergo a rigorous, anonymous peer-review process where other experts criticize and suggest improvements to ensure quality.

  • Methodology: Historians provide footnotes to cite primary sources and existing secondary literature, allowing others to reconstruct and potentially challenge their arguments.

Human Origins and the Paleolithic Period (Old Stone Age)

• Geological Context: The theory of the Big Bang suggests the universe began roughly $13\text{ billion years}$ ago, with Earth forming about $4.5\text{ billion years}$ ago.

• Pangaea: A single large landmass (from Greek "pan" meaning all and "Gaia" meaning Earth) that began breaking into modern continents approximately $2\text{ million years}$ ago.

  • Observation: The visual fit between the Western coast of Africa and the Eastern coast of South America is evidence of this split.

• Human Evolution:

  • Homo sapiens: Meaning "wise human," this variant appeared approximately $600,000\text{ years}$ ago.

  • Bipedality: Walking upright was a crucial developmental step as it freed human hands for complex tool-making.

  • Tool Use: While some animals (like chimpanzees) use tools (e.g., using a twig to hunt ants), humans are unique in using tools to create other tools (e.g., using a hammer to build a house).

• Paleolithic Period (Old Stone Age):

  • Timeline: Roughly $2\text{ million years}$ ago to $10,000\text{ BC}$.

  • Lifestyle: Populations were nomadic or semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers, moving once local food supplies (wild plants and animals) were exhausted. Their dwellings left few permanent traces.

  • Fire: The mastery of fire provided warmth, protection from predators, and a communal social space for cooking and storytelling.

  • Stone Technology: Archaeological traces are dominated by stone tools.

    • Hand Axe (Biface): A carved stone used as a blade for processing food, wood, or animal pelts.

    • Weapons: Included spears and, from about $30,000\text{ years}$ ago, bows and arrows with stone tips.

  • Domestication: The wolf was likely domesticated during this period as a hunting companion, evolving into the dog.

  • Paleolithic Art: Evidence of leisure and symbolic thought found in cave paintings, such as those in the Lascaux cave in Southern France. These paintings depict animals and hunting scenes, potentially for ritual purposes.

  • Measurement of Time: An engraved mammoth tusk featuring specific markings suggests early humans recorded lunar cycles.

  • Religion: Figurines like the "Venus of LaSalle," which emphasize breasts and the waist, suggest early religious focus on a "Mother Earth" goddess representing nature's bounty.

• End of the Period: The last Ice Age around $10,000\text{ BC}$ caused warming, flooding, and the extinction of large mammals like woolly mammoths, forcing human migration or leading to starvation.

The Mesolithic and Neolithic Revolution

• Mesolithic Period (Middle Stone Age): A transition period where human communities adapted to post-glacial climatic changes, becoming more sedentary.

• Neolithic Period (New Stone Age):

  • Timeline: Approximately $8000\text{ to } 5000\text{ BC}$.

  • Sedentism: The development of permanent dwellings because of agriculture.

  • Agriculture: Domesticating plants like wheat, beans, barley, and millet allowed for the storage of food surpluses.

  • Animal Husbandry: Domestication of sheep, cattle (bulls/cows), and goats provided meat, labor, milk, and cheese (a way to preserve milk without salt).

• Pastoral Nomadism: Some communities did not become fully sedentary but practiced pastoral nomadism, moving livestock between different grazing grounds according to the seasons.

Social Stratification and Economic Developments in the Neolithic

• Consequences of Food Surplus:

  • Specialization: Surplus meant that not every community member had to produce food, leading to a social pyramid.

  • Social Hierarchy: The population became stratified into farmers and slaves (producers), artisans and merchants, scribes (data recorders), and elites such as kings, government officials, and priests.

  • Wealth and Conflict: The accumulation of food surpluses (stored in granaries) and domesticated animals represented wealth, making communities targets for plundering and necessitating defense.

• Trade and Commodities:

  • Leather: Used for shoes, sandals, light armor, wineskins, and hats.

  • Pottery: Created from cheap, accessible clay. Invented for storing liquids (wine, oil) and dry goods (grain). Later improved by the invention of the potter's wheel.

  • Alcohol: Beer (fermented barley) and wine (fermented grapes) are likely as old as agriculture ($10,000\text{ years}$).

Metallurgy and Technological Advancements

• Metalworking: Stone was gradually replaced by metal.

  • Copper: The first widely used metal for tools and weapons.

  • Bronze: Around $3000\text{ BC}$, humans created bronze by alloying copper with tin. This material was more durable and rust-resistant, becoming ubiquitous throughout the Mediterranean.

  • Mining: Early mines were shallow shaft mines. Pliny the Elder (writing in the $1\text{st century CE}$) noted that gold was often found in nuggets near the surface and required less refining than other metals.

• Military Technology:

  • Bronze Weapons: Included scimitars, bronze-headed axes, and spears.

  • Defensive Gear: Shields made of wood covered in animal hide.

  • The Sling: A projectile weapon capable of hurling stones (or calibrated lead projectiles) over $200\text{ to } 300\text{ meters}$. The inhabitants of the Balearic Islands were renowned as the most skilled slingers in antiquity.

• The Wheel: A late Neolithic development used for vehicles (carts pulled by oxen or horses), grinding grain, and the potter’s wheel.

Early Urbanization and Case Studies

• Urbanization: The need to protect stored surpluses led to permanent urban settlements and fortifications.

• Jericho: One of the earliest examples of a fortified city. It covered $30\text{ acres}$ and featured walls made of sun-dried mud bricks reinforced with towers.

• Catalhoyuk (modern Turkey):

  • Timeline: Inhabited roughly $7000\text{ to } 5000\text{ BC}$.

  • Architecture: Houses were built directly against one another with no streets. Access to dwellings was through the roof.

  • Social Structure: The uniform size of the dwellings suggests an egalitarian society with little wealth disparity.

  • Burial Customs: The dead were buried directly underneath the floors of the houses rather than in a communal cemetery.

  • Culture: Interior walls featured paintings of wildlife and hunting scenes, and rooms were often decorated with integrated bullhorns, possibly for religious reasons.