Chapter 1: The First Civilizations

Civilization first appeared approximately 3500 years before the Common Era * Common Era: period following the traditional date of the birth of Jesus
The first human-like creatures whose remains have been discovered date back to around six and a half million years
Varieties of the modern species of humans appeared around 100,000 years ago * Spread across the Eurasian landmass and Africa * Earliest humans: Neanderthals
Some historians believe that the Paleolithic era was a peaceful golden age in which women had a dominant role in social organizations despite having no evidence backing their claim
Culture was increasingly determinant in human life during upper Paleolithic era * (ca. 35,000-10,000 B.C.E..)
Paleolithic people developed speech, religion, and artistic expression * Abstract and symbolic thought was represented by wall paintings, small clay and stone figurines of women, and decorated stone and bone tools * Hunters might have painted images of animals to make sure such species would be plentiful * Figurines of women might reflect concern about human and animal fertility
Sedentarization and the agricultural revolution were fundamental changes in human culture * Began independently * Continued for roughly 5000 years
Broad-Spectrum Gathering * People stayed put and exploited the seasonal sources of food instead of constantly traveling in search of food * Fish, wild grains, fruits, and game
People in the Jericho community built and rebuilt their mud brick and stone huts over generations
It is unknown why settlement lead to agriculture which was riskier than hunting and gathering * Specialization in few species of plants or animals could lead to starvation due to severe weather or diseases
Infant mortality decreased and life expectancy rose in settled communities * Young and old members of the tribe or community were useful with simple agriculture tasks
Population growth put pressure on the local food supply * Gathering activities demanded formal coordination and organization * Led to the development of political leadership * Leadership and perception of safety prevented the traditional breaking away to form other similar communities
Settlement started to encourage cultivation of plants and domestication of animals * Plants: barley and lentils * Animals: pigs, sheep, and goats
Expansion of food supply allowed for development of sedentary communities
The people of the Neolithic era (New Stone Age) organized sizable villages
Agriculture was portable
In large communities, bonds of kinship that united small hunter-gatherer bands were supplemented by religious organizations * Helped control and regulate social behavior
Innovations such as the chariot were used for transport and aggressive warfare * Symbolic of the culture of the early civilizations (first civilizations in western Eurasia)
Upland regions of the north received the most rainfall * Soil is thin and poor
Rainfall is nonexistent in the south * Soil is fertile
Survival in region needed planning and mobilization of manpower which was possible through centralization
Driven by need, a new civilization was created
Small settlements became common * Towns such as Eridu and Uruk, in what is today Iraq
Cities supplemented their resources by raiding their more prosperous neighbors * Populations of the towns rose
Men and Women developed new technologies and new social and political structures in cities * Created cultural traditions like writing and literature * Epic of Gilgamesh (first great heroic poem, composed before 2000 B.C.)
Archaeologists uncovered remains of the ramparts of Uruk * Stretch over five miles * Protected by 900 semicircular towers * Surpassed the great medieval walls of Paris in size and complexity, built 4000 years later * Protective walls enclosed around two square miles of houses, palaces, workshops, and temples * A true urban environment with first city being Uruk
Urban immigration increased the power, wealth, and status of two groups * First group were religious authorities responsible for the temples * Second group was the emerging military and administrative elites * The decision to enter the city wasn’t always voluntary and was usually forced by the ruling classes
Mesopotamians formed a highly stratified society * Various groups shared unequally in the benefits of civilizations * Slaves were the primary victims of civilization (prisoners of war) * Peasants lived little better lives than slaves with them having lost their freedom to the religious or military elite * Soldiers, merchants, and workers and artisans who served the temple or palace were better off * Net level in hierarchy were the landowning ree persons * Avoe all of these were the priests * Kings were powerful and feared; seen as representatives of the Gods
Urban life redefined the role and status of women who had had roughly the same roles and status as men in the Neolithic period * Women exercised private authority over children and servants within the household in the cities * Men controlled the household and dealt with the wider world
Trade networks were extended into Syria, the Arabian Peninsula, and India for metal and stone
The pattern of patriarchal households predominated by 1500 B.C.E. * Public control of the house, family, city, and state was largely in male hands
Major technological and conceptual discoveries took place due to the need to feed, clothe, protect,and govern growing urban populations
The greatest invention of the early cities was probably writing
By 3500 B.C.E. government and temple administrators used simplified drawings * Pictograms * Thousands of pictograms survived in the ruins of Mesopotamian cities
The first tablets were written in Sumerian
Each pictogram represented a single sound which corresponded to a single object or idea * Pictograms developed into a true system of writing * The writing took on its characteristic wedge (cuneiform) * Scribes began to use cuneiform characters to represent concepts * Such developments were revolutionary
Scribes used the same symbols to write in Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, and Persian
Tablets were later used to preserve contracts, maintain administrative records, and record significant events, prayers, myths, and proverbs
Writing allowed for those who mastered it to achieve greater centralization and control of the government * Reinforced memory, consolidating, and expanding the achievements of the first civilizations and transporting them to the future * Writing was power * Writing served to increase the strength of the king in Mesopotamia
Mesopotamian gods had the physical appearance and personalities of humans and human virtues and vices
Great gods included Nanna and Ufu who were protectors of Ur and Sippar
The gods of the sky, the air, and the rivers were at the top of the pantheon
Mesopotamians believed that the role of mortals was to serve the gods and feed them through sacrifice
They assumed that the gods lived in a structured world that operated rationally
The king was the ruler and highest judge as the was the representative of the city’s god
King’s held privileges and responsibilities appropriate to his position * Responsible for the construction and maintenance of religious buildings and the complex system of canals * Commanded the army
The rulers of Ur, Lagash, Uruk, and Umma fought amongst themselves for control of Sumer from 3000 B.C.E. until 2300 B.C.E.
Sargon, King of Akkad was the most important figure in Mesoptamian history * Built on conquests and confederacies of the past to unite, transform, and expand Mesoptamian civilization * Son of a priestess * Conquered Ur, Lagash, and Umma * Spread the achievements of Sumerian civilization
From 2000 B.C.E. on, the political and economic centers of Mesopotamia were in Babylonia and Assyria
Hammurabi expanded his state through arms and diplomacy * Expanded his power south as far as uruka nd north as far as Assyria
The king was responsible for regulating all aspects of Babylonian life * Dowries, contracts, agricultural prices, wages commercy, money lending, and professional standards for physicians and architects
Each social group had its own rights and obligations in proportion to its status * Husbands ruled their households but didn't’ have unlimited authority over their wives * Women could initiate their own court cases, practice trades, and hold public positions
The Law Code held veterinarians, architects, physicians, and boat builders to the standards of professional behavior
Babylonians developed the most sophisticated mathematical system known prior to the 15th century C.E. to handle the economics of business and government administration
Hammurabi’s kingdom fell to the Hittites * An Indo-European people, speaking a language that was a part of linguistic family that included most modern European languages
Near the Mediterranean in Lower Egypt, the Nile spread across a mashy delta more than 100 miles wide
The earliest sedentary communities in Nile Valley appeared on the western margin of the Nile Delta around 4000 B.C.E.
Ancient Egyptian history is divided into 31 dynasties, regrouped in turn into 4 periods of political centralization * Pre and Early dynastic Egypt (ca. 3150-2770 B.C.E.) * The Old Kingdom (ca. 2770-2200 B.C.E.) * The Middle Kingdom (ca. 2050-1786 B.C.E.) * The New Kingdom (ca. 1560-1087 B.C.E.) * Time gaps between the periods were full of disruption and political confusion called intermediate periods
Divine kingship was the cornerstone of Egyptian life * Initially, the King was an incarnation of Hours (sky and falcon god) * Later, the king was identified with the sun god Ra and Osiris the god of the dead * The King was obliged above all else to care for his people * The King’s commands preserved maat which was the ideal state of the universe and society (condition of harmony and justice)
The Kings of the Old Kingdom were divine administrators
Women of ancient Egypt were more independent and more involved in public life when compared with those of Mesopotamia * Egyptian women owned property, entered legal contracts, conducted their own business, and brought lawsuits * Had an integral part in religious rights * Weren’t segregated from men in their daily activities * Shared in the economic and professional life of the country except for them being excluded from education
The role of bureaucracy was ato administer estates, channel revenues and labor towards vast public works projects, and administer estates
King Zoser, founder of the Old Kingdom built the first of the pyramid temples * Step Pyramid at Sakkara
Egypt’s material and human resources were transformed and focused due to building and equipping the pyramids * Artisans were trained * Engineering and transportation conflicts solved * Quarrying and stone-working techniques perfected * Laborers recruited * More than 70,000 workers from the Old Kingdom were employed in building the great temple-tombs
Feeding the pyramid laborers drained most of the country’s agricultural surplus
All resources of the kingdom went to regulating existing cults and establishing new ones * All wealth, labor, and expertise was spent on the temples, reinforcing hethe position of the king
The absolute power of the king declined * Demand for consumption by court and cults forced agricultural expansion into areas with poor returns (decreased flow of wealth) * Egyptian royal authority collapsed entirely by around 2200 B.C.E.
Foreigners along with Egyptians benefited from the greater access to power and privilege in the Middle Kingdom * Hyksos adopted the traditions of Egyptian kingship and continued the tradition of divine rule
Hyksos kings introduced military technology and organization into Egypt * Egyptian military tactics were transformed
Ahmose I forged an empire * Him and his successors extend the frontiers of Egypt with their newfound military
Despite Hatshepsut and her successors’ attempts, the Egyptian Empire was never as grand as its kings claimed it to be
Expanded political frontiers meant increased trade and interaction with the rest of the ancient world
Religion was the heart of royal power and the the only limiting force
Amenhotep IV was the most controversial ruler of the New Kingdom * Attempted to abolish the cult of Amen-Ra along with all the other traditional gods, priesthoods, and their festivals * Moved his capital from Thebes to Akhetaten * Changed his own name to Akhenaten
Akenaten temporarily transformed the aesthetic of Egyptian court life while trying to reestablish royal divinity
Akenaten could command acceptance of his radical break with Egyptian stability * His innovations annoyed Egyptian elites
Dynastic continuity ended after Tutankhamen * New military dynasty seized throne * Internal issues allowed Hittites to expand south at Egypt’s expense
Sargon’s Semitic Akkadians and hammurabi’s Amorites created Mesopotamian states * Adopted the ancient Sumerican cultural traditions
Majority of Semitic people lived a life radically different from those of the floodplain civilizations
After 2000 B.C.E. small Semitic bands spread into what is today Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine * Done under patriarchal chieftains * Lived on the edge of civilization * Occasionally participated in the trade that united Mesopotamia and the towns of the Mediterranean coast
Hebrew history recorded Msopotamian traditions as the stories of the flood, legal traditions strongly reminiscent of those of Hammurabi, and the worship of gods in high places
Women were treated as distinct inferiors (basically as property) in Abramhams’ clan
A small band of Smitic slaves left Egypt for Sinai and Canaan in the thirteenth century B.C.E. * Exodus * Became the formative experience of the descendants who had taken apart and those later joined them
Hebrew tradition of Exodus embodied two themes
Israelites swept into Canaan, took advantage of the vacuum of power left by the Hittite-Egyptian standoff and then destroyed or captured the cities of the region * Some local populations welcomed the Israelites * In some places indigenous people were slaughtered
Israel was a loosely organized confederation of tribes during its first centuries * Focal point was religious shrine at Shiloh * Shrine housed only a chest known as the Ark of Covenant which contained law of Moses and mementos of the Exodus
Isrealites’ disorganized political tradition placed them at a disadvantage when fighting their neighbors
Philistines defeated Israelites * Captured Ark of Covenant * Occupied most of their territory
Isrealite religious leaders reluctantly established a kingdom to consolidate their forces * First king was Saul and second was David
Religious leaders known as prophets called upon rulers and people to reform their lives and return to Yahweh * Some prophets were killed * Established a tradition of religious opposition to royal absolutism
United Kingdom did not survive Solomon’s death * Northern region broke off to become the kingdom of Israel
Starting in the 9th century B.C.E. a new Mesoptamian power (Assyrians) began a campaign of conquest and unprecedented brutality * Hebrew Kingdoms were one of many victims * Assyrians destroyed kingdom of Israel and deportant thousands of its people to upper Mesopotamia
Isaelites replaced temple worship with study of the Toray during their exile * Yahweh was understood to not be just one god among many but the one universal God, creator, and ruler of the universe
Peresians allowed people of Judah to return to their homeland and rebuild their temple
The hope for a Davidic messiah was more universal
Assyrian state that destroyed Israel tied together the floodplain civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt
Assyrian Empire was an integrated state * Conquered regions were reorganized and remade on the model of the central government
Assyrian plain north of Babyloniah ad been the site of a small Mesopotamian state threatened by semi-nomads and great powers like the Babyylonains and later the Hittites
Early expansion gave rise to internal revolt and external threats * Revolt made way for ascension of Tiglath-pilser III (greatest empire builder of Mesopotamia since Sargon)
Tiglath-pilser and successors transformed structure of Assyrian state and expanded its empire * Created model for empire that would later be copied by Persi and macedonia * Theirs was the first true empire * Combined all traditional elements of Mesopotamian statecraft with new religious ideology and social system to create framework for lasting multiethnic imperial system * Created most developed military-religious ideology of any ancient people * Restructured his empire * Deported and resettled separatist movements * Maintained control of conquered people through policy of unprecedented cruelty and brutality
Imperial military and administrative system created by Assyrians became blueprint for future empires * Hatred of system inspired brutality that lead to destruction of Assyrian Empire
Babylonians joined forces with the Medes to attack and destroy nineveh
Babylonians modeled their imperial system on that of their predecessors (Assyrians)
Persian conquers were a lasting power in the Fertile Crescent
Indo-European Persians and the Medes settled in Iranian plateau late in the second millennium * Initially dominated by Assyrian rulers seeking military support * Medes became major power in region after helping defeat Assyrians
Zoroastriansim was a powerful element in Persian civilization * Monoestheistic religion founded by Zoroaster * Center of faith as worship of Ahura Mazda (“Lord of Wisdom”) from whom all good things in the universe derive
Taxes extracted from far-flung Persian territories were relatively light * Persians normally protected local customs, religion, and society
Legacy of first 3000 years of civilization is more than a tradition of imperial conquest, exploitation, and cruelty
Said legacy includes basic structure of Western civilization