Chapter One: The Beginnings of Civilization

1. Chapter One:The Beginnings of Civilization Cultures and Values, 6th Ed. Cunningham and Reich

3. Defining “Civilized” • Urban life: permanent constructions • System of regulatory government • Class distinction (wealth and occupation) • Tools/skills --> production/trade • Written communication • Shared system of religious belief ** Not a value judgment! **

4. Origins of Western Civilization • Paleolithic World View (Old Stone Age) • Art • Religion • Neolithic Civilizations (Late Stone Age) • Domestication of animals • Cultivation of vegetation • Community • War / Weaponry

7. The Bronze Age (3000-1000 B.C.E.) • Mesopotamia • Sumerian (3500-2350 B.C.E.) • Semitic (2350-612 B.C.E.) • Egypt • Aegean Cultures

8. Sumerian Culture • Agricultural/Urban settlements • “Fertile Crescent” • Writing/record-keeping: Cuneiform • Shared system of religious belief • Civil ruler / Religious rulers

9. Epic of Gilgamesh • Gilgamesh ruled at Uruk c. 2700 B.C.E. • Composed in Sumerian (2000 B.C.E.) on cuneiform tablets • Pessimistic work • Asserts universal questions about human existence

10. Semitic Culture • Akkadian Period • King Sargon and descendants (2350-2150 B.C.E.) • Focus on HUMAN achievement • Gutian invasion / return to tradition • Babylonian Legacy • King Hammurabi • Assyrians • Culmination of Mesopotamian culture

14. Fall of Mesopotamia • Medes • Nomadic warriors • Conquered Nineveh in 612 B.C.E. • Conquered and absorbed by Persians • Persians • Nomadic warriors • Conquered by Alexander the Great (330 B.C.E.)

15. Ancient Egypt • Manetho’s History of Egyptian Greek • 31 dynasties / 4 groups: • Old Kingdom (2700 B.C.E.) • Middle Kingdom (1990 B.C.E.) • New Kingdom (1570 B.C.E.) • Late Period (1185-500 B.C.E.)

16. Ancient Egyptian Culture • Unified and consistent • Resistant to change • Worldview affected by external events

17. Political Structure • Pharaoh • Head of the central government • Regarded as a living god • Exercised absolute power • Ordered and controlled visible world • Priests • Preservation of religious beliefs • Divine kingship of Pharaohs

18. Egyptian Religion • Obsession with immortality / life after death • Book of the Dead • Osiris, Isis, Horus • Deities, subdeities, nature spirits • Responsible for all aspects of existence

19. Egyptian Art • Principal function of artists: to produce images of deities • Form of worship • Standards set forth by Pharaoh • Artists also provided temples and shrines for honoring deities

20. The Old Kingdom • Imhotep • First architect known to history • Pyramids • Funerary monuments for pharaohs, upper class • Mummification • Preservation of the body was necessary for the survival of the soul

21. Great Age of the Pyramid • Pyramids at Giza (Dynasty IV) • Cheops • Chefren • Mycerinus • Who built the pyramids? • Farmers • Slaves

22. Pyramids • Constructed of limestone blocks • Quarried, ferried, cut, dragged into place • Center chamber contained mummified body of pharaoh surrounded by treasures • Plundered by robbers

23. Chefren’s Sphinx • Created as the guardian for Chefren’s tomb at Giza • Adopted as a divine symbol of the mysterious and enigmatic (Greeks)

25. Art of the Old Kingdom • Reflects confidence and certainty • Idealized realism • Conceptual, symbolic

26. Art of the Middle Kingdom • Loss of trust in divine providence • Artists attempted to recapture lofty serenity of Old Kingdom • Troubled spirit captured in weight and somber expressions

27. The New Kingdom • Artistic traditions continued • Conceptual • Pharaoh Amenhotep IV/ “Akhenaton” • Massive religious/political reform • Tel el-Amarna Art • Tutankhamen • Howard Carter (1922-1923)

32. The Late Period • Artists revisited earlier period styles • Recapture realism, volume • Return to pyramid-shaped tombs • Egypt invaded by Nubians (the Cush) 750-720 B.C.E. • Nubians and Nobatae preserved ancient culture

33. Aegean Culture • Crete • King Minos / Knossos • Cyclades Islands • Bronze tools • Imaginative/humorous pottery • Marble statues/idols

35. The Bronze Age in Crete • Arthur Evans, 1894-1900 • Early Minoan • Increasing growth • Contacts with Egypt and Mesopotamia • Scattered Towns

36. Middle Minoan • Evolution of large urban centers • Art = lively and colorful • Little interest in monumental art • Writing system of hieroglyphic signs

37. [Image 1.22] Palace of Minos at Knossos

38. [Image 1.25] Wasp Pendant

39. [Image 1.27] Snake Goddess

40. Late Minoan • Period of rebuilding after earthquakes • High point of Minoan culture • Wall paintings • Religion centered upon mother goddess connected with fertility

41. [Image 1.28] Funerary Mask

42. Mycenaean Culture • Heinrich Schliemann, 1870-1873 • The Trojan War (1250 B.C.E.) • Strongly influenced by Minoan Culture • Art = preoccupied with death and war • Fall of the Mycenaean empire (1200 B.C.E.)

43. Chapter 1: Discussion Questions • What can be determined about the roles of women in early civilizations based on their artistic depictions? Explain, citing examples from each culture. • Based on the universal questions evoked in the Epic of Gilgamesh, what can we assume about the Sumerian people and their lifestyles? In what ways are their concerns shared by people of our culture and generation? Explain. • What role did geography play in the development and preservation of Ancient Egyptian culture? In what fundamental ways was Egyptian culture different from the Mesopotamian and Aegean cultures? • Discuss the role of the archeologist. What impact do the discoveries of ancient cultures have on us today? Explain.