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Early Civilization—Mesopotamia and Egypt

Early Civilization—Mesopotamia and Egypt. Mesopotamia. “the land between the rivers” In the heart of the fertile crescent By 5000 B.C.E., elaborate irrigation networks built Surplus of food Growing population. Sumer. Southern half of Mesopotamia

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Early Civilization—Mesopotamia and Egypt

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  1. Early Civilization—Mesopotamia and Egypt

  2. Mesopotamia • “the land between the rivers” • In the heart of the fertile crescent • By 5000 B.C.E., elaborate irrigation networks built • Surplus of food • Growing population

  3. Sumer • Southern half of Mesopotamia • Attractive because of agriculture and wealth • Around 4000 B.C.E. first cities were built • City-states developed from need to keep order and protect resources • By 3000 B.C.E. kings took control of the cities

  4. Human Interaction • Migrants • Wealth of Sumer attracted migrants from other regions (mostly from Semitic peoples) • Semitic languages—Akkadian, Aramaic, Hebrew, Phoenician. • Semitic peoples=nomadic herders who came from Arabian and Syrian deserts.

  5. Culture • Government organized work projects (ex. Palaces, temples, defensive walls, etc.) • ZIGGURATS: distinctive stepped pyramids that housed temples and altars to the principal local deity.

  6. Cuneiform • World’s earliest known writing—started as pictographs • Used to keep track of commercial transactions and tax collections (economics) • Around 2900 B.C.E. changed to graphic symbols to represent sounds, syllables, ideas and physical objects • Procedure: stylus made from a reed on wet clay • cuneiform=“wedge shaped”

  7. Hammurabi and Babylon • Emperor of Babylon from 1792-1750 B.C.E • Great administrator—regular taxation and central government • Babylon was capital—deputies sent to other territories

  8. Hammurabi’s Code • Lextalionis or “law of retaliation” • Helped promote cultural unity throughout the empire • Included civil and criminal laws • Punishment depended on social class • Laws established high standard with strict punishments

  9. Mesopotamia Overview • Social: • patriarchal society, but women had some rights under Hammurabi’s code • 3 social classes (ruling class, priests, commoners) • Political: • organized into city-states • ruled by kings (sons of the gods) • empires created (Sargon, Babylon, Assyria, New Babylon) • Interaction: • population increased with settlements • many diverse peoples migrated • Culture: • polytheistic originally, but also monotheistic Jews • Used irrigation, bronze/iron metallurgy, used the wheel, made ships • Developed cuneiform, astronomy, and mathematics (education)

  10. Mesopotamia Overview • Economics: • developed effective irrigation, used commoners as laborers • Taxed lower class • Community projects

  11. Egypt and Nubia • “Gift of the Nile” • Nile River flooded predictably every year • Left behind fertile soil • Nubia, to the south, not as productive.

  12. Annual flooding of the Nile

  13. Menes • Unified lower and upper Egypt around 3100 B.C.E. • Founded the capital of Memphis, became cultural and political center • Centralized government ruled by the pharaoh • “gods living on earth”

  14. Archaic Period and Old Kingdom • Archaic Period (3100-2600 B.C.E.) • Old Kingdom (2660-2160 B.C.E.) • Power of pharaohs was greatest • Built pyramids as royal tombs

  15. New Kingdom (1550-1070 B.C.E.) • Hyksos (foreign rulers) introduced the horse to Egypt—kicked out to begin the New Kingdom • Elaborate government: separate responsibilities (military, agriculture, courts, treasury, etc.) • Imperialism: controlled coastal region of the Mediterranean and Nubia

  16. Hieroglyphics • Started around 3200 B.C.E. • “holy inscriptions” • Written on Papyrus—paper-like material fashioned from papyrus reeds

  17. Religion • Polytheistic • Amon (sun, creation, fertility) • Re (sun) • Monotheistic • Aten (“sole god, like whom there is no other”)

  18. Cult of Osiris • Dismembered man put back together as god of the underworld • Associated with the Nile (flood, retreat, flood again) and crops (grow, die, grow again) • Osiris has power to decide who got the blessing of immortality • Individual souls had their hearts weighed against a feather—if heavy (evil) no immortality

  19. Final Judgment of Osiris

  20. Mummification 1. Linen 6. Natron2. Sawdust 7. Onion3. Lichen 8. Nile Mud4. Beeswax 9. Linen Pads5. Resin 10. Frankinsense

  21. Egypt Overview • Social: • military and government administrators, slaves • Patriarchal society • Woman had more influence than in Mesopotamia • Political • Pharaoh was supreme central ruler • Rarely had a woman ruler • Interaction: • Egypt became imperialistic • Conflict with Nubia (Kush) • Culture: • Different forms of writing (hieroglyphics, hieratic “priestly”, Demotic, and Coptic • Scribes led comfortable lives

  22. Egypt Overview • Economics: • Bronze/Iron metallurgy • Boats could travel both ways fairly easily • Traded with Nubia and eventually around the Mediterranean

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