Origins of Civilization: Human Culture & Ancient Empires

1. 1 The Birth of Civilization

2. The Birth of Civilization • Early Humans and Their Culture • Early Civilizations in the Middle East to about 1000 B.C.E. • Ancient Near Eastern Empires • Early Indian Civilization • Early Chinese Civilization • The Rise of Civilization in the Americas

3. A carved or etched limestone statue

4. Early Humans and Their Culture

5. Early Humans and Their Culture • The Paleolithic Age • The Neolithic Age • The Bronze Age and the Birth of Civilization

6. Culture • Group ways, taught over generations • Behavior • Courtship • Child-rearing • Material things • Shelter • Tools

7. Culture (cont’d) • Ideas, institutions, beliefs • Language and dexterity facilitate culture • Culture enables human adaptation

8. Paleolithic Age • 1,000,000-10,000 B.C.E. (Old Stone Age) • No plant cultivation • Hunter-gatherers • Small nomadic tribes • Little control over nature • Some evidence of religious faith and use of magic • Division of labor by sex

9. Map 1–1. Early Human Migrations.

10. Wondjina.

11. Çatal Hüyük

12. Neolithic Age 10,000-3500 B.C.E. (New Stone Age) • Agriculture • Domestication of animals • Transition from nomadic lifestyle to a more settled agricultural existence • Greater control over nature

13. Neolithic Age 10,000-3500 B.C.E. (New Stone Age) (cont’d) • Invention of pottery • Population growth > cities • Catal Huyuk • Jericho

14. Early Civilizations in the Middle East to about 1000 B.C.E.

15. Defining Civilization • Urbanization • Social change • Growth in population • Technological and industrial change • Bronze metallurgy • Long-distance trade • Symbolic communication (writing, art)

16. Mesopotamian Civilization • Tigris and Euphrates Rivers • Politically fragmented • Sumerian and Semitic languages • Akkadian influence • Sargon and unification • Naram-Sin and the victory stele

17. Mesopotamian Civilization (cont’d) • Babylonian dominance • Hammurabi (r. 1792-1750) • Law code

18. Mesopotamian Culture • Writing • Cuneiform • Writing restricted to an educated elite • Mathematics • Sexagesimal system (units of 60) • Astronomy

19. Mesopotamian Culture (cont’d) • Religion • Polytheistic • Nature gods • Pessimistic view of life and afterlife • Slavery

20. Egyptian Civilization • Importance of the Nile River • Upper Egypt (south) – Nile valley • Lower Egypt (north) – Nile Delta • Unification and trade • Security and optimism • Extraordinarily long political history • Unification 3100 B.C.E. • Absorption into Roman Empire 30 B.C.E.

21. The Old Kingdom –2700–2200 B.C.E. • Pharaoh was a god on earth • Maat – ideal of order, justice and truth • Pyramids • Pharaonic tombs • Represented power and wealth of Egypt

22. Later Kingdoms • Middle Kingdom 2025-1630 B.C.E. • Power of the pharaohs more limited • Second Intermediate Period • Arrival of Hyksos • New Kingdom, 1550-1075 B.C.E. • Military expansion and empire • Tutankhamun – wealth of the New Kingdom

23. Egyptian Culture • Language and literature • Hieroglyphs • Religion • Polytheistic • Amun, Re • Akhenaten’s monotheism - Aten

24. Egyptian Culture (cont’d) • Worship and the afterlife • Clear view of afterworld • Book of the Dead • Mummification

25. Egyptian Society • Women • Control over property • Divorce • Equal legal protection • Hatshepsut – powerful female pharaoh

26. Egyptian Society (cont’d) • Slaves • First numerous during Middle Kingdom • Black Africans and Asians • Increases during expansion of New Kingdom • Hebrews enslaved

27. Map 1–2. The Ancient Near East.

28. Akkadian Victory Stele

29. Babylonian World Map

30. The Code of Hammurabi Click here to view The Code of the Amorite King Hammurabi (c.1728-1686 BCE).

31. Document: The Code of Hammurabi

32. Document: The Code of Hammurabi (cont’d)

33. Chronology: Key Events and People in Mesopotamian History

34. Making Bread

35. Pyramids at Giza

36. Map 1–3. The Near East and Greece

37. Chronology: Major Periods in Ancient Egyptian History (Dynasties in Roman Numerals)

38. Seated Egyptian Scribe

39. Book of the Dead

40. Document: Love Poems from the New Kingdom

41. A Closer Look:Babylonian World Map • What can we learn from this map about how the Babylonians saw the world around them and their own place in it? • Why do you think this map locates some of the Babylonians’ neighbors but ignores other important neighboring cultures? • Why has cartography remained so important throughout the ages?

42. Babylonian World Map

43. A Closer Look:Babylonian World Map • Is the subjectivity reflected here confined to this map, or is it a general characteristic of cartography throughout history?

44. Ancient Near Eastern Empires

45. Ancient Near Eastern Empires • Hittites, 1500-1200 B.C.E. • Indo-European people • Powerful state • Invention of iron • Kassites • Later Babylonian empire • People of unknown origin

46. Ancient Near Eastern Empires (contd’) • Mitannians • Capital at Washukani • Chariot warfare and horse training

47. Later Near Eastern Empires • Assyrians • Semitic speaking peoples in the city of Assur • Expansion: 1000-665 B.C.E. • Powerful army • Conquered Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt • Well-structured empire • Civil war and collapse

48. Later Near Eastern Empires (cont’d) • Neo-Babylonians • Nebuchadnezzar and wonders of Babylon

49. Assyrian Palace Relief

50. Document: An Assyrian Woman Writes to Her Husband, ca. 1800 B.C.E.