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Lecture 2

Lecture 2. Hist 100 World Civilization I Instructor: Dr. Donald R. Shaffer Upper Iowa University. Lecture 2 Sumerians (1). Generally credited as the first “civilization” appearing in what is today Iraq around 3,000 BCE

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Lecture 2

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  1. Lecture 2 Hist 100 World Civilization I Instructor: Dr. Donald R. Shaffer Upper Iowa University

  2. Lecture 2Sumerians (1) • Generally credited as the first “civilization” appearing in what is today Iraq around 3,000 BCE • Sumerian civilization grew around the Tigris and Euphrates (Mesopotamia), rivers that while they nourished civilization, because of their unpredictable flow lent a pessimistic and capriciousness to the Sumerian worldview • Sumerian civilization centered around “city-states” • City states sometimes went to war with each other, at other times cooperated Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Mesopotamia

  3. Lecture 2Sumerians (2) • Cuneiform • A system of writing devised by the Sumerians • Scribes pressed wedges into damp clay tablets • Partly symbolic, partly phonetic, it enabled the Sumerians to express symbolic ideas in writing • Difficult to learn, hence literacy largely limited to scribes and the elite • Scribes also scholarly class, studying math, botany and language Sumerian Cuneiform

  4. Lecture 2Sumerians (3) • Sumerian Culture • Religion: • Polytheistic: believed in a hierarchy of gods • Anthropomorphic: gods behaved like human beings, had constantly to be appeased • Literature • Suggested by some scholars as source for creation myth in the Bible • Epic of Gilgamesh • Three social classes • Nobles • Commoners • Slaves Ziggurat

  5. Lecture 2Sumerian successors • The proof of the success of Sumerian civilization is the extent to which they were copied by successors • Successors were various Semitic peoples that moved into Mesopotamia • Copied Sumerian writing system, Gods, etc. • Akkadian Empire • Sumerians conquered by Sargon in 2331 BCE, leader of the SemeticAkkadians • Babylonians (Amorites) • Another Semetic people who conquered Meso-potamia 100 years later • Code of Hammurabi Code of Hammurabi (on display at the Louvre)

  6. Lecture 2Egypt (1) • The Nile • Just as the Tigris and Euphrates defined life in ancient Mesopotamia, the River Nile shaped ancient Egypt • It flooded regularly and gently, replenishing the fields of the Nile Valley • These fields produced abundant crops which made the great achievement of the ancient Egyptians possible • The easy navigation of the river also made it easy to unify the country and keep it unified The Nile Valley as seen from space

  7. Lecture 2Egypt (2) • Periods of Egyptian History • Archaic 3100-2600 BCE Unification of Egypt • Old Kingdom 2660-2180 BCE Construction of Pyramids • 1st Intermediate 2180-2080 BCE Political chaos • Middle Kingdom 2080-1640 BCE Recovery & political stability • 2nd Intermediate 1640-1570 BCE Hyksos “invasion” • New Kingdom 1570-700 BCE Creation of Egyptian Empire Akhenatan’s “heresy”

  8. Lecture 2Egypt (3) • Egyptian Culture • Religion • Like the Sumerians, the Egyptians were polytheistic • Because of the political unity of Egypt, they all worshipped the same gods • The pharaoh was at the center of this religion, as a god in human form • Egyptian religion was less an attempt to appease the gods, but to prepare for the afterlife • Many monumental structures, most notably the pyramids, had that purpose Mortuary Temple of Hatschepsut near Thebes (modern Luxor)

  9. Lecture 2Egypt (4) • Egyptian Culture (cont.) • Social Structure • Egyptian population mostly free, but subject to labor calls • The pyramids were built this way • No caste system—a person of humble origins could rise as high as their talent would take them • The deserts surrounding Egypt largely isolated the country during its early history • Hyksos “invasion” (c. 1640 BCE) • Ended Egypt’s relative isolation from the world Contemporary depictions of Ancient Egyptian peasants

  10. Lecture 2Indus Valley Civilization (1) • Like in other areas, civilization in on the Indian subcontinent began in a river valley • Centered in the Indus River Valley in modern Pakistan • Knowledge of the Indus Valley civilization is limited because no one has been able to decipher its written language • What historians have learned primarily comes through archeology

  11. Lecture 2Indus Valley Civilization (2) • Evidence seems to suggest a gradual evolution from Neolithic until civilization emerged about 2500 BCE • They built impressive cities • Mohenjo-Daro may have had a population of 100,000 • Some city neighborhoods laid out in a grid. Something thought to have originated later with the Greeks • Impressive drainage systems to funnel wastes out of the cities

  12. Lecture 2Indus Valley Civilization (3) • There appears to have been contact between the Indus Valley Civilization and Mesopotamia • Pottery and other artifacts of Indus Valley have been found in Mesopotamian archeological sites • The decline of the Indus Valley civilization is as obscure as its origin and history • Your textbook makes the case for decline due to a man-made ecological crisis • Other scholars have suggested natural calamities • Also hard to make connections to later Indian civilizations

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