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The Ancient Middle East. Early Civilizations. The Neolithic Period From perhaps 400,000 to 7,000 B.C.E., early human beings survived as hunter gatherers in extended family units, a period known as the Paleolithic, or “Old Stone Age.”
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The Ancient Middle East
Early Civilizations • The Neolithic Period • From perhaps 400,000 to 7,000 B.C.E., early human beings survived as hunter gatherers in extended family units, a period known as the Paleolithic, or “Old Stone Age.” • At the start of the Neolithic period, around 7,000 B.C.E., a transformation began: some hunter-gatherer societies began to rely chiefly on agriculture for their subsistence. • Neolithic peoples contributed a great deal to the development of human society, including systematic agriculture, writing, sedentary living, and improved tools and weapons. • Stonehenge and other stone circles scattered throughout Great Britain, Ireland, and Brittany were built by Neolithic societies that must have been prosperous, well organized, and centrally led.
1. Mesopotamia: "Land Between the Two Rivers"
Indo-European Migrations: 4m-2m BCE The Middle East: “The Crossroads of Three Continents”
The Ancient Fertile Crescent Area The Middle East: “The Cradle of Civilization”
Mesopotamian Civilization • Invention of Writing and Intellectual Advancements • Writing appears to have begun at Sumer sometime around the ninth millennium B.C.E. • The Sumerian pictographic form evolved by the fourth millennium into cuneiform (“wedge-shaped”) writing. • The signs in the cuneiform system later became ideograms and evolved into an intricate system of communication. • The writing system was so complicated that only professional scribes mastered it. • Scribal schools flourished throughout Sumer. • Scribal schools were centers of culture and learning. • Mesopotamians made great strides in mathematics, medicine, and religion.
Sumerian Religion - Polytheistic Enki Innana Anthropomorphic Gods
Religion and Society • Mesopotamian religion was polytheistic; gods and goddesses existed to represent almost everything in the cosmos. • The gods had many human attributes. • The Mesopotamians created myths to explain the origins of the universe and of mankind.
The Sumerians produced the first epic poem, The Epic of Gilgamesh. • The arid and harsh environment of Sumer fostered a religion based on placating a pantheon of harsh and capricious gods and goddesses. • Shrines built in the center of Sumerian cities were focal points of Sumerian life and religion.
Sumerian society was organized into four classes of people: nobles, free clients of the nobility, commoners, and slaves. • The king and lesser nobility had huge land holdings. • Clients were free people who were dependent on the nobility. • Commoners were free and were independent of the nobility. • The Sumerian slave population included foreigners, prisoners of war, criminals, and debtors.
Mesopotamian Trade “The Cuneiform World”
Sumerian Scribes “Tablet House”
Ziggurat at Ur • Temple • “Mountain of the Gods”
The Triumph of Babylon • Unification • The Babylonians united Mesopotamia politically and culturally. • Babylon’s best-known king, Hammurabi (ca 1792−1750 B.C.E.), forged a vibrant Sumero-Babylonian culture through conquest and assimilation.
Life Under Hammurabi • Hammurabi also created one of the world’s earliest comprehensive law codes, which today provides much useful information on daily life in ancient Mesopotamia. • The Code of Hammurabi had two notable features: it included different laws for people of different social status, and it was based on the idea that the punishment should fit the crime. • Individuals brought their own complaints before the courts. • The Code dealt extensively with business practices, agricultural issues, and family life.
Egypt, the Land of the Pharaohs (3100−1200 B.C.E.) • The Nile River • Egyptian society revolved around the life-giving waters of the Nile River. • The regularity of the Nile’s floods and the fertility of its mud made agriculture productive and dependable. • The Nile was Egypt’s primary highway and communication conduit.
