SOUTHWEST ASIA AND EGYPT

1. SOUTHWEST ASIA AND EGYPT The Ancient and Classical Period

2. CYCLE OF CIVILIZATION • Nomadic group overruns sedentary area • Nomadic group settles down • Nomadic group adopts sedentary culture • New culture rises to greater heights • Culture weakens • Culture overrun by new nomadic group • Common civilization preserved • Typical for all river valley civilizations

3. 1st STATE STRUCTURES • Sumerian City-states • Small, independent but not totally autonomous • Local differences but much similarity • Run originally by priests, then warrior-kings • Aristocratic nobles assisted kings • Akkadian Empire • Conquest state • Tribute state • Cuneiform culture of Sumer but Semitic

4. 2nd STATE STRUCTURES • Ever larger conquest empires • Egypt • Three periods called Kingdoms • First two periods, Old and Middle are ancient • New Kingdom is an empire • Pharaoh became increasingly “human” • Priests had enormous power in government • Babylonian and Assyrian Empires • Conquest, tribute empires • Old Babylonian Empire: Hammurabi’s Code • Assyrian Empire used terror, regular army

5. SOCIAL STRUCTURES • Ruling Classes • Aristocracy • Royalty • Nobility • Priestly and Military • Other Classes • “Free” classes • Merchants • Artisans • Intellectuals • Peasants and slaves

6. GENDER STRUCTURES • Patriarchal • Patrilocal • Polygamous • Male Roles • Female Roles: Public vs. Private

7. CULTURAL • Religious • Polytheist, anthropomorphism of nature • Priests hold great power, own land, temples • Divine Right vs. Theocracy • Intellectual • Cuneiform and Hieroglyphics: Scribes • Literatures: Gilgamesh, Book of the Dead • Arts and Architecture • Public Architecture, public art • Art Conventions very rigid

8. TECHNOLOGY • Man is a tool maker and user • The ability to make and use tools • Man innovates to meet needs, deficiencies • Sumer is major source of first inventions • Metallurgy: Iron Age • Maths and Sciences • Tools

9. DEMOGRAPHY/ENVIRONMENT • Man alters his environment • More pronounced in Mesopotamia • Environment is unpredictable, harsher • Irrigation, dikes, dams, sluices • Agriculture alters environment • All societies were overwhelmingly agrarian • Heavy agriculture increases human population • Some crops really deplete soil • Cities are artificial and alter environment • Extreme concentration of humans in small space • Wastes, diseases concentrated

10. INTERACTIONS • Movement • Human migration: pastoralists, mass migration • Semites: Arabs, Jews, Hyksos, Nubians, Phoenicians • Indo-Europeans, Indo-Iranians: Hittites, Medes/Persians • Culture, social blending • Disruptions • War • Interaction increases as resources become rare • As technology improves, so does war • Diplomacy arises as conflicts increase • Exchanges such as Trade, Diseases • Goods and skills exchanged • Ideas, diseases exchanged

11. TWO EXCEPTIONS • Hebrews • Abraham: Origins – nomadic pastorialist • Ethical Monotheism • Yahweh, Moses, Covenant, Commandments • Phoenicians • Traders throughout Mediterranean • Artisans: Cloth, Dye, Metallurgy • Alphabet: Aleph and Beth