Ancient History

Near East

Neolithic

Revolution

8000BCE

Stone Age

Urban Revolution3500BCE

Bronze Age

Iron Age1200BCE

Classical Age600BCE

Innovative Sites of the Near East

Ancient Sumer

Ancient Egypt

What physical features had the most significant impact on the development

of Mesopotamia? • Tigris & Euphrates Rivers (alluvial plain-silt,

destructive flooding)• Plain of Shinar (farming, ease of movement)

What other features, with less significance, may have eventually influenced Mesopotamia?

•Mediterranean Sea•Red Sea•Persian Gulf•Arabian Desert

Sumerian LifeSumerian Life

Royal Tombs of Ur

Uruk Period: 3500BCUruk Period: 3500BC•First City-State

•Organized around temple (ziggurat)Patron God/Goddess

•Growth in Population and Nucleation (clustering)(50,000 people by

3100BC)

•Increased Complexity among institutions…

Sumerian DevelopmentSumerian DevelopmentConsider…

Irrigation

Demography

Technology

Economic Organization

Writing

Secularization of Government

Social Organization

IrrigationSmall

irregular locally managed networks

Consolidation into a few large networks, each centrally coordinated by a city-statecity-state

TechnologyTechnologySlow potters

wheel

Standardized vessel shape

Copper metallurgy

Utilitarian metallurgy to include Bronze

Tools & weapons

Metals used in Elite Burials

Social OrganizationSocial Organization

Nobles (administrators, priests, merchants)

Commoners (Landless peasants, artisans, slaves)

Fluidity among lower 3 groups

Royal Cemetery of Ur

Distinctions dramatic between Nobles and commoners

Economic OrganizationEconomic OrganizationTemple

Economy

Standardized volumes

Increased specialization

Increased Trade

Wood Utilitarian and precious stones & metals imported

Grain & textiles exported

WritingWritingDeals with economic accounts:

List of workers, goods, receipts, etc.

Pictographs, ideographs

Stylus

Cylinder seals non-economic matters

Cuneiform Tablets deal with economic and non-economic matters

Religion, Politics, etc.

SecularSecularizationizationCompetition

Kings – lugal

Elected & temporary

Lugal becomes permanent

Steward of the gods

At the expense of priesthood

How would you How would you summarize the summarize the

important important developments and developments and

legacy of the legacy of the Sumerians?Sumerians?

Ancient Egypt

Innovative site

Africa’s cradle of civilization

Size & Demography

Pre-dynastic: 500,000 people (cities @ 15,000)

New Kingdom: 5 Million? (cities @ 100,000s)

No more than 15 miles on each side of Nile

Total sq miles: 14,000 (no larger than Estonia)

CitiesCities42 Nomes or Sepat

Patron God/Goddess

NomarchDirected irrigation, administration

Most people lived in surrounding countryside, not city

Specialized function (temple, protection) - interdependenceinterdependence

PharaohPharaohNo concept of ‘state’, instead…

Identification with Pharaoh as divine, in charge of all aspects of civilization (military, religion, etc)

Developed bureaucracy (vizier, nomarchs)

Hereditary succession (dynasty)

Egyptian Pharaohs

Narmer Palette (Narmer or Menes)

Chronology & Dating

Kingdom: periods of relative stability and central rule of PharaohIntermediate: periods of instability, lack of strong central authority and/or invasions

Proto-dynastic – Unification (Menes or Narmer?)

Old Kingdom- 2600BC – 2150BC capital @ Memphis

Middle Kingdom 2100 -1640 (Hyksos Invasion)

New Kingdom 1570 – 1293 capital @ Thebes

Egyptian Gods & Goddesses

Egyptian Gods & Goddesses

Osiris Isis Horus Osiris Isis Horus

ReligionReligionPolytheistic, anthropomorphicCreation stories - MythologyAfterlife, Mummification,

Temples, CultsPharaoh as protector of Ma’at

concept of order, harmony