Ancient Civilizations:Egypt and Mesopotamia

Egypt

• Geography• 550 miles long, 15 miles

on both sides of Nile

• Nile floods once a year leaving rich soil

• Early Government• Needed to control

flooding and for irrigation

• Build dikes, reservoirs, and canals

• Eventually formed two kingdoms

• Upper and Lower Egypt

• 3100 BC Menes united the two

• He was first Pharaoh

Egyptian Life

• Absolute Monarchy/ Theocracy• Pharaoh was the gods’

representative on Earth

• Made laws, built canals and public buildings, set taxes,

• Assisted by nobles and priests in a bureaucracy

• Lower classes • Peasants and slaves

• Could not participate in government

• Religion• Polytheistic

• Preserved bodies with mummification

• Pharaohs in Pyramids

Contributions of Egypt

• Architecture and Engineering

• Pyramids, temples with columns

• Art

• Cheerful and colorful frescoes,

huge statues, gold jewelry,

pottery

• Hieroglyphic writing

• Began as pictographs

• First “paper” called papyrus

• Translated with Rosetta stone which has Hieroglyphic and

Greek writing on it

• Science

• 365 day year

• Set bones, prescribed drugs,

understood much about the

body because of

mummification

Mesopotamia

• The “land between the rivers”

•Also known as the Fertile Crescent

• Located between the Tigris and Euphrates

Rivers

People of Mesopotamia

• Sumerians

• Organization

• Independent city-states around

3500 BC

• ruled by a king

• often warred with each other

• Contributions

• Cuneiform writing

• Used a reed stylus on clay to make wedge shaped symbols

• System of numbers based on 60

• We use this today with telling

time

• Architecture

• Sumerians built pyramid like

temples called Ziggurats

Babylonians

• King Hammurabi Took over Sumer around

1900 BC became Babylonian Empire

• Contributions:

• Code of Hammurabi

• One of the earliest written law codes

• “Eye for an eye” punishment

• Lower class/women punished more

severely than upper class/ men

• Astronomy

• Believed stars affected their lives BUT

learned to predict eclipses and recognize

planets

• Religious literature

• Epic of Gilgamesh: one of the earliest

creation stories

• Describes creation of man and

woman and building an ark before a

great flood

Hebrews

• History

• 1400 BC Semitic speaking people from Arabian Desert settled in Palestine

• Driven out of their land by Assyrians, exiled to Babylon (Persians later allowed them back to Palestine)

• Moses led them out of slavery in Egypt, received Ten Commandments from God

• Jewish Diaspora, driven from their homeland in exile

• Contributions

• Monotheism

• Old Testament

• High moral principles• Ten Commandments

• “what is hateful unto thee do not do unto others”

• Covenant of Abraham• “father” of Judaism

• Made a covenant (agreement) with Yahweh (God)• Hebrews will worship no other God

• Hebrews are God’s chosen people

Phoenicians

• 1200 BC, Semitic Speaking people from North of Palestine

• Skilled shipbuilders and navigators• Traded throughout Mediterranean

and to Europe and Africa

• Contributions• “Missionaries of Civilization”

• Brought Mediterranean culture and products to less advanced regions

• Traded Purple Dye made from crushed snail shells

• Alphabet

• Based on sound with 22 letters; Phonetic Alphabet

• Eventually becomes the alphabet we use

Assyrians

• 800 BC, Semitic Speaking

People from Northern

Mesopotamia

• First to have iron weapons

• siege towers, and battering

rams

• Used terror and cruelty

• Took over from Tigris to Egypt

• Contributions

• Library at Nineveh

• Remains of documents have

given us much information

about ancient Middle East

• Military roads to move troops

quickly