Early Societies in Southeast Asia and the Indo-European Migrations

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Chapter 2

• Early Societies in Southeast Asia and the
  Indo-European Migrations

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Civilization Defined

• Cities/Urban
• Political/Military system
• Social Hierarchy
• Economic/Job Specialization
• Complex Religion
• Written language
• Higher Culture Art Architecture
• Public Works

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Early Mesopotamia 3000-2000 B.C.E.

• Between the Rivers
• Tigris and Euphrates
• Modern-day Iraq
• Cultural continuum of fertile crescent
• Sumerians the dominant people

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The Wealth of the Rivers

• Nutrient-rich silt
• Key irrigation
• Necessity of coordinated efforts (reservoirs,
  canals, dikes, dams)
• Promoted development of local governments
• City-states
• Sumer begins small-scale irrigation 6000 BCE
• By 5000 BCE, complex irrigation networks
• Population reaches 100,000 by 3000 BCE
• Attracts Semitic migrants, influences culture

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Sumerian City-States

• Cities appear 4000 BCE
• Dominate region from 3200-2350 BCE
• Ur (home of Abraham, see Genesis 1128), Nineveh
• Ziggurat - home of the city god
• Divine mandate to Kings
• Regulation of Trade
• Defense from nomadic marauders

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The Ziggurat of Ur
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Ziggurat at Ur

• Temple
• Mountain of the Gods

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Example of Defensive Walls
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Sumerian Religion - Polytheistic
Enki
Innana
Anthropomorphic Gods
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Political Decline of Sumer

• Semitic peoples from northern Mesopotamia
  overshadow Sumer
• Sargon of Akkad (2370-2315 BCE)
• Destroyed Sumerian city-states one by one,
  created empire based in Akkad
• Empire unable to maintain chronic rebellions
• Hammurabi of Babylon (1792-1750 BCE)
• Improved taxation, legislation
• Used local governors to maintain control of
  city-states
• Babylonian Empire later destroyed by Hittites
  from Anatolia, c. 1595 BCE

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Akkadian Empire
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Hammurabi
The upper part of the stele of Hammurabis code
of laws
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Hammurabi
The upper part of the stele of Hammurabis code
of laws
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Legal System

• The Code of Hammurabi
• Established high standards of behavior and stern
  punishment for violators
• lex talionis law of retaliation
• Social status and punishment
• women as property, but some rights

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Hittite Chariot and Soldiers
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Later Mesopotamian Empires

• Weakening of central rule an invitation to
  foreign invaders
• Assyrians use new iron weaponry
• Beginning 1300 BCE, by 8th-7th centuries BCE
  control Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, most of
  Egypt
• Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (r. 605-562) takes
  advantage of internal dissent to create Chaldean
  (New Babylonian) Empire
• Famously luxurious capital

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The Hanging Gardens by Martin Heemskerc,
16th C.
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Mesopotamian Empires, 1800-600 BCE
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Technological Development in Mesopotamia

• Bronze (copper with tin), c. 4000 BCE
• Military, agricultural applications
• Iron, c. 1000 BCE
• Cheaper than bronze
• Wheel, boats, c. 3500 BCE
• Shipbuilding increases trade networks

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Sophisticated Metallurgy Skills at Ur
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Social Classes

• Ruling classes based often on military prowess
• Originally elected, later hereditary
• Perceived as offspring of gods
• Religious classes
• Role intervention with gods to ensure fertility,
  safety
• Considerable landholdings, other economic
  activities
• Free commoners
• Peasant cultivators
• Some urban professionals
• Slaves
• Prisoners of war, convicted criminals, debtors

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Patriarchal Society

• Men as landowners, relationship to status
• Patriarchy rule of the father
• Right to sell wives, children
• Double standard of sexual morality
• Women drowned for adultery
• Relaxed sexual mores for men
• Yet some possibilities of social mobility for
  women
• Court advisers, temple priestesses, economic
  activity
• Introduction of the veil at least c. 1500 BCE

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Development of Writing

• Sumerian writing systems form 3500 BCE
• Pictographs
• Cuneiform wedge-shaped
• Preservation of documents on clay
• Declines from 400 BCE with spread of Greek
  alphabetic script

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Cuneiform Wedge-Shaped Writing
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Cuneiform Writing
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Deciphering Cuneiform
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Sumerian Scribes
Tablet House
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Uses for Writing

• Trade
• Astronomy
• Mathematics
• Agricultural applications
• Calculation of time
• 12-month year
• 24-hour day, 60-minute hour

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Mesopotamian Literature

• Epic of Gilgamesh, compiled after 2000 BCE
• Heroic saga
• Search for meaning, esp. afterlife
• This-worldly emphasis

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Gilgamesh
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Gilgamesh
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Gilgamesh Epic TabletFlood Story
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The Early Hebrews

• Patriarchs and Matriarchs from Babylon, c. 1850
  BCE
• Parallels between early biblical texts, Code of
  Hammurabi
• Early settlement of Canaan (Israel), c. 1300 BCE
• Biblical text slavery in Egypt, divine
  redemption
• On-going conflict with indigenous populations
  under King David (1000-970 BCE) and Solomon
  (970-930 BCE)

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Egypt's king, Ramses II, written about in the Old
Testament, is now thought to have reigned between
1290-1224 B.C.E. This Egyptian wall art depicts
Ramses holding what is suspected to be three
slaves. One is black, one appears to be East
Asian, and the third, in the foreground, appears
to be Semitic. The blacks and Semite came from
close by. The East Asian leaves us wondering.
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David and Goliath by Caravaggio, 1600
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David with the Head of Goliath,
c. 1450/1455, Andrea del Castagno
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Model of Solomons Temple
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Moses and Monotheism

• Hebrews shared polytheistic beliefs of other
  Mesopotamian civilizations
• Moses introduces monotheism, belief in single god
• Denies existence of competing parallel deities
• Personal god reward and punishment for
  conformity with revealed law
• The Torah (doctrine or teaching)

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Foreign conquests of Israel

• Assyrian conquest, 722 BCE
• Conquered the northern kingdom
• Deported many inhabitants to other regions
• Many exiles assimilated and lost their identity
• Babylonian conquest, 586 BCE
• Destroyed Jerusalem
• Forced many into exile
• Israelites maintained their religious identity
  and many returned to Judea

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The Phoenicians

• City-states along Mediterranean coast after 3000
  BCE
• Extensive maritime trade
• Dominated Mediterranean trade, 1200-800 BCE
• Development of alphabet symbols
• Simpler alternative to cuneiform
• Spread of literacy

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Israel and Phoenicia , 1500-600 BCE
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Indo-European Migrations

• Common roots of many languages of Europe,
  southwest Asia, India
• Implies influence of a single Indo-European
  people
• Probable original homeland modern-day Ukraine
  and Russia, 4500-2500 BCE
• Domestication of horses, use of Sumerian weaponry
  allowed them to spread widely

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Indo-European Migrations 3000-1000 BCE
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Implications of Indo-European Migration

• Hittites migrate to central Anatolia, c. 1900
  BCE, later dominate Babylonia
• Influence on trade
• Horses, chariots with spoked wheels
• Iron
• Migrations to western China, Greece, Italy also
  significant