The Ancient Middle East

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The Ancient Middle East
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Mesopotamia

• Land b/w two rivers
• b/w Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
• Frequent Flooding
• Need for advanced network of canals spurs an
  advanced government.

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Characteristics of Mesopotamian Civilizations

• City states
• Each city had its own king and patron god or
  goddess
• City states often warred with each other
• Highly legalistic
• Law Codes
• Contracts
• Judicial proceedings and appeals processes
• Extensive trading networks

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The Ancient Middle EastMesopotamia

• Sumerians created the first known civilization in
  the ancient Middle East.

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Rise of the City-States

• Large towns cooperate w/countryside for mutual
  defense.
• Supervised the development and maintenance of the
  canals.
• Frequent fighting b/w Mesopotamian cities.
• Religion
• Ziggurat Home or temple of the City-State God
• Believe in more than one God
• Natural events blamed on the gods.

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City-States were built around Ziggurats. The god
or spirit of the Ziggurat watched over the
fortunes of the town. Ziggurats also contained
tombs, and temples for priests.
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• The City Center
• Temples served civic and religious purposes
• Daily sacrifices and rituals
• Storage of surplus grain and other foods
• Dwelling of priests and priestesses
• Locale where craftsmen and artisans could
  practice their trades

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Religion
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Fear of natural disasters and invasions
contributed to the Sumerians believing that at
death they would descend to a dark underworld
forever.
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Religion and City States

• People were wholly dependent on their citys
• god for food and protection.
• Sumerians did not worship their rulers
• as god. Instead, they worshiped their
• Kings.

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Ancient Sumerian record keepers marked
pictographic symbols in soft pieces of clay with
a pointed reed. The clay tablets were then baked
to make them hard. We call the Sumerians writing
system cuneiform. Cuneiform means wedged shaped,
because the marks in the clay were wedges. The
first pictographs were simple. A writer would
draw an object like a fish or a broom to
communicate to others. This system worked well in
a simple society, but it would be difficult to
describe abstract concepts such as justice or
liberty in pictographs. Many Chinese people
continue to use a pictographic system today, but
the government has endorsed the Pinyin system of
phonetic writing. Eventually, most cultures
developed phonetic writing systems where a symbol
represents a sound rather than an object. English
speaking people, agree that the symbols D-O-G
refer to an animal. English, French, Spanish,
German and Russian are examples of phonetic
languages. Phonetic languages make small
typewriters and computer keyboards possible.
Imagine a different key for every single word!
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CUNEIFORM
Sumerian writing developed around 3100 BC Symbols
were engraved on clay tablets Scribes kept
business records and poems on tablets

• Written Language
• Cuneiform the use of wedge-like shapes.

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With the development of cities came a more
complex economy and more complex social
structures. This cultural evolution is reflected
in the tokens, which begin to appear in a much
greater diversity of shapes and are given more
complicated designs of incisions and holes.
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Sumerian Schools

• Literacy was a highly valued skill
• Sumerians set up first institutions of formal
  education
• Education included writing and mathematics
• Tuition paid for education
• Educated were privileged elite government
  officials, scribes, etc.

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• Legacy of Sumerians
• Cuneiform writing
• The wheel
• Potters wheel
• The Sail
• Pick-axe
• Brick mold
• Glass
• 60-based counting system 60 minutes to an hour,
  360 degrees to a circle
• 12 Month Calendar
• Beer
• Epic poetry
• Arches, Columns, Ramps

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Sargon of Akkad unifies Mesopotamia worlds
first empire, ca. 2240 B.C.
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The First Empire

• Around 2350 B.C. Sargon, and Akkadian Soldier
  founds the first empire.
• Extends from S. Mes. To the Med.
• Adopted cuneiform and religion of Sumerians.
• Fixed canals and sent armies to protect caravans.
  
• Other empires were found.
• Babylon
• 1700 B.C. Hammurabi carves out an empire.

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Reign of Hammurabi of Babylon, 1792-1750 B.C.
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Hammurabi

• Best known for code of laws
• 282 Laws - 3,600 lines of Cuneiform
• Trade, family, labor, real estate, property.
• Eye for an Eye, Tooth for a Tooth.
• Harsh punishment, yet distinguished from major
  minor offenses.
• State was the authority.

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The Iron Age

• In 1600 B.C. Babylon fell to invaders
• Around 1550 B.C. the Hittites controlled the
  area.
• First to use Iron weapons.
• Advantage over opponents.
• 1200 B.C. the Iron Age takes off.

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The Assyrian Empire

• 1100 B.C. Conquests begin
• Harsh and brutal empire.
• I cut their heads and like heaps of grain, I
  piled them up.
• 700 B.C. Babylon captured.
• By 625 B.C. Empire extends from fertile crescent
  to the Nile River valley.

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Assyrian Government

• Provinces ruled by governors responsible to the
  King.
• Build roads to each province.
• Deported people that disagreed with government.
• Worlds first library at Nineveh 22,000 clay
  tablets.

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The Persian Empire

• In 550 B.C. Cyrus becomes king of Persia.
• Within 20 years Cyrus controls the fertile
  crescent.
• Tolerance of conquered people.
• Allowed them to self-govern
• Respected their religions.
• By 500 B.C. controls territory from India to
  Egypt.

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Persian Empire

• Improvements
• Road Systems Great Royal Road
• Efficient Government Darius (Father of Xerxes)
• Satrapies individual provinces
• Collected taxes and administered laws.
• Inspectors sent into each province as well
• Religion Belief in good or evil.
• Zorastrians Zend Avesta Hymns and religious
  poems
• The person had control of his or her salvation.
• Believed in Ethical and Moral conduct.
• Believed in Final Day of Judgment.

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Early Small States

• Phoenicians
• Small city-states in the Eastern Mediterranean
  Sea near present day Lebanon. Cyprus to
  Gibraltar. Carthage.
• Purple dye and Royalty.
• Introduced the less advanced people to
  civilization.
• Created an easy alphabet of 22 symbols.
• Later adopted by the Greeks.

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Lydians and Hebrews

• Lydians
• Introduced the money economy or coin system.
• Coins could be stored
• Introduction of Set Prices.
• Hebrews
• 2000 B.C. Hebrews settle near Palestine.
• Believed God to be the driving force of
  civilization.
• Created Old Testament
• Around 1800 B.C. famine forces the Hebrews to
  Egypt.

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Hebrews

• In Egypt, Pharaohs enslave Hebrews
• The Hebrews followed Moses
• Moses presents the 10 Commandments
• Obedience to God allows the Hebrew to stay
  together as they settled and established the
  Kingdom of Israel in 1025 B.C.

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Moses

• Was main covenant holder of God.
• Said that the Hebrews would be protected and that
  they were the Chosen People

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Hebrew Legacy

• Monolithic religion or the belief in one god.
• Hebrew Law
• No one was above God not even the king.
• Ethical world view.
• Ten commandments.
• Old Testament (The Torah)
• Women had few rights, but were respected.

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Hebrews, cont.

• Kingdom of Israel
• David of Solomon reigns from 1000-930 B.C.
• Israel Flourishes
• Jerusalem created as the Capital under Solomon
• In 772 B.C. the Assyrians conquered Israel.
• Thousands are exiled across the world.
• Later controlled by the Persians, Greeks, and
  Romans.