L2: Early Civilizations: Mesopotamia and Egypt
L2: Early Civilizations: Mesopotamia and Egypt
• Main feature of civilization
Ø The rise of cities
Ø organized governments (led by chiefs or elder, coordination of large-scale projects)
Ø complex religions: polytheistic (believing in many gods: sun or rivers)
Ø job specialization (Priests and nobles, merchants and artisans, peasants, slave)
Ø social classes
Ø arts and architecture (reflection of belief, values)
Ø public works
Ø writing (from pictographs)
1. Mesopotamia
• Around 3300 B.C
• Sumer: The world’s first civilization in Southeastern Mesopotamia
• Sumerian
• Where? Within the Fertile Crescent, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
• Influence of region geography?
• Frequent flooding > work together to protect home and control water for irrigating farms
• Rich soil but lack natural resources
• Constructor of first great cities using bricks from clay and water
• Traders along the rivers
• Sumer had 12 city-states: frequent battle over control of land and water
• People turned to war leaders for protection
• Over time, this changed when war leadership evolved into hereditary kingship
• Sumerian society had a social rank (hierarchy):
Ø upper class (rulers, priests, officials)
Ø Middle class (lesser priests, scribes, merchants, artisans)
Ø Lower class (peasants farmers)
• Religion: polytheism, worship of many gods
Ø Ziggurats: stepped platforms topped by a temple where priests led religious ceremonies (photo)
Ø Greatest achievement of Sumers: the invention of writing
Ø By 3200 B.C: development of a simple pictographs into wedge-like symbols, called cuneiform (chữ hình nêm)
Ø Cuneiform: record complex information
Ø Sumerians left a lasting legacy: Development of basic astronomy and early mathematics: creation of a number system based on 6, setting up 60-minutes hours and 360-degree circle.
• Across the Middle East:
Ø People using cuneiform for their own use
Ø Recorded the Sumerian oral poem (The Epic of Gilgamesh)
Ø Development of algebra and geometry
Ø Creation of calendars, prediction of eclipses
Ø Built on Sumerian knowledge and influence on all of Western civilization by the Greeks and Romans
2. Invaders, traders and empire builders
• Many groups rose to powers in ancient Mesopotamia: destroy, creation and contribution
• In 2300 BC: Sargon: Akkadian leader, the first invaders, formed the world first empire
• In 1790 BC, Hammurabi, King of Babylon, unified Mesopotamia: first important attempt to codify (arrange and record) all laws of a state
• Hammurabi’s code: carved on public pillars, included
Ø Civil laws (private matters like contracts, taxes, marriage, divorce)
Ø Criminal law: against others like robbery and murder
• Other conquerors brought new learning to Mesopotamia:
Ø Hittites: extraction of iron from ore to forge strong weapons; spread of Iron age in Asia, Africa and Europe
Ø Assyrian: creation of well-ordered society and foundation of one of the world’s first library
Ø Babylon King Nebuchadnezzar: controlled the region
Ø Rebuild and restoration of Babylon
Ø Enlargement of empire from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea
Ø In 539: it fell to Persia
• Persian empire: from present-day Turkey to India
Ø Emperor Darius I formed provinces ruled by local governors
Ø Encouragement of unity by building roads across the empire and establishment of a single Persian coinage
Ø Move from a barter economy toward a money economy
Another unifying force: Persian prophet Zoroaster:
Ø teaching belief in a single god and ideas of heaven, hell, and final judgment day
Ø When both Christianity and Islam emerged in the Middle East, these new religions stressed similar beliefs.
• The Phoenicians: skilled seatraders from the eastern Mediterranean coast; formed colonies around Mediterranean
• A Colony? Settlement ruled by people from another land.
• The Phoenicians contribution: spread of Middle Eastern culture, creation of an alphabet that expanded by Greeks later.
3. Egyptian civilization: Kingdom on the Nile
• Natural conditions:
Ø Fertile land along the Nile
Ø Rich soil
Ø Surrounding desert as buffer from invasions
Ø Upper Egypt: first waterfall
Ø Lower Egypt: Nile’s delta into Mediterranean
Ø Organization of irrigation system
• About 3100 BC: unify and formation of the world’s first united states through King Menes
• Changing leadership, but Egypt united
• 3 periods:
Ø During the Old Kingdom: organization of strong central government and establishment of bureaucracy with different jobs and authority by pharaohs.
Ø Vizier: chief minister for government business
Ø Great Pyramids at Giza: main achievement
• Middle Kingdom: decline
Ø Witness of flooding and rebellion
Ø Expansion of farmable lands, dispatch of armies to gold-rich Nubia, sending traders to the Middle East
Ø About 1700 BC, conquest of Nile delta through foreign invaders Hyksos thanks to a new military technology (war chariots)
• New Kingdom: revitalization of Egyptian civilization after 100 years of Hyksos rule
• New leaders: Hatshepsut (first female pharaoh)
Ø Sent trading expedition along the eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea
Ø Largest expansion of Egypt through Thutmose III, a great military leader
Ø Aggressive policy (Attack on Syria and Hittites) by Ramses II
Ø The first peace treaty in the world
Ø After 1100 BC, declination of Egypt through invasion of Assyrians and Persians
Ø In 332 BC: the end of the last Egyptian dynasty through Greeks control
Ø In 30 BC: displacement by Roman armies.
• Lasting contribution of Egypt to civilization in many fields: religion, written language, art, science and literature
Ø Sun god = chief god named Re
Ø During Middle Kingdom: Amon-Re
Ø 1380 BC, Pharaoh Amenhotep IV replaced Amon-Re with a minor god Aton, and changed his name to Akhenaton (he who serves Aton)
Ø God Osiris and goddess Isis ruled the dead (buried people possessions with them; preserve bodies by mummification
• Advanced in learning: first writing system hieroglyphics used symbols
Ø Symbols originally carved in stone
Ø Hieratic script
Ø Demotic script
Ø Material to write: papyrus plants
• Early 1800 French scholar Jean Champollion: deciphered meaning of Egypt writing by comparing hieroglyphs, demotic and Greek
• Medicine: diagnoses illnesses, performed surgeries, prescribe medicines
• Astronomy: mapped constellation, charted planets, created a 12-month calendar
• Mathematics: basic geometry
• Artwork: monuments, statues, wall paintings, temple
• Literature: hymns, love poem, folk tales..
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