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..