Ancient History Near East
Dec 27, 2015
Ancient History
Near East
Neolithic
Revolution
8000BCE
Stone Age
Urban Revolution3500BCE
Bronze Age
Iron Age1200BCE
Classical Age600BCE
Innovative Sites of the Near East
Ancient Sumer
Ancient Egypt
What physical features had the most significant impact on the development
of Mesopotamia? • Tigris & Euphrates Rivers (alluvial plain-silt,
destructive flooding)• Plain of Shinar (farming, ease of movement)
What other features, with less significance, may have eventually influenced Mesopotamia?
•Mediterranean Sea•Red Sea•Persian Gulf•Arabian Desert
Sumerian LifeSumerian Life
Royal Tombs of Ur
Uruk Period: 3500BCUruk Period: 3500BC•First City-State
•Organized around temple (ziggurat)Patron God/Goddess
•Growth in Population and Nucleation (clustering)(50,000 people by
3100BC)
•Increased Complexity among institutions…
Sumerian DevelopmentSumerian DevelopmentConsider…
Irrigation
Demography
Technology
Economic Organization
Writing
Secularization of Government
Social Organization
IrrigationSmall
irregular locally managed networks
Consolidation into a few large networks, each centrally coordinated by a city-statecity-state
TechnologyTechnologySlow potters
wheel
Standardized vessel shape
Copper metallurgy
Utilitarian metallurgy to include Bronze
Tools & weapons
Metals used in Elite Burials
Social OrganizationSocial Organization
Nobles (administrators, priests, merchants)
Commoners (Landless peasants, artisans, slaves)
Fluidity among lower 3 groups
Royal Cemetery of Ur
Distinctions dramatic between Nobles and commoners
Economic OrganizationEconomic OrganizationTemple
Economy
Standardized volumes
Increased specialization
Increased Trade
Wood Utilitarian and precious stones & metals imported
Grain & textiles exported
WritingWritingDeals with economic accounts:
List of workers, goods, receipts, etc.
Pictographs, ideographs
Stylus
Cylinder seals non-economic matters
Cuneiform Tablets deal with economic and non-economic matters
Religion, Politics, etc.
SecularSecularizationizationCompetition
Kings – lugal
Elected & temporary
Lugal becomes permanent
Steward of the gods
At the expense of priesthood
How would you How would you summarize the summarize the
important important developments and developments and
legacy of the legacy of the Sumerians?Sumerians?
Ancient Egypt
Innovative site
Africa’s cradle of civilization
Size & Demography
Pre-dynastic: 500,000 people (cities @ 15,000)
New Kingdom: 5 Million? (cities @ 100,000s)
No more than 15 miles on each side of Nile
Total sq miles: 14,000 (no larger than Estonia)
CitiesCities42 Nomes or Sepat
Patron God/Goddess
NomarchDirected irrigation, administration
Most people lived in surrounding countryside, not city
Specialized function (temple, protection) - interdependenceinterdependence
PharaohPharaohNo concept of ‘state’, instead…
Identification with Pharaoh as divine, in charge of all aspects of civilization (military, religion, etc)
Developed bureaucracy (vizier, nomarchs)
Hereditary succession (dynasty)
Egyptian Pharaohs
Narmer Palette (Narmer or Menes)
Chronology & Dating
Kingdom: periods of relative stability and central rule of PharaohIntermediate: periods of instability, lack of strong central authority and/or invasions
Proto-dynastic – Unification (Menes or Narmer?)
Old Kingdom- 2600BC – 2150BC capital @ Memphis
Middle Kingdom 2100 -1640 (Hyksos Invasion)
New Kingdom 1570 – 1293 capital @ Thebes
Egyptian Gods & Goddesses
Egyptian Gods & Goddesses
Osiris Isis Horus Osiris Isis Horus
ReligionReligionPolytheistic, anthropomorphicCreation stories - MythologyAfterlife, Mummification,
Temples, CultsPharaoh as protector of Ma’at
concept of order, harmony