Chapter 2: Western Asia and Egypt

Section 1. Civilization begins in Mesopotamia

The Fertile Crescent

  • Mesopotamia “land between the rivers”
  • Tigris and EuphratesRivers

Controlled water flow leads to:

  • growing crops on regular basis
  • Civilization develops

First Civilization

  • The Sumerians 3500 BC

1. Cities

  • City-State: basic unit of the Sumerian civilization

2. Government

  • Theocracy – ruled by divine authority
  • Kings got their power directly from the gods
  • Priest & priestesses supervised the temples and had a great deal of power

3. Religion

  • Temples were dedicated to the chief god or goddess of the city
  • Built on a massive stepped tower called a ziggurat
  • Polytheistic – belief in may gods
  • The Ziggurat

4. Social Structure

  • Nobles – royal & priestly officials
  • Commoners – farmers, merchants, craftspeople
  • Slaves – belonged to palace officials
  • Education for wealthy boys only

5. Writing

  • Cuneiform – “wedged shaped” system of writing
  • Scribes held the most important positions in society

6. Art & Technology

  • Wagon wheel
  • Potter’s wheel
  • Sundial
  • Astronomy
  • Number system based on 60
  • Geometry

First Empires

  • Large political state or unit, usually under a single leader, that controls many people or territories
  • Easy to create & difficult to maintain

Babylon

Hammurabi – leader

  • Established a legal code based on strict justice

Code of Hammurabi

  • Based on the principle of retaliation – “An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth”
  • Patriarchal society – dominated by men
  • Page 41 & 44 in your textbook

Chapter 2 – Section 2: Pyramids of the Nile

Cultural Hearth: NileRiverValley

  • Lower Egypt – land upstream
  • Upper Egypt – land to the south

The Gifts of the Nile

1. Water - food

2. Transportation

3. Protection

4. Sense of security & confidence

1. Cities

  • Established in the NileRiverValley at the tip of the delta – the point at which the Nile divides
  • Cairo
  • Giza
  • Saqqara

2. Government

  • Theocracy – “God-Kings”
  • Dynasty
  • Pharaohs

Famous Pharaohs

  • Hatshepsut – first woman pharaoh
  • Akhenaton – worshiped only one god – Aton (god of the sun disk)
  • Tutankhamen – “King Tut” – restored the worship of multiple gods

Ramses II

  • Ruled 60 years
  • Put Egypt back on the offensive
  • Wars and building projects weaken Egypt
  • New Kingdom collapses 1085 BC

Cleopatra VII

  • Tried to reestablish Egypt’s independence
  • Involvement with Rome led to suicide & defeat
  • Egypt became part of Rome’s empire

3. Religion

  • Polytheistic
  • Gods associated with heavenly bodies & natural forces – sun gods & land gods (p. 46, 47)
  • No word for religion – inseparable from their world
  • Anubis, god of mummification

4. Social Structure

  • Organized like a pyramid
  • Upper class – pharaoh, nobles, priests
  • Middle class – merchants, artisans, scribes, tax collectors
  • Lower class – peasants who farmed the land & military service

5. Writing

  • Emerged around 3000 BC
  • Hieroglyphics – “priest carvings” or “sacred writings”
  • Hieratic script
  • Papyrus
  • The Rosetta Stone

6. Art & Science

  • Pyramids, temples, monuments
  • Math and engineering
  • Accurate calendar
  • Effective medicine

Chapter 2 - Sections 3 & 4: New Centers of Civilization

Phoenicians

  • Best known for their alphabet
  • Simplified writing by using 22 different signs to represent the sounds of speech
  • Passed on to the Greeks and eventually to us

The Children of Israel (Judaism)

Movement of the Jews

  • 7000 B.C. move from Ur to Palestine
  • Drought around 1650 B.C. moved them from Palestine to Egypt
  • Jews were enslaved in Egypt
  • Moses leads Jews back to Palestine

Monotheists

  • Believed in only one God
  • All other religions at this time were polytheistic
  • Covenant, Commandments, Prophet
  • Torah - “Bible” of the Jews

922 BC Split in 2

Zoroastrianism

  • Religion of the Persians
  • Founder was Zoroaster
  • Teachings written in the Zend Avesta
  • Monotheistic
  • Pg. 64