Week 1 Content Outline

Content Outline
HIS/112 Version 3 / 3

Week 1 Content Outline

TOPIC and Objectives

Prehistory and the Ancient World

· Explain the significance of the transition from the Paleolithic era to the Neolithic era.

· Compare the cultural, political, and economic developments of Mesopotamia and Egypt.

Content outline

1. Prehistory

a. History before written records

1) Homo sapiens (ca. 100,000 BCE)

2) Homo sapiens sapiens (ca. 40,000 BCE)

b. Early development – moving toward civilization

1) Paleolithic Age

a) Nomadic hunters and gatherers

b) Cave art (northern Africa, ca. 5000 BCE)

c) Ritual burials and objects (Otzi)

2) Neolithic Age

a) Advances in stone tool production in the Middle East 10,000 years ago

b) Shift to agriculture and domestication of sheep and goats

c) Ritual art

d) Permanent dwellings in large communities of several thousand inhabitants

e) Most prominent are Jericho and Catal Hüyük

3) Developments that led to the progression from prehistory

a) Emergence of the Bronze Age

b) Beginning of Western civilization near Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and Nile Valley (between 3100 and 1200 BCE)

c) Stone Age ended with introduction of bronze tools

2. Early Civilizations

a. Mesopotamia

1) Cultural developments

a) First cities in Sumeria (southern half of Babylonia)

b) Uruk was first Sumerian urban center with up to 40,000 inhabitants

c) Epic of Gilgamesh (before 2000 BCE)—Earliest known fully-developed literary character

d) First written language on cuneiform clay tablets

e) Elaborate art work, mosaics (Standard of Ur)

f) First systematic polytheistic religion

1) Ishtar: goddess of love, fertility, and wars

2) Elaborate temple rituals in ziggurats

3) Religion in Sumeria

(a) Sacred literature

(b) Influence on Hebrew Bible

g) Babylon under reign of Hammurabi (1792–1750 BCE) – powerful cultural and political center

1) Code of Hammurabi

(a) Collection of laws

(b) Earliest evidence of legal system

(d) Governs complex Babylonian commerce system

(e) Principle of justice is retribution

2) Advancements in mathematics and astronomy

3) Sargon, king of Akkad – Most important figure in Mesopotamian history

2) Political and economic developments of Mesopotamia

a) Several dynasties develop concept of monarchy

b) Assyria (northern district of Sumeria)—kings are chief priests

c) Babylonia—kings and priests have separate offices

d) In later stages, influx and intermingling of various cultures, such as Hittites and Assyrians

e) Expansion into Asia Minor, Syria, Persia, Palestine, and Egypt under Assyrian rule

3) Developments leading to the decline of Mesopotamia

a) Agricultural failures

b) Invasions from neighboring empires

c) Babylon falls to Persia (539 BCE)

d) Sumerian peoples absorbed by the Hittite Empire and later by the Assyrian Empire.

e) Sumerian language survived—language of priests and scholars

b. Ancient Egypt

1) Cultural developments

a) First truly national state

b) Ancient world’s first homogenous society

1) One language

2) One people

c) Women of ancient Egypt

1) More independent and involved in public life than in Mesopotamia

2) Not granted formal education.

d) Slavery was common since Middle Kingdom—Nubian and Asian prisoners of war

e) Advances in mathematics, medicine, art, and technology influenced Greeks

f) Complex hieroglyphic writing system

g) Complex, polytheistic religious world views

h) Preoccupation with afterlife

1) Pyramids as eternal temples for deceased royalty

2) Highly evolved embalming techniques

3) Egyptian Book of the Dead details rituals to ensure passage to afterlife

2) Political and economic developments

a) Four major periods

1) Pre- and early dynastic Egypt (3150–2770 BCE)

2) The Old Kingdom (ca. 2770–2200 BCE)

3) The Middle Kingdom (ca. 2050–1786 BCE)

4) The New Kingdom (ca. 1630–1075 BCE)

b) Theocracy

1) Pharaohs seen as divine incarnations

2) Pharaoh’s word as law

3) Akhenaten, leader of religious and Royal Consolidation

3) Developments that led to the decline of Egypt

a) Internal conflict and cultural decay

b) Hittite expansion into Egypt

c) Raids on Egyptian centers lead by Greeks, Israelites, and other groups

d) Geopolitical reconfiguration of power