Western Civilization to c. 1600
CIV 101-03
Professor Ed Lamoureux
Day 3
January 25, 2016
For the most part, its where WE came
from & what happened there makes
US what we are
BUT:
• Who are WE and US?
We are ALL African Americans
(or at least, African Whatevers)
And we, those in Western civilizations, are the most so, because the Mediterranean regions
where our Western ancestor groups started were MOST strongly related to Africa of all
http://www.tsiosophy.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Worldmap_LandAndPolitical.jpg
For the most part, its where WE came
from & what happened there makes
US what we are
BUT:
• Who are WE and US?
It’s increasingly the case that these features apply to folks
who were once in the majority in the USA, but not for much
longer as people from so-called “non-Western “ cultures join
us
Western Civilization
Western Civilization
• Perhaps preferences for the best aspects
of Western Civilization will endure.
• Perhaps not
• At their best, however, they provide us with
ideals to seek and low points to avoid.
“The West” and the “other” parts that lead to it
The Mesopotamian Parts (sort of) and the parts the lead to
Pre-Mesopotamia (pre-3500BC)
Major contributions to Civilization
Speech
Farming, esp. irrigation
Boats
Bricks
Popular arts (weaving,
dyeing, tanning,
pottery)
Lighting with oil lamps
Tool use,
stone then metal
Writing (and all it brings)
Construction methods
Metal works
Trade outside cohort
From Timetables of History, Bernard Grun, Simon & Schuster, 1979, p. 2-3.
Pre-Mesopotamia
Major contributions to
WESTERN Civilization ?
By 4000 BC, parts of Mesopotamia had the wheel.
The wheel (and carts) didn’t get to Egypt right away,
but eventually, get to the West. Later to China.
The other innovations . . . Were . . . But other civilizations, esp.
the Chinese also had many of them near the times of
appearance in the West.
AND, the south (Africa) took a lot from their close connections
(Egypt) but ended up with different cultural outcomes.
Mesopotamia
Major contributions to Civilization
• Oral epic literature (some
that would eventually be
written down)
• Code of Hammurabi &
Law
• More and improved
modes of writing
(moving toward letters as
we know them)
• Religious variety, with
specificity, headed
toward personification
Headed toward Math
Objects as adornments
Wood and clay architecture
Walled cities
Ziggurats (“pre-pyramids”
w/specific shapes, designs,
executions, and towers)
Reverse side of a pictographic tablet from Jamdat Nasr,
near Kish, Iraq, ca. 3000 B.C.E., listing accounts involving
animals and various commodities including bread and beer.
Sumerian
writing from
pictographic script
to
cuneiform script
To
phonetic system.
Mesopotamia
Major contributions to WESTERN
Civilization ?
• Code of Hammurabi & Law
• More and improved modes of writing (moving
toward letters as we know them)
• Religious variety, with specificity, headed toward
personification
•
“Urbanization” (city systems), some with
fortifications tied to the politics
Egypt
Egypt: 3,000 years
Approximate dates, fully rounded
Egypt: 3,000 years
• Old Kingdom: 2700-2185 BC
• First Intermediate: 2185-2050 BC
• Middle Kingdom:2050-1800 BC
• Second Intermediate: 1800-1552 BC
• New Kingdom: 1552-1079 BC
• Third Intermediate: 1079-732 BC
• Late Kingdom: 732-30 BC
Dates with
more precision
Old Kingdom: 2700-2185 BC
• 3rd – 6th Dynasties
• The Great Pyramids were constructed in the
4th Dynasty within the Old Kingdom, (26132498 BC)
The Great Sphinx. Ca. 2560 BCE. 65 ft
high x 240 ft long.
Great pyramids of Gizeh: from left to
right,
Menkure, ca. 2575 b.c.e., Khufu
(Khefren),
ca. 2650 b.c.e., Khafre, ca. 2600 b.c.e.
Top height approx. 480 ft
First Intermediate: 2185-2050 BC
War, famine, and fragmentation among the people.
Conquest by Thebes: Montjuhotep I
succeeded in subduing the entire country.
Middle Kingdom: 2050-1800 BC
• 11th-14th Dynasties
El Lahun, Pyramid of
Senusret II
Second Intermediate: 1800-1552 BC
The original folks take (back over) from the
foreigner Thebes but are also co-opted by the
Hyksos
New Kingdom: 1552-1079 BC
• 18th-20th Dynasties
•
•
Statue of Hatshepsut as
Pharoah, 18th Dynasty, c.
1495 B.C.E.
Granite, 7' 11" high.
Roughly the time of Moses
and the exodus.. Maybe around
1446 BC
1279-1213: The reign of
Ramses II brings Egypt to
the height of its power
Third Intermediate: 1079-732 BC
Civil wars and decline in the Imperial kingdom (abroad)
Threats and Conquests by
Assyrians
Neo-Babylonians
Persians
Late Kingdom: 732-30 BC
• 25th Dynasty through Roman Rule
Eventually, all roads lead to Rome