Mesopotamia & Egypt
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B.C.E. = Before the Common Era (B.C.=
Before Christ)
C.E. = The Common Era (A.D.= Anno
Domini/Year of Our Lord)
ca. (circa) approximately
Paleolithic Age: Stone tools (ca. 1 million
to 10,000 B.C.)
Neolithic Age: Domesticated animals,
pottery (ca. 10,000– 4,000 B.C.)
Bronze Age: Birth of Civilization (ca.
3100 – 1200 B.C.)
The Birth of Western Civilization:
Mesopotamia ca. 4000 B.C.
Hunter/gather societies
 Agricultural revolution
 Urbanization = Civilization
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– Invention of writing
– Specialization of labor
– Social classes
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The city-state: political identity
An archeologist‘s
conception of a
Mesopotamian
irrigation project
(ca. 4000 B.C.)
Sumerian cuneiform
A cuneiform letter in
its envelope, ca. 1900
B.C.
Sumer and Mesopotamian Culture
First cuneiform tablets (3100 B.C.)
 Persistence of war
 King Sargon (2350 B.C.)
 The notion of community
 The palace and temple complexes: social roles
 Religion and the order and chaos of the
natural world
 The law code of King Hammurabi (ca. 17921750 B.C.)
 Free citizens, commoners, and slaves
 Position of women
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Worshipper statues from Sumer ca. 2600 B.C.
The Ziggurat of Ur in Sumer, ca. 2100 B.C.
Palace of Zimri-Lim in Sumer, ca. 1792 B.C.
Egypt: The Gift of the Nile
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Oldest continuous civilization
Prosperity dependent on the annual
river flood
Developed separately from other
societies; few contacts with outside
Complicated theological and political
system; conservative and stratified
Stable government and social structure
Ancient Egypt (ca. 2700
B.C.)
•The benefits of the Nile river
valley and the long dynasty of
the kingdom
•The theocracy of the pharaohs
•Ma’at and the legitimacy of the
pharaohs
•The sun-king, the upper class,
commoners, and slaves
•Nomarchs (governors) & scribes
•The position of women
•Religion, cults, gods, and the
afterlife
Ancient Egypt (ca. 2700 B.C.)
•The benefits of the Nile river
valley and the long dynasty of
the kingdom
•The theocracy of the
pharaohs
Statue of King Menkaure and His
Queen ca. 3100 B.C.
Egyptian Step-Pyramid ca. 2800 B.C.
The Pyramids at Giza ca. 2575 B.C.
Depiction of an Egyptian Funeral Ceremony
The Jews: Chronology
•Wander into Palestine and
then Egypt (ca. 1900 B.C.)
•Led out of Egypt by Moses
and invaded Palestine (13th
century B.C.)
•Ruled by King Solomon:
Palace and Temple of
Jerusalem (ca. 961-922 B.C.)
•Enslaved by the Babylonians
(586 B.C.)
•Subjected to other
Mediterranean powers (until
A.D. 1948)
The Jews: Government, Culture,
and Religion
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The prophets
The myths of the Old Testament
Monotheism: Notion of universal truth
God’s intimate involvement in daily affairs
The law and the Covenant: the chosen people
Genealogy, eschatology, and the concept of
history
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Ozymandias
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I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: ‘Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear -“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
By Percy Bysshe Shelly