Chapter One:
The Beginnings of
Civilization
Cultures and Values, 6th Ed.
Cunningham and Reich
Defining “Civilized”
• Urban life: permanent constructions
• System of regulatory government
• Class distinction (wealth and
occupation)
• Tools/skills --> production/trade
• Written communication
• Shared system of religious belief
** Not a value judgment! **
Origins of Western Civilization
• Paleolithic World View (Old Stone Age)
• Art
• Religion
• Neolithic Civilizations (Late Stone Age)
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Domestication of animals
Cultivation of vegetation
Community
War / Weaponry
The Bronze Age (3000-1000 B.C.E.)
Mesopotamia
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Sumerian (3500-2350 B.C.E.)
Semitic (2350-612 B.C.E.)
Egypt
Aegean Cultures
Sumerian Culture
• Agricultural/Urban settlements
• “Fertile Crescent”
• Writing/record-keeping: Cuneiform
• Shared system of religious belief
• Civil ruler / Religious rulers
Epic of Gilgamesh
• Gilgamesh ruled at Uruk c. 2700 B.C.E.
• Composed in Sumerian (2000 B.C.E.) on
cuneiform tablets
• Pessimistic work
• Asserts universal questions about
human existence
Semitic Culture
• Akkadian Period
• King Sargon and descendants (2350-2150 B.C.E.)
• Focus on HUMAN achievement
• Gutian invasion / return to tradition
• Babylonian Legacy
• King Hammurabi
• Assyrians
• Culmination of Mesopotamian culture
Fall of Mesopotamia
• Medes
• Nomadic warriors
• Conquered Nineveh in 612 B.C.E.
• Conquered and absorbed by Persians
• Persians
• Nomadic warriors
• Conquered by Alexander the Great
B.C.E.)
(330
Ancient Egypt
• Manetho’s History of Egyptian Greek
• 31 dynasties / 4 groups:
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Old Kingdom (2700 B.C.E.)
Middle Kingdom (1990 B.C.E.)
New Kingdom (1570 B.C.E.)
Late Period (1185-500 B.C.E.)
Ancient Egyptian Culture
• Unified and consistent
• Resistant to change
• Worldview affected by external events
Political Structure
• Pharaoh
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Head of the central government
Regarded as a living god
Exercised absolute power
Ordered and controlled visible world
• Priests
• Preservation of religious beliefs
• Divine kingship of Pharaohs
Egyptian Religion
• Obsession with immortality / life after
death
• Book of the Dead
• Osiris, Isis, Horus
• Deities, subdeities, nature spirits
• Responsible for all aspects of existence
Egyptian Art
• Principal function of artists: to produce
images of deities
• Form of worship
• Standards set forth by Pharaoh
• Artists also provided temples and
shrines for honoring deities
The Old Kingdom
• Imhotep
• First architect known to history
• Pyramids
• Funerary monuments for pharaohs, upper
class
• Mummification
• Preservation of the body was necessary for
the survival of the soul
Great Age of the Pyramid
• Pyramids at Giza (Dynasty IV)
• Cheops
• Chefren
• Mycerinus
• Who built the pyramids?
• Farmers
• Slaves
Pyramids
• Constructed of limestone blocks
• Quarried, ferried, cut, dragged into place
• Center chamber contained mummified
body of pharaoh surrounded by
treasures
• Plundered by robbers
Chefren’s Sphinx
• Created as the guardian for Chefren’s
tomb at Giza
• Adopted as a divine symbol of the
mysterious and enigmatic (Greeks)
Art of the Old Kingdom
• Reflects confidence and certainty
• Idealized realism
• Conceptual, symbolic
Art of the Middle Kingdom
• Loss of trust in divine providence
• Artists attempted to recapture lofty
serenity of Old Kingdom
• Troubled spirit captured in weight and
somber expressions
The New Kingdom
• Artistic traditions continued
• Conceptual
• Pharaoh Amenhotep IV/ “Akhenaton”
• Massive religious/political reform
• Tel el-Amarna Art
• Tutankhamen
• Howard Carter (1922-1923)
The Late Period
• Artists revisited earlier period styles
• Recapture realism, volume
• Return to pyramid-shaped tombs
• Egypt invaded by Nubians (the Cush)
750-720 B.C.E.
• Nubians and Nobatae preserved ancient
culture
Aegean Culture
• Crete
• King Minos / Knossos
• Cyclades Islands
• Bronze tools
• Imaginative/humorous pottery
• Marble statues/idols
The Bronze Age in Crete
• Arthur Evans, 1894-1900
• Early Minoan
• Increasing growth
• Contacts with Egypt and Mesopotamia
• Scattered Towns
Middle Minoan
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Evolution of large urban centers
Art = lively and colorful
Little interest in monumental art
Writing system of hieroglyphic signs
[Image 1.22]
Palace of Minos at Knossos
[Image 1.25]
Wasp Pendant
[Image 1.27]
Snake Goddess
Late Minoan
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Period of rebuilding after earthquakes
High point of Minoan culture
Wall paintings
Religion centered upon mother goddess
connected with fertility
[Image 1.28]
Funerary Mask
Mycenaean Culture
• Heinrich Schliemann, 1870-1873
• The Trojan War (1250 B.C.E.)
• Strongly influenced by Minoan Culture
• Art = preoccupied with death and war
• Fall of the Mycenaean empire (1200
B.C.E.)
Chapter 1: Discussion Questions
• What can be determined about the roles of women in early
civilizations based on their artistic depictions? Explain, citing
examples from each culture.
• Based on the universal questions evoked in the Epic of
Gilgamesh, what can we assume about the Sumerian people
and their lifestyles? In what ways are their concerns shared by
people of our culture and generation? Explain.
• What role did geography play in the development and
preservation of Ancient Egyptian culture? In what fundamental
ways was Egyptian culture different from the Mesopotamian
and Aegean cultures?
• Discuss the role of the archeologist. What impact do the
discoveries of ancient cultures have on us today? Explain.