AYNTK: Ancient Era
Main principles:
1. Neolithic Revolution: begins in SW Asia 8500 BCE, China 7500BCE, MesoAmerica/Andes 3500 BCE. Changover from
hunting/gathering to food production (agriculture!)
2. Domestication of Animals, Grains
a. Crop production prompts people to stay put.
b. Men grew economically more important than women. Re: could plow fields.
c. Surplus food production prompts improved health, population increase.
d. Religious beliefs surround food production (god of rain, fertility, earth, harvest, sun).
3. Civilization = food surplus + specialized jobs + social classes + cities + government + trade + writing system.
4. Interactions limited to just the people/societies nearby, but reach of interactions increased as time moved on.
5. Four cultural hearths: (in bold, the rest just occur during this era).
a. Mesopotamia. TIGRIS/EUPHRATES.
i. 3500 BCE = Sumerians. City-states (Ur, Uruk). Warfare, infighting often. Invent cuneiform. Gilgamesh.
Ziggurats. Bronze in use by 3000 BCE. Rule of 60..
ii. 2300 BCE = Politically unified (Sargon of Akkad). Sumerian culture diffuses throughout MPT. Gov’t =
theocracy.
iii. 1700 BCE = Hammurabi. Babylonians conquer MPT. Hammurabi’s code, 3 class distinctions = free
landowners, dependent farmers/craftsmen, slaves. Women = no real social standing (at home, men
could take 2nd wife if 1st gave no kids).
iv. 1500 BCE = Hittites in Anatolia (powerful). MPT split into 2: North (ASSYR), South (BAB)
v. 900 BCE = Assyrians.
vi. 500 BCE = Neo Babylonians. Capture Israelites.
b. Egypt. NILE.
i. 3100 – 2500 BCE = Old Kingdom. 1st great pyramids, strong gov’t/pharaoh (1st Pharaoh = Menes).
Nile river = PREDICATBLE FLOODING (helps shape agriculture). Ma’at (divinely controlled order of
the universe). Highly centralized state (pharaoh, regional governors, professional army). Patriarchal.
12 month calendar. Isis/Osiris/Amon-Re (Book of the Dead).
ii. 2100 – 1650 BCE = Middle Kingdom. Peaceful period. Ends w/Hyksos conquering.
iii. 1550 – 700 BCE = New Kingdom. At Thebes. EGY conquers Syria/Palestine, Nubia. Most territory = by
1300 BCE, goes back to Nile/EGY by 1100 BCE.
c. Indus. INDUS.
i. 3000 BCE = Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa. Dravidian language. Untranslatable language – but lang. was
centered on trade. Ritual baths. Cities on grid pattern (suggest centralized gov’t). Traded w/MPT, &
by extension, EGY, also CHI. Decline = systems failure?
ii. 1500 BCE = Aryans. Take over Indus. Outsiders.
d. China. HUANG-HE.
i. 5000 BCE = rice domestication
ii. 3000 BCE = rise of cities. Huang-He (Yellow River). Isolated culture (distance/Gobi/Himalayas).
Bronze = power, controlling it = more power. Feudal arrangement between king-vassalscommonfolk.
iii. Ancient dynasties.
1. Xia – Mythical.
2. 1750 – 1500 BCE = Shang. King-vassals-commonfolk. Matrilineal.
3. 1000 – 400 BCE = Zhou. 3 social groups = elite & royals-Peasants & artistans & craftsmenunskilled workers & slaves. Patrilineal. Mandate of Heaven. Pictograph writing.
Confucianism (filial piety, importance on family, son: father:: people: emperor, develops in
later part of Zhou Dynasty). Fall of Zhou brings on Warring States Period.
e. Americas.
i. 1200-400 BCE = Olmec (MesoAmerica). Agriculturally-based (corn, cacao, tomatoes, avocados).
Along Gulf coast of Mexico. No competition in area. Drainage systems/elaborate irrigation/farming.
Elite priests = governors of Olmec land. Big stone heads!
ii. 900 – 250 BCE = Chavin (Andes). Capital: Chavin de Huantar, in mountains. Worked gold. Chavin
culture = diffused widely across South America. Jaguar = holy & drawn/carved everywhere in Chavin
de Huantar.
f. Greece
i. 2000 BCE – 1500 BCE = Minoans. Crete. Seafarers. King Minos. Great traders. Linear A writing. Palace
at Knossos.
ii. 1500 – 1000 BCE = Mycenaeans. Seafarers. King Agamemnon. Dominated Greece. Traded w/rest of
Western Asia, Egypt.