Mediterranean-Middle East DBQ exercise: 10/22/07
1. Assignment: (Thursday night, 10/18): Read the following question, and
underline or highlight one key sentence from each of the documents below (for
pictures, write a one sentence answer to the question “why was this artifact
important to Egyptian, Assyrian, Minoan/Mycenaean, Phoenician, or Hebrew
culture?”):
D.B.Q. Question: How and why did the “dynamic syntheses” (Bulliet p. 91) of the
cosmopolitan Mediterranean/Middle East develop during the Late Bronze Age, and
then re-emerge after the region’s brief “Dark Age?”
Use the documents and your knowledge of the period 1500 to 500 BCE to construct your essay.
Document 1
Source: Akhenaten’s statue, c. 1335 BCE allanmatthews.8m.com
Mediterranean-Middle East DBQ exercise: 10/22/07
Document 2
Source: Hymn to Aten, c. 1335 BCE
“Earth brightens when you dawn in lightland. When you shine as Aten of daytime; As you dispel
the dark, As you cast your rays, The Two Lands [Upper and Lower Egypt] are in festivity. Awake
they stand on their feet….
O Sole God beside whom there is none! You made the earth as you wished, you alone, All peoples,
herds, and flocks; All upon earth that walk on legs, All on high that fly on wings, The lands of
Khor and Kush, The land of Egypt….
You alone, shining in your form of living Aten, Risen, radiant, distant, near. You made millions of
forms from yourself alone…..
Document 3
Source: “Bull Jumping” fresco from Crete, c. 15th century BCE,
http://dilos.com/region/crete/aaa04.html
Mediterranean-Middle East DBQ exercise: 10/22/07
Document 4
Source: Protests against the ruling class in Babylonia, c 1000 BCE,
Friend
“Narru, king of the gods, who created mankind,
And majestic Zulummar, who pinched off the clay for them,
And goddess Mami, the queen who fashioned them,
Gave twisted speech to the human race.
With lies, and not truth, they endowed them forever.
Solemnly they speak favorably of a rich man,
‘He is a king,’ they say, ‘riches should be his,’
But they treat a poor man like a thief,
They have only bad to say of him and plot his murder,
Making him suffer every evil like a criminal, because he has no… [text uncertain].
Terrifyingly they bring him to his end, and extinguish him
like glowing coals.
Document 5
Source: relief sculpture of King Ashurbanipal, c. 650 BCE
www.bible-history.com
Mediterranean-Middle East DBQ exercise: 10/22/07
Document 6
Source: Moses Descends Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments Anonymous (ca. 950-450 B.C.)
“And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the
land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not
make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the
earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor
serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands
of them that love me, and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God
in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Remember the sabbath
day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath
of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy
manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days
the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore
the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God
giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not
bear false witness against thy neighbour. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not
covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any
thing that is thy neighbour's.
2.
Friday, 10/19 in class you will be put in groups of 4-5, and will be asked to do
the following:
Outline an essay (thesis and 5-6 pieces of evidence) that
o Has a relevant thesis and supports that thesis with evidence from the
documents.
o Uses all or all but one of the documents.
o Analyzes the documents by grouping them in as many appropriate ways
as possible. Does not simply summarize the documents individually.
o Takes into account both the sources of the documents and the authors’
points of view.
You may refer to relevant historical information not mentioned in the documents.
3.
Monday, 10/22 you will take the Mediterranean-Middle East DBQ in the
Computer room