CIV 101-02
8-31-15
CLASS 3
“PREHISTORY AND EARLY
CULTURES" & “THE RISE OF
CIVILIZATION: MESOPOTAMIA”
“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 (“prepyramids” 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
TIMELINE REMINDER:
Our book discusses Prehistory
Then Mesopotamians
Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian
Then Egypt
Then Heirs to Meso-Egypt
Assyrians, Neo-Babylonians,
Medes, Persians
TIMELINE REMINDER:
Remember: a lot of the Mesopotamians
overlap with Egypt
For example, Hammurabi’s Babylonian Laws
(and the bronze) are presented on pages 1213. Egypt is covered from 15-26.
But Hammurabi’s Laws (and the bronze) date
to 1700 BC - - - pretty close to the MIDDLE of
the 3,000 year period covered in the Egypt
section . . . NOT before them, as the page
numbering would suggest.
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, (2613-2498 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