Chapter 1: Origins (ca 400,000–1100 b.c.) 7
CHAPTER 1
Origins (ca 400,000–1100 b.c.)
Instructional Objectives
After reading and studying this chapter, students should be able to describe the Neolithic contribution to the rise of Western civilization. They should be able to explain the prominent place of Mesopotamian culture in the ancient Near East. They should also be able to assess the contribution of the Egyptians to the regions development. Finally, they should be able to discuss the importance of the arrival of the Hittites on the frontiers of Mesopotamia and Egypt.
Chapter Outline
I. Understanding Western History
A. Describing the West
1. The “West” as a concept has a very long history, one that began with the Greeks and Romans.
2. Greco-Roman ideas about the West were passed on to people who lived in western and northern Europe.
3. In the early twentieth century, many intellectual and educational leaders encouraged the establishment of college and university courses focusing on “western civilization.”
4. After World War II, divisions between East and West changed again.
B. What Is History, and Why?
1. The term “history” comes from the Greek word historie.
2. Historians examine a variety of evidence.
3. Historians receive help from both literary and nonliterary sources.
4. Historians must try to distinguish between reliable and unreliable evidence.
5. Historians use evidence to establish facts or to explain the meaning of their findings.
6. A number of factors complicate our efforts to arrive at an accurate understanding of the past.
II. From Caves to Towns
A. The Neolithic Contribution
1. From perhaps 400,000 to 7,000 b.c., early human beings survived as hunter-gatherers in extended family units.
2. This period is known as the Paleolithic, or “Old Stone Age,” from the primitive stone tools and weapons these people produced.
3. Around 7,000 b.c., an obvious transformation began: some hunter-gatherer societies began to rely chiefly on agriculture for their subsistence.
4. Neolithic peoples contributed a great deal to the development of human society, including systematic agriculture, writing, sedentary living, and improved tools and weapons.
5. Stonehenge and other stone circles scattered throughout Great Britain, Ireland, and Brittany were built by Neolithic societies that must have been prosperous, well organized, and centrally led.
III. Mesopotamian Civilization
A. The Invention of Writing and the First Schools
1. Writing appears to have begun at Sumer.
2. The Sumerian pictographic form evolved by the fourth millennium into cuneiform (“wedge-shaped”) writing.
3. The signs in the cuneiform system later became ideograms and evolved into an intricate system of communication.
4. The writing system was so complicated that only professional scribes mastered it.
5. Scribal schools flourished throughout Sumer.
6. Although practical, scribal schools were also centers of culture and learning. These schools set the standard for all of Mesopotamia.
B. Mesopotamian Thought and Religion
1. Mesopotamians made great strides in mathematics, medicine, and religion.
2. Mesopotamian religion was polytheistic; gods and goddesses existed to represent almost everything in the cosmos.
3. The gods were much like human beings, only with supernatural powers.
4. In Mesopotamian religion, we find attempts to explain the origins of mankind.
5. There are numerous myths woven into the Mesopotamian religious tapestry.
6. Additionally, there is the Sumerian epic of creation, The Epic of Gilgamesh. Its hero, Gilgamesh, is a wandering king who seeks immortality.
C. Sumerian Social and Gender Divisions
1. The arid and harsh environment of Sumer fostered a religion based on placating a pantheon of harsh and capricious gods and goddesses.
2. Sumerian society was a complex arrangement of freedom and dependence.
3. Sumerian society was organized into four classes of people: nobles, free clients of the nobility, commoners, and slaves.
4. Each of these social classes included both men and women, but their experiences were not the same.
5. Sumerian society was patriarchal.
6. The states that developed in the ancient Middle East further heightened gender divisions.
IV. The Spread of Mesopotamian Culture
A. The Triumph of Babylon
1. The Babylonians united Mesopotamia politically and culturally.
2. Babylon’s best-known king, Hammurabi (ca 1792–1750 b.c.), forged a vibrant Sumero-Babylonian culture through conquest and assimilation.
B. Life under Hammurabi
1. Hammurabi also created one of the world’s earliest comprehensive law codes, which today provides much useful information on daily life in ancient Mesopotamia.
2. Under the code, the law differed according to social status and punishments were meant to fit the crime.
3. The code dealt with all aspects of daily life.
V. Egypt, the Land of the Pharaohs (3100–1200 b.c.)
A. The God-King of Egypt
1. Egyptian society revolved around the life-giving waters of the Nile River.
2. The regularity of the Nile’s floods and the fertility of its mud made agriculture productive and dependable.
3. By around 3100 b.c., there were some forty agricultural communities along the Nile.
4. The Nile, deserts, and the Mediterranean Sea isolated Egypt. This isolation afforded centuries of peace for Egypt.
5. During this pacific period, Egypt developed a vital civilization.
6. Sometime around 3100 b.c., Egypt was united under the rule of a single great king, or “pharaoh.”
7. Egyptian religion was a complex polytheism rooted in the environment.
8. The most powerful gods were Amon, associated with the annual floods of the Nile, and Ra, the sun god.
9. Central to the religion was pharaoh’s place in the pantheon of gods and goddesses—his presence assured the people that the gods cared for them.
10. The pharaoh’s ostentation reflected his power.
11. The famous pyramids attest to the power and prestige of the pharaoh.
B. The Pharaoh’s People
1. Common people were at the mercy of government officials.
2. The agricultural year was routine and dependable.
3. Egyptian society featured a mixture of freedom and constraint.
4. To ancient Egyptians, the pharaoh embodied justice and order.
C. The Hyksos in Egypt (1640–1570 b.c.)
1. Around 1800 b.c., people whom the Egyptians called the Hyksos began to settle in the Nile Delta.
2. The Egyptians portrayed the Hyksos as a conquering horde, but they were probably just nomads looking for good land.
3. The Hyksos brought with them skill in bronze making and casting.
D. The New Kingdom: Revival and Empire (1570–1075 b.c.)
1. Following a period of domination by the Hyksos, a new line of pharaohs extended Egyptian rule into Palestine and Syria.
2. Akhenaten (r. 1367–1350 b.c.) was more concerned with religion than conquest.
3. He developed a kind of monotheism.
VI. The Hittites and the End of an Era (ca 1640–1100 b.c.)
A. The Coming of the Hittites (ca. 1640–1200 b.c.)
1. The Hittites, an Indo-European people settled in Anatolia, became a major power in the Near East around 1600 b.c., conquering the northern part of the Babylonian empire.
2. After about 1300 b.c. and the Battle of Kadesh in Syria, the Hittites, the Egyptian New Kingdom, and the Babylonian empire cooperated in a kind of détente.
B. The Fall of Empires and the Survival of Cultures (ca 1200 b.c.)
1. In the late thirteenth century b.c., invaders destroyed the Hittite Empire and severely disrupted Egypt.
2. Egyptians and Mesopotamians established basic social, economic, and cultural patterns in the ancient Near East.
Lecture Suggestions
1. “Love in the Ancient World.” What were the courting habits of people in Mesopotamia and Egypt in the third and second millennia? How can we know? Did lovers think and talk as lovers do today? Use slides portraying Egyptian couples and poetry from Mesopotamia and Egypt to help students understand that ancient peoples were very much like us—with desires, fears, plans for the future, and strong feelings. Sources: W. K. Simpson, ed., The Literature of Ancient Egypt (1973); J. B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts, 3rd ed. (1969); Ezra Pound, Come Swiftly to Your Love: Love Poems of Ancient Egypt (Hallmark editions). Accompanying slides can be obtained from the Louvre in Paris: Editions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 10 rue de l’Abbaye, 75006 Paris, France.
2. “The Idea of the Mythic Unifier.” Egyptians believed that Menes united the southern and northern kingdoms. Was Menes a real historical character or a mythical hero? The image of the unifier appears often in Western civilization. Lycurgus the Lawgiver of Sparta, Romulus and Remus, and King Arthur of Britain are other examples of mythic unifiers. What characteristics do these mythic heroes have in common? How can we know whether they actually existed? What is their significance? Why do civilizations have myths? Sources: J. Gray, Near Eastern Mythology (1969); M. Bloch, The Royal Touch: Sacred Monarchy and Scrofula in England and France, trans. J. E. Anderson (1973); J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough (1922).
Using Primary Sources
Source: Reread the passages in “The Flood Stories of the Ancient Near East” found in the “Primary Source” section of this manual. After reading the passages, list ways in which the gods and goddesses were like human beings. Then, using the list, write a poem on anthropomorphism in which you include several human characteristics found in the flood passages.
classroom Activities
I. Classroom Discussion Suggestions
A. Why does Mesopotamian civilization seem so grim and joyless compared to Egyptian civilization?
B. Compare the severity of the punishments for crime in Hammurabi’s code with punishments found in the Ten Commandments and in other sections of the Old Testament.
C. Why did scribes have such high status in Mesopotamian society?
D. How did geography affect the military history of Mesopotamia and Egypt from 3000 to 1000 b.c.?
E. How did outsiders influence Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilization?
II. Doing History
A. Conduct research and write a paper on the economic functions of priests in ancient Mesopotamia.
B. Write a short paper comparing the Code of Hammurabi, the Roman Twelve Tables, and the dooms (laws) of Anglo-Saxon kings. How were they alike? How were they different? Which was most humane? Sources: J. B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts (1969); N. Lewis and M. Reinhold, Roman Civilization Sourcebook: Tile Republic (1966); C. Stephenson and F. Marcham, Sources of English Constitutional History: A Selection of Documents from A.D. 600 to the Interregnum (1972).
C. Have students read about sports and pastimes in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. Ask them to create their own versions of these games and then demonstrate them to their classmates. Sources: E. Gardiner, Athletics of the Ancient World (1930); V. Olivova, Spoils and Games in the Ancient World (1984); W. Decker, “The Record of the Ritual: The Athletic Records of Ancient Egypt,” in Ritual and Record: Spoils Records and Quantification in Pre-Modern Societies, ed. J. M. Carter and A. Krueger (1990).
D. Have students investigate the roles of women as described in the legal, historical, and fictional literature of the ancient Near East. Sources: J. B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts (1969); B. S. Lesko, The Remarkable Women of Ancient Egypt, 2nd ed. (1987); M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 3 vols. (1975–1980); L. Manniche, Sexual Life in Ancient Egypt (1987). Have students report their findings.
III. Cooperative Learning Activities
A. Guided Imagery: A Place in Time
Organize the class into groups of four students each. One student in each group is charged with finding a descriptive passage of an ancient Near Eastern place. Students might use the Bible, Gilgamesh, or other primary sources to find the passage. Or, students may wish to use a more contemporary description of a Near Eastern place. After securing the passage, the student should read it aloud to the other three students in the group. From the verbal description in the passage, the three students should attempt to draw the particular place. Students should then share their drawings to see how their visual creations compare to the leader’s verbal description.
B. Division of Labor
One criterion for the emergence of civilization in the ancient Near East was a division of labor. Organize the class into groups of seven. Each group represents a society (or kingdom) in the ancient Near East. In each society, the students should represent the ruler (pharaoh, king, lugal, and so on), chief priest, warrior, artist, artisan, farmer, slave. Each student in the group should conduct research on his or her social class and write a brief report using the first person singular (for example, a student might say “I am Roshtar, a farmer from Ur,” then describe his particular role in his society). In class, each society introduces its respective members and their functions.
C. “Walk Like an Egyptian”: Musical Geography
Tapping into students’ popular culture interests is a great way to begin the semester and a useful method to create mnemonic devices that may increase and enhance learning over the course of the semester (and after!). Organize students into groups of five or six. Charge them with compiling a list of pop songs (“pop” here is used to mean any number of musical categories: rock, rap, country, beach, reggae, ska, and so on) that contain geographical references. (This activity would be good to use during one of the first few classes of the semester. It is widely focused and can be referred back to at any time during the semester.) After the students compile the lists, allow them to share their lists in class. Each group should check to see if members have included songs from other groups’ lists. Past lists have included everything from “Africa” by Toto, to “Back in the U.S.S.R.” by the Beatles, to “Xanadu” by Olivia Newton-John. Of course, your students will use this opportunity to teach you a great deal about contemporary pop music.
Map Activity
1. On an outline map of the ancient Near East, have students list the various peoples of the area: Sumerians
a. Babylonians
b. Egyptians
c. Hebrews
d. Assyrians
e. Hittites
f. Persians
2. Using Map 1.2 Ancient Egypt as a reference, answer the following questions.
a. How did geography shape the culture and economy of ancient Egypt?
b. What place did the Nile River have in Egyptian thought and religion?
c. What were the consequences of Egypt’s relative isolation?
Audiovisual Bibliography
1. Why Man Creates. (29 min. Color. Pyramid Films.)
2. The Ten Commandments. (219 min. Available at most video stores.)