Foundations: c. 8000 B.C.E.–600 C.E.
Major Developments
- Basic features of early civilizations in different environments: culture, state, and social structure
- Mesopotamia
- Culture
- Independent innovation that passed to Egypt/Indus
- 4000 BCE bronze, copper
- Wheel, irrigation canals
- 3500 Sumerians – cuneiform – first writing – stylus – objects > sounds
- Number system – 60 – movement of heavenly bodies
- navigation
- time
- Architecture – ziggurats – 1) glory of civilization, 2) many gods
- Clay primary building material
- First epic – Epic of Gilgamesh – 1) great flood story
- King’s quest to achieve immortality
- great traders
- State
- Unpredictable flooding – need for government – irrigation
- City-states – controlled city + surrounding area
- Geography – lack of natural barriers – invasion – defensive walls
- Conflicts over water/property rights
- Akkadians/Babylonians – spread Sumerian culture
- Code of Hammurabi – first written law code
- Different rules for gender/social classes
- Very harsh, favored upper class
- Systematic, consistent set of regulations, not arbitrary will of a ruler
- Code of Hammurabi – first written law code
- After 900 BCE –Assyrians and Persians ruled
- king-like figure – lugal “big man”
- Social structure
- Ruled by elite, rulers, priests
- Farmed by slaves – could purchase freedom
- Patriarchal – men could sell wives/children to pay debts
- 1600 BCE women wearing veils
- But…women could gain power courts, priestesses, scribes, small business
- Culture
- Egypt
- Culture
- 3000 BCE – Nile River
- pharaoh – pyramids – tombs for self/families
- Decorated w/ colorful paintings
- polytheists – afterlife > mummification
- Egyptian Book of the Dead – what happened to soul, how to reach happy
- afterlife > mummification and tombs
- bronze tools weapons after Mesopotamia
- Kush – independent innovation iron – spread to Egypt
- some trade w/ Kush and Mesopotamia
- hieroglyphics – from trade contacts Mesopotamia
- papyrus – paper making
- geography – protected – could create unique civilization
- less urban than Mesopotamians
- 365 day calendar, medicine, math, astronomy
- State
- Nile overflowed annually – predictable
- irrigation led to organization/government
- agricultural villages engaged in trade
- pharaoh – king – power
- living incarnation of sun god
- geography – protected from invading people
- beginning 3100 when Menes unites Upper and Lower Egypt
- 2040-1640 BCE Middle Kingdom – culturally dynamic
- New Kingdom – 1500 – regained from foreign invaders Hyksos – focused on military
- by 900 in control of foreign invaders – internal disorder, invasions
- Social structure
- Social classes, but commoners could enter government service – rise in social status
- Patriarchal, but women had some privileges
- Women sometimes acted as regents for young rulers, priestesses, scribes
- managed household finances/education of children
- right to divorce husbands/alimony
- could own property
- Queen Hatshepsut
- Culture
- Indus – 2500 BCE Indus River - Pakistan
- Culture
- Streets laid out in precise grid – houses had running water/sewage
- Harappan writing not deciphered – much unclear
- active trade w/ Indus valley and Sumer – ores from one place found in others
- blend of Aryans and Indus valley people affected future course of history
- quite large – size of France/urbanized
- State
- unpredictable flooding
- Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro
- Because of similarities of cities, tightly unified, centrally controlled
- Overtaken by Indo-Europeans – Aryans
- Already dying out – 1) river change or 2) earthquake, 3) erosion of soil 4) salt in wells
- whole societies – all over – Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro only tip, last
- Social Structure
- little known – Dravidians relatively egalitarian
- not as patriarchal
- Aryans – based it on color – Varnu
- Aryans eventually control politically, but Dravidians would win out culturally
- Culture
- Shang – most isolated – Huange He valley – Yellow River – “China’s Sorrow”
- Culture
- Isolated by deserts, mountains, and seas – unpredictable flooding
- Still some trade w/ Southwest Asia and South Asia
- Shang Dynasty (1766-1122 left written records)
- Knowledge of bronze metallurgy – from Southwest Asia
- Strengthened Shang war machine
- 1000 BCE Ironworking
- Fortune telling and ancestor worship started here
- Palaces/tombs built for emperors
- Writing – oracle bones
- Oracle scratch person’s question on bone/shell – heat it
- Resulting cracks read to learn message from gods
- Shoulder
- myth of Xia dynasty
- Isolated by deserts, mountains, and seas – unpredictable flooding
- State
- Dynasties
- Central rule to oversee irrigation/flood-control projects
- Walled cities – center of cultural, military, economic – set precedent in villages
- Zhou replaced Shang – “mandate of heaven” – if leader governed wisely and fairly, he could claim right to divine rule
- Warrior aristocracy
- fought northern/western neighbors – barbarians – expanded empire
- Tradition of central authority
- Began as small agricultural cities along Yellow River
- Social Structure
- Stratified – ruling elites, artisans, peasants, slaves
- Patriarchal – father needs to know children are his
- Subservient
- multiple marriages
- preference for sons - infanticide
- Ancestor worship
- Matrilineal society before Shang
- Culture
- Mesoamerica and Andean South America
- Culture
- lacked knowledge of wheel
- Olmecs/Maya – pyramids/temples
- Polytheistic
- Cultural diffusion – maize, terraced pyramids
- Calendars
- Ball game on a court
- Quetzalcoatl – god who would return to rule world in peace
- Mayan reached height in 300 CE
- system of writing – pictographs
- value of zero
- astronomy – predicted eclipses
- length of year within a few seconds
- State
- small city-states – ruled by kings – fought against each other
- Prisoners of war – slaves/sacrifices to gods
- lack of pack animals/geography prevented communication
- Inhabitants cooperated for irrigation systems
- Rugged terrain of Andes prevented central gov’t from organizing
- small city-states – ruled by kings – fought against each other
- Social structure
- Elite class of rulers/priests vs. commoners and slaves
- Geography – not in valleys of major rivers
- smaller rivers/streams near oceans
- no large animals/beasts of burden – llama biggest animal – human labor
- Culture
- Mesopotamia
(Students should be able to compare two of the early civilizations above.)