the rise of the state in southwest asia

The Rise of the State in Southwest Asia & the Nile Valley

3200-500 BCE

HI 101 Origins of CivilizationFall 2014

Study Questions• How does writing shape what we can know

about the past?• How did writing develop to meet the needs of

cities and states?• How did the people of Mesopotamia form the

world’s first states, and how did their institutions spread?

• How did geography, leadership and religion shape Egyptian society?

Study Questions (continued)

• How did migrations and invasions shape Egypt’s fate?

• How did Hebrews create an enduring written religious tradition?

• What is Zoroastrianism and why is it significant?

Writing Shapes the Past:

• Writing is not deciphered for all civilizations• Only “important” documents (political,

military, religious traditions) were copied multiple times and survive to today

• Writings about daily life were rarely copied or saved

• Some materials people wrote on did not last to our modern day

Writing, Cities, & States

• As villages grew into cities, writing developed to meet the needs of more complex societies or civilizations, and especially the needs of the state (or political government).

• Began ca. (around) 3200 BCE in a few parts of the world:– Ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq)

Writing, Cities, and States• The “state”: an organization (not a tribe or

kinship group) that is able to coerce resources out of everyone else in order to gain and maintain power

• The state coerces people through violence, or threat of violence, and develop armies for that purpose

• The state also establishes bureaucracies and systems of taxation—this requires record keeping through writing!

Mesopotamia• First region to develop states—made possible

by sustained agriculture irrigated by the Tigris & Euphrates Rivers (Fertile Crescent)– Led to increased population and establishment of

social hierarchies with rulers and priests, armies, taxes, and written records

Sumeria• Villages in southern Mesopotamia including Ur

and Uruk—grew into large cities of 40,000-50,000 people by 3000 BCE

• These cities built irrigation ditches, defensive walls, marketplaces—all required social and political cooperation

• Priests were in charge—they convinced people that gods were powerful and controlled the flooding of rivers

Sumeria

• Each city erected a temple in the middle—Ziggurat to honor the gods—these temples grew into large government complexes that required taxes to support

Ziggurat, Ur, Sumeria

Ziggurat

Sumerian Writing

• 3200 BCE: Began with clay tablets marked with symbols for different goods to be traded– Symbols were made with a wedge-shaped stylus,

or by a carved cylinder rolled over wet clay– The writing/symbols are called cuneiform • Began as pictographs—showing pictures of the object

and changed over time to stylized symbols or ideograms• ca. 2700 BCE images began to represent sounds or

phonetic signs

Cuneiform Cylinder for printing in clay

Sumerian Writing

• Developed to keep records that enhanced power of elite class—officials, kings, nobles

• Recorded religious traditions and heroic stories called epic poems

Epic of Gilgamesh

• Oldest known epic poem

• Story of mythological king of Uruk (Sumerian city)

• Oldest tablets of poem date to 2100 BCE

Babylon

• City that grew to dominate trade in the Fertile Crescent

• Ruled by King Hammurabi, 1792-1750 BCE– Unified Mesopotamia into an Empire by force– Encouraged worship of Marduk as ruler of gods– Babylonian armies and traders spread

Hammurabi’s ideas and beliefs throughout Mesopotamia and beyond

Hammurabi’s Code

• ca. 1790 BCE• Law code of Babylonian

Empire• Regulated behavior and

set punishments for crimes

• Provides info about daiy life in ancient Mesopotamia

Egyptians & the Nile River

• Ancient Egyptian civilization emerged in the Nile River Valley

• The Nile gave life to the people and shaped their society through floods and fertile soil

• The Nile served as a transportation highway, unifying Egypt under a god-king or Pharaoh

• The life-giving power of Nile floods influenced religion and ideas about life after death

Menes, the 1st Pharaoh of Egypt, 3100 BCE

Egyptian Religion

• Pharoah—leader of religious and political life, commanded all resources of Egypt

• Polytheistic—believed in many gods• Strong focus on afterlife—mummification

essential to afterlife—tombs and pyramids contained all the essentials one would need in the afterlife

Mummy of Pharaoh Ramses II, 1279-1213 BCE

Egyptian Social Structure

Egyptian Writing--Hieroglyphs

The Hebrews

• Hebrews=Semitic people also known as Israelites

• Created a new form of religious belief, Judaism– Monotheism (one god) based on worship of

Yahweh– Wrote their stories, prayers, laws, and traditions

down into what became the Hebrew Bible

Hebrews

• Settled in Palestine in the 13th century BCE• Unified under military rule of King Saul, then

King David who captured city of Jerusalem which became the Hebrew religious center

• King Solomon (David’s son) built up the city in 10th century BCE – First Temple at Jerusalem, housed Ark of the

Covenant– Became part of Persian Empire in 538 BCE

Jewish Religion

• Hebrews, exiled in Babylonia, 587 BCE gathered important historical texts into the Torah and started the Hebrew Bible—They came to be known as Jews

• Had to follow the ten commandments as set out by Yahweh

Assyria & Persia

• Assyrians conquered northern Mesopotamia, 9th century BCE, created empire through brutal military conquest

• Persians created a very large empire (centered in modern-day southern Iran)

Assyrian Empire

• Capital at Nineveh on Tigris River• War-like culture, high level of military

technology & sophistication– Invented battering ram

• Assyrian empire fell to Babylonian Empire in 612 BCE

Assyrians (Iraq) 668-627 BCE

Persian Empire

• Led by Cyrus the Great, 559-530 BCE– Conquered kingdoms of the Fertile Crescent & took over

trade routes• Lasted over 200 years until it became part of the

empire of Alexander the Great. • Created an efficient government with capital at

Persepolis• Used highway systems to promote communication

(one was 1,667 miles) across the empire

Persian Empire

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8VgFugJnh8

• Copy and paste link to watch a 5 min video on Ancient Persian artifacts & Treaures!

Zoroastrianism

• Zoroaster, Persian prophet 600 BCE– Author of sacred texts known as the Avesta– Stressed that people must choose between the forces of

truth and order (good) and falsehood and chaos (evil). People’s decisions were crucial and they would be judged in the afterlife to determine their eternal fate.

– Good and evil were locked in a cosmic battle for the human race

• Became official religion of Persian empire—spread to China, India. Heavily influenced Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism