Hist 101 1st EditionExam # 1 Study Guide Lectures: 1 - 8Lectures 1 – 2: Mesopotamia1. The “Epic of Gilgamesh” recounts the story of Gilgamesh (ruler of acity called Uruk), his friendship with the former wild-man Enkidu, andhis sadness and fear after Enkidu’s death. Uruk was a real city in ancient Mesopotamia. According to the “Epic of Gilgamesh,” what features made the city so praiseworthy?2. What does the “Epic of Gilgamesh” tell us about how humans in ancient Mesopotamia viewed friendship, aging, and death? Do their views seem more similar or different to modern American views attitudes towards these things? 3. Historians love law codes as sources, partly because of the following rule of thumb: If something is legally forbidden, then you can assume that a lot of people were doing it. Following this rule, after reading the “Code of Hammurabi,” what would you say were the problems and conflicts that troubled ancient Babylonia?4. The “Code of Hammurabi” is famous as the source of “an eye for aneye” (p.28) as a principle of law and justice. But do we really see absolute equality in the code, in the sense that the punishments precisely fit the crimes? What does the “Code of Hammurabi” tell us about social divisions and distinctions in Babylonian society? 5. What do both of these sources tell us about the status of women in early Mesopotamian civilization? 6. Thinking about both of these sources, what would you say it meant to the ancient Mesopotamians to be “civilized”? (Note how the wild-man Enkidu became “civilized,” by the way.) In other words, what didit mean, and what did it take, for different people to live productively together? And what might a future historian — reading three thousand years from now about how we today view crime,punishment, justice, and rule — conclude about our definition of “civilization”?Lectures 3 – 4: Ancient Egypt 1. From “The Instruction of Ptah-Hotep,” what can you determine about social rank, social mobility, and social hierarchy in ancient Egypt? Does it seem similar or different from what we see in “The Code of Hammurabi”? 2. What seems to be the relationship in the “Instruction” between virtuous behavior on the one hand, and between having other people’sgood opinion and respect, on the other? That is, did Ptah-Hotep think it mattered if one was a good person, if nobody knew it? 3. According to “The Book of the Dead,” what counted as morality in ancient Egypt? Does this morality seem familiar to you, or strange? 4. “Hymn to the Aton” is a celebration of Aton the sun-disk god, and comes from Egypt’s short-lived experiment with monotheism. For what did the Pharoah Akhenaton praise Aton? 5. How would you characterize the feelings that Akhenaton seems to have for the god? Love? Respect? Fear? All of the above? 6. In the “Hymn to the Aton,” would you say that Aton is a “universal” God for all people, or instead just a god for Egyptians? 7. “A Letter from the Hittite Queen to Ramesses II” can be confusing to read, as Queen Puduhepa (wife of Hittite King Hattusili III) oftenrefers back to earlier events and earlier letters that they have exchanged. She also refers to Pharoah Ramesses II as “my brother,” refers to her own husband as “your brother,” and quotes Ramesses as calling her “my sister.” What is the main disagreement between Puduhepa and Ramesses? 8. What does this letter tell you about the Pharoah’s expectations about how he should act as king, and how his fellow rulers should act toward him? Lectures 5 – 6: Near East1. From “The Book of 1 Kings: Solomon’s Construction of Yahweh’s Temple in Jerusalem,” what can we determine about how the ancient Hebrews thought that God (Yahweh) should be worshipped? That is, what assumptions and principles about Him seem to be in play? 2. “The Annals of Ashurnasirpal II of Assyria” proves that history books are not always boring! From King Ashurnasirpal’s celebration of his rule, how would you characterize Ashurnasirpal as a king, and the Assyrians as a people and as conquerors? 3. From this reading, what can you determine about the options the Assyrians’ enemies had in dealing with them? What might be the prosand cons of each? Which option would you choose if you were a neighboring king to the Assyrians, and why? 4. “The Annals of Ashurnasirpal” mentions some of the Assyrians’ gods and goddesses, including Ninurta, Enlil, Assur, Ishtar, and Shamash. What is the connection between the Assyrians’ religion andtheir warfare? 5. The Greek historian Herodotus wasn’t a Persian (and we’ll get to him next week). After reading his “Customs of the Persians,” would you say that the Persians seem different from or rather similar to theother peoples (i.e. Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Hebrews, Assyrians) we’ve read about so far? 6. “The Torah: Laws” takes us back to the ancient Hebrews from question one. Do we see the same social distinctions and social hierarchy in “The Torah: Laws” that we saw in “The Code of Hammurabi”? 7. Think about both “The Torah: Laws” and “The Book of Isaiah: Prophecies.” How would you describe the relationship between the Hebrews and Yahweh in those two texts? How does it compare to the relationship between the Assyrians and their gods that appears in “The Annals of Ashurnasirpal II of Assyria”? Lectures 7 – 8: Greece & Rome1. In Hesiod’s “Works and Days,” what is the author’s attitude towards work? What are the gods’ attitudes towards it? What can wetell about a Greek society that had this kind of attitude? 2. “Spartan Society and Values” includes the Spartan poet Tyrtaeus’ “The Spartan Creed.” How do you think Tyrtaeus would define “Spartan glory”? 3. The other half of “Spartan Society and Values” is Xenophon’s description of “The Laws and Customs of the Spartans.” DoesXenophon seem to admire the Spartans (a/k/a the Lacedaemonians)? According to Xenophon, what are the most unusual aspects of Spartansociety, and why did their legendary lawgiver Lycurgus design Spartan life in this way?4. Would you have enjoyed living in the Sparta that Xenophon describes? Why or why not?5. In “The Second Persian Invasion of Greece,” the Greek historian Herodotus recounts one of the most famous episodes in military history: the defeat of the Spartan 300 (under King