Chapter 2 Rise of Southwest Asia and the Nile Valley Writing o 5 000 years ago o More complex civilizations o Herodotus history inquiries 900 CE Worthy writings were kept retold and rewritten for future use Political and military events Major powers Religious traditions Texts survive best on stone shells or hard material Initial writing as indentations on soft clay tablets dried hard 3200 BC Ink on papyrus sheets from plants much more fragile o Mesopotamia o Egypt 2600 BC o China Bones and turtle shells 1200 BC previous writing on silk and bamboo that didn t survive Cities o City citizen civilized o Laws regulations codes of conduct manners o Scientific political theological ideas to explain larger world o States laws and social hierarchies State small share of population is able to coerce resources out of everyone else to gain and maintain power Family religious leaders charismatic individuals Violence and armies Bureaucracies taxation Accounting the population o Laws always favored males Environmental challenges o Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia o Sumeria 7000 BC Not enough rainfall to sustain farming irrigation systems Social and political cohesion Religion environment impacts signs from the Gods Sumerian priests held power Pleasing the Gods for rainfall good harvests Large temple ziggurat Taxation forced to pay a portion of harvest to temple or work on the land Politics Priests military leaders assumed temporary leadership in crises o Temporary permanent kinship o Passed to sons dynasties Palaces rivaled the Temple in grandeur o Aristocracies o Force persuasion threats to maintain order Writings Stylus in clay cuneiform wedge shaped Initially pictographic ideograms signs o o 2700 BC signs meant sounds rather than concepts o 2500 BC scribal schools wealthy males only Epic poems of religion heroes o Epic of Gilgamesh Search for glory quest of eternal life Angered Gods give warning Build a boat to escape o Myths Advances in math Numerical system of hours minutes seconds Place values Triumph of Babylon o Fortified walls battles Sumerian wealth attracted conquerors Sargon first Akkadian ruler First permanent army 2331 BC Two hundred year empire in Babylon Sumer o Babylon Hammurabi leader Military force unified Mesopotamia Worshipped Marduk Hammurabi s Code 1790 BC World s first law code Moral behavior Agriculture Marriage family Fairness of State Egypt and the Nile o Herodotus Greek historian Egypt was the gift of the Nile o Flooded once a year fertile soil farming Renewed the land Thoughts of life after death Unified Egypt as communication center o Pharaohs Great House God king of Nile Menes united Upper and Lower Egypt 3100 BC Old Kingdom Prosperity arts and religion established Polytheistic religions honoring believing of many Gods at once o Combined Gods and deities over time o Ex Amon Sky God created universe by thought o Ra Sun God brought life to land o Amon Ra o Aton New Sun God King Tut o Afterlife Not only for Pharaohs Depended on life spent on Earth proper burial conduct Had to be mummified o Social divisions Pharaohs nobles officials priests scribes Artisans merchants tradesmen Labor Women could run control property unlike Mesopotamia Forced paid work on canals and pyramids New Kingdom slavery o Young men drafted into Army o Migration Around Fertile Crescent Hyksos Rulers of the Uplands Semitic language Using bronze for weapons 1800 BC Efficient farming Revolutionized Egyptian warfare Second Intermediate Period collapse Invaded Egypt from North 1700 1500 BC o Newcomers pushed Hyksos out Start of New Kingdom Invaded Nubia Wealth and imperialism empire Slavery widespread Akhenaton religion greater than conquest o Wife Nefertiti Monotheists Aton Sun God Hittites 1600 BC Indo European languages Persian English Spanish Dutch Latin Greek Hindi etc Iron weapons expensive o Deciding factors of war wins Alliance with Egyptians and Babylonians Sea Peoples invasion broken empire o Third Intermediate Period New powers Nubia 2000 BC o Trade of ivory gold ebony o Taken over Egyptian Empire Kush independent kingdom spread to North o Pushed to Meroe Phoenicians Purple People of Mediterranean o Semitic language Arabic Hebrew o International trade emporias o Created alphabet phonetic o Ore glass and wine exports o Gold and ivory imports Hebrews and Israelites Semitic language Independent state Monotheists Yahweh Hebrew Bible Judaism o Christianity Islam Torah o History law and ethics of Judaism o Ten commandments Hebrew law No female divinity o Marriage was important o Active economically Nomadic pastoralists Enslaved by Egyptians o Moses led them to Palestine Philistines Seemingly invincible Saul Hebrew leader established monarchy o Died replaced by son David inheritance o Captured Jerusalem Solomon son of David o Temple of Jerusalem o Ark of Covenant States broke into political halves Israel Judah Jerusalem o o Conquered by Babylon in 587 BC Exile of Jews Assyrians Systematic effective military o Corps of engineers first Semitic people Dark Age 1200 900 BC Egypt Mesopotamia 300 years Greece 400 years