History 1001 Human Origins 02 03 2014 Herodotus ca 450 B C E o Historiai investigations o Some people call him the father of history or father of lies History vs prehistory o The prehistorical period Paleolithic old stone age 250000 B C E or earlier 10 000 B C E Neolithic new stone age Beginning roughly 10 000 8 000 B C E o Historical period Begins around 3 000 B C E Human beings emerged out of Africa Stone Age o Paleolithic Stones were used to make all sorts of tools Mainly used for hunting but also for violence Flint rock is mainly used because it can be used to chip and formed to a sharp point Hunter Gatherer community Hunters were the men Women were the Gatherers and also stayed at home to watch the children as the hunters went to hunt desert kites in the Syrian desert is evidence of Stone Age hunting techniques waited for migrations and surrounded prey and attacked it they were located in the fertile cresent which is located in the present day Syria region had fertility in the soil and had vast o Neolithic vegetation The gradual discovery of agriculture Save seeds from current crop to plant for the next Idea that life could be much more steady and reliable season Independently discovered in different places Neolithic Revolution or Agricultural Revolution had lots of animals bred in captivity sheep and goats paleobotany botany studying ancient vegetation life form study the remains of the left over or spilled over the campfire where they were cooked Well studied Neolithic communities Jericho Most famous village had walls and no large structures or social status Catal Huyuk Ain Ghazal People lived here because of plentiful rain clay women with large hips fall Neolithic evidence of religion fertility figurines plastered skulls found at Jericho the community Stone age art Cave paintings Rock wall depictions Usually depict hunting scenes Ain Ghazal formed out of the skull of a dead member of The Guennol Lioness o 8cm high o required high skill to make such a small and detailed figure Near Eastern Kingdoms and Biblical Religion The cradles of Civilization China Mesopotamia India o Sumeria Sumerians First Mesopotamia civilization S Iraq o What qualifies a society to be called a civilization Size Complexity Sophistication Organization o Latin civitas a city o A civilization is a community that built cities and lived in them o Religious organization of society ziggurats artificial mountains and temple complexes this civilization put a lot of effort and resources for their religious use o Sumerian writing system Cuneiform From latin cuneus wedge Purpose of writing was to keep records Evolved into legal texts religious hymns story telling and writing gives us a window into the mind of these ancient people o With writing real writing of history becomes possible The Mesopotamian Flood Story what does it tell us about their world view o Mesopotamian civilizations Sumer cities ca 3100 Akkadians ca 2350 2200 Assyrians ca 2000 600 Babylonians ca 1800 1600 Hammurabi s Code of Law Babylonian 18th century B C E A complete and complex set of rules and Issued under the authority of the sun god penalties Shamash Hittites flourished ca 1400 1200 Based in modern day turkey Spoke a language closely related to European people o Sumeria as the classic civilization Sumerians invented a lot of things adopted by the other civilizations These lands are very desirable Why Civilization What challenges did they have to meet o Hydraulic Civilizations Science of controlling and manipulating fluids o Someone needs to do the work and someone needs to tell them when to do it or civilization would not survive Ex of Social complexity o Egypt The importance of Geography Nile Valley Narrow band in the midst of desert Life on the verge of death isolation and insularity Regularity of Nile flooding Silt ran of the highland and onto the crops and made the crops very fertile Very dry soil and air preservation of perishable materials Farming could not be done without irrigation Maintenance on this irrigation Herodotus says Egypt is the gift of the Nile Papyrus paper made from reeds Hieroglyphic writing system deciphered in early 1800 s By Champollion A pictographic alphabetic script Hieroglyphics priest carvings The Rosetta Stone One text three writing systems Found in the place called rosetta o Egyptian Culture Maat harmony King s Responsibility if it was not preserved then it was believed that bad things would happen famine drought King was the representative of the gods on earth Powers of the priesthood Could remove a king if they felt necessary Had to preserve and bury the king Religious hierarchy was central Gigantic monuments pyramids temples Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt Pharoah Menes ca 3100 B C E Anxiety was always part of the world outlook Believed that the gods could wipe them off of the earth on a whim just bc they felt like it o Religious Outlook and the Afterlife Infinite Number of divinities Isis Osiris Horus Ptah Re Anubis Death Doorway to another life Relations with the gods serene is this because of Egypt s steady unchanging Contact with other Civilizations especially in New pace of life Kingdom Foreign expansion Decided they were not entirely safe at home Had threats from other civilizations Contacts with the outside Thutmose III 1480 1450 Rameses II 1279 1213 Battle of cadesh in Syria the first recorded battle 1274 B C E Artistic cultural religious influence of Greek and other western societies Egyptian influence on early Greek art Religious upheaval Akhenaten 1364 1347 Took unadvised measures tried to change Wanted to worship Aton one god instead of the culture the 100 of gods A heretic devoted to the Sun Gods The famous King Tut Akhenaten s son End of prehistory 3100 3000 B C E and beginning of history The coming of writing and recorded history Code of Hammurabi Epic of Gilgamesh 02 03 2014 Epic of Gilgamesh Babylonian version Oldest known human story Symbol of some of the deepest beliefs of the Babylonians A story about the flood Gilgamesh is looking for the solution of life and death o Quest for everlasting life Gilgamesh traveled a long journey to find utnaphistim The death of Gilgamesh o He could not conquer death Code of Hammurabi Hammurabi was an early second millenium king of Babylon Law code pays a lot of attention to social class eye for an eye is what these laws are famous for Old Testament Torah law Pentateuch Historical books Wisdom literature Prophets o Text is not always reliable