WORLD HISTORY I Early Civilizations Professor Thomas M. Page

FROM VILLAGE COMMUNITY TO CITY STATE What Are Cities? Why Are They Important?

THE MEANING OF CITIES Food First: The Agricultural Village Pottery Ban Po China 4500 B.C.E.

AGRICULTURAL VILLAGE Hunter Gatherers Why Did They Change?

AGRICULTURAL VILLAGE 12,000 Years Ago Nomadic “follow the food” 10,000 Years Ago Systematic Practice of Agriculture Production: Textiles-Pottery-Metallurgy-Architecture-Tools New Opportunities: Economic, Social, Political, Artistic Creativity

AGRICULTURAL VILLAGE “Changed Humanities concept of Life’s Necessities and Potentials” Ban Po Food Storage Pits Spodek

THE FIRST CITIES Mesopotamia The Nile The Indus The Huang He The Niger Gulf of Mexico Andes Mountains

The Meaning of Cities “Cities Transform Human Life”

Indonesian Bronze Age bangles, found in Sumba The Bronze Age

The Meaning of Cities New Class Hierarchies Emerged

The rafts were made of a log platform on top of inflated animal skins These boats were usually made of bundles of reeds lashed together Grain Lapiz Lazuli

The Meaning of Cities With the Growth of the City the Early State was Born

This is a section of wall relief from the palace of the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II. The Meaning of Cities Centralized Rule Powerful Armies

The Meaning of Cities The World’s First System of Writing Evolved

The earliest writing was based on pictograms Over time, the need for writing changed and the signs developed into a script we call cuneiform

SUMER The Birthplace of the City

SUMER The Cities of Sumer Died Out Having Fought Each Other to Exhaustion

SUMER Birth of Civic Loyalty Loyalty to Blood Relatives Now Extended Beyond Kinship to Civic Identity

SUMER The Concept of State is Born Political Power and Organization were both Centralized and Sanctified

SUMER The Priesthood and the Cosmo-Magical City

Ziggurats

By 4000 B.C.E. large temples were being built in Mesopotamian towns on top of mud-brick platforms. By the end of the fourth millennium B.C.E. enormous mud-brick platforms with temple buildings on top were built in Uruk, one of the largest cities in the world.

Scribe Curriculum Tablet Cuneiform Inscriptions Cylinder Seal Writing Board Mathematical Text Envelope and Contract

The Sumerians believed the gods came from the mountains they could see in the distance across the plains. Some people think that the temples were built on platforms to look like mountains.

One of the responsibilities of the king was to give the gods offerings and keep their homes (temples) in good condition.

When a building was repaired the king would often leave his name carved on objects buried in the foundations or stamped on the bricks. In this way he hoped the gods would bless him and his kingdom.

SUMER Occupational Specialization: The Emergence of Class Structure

SUMER The Emergence of Class Structure “Gave the Cities a Far More Sophisticated Hierarchical Class Structure than Villages Possessed”

SUMER Arts and Invention “Creativity Flourished; Surpassing Village Standards in Beauty and Technical Skill”

Astronomers of Babylon

. Daily Diaries

Kings Letter Of Lunar Eclipse

Enuma Anu Enlil text

Shumma Alu

Diviner's Manual

Mul Apin Tablet

Invention

Trade and Transport Grain Textiles

Architecture and Adornment

Writing and Literature Gilgamesh Epic

The Flood Stories of Mesopotamia