1. Cradles of Civilization The Near and Middle-Eastern Origins of Human Society

2. Myth & history The Epic of Gilgamesh 2100 BCE Gilgamesh Enkidu mythopoeic

3. I. Neolithic Era 10,000 – 3300 BCE

4. A. The Fertile Crescent 1.Nutritious plants - cereal grains 2.Cooperative animals - “big four” Geographical determinism?

5. B. Prelude to Civilization 1.Division of labor - spare time - fired-pottery - copper Jericho, 8400 BCE Catalhöyük, 7400 BCE communal, subsistence oriented

6. 2. “Eden” - alluvial plain Physical, metaphorical place of transition

7. 3. Hydraulic Societies Karl Wittfogel

8. 4. Flood culture - Flood Myth – “divine right” (3000 BCE) - historicism – cycles, determinism - pessimism – the gods must be crazy

9. Terms (from notes and text) Epic of Gilgamesh Fertile Crescent Hydraulic Society Mesopotamia Sumer Bronze/Iron Ages Cuneiform writing Indo-European “sky gods” Code of Hammurabi Sargon the Akkadian Old Babylonians Old/Middle/New Kingdoms Narmer Palette Imhotep Maat (ma’at) Hatshepsut Upper / Lower Egypt The Nile River Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV) Osiris

10. II. Mesopotamia The Land Between the Rivers

11. A. Hot in the city 1.Sumer 3200-2360 BCE Ur, Uruk, Eridu 2.Good neighbors - household rule ↓ kings ↓ dynasties

12. B. Tools 1. Bronze Age (3300BC – 1300BC)

13. 2. Cuneiform Writing (Sumerians, 3500 BCE) “Whoever has walked with Truth generates life” Evolved Hieroglyphs – separate meaning from symbol Alphabets (Phoenicians) 1600 BCE

14. C. Religion 1.Gods and goddesses - bound to “cycles” - impersonal - “un” ethical See Hammurabi’s Code Inanna

15. 2. Indo-Europeans ca. 2200-2000 BCE “Sky gods” exs. Enlil & Anu, Ra or Amon-Re, El, Zeus, Yahweh - external morality/social order

16. D. Consolidation and fall 1.Akkadian Empire 2300-2200 BCE standing army nepotism soil salinity Sargon the Akkadian “basket case”

17. 2. Old Babylonian Empire Hammurabi’s Code (1700s BCE) “If…then…”

18. III. Egypt

19. A. Land of the Nile 1.Ecological stability 2.Semi-isolation 3.Early Dynasties 3100-2700 BCE god-kings less innovative

20. B. Old Kingdom 2700-2200 BCE 1.Old Pharaoh Maat (ma’at) - optimism / eternity 2. Bureaucracy

21. 3. Life and death - Nation-building “out of many, one” - orderly universe Djoser / Imhotep 2650 BCE

22. C. Middle Kingdom 2025-1630 BCE 1.Economic expansion 2.Literature 3. Resurrection cults - Osiris / Isis - funeral culture Hyksos ca. 1600 BCE

23. D. Imperial Egypt 1550-1075 1.Beyond the Nile - Hittites - Phoenicians - Hebrews - Assyrians - Greeks Thutmose I 1504-1492 BCE

24. 2. Power and purpose - Hatshepsut 1478-1458 BCE She is one girl, there is no one like her. She is more beautiful than any other. Look, she is like a star goddess arising at the beginning of a happy new year.

25. 3. Limits to power - Amenhotep IV / Nefertiti (ca. 1350s BCE) - Aten Cult “Sky god”? King Tut cultural lethargy