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Cradles of Civilization The Near and Middle-Eastern Origins of Human Society
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Myth & history The Epic of Gilgamesh 2100 BCE Gilgamesh Enkidu mythopoeic
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I. Neolithic Era 10,000 – 3300 BCE
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A. The Fertile Crescent 1.Nutritious plants - cereal grains 2.Cooperative animals - “big four” Geographical determinism?
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B. Prelude to Civilization 1.Division of labor - spare time - fired-pottery - copper Jericho, 8400 BCE Catalhöyük, 7400 BCE communal, subsistence oriented
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2. “Eden” - alluvial plain Physical, metaphorical place of transition
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3. Hydraulic Societies Karl Wittfogel
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4. Flood culture - Flood Myth – “divine right” (3000 BCE) - historicism – cycles, determinism - pessimism – the gods must be crazy
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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
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II. Mesopotamia The Land Between the Rivers
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A. Hot in the city 1.Sumer 3200-2360 BCE Ur, Uruk, Eridu 2.Good neighbors - household rule ↓ kings ↓ dynasties
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B. Tools 1. Bronze Age (3300BC – 1300BC)
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2. Cuneiform Writing (Sumerians, 3500 BCE) “Whoever has walked with Truth generates life” Evolved Hieroglyphs – separate meaning from symbol Alphabets (Phoenicians) 1600 BCE
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C. Religion 1.Gods and goddesses - bound to “cycles” - impersonal - “un” ethical See Hammurabi’s Code Inanna
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2. Indo-Europeans ca. 2200-2000 BCE “Sky gods” exs. Enlil & Anu, Ra or Amon-Re, El, Zeus, Yahweh - external morality/social order
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D. Consolidation and fall 1.Akkadian Empire 2300-2200 BCE standing army nepotism soil salinity Sargon the Akkadian “basket case”
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2. Old Babylonian Empire Hammurabi’s Code (1700s BCE) “If…then…”
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III. Egypt
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A. Land of the Nile 1.Ecological stability 2.Semi-isolation 3.Early Dynasties 3100-2700 BCE god-kings less innovative
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B. Old Kingdom 2700-2200 BCE 1.Old Pharaoh Maat (ma’at) - optimism / eternity 2. Bureaucracy
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3. Life and death - Nation-building “out of many, one” - orderly universe Djoser / Imhotep 2650 BCE
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C. Middle Kingdom 2025-1630 BCE 1.Economic expansion 2.Literature 3. Resurrection cults - Osiris / Isis - funeral culture Hyksos ca. 1600 BCE
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D. Imperial Egypt 1550-1075 1.Beyond the Nile - Hittites - Phoenicians - Hebrews - Assyrians - Greeks Thutmose I 1504-1492 BCE
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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.
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3. Limits to power - Amenhotep IV / Nefertiti (ca. 1350s BCE) - Aten Cult “Sky god”? King Tut cultural lethargy
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