1. Ancient History Near East

2. Neolithic Revolution 8000BCE Stone Age Urban Revolution 3500BCE Bronze Age Iron Age 1200BCE Classical Age 600BCE

3. Innovative Sites of the Near East Ancient Sumer Ancient Egypt

6. What physical features had the most significant impact on the development of Mesopotamia? Tigris & Euphrates Rivers (alluvial plain-silt, destructive flooding) Plain of Shinar (farming, ease of movement) What other features, with less significance, may have eventually influenced Mesopotamia? Mediterranean Sea Red Sea Persian Gulf Arabian Desert

7. Sumerian Life Royal Tombs of Ur

9. Uruk Period: 3500BC First City-State Organized around temple (ziggurat) Patron God/Goddess Growth in Population and Nucleation (clustering) (50,000 people by 3100BC) Increased Complexity among institutions…

10. Sumerian Development Consider… Irrigation Demography Technology Economic Organization Writing Secularization of Government Social Organization

11. Irrigation Small irregular locally managed networks city-state Consolidation into a few large networks, each centrally coordinated by a city-state

12. Technology Slow potters wheel Standardized vessel shape Copper metallurgy Utilitarian metallurgy to include Bronze Tools & weapons Metals used in Elite Burials

13. Social Organization Nobles (administrators, priests, merchants) Commoners (Landless peasants, artisans, slaves) Fluidity among lower 3 groups Royal Cemetery of Ur Distinctions dramatic between Nobles and commoners

14. Economic Organization Temple Economy Standardized volumes Increased specialization Increased Trade Wood Utilitarian and precious stones & metals imported Grain & textiles exported

15. Writing Deals with economic accounts: List of workers, goods, receipts, etc. Pictographs, ideographs Stylus Cylinder seals non- economic matters Cuneiform Tablets deal with economic and non-economic matters Religion, Politics, etc.

16. Secularization Competition Kings – lugal Elected & temporary Lugal becomes permanent Steward of the gods At the expense of priesthood

17. How would you summarize the important developments and legacy of the Sumerians?

18. Ancient Egypt Innovative site Africa’s cradle of civilization

27. Size & Demography Pre-dynastic: 500,000 people (cities @ 15,000) New Kingdom: 5 Million? (cities @ 100,000s) No more than 15 miles on each side of Nile Total sq miles: 14,000 (no larger than Estonia)

29. Cities 42 Nomes or Sepat Patron God/Goddess Nomarch Directed irrigation, administration Most people lived in surrounding countryside, not city interdependence Specialized function (temple, protection) - interdependence

30. Pharaoh No concept of ‘state’, instead… Identification with Pharaoh as divine, in charge of all aspects of civilization (military, religion, etc) Developed bureaucracy (vizier, nomarchs) Hereditary succession (dynasty)

31. Egyptian Pharaohs Narmer Palette (Narmer or Menes)

32. Chronology & Dating Kingdom: periods of relative stability and central rule of Pharaoh Intermediate: periods of instability, lack of strong central authority and/or invasions Proto-dynastic – Unification (Menes or Narmer?) Old Kingdom- 2600BC – 2150BC capital @ Memphis Middle Kingdom 2100 -1640 (Hyksos Invasion) New Kingdom 1570 – 1293 capital @ Thebes

33. Egyptian Gods & Goddesses Osiris Isis Horus

34. Religion Polytheistic, anthropomorphic Creation stories - Mythology Afterlife, Mummification, Temples, Cults Pharaoh as protector of Ma’at concept of order, harmony