Bronze age

Question 1

Where started the first settlements and early civilizations?

Answer 1

Mesopotamian Sumeria, Greece, Egypt, China

Question 2

Semitic tribes, what age?

Answer 2

Bronze age

Question 3

Semitic tribes def

Answer 3

People using the common Semitic tongue: Arabs, Akkadians, Assyrians, Hyksos, Canaanites and Hebrews

Question 4

How many non-semitic tribes?

Answer 4

ONE non-Semitic tribe: SUMERIANS from the Persian Golf settled in South Mesopotamia
-> ONLY NON-SEMITIC TRIBE OF PERSIAN GOLFE

Question 5

Sumerian Civilization (8)

Answer 5

(1) Early cities: Ur, Uruk (…)
(2) !!!Fertile land: Between two flooding rivers, agriculture -> Overproduction -> Led to a need for a system of recording contributions/commercial transactions in writing!!!
(3) 1st written scripts: Records of commercial transactions, marital contract, religious rituals, songs, poems, dynastic histories and records… -> CUNEIFORM scripts
(4) Communal work: Agriculture, flood prevention, storage of products, transport, irrigation
(5) Agriculture and animal domestication
(6) Polytheism. Ziggurats as temple, “banks” and “notaries”
(7) Invention and practical use of the wheel
(8) Potteries, metallurgy, bronze (copper + tin) weapon, tools & bijoux

Question 6

Sumerian religion + Where did it happen?

Answer 6

Polytheism. (Ninkisi -goddess of pleasure and brewing)
The priests offered religious services in temples called Ziggurats.
Buildings adjacent to it = storage sites/offices for financial/banking services…
Treatment of the wounds, pain, anxiety - Priests designated to provide medicinal services added some psychotherapeutic rituals (magic gestures, incantations and prayers) to the process of healing.

Question 7

Who was the civilization to made the first written scripts?

Answer 7

Sumerians

Question 8

Tell me the story of the transformations in the written records of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and China

Answer 8

From PICTOGRAPHIC to PHONEMIC symbols
Pictographic (OBJECT) = pictogram (image of object) or ideogram (symbol of idea)
Phonemic (SOUND) = logogram (symbol of vocal morpheme - chinese character) or alphabetic character (symbol of vowel/consonant)

Question 9

Pictographic symbol def

Answer 9

Representing an OBJECT.
-> Early Sumerian script; Early Egyptian hieroglyphs; Early Chinese symbols

Question 10

Phonemic symbol def

Answer 10

Representing the SOUNDS.
-> Later Sumerian script, e.g. a-bi (father); Japanese syllabic katakana; Greek phonemic alphabet αβ; Latin phonemic alphabet a b

Question 11

Cuneiform script def

Answer 11

From Cuneus (latin): a wedge (coin). Notation system used by the literate scribes speaking various languages* in the region.
(*Sumerian, Akkadian, Elamite, Hittite, Luwian, Urartian, Old Persian)
Wedge-shaped cane stick on a wet clay tablet

Question 12

Example of Quadrilingual vs Trilingual inscription

Answer 12

Quadrilingual inscription on the Jar of Xerxes I. in Old Persian, Babylonian and Elamite cuneiform
Trilingual inscription on the Rosetta Stone in Egyptian: hieroglyphs, demotic and Old Greek

Question 13

What’s the oldest-known tale?

Answer 13

The Epic of Gilgamesh, sumerian literary piece

Question 14

Epic of Gilgamesh, where does it come from? (2)

Answer 14

(1) Oldest-known sumerian literary piece.
(2) Initially, an oral story passed from generation to generation (eventually written down in cuneiform).
So popular that even after Sumeria fell, its conquerors continued rewriting it in their languages

Question 15

The Epic of Gilgamesh: what is the story being told?

Answer 15

Sumerian king of Uruk.
Young, tyrannical, egocentric kind searching for a magic plant that would bestow eternal youth and immortality upon him.
Meets a wise old man that teaches him eternal values of human friendship and goodness towards others. Enkidu dies and Gilgamesh becomes a great person.
Psychological analysis of the mental transformation from egoism to altruism/allocentrism
-> Compare with W. Goethe’s “Faust”

Question 16

Old (First) Babylonia - How did it start?

Answer 16

Neighboring kingdoms jealous of Sumerians and invaded them.
Amorite king Hammurabi antagonized the neighboring tribes Sumerians and Akkadians and conquered them.

Question 17

Old (First) Babylonia - King Hammurabi & and his code

Answer 17

(1) Tyrannical king, claiming to represent gods after invading summarian cities.
(2) Invented legal code - Code of Hammurabi: Draconian civil and criminal legal Code carved as a cuneiform text on the clay tablets and stone monuments
(3) Dictated more than 200 laws: Death for basically everything - but if victim = slave, fine only

Question 18

Hebrews + Original meaning of the word

Answer 18

Monotheist nomadic communities led by the patriarchs from the Arabian Peninsula.
-> “The people traversing/passing over”, “The wonderers”

Question 19

Biblical story of Jews

Answer 19

• Abraham (patriarch): advised by god - Moved pple from Mesopotamia (Ur) to Canaan (Hebron)
• Jacob (aka Israel), his grandson, moved pple from Canaan (Hebron) to Egypt
• Israelites accepted by dynasty + pharaoh’s sister adopt Moses
• Pharaoh Ramses II turned Israelites into slaves and expelled them from Egypt
• Moses organized exodus (12 israelite tribes) - Mt Sinai - Decalogue

Question 20

Decalogue/10 Commandments characteristics (2)

Answer 20

(1) Served as set of rules of conduct: To survive as a community, people have to respect and help each other.
(2) Universal code of ethics valid in the world for centuries

Question 21

Jewish Culture (4)

Answer 21

(1) Monotheism - rare at that time
(2) Not rly kings but Patriarchs - leaders respected for moral authority, wisdom… - meritocracy
(3) Paternal authority + children owe respect
(4) Fear of sins, sense of guilt, responsibility for your actions/choices and their consequences, trust in merciful god
(5) Belief in eternal existence

Question 22

At the time, what were the 3 monotheist religions?

Answer 22

Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Egyptian cult of the solar deity Aton (imposed by Pharaoh Amenhotep IV - Akhenaton)

Question 23

Oldest copy of the Old Testament - Dead Sea Scrolls; tell the story

Answer 23

Originally written/copied by the Essenes (Jewish sect) residing in Judean Desert - Dead Sea.
Texts partially written in Hebrew and Aramaic, later translated into classic Greek and Latin.
Centuries later (1947), group of shepherds happened upon its fragmented texts (scrolls) hidden in 12 caves near Qumran, a town near the Dead Sea.
“Dead Sea Scrolls”

Question 24

Ancient Egypt - religion

Answer 24

*Polytheist except for the reigh of: Amenhotep IV - Akhenaton)
Anthropomorphic view of deities
(1) Belief in afterlife: moral conduct, preparation for eternity, mummification, step pyramids, big pyramids, tombs, ethics…
(2) The heart - a habitat of the soul (responsibility for moral conduct/behavior)

Question 25

Ancient Egypt civilization (8)

Answer 25

(1) Agriculture, irrigation, canals, architecture, geometry, math, astronomy (contacts with Crete)
(2) Hygiene (good), medicinal herbs, suggestive incantations
(3) “Mapping” the mental functions: heart, brain, uterus
(4) Women highly respected
(5) Absolute power of god-like pharaohs, privileged priests, social casts, slaves
(6) Incestuous marriages allowed, resulting in genetic disorders
(7) Responsibility for moral conduct/behavior
(8) Pictographic and hieroglyphic script on papyri, walls, monuments, and stones

Question 26

Where can we find some vestiges or the Ancient Egypt?

Answer 26

Step pyramids in Giza, big pyramids in Cairo, hidden tombs in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor.

Question 27

In Ancient Egypt, there was a “mapping” of the mental functions, what does that mean?

Answer 27

Heart = locus of morality, emotions and the will
Brain = locus of movements, performance, speech and sleep
Uterus = locus of emotional stability - Responsible for emotional distortion/instability

Question 28

Order of Ages

Answer 28

STONE (Stones for tools/weapons)
BRONZE (Bronze for tools/weapons + ornaments. Humans better prepared to defend, hunt and produce new tools)
IRON (Iron for tools/weapons. New European communities emerged & established themselves.)
SILICONE (Information as tool/weapon)

Question 29

Bronze age - grossomodo

Answer 29

Sumeria (Gilgamesh), Old Babylonia (Hammurabi code)
Egypt (hieroglyphs)
Minoan civilization (Crete, Knossos), Greek Alphabet
China (1st dynasty)
Hebrews
Mycenaeans, Dorians, Ionian Greeks (Troy)
End = Climatic/Seismic cataclysms. Collapse of many cultures & demographic crises

Question 30

Chinese civilization beliefs

Answer 30

Belief in afterlife (particular) - pple who died can visit the living members of the family and help them. Ashes of dead person kept in a jar - so the soul of the dead person could leave.

Question 31

Chinese civilization - chronology

Answer 31

(1) In the beginning, China composed of multiple kingdoms: antagonized kingdoms, wars and conquests
(2) Valley of Yellow River (China) settlements: agriculture, irrigation
(3) First dynasty = Xia (flood prevention, pottery, gem, weapons)
(4) Developments of weapons, math, script, astronomy, medicine,
pottery, bone and shell inscriptions (Shang Yin dynasty 17th – 11th c. BC)
(5) Great wall: defence and transportation,
communication
(6) Ancient Chinese ideographic Ching Script (hexagram) ca 1000 BC. Evolved later into the morphemic kanji script.
(7) Unification of kingdoms

Question 32

Civilization in the Indus River Valleys - chronology + Story of Hinduism

Answer 32

(1) Valley inhabited by totemic tribes of Munda, and later by the matriarchal tribes of Dravidians (=Harappan tribes).
(2) New people started immigrating into the region: the nomad Aryans from Persia.
=> Their monotheism, mixed with the natives’ polytheist cults and traditions, led to the emergence of a complex religion, eventually called “Hinduism”

Question 33

Greece: order of civilizations

Answer 33

(1) Minoan civilization
-> Collapse: eruptions/tsunamis+military weakness
-> Invaded by Mycenaeans
(2) Mycenaean civilization
-> not long after Troy, invasion by Dorians (north tribe)
(3) Dorian civilization
-> violent (dark age) but still flourishing greece (olympic games, mythology…)

Question 34

Minoan civilization

Answer 34

(1) Navigation and trade with the Mediterranean neighbors (e.g. Egypt, Mesopotamia)
(2) Boats, ships, metallurgy, pottery, architecture, bijoux
(3) Great palaces with hydraulic system of running water, bathrooms, flushing toilets, high hygiene
(4) Important role of women in the community & politics
(5) Some Minoan linear script never translated until this day (Linear A script)
(6) City of Knossos

Question 35

Mycenaean civilization

Answer 35

(1) Learned from the defeated Minoans new navigation techniques, architecture, hygiene, metallurgy, mathematics, and the written alphabet (Linear A, later B Script).
(2) Skilled in sailing, navigation: thus, invasions and piracy
(3) King Agamemnon (king of Mycenaeans) involved in Trojan war (1200 BC)

Question 36

Dorian civilization

Answer 36

(1) Economic and cultural stagnation and decline (“Dark Age of Greece”)
(2) Looting, destruction, militarization (Spartan lifestyle)