Chapter 2 Flashcards
WHat is the best known individual of anceint mesopotamian society?
IT was a man named Gilgamesh, the 5th king of Uruk
How long di d GIlgamesh rule?
For a period of 126 years according to one soruce and he lef his community in its conflicts wiht Kish
Gilgamesh was the subject of numberous what
poems and legends and mesopotamian badrds made him the centra figrue in a cycle of stories
What were the stories about Gilgamesh called?
The Epic of Gilgamesh
AS a figure of legend, Gilgamenhs was a figure of what?
Gilgamesh was the greatest hero figure of ancient MEsopotamia. ACcordint to the stories, the Gods granted Gilgamesh a perfect body and endowed him with a superhuman strength and courage
WHat do the stories of Gilgamesh recount?
The adventures of this hero and his cherishe d friend Enkidu as thyey sought fame. They killed an evil monster, rescued Uruk form a ravaging bull.
What happened to Enkidu?
HE offended the gods and died.
What does the name Mesopotamia mean?
The land between the rivers..and it refers specifically to the fertile valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in modern day Iraq
What was the climate life in Mesopotamic
It recieves little rainfall, but the Tigris and Eupharates brought large volumes of freshwater to the region.
Early cultivators realized that by tapping these rivers, building reservoirs and digging canals, they could do what?
irrigate fields of barley, wheat and peas
When did small scale irrigation begin in Mespotamia?
After 6000 BCE
Whtat did Artificial irrigation lead to?
iINcreased food supplies which in tun supported a rapidly increasing human population and attracted migrants from other regions
Where did Human numbers grow fast?
IN the land of SUmer in the southern half of Mesopotamia. It is possible that the people known as teh SUmerians already inhabited this land in the sixth century
By what day did people start consturcting irrigation networks?
5000 BCE
The wealth of SUmer also attracted migratnts from other regions, who were tey
Semitic people
What SEmitic tounges
Aramaic, HJebrew,and Phoenician
WHo were the Semitic peoples/
THey were nomaidc herders who went to MEsopotamia from the Arabian and Syrian deserts to the south and west. They often intermarried with the SUmarien, and they largely adapted to SUmerian ways
Beginning around 4000 BCE as human numbers increased in souther Mesopotamia, the Sumerains buit the worlds first
cities, they differed from the neolithic vilalge st hat proceded them.
What were Sumarian citties?
They were the centers of political and military authroity and their jurisdiction extended into the surrounding regions
What were some Sumerian cities that came up/
Eridu, Ur, Uruk, Lagash, NIppur, Kish and others dominated public affairs in Mesopotamia.
The cities faced what?
External and internal pressurs. They needed to maintain aorder and ensure taht inhabitants coopeated on community projects. With their expanding populations, the cities also needed to prevent conflicts between urban rsidents from escalating ito seriosu civil disorder
What were all of the cities really
City states
While preserving the peace, govenment authorities, also organized work on what>
Projects of value to the entire community.
Palaces, temples and defensive wall
dominated the SUmerian cities and all were the work of laborers recruited and coordinated by the government authorityes such as Gilgames
What were the ziggarouts?
They were distinctive step pyramids tha thoused temples and alters to the principal local deity
WHo was the fertility goddes
Inanna.
About how long did it take to cnostruct the ziggaruts
15000 laboreres for 10 hours per day for 5 years
Even more important than buildings were the irrigation systems that supported productive agricultrue and urban societ. As their popultiaoin grew, what did the SUmerians expand on?
Their networks of reservoirs and canals. The construction, maintenance and reparir of the irigation system required the labor of untold htousands of workers
What were some external pressurs that the Sumerian cities faceD?
The wealth that was stored attracted the interest of peopels outside the citie . This is because Mesopotamia is very easy to attack
What were the earliest Mespotamian communities?
They were assemblies of prominent men who made decisions on behalf the whole ocmmunity, Whenc rises arose, assemblise yielded their power who had full authority
How did the individual kings get established?
They gradually unsurped the power of these assembleis
Once they had organized effective states, what did MEsop[otamians venture to do?
They started to have conflicts between each other, that led to war. BEcause ambitious kings sought to punish or conquer their nieghbors at war
What di dthe King of Kish do?
he wanted to extend his rule,. TO southern Mesopotamia.
IN efforts to move beyond constant conflicts, what did conquerors dpo?
They worked to establish order on a larger scale.
Tehse regional empires emerged as SEmitic peopels such a the Akkadians and the Babylonians of north Mesopotamani becan to do what
Overshadow the mesopotamians
Who was teh creator of emmpire in MEsopotamia?
Sargon of Akkad, a cituy near kish and Bablyon
What was teh background oif Sargon?
He was a very talented administrator and a brilliant warrior. He began his carrier as a minister to the king of Kish. At aroudn 2334, he organized a coup against the King and went on the offensive
No one could overshadow Sargon’s empire, but what di dhe do?
Kept conquring
What did Sargon’s empire represent?
The conqueror worked to devise ways and emans to hold his possessions together. He relied heavily on his persnoal rpesence to maintian stability
What was the inconvienice that Sargon put on a lot of people?
The loging and ifnancial support. IT cause a lot of resentment for the conqueror.
BY controlling and taxing trade, Sargon obtained financial resources to maintain
his military juggernaut and transform his capitla of Akkad into the wealthiest and most powerful place in teh world
BY 2150, Sarggon’s empire had colllapsed because of?
Chronic rebellion
Which king styled himself oas the king of the four quarters of the world?
Hammurabi (1792-1750)
The Babylonian empire dominated Mesopotamia until about 1600 BEC. Hammurabi improved n Sargon’s administrative techniques by relying on
centralized beauraucratic rule and taxation
Instead of traveling form city to city withi an army, what did Hammurabi and his successors dO.
Stationed deputies in teh territories that theyc tonrolled.
INstead of condiscating supplies and other wealth in the unfortunate regions, what didi Hammurabia nd later rulers do>?
INstituted less ruinous but more regular taxes, collected by their officials
What was Hammurabi’s codeof law
IT was borrowed from his predecessors. IT prescribed high stadards of behavior and stern punishments for violators. They had death penalties, theft, and false accusation
What was the famous saying form teh cod
an eye for an eye
What did the code take account of?
Social stadnign. If a noble hurt another noble, he would have to hurt himself, but if he hurt a commoner,he could get off easily
What invader s attacked the babylonian empire
Hittitie assaults.
IMperial rule returned to Mesopotamia with the who
Assyrians, a hardy people from the nnorthern EMopotamia who had built a comapct state in teh Tigris river valley during the ninteenth centruy BCE
Taking advantage of their location on the trade routes running in all of the directions, what id dthe Assyrians fo?
built flourishing cities at Assur and Nineveh. They ha an army
How were Assyrian officers appointed
BEcause of merit, skilla nd bravery rather than noble birth or family connections. THey supplemented infantlry with cavalry forces and and ligth chariots
Who came up with the light chariots?
the HIttites
AFter the collapse of the Babylonian empire, the Assyrian state was one oamong many jockeying for power and position in
Norhtern Mesopotamia
AFter about 1300 BCE, ASsyrians gradually extended their authority to much of southwest Asia. THey made use of what
recently invented iron weapons. They had a lot of troo[s
What king is associated with thei high tide of Asyrian domination?
Assurbanipal
What were the administravive techniques pioneered by thier Babylonian predecessors that were used?
The code of Hammurabi, a mesopotamian literature, and other cholarly things
What brought down the wealth of the Assyrian empires?
The internal rebellion adn external assault
For half a century form 600 to 500 BCE, who dmonated
Babylon under King NEbuchadnezzar, lavishe wealth adn resources on his capital city
In the NEw Babylonian Empire, what was there?
THee were a lot of decorated papaces and defensive walls were very thick there
With the emergence of cities and the congregation of dense populations in urban spaces, what happened?
specialized labor proliferated. The mesopotamian economy became very divese
What was expanded when a lot of people congregated in cities
The amount of specialized labor that could be done
Metallurgical innovations ranked among what
The most important developments that came about because of specialized labor. IN neolithic times, craftsman had fashioned copper into tools and jewelry.
What did MEsopotamian metalworkers discover about metal
That if they allooyed copper with tin, they could maek much harder and stronger implements
What military effects did Bronze have an impact
on military affairs as craftsmen turned out swords, spears, axes, shields, and armor made of hthje recently invented metals
AFter 1000 BCE, MEsopotamian craftsmen began to manufacture effective tools and weapons with what
irona dn bronze.
Experomentation with Iiron came, but early efforts produced things that were
too rbittle for heavy duty uses
Iron metallurgy soon spread throughout Anantolia, MEsopotamia,, and othe rregions as well and Assyrian conquerors made particularly effective use of iron weapons in building their empire
By 3500 bCE, SUmerians wer ebuilding what
wheeled carts that could haul a lto fo th things
Sumerian salso experimented with technologies of maritime transportation, but 3500 BCE, they had built water craft that allowed them
to venture into the persian gulf and arabian sea.
What did SUmerian Merchants ship?
Wollen textiles, leather goodsm sesame oil and jewlry to INdian in exchange for copper, ivory, pearls and semi precious stone s
During the time fo the Babylonian empire, who did the Mesopotaminas trade with?
People in all directions, they imported silver from Anantoila, ceder wood from Lebabon, copper from Arabia, gold form Egypt, tin from Persia, and Lapiz lazuli from Afghanistan
How did Assyrian merchants trade
by donkey caravan some 1600 kilometers
Agriculture enabled human groups to accumulate wealth, and clear distinctions between the more an less wealthy appeared already in neolithic villages
In early Mesopotamia, the ruling classes consisted of kings and nobles who won thier positions becoause of what
valor and success as warriors,
What did rule soon become in mesopotamia?
It became heridiatry. The earliest kings in SUmerian ciites made such a deep impression on their contemporaries, that legends portrayed thema s offspring of the gods
CLoesely allied with the ruling elites were priests and priestesses who were
younger relatives of the rulers
What was the principal role of the priests and priestesses?
To eintervene with the gods to ensure good fortune for their comunities
IN exchange for their services, priests and priestesses lived in
temple communites nad recieved offering sof food and drink and clothing from the city inhabitants
The temples also generated income from vast tracts of land that they owned and large owrkshops that htey maintained. ONe temple commuty of Lagash
employed six thousand textiel workers between 2150 and 2000
What ddi other Temple communities cultivat?
Grain, herded sheep and goats and manufactured lather, wood, metal and stone goods
What did temples also serve as
They served as banks and took in orphasn
Apart from teh ruling adn priestly elites,w hat did MEsopotamian soceity include?
LEss privileged classes of free commoners, dependent clients and slves
Free cmmoners mostly worked as
peasant cultivators in the coutnryside on land owned by their families
Dependent clients usaly worked as agricultral laborers on estates owned by others, including the king, bonles or priestly communites and they owned a portion of thier prodcution ot the landowners
Slaves came from where?
POWs, Convicted crimiansl and heavily indebted individuals who sold themselves into slavery to satisfy thier obligations
While recognizing difference of rank, welath and social status, what society was also built?
A patriarchal society that vested authrity over publisc and private affairs/.
What law code throws light on the power of men
the COde of Hammurabi
How was the role of women felt
THey sometimes advised kings and their governmetns. A few women wielded great power as high priestesses who managed the enormous estates belonging to their temples
The world’s earliest known writing came from MEsopotamia. What did Sumerians invent?
A system at about middle of the foutrth milennui bCE to keep track of the commercial transaction and tax colelction s
What did the Mesopotamians first experiement mwith?
WIth pictographs representing animals, agricultral products, wheat, barley, pots and fish that firgured promonently in tax and commercial transactions
BY 3100 BCE, what had spread throughout MEsopotamia
COnvetional signs representing specific words had spread
What is a writing system useful for?
Keeping records but itis a cumberson way to communitcate ideas, Begining
IN 2900 BCE, what did the SUmeiands develoo?
Graphic symbols to represent sounds, syllables and ideas as well as physical objects
What is cuneiform?
Teh sumerian writing tha tcomes from wedge shaped marks. When dried, clay would make permanent mesages
What displaced cuneiform?
Greek writing
Most education in acient times was what
vocational insturction designed to train individuals to work in specific trade sand crafts. Yet, MEsopotamians also establisehd formal schools since it required a great deal to learn cuneiform
Those who pursued their studies became what?
PRiests, physicians or professionals such as engineers and archietcts
What was rwiting used for?
IT was used to communicate complex ideas. MEsopotamians relied on writing to communicate complex ideas about the world, gods, human beings, an thier relationship wiht one antoher
LIteracy led a rapid expansion of knowledge, what were things that came up?
Astronomy helped for accurate calender snad seasons.. They aslso used math skills to survey lands and allot them to proper owners ro tenants.
MEsopotamians also uused writing to communicate
abstract ideas, investigate intellectual problems an reflect on human beings
What is the best known of the reflective literture form MEsopotamia>?
The Epic of Gilgamesh. PArts of this work ame from the SUmerian city states, But the whol epic as known toady wa the wrok of compulers who lived after 2000 BCE. D
The power of MEsopotamia attracted what?
Foreign peoples. Sometimes migrants left
WHat is the best known cases of early MEsopotamian influence
WIth Hebrews, ISraelites and JEws who rpreserved memoires of their historical experience
WHo were th eHEbrews?
They were speakes of the ancient Hebrew Lnaguage.
Who were teh Israelitee?
They were a branch of HEbrews who setled in Palestine after 1200 BCE.
Jews were from
Southern Israelites who inhabited the kingdom of Judah
The earliest HEbrews were
pastorial nomads who inhabited lands between MEsopotamia and Egypt during the scond milleniium BCE. THe stteld in the cities
WHere did the Hebrew Patriarch Abraham come from
From Ur, but he migrated to nothern MEsopotamia. ihis decendants continued to recognize many of the deitins, values and customs c0ommon to Mesopotamia
What flod story did the hebrews tell
Tey told a story of a devastating flod that had destroyed all early human socieyty. THie r account awas a variation on similar cflood stories from Sumarian society
According to Hebrew Scriptures, what happened to Egypet
They migrated there duiring the 18th century. This branch departed under the leadership of Moses and went to Palestine formed 12 tribes
The Hebrews fought bitterly with other inhabitants of Palestine and carved out territory for themselves
Mesopotamian style monarchy that brougt the 12 tribes under rule. During the reignbs of who
King David and King Solomon (1000-970-930)
Israelites dominated what territory?
Between SYria and the Sinain peninsula. They built an elaborate and cosmopolitan capital city at Jerusalem and entered into diplomatic realtions
What do the Hebrew scriptures teach?
Thatafter the time of Moses, the religious beliefs of the ISrealites had developed along incresingly distinctive lines
Moses taught that one god was called
Yahweh was there, every one else was an imposter
What type of god was Yahweh?
HE was a perosnal god. He excpected his followers to worship him alone and he demanded tahat they observe igh moreal and ethical standards
WHat was teh 10 commandments?
They were a set of religious and eithical principals tha tMOses announced to the Israelites,.
What was teh Torah
A set of teachings which laid down Yahweh’s laws and outlined his role in creating the world and guiding human affairs. It taught that Yahweh would reward the individuals who obeyed his wilkl and punish those who did not.
Historical and archaeological records tell a less colorful story than the accountpreservd in the Hebre Scriptures
Istralites maintained communities in the hills of central palestine after 1200 BCE and that they formed several smallkingdoms in the region after 1– BCE. There are signs of conflict
The Israelites placed increasing emphasis on devotion to who
Yahweh as they experienced a seires of politica l and military setback
Following King Solomon’s reign, tribal tensions led
to the division of the community into a large kingdom of Israel in the north and south smaller kingdom
Judah adn Judea
During the 9th century, the kingdom of Israel came under prressure of the expanding Assyrian empire and even had to pay tribut e to Assyrian rulers
Most of the s exiles assimilated into other ocmmunities adn lost their identitiy as
Israelites
What did ISraelites do?
Maintain their identitry and they became known as Jews
Ironically, perhaps the Israelits deveotion to Yahweh intensified during this era of turmoil.
Prophets during this time did what>
They blasted their compatriots for their materialis, their neglect of the enedy and the abominable interest
Teh exiles who returned to Judea after the Babylonian conquest did not abandon hope for a state of their own
they organized several small Jewish states to the great empires that dominated south erst Asia after the 6th century
In these Jewish Communites, what was maintained?
A strong sense of identity as peopel.
North of the Israelites kingdom i Palestine, who occupied>
Phoenicians occupied a narrow coastal plain between the Mediterranean Sea nad the lebanon Mountains
Ancestors of thePhoenicians migrated to the Mediterranean coast and built thier first settlement s sometime after 3000 BCE, did they have a unified monarchy
nope
What were the major cities?
Tyre, Sidon,Beirut, And Byblos had considerable influecne
Where did Tyre dominated where
southern Phonecia
Phoneicians looked like they wnated to pursue
commercial opportunities rather than state building
Phoencian cities were often subject to imperial rule from Egypt of MEsopotamia
Thouigh not a numerous or military powerful peopel, the phoenicians influenced communication networks how?
They tuned increasingly to trade, and they traded a lot of things, They also looked for maritinme trade
What did the Phoenicians venture onto the seas to do?
Engage in maritime trade. They imported food, raw matierals in exchange for high quality metal goods, textiles, potter, glass, and works of art
What did they supply people
SPecial reputaiton for brilliant red and purple textiels
The Phoenicians were excellent sailors and they built the best ships of their
times
What did they dominate?
They established commercail colonies in Rhodes, Cyprus, Sicily, Sardina, Spain and north africa. THey wen t widely
LIke the HEbrews, what did the Phoenicians do?
Largely adptedMesopotamina cultrual traidtions to their own needs
AStarte, a fertility goddes was?
The main femaile goddess. For Phoenicians
The Phoenicians tradition of writng their creative adaptaion of
Mesopotamian practices to their own needs. FOr amillennium or more, they relied cuneiform writing to preserve informatiom, they compield a vast collection of religous, historical and literary writings
BY 1500 BCE, what ha Phoenician scribes devised?
An early Alphabetic script consisting of twenty two symbols repreenting consonants.
What did linguists notice about many languages of Euro-pe, southwest ASia, and India?
THey had remarkable similarities in vocab and grammer structure/. Old persian, Gree, and LAtin
To explain the closeness in European Languages?
Because the INdo European must have been peoples who were common descendants of one things. They all had the same ancestos?
THe original home of the ancesotrs mush have been..
The steppe region of the mdoern day Ukrain and southern russia, the region just north of the Black and Caspian sea
BEcause they had observedhorses closely and learned the animals patterns, Indo European speaekers were apbel to
domesticate horses about 4000 BCE. Tehy sprobably used hprses as a source of food, butsoon used them for other things
Horses provided the IE peopels with a means of what?
Expanding far beyond htier original homeland
As they flourished in southern RUssia, Indo European speakers experienced a population-explosion which prompted some of them to move in the sparesly inhabited steppe or even beyond the grasslands altogether
AT around 3000 BCE, as migrants took their horses and other animals,
indo EUropean society began to break up
WEre the movements of Indo EUropeans Mass migratiosn?
Nope, they were not.
Some of the most infeluential indo european migrants in ancient times were the
hittites, about 1900 BCe, the HIttites migrated to the cnetral plain of Anatoil where they imporse dhtier langauge adn rule on the region
They traded with teh Babylonians and Asserians and adapted cuneiform writing to their
IndiEuropean Language
Between 1450-1200, their authorty extended to
eastern Anatolia, norhtern Mesopotamia and syria down to Phoenicia
AFter 1200 BCE, the unified Hittite langauge throughout the era of the ASsyrian empire and beyond
The Hittites were responsible for two technological innovations
- LIght, horse drawn war chariot sna dt hte two technological innovations, the construction oflight horse drawn war chariots nad the refinewemtn of iron metallurgy that greatly strengthned thier soceity
After abotu 1300 BCE, the Hittites also refined the tech nology of
iron metallurgy
What id dhte Hittite craftsman find out the find out how to do>
That by heating iron in a bed of charcoal, then hammering it into the desired hspem they could forage strong durable implements
While the HItties were buildng a state in Anatolia, other indo=-European speakers migrated fomthe steppe into diffent region,
they went to the Tari Bsin
SP,e Omdp EIrp[eams ,pved
West/ one wave of migration took INdo European speakers into Greece after 2200 CE
Another Migratory wave establsihed an Indo- EUropean presence farther to the West- by 2300 BCE, with thier decendants moving into central Italy by 100 BCE
Where did Indo Europeans go?
to India
