Chapter 3: The Mediterranean and Middle East, 2000-500 BCE Flashcards
The Cosmopolitan Era can also be referred to as…
The Late Bronze Age, a time of widely shared cultures and lifestyles
What was Mesopotamia divided into in 1500 BCE?
Babylonia in the south and Assyria in the north
What did the Assyrians export to make bronze?
They exported textiles and tin, which they traded for silver with Anatolia.
What did the “Old Assyrian Kingdom” consist of?
They Assyrians had control of the Upper Euphrates RIver, which shows the importance of trade routes connecting Mesopotamia to Anatolia and the Syria- Palestine Coast.
Who were the Hittites?
The Hittites were people from Central Anatolia (modern day Turkey) who established an empire in Anatolia and Syria in Late Bronze Age, and were the most powerful in Anatolia from 1700-1200 BCE.
What was the key Hittite development?
Iron tools, including iron horse-drawn war chariots.
They used copper, silver, and iron, and kept the process of making iron tools secret.
What culture did the Hittites borrow?
They borrowed Mesopotamian culture. This includes cuneiform
Who did Mesopotamian political and cultural concepts spread to?
Akkadian was used as a language between governments, and the Elamites and Hittites adopted cuneiform.
What was ugarit?
Ugarit was 30 cuneiform symbols used to write consonant sounds. It was the early use of the alphabet.
What happened to the Egyptian Middle Kingdom?
It declined in 1700 BCE due to the collapse of central authority. It fell under foreign rule of the Hyksos.
What gave the Hyksos advantage over the Egyptians?
Advanced military technologies, including the horse-drawn war chariot and composite bow.
How were the Hyksos seen by the Egyptians?
Although the Hyksos intermarried with the Egyptians and assimilated, they continued to be regarded as “foreign.”
Who was the reunification of Egypt under a native dynasty accomplished by?
Princes from Thebes, like in the formation of the Middle Kingdom 400 years earlier. After 30 years of warfare, Kamose and Ahmose expelled the Hyksos from Egypt and made the New Kingdom.
What shook Egyptian pride and their isolationist mindset?
A century of foreign Hyksos rule.
What was the mindset of the New Kingdom?
It was aggressive and expansionist, winning access to timber, gold, copper, taxes, and tribute.
Who was Hatshepsut and what did she do?
Hatshepsut held the throne in Egypt after Pharaoh Tuthmosis II died. She dispatched a naval expedition down the Red Sea to Punt, the source of Myrrh. This expedition was a success, yielding ebony, ivory, cosmetics, monkeys, and panther skins. She often used male pronouns and wore a beard. After her death, her name and image were defaced.
What was Myrrh?
A reddish brown resin from the sap of a local tree. It was burned on the altars of gods and used in medicines and cosmentics.
What did Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten do?
He built a new capital at Amama, made a new style of naturalistic art, and created a religious revolution by imposing the worship of a sun disk.
Why did Akhenaten change his name?
He changed his name to spread belief in Aten as the supreme deity. He closed the temples of other gods, imposing monotheism.
Why did Akhenaten change Egypt’s beliefs to be monotheistic?
He was trying to reassert the superiority of the king over priests. Worship was confined to the royal family, so everyone else had to worship him.
How were Akhenaten’s reforms taken?
They were hated by government officials and priests. After his death, temples were reopened. Amon became the chief god, and the capital returned to Thebes. Kingship weakened to priests.
Who was Tutankhamun?
A boy-king. He is famous because his tomb has not been pillaged.
What did Ramesses II do?
He undertook monumental building projects all over Egypt and had many wives, with possibly over 100 children.
What battle did Ramesses II fight?
He fought a major battle vs. the Hittites at Kadesh over control of Syria- Palestine. It was a draw, and they negotiated a treaty.
What did horses do?
Horses, domesticated by Nomadic peoples, sped up travel and contributed to the creation of large states and empires.
The Island of Crete was the first what?
The first European civilization with complex political, social, and technology..
What was the Minoan Civilization?
It was a prosperous civilization that engaged in far-flung commerce and exerted powerful cultural influence over the Greeks.
What was different about Minoan rulers?
There was an absence of identifiable rulers, in contrast to the grand depictions of Middle East kings. They had a different concept of authority.
