Lectures 1 - 4 Flashcards
Material from Lectures 1-4 of The Great Courses: Western Civilization 1
Date Israel was conquered by the Assyrians
ca. 722 b.c.e
Moses
Hebrew leader, fl. 12th-century b.c.e
Phoenicians
(1500-300 b.c.e)
A Semitic-speaking Canaanite people who inhabited roughly what is now Lebanon and who plated trading colonies in the western Mediterranean.
The word civilization is derived from . . .
Latin, Civ
Neolithic Developments
- Agriculture and the domestication of animals
- Irrigation
- Specialization of Labor
- Political differentiation
- Arts and Crafts
- Writing
Date Judah was conquered by the Neo-Babylonians
ca. 586 b.c.e
Badarian Period
Egyptian
5000-4000 b.c.e
Small communities up and down the Nile
- Drain marshes
- Irrigate
- Plant regular crops, mainly cereal grains
Sargon
(fl. 23rd-century b.c.e.): Ruled over the Akkadians. Built first known imperial state.
- has a story similar to Moses, found floating in a river as a baby and was taken in by the king’s family.
Philistines
(12th-century b.c.e)
Sea peoples, raided and invaded all along the eastern and southern coast of the Mediterranean; left no durable impact, made no long-term contributions
Enkheduana
Daughter of Sargon, First Known Woman Poet (23rd century b.c.e)
Menes (Narmer) contribution
Unifies Upper and Lower Egypt, ca. 3100 b.c.e
The Torah (Books of Moses)
First five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy – “the teaching” (generally ascribed to Moses)
Egyptian: Ma’at
Truth, justice, balance, order, harmony
Egyptian: Ka
Soul
Nomarch
Ruler of a nome
The Uruk Period
Mesopotamia
- 4000-3200 (4th millennium) b.c.e.
- The development of metal casting
- Cuneiform writing
- Cities (small independent city-states)
Neolithic Revolution
approx: (11,000 b.c.e. - 5,000 b.c.e.)
A set of processes that began about 10,000 years ago leading to the rise of agriculture and the domestication of animals.
Hyksos
Semitic-speaking peoples from Palestine (Western Asia) who settled in the eastern Nile Delta, some time before 1650 BC. The arrival of the Hyksos led to the end of the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt and initiated the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt.
Hittites
Indo-European–speaking and institutionally precocious people who rose in Anatolia in the third millennium B.C., expanded south into Syria and Palestine, and fought debilitating wars with the Egyptians after about 1400 B.C.
henotheism
Belief by some group or people in one god without denying the existence of other gods. (Sometimes called monolatry.)
cuneiform
Literally “wedge shaped”; customary name for the writing used in Mesopotamia.
ziggurat
Temples built in Mesopotamia of mud brick and timber and having the form of a trapezoid.
theocratic kingship
Form of royal rule that emerged in Mesopotamia, then appeared in many Western societies. Kings claimed to be the representatives of the gods and to rule by the favor of the gods.
Abraham
fl. 2000-1550 b.c.e
Hebrew patriarch who, in the early second millennium B.C., moved from Ur to Palestine.
Hammurabi
(r. 1792–1750)
Ruler over the Old Babylonians (or Amorites). Issued a famous and influential law code.
lugals
mesopotamian kings - “local strongmen”
syncretistic
The amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought.
animism
a habit of mind that sees nothing as wholly lifeless.
nomes
law district; law territory. In Egypt
List the main Egyptian historical periods
- Predynastic Period
- Old Kingdom
- First Intermediate Period
- Middle Kingdom
- Second Intermediate Period
- New Kingdom
Battle at Qadesh
ca. 1274 in northern Syria, Egyptians and Hittites fought a battle that left them both crippled and declining.
