midterm 1 Flashcards
V. Gordon Childe: the Urban Revolution
-Viewed culture change as revolutions: urban revolution
Result: class-based society less reliant on kinship / unified by religious ideology
Karl Wittfogel’s
“Hydraulic hypothesis” (irrigation leads to central authority) People submit themselves to this authority voluntarily
Authority eventually controls other activities: e.g., trade
Carneiro’s “Coercive Hypothesis”
If fertile farmland is bordered by desert, mountains, ocean then it is circumscribed (e.g. farmland is
limited)
Farmers settle on the floodplain/fertile lands until all land is taken up
The population keeps increasing and puts pressure on food resources
Only option is to take other people’s land
James Henry
Breasted
1916 suggested
that the exceptional fertility of the Nile and
the Euphrates floodplains was primary
cause of rise of states in these valleys – the
“Fertile Crescent Hypothesis
King Narmer
The Narmer Palette a slab slate found ar Nekton in upper Egypt carved on both sides with scenes that commemorate King Narmer
Khufu
Khufu builds Great Pyramid
on Giza plateau (near Cairo)
Smooth-sided pyramids with
limestone blocks with paved
causeways linked to mortuary
temples
Ahmose
Kamose son and was determined to secure his Asian frontier and turned Egypt into a efficiently run military state
Tutankhamun
New kingdom Pharaoh tomb that was found and it unleashed a epidemic of Egyptomania this mania took form in a variety of ways; preoccupation with golden pharaohs, with the mystical, with the alleged properties of pyramid power and ancient Egyptian religion, or with the curses of royal mummies immortalized in successive Hollywood movies. A
Sir Leonard
Woolley
excavated the Cemetery of Ur just outside the sacred precinct of Ur
2500 burials (possibly more)
were simple pits, dead
wrapped in mats or in
wooden coffin (commoners)
16 graves are ‘royal’ with
lavish grave goods, buried in
brick or stone chambers
with human sacrifices,
prestigious objects
Ea (Enki)
Utnapishtim was warned by god Ea (created humans) and was told to
build an ark for himself, his family and other living creatures
The flood comes and kills everyone and everything except those on the
ark
When gods discovered that Utnapishtim survived they were angry but
then relieved that he had saved animals and humanity, so the gods
grant Utnapishtim and his wife immortality to be spent in paradise
Gods then restored kingship and civilization with a dynasty at Kish,
one of its kings was Enmegaragesi – an historic king dated to 2600
BCE
Anu
Gilgamesh exploited his people building his great city and its
walls, so his people appealed for help from the sky god Anu
Anu creates a wild man called Enkidu in the forest who eventually goes to Uruk
and meets Gilgames
Ensi (n- seed)
(“Ensi” – Lord of
the Plowland) was the king of Erku
Khafre
Builder of the second pyramid at Giza c. 2560
-builds the middle
pyramid with the Sphinx
guarding his mortuary templ
Amenhotep(Ah man)
reigned for a mere three years and was succeeded by 8 year old
Ramesses II
the Temple of Amun at Karnak the columns of the Hypostyle Hall, completed by pharaoh Ramesses they formed lotus flowers which is the symbols of rebirth in ancient Egyptian religion
Enlil
Those who were successful built shrines at Nippur to signal their devotion to the preeminent god, Enlil, whose main temple was there, and to proclaim their authority.
Nippur was a Sumerian city and Enlil a Sumerian god.
Utnapishtim
Utnapishtim was warned by god Ea (created humans) and was told to
build an ark for himself, his family and other living creatures
Sumerian version of Noah in the Epic of Gilgamesh
Gods of Shuruppak decided to get rid of people (too noisy
Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh was an historic king of Uruk ~2600 BCE and was considered part
god, part human (Epic also describes the city of Uruk)
He was a young king who exploited his people building his great city and its
walls, so his people appealed for help from the sky god Anu
Anu creates a wild man called Enkidu in the forest who eventually goes to Uruk
and meets Gilgamesh
Jean-François
Champollion
Hieroglyphic writing deciphered by Jean-François
Champollion 1822 using Rosetta Stone
Prince
Meskalamdug
Tomb with objects of gold
Name on these objects and
title of king
Wore gold helmet and
sheet-metal mask
Musical instruments,
models of boats, and games
Menkaure
builds the last and
smallest pyramid using red
granite (quality over quantity?
Hatshepsut
Queen Hatshepsut ruled Egypt from 1498 to 1483 b.c., a strong-willed woman who effectively usurped the authority of the child-king Tuthmosis III. Hatshep- sut was not known for her military prowess, but she was an ambitious trader.
The Hyksos
At the end of Middle Kingdom, a large number of
different ethnic groups were living in Egypt
Second intermediate marked by the rise of the
Hyksos in Lower Egypt and Theban rulers in Upper
Egypt
Queen Puabi
Stone burial chamber at bottom of
deep shaft sealed in stone vault
Puabi on wooden bier, cloak of lapis,
gold & carnelian beads, wig, gold
bands, 3 attendants
Surrounding ‘death pit’ of men ,
female attendants, oxen, grooms (59
human sacrifices) many wearing gold
and silver jewelry
Beneath her tomb is that of a man (her
husband?) with 19 female and 2 male
sacrifices, 6 oxen, chariots, musical
instruments, and silver objects
Sargon
- means legitimate ruler
- son of priestess in temple of Ishtar
- had him in secret, sent him adrift he was found and made ruler of his people
- Conquers king of Uruk, becomes ruler of Akkad and Sumer
- founder of akkadian empire builds empire by attacking neighbours
- briliant warrior
- reigns for 50 years
Naram-Sin ( sin to declare divine)
- Ruled at the peak of the Akkadian Empire
- grandson of sargon
- declares himself divine ( broke tradition by doing this)
- “king of the 4 quarters, king of the universe’
- undermines competing authority of the temple
Ur-Nammu
Divides society into 2 groups:
free and slaves
Written in first person (king) as
the voice of justice for all, even
widows and orphan
King Djoser
Pyramid is surrounded by stone wall enclosure
with temples
- Constructed the first pyramid (six-step pyramid)
- first major stone building in antiquity
- located at Saqqara
Mentuhotep II
is regarded as the founder of the Middle Kingdom and ruled for 51 years
- ruled during 11th dynasty marking transition from First Intermediate Period to the Middle Kingdom
Thutmose II
- husband of Hatshepsut who is also her brother
- overshadowed by his queen
- suppressed a revolt in Nubia, Egypt’s territory to the south, and also sent a punitive expedition to Palestine against some Bedouins.
King Shulgi
He also promulgated the law code known as the Code of Ur-Nammu after his father.
led a major modernization of the Third Dynasty of Ur
Ruler of the kingdom of Ur 2094- 2047 BCE
- known for consolidating and expanding his kingdom
- standardized administration by appointing governors, regularizing tax and tribute payments
Nabonidus
The Babylonian ruler Nabonidus excavated ancient temples to connect his reign and religious practices to a more ancient past, just as the Aztec rulers dug into the remains of the earlier cities of Tula and Teotihuacán.
King Scorpion
- Tomb U-J at abydos was a brick lined tomb for king, name scorpion inked on jars
-Mace head from cemetry at Nekhen with king scorpion wearing a white domed crown of Upper egypt and other regalia of later dynastic kingship - figure is holding a hoe, interpreted as a ritual even opening irrigation canals
Sneferu
(Snofru) built first true pyramid (but
took 3 tries)
One was stepped, one was ‘bent ‘and finally
the Red Pyramid was perfect 43º
Encased in smooth limestone
Osiris
Osiris is god and judge of the dead and
pharaoh now assimilated with Osiris after
deat
Akhenate Nefertiti
Akhenaten (1353-1347 BCE)
was married to his sister
Nefertiti
Fifth year of his reign he moves
to break the power of the
priests of Amun and makes the
cult of the sun god Aten the
state religion
Declares himself and Nefertiti
to be god