Roots Ch. 4 Pages 48-58 Flashcards
In the years following 1200 b.c., the civilizations of the ancient Near East were slowly transformed by the development and spread of what?
iron smelting
The Bronze Age ended and the Iron Age began because of what?
Iron came to replace bronze more and more in the making of tools and weapons
Which people knew about iron technology well before 1200 BC?
The people of Hatti, known commonly as the Hittites
What language did the Hittites speak and write?
An Indo-European language called Nesite (the language of the city of Kanesh, modern Kültepe)
Where did the Hittites establish a kingdom by around 1700 BC?
Central Anatolia (Turkey) centered at their fortified capital of Hattusa (Bogazköy)
When did the Hittite empire reach its peak of power?
about 1430 b.c. .
What areas did the Hittites rule, at the expense of Egypt?
Syria, as far as Lebanon and the Damascus region–and later as far as Asia Minor
Which Egyptian pharaoh launched a military campaign against Hittite Syria in 1286 BC? Was he successful?
Ramesses II – the Hittites fought the Egyptians to a strategic stalemate and forced Ramesses to accept a treaty of “good peace and brotherhood” sealed by a dynastic marriage
What event signaled the destruction of the Hittite empire?
Around 1200 b.c., their capital Hattusa was destroyed by a massive fire. After the destruction of Hattusa, the Hittite empire itself dissolved, after dominating central Anatolia for more than 400 years.
What did the Hittites use iron for?
Largely for ornamental purposes–never really developed the technology to make tools or weapons from it.
What was the advantage of using iron over bronze?
It was not only harder and more durable than bronze but far more abundant as well.
What was the social impact of the “iron revolution”?
States came to rely for their defense on larger armies made up primarily of common people armed with iron weapons.
Bronze Age aristocracies lost their monopoly on metal weapons and tools.
What was happening in Egypt when the Hittites were collapsing?
The decline of the Egyptian New Kingdom. By the reign of Ramesses VI (1142–1134 b.c.), Egypt had lost control of its territories in Syria-Palestine.
Who were the dominant people in Syria-Palestine around the middle of the second millennium?
Canaanites
According to Egyptian texts, where was Canaan?
Canaan, was defined as the area extending up the coast of Palestine from Gaza to the present border between Israel and Lebanon.
What kind of goods did the Canaanite city-states produce?
Canaanite city-states concentrated their efforts on producing luxury items such as ivory-inlaid furniture or on the manufacture of textiles to be used for the payment of tribute.
What was the very important contribution made by the Canaanites?
They developed the alphabet.
How many symbols did the Canaanite alphabet have?
Canaanites used twenty-nine symbols representing the consonants.
(The alphabet was later reduced to twenty-two letters, and still later the Greeks added vowels. )
What impact did the alphabet have on society?
It was an enormous simplification.
It made it possible for more people to be literate.
The monopoly of the old scribal class was doomed.
Like the coming of iron, the invention of the alphabet extended the effects of civilization to a much larger segment of society than ever before.
The city-states of the Canaanites were subjected to violent attacks between 1300 and 1000 b.c. Who were the first people to attack?
The Israelites, who had crossed the Sinai Desert from Egypt.
Besides the Israelites, who else invaded Canaan?
The Philistines (after whom Palestine is named)– some scholars think they are part of the group of “sea peoples” that invaded the New Kingdom of Egypt around 1200 b.c
How much of Canaan did the invaders take over?
The Canaanites lost most of their cities to the Israelites and Philistines but managed to maintain control of a narrow coastal strip known as Phoenicia.
What were the later Canaanites called by Greeks and Romans?
Phoenicians
What were the Phoenicians especially good at?
Commerce
What were two important Phoenician city-states who traded near and far in the Mediterranean world?
Sidon and Tyre
How far did the Phoenicians sail on their trading expeditions?
Merchants sailing westward from Phoenicia passed through the Strait of Gibraltar and out into the Atlantic. They may well have reached present-day Brittany and Cornwall.
They made their way southward down the west coast of Africa to Cape Verde.
What was the greatest Phoenician trading base?
Carthage in the western Mediterranean (modern Tunisia)
founded by Tyre during the early first millennium b.c.,
What book is the basis of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam?
The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)
Is the Hebrew Bible a straightforward factual history?
In its current form, it is a compilation of stories, stitched together over time from different written sources.
According to the Hebrew Bible, when did the history of the Jews begin?
When the patriarch Abraham entered into an agreement or covenant with a specific deity, “the God of Abraham.”
What was the covenant (agreement) that God made with Abraham?
Abraham promised not to recognize or worship any other god, and in return he and his family were taken under the special protection of the God of Abraham.
What is henotheism?
A system of religious belief in which there is one most important god among many.
