Unit 3 Test Flashcards
Hittite Empire
○ 1600-1200 BC ○ In Bible ○ Polytheistic- weather and storm gods ○ Art-carvings, reliefs ○ Access to iron, mining Kubaba- Hittite queen, ruled for about 100 years, became god
Hattusa (Hattushash)
○ Heavily fortified
On high ground
battle of kadesh
○ Egyptian and Hittites ○ 1274 BC ○ Hittites held Kadesh, Ramses II wanted it ○ Egyptians won but didn’t take city ○ Both thought they won ○ 1st peace treaty
indo-european migration
Root of many languages
hittite scribes
○ Kept historic records ○ Writers and translators ○ Important to king ○ Scholars ○ All kept in Royal Archives Scribes wrote personal notes at the end of documents
sea peoples
○ Started invading 1275-1175 BC, around time of Battle of Kadesh
○ Nomads
○ Do not wipe out Phoenicians or Assyrians b/c Phoenicians not militaristic, traders, and Assyrians no yet considered threat
Came from around Black Sea
phoenician empire
○ 1500-300 BC
○ Traders
○ Created 22 letter alphabet
phoenecian trade
○ Traded food, cedar, glass, purple dye, wine
○ World’s first trading empire
○ Colonized different places
purple dye
○ Tyrian “Royal” Purple
Very difficult to obtain, only worn by royalty
assyria
○ Neo-Assyrian Empire- 900-600 BC
○ Sennacherib- Assyrian king
King of Lachish retaliated- whole of his area killed and destroye
assyrian warfare
○ Elamites battle Assyrians, are destroyed, Elamite king killed
○ Vassal king- country taken over, king remains king but still answered to conquerors
○ Put grainerys around Assyria so they wouldn’t run out of food on marches
○ Had chariots
○ Didn’t shoot horses, created horsemen
○ Killed 200,000 people
○ 612 BC- Assyrians destroyed by enemies, capital city burned
assyria overview
○ Originally nomads under another ruler
○ Independent by 1250 BCE
○ Captured Assur (dedicated to the god of war – the chief deity in their pantheon)
○ Filled the power vacuum left by the Hittites around 1200 BCE and were dominant by 900 BCE
○ Grew because they conquered the Hittite iron mines
○ Were THE most hated empire in the ancient world
○ Were very self-confident in their idea that they were the best
○ Expanded on the Sumerian idea of kingship – thought of themselves as kings of the universe
○ Wanted to take over the world
Methods of War
○ Intimidation (torture, execution)
○ Deportation (slaves hooked by the nose)
○ Conquest to build an empire was considered the divine mission of their kings
○ Built roads and developed a messenger service – recognized the importance of a communication system
○ Used governors and vassal kings to gain tribute and conscripted soldiers
○ Had a large citizen army
One governor (eighth century BC) contributed 1500 cavalry and 20,000 archers from his province (There were twenty provinces)
Assyrian army
○ Very disciplined army but not uniform in appearance or training
→ they kept their regional/ local identity and so gained in versatility and high morale
○ Infantry could march 30 miles/day, but roads were paved by corps who preceded army
→ these were trained professional who also built pontoon bridges, and floated across waterways on the inflated skins of sheep
○ Archers: job was to create confusion in the battlefield
Assyrian siege tactics
○ Ramps of earth rubble, battering rams, scaling ladders, siege towers
○ Tunnels underneath walls with a wooden frame (set fire to it and the fire brought down the wall of the city)
○ Blazing arrows / used crude petroleum (it seeped out of the ground)
○ Animal skin pontoons to float across rivers
○ Starved citizens of the cities, razed fields
○ Everything was designed to teach that resistance to Assyria did not pay. They did deliberately allow some prisoners to escape to spread word about their terror
