HST 108 The Ancient Near East
Key Terms
from Lecture and Textbook
Tigris
|
reformed religion
|
Old Kingdom
|
Valley of the Kings |
Euphrates
|
unreformed religion
|
1st Intermediate Period
|
Aten |
Nile
|
polytheism
|
Middle Kingdom
|
Nubia |
Sumerians
|
Epic of Gilgamesh
|
2nd Intermediate Period
|
Meroë |
Sargon
|
mythopoeic
|
New Kingdom
|
Hebrews |
cuneiform
|
ziggurats
|
Kingdom of Kerma
|
monotheism |
city-state
|
pyramids
|
Kingdom of Kush
|
Canaan |
hieroglyphics
|
pharaohs
|
Meroitic
|
Book of Exodus |
papyrus
|
Code of Hammurabi
|
Akhenaten
|
Israel |
Narmer
|
Nebuchadnezzar II
|
Amarna Period
|
Judah |
Hyksos
|
Akkadian Empire |
ka
|
David |
| ostracon |
Babylonian Empire |
ba
|
Solomon |
Phoenicians
|
Assyrian Empire |
akh
|
|
I. Mesopotamia and Egypt: Geography and political development
A. The importance of rivers: Tigris, Euphrates, Nile [MAP]
B. Mesopotamia [MAP]
1. Sumerians - formed city-states c. 3200 BCE
2. Akkadians; Sargon (c. 2334-2279 BCE) [MAP]
3. Babylonians; Hammurabi (1792-1750 BCE)
4. Hittites (c. 1600-1200 BCE)
5. Assyrians (c. 800-612 BCE)
6. Chaldeans, or Neo-Babylonians (c. 612-539 BCE)
Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562 BCE)
7. Persians; Cyrus II (c. 585-529 BCE) [MAP]
C. Egypt [MAP]
1. Pre-dynastic and early dynastic period (c. 3150-2770 BCE)
2. Old Kingdom (c. 2770-2200 BCE)
3. First Intermediate Period (2200-2050 BCE)
- pharaohs lost much of their power
to provincial governors
4. Middle Kingdom (2050-1786 BCE)
5. Second Intermediate Period (1786-1560 BCE)
- invasion by Hyksos
6. New Kingdom (1560-1087 BCE) [MAP]
II. Religion: the basis of early civilizations
A. reformed v. unreformed religions
- unreformed = polytheistic, relatively tolerant
B. Why was religion so all-encompassing?
- Why was religion such an important aspect of their lives?
1. excerpts from the Epic of Gilgamesh
a. from Enkidu's dream:
…he led me away to the palace of Irkalla, the Queen of Darkness,
to the house from which none who enters ever returns, down the road
from which there is no coming back. There is the house whose people
sit in darkness dust is their food and clay their meat. They are clothed
like birds with wings for covering, they see no light, they sit in darkness.
b. A stupor of despair went up to heaven when the god of the storm
turned daylight into darkness, when he smashed the land like a cup.
One whole day the tempest raged, gathering fury as it went, it poured
over the people like the tides of battle; a man could not see his brother
nor the people be seen from heaven. Even the gods were terrified at
the flood…
2. mythopoeic = myth-making
C. How did this religiosity affect the Mesopotamians and Egyptians?
1. importance of priests
2. temples [facade of a ziggurat (with some reconstruction work done);
fully reconstructed]
3. pyramids [Great Pyramid, cross-section]
III. Government, Law and Society
A. Mesopotamian kings and Egyptian pharaohs
B. sacrifice and divination
C. excerpts from the Code of Hammurabi:
22. If any one is committing a robbery and is caught, then he shall be put to death.
117. If any one fail to meet a claim for debt, and sell himself, his wife, his son,
and daughter for money or give them away to forced labor: they shall work
for three years in the house of the man who bought them, or the proprietor,
and in the fourth year they shall be set free.
145. If a man takes a wife, and she bears him no children, and he intends to take
another wife: if he takes this second wife, and brings her into the house,
this second wife shall not be allowed equality with his first wife.
146. If a man takes a wife and she gives this man a maid-servant as a child-bearer
and the maid-servant does bear him children, then this maid assumes equality
with the wife; because she has borne him children, her master shall not sell
her for money, but he may keep her as a slave, reckoning her among the
maid-servants.
195. If a son strike his father, his hands shall be cut off.
196. If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out.
197. If he break another man's bone, his bone shall be broken.
198. If he put out the eye of a freed man, or break the bone of a freed man,
he shall pay one gold coin.
199. If he put out the eye of a man's slave, or break the bone of a man's slave,
he shall pay one-half of its value.
200. If a man knock out the teeth of his equal, his teeth shall be knocked out.
201. If he knock out the teeth of a freed man, he shall pay one-third of
a gold coin.
202. If any one strike the body of a man higher in rank than he,
he shall receive sixty blows with an ox-whip in public.
D. harshness of the laws
E. slavery
F. position of women
IV. The Bronze Age Collapse and the Rise of New States
A. Kingdom of Kush (c. 1000-300 BCE) [MAP]
B. Phoenicia (c. 1100-700 BCE) [MAP]
C. Assyrian Empire (c. 800-612) [MAP]
V. The Hebrews
A. Geography and political development [MAP]
1. migration to Canaan (c. 2000 BCE)
2. Hebrews unite to repel invasions of the Philistines (1024 BCE)
3. Reigns of Saul, David and Solomon (1024-922 BCE)
4. Kingdom of Israel splits: Israel (N), Judah (S) (922 BCE) [MAP]
5. Israel invaded and destroyed by Assyrians (722 BCE)
6. Judah invaded and destroyed by Babylonians (586 BCE)
7. Babylonian Captivity (586-539 BCE)
B. Religion
Yahweh: one, sovereign, transcendent, good
C. Society
1. the position of women
2. the law
- excerpts from Book of Exodus:
21:12 He that strikes a man with a will to kill him, shall be put to death.
21:15 He that strikes his father or mother, shall be put to death.
21:24 Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
22:22 You shall not hurt a widow or an orphan.
22:23 If you hurt them they will cry out to me, and I will hear their cry:
22:24 And my rage shall be kindled, and I will strike you with the sword,
and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.
The Ancient and Medieval
World 
