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Studying History
Human Origins
Mesopotamia
Egypt
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See Main Page for a guide to all contents of all sections.

Contents

Ancient Near East

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Sumeria (c. 3100-c. 2000 BCE)

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Akkadia (c.2350-2200 BCE)

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Babylonia (c.2000-1600 BCE)

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Kassites and Hittites (c.1600-717 BCE)

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Assyria (c.1350- 612 BCE)

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Chaldea/Neo-Babylonia (612-539 BCE)

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Syrian Cities: Ebla, Ugarit, Emar

Ebla was an ancient city in Syria at Tell Mardikh. The palace library, with thousands of tablets, was excavated by an Italian expedition in1975. These showed that Ebla had been a major commercial center. The tablets, written in a Canaanite language (Eblaite), date from c.2500 BCE. Exacavations over the past century have revealed more and more about Syrian cities.

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Phoenicia 950 BCE on

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Carthage: The Punic Empire

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ANE Arts and Architecture

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ANE Mathematics and Astronomy

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Gender and Sexuality

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Modern Perspectives on Mesopotamia

  • text

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Common Issues: Mesopotamian/Egyptian/Hebrew/Greek History

There are a number of problems in the various proposed chronologies of ancient Mediterranean cultures. One that most students might notice is a diversity in the dates given for Egyptian and Mesopotamian states, periods, and monarchs. The variety of methods used to ascertain dates leads to rival schemes with dates which vary by nearly a century. There is also a much large inconsistency claimed by credentialed scholars whose motives seem, however, to derive from Biblical literalism.

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NOTES:

Dates of accession of material added since July 1998 can be seen in the New Additions page.. The date of inception was 4/8/1998.

Links to files at other site are indicated by [At some indication of the site name or location]. Locally available texts are marked by [At this Site].

WEB indicates a link to one of small number of high quality web sites which provide either more texts or an especially valuable overview.

[hits since April 8, 1998]
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The Internet Ancient History Sourcebook is part of the
Internet History Sourcebooks Project
  •  

Introduction: This Section's Goals

By the end of this section students should:

  • Understand the difference between cosmic, geological, archaeological and historical time scales.
  • Understand that archeologists stress objects and sites while historians stress texts.
  • Be able to distinguish the features of Paleolithic and Neolithic periods.
  • Be able to discuss when and why the Agricultural Revolution occurred.
  • Be able to discuss the positive and negative results of the Agricultural revolution.
  • Be able to begin discussion about how we define "civilization" in terms of cities, writing, and government.
  • Be clear about the Sumerian foundations of Mesopotamian culture, and the later adaptations by invading peoples.
  • Be able to identify the ways in which ancient Mesopotamian cultures still impact on our modern civilization.

Text

  • Sherman 7-17
  • The Enuma Elish – a Mesopotamian Creation myth [web]
  • The Epic of Gilgamesh [book or via course Blackboard site]
  • Supplemental Reading:
  • Genesis 11:1-9 Tower of Babel (represents a biblical memory of Ziggurats)
  • Genesis 6-9: The Story of Noah (represents a Biblical retelling of the story of the flood in the Epic of Gilgamesh)
  • The Code of Hammurabi [18th Century BCE]
  • Additional Reading: Human Origins  [Ancient History Sourcebook]
  • Additional Reading: Ancient Mesopotamia  [Ancient History Sourcebook]
    The Ancient History Sourcebook is site maintained by Dr. Halsall and is part of the most extensive collection of historical texts on Ihe internet.
  • Link: Ancient Near East [At Exploring Ancient World Cultures] Online essays, with links to the best Mesopotamian websites.
  • Link: Mesopotamia [Richard Hooker, at WSU]

Multimedia

Reliable Web Sites

Outline

VERY IMPORTANT -- these "outlines" do not reproduce class lectures -- but present the information in a different way. Examinations will relate to textbook and source readings, class lectures, and discussions, not to these outlines.

I. Introduction

Before we start on the main part of the course we need to be sure about some basics:

  • What do we mean, for instance. by the various names for periods we use in class?
  • What sort of time-scales do historians consider?
  • When did human beings come into existence?
  • What is a "civilization."?

II.  Chronology and Periodization: Time Scales

A.     Geological Time

_______________________________________________________________
Millions     Eras Periods     Epochs       Life forms
of Years
_______________________________________________________________

.01-present                    Recent      Hominids     

1-.01             Quaternary   Pleistocene

             C

12-1         E                 Pliocene

28-12        N                 Miocene     Anthropoid Apes

39-28        O    Tertiary     Oligocene   Monkeys

58-39        Z                 Eocene      Prosimian primates

75-58        O                 Paleocene   spread

             I

             C   



             M

135-75       E    Cretaceous               Mammals and birds

165-135      Z    Jurassic                 appear

205-165      O    Triassic                 Reptiles predominant

230-205      Z    Permian                  

             O

             I

             C

280-230           Carboniferous            Amphibians

             P                             predominant   

             A   

325-280      L    Devonian                 Terrestrial Plants

360-325      E    Siluruian                Many marine forms,

425-360      O    Ordovician               inc. vertebrates

505-425      Z    Cambrian                 Earliest fossils

             O

             I

             C

c.2000            Conditions become possible for life.

c.4000            Birth of planet Earth

c.15-30 Billion   Assumed origin of current Universe

______________________________________________________________

In the swathes of astronomical and geological time, galaxies, star systems and planets can form, and on earth, continents move around.


B. Biological Time

1.     Evolution

  • Darwinian - Natural Selection through survival of the  fittest to survive - not the strongest.
  • Now seems to have been a step-like evolution rather than  gradual as envisioned by Darwin.

2.     Extinctions

  • At least five occasions mass extinction shave been brought about by huge meteor/asteroid crashes, including
    • 65 million years ago, Yucatan peninsula - end of cretaceous period, possible end of dinosaurs
    • 210/213 million years ago, Northern Appenines - end of Triassic period


C. Human Time

The Origins of Homo Sapiens. Distinguish between:


ORDER       Primates     - inc. lemurs, other prosimians

INFRAORDER  Anthropoids  - inc. monkeys

SUPERFAMILY Hominoids    - inc. apes, (pongids)

FAMILY      Hominids     - inc. Australopithecines

SUBFAMILY                -

GENUS       Homo         - all homo species - c.2-5 mil yrs ago

SPECIES     Homo erectus         

            Homo sapiens - inc. Neanderthals  - c.200,000 yrs ago

            Homo sapiens sapiens - mod. humans - c.35,000 yrs ago
  • Growth in Brain Size
      Antropoids      - Chimpanzee   - 470cc.

                    - Gorilla      - 585cc.

    Australopithecus               - 700cc.

    Homo erectus                   - 950-1050cc.

    Homo sapiens    - Neanderthal  - 1300-1650cc.

                    - Modern       - 1100-1700cc

Language and Brain Size

 It was the  frontal lobes of brains that grow.  Humans created language, but language also created humans.

 Evidence of Flints

 Shows planning for the future plus increasing skill  levels

African Origins of Human Beings

 Oldest remains in Eastern Africa - exposed by great  Rift valley  Mary and Louis Leakey, Richard Leakey - Olduvai Gorge

Eve?

 DNA drift (measurable in women), shows a common female ancestor to all.

 Diffusion

Human beings left Africa before the development of modern types, by c. 500,000 years ago, homo spread:-from   Africa - all over   Asia - Arabia, SE Anatolia, Persian Coast, all India,  SE Asia in Java, China to N. of Peking.   Europe - Spain, France, S. England, Southern Germany, Bohemia.  Not at all in Australia, N. Asia, the Americas

Modern humans, however, represent a much later diffusion from Africa. All older types either disappeared or were wiped out.

Neanderthals (Middle Paleolithic)  

They were Homo sapiens.

Had language and religion - type unknown.

 Cared for the sick

Modern Humans ("Cro-Magnon") (Upper Paleolithic)

Had art - Altamura, Lascaux.


D.  Archeological Time

 Marked by survival of human remains and artifacts

1.     Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) (The issue is stages not time)

  • Lower      -  5 mill-125,000 years ago
  • Middle     -  125,000-35,000 years ago
  • Upper      -  35,000 to 9,000BC
  • Food gathering lifestyles  Hunting, gathering fruits.

2.     Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) 9,000 - 7,000BC

  • Improved food gathering
  • Domestication
  • Microliths

3.     Neolithic (New Stone Age) 7,000-4000 BC - 

First occurs in the "Near East" - in stages

  • Food production
  • Pottery
  • Weaving
  • Village life/ Tribes
  • Early cities - Jericho, Troy

4.    Chalcolithic (Copper Age) 4000-3000BC 

  • Increased use of metal.
  • Copper is easiest to extract and mold.

5.    Bronze Ages

  • Use of Bronze -Strong enough to be used as an effective weapon.


E.  Historical Time

Marked by survival of human written records.

Different scales/periods apply in different parts of the world -- China, Africa, the Americas. For  Western Civilization we use the following conventions.

  • Ancient
    All of history before 500 CE 
    [CE means "common era" and is an increasingly common way of referring to the usual dating system without using the bbreviation "AD", which means "In the Year of Uur Lord" and thus might be inappropriate to use about non-Christian peoples and societies. BCE means "Before the Common Era".]
  • Classical  
    Those periods within ancient history which produced art and literature which later achieved great acclaim. In practice this means Greece in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE, and Rome in the first century BCE and the first century CE.
  • Medieval
    European history between about 500 and 1500 CE.
  • Early Modern
    European history from about 1400 (there is an overlap with "medieval") until 1789, and the French Revolution.
  • Modern
    History since the French, American, and Industrial revolutions of the late 18th century.

These definitions are very much centered on Europe. They do not apply to other parts of the world very well. They also tend to represent the politics and arts of the elite in society.

In practical terms they have something to do with the amount of source material that survive.

  • Modern historians have to select sources from a massive amount of material. 
  • Ancient and Medieval historians have to work hard to fill in the gaps between the sources. 


III.  The Agricultural Revolution

This is where we begin the course

The "Agricultural Revolution" is one of great developments in human history.  Only the Industrial Revolution is comparable.

Essentially, it means humans move from food gathering to food producing

When

Agricultural Revolutions occur five or six times in human history

  • Near East - 8000BC  Wheat/Barley -  Goats/Sheep
  • China - 4000BC  Rice
  • Indus Valley - Wheat
  • West Africa - ??? Sorghum, Millet
  • N. America - 4000BC  - Maize (Mexico)
  • S. America  - ?? - Potatoes (Peru) Llamas

Half the current calories in world from Amerindian domesticated crops.

Why

  • Reasons for Agricultural Revolution.
  • Security of food.
  • Gradual process.

Who Paid the Costs?

  • Diseases
  • Raids

Effect on Women

  • Creation of property and property rights and creation of legal systems/customs and proto-states
  • Increase in amount of childbirth
      - due to increase fertility v. hunter/gatherer societies
      - due to planning children as a an investment for old age

Women effected by both developments:-

  • due to concern over inheritance.
  • due to legal inferiority to men.
  • due to sexual division of labor.

The Creation of Patriarchy?

Neolithic Culture

Evidence - remains of buildings, pottery

A Goddess religion ?(Venus figurines)


IV. Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia (Modern Iraq)- 

Cities begin to appear c. 4000 BCE -

The Major cultures were called

  • Sumer [link to an image]
  • Akkad
  • Babylonia
  • Assyria

Major Contributions  

  • Writing system - cuneiform.
  • Numbers - use of base 12 - in time (we still use 2 hour periods for days)
  • Astronomy and Astrology 


V. Sumer and Akkad

A.       Geography

Iraq, Syria, Anatolia and Egypt - Variety and length of Civilization

Mesopotamia/Iraq - c. 4000 BC

Sumer

Akkad (Semitic-speaking peoples),

Babylonia (c. 1700 BC),

Assyria,

Persia.

B. The Civic Basis of Civilization

Civilization was spread very thinly - based on cities.

Cities effectively ruled the area around them.

Note origin of our word "civilization" - civis

C. Economics.     

Copper, Trade - Commerce

River valleys, irrigation

Bronze

D.  Economy and Slaves

Agricultural Revolution I lead to Social Classes - 

  • A very small upper class.
  • Urban proletariats -  minor as a whole.
  • Most people worked on the land, as coloni or slaves.

Little incentive to produce for slaves, or innovate in work.

E.      Sumer 3500-3000BC

Origins - 3000BC on - growth of cities

Cities -  Ur, Uruk, Eridu

City Life - buildings, pottery

Kingship - "sent from gods"

Religion - Temples - Ziggurats

F.  Ebla, Jericho, and Susa

Other areas of early urbanization. - Ebla only dug up recently.

G.  Sargon of Agade -- the first Empire

"Semitic" tribes

Akkad

Relationship of Akkadians to Sumerians

H. Third Dynsty of Ur

Neo-Sumerian

Gudea

I. Sumerian/Akkadian Culture

1. Sumerian language used for religious reasons, compare with Latin in medieval Europe

2. Religion

Gods - City Origins

Cultural Pessimism?

3.  Writing

Cuneiform [image] - 4th Millennium BCE

4. Numbers - use of base 12 in time

5. Astronomy and Astrology

6. Literature

Washing lists and literature

Libraries [image]


VII. The Epic of Gilgamesh

A. Introduction

Time?

Finding?

State of preservation - use of sources

Purpose of epic?

Library of Ashurbanipal

George Smith

B.  The Story

Gilgamesh as king

Enkidu (Nature and Civilization)

(compare Esau and Jacob in Genesis)

Enkidu civilized by a harlot

Gilgamesh and Ishtar - Love goddess? Revenge.

Enkidu or Gilgamesh must die. Bull kills people

Shamash saves Gilgamesh. Enkidu must die.

Gilgamesh upset.

Search for eternal life

Search for and meeting with Utnapishtim

Story of the Flood/ story of dove

Ishtar sorry

Promise to Utnnapishtim - not all humanity

Death of Gilgamesh (some versions)

C. The Gods

City origin of gods (names are Semitic/Sumerian)

  • Anu/An - begotten of primeval sea. creator, Cf. Uranus
  • Enlil - chief in practice, God of air, from separation ofearth (ki) and heaven (an),  God of Nippur, married to Ninlil.
  • Sin/Nanna (Moon) - begotten by Enlil
  • Shamash/Utu (Sun) - begotten by Sin, God of justice
  • Ishtar/Inanna (Love) - temple at Uruk -goddess of love and desire
  • Ea/Enki - God of sweet water, and wisdom, God of Eridu
  • Ereshkigal - god of underworld (kur)
  • (Marduk - replaces Enlil, God of Babylon)

Mesopotamian Religion

  • Temples
  • Priests

D. The Humans

  • Gilgamesh
  • Enkidu
  • Utnapishtim/Sursyunabu/Ziusdura = Noah
  • Harlot
  • People of Uruk

E  Nature of Tragedy

  • Fear of Death/ Timor Mortis - the fate of mankind
  • Cultural pessimism?

Web Exercise [May be assigned by section leaders, or do it for fun]

Make sure to read Search Methods and  Guidelines on How to Evaluate Data on the Web

Goal: To develop skills in searching for digital data and evaluating what is found.

Find web pages with pictures and discussions of the following items. See the Search page for hints on searching. Try using www.google.com, www.yahoo.com Post and discuss your results (including URLs) in the relevant forum in Blackboard's Discussion Area.

Be prepared to explain problems you had in finding the information and how you rate the sites (evaluate them with the Guidelines on How to Evaluate Data on the Web in mind, and by using the Checklist )

  • A ziggurat from Sumer.
  • The pyramids of Egypt.
  • [Hint: try adding search words such as "Giza" or "Cairo" if you get too many pages.]
  • Evolution of human beings.

Discussion Questions

Go to Blackboard to take part in your section's online discussion

Human Origins

  1. When and where did the human species originate?
  2. What sort of questions are raised about this subject? What sort of evidence is used to justify the various positions.
  3. What is your position? As an exercise, try to justify a position on human origins that you do not agree with.

Epic of Gilgamesh

  1. Who wrote the Epic of Gilgamesh? Why?
  2. In which civilization was the Epic of Gilgamesh first composed?
  3. What type of literature is the Epic? What literary effects would authors of such works try to attain?
  4. What is the significance of the story of Enkidu and the Harlot?
  5. What attitude towards the gods does the Epic show?
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