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Mesopotamia and Egypt I. Sumeria -- Earliest of the Mesopotamian civilizations

• A. Sumeria began a long time ago--Migration from Caspian 4000 BC
  • 1. Agricutural Revolution begins c.10000 BC
  • 2. Earliest Cities c.4000-3500 BC
  • 3. Eridu 3300BC
  • 4. 12 major city states by 3000 BC
  • 5. Need to control rivers - Tigris and Euphrates crested late, erratically
• B. Politics of Sumeria
  • 1. City-states (primary political unit of most very ancient civilizations)
  • 2. Ruled over by kings
    • a. initially elected, becomes hereditary
    • b. monarchy fully established by 3000 BC
  • 3. not enough resources to go around -- food, water
  • 4. therefore an emphasis on war as way to get resources
  • 5. All this meant unity in Sumeria difficult
  • 6. Two rare examples of empire
    • a. Akkadians found empire under Sargon the Great c. 2340 BC
    • b. Akkadian power collapses by c. 2150 BC
    • c. Ammorite kings of Babylon establish Old Babylonian Empire (OBE)
    • d. OBE founded by Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC), declines quickly after his death
• C. City-States mean civilized life
  • 1. architecture for housing - small, tightly packed clay-brick homes
  • 2. differentiation of working groups
  • 3. differentiation by class
  • 4. creation of a market system
    • a. extensive trade networks
    • b. bronze by 4000 BC, iron by 1000 BC
• D. Time and wealth to think about God
  • 1. creation of ziggurat temple, reaching towards sky
    • a. large amounts of land set aside to support the temple
    • b. provided social services
    • c. functioned as banks
  • 2. land and nature central, as this is an agricultural civilization
  • 3. divination, particularly for crops
  • 4. highly spiritual people--always looking for divine guidance
  • 5. No sense of linear time, history -- gods had built cities, governed a static world
  • 6. multiple, arbitrary gods embodied forces of nature, psyche, civilization
  • 7. No value on individual - no individuality - people and world as plaything of gods
  • 8. Sky as eternal heaven, human world marked for death
• E. Creation of a writing system - Cuneiform
• F. The need to make rules for everyone to follow
  • 1. very important to the creation of civilization
  • 2. Hammurabi's code (18th BCE)
    • a. based on idea of social justice (at least among equals)
    • b. based on an eye for an eye--literally
    • c. consumer protection laws
      • (1) the builder who caused the death of a man was put to death
      • (2) the builder who caused the death of a son had his son killed
      • (3) the builder would have to replace all goods lost in a housing accident
      • (4) leader who wronged his soldiers was executed
      • (5) if a leader didn't catch a burglar, he had to pay people who had lost goods!
    • d. agricultural laws to restrict and equalize land use, water use, trade
    • e. marriage, gender, and sex
      • (1) adultery acceptable by males
      • (2) adultery by wives meant being thrown in the river (w/ possibility of pardon)
      • (3) generally more power given to the men--not cut in stone, though (!)
    • f. parents and children
      • (1) hands chopped off for not following what a parent says to do
      • (2) possibility of disinheritance

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I. Egyptian Civilization

• A. Nile river -
  • 1. dependable, predictable - more so than Tigris and Euphrates
  • 2. More reliable and richer source of agricultural wealth
  • 3. Allowed for a more optimistic view of the world
• B. Strong Political Centralization - Unification 3100BC (led by Menes/Narmer)
  • 1. Small kingdoms emerge along mile c. 4000 BC
  • 1. Upper Egypt - narrow valley - 600 miles to First Cataract, Thebes
  • 2. Lower Egypt - Delta plain - Memphis
  • 3. total of 31 dynasties (ruling families) covering 2000 years
  • 4. Old, Middle and New Kingdoms - periods of greatest unity and prosperity
    • a. Old Kingdom (2660-2160 BCE, before which were the "Early Dynasties") - era of the pyramids
    • b. Middle Kingdom (2040-1640 BCE)
    • c. New Kingdom (1550-1070 BCE)  - imperialistic period
    • d. between them came the "intermediate periods" and then the "post-empire" period - weaker central governments in these periods.
  • 5. Extraordinary long-term continuity of civilization
• C. Political power
  • 1. rested on absolute authority of the Pharaoh who grew up through the warrior ranks
  • 2. yet the king also had responsibilities and principles - maintaining order over chaos
  • 3. Ma'at - truth, justice, order
  • 4. importance of order and harmony in politics
  • 5. Supported by large landownings, extensive bureaucracy and priesthood trained in hieroglyphics 

II. Order and Harmony as watchwords for Egyptian civilization

• A. in politics, mentioned above
• B. in social relationships
  • 1. god-king - power symbolized by pyramids (Old Kingdom)
  • 2. vizier=chief judge, superintendent of public works
  • 3. priesthood, extensive bureaucracy, professional military
    • a. hieroglyphs emerge c. 3200 BC
    • b. nobility exists, but not these groups more important in running government
  • 4. merchants
  • 5. artisans
  • 6. farmers (who also served in the army)
  • 7. family relationships too--marriage, children.
    • a. monogamy (i.e.. for women)
    • b. importance of family unit
    • c. relationship of family to production of wealth
    • d. adultery punishable, (women with noses cut off)
    • e. some divorces available
• C. importance of "being in one's place"
• D. what did this emphasis on harmony and order produce?
  • 1. very long-lived civilization
  • 2. very prosperous civilization
  • 3. very stratified society
  • 4. less emphasis on individual than order and harmony of the group

III. Order and Harmony between Gods and Humans, between Life and Death

• A. understood the importance of nature to life along the Nile
  • 1. need for rain, floods, water, sun for agriculture and therefore life
  • 2. sat skeletons at the table at celebrations to remind them of the passing of time, life
• B. Harmony also meant social class system with king/god at the top
  • 1. maintaining harmony was the reason for legal codes
  • 2. anything "unnatural" was therefore wrong, especially if it had to do with the king
  • 3. Social order and values seen in the Negative Confession from the Book of the Dead. 

IV. Order and Harmony in Art and Architecture

• A. Egyptian art maintained a remarkable stability of styles across the centuries
• B. Tried to find the links between Nature and Humanity (ala Sphinx, animal Gods, etc.)
• C. Tried to find links between the human life and the divine life
  • 1. theory that all human actions had divine equivalents
  • 2. the better the human life, therefore, the better the divine life afterwards
  • 3. therefore mummification, goods put into the crypts
  • 4. therefore the great pyramids, to show that human life is connected to life after death
  • 5. A happy, changeless well-being possible
  • 5. also to show that the king/god had power even after death--the Pyramid of Cheops, for example

V. What could make the civilization last so long?

• A. Generally stable system of government
  • 1. many dynasties, but over 2000 years of related civilizations!
  • 2. tremendous importance placed on the harmony (read order) of society
  • 3. tremendous importance placed on the maintenance of kings
• B. Profitable and sufficient economy
• C. the Nile flooded every year, keeping the soil productive
• D. Great warring tradition made them able to maintain strength in the face of other invaders

VI. The Kush (AKA Nubia)

• A.Where based? Along the Nile River of course
  • 1.constant interaction with Egypt
  • 2.used Nile like the Egyptians did
  • 3. New evidence suggests Kush older than Egypt
  • 4. Egyptians may have gotten religious and political ideas from Kush
• B.Based along the Nile River, so had contact with Egypt
  • 1.less agriculture, therefore less stability in geographic sense, than Egypt
  • 2. Scattered villages instead of broad floodplain, thus harder to control, less stability
  • 3.therefore less written and remaining culture than in Egypt
  • 4. Primarily a trading economy - trade with Egypt, Indian Ocean, African interior
  • 5. A syncretic culture that borrowed from other cultures, unlike more rigid Egypt
• C. Kushites had been tributaries (or other relations) of Egypt for perhaps over 1000 years
  • 1.typically the southern Nile was in tribute to the North
  • 2.some constant interaction between North and South Nile cultures
  • 3.may have influenced Egypt's ideas about King/Gods, for example
  • 4. More independent of Egypt after 1100BC
• D. During New Kingdom Kush took over Egypt (ca. 750 bce)
  • 1.Created a Kush dynasty
  • 2.Ruled Egypt until tossed out by Assyrians 663 BC
  • 3.only about 100 years, then Kush went back to its old, Nubian roots
• E. Yet Kush politics still existed with less relationship to Egypt for 1000 years!
• F. Fought Rome in 25 bce, had mostly peaceful relations with Rome after that time
• G. Serious decline after 200 AD due to loss of control over trade routes
• H. Wiped out by Axum invasion around 350AD
• I. Now of great interest to historians as a link between Egypt and more central Africa

 

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