History Essay

Western Civilization Lecture 1

Traits of Civilizations

Rise of Cities

Note the importance of Agriculture

Growth of Government

To organize and regulate human activity

Provide smooth interaction between individuals and groups

Role of Religion

Social Structure

Monarch

Upper class (priests, government officials, military)

Free people: farmers, artisans, craftsmen

Slaves

Evidence of Trade

Writing

Artistic activity

Painting/sculpting

Question: Do you feel that any one trait can be eliminated and a group still be considered civilized? Why/Why not? Examples!

Traits of Civilizations

· These characteristics are generally established by those who have them and consider them essential to be considered civilized.

· Being civilized implies some aspects of culture, which is a human based activity which is learned by members of a group.

· The ancient Chinese considered themselves as the center of civilization in particular the more civilized you were the closer you were to the emperor. The farther away from the emperor you were the less civilized and more barbaric you were considered to be.

· Some ancient cultures looked upon foot covering as a means of judging how/ whether you were civilized or barbaric.

· Rise of Cities

· But before the rise of cities can take place, there must be some improvements in agriculture/technology to release some population from the need to hunt and gather to exist. This can equate to the concept of having some control over the physical environment

· Role of Religion

· Very evident in the establishment of values and mores for a group

· Oftentimes Religion was an essential part of governing and control of the population

· The leader/king at times would serve as a priest/high priest interceding with the gods/deities on behalf of the people

· Deities could be forces of nature, forces/objects in nature, or gradually especially under the ancient Greeks and Romans – anthropomorphic (having the shapes and characteristics of humans).

· The Egyptians had 3 levels of gods – gods of natural forces, gods which gave, and gods which took away.

· Complex Institutions

· Government, military, economic/trade, education, and religion are all considered part of complex institutions

· Trade was an important factor as was warfare and conquest, because it was through trade and warfare that innovation often came to various groups.

· Social Structure

· How society is divided: if in pyramidal form you would find the leader/monarch/high priest at the top of the pyramid, with upper classes (including other priests, government officials, family members, military), free people (to include farmers, artisans, craftsmen) and slaves.

· Writing and Artistic Activity

· Writing – or some other form of communication and recordkeeping. This is difficult as a trait of civilizations because in some areas an alphabet (be it cuneiform, pictographs, hieroglyphs, alphabet) may not have existed in some areas, but this does not by itself mean there were no forms of recordkeeping.

· Painting and sculpting are among the evidence accepted as artistic activity.

The Ancient Civilizations – known as the River Civilizations – most commonly cited in Western Civilization. Oftentimes we may see references to the ancient people of these areas as specific empires!

· Tigris and Euphrates – Mesopotamia

· Mesopotamia is a Greek term meaning land between the waters

· Important early civilizations because of the contributions passed on to other groups

· Sumerians and the Babylonians

· Ziggurats found in Ur

· Epic of Gilgamesh

· Cuneiform

· Code of Hammurabi

· The Nile – Egypt

· Of these ancient civilizations of the West – we have many relics from Egypt because of two factors: Egypt was relatively isolated or insulated due to bodies of water and deserts, and because of the ancient river civilizations – the Nile River was the most predictable. The Nile River flooded annually – the major uncertainty was in relation to the volume of the flood. A heavy flooding season meant some death and destruction; a meager flood would mean death and destruction due to famine.

· The Indus – Indian (although, ironically, the Indus River is found in modern Pakistan)

· The Huang-Ho – China

The early Mediterranean People

· The Phoenicians (predecessors to today’s Lebanese)

· The Hebrews – a nomadic tribal people who originated in Mesopotamia and were unique among the early civilizations in that their civilization was based upon a covenant with their God – a monotheistic as opposed to polytheistic group.

Early Empires

· Assyrians

· Persians

People of the Fertile Crescent developed many elements that contributed to the formation of Western Civ: agriculture, writing, and law – this emerging culture remained subject to transformation

· Location permitted it to benefit from the far reaches of Asia

· Location also caused a bit of instability as invaders not only brought with them ideas, but also destruction

· People of the regions north of the Black Sea and the Caucasus Mts produced people who often waged war on the people of the Fertile Crescent – but also helped develop a culture that had a profound influence on the West.

· Linguists labeled these invaders as Indo European because their language served as the basis for all subsequent European languages except Finnish, Hungarian, and Basques

· Language separates the Indo-Europeans from most of the original inhabitants of the Fertile Crescent who spoke the Semitic languages (therefore, can an Arab be anti-semitic?)

· The steady influx of Indo-Europeans (Celts, Latins, Greeks, or Germans) formed the dominant population of Europe

· Meanwhile other Indo-European groups moved eastward and settled Turkey, India, and Persia

· Traits of the Indo Europeans:

· They were led by a warrior elite who were buried in elaborate graves

· They were buried with prized possessions

· They rode horses (they first domesticated horses around 2000 BCE) which gave these warriors advantage over foot soldiers with speed, mobility, and reach of their foes who utilized archers

· They carried their possessions in carts, with 4 solid wheels (as opposed to the Sumerians who used 2-wheels chariots) . The heavy carts with 4 wheels imply that they were developed over relatively flat terrain along wooden roadways

· They were not literate people – rather they passed their traditions orally

· They worshipped gods who lived in the sky, and yet they also adopted some traits and characteristics of the Crescent civilizations… such as adoption of foods and then spread these grains etc to other areas.

The Egyptians

This civilization was based on a river – the Nile which flows northward from central Africa to the Mediterranean

· A climate change in 6000 BCE affected the development of the civilization to depend upon the river – the Atlantic rains shifted, changing grassy plains into deserts and forcing dependency upon the river.

· The Nile – unlike the Tigris and Euphrates was predictable – it flooded at the same time annually – the only uncertainty was how much flood

· Egypt was more isolated than the civilizations to the north east – the deserts! And also in the south, the marshes. Invaders could come in from the Mediterranean. The civilization developed without the fear of conquest – and by 3100 BCE a king from Upper Egypt (Menes) united upper and lower Egypt under his rule – thereby developing a 2 piece crown!

· Egyptians believed in the power of the gods being visible. They worshiped the divine spirit that was expressed in heavenly bodies, animals, and even insects. The most important deities would emerge – such as the sun god Re (Amon) the Nile spirits Isis and her husband Osiris, and their son the falcon god Horus.

· They believed they were blessed by the gods, and not cursed by their chaotic whims. This optimism infused Egyptian culture with extraordinary continuity – why mess with success?

· The heart of their prosperity was the king – the living embodiment of the deity, and therein lies some interesting conjecture. IF the kings were gods who came to earth to bring truth, justice, and order (known as ma’at) then the people should observe a code of correct behavior that included the concept of ma’at. This ordered society was ruled by a god-king – Pharaoh and it emerged in the years following 2450 BCE via a high palace official (Ptah-hotep) who left instructions for his son to follow the precepts of ma’at.

· The old kingdom – 2400-2181 BCE – saw astounding prosperity and peace, including successful agriculture and irrigation. Egypt had access to mineral resources – including copper.

· They had successful trade with Nubia which provided access to resources of sub-Saharan Africa. From Nubia Egypt gained access to gold, ivory, ebony, gems, and aromatics in exchange for Egyptian cloth and manufactured goods. With their surplus of metals and grains, they could trade with other Mediterranean cultures for textiles and wood.

· Among the contributions of the ancient Egyptians are the hieroglyphics – or sacred writing. Hieroglyphs were more than a series of simple pictures – each symbol could express one of 3 things: the object it portrayed, an abstract idea associated with the object, or one or more sounds of speech from spoken Egyptian (the technical terms: pictogram, ideogram, and phonogram)

Your textbook gives you an interesting chart of Key Dates – I would consider these dates. Note the 2 periods called Intermediate periods. Some texts identify these as “illnesses”. The explanation is simple: if the pharaoh is a good who gives order and protection, how do you explain turmoil (invasions or terrible droughts etc?). The god must be ill…. Ironically it is through these illnesses that some progress is made in Egypt. The discussion of issues and developments is worth consideration, especially the discussion of Hatshepsut the female leader, and, Akhenaten who believed in a supreme god Aten (sun disk).

Questions arise about this rejection of the ancient gods of Egypt – was Akhenaten influenced by the Hebrews? Was it a political move against the power of the priests of Amon? Or was he a dreamer? We will never know.

Everyone is aware of Akhenaten’s successor: Tutankhaton/or Tutankhamun as he renounced the vision of his father-in-law predecessor. He died at 18 years of age – not sure if he was killed or died as a result of an accident…

The discussion of the Phoenicians, the Hebrews, and the growth of Empires are worthy of your attention as well. Developments in technology, in philosophy, and in basic skills of trade and communication are well documents and I don’t want to spend too much time reiterating the text when a simple reading of the text will give you all the details you need.

I would note the contributions of the Phoenicians – especially the idea of alphabet, books, trade and settlements. I would pay attention to the notion of the covenant with the Israelites. As well as the notion of the Assyrian rule – by terror/brutality. It is not odd that a leader who employs such tactics would also be head of an empire? Who devised methods of controlling vast (for the time) territory and diverse people – use of a language (Aramaic) to help control people, and the preservation of wealth and knowledge that Ashurbanipal collected and formed into a library!

With the arrival of the Babylonians and Persians there are also major contributions. Nebuchadnezzar had a law code similar to Hammurabi, but introduced extreme punishments for enemy rulers and their followers – often flaying or burning them alive. One of these victims were the Hebrew (Israelites)_ who observed their Babylonian captivity in 587 BCE. Given these extremes – as you surprised to learn that this people also used wise-men /priests to foster knowledge of astronomy and mathematics? Babylonian astrologers divided the heavens into 12 signs: Gemini, Scorpio, Virgo among others to predict fortunes… These people regularly used advanced mathematics such as multiplication, division, and the calculation of square and cube roots. While their numbering system was based on 60 their system allowed for the development of calculating time based on hours and minutes.

The chapter ends with a discussion of the Persians – not quite as extreme as some of the recent movies which had been released such as 300! Among the contributions were the ways in which the Persians (beginning with Cyrus) governed their provinces with satraps (governors). Under these administrations we find the origins of coin money, and religious beliefs such as Zoroastrianism…

Contributions of the Early/Ancient Civilizations

· Calendars and means of marking time

· Irrigation Canals/Ditches

· Writing – in particular hieroglyphics (meaning sacred writing in Greek)

· Galley ships (Mediterranean people such as the Hittites, Lydians, Phoenicians and Minoans)

· Domestication of horses

· Horticulture and pastoralism: farming and herding of animals

· Metal work from Bronze to Iron

· Chariots, Iron/metal weapons

· Building of roads, establishment of provinces

· Law codes – such as Hammurabi’s based on what many consider the Old Testament eye for an eye model