pa rt one the foundations of W estern Civilization in the Ancient W orld

32 Pages·2005·2.45 MB·English

KAGATLCMC01_xxxii-031v2 12/14/05 4:04 PM Page xxxii
2200–1600 b.c.e.
1,000,000–2200 b.c.e.
d
l
POLITICS & ca. 3100– Egyptian Early Dynastic Period; 2200–2052 B.C.E. Egyptian First Intermediate Period
r GOVERNMENT 2700B.C.E. unification of Upper and Lower 2052–1786 B.C.E. Egyptian Middle Kingdom
o Egypt 1792–1750 B.C.E. Reign of Hammurabi;
W ca. 2800–2340 B.C.E. Sumerian city-states’ Early Dynastic height of Old Babylonian Kingdom;
period publication of Code of Hammurabi
t 2700–2200 B.C.E. Egyptian Old Kingdom 1786–1575 B.C.E. Egyptian Second Intermediate Period
n ca. 2370 B.C.E. Sargon established Akkadian Empire ca. 1700 B.C.E. Hyksos’ Invasion of Egypt
e
i
c
n
A

e
h
t

n
i

n
o
i
t (cid:1) Stele of Hammurabi
a
z
i
l (cid:2) Head of Sargon the Great
i
v
i
C

n SOCIETY & ca. 1,000,000– Paleolithic Age ca. 2000 B.C.E. Hittites arrive in Asia Minor
r ECONOMY 10,000 B.C.E. ca. 1900 B.C.E. Amorites in Babylonia
e ca. 8,000 B.C.E. Earliest Neolithic settlements
t ca. 3500 B.C.E. Earliest Sumerian settlements
s ca. 3000 B.C.E. First urban settlements in
Egypt and Mesopotamia;
e
Bronze Age begins in
W
Mesopotamia and Egypt
(cid:2)Venus
ca. 2900– Bronze Age Minoan society of
f 1150 B.C.E. on Crete; Helladic society Willendorf
o on Greek mainland

s
n
o
i RELIGION & ca. 30,000– Paleolithic art
t
a CULTURE 6000 B.C.E.
d ca. 3000 B.C.E. Invention of writing 2200–1786 B.C.E. Rise of Amon-Re as chief Egyptian god
ca. 3000 B.C.E. Temples to gods in Mesopotamia; ca. 1900 B.C.E. Traditional date for Hebrew patriarch
n development of ziggurat temple Abraham
u architecture
o 2700–2200 B.C.E. Building of pyramids for Egyptian
god-kings, development of
f hieroglyphic writing in Egypt

e
h
(cid:2)Chauvet cave painting
t
panel with horses
e
n
o
(cid:1)Sumerian clay tablet

t
r
a
p
KAGATLCMC01_xxxii-031v2 12/14/05 4:05 PM Page 1
1600–1100 b.c.e. 1100–500 b.c.e.
ca. 1600 B.C.E. Fall of Old Babylonian Kingdom ca. 1000–961 B.C.E. Reign of King David in Israel
1575–1087 B.C.E. Egyptian New Kingdom (or Empire) ca. 961–922 Reign of King Solomon in
ca. 1400–1200 B.C.E. Height of Hittite Empire Israel
ca. 1400–1200 B.C.E. Height of Mycenaean power ca. 1100–615 B.C.E. Assyrian Empire
1367–1350 B.C.E. Amunhotep IV (Akhenaten) in Egypt ca. 800–400 B.C.E. Height of Etruscan
culture in Italy
ca. 1250 B.C.E. Sack of Troy (?)
1087–1030 B.C.E. Egyptian Post-Empire ca. 650 B.C.E. Spartan constitution formed
Period 722 B.C.E. Israel (northern kingdom) falls to
Assyrians
ca. 700–500 B.C.E. Rise and decline of tyranny in Greece
621 B.C.E. First written law code in Athens
612–539 B.C.E. Neo-Babylonian (Chaldean) Empire
Pharaoh Sety I (cid:3) 594 B.C.E. Solon’s constitutional reforms, Athens (cid:1) The Capitoline Wolf
586 B.C.E. Destruction of Jerusalem; fall of Judah
(southern kingdom); Babylonian
Captivity
ca. 560–550 B.C.E. Peloponnesian League begins
559–530 B.C.E. Reign of Cyrus the Great in Persia
546 B.C.E. Persia conquers Lydian Empire
of Croesus, including Greek
cities of Asia Minor
539 B.C.E. Persia conquers Babylonia; temple at
Jerusalem restored; exiles return from
Babylonia
521–485 B.C.E. Reign of Darius in Persia
509 B.C.E. Kings expelled from Rome; Republic
founded
(cid:2)Queen Nefertiti 508 B.C.E. Clisthenes founds Athenian democracy (cid:1) Darius and Xerxes,
detail, south wall of the
treasury, Persepolis, Iran
ca. 1100–750 B.C.E. Greek “Dark Ages”
ca. 1000 B.C.E. Italic peoples enter Italy
ca. 800 B.C.E. Etruscans enter Italy
ca. 1200 B.C.E. Hebrews ca. 750–700 B.C.E. Rise of Polis in Greece
arrive in
Palestine ca. 750–600 B.C.E. Great age of Greek colonization
ca. 700 B.C.E. Invention of hoplite phalanx
ca. 600–550 B.C.E. Spartans adopt new communitarian
social system
ca. 600–500 B.C.E. Athens develops commerce and a
mixed economy
Female athlete (cid:3)
Homer, detail of statue (cid:3) of Sparta
1367–1360 B.C.E. Religious revolution led by ca. 750 B.C.E. Hebrew prophets teach monotheism
Akhenaten makes Aton chief ca. 750 B.C.E. Traditional date for Homer
Egyptian god
ca. 750 B.C.E. Greeks adapt Semitic script and invent the
1347–1339 B.C.E. Tutankhamun restores worship Greek alphabet
of Amon-Re
ca. 750–600 B.C.E. Panhellenic shrines established at Olympia,
Delphi, Corinth, and Nemea; athletic festivals
attached to them
(cid:2)Tutankamun ca. 700 B.C.E. Traditional date for Hesiod
and his queen ca. 675–500 B.C.E. Development of Greek lyric and elegiac poetry
ca. 570 B.C.E. Birth of Greek philosophy in Ionia
ca. 550 B.C.E. Oracle of Apollo at Delphi grows to great
influence
ca. 550 B.C.E. Cult of Dionysus introduced to Athens
539 B.C.E. Restoration of temple in
Jerusalem; return of exiles
Hercules taming (cid:3)
Cerberus, Greek, 530 B.C.E.
KAGATLCMC01_xxxii-031v2 12/14/05 4:05 PM Page 2
336–31 b.c.e.
500–336 b.c.e.
d
l POLITICS & 490 B.C.E. Battle of Marathon 336–323 B.C.E. Reign of Alexander III (the Great)
r
GOVERNMENT 485–465 B.C.E. Reign of Xerxes in Persia 334 B.C.E. Alexander invades Asia
o 480–479 B.C.E. Xerxes invades Greece 330 B.C.E. Fall of Persepolis; end Achaemenid
W 478–477 B.C.E. Delian League founded rule in Persia
ca. 460–445 B.C.E. First Peloponnesian War 323–301 B.C.E. Ptolemaic Kingdom (Egypt),
Seleucid Kingdom (Syria), and
t 450–449 B.C.E. Laws of the Twelve Tables, Rome
Antigonid Dynasty (Macedon)
n 431–404 B.C.E. Great Peloponnesian War founded
e 404–403 B.C.E. Thirty Tyrants rule at Athens 287 B.C.E. Laws passed by Plebeian Assembly
i 400–387 B.C.E. Spartan war against Persia made binding on all Romans; end of
c 398–360 B.C.E. Reign of Agesilaus at Sparta Struggle of the
n 395–387 B.C.E. Corinthian War Orders
A 392 B.C.E. Romans defeat Etruscans 264–241 B.C.E. First Punic War
378 B.C.E. Second Athenian Confederation 218–202 B.C.E. Second Punic
e War
371 B.C.E. Thebans end Spartan hegemony
h 215–168 B.C.E. Rome establishes
362 B.C.E. Battle of Mantinea; end of Theban rule over
t hegemony Hellenistic world
n 338 B.C.E. Philip of Macedon conquers Greece 154–133 B.C.E. Roman wars in
Spain
i
133 B.C.E. Tribunate of
n Tiberius
o Gracchus
i 123–122 B.C.E. Tribunate of
t Gaius Gracchus
(cid:1)Painted relief from
a 82 B.C.E. Sulla assumes Ptolemaic temple
z dictatorship
i Ancient Greek Athenian coin (cid:3) 60 B.C.E. First Triumvirate
l 46–44 B.C.E. Caesar’s dictatorship
i 43 B.C.E. Second Triumvirate
v
i
C
SOCIETY & ca. 500–350 B.C.E. Spartan population shrinks ca. 300 B.C.E.– Growth of international trade

n ECONOMY ca. 500–350 B.C.E. Rapid growth in overseas trade 150C.E. and development of large cities in
Hellenistic/Roman world
r 477–431 B.C.E. Vast growth in Athenian wealth
e 431–400 B.C.E. Peloponnesian War casualties ca. 218–135 B.C.E. Dgreocwlitnhe o of ft efanmanilty ffaarrmmi nign aItnadly c;attle
cause decline in size of lower
t ranching
class in Athens, with relative
s increase in importance of upper ca. 150 B.C.E. Growth of slavery
e and middle classes as basis of
W economy in
Roman Republic

f
o
(cid:2) Alexander the Great The RomanForum(cid:3)
s &Darius III
n
o
i RELIGION & ca. 500–400 B.C.E. Great age of Athenian tragedy 342–271 B.C.E. Life of Epicurus
t
a CULTURE 469–399 B.C.E. Life of Socrates 335–263 B.C.E. Life of Zeno the
ca. 450–400 B.C.E. Great influence of Sophists in Stoic
d
Athens ca. 287–212 B.C.E. Life of Archimedes of Syracuse
n ca. 450–385 B.C.E. Great age of Athenian comedy ca. 275 B.C.E. Foundation of museum and library
u 448–432 B.C.E. Periclean building program on make Alexandria the center of Greek
o Athenian acropolis intellectual life
f 429–347 B.C.E. Life of Plato ca. 250 B.C.E. LOidvyiussse Ay nidnrtoon Licautisn translates the
ca. 425 B.C.E. Herodotus’ history of the Persian
e Wars 106–43 B.C.E. Life of Cicero
h ca. 400 B.C.E. Thucydides’ history of the ca. 99–55 B.C.E. Life of Lucretius
t Peloponnesian War 86–35 B.C.E. Life of Sallust
ca. 400–325 B.C.E. Life of Diogenes the Cynic ca. 84–54 B.C.E. Life of Catullus
386 B.C.E. Foundation of Plato’s Academy 70–19 B.C.E. Life of Vergil
e 384–322 B.C.E. Life of Aristotle 65–8 B.C.E. Life of Horace
n 336 B.C.E. Foundation of Aristotle’s Lyceum 59 B.C.E.–17C.E. Life of Livy
o 43 B.C.E.–18C.E. Life of Ovid

t
r Odysseus (cid:3)
(cid:2)Double bust of the Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides and Cyclops
a
p
KAGATLCMC01_xxxii-031v2 12/14/05 4:05 PM Page 3
31 b.c.e.–400 c.e.
31 B.C.E. Octavian and Agrippa defeat
Anthony at Actium
27 B.C.E.–14 C.E. Reign of Augustus
14–68 C.E. Reigns of Julio-Claudian Emperors
69–96 C.E. Reigns of Flavian Emperors
96–180 C.E. Reigns of “Good Emperors”
180–192 C.E. Reign of Commodus
284–305 C.E. Reign of Diocletian; reform and
division of Roman Empire
306–337 C.E. Reign of Constantine
330 C.E. Constantinople new capital of
Roman Empire
361–363 C.E. Reign of Julian the Apostate (cid:1) Roman fleet of Octavian
379–395 C.E. Reign of Theodosius
376 C.E. Visigoths enter Roman Empire
Roman (cid:3)
amphitheatre
ca. 150–400C.E. Decline of slavery and growth of
tenant farming and serfdom in Caesar Augustus, (cid:3)
Roman Empire Emperor of Rome
ca. 250–400C.E. Coloni (Roman tenant farmers)
increasingly tied to the land
301C.E. Edict of Maximum Prices at Rome
9 B.C.E. Ara Pacis dedicated at Rome
ca. 4 B.C.E. Birth of Jesus of Nazareth
ca. 30C.E. Crucifixion of Jesus
64C.E. Christians persecuted by Nero
66–135C.E. Romans suppress rebellions of Jews
ca. 70–100C.E. Gospels written
ca. 150C.E. Ptolemy of Alexandria establishes (cid:1) Ara Pacis
canonical geocentric model of the
universe
ca. 250–260C.E. Severe persecutions by Decius and
Valerian
303C.E. Persecution of Christians by
Diocletian
311C.E. Galerius issues Edict of Toleration
312C.E. Constantine converts to Christianity
325C.E. Council of Nicaea Columns of Hellenistic gymnasium (cid:3)
348–420C.E. Life of St. Jerome
354–430C.E. Life of St. Augustine
395C.E. Christianity becomes official religion
of Roman Empire
KAGATLCMC01_xxxii-031v2 12/14/05 4:06 PM Page 4
The Birth of Civilization
Early Humans and Their Culture During the Paleolithic period,
human communities revolved around hunting and gathering.
The domestication of animals and plants for food began around
10,000 B.C.E. and marked the beginning of the Neolithic period.
Civilization emerged first in Mesopotamia during the Bronze
Age (3100–1200 B.C.E.).
Early Civilizations to about 1000 B.C.E. Civilization in southern
Mesopotamia was founded by the Sumerians. Semitic Akkadi-
ans from northern Babylonia established the first empire in
history. Egypt's pharaohs united the lands along the Nile.
Ancient Middle Eastern Empires Between 1400 and 1200 B.C.E.,
the Hittites were the dominant power in the Middle East.
Under pressure from outside invaders, the Hittite kingdom
collapsed around 1200 B.C.E.The Assyrian military supported
a large Middle Eastern empire that lasted from about
1000–600 B.C.E.After its fall, a short-lived Neo-Babylonian
empire rose to take its place.
The Persian Empire The Persian Empire arose in the re-
gion now called Iran. Under Cyrus the Great and Darius
the Great, the Parsians built a powerful empire. The
Persians responded to the challenge of controlling a vast
and diverse population by developing sophisticated gov-
ernmental and administrative institutions. By the middle
of the sixth century B.C.E., Zoroastrianism had become
the chief religion of the Persians. The Persians adapted
the art and culture of conquered peoples to fit their
own needs and values.
Palestine Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all owe
many of their beliefs and practices to the Israelites.
Under Moses the Israelites conquered Canaan in the
thirteenth century B.C.E.and their kingdom reached
its peak in the tenth century B.C.E.during the reigns
of David and Solomon before splintering. The
coastal Phoenicians developed the predecessor of
the alphabet we use today.
General Outlook of Middle Eastern Cultures
Most people of the ancient Middle East believed
that humans were inseparable from nature and
the gods were powerful and capricious. The He-
brew God reflected a different perspective on humanity's rela-
tionship with nature and with divine power.
Toward the Greeks and Western Thought By the sixth century
B.C.E., some Greeks started thinking about the world in ways that
became the hallmark of Western civilization. Western philoso-
phy, science, history, medicine, law, and democracy all have roots
in the civilization of the ancient Greeks.
KAGATLCMC01_xxxii-031v2 12/14/05 4:06 PM Page 5
HOW DIDlife in the Neolithic Age
differ from the Paleolithic?
WHY DIDthe first cities develop?
WHAT WEREthe great empires of the ancient Middle
East?
HOW WASHebrew monotheism different from
Mesopotamian and Egyptian polytheism?
WHAT WEREthe Persian rulers’ attitudes
toward the cultures they ruled?
WHAT SOCIALand political con-
trasts existed between ancient
Middle Eastern and Greek
civilizations?
•Early Humans and Their Culture
•Early Civilizations to about 1000 B.C.E.
•Ancient Middle Eastern Empires
•The Persian Empire
•Palestine
•General Outlook of Middle Eastern Cultures
•Toward the Greeks and Western Thought
KAGATLCMC01_xxxii-031v2 12/14/05 4:06 PM Page 6
6 CHAPTER 1 THE BIRTH OF CIVILIZATION
IMAGE KEY For hundreds of thousands of years, human beings lived by hunting and gathering
for pages 4–5 is on page 30. what nature spontaneously provided. Only about 10,000 years ago did they begin to
cultivate plants, domesticate animals, and settle in permanent communities. About
5,000 years ago, the Sumerians, who lived near the confluence of the Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers (a region Greek geographers called “Mesopotamia,” i.e., “between-
rivers”), and the Egyptians, who dwelt in the Nile Valley, pioneered civilization.
By the fourteenth century B.C.E.,1 powerful empires had arisen and were struggling
for dominance of the civilized world, but one of the region’s smaller states probably
had a greater influence on the course of Western civilization. The modern West’s
major religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) are rooted in the traditions of
ancient Israel.
Early Humans and Their Culture
HOW DIDlife in the Neolithic
cientists estimate that Earth may be 6 billion years old and its human
Age differ from the Paleolithic? S
inhabitants have been developing for 3 to 5 million years. Some 1 to 2
million years ago, erect tool-using beings spread from their probable
place of origin in Africa to Europe and Asia. Our own species, Homo sapiens, is
about 200,000 years old, and fully modern humans have existed for about
90,000 years.
Humans are distinguished by a unique capacity to construct cultures. A
culture may be defined as a way of life invented by a group and passed on by
teaching. It includes both material things (tools, clothing, and shelter) and
ideas, institutions, and beliefs. Because cultural behaviors are guided by learning
rather than instinct, they can be altered at will to enable human beings to adapt
rapidly to different environments and changing conditions.
The Paleolithic Age
Anthropologists identify prehistoric human cultures by the styles of their most
durable and plentiful artifacts—stone tools. The earliest period in cultural devel-
opment—the Paleolithic (Greek for “old stone”) Age—began with the first use
of stone tools about a million years ago and continued until about 10,000B.C.E.
Throughout this immensely long era, people were nomadic hunters and gather-
ers who depended for their food on what nature spontaneously offered. An un-
certain food supply and the inability of human beings to understand or control
the mysterious forces that threatened their existence persuaded them that they
occupied a world governed by superhuman powers. Cave art, ritual burial prac-
tices, and other evidences of religious or magical beliefs appeared during the Pa-
leolithic era, and they bear witness to a suspicion as old as humanity itself that
there is more to the world than meets the eye.
Homo sapiens Our own
Human society in the Paleolithic Age was probably based on a division of
species, which dates back roughly
200,000 years. labor by sex. Males ranged far afield on the hunt. Females, whose mobility was
limited by the burdens of childbearing and nursing, gathered edibles of various
culture Way of life invented by a
kinds in the vicinity of a base camp. The knowledge that people acquired as
group and passed on by teaching.
hunters and gatherers eventually equipped them to develop agriculture and
Paleolithic Greek for “old herding, and these food-producing technologies drastically changed the
stone”; the earliest period in cul-
human lifestyle.
tural development that began with
the first use of stone tools about a
million years ago and continued 1This book substitutes B.C.E.(“before the common era”) and C.E.(“common era”) for B.C.and A.D.,
until about 10,000B.C.E. and it uses the term “Middle East” in preference to “Near East.”
KAGATLCMC01_xxxii-031v2 12/14/05 4:06 PM Page 7
THE BIRTH OF CIVILIZATION CHAPTER 1 7
The Neolithic Age
About 10,000 years ago, people living in some parts of the Middle East made
advances in the production of stone tools that marked the start of the Neolithic
(i.e., “new stone”) Age. But more significant than their tool-making technology
was their shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture. They began to domes-
ticate the wild species of sheep, goats, wheat, and barley that were native to the
foothills of the region’s mountains. Once domesticated, these species were trans-
planted to areas where they did not naturally occur.
Hunters and gatherers maintain their food supply by harvesting a district
and then moving on, but farmers settle down next to the fields they cultivate.
They establish villages, construct relatively permanent dwellings, and produce
pottery in which to cook and store the grains they raise. The earliest Neolithic
settlements featured small circular huts clustered around a central storehouse.
Later Neolithic people built larger rectangular homes with private storage facili-
ties and enclosures for livestock. The similarity in size and equipment of build-
ings suggests that a Neolithic village’s residents differed little in wealth and social
status. Although they engaged in some trade, their communities were largely
self-sufficient.
The most exceptional of the known Neolithic settlements are Jericho (near
the Dead Sea) and Çatal Hüyük (about 150 miles south of the capital of modern
Turkey). Jericho was occupied as early as 12,000B.C.E., and by 8000B.C.E., it had a
massive stone wall enclosing an area exceeding eight acres. (No other Neolithic
site is known to have been fortified.) Çatal Hüyük was a somewhat later and larger
community. It had a population well over 6,000. Its mud-brick dwellings were
packed tightly together. There were no streets, and Çatal Hüyük’s residents
traveled across its buildings’ roofs and used ladders to access their homes. Many
interiors were elaborately decorated with sculptures and paintings that are
At Ain Ghazal, a Neolithic site in Jor-
assumed to have ritual significance. dan, several pits contained male and
Wherever agriculture and animal husbandry appeared, the relationship be- female statues made of clay modeled
tween human beings and nature changed forever. People began to try to control over a reed framework. Similar figures
have been found at Jericho and other
nature, not just respond to what it offered. This was a vital prerequisite for the
sites, all from the same period, about
development of civilization, but it was not without cost. Farmers had to work
8500–7000 B.C.E.They were probably
harder and longer than hunters and gatherers. They faced health threats from used in religious rituals, perhaps con-
accumulating wastes. They had to figure out how to live together permanently in nected with ancestor worship, as were
one place and cope with unprecedented population growth. The earliest Ne- plastered skulls, masks, carved heads,
and other artifacts.
olithic communities appeared in the Middle East about 8000 B.C.E., in China
about 4000B.C.E., and in India about 3600B.C.E. Archaeological Museum, Amman, Jordan, kingdom.
Art Resource. ©Photograph by Erich Lessing
In 1991 a tourist discovered a frozen body in the Ötztal Tyrolean Alps on
the Italian-Austrian border. The body turned out to be the oldest mummified
human being yet discovered and sheds new light on the Neolithic period. Dated
to 3300B.C.E., it was the remains of a man between 25 and 35 years old, 5 feet 2
inches tall, weighing 110 pounds. He has been called Ötzi, the Ice Man from the
place of his discovery. He had not led a peaceful life, for his nose was broken, sev-
eral of his ribs were fractured, and an arrowhead in his shoulder suggests he bled
to death in the ice and snow. Ötzi wore a fur robe of mountain animal skin, with Neolithic “New stone” age, dat-
a woven grass cape underneath and leather shoes stuffed with grass. He was heav- ing back 10,000 years to when peo-
ple living in some parts of the
ily armed for his time, carrying a flint dagger and bow with arrows also tipped in
Middle East made advances in the
flint. The blade of his axe was copper, indicating that metallurgy was already
production of stone tools and shift-
under way. His discovery vividly shows the beginning of the transition from the ed from hunting and gathering to
Stone Age to the Bronze Age. agriculture.
KAGATLCMC01_xxxii-031v2 12/14/05 4:06 PM Page 8
8 CHAPTER 1 THE BIRTH OF CIVILIZATION
The Bronze Age and the
Birth of Civilization
As Neolithic villages and herding cultures
were spreading over much of the world, an-
other major shift in human life styles began
on the plains near the Tigris and Euphrates
Rivers and in the valley of the Nile River. Vil-
lages grew to become towns and cities that
dominated large areas. These new urban cen-
ters usually had some monumental buildings
whose construction required the sustained ef-
fort of hundreds or thousands of people over
many years. There is evidence of social strati-
fication—of the emergence of classes dis-
tiniguished by wealth, lineage, and religious
and political authority. Writing was invented,
probably to deal with the challenge of manag-
ing complex urban economies. Sophisticated
works of art were created, and the first metal
implements—made from bronze, an alloy of
copper and tin—appeared. Although stone
tools continued to be used, the increasing im-
portance of metal ended the Stone Ages in
the Middle East and inaugurated the Bronze
Ötzi is the nicknamescientists have
Age (3100–1200 B.C.E.). The characteristics
given to the remains of the oldest
of Bronze Age cultures (i.e., urbanism; long- mummified human body yet discov-
distance trade; writing systems; and accelerat- ered. This reconstruction shows his
ing technological, industrial, and social probable appearance and the clothing
and weapons found on and with him.
development) are regarded by historians as
the hallmarks of civilization. Wieslav Smetek/Stern/Black Star
Early Civilizations to about 1000 . . .
B C E
WHY DIDthe first cities develop?
uring the fourth millennium, populations of unprecedented density
D
began to develop along Mesopotamia’s Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and
Egypt’s Nile River. By about 3000 B.C.E., when the invention of writing
began to produce the kinds of records that make the writing of history possible,
urban life had spread throughout these regions and centralized states had begun
to develop. Because city dwellers do not grow their own food, they need to estab-
lish some system to promote, collect, and disburse surpluses produced by rural
farmers and herders. The arid climates of Mesopotamia and Egypt meant that
farmers could meet the demands of urban populations for their products only
Bronze Age (3100–1200 B.C.E.) with the help of extensive irrigation systems. Irrigation technology was more
Began with the increasing impor-
elaborate in Mesopotamia than in Egypt. In Egypt the Nile flooded at the right
tance of metal that also ended the
moment for cultivation, and irrigation simply involved channeling water to the
Stone Ages.
fields. In Mesopotamia, however, the floods came at the wrong season. Dikes
civilization Stage in the evolu- were needed to protect fields where crops were already growing and to store
tion of organized society that has
water for future use. The lifelines of Mesopotamian towns and villages were
among its characteristics urbanism,
rivers, streams, and canals, and control of the water these channels supplied was
long-distance trade, writing sys-
tems, and accelerated technologi- a contentious issue that could lead to war. Mesopotamia was a flat plain. The ter-
cal and social development. rain provided little protection from floods and allowed swollen rivers to carve
KAGATLCMC01_xxxii-031v2 12/14/05 4:06 PM Page 9
THE BIRTH OF CIVILIZATION CHAPTER 1 9
Black Sea
Caspian
GREECE
Aegean Sea
Sea HITTITES
Habubah MITANNI
Kabirah
Nineveh
Ebla M
LIBYACRE T E M e d it e r r a nL Oe Wa nE R CSYePaRUS LEBANONSYRIA EuphrMataesrSEiShOBuPrOaRuTbivpAAyeKIprMSlsioaSsiInnAkhYRAITBiAsgrisAsuBRirYveLrONIAANKLSiKapUgpAMauDsrEhRELSAuIMRsAaN
EGYPT Larsa Ur
Memphis Uruk Eridu
Giza
Sahara EGYPT Arabian
Desert Amarna Desert
G
UPPER ulf
EGYPT
Thebes R
e
d
300 MILES River Aswan
S
First cataract e
300 KILOMETERS a
Nile NUBIA
MAP 1–1
The Ancient Middle East Two river valley civilizations thrived in the Ancient Middle East: Egypt,
which was united into a single state, and Mesopotamia, which was long divided into a number of
city-states.
BASED ONthis map, what might explain why independent city-states were
spread out in Mesopotamia while Egypt remained united in a single state?
new channels and change their courses. Cities were sometimes severely damaged
or forced to relocate. At one time archaeologists assumed that the need to con-
struct and manage irrigation systems caused the development of cities and cen-
tralized states, but they now know that large-scale irrigation appeared long after
urban civilization was established. (See Map1–1.)
Mesopotamian Civilization
QUICK REVIEW
Civilization seems to have made its first appearance in Babylonia, an arid por-
tion of Mesopotamia that stretches from modern Baghdad to the Persian Gulf.
The First Civilization
The first cities appeared in Sumer, the southern half of Babylonia, during the
• Civilization first appeared in
fourth millennium B.C.E. The earliest urban center may have been at Uruk, a Babylonia
city that established outposts of its culture as far afield as Syria and southern • First cities appeared in Sumer
Anatolia. During the Early Dynastic Period (i.e., 2800–2370 B.C.E.), Uruk was during fourth millenium B.C.E.
• Earliest urban center may have
joined by a number of other city-states scattered along the banks of the Tigris
been at Uruk
and Euphrates. Competition for water and land led to wars among them.