The Beginnings of Civilization, 10,000–1150 B.C.E. PDF

M02_LEVA2848_03_SE_C01.QXD 12/22/09 8:03 PM Page 10 1 The Beginnings of Civilization, 10,000–1150 B.C.E. 䊏 Defining...

M02_LEVA2848_03_SE_C01.QXD 12/22/09 8:03 PM Page 10 1 The Beginnings of Civilization, 10,000–1150 B.C.E. 䊏 Defining Civilization, Defining Western Civilization 䊏Mesopotamia: Kingdoms, Empires, and Conquests 䊏 Egypt: The Empire of the Nile IN 1991 HIKERS TOILING ACROSS A GLACIER IN THE ALPS burning embers and dried meat and seeds to eat on BETWEEN AUSTRIA AND Italy made a startling discovery: the trail. The arrows in his quiver featured a natural a man’s body stuck in the ice. They alerted the adhesive that tightly bound bone and wooden points police, who soon turned the corpse over to archae- to the shafts. The most noteworthy find among ologists. The scientists determined that the middle- Ötzi’s possessions was his axe. Its handle was made aged man had frozen to death about 5,300 years of wood, but its head was copper, a remarkable inno- ago. Ötzi the Ice Man (his name comes from the vation at a time when most tools were made of Ötztal Valley where he perished) quickly became an stone. Ötzi was ready for almost anything—except international celebrity. The scientists who examined the person who shot him in the back. Ötzi believe that he was a shepherd leading flocks of Ötzi lived at a transitional moment, at the end of sheep and goats to mountain pastures when he what archaeologists call the Neolithic Age, or “New died. Grains of wheat on his clothing suggested that Stone Age,” a long period of revolutionary change last- he lived in a farming community. Copper dust in his ing from about 10,000 to about 3000 B.C.E. in which hair hinted that Ötzi may also have been a metal- many thousands of years of human interaction with worker, perhaps looking for ores during his journey. nature led to food production through agriculture and An arrowhead lodged in his back indicated a violent the domestication of animals. This chapter begins with death, but the circumstances remain mysterious. this most fundamental encounter of all—that between Ötzi’s gear was state-of-the-art for his time. His humans and the natural world. possessions showed deep knowledge of the natural The achievement of food production let world. He wore leather boots insulated with dense humans develop new, settled forms of communi- grasses chosen for protection against the cold. The ties—and then civilization itself. The growth of civ- pouch around his waist contained stone tools and ilization also depended on constant interaction fire-lighting equipment. The wood selected for his among communities that lived far apart. Once bow offered strength and flexibility. In his light people were settled in a region, they began trad- wooden backpack, Ötzi carried containers to hold ing for commodities that were not available in 10 M02_LEVA2848_03_SE_C01.QXD 12/22/09 8:03 PM Page 11 ÖTZI THE ICE MAN This artist‘s recreation shows Ötzi in his waterproof poncho carrying his state-of-the-art tools. their homelands. As trade routes extended over long distances and interactions among diverse DEFINING CIVILIZATION, peoples proliferated, ideas and technology DEFINING WESTERN spread. This chapter focuses on two questions: CIVILIZATION How did the encounters between early human societies create the world’s first civilizations? And, 䊏 What is the link between the food- what was the relationship between these civiliza- producing revolution of the Neolithic tions and what would become the “West”? era and the emergence of civilization? 11 M02_LEVA2848_03_SE_C01.QXD 12/22/09 8:03 PM Page 12 12 CHAPTER 1 The Beginnings of Civilization, 10,000–1150 B.C.E. Anthropologists use the term culture to describe tion grew more complex. The labor of most peo- all the different ways that humans collectively ple supported a small group of political, mili- adjust to their environment, organize their expe- tary, and religious leaders. This urban elite riences, and transmit their knowledge to future controlled not only government and warfare, generations. Culture serves as a web of intercon- but also the distribution of food and wealth. nected meanings that enable individuals to They augmented their authority by building understand themselves and their place in the monuments to the gods and participating in reli- world. Archaeologists define civilization as an gious rituals that linked divinity with kingship urban culture with differentiated levels of and military prowess. Thus, in early civilizations wealth, occupation, and power. One archaeolo- four kinds of power—military, economic, politi- gist notes that the “complete checklist of civi- cal, and religious—converged. lization” contains “cities, warfare, writing, As Map 1.1 shows, a number of civilizations social hierarchies, [and] advanced arts and developed independently of each other across the crafts.”1 With cities, human populations globe. This chapter focuses on the Mesopotamian achieved the critical mass necessary to develop and Egyptian civilizations because many of the specialized occupations and a level of economic characteristics of “Western civilization” origi- production high enough to sustain complex reli- nated in these areas. The history of “Western civi- gious and cultural practices—and to wage war. lization” thus begins not in Europe, the core To record these economic, cultural, and military territory of the West today, but in what we usually interactions, writing developed. Social organiza- call the Middle East and what ancient historians ARCTIC ARCTIC OCEAN OCEAN EUROPE NORTH AMERICA ASIA ATLANTIC OCEAN PACIFIC AFRICA OCEAN PACIFIC OCEAN SOUTH INDIAN AMERICA OCEAN Indus/Ganges River Valleys AUSTRALIA Huang Ho River Valley Tigris/Euphrates River Valleys Nile River Valley 0 3000 km Central Asia 0 3000 mi Inca *Scale at the equator MAP 1.1 The Beginnings of Civilization Civilizations developed independently in India, China, central Asia, and Peru, as well as in Egypt and southwest Asia. Western civilization, however, is rooted in the civilizations that first emerged in Egypt and southwest Asia. Learn on MyHistoryLab M02_LEVA2848_03_SE_C01.QXD 12/22/09 8:03 PM Page 13 Defining Civilization, Defining Western Civilization 13 call the “Near East.”* By 2500 B.C.E., when, as we in the Zagros Mountains in Southwest Asia. Pigs, will see, city-states in Mesopotamia formed a which adapt well to human settlements because flourishing civilization and Egypt’s Old Kingdom they eat garbage, were first domesticated around was well-developed, Europeans still lived only in 7000 B.C.E. By around 6500 B.C.E., domestication scattered agricultural communities. Without the had become widespread. critical mass of people and possessions that Farming and herding were hard work, but accompanied city life, early Europeans did not the payoff was enormous. Even simple agricul- develop the specialized religious, economic, and tural methods could produce about 50 times political classes that characterize a civilization. more food than hunting and gathering. Thanks to the increased food supply, more newborns survived past infancy. Populations expanded, Making Civilization Possible: and so did human settlements. With the mastery The Food-Producing Revolution of food production, human societies developed For more than the first 175,000 years of their exis- the mechanisms not only to feed themselves, but tence, modern humans, known as Homo sapiens also to produce a surplus, which allowed for eco- sapiens (“most intelligent people”), did not pro- nomic specialization and fostered the growth of duce food. Between 200,000 and 100,000 years social, political, and religious hierarchies. ago, Homo sapiens sapiens first appeared in Africa and began to spread to other continents. Scientists refer to this stage of human history as the Pale- The First Food-Producing Communities olithic Age, or Old Stone Age, because people The world’s first food-producing communities made tools by cracking rocks and using their sharp emerged in southwest Asia. People began cultivat- edges to cut and chop. These early peoples scav- ing food in three separate areas, shown on enged for wild food and followed migrating herds Map 1.2. Archaeologists have named the first area of animals. They also created beautiful works of the Levantine Corridor (also known as the Fertile art by carving bone and painting on cave walls. By Crescent)—a 25-mile-wide strip of land that runs 45,000 years ago, these humans had reached most from the Jordan River valley of modern Israel and of Earth’s habitable regions. Palestine to the Euphrates River valley in today’s The end of the last Ice Age about 15,000 Iraq.† The second region was the hilly land north of years ago ushered in an era of momentous Mesopotamia at the base of the Zagros Mountains. change: the food-producing revolution. As the The third was Anatolia, or what is now Turkey. Earth’s climate became warmer, cereal grasses The small settlement of Abu Hureyra near the spread over large areas. Hunter-gatherers learned center of the Levantine Corridor illustrates how to collect these wild grains and grind them up for agriculture developed. Humans first settled here food. When people learned that the seeds of wild around 9500 B.C.E. They fed themselves primarily grasses could be transplanted and grown in new by hunting gazelles and gathering wild cereals. areas, the cultivation of plants was underway. But sometime between 8000 and 7700 B.C.E., they People also began domesticating pigs, sheep, began to plant and harvest grains. Eventually they goats, and cattle, which eventually replaced wild discovered that crop rotation—planting different game as the main sources of meat. The first signs crops in a field each year—resulted in a much of goat domestication occurred about 8900 B.C.E. higher yield. By 7000 B.C.E. Abu Hureyra had grown into a farming community, covering nearly 30 acres that sustained a population of about 400. *Terms such as the “Near East,” the “Middle East,” and the “Far East”—China, Japan, and Korea—betray their West- †The term Levant refers to the eastern Mediterranean coastal ern European origins. For someone in India, say, or Russia or Australia, neither Mesopotamia nor Egypt is located to region. “Levant” comes from the French: “the rising [sun]”— the “east.” in other words, the territory to the east, where the sun rises. M02_LEVA2848_03_SE_C01.QXD 12/22/09 8:03 PM Page 14 14 CHAPTER 1 The Beginnings of Civilization, 10,000–1150 B.C.E. ANATOLIA Caspian Sea Çatal Hüyük E CORRIDOR / F ANTIN ER LEV TIL EC R ES Eu CE Abu Hureyra p NT Tig hr Cyprus at r is R es Zag r os R.. M Mediterranean ou nt Sea ai MESOPOTAMIA ns Jordan R. Arabian Desert MAP 1.2 The Beginnings of Food Production Sinai The Beginnings of Food Production Persian Peninsula This map shows early farming Gulf sites where the first known 0 200 km production of food occurred 0 200 mi in ancient southwest Asia. Red Learn on MyHistoryLab Sea A few generations later, the inhabitants of Abu walking along the rooftops and climbing down a Hureyra began herding sheep and goats to supple- ladder set in the smoke hole. Such a set-up, while ment their meat supply. These domesticated ani- physically uncomfortable, also strengthened mals became the community’s primary source of Çatal Hüyük’s security from outside attack. meat when the gazelle herds were depleted about Archaeologists have uncovered about 40 6500 B.C.E. rooms that served as religious shrines. The paint- Families in Abu Hureyra lived in small, rectan- ings and engravings on the walls of these rooms gular dwellings containing several rooms. Archaeo- focus on the two main concerns of ancient logical evidence shows that many women in the societies: fertility and death. In these scenes, vul- community developed arthritis in their knees, prob- tures scavenge on human corpses while women ably from crouching for hours on end to grind give birth to bulls (associated with virility). grains. Thus, we assume that while men hunted and These shrines also contain statues of goddesses harvested, women prepared food. The division of whose exaggerated breasts and buttocks indicate labor along gender lines indicates a growing com- the importance of fertility rites in the villagers’ plexity of social relations within the community. religious rituals. Similar patterns of agricultural development Only a wealthy community could allow some characterized the early histories of other regions people to work as artists or priests rather than as in southwest Asia. By 6000 B.C.E., for example, farmers, and Çatal Hüyük was wealthy by the the Anatolian town of Çatal Hüyük (meaning standards of its era. Much of its wealth rested on “Fork Mound”) consisted of 32 acres of tightly trade in obsidian. This volcanic stone was the most packed rectangular mud houses that the towns- important commodity in the Neolithic Age people rebuilt more than a dozen times as their because it could be used to make sharp-edged tools population expanded. By 6700 B.C.E. about 6,000 such as arrowheads, spear points, and sickles for people lived in houses built so closely together harvesting crops. Çatal Hüyük controlled the that residents could only enter their homes by obsidian trade from Anatolia to the Levantine M02_LEVA2848_03_SE_C01.QXD 12/22/09 8:03 PM Page 15 Defining Civilization, Defining Western Civilization 15 CHRONOLOGY: THE FOUNDATIONS OF CIVILIZATION 150,000 years ago Modern humans first appear in Africa 45,000 years ago Modern humans spread through Africa, Asia, and Europe 15,000 years ago Ice Age ends 11,000 years ago Food production begins in southwest Asia 9,500–3,000 years ago Settled villages, domesticated plants and animals, and long-distance trade appear in Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and Egypt Corridor. With increasing wealth came widening Transformations in Europe social differences. While most of the burial sites at In all of these developments, Europe remained far Çatal Hüyük showed little variation, a few corpses behind. The colder and wetter European climate were buried with jewelry and other riches, a prac- meant heavier soils that were harder to cultivate tice that indicates the beginning of distinctions than those in the Near East. The food-producing between wealthy and poor members of the society. revolution that began in southwest Asia around The long-distance obsidian trade that 8000 B.C.E. did not spread to Europe for another underlay Çatal Hüyük’s wealth also sped up thousand years, when farmers, probably from Ana- the development of other food-producing com- tolia, ventured to northern Greece and the Balkans. munities in the Levantine Corridor, the Zagros Settled agricultural communities had become the Mountains, and Anatolia. These trade networks norm in southwest Asia by 6000 B.C.E., but not of the Neolithic Age laid the foundation for the until about 2500 B.C.E. did most of Europe’s hunt- commercial and cultural encounters that fos- ing and gathering cultures give way to small, widely tered the world’s first civilization. dispersed farming communities. (See Map 1.3.) North Sea Stonehenge Aral MAP 1.3 Sea Neolithic Cultures in ATLANTIC OCEAN Ca sp Europe Alps During the Neolithic period, ia n Black Sea new cultures developed as Sea most of the peoples of Europe ANATOLIA changed their way of life MESOPOTAMIA from hunting and gathering Mediterranean Sea Pe to food production. Trade and rsi an Gulf warfare constructed networks of village communities, but Neolithic Cultures in Europe two key components of 0 500 km civilization—writing and Re Megalith builders d Early agricultural areas 0 500 mi cities—did not emerge in Se these centuries. a Learn on MyHistoryLab M02_LEVA2848_03_SE_C01.QXD 12/22/09 8:04 PM Page 16 16 CHAPTER 1 The Beginnings of Civilization, 10,000–1150 B.C.E. As farmers and herders spread across evolved. These networks provided the basis for the Europe, people adapted to different climates and meeting and blending of different groups of peo- terrain. A variety of cultures evolved from these ples and different cultural assumptions and ideas. differences but most shared the same basic char- The introduction of the plow was the second acteristics: Early Europeans farmed a range of significant technological development for early crops and herded domesticated animals. They Europe. The plow, invented in Mesopotamia in lived in villages, clusters of permanent family the late fifth or early fourth millennium B.C.E., farmsteads. Jewelry and other luxury goods left became widely used in Europe around 2600 in women’s graves might indicate that these vil- B.C.E. The use of plows meant that fewer people lage societies granted high status to women, were needed to cultivate Europe’s heavy soils. perhaps because these communities traced ances- With more people available to clear forest lands, try through mothers. farming communities expanded and multiplied, Two important technological shifts ushered in as did opportunities for individual initiative and significant economic or social change in these early the accumulation of wealth. European groups. The first was metallurgy, the art As a result of these developments—and as of using fire to shape metals. Knowledge of metal- had occurred much earlier in the Near East—the lurgy spread slowly across Europe from the social structure within European villages became Balkans, where people started to mine copper more stratified, with growing divisions between about 4500 B.C.E. Jewelry made from copper and the rich and the poor. From the evidence of gold became coveted luxury goods. As trade in weaponry buried in graves, we know that the war- metals flourished, long-distance trading networks rior emerged as a dominant figure in these early STONEHENGE This megalithic monument in southern England consists of two circles of standing stones with large blocks capping the circles. It was built without the aid of wheeled vehicles or metal tools, and the stones were dragged from many miles away. M02_LEVA2848_03_SE_C01.QXD 12/22/09 8:04 PM Page 17 Mesopotamia: Kingdoms, Empires, and Conquests 17 European societies. With the growing emphasis on Long before the early Europeans living in military power, women’s status may have declined. Britain began to build Stonehenge, the first civ- These early Europeans constructed enduring ilization and the world’s first empires emerged monuments that offer tantalizing glimpses of their on the Mesopotamian floodplain. Standing at cultural practices and religious beliefs. Around the junction of the three continents of Africa, 4000 B.C.E. Europeans began building communal Asia, and Europe, southwest Asia became the tombs with huge stones called megaliths. Mega- meeting place of peoples, technologies, and liths were constructed from Scandinavia to Spain ideas. and on islands in the western Mediterranean. The best-known megalith construction is Stonehenge in England. People began to build Stonehenge The Sumerian Kingdoms about 3000 B.C.E. as a ring of pits. The first stone About 5300 B.C.E. the villages in Sumer in south- circle of “bluestones,” hauled all the way from the ern Mesopotamia began a dynamic civilization Welsh hills, was constructed about 2300 B.C.E. that would flourish for thousands of years. The Only an advanced level of engineering expertise, key to Sumerian civilization was water. Without combined with a high degree of organization of a regular water supply, villages and cities could labor, made such construction possible. not have survived in Sumer. The name The purpose of these magnificent construc- Mesopotamia, an ancient Greek word, means tions remains controversial. Some archaeologists “the land between the rivers.” Nestled between argue that Stonehenge was used to measure the the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, Sumerian civi- movement of stars, the sun, and the planets. Oth- lization developed as its peoples learned to con- ers view it as principally a place for religious cer- trol the rivers that both enabled and imperiled emonies. Recent excavations suggest a third human settlement. possibility: Stonehenge may have been a complex The Tigris and Euphrates are unpredictable devoted to healing ceremonies. All three theories water sources, prone to sudden, powerful, and could be correct, for ancient peoples commonly destructive flooding. Sumerian villagers first associated healing and astronomical observation built their own levees for flood protection and with religious belief and practice. dug their own small channels to divert floodwa- If we recall the “complete checklist” needed for ters from the two great rivers to irrigate their dry a civilization—“cities, warfare, writing, social hier- lands. Then they discovered that by combining archies, [and] advanced arts and crafts”2—we can the labor force of several villages, they could see that by 1600 B.C.E., Europeans had checked off build and maintain levee systems and irrigation all of these requirements except cities and writing— channels on a large scale. Villages merged into both crucial for building human civilizations. The cities that became the foundation of Sumerian rest of this chapter, then, will focus not on Europe, civilization, as centralized administrations devel- but on the dramatic developments in southwest oped to manage the dams, levees, and irrigation Asia and Egypt from the sixth millenium B.C.E. on. canals; to direct the labor needed to maintain and expand the water works; and to distribute the resources that the system produced. By 2500 B.C.E., about 13 major city-states— MESOPOTAMIA: KINGDOMS, perhaps as many as 35 in all—managed the EMPIRES, AND CONQUESTS Mesopotamian floodplain in an organized fash- ion. (See Map 1.4.) In Sumer’s city-states, the 䊏 What changes and continuities characterized urban center directly controlled the surrounding Mesopotamian civilization between the countryside. Uruk, “the first city in human his- emergence of Sumer’s city-states and the rise tory,”3 covered about two square miles and had of Hammurabi’s Babylonian empire? a population of approximately 50,000 people, M02_LEVA2848_03_SE_C01.QXD 12/22/09 8:04 PM Page 18 18 CHAPTER 1 The Beginnings of Civilization, 10,000–1150 B.C.E. Kingdoms and Empires in Southwest Asia Black Sea Sargon’s Empire Hammurabi’s Empire Ur III ANATOLIA Kanesh Caspian Sea Ti g ris Aegean ASSYRIAN R. Sea EMPIRE Nineveh M Eu p hrat e ES OP Assur sR OT. Cyprus AM ASSYRIA IA Za gr SYRIAN Syrian os Mediterranean Sea M CITIES Desert ou Akkad? nt Babylon ain Kish s SUMER CANAANITE Uruk CITIES Ur Memphis Sinai EGYPT Pe rsi an Gu lf Red 0 400 km Thebes Sea 0 400 mi MAP 1.4 Kingdoms and Empires in Southwest Asia Between 3000 and 1500 B.C.E., the Sumerian city-states, Sargon’s Akkadian Empire, and Hammurabi’s empire in Babylon emerged in southwest Asia. Learn on MyHistoryLab including both city-dwellers and the peasants other Sumerian city-states were redistributive living in small villages in a radius of about ten economies. In this type of economic system, the miles around the city. central authority (such as the king) controlled Sumer’s cities served as economic centers the agricultural resources and “redistributed” where craft specialists such as potters, toolmak- them to his people (in an unequal fashion!). ers, and weavers gathered to swap information Archaeologists excavating Uruk have found and trade goods. Long-distance trade, made eas- millions of bevel-rimmed bowls, all the same ier by the introduction of wheeled carts, enabled size and shape—and, as the archaeologist merchants to bring timber, ores, building stone, Robert Wenke notes, “surely one of the ugliest and luxury items unavailable in southern ceramic types ever made outside a kinder- Mesopotamia from Anatolia, the Levantine Cor- garten.”4 One theory is that the bowls were ridor, Afghanistan, and Iran. ration bowls—containers in which workers Within each city-state, an elite group of res- received their daily ration of grain. What is idents regulated economic life. Uruk and the certain is that the bowls were mass-produced, M02_LEVA2848_03_SE_C01.QXD 12/22/09 8:04 PM Page 19 Mesopotamia: Kingdoms, Empires, and Conquests 19 expanded, competition for land increased. Such competition led to warfare, and during warfare, military leaders amassed power and eventually, became kings. The king’s power rested on his military might. Yet to retain the people’s loyalty and obedi- ence, a king also needed reli- gious legitimacy. Kingship, then, quickly became a key part of Sumerian religious tradi- tions. Sumerians believed that “kingship descended from heaven,” that the king ruled on the god’s behalf. According to a Sumerian proverb, “Man is the shadow of god, but the king is god’s reflection.”5 To challenge the king was to challenge the gods—never a healthy choice. BEVEL-RIMMED BOWLS The royal household and the These bowls, found in abundance at Uruk, were mass-produced with a temple priesthood thus worked mold rather than a wheel. Porous, they cannot hold liquids, but rather together to exploit the labor of were most likely used to carry the laborer’s daily wages in grain. their subjects and amass power and wealth. Religious and political life were and that only a powerful central authority thoroughly intertwined. could organize such mass production. Although the Sumerian city-states did not In the earliest era of Sumerian history, tem- unite politically—and, in fact, frequently fought ple priests constituted this central authority. each other—a number of factors created a single Sumerians believed that their city belonged to a Sumerian culture. First, the kings maintained god or goddess: The god owned all the lands and diplomatic relations with one another and with water, and the god’s priests, who lived with him rulers throughout southwest Asia and Egypt, pri- (or her) in the temple, administered these marily to protect their trading networks. These resources on the god’s behalf. In practice, this trade networks also helped tie the Sumerian meant that the priests collected exorbitant taxes cities together and fostered a common Sumerian in the forms of goods (grains, livestock, and culture. Second, the city-states shared the same manufactured products such as textiles) and pantheon of gods. The surviving documents services (laboring on city building and irrigation reveal that Sumerians in the different city-states projects), and in return provided food rations for sang the same hymns, used the same incantations the workers from these collections. to protect themselves from evil spirits, and As Sumer’s city-states expanded, a new form offered their children the same proverbial of authority emerged. The ruins of monumental nuggets of advice and warning. They did so, palaces as well as temples testify to the appearance however, in two different languages—Sumerian, of powerful royal households that joined the tem- unrelated to any other known language, and ple priesthood in managing the resources of the Akkadian, a member of the Semitic language city-state. Historians theorize that as city-states family that includes Hebrew and Arabic. M02_LEVA2848_03_SE_C01.QXD 12/22/09 8:04 PM Page 20 20 CHAPTER 1 The Beginnings of Civilization, 10,000–1150 B.C.E. The Akkadian Empire of Sargon tribute. In addition, Akkadian kings depended on the Great the revenue generated by commerce. They placed The political independence of the Sumerian city- heavy taxes on raw materials imported from for- states ended around 2340 B.C.E. when they were eign lands. In fact, most Akkadian kings made conquered by a warrior who took the name Sar- long-distance trade the central objective of their gon (“true king”) and built a capital city at Agade foreign policy. They sent military expeditions as far (or Akkad), the ruins of which may rest under the as Anatolia and Iran to obtain timber, metals, and modern city of Baghdad. With the reign of Sargon luxury goods. Akkadian troops protected interna- (ca. 2340–ca. 2305 B.C.E.), the history of tional trade routes and managed the maritime trade Mesopotamia took a sharp turn. Sargon created in the Persian Gulf, where merchants brought the first empire in history. The term empire identi- goods by ship from India and southern Arabia. fies a kingdom or state that controls foreign terri- Akkadian troops also waged war. Warfare tories, either on the same continent or overseas. during this era changed with the use of two Except for relatively brief periods of fragmenta- new military technologies. The composite bow tion, imperial rule became the standard form of boosted the killing power of archers. Multiple political statehood in southwest Asia for millen- layers of wood from different types of trees as nia. Because an empire, by definition, brings well as bone and sinew added to the tensile together different peoples, it serves as a cauldron strength of the bow and so increased the dis- of cultural encounters. As we will see, such tance an arrow could fly and the speed at encounters often transformed not only the con- which it did so. The second important military quered peoples, but the conquerors themselves. innovation was an early form of the chariot, a Map 1.4 shows that the empire Sargon built heavy four-wheeled cart that carried a driver embraced a string of territories running far west and a spearman. Mounted on fixed wheels (and up the Euphrates River toward the Mediter- so incapable of swift turns) and pulled by don- ranean. Sargon was probably the first ruler in keys (the faster horse did not come into use history to create a standing army, one that was until the second millennium), the early chariot larger than any yet seen in the Near East. This must have been a slow, clumsy instrument. Yet formidable fighting force certainly helps explain it proved effective in breaking up enemy how he conquered so many peoples. To meld infantry formations. these peoples into an empire, however, required The cities of Mesopotamia prospered under not only military power but also innovative Akkadian rule. Even so, Akkadian rulers could organizational skills. The formerly independent not hold their empire together for reasons that Sumerian city rulers became Sargon’s governors, historians do not completely understand. One required to send a portion of all taxes collected older explanation is that marauding tribes from to Akkad. Akkadian became the new adminis- the Zagros Mountains infiltrated the kingdom trative language, and a standard measurement and caused tremendous damage. More recent and dating system was imposed to make record- research suggests that civil war tore apart the keeping more efficient. empire. Regardless of the cause, Akkadian kings Raising the revenues to meet the costs of run- lost control of their lands, and a period of anar- ning this enormous empire was vital. Akkadian chy began about 2250 B.C.E. “Who was king? monarchs generated revenues in several ways. Who was not king?” lamented a writer during They, of course, taxed their people. Hence, the this time of troubles. After approximately a cen- Mesopotamian proverb: “There are lords and there tury of chaos, the kingdom finally collapsed. are kings, but the real person to fear is the tax col- Sargon, however, lived on in the memories and lector.”6 They also leased out their vast farmlands folk tales of the peoples of southwest Asia as the and required conquered people to pay regular model of the mighty king. M02_LEVA2848_03_SE_C01.QXD 12/22/09 8:04 PM Page 21 Mesopotamia: Kingdoms, Empires, and Conquests 21 THE SUMERIANS AT WAR This Sumerian battle wagon, a heavy four-wheeled cart pulled by donkeys, appears on the “Standard of Ur” (ca. 2500 B.C.E.). Excavated in the 1920s, the “Standard” is actually a wooden box, about 8.5 × 20 inches, with an inlaid mosaic of shells, red limestone, and lapis lazuli. One panel of the mosaic depicts a Sumerian war scene, the other a banquet; hence, archaeologists have labeled the panels “War” and “Peace.” The Ur III Dynasty the canal system, and acted as the highest judge and the Rise of Assyria in the province. Significantly, they did not con- With the fall of Akkad, the cities of Sumer trol the military. Ur III’s kings set up a separate regained their independence, but they were military administration and made sure that the soon—and forcibly—reunited under Ur-Nammu generals assigned to each province came from (r. ca. 2112–ca. 2095 B.C.E.), king of the Sumerian somewhere else. In this way, the king could be city of Ur, located far to the south of Akkad. sure that the general owed his allegiance to the Ur-Nammu established a powerful dynasty that royal household, not to the local elite. Ur’s kings lasted for five generations. also strengthened their power by assuming the The Ur III dynasty (as it is called) developed status of gods. Royal officials encouraged the an administrative bureaucracy even more elabo- people to give their children names such as rate than that of Sargon. Like all bureaucracies, “Shulgi is my god” to remind them of the king’s it generated vast amounts of documents—we divine authority. have more documentary sources for the Ur III era Despite their sophisticated bureaucratic appa- than for any other in ancient southwest Asia. ratus and their claims to divinity, the kings of Ur Local elites, who served as the king’s governors, proved unable to stave off political fragmentation administered the empire’s 20 provinces. To indefinitely. Rebellions increased in size and assure their loyalty, they were often bound to the tempo. About 2000 B.C.E., semi-nomadic peoples king by ties of marriage. As governors, these known as Amorites began invading Mesopotamia locals controlled the temple estates, maintained from the steppes to the west and north. The M02_LEVA2848_03_SE_C01.QXD 12/22/09 8:04 PM Page 22 22 CHAPTER 1 The Beginnings of Civilization, 10,000–1150 B.C.E. Amorites seized fortified towns, taking food and (r. 1792–1750 B.C.E.). Hammurabi never supplies and causing widespread destruction. entirely conquered Assyria, but he dominated Their invasions destabilized the economy. Peas- Mesopotamian affairs. Like Ur-Nammu and Sar- ants fled from the fields, and with no food or rev- gon, Hammurabi developed a centralized admin- enues, inflation and famine overcame the empire. istration to direct irrigation and building projects Ur collapsed, and Mesopotamia shattered again and to foster commerce throughout his realm. into a scattering of squabbling cities. Both his law code (discussed later in this chapter) and his surviving letters to his royal agents reveal that no detail of economic life was too small for Assyria and Babylonia Hammurabi’s notice. In one letter, for example, For a long period, the political unity Sargon forged he ordered his agent to give “a fallow field that is in Mesopotamia remained elusive, as states and of good quality and lies near the water, to Sin- peoples fought each other for control. This period imguranni, the seal-cutter.”7 Hammurabi did of political fragmentation allowed for an impor- not, however, reverse the partial “privatization” tant development: a partial “privatization” of the of the economy that had developed during the Mesopotamian economy, as individuals began to era of political fragmentation. Babylonian soci- trade on their own behalf. Not connected in any ety contained a prospering private sector of mer- way to the temple or the palace and, therefore, chants, craftspeople, farmers, and sailors. outside the redistributive economy, many of these Hammurabi liked to think of himself as a benev- free people grew prosperous. Merchants traveling olent ruler, a kind of protective father. He by land and sea brought textiles, metals, and lux- declared, “I held the people of the lands of ury items such as gold and silver jewelry and gems Sumer and Akkad safely on my lap.”8 from lands bordering the Mediterranean and Nevertheless, Hammurabi and his succes- along the Persian Gulf and Red Sea. sors imposed heavy taxes on their subjects. Assyrian merchants, for example, developed These financial demands provoked resentment, an elaborate trade network linking the city-state and when Hammurabi died, many Babylonian of Assur with Anatolia. (See Map 1.4.) In Assur, provinces successfully revolted. The loss of they loaded up donkey caravans with tin and revenue weakened the Babylonian imperial gov- textiles for an arduous 50-day journey to the ernment. By 1650, Hammurabi’s empire had southern Anatolian city of Kanesh. (The surviv- shrunk to northern Babylon, the territory Ham- ing documentation is so detailed that we know murabi had inherited when he first became that each donkey carried 150 pounds of tin or 30 king. Hammurabi’s successors remained in textiles weighing about five pounds each.) Once control of northern Babylon for another five they arrived in Kanesh, the merchants sold the generations, but by 1400 B.C.E., a new people, donkeys, exchanged their merchandise for silver the Kassites, ruled the kingdom. and gold, and headed back to Assur. Meanwhile, Assyrian merchants stationed in Kanesh sold the tin and textiles throughout Anatolia. The Cultural Continuities: enterprise was risky—a storm, bandits, or a sick donkey could imperil it—but the profits were The Transmission of huge: 50–100 percent annually. Building on this Mesopotamian Cultures economic prosperity, Assur (or Assyria) flour- Although the rise and fall of kingdoms and ished as a powerful city-state until one of the empires punctuated the political history of most powerful empire-builders in the history of Mesopotamia between the emergence of Sumerian ancient southwest Asia reduced its power. civilization in 5300 B.C.E. and the collapse of Baby- By 1780 B.C.E., the kingdom of Babylon lon in 1500 B.C.E., Mesopotamian culture exhib- had become a mighty empire under Hammurabi ited remarkable continuity. Over these millennia, M02_LEVA2848_03_SE_C01.QXD 12/22/09 8:04 PM Page 23 Mesopotamia: Kingdoms, Empires, and Conquests 23 Sumerian religious values, architectural styles, lit- Sumerian city stood the temple complex, com- erary forms, and other cultural concepts were prising temples to various gods, buildings to absorbed, transformed, and passed on by the vari- house the priests and priestesses, storage facilities ous peoples they encountered in both commerce for the sacrificial gifts, and looming over it all, and conquest. the ziggurat. As the photograph of the ziggurat of Ur reveals, ziggurats were enormous square or THE MESOPOTAMIAN WORLD VIEW: RELIGION rectangular temples with a striking stair-step Religion—powerfully influenced by Mesopotamia’s design. Ur’s ziggurat, built around 2100 B.C.E. by volatile climate—played a central role in the Sumer- Ur-Nammu, had a 50-foot high base, on which ian and, hence, the wider Mesopotamian world three stairways, each of 100 steps, led to the main view. The Sumerians did not tend to think of their gateways. The top of Ur’s ziggurat did not sur- gods as loving or forgiving. Sumerian civilization vive, but in Ur-Nammu’s time, a central staircase arose on a floodplain subject to extreme and unpre- would have led upward to a temple. dictable climate conditions, with results ranging Ur-Nammu built Ur’s ziggurat to house the from devastating drought to torrential floods. chief god of the city. The Sumerians believed that Sumerians knew firsthand the famine and destruc- one god or goddess protected each city, and that tion that could result from sudden rainstorms, vio- the city should serve as an earthly model of the lent winds, or a flash flood They envisioned each of god’s divine home. Towering over the city, the these natural forces as an unpredictable god who, deity’s ziggurat reminded all the inhabitants of like a human king or queen, was often unfair and the omnipresent gods who controlled not only had to be pleased and appeased: their commerce, but their very destiny. The sin I have committed I know not; The forbidden thing I have done I do not know. Some god has turned his rage against me; Some goddess has aimed her ire. I cry for help but no one takes my hand.9 Sumer’s religion was polytheistic. Sumerians believed that many gods controlled their destinies. In the Sumerian pantheon, the all-powerful king Anu, the father of the gods, ruled the sky. Enlil was master of the wind and guided humans in the proper use of force. Enki governed the Earth and rivers and guided human creativity and inventions. Inanna was the goddess of love, sex, fertility, and warfare. These gods continued to dominate Mesopotamian culture long after Sumer’s cities lost their political independence. After Hammurabi con- quered most of Mesopotamia, Babylon’s city-god Marduk joined the pantheon as a major deity. ZIGGURAT OF UR Because the priests conducted the sacrifices that appeased the often-angry gods, the priest- Built of mud-brick, the Ziggurat of Ur was the focal point of religious life in the city. This vast temple was hood dominated Mesopotamian culture as did built by King Ur-Nammu of the Third Dynasty the temples in which they served and the gods to (2112–2095 B.C.E.) and restored by the British whom they sacrificed. In the center of every archaeologist, Sir Leonard Woolley, in the 1930s. M02_LEVA2848_03_SE_C01.QXD 12/22/09 8:04 PM Page 24 24 CHAPTER 1 The Beginnings of Civilization, 10,000–1150 B.C.E. THE MESOPOTAMIAN WORLDVIEW: SCIENCE? This proto-scientific understanding is Struggling to survive within an often hostile envi- even more evident in the technological, astro- ronment, Mesopotamians sought to understand nomical, and mathematical legacy of ancient and control their world through the practice of Mesopotamia. Sumerians devised the potter’s divination. To “divine”—to discern or to wheel, the wagon, and the chariot. They devel- “read”—the future, a local wise woman or a oped detailed knowledge about the movement of priest looked for the messages imprinted in the the stars, planets, and the moon, especially as natural world, such as in the entrails of a dead these movements pertained to agricultural cycles, animal or in an unusual natural event. Once a and they made impressive innovations in mathe- person knew what the future was to hold, he or matics. Many Sumerian tablets show multiplica- she could then work to change it. If the omens tion tables, square and cube roots, exponents, were bad, for example, a man could seek to and other practical information such as how to appease the god by offering a sacrifice. calculate compound interest on loans. The Sume- Divination and religious sacrifice seem to rians divided the circle into 360 degrees and have little to do with science—and in Western developed a counting system based on 60 in mul- culture in the twenty-first century, “religion” and tiples of ten—a system we still use to tell time. “science” are often viewed as opposing or at least separate realms. Yet the Mesopotamian practice THE DEVELOPMENT OF WRITING Perhaps the Sume- of divination helped shape a “proto-scientific” rians’ most important cultural innovation was attitude toward the world. Much of divination writing. The Sumerians devised a unique script to consisted of “if... then...” equations: record their language. Historians call the symbols that Sumerians pressed onto clay tablets with If a horse attempts to mount a cow, then sharp objects cuneiform, or wedge-shaped, writ- there will be a decline in the land. ing. The earliest known documents written in this If a man’s chest-hair curls upward, he will language come from Uruk about 3200 B.C.E. Writ- become a slave. ing originated because of the demands of record- If the gallbladder [of the sacrificial sheep] is keeping. By around 4000 B.C.E., officials in Uruk stripped of the hepatic duct, the army were using small clay tokens of different shapes to of the king will suffer thirst during a represent and record quantities of produce and military campaign.10 numbers of livestock. They placed these tokens in Such statements seem silly, not scientific. Yet clay envelopes, and impressed marks on the outer they rest on one of the fundamentals of modern surface of the envelopes to indicate the contents. science: close observation of the natural By 3100 B.C.E., people stopped using tokens world. Only by observing and recording the and simply impressed the shapes directly on a flat normal processes of the natural world could piece of clay or tablet with a pointed stick or reed. Mesopotamians hope to recognize the omens As commodities and trading became more embedded in the abnormal. Moreover, in the complex, the number of symbols multiplied. practice of divination, observation of individual Learning the hundreds of signs required intensive events led to the formulation of a hypothesis of study. The scribes, the people who mastered a general pattern—what we call deduction, a these signs, became important figures in the crucial part of scientific analysis. In their effort royal and religious courts as their work enabled to discern rational patterns in the natural world kings and priests to regulate the economic life of to improve the circumstances of their own lives, their cities. Sumerian cuneiform writing spread, Mesopotamians were moving toward the begin- and other peoples of Mesopotamia and south- nings of a scientific mentality—a crucial aspect west Asia began adapting it to record informa- of Western civilization. tion in their own languages. M02_LEVA2848_03_SE_C01.QXD 12/22/09 8:04 PM Page 25 Mesopotamia: Kingdoms, Empires, and Conquests 25 grasp. A mere mortal, Gilgamesh becomes a wiser king, and his subjects benefit from his new wisdom. He realizes that while he must die, his fame may live on, and so he seeks to leave behind him a magnificent city that will live forever in human memory. The Epic of Gilgamesh as we know it was recorded in Akkadian, but it is clear that the sto- ries date from long before the rise of the Akka- dian Empire. Recited and read by Mesopotamian peoples for millennia, the Gilgamesh story’s influ- ence extended beyond the borders even of the empires of Sargon or Hammurabi. Its themes, plots, and characters reappear in revised form in the literatures of such diverse peoples as the ancient Hebrews (recorded in the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament) and the early Greeks. These peoples, however, reworked the stories in accor- CUNEIFORM TEXTS dance with their own cultural values. As a Sumer- The cuneiform, or “wedge-shaped” letters, on this ian tale, the Epic of Gilgamesh demonstrates a clay tablet date from about 3000 B.C.E. The tablet lists what are probably temple offerings under the Mesopotamian world view in its emphasis on the categories day one, day two, and day three. capriciousness of the gods, the hostility of nature, and the unpredictability of human existence. It offers no hope of heaven, only resignation to life’s THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH Writing made a literary unpredictability and the chance of finding some tradition possible. Sumerians told exciting sto- sort of reward during one’s short time on earth. ries about their gods and heroes. Passed on and adapted through the ages, these stories helped LAW AND ORDER Mesopotamian culture also shape ideas about divine action and human made a lasting imprint on future societies through response throughout Mesopotamian history. another important innovation: the code of law, One of the most popular of these stories con- preserved in written form. Archeologists have so cerned the legendary king Gilgamesh of Uruk. far uncovered three Sumerian law codes, the earli- Part god and part man, Gilgamesh harasses his est dating to around 2350 B.C.E. The most famous subjects. He demands sex from the young lawgiver of the ancient world was the Babylonian women and burdens the young men with con- empire-builder Hammurabi. The Law Code of struction tasks. The people of Uruk beg the gods Hammurabi—282 civil, commercial, and criminal to distract this bothersome hero. The gods send laws—is the world’s oldest complete surviving the beastly Enkidu to fight Gilgamesh, but after a compendium of laws. We do not know to what prolonged wrestling match that ends in a draw, extent these laws were actually implemented. the two become close friends and set off on a Many scholars argue that the code was a kind of series of adventures. The two heroes battle mon- public relations exercise, an effort by Hammurabi sters and even outwit the gods. Finally the gods both to present a social ideal and to persuade his decide that enough is enough and arrange for people (and the gods) to view him as the “King of Enkidu’s death. Mourning for his stalwart Justice.” (See Justice in History in this chapter.) friend, Gilgamesh sets out to find the secret to What is clear is that Hammurabi’s laws living forever. In the end, immortality eludes his unveil the social values and everyday concerns of M02_LEVA2848_03_SE_C01.QXD 12/22/09 8:04 PM Page 26 26 CHAPTER 1 The Beginnings of Civilization, 10,000–1150 B.C.E. JUSTICE IN HISTORY Gods and Kings in Mesopotamian Justice Mesopotamian kings placed a high priority on ruling their subjects justly. Shamash, the sun god and protector of justice, named two of his children Truth and Fairness. In the preface to his law code, Hammurabi explained the relationship between his rule and divine justice: At that time, Anu and Enlil [two of the greatest gods], for the well-being of the people, called me by name, Hammurabi, the pious, god-fearing prince, and appointed me to make justice appear in the land [and] to destroy the evil and wicked, so that the strong might not oppress the weak, [and] to rise like Shamash over the black-headed peo- ple [the people of Mesopotamia].12 Mesopotamian courts handled cases involving property, inheritance, boundaries, sale, and theft. A special panel of royal judges and officials han- dled cases involving the death penalty, such as treason, murder, sorcery, theft of temple goods, or adultery. Mesopotamians kept records of trials and legal decisions on clay tablets so that others might learn from them and avoid additional lawsuits. A lawsuit began when a person brought a dis- pute before a court. The court consisted of three to six judges chosen from among the town’s leading men, such as merchants, scribes, and officials in the town assembly. The judges could speak with authority about the community’s prin- ciples of justice. Litigants spoke on their own behalf and pre- sented testimony through witnesses, written doc- uments, or statements made by leading officials. THE LAW CODE OF HAMMURABI Witnesses took strict oaths to tell the truth in a Hammurabi receives the law directly from the sun temple before the statue of a god. Once the god, Shamash, on this copy of the Law Code. parties presented all the evidence, the judges Source: Stele of Hammurabi. Hammurabi standing before the made their decision and pronounced the verdict sun-god Shamash and 262 laws. Engraved black basalt stele. and punishment. 1792–1750 BCE, 1st Babylonian Dynasty. Louvre, Paris, France. Sometimes the judges asked the defendants to (c) Giraudon/Art Resource, NY. clear themselves by letting the god in whose M02_LEVA2848_03_SE_C01.QXD 12/22/09 8:04 PM Page 27 Mesopotamia: Kingdoms, Empires, and Conquests 27 name the oath was taken make the judgment. In her defense, two of Nin-dada’s supporters The accused person would then undergo pointed out that she had not been involved in an ordeal or test in which he or she had to the murder and therefore should be released: jump into a river and swim a certain distance Granted that the husband of Nin-dada, the underwater. Those who survived were considered daughter of Lu-Ninurta, has been killed, but innocent. Drowning constituted proof of guilt what had the woman done that she should be and a just punishment rendered by the gods. killed? The following account of one such ordeal comes from the city of Mari, about 1770 B.C.E. The court agreed, on the grounds that Nin-dada A queen was accused of casting spells on her hus- was justified in keeping silent because her husband band. The maid forced to undergo the ordeal on had not provided for her properly: her behalf drowned, and we do not know A woman whose husband did not support whether the queen received further punishment: her... why should she not remain silent Concerning Amat-Sakkanim... whom the river about him? Is it she who killed her husband? god overwhelmed.... : “We made her under- The punishment of those who actually killed take her plunge, saying to her, ‘Swear that your him should suffice. mistress did not perform any act of sorcery In accordance with the decision of the court, the against Yarkab-Addad her lord; that she did not defendants were executed. reveal any palace secret nor did another person This approach to justice—using witnesses, open the missive of her mistress; that your mis- evaluating evidence, and rendering a verdict in a tress did not commit a transgression against her court protected by the king—demonstrated the lord.’ In connection with these oaths they had Mesopotamians’ desire for fairness. This court her take her plunge; the river god overwhelmed decision became an important precedent that her, and she did not come up alive.”13 later judges frequently cited. This account illustrates the Mesopotamian belief For Discussion that sometimes only the gods could make deci- sions about right and wrong. By contrast, the fol- 1. How would a city benefit by letting a panel of lowing trial excerpts come from a homicide case in royal officials make judgments about life-and- which humans, not gods, made the final judg- death issues? How would the king benefit? ment. About 1850 B.C.E., three men murdered a 2. How do these trials demonstrate the temple official named Lu-Inanna. For unknown rea- interaction of Mesopotamian religious, sons, they told the victim’s wife, Nin-dada, what social, and political beliefs? they had done. King Ur-Ninurta of the city of Isin Taking It Further sent the case to be tried in the city of Nippur, the Greengus, Samuel. “Legal and Social Institu- site of an important court. When the case came to tions of Ancient Near Mesopotamia,” in trial, nine accusers asked that the three murderers Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, ed. Jack be executed. They also requested that Nin-dada be M. Sasson, vol. 1 (Peabody, MA: Hendrick- put to death because she had not reported the son Publishers, 2001). Describes basic princi- murder to the authorities. The accusers said: ples of law and administration of justice, They who have killed a man are not worthy with a bibliography of ancient legal texts. of life. Those three males and that woman should be killed. Learn on MyHistoryLab M02_LEVA2848_03_SE_C01.QXD 12/22/09 8:04 PM Page 28 28 CHAPTER 1 The Beginnings of Civilization, 10,000–1150 B.C.E. Babylonia’s rulers. For example, many of the family life. In a patriarchal society, the husband/ laws focus on the irrigation system that made father possesses supreme authority in the family. Babylonian agriculture possible. One such law Hence, Hammurabi’s code declared that if a reads: “If a man has opened his channel for irri- wife had a lover, both she and her lover would gation and has been negligent and allowed the be drowned, while a husband was permitted water to wash away a neighbor’s field, he shall extramarital sex. If a wife neglected her duties at pay grain equivalent to the crops of his neigh- home or failed to produce children, her husband bors”—or be sold as a slave.11 had the right to divorce her. Yet Mesopotamian Hammurabi’s law code buttressed Babylon’s women, at least those in the “free” class, were social hierarchy by drawing legal distinctions not devoid of all rights. If a husband divorced between classes of people. The crimes of aristo- his wife without sufficient cause, then he had to crats (called free men) were treated more give her back her entire dowry. Unlike in many leniently than were the offenses of common later societies, a married woman was an inde- people, while slaves were given no rights at all. pendent legal entity: She could appear in court If an aristocrat killed a commoner, he or she had and she could engage in commercial contracts. to pay a fine, whereas if a commoner killed an Some Babylonian women ran businesses, such as aristocrat, he or she was executed. But the code small shops and inns. of Hammurabi also emphasized the responsibil- Many of Hammurabi’s laws seem harsh: If a ity of public officials and carefully regulated house caved in because of faulty workmanship commercial transactions. If a home was robbed, and the householder died, then the builder was and city officers failed to find the burglar, then put to death. If a freeman hit another freeman’s the householder had the right to expect reim- pregnant daughter and caused her to miscarry, bursement for his losses from the city govern- he had to pay ten silver shekels for the unborn ment. If a moneylender suddenly raised interest child, but if his blow killed the daughter, then rates beyond those already agreed on, then he his own daughter was executed. Yet through forfeited the entire loan. these laws Hammurabi’s Code introduced one Almost one-quarter of Hammurabi’s of the fundamentals of Western jurisprudence: statutes concern family matters. The laws’ focus the idea that the punishment must suit the on questions of dowry and inheritance reflect crime (at least in crimes involving social equals). the Mesopotamian view of marriage as first and The principle of “an eye for an eye” (rather than foremost a business matter. The Sumerian word a life for an eye) helped shape legal thought in for love literally translates “to measure the southwest Asia for a millennium. It later influ- earth”—to mark land boundaries and designate enced the laws of the Hebrews and, thus who gets what. Hammurabi’s laws also high- through the Hebrew Bible (the Christian Old light the patriarchal structure of Mesopotamian Testament), still molds ideas about justice. CHRONOLOGY: MESOPOTAMIAN CIVILIZATION ca. 3000 B.C.E. Sumerian city-states emerge ca. 2340 B.C.E. Sargon unites Sumerian cities into the Akkadian Empire ca. 2250 B.C.E. Collapse of the Akkadian empire ca. 2100 B.C.E. Ur-Nammu reunites Sumerian cities; empire of “Ur III” ca. 2000 B.C.E. Collapse of Ur ca. 1790 B.C.E. Hammurabi creates the Babylonian empire ca. 1400 B.C.E. Kassites overrun Babylon M02_LEVA2848_03_SE_C01.QXD 12/22/09 8:04 PM Page 29 Egypt: The Empire of the Nile 29 EGYPT: THE EMPIRE OF THE NILE Egypt’s Rise to Empire Like the peoples of Mesopotamia, the Egyptians 䊏 What distinctive features characterized were originally hunter-gatherers who slowly Egyptian civilization throughout its long turned to growing crops and domesticating ani- history? mals. Small villages, in which people could coor- dinate their labor most easily, appeared along the As the civilizations of Mesopotamia rose and banks of the Nile between 5000 and 4000 B.C.E. fell, another civilization emerged far to the By 3500 B.C.E., Egyptians could survive comfort- south: Egypt. A long and narrow strip of land in ably through agriculture and herding. Small the northeast corner of Africa, Egypt depended towns multiplied along the Nile, and market cen- for its survival on the Nile, the world’s longest ters connected by roads emerged as hubs where river, which flows north into the Mediterranean artisans and merchants exchanged their wares. Sea from one of its points of origin in eastern Toward the end of the Predynastic period, Africa 4,000 miles away. The northernmost between 3500 and 3000 B.C.E., trade along the part of Egypt, where the Nile enters the Nile River resulted in a shared culture and way Mediterranean, is a broad and fertile delta. The of life. Towns grew into small kingdoms whose river flooded annually from mid-July to mid- rulers constantly warred with one another, October, leaving behind rich deposits of silt attempting to grab more land and extend their ideal for planting crops. Unlike in Southwest power. The big consumed the small, and by Asia, the annual floods in Egypt came with 3000 B.C.E., the towns had been absorbed clockwork regularity. For the Egyptians, nature into just two kingdoms: Upper Egypt in the was not unpredictable and random in its south and Lower Egypt in the north. These two destruction, but a benevolent force, generous in then united, forming what historians term the sharing its riches. Old Kingdom. (See Map 1.5.) Egypt was also fortunate in another of its physical features: it rested securely between two desert regions that effectively barricaded it from THE KINGS AND THE GODS IN THE OLD KINGDOM foreign conquest. Whereas Mesopotamia stood In the new capital city of Memphis, the Egyptian at the intersection of three continents, vulnerable kings became the focal points of religious, social, to invading armies, Egyptian civilization and political life. While in Mesopotamia, kings emerged in a far more easily defended position. were regarded as the gods’ representatives on Egyptian history, then, is remarkable for its earth, as sort of semi-divine intermediaries, political stability. This stability, combined with Egyptian kings were acknowledged as divine, the predictability and generosity of the Nile, may gods on earth who ruled Egypt on behalf of the explain the confidence and optimism that other gods. In the Old Kingdom, Egyptians marked Egyptian culture. called their king “the good god.” (The label Historians organize the long span of pharaoh was not used until the New Kingdom.) ancient Egyptian history into four main periods: Egyptian religious tales emphasized the divinity Predynastic and Early Dynastic (10,000–2680 of the king. In one such story, the god Osiris, B.C.E.), the Old Kingdom (ca. 2680–2200 B.C.E.), ruler of Egypt, was killed and chopped into bits the Middle Kingdom (2040–1720 B.C.E.), and by his evil brother, Seth. Osiris’ son, Horus, the New Kingdom (1550–1150 B.C.E.). Times of avenged his father by defeating Seth and reclaim- political disruption between the kingdoms are ing the Egyptian throne. All Egyptian kings, called intermediate periods. Despite these peri- then, embodied Horus during their reign. ods of disruption, the Egyptians maintained The story of the conflict between Osiris and a remarkably stable civilization for thousands Seth not only emphasized the divinity of the of years. king, it also stressed the central theme of the M02_LEVA2848_03_SE_C01.QXD 12/22/09 8:04 PM Page 30 30 CHAPTER 1 The Beginnings of Civilization, 10,000–1150 B.C.E. ANATOLIA HITTITE T The king’s essential task was to maintain ma‘at, EMPIRE to keep things in order and harmony. The king?