2.  The Aramaeans settled in central Syria in about 1200 B.C., and were very active in Middle Eastern Trade.  The Aramaean kings established a capital at Damascus, and gained control of the rich overland trade between Egypt and Mesopotamia.  Because they were frequently crossing through the fertile crescent for trade, most people throughout the region learned Aramaic (this is an example of cultural diffusion). Aramaic was closely related to Arabic and Hebrew.

3.  The Phoenicians migrated from the Arabian Peninsula in about 3000 B.C. and settled in the land of Canaan, which is made up today of Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan.  Their neighbors to the southwest in Canaan were the Philistines, who came from the Eastern Mediterranean (they later called the southern part of Canaan Palestine, which means “land of the Philistines”).

4. The Phoenicians did not have enough arable land for farming, so they harvested timber and made strong ships, which enabled them to travel as far as the coast of Spain (and some say the British Isles). They were experts at navigation, and used the sun and the stars as a guide. As excellent traders and business people, they soon took over all Mediterranean trade and shipping. Phoenicians had an advantage over other business people because they introduced the practice of using bills of sale and contracts to keep up with complex transactions (another example of cultural diffusion). 22 Letter Alphabet

5.  The Lydians lived in Asia Minor (the area we know as Turkey today.)  By about 600 B.C. the Lydians had developed a kingdom that was famous for its gold deposits.  They developed a money system, using coins as a medium of exchange, rather than the barter system that most other cultures still used. Soon Greek and Persian rulers began to stamp their own money and the concept of currency spread (another example of cultural diffusion).

6.  The Hittites were one of a series of warring empires who had great military skill and were the first to wield mostly iron weapons.  The Hittites were able to conquer almost any army that stood in their way, conquering Asia Minor in about 2000 B.C., Babylon in about 1595 B.C., and had an expansive empire.  The Hittites borrowed a lot of their culture from Egypt and Mesopotamia, but they did contribute a code of laws that was less harsh than Hammurabi’s.

7.  The Assyrians also developed a lethal army who used iron weapons and battering rams against the cities they were conquering.  By about 650 B.C., the Assyrian empire stretched from the Persian Gulf to Egypt, and into Asia Minor. Nineveh was the Assyrian capital, and the government collected heavy taxes to support the army and all of its building projects.  The empire began to fracture because the conquered peoples were in constant rebellion, and in 612 B.C., the Chaladeans of Babylon captured Ninaeveh and brought down the empire.

8.  After the Assyrian Empire fell, the Chaldeans dominated the Fertile Crescent.  They had their greatest success under king Nebuchadnezzer, who expanded the kingdom and made Babylon one of the most beautiful cities in the world.  Chaldeans were also noted for their observations of the positions of the planets and phases of the moon which they preserved in maps.  After Nebuchanezzer’s death, a series of weak kings ruled, and the empire was eventually overtaken by the Persians in 539 B.C.

9.  The Persians originated from a group of people now called Indo-Europeans, who left central Asia about 2000 B.C. and settled in the area of present day Iran.  By 540 B.C. Cyrus II had developed a strong army and moved into northern Mesopotamia, Syria, Canaan, the Phoenician cities, Lydia, and the Greek city states in Asia Minor. Darius I, who ruled the empire from 522 B.C. to 486 B.C. was a very effective administrator of the huge empire.  Unlike the Assyrians, the Persians were tolerant rulers who allowed the conquered peoples to retain their own languages, religions, and laws. With this, the Persians won the loyalty of their subjects.  The Persians did not trade outside of their Empire because they thought it was an “indecent occupation”, but they did encourage trade within their empire, and had his engineers improve the roads throughout the empire.

10.  The Israelites were another group of people living in Canaan, but as opposed to the other polytheistic cultures that surrounded them, they were monotheistic.  They believed in one God (Yahweh), whose commands were revealed by prophets. Yahweh was the judge of right and wrong, and expected people to live just and moral lives.  The Bible remains one of the main sources for ancient history in the fertile crescent. In it, the early Israelites trace their ancestry to Abraham, who was commanded to leave his home of Ur and settle in Canaan around 1900 B.C. by Yahweh.  And, God promised to make Abraham a great nation if he and is descendants were faithful to Him. Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, raised 12 sons in Israel (they became the 12 tribes of Israel), and to escape a severe famine the Israelites migrated from Canaan to Egypt. They lived there peacefully for several generations until the Egyptians enslaved them.

11.  In the 1200s B.C. Moses, an Israelite prophet, led his people out of Egypt in an exodus into the Sinai Dessert (at Passover, Jews tell the story of the exodus).  God then renewed the covenant he had made with Abraham, gave Moses the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20: 2-14), and promised the Israelites a safe return to their land in Canaan in return for their loyalty.  Upon their return to Canaan, they fought the Philistines and the Canaanites for about 200 years because they took over the land.  Leaders known as “judges” ruled each tribe as both judicial and military leaders until the 12 tribes were united under the rule of Saul, around 1020 B.C. due to the continual warfare

12.  Following Saul, David took the throne, and set up a capital in Jerusalem, organized a central government, and expanded their borders.  David’s son, Solomon, was the next to take the throne. He founded new cities, and spent a lot of money on building an incredible temple to God in Jerusalem, but the Israelites resented his high taxes and harsh labor requirements.  So, after his death in 922 B.C., the 10 northern tribes of Israel broke off and continued to call themselves Israel, and the 2 southern tribes called themselves Judah.