Archaeology 100-D200 Ancient Peoples and Places Archaeology and the Study of Prehistory… Week 8: FROM TOWNS TO CITIES & CHILDE’S SECOND REVOLUTION March 12 th & 14 th 2012 Dr. Alvaro Higueras Simon Fraser University, Spring 2012

Camp (palimpsest) – occasional/seasonal Hamlet Village Temple / Cave / Waterfall Ceremonial Center Town City + hinterland (A regional sphere?)

The City > Development of the settlement of a town, towards the city: new orders, politics, economics... > Regional settlement patterns: integration and hierarchical relationships > Towards Hyper-urbanism and “the World-at-a- City-Scale” : Urbis. > The structure of a city and social hierarchies. > Forbidden cities and social cosmogony (will vary based on the importance of religion in society).

Chan Chan, North Coast of Peru

Cities before or after the state? (Sedentary villages before agriculture) City state is earliest example (Mesopotamia) Functional cities (Egypt): limited to certain functions… several “capitals” First nominal control from the “religious center” then a de facto territorial control of region Planning: If a city is a relatively dense concentration of people disposed in such a way as to reveal central organizing principles other than kinship: Comparing cases of urban planning.

Childe’s Urban Revolution 10 traits 1 Size: the first cities must have been more extensive and more densely populated than any previous settlements. 2 ‘In composition and function the urban population already differed from that of any village … full-time specialist craftsmen, transport workers, merchants, officials and priests.’ 3 ‘Each primary producer paid over the tiny surplus he could wring from the soil with his still very limited technical equipment as tithe or tax to an imaginary deity or a divine king who thus concentrated the surplus.’

4 ‘Truly monumental public buildings not only distinguish each known city from any village but also symbolise the concentration of the social surplus.’ 5 ‘But naturally priests, civil and military leaders and officials absorbed a major share of the concentrated surplus and thus formed a “ruling class”.’ 6 ‘Writing.’ 7 ‘The elaboration of exact and predictive sciences – arithmetic, geometry and astronomy.’

8 ‘Conceptualised and sophisticated styles [of art].’ 9 ‘Regular “foreign” trade over quite long distances.’ 10 ‘A State organisation based now on residence rather than kinship.’

Elements of complexity, quantity and quality in a progressive line, sometimes interrupted, but all present in the city Administration: the exotic goods, the staple goods labor division & control water control & managment ritual calendar and ceremonies inherited power and ruling classes (social change) social hierarchy

de Kooning

> Models and ideas (some say “theories”) on the origin of state-level societies. Flash Module on Causes for the development of the stateCauses for the development of the state

Enigmatic States Primary Complex societies: the State EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA

> Chazan says “enigmatic”. But we see how archaeology is resolving the picture and why enigmas are not that common; > “All empires are states. Not all states are empires”. > The expansion of territories: spatial organization, corporate and administrative architecture in provincial settings; > How and why very complex societies get yet more complex… (and will disintegrate for that same reason).

Mesoa Andes Mesop Egypt Ch Ind NA Hopewell Helle nic Precera- mic: Caral Sumer-ED Akkad Babylon Persia Rome Uruk Assyria Neo-Bab Ubaid W Mississipian Cahokia Anazasi CC Adena Poverty Point NW Others Stone henge Zimbabwe

Mesopotamia

The region along the course of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers  The heartland of Mesopotamia is in southern Iraq  There are no mineral resources in southern Mesopotamia—only available building materials are reeds from marshes and mud  Soils in the region are extremely fertile  Many early sites in the region are deeply buried by the deposit of river silts—not much is known about the Paleolithic and Neolithic in the area  Can Chiefdoms be documented in this setting?

Chronology  Ubaid period ( BC): first irrigation works. Grave goods show a polarised social stratification and decreasing egalitarianism;  Competitive households, in which some fall behind as a result of downward social mobility;  Rise of an elite class of hereditary chieftains, perhaps heads of kin groups linked in some way to the administration of the temple shrines and their granaries, responsible for mediating intra- group conflict and maintaining social order.  Ideological “horizon”

Uruk period ( BC): when the first urban sites appear, with the site Uruk > A clear domination of the paramount site vs. sites in the hinterland > Shows that the city, walled or otherwise, is linked to its hinterland. Urb+suburb > Evidence for expansion beyond ideological means Early Dynastic period ( BC): when a series of independent city-states, with power to military rulers, supported by ancestry. Walled city of Uruk.

Uruk is the oldest known city in the world  The city was by far the largest site in a landscape densely settled with smaller towns and villages  Uruk covered 2.5 km 2 and had a population of 20,000-40,000  The city grew around its central temple precinct  Temples were build of limestone and bitumen, both imported  Many temples were build on platforms, precursors to ziggurats

Three pillars of authority in Uruk The temple –a permanent building at the heart of the city –the deity to which the temple was dedicated was a basic element of the city’s identity The palace –duties of the king included maintenance of the temple and military leadership of the city –King had jurisdiction over regulation of commercial activities, punishment for violent acts, and aspects of family life The city council : evidence indicates the council selected the king. I probably had other civic decision making functions as well

Mesopotamian society There were clear disparities in wealth and privilege among members of society  Clothing and hairstyle were often used to mark status  In the cemetery at Ur, hundreds of burials were found that were simple interments  In the Royal Tombs at Ur, the dead were buried with spectacular arrays of precious goods and sacrificial victims Queen Puabi’s headdress from the Royal Tombs of Ur.

Writing system The cuneiform writing system was first developed during the Uruk period  Cuneiform is written by impressing signs into wet clay using a stylus  Cuneiform originated as a pictographic script; each “picture” represented a term or concept  By the Early Dynastic, cuneiform symbols were used to represent syllables  Cuneiform was used to write several different languages of the region

Writing Earliest cuneiform documents recorded ownership and economic transactions Tablet (3000BC) allocation the rations of beer. Uruk  Cylinder seals, carved with images and writing, were used by scribes to mark ownership and to ensure that closed rooms or vessels remained so  Over the course of 2000 years, the use of cuneiform expanded to include recording of epics, histories, dictionaries, mathematical treatises, letters, treaties, and accounts  Gilgamesh, the legend of origin

How and why very complex societies get yet more complex… these factors will work on a short term basis and will disintegrate for these very same reasons (beyond simplistic factors as climate change). Finances : debasing the coinage Administration : decentralization, corruption… Tax revenue collection – breaking the links betwren provinces and Metropolis Military : dependency on loyalty of foreign troops Defense: Constant enemies, weakened borders, lack of strategies

Mesoa Andes Mesop Egypt Ch Ind NA Hopewell Helle nic Precera- mic: Caral Sumer-ED Akkad Babylon Persia Rome Uruk Assyria Neo-Bab Ubaid W Mississipian Cahokia Anazasi CC Adena Poverty Point NW Others Stone henge Zimbabwe Rome NK Imp MK OK Helle nic I:Hyksos Persia Shang W 3rd

The Nile Valley cuts through the deserts of the Sudan and Egypt from its source in Lake Victoria before reaching the Mediterranean Sea  The contrast between the lush Nile Valley and the surrounding desert is stark –Egypt is an extreme case of circumscription— the limits of arable land are clearly defined. Inhabited lands are desert areas.  Upper Egypt — refers to the southern part  Lower Egypt — refers to the northern part of the Egyptian Nile Valley

Religious traditional vs the new religion

Predynastic Egypt pre-3000 BC emerging social complexity: burials pottery basalt and alabaster stone bowls flaked stone tools: daggers faience (glass) copper working Naqada II Burial c BC

Trade in Egyptian society ostrich egg-shell from central Africa turquoise from Sinai lead and silver from Anatolia lapis lazuli from Afghanistan olive oil from Palestine ivory, skins, incense from Nubia gold mines in Eastern Desert

Earliest evidence for the unification of Egypt under a single ruler is a carved slate known as the Narmer Palette  The rule of Narmer marks the beginning of the Early Dynastic Period  The Palette of Narmer shows vivid scenes of conquest by King Narmer  Significantly, Narmer wears the white conical crown of Upper Egypt on one side of the palette, while the opposite side shows him wearing the red crown of lower Egypt. This indicates that he ruled the entire Nile Valley Narmer Palette Hierakonpolis, c BC Queen Arsinoë II in the Philae temple, Aswan,ca. 250 BC. Queen Hatshepsut, ca BC, NK

The Pharaoh Is the ultimate source of the power of the Egyptian ruler was his identification as a divinity –The pharaoh was the human incarnation of Horus, the paramount god in the Egyptian pantheon –Upon his death, the pharaoh became the incarnation of Osiris, god of the dead –The king also had a special relationship to Ra, the sun god, though it varied  Power of the pharaoh was tightly linked to the critical Egyptian concept of ma’at, which combines the virtues of balance and judgement

Mastaba 3038, Anedjib?, Dyn. 1, Saqqara c BC Mastaba Tomb

Step Pyramid Saqqara, c BC Djoser, 3 rd Dynasty First true pyramid, built by Imhotep Walled complex evolved from a mastaba. Only after building was underway did the project evolve into a pyramidal shape. All Pyr in the OK

Bent Pyramid Dahshur Built by Sneferu, 1st king of Dyn. 4

Pyramids of Giza 4 th Dynasty, Old Kingdom integration of labourers into state tomb, causeway, and mortuary temple people at Giza workhouses Khufu Khafre Menkaure Mikerinos Kephren Keops

Khafre Complex tomb (pyramid at 146m high) mortuary temple causeway valley temple

Sphinx features of the pharaoh Khafre body of lion guardian of pyramids

Inside Khafre’s Pyramid

End of pyramid building decline during Old Kingdom erosion of central government government overspending Drought Old Kingdom scale never achieved again Bent Khufu Kaphre

First Intermediate Period period of instability: 70 kings in 70 days increase in power of nomarchs “Corn has perished everywhere. Laughter has perished. Grief walks the land.” End of First Intermediate Period 2134 BC Theban rebels 2050 BC Thebes becomes capital (replacing Memphis) – Today’s Luxor.

Middle Kingdom: BC Mentuhotep II short-lived period of stability Cult of Osiris increases in popularity (in addition to the cult of Amon-Ra) Thebes Mentuhotep II, painted statue, Deir el Bahri, c BC

Amenemhat I charismatic founder of a new dynastic line Re-establishes Memphis as capital Thebes becomes an important centre for the Cult of Amon Democratisation of Egyptian religion End of Middle Kingdom: power of Asiatic peoples in Delta increases

Second Intermediate Period Hyksos invasion 1800 BC Introduction of iron, horse and chariot Hyksos, Tomb of Knumhotep, Beni Hasan, c BC

New Kingdom BC Theban pharaohs: Ahmose the Liberator empire period aggressive foreign policy religious upheaval water wheel Thutmose III

Shaduf hand operated lever used for lifting water to feed canals

Saquiya water wheel increased agricultural productivity still used in the Egyptian countryside today

Thutmose III, Dyn. 18 “Conqueror of ancient Egypt, builder of empire” taxed Assyria, Anatolia, Babylonia Dyn. 18 domination of Southwest Asia “trade” to Africa, Phoenicia, the Aegean Grey schist statue of Thutmose III Karnak, c BC

Akhenaten religious reform: monotheism Sun god Aten replaces Amun New capital at El-Amarna temple at Karnak wife Nefertiti Egyptian Museum Cairo, c BC

Nefertiti Berlin Museum

Amarna was founded as a new capital city by Akhenaten (NK) –Akhenaten put in place a reform of Egyptian religion, discarding most of the Egyptian pantheon in favor of focusing on one deity, Aten, the visible disc of the sun –He also developed a new art style in which he and his queen, Nefertiti, were depicted –After his death, Akhenaten’s despised religious reforms were cast off, his monuments smashed, and his city at Armana abandoned

Tutankhamun boy-king who is really in control? reinstated polytheism El-Amarna abandoned dies under uncertain circumstances Throne of Tutankhamun, showing him and wife Ankhesenamun

Ramesside Period, Dyn. 19 & 20 Ramesses II, “The Great” Ramesses III was powerful Ramesses IV-XI, series of ephemeral kings Rameses III overpowering enemies

Ramesses II defeated Hittites Builds Temples of Luxor and Karnak at Thebes Luxor Temple, Thebes Colossal statue of Ramses II, Temple of Amun, Karnak

Tablet of treaty between Hattusili III of Hatti and Ramesses II of Egypt, at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum

Abu Simbel Four 22- meter high statues of Rameses II, Temple of Rameses II Temple of Nefertari (foreground)

Karnak

Great Hypostyle Hall Avenue of ram-headed sphinxes

Valley of the Kings, Thebes Hypogeum – shaft & chamber tombs

Tomb of Tutankhamun Valley of the Kings, Thebes Howard Carter, 1920s mostly undisturbed, not looted remarkable preservation Tomb entrance

Rosetta Stone (Rashid) Hieroglyphs Demotic Ancient Greek inscription dedicated to Ptolemy V, c. 198 BC Pharaoh’s name in cartouches