1. SOUTHWEST ASIA AND EGYPT
The Ancient and Classical Period

2. CYCLE OF CIVILIZATION Nomadic group overruns sedentary area
Nomadic group settles down
Nomadic group adopts sedentary culture
New culture rises to greater heights
Culture weakens
Culture overrun by new nomadic group
Common civilization preserved
Typical for all river valley civilizations

3. 1st STATE STRUCTURES Sumerian City-states Akkadian Empire
Small, independent but not totally autonomous
Local differences but much similarity
Run originally by priests, then warrior-kings
Aristocratic nobles assisted kings
Akkadian Empire
Conquest state
Tribute state
Cuneiform culture of Sumer but Semitic

4. 2nd STATE STRUCTURES Ever larger conquest empires Egypt
Three periods called Kingdoms
First two periods, Old and Middle are ancient
New Kingdom is an empire
Pharaoh became increasingly “human”
Priests had enormous power in government
Babylonian and Assyrian Empires
Conquest, tribute empires
Old Babylonian Empire: Hammurabi’s Code
Assyrian Empire used terror, regular army

5. SOCIAL STRUCTURES Ruling Classes Other Classes Aristocracy
Royalty
Nobility
Priestly and Military
Other Classes
“Free” classes
Merchants
Artisans
Intellectuals
Peasants and slaves

6. GENDER STRUCTURES Patriarchal Patrilocal Polygamous Male Roles
Female Roles: Public vs. Private

7. CULTURAL Religious Intellectual Arts and Architecture
Polytheist, anthropomorphism of nature
Priests hold great power, own land, temples
Divine Right vs. Theocracy
Intellectual
Cuneiform and Hieroglyphics: Scribes
Literatures: Gilgamesh, Book of the Dead
Arts and Architecture
Public Architecture, public art
Art Conventions very rigid

8. TECHNOLOGY Man is a tool maker and user
The ability to make and use tools
Man innovates to meet needs, deficiencies
Sumer is major source of first inventions
Metallurgy: Iron Age
Maths and Sciences
Tools

9. DEMOGRAPHY/ENVIRONMENT
Man alters his environment
More pronounced in Mesopotamia
Environment is unpredictable, harsher
Irrigation, dikes, dams, sluices
Agriculture alters environment
All societies were overwhelmingly agrarian
Heavy agriculture increases human population
Some crops really deplete soil
Cities are artificial and alter environment
Extreme concentration of humans in small space
Wastes, diseases concentrated

10. INTERACTIONS Movement War Exchanges such as Trade, Diseases
Human migration: pastoralists, mass migration
Semites: Arabs, Jews, Hyksos, Nubians, Phoenicians
Indo-Europeans, Indo-Iranians: Hittites, Medes/Persians
Culture, social blending
Disruptions
War
Interaction increases as resources become rare
As technology improves, so does war
Diplomacy arises as conflicts increase
Exchanges such as Trade, Diseases
Goods and skills exchanged
Ideas, diseases exchanged

11. TWO EXCEPTIONS Hebrews Phoenicians
Abraham: Origins – nomadic pastorialist
Ethical Monotheism
Yahweh, Moses, Covenant, Commandments
Phoenicians
Traders throughout Mediterranean
Artisans: Cloth, Dye, Metallurgy
Alphabet: Aleph and Beth