The Ancient World: Mesopotamia, Egypt 1/24/12

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The Ancient World: Mesopotamia & Egypt

Sumerian tablet recording tax obligations

Announcements Wed, 25 Jan. 2012

•  Bookstore Update for class texts

•  Lecture Outlines available online

•  Class Attendance list •  Please place a check next to your name

•  Next Class (Friday) •  Primary Source reading by Hammurabi (in

Wiesner) •  Review for Map Quiz 1

Characteristics of a “Civilization”

•  Written records > oral memory •  Specialization of labor > Subsistence •  Strong government > individual clans •  Social hierarchy •  Urbanization > nomadic •  Settled agriculture > pasturing, hunt-and-

gather •  Organized religion

The Ancient World: Mesopotamia, Egypt 1/24/12

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P.E.R.S.I.A. + G.T. •  One method of organizing/analyzing historical

information.

•  P = politics •  E = economics •  R = religion •  S = society •  I/A = intellectual/artistic (cultural) •  G = geography •  T = technology

Mesopotamia •  Geography

•  arable, unstable •  Religion

•  polytheistic, patriarchial, pessimistic •  Politics

•  theocracy oligarchymonarchy •  Intellectual/Artistic

•  Cuneiform, astronomy, math, medicine, ziggurats

The Ancient World: Mesopotamia, Egypt 1/24/12

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Georg Gerster/Photo Researchers, Inc.

•  This photograph gives a good idea of the size and complexity of Ur, one of the most powerful cities in Mesopotamia (present Iraq). In the lower right-hand corner stands the massive ziggurat of Umammu.

Overview of Ur

City of Ur (Mesopotamia)

Paying taxes at the ziggurat

The Ancient World: Mesopotamia, Egypt 1/24/12

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Cuneiform

Egypt •  Geography

•  “gift of the Nile”

•  Politics •  pharaohs

•  Society •  hierarchy

•  Religion •  Polytheistic, final judgment

•  Intellectual/artistic •  Pyramids, obelisks,

papyrus, medicine

The Ancient World: Mesopotamia, Egypt 1/24/12

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Egypt: “Gift of the Nile”

•  The unique geography of the Nile Valley left a stamp on ancient Egypt. Fertile soil made Egypt wealthy, and the surrounding desert led to periods of isolation from nearby Africa and Asian cultures.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.

•  ‘View Show' to view and zoom map

The fruits of the Nile River

King Tut hunts birds w/ his wife

Model of Beer- and Bread-making (Royal Ontario Museum)

Reaping grain & scattering seed

Fishing along the Nile

The Ancient World: Mesopotamia, Egypt 1/24/12

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Jean Vertut

•  This palette comes from Hierakonpolis, the sacred city of the prehistoric kingdom of Upper Egypt. It records the victory (over Delta) of King Narmer, who is shown on one side wearing the crown of Upper Egypt and on the other that of Lower Egypt. This monument commemorates the union of the two halves of Egypt.

Two sides of Narmer Palette

The pharaoh conquers an enemy, while Horus holds a slave from the Nile Delta

The Ancient World: Mesopotamia, Egypt 1/24/12

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Egyptian religion

•  Great variety •  Importance of afterlife

Papyrus