Western Civ

Best-known skeletal remains fournd in 1974, believed to live on the edge of a lake in what is now Ethopia.  Date back to 6.5 millions years ago

Thinking human;  neanderthals

• The earliest humans in Europe.
• Same cranial capacity as we do 
• Spread throughout much of Africa, Europe and Asia during the last great ice age.
• well over 100,000 years ago

• 600,000-10,000 BC (Old Stone Age)
• 35,000-10,000 BC Late Paleolithic Age
• Advanced primates developed into Neaderthals and also modern man.  They hunted food or collected it by gathering.

• everything about humans not inherited biologically
• Those shared beliefs, values, customs, and practices that humans tranmit from generation to generation through learning

the DNA provided only by the mother which does not recombine with the maile genome and thus remains very stable across generations

A technique of subsistence common in the Neolithic era that preceeded permanent settlement in one place and relied on the exploitation of many seaonal sources of food over a limited area.

• 8,000-6,500 BC (New Stone Age)
• Modern man developed agriculture and the first villages.

Region stretching from the Persion Gulf northwest through Mesopotamia and down the Mediterranean coast to Egypt

• "Between the Rivers"
• Desert plain stretching to the marshes near the mouths of the Tigris and Urphrates rivers
• used extensive irrigation systems

first great heroic poem, composed sometime before 2000 BC

City ruler

King

Earliest form of writing in Mesopotamia, ca 3500 BC in which pictures represented particular objects, such as animals.

A form of writing from Mesopotamia characterized by wedge-shaped symbols pressed into wet clay tables to record words.

carved on a mountainside near a village of the same name in western Iran, has inscriptions in both Persian and cuneiform

a British scholar and diplomat, used the Behistun Rock to translate cuneiform in 1846

Babylonian tiered towes (or step-pyramids) from ca. 2000 BC that were dedicated to gods and stood near temples.  They were among the most important building of Babylonian cities.

• King of Akkad, the most important figure in Mesopotamian history.
• Reigned for 55 years.
• Kingdom extended east across the Tigris, west along the Euphrates, and north into modern Syria

Sumerian King and initial law codifier

• Body of Law
• Prologue:
• To cause justice to prevail in the country
• To destroy the wicked and the evil
• That the strong may not oppress the weak

• much is to protec women and children from unfair treatment.
• Held physicians, vets, architects and boat builders to professional standard.
• Gave payment and punishment

• Conquired Hammurabi's kingdom.
• Expanded into Northern Mesopatamia and along the Syrian coast.
• An Indo-european people
• Language part of the linguistic family that includes modern languages.
• Expansion was checked @ 1286 BC at the Battle of Kadesh against Ramses II of Egypt

• Old - 3150-2779 BC
•      developed calendar and plow
•      first pyramids built
•      hieroglyphics
• Middle - 2050-1786 BC
•     merger of the king and god
•     foreign trade 
• New - 1560 -1087 BC
•     political height
•     King Tut lived during 
•     no longer isolated country

• united Egypt during what is known as the Old Kingdom
• first of 30 dynasties to rule the country

An oval or oblong figure in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics that encloses characters expressing the names royal or divine personages.

• picture symbols used for writing
• more than 2,000 characters, each representing common objects

plant material used by Egyptians to write upon

ideal state of the universe and society, a condition of harmony and justice, which the pharoah was supposed to uphold

• local level province ruled by governers.
• was the basic unit of Egyptian local government

the Hebrew term for the Egyptian king

• founder of the Old Kingdom
• built the first of the pyramid temples, the Step Pyramid at Sakkara

• Fled into exile aft his king died, was homesick for Egypt.
• Returns home in his old age and was received favorably, including his own pyramid-tomb

• "Rulers of foreign lands"
• Kings of Egypt that were not Egyptians

• His reign began the New Kingdom.
• Expelled the Hyksos rulers (1552-1527 BC), liberated Egypt from foreign rulers.
• Expanded the kingdom

• 1364-1347  BC changed name to Akhenaten
• attempted to abolish the cult of Amen-Ra; repaced him with a new god Aten.
• Moved the capital from Thebes to Akhetaton.
• somewhat monotheist, but shared divine status of Aten with himself

• ruled after Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten)
• restored rule and religious themes to prior to Akhenaten,
• moved the capital back to Thebes

• 1289-1224 BC 
• stopped the Hittite expansion at the battle of Kadesh (battle was a draw)
• signed a peace treaty and nonaggression pact with the Hittites

Biblical patriarch, typical chieftan of the Semitic tribes that wandered

land that small Semitic kingdoms developed independence in the shadow of great powers of the Hittites, Mesopotamian and Egyptians

Religious shrine that held the Ark of the Covenant

Contained the law of Moses ad mementos of the Exodus

The first king of the Israelite kingdom

• ca 1000-962 BC
• 2nd king of the Israelites
• Defeated and expelled the Philistines
• created a united state, established Jerusalem as the political and religious capital
• brought the Ark of the Covenant form the tents of the nomadic tribes

• ca 961-922 BC
• successor to David
• built magnificent temple to house the Ark of the Covenant
• centralized land divisions, raised taxes and increased military service

• 604-562 BC
• Babylonian Empire conquered the kingdom of Judah
• sent Judah's elite into exile to Babylon

the body of law in Hebrew scripture

• transformed the people of Judah and Judaism
• separatism and antional purity

• transformed the people of Judah and Judaism
• separatism and antional purity

• Leaders of Judaism
• zealous adherents to the Torah
• produced a body of oral law termed the Mishnah

In jewish law, the oral interpretation of the Torah which was developed by the Pharisees and later developed into an extensive written body of legal interpretation

• the Mishnah developed over time into the Talmud
• Rabbinic discussions of the Mishna and its interpretation compiled around 500 AD

• 746-727 BC
• greatest empire builder of Mesopotamia since Sargon
• first true empire
• Nineveh, capital
• combined elements of Mesopotamian statecraft with a new religous ideology
• 5 bases: transformed army, military-religious ideology, novel administrative system, social policy involving large scale population movements, and use of massive terror.

• 664-610 BC
• shook off the Assyrian lords and rulers

monotheistic religion founded by Zoroaster in sixth-century BC Persia that emphasized the personal choice between good (light) and evil (darkness)