This document discusses the origins and spread of early civilizations in Mesopotamia and the Indus River Valley. It notes that the development of agriculture led to wealth concentration and the rise of the first cities along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Mesopotamia by 4000 BCE. Complex irrigation systems supported large populations and led to the establishment of city-states and various empires that rose and fell over time, influencing law, culture, and religion in the region. It also describes the migrations of Indo-European peoples that further spread cultural and linguistic influences across Europe and Asia starting around 2500 BCE.

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Chapter 2
Early Societies in Southeast
Asia and the Indo-European
Migrations

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Civilization Defined
 Urban
 Political/military system
 Social stratification
 Economic specialization
 Religion
 Communications
 “Higher Culture”

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Civilization and
the Means of Production
 Essential element: concentration of wealth
 Agriculture
 Control over natural resources
 Development of ancient civilization
 not hunter-gatherer economics

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Origins and Spread of Agriculture

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Mesopotamia
 “Between the Rivers”
 Tigris and Euphrates
 Contemporary Iran, Iraq
 Cultural continuum of
“fertile crescent”

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The Wealth of the Rivers
 Nutrient-rich silt
 Key: irrigation
 Necessity of coordinated efforts
 Promoted development of local governments
 City-states
 Sumer begins small-scale irrigation 6000 BCE
 By 5000 BCE, complex irrigation networks
 Population reaches 100,000 by 3000 BCE
 Attracts Semitic migrants, influences culture

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Sumerian City-States
 Cities appear 4000 BCE
 Dominate region from 3200-2350 BCE
 Ur (home of Abraham, see Genesis 11:28), Nineveh
(see Jonah)
 Ziggurat home of the god
 Divine mandate to Kings
 Regulation of Trade
 Defence from nomadic marauders

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The Ziggurat of Ur

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Political Decline of Sumer
 Semitic peoples from northern Mesopotamia overshadow
Sumer
 Sargon of Akkad (2370-2315 BCE)
 Destroyed Sumerian city-states one by one, created empire based in
Akkad
 Empire unable to maintain chronic rebellions
 Hammurabi of Babylon (1792-1750 BCE)
 Improved taxation, legislation
 Used local governors to maintain control of city-states
 Babylonian Empire later destroyed by Hittites from
Anatolia, c. 1595 BCE

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Legal System
 The Code of Hammurabi (18th
c. BCE)
 282 items
 lex talionis (item 196: “eye for an eye”)
 Social status and punishment
 women as property, but some rights

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Later Mesopotamian Empires
 Weakening of central rule an invitation to foreign
invaders
 Assyrians use new iron weaponry
 Beginning 1300 BCE, by 8th
-7th
centuries BCE control
Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, most of Egypt
 Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (r. 605-562) takes advantage
of internal dissent to create Chaldean (New Babylonian)
Empire
 Famously luxurious capital

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Mesopotamian Empires
1800-600 BCE

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Technological Development in
Mesopotamia
 Bronze (copper with tin), c. 4000 BCE
 Military, agricultural applications
 Iron, c. 1000 BCE
 Cheaper than bronze
 Wheel, boats, c. 3500 BCE
 Shipbuilding increases trade networks

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Social Classes
 Ruling classes based often on military prowess
 Originally elected, later hereditary
 Perceived as offspring of gods
 Religious classes
 Role: intervention with gods to ensure fertility, safety
 Considerable landholdings, other economic activities
 Free commoners
 Peasant cultivators
 Some urban professionals
 Slaves
 Prisoners of war, convicted criminals, debtors

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Patriarchal Society
 Men as landowners, relationship to status
 Patriarchy: “rule of the father”
 Right to sell wives, children
 Double standard of sexual morality
 Women drowned for adultery
 Relaxed sexual mores for men
 Yet some possibilities of social mobility for women
 Court advisers, temple priestesses, economic activity
 Introduction of the veil at least c. 1500 BCE

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Development of Writing
 Sumerian writing systems form 3500 BCE
 Pictographs
 Cuneiform: “wedge-shaped”
 Preservation of documents on clay
 Declines from 400 BCE with spread of Greek
alphabetic script

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Uses for Writing
 Trade
 Astronomy
 Mathematics
 Agricultural applications
 Calculation of time
 12-month year
 24-hour day, 60-minute hour

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Mesopotamian Literature
 Epic of Gilgamesh, compiled after 2000 BCE
 Heroic saga
 Search for meaning, esp. afterlife
 This-worldly emphasis

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The Early Hebrews
 Patriarchs and Matriarchs from Babylon, c. 1850
BCE
 Parallels between early biblical texts, Code of
Hammurabi
 Early settlement of Canaan (Israel), c. 1300 BCE
 Biblical text: slavery in Egypt, divine redemption
 On-going conflict with indigenous populations
under King David (1000-970 BCE) and Solomon
(970-930 BCE)

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Moses and Monotheism
 Hebrews shared polytheistic beliefs of other
Mesopotamian civilizations
 Moses introduces monotheism, belief in single
god
 Denies existence of competing parallel deities
 Personal god: reward and punishment for conformity
with revealed law
 The Torah (“the teaching”)

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Foreign conquests of Israel
 Civil war
 Northern tribes: Israel
 Southern: Judah
 Assyrian conquest, 722 BCE
 Exiles Israel: ten lost tribes
 Babylonian conquest, 586 BCE
 Additional exile of many residents of Judah
 Returned later than century

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Israel and Phoenicia, 1500-600 BCE

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The Phoenicians
 City-states along Mediterranean coast after 3000
BCE
 Extensive maritime trade
 Dominated Mediterranean trade, 1200-800 BCE
 Development of alphabet symbols
 Simpler alternative to cuneiform
 Spread of literacy

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Indo-European Migrations
 Common roots of many languages of Europe,
southwest Asia, India
 Implies influence of a single Indo-European
people
 Probable original homeland: contemporary Ukraine
and Russia, 4500-2500 BCE
 Domestication of horses, use of Sumerian
weaponry allowed them to spread widely

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The Indo-European Migrations

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Implications of Indo-European Migration
 Hittities migrate to central Anatolia, c. 1900 BCE, later
dominate Babylonia
 Influence on trade
 Horses, chariots with spoked wheels, use of Iron
 Iron
 Migrations to western China, Greece, Italy also significant
 Influence on language and culture
 Aryo, “noble, lord”
 Aryan, Iranian, Irish
 Caste system in India