12 Part 1 • The Early Complex Societies, 3500 to 500 s.c.E. continue, it is becoming increasingly clear that paleolithic peoples organized complex societies with specialized rul- ers and craftsmen in many regions where they found abun- dant food resources. Paleolithic Culture Neandertal Peoples Paleolithic individuals did not limit Sewing needles fashioned from animal bones about fifteen thousand years ago. their creative thinking to strictly practical matters of subsis- tence and survival. Instead, they reflected on the nature of neandertalensis. Many scholars argue that Homo sapiens human existence and the world around them. The earliest owed much of the species's intellectual prowess to the abil- evidence of reflective thought comes from sites associated ity to construct powerful and flexible languages for the with Neandertal peoples, named after the Neander valley in communication of complex ideas. With the development of western Germany where their remains first came to light. languages, humans were able both to accumulate knowl- Neandertal peoples flourished in Europe and southwest Asia edg~ and to tran.smit it precisely and efficiently to new gen- between about two hundred thousand and thirty-five thou- erations. Thus It was not necessary for every individual sand years ago. Most scholars regard Neandertal peoples as huma~ to learn from trial and error or from direct personal expenence about the nature of the local environment or the members of a distinct human species known as Homo nean- best techniques for making advanced tools. Rather, it was dertalensis. For about fifteen millennia, from forty-five thou- possible for human groups to pass large and complex bodies of information along to their offspring, who then were able ~and .to thirty thousand years ago, Neandertal groups to n:~ke immediate use of it and furthermore were in a good positi.on to build.on inherited information by devising in- Inha?~ted some of the same regions as Homo sapiens com- creasingly effective ways of satisfying human needs and desires. munities, and members of the two species sometimes lived in close proximity to each other. DNA analysis suggests that From its earliest days on the earth, Homo sapiens distin- some interbreeding occurred between the two species, and it guished itself as a creative species. At least 200,000 years is quite likely that individuals also traded goods between their groups. It is also possible that Neandertal peoples imi- ago, Homo sapiens was producing stone blades with long tate~ the technologies and crafts of their more intelligent cutting edges. By 140,000 years ago, early humans had COUSinS. learned to supplement their diet with shellfish from coastal waters, and they had developed networks with neighbors At several Neandertal sites, archaeologists have discov- that enabled them to trade high-quality obsidian stone over distances sometimes exceeding 300 kilometers (185 miles). ered signs of careful, deliberate burial accompanied by ritual By 110,000 years ago, they had devised means of catching fish from deep waters. By 100,000 years ago, they had be- observances. Perhaps the most notable is that of SohfaBnaigdhardcaadvien' gun to fashion sharp tools, such as sewing needles and located about 400 kilometers (250 miles) north ?arbed harpoons, out of animal bones. Somewhat later they Invented spear-throwers small slings that enabled hunters modern-day Iraq, where survivors laid the deceased to rest on to hurl spears at speeds upwards of 160 kilometers per hour (100 miles per hour). About 50,000 to 40,000 years ago, beds of freshly picked wildflowers and then covered the they were fabricating ornamental beads, necklaces, and bracelets, and shortly thereafter they began painting images bodies with shrouds and garlands of other flowers. At other Neandertal sites in France, Italy, and central Asia, survivors placed flint tools and animal bones in and around the graves of the deceased. It is impossible to know precisely what Neandertal peoples were thinking when they buried their dead in that fashion. Possibly they simply wanted to honor the memory of the departed, or perhaps they wanted to prepare the dead for a new dimension of existence, a life beyond the grave. Whatever their intentions, Neandertal peoples appar- ently recognized a significance in the life and death of indi- viduals that none of their ancestors had appreciated. They had developed a capacity for emotions and feelings, and they cared for one another even to the extent of preparing elaborate rest- ing places for the departed. The Creativity of Homo sapiens Homo sapiens was much more intellectually inventive and creative than Homo Neandertal (nee-ANN-duhr-tawl)
Chapter 1 • Before History 13 Cave painting from Lascaux in southern France, perhaps intended to help hunters gaincontrol over the spirits of large game animals. To what extent do you think a painting can \"capture\" an animal? of human and animal subjects. About 10,000 years ago, to paleolithic societies. Some interpreters speculate that the they invented the bow and arrow, a weapon that dramati- figures had a place in ritual observances intended to in- cally enhanced the power of humans with respect to other crease fertility. animal species. Venus Figurines The most visually impres- Thinking about TRADITIONS sive creations of early Homo sapiens are the Venus figurines and cave paintings found at many sites of early human habitation. Archaeol- ogists use the term Venus figurines named after the Roman goddess of love to refer to small sculptures of women, usually depicted with exaggerated sexual features. Most scholars believe that the figures reflect a deep interest in fertility. The prominent sexual features of the Venus figurines suggest that the sculptors' prin- cipal interests were fecundity and the genera- tion of new life matters of immediate concern
14 Part 1 • The Early Complex Societies, 3500 to 500 s.c.E. Venus figurine from southern France. This image, carved on a cave wall about twenty-five thousand years ago, depicts awoman of ample proportions.The exaggerated sexual features suggest that paleolithic peoples fashioned this and similar figurines out of an interest infertility. Cave Paintings Paintings in caves frequented by early humans are the most dramatic examples of prehistoric art. The known examples of cave art date from about thirty-four thousand to twelve thousand years ago, and most of them are in caves in southern France and northern Spain. In that re- gion alone, archaeologists have discovered more than one hundred caves bearing prehistoric paintings. The best- known are Lascaux in France and Altamira in Spain. There, prehistoric peoples left depictions of remarkable sensitivity and power. Most of the subjects were animals, especially large game such as mammoth, bison, and reindeer, although a few human figures also appear. As in the case of the Venus figurines, the explanation for the cave paintings involves a certain amount of educated guesswork. It is conceivable that early artists sometimes worked for purely aesthetic reasons to beautify their living quarters. But many examples of cave art occur in places that are almost inaccessible to humans deep within remote chambers, for example, or at the end of long and constricted passages. Paintings in such remote locations presumably had some other purpose. Most analysts believe that the promi- nence of game animals in the paintings reflects the artists' Two cave paintings (here and next page) produced five to sixthousand years ago illustrate the different roles played by men and women inthe early days of agriculture. Here women harvest grain.
Chapter 1 • Before History 15 interest in successful hunting expeditions. Thus cave paint- Global Climate Change Agriculture was almost impos- ings may have represented efforts to exercise sympathetic magic to gain control over subjects (in this case, game ani- sible and indeed inconceivable until about fifteen thousand mals) by capturing their spirits (by way of accurate represen- years ago. During the last ice age, the earth was much colder tations of their physical forms). Although not universally and drier than it is today; furthermore, it experienced wild accepted, this interpretation accounts reasonably well for a fluctuations of temperature and rainfall. In any given year, great deal of the evidence and has won widespread support sun and rain might have brought abundant harvests, but among scholars. frigid and arid conditions might ruin crops for the next de- cade or more. Thus agriculture would have been an unreli- Whatever the explanation for prehistoric art, the produc- able and even foolhardy venture. After the end of the last ice tion of the works themselves represented conscious and pur- age, the earth entered an era of general warming, increased poseful activity of a high order. Early artists compounded rainfall, and more stable climatic conditions. Neolithic peo- pigments and manufactured tools. They made paints from ples took advantage of those conditions by encouraging the minerals, plants, blood, saliva, water, animal fat, and other growth of edible plants and domesticating previously wild available ingredients. They used mortar and pestle for grind- animals. ing pigments and mixing paints, which they applied with moss, frayed twigs and branches, or primitive brushes fabri- Gender Relations and Agriculture Many scholars be- cated from hair. The simplicity and power of their representa- tions have left deep impressions on modern critics ever since lieve that women most likely began the systematic care of the early twentieth century, when their works became widely plants. As the principal gatherers in foraging communities, known. The display of prehistoric artistic talent clearly testifies women became familiar with the life cycles of plants and once again to the remarkable intellectual power of the human noticed the effects of sunshine, rain, and temperature on speci•es. vegetation. Hoping for larger and more reliable supplies of food, women in neolithic societies probably began to nurture THE NEOLITHIC ERA AND THE plants instead of simply collecting available foods in the TRANSITION TO AGRICULTURE wild. Meanwhile, instead of just stalking game with the in- tention of killing it for meat, neolithic men began to capture A few societies of hunting and gathering peoples inhabit the animals and domesticate them by providing for their needs contemporary world, although most of them do not thrive be- and supervising their breeding. Over a period of centuries, cause agricultural and industrial societies have taken over en- those practices gradually led to the formation of agricultural vironments best suited to a foraging economy. Demographers economi•es. estimate the current number of hunters and gatherers to be about thirty thousand, a tiny fraction of the world's human Independent Inventions of Agriculture Agriculture- population of more than seven billion. The vast majority of the world's peoples, however, have crossed an economic threshold including both the cultivation of crops and the domestication of immense significance. When humans brought plants under of animals emerged independently in several different parts cultivation and animals under domestication, they dramati- of the world. The earliest evidence of agricultural activity dis- cally altered the natural world and steered human societies in covered so far dates to the era after 9000 B.C.E., when peoples new directions. of southwest Asia (modern-day Iraq, Syria, and Turkey) culti- vated wheat and barley while domesticating sheep, goats, The Origins of Agriculture pigs, and cattle. Between 9000 and 7000 B.C.E., African peo- ples inhabiting the southeastern margin of the Sahara desert Neolithic Era The term neolithic era means \"new stone (modern-day Sudan) domesticated cattle, sheep, and goats while cultivating sorghum. Between 8000 and 6000 B.C.E., age,\" in contrast to the old stone age of the paleolithic. peoples of sub-Saharan west Africa (in the vicinity of modern Nigeria) also began independently to cultivate yams, okra, Archaeologists first used the term neolithic because of refine- and black-eyed peas. In east Asia, residents of the Yangzi River valley began to cultivate rice as early as 6500 B.C.E., and ments in tool-making techniques: they found polished stone their neighbors to the north in the Yellow River valley raised tools in neolithic sites, rather than the chipped implements crops of millet and soybeans after 5500 B.C.E. East Asian peo- characteristic of paleolithic sites. Gradually, however, archae- ples also kept pigs and chickens from an early date, perhaps ologists became aware that something more fundamental than 6000 B.C.E., and they later added water buffaloes to their do- tool production distinguished the neolithic from the paleo- mesticated stock. In southeast Asia the cultivation of taro, lithic era. Polished stone tools occurred in sites where peoples yams, coconut, breadfruit, bananas, and citrus fruits, including relied on cultivation, rather than foraging, for their subsis- tence. Today the term neolithic era refers to the early stages of neolithic (nee-uh-LITH-ik) agricultural society, from about twelve thousand to six thou- sand years ago.
16 Part 1 • The Early Complex Societies, 3500 to 500 s.c.E. oranges, lemons, limes, tangerines, and grapefruit, dates from community would slash the bark on a stand of trees in a probably 3000 B.C.E. or earlier. forest and later burn the dead trees to the ground. The re- sulting weed-free patch was extremely fertile and produced Peoples of the western hemisphere also turned inde- abundant harvests. After a few years, however, weeds in- pendently to agriculture. Inhabitants of Mesoamerica (cen- vaded the field, and the soil lost its original fertility. The tral Mexico) cultivated maize (corn) as early as 4000 B.C.E., community then moved to another forest region and re- and they later added a range of additional food crops, includ- peated the procedure. Migrations of slash-and-burn cultiva- ing beans, peppers, squashes, and tomatoes. Residents of tors helped spread agriculture throughout both eastern and the central Andean region of South America (modern Peru) western hemispheres. By 6000 B.C.E., for example, agricul- cultivated potatoes after 3000 B.C.E., and they later added ture had spread from its southwest Asian homeland to the east- maize and beans to their diets. It is possible that the Amazon em shores of the Mediterranean and the Balkan region of River valley was yet another site of independently invented eastern Europe, and by 4000 B.C.E. it had spread farther to agriculture, this one centering on the cultivation of manioc, western Europe north of the Mediterranean. sweet potatoes, and peanuts. Domesticated animals were much less prominent in the Americas than in the eastern While agriculture radiated out from its various places, hemisphere. Paleolithic peoples had hunted many large spe- cies to extinction: mammoths, mastodons, and horses had all foods originally cultivated in only one region also spread disappeared from the Americas by 7000 B.C.E. (The horses widely, as merchants, migrants, or other travelers carried that have figured so prominently in the modern history of the knowledge of those foods to agricultural lands that previ- Americas all descended from animals reintroduced to the ously had relied on different crops. Wheat, for example, western hemisphere during the past five hundred years.) spread from its original homeland in southwest Asia to Iran With the exception of llamas, alpacas, and guinea pigs of the and northern India after 5000 B.C.E. and farther to northern Andean regions, most American animals were not well China perhaps by 3000 B.C.E. Meanwhile, rice spread from suited to domestication. southern China to southeast Asia by 3000 B.C.E. and to the Ganges River valley in India by 1500 B.C.E. African sorghum The Early Spread of Agriculture Once established, ag- reached India by 2000 B.C.E., while southeast Asian bananas riculture spread rapidly, partly because of the methods of took root in tropical lands throughout the Indian Ocean early cultivators. One of the earliest techniques, known as basin. In the western hemisphere, maize spread from slash-and-burn cultivation, involved frequent movement on Mesoamerica to the southwestern part of the United States the part of farmers. To prepare a field for cultivation, a by 1200 B.C.E. and farther to the eastern woodlands region of North America by 100 c.E. Men herd domesticated cattle in the early days of agriculture. This painting and the one on the preceding page are both in a cave at Tassili n'Ajjer in modern-day Algeria.
Chapter 1 • Before History 17 Agriculture involved long hours of hard phys- Thinking about ENCOUNTERS ical labor clearing land, preparing fields, plant- ing seeds, pulling weeds, and harvesting crops. Indeed, agriculture probably required more work than paleolithic foraging: anthropologists calcu- late that modern hunting and gathering peoples spend about four hours per day in providing them- selves with food and other necessities, devoting the remainder of their time to rest, leisure, and social activities. Yet over time agriculture made possible the production of abundant food sup- plies. Eventually agriculture spread widely, influ- encing the lives and experience of almost all humans. Early Agricultural Society from which ancient peoples fashioned knives and blades. About 7000 B.C.E., the residents surrounded their circular In the wake of agriculture came a series of social and cultural mud huts with a formidable wall and moat a sure sign that changes that transformed human history. Perhaps the most the wealth concentrated at Jericho had begun to attract the important change associated with early agriculture was a pop- interest of human predators. ulation explosion. Spread thinly across the earth in paleolithic times, the human species multiplied prodigiously after agri- Specialization of Labor The concentration of large culture increased the supply of food. Historians estimate that before agriculture, about 10,000 B.C.E., the earth's human pop- numbers of people in villages encouraged specialization of ulation was four million. By 5000 B.C.E., when agriculture had labor. Most people in neolithic villages cultivated crops or appeared in a few world regions, human population had risen kept animals. Many also continued to hunt and forage for to about five million. Estimates for later dates demonstrate wild plants. But a surplus of food enabled some individuals eloquently the speed with which, thanks to agriculture, human to concentrate their time and talents on enterprises that had numbers increased: nothing to do with the production of food. The rapid devel- opment of specialized labor is apparent from excavations Year Human Population carried out at one of the best-known neolithic settlements, 3000 B.C.E. 14 million <;atal Hiiyiik. Located in south-central Anatolia (modern- 2000 B.C.E. 27 million day Turkey), <;atal Hiiyiik was occupied continuously from 1000 B.C.E. 50 million 7250 to 5400 B.C.E., when residents abandoned the site. 500 B.C.E. Originally a small and undistinguished neolithic village, 100 million <;atal Hiiyiik grew into a bustling town, accommodating about five thousand inhabitants. Archaeologists have Emergence of Villages and Towns Their agricultural uncovered evidence that residents manufactured pots, bas- kets, textiles, leather, stone and metal tools, wood carvings, economy and rapidly increasing numbers encouraged neo- carpets, beads, and jewelry among other products. <;atal lithic peoples to adopt new forms of social organization. Be- Hiiyiik became a prominent village partly because of its cause they devoted their time to cultivation rather than close proximity to large obsidian deposits. The village prob- foraging, neolithic peoples did not continue the migratory ably was a center of production and trade in obsidian tools: life of their paleolithic predecessors but, rather, settled near archaeologists have discovered obsidian that originated near their fields in permanent villages. One of the earliest known <;atal Hiiyiik at sites throughout much of the eastern Medi- neolithic villages was Jericho, site of a freshwater oasis north terranean region. of the Dead Sea in present-day Israel, which came into exis- tence before 8000 B.C.E. Even in its early days, Jericho may Three early craft industries pottery, metallurgy, and tex- have had two thousand residents a vast crowd compared tile production illustrate the potential of specialized labor in with a paleolithic hunting band. The residents farmed mostly neolithic times. Neolithic craftsmen were not always the orig- wheat and barley with the aid of water from the oasis. During inal inventors of the technologies behind those industries: the the earliest days of the settlement, they kept no domesticated animals, but they added meat to their diet by hunting local Catal Hi.iyi.ik (chat-1 hoo-yook) game animals. They also engaged in a limited amount of trade, particularly in salt and obsidian, a hard, volcanic glass
. ..-- - GREENLAND ~ ' Jomon society of central Japan produced the world's \\\\ first known pottery, for example, about 10,000 B.C.E. But neolithic craftsmen expanded dramatically on \"- N 0 RtH existing practices and supplemented them with new techniques to fashion natural products into useful AM ERIC~ items. Their enterprises reflected the conditions of early agricultural society: either the craft industries PACIFIC ATLANTIC provided tools and utensils needed by cultivators, or OCEAN OCEAN they made use of cultivators' and herders' products 1• n new ways. •-· ....,. Mesoamerica __........ ~~ Amazon River Valley Food crops: maize, beans, Food crops: manioc, Pottery The earliest of the three craft industries peppers, squashes, tomatoes sweet potatoes, peanuts to emerge was pottery. Paleolithic hunters and gatherers had no use for pots. They did not store • Equator food for long periods of time, and in any case lugging heavy clay pots around as they moved 1': .. from one site to another would have been in- convenient. A food-producing society, however, ' l.S 0 U T needs containers to store surplus foods. By about AMER 7000 B.C.E., neolithic villagers in several parts of . the world had discovered processes that trans- Andean South America formed malleable clay into fire-hardened, water- • Food crops: potatoes, proof pottery capable of storing dry or liquid - sweet potatoes products. Soon thereafter, neolithic craftsmen dis- '• .. Domesticated animals: covered that they could etch designs into their clay Llamas, alpacas, guinea pigs that fire would harden into permanent decorations and furthermore that they could color their prod- ucts with glazes. As a result, pottery became a me- dium of artistic expression as well as a source of practical utensils. Metalworking Metallurgy soon joined pottery MAP 1.2 as a neolithic industry. The earliest metal that hu- Origins and early spread of agriculture. mans worked with systematically was copper. In After 9000 s.c.E. peoples in several parts of the world many regions of the world, copper occurs naturally independently began to cultivate plants and domesticate in relatively pure and easily malleable form. By animals that were native to their regions. Agriculture and hammering the cold metal, it was possible to turn it animal husbandry spread quickly to neighboring intojewelry and simple tools. By 6000 B.C.E., though, territories and eventually also to distant lands. neolithic villagers had discovered that they could •• use heat to extract copper from its ores and that when heated to high temperatures, copper became much more workable. By 5000 B.C.E., they had raised tem- 6000 B.C.E. As soon as they began to raise crops and keep an- peratures in their furnaces high enough to melt copper and imals, neolithic peoples experimented with techniques of selec- pour it into molds. With the technology of smelting and cast- tive breeding. Before long they had bred strains of plants and ing copper, neolithic communities were able to make not animals that provided long, lustrous, easily worked fibers. They only jewelry and decorative items but also tools such as then developed technologies for spinning the fibers into threads knives, axes, hoes, and weapons. Moreover, copper metal- and weaving the threads into cloth. The invention of textiles lurgy served as a technological foundation on which later was probably the work of women, who were able to spin thread neolithic craftsmen developed expertise in the working of and weave fabrics at home while nursing and watching over gold, bronze, iron, and other metals. small children. Textile production quickly became one of the most important enterprises in agricultural society. Textile Production Because natural fibers decay more easily than pottery or copper, the dating of textile production is Social Distinctions and Social Inequality The con- not certain, but fragments of textiles survive from as early as centration of people into permanent settlements and the 18
- -- • -• •• .... Southwest Asia East Asia ,, Food crops: wheat, barley Food crops: rice (Yangzi River valley), ' Domesticated animals: sheep, millet, soybeans (Yellow River valley) ... goats, pigs, cattle Domesticated animals: pigs, chickens, • - water buffaloes (--· ~ : .~. I Yellow River ASIA Valley ~...... Indus ............,,...v~ alley PACIFIC OCEAN AFRICA .. Southeast Asia Food crops: taro, yams, ••••••• coconut, breadfruit, bananas, citrus fruits West Africa Sudanic Africa • Food crops: -..~..___... Food crops: sorghum .' I yams, okra, •• black-eyed peas Domesticated animals: -. \\ cattle, sheep, goats ' ,\\ , I•• • ' '1!1.'..... INDIAN •• ' OCEAN •. •• -.·..-,~....·...· , \\1• Tropic-o-f-C-ap-r-ic-o-r-n --1 ..• .•• Spread of domesticated plants and animals AUSTRALIA v•. \\ • ' increasing specialization of labor provided the first opportunity status are clear from the quality of interior decorations in for individuals to accumulate considerable wealth. Individuals houses and the value of goods buried with individuals from could trade surplus food or manufactured products for gems, different social classes. jewelry, and other valuable items. The institutionalization of privately owned landed property which occurred at an uncer- Neolithic Culture tain date after the introduction of agriculture enhanced the significance of accumulated wealth. Because land was (and Quite apart from its social effects, agriculture left its mark remains) the ultimate source of wealth in any agricultural on the cultural dimension of the human experience. Because society, ownership of land carried enormous economic power. their lives and communities depended on the successful cul- When especially successful individuals managed to consoli- tivation of crops, neolithic farmers closely observed the nat- date wealth in their families' hands and kept it there for several ural world around them and noted the conditions that favored generations, clearly defined social classes emerged. Already successful harvests. In other words, they developed a kind of at <;atal Htiytik, for example, differences in wealth and social early applied science. From experience accumulated over 19
20 Part 1 • The Early Complex Societies, 3500 to 500 s.c.E. Reverberations The Role of Urbanization in the Creation of Patriarchy orne events or processes in the global independently beginning in about 3100 B.C.E. , 3000 B.C. E., past are so momentous that they and 2200 s.c.E., respectively. Near the turn of the first produce social, political, economic, or millennium c.E. , large-scale agriculture similarly led to the environmental changes for centuries- development of c it ies in Central and South America (chap- even in places thousands of miles from their points of ter 6). In all these locations, early urbanization involved the origin. In other words, we can see the reverberations establishment of states that localized power in the hands of of these events or processes in multiple places and a small group of people, organ ized military protection, in multiple timelines after they occur. Understanding made laws to control large populations, oversaw the devel- the spectrum of consequences spurred by such opment of large-scale infrastructure such as irrigation, and momentous events and processes can help us trace exerted control over the surrounding countryside. Also in all the historical connections between the world's people these locations, urbanization appears to have resulted in and places, even when such connections may not the decline of women's status over t ime and in the creation have been obvious to people living at the time. of patriarchy, or the institutional domination of men over women . Urbanization and Patriarchy Why Patriarchy? The creation of the first cities in human history was one Scholars believe the emergence of patriarchy was c losely of these momentous processes. Between 4000 and linked to early urbanization. Although evidence from the 3500 s.c .E., cities emerged in some of the areas where ag- deep human past is limited, many historians and archaeol- riculture had taken hold, such as Qatal Huyuk. In Mesopo- ogists believe that urbanization created a set of similar tamia (chapter 2), Sumerians bui lt large city-states that pressures that led societies to develop patriarchal prac- dominated ever-larger regions, which spread the values tices in many different areas. Once established, these and practices of these urban centers across Mesopotam ia, practices spread as cities and city-states increased their Anatolia, and Egypt. Yet peoples in North Africa (chapter 3), influence over surrounding regions-with long-lasting and India (chapter 4), and east Asia (chapter 5) also built cities profound effects on the development of human societies for thousands of years. the generations, they acquired an impressive working knowl- edge of the earth and its rhythms. Agricultural peoples had to learn when changes of season would take place: survival depended on the ability to predict when they could reason- ably expect sunshine, rain, warmth, and freezing tempera- tures. They learned to associate the seasons with the different positions of the sun, moon, and stars. As a result, they accu- mulated a store of knowledge concerning relationships between the heavens and the earth, and they made the first Mural depicting adeer, discovered by archaeologists in a sanctuary in the city of Catal Huyuk, Turkey, dating to the sixth millenniumB.C.E.
Chapter 1 • Before History 21 Scholars suggest a variety of reasons why concentrated in the hands of a small class of urbanization might have encouraged the devel- elites, the desire to keep such power and wealth opment of patriarchy. Some argue that the tran- within particular fami lies led to increased anxi- sition to intensive agriculture characteristic of eties about ensuring the lineage of all family early cities led to practices that emphasized members. Since it was impossible for men to women's roles as producers of children , who ensure the paternity of their children, paternity could provide the workforce necessary for such was increasingly ensured by controlling wom- large-scale agriculture. At the same time, this en 's movements, morality, and access to other emphasis on producing large numbers of chil- men through the assumption of political con- dren may have led women to have less time and trol, laws, veiling , and seclusion. energy for heavy agricultural work- particularly Patriarchy did not develop overnight in once plows had been introduced. Other ancient urban areas, and it seems c lear that scholars argue that increased militarization of gender stratification was already developing agricultural societies- in order to protect re- among farming villages by the time cities first sources from outside invaders-led to a de- emerged. However, by 1000 s.c.E. patriarchal cline in women 's status, since pregnancy and practices, enshrined in both custom and law, chi ld-rearing tended to prevent most women had become a way of life for urbanized peo- from soldiering. In fact, some scholars specu- ples in Mesopotamia, the Nile, the Indus River late that this may be why the status of women valley, and east Asia. In the Americas, patriar- in the early cities of the Nile River valley (chap- chal practices also seem to have emerged in ter 3) and the Indus River valley (chapter 4) early cities, although evidence of their particu- was higher than in the cities of Mesopotam ia lar shape is quite limited. For these reasons, and east Asia (chapters 2 and 5): since early many scholars view the development of patri- cities in the former two areas were more mil i- archy as an integral part of the development tarily secure-and thus less mi litarized- of urban ization. When reading subse- than their counterparts in Mesopotamia Hammurabi's Laws. Hammurabi's Code of Laws quent chapters, consider the effects and east Asia, they also may have been demonstratethat women already occupied a patriarchal structures have had on soci- less patriarchal. Still other scholars subordinate legal and social position in ancient eties around the world over the very argue that as power and wealth grew Mesopotamia nearly four thousandyearsago. long term. steps toward the elaboration of a calendar, which would en- goddess of vegetation, for example, represented neolithic able them to predict with tolerable accuracy the kind of hopes for fertility in the fields. Sometimes neolithic worshipers weather they could expect at various times of the year. associated these goddesses with animals such as frogs or but- terflies that dramatically changed form during the course of Religious Values The workings of the natural world also their lives, just as seeds of grain sprouted, flourished, died, and influenced neolithic religion. Paleolithic communities had al- produced new seed for another agricultural cycle. Meanwhile, ready honored, and perhaps even worshiped, Venus figurines young male gods associated with bulls and goats represented in hopes of ensuring fertility. Neolithic religion reflected the the energy and virility that participates in the creation of life. same interest in fertility, but it celebrated particularly the rhythms that governed agricultural society birth, growth, Some deities were associated with death: many neolithic death, and regenerated life. Archaeologists have unearthed goddesses possessed the power to bring about decay and thousands of neolithic representations of gods and goddesses destruction. Yet physical death was not an absolute end. The in the form of clay figurines, drawings on pots and vases, dec- procreative capacities of gods and goddesses resulted in the orations on tools, and ritual objects. births of infant deities who represented the regeneration of life freshly sprouted crops, replenished stocks of domestic The neolithic gods included not only the life-bearing, animals, and infant humans to inaugurate a new biological Venus-type figures of paleolithic times but also deities associ- cycle. Thus neolithic religious thought clearly reflected the ated with the cycle of life, death, and regeneration. A pregnant natural world of early agricultural society.
22 Part 1 • The Early Complex Societies, 3500 to 500 s.c.E. Artist's conception of Catal HOyOk, one of the world's first cities. Catal HOyOk had no streets and no ground-level doors or windows that might have provided easy access for predators and invaders. Residents entered their homes from rooftops and pulled ladders up behind them. The Origins of Urban Life location, some neolithic villages and towns attracted more people and grew larger than others. Over time, some of Within four thousand years ofits introduction, agriculture had those settlements evolved into cities. What distinguished dramatically transformed the face of the earth. Humans multi- early cities from their predecessors, the neolithic villages plied prodigiously, congregated in densely populated quarters, and towns? placed the surrounding lands under cultivation, and domesti- cated several species of animals. Besides altering the physical Even in their early days, cities differed from neolithic appearance of the earth, agriculture transformed the lives of villages and towns in two principal ways. In the first, cities humans. Even a modest neolithic village dwarfed a paleolithic were larger and more complex than neolithic villages and band of a few dozen hunters and gatherers. In larger villages towns. <;atal Hiiyiik featured an impressive variety of spe- and towns, such as Jericho and <;atal Hiiyiik, with their popu- cialized crafts and industries. With progressively larger pop- lations of several thousand people, their specialized labor, and ulations, cities fostered more intense specialization than any their craft industries, social relationships became more com- of their predecessors among the neolithic villages and towns. plex than would have been conceivable during paleolithic Thus it was in cities that large classes of professionals times. Gradually, dense populations, specialized labor, and emerged individuals who devoted all their time to efforts complex social relations gave rise to an altogether new form of other than the production of food. Professional craft workers social organization the city. refined existing technologies, invented new ones, and raised levels of quality and production. Professional managers also Emergence of Cities Like the transition from foraging to appeared governors, administrators, military strategists, agricultural society, the development of cities and complex tax collectors, and the like whose services were necessary societies organized around urban centers was a gradual pro- to the survival of the community. Cities also gave rise to cess rather than a well-defined event. Because of favorable professional cultural specialists such as priests, who main- tained their communities' traditions, transmitted their values,
Chapter 1 • Before History 23 organized public rituals, and sought to discover meaning in regions enabled the cities to extend their cultural traditions human existence. and values to surrounding areas. In the second, whereas neolithic villages and towns The earliest known cities grew out of agricultural villages served the needs of their inhabitants and immediate neigh- and towns in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in bors, cities decisively influenced the political, economic, and modern-day Iraq. These communities crossed the urban cultural life of large regions. Cities established marketplaces threshold during the period about 4000 to 3500 B.C.E. and that attracted buyers and sellers from distant parts. Brisk soon dominated their regions. During the following centu- trade, conducted over increasingly longer distances, promoted ries, cities appeared in several other parts of the world, in- economic integration on a much larger scale than was possible cluding Egypt, northern India, northern China, central in neolithic times. To ensure adequate food supplies for their Mexico, and the central Andean region of South America. large populations, cities also extended their claims to au- Cities became the focal points of public affairs the sites thority over their hinterlands, thus becoming centers of polit- from which leaders guided human fortunes, supervised ical and military control as well as economic influence. In neighboring regions, and organized the world's earliest com- time, too, the building of temples and schools in neighboring plex societies. 4 m illion-1 million years ago Era of Australopithecus 3.5 m illion years ago 2.5 mill ion-200,000 years ago Era of Lucy 200,000 B.C.E. 200,000-30,000 B.C.E. Era of Homo erectus 13,500-10,500 B.C.E. Early evolution of Homo sapiens 10,000-8000 B.C.E. 10,000-300 B.C.E. Era of Neandertal peoples 8000 B.C.E. Natufian society 4000-3500 B.C.E. Early experimentation with agriculture 3000 B.C.E.-1850 C.E. Jomon society Appearance of agricultural v illages Appearance of cities Chinook society
24 Part 1 • The Early Complex Societies, 3500 to 500 s.c.E. SUMMARY FOR FURTHER READING In many ways the world of prehistoric humans seems remote and Elizabeth Wayland Barber. Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years. even alien. Yet the evolution of the human species and the develop- New York, 1994. Fascinating study of prehistoric and ancient ment of human society during the paleolithic and neolithic eras textiles, which the author argues was a craft industry dominated have profoundly influenced the lives of all the world's peoples by women from the earliest times. during the past six millennia. Paleolithic peoples enjoyed levels of intelligence that far exceeded those of other animals, and they in- Peter Bellwood. First Farmers: The Origins ofAgricultural Societies. vented tools and languages that enabled them to flourish in all re- Oxford, 2005. A comprehensive and comparative review of early gions ofthe world. Indeed, they thrived so well that they threatened agriculture and its effects. their sources of food. Their neolithic descendants began to culti- vate food to sustain their communities, and the agricultural societ- David Christian. Maps ofTime: An Introduction to Big History. ies that they built transformed the world. Human population rose Berkeley, 2004. A brilliant study that considers human history in dramatically, and human groups congregated in villages, towns, the context of natural history since the big bang. and eventually cities. There they engaged in specialized labor and launched industries that produced pottery, metal goods, and tex- Jared Diamond. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates ofHuman Societies. tiles as well as tools and decorative items. Thus intelligence, lan- New York, 1997. A wide-ranging book that places the adoption guage, reflective thought, agriculture, urban settlements, and craft and early spread of agriculture in an environmental context. industries all figure in the legacy that prehistoric humans left for their descendants. Margaret Ehrenberg. Women in Prehistory. London, 1989. Brings archaeological discoveries to bear on questions of sex and gender STUDY TERMS relations in prehistoric times. Australopithecus (6) Neandertal (12) R. Dale Guthrie. The Nature ofPaleolithic Art. Chicago, 2005. <;atal Hiiyiik (17) neolithic (15) Examines paleolithic art in the context of human physiology and cave paintings (14) paleolithic (10) argues that much paleolithic art reflected interests in food and sex. Hominidae (6) patriarchy (20) Homo erectus (7) Venus figurines (13) Donald C. Johanson and Maitland A. Edey. Lucy: The Beginnings of Homo sapiens (7) Humankind. New York, 1981. Fascinating account of the discovery of Lucy and the scholarly controversies that ensued. Richard G. Klein. The Dawn ofHuman Culture. New York, 2002. Places the development of human consciousness in the context of evolutionary history. James Mellaart. l;atal Hiiyiik: A Neolithic Town inAnatolia. New York, 1967. Discussion of <;atal Htiytik by its excavator. Chris Scarre, ed. The Human Past: World Prehistory and the Development ofHuman Societies. London: Thames & Hudson, 2005. A superb collection of chapters by leading specialists on the paleolithic and neolithic eras of human history. Kathy D. Schick and Nicholas Toth. Making Silent Stones Speak: Human Evolution and the Dawn ofTechnology. New York, 1993. Fascinating examination of stone tools and paleolithic technology. Nicholas Wade. Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History ofOur Ancestors. New York, 2006. Excellent synthesis of studies on human evolution.
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•1a an ean •I A wall relief from an Assyrian palace of the eighth century s.c.E. depicts Gilgamesh as a heroic figure holding a lion. 26
The Quest for Order The Broader Influence of Mesopotamian Society Mesopotamia: \"The Land between the Rivers\" Hebrews, Israelites, and Jews The Course of Empire The Phoenicians The Later Mesopotamian Empires The Indo-European Migrations The Formation of a Complex Society and Sophisticated Cultural Traditions Indo-European Origins Indo-European Expansion and Its Effects Economic Specialization and Trade The Emergence of a Stratified Patriarchal Society The Development of Written Cultural Traditions EYEWITNESS: Gilgamesh: The Man and the Myth y far the best-known individual of ancient Mesopotamian society was a man named Gilgamesh. According to historical sources, Gilgamesh was the fifth king of the city of Uruk. He ruled about 2750 s.c.E.-for a period of 126 years, according to one semilegendary source-and he led his community in its conflicts w ith Kish, a nearby city that was the principal rival of Uruk. Historical sources record little additional detail about Gilgamesh's life and deeds. But Gilgamesh was a figure of Mesopotamian mythology and folklore as well as history. He was the subject of numerous poems and legends, and Mesopotamian bards made him the central figure in a cycle of stories known collectively as the Epic of Gilgamesh. As a figure of legend, Gilgamesh became the great- est hero figure of ancient Mesopotamia. According to the stories, the gods granted Gilgamesh a perfect body and endowed him w ith superhuman strength and courage. He was \"the man to whom all things were known,\" a supremely wise individual who \"saw mysteries and knew secret things.\" The legends declare that he constructed the massive city walls of Uruk as well as several of the c ity's magnificent temples to Mesopotamian deities. The stories that make up the Epic of Gi/gamesh recount the adventures of this hero and his cherished friend Enkidu as they sought fame. They killed an evil monster, rescued Uruk from a ravaging bull, and matched wits with the gods. In spite of their heroic deeds, Enkidu offended the gods and fell under a sen- tence of death. His loss profoundly affected Gilgamesh, who sought for some means to cheat death and gain eternal life. He eventually found a magical plant that had the power to confer immortality, but a serpent stole the plant and carried it away, forcing Gilgamesh to recognize that death is the ultimate fate of all humans. Thus, while focusing on the activities of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, the stories explored themes of friendship, loyalty, ambition, fear of death, and longing for something that only the gods possessed- immortality. In doing so they reflected the interests and concerns of the complex, urban-based society that had recently emerged in Mesopotamia. Productive agricultural economies supported the development of the world's first complex societies, in which sizable numbers of people lived in cities and extended their political, social, economic, and cultural influence over large regions. The earliest urban societies so far known emerged during the early fourth millennium B.C.E. in southwest Asia, particularly in Mesopotamia. 27
As people congregated in cities, they needed to find ways to resolve disputes-sometimes between residents w ithin individual settlements, other t imes between whole settlements themselves-that inevitably arose as individual and group interests confl icted. In search of order, settled agricultural peoples recog- nized political authorities and built states throughout Mesopotamia. The establishment of states encour- aged the creation of empires, as some states sought to extend their power and enhance their security by imposing their rule on neighboring lands. Apart from stimulating the establishment of states, urban society in Mesopotamia also promoted the emergence of social classes, thus giving rise to increasingly complex social and economic structures. Cities fostered specialized labor, and the resulting efficient production of high-quality goods in turn stimulated trade. Furthermore, early Mesopotamia also developed d istinctive cultural traditions as Mesopotamians invented a system of writing and supported organized religions. Mesopotamian and other peoples regularly interacted with one another. Mesopotamian prosperity at- tracted numerous m igrants, such as the ancient Hebrews, who settled in the region's cities and adopted Mesopotamian ways. Merchants such as the Phoenicians, who also embraced Mesopotamian society, built extensive maritime trade networks that linked southwest Asia with lands throughout the Mediterranean basin. Some Indo-European peoples also had direct dealings with their Mesopotamian contemporaries, with effects crucial for both Indo-European and Mesopotamian societies. Other Indo-European peoples probably never heard of Mesopotamia, but they employed Mesopotamian inventions such as wheels and metallurgy when undertaking extensive migrations that profoundly influenced historical development throughout much of Eurasia from western Europe to India and beyond. Even in the earliest days of city life, the world was the site of frequent and intense interaction between peoples of different societies. THE QUEST FOR ORDER of the last ice age, and seasonally flooding rivers that made irrigation agriculture possible. So, although Mesopotamia re- During the fourth millennium B.C.E., human population in- ceived little rainfall, the Tigris and Euphrates brought large vol- creased rapidly in Mesopotamia. Inhabitants had few prece- umes of freshwater to the region. Early cultivators realized that dents to guide them in the organization ofa large-scale society. by tapping these rivers, building reservoirs, and digging canals, they could irrigate fields of barley, wheat, and peas. Small- At most they inherited a few techniques for keeping order in scale irrigation began in Mesopotamia soon after 6000 B.C.E. the small agricultural villages of neolithic times. By experi- Sumer Artificial irrigation led to increased food supplies, mentation and adaptation, however, they created states and governmental machinery that brought political and social or- which in turn supported a rapidly increasing human population der to their territories. Moreover, effective political and mili- while also attracting migrants from other regions. Human tary organization enabled them to build regional empires and numbers grew especially fast in the land of Sumer in the south- extend their authority to neighboring peoples. ern half of Mesopotamia. It is possible that the people known Mesopotamia: \"The Land as the Sumerians already inhabited this land in the sixth mil- between the Rivers\" lennium B.C.E., but it is perhaps more likely that they were later The place-name Mesopotamia comes from two Greek words migrants attracted to the region by its agricultural potential. In either case, by about 5000 B.C.E. the Sumerians were construct- meaning \"the land between the rivers,\" and it refers specifi- ing elaborate irrigation networks that helped them realize abundant agricultural harvests. By 3000 B.C.E. the population cally to the fertile valleys ofthe Tigris and Euphrates rivers in of Sumer was approaching one hundred thousand an unprec- edented concentration of people in ancient times and the modern-day Iraq. This was one of four river valley regions in Sumerians were the dominant people of Mesopotamia. which ancient civilizations were established. Each shared im- portant geographic features, including dry soils, an environ- Semitic Migrants While supporting a growing population, ment that was slowly drying and warming following the end the wealth of Sumer also attracted migrants from other regions. Euphrates (yoo-FRAY-tees) Semitic (suh-MIHT-ikh) Most of the new arrivals were Semitic peoples so called because they spoke tongues in the Semitic family oflanguages, 28
Chapter 2 • Early Societies in Southwest Asia and the Indo-European Migrations 29 Mesopotamia, 3000-2000 B.C.E. MAP 2.1 Early Mesopotamia, Black Sea 3000-2000 B.C.E. Kanesh• Note the locations of Mesopotamian cities in relation to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In what ways were the rivers important for Mesopotamian society? ANATOLIA ASSYRIA •Nineveh ~/... Assur CYPRUS P/\"-;- • ~- Q/(, <:P-'_·.. AKKAD I' \"' Mediterranean Sea SYRIA PAL EST I N~E .Babylon .Jericho • Lagash GDead Sea • SUMER Uruk • EGYPT Sinai En.du• Ur Peninsula ~~ SAHARA ARABIA 0 500 mi 11111111114 A AI 0 500 km including Akkadian, Aramaic, Hebrew, and Phoenician. crucial to the welfare of urban residents, the cities all became city-states: they not only controlled public life within the city (Semitic languages spoken in the world today include Arabic walls but also extended their authority to neighboring territo- and Hebrew, and African peoples speak many other languages ries and oversaw affairs in surrounding agricultural regions. related to Semitic tongues.) Semitic peoples were nomadic herders who went to Mesopotamia from the Arabian and While preserving the peace, government authorities also Syrian deserts to the south and west. They often intermarried organized work on projects of value to the entire community. Palaces, temples, and defensive walls dominated all the with the Sumerians, and they largely adapted to Sumerian ways. Sumerian cities, and all were the work oflaborers recruited and coordinated by government authorities such as Gilgamesh, whom Beginning around 4000 B.C.E., as human numbers increased legendary accounts credit with the building of city walls and in southern Mesopotamia, the Sumerians built the world's first cities. These cities differed markedly from the neolithic temples at Uruk. Particularly impressive were the ziggurats- villages that preceded them. Unlike the earlier settlements, the Sumerian cities were centers of political and military au- distinctive stepped pyramids that housed temples and altars to thority, and their jurisdiction extended into the surrounding the principal local deity. In the city of Uruk, a massive ziggurat regions. Moreover, bustling marketplaces that drew buyers and temple complex went up about 3200 B.C.E. to honor the fer- and sellers from near and far turned the cities into economic tility goddess Inanna. Scholars have calculated that its construc- centers as well. The cities also served as cultural centers tion required the services of fifteen hundred laborers working where priests maintained organized religions and scribes de- ten hours per day for five years. Ziggurats and temple complexes veloped traditions of writing and formal education. were at the heart of all the great Mesopotamian cities, which were essentially constructed around these religious complexes. Sumerian City-States For almost a millennium, from 3200 Even more important than buildings were the irrigation to 2350 B.C.E., a dozen Sumerian cities Eridu, Ur, Uruk, systems that supported productive agriculture and urban soci- ety. As their population grew, the Sumerians expanded their Lagash, Nippur, Kish, and others dominated public affairs in networks of reservoirs and canals. The construction, mainte- nance, and repair of the irrigation systems required the labor Mesopotamia. These cities all experienced internal and exter- of untold thousands of workers. Only recognized government nal pressures that prompted them to establish states formal authorities had the standing to draft workers for this difficult governmental institutions that wielded authority throughout their territories. Internally, the cities needed to maintain order Phoenician (fi-NEE-shin) and ensure that inhabitants cooperated on community proj- Sumerian (soo-MEHR-ee-un) ects. With their expanding populations, the cities also needed to prevent conflicts between urban residents from escalating ziggurats (ZIG-uh-rahts) into serious civic disorder. Moreover, because agriculture was
30 Part 1 • The Early Complex Societies, 3500 to 500 s.c.E. Rising more than 30 meters (1 00 feet), the massive templeof the moon god Nanna-Suen (sometimes known as Sin) dominated the Sumerian city of Ur. Constructing temples of this size required a huge investment of resources and thousands of laborers. As some of the largest human-built structures of the time, how might such temples have impressed Mesopotamian peoples? labor and order them to participate in such large-scale proj- rulers gradually usurped the authority of the assemblies and ects. Even when the irrigation systems functioned perfectly, established themselves as monarchs. By about 3000 B.C.E. all recognized authority was still necessary to ensure equitable Sumerian cities had kings (known as lugals) who claimed distribution of water and to resolve disputes. absolute authority within their realms. In fact, however, the kings generally ruled in cooperation with local nobles, who In addition to their internal pressures, the Sumerian cities came mostly from the ranks of military leaders who had dis- faced external problems. The wealth stored in Sumerian cities played special valor in battle. By 2500 B.C.E. city-states domi- attracted the interest of peoples outside the cities. Mesopotamia nated public life in Sumer, and city-states such as Assur and is a mostly flat land with few natural geographic barriers. It Nineveh had also begun to emerge in northern Mesopotamia. was a simple matter for raiders to attack the Sumerian cities and take their wealth. The cities responded to that threat by The Course of Empire building defensive walls and organizing military forces. The need to recruit, train, equip, maintain, and deploy military Once they had organized effective states, Mesopotamians forces created another demand for recognized authority. ventured beyond the boundaries of their societies. As early as 2800 B.C.E., conflicts between city-states often led to war, as Sumerian Kings The earliest Sumerian governments were aggrieved or ambitious kings sought to punish or conquer probably assemblies of prominent men who made decisions their neighbors. Sumerian accounts indicate that the king of on behalf of the whole community. When crises arose, assem- Kish, a city-state located just east of Babylon, extended his blies yielded their power to individuals who possessed full rule to much of southern Mesopotamia after 2800 B.C.E., for authority during the period of emergency. These individual
Chapter 2 • Early Societies in Southwest Asia and the Indo-European Migrations 31 example, and Sumerian poems praised King Gilgamesh for For several generations Sargon's successors maintained later liberating Uruk from Kish's control. In efforts to move his empire. Gradually, though, it weakened, partly because of beyond constant conflicts, a series of conquerors worked to chronic rebellion in city-states that resented imperial rule, establish order on a scale larger than the city-state by building partly also because of invasions by peoples hoping to seize a empires that supervised the affairs of numerous subject cities portion of Mesopotamia's fabulous wealth. By about 2150 B.C.E. and peoples. After 2350 B.C.E. Mesopotamia fell under the Sargon's empire had collapsed altogether. Yet the memory of control of several powerful regional empires. his deeds, recorded in legends and histories as well as in his works of propaganda, inspired later conquerors to follow his Sargon ofAkkad These regional empires emerged as Semitic example. peoples such as the Akkadians and the Babylonians of north- Hammurabi and the Babylonian Empire Most promi- ern Mesopotamia began to overshadow the Sumerians. The nent of the later conquerors was the Babylonian Hammurabi creator of empire in Mesopotamia was Sargon of Akkad, a (reigned 1792-1750 B.C.E.), who styled himself \"king of the city near Kish and Babylon whose precise location has so far four quarters of the world.\" The Babylonian empire domi- eluded archaeologists. A talented administrator and brilliant nated Mesopotamia until about 1600 B.C.E. Hammurabi im- warrior, Sargon (2370-2315 B.C.E.) began his career as a min- proved on Sargon's administrative techniques by relying on ister to the king of Kish. About 2334 B.C.E. he organized a centralized bureaucratic rule and regular taxation. Instead of coup against the king, recruited an army, and went on the traveling from city to city with an army both large and hungry, offensive against the Sumerian city-states. He conquered the Hammurabi and his successors ruled from Babylon (located cities one by one, destroyed their defensive walls, and placed near modern Baghdad) and stationed deputies in the territo- them under his governors and administrators. As Sargon's ries they controlled. Instead of confiscating supplies and conquests mounted, his armies grew larger and more profes- other wealth in the unfortunate regions their armies visited, sional, and no single city-state could withstand his forces. Hammurabi and later rulers instituted less ruinous but more regular taxes collected by their officials. By these means Empire: A New Form of Political Organization Sargon's Hammurabi developed a more efficient and predictable gov- ernment than his predecessors and also spread its costs more empire represented a historical experiment, as the conqueror evenly over the population. worked to devise ways and means to hold his possessions to- gether. He relied heavily on his personal presence to maintain Hammurabi's Laws Hammurabi also sought to maintain stability throughout his realm. For much of his reign, he trav- eled with armies, which sometimes numbered more than five his empire by providing it with a code of law. Sumerian rulers thousand, from one Mesopotamian city to another. The result- had promulgated laws perhaps as early as 2500 B.C.E., and ing experience was quite unpleasant for the cities he visited, Hammurabi borrowed liberally from his predecessors in com- because their populations had to provide food, lodging, and piling the most extensive and most complete Mesopotamian financial support whenever Sargon and his forces descended upon them. That inconvenience naturally generated consid- law code. In the prologue to his laws, Hammurabi pro- erable resentment of the conqueror and frequently claimed that the gods had chosen him \"to pro- sparked local rebellions. In a never-ending search mote the welfare of the people, . . . to cause for funds to support his army and his government, justice to prevail in the land, to destroy the Sargon also seized control of trade routes and wicked and evil, [so] that the strong might supplies of natural resources such as sil- not oppress the weak, to rise like the sun ver, tin, and cedar wood. By controlling over the people, and to light up the land.\" and taxing trade, Sargon obtained fi- Hammurabi's laws established high stan- nancial resources to maintain his mili- dards of behavior and stern punishments tary juggernaut and transform his capital for violators. They prescribed death pen- of Akkad into the wealthiest and most pow- alties for murder, theft, fraud, false ac- erful city in the world. At the high point of his cusations, sheltering of runaway slaves, reign, his empire embraced all of Mesopotamia, failure to obey royal orders, adultery, and and his armies had ventured as far afield as the incest. Civil laws regulated prices, wages, Mediterranean and the Black Sea. commercial dealings, marital relationships, and the conditions of slavery. Bronze bust of a Mesopotamian king often thought to The code relied heavily on the principle represent Sargon of Akkad. The sculpture dates to about 2350 B.C.E. and reflects high levels of expertise in the of lex talionis, a Latin phrase that means the working of bronze. Hammurabi (hahm-uh-RAH-bee) lex talionis (lehks tah-lee-oh-nihs)
32 Part 1 • The Early Complex Societies, 3500 to 500 s.c.E. Black Sea 0 250 mi 0 eKanesh SOOkm ANATOLIA Aegean Sea CRETE •Nineveh •Assur CYPRUS MESOPOTAMIA Mediterranean Sea ~ Babylon• EGYPT c~.., Nippur • •Lagash ..l....l.,..l. J e n.c ho ~ Q.. Dead Sea ARABIA Uruk• • Ur SAHARA Memphis• DESERT Sinai Assyrian empire Peninsula Ham m urab i's emp ire Hittite empire Area of Mesopotamia conquered by Hittites • Thebes MAP 2.2 Mesopotamian empires, 1800-600 o.c.E. Mesopotamian empires facilitated interactions between peoples from different societies. \"law of retaliation,\" whereby offenders suf- Consider the various land, river, and sea routes by which peoples ofMesopotamia, Anatolia, and fered punishments resembling their viola- Egypt were able to communicate with one another in the second and first millennia s.c.E. tions. But the code also took account of social standing when applying this princi- ple. It provided, for example, that a noble who destroyed the eye or broke the bone of another noble Turkey), and about 1595 B.C.E. the Babylonian empire crum- would have his own eye destroyed or bone broken, but if a bled before Hittite assaults. For several centuries after the fall noble destroyed the eye or broke the bone of a commoner, the of Babylon, southwest Asia was a land of considerable tur- noble merely paid a fine in silver. Local judges did not always moil, as regional states competed for power and position while follow the prescriptions of Hammurabi's code: indeed, they migrants and invaders struggled to establish footholds for frequently relied on their own judgment when deciding cases themselves in Mesopotamia and neighboring regions. that came before them. Nevertheless, Hammurabi's laws estab- lished a set of standards that lent some degree of cultural unity The Later Mesopotamian Empires to the far-flung Babylonian empire. Imperial rule returned to Mesopotamia with the Assyrians, a Despite Hammurabi's administrative efficiencies and im- hardy people from northern Mesopotamia who had built a pressive law code, the wealth of the Babylonian empire attracted compact state in the Tigris River valley during the nineteenth invaders, particularly the Indo-European-speaking Hittites, century B.C.E. Taking advantage of their location on trade who had built a powerful empire in Anatolia (modern-day routes running both north-south and east-west, the Assyrians Assyrians (uh-SEER-ee-uhns) built flourishing cities at Assur and Nineveh. They built a powerful and intimidating army by organizing their forces
Chapter 2 • Early Societies in Southwest Asia and the Indo-European Migrations 33 The Flood Story from the Epic of Gilgamesh The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest surviving epic poem in The surface of the earth (was) swept. It destroyed all life, from the face of the earth. history, dating from about 2500 a.c. E. As part of his adventures, The strong tempest over the people, reached to heaven. Brother saw not his brother, it did not spare the people . . . Gilgamesh seeks the secret of immortality from a wise man Six days and nights passed, the wind tempest and storm named Ut-napishtim. During the visit, Ut-napishtim tells him overwhelmed. On the seventh day in its course, was calmed the storm, how the god Ea alerted him to a plot by the gods to destroy humankind by a massive flood. Here, Ut-napishtim recounts and all the tempest which had destroyed like an earthquake, quieted. the story to Gilgamesh. The sea he caused to dry, and the wind and tempest ended. In its circuit (the boat measured) 14 measures I was carried through the sea. I placed its roof on it (and) I enclosed it The doer of evil, and the whole of mankind who turned to I rode in it, for the sixth t ime; sin, like reeds their corpses floated. I (rode in it) for the seventh t ime into the restless deep. I opened the window and the light broke in, over my refuge Its planks the waters within it admitted, it passed ... I saw breaks and holes. On the seventh day ... I sent forth a dove, and it left. Three measures of bitumen I poured over the outside, The dove went and searched and a resting place it d id not Three measures of bitumen I poured over the inside. find, and it returned. The men carrying its baskets ... fixed an altar; I sent forth a swallow, and it left. I unclosed the altar for an offering. The swallow went and searched and a resting place it did The material of the ship (was) completed; not find, and it returned. Reeds I spread above and below. I sent forth a raven, and it left. All I possessed I collected it, all I possessed I collected The raven went, and the corpses on the waters it saw, And it did eat, it swam, and wandered away, and did of silver, not return. All I possessed I collected of gold, I sent the animals forth to the four w inds; All I possessed I collected of the seed of life, the whole. I poured out a libation; I caused to go up into the ship, all my male and female I built an altar on the peak of the mountain. servants, For Further Reflection The beasts of the field, the animals of the field, And the sons of the army all of them, I caused to go up. • Think about the similarities between the flood story above A flood Shamas made, and he spoke saying in the night, and the story of Noah's Ark from the Old Testament. Which 'I w ill cause it to rain from heaven heavily; features appear in both stories? Why do you think these sto- Enter to the midst of the ship, and shut thy door.' ries are so similar? A flood he raised, and he spoke saying in the night, 'I w ill cause it to rain from heaven heavily.' Source: Thomas Sanders et al. Encounters in World History: Sources In the day that I celebrated his festival, the day that he had and Themes from the Global Past, Vol. I. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2006, appointed; fear I had. pp. 40-41 . I entered to the midst of the ship, and shut my door ... The raging of a storm in the morning arose, From the horizon of heaven extending and wide .. . The bright earth to a waste was turned; into standardized units and placing them under the command withering firepower that unnerved the opponents and left them of professional officers. The Assyrians appointed these officers vulnerable to the Assyrian infantry and cavalry forces. because of merit, skill, and bravery rather than noble birth or family connections. They supplemented infantry with cavalry The Assyrian Empire After the collapse of the Babylonian forces and light, swift, horse-drawn chariots, which they bor- empire, the Assyrian state was one among many jockeying for rowed from the Hittites. These chariots were devastating in- power and position in northern Mesopotamia. After about struments of war that allowed archers to attack their enemies 1300 B.C.E. Assyrians gradually extended their authority to from rapidly moving platforms. Waves of Assyrian chariots much of southwest Asia. They made use of recently invented stormed their opponents with a combination of high speed and iron weapons to strengthen their army, which sometimes
34 Part 1 • The Early Complex Societies, 3500 to 500 s.c.E. Thinking about TRADITIONS \"king of Assyria\" but also, grandiosely, \"king of the universe.\" Like most other Mesopotamian peoples, the Assyrians relied on the administrative techniques pioneered by their Babylonian predecessors, and they followed laws much like those enshrined in the code of Hammurabi. They also preserved a great deal of Mesopotamian literature in huge li- braries maintained at their large and lavish courts. At his magnificent royal palace in Nineveh, for example, King Assurbanipal maintained a vast library that included thousands of literary schol- arly texts as well as diplomatic correspondence and administrative records. Indeed, Assurbani- pal's library preserved most of the Mesopotamian numbered upwards of fifty thousand troops who pushed re- literature that has survived to the present day, including the lentlessly in all directions. At its high point, during the eighth Epic ofGilgamesh. and seventh centuries B.C.E., the Assyrian empire embraced The Assyrian empire brought wealth, comfort, and so- not only Mesopotamia but also Syria, Palestine, much of phistication to the Assyrian heartland, particularly the cities of Anatolia, and most of Egypt. King Assurbanipal, whose long Assur and Nineveh, but elsewhere Assyrian domination was reign (668-627 B.C.E.) coincided with the high tide of extremely unpopular. Assyrian rulers faced intermittent rebel- Assyrian domination, went so far as to style himself not only lion by subjects in one part or another of their empire, the very size of which presented enormous administrative challenges. Nebuchadnezzar (neb-uh-kud-NEZ-er) Ultimately, a combination of internal unrest and external assault brought their empire down in 612 B.C.E. Nebuchadnezzar and the New Babylonian Empire For half a century, from 600 to 550 B.C.E., Babylon once again dominated Mesopotamia during the New Babylonian empire, sometimes called the Chaldean empire. King Nebuchadnezzar An alabaster relief sculpture from the eighth century s.c.E. depicts The luxurious hanging gardens of Babylon, reputably constructed by Assyrian forces besieging a city and dispatching defeated enemy King Nebuchadnezzar in the sixth century s.c.E. for one of his wives, soldiers. Assyrian royal palaces commonly featured similar wall reliefs symbolized the wealth and sophistication of the Babylonian empire just celebrating victories of the Assyrian armies. before it was conquered by foreign invaders.
Chapter 2 • Early Societies in Southwest Asia and the Indo-European Migrations 35 (reigned 605-562 B.C.E.) lavished wealth and resources on his implements. Experimentation with copper metallurgy thus led capital city. Babylon occupied some 850 hectares (more than to the invention of bronze. Because both copper and tin were 2,100 acres), and the city's defensive walls were reportedly so relatively rare and hence expensive, most people could not thick that a four-horse chariot could turn around on top of afford bronze implements. But bronze had an immediate im- them. Within the walls there were enormous palaces and pact on military affairs, as craftsmen turned out swords, 1,179 temples, some of them faced with gold and decorated spears, axes, shields, and armor made of the recently invented with thousands of statues. When one of the king's wives metal. Over a longer period, bronze also had an impact on longed for flowering shrubs from her mountain homeland, agriculture. Mesopotamian farmers began to use bronze Nebuchadnezzar had them planted in terraces above the city knives and bronze-tipped plows instead oftools made ofbone, walls, and the hanging gardens of Babylon have symbolized wood, stone, or obsidian. the city's luxuriousness ever since, although recent research suggests that these gardens may actually have been in the Iron Metallurgy After about 1000 B.C.E. Mesopotamian nearby city of Nineveh. craftsmen began to manufacture effective tools and weapons with iron as well as bronze. Experimentation with iron metal- By that time, however, peoples beyond Mesopotamia had lurgy began as early as the fourth millennium B.C.E., but early acquired advanced weapons and experimented with techniques efforts resulted in products that were too brittle for heavy- of administering large territories. By the mid-sixth century duty uses. About 1300 B.C.E. craftsmen from Hittite society in B.C.E., Mesopotamians largely lost control of their affairs, as Anatolia (discussed later in this chapter) developed tech- foreign conquerors absorbed them into their empires. niques of forging exceptionally strong iron tools and weap- ons. Iron metallurgy soon spread throughout Anatolia, THE FORMATION OF A COMPLEX Mesopotamia, and other regions as well, and Assyrian con- SOCIETY AND SOPHISTICATED querors made particularly effective use of iron weapons in CULTURAL TRADITIONS building their empire. Because iron deposits are much cheaper and more widely available than copper and tin, the With the emergence of cities and the congregation of dense ingredients of bronze, iron quickly became the metal of populations in urban spaces, specialized labor proliferated. choice for weapons and tools. The Mesopotamian economy became increasingly diverse, and trade linked the region with distant peoples. Clearly defined The Wheel While some craftsmen refined the techniques of social classes emerged, as small groups ofpeople concentrated bronze and iron metallurgy, others devised efficient means of wealth and power in their hands, and Mesopotamia developed transportation based on wheeled vehicles and sailing ships, into a patriarchal society that vested authority largely in adult both of which facilitated long-distance trade. The first use of males. While building a complex society, Mesopotamians also wheels probably took place about 3500 B.C.E., and Sumerians allocated some of their resources to individuals who worked to were building wheeled carts by 3000 B.C.E. Wheeled carts and develop sophisticated cultural traditions. They invented sys- wagons enabled people to haul heavy loads of bulk goods- tems of writing that enabled them to record information for such as grain, bricks, or metal ores over much longer dis- future retrieval. Writing soon became a foundation for educa- tances than human porters or draft animals could manage. tion, science, literature, and religious reflection. The wheel rapidly diffused from Sumer to neighboring lands, and within a few centuries it was in common use throughout Economic Specialization and Trade Mesopotamia and beyond. When large numbers of people began to congregate in cities Shipbuilding Sumerians also experimented with technolo- and work at tasks other than agriculture, they vastly expanded gies of maritime transportation. By 3500 B.C.E. they had the stock of human skills. Craftsmen refined techniques inher- built watercraft that allowed them to venture into the Persian ited from earlier generations and experimented with new ways Gulf. By 2300 B.C.E. they were trading regularly with mer- of doing things. Pottery, textile manufacture, woodworking, chants of Harappan society in the Indus River valley of leather production, brick making, stonecutting, and masonry northern India (discussed in chapter 4), which they reached all became distinct occupations in the world's earliest cities. by sailing through the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. Until about 1750 B.C.E. Sumerian merchants shipped woolen Bronze Metallurgy Metallurgical innovations ranked textiles, leather goods, sesame oil, and jewelry to India in among the most important developments that came about exchange for copper, ivory, pearls, and semiprecious stones. because of specialized labor. Already in neolithic times, During the time of the Babylonian empire, Mesopotamians craftsmen had fashioned copper into tools and jewelry. In traded extensively with peoples in all directions: they im- pure form, however, copper is too soft for use as an effec- ported silver from Anatolia, cedar wood from Lebanon, cop- tive weapon or as a tool for heavy work. About 4000 B.C.E. per from Arabia, gold from Egypt, tin from Persia, lapis Mesopotamian metalworkers discovered that if they alloyed lazuli from Afghanistan, and semiprecious stones from copper with tin, they could make much harder and stronger northern India.
36 Part 1 • The Early Complex Societies, 3500 to 500 s.c.E. Asilver model of a boat discovered ina royal tomb at Ur throws light on Sumerian transportation of grain and other goods on the rivers, canals, and marshes of southern Mesopotamia about 2700 B.C.E. Trade Networks Archaeological excavations have shed son of a goddess and a king, was two-thirds divine and one- bright light on one Mesopotamian trade network in particular. third human. Some legends recognized him as a full-fledged During the early second millennium B.C.E., Assyrian mer- god. Large-scale construction projects ordered by the kings chants traveled regularly by donkey caravan some 1,600 kilo- and the lavish decoration of capital cities also reflected the meters (1,000 miles) from their home of Assur in northern high status of the Mesopotamian ruling classes. All the Mesopotamia to Kanesh (modern Kiiltepe) in Anatolia. Mesopotamian cities boasted massive city walls and imposing Surviving correspondence shows that during the forty-five public buildings. years from 1810 to 1765 B.C.E., merchants transported at least 80 tons of tin and one hundred thousand textiles from Assur Temple Communities Closely allied with the ruling elites and returned from Kanesh with no less than 10 tons of silver. were priests and priestesses, many of whom were younger The correspondence also shows that the merchants and relatives of the rulers. The principal role of the priestly elites their families operated a well-organized business. Merchants' was to intervene with the gods to ensure good fortune for wives and children manufactured textiles in Assur and sent their communities. In exchange for those services, priests and them to their menfolk who lived in trading colonies at Kanesh. priestesses lived in temple communities and received offer- The merchants responded with orders for textiles in the styles ings of food, drink, and clothing from city inhabitants. Tem- desired at Kanesh. ples also generated income from vast tracts of land that they owned and large workshops that they maintained. One tem- The Emergence of a ple community near the city of Lagash employed six thou- sand textile workers between 2150 and 2100 B.C.E. Other Stratified Patriarchal Society temple communities cultivated grains, herded sheep and goats, and manufactured leather, wood, metal, and stone Social Classes Agriculture enabled human groups to accu- goods. Because of their wealth, temples provided comfort- mulate wealth, and distinctions between the more and less able livings for their inhabitants, and they also served the wealthy had already appeared in much earlier neolithic settle- needs of the larger community. Temples functioned as banks ments such as Jericho and <;atal Hiiyiik. With increasingly where individuals could store wealth, and they helped under- specialized labor and long-distance trade, however, cities pro- write trading ventures to distant lands. They also helped vided many more opportunities for the accumulation of wealth. those in need by taking in orphans, supplying grain in times Social distinctions in Mesopotamia became much more sharply of famine, and providing ransoms for community members defined than those of neolithic villages. captured in battle. In early Mesopotamia the ruling classes consisted of Apart from the ruling and priestly elites, Mesopotamian kings and nobles who won their positions because of their society included less privileged classes of free commoners, valor and success as warriors. The early kings ofthe Sumerian dependent clients, and slaves. Free commoners mostly worked cities made such a deep impression on their contemporaries as peasant cultivators in the countryside on land owned by that legends portrayed them as offspring of the gods. Accord- their families, although some also worked in the cities as ing to many legends, for example, Gilgamesh of Uruk, the
Chapter 2 • Early Societies in Southwest Asia and the Indo-European Migrations 37 The Royal Standard of Ur, produced about 2700 s.c.E., depicts diners at an elaborate banquet with musicians (top rank) as well as common folk who bring fish, goats, sheep, cattle, and agricultural produce for the affair. How do these figures give us insight into life among the Sumerians? builders, craftsmen, or professionals, such as physicians or patriarchal society that vested authority over public and pri- engineers. Dependent clients had fewer options than free vate affairs in adult men. Within their households men de- commoners because they possessed no property. Dependent cided the work that family members would perform and made clients usually worked as agricultural laborers on estates marriage arrangements for their children as well as any others owned by others, including the king, nobles, or priestly who came under their authority. Men also dominated public communities, and they owed a portion of their production life. Men ruled as kings, and decisions about policies and pub- to the landowners. Free commoners and dependent clients lic affairs rested almost entirely in men's hands. all paid taxes usually in the form of surplus agricultural production that supported the ruling classes, military forces, Hammurabi's laws throw considerable light on gender re- and temple communities. In addition, when conscripted by lations in ancient Mesopotamia. The laws recognized men as ruling authorities, free commoners and dependent clients also heads of their households and entrusted all major family deci- provided labor services for large-scale construction projects sions to their judgment. Men even had the power to sell their involving roads, city walls, irrigation systems, temples, and wives and children into slavery to satisfy their debts. In the public buildings. interests of protecting the reputations of husbands and the le- gitimacy of offspring, the laws prescribed death by drowning Slaves Slaves came from three main sources: prisoners of as the punishment for adulterous wives, as well as for their war, convicted criminals, and heavily indebted individuals partners, while permitting men to engage in consensual sex- who sold themselves into slavery to satisfy their obligations. ual relations with concubines, slaves, or prostitutes without Some slaves worked as agricultural laborers on the estates of penalty. nobles or temple communities, but most were domestic ser- vants in wealthy households. Many masters granted slaves Women's Roles In spite of their subordinate legal status, their freedom, often with a financial gift, after several years of women made their influence felt in Mesopotamian society. good service. Slaves with accommodating masters sometimes At ruling courts women sometimes advised kings and their even engaged in small-scale trade and earned enough money governments. A few women wielded great power as high to purchase their freedom. priestesses who managed the enormous estates belonging to their temples. Others obtained a formal education and Patriarchal Society While recognizing differences of worked as scribes literate individuals who prepared ad- rank, wealth, and social status, Mesopotamians also built a ministrative and legal documents for governments and private parties. Women also pursued careers as midwives,
38 Part 1 • The Early Complex Societies, 3500 to 500 s.c.E. shopkeepers, brewers, bakers, tavern keepers, r-- Reverberations of and textile manufacturers. There are no records Urbanization and the Creation of Patriarchy of women serving as rulers or holding high-level administrative positions. Scholars have abundant evidence that Mesopotamian women lived During the second millennium B.C.E., under a system of patriarchy at least by 4000 s.c.E. At the same t ime, they also have evidence that a few women were able to wield power Mesopotamian men progressively tightened their behind the scenes, and that many other women engaged in a variety of control over the social and sexual behavior of professions. Consider the differences between an overall system such women. To protect family fortunes and guarantee as patriarchy and the effects of such a system on the way individual the legitimacy of heirs, Mesopotamians insisted women actually lived their lives. What aspects of women's lives were on the virginity of brides at marriage, and they most likely to be affected by patriarchy? Over what aspects of women's forbade casual socializing between married lives might they have retained some control? How might the effects of women and men outside their family. By 1500 B.C.E. patriarchy differed among women of different classes? and probably even earlier, upper-class women in Mesopotamian cities had begun to wear veils when they ventured beyond their own households to discourage the attention of men from other families. This concern to control women's social and sexual cuneiform, a term that comes from two Latin words mean- behavior spread throughout much of southwest Asia and the ing \"wedge-shaped.\" When dried in the sun or baked in an Mediterranean basin, where it reinforced patriarchal social oven, the clay hardened and preserved a permanent record structures. of the scribe's message. Babylonians, Assyrians, and other peoples later adapted the Sumerians' script to their lan- The Development of guages, and the tradition of cuneiform writing continued for more than three thousand years. Thousands of clay tablets Written Cultural Traditions with cuneiform writing survive to the present day. Although it entered a period of decline in the fourth century B.C.E. The world's earliest known writing came from Mesopotamia. after the arrival of Greek alphabetic script, in which each Sumerians invented a system of writing about the middle of written symbol represents a distinct, individual sound, the fourth millennium B.C.E. to keep track of commercial scribes continued to produce cuneiform documents into the transactions and tax collections. They first experimented with early centuries c.E. pictographs representing animals, agricultural products, and trade items such as sheep, oxen, wheat, barley, pots, and Education Most education in ancient times was voca- fish that figured prominently in tax and commercial trans- actions. By 3100 B.C.E. conventional signs representing spe- tional instruction designed to train individuals to work in cific words had spread throughout Mesopotamia. specific trades and crafts. Yet Mesopotamians also estab- lished formal schools, since it required a great deal of time Cuneiform Writing A writing system Sumerian cuneiform tablet dating from the and concentrated effort to learn cunei- earlythird millennium B.C.E. A scribe has form writing. Most of those who learned that depends on pictures is useful for impressed symbols into wet clay which has to read and write became scribes or purposes such as keeping records, but government officials. A few pursued it is a cumbersome way to communi- their studies further and became priests, cate abstract ideas. Beginning about physicians, or professionals such as en- 2900 B.C.E. the Sumerians developed a gineers and architects. Formal educa- more flexible system of writing that used tion was by no means common, but graphic symbols to represent sounds, already by 3000 B.C.E., literacy was es- syllables, and ideas as well as physical sential to the smooth functioning of objects. By combining pictographs and Mesopotamian society. other symbols, the Sumerians created a Though originally invented for pur- powerful writing system. poses ofkeeping records, writing clearly When writing, a Sumerian scribe had potential that went far beyond the purely practical matter of storing in- used a stylus fashioned from a reed to formation. Mesopotamians relied on impress symbols on wet clay. Because writing to communicate complex ideas the stylus left lines and wedge-shaped about the world, the gods, humans, and marks, Sumerian writing is known as hardened to preserve a permanent record their relationships with one another. of the scribe's message. Indeed, writing made possible the emer- cuneiform (KYOO-ni-form) gence of a distinctive cultural tradition
Chapter 2 • Early Societies in Southwest Asia and the Indo-European Migrations 39 Hammurabi's Laws on Family Relationships By the time of Hammurabi, Mesopotamian marriages had [140] If he be a freed man he shall give her one-third of a come to represent important business and economic mina of gold. relationships between families. Hammurabi's laws reflect a [141] If a man's wife, who lives in his house, wishes to leave it, plunges into debt, tries to ruin her house, neglects her concern to ensure the legitimacy of children and to protect the husband, and is judicially convicted: if her husband offer her economic interests of both marital partners and their families. release, she may go on her way, and he g ives her nothing as a While placing women under the authority of their fathers gift of release. If her husband does not wish to release her, and and husbands, the laws also protected women against if he takes another wife, she shall remain as servant in her hus- unreasonable treatment by their husbands or other men. band's house. [128] If a man take a woman to be his wife, but has no inter- [142] If a woman quarrels with her husband, and says: \"You course with her, this woman is no wife to him. are not congenial to me,\" the reasons for her prejudice must be presented. If she is guiltless, and there is no fault on her part, [129] If a man's wife be surprised having sexual relations but he leaves and neglects her, then no guilt attaches to this with another man, both shall be tied and thrown into the woman, she shall take her dowry and go back to her father's water, but the husband may pardon his wife and the king may house. spare her. [1 43] If she is not innocent, but leaves her husband, and [130] If a man violates the wife (betrothed or child-wife) of ruins her house, neglecting her husband, this woman shall be another man, who has never known a man, and still lives in her cast into the water. father's house, and sleeps with her and be surprised, this man shall be put to death, but the wife is blameless. For Further Reflection [131] If a man brings a charge against his wife, but she is not • In what ways did Hammurabi's various provisions on family surprised with another man, she must take an oath and then relationships protect the interests of different groups, such may return to her house. as husbands, wives, or the family itself? [138] If a man wishes to separate from his wife who has Source: James B. Pritchard, ed. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating borne him no children, he shall give her the amount of her pur- to the Old Testament. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1955, chase money and the dowry which she brought from her father's house, and let her go. pp. 171-72. [139] If there was no purchase price he shall give her one mina of gold as a gift of release. that shaped Mesopotamian values for almost three thousand The Epic ofGilgamesh Mesopotamians also used writing years. to communicate abstract ideas, investigate intellectual andre- Astronomy and Mathematics Literacy led to a rapid ex- ligious problems, and reflect on human beings and their place in the world. Best known of the reflective literature from Mes- pansion of knowledge. Mesopotamian scholars devoted them- selves to the study of astronomy and mathematics crucial opotamia is the Epic of Gilgamesh. Parts of this work came sciences for agricultural societies. Knowledge of astronomy helped them prepare accurate calendars, which in turn en- from the Sumerian city-states, but the whole epic, as known abled them to chart the rhythms of the seasons and determine today, was the work of compilers who lived after 2000 B.C.E. the appropriate times for planting and harvesting crops. They during the days of the Babylonian empire. In recounting the used their mathematical skills to survey agricultural lands and experiences of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, the epic explored allocate them to the proper owners or tenants. Some Mesopo- themes of friendship, relations between humans and the gods, tamian conventions persist to the present day: Mesopotamian and especially the meaning of life and the inevitability of scientists divided the year into twelve months, for example, death. The stories of Gilgamesh and Enkidu resonated so and they divided the hours of the day into sixty minutes, each widely that for some two thousand years from the time of composed of sixty seconds. the Sumerian city-states to the fall of the Assyrian empire- they were the principal vehicles for Mesopotamian reflections on moral issues.
40 Part 1 • The Early Complex Societies, 3500 to 500 s.c.E. In this terra-cotta relief tablet from the Babylonian empire, Gilgamesh (left, with The Early Hebrews The earliest Hebrews were pas- knife) and his companion Enkidu (right, with knife) overcome an evil guardian of the deep forests duringtheir adventureon theearth. toral nomads who inhabited lands between Mesopota- mia and Egypt during the second millennium B.C.E. As THE BROADER INFLUENCE Mesopotamia prospered, some Hebrews settled in the OF MESOPOTAMIAN SOCIETY region's cities. According to the Hebrew scriptures (the Old Testament of the Christian Bible), the Hebrew pa- While building cities and regional states, Mesopotamians deeply triarch Abraham came from the Sumerian city of Ur, influenced the development and experiences of peoples living but he migrated to northern Mesopotamia about 1850 far beyond Mesopotamia. Often their wealth and power attracted B.C.E., perhaps because of disorder in Sumer. Abraham's the attention of neighboring peoples. Sometimes Mesopotamians descendants continued to recognize many of the dei- projected their power to foreign lands and imposed their ways ties, values, and customs common to Mesopotamian by force. Occasionally migrants left Mesopotamia and carried peoples. Hebrew law, for example, borrowed the princi- their inherited traditions to new lands. Mesopotamian influence ple of lex talionis from Hammurabi's code. The Hebrews did not completely transform other peoples and tum them into also told the story of a devastating flood that had de- carbon copies of Mesopotamians. On the contrary, other peo- stroyed all early human society. Their account was a ples adopted Mesopotamian ways selectively and adapted variation on similar flood stories related from the earli- them to their needs and interests. Yet the broader impact of est days of Sumerian society. One early version of the Mesopotamian society shows that, even in early times, complex story made its way into the Epic of Gilgamesh. The agricultural societies organized around cities had strong poten- Hebrews altered the story and adapted it to their own tial to influence the development of distant human communities. interests and purposes, but their familiarity with the flood story shows that they participated fully in the Hebrews, Israelites, and Jews larger society of Mesopotamia. The best-known cases of early Mesopotamian influence in- Migrations and Settlement in Palestine The Hebrew volved Hebrews, Israelites, and Jews, who preserved memo- ries of their historical experiences in an extensive collection scriptures do not offer reliable historical accounts of early of sacred writings. Hebrews were speakers of the ancient times, but they present memories and interpretations of Hebrew language. Israelites formed a branch of Hebrews who Hebrew experience from the perspectives of later religious settled in Palestine (modern-day Israel) after 1200 B.C.E. Jews leaders who collected oral reports and edited them into a body descended from southern Israelites who inhabited the king- of writings after 800 B.C.E. According to those scriptures, dom of Judah. For more than two thousand years, Hebrews, some Hebrews migrated to Egypt during the eighteenth cen- Israelites, and Jews interacted constantly with Mesopotamians tury B.C.E. About 1300 B.C.E., however, this branch of the and other peoples as well, with profound consequences for the Hebrews departed under the leadership of Moses and went to development of their societies. Palestine. Organized into a loose federation of twelve tribes, these Hebrews, known as the Israelites, fought bitterly with Yahweh (YAH -way) other inhabitants of Palestine and carved out a territory for themselves. Eventually the Israelites abandoned their inher- ited tribal structure in favor of a Mesopotamian-style monar- chy that brought the twelve tribes under unified rule. During the reigns of King David (1000- 970 B.C.E.) and King Solomon (970- 930 B.C.E.), Israelites dominated the territory between Syria and the Sinai peninsula. They built an elaborate and cosmopolitan capital city at Jerusalem and entered into dip- lomatic and commercial relations with Mesopotamians, Egyptians, and Arabian peoples. Moses and Monotheism The Hebrew scriptures also teach that after the time of Moses, the religious beliefs of the Israelites developed along increasingly distinctive lines. The early Hebrews had recognized many of the same gods as their Mesopotamian neighbors: they believed that nature spirits in- habited trees, rocks, and mountains, for example, and they honored various deities as patrons or protectors of their clans. Moses, however, embraced monotheism: he taught that there was only one god, known as Yahweh, who was a supremely powerful deity, the creator and sustainer of the world. All
Chapter 2 • Early Societies in Southwest Asia and the Indo-European Migrations 41 o• 20\"E 40\"E SYRIA 20\"W 60° elrutByblo Mediterranean Sidon •~B . Sea Tyre ~ l60\"N PALESTI N Jordan River Jerusal ~ •(t f5 Dead Sea SINAI ATLANTIC OCEAN 100 mi 200 km 40\"N __Ebusus•:===:S=TAhR:aDr:rINoUcsItA•i~ca~•T1yr-rSh-eean.iaannSoICrImLoY Ionian Aegean ANATOLIA .Kanesh Sea Sea .Gadir H1' PP° • Carth•age • Malta • Lixus lt..tedZ· fer CRETE SYRIA MAP 2.3 Israel and Phoenicia, Leptis Magna• ranean S_,e-a---------====~;~;;INcE• STiydroen 1500-600 B.C.E. •Jerusalem Dead Sea Kingdom of Israel Byblos Phoenician city EGYPT SINAI Kingdom ofjudah • Phoenician colony Note the location of Israel and Phoenicia Phoe n ic ia Phoenician t rade rout e Red with respect to Mesopotamia, Egypt, Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. How might geographic location have Yahweh's laws and outlined his role in creating the world and influenced communications and guiding human affairs. The Torah taught that Yahweh would exchanges between Israel, Phoenicia, reward individuals who obeyed his will and punish those who and other lands ofthe region? did not. It also taught that Yahweh would reward or punish the whole community collectively, according to its observance of other gods, including the various Mesopotamian deities, were his commandments. impostors figments of the human imagination rather than true and powerful gods. When the kings of the Israelites es- Historical and archaeological records tell a less colorful tablished their capital at Jerusalem, they did not build a ziggu- story than the account preserved in the Hebrew scriptures. rat, which they associated with false Mesopotamian gods but, Archaeological evidence shows that Israelites maintained rather, a magnificent, lavishly decorated temple in honor of communities in the hills of central Palestine after 1200 B.C.E. Yahweh. and that they formed several small kingdoms in the region after 1000 B.C.E. There are signs of intermittent conflicts with Although he was the omnipotent creator of the universe, neighboring peoples, but there is no indication that Israelites Yahweh was also a personal god. He expected his followers to conquered all of Palestine. On the contrary, they interacted worship him alone, and he demanded that they observe high and sometimes intermarried with other peoples of the region. moral and ethical standards. In the Ten Commandments, a set Like their neighbors, they learned to use iron to fabricate of religious and ethical principles that Moses announced to weapons and tools. They even honored some of the deities of the Israelites, Yahweh warned his followers against destruc- other Palestinian peoples: the Hebrew scriptures themselves tive and antisocial behaviors such as lying, theft, adultery, and mention that the Israelites worshiped gods other than Yahweh. murder. A detailed and elaborate legal code prepared after The recognition of Yahweh as the only true god seems to have Moses's death instructed the Israelites to provide relief and emerged about the eighth century B.C.E. rather than in the protection for widows, orphans, slaves, and the poor. Between early days of the Hebrews' history. about 800 and 400 B.C.E., the Israelites' religious leaders com- piled their teachings in a set of holy scriptures known as the Assyrian and Babylonian Conquests The Israelites Torah (Hebrew for \"doctrine\" or \"teaching\"), which laid down placed increasing emphasis on devotion to Yahweh as they ex- perienced a series of political and military setbacks. Following
42 Part 1 • The Early Complex Societies, 3500 to 500 s.c.E. An Assyrian relief sculpture depicts King Jehu of Israel paying tribute to King Shalmaneser Ill of Assyria about the middle of the ninth century B.C.E. King Solomon's reign, tribal tensions righteousness. These elements enabled the Jews to maintain a led to the division of the community strong sense of identity as a people distinct from Mesopota- into a large kingdom of Israel in the mians and others, even as they participated fully in the devel- north and a smaller kingdom of Judah opment of a larger complex society in southwest Asia. Over in the land known as Judea to the the longer term, Jewish monotheism, scriptures, and moral south. During the ninth century B.C.E., concerns also profoundly influenced the development of the kingdom of Israel came under Christianity and Islam. pressure from the expanding Assyrian empire and even had to pay tribute to The Phoenicians Assyrian rulers. In 722 B.C.E. Assyrian forces conquered the northern kingdom and deported many North of the Israelites' kingdom in Palestine, the Phoenicians of its inhabitants to other regions. Most of these exiles as- occupied a narrow coastal plain between the Mediterranean similated into other communities and lost their identity as Sea and the Lebanon Mountains. They spoke a Semitic lan- Israelites. The kingdom of Judah retained its independence only guage, referring to themselves as Canaanites and their land temporarily: founders of the New Babylonian empire toppled as Canaan. (The term Phoenician comes from early Greek the Assyrians, then looked south, conquered the kingdom of references.) Judah, and destroyed Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E. Again, the con- querors forced many residents into exile. Unlike their cousins The Early Phoenicians Ancestors of the Phoenicians mi- to the north, however, most of these Israelites maintained grated to the Mediterranean coast and built their first settle- their religious identity, and many of the deportees eventually ments sometime after 3000 B.C.E. They did not establish a returned to Judea, where they became known as Jews. unified monarchy but, rather, organized a series of indepen- dent city-states ruled by local kings. The major cities Tyre, Ironically, perhaps, the Israelites' devotion to Yahweh in- Sidon, Beirut, and Byblos had considerable influence over tensified during this era of turmoil. Between the ninth and their smaller neighbors, and during the tenth century B.C.E. sixth centuries B.C.E., a series of prophets urged the Israelites Tyre dominated southern Phoenicia. Generally speaking, to rededicate themselves to their faith and obey Yahweh's however, the Phoenicians showed more interest in pursuing commandments. These prophets were moral and social crit- commercial opportunities than in state building or military ics who blasted their compatriots for their materialism, their expansion. Indeed, Phoenician cities were often subject to im- neglect of the needy, and their abominable interest in the fer- perial rule from Egypt or Mesopotamia. tility gods and nature deities worshiped by neighboring peo- ples. The prophets warned the Israelites that unless they Phoenician Trade Networks Though not a numerous or mended their ways, Yahweh would punish them by sending militarily powerful people, the Phoenicians influenced societ- conquerors to humiliate and enslave them. Many Israelites ies throughout the Mediterranean basin because of their mar- took the Assyrian and Babylonian conquests as proof that itime trade and communication networks. Their meager lands the prophets accurately represented Yahweh's mind and will. The Early Jewish Community The exiles who returned to Judea after the Babylonian conquest did not abandon hope for a state of their own, and indeed they organized several small Jewish states as tributaries to the great empires that dominated southwest Asia after the sixth century B.C.E. But the returnees also built a distinctive religious community based on their conviction that they had a special relation- ship with Yahweh, their devotion to Yahweh's teachings as expressed in the Torah, and their concern for justice and
Chapter 2 • Early Societies in Southwest Asia and the Indo-European Migrations 43 A relief sculpture from an Assyrian palace depicts Phoenician ships transporting cedar logs, both by towing them and by hauling them on top of the boats. did not permit development of a large agricultural society, so Mediterranean: Phoenician merchant ships visited the Canary after about 2500 B.C.E. the Phoenicians turned increasingly to Islands, coastal ports in Portugal and France, and even the industry and trade. They traded overland with Mesopotamian distant British Isles, and adventurous Phoenician mariners and other peoples, and they provided much of the cedar timber, made exploratory voyages to the Azores Islands and down the furnishings, and decorative items that went into the Israelites' west coast of Africa as far as the Gulf of Guinea. temple in Jerusalem. Soon the Phoenicians ventured onto the seas and engaged also in maritime trade. They imported food Like the Hebrews, the Phoenicians largely adapted and raw materials in exchange for high-quality metal goods, Mesopotamian cultural traditions to their own needs. Their textiles, pottery, glass, and works of art that they produced for gods, for example, mostly came from Mesopotamia. The export. They enjoyed a special reputation for brilliant red and Phoenicians' most prominent female deity was Astarte, a fer- purple textiles colored with dyes extracted from several spe- tility goddess known to the Sumerians as Inanna, and in cies of mollusc that were common in waters near Phoenicia. Babylon and Assyria as Ishtar. Like the Mesopotamians, the They also supplied Mesopotamians and Egyptians with Phoenicians associated other deities with mountains, the sky, cedar logs from the Lebanon Mountains for construction and lightning, and other natural phenomena. Yet the Phoenicians shipbuilding. did not blindly follow Mesopotamian examples: each city built temples to its favored deities and devised rituals and The Phoenicians were excellent sailors, and they built the ceremonies to honor them. best ships of their times. Between 1200 and 800 B.C.E., they dominated Mediterranean trade. They established commer- Alphabetic Writing The Phoenicians' tradition of writing cial colonies in Rhodes, Cyprus, Sicily, Sardinia, Spain, and north Africa. They sailed far and wide in search of raw mate- also illustrates their creative adaptation of Mesopotamian rials such as copper and tin, which they used to make bronze, practices to their own needs. For a millennium or more, they as well as more exotic items such as ivory and semiprecious relied on cuneiform writing to preserve information, and they stones, which they fashioned into works of decorative art. compiled a vast collection of religious, historical, and literary Their quest for raw materials took them well beyond the writings. (Most Phoenician writing has perished, although some fragments have survived.) After 2000 B.C.E. Syrian,
44 Part 1 • The Early Complex Societies, 3500 to 500 s.c.E. NORTH SEMITIC GREEK ETRUSCAN LATIN Phoenician, Greek, Hebrew, and Roman Early Early Early Classical Early Early Classical letters. Phoenician Hebrew Phoenician ~ A A- AA K ~~ s ~B B gj ~ I c 1\\ 1 1r (l 0D ~ !J 6 Phoenician, and other peoples began experimenting with sim- a much larger world of interaction and exchange. Mesopota- pler alternatives to cuneiform. By 1500 B.C.E. Phoenician mians and their neighbors all dealt frequently with peoples scribes had devised an early alphabetic script consisting of from regions far beyond southwest Asia. Among the most in- twenty-two symbols representing consonants the Phoeni- cian alphabet had no symbols for vowels. Learning twenty-two fluential of these peoples in the third and second millennia letters and building words with them was much easier than memorizing the hundreds of symbols employed in cuneiform. B.C.E. were those who spoke various Indo-European languages. Because alphabetic writing required much less investment in Their migrations throughout much of Eurasia profoundly in- education than did cuneiform writing, more people were able fluenced historical development in both southwest Asia and to become literate than ever before. the larger world as well. Alphabetic writing spread widely as the Phoenicians trav- Indo-European Origins eled and traded throughout the Mediterranean basin. About the ninth century B.C.E., for example, Greeks modified the Indo-European Languages During the eighteenth and Phoenician alphabet and added symbols representing vowels. Romans later adapted the Greek alphabet to their language nineteenth centuries, linguists noticed that many languages of and passed it along to their cultural heirs in Europe. In later Europe, southwest Asia, and India featured remarkable simi- centuries alphabetic writing spread to central Asia, south larities in vocabulary and grammatical structure. Ancient lan- Asia, southeast Asia, and ultimately throughout most of the guages displaying these similarities included Sanskrit (the world. sacred language of ancient India), Old Persian, Greek, and Latin. Modern descendants of these languages include Hindi THE INDO-EUROPEAN MIGRATIONS and other languages of northern India, Farsi (the language of modern Iran), and most European languages, excepting only a After 3000 B.C.E. Mesopotamia was a prosperous, productive few, such as Basque, Finnish, and Hungarian. Because of the region where peoples from many different communities geographic regions where these tongues are found, scholars mixed and mingled. But Mesopotamia was only one region in refer to them as Indo-European languages. Major subgroups of the Indo-European family of languages include Indo- Iranian, Greek, Balto-Slavic, Germanic, Italic, and Celtic. Similarities in Vocabulary Indicating Close Relationships between Select Indo-European Languages father vater padre pater pater pitar one uno hen unus ekam f ire feuer fuego pyr agm•s f ield feld campo agros •• sun sonne sol helios surya king konig rey basileus IgniS god gott dios theos devas ager sol rex deus
Chapter 2 • Early Societies in Southwest Asia and the Indo-European Migrations 45 English belongs to the Germanic subgroup of the Indo- able to domesticate horses about 4000 B.C.E. They probably used European family of languages. horses originally as a source of food, but they also began to ride them soon after domesticating them. By 3000 B.C.E. Sumerian After noticing linguistic similarities, scholars sought a way knowledge of bronze metallurgy and wheels had spread north to explain the close relationship between the Indo-European to the Indo-European homeland, and soon thereafter Indo- languages. It was inconceivable that speakers of all these lan- European speakers devised ways to hitch horses to carts, wagons, guages independently adopted similar vocabularies and gram- and chariots. The earliest Indo-European language had words matical structures. The only persuasive explanation for the not only for cattle, sheep, goats, and horses, but also for wheels, high degree of linguistic coincidence was that speakers of axles, shafts, harnesses, hubs, and linchpins all of the latter Indo-European languages were all descendants of ancestors learned from Mesopotamian examples. who spoke a common tongue and migrated from their original homeland. As migrants established separate communities and The possession of domesticated horses vastly magnified lost touch with one another, their languages evolved along dif- the power of Indo-European speakers. Once they had domes- ferent lines, adding new words and expressing ideas in differ- ticated horses, Indo-European speakers were able to exploit ent ways. Yet they retained the basic grammatical structure of the grasslands of southern Russia, where they relied on horses their original speech, and they also kept much of their ances- and wheeled vehicles for transport and on cattle and sheep for tors' vocabulary, even though they often adopted different pro- meat, milk, leather, and wool. Horses also enabled them to nunciations (and consequently different spellings) of the words develop transportation technologies that were much faster and they inherited from the earliest Indo-European language. more efficient than alternatives that relied on cattle, donkey, or human power. Furthermore, because of their strength and The Indo-European Homeland The original homeland speed, horses provided Indo-European speakers with a tre- mendous military advantage over peoples they encountered. It of Indo-European speakers was probably the steppe region is perhaps significant that many groups of Indo-European of modern-day Ukraine and southern Russia, the region just speakers considered themselves superior to other peoples: the north of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. The earliest Indo- European speakers built their society there between about terms Aryan, Iran, and Eire (the official name of the modem 4500 and 2500 B.C.E. They lived mostly by herding cattle, sheep, and goats, while cultivating barley and millet in small Republic of Ireland) all derive from the Indo-European word quantities. They also hunted horses, which flourished in the vast grasslands of the Eurasian steppe stretching from Hungary aryo, meaning \"nobleman\" or \"lord.\" in the west to Mongolia in the east. Indo-European Expansion and Its Effects Horses Because they had observed horses closely and learned The Nature of Indo-European Migrations Horses also the animals' behavioral patterns, Indo-European speakers were provided Indo-European speakers with a means of expanding far beyond their original homeland. As they flourished in southern Russia, Indo-European speakers experienced a pop- ulation explosion, which prompted some of them to move into the sparsely inhabited eastern steppe or even beyond the grasslands altogether. The earliest Indo-European society began to break up about 3000 B.C.E., as migrants took their horses and other animals and made their way to new lands. Intermittent migrations of Indo-European peoples continued until about 1000 c.E. Like early movements of other peoples, these were not mass migrations so much as gradual and incremental processes that resulted in the spread of Indo-European languages and ethnic commu- nities, as small groups of people established settlements in new lands, which then became foundations for further expansi•on. A stone carving from about 1200 s.c.E. depicts a Hittite chariot with spoked The Hittites Some of the most influential Indo-European wheels during a lion hunt. Ahorse pulls the chariot bearing one driver and migrants in ancient times were the Hittites. About 1900 one archer. B.C.E. the Hittites migrated to the central plain of Anatolia, where they imposed their language and rule on the re- gion's inhabitants. During the seventeenth and six- teenth centuries B.C.E., they built a powerful kingdom and established close relations with Mesopotamian peoples. They traded with Babylonians and Assyrians,
46 Part 1 • The Early Complex Societies, 3500 to 500 s.c.E. oO•N Rhi ne BRITISH ISLES 2300 B.C.E. INDO- EUROPEAN HOMELAND ATLANTIC OCEAN 1000 B.C.E. Black Sea 3000 B.C.E. ANATOLIA 3o•w o• ~ 30 ° E 1s•w 15 ° E ,/)~ ...... MAP 2.4 ~s,-'1 Indo-European migrations, AFRICA 3000-1000 B.C.E. Consider the vast distances over which ARABIA Indo-European migrants established communities. Would it have been possible for speakers ofIndo-European languages to spread so widely without the aid of domesticated horses? 45 ° E adapted cuneiform writing to their Indo-European language, greatly strengthened their society and influenced other peo- and accepted many Mesopotamian deities into their pantheon. ples throughout much of the ancient world. Sumerian armies In 1595 B.C.E. the Hittites toppled the mighty Babylonian em- had sometimes used heavy chariots with solid wooden pire, and for several centuries thereafter they were the domi- wheels, but they were so slow and cumbersome that they had nant power in southwest Asia. Between 1450 and 1200 B.C.E., limited military value. About 2000 B.C.E. Hittites fitted chari- their authority extended to eastern Anatolia, northern Meso- ots with recently invented spoked wheels, which were much potamia, and Syria down to Phoenicia. After 1200 B.C.E. the lighter and more maneuverable than Sumerian wheels. The unified Hittite state dissolved, as waves of invaders attacked Hittites' speedy chariots were crucial in their campaign to societies throughout the eastern Mediterranean region. Never- establish a state in Anatolia. Following the Hittites' example, theless, a Hittite identity survived, along with the Hittite lan- Mesopotamians soon added chariot teams to their armies, and guage, throughout the era of the Assyrian empire and beyond. Assyrians made especially effective use of chariots in build- ing their empire. Indeed, chariot warfare was so effective.- War Chariots The Hittites were responsible for two tech- and its techniques spread so widely that charioteers became the elite strike forces in armies throughout much of the ancient nological innovations the construction of light, horse-drawn world from Rome to China. war chariots and the refinement of iron metallurgy that
Chapter 2 • Early Societies in Southwest Asia and the Indo- European Migrations 47 Thinking about ENCOUNTERS 2000 B.C.E. Khyber Pass in both cases they built on Mesopotamian precedents. But in both cases they clearly improved on existing technolo- CHINA gies and introduced innovations that other peoples readily adopted. 1500 B.C.E. Indo-European Migrations to the East While the Hittites INDIA were building a state in Anatolia, other Indo-European speakers migrated from the steppe to different regions. Some INDIAN OCEAN went east into central Asia, venturing as far as the Tarim Basin (now western China) by 2000 B.C.E. Stunning evidence 60\"L of those migrations came to light in the 1980s when ar- chaeologists excavated burials of individuals with European 90\"E features in China's Xinjiang province. Because of the region's extremely dry atmosphere, the remains of some deceased Iron Metallurgy After about 1300 B.C.E. the Hittites also individuals are so well preserved that their fair skin, light hair, and brightly colored garments are still clearly visible. refined the technology of iron metallurgy, which enabled them Descendants of these migrants survived in central Asia and to produce effective weapons cheaply and in large quantities. spoke Indo-European languages until well after 1000 c.E., Other peoples had tried casting iron into molds, but cast iron but most of them were later absorbed into societies of was too brittle for use as tools or weapons. Hittite craftsmen Turkish-speaking peoples. discovered that by heating iron in a bed of charcoal, then hammering it into the desired shape, they could forge strong, Indo-European Migrations to the West Meanwhile, durable implements. Hittite methods of iron production diffused rapidly especially after the collapse of their kingdom in other Indo-European migrants moved west. One wave of mi- 1200 B.C.E. and the subsequent dispersal of Hittite craftsmen- gration took Indo-European speakers into Greece after 2200 and eventually spread throughout all of Eurasia. (Peoples of B.C.E., with their descendants moving into central Italy by sub-Saharan Africa, and also probably China, independently 1000 B.C.E. Another migratory wave established an Indo- invented iron metallurgy.) Hittites were not the original in- European presence farther to the west. By 2300 B.C.E. some ventors either of horse-drawn chariots or of iron metallurgy: Indo-European speakers had made their way from southern Russia into central Europe (modern Germany and Austria), by 1200 B.C.E. to western Europe (modern France), and shortly thereafter to the British Isles, the Baltic region, and the Iberian peninsula. These migrants depended on a pastoral and agricultural economy: none of them built cities or orga- nized large states. For most of the first millennium B.C.E., however, Indo-European Celtic peoples largely dominated Europe north of the Mediterranean, speaking related lan- guages and honoring similar deities throughout the region. Xinjiang (shin-jyahng)
48 Part 1 • The Early Complex Societies, 3500 to 500 s.c.E. They recognized three principal social groups: a mili- Remains of adeceased person found in the Tarim Basin inwestern China. The tary ruling elite, a small group of priests, and a large person was probably buried about three thousand years ago and was remarkably class of commoners. Most of the commoners tended well preserved in the dry desert atmosphere of the region. What do the person's herds and cultivated crops, but some also worked as \"European\" features tell us about the extent of Indo-European migrations? miners, craftsmen, or producers of metal goods. Even without large states, Celtic peoples traded copper, tin, and handicrafts throughout much of Europe. Indo-European Migrations to the South Yet another, later wave of migrations established an Indo- European presence in Iran and India. About 1500 B.C.E. the Medes and Persians migrated into the Iranian pla- teau, while peoples sometimes called the lndo-Aryans began filtering into northern India. Like the Indo- European Celts in Europe, the Medes, Persians, and Aryans herded animals, cultivated grains, and divided themselves into classes of rulers, priests, and common- ers. Unlike the Celts, though, the Medes, Persians, and Aryans soon built powerful states (discussed in later chapters) on the basis of their horse-based military technologies and later their possession also of iron weapons. 3200-2350 B.C.E. Era of Sumerian dominance in Mesopotamia 3000 s.c.E.-1000 c.E. Era of Indo-European migrations 2350-1600 s.c.E. Era of Babylonian dominance in Mesopotamia 2334-2315 s.c.E. Reign of Sargon of Akkad 1792-1750 s.c.E. Reign of Hammurabi 1700-1200 s.c.E. Era of Hittite dominance in Anatolia 1000-612 s.c.E. Era of Assyrian dominance in Mesopotamia 1000-970 s.c.E. Reign of Israelite King David 970-930 s.c.E. Reign of Israelite King Solomon 722 s.c.E. Assyrian conquest of the kingdom of Israel 605-562 s.c.E. Reign of Nebuchadnezzar 600-550 s.c.E. New Babylonian empire 586 B.C. E. New Babylonian conquest of the kingdom of Judah
Chapter 2 • Early Societies in Southwest Asia and the Indo-European Migrations 49 SUMMARY FOR FURTHER READING Building on neolithic foundations, Mesopotamian peoples con- David W. Anthony. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How structed societies much more complex, powerful, and influential than Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modem those of their predecessors. Through their city-states, kingdoms, and World. Princeton, 2007. Brilliant study of early Indo-European regional empires, Mesopotamians created formal institutions of gov- ernment that extended the authority of ruling elites to all corners of speakers and the uses they made of domesticated horses. their states, and they occasionally mobilized forces that projected their power to distant lands. They generated several distinct social Elizabeth Wayland Barber. Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years. classes. Specialized labor fueled productive economies and encour- aged the establishment oflong-distance trade networks. They devised New York, 1994. Fascinating study of ancient textiles, which the systems of writing, which enabled them to develop sophisticated cul- author argues was a craft industry dominated by women from the tural traditions. They deeply influenced other peoples, such as the earliest times. Hebrews and the Phoenicians, throughout southwest Asia and the eastern Mediterranean basin. They had frequent dealings also with Trevor Bryce. The Kingdom ofthe Hittites. New ed. Oxford, 2005. A Indo-European peoples. Although Indo-European society emerged far to the north of Mesopotamia, speakers of Indo-European Ian- solid, scholarly account of Hittite history, with an emphasis on guages migrated widely and established societies throughout much of political issues. Eurasia. Sometimes they drew inspiration from Mesopotamian prac- tices, and sometimes they developed new practices that influenced Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman. The Bible Unearthed: Mesopotamians and others as well. Thus, already in remote antiquity, Archaeology's New Vision ofAncient Israel and the Origin ofIts the various peoples of the world profoundly influenced one another Sacred Texts. New York, 2001. Interprets the Hebrew scriptures through cross-cultural interaction and exchange. and early Israelite history in light of numerous archaeological STUDY TERMS King Nebuchadnezzar (34) discoveries. lex talionis (31) Assyrians (32) Mesopotamia (28) Andrew George, trans. The Epic ofGilgamesh. London, 1999 bronze and iron monotheism (40) Phoenician (29) (Reprinted with revisions 2003). A careful study and fresh metallurgy (35) Sargon of Akkad (31) translation of the best-known Mesopotamian literary work cuneiform (38) Semitic (28) prepared on the basis of recently discovered texts. Gilgamesh (27) Sumerians (28) Hammurabi's code (31) war chariots (46) Pita Kelekna. The Horse in Human History. Cambridge, 2009. Hebrews (40) Yahweh (40) Hittites (45) ziggurats (29) Fascinating analysis of horses' roles in human history. Indo-European (44) Israelites (40) J.P. Mallory. In Search ofthe Indo-Europeans. London, 1991. Classic Jews (40) investigation of the probable origins and migrations of the Indo-Europeans. J. P. Mallory and Victor H. Mair. The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery ofthe Earliest Peoples from the West. London, 2000. A cautious analysis of the Indo-European migrants to the Tarim Basin, drawing heavily on linguistic evidence. Hans J. Nissen and Peter Heine. From Mesopotamia to Iraq: A Concise History. Chicago, 2009. An authoritative discussion of ancient Mesopotamia viewed in the context of the longer history of Iraq. Michael Roaf. Cultural Atlas ofMesopotamia and the Ancient Near East. New York, 1990. Richly illustrated volume with well- informed essays on all dimensions of Mesopotamian history. Marc van de Mieroop. A History ofthe Ancient Near East, ca. 3000-323 B.C. Oxford, 2004. A concise and readable history of ancient Mesopotamia and neighboring societies.
r1• can •I Anubis, the jackal-headed Egyptian god of mummification, prepares the mummy of a deceased worker for burial. This painting comes from the wall of atomb built about the thirteenth century s.c.E. 50
Early Agricultural Society in Africa Economic Specialization and Trade Early Writing in the Nile Valley Climatic Change and the Development The Development of Organized of Agriculture in Africa Religious Traditions Egypt and Nubia: \"Gifts of the Nile\" The Unification of Egypt Bantu Migrations and Early Agricultural Turmoil and Empire Societies of Sub-Saharan Africa The Formation of Complex Societies and The Dynamics of Bantu Expansion Sophisticated Cultural Traditions Early Agricultural Societies The Emergence of Cities and of Sub-Saharan Africa Stratified Societies EYEWITNESS: Herodotus and the Making of a Mummy or almost three thousand years, Egyptian embalmers preserved the bodies of deceased individuals through a process of mummification. Egyptian records rarely mention the techniques of mummification, but the Greek historian Herodotus probably traveled in Egypt about 450 s.c.E. and briefly explained the craft. The embalmer first used a metal hook to draw the brain of the deceased out through a nostril and then removed the internal organs through an incision made alongside the abdomen, washed them in palm wine, and sealed them with preservatives in stone vessels. Next, the embalmer washed the body, filled it with spices and aromatics, and covered it for about two months with natron, a naturally occurring salt sub- stance. When the natron had extracted all moisture from the body, the embalmer cleansed it again and wrapped it with strips of fine linen covered with resin. Adorned with jewelry, the preserved body then went into a coffin bearing a painting or sculpted likeness of the deceased. Careful preservation of the body was only a part of the funerary ritual for prominent Egyptians. Ruling elites, wealthy individuals, and sometimes common people as well laid their deceased to rest in expensive tombs equipped with furn iture, tools, weapons, and ornaments that the departed would need in their next lives. Relatives periodically brought food and wine to nourish the deceased, and archaeologists have dis- covered soups, beef ribs, pigeons, quail , fish, bread, cakes, and fruits among those offerings. Artists dec- orated some tombs with elegant paintings of family members and servants, whose images accompanied the departed into a new dimension of existence. Egyptian funerary customs were reflections of not only deeply held religious beliefs, but also of a pros- perous agricultural society. Food offerings consisted mostly of local agricultural products, and scenes painted on tomb walls often depicted workers preparing fields or cultivating crops. Moreover, bountiful harvests explained the accumulation of wealth that supported elaborate funerary practices, and they also enabled some individuals to devote their efforts to specialized tasks such as embalming. Agriculture even influenced religious beliefs. Egyptians believed fervently in a life beyond the grave, and they likened the human experience of life and death to the agricultural cycle in which crops grow, die, and come to life again in another season. As Mesopotamians built a productive agricultural society in southwest Asia and as Indo-European peo- ples introduced domesticated horses to much of Eurasia, cultivation and herding also transformed African societies. African agriculture first took root in the Sudan, then moved into the Nile River valley and also to 51
most parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Agriculture flourished particularly in the fertile Nile valley, and abundant harvests soon supported fast-growing populations. That agricultural bounty underwrote the development of Egypt, the most prosperous and powerful of the early agricultural societies in Africa, and also of Nubia, Egypt's neighbor to the south. Distinctive Egyptian and Nubian societies began to take shape in the valley of the Nile River during the late fourth millennium s.c.E., shortly after the emergence of complex society in Mesopotamia. Like their Mesopotamian counterparts, Egyptians and Nubians drew on agricultural surpluses to organize formal states, support specialized laborers, and develop distinctive cultural traditions. Like Mesopotamians again, Egyptian and Nubian residents of the Nile valley had regular dealings with peoples from other societies. They drew inspiration for political and social organization both from Mesopotamia and from their African neighbors to the south. They also traded actively w ith Mesopotamians, Phoenicians, Africans, and others as well. Political and economic competition sometimes led to military conflicts with peoples of other soci- eties: on several occasions when they enjoyed great wealth and power, both Egyptians and Nubians em- barked on campaigns of imperial conquest, but when their power waned, they found themselves intermittently under attack from the outside. Indeed, like their counterparts in Mesopotamia, Egyptian and Nubian societies developed from their earliest days in a larger world of interaction and exchange. Just as Mesopotamians, Hittites, Hebrews, and Phoenicians influenced one another in southwest Asia, inhabitants of the Nile valley mixed and mingled with Mesopotamians, Phoenicians, and other peoples from the eastern Mediterranean, southwest Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. Just as Indo-European peoples migrated to new lands and established communities that transformed much of Eurasia, Bantu peoples migrated from their original homeland in west Africa and established settlements that brought profound change to much of sub-Saharan Africa. By no means were Egypt and Nubia isolated centers of social development. Like Mesopotamia, Egypt in particular was a spec- tacularly prosperous society, but like Mesopotamia again, Egypt was only one part of a much larger world of interacting societies. EARLY AGRICULTURAL Climatic Change and the Development of Agriculture in Africa SOCIETY IN AFRICA African agriculture emerged in the context of gradual but mo- Egypt was the most prominent of early African societies, but mentous changes in climatic conditions. About 10,000 B.C.E., it was by no means the only agricultural society, nor even the after the end of the last ice age, the area now occupied by the only complex, city-based society of ancient Africa. On the Sahara desert was mostly a grassy steppe land with numerous contrary, Egypt emerged alongside Nubia and other agricul- lakes, rivers, and streams. Climatic and geographic conditions tural societies in sub-Saharan Africa. Indeed, agricultural were much like those of the Sudan region not the modern crops and domesticated animals reached Egypt from sub- state of Sudan but, rather, the extensive transition zone of Saharan Africa by way of Nubia as well as from southwest savanna and grassland that stretches across the African conti- Asia. Favorable geographic conditions enabled Egyptians to nent between the Sahara to the north and the tropical rain forest build an especially productive agricultural economy that to the south. Grasses and cattle flourished in that environment. supported a powerful state, while Nubia became home to a Many human inhabitants of the region lived by hunting wild somewhat less prosperous but nonetheless sophisticated so- cattle and collecting wild grains, while others subsisted on fish ciety. After taking shape as distinctive societies, Egypt had and aquatic resources from the region's waters. regular dealings with both eastern Mediterranean and south- west Asian peoples, and Nubia linked Egypt and the eastern Early Sudanic Agriculture After about 9000 B.C.E., peoples Mediterranean basin with the peoples and societies of sub-Saharan Africa. of the eastern Sudan domesticated cattle and became nomadic 52
Chapter 3 • Early African Societies and the Bantu Migrations 53 herders while they continued to collect wild grains. After Climatic Change After 5000 B.C.E. the northern half of 7500 B.C.E. they established permanent settlements and began to cultivate sorghum, a grain still widely grown in the contem- Africa experienced a long-term climatic change that pro- porary world for human and animal consumption. Meanwhile, foundly influenced social organization and agriculture after about 8000 B.C.E., inhabitants of the western Sudan began throughout the region. Although there was considerable fluc- to cultivate yams in the region between the Niger and Congo tuation, the climate generally became much hotter and drier rivers. Sudanic agriculture became increasingly diverse over than before. The Sahara desert, which as late as 5000 B.C.E. the following centuries: sheep and goats arrived from southwest had been cool and well watered enough to support human, Asia after 7000 B.C.E., and Sudanic peoples began to cultivate animal, and vegetable life, became increasingly arid and un- gourds, watermelons, and cotton after 6500 B.C.E. inhabitable. This process of desiccation turned rich grasslands into barren desert, and it drove humans and animals to more Agricultural productivity enabled Sudanic peoples to or- hospitable regions. Many Sudanic cultivators and herders ganize small-scale states. By about 5000 B.C.E. many Sudanic gathered around remaining bodies of water such as Lake peoples had formed small monarchies ruled by kings who Chad. Some moved south to the territory that is now northern were viewed as divine or semidivine beings. For several thousand years, when Sudanic peoples buried their deceased Uganda. Others congregated in the valley of the Nile River, kings, they also routinely executed a group of royal servants and entombed them along with the king so that they could the principal source of water flowing through north Africa. continue to meet their master's needs in another life. Sudanic peoples also developed religious beliefs that reflected their The Nile River Valley Fed by rain and snow in the high agricultural society. They recognized a single divine force as the source ofgood and evil, and they associated it with rain a mountains of east Africa, the Nile, which is the world's lon- matter of concern for any agricultural society. gest river, courses some 6,695 kilometers (4,160 miles) from its source at Lake Victoria to its outlet through the delta to Mediterranean Sea the Mediterranean Sea. Each spring, rain and melting snow swell the river, which surges north through the Sudan and • Jericho Egypt. Until the completion of the high dam at Aswan •t .HeI1. 0p01.IS• ams Dead Sea in 1968, the Nile's accumulated waters annually flooded the plains downstream. When the waters re- LOWER Giza. SINAI ceded, they left behind a layer of rich, fertile alluvial EGYPT PENINSULA deposits that supported a remarkably productive agri- Memphis• cultural economy throughout the Nile River valley. Egypt Kingdom ofKush 7~.. • Akhetaten Egypt and Nubia: <\"> (Te ll ei-Amarna) \"Gifts of the Nile\" 0 125 ,250 mi Agriculture transformed the entire Nile River valley, with effects that were most dramatic in Egypt. In an- I'\"''P''' I'' , I ...... cient times, Egypt referred not to the territory em- braced by the modern state of Egypt but, rather, to the 0 250 500 km ribbon of land bordering the lower third of the Nile between the Mediterranean and the river's first cata- UPPER •Thebes ract (an unnavigable stretch of rapids and waterfalls) EGYPT near Aswan. Egypt enjoyed a much larger floodplain than most of the land to the south known as Nubia, the Elephantine • •Aswan middle stretches of the Nile valley between the river's first and sixth cataracts. As the Sahara became increas- First Cataract = ingly arid, cultivators flocked to the Nile valley and Second Cataract= MAP 3.1 NUB lA The Nile valley, 3000-2000 s.c.E. Third Cataract Kerma Notethe difference in size between the kingdom of Egypt and the kingdom of Kush. Cataract ~ ~ Fifth What geographic conditions favored the establishment of large • Cataract states north of the first cataract of the Nile River? Napata •Meroe Sixth Cataract ~
54 Part 1 • The Early Complex Societies, 3500 to 500 s.c.E. established societies that depended Nile's shores from the Mediterranean on intensive agriculture. Because of in the north to the river's fourth cata- their broad floodplains, Egyptians ract in the south. were able to take better advantage of the Nile's annual floods than the Political Organization As in Nubians to the south, and they turned Mesopotamia, dense human popula- Egypt into an especially productive tion in Egypt and Nubia brought a agricultural region that was capable need for formal organization of public of supporting a much larger popula- affairs. Neither Egypt nor Nubia faced tion than were Nubian lands. Because the external dangers that threatened of its prosperity, the Greek historian Mesopotamia, since the Red Sea, the Herodotus proclaimed Egypt the Mediterranean Sea, and hostile deserts \"gift of the Nile.\" If he had known discouraged foreign invaders in an- more about Nubia, Herodotus might A painting from the tomb of a priest who lived about cient times. Nevertheless, the need to well have realized that it, too, was a the fifteenth century s.c.E. depicts agricultural maintain order and organize commu- gift of the Nile, even if it was less workers plowing and sowing crops in southern nity projects led both Egyptians and prosperous. Egypt. Nubians to create states and recognize official authorities. By 4000 B.C.E. ag- Early Agriculture in the Nile ricultural villages along the Nile traded Va Iley Geography ensured that both regularly with one another and coop- Egypt and Nubia would come under erated in building irrigation networks. the influence of the Mediterranean basin to the north and The earliest Egyptian and Nubian states were small sub-Saharan Africa to the south, because the Nile River links kingdoms much like those instituted in the Sudan after the two regions. About 10,000 B.C.E., migrants from the Red 5000 B.C.E. Indeed, it is likely that the notion of divine or Sea hills in northern Ethiopia traveled down the Nile valley semidivine rulers reached Egypt and Nubia from the eastern and introduced to Egypt and Nubia the practice of collecting and central Sudan, where rulers had earlier founded small wild grains. They also introduced a language ancestral to kingdoms to govern their agricultural and herding commu- Coptic, the language of ancient Egypt, to the lower reaches of nities. In any case, small kingdoms appeared first in south- the Nile valley. After 5000 B.C.E., as the African climate grew ern Egypt and Nubia after 4000 B.C.E. During the following hotter and drier, Sudanic cultivators and herders moved down centuries, residents living farther down the Nile (to the the Nile, introducing Egypt and Nubia to African crops such north) founded similar states, so that by 3300 B.C.E. small as gourds and watermelons as well as animals domesticated in local kingdoms organized public life throughout Egypt as the Sudan, particularly cattle and donkeys. About the same well as Nubia. As in the earlier Sudanic states, royal servants time, wheat and barley from Mesopotamia reached Egypt and in these Nile kingdoms routinely accompanied deceased rul- Nubia by traveling up the Nile from the Mediterranean. ers to their graves. Both Egyptians and Nubians relied heavily on agriculture at least by 5000 B.C.E. Egyptian cultivators went into the The Unification of Egypt floodplains in the late summer, after the recession ofthe Nile's annual flood, sowed their seeds without extensive preparation Menes After 3100 B.C.E. Egypt followed a path quite differ- of the soil, allowed their crops to mature during the cool ent from those of the smaller Nubian kingdoms. Drawing on months of the year, and harvested them during the winter and agricultural and demographic advantages, Egyptian rulers early spring. With less extensive floodplains, Nubians relied forged all the territory between the Nile delta and the river's more on prepared fields and irrigation by waters diverted from first cataract into a unified kingdom much larger and more the Nile. As in Mesopotamia, high agricultural productivity powerful than any other Nile state. Tradition suggests that led to a rapid increase in population throughout the Nile valley. unified rule came to Egypt about 3100 B.C.E. in the person of Demographic pressures soon forced Egyptians in particular to a conqueror named Menes (sometimes identified with an early develop more intense and sophisticated methods of agricul- Egyptian ruler called Narmer). Menes was an ambitious mi- ture. Cultivators moved beyond the Nile's immediate flood- nor official from southern Egypt (known as Upper Egypt, plains and began to grow crops on higher ground that required since the Nile flows north) who rose to power and extended his plowing and careful preparation. They built dikes to protect authority north and into the delta (known as Lower Egypt). their fields from floods and catchment basins to store water for According to tradition, Menes founded the city of Memphis, irrigation. By 4000 B.C.E. agricultural villages dotted the near modern Cairo, which stood at the junction of Upper and Lower Egypt. Memphis served as Menes' capital and eventu- ally became the cultural as well as the political center of an- Menes (mee-neez) cient Egypt.
Chapter 3 • Early African Societies and the Bantu Migrations 55 Menes and his successors also contributed to the construction built a centralized state ruled by of the pyramids. the pharaoh, the Egyptian king. The early pharaohs claimed to Relations between Egypt and be gods living on the earth in Nubia Even after the emergence of human form, the owners and the strong pharaonic state that took absolute rulers of all the land. Egypt on a path different from In that respect, they continued those followed by other Nile soci- the tradition of divine kingship eties, the fortunes of Egypt and inherited from the early agri- Nubia remained closely intertwined. cultural societies of the Sudan. Egyptians had strong interests in Indeed, as late as 2600 B.C.E., Nubia for both political and com- deceased pharaohs took royal mercial reasons: they were wary of servants with them to the grave. Nubian kingdoms that might threaten Egyptians associated the early Upper Egypt, and they desired prod- pharaohs with Horus, the sky god, ucts such as gold, ivory, ebony, and and they often represented the precious stones that were available pharaohs together with a falcon or only from southern lands. Meanwhile, a hawk, the symbol of Horus. Later Nubians had equally strong interests in they viewed rulers as offspring of Egypt: they wanted to protect their inde- Amon, a sun god, so that the pharaoh pendence from their large and powerful was a son of the sun. They considered neighbor to the north, and they sought to the ruling pharaoh a human sun over- profit by controlling trade down the Nile. seeing affairs on the earth, just as Amon was the sun supervising the larger cos- The Early Kingdom of Kush Tensions mos, and they believed that after his death led to frequent violence between Egypt and the pharaoh actually merged with Amon. Nubia throughout the Archaic Period and the Old Artistic representations also Kingdom. The early pharaohs or- depict pharaohs as enormous ganized at least five military cam- figures towering over their paigns to Nubia between 3100 and human subjects. On one side of the Narmer Palette, datingto about 3100 B.C.E., 2600 B.C.E. Pharaonic forces de- Menes, unifier of Egypt, prepares to sacrifice an enemy. He stroyed the Nubian kingdom of The Archaic Period and wears the crown of Upper Egypt, and the falcon representing Ta-Seti soon after the unification the Old Kingdom The the god Horus oversees his actions in this relief carving on of Egypt, leading to Egyptian avotive tablet. Two fallen enemies lie at the bottom of the domination of Lower Nubia (the power of the pharaohs was tablet. land between the first and second greatest during the first millen- cataracts of the Nile) for more nium of Egyptian history- than half a millennium, from about the eras known as the Archaic 3000 to 2400 B.C.E. That Egyptian Period (3100-2660 B.C.E.) and the Old Kingdom (2660-2160 presence in the north forced Nubian leaders to concentrate B.C.E.). The most enduring symbols of their authority and their efforts at political organization farther to the south in divine status are the massive pyramids constructed during Upper Nubia. By about 2500 B.C.E. they had established a the Old Kingdom as royal tombs, most of them during the powerful kingdom, called Kush, with a capital at Kerma, century from 2600 to 2500 B.C.E. These enormous monu- about 700 kilometers (435 miles) south of Aswan. Though ments stand today at Giza, near Cairo, as testimony to the not as powerful as united Egypt, the kingdom of Kush was a pharaohs' ability to marshal Egyptian resources. The largest formidable and wealthy state that dominated the upper is the pyramid of Khufu (also known as Cheops), which in- reaches of the Nile and occasionally threatened southern volved the precise cutting and fitting of 2.3 million lime- Egypt. stone blocks weighing up to 15 tons each, with an average In spite of constant tension and frequent hostilities, weight of 2.5 tons. Scholars estimate that construction of numerous diplomats and explorers traveled from Egypt Khufu's pyramid required the services of some eighty-four to Nubia in search of political alliances and commercial thousand laborers working eighty days per year (probably relationships, and many Nubians sought improved fortunes during the late fall and winter, when the demand for agricul- in Egypt. Around 2300 B.C.E., for example, the Egyptian turallabor was light) for twenty years. Apart from the labor- explorer Harkhuf made four expeditions to Nubia. He re- ers, hundreds of architects, engineers, craftsmen, and artists turned from one of his trips with a caravan of some three
56 Part 1 • The Early Complex Societies, 3500 to 500 s.c.E. Nubian mercenary soldiers in marching formation. Nubian mercenaries were prominent in Egyptian armies and often married Egyptian wives. hundred donkeys bearing exotic products from tropical encounters with a Semitic people whom Egyptians called the Africa, as well as a dancing dwarf, and his cargo stimu- Hyksos (\"foreign rulers\"). Little information survives about lated Egyptian desire for trade with southern lands. Mean- the Hyksos, but it is clear that they were horse-riding nomads. while, Nubian peoples looked for opportunities to pursue Indeed, they probably introduced horses to Egypt, and their in Egypt. By the end of the Old Kingdom, Nubian merce- horse-drawn chariots, which they learned about from Hittites naries were quite prominent in Egyptian armies. Indeed, and Mesopotamians, provided them with a significant mili- they often married Egyptian women and assimilated into tary advantage over Egyptian forces. They enjoyed an advan- Egyptian society. tage also in their weaponry: the Hyksos used bronze weapons and bronze-tipped arrows, whereas Egyptians relied mostly Turmoil and Empire on wooden weapons and arrows with stone heads. About 1674 B.C.E. the Hyksos captured Memphis and levied tribute The Hyksos After the Old Kingdom declined, Egyptians throughout Egypt. experienced considerable and sometimes unsettling change. A Hyksos rule provoked a strong reaction especially in Up- particularly challenging era of change followed from their per Egypt, where disgruntled nobles organized revolts against the foreigners. They adopted horses and chariots for their Hyksos (HICK-sohs) own military forces. They also equipped their troops with bronze weapons. Working from Thebes and later from Mem- phis, Egyptian leaders gradually pushed the Hyksos out of
Chapter 3 • Early African Societies and the Bantu Migrations 57 Thinking about TRADITIONS the Nile delta and founded a powerful state known as the New Kingdom (1550-1070 B.C.E.). MAP 3.2 The New Kingdom Pharaohs of the New Imperial Egypt, 1400 o.c.E. Kingdom presided over a prosperous and pro- Compare the territory ruled by the New Kingdom with the earlier kingdom of Egypt as ductive society. Agricultural surpluses sup- represented in Map 3.1. ported a population of perhaps four million people as well as an army and an elaborate bu- Why was the New Kingdom able to expand so dramatically to the north and south? reaucracy that divided responsibilities among different offices. One department oversaw the Why did it not expand also to the east and west? court and royal estates, for example, while oth- ers dealt with military forces, state-recognized 0 250 500 mi religious cults, the treasury, agricultural af- fairs, local government, and the administration ~~~~ of conquered territories. Pharaohs of the New Kingdom did not build enormous pyramids as 0 500 km did their predecessors of the Old Kingdom, but they erected numerous temples, palaces, and Black Sea monumental statues to advertise their power and authority. ANATOLIA Egyptian Imperialism Pharaohs of the New SYRIA Kingdom also worked to extend Egyptian author- CRETE CYPRUS ity well beyond the Nile valley and the delta. After expelling the Hyksos, they sought to prevent new Mediterranean Sell ~ invasions by seizing control of regions that might pose threats in the future. Most vigorous of the ff New Kingdom pharaohs was Ththmosis III ~·Jericho (reigned 1479- 1425 B.C.E.). After seventeen cam- •Tanis Dead Sea paigns that he personally led to Palestine and Syria, Tuthmosis dominated the coastal regions of LOWER EGYPT • Heliopolis ARABIA the eastern Mediterranean as well as north Africa. Rulers of the New Kingdom also turned their at- G i~•. SINAI tention to the south and restored Egyptian domi- nance in Nubia. Campaigning as far south as the Memphis PENINSULA Nile's fifth cataract, Egyptian armies destroyed Kerma, the capital of the kingdom of Kush, and SA HARA Akhetaten • crushed a series of small Nubian states that had DESE RT (Tell ei-Amama) 1~ arisen during the period of Hyksos rule. Thus for half a millennium Egypt was an imperial power UPPER EGYPT • Thebes throughout much of the eastern Mediterranean basin and southwest Asia as well as most of the Hittit e empire FEz.rl5etpchaatnarti ne•=.Aswa n Nile River valley. Egyptian empire Second Catarac = After the New Kingdom, Egypt entered a (New Kingdom) long period of political and military decline. Just NUBIA as Hyksos rule provoked a reaction in Egypt, Egyptian rule provoked reactions in the regions Third Cataract subdued by pharaonic armies. Local resistance drove Egyptian forces out of Nubia and southwest Kerma..,. ~ Fourth Cataract Asia, then Kushite and Assyrian armies invaded Egypt itself. Na p a t a• -Pfifth Cataract Sixth Cataract ~ •Meroe Tuthmosis (tuh-MOE-sis)
58 Part 1 • The Early Complex Societies, 3500 to 500 s.c.E. es Harkhuf's Expeditions to Nubia will confer on you so many splendid honors, which shall give re- nown to your grandson for ever, that all the people shall say when Many Egyptians wrote brief autobiographies that they or their they have heard what [my] Majesty hath done for thee, \"Was descendants had carved into their tombs. One of the most there ever anything like this that has been done for ... Harkhuf famous autobiographies from the Old Kingdom is that of when he came back from Amam because of the attention ... he d isplayed in doing what his Lord commanded, and wished for, Harkhuf, a royal official who became governor of Upper Egypt and praised?\" before 2300 a.c.E. The inscriptions in his tomb mention his Come down the river at once to the Capital. Bring with four expeditions to Nubia to seek valuable items and report you this pygmy whom you have brought from the Land of the on political conditions there. The inscriptions also include Spirits, al ive, strong, and healthy, to dance the dance of the god, and to cheer and gratify the heart of the King of the South the text of a letter from the boy-pharaoh Neferkare expressing and North. .. When he comes down w ith you in the boat, cause trustworthy men to be about him on both sides of the his appreciation for Harkhuf's fourth expedition and his boat, to prevent him from falling into the water. When he is desire to see the dancing dwarf that Harkhuf brought back asleep at night cause trustworthy men to sleep by his side on from Nubia. his bedd ing. His Majesty [Pharaoh] Mernera, my Lord, sent me w ith my See [that he is there] ten t imes [each] night. [My] Majesty wishes to see this pygmy more than any offering of the countries father Ara ... to the [Nubian] land of Amam to open up a road into of Ba and Punt. If when you arrive at the Capital, this pygmy who this country. I performed the journey in seven months. I brought is with you is alive, and strong, and in good health, [My] Majesty back gifts of all kinds from that place .. . there was very great will confer upon you a greater honor than that which was con- praise to me for it. His Majesty sent me a second time by ferred upon the bearer of the seal Baurtet in the t ime of Assa, and myself ... I came back ... in a period of eight months .. . and as great is the wish of [My] Majesty to see this pygmy orders I brought very large quantities of offerings from this country. have been brought to ... the overseer of the priests, the gover- Never were brought such things to this land... His Majesty sent nor of the town .. . to arrange that rations for him shall be drawn me a third time to Amam ... I came back ... with three hundred from every station of supply, and from every temple that has not asses laden with incense, ebony, heknu, grain, panther skins, been exempted. ivory . .. and valuable products of every kind. For Further Reflection [The letter from Pharaoh Nefekare to Harkuf]: Royal des- patch to the ... governor of the caravan, Herkhuf. I have un- • How do Harkhuf's autobiography and the letter from the derstood the words of this letter, which you have written to the pharaoh illuminate early Egyptian interest in Nubia and the king in his chamber to make him to know that you have re- processes by which Egyptians of the Old Kingdom developed turned in peace from Amam, together with the soldiers who knowledge about Nubia? were w ith thee. You say in this . . . letter that there have been brought back .. . beautiful offerings of all kinds ... like the Source: The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians, By E. A. Wallis Budge, pygmy whom the seal-bearer of the god Baurtet brought back 1914; London; J . M. Dent & Sons Limited, Aldine House, Bedford from Punt in the time of Assa. Thou say to [my] Majesty, \"The like of him has never been brought back by any other person Street, W. C. Project Guttenberg. who has visited Amam.\" Behold , every year you perform what thy Lord w ishes and praises. Behold, you pass your days and nights meditating about doing what thy Lord orders, wishes, and praises. And His Majesty The Revived Kingdom of Kush By 1100 B.C.E. Egyptian Egypt for almost a century. Kashta's successors consolidated forces were in full retreat from Nubia. After they vacated the Kushite authority in Upper Egypt, claimed the title of region, about the tenth century B.C.E., Nubian leaders organized pharaoh, and eventually extended their rule to the Nile delta and beyond. a new kingdom of Kush with a capital at Napata, located just below the Nile's fourth cataract. By the eighth century B.C.E., Meanwhile, as Kushites pushed into Egypt from the south, rulers of this revived kingdom of Kush were powerful enough Assyrian armies equipped with iron weapons bore down from to invade Egypt, which at the time was in the grip of reli- the north. During the mid-seventh century B.C.E., while build- gious and factional disputes. King Kashta conquered Thebes ing their vast empire, the Assyrians invaded Egypt, campaigned about 760 B.C.E. and founded a Kushite dynasty that ruled as far south as Thebes, drove out the Kushites, and subjected
Chapter 3 • Early African Societies and the Bantu Migrations 59 -...,._,_ ~ . •. -_...~- '~..._:~ : : Awall painting from the tomb of an Egyptian imperial official in Nubia Writing systems appeared in both Egypt and Nubia, and writ- depicts a delegation of Nubians bringing tribute in the forms of exotic ing soon became a principal medium of literary expression beasts, animal skins, and rings of gold. Why might these unusual gifts and religious reflection as well as a means for preserving gov- have been welcome tribute for Egyptians? ernmental records and commercial information. Egypt to Assyrian rule. After the mid-sixth century B.C.E., like The Emergence of Cities Mesopotamia, Egypt fell to a series offoreign conquerors who and Stratified Societies built vast empires throughout southwest Asia and the eastern Mediterranean region, including Egypt and north Africa. Cities of the Nile Valley: Egypt Cities were not as prom- inent in early societies of the Nile River valley as they were in THE FORMATION OF COMPLEX ancient Mesopotamia. In the Nile valley, populations clus- SOCIETIES AND SOPHISTICATED tered mostly in numerous agricultural villages that traded reg- CULTURAL TRADITIONS ularly with their neighbors up and down the river. Nevertheless, several major cities emerged and guided affairs in both Egypt As in Mesopotamia, cities and the congregation of dense pop- and Nubia. According to tradition, the conqueror Menes ulations encouraged the emergence of specialized labor in the founded Memphis as early as 3100 B.C.E. Located at the head early agricultural societies of Africa. This development was of the Nile delta, Memphis was a convenient site for a capital: particularly noticeable in Egypt, but specialized labor was a Menes and many later pharaohs ruled over a unified Egypt prominent feature also of societies in the southern reaches of from Memphis. Besides the capital, other cities played im- the Nile River valley. Clearly defined social classes emerged portant roles in Egyptian affairs. Thebes, for example, was a throughout the Nile valley, and both Egyptians and Nubians prominent political center even before the unification of built patriarchal societies that placed authority largely in the Egypt. After unification, Thebes became the administrative hands of adult males. The Egyptian economy was especially center of Upper Egypt, and several pharaohs even took the productive, and because of both its prosperity and its geo- city as their capital. Heliopolis, meaning \"City of the Sun,\" graphic location, Egypt figured as a center of trade, linking was the headquarters of a sun cult near Memphis and a principal lands in southwest Asia, the eastern Mediterranean, and cultural center of ancient Egypt. Founded about 2900 B.C.E., sub-Saharan Africa. Meanwhile, like southwest Asia, the Heliopolis reached the height of its influence during the New Nile valley was a site of sophisticated cultural development. Kingdom, when it was the site of an enormous temple to the
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