Ancient

Civilizations

After the Neolithic Revolution, humans started raising vegetables and animals as food sources. This new settled life allowed people to live much longer, and to have more children. Obviously, populations increased dramatically, and villages formed.

As populations continued to increase and merge, cities formed, with governments to coordinate the affairs of the people.

Usually the leaders of these cities were kings or priests. They were almost always male.

Probably the oldest civilization developed in the Middle East, in an area we call Iraq today. It is located between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, a region called Mesopotamia. (Some people call it the Fertile Crescent.)

In Mesopotamia was a city called Sumer. Over the years, Sumer expanded until it contained at least 12 separate city-states. A city-state is a city and its surrounding area, under the dominion of a ruler.

The Sumerians had few natural resources, but they made the most of what they had. Since they had no timber or stone, they made bricks from mud and dried them in the sun. They used these to build walls, homes, and temples.

The Sumerians were very smart folks. They made the first wheeled vehicles, and traveled along the rivers and across the desert to trade with distant people.

They invented writing around 3200 bc, using a group of symbols called cuneiform. Their writing system evolved from a system of pictographs that looked like the things they represented.

Writing itself was done with a sharpened reed called a stylus. Instead of paper, they pressed the stylus into tablets of clay, which were left to dry in the sun. Writing was done in columns beginning at the top left corner and working to the right.

The Sumerians developed astronomy and mathematics. They recorded the movements of the planets and established a number system based on 6, dividing the hour into 60 minutes and the circle into 360 degrees.

They also wrote the first narratives, sort of like books or epic novels. The earliest of all was The Epic of Gilgamesh, written in 2000 bc. This work tells of the Sumerian hero Gilgamesh, and of the destruction of the earth by a flood.Supreme over other kings, lordly in appearance,he is the hero, born of Uruk, the goring wild bull. He walks out in front, the leader,and walks at the rear, trusted by his companions.Mighty net, protector of his people,raging flood-wave who destroys even walls of stone!Offspring of Lugalbanda, Gilgamesh is strong to perfection,son of the august cow, Rimat-Ninsun;... Gilgamesh is awesome to perfection.It was he who opened the mountain passes, who dug wells on the flank of the mountain. It was he who crossed the ocean, the vast seas, to the rising sun, who explored the world regions, seeking life.It was he who reached by his own sheer strength Utanapishtim, the Faraway, who restored the sanctuaries (or: cities) that the Flood had destroyed!

The Sumerians were also religious people. They were polytheistic, meaning they believed in many gods and goddesses. These gods controlled all aspects of life, and behaved like normal people. The gods believed in justice, but could also be violent and unreasonable.

The Sumerians carried out their religious rituals from atop a ziggurat, a multi-tiered temple. Here the priests and priestesses prayed and offered sacrifices of animals, grain, and wine to win the favor of the gods.

What kinds of things could go wrong if you failed to win the favor of the gods?

Beginning around 2500 bc, armies of foreigners swept across Mesopotamia and overcame the Sumerian city-states. By 1900, the Sumerians had been replaced by other civilizations.

Babylon

In 1790 bc, Hammurabi, the king of Babylon, brought Mesopotamia under his control. His most lasting contribution was his publication of a set of laws called the Code of Hammurabi.

King Hammurabi wanted to be sure that everyone in his empire knew the laws his government would follow. So he had artisans carve nearly 300 laws on a 7 foot stone pillar set out in public for all to see.

The problem? Very few people in Babylon could read. Still, it was a very progressive thing for an all-powerful thing to do.

Some of Hammurabi's laws were very high-minded, while others would seem extremely harsh to us today.

If anyone brings an accusation of any crime before the elders, and does not prove what he has charged, he shall, if a capital offense is charged, be put to death.

If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in and kills its owner, then the builder shall be put to death.(Another variant of this is, If the owner's son dies, then the builder's son shall be put to death.)

If a son slaps his father, his hand shall be cut off.

If a man strikes a pregnant woman, thereby causing her to miscarry and die, the assailant's daughter shall be put to death.

If a man puts out the eye of an equal, his eye shall be put out. If a man knocks the teeth out of another man, his own teeth will be knocked out. If the slave of a freed man strikes the body of a freed man, his ear shall be cut off.

If anyone commits a robbery and is caught, he shall be put to death.

If a freeborn man strikes the body of another freeborn man of equal rank, he shall pay one gold mina [an amount of money].

The Code of Hammurabi

The Hittites pushed into Mesopotamia in about 1400 bc. They brought with them a major advance: how to extract iron from ore.

Iron tools were much harder than bronze tools, and much sharper than stone tools. Because iron was plentiful in the area, the Hittites were able to arm more people at less expense. This made them a powerful military force.

The Hittites tried to keep their advance secret, but as their empire fell apart, Hittite ironsmiths migrated elsewhere and spread their knowledge across Asia, Africa, and Europe, starting the Iron Age.

Assyria

The Assyrians lived on the upper Tigris. By 1100 bc, they had started expanding across Mesopotamia. War was very important to the Assyrians, and they were very good at it, using volleys of arrows and spears, along with charges by horse-drawn chariots and brutal assaults by infantry (foot soldiers.)

The Assyrians invented siege warfare, tunneling beneath walls, breaking them down, or climbing over them on siege towers to slaughter those trapped inside.

"At the command of the god Ashur, the great Lord, I rushed upon the enemy like the approach of a hurricane...I put them to rout and turned them back. I transfixed the troops of the enemy with

javelins and arrows. Humban-undasha, the commander in chief of the king of Elam, together

with his nobles...I cut their throats like sheep...My prancing steeds, trained to harness, plunged into

their welling blood as into a river; the wheels of my battle chariot were bespattered with blood and

filth. I filled the plain with corpses of their warriors like herbage"

The brutality of the Assyrians can be seen in these quotes from their leaders:

"Peace is not a condition between independent states. Peace is a service that can be bought...for tribute to the Assyrian King".

The Assyrians were not only warriors, however. King Assurbanipal built a library in Ninevah, Assyria's main city, that contained tablets collected from all over the Fertile Crescent. From these, scientists and historians have gained a vast amount of knowledge about the ancient Middle East.

In 612 bc, neighboring groups joined forces to crush the Assyrian armies. In their absence, Babylon rose to power again under King Nebuchadnezzar, who built the Hanging Gardens, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Phoenicia

While powerful rulers subdued large empires through the use of force, the Phoenecians gained power as sailors and traders. They occupied a string of cities along the Mediterranean Sea, where they bought and sold to far-flung areas.

The Phoenecians gained their wealth in a strange way. They discovered a small snail on the shores of the city Tyre. When they squeezed the snails, a vivid purple dye was produced. Cloth dyed with this "Tyrian purple" was highly prized by the rulers of the world, and they became rich by selling it. They used this money to start colonies from North Africa to Spain. They also learned to make glass from coastal sand, and sold it as well.

Probably the most lasting contribution of the Phoenecians was their alphabet. While cuneiform used symbols to represent things, the Phoenecian alphabet used symbols to represent sounds. Therefore they could use fewer symbols (only 22) and it was much easier to learn.

The Phoenecian alphabet was later adopted by the Greeks and modified. It is now the very alphabet we use today.

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Modern

It's easy to think about ancient civilizations as being uneducated and dirty. But the fact is that many of our highest concepts come straight from discoveries made by these early civilizations. They laid the foundation for the lives we lead today.