Chapter 2First civilizations Africa and Asia

Ancient Kingdoms Of The Nile

In the first section we will saw how the geography of Egypt affected the diversity and its impact on foreign lands as well as the impact foreign lands had on Egypt. We will see the politics of Egypt and see how its rulers shaped and affected its political, military, and religious beliefs.

The Nile River Valley

• Egyptian era was split into two. The old and new kingdom.

• Egyptian empire was located right along the Nile river valley which provided protection, transportation, and a water supply.

• Lands around the Nile were very fertile and farmers took advantage and started farming there.

• 2 sections of Egypt were Upper Egypt in the south and Lower Egypt in the north.

• Egyptian kingdoms were ruled by monarchs called pharaohs.

• Old kingdom was called the pyramid age.

• Pyramids were built as tombs for dead pharaohs where they were ‘mummified’ and buried with all their belongings.

• During the middle kingdom in 1700 B.C the empire was destroyed by the invading Hyksos.

• New kingdom started when Hyksos were driven out of Egypt.

• First female ruler was queen Hatshepsut during the new kingdom.

Pharaohs of Egypt• Queen Hatshepsut was the first

female ruler.

• She encouraged trade with the eastern Mediterranean and expanded the empire as far as Africa.

• One of the greatest most influential pharaohs was Ramses II.

• Gained fame for the wars he led agaist the Hittites until a treaty was finally signed between the two.

• After Ramses’ death, the Egyptian empire started to decline after being invaded by Assyrians, Persians and later on, Greek an Roman armies.

• As Egypt declined, major city Nubia gained independence.

• At around 650 B.C Assyrians pushed the Nubians back to their original homeland where they ruled for another 1000 years.

Ramses II

Queen Hatshepsut

Egyptian Religion

•Egyptian religion was polytheistic.

•The chief god of the egyption religion was the sun god, Amon-re.

•An important god was Osiris, god of the underworld and god of the Nile.

•Isis was a goddess who promised life after death through mummification.

•Other gods included Horus, son of Isis and Osiris, Anubis, Set, and another sun god, Aton.

•Only the pharaoh was allowed to conduct ceremonies for the sun god.

•Cats were treated as gods also and were

greatly respected in egyptian society.

Mummified Cat

Egyptian cat

Eye of Horus

Cats were worshipped by egyptians and were often mummified and buried in tombs with pharaohs to be brought with them to the after life.

The eye of the god Horus is said to represent his battle against the god Set, and to represent eclipses.

Egyptian Society• Most egyptians were peasent farmers. • Egyptian slaves were usually prisoners of

wars and battles.

• Slaves were used to build pyramids for pharaohs, and to carry out other difficult tasks.

• During the new kingdom, more merchants started to surface with the increase of trade.

• With trade increasing, craftsman started coming about.

• Women were treated with respect in egyptian society and were allowed to inherit property, go to court, obtain a divorce, enter business deals, and buy and sell goods.

Hieroglyphics & The Rosetta Stone• Scribes were specifically taught to read

and write to keep records of ceremonies, taxes and to serve nobles, priests or the pharaoh.

• Hieroglyphics was the official picture writing of egypt used to keep records.

• Records were written on paper made of papyrus, a plant that grew along the nile river.

• The Rosetta stone was a black stone found in a tomb with greek, demotic, and hieroglyphic writing on it which allows scholars to decode and understand thousands of records from ancient egypt.

• From the Rosetta stone, scholars found out that egyptians studied medicine, astronomy, and mathematics.

City-States of Sumer•The cities of Sumer were northeast of the Nile river.

•The sumerian civilization was located in the fertile crescent, land that curves from the Persian Gulf to the eastern Mediterranean coast. It was very fertile land and ideal for farming.

•The first known civilization in the fertile crescent was Mesopotamia, which meant the land between two rivers. It was located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

•The sumerians had very few natural resources but used what they had.

•They built ziggurats out of bricks they made from clay and water. Ziggurats were temples for gods or goddesses of the city.

•Trade was the main source of economy for the sumerian people. Many people were merchants and artisans.

Sumerian Government & Religion• Sumer was made up of many idividual city-

states, each had their own ruler, responsible for irrigation and maintaining the city walls.

• Each city-state had their own social classes.

• Sumerians owned slaves as well, most captured during wars.

• Women had rights and were respected in Sumerian civilization.

• Sumerians had many gods that controlled every aspect of everyday life.

• Their duty was to keep these gods, who acted like ordinary people, happy and satisfied.

• Unlike Egyptians, the Sumerians believe the underworld was a dark gloomy place, without hope and full of despair.

Cuneiform & school for scribes• By 3200 B.C., the sumerians came up with

the wedge form of writing called cuneiform.

• As it developed more and more, it was used to keep records of grain harvest, business deals, prayers, myths, laws, and treaties.

• Sumerian scribes had to go to school to learn skills to be a scribe.

• School was very strict and most students were boys.

• They were taught mathematics, medicine, geography, astronomy and literature.

• They came up with a number system based on the number 6, for example 60 minutes in an hour, 360 degrees in a circle, which we still use today.

An end to Sumerian Civilization

• Eventually armies of different nations swept across Mesopotamia and took over the sumerian city-states.

• The different civilizations and cultures mixed with sumerian culture and traditions.

• Cuneiform was changed and adapted to the new civilizations’ language.

• Because of the conquering on the sumerian city-states, sumerian knowledge and ideas spread to romans and greeks who later greatly impacted the world.

New civilizations• In about 2300 B.C. a ruler named

Sargon took over sumer.• After his death, Hammurabi, the king of

Babylon, took over sumer.• Hammurabi is most known for his code

of laws called “The code of Hammurabi.”

• He had workers carve the laws into a 7 foot pillar and put in the town center for all the people to see them and follow them.

• Hammurabi also improved irrigation in his empire and organized a well trained army.

• Eventually the babylonians were taken over by the Hittites.

Hittites and Assyrians• The Hittites moved in to the

babylonian empire around 1400 B.C.

• They brought the Babylonians and other civilizations the skill of making weapons much stronger from iron.

• Their empire collapses in around 1200 B.C and then the Assyrians took over. They also made weapons from iron.

• They were savage warriors, but also had a well-ordered society.

• Assyrian king Assubanipal made the first public library.

•Babylonian empire led by king Nebuchadnezzar took over assyrian empire and revived Babylonia in 612 B.C.

•Nebuchadnezzar influenced and built the great hanging gardens of Babylon.

•Under Nebuchadnezzar astronomy flourished.

•In 539 B.C, the Babylonians fell to the Persians under the command of Cyrus the Great.

•The persians ruled land from Asia minor all the way to India.

•Under the Persian ruler Darius, many civilizations were unified to create one big empire.

•Darius divided the persian empire into different regions with a ruler for each region, and also encouraged the use of coins to improve trade and increase the economy.

•A persian man named Zoroaster also came up with a new religion, the belief in one god named Ahura Mazda who ruled the world.

Persian Empire

Phoenicians• Phonoecians were great traders and

explorers.

• They manufactured and traded many things, including their own purple dye.

• They set up many colonies to promote trade within the Mediterranean sea.

• Phoenicians spread the ideas of all different civilizations to create new ideas and cultures within civilizations.

• They also created the first real alphabet made up of 22 symbols.

• Their alphabet was later changed to adapt to different cultures.

•Solomon was the king of the Israeli empire.

•He had ambitions to take over more land and because of his greed his empire was taken over by the assyrians in 722 B.C.

•It split into two parts, Israel in the north, and Judah in the south.

•The hebrews fell to the assyrians and became slaves.

•Judah fell to babylon in 586 B.C.•Hebrews were slaves until Moses got a message from God and led the great exodus.

Hebrews and Israel

Moses and The Great Exodus

• Moses got a message from God to lead the hebrews out of Egypt.

• After they crossed the red sea they went to a desert where Moses was on a hill and received the ten commandments from God.

• The hebrews had a monotheistic religion, believing in one God only.

• They made a covenant with God and the basis of their religion is the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew scripture.

• Judaism was one of the first monotheistic religions which later molded and had the same main belief as the Christian and Islam religions.

• The ten commandments are still followed today by jews and christians as well and the covenant between God and the hebrews still remains.