c. 8000 BCE – c. 600 BCE

KEY CONCEPT 1.3.3: UNIFICATION OF EARLY STATES THROUGH CULTURE

Do Now: Code of Hammurabi Use the up-close image of the Code of Hammurabi to answer the following Do Now questions:

1. Identify: What is literally happening in this image? (Hint: Who, or what, is involved, and what are they doing?)

2. Predict: How will this help unify cultures in the ancient world?

3. Synthesize: Explain how this image connects to historical trends we have already covered in this class.

Thinking Question

How did early states use culture to develop and maintain new forms of social and economic structures?

III. Culture played a significant role in unifying states through laws, language, literature, religion, myths, and monumental art.

A. Early civilizations developed monumental architecture and urban planning.

Required Examples:

• Ziggurats • Pyramids • Temples • Defensive walls • Streets and roads • Sewage and water systems

Ziggurats and PyramidsZiggurats (Sumerian for "to build on a raised area") were massive structures built in the ancient Mesopotamian valley and western Iranian plateau, having the form of a terraced step pyramid of successively receding stories or levels. Ziggurats were built by the Sumerians, Babylonians, Elamites, Akkadians, and Assyrians for local religions. Each ziggurat was part of a temple complex which included other buildings.

The Egyptian pyramids are ancient masonry structures located in Egypt. Most were built as tombs for the country's Pharaohs and their consorts during the Old and Middle Kingdom periods. The most famous Egyptian pyramids are those found at Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo. Several of the Giza pyramids are counted among the largest structures ever built. The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza is the largest Egyptian pyramid. It is the only of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still in existence.

Ziggurats

The Giza Pyramids

B. Elites, both political and religious, promoted arts and artisanship.

Required examples:

• Sculpture• Painting• Wall decorations • Elaborate weaving

The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon.

Why would the kings of Babylon be interested in funding this piece of monumental architecture, especially as a gate into their capital city?

C. Systems of record keeping arose independently in all early civilizations and subsequently were diffused.

Required examples:

• Cuneiform• Hieroglyphs • Pictographs • Alphabets• Quipu

Early Writing Systems

Cuneiform | Mesopotamiac. 3300 BCE

Hieroglyphics | Ancient Egyptc. 3200 BCE

Alphabet | Phoeniciansc. 1200 BCE

D. States developed legal codes, including the Code of Hammurabi, that reflected existing hierarchies and facilitated the rule of governments over people.

• Most of these early legal codes followed a code of Lex Talionis, which essentially translates to an “eye-for-an-eye.”

• However, not all social classes were treated equally. For example, in the Code of Hammurabi, murder of a slave or lower-caste woman could be paid off in money or goods. However, the murder of a member of the elite would almost certainly result in execution.

E. New religious beliefs developed in this period continued to have strong influences in later periods.

Required examples of new religious beliefs:

• The Vedic religion – Indus Valley• Hebrew monotheism - Levant• Zoroastrianism - Persia

F. Trade expanded throughout this period from local to regional and transregional, with civilizations exchanging goods, cultural ideas, and technology.

Required examples of trade expansion from local to regional and transregional:

• Between Egypt and Nubia • Between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley

Trade Between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley

There was an extensive maritime trade network operating between the Indus Valley and Mesopotamian civilizations. Such long-distance sea trade became feasible with the innovative development of plank-built watercraft, equipped with a single central mast supporting a sail of woven rushes or cloth. We have found Indus Valley pottery in Mesopotamia, and gold products from Mesopotamia in the Indus Valley, serving as evidence for these early trade networks.

Trade Between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley

G. Social and gender hierarchies intensified as states expanded and cities multiplied. • It is during these time period that we see the beginnings of patriarchy, or male dominated societies. In this way, early civilizations were developing hierarchies based on gender. • Additionally, one sees the development of classes based on relative economic and social influence. A good example of this would be the Indian caste system, which we will cover in much more detail in the next units. • These developments are in strict contrast with relative egalitarian-ness of hunter-gatherer societies.

H. Literature was also a reflection of culture.

Required examples of literature as a reflection of culture:

• The “Epic of Gilgamesh” • Rig Veda • Book of the Dead

The Rig VedaThe Rig Veda is the oldest text in any Indo-European language (English and Spanish are part of this family of languages.) It is a devotional, or religious, text made up of Vedas, or hymns, and forms the foundation for the Vedic religion which would ultimately become formalized as Hinduism.

The Egyptian Book of the Dead: Coming Forth by Day The Book of the Dead was part of a tradition of funerary texts which includes earlier Pyramid and coffin texts, which were painted onto objects, not papyrus. The text consists of a number of magic spells intended to assist a dead person's journey through the Duat, or underworld, and into the afterlife. Some of the spells included were drawn from older works and date to before the c. 3000 BCE.

The Egyptian Book of the Dead: Coming Forth by Day

This scene, from the Papyrus of Hunefer (ca. 1275 BCE), shows the scribe Hunefer's heart being weighed on the scale of Maat against the feather of truth, by the jackal-headed Anubis. The ibis-headed Thoth, scribe of the gods, records the result. If his heart equals exactly the weight of the feather, Hunefer is allowed to pass into the afterlife. If not, he is eaten by the waiting chimeric devouring creature Ammit composed of the deadly crocodile, lion, and hippopotamus. Vignettes such as these were a common illustration in Egyptian books of the dead.

Thinking Question | Key Concept 1.3.3

Consider all the cultural and social developments during the time period between c. 8000 BCE and c. 600 BCE. in order to answer the following prompt: How did early states use culture to develop and maintain new forms of social and economic structures?

Be sure to use AT LEAST three pieces of evidence in your paragraph to support your claim, and remember to explain HOW your evidence PROVES your claim.