Civilization

Three civilizations emerged by 4.5 kya on three rivers:

All three civilizations were based on cities, with irrigation using small dams and canals, growing wheat, barley, and date palms; shepherds herded sheep, goats, pigs, cattle; supplemented by fishing and some hunting. Many cities had a fortified citadel with a grain store, a weekly marketplace, hall and bath (for rituals), governing at most 50km from the main city.

Writing

Scribes used picture-writing to represent whole words, similar-sounding abstract words, or syllables (for proper names). Such writing was widespread.

walk night	head mountains bread	water hand
day	town bull	2×600, 60, 54

Trade

Merchants traded expensive items:

• dried foods (raisins, figs, nuts) and herbs, incense;
• textiles and pottery from Sumer;
• ivory and gold from Nubia, ebony, cedar from Lebanon, cypress from Cyprus;
• precious stones (turquoise from Sinai, lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, pearls from Indus, agate, marble);
• peacock feathers, exotic animals (myth of ‘unicorn’) from the Indus;
• metal ingots (copper, bronze, tin) from Anatolia and Cyprus By now, bronze was being made by purposefully mixing copper with tin.

Trade network from Sumer to Anatolia (and Crete), to Egypt, to Elam, Dilmun (Bahrain) and Magan (Oman), Indus, using the first 'ships' (essentially large boats); trade between Indus and central Asia. Sumerian picture-writing spread with trade. Cities made expeditions and treaties with each other to secure trade posts and return escaped slaves.

Sumer

City-states were owned by their city-god, but led by a lugal (king) as the leader of the army, the supreme judge, and the overseer of canal maintenance works that were needed every autumn. The temple still had its power, with scribe schools to teach writing by copying texts (e.g., epic of Gilgamesh, the Flood and Ark) and arithmetic tables.

People owed the temple a standard amount of grain or work for the canals (paid by rations). In turn it lent seed to poor farmers, or paid ransom to foreign raiders. Sumerians conducted censuses, once in a while, to count populations, livestock, and agricultural resources in order to calculate grain tax and organise irrigation. After centuries of irrigation, the fields started to become saline, causing a shift from wheat to barley.

The man was the head of his family. A groom's father gave a "gift" to the bride's father, who then gave her her inheritance (dowry); but a wife still turned to her father when in need.

Cities kept a constant strife for dominance, with shifting alliances: dominated by Kish to the north, and a rivalry between Lagash/Umma to the south; Nippur was the ancient symbolic center. Control was more about receiving an annual tribute and trade rights than forceful rule. Disputes were settled by mock battles, in which captives' ransoms were paid by the temple.

Nomadic semites from Syria/Canaan increasingly occupied northern Sumer, from Mari to Kish. Their Akkadian language formed two dialects: 'Assyrian' in the north and 'Babylonian' in the south.

Indus

The main cities were Harappa and Mohenjo-daro (1.6 × 1.6km); they were planned cities with straight streets and drains, a population of 50k probably speaking Dravidian, possibly related to the Elamites. Agriculture included cotton, peas, melons, dates, sesame, mustard; zebu, buffalo, chicken, monkeys and peacocks. But compared to the other civilizations, not much is known about the Indus since its script is undeciphered as yet.

Egypt

'Old Kingdom' — The god-king owned all the land, ruling from Memphis; he was advised by the vizier (governor, judge) and the tax-collector with their scribes (1% of population); each city had its governor to collect taxes (of grain, wine, oil, and labor). The rich had furniture, mirrors, lamps, garden and pools; when dead they were mummified using natron (salts of sodium).

4.62 kya King Djoser and his vizier Imhotep planned a grand step-pyramid tomb (probably influenced by Sumerian ziggurats).

Djoser's
4.62kyaKhufu's
4.59kyaKhafre's
4.5kyaMenkaure's
4.48kya

4.59 kya King Sneferu raided into Sinai, Nubia, Libya and Eritrea amassing wealth and 18k slaves; he made the first attempts at a pyramid tomb; at the temples, the scribes had schools, offices, library, used decimal numbers; processions of god-statues, with the sun-god Ra supreme.

His son, king Khufu 4.57 kya built the awe-inspiring 'Great Pyramid' of Giza, 150m high and 230m wide, made of limestone blocks of 2.5 tons. His successors built other pyramids, and Egypt soon came to be known as the Land of Pyramids.

4.47 kya The kings slowly lost their authority and wealth to local city governors and priests, who became hereditary then independent, e.g., Thebes, Herakleopolis, Nubia with capital Karmah. The king's prerogative for the afterlife was lost, as an Osiris and Isis cult made mummification popular. Trade decreased and tomb robbers abounded — the great age of the pyramids was over.

A decade of no floods about 4.2kya caused famine, and violence led to conflict between the cities.

Meanwhile, farming had spread to most parts of the world.

The Lapita culture, speaking Austronesian, and farming rice, plus bananas, yam, citrus, coconut, aroid, sago palm, cucumber, breadfruit, jackfruit, taro, sugar cane; pottery. They sailed across the seas in large canoe-boats, finding their way by the stars, following bird migrations, and observing sea swells. Expanding at 20km/y they soon reached far away ocean islands ... except Australia, probably because any colony there was assimilated or destroyed by the aborigines.

Mexico

Europe
Stonehenge

Arabia and Africa

Peru

Since 5.2kya, some coastal valleys in the Norte Chico region of Peru were irrigated. By 4.6-4kya, there were about 30 cities, with agriculture based on cotton, squash, beans, plus domestication of alpacas, guinea pigs, ...; they traded cotton textiles and basketry for sardines.

China: Shang Dynasty

Following a massive flood, the Xia kings ruled towns on the Huang He river (Erlitou, Qishan), with extensive canals, dikes and dams, and palaces and temples of wood. Prophets read oracles from bone cracks, wrote in pictographs.

3.6kya Yin king overthrew the last Xia king to start the Shang dynasty. They were centrally organized, receiving feudal tribute from surrounding cities. They had kilns for pottery, jade, pictographs (clan names on pottery), art, music, a lunar calendar.

The Karasuk pastoralists on the Gobi desert traded and introduced bronze to China. The Shang organized bronze casting on a large scale: mining for copper and tin, smelting them, and casting bronze pots and weapons.

The Akkadian Empire

4360ya Lugal-Zagesi of Umma started his rise to power, defeating most of Sumer: Lagash, Kish, Ur, and Uruk (the largest battles would have been between 30k warriors).

26 years later, king Sharrukin (Sargon) of Akkad, fighting 34 battles, defeated Lugal-Zagesi and conquered Sumer, Mari, Ashur, later even looted Susa, Magan, and Ebla, Byblos and Canaan, thus forming the first grand empire of the four quarters of the earth. He appointed sons and relatives as governors, and married his daughters to seal treaties; had ambassadors, messengers and paved roads. He rebuilt Akkad (pop. 40k), with a palace, controlled the temple, set laws, gathered taxes, and exacted an annual tribute from cities. His scribes made the semitic Akkadian the standard language of Sumer, using Sumerian writing to represent syllables (about 64 characters = 16 consonants × 4 vowels); bilingual lists (of gods, kings, ...), star observations.

At each king’s death, there would be revolts from some other cities, until reconquered. Sargon's grand-son Naram-sin was elevated to a god-king.

But the climate became increasingly drier, and nomadic Amorites from Syria disrupted the Euphrates. From 4192ya, 140 years after Sargon, the empire started to crumble. The nomadic Gutians of the Zagros mountains repeatedly raided Kish, Sumer and Susa, and utterly destroyed Akkad in 4154ya; anarchy was endemic, with the temples weakened; Uruk and Lagash once again became the prominent cities.

The Ur Empire

4112ya Uruk defeated the Gutians; succeeded by king Ur-Nammu of Ur (pop. 60k) who established an empire of Sumer, Kish, Mari and Susa, in the tradition of the Akkadian empire:

• his centralized government controlled irrigation, trade, textile manufacture;
• he appointed governors of other cities, with bureaucracy and network of messengers;
• he rebuilt Ur's ziggurat, palace, ...

His son Shulgi was revered for his wisdom.

But drier conditions continued, Sumerian cities declined and nomadic tribes prevailed.

Of these dominated the Amorites, semitic nomads from Syria (Ugarit, Aleppo, Carchemish, Mari) and Canaan (Byblos). Around 4020ya, they harassed Sumer (a wall was built near Akkad), then 4004ya the governor of Isin revolted, and the Amorites and Elamites sacked Akkad, Kish, Ur ..., ending Ur's empire and Sumerian culture. Read a contemporary lament for the fall of Sumer.

Mari became the next largest city (2×2km), Other cities: Ashur, Eshnunna, Larsa, Susa; they continued using Akkadian as the common written language.

In Akkadian cities, people were stratified from the king down to the slaves:

The King in his palace, advised by the Assembly of elders, led an army of 5000, kept contact with city governors, and was seen as the "protector of the poor".

Judges intervened in disputes:

• laws were based on the "eye for an eye" principle (including, e.g., death for death, ear for disobedience, ...);
• punishment or compensation for crimes;
• contracts of sales and rent with deeds, marriage (husband could divorce but wife kept dowry), inheritance (equally), loans must have bonds as guarantees;
• taxes and state duties (from each household), dues on foreigners and trade entering city gates.

Merchants financed traders who had to return double the amount, and financed boats entrusted to captains; they lent money at about 20% interest.

Scribes administered the city store; they taught at the temple school how to read and write, the law, numbers, cures, the stars, etc.

Prophets were the knowledgeable ones; they:

• gave omens of gods on health of king, best dates for campaigns,...;
• recorded common wisdom on tablets: animal behavior, plant location, stars and weather, rivers, cures, dreams, ethics;
• held that the afflicted must have somehow done wrong, 'sinned'; the unburied become 'spirits' (to explain disease);
• revered the sun-god and pantheon of gods, who reward or punish the people for their im/morality through nature, e.g., floods, pestilence, volcanic eruptions.

Craftsmen: masons, carpenters, potters, smiths, wicker-workers, textile-workers, jewelers, artists.

Peasants often worked for others, earning wages in grain (or metals).

Slaves were mostly foreign captives; they could be sold, adopted (by the old to take care of them), impregnated, or freed by purchase; indebted and disinherited children could be temporarily enslaved.

Time

Like most cultures, the Sumerians kept a lunar calendar of about 12 months in a year. On the left is the night sky and the phase of the moon, night after night. When the moon is full, a seasonal or farming feast was held, associated with the corresponding constellation. A month consisted of four weeks of 7 days each, plus any remaining days until the next full moon. About every 2½ years, a constellation had two full moons, in which case, it had an extra month; this ensured that the calendar did not fall out of season, which could lead to grain taxes being due before it's ripe. The most powerful gods were taken to reside in heaven as the seven wandering stars (sun, moon, planets), while ordinary stars represented persons.

Arithmetic

Sumerian scribes used the abacus for addition, multiplication, and division. All one needed was a table of sand and some pebbles.

Egypt: Middle Kingdom

4040ya King Mentuhotep of Thebes (~40k, largest in world) reunited all of Egypt, resumed temple-building (with columns) and trade fluorished.

Great Labyrinth of columns, for king Amenemhat III.

3970ya Vizier Amenemhat seized kingship with the support of governors that he appointed.

3900ya An expedition was sent to protect gold and ivory trade from Nubia; fortresses were built up to the second river cataract; other expeditions included Palestine (up to Byblos). But over the next hundred years, the king's authority weakened, taken over by the vizier; Nubia and Canaan became independent.

Gods

Most gods represented the nation-spirit of cities, e.g., Marduk of Babylon. But increasingly they became inter-national symbols of nature's powers:

• Sky, Sun, Moon,
• Sea, Earth (quakes,...)
• Air (thunder, rain...), Ice (in north)
• Soil and Life (fertility, vegetation, 'female')
• War and Love ('male')
• Death (underworld...)

The Sky rules the Earth:

• the Sun is the prime heat+life giver: sunlight and rain cause plants to grow; flowers and leaves follow the Sun, even if cloudy; the Sun itself is ever unchanging from summer to winter, yet it causes seasonal changes — so what's important is its position in the zodiac;
• the zodiac constellations mark the seasons and cause seasonal effects: rain and wind, crops to grow and wither, flowers to open, animals rut and bear young during season, insects become plagues, Sirius causes the Nile to flood, ...
• the 'moist' Moon has a weaker effect: tides, crabs, menstruation;
• Jupiter and Saturn gave lightning and rain;
• Venus, with its 9 month period, was the female god which directed pregnancy;
• just as fire is attracted to the skay, amber attracts chaff, lodestones attract iron.

The Final Judgement by Osiris and Anubis in which the dead person's heart is weighed against Osiris' feather; if light of sins, his/her ka (life-force) unites with the ba (personality) to form the akh (soul) to live in the afterworld. A "Book of the Dead" with prayers was kept with the coffin.

Know-how

In Egypt, time was kept by an obelisk sundial, marking the 'hours'.

28.6m 340 tons

Winter
Equinox
Summer

Unlike most cultures, the calendar consisted of a fixed 12 months of 3 weeks of 10 days, each month named for a god, plus an extra 5 days at the end of the year.

3800ya In south Canaan, people encountered Egyptian writing on papyrus; they created an alphabet of 24 letters, each a picture of a word starting with the same consonant. It is easier to learn than hundreds of hieroglyphs and spread fairly quickly throughout the western regions.

Crete

Cretans formed the first civilization in Europe, possibly from either the Syriac or Egyptian Semites. They produced oil, wine, wool; scribes introduced syllabic writing; craftsmen worked vases, bronze, statues with natural poses; they traded with Anatolia, Cyprus, Levant and Egypt, using boats with keel and mast.

Assyria and Babylon

3833—3796 ya The Amorite nomadic king Shamshi-Adad sieged and conquered Ashur 3808ya then Mari, using new weapons like the battering ram; the trade routes were extended to Syria and Anatolia. But on his death in 3776ya, Mari was lost.

Nine years later, the Elamites raided the Sumerian plain and conquered Eshnunna; the Amorite king Hammurabi of Babylon repelled them, then over a decade defeated Larsa and Sumer, destroyed Mari, and finally Ashur 3758ya. Babylon became the largest city in the world, probably nearing 100k.

For about 30 years from his death 3750ya, revolts in the south and north reduced the empire. Babylon remained under the Amorites as Sumerian cities declined. They were soon in for a shock as waves of Indo-European nomads descended from the north during the next century.

Indo-Europeans

The caucasian Yamnaya on the Black and Caspian seas were nomadic tall fair-skinned horse-riding "cowboy" tribes, who lived in horse-waggons. Their culture of young warriors and druids may have caused unsettling of populations. Their language (pa, ma, bro, horse, ...) spread with them. They drank milk to compensate for the lack of sunlight; and cooked with butter (= shaken milk fat). But what's left of their culture are the large mounds in which they buried their kings.

Around 4kya they started expanding and migrating over the next two hundred years.

The southern older branch crossed into Anatolia where they became the Luwians and Hittites (Nesites). Further west, in the Balkans they became the first Greeks (Mycenians or Achaeans); later they adopted the Cretan syllabic writing (Linear B).

One northern branch migrated up the Danube river into the Carpathian basin, becoming the Celts. They dominated the local "stone-age" farmers, forming networks of protection. These were awed by their horses and metals, and within a few generations adopted their language.

A second northern branch, spreading up the Dniestr river, became the Germanic people. The branch that remained on the Black sea steppes became the Slavs.

The eastern branch was the Andronovo culture, nomads with domesticated camels, from the Aral sea to the Altai mountains. They became the warlike Aryans. They invented the fast chariot about 4.1kya and spread around the Caspian sea. Perhaps they pushed the Tocharians to the east into the Tarim basin. They may also have influenced the Chukchi people of Siberia to become reindeer herders, expanding north and displacing the Yenisei.

The Hittites of Anatolia ruled over the native Anatolians, and slowly united into one nation by 3750ya, with their capital in Hattusha; they adopted the culture, law codes and cuneiform of Assyria.

The Aryans migrated down into Iran, Afghanistan, to the Indus river, where they raided the cities and destroyed their dams. They formed a caste system of warriors and priests, ruling over the peasants and slaves, but otherwise adopting the local culture (Sanskrit).

The Mitanni may have been a western branch of them. They ruled over the Hurrians, and moved into Assyria and Syria 3700ya.

The Kassites may also have been Indo-European, or displaced by them. They conquered eastern Sumer 3737ya, settled and ruled in Sumer, based in Nippur, adopting and assimilating with the Akkadian culture, but very little is known of them.

3670 — 3650ya Warrior bands of Hittites raided Syria (Alalakh, Aleppo, Kadesh), then, with bands of Canaanites (Hyksos), raided down to the Nile delta, settling in Avaris (one of the largest cities); upper Egypt even paid them tribute.

Soon after, 3595ya, the Hittite king Mursilis raided along the Euphrates, sacking Aleppo, Mari and Babylon; but he was killed on his return home. In the ensuing confusion, Babylon fell to the Kassites 3570ya, and the Mitanni took Aleppo.