BEGINNING OF CIVILIZATION(S)

I..) DEFINITIONS: HISTORY, CIVILIZATION, WORLD

  1. R.G. Collingwood, The Idea of History: defined history constrasted with theocratic writing
  2. For Self-Knowledge: Like the Classical Greek Maxim, Know Thyself
    • Inquiry: Answering a Question by reconstrucing, not foisting "answers"
    • Sources: Analyzing Primary Sources (Secondary Sources=A point of view)
    • Human Past: Selects Out other Disciplines (Careful what you FISH for!)

II.) "DYNAMIC" OR VIOLENTLY CHANGING MESOPOTAMIA, 3,500 ff

  1. Sumer: Paleolithic; Neolithic; Bronze Ages to 3,000 B.C -- British Library Site
  2. Hunt with Tools & Tribe; Hard-Rock Tools for crops & dom. animals; city & tin/copper
    • To Do: Into which of the Ages (Paleolithic, Neolithic, Bronze etc) do Enkidu, Gilgamesh & their culture(s) (in Reilly) fit?
    • Anthropomorphic gods & personifying nature
    • Cuneiform Characters in Clay, ca. 3,000 of all these 'federated' city-states
  3. Sargon: Semitic-speaking people moved in, set up a capital at Akkad, 2340-2125
  4. 'Fabled' Ur of the Chaldees, Third Dynasty, 2125-2000
  5. Sir Leonard Wooley's archeological 'told-you-so' at Abraham's city
    • Ziggurats; Epic of Gilgamesh: Heroic Clash of Ages: What is the perceived evil?
  6. Amorite Hammurabi at Babylon: Change of Power, change of ways, 1792-50
  7. Code of Hammurabi, First Legal System, unless another is found (cf. Riley)

III.) EGYPT OF THE PHARAOHS: STABLE, STATIC, CONSERVATIVE

  1. The Nile for Egypt: Water, Road, Plow, a god
  2. Menes' Upper Kingdom took the North, united both about 3,100
  3. Horus the Sky-Falcon god joined with Ra the sun-god
    • Tending the "cattle" of the gods, Pharonic Immortality
  4. Pharaoh preserved Maat: Harmony & Justice through Order; Book of the Dead
  5. The Old Kingdom's Great Pyramids;  Sphinx Links; Champollion's Rosetta Stone
  6. Middle Kingdom, 2052-1786: Extended control extended into Palestine & Ethiopia
  7. Hyksos (E.Med. Semites) on their Chariots invaded, conquered, ca. 1750
  8. New Kingdom, 1575-1087: Pushed out Hyksos, degenerating continuity still in place

IV.) THE INDUS RIVER: MAJOR DISCONTINUITY WITH THE ARYAN INVASION

  1. Mohenjo-Daro
  2. Problems for archeologists
    • Script still undeciphered; strange conservatism in building, pottery
    • The problem of digging down to earlier levels with high water table
    • Covered drains, sewers, large graineries, temples, bronze sculptures
  3. The Aryan invasions, 1750 ff; Vedic Literature/gods; Caste

V.) CHINA: CONTINUITY AND CULTURAL UNIFORMITY

  1. Chronology: Early Dynasties: The Shang 1523-1028 B.C. (at An Yang, Yellow River)
  2. Urban centers linked by roads; Ancestor Worship linked Heavens & Earth
    • Writing system emerged (Oracle Bones); Politics by King and bureaucracy