Handwritten Text Recognition for manuscripts and early printed texts
Mesopotamia keynote
1. Introducing the earliest
“civilizations”:
Larger more complex societies develop
around 3500 BCE (give or take a day...)
4 major centers: ME, Egypt, NW India, N.
China (around rivers - know them!)
Small portion of inhabited world BUT most
densely populated for the next 2500 yrs.
6. Mesopotamia:
“Land between the rivers”
Dikes and canals help
tame floods (earliest
irrigation began around
6000 BCE)
7. Mesopotamia:
“Land between the rivers”
Dikes and canals help
tame floods (earliest
irrigation began around
6000 BCE)
Agricultural technologies
lead to food surplus
8. Mesopotamia:
“Land between the rivers”
Dikes and canals help
tame floods (earliest
irrigation began around
6000 BCE)
Agricultural technologies
lead to food surplus
By 3000 BCE,
population of Sumer is
near 100,000! (inc.
migrants from other
areas)
9. Technological Development in
Mesopotamia
Bronze (copper with tin), c. 4000 BCE
Military, agricultural applications
Iron, c. 1000 BCE
Cheaper than bronze
Wheel, boats, c. 3500 BCE
Shipbuilding increases trade networks
Cities built with government and public
works and develop into city-states (control
inside AND outside city walls)
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10. The Sumerian Civilization - the
beginning of the whole “Mess”
Develop cuneiform as a system of writing (Impact?)
Record laws, treaties, social & political customs…
Via trade, written language spreads to other Civs.
Develop 12 month calendar and use geometry to
develop arches and columns.
Polytheistic religion using Ziggurats to worship gods.
Fell to invaders, but the culture did not die (why?)
11. Sumerian City-States
Cities appear 4000 BCE
Dominate region from 3200-2350 BCE
Ur (home of Abraham, see Genesis 11:28),
Nineveh (see Jonah)
Ziggurat home of the god
Divine mandate to Kings
Regulation of Trade
Defense from nomadic marauders
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13. Development of Writing
Sumerian writing systems form 3500 BCE
Pictographs
Cuneiform: “wedge-shaped”
Preservation of documents on clay
Declines from 400 BCE with spread of Greek
alphabetic script
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17. Political Decline of Sumer
Semitic peoples from northern Mesopotamia
overshadow Sumer
Sargon of Akkad (2370-2315 BCE)
Destroyed Sumerian city-states one by one, created empire
based in Akkad (strong personal presence, controlled and
taxed trade)
Empire unable to maintain chronic rebellions
Hammurabi of Babylon (1792-1750 BCE)
Improved taxation, legislation
Used local governors to maintain control of city-states
Babylonian Empire later destroyed by Hittites from
Anatolia, c. 1595 BCE (IRON WEAPONS!)
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20. Akkadians, then Babylonians, then
Hittites, then… you get the picture.
The Akkadians develop the first known code of
laws using Sumerian Cuneiform.
21. Akkadians, then Babylonians, then
Hittites, then… you get the picture.
The Akkadians develop the first known code of
laws using Sumerian Cuneiform.
22. Akkadians, then Babylonians, then
Hittites, then… you get the picture.
The Akkadians develop the first known code of
laws using Sumerian Cuneiform.
The Babylonian King Hammurabi developed the
Code of Hammurabi (impact?)
23. Akkadians, then Babylonians, then
Hittites, then… you get the picture.
The Akkadians develop the first known code of
laws using Sumerian Cuneiform.
The Babylonian King Hammurabi developed the
Code of Hammurabi (impact?)
24. Akkadians, then Babylonians, then
Hittites, then… you get the picture.
The Akkadians develop the first known code of
laws using Sumerian Cuneiform.
The Babylonian King Hammurabi developed the
Code of Hammurabi (impact?)
Babylonian bronze weapons fall to the Hittites
iron weapons that fall to the Assyrian’s stronger
iron that fall to the Chaldean King
Nebuchadnezzar who rebuilds Babylon and then
eventually falls to the Persians.
25. Code of Hammurabi
What language would the code of Hammurabi be in? How does the
code show social status and role of men, women and children? (p. 43)
28. The broader influence...
Wealth attracted attention (migrants and
enemies)
People migrated out (took ideas with
them)
Trade networks established (connected
regions and societies - assimilation and
adaptation!)
Military ventures...
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33. Other Mesopotamian societies and
their contributions...
The Lydians (coin money)
Phoenicians (trade and communication
networks AND alphabet)
34. Other Mesopotamian societies and
their contributions...
The Lydians (coin money)
Phoenicians (trade and communication
networks AND alphabet)
Hebrews (Moses and Judaism)
Hebrews shared polytheistic beliefs of other
Mesopotamian civilizations
Moses introduces monotheism, belief in single god
Denies existence of competing parallel deities
Personal god: reward and punishment for
conformity with revealed law
The Torah (“doctrine or teaching”)
36. Indo-European Migrations
Common roots of many languages of
Europe, southwest Asia, India
Implies influence of a single Indo-
European people
Probable original homeland: modern-day
Ukraine and Russia, 4500-2500 BCE
Domestication of horses, use of Sumerian
weaponry allowed them to spread widely
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37. Implications of Indo-European
Migration
Hittites migrate to central Anatolia, c. 1900
BCE, later dominate Babylonia
Influence on trade
Horses, chariots with spoked wheels
Iron
Migrations to western China, Greece, Italy
also significant
See map (migration in WH)
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39. Other pre-classical river valley
civilizations
Egyptian Civilization
trade w/Mes.
unified for most of history
Irrigation led to org/gov’t
Pharaoh (sun god)
pyramids
from 2700 B.C.E.
polytheistic, mummification
adv. math (24 hrs.)/365 day
calendar, medicine, astronomy
Patriarchal (women some
privileges)
Kush invades
Egypt, Kush and Axum
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40. Indian civilizations
Indus River by 2500 BCE (little known)
Harappa, Mohenjo Daro
running water, streets in grids
trade contacts w/ Mes. but own alphabet/art
Indo-Europeans
blend of Aryans and Indus valley peoples (see
map)
along w/natural calamities destroy early cities
combined their rel./pol ideas w/ earlier ones
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41. Chinese civilizations
Huanghe (Yellow) River in relative isolation (although
some trade)
P'an Ku (mythic ancestor of Chinese)
Developments
carefully regulated irrigation
ride horses, iron, coal,
ideographic symbols (language)
Shang dynasty (from 1766-1122 B.C.E.)
bronze metallurgy (helped with warfare)
“Mandate of Heaven” led to the Zhou dynasty
Social structure (stratified and patriarchal)
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42. What about the Americas?
Olmec, Mayan and later Incan civilization
no knowledge of wheel
polytheistic
terraced pyramids (also temples)
pictographic writing
astronomy (predicted eclipses)
lack of pack animals kept them isolated
not in river valleys (mts/ocean/smaller rivers)
smaller city-states ruled by kings/warlike
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43. The Heritage and legacies of the early
River Valley Civilizations
*Be able to compare and contrast
these early civs in terms of their
ways of life.
*Describe the legacies of the river
valley civs. carried forward to the
classical civilizations and even
today?
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