Chapter 4

New Civilizations in the Americas and Western Eurasia

First Civilizations of the Americas

• Students should be able to compare the emergence of the Olmec and Chavin civilizations.

Mexico / Central America The Andes Mountains (with extension into N. America)

AMERICAN EMPIRES

2 main centers of civilization:

In isolation from the “Old World” (Eastern Hemisphere), a different set of elements of a civilization emerged:

(1) Agriculture, ca. 7000 B.C.E. In Mexico / C. America: CORN, manioc→ (support large population) In the Andes: potatoes (Corn was eventually imported from C. America).

(2) Non-alphabetic writing in Mexico / C. America; no writing in Andes

(3) No wheel (4) Not many metal weapons

(5) Monumental stone architecture

Olmecs Most influential early Meso-Most influential early Meso-

American culture American culture 1200-400 B.C.E. 1200-400 B.C.E. never really unified but shared never really unified but shared

similar culture similar culture Large quantities of crops (corn, Large quantities of crops (corn,

beans, squash) allow for specialized beans, squash) allow for specialized workers and class system workers and class system

Probably ruled by kings Probably ruled by kings As probably seen in Heads As probably seen in Heads

No written evidence No written evidence Ball game originatesBall game originates

MEXICO / CENTRAL AMERICA

I. Foundational civilization: OLMECS, ca. 1200-400 B.C.E.

A. Seem to spring from nothing

B. Irrigation for corn

C. Writing

D. Cities as h.q. of ruling elite and centers of religious ritual Mass of population live outside cities,

farm crops from which rulers take tribute.

E. Monumental stone architecture

F. Stone heads

Olmec stone heads

Features fuel speculation that Olmec ancestors may have come from Polynesia.

Chavín• Most influential early South American

culture• 900–250 b.c.e.• combination of military strength and

the appeal of its religious system explains Chavín's influence and control over its territory.

• possessed all the essential characteristics of later Andean civilizations, including a clan-based system of labor.

Chavín

• cultural capital, Chavín de Huanter, was at the intersection of diverse ecological zones which provided it economic advantage over rivals

• llamas, only beasts of burden in Americas, facilitated trade

• The evidence suggests that increased warfare led to the fall of Chavín around 200 b.c.e.

THE ANDES

I. Foundational civilization: Chavín in Peru, ca. 900-250 B.C.E.

A. Administrative /

religious cities supported by

crop- growing peasantry (as

in Mexico / C. America)

B. Terraced agriculture

C. Potatoes, eventually corn (imported from Mexico / C. America)

Peruvian potatoes

D. Stone architecture, feline (?) deity

Western Eurasia

• Students will be able to identify the geographic locations and the fundamental characteristics and historical development of the Celts, the Israelite people, and the Phoenicians and understand the role of migrations in the development of these peoples.

Celtic civilization originated in central Europe in the early part of the first millennium B.C.E. Around 500 B.C.E. Celtic peoples began to migrate, making Celtic civilization the dominant cultural style in Europe north of the Alps. The Celts’ interactions with the peoples of the Mediterranean, including Greeks and Romans, involved both warfare and trade.

The Celtic Peoples

The Spread of the Celts• Indo-European speaking people Indo-European speaking people • Celtic civilization originated in Central Celtic civilization originated in Central

Europe in the first millennium b.c.e.Europe in the first millennium b.c.e.• Around 500 b.c.e., the Celtic groups began Around 500 b.c.e., the Celtic groups began

a rapid expansion in several directions.a rapid expansion in several directions.

The Spread of the Celts

• toward the west (France, Britain, Ireland, Spain)

• to the south (northern Italy, central Greece, and central Anatolia)

• The Celts shared cultural traits, but there was no Celtic “state.”

Celtic Society

• Celtic society was divided into an elite class of warriors, professional groups of priests and bards, and the common people.

• The warriors owned land and livestock and monopolized wealth and power.

• Warriors fought naked and took heads

• The priests, called Druids, who believed in reincarnation, were teachers and judges as well as religious leaders.

Celtic Society

• Celts were successful farmers and engaged in trade, shipbuilding, and metallurgy.

• Celtic women were involved primarily in child rearing, food production, and some crafts.

• Celtic women, particularly elite women, enjoyed more freedom than their Middle Eastern, Greek, and Roman counterparts and could even inherit their husband’s estates.

Belief and Knowledge

• The Celts were polytheistic.• In Celtic mythology, the barrier between

the natural and the supernatural world was quite permeable.

• The modern traditions of Halloween and May Day preserve the ancient Celtic holidays of Samhain and Beltaine.

• In the first three centuries C.E., Roman conquest and Germanic invasion halted the development of Celtic society.

The Assyrian Empire 911–612 b.c.e.

From the tenth to the seventh century B.C.E. the Assyrians of northern Mesopotamia created the largest empire the world had yet seen, extending from the Iranian Plateau to the eastern shore of the Mediterranean and containing a diverse array of peoples.

Copyright (c) Houghton Mifflin Company. All Rights Reserved.

Background and Location

• The Assyrian homeland was in northern Mesopotamia. It had more rain and a more temperate climate than Sumer and Akkad, but it was also more exposed to raiders.

• Assyrian power revived in the ninth century b.c.e. and the Assyrians built an empire, expanding along trade routes westward toward the Mediterranean, north to modern Armenia, east to modern Iran, and south to Babylonia.

God and King

• Assyrian kings were regarded as the center of the universe, chosen by the gods as their surrogates in earth. Kings had secular and religious duties.

• The secular duties of kings included receiving information, hearing and deciding on complaints, and carrying out diplomacy and military leadership. The religious duties of kings included supervision of the state religion, performance of public and private rituals, and consulting and gaining the approval of the gods.

• Assyrian kings were celebrated in propaganda that was designed to produce feelings of awe and fear in the hearts of their subjects. Such propaganda included the public display of royal inscriptions relating to conquests and punishments and artistic renderings of the kings as large, muscular, and fierce men.

Conquest and Control

• At their peak, the Assyrian armies had half a million troops divided into functionally specialized units. The Assyrian troops used a variety of military technologies, including iron weapons, cavalry, couriers, signal fires, and spy networks.

• Assyrian techniques of conquest included terror tactics and mass deportation of civilian populations. Mass deportation served a dual purpose: to destroy the morale of the enemy and to transfer needed laborers to the core area of the empire.

Conquest and Control

• The Assyrians found it difficult to control their vast and diverse territory. Their level of control varied, being more effective at the core and less effective in the peripheral parts of the empire.

• Within the empire, the duties of Assyrian officials were to collect tribute and taxes, to maintain law and order, to raise and provision troops, and to construct and maintain public works. The central government included high-ranking officials and professionals.

• The central government exploited the wealth and resources of the empire for the benefit of the center, but also invested in provincial infrastructure, and so was not entirely parasitic.

Assyrian Society and Culture

• Assyrian society had three major social strata: free, land-owning citizens; farmers and artisans; and slaves. The Assyrian economy was based on agriculture but also included artisans and merchants.

• In the realm of knowledge and learning, the Assyrians both preserved the knowledge inherited from older Mesopotamian societies and made original contributions to mathematics and astronomy. The Assyrian Empire maintained libraries that were attached to temples in the cities, such as the Library of Ashurbanipal in Ninevah.

Israel, 2000–500

b.c.e.

Background and Location

• The Israelite people were nomadic herders and caravan drivers who developed a complex sedentary agricultural civilization. As they did so, their cult of a desert god evolved into an influential monotheistic religion.

• Israel’s location makes it a crossroads for trade. However, the area has few natural resources.

Origins, Exodus, and Settlement

• Sources for the early history of the Israelite people include the Hebrew Bible, which is based in part on oral traditions compiled in the fifth century b.c.e., and archeological excavations.

Origins, Exodus, and Settlement

• Biblical accounts of the origins of the Israelite people include the stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These stories may be a compressed account of the experiences of many generations of nomads. The story of Cain and Abel and the stories of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah reflect the tensions between the nomadic Israelite people and settled agricultural people.

Origins, Exodus, and Settlement

• The Biblical account of the Egyptian captivity is not confirmed by Egyptian sources but may be linked to the rise and fall of the Hyksos rulers of Egypt. The period of Israelite slavery according to the Bible corresponds to the period of large-scale construction projects under Sethos I and Ramesses II, while the Biblical account of the exodus may reflect the memories of a migration from Egypt and nomadic life in the Sinai.

Origins, Exodus, and Settlement

• The cult of Yahweh with its exclusive devotion to one god developed during the period of nomadism in the Sinai.

Origins, Exodus, and Settlement

• The Biblical account of Israelite settlement in the land of Canaan says that Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan and destroyed Jericho and other Canaanite cities. The archeological evidence of what probably happened is that the nomadic Israelite tribes settled in the hills of Canaan, where they were joined by other groups and by refugees from a troubled Canaanite society.

Rise of the Monarchy

• Wars with the Philistines brought about the need for a strong central government. Saul, the first king, established the Israelite monarchy. David, the second king, completed the transition to monarchy.

Rise of the Monarchy

• The Israelite monarchy reached the height of its power in the reign of King Solomon, who forged alliances and sponsored trade. Solomon also expanded the bureaucracy and the army, and built the First Temple in Jerusalem. The temple priesthood sacrificed to Yahweh, received a portion of the agricultural tax, and became very wealthy.

Rise of the Monarchy

• The wealth and prestige of the temple priesthood was indicative of the increasing gap between the rural and urban, and the wealthy and the poor in Israeli society.

Rise of the Monarchy

• Israelite people lived in extended families and practiced arranged marriage. Monogamy was the norm. Men were allowed to have extramarital relations; women were not.

Rise of the Monarchy

• In early Israel, women enjoyed relative equality with their husbands in social life, but at the same time, they suffered certain legal disadvantages: women could not inherit property, nor could they initiate divorce. The main occupations of women were bearing and raising children, maintaining the household, and engaging in agriculture or herding. As society became more urbanized, some women began to work outside the home in a variety of occupations.

Rise of the Monarchy

• There are some records of women exercising political influence. Examples include the story of Deborah and references to “wise women.” However, the status of women declined during the period of monarchy.

Fragmentation and Dispersal

• After Solomon, Israel divided into two kingdoms: Israel in the north (capital: Samaria), and Judah in the south (capital: Jerusalem). The two kingdoms were sometimes at peace with each other, and sometimes fought.

Fragmentation and Dispersal

• There were some significant religious developments during the period of fragmentation. The concept of monotheism was sharpened, but at the same time, some Israelites were attracted to the worship of Canaanite gods.

Fragmentation and Dispersal

• Political developments during the period of fragmentation include the Assyrian destruction of the northern kingdom (Israel) in 721 b.c.e. and the fall of the southern kingdom (Judah) to the Babylonian monarch Nebuchadnezzar in 587 b.c.e. Nebuchadnezzar deported a large number of Jewish elites and craftsmen to Babylon. This was the beginning of the Jewish Diaspora.

Fragmentation and Dispersal

• During the Diaspora, the Jewish people developed institutions to preserve Jewish religion and culture. These developments continued even after some of the Babylonian Jews were permitted to return to Jerusalem. Developments of the Diaspora included a stronger commitment to monotheism, strict dietary rules, and veneration of the Sabbath.

Phoenicia and the Mediterranean, 1200–500 b.c.e.

The major Phoenician city-states were Byblos, Berytus, Sidon, and Tyre.

The Phoenician City-States

The Phoenicians were the descendants of the ancient inhabitants of Syria, Lebanon, and Israel who were pushed into the strip of land between the mountains and the sea in modern Lebanon by about 1100 B.C.E. There, the Phoenicians established a number of small city-states that were deeply involved in commerce. They also invented the first alphabetical writing system.

Expansion into the Mediterranean

• Phoenician expansion into the Mediterranean was carried out by Tyre, beginning in the ninth century B.C.E. Colonies were established first on Cyprus, then on the North African coast, the south and southeast Spanish coast, Sardinia, Sicily, and Malta.

Expansion into the Mediterranean

• Phoenician expansion into the Mediterranean was the work of a combination of state and private enterprise. Expansion was a response to the Assyrian invasions of Syria and Palestine, the shortage of agricultural land in Tyre, and opportunities for trade and access to resources.

Expansion into the Mediterranean

• Expansion brought the Phoenicians into conflict with the Greeks, who were also seeking resources and establishing colonies in the western Mediterranean during this period. Conflict with Greece was most significant in the violent struggle for control of Sicily—a struggle in which the Phoenicians had the upper hand by the mid-third century B.C.E.

Carthage’s Commercial Empire

• Historians know more about the new settlements, particularly Carthage than they know about cities in the Phoenician homeland.

• Carthage was located near present day Tunis on a narrow promontory jutting out into the Mediterranean from the African mainland.

Carthage’s Commercial Empire

• The crowded city stretched between Byrsa and a double harbor. The inner harbor could accommodate up to 250 warships.

• Naval command headquarters were situated on an island with a watchtower in the middle of it.

Carthage’s Commercial Empire

• The outer commercial harbor was filled with docks for merchant ships and with sheds and yards for shipbuilding and refitting.

• In case of attack, the mouth of the harbor could be closed off by a huge iron chain.

War and Religion

• Carthage did not seek direct rule of a large amount of territory.

• When Carthage needed armies for military operations overseas, it came to rely on well-paid mercenaries who served under the command of professional Carthaginian officers.

• Carthaginian religion at times of crises involved sacrifice of their own male children