Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Mesopotamia
Sumer and the Sumerian people
-origins: 3500 to 3000 B.C.
-urban life or city-states: Uruk, Eridu, Umma, Lagash and Ur
--ramparts; irrigation
-Stratified society:
--Kings - priests - administrative and military elite - craftsmen - peasants - slaves
-textile industry and workshops for women
Religion:
-many gods
-Kings had symbolic marriage to Inanna
-Ur's protector god was Nanna
-huge temples and ziggurats
-Epic of Gilgamesh
Sumer and the Sumerian people
-origins: 3500 to 3000 B.C.
-urban life or city-states: Uruk, Eridu, Umma, Lagash and Ur
--ramparts; irrigation
-Stratified society:
--Kings - priests - administrative and military elite - craftsmen - peasants - slaves
-textile industry and workshops for women
Religion:-many gods
-Kings had symbolic marriage to Inanna
-Ur's protector god was Nanna
-huge temples and ziggurats
-Epic of Gilgamesh
Administration:
-Development of writing: cuneiform
Akkadian State: King Sargon (2334-2279 B.C.)
-Inter-dependent confederacies
Conquests by Old Babylonian Kingdom in 18th Century B.C.
-King Hammurabi
-Code of Hammurabi = Law
Hittites dominant force in Mesopotamia between 17th and 13th centuries B.C.
Monday, August 28, 2006
Ancient human beings = homo sapiens
Neanderthals
-used speech
-animism
-hunter-gatherers
(Paleolithic Age)
Stone Age Culture?
-Archaeology: pottery fragments, cave paintings, figurines
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/
-Matriarchal prehistory: fact or fiction?
argument for:
-archaeology does not show gender hierarchies
-myths of first mothers
-"Venus" or Goddess figurines
arguments against:
-matriarchies do not currently exist among hunter-gatherers
-myths are always open to interpretation
-no evidence of widespread goddess worship
Neanderthals
-used speech
-animism
-hunter-gatherers
(Paleolithic Age)
Stone Age Culture?
-Archaeology: pottery fragments, cave paintings, figurines
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/
-Matriarchal prehistory: fact or fiction?
argument for:
-archaeology does not show gender hierarchies
-myths of first mothers
-"Venus" or Goddess figurines
arguments against:
-matriarchies do not currently exist among hunter-gatherers
-myths are always open to interpretation
-no evidence of widespread goddess worship
Patriarchy nevertheless a way of life
http://www.archaeologiemuseum.it/f01_ice_uk.html
New Stone Age (Neolithic) developments:
-better tools
-taming of animals (cows, pigs, goats)
-domestication of plants -- first "agricultural revolution
What is the significance of agriculture?
-rising population
-sedentary life
-development of towns
-accumulation of stuff
-trade
-changes in religious beliefs and practices
-Catal Huyuk (in modern Turkey)
