HH-03-NearEastCiv

The .Nile, the Tigris, and the Euphrates

All peoples, whether they are savage Masai in east Africa: or sophisticated city dwellers in metropolitan New York, have a more or less complex culture. We have already seen in Chapter 1 that the term culture used in this sense describes the sum total, or pattern, of any people's governmental, economic, social, religious, and intellectual institutions, no matter whether its people are primi-

tive or advanced. But though culture is a characteristic of all peoples, the same cannot be said of civilization. People are civilized only when they have succeeded in evolving an advanced and complex culture pattern which rests upon a complicated social organization and extensive control over nature. Civilization has been defined as "that stage of life in which there takes place the organization of sedentary folk into towns and cities, in order that life may become safer, more cultured, happier, and more productive of those elements which induce what is optimistically called progress." The growth of civilization has been mainly associated with the rise of town and city life, as the above definition indicates. In fact the term civilization is derived from the Latin word civilis which refers to civis, meaning citizen. Complex social organization has developed not among nomadic peoples but rather among dwellers in cities, where the circumstances of people living close together and depending on one another for fulfillment of needs require cooperation and a high degree of organization.

More specifically, civilization necessitates the existence of a device whereby the experience and the accomplishments of one generation can be passed on to the next. This becomes possible to a significant degree only with the development of writing, which enables the cultural heritage to become cumulative. There must also exist an advanced material culture guaranteeing people some degree of physical comfort and security from famine and want. Freed in this way from anxiety over uncertainty of food supply, man is given the necessary leisure and tranquility of mind to turn to artistic and intellectual achievement. Thus art, architecture, literature, philosophy, and science are developed. While Paleolithic and Neolithic man had been making striking advances in the direction of civilization in western Europe, parallel progress was being made in the Near East, near the Nile and in Mesopotamia. Our discussion, however, has been concentrated upon the advances made in Europe, for there we have more evidence of early man's progress than in any other area in the world. The rate of advance of Neolithic and Paleolithic man apparently was about the same in Europe and in the Near East until about 5000 B.C., when progress was accelerated in the latter area and Europe was left far behind.

In Egypt, the land of the pharaohs and the pyramids, we will see how man succeeded in creating a flourishing civilization along the banks of the Nile: Then we will turn east, leave north Africa, cross the great desert of Arabia to another ancient river valley, the Tigris and Euphrates, extending north from the Persian Gulf. Here a succession of important peoples rose and fell, and each made important contributions to civilization. This was the home of the Sumerians, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians.

A narrow band of fertile land connects this second great river home of ancient civilizations with the coast of the western Mediterranean. The connecting corridor, called the Fertile Crescent, played an important part in ancient history. It was the highway for trade and for the mass migrations of peoples. In this area such peoples as the Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arameans played their parts in history.

Cradles of Civilization

Advent of civilization. It can be said that culture becomes civilization and recorded history dawns between 1000 and 3000 BC in what is known as the Ancient Near East. In the latter part 0£ the nineteenth century, Egypt was regarded as the most ancient center of civilization in the Near East. But discoveries recently made at Ur in Mesopotamia have led some scholars to regard the Tigris Euphrates river valley as the cradle of civilization.

Other Archeologists have recently entered a new champion for the honor of originating civilization-India. In 1924 in the province of Punjab, a very ancient civilization was discovered at Mohenjo-Daro in the valley of the Indus River. This civilization was at its height when Cheops in Egypt was building his first pyramid. Presenting evidence of highly developed city li£e and bronze culture, perhaps Mohenjo-Daro is the oldest civilization yet discovered. When the spade of the archaeologist has turned up India's soil as thoroughly as it has the soil of Egypt, it may uncover civilizations much older than those which once flourished along the Nile. It is also a common belie£ that the oldest civilization originate in China. No one however, knows how old Chinese civilization is, and as yet archaeological investigation in that country is only in its infancy. According to our present knowledge, it would seem that Chinese civilization originated nearly two thousand years later than civilization in the Near East.

While at present the weight of evidence gives the palm to Egypt and Mesopotamia as the cradles of civilization, it must be admitted there is no certainty in the award.

Early civilization a river product. In the origin of civilization geography played an important part. All early known civilizations – Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and China – began in river valleys This was no historical accident, especially in Egypt and Mesopotamia. The great rivers annually overflowed their banks, depositing a film of rich alluvial soil on the floors of their valleys. In regions where rainfall was sparse, great pools were created in order to provide irrigation facilities. The well-watered soil produced abundant harvests. These in turn made possible a large increase in the population, and small cities and villages arose. Artificial irrigation of crops with the accompanying construction of dams and canals necessitated group effort and cooperation among the people. Everybody was required to help build the dikes and keep open the canals. Furthermore, dependence upon a wide network of interrelated canals demanded that all people within the area they served accept certain rules concerning the repair and defense of the works and the use of the water. Of necessity there developed a government whose word was law for the entire area served by the canals.

The rich surplus of crops encouraged trade and commerce. The profession of merchant was born, and caravans and merchant vessels began to carry wares from one area to another. Contact between peoples led to the exchange of ideas and inventions from one to another. Culture diffusion, already discussed in our first chapter, became more and more an instrument of progress. We can understand, then, the importance of rivers in the growth of civilization.

Water has always exerted an important influence upon human affairs. Scholars sometimes refer to it in dividing civilization into three great epochs: (1) the fluvial centered along the banks of rivers and in fertile river valleys, (2) the thalassic focused in great inland seas such as the Mediterranean and (3) the oceanic, in which man utilizes the great oceanic stretches of water as bonds of contact making the world one unit. Until the time of Greece, civilization can be regarded as essentially fluvial. European civilization then became thalassic, centering in the Mediterranean, and remained so until the fifteenth century. Finally, with the age of exploration and the voyages of Columbus and his successors, civilization became oceanic.

Civilization Dawns along the Nile

Egyptian culture and history. The life span of ancient Egypt extended from about 5000 B.C. to 525 B.C. During that period the Egyptian pattern of life evolved from a rather primitive Neolithic culture to a flourishing civilization in which pharaohs ruled with absolute sway, agriculture and commerce throve, a noble art flourished, and mighty temples and monuments were constructed. Then decay set in, and the once proud land of the pharaohs passed under the rule of the Persians in 525 B.C. For more than two thousand years a succession of alien peoples-Romans, Greeks, Arabs, and Turks-ruled over Egypt. The most recent foreign rule was that of the British, whose direct control ended only in 1937.

The dates of Egyptian history have not been definitely established, but the following chronology is roughly accurate. Egyptian history before 3400 B.C. is called the Pre-Dynastic period. The era after 3400, when the land was ruled by one pharaoh, is known as the Dynastic period, The latter includes three periods of greatness and two interludes of retrogression: the Old Kingdom (3400-2475 B.C.), followed by the transitional Feudal Age (2475-2160 B.C.); the Middle Kingdom (2160-1780 B.C.), ended by the HyksoS domination (1780-1580 B.C); and the Empire (1580-525 B.C.).

Pre-Dynastic Egypt. Egypt passed from stone to copper culture in the Pre-Dynastic period. Artifacts have been discovered in tombs which go back as far as 15,000 B.C. These remains show that the early Egyptians passed through the main divisions of the Old and New Stone ages. Progress was apparently rapid, and soon the people lived in crude houses, had weapons of flint and copper, and engaged in agriculture. Examination of grain and husks found in the stomachs of corpses in ancient tombs has shown that as early as 10,000 B.C. the Egyptians had developed superior strains of barley seed which could be easily cultivated and which produced heavy yields. The early Egyptians, whose race has not yet been conclusively ascertained, wore linen garments and were especially remarkable for their artistic skill, particularly in pottery. Their polished red and black ware was never surpassed by their descendants, even in the periods of highest Egyptian accomplishment.

During the long Pre-Dynastic period, largely because of the necessity £or cooperation in building canals and irrigation works, the small political units gradually merged into larger ones, until finally two kingdoms, Upper Egypt in the south and Lower Egypt in the north, were created, These date back perhaps to about 5000 B.C. and were probably the earliest nations. The process of national unification was further advanced in the forty-third century B.C. by the union of these two kingdoms under the leadership of the king of Lower Egypt. With its center at Heliopolis, Egypt's first capital, the union endured £or about eight hundred years. Several noteworthy accomplishments were made during the period of union. The introduction of the plow increased the acreage it was possible for a man to cultivate, and the first national irrigation system was evolved. Progress was made in writing and in the invention of papyrus and ink. Another important achievement was the creation of the first calendar, which, it has been claimed, goes back as far as 4241 B,C. If true, the date £or the beginning of the Egyptian calendar is the oldest in history.

The Dynastic period. The first union of Egypt was not permanent, and for a time each kingdom led a separate existence. About 3400 a strong leader arose in Upper Egypt. According to tradition King Menes effected the second unification of the two kingdoms and established a new capital at Memphis at the head of the Nile delta. After Menes a long succession of ruling houses, or dynasties, controlled the affairs of Egypt. The second union of Egypt marks, therefore, the beginning of the Dynastic period and the advent of the Old Kingdom, which can be regarded as the first great epoch in Egyptian civilization.

The Old Kingdom. During the period of the Old Kingdom the Age of Metals was definitely inaugurated in Egypt. Mining expeditions were sent to the nearby peninsula of Sinai to obtain copper. Trade was also developed. Boats were sent to the coast of Syria to obtain timber which was needed in Egypt for the construction of boats, houses, and furniture. Important advances were also made in industry, £or papyrus-making was begun, the potter's wheel perfected, glass manufactured, and beautiful Jewelry made by expert craftsmen.

One indication of the advance in civilization during the period of the Old Kingdom is its pyramids. The first of these gigantic monuments was constructed by the architect Imhotep for a pharaoh of the Third Dynasty. The tomb, which is the oldest existing building of stone masonry in the world, was a terraced, structure, with each successive layer smaller than the previous one. Today it is known as the Step Pyramid.

Of the six dynasties of the Old Kingdom, the fourth was the most powerful and prosperous, and consequently its pyramids were the most impressive. The largest of them, the tomb of Pharaoh Khufu, also known as Cheops, required the labor of 100,000 men for twenty years. The building of these great tomb fortresses, designed to protect the dead pharaoh's body so that, as the representative of his race, he might become immortal, required a knowledge of geometry, knowledge of the principle of the inclined plane, and the use of bronze saws to cut the great stone blocks.

Egypt’s Middle Kingdom and Empire

The Feudal Age. During the rule of the Sixth Dynasty of pharaohs of the Old Kingdom, strong centralized government was undermined by the rise of independent and ambitious provincial governors. Upon the death of Pepi II, who had reportedly ruled for ninety-four years, civil war broke out and the power of the pharaohs collapsed. For three hundred years petty governors struggled among themselves for power, while the lot of the common people became almost unbearable because of famine, oppression by petty tyrants, and destruction caused by fighting. The period which saw the destruction of the Old Kingdom is known as the Feudal Age (2475-2160 B.C.) and marks the transition from the Old Kingdom to Egypt's second great epoch of civilization, the Middle Kingdom. Progress in civilization practically ceased.

It may be helpful to remember that the period of confusion is called feudal largely because there was an absence of centralized authority. In world history there are many instances of feudal ages, all characterized, more or less, by the existence of powerful local lords, usually possessing extensive tracts of land on which lived large numbers of fighting men ready to do the lord's bidding. In such a system it was every man for himself; might made right. Traces of feudalism still linger today. In England there is still an important landed aristocracy whose lands .and titles go back to the English feudal age of more than five hundred years ago. Japan emerged from a feudal age only about eighty years ago. We shall see later in this book that the most famous feudal age of all time existed in Europe during the Middle Ages and reached its height in the twelfth century.

The Middle Kingdom. After three hundred years of disunity, the princes of Thebes, a city on the upper Nile, succeeded in reestablishing national unity under one pharaoh. They were the rulers of the famous Twelfth Dynasty, the most important of whom were Sesostris III and Amenemhet III. Under the capable guidance of the new line of pharaohs, strong monarchy, law and order, and economic prosperity were restored, and progress in civilization was resumed. The Twelfth Dynasty ruled for about two centuries. The period of its rule with that of its predecessor, the Eleventh Dynasty, constitutes what is known as the Middle Kingdom in Egyptian history (2160-1780 B.C.). If the Old Kingdom is famous for its pyramids, the Middle Kingdom is especially noted for its literature. In fact it excelled in all the arts, and with the probable exception of architecture, its artistic accomplishments were never surpassed in any other period of Egyptian history.

The Hyksos invasion. The history of the Old Kingdom, however, was recapitulated in that of its successor, the Middle Kingdom, for a period of progress and prosperity was succeeded by political decentralization and civil war. Following the demise of the Twelfth Dynasty, the Nile valley was fragmented into petty states, all warring on each other. Internal disunity was the occasion for foreign invasion. About 1780 B.C. an Asiatic people whom the Egyptians called Hyksos, possessing a superior army equipped with horses and chariots, swept down on Egypt, thoroughly conquered the region of the delta, and gradually extended their power over most of Upper Egypt. For two centuries, until 1580 B.C., these aliens lorded it over the Egyptians, treating them with terrible cruelty and taking much wealth from the Nile valley. Under such circumstances the Egyptians, who heretofore had been a peace-loving people, became imbued with strong nationalistic feeling and hatred of their oppressors. On all sides nationalistic rebellion broke out against the hated Hyksos, who had settled down and adopted Egyptian customs, even to the title of pharaoh.

The Empire period. The struggle against the foreign Hyksos was bitter, but finally a complete victory was achieved at Thebes by the princes of the south, who drove out the alien dynasty. Aahmes 0£ Thebes was the liberator and great national hero who gained independence £or his people. His reign (1580-1557 B.C.) marks the beginning of the third and last magnificent period in ancient Egyptian history, that of the Empire. The rulers of Egypt believed that to make their country secure from Joreign invasion it was essential for them to control Palestine, Syria, and Phoenicia. In addition it was imperative for the pharaohs to maintain a fleet which could control the waters of the eastern Mediterranean. In order to protect themselves, the Egyptians therefore embarked on a policy of imperialism, its object being to control the routes utilized by the invaders.

The new dynasty,.the Eighteenth, founded by Aahmes, successfully carried out the policy of conquering strategic areas adjacent to Egypt. The greatest pharaoh of the period was Thutmosis III (1479-1447 B.C.) who is often called the Napoleon of Egypt. As a result of numerous campaigns, Thutmosis conquered Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine, and even far off Babylonia sent him gifts out of respect for his power. The relationships between Egypt and these areas become clear later in the chapter. There is good reason to believe that Thutmosis also brought Nubia under his sway and compelled Cyprus and the cities of Crete to become his allies.

During Egypt's greatest glory under the pharaohs of the Eighteenth Dynasty, her civilization and political power reached their zenith. Law and order again prevailed along the valley of the Nile, trade flourished, and vast wealth in the form of tribute or booty flowed into Egypt as a result of military conquest. Thebes, the imperial capital of the pharaohs, became the most magnificent and richest city in the world. Great temples, beautiful gardens, and imposing mansions for the nobility made Thebes the most beautiful capital of its day.

Under Amenhotep III (1411-1375 B.C.) the empire reached its height. However, in his reign signs of decline were apparent. Religious controversy and pressure from without on the part of aggressive enemies resulted in the loss of most of the territories outside of Egypt. To the period of decline, in the last days of the Eighteenth Dynasty, belongs the weak emperor Tutankhamen, who has received an undeserved immortality and fame resulting from the discovery in 1922 of his remarkable tomb.

Ramses II (1198-1167 B.C.) of the Nineteenth Dynasty, pharaoh of Hebrew oppression, tried to restore the glory of the empire and had partial success. Egyptian power was reestablished in southern Syria and Palestine, great monuments were erected along the Nile, and the empire superficially seemed prosperous and secure, It was Egypt's last demonstration of national greatness. The land of the pharaohs ceased to be a power in international affairs and became the puppet of a long line of conquerors from Cambyses, the Persian emperor in the sixth century B.C., to Lord Cromer, the British ruler of Egypt in the late nineteenth century.

Allover the Near East new peoples were rising to power (see page 55 ff.). The Hittite empire to the northeast was pressing hard, a coalition of Indo-European peoples from the north and west was invading Asia Minor, the Arameans were building up their domination of the trade routes in the Near East, the Hebrews were establishing themselves in Palestine, the Philistines had also created a powerful state in southern Palestine. and the Dorian Greeks had overwhelmed Aegean civilization in the Greek peninsula and in the islands of the Aegean Sea. This new alignment of unfriendly peoples spelled the end of Egyptian influence outside her own borders. Especially in Syria. The great emperor Ramses III (1198-1167) for a time staved off the collapse of the empire which had been created by the pharaohs of the Eighteenth Dynasty, but after his death the empire never regained its former brilliance.

Foreign domination. From 1100 to 671 B.C. Egypt was ruled by alien African kings who tried to re-create Egypt's past glories. Their feeble rule was displaced by the jarring shock of Assyrian invasion and overlord-ship from 670 to 662 B.C. During the Assyrian occupation much 0£ Egyptian wealth was confiscated by the invaders. After the £all of the Assyrian empire. national Egyptian independence was restored £or a time, but in 525 B.C. Cambyses, the Persian emperor, again conquered the valley of the Nile. After a cycle of national life which had been initiated with the union of Upper and Lower Egypt in 3400 B.C. and which had endured £or almost three thousand years, Egyptian political independence disappeared until the twentieth century. But although Egypt had lost her political independence and her relative importance declined, it would be unwise to speak of her "fall." Egypt on several later occasions reached an impressive level 0£ civilization in the hands of her conquerors, who shaped her people and institutions to suit their needs. We shall see that the famous world-conqueror Alexander the Great brought Egypt into contact with Greek thought and that his successors, the Ptolemies, made the city of Alexandria in Egypt the most outstanding center of scientific speculation in the world. Following the collapse of Greece and Rome, Egypt came under the rule of the Moslems, who created a flourishing Mohammedan civilization, centered at Cairo.

Life in Egypt, for the common man at least, went on in much the same fashion after the collapse of the pharaohs. The old distinctive Egyptian culture, especially the religion, persisted until the coming of the Romans. With the Roman legions eventually came a new religion, Christianity, which took root along the Nile and flourished until the seventh century A.D., when the Moslems overran the country. The Egyptian language had earlier given way to the Greek, and with the coming of the Moslems, Arabic became the official language. Following the Mohammedan conquest, the Egyptian began to think of himself as an Arab. He forgot most of his ancient traditions, accepted the Mohammedan religion, and participated in the art and literature of the Moslem east. Only among the lowly peasants did there lurk vestigial remnants of the glorious past. The village peasant, the fellah, retained many of the old ways and ancient traditions in his folklore, in quaint village customs, and in the veneration of the local deities. It is said that in the nineteenth century, when the first mummies of the long-buried pharaohs were transported down the Nile, the village women lined the river's banks and reverted to the ancient custom of wailing for their dead god and king.

Evolution of the territorial state. Ancient Egypt (as well as other contemporary civilizations in Mesopotamia, as we shall see) made one significant stride in government. This was the evolution from a primitive social system, consisting of miniature and multitudinous rival kinship groups, to a great state, encompassing all people in a given area regardless of kinship ties and exacting from all obedience and loyalty to one central government and its ruler.. In short, many clans were merged to constitute one nation. Egyptian villages, consisting of related families, were gradually united into territorial units called nomes, and finally these became united into one single kingdom. The development of the territorial state was the major contribution of Egypt and the other oriental countries to the political evolution of civilized man.

Egyptian government. The governmental system of the territorial state, as it finally evolved in Egypt during the Old Kingdom, was an extreme absolutism. All power resided in the ruler, who was called Pharaoh, meaning Great House. The powers exercised by modern totalitarian rulers look almost meager when compared with those of the ancient Egyptian despot. The pharaohs owned all the land; they decided when the crops should be sown, controlled the irrigation system; and exacted a share of the crops produced by the semi-servile laborers who toiled on the huge royal estates. With none to question his powers, which the Egyptians believed were sanctified by the gods, in regal splendor, surrounded by elaborate court etiquette, the pharaoh dictated every aspect of the life of his subjects. Egyptian government was theocratic, that is, the pharaoh combined both religious and political functions. He was both an earthly king and a god, the chief priest of the land and the spiritual symbol of the nation in all its important religious rites.

It is interesting to note that the ancient Egyptians had succeeded as early as the time of the Old Kingdom in creating a complex and efficient administrative system which alone made possible the centralized absolutism of the pharaoh. Directly responsible for the management of the state were three officials: a chief treasurer and two prime ministers called viziers. These officials presided over an army of subordinates made up of overseers, scribes, and policemen. The subordinates had no power of initiative and no choice but to carry out unquestioningly the orders which emanated from the palace of the pharaoh. By this time there evidently existed a law code. Scholars believe that it filled forty rolls of papyrus, but unfortunately no copies are now in existence. We have every reason to believe, however, that the people looked to their government for justice, as ancient papyri tell us that the vizier was a judge "judging justly, not showing partiality," and "not preferring the great above the humble."

Under the government of the pharaoh the people were at the mercy of their ruler. There was nothing approaching self-government; that was to be the great achievement of the Greeks. The Egyptian government, however, was paternal. Most pharaohs evidently endeavored to protect their subjects and advance their prosperity. An interesting papyrus roll from the time of the empire gives us the words of a pharaoh installing his vizier:

"Look to the office of the Vizier; be watchful over all that is done therein. Behold, it is the established support of the whole land. ...The Vizierate is not sweet; it is bitter. ...Behold it is not to show respect-of-persons to princes and councillors; it is not to make £or himself slaves of any people. ... Behold when a petitioner comes from Upper or Lower Egypt. ..see thou to it that everything is done in accordance with law, that everything is done according to the custom thereof, [giving] to [every man] his right."

Life and Work in Ancient Egypt

Home and social life. In the days of the Empire, Egypt proper, not including the subject peoples in Syria, had a population of about seven million. The great bulk of the people were semi-slaves who lived in squalid villages made up of little mud and thatch houses in which the only furniture was a few crude jars, boxes, and a stool. These people lived in constant dread of the royal tax collector. They were subject to forced labor work on the roads or tilling the royal fields, or worse, hauling huge stones for the pyramids. The- merchants and skilled craftsmen of the middle class had more comfortable and pretentious dwellings, and those of the nobility were palatial. Here furniture and draperies were luxurious, while extensive and beautiful gardens surrounded the house.

“This was the noble's paradise; here he spent his leisure hours with his family and friends, playing at draughts [checkers ], listening to the music of harp, pipe and lute, watching his women in the slow and stately dance of the time, while his children sported about among the trees, splashed in the pool, or played with ball, doll or jumping-jack."

Duck hunting for this Egyptian is a matter of decoying the ducks from his papyrus boat and hitting them with his boomerang, while his wife and daughters gather lotus blossoms. T o the right of the papyrus hedge the same man spears fish, steadied by his wife and daughter. The grown-ups wear thin, cool clothes, while the youngest wears none at all.

During the passing of more than two thousand years since the Pre-Dynastic period of primitive Egypt, substantial changes had taken place in the social grouping of the people. Among primitive people all individuals are, in general, members of the same social and economic class. There may be a small ruling clique, and at the bottom captured enemies may form a slave class, but the great bulk of people perform the same economic tasks, live in similar houses, and possess about the same worldly goods. But with civilization come gradations in society. Some men remain laborers, others become skilled artisans, and others become wealthy merchant princes. In Egypt, as elsewhere, the growth of population, the tendency toward specialized vocations, and the increase of wealth soon resulted in the creation of distinct classes in society. Three main social divisions can be distinguished: (1) the court nobility, royalty, "priests, and the landed aristocracy, (2) the middle class, composed of merchants and craftsmen, (3) the bulk of the population, who were servile laborers. Although such grouping existed in Egyptian society, it was not rigid. People of merit could elevate themselves into higher social ranks.

The clothing of the Egyptians was always sparse, as one would expect in a warm climate. At first a loin cloth sufficed, even for the upper classes, while the poorest often went naked. With the growth of wealth, however, which came during the Empire, clothes became more luxurious and less scanty. Both sexes liked to adorn themselves with rings, chains, and earrings, and the women used cosmetics.

An Egyptian princess is having her hair set in tight curls. In one hand she holds a mirror, in the other a beverage. A servant is fixing her another .

Most men were content with one wife, though the richest nobles enjoyed the luxury of a harem. Family life, on the whole, seems to have been wholesome. Infanticide-out-right killing of unwanted children-was not practiced. Divorce was infrequent, and only when adultery was proved could a husband avoid giving his wife a share of his property.

The status of the Egyptian woman was exceptionally favorable. She was in every respect the equal of man. In fact many aspects of society were dominated by women. Sons inherited property through their mothers, and once a woman actually ruled as queen of the land. Even in courtship women often took the initiative. Many love poems coming down to us were written by women. The following is a good example of one of these love poems:

I am thy first sister,

And thou art to me as the garden

Which I have planted with flowers

And all sweet-smelling herbs.

I directed a canal into it,

That thou slightest dip thy hand into it

When the north wind blows cool

. . . . . . . .

It is intoxicating to me to hear thy voice,

And my life depends upon hearing thee.

Whenever I see thee

It is better to me than food or drink.

Economic life. Throughout Egyptian history agriculture has remained the basic economic activity. The centralized system of irrigation made possible enormous crops of wheat and barley; extensive vineyards, vegetable gardens, and herds of cattle were also maintained. Every year in July the Nile overflowed, and by November the soil was dry enough to permit cultivation. The ground was first broken with crude plows, and then cattle were used to tramp in the seed.

Industry began in the early days of the Old Kingdom and developed rapidly. Extensive copper mining was carried on in the Sinai peninsula, stone quarrying became highly organized to meet the demands of pyramid building, and huge quantities of sun-dried bricks were made. Cabinetmakers fashioned handsome furniture out of the famous cedars of Lebanon. Tanning became a specialized craft, the process of fusing copper and tin to make bronze became known, glass blowing and enameling were developed by skilled artisans, and weavers were highly proficient. Egyptian craftsmen exhibited a degree of technical efficiency that was seldom surpassed in western Europe until the Industrial Revolution. During the period of the Empire the products of the craftsmen were exceptionally fine. Beautifully glazed jars, delicate stone dishes, and exquisite brooches attest his skill.

During the Old Kingdom much commerce plied up and down the Nile, expeditions were sent southwest to the interior for ebony and ivory, and the pharaohs sent ships down the Red Sea. The Egyptians can claim to have developed the first sea-going ships for use on the Mediterranean. As early as 2750 B.C. Egyptian ships were sailing the eastern Mediterranean bound for Phoenicia, and by 2000 B.C. extensive trade relations existed with Crete. Egyptian commerce never developed so extensively as that of Syria and Mesopotamia; it was not until the invasion of the Hyksos that it became very important. Apparently the Hyksos were great traders, and their contact with the Egyptians was a strong stimulus to commerce. Trade reached its height during the Empire, when Egypt controlled the trade routes of the Near East.

Empire commerce was conducted along four main routes: (1) To expedite merchant voyages; a canal was constructed .which connected the Red Sea with the eastern part of the delta; (2) along the Nile numerous ships brought goods from the south; (3) a busy caravan route maintained contact with Mesopotamia and southern Syria; and (4) shipping from northern Syria, the mainland of Greece, Crete, and other islands came to a focus at the delta of the Nile. The main exports were wheat, linens, scarabs (charms), and gold wares. The most important Egyptian imports were ostrich feathers, metal weapons, spices, tapestries, woods, gold, and silver.

Commercial activity spread characteristics of Egyptian culture throughout the known world. The products of Egyptian craftsmen, for example, were used by the Cretan sea kings, and glazed pottery and jewelry from the Nile valley have been found on the mainland of Greece. Elements of Egyptian religion and certain basic art forms became known to the Aegean peoples through commercial contact and were later adopted by the Greeks. Egypt, of course, was in turn influenced by contact with the civilizations of western Asia.

Religion in Egypt. Egyptians were called by the Greeks the most religious of all men. And so they were, for religion saturated their viewpoint and influenced every aspect of society. "The kings of Egypt were gods; its pyramids were an 'act of faith'; its art was rooted in religious symbolism; its literature began as religious decoration of tombs, temples, and pyramids; its science centered in the temple; its gods were conceived to be in intimate touch with men and alive as men; a vast part of its wealth and energy was spent in the effort to secure the continuance of the physical life after death.

The great obsession of all people was to 'achieve immortality for their souls. In the days of the Old Kingdom, the lower classes felt aggrieved because they could not have their bodies mummified after death, as the pharaoh and the rich nobles did, nor could they obtain full funeral rites. These were serious handicaps in securing immortality. So strong was the desire for the afterlife that the common people agitated not for political but for religious equality. This was obtained in the Middle Kingdom, and henceforth all people could claim full funeral rites.

Osiris. Their all-pervading emphasis upon immortality was largely due to the influence of the god Osiris. He was the god of the Nile, and the rise and fall of the river symbolized his death and resurrection, which were celebrated each year .Then an .interesting myth developed. It was recounted that Osiris was murdered by Seth, his evil brother, who cut the victim's body into many pieces and scattered them over the land. Isis, the bereaved widow, collected all the remnants of the corpse. These were then put together, Osiris was resurrected, and became immortal. Finally Horus, the son of Osiris, avenged his father against Seth.

The Egyptians saw in the myth a way to escape death. Osiris was the first mummy. Only by the recovery of the many parts of his body had he achieved immortality. Every dead Egyptian, therefore, was regarded as a second Osiris. The way to give him immortality was to preserve the corpse. This was achieved by mummifying and placing the body in a tomb which would give it the maximum protection; As befitted the first man of the land, a pharaoh was given a massive tomb-fortress, a pyramid, to protect and preserve his body until judgment day.

If the soul came to Osiris cleansed, of sin, it would be permitted to live forever in the Happy Field of Food. At the time of soul testing, Osiris weighed the candidate's heart against the feather of truth. If the ordeal was not passed; a horrible creature devoured the rejected heart. The priesthood, which exercised a very strong influence in the Egyptian state, often to the detriment of the state, claimed that it alone knew clever methods of surviving the soul-testing. For a consideration, charms and rolls of papyrus containing magical prayers and formulas were sold to the living as insurance policies guaranteeing them a happy immortality after death. That it was a lucrative business is seen by the fact that some 2000 papyrus rolls containing such magical formulas have been taken from ancient tombs. They constitute collectively what is known as the Book of the Dead. Pictured below is a scene from one of these rolls.

Osiris sits in judgment as his dog-headed creature weighs the heart of a: princess against a feather. Isis stands behind the princess. The scene was inscribed on papyrus and buried with the mummy of the princess.

Characteristics of Egyptian religion. Egyptian religion for many hundreds of years had no strong ethical character. Immortality was not regarded as a reward for goodness while a person was alive. That idea, however, developed gradually until eternal life was regarded as a reward merited only by those who were just and good while alive. On the whole, while Egyptians never made any impressive advance in closely relating daily conduct and religion, yet it seems clear that they developed a conception of immortality and moral responsibility long before the peoples of other early civilizations. The myth of Osiris and Seth was an anticipation of the dualistic conception of a god of good and a god of evil which was later given such a strong emphasis by the Persians and others.

Religion was of paramount concern to the Egyptian people, and it was also extremely complex in character. It concerned the worship of many gods, such as Ra, the sun deity, Osiris, the god of water, Isis, the Great Mother, and many animal-headed gods. At first Ra was the most important, but with the rise of Thebes in political importance a place had to be found for its deity, Amun. The supreme god, therefore, became Amun-Ra. A famous pharaoh and reformer in the time of the Empire, Amenhotep IV, who adopted the name of Ikhnaton, tried unsuccessfully to supplant Amun-Ra and the confusing multiplicity of minor gods by substituting a religion based on one deity, a sun god called Aton. Amenhotep developed an advanced conception of one all-prevailing and kindly god (monotheism). This was given beautiful expression in his famous Hymn to the Sun. Amenhotep's efforts tragically failed, and in arousing religious factionalism among his subjects, he only weakened the Empire. Ancient Egypt retained its polytheism to the end

Literature, Science and Learning

Evolution of writing. One of the most important Egyptian contributions to civilization was the development of the art of writing, especially the introduction of an alphabet. The first step in writing was the use of picture-like signs to represent ideas. The next advance was to use the same signs to represent the sounds of the words expressing those ideas. Once the signs were identified with sounds, Some were conventionalized to represent the sounds of syllables, the stage called syllabic writing. With syllabic signs an indefinite number of words could now be written phonetically-with symbols representing their sounds.

About 3000 B.C. the Egyptians had reached the point of using special characters for certain vowels and consonants. They were actually on the verge of attaining a real alphabet. But there were too many symbols (about twenty for A, about thirty for H, and so on). They also continued to use their syllabic signs and ideographs (symbols £or ideas). Thus in several thousands of years they never succeeded in developing a purely alphabetic system of writing.

The ancient Egyptians had what we might call the first books. Libraries have been discovered dating from 2000 B.C., consisting of rolls of papyrus in earthen jars. Papyrus was the forerunner of paper. It was made by splitting the papyrus reed into strips and pasting these strips together to make long rolls of durable writing surface, much more practical than the heavy clay tablets used, as we shall see shortly, in Mesopotamia. Ink was prepared by mixing vegetable gum with lamp black.

The invention of writing represents one of the great milestones of human progress. Now man could accumulate knowledge, record it, and pass it on to his descendants. Writing also made possible the preservation of literature.

Literature. We can hardly speak of a literature in the days of the Old Kingdom because none has survived. The oldest inscriptions we have are the pyramid texts, which have been called the oldest chapter of human thought extant. They were mainly religious and are found on the walls of tombs and pyramids of the Fifth and Sixth dynasties. Their purpose was to assist the deceased to obtain immortality, and they consisted of a jumble of magical incantations, myths, and religious hymns.

During the Middle Kingdom, especially in the period of the Twelfth Dynasty, literature became much richer, more varied; and more secular. Many folk tales and collections of proverbs were now set down in writing. The period of the Twelfth Dynasty is called the classical age of Egyptian literature. One popular story told of the romantic adventures of a noble who wandered all over Syria but at last made his way back to his native land. Another story recounted the perils of a ship wrecked sailor, a narrative which is a prototype of Sindbad the Sailor. Other narratives of importance were the Tale of the Two Brothers, which has striking resemblances to the Biblical story of Joseph and his brethren; the Tale of the Eloquent Peasant; and A Dialogue between a Man Weary of Life and His Soul. The last work, poetical in form; is philosophical in tone and demonstrates profound thought. It is one of the most important of the Egyptian poems which have been preserved. Most of the literature was expressed in poetical language, though much of it was in prose form.

The most beautiful surviving piece of Egyptian literature is Ikhnaton's Hymn to the Sun. A few lines will suffice to give some idea of its poetic beauty and its conception of one all powerful and beneficent Creator and Heavenly Father .

Thy dawning is beautiful in the horizon of the sky,

O living Aton, beginning of life!

When thou risest in the eastern horizon,

Thou fillest every land with thy beauty.

Thou art beautiful, great, glittering, high

above every land,

Thy rays, they encompass the lands, even all

that thou hast made.

How manifold are thy works!

They are hidden from before us,

O sole god, whose powers no other possesseth.

Thou didst create the earth according to thy heart

While thou wast alone.

The calendar. We moderns accept our calendar as a commonplace detail of everyday life and do not realize that it is an indispensable tool of civilized existence. Like fire-making, knives, and pottery, the calendar had to be invented, a process taking several thousand years. In fact, the final step in the evolution of our present calendar took place as late as 1582 A.D. Neolithic man was the first to realize how essential a calendar was to fix the dates of his holy days and accurately ascertain the time for planting crops. He therefore devised a lunar calendar of twelve months, each twenty-nine and a half days in length, giving in all a year of 354 days. In order to harmonize his reckoning with the seasons, it was necessary from time to time to add a thirteenth month.

The Rosetta Stone, discovered in Egypt in 1799 by an officer in Napoleon's army, supplied the means by which Jean Champollion was able in 1822 to decipher Egyptian writing, thus founding the study known as Egyptology and laying open a whole new field of research. The stone is now in the British Museum, and contains a message inscribed in three different languages, as is shown by the section reproduced here. The lowest layer of writing is Greek, which Champollion could read. Working from the Greek he was able to figure out the other inscriptions. The middle layer is Egyptian demotic, or popular writing. The top layer is the more formal system of hieroglyphic writing .

After the lunar calendar, the next major step was the development of a calendar based on the solar year. The Egyptians developed a system of twelve months, each of thirty days, totaling 360 days in all, and at the end of each year they added five days. This calendar yeas was just six hours short of the solar year, which forged ahead of the calendar one day in every four years. It was, however, imperative for their agriculture that the Egyptians know accurately when the Nile was about to inundate, the land. Their need led to the discovery that when Sothis {our Sirius) rose with the sun, it signaled the rise of the Nile. The Egyptians clung to their not quite perfect solar year, letting it go its way but relying upon Sothis to guide their farming. Every 1460 years a Sothic Cycle was completed. During the Sothic Cycle there was often disparity between the time of the real seasons, represented by the rise of the Nile, and the official calendar. Every 1460 years, however, the cycle achieved perfect agreement with the calendar, the rise of the Nile, and the real solar year. The Egyptians realized that something was wrong but never corrected the difficulty. It was not until Julius Caesar added the Julian intercalary day every four years that the next major improvement in the calendar was achieved.

Science. In their learning the Egyptians were a practical rather than a speculative people. Philosophy was not their forte; learning had to serve practical needs. That was why the Egyptians-were the first people to develop a real science of mathematics. Precise measurements were needed to build the pyramids, and the constant obliteration of field boundaries by the inundations of the Nile necessitated frequent land measurement. To meet these needs the Egyptians learned to add and subtract. They also could multiply and divide by two and three. In surveying they utilized the rudiments of geometry, and they had some knowledge of algebraic equations. They developed, a primitive decimal system, but it was never perfected; twenty-seven signs, for example, were needed to write the number 999. They computed the area of a circle by giving it the value of 3.16. Though the Egyptians laid the foundations for the science of mathematics, they made little progress in the fields of physics, astronomy, and chemistry.

One of the great pyramids, tomb fortresses of the Egyptian pharaohs

The Hypostyle Hall of the Temple of Karnak, showing Clerestrory Windows (reconstruction)

Art and Architecture in Ancient Egypt

Architecture. Important as were the accomplishments of the Egyptians in government, religion, literature, and science, they cannot compare with their gains in art and architecture, which were the most distinctive elements in Egyptian civilization. The Egyptians have been called the greatest builders in history. As far back as we know them they were advanced engineers, able to build in stone. The problems of shelter, light, and circulation {entrance and exit) had been solved. The structure of their society called for no houses above the merest mud huts for the common population, and evidently the palaces were not built well enough to last. The preoccupation with life after death meant that the kings did not spend their energies building great palaces but concentrated on tombs to preserve their bodies eternally. Thus the two great types of architectural expression which have lasted and into which went the greatest effort were the tombs for the kings and the temples for the rich, priestly class. These temples also glorified the kings, who were themselves identified with religion.

As already noted, the pyramids were commanded by the pharaohs of the Old Kingdom. Today after four thousand years, many of these monuments still remain, scattered along the Nile south from the delta for a distance of fifty miles. At Gizeh the pyramid of Cheops, covering a base of thirteen acres, seems unbelievably huge. It was constructed of over two million limestone blocks, each averaging about two and a half tons, and is 481 feet high. It was built without mortar, and some of the stones were so perfectly fitted that a knife cannot be inserted in the joint. The pyramids are the best single expression of Egyptian civilization. In their quiet repose, dignity, and massiveness, they reflect the religion-saturated character of Egyptian society.

If the Old Kingdom achieved immortality through its pyramids, the power and the glory of the days of the Empire still live in the ruins of the pharaohs' temples at Thebes. Booty and tribute from conquest made Thebes, with its great temples and palaces a lavish capital city. Today little is left at Thebes except the temple ruins of Karnak. But that little is enough to attest to the magnitude of the Egyptian achievement in building.

Stone block statue of the Pharaoh Khafre

The builders of the temple at Karnak, like the early lake dwellers, employed the structural system which was to be used almost exclusively until the Roman period-the post and lintel construction. This system enabled the builders to span openings for windows and doors and to roof over spaces. The size of the window or door and the width of the roofed space were limited, of course, by the size of the stone slabs. Post and lintel construction demands heavy stone work and partly explains the massive appearance of the buildings. Columns were used throughout the interiors of buildings in order to provide supports £or roofing of larger areas. The temple of Karnak is an expression of the mystery of the Egyptian religion, just as the pyramids are an expression of the desire to hide the tombs for eternity. Many temple entrances were made mysterious and forbidding by heavy walls and small doorways, and the sanctuarywas placed at the end of a series of courts and halls.

The temple of Karnak contains a huge colonnaded, or hypostyle, hall, the largest ever built. The tallest columns are seventy feet high. The two central rows of columns are taller than the others and have a separate roof, allowing wall space above the lower roofs of the two side aisles. This space was pierced with windows called clerestory windows. The higher middle aisle and the clerestory windows were later used in the Roman basilica and the Gothic cathedral.

Sculpture. Egyptian sculpture, like Egyptian architecture, was simple and formal. The Egyptians' tools and their ability to use them were far superior to the technical equipment of the Stone Age artists. In sculpture, as in architecture, their work shows an advance in technical skill. Sculpture was used as decoration for entrances to tombs and temples, and line carving and low relief were used as wall decoration. The latter types of sculpture are almost two-dimensional in themselves and are therefore particularly adapted to a two-dimensional surface. Everyday subjects decorated the walls of the tombs, presumably to equip the dead with all that had surrounded them in life. The picture at the bottom of page 39 is an example of decorative line-carving illustrating an everyday scene.

In Egypt appears for the first time an advanced sculpture in the round. Statues which stand free from the wall on all sides naturally have to be designed in a three-dimensional manner, differing from reliefs, which are more nearly two-dimensional. The sculptors of the Old Kingdom had a great feeling for simplicity and conventionalized the bodies to conform to the blocks of stone. The seated figure of Khafre shows the shape of the stone from ;which it is carved. In these block statues the human figure is always shown, sitting or standing, looking squarely in front, which produces a certain rigidity. But when it is remembered that the statues were used in connection with a massive architectural setting, this rigidity is highly fitting.

Many statues were colossi, such as the Sphinx, which shows clearly that it was built up of blocks of stone. This immense statue conveys a remarkable impression of the dignity and power of the pharaoh. Many carved figures were religious symbols, strange combinations of men and birds and animals. The Sphinx: has the body of a lion and the head of Pharaoh Khafre.

Portrait of Pharaoh Ramses II

One of the most significant developments in the Empire period was the personalization of statuary. Sculptors were trying to get away from the abstract and symbolic, which had dominated their work in the Old Kingdom. In so doing they became excellent portraitists, but sculpture lost the fine architectural use of earlier days. The figure of Ramses II is a typical piece of Egyptian realism. Notice the greater individuality of the features as compared with the more abstract portrait of Khafre. Ramses is a person while Khafre is more a symbol of imperial power and dignity. Sculptors of Ikhnaton's time sometimes used limestone, which was a softer stone than the diorite of the Khafre statue or the quartzite of the Ramses head, and therefore allowed greater freedom for realistic treatment. Ikhnaton and his queen Nefretete are known to us through such true-to-life portraits.

Painting. Painting in Egypt was used to decorate the walls of tombs and palaces and in this use had to bow to certain restrictions in composition. The artist was confronted with a wall space to be decorated, and he immediately encountered certain external limitations. Examples of these are the size of the wall, the distance from which it was to be seen, and the incorporation into the design of architectural features such as doors and windows and columns. In Egyptian painting many figures are grouped in a conscious design. Although the Egyptians were interested in subject matter, it was often distorted if this distortion would make the pattern on the wall more decorative. As in sculpture, there were two types of subject matter. The religious, as seen in the illustration below, is symbolic and conventionalized. It shows the conventions used in all Egyptian painting. The most distinctive and decorative view in silhouette of each section of the body was chosen for depiction. Thus we see the profile of the face, the full view of the shoulders, the profile of the rest of the body, and the full view of the eye. There was no attempt to show objects receding in perspective, but sometimes it was shown that one object was behind another by overlapping objects in a series, or by putting one object above another. As painting was used as a mural decoration, these particular conventions of perspective and flat treatment were very successful. The ruler or god was shown as larger than the other figures to emphasize his importance. These religious pictures with their many symbols may seem lifeless and uninteresting, since they are hard to understand without a complete knowledge of the meaning of the symbols. From a purely decorative point of view, however: they can certainly be enjoyed today. Certain colors were generally used in all these paintings rich reds and yellows made from the earth pigments, and blank and green-blue for contrast.

,

A Theban wall painting shows the ceremonial farewell to the dead, as the bodies are about to be laid away. The painting (about 7385-7370 BC) decorated the tomb of two Egyptian sculptors.

Egyptian Dancing Girls (wall painting) An Egyptian collar of beads

More appealing perhaps to our eyes are the murals which depict everyday scenes. The painting of the dancers, although still following the conventions, is completely human and understandable, even in the twentieth century.

Throughout the ancient world (Egypt, Crete, and Greece) different types of binding materials were mixed with paint. To ensure that pigment will stay attached to a surface it must be mixed with a material such as wax, gum, or egg. These mixtures produce surface paintings which do not withstand all weather conditions. Fresco, on the other hand, is permanent when properly done: The painting is executed on wet plaster, and a chemical reaction makes it part of the wall. But it is not definitely known that wet-plaster fresco was used before the time of Rome.

Minor arts. In the minor arts the Egyptians exhibited the same decorative sense. Jewelry was made of gold, semiprecious stones, and beads. The collar below is simple but very decorative. Egyptian gold jewelry reveals the wealth of priests and pharaohs. The Egyptians also made beautiful glass and pottery vessels.

The Land of the Furtile Crescent

Location of the Fertile Crescent. During the three thousand years and more when the Egyptians were building pyramids, perfecting writing and the calendar, and developing commerce, equally important advances in civilization were being made in an area not far removed from the land of the pharaohs, a belt of territory now called the Fertile Crescent. Bounding the great Arabian desert on the north, east, and west, this narrow band of fertile land starts at the Persian Gulf and extends to the north, skirting the desert through Babylonia and Mesopotamia, then turns west and bows south through Syria and Palestine along the Mediterranean to the desert of Sinai on the borders of Egypt.

Mountains and high plateaus serve as boundaries of the Fertile Crescent on the north and east. In this elevated region lived restless Indo-European peoples who persistently pushed their way into the inviting narrow crescent of fertile land. Within the arc of the crescent were another people. desert nomads called Semites, mainly Arabs and Hebrews, who, driven by hunger and a desire for easier living, were continually fighting their way into the Fertile Crescent. Unlike Egypt, which was protected by the natural barriers of desert on the east and west, the Nile's cataracts to .the south, and the sea to the north, and hence suffered few invasions and interruptions to the continuity of her civilization, the Fertile Crescent was the scene of constant warfare. This took the form of continual struggle between the Indo-European hill folk and the Semitic desert people for control of the fertile land belt that edged the desert. Although at times promising civilizations were cut short by the shock of war, this was perhaps more than amply compensated for by the stimulating effects of the culture impacts of the movements and transplantations of peoples. Despite much warfare, therefore, the achievements in civilization made by the inhabitants of the Fertile Crescent do not suffer in comparison with those made along the Nile. The rise and fall of numerous nations, however, make the history of the Fertile Crescent rather complex. In order to simplify the story, the development of civilization in the Fertile Crescent may be divided into the following periods:

Old Babylonia, the second cradle of western civilization (4000-1750 B.C.)

The Age of Transition and the Era of Small Nations (175°-7°0 B.C.)

The period of Assyrian dominance (700-600 B.C.)

New Babylonia, the empire of the Chaldeans (600-539 B.C.)

The Persian empire (539-333 B.C,)

Old Babylonia: The Second Cradle of Western Civilization

The plain of Shinar. The first great civilization in the Fertile Crescent, like that of Egypt, was fluvial. It had its origin in a rich plain which extended about one hundred seventy miles north of the Persian Gulf between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. These two rivers rise in the mountains of eastern Asia Minor and flow southeast in a roughly parallel direction. Just less than two -hundred miles from the gulf, they ,emerge from the desert, approach each other very closely, and flow through a flat valley of alluvial soil that was brought down from the north and deposited by the rivers. This plain was early called Shinar, and later it came to be known as Babylonia. Although the term Mesopotamia was originally used to refer only to the land between the two rivers north of Shinar, today it includes all the territory between the rivers from Asia Minor to the Persian Gulf. Since 1918 the latter area, with its capital at Bagdad, has been known as Iraq.

It was no accident that civilization should appear early in the plain of Shinar. There the soil was very rich, the summers warm, and the winters mild. There was little rainfall, but, as in Egypt, there was an annual flood of the rivers. Dependence upon flood water led, as along the Nile, to the development of irrigation. which in turn encouraged cooperation between the various groups of people living in the valley.

Early Sumerian culture. The people in western Asia who first inaugurated a civilization superior to the Neolithic stage were the Sumerians. Details of their racial origin are meager, but they probably migrated from hilly country to the northeast into the plain of Shinar sometime before 4000 B..C. Overwhelming the Semitic inhabitants they found there, the Sumerians began to reclaim the marshes, build irrigation projects, and develop a settled community life. By 3500 B.C. they had achieved an advanced civilization with flourishing cities, well-organized city-state government, the use of metal, and the perfection of a system of writing called cuneiform. The latter, like the Egyptian system, started with a pictographic stage and by 4000 B.C. had evolved into a phonetic scheme of writing, in which each of 350 signs represented a complete word or a syllable, In writing, the Sumerians used a square-tipped reed to make impressions in soft clay tablets. The impressions took on a characteristic wedge shape; hence the term cuneiform (Latin cunus, wedge). Many other people, such as the Hittites, the Babylonians, and Persians, adapted this same system of writing to their own languages, and cuneiform continued in use until the Phoenician alphabet superseded it just before the time of the birth of Christ.

The southern portion of Shinar, which now became known as Sumer, saw the development of several independent Sumerian city-states, each of which was under a ruler who served as the war leader, the supervisor of the irrigation system, and the high priest. No strong centralized government was evolved by the Sumerians, and their history is mainly a chronicle of continual fighting between Ur and rival cities. The most prosperous period of the diminutive city-kingdoms was from 2900 to 2500 B.C. Ur was the earliest city to obtain the leadership of Summer, and its first ruler, Mesannipadda, is one of the earliest-known kings in western Asia. The inability of the Sumerians to unite proved their undoing, for in the twenty-sixth century B.C. Semitic people from Akkad, on the plain of Shinar, invaded Summer and became masters of the entire plain.

Advent of the Akkadians. For two hundred years, from 2500 to 2300 B.C., the Semitic: Akkadians ruled over an empire which extended froro the Persian Gulf far up into Mesopotamia. Its founder was the great warrior Sargon, whose conquests made a profound impression on the peoples of the Near East. Although the Sumerian cities were subjugated, their culture was not destroyed. The hardy but primitive Semites led by Sargon readily adopted Sumerian writing, for they had none of their own, accepted the Sumerian calendar, and borrowed the business methods and city habits of their late adversaries. In short, there was a general mingling of peoples and cultures.

Renewal of Sumerian supremacy. The absence of the rigors of nomadic life on the desert and the new-found luxuries of sedentary life in the Sumerian cities weakened the descendents of Sargon and his fellow conquerors and ended the first Semitic empire after barely two centuries of existence. In its place again rose the old Sumerian cities. The city of Ur about 2300 B.C. successfully imposed its rule over the entire plain of Shinar, and its ruler called himself the King of Summer and Akkad. Its supremacy, however, was short lived, ending after a century. The rule of Ur was followed by even shorter periods of dominance by other Sumerian cities.

Hamrriurabi's second Semitic empire. Just before the end of the third millennium, two streams of invaders completely crushed the old Sumero-Akkadian power. The Semitic Amorites from Syria, under the leadership of their capable king Hammurabi ,(1948-1905 BC), finally brought all Sumer and Akkad under one rule. They even extended their sway to Assyria, a region in the northeast corner of the Fertile Crescent. Babylon, heretofore an obscure village on the Euphrates, was made their capital and became So important that the plain of Shinar was known from then on as Babylonia. After the founding of the second Semitic empire the Sumerians never again figured politically in history. Their civilization, however, persisted as the foundation for all subsequent civilizations in Syria and the Tigris-Euphrates valley.

Sumerian cities. The Sumerians were city dwellers and lived in small cities situated on artificial mounds around which were erected walls for defense purposes. Within were the dwellings of the inhabitants, constructed of sun-baked bricks. Houses were usually rectangular in shape, and each had a court on its north side. In the middle of every town, constituting the center of its activities and its most sacred and important edifice, was the temple.

Economic and social life. Agriculture was the basic economic activity. Outside the Sumerian towns extended well-tilled fields, whose fertile soil was skillfully watered by irrigation ditches. We have the word of Herodotus that "the whole land of Babylonia is, like Egypt, cut up by canals." Barley, oats, and dates were produced in huge quantities, and domesticated cattle and goats made possible a flourishing dairy industry. The use of the plow was common, and here the first sowing machine was invented. Wheeled carts and chariots were in use. The Sumerians are given credit £or introducing wheeled vehicles. The use of the wheel facilitated transportation enormously. Heretofore it had been necessary to carry things or drag them, which limited the size of the load. The Egyptians used the wheel but probably borrowed it from their Fertile Crescent neighbors.

Although industry lagged behind agriculture, there were numerous distinct crafts, with skilled artisans and their apprentices turning out beautiful metalwork and exquisite textile goods. Raw materials for manufacturing were obtained from the north, made into finished products, and then exported to pay for imported wares. Active trade was carried on by the Sumerians over a wide area. Caravans journeyed north and west via the Fertile Crescent to the eastern Mediterranean and Egypt. Contact between Egypt and Summer explains the similarity of several items of their culture. Both used the pear-shaped war mace and balanced animal figures in decorative art. Reliable evidence has recently been found indicating Sumerian trade connections with India. The Sumerians were, above all, a practical business people: Credits and loans were carefully regulated; a mass of contractual business records has survived.

Social organization followed the same general pattern as that in Egypt. There was a close connection between government and religion. Rulers were considered divine and absolute. Social gradations based on wealth were the rule, as in Egypt, but in Summer the lines between classes were drawn more rigidly, and the principle of social inequality was enshrined in law.

Architecture and art. The monuments and sculptures of Egypt have resisted the ravages of time surprisingly well, but not so in Summer. An absence of stone there forced builders and architects to use sun dried bricks. Before fierce sandstorms and destructive floods the Sumerian cities, common dwellings and temples alike. soon disintegrated into shapeless mounds of refuse.

But the artistic and architectural achievements of Summer have not been lost entirely. For a century archaeologists have been burrowing into many such mounds and have exposed the delineaments of temples and recovered priceless art objects. We know, £or example, that one royal palace (3500 B.G.) was constructed on an elaborate plan, that it utilized great stairs, and that its walls were decorated with human and animal figures. We know that the Sumerians were familiar with the arch, vault, and dome. The lack of large stones meant that the post and lintel construction characteristically used in Egypt was impossible in Sumeria. Solid brick walls with roofs presumably of wood were the general rule. Although these builders experimented with the arch and vault, such devices were not used on a large scale until the time of the Romans.

The most important buildings of the Sumerians were the temple towers, or ziggurats. Every town had such an edifice, dedicated to its patron deity. The typical ziggurat consisted of several stories, or levels, each stepped back and smaller than its predecessor. On one side was a great triple stairway, like a ramp, converging upon the entrance into the shrine of the god. Each story was given a different symbolic color. One might be black to represent the underworld, another red to indicate this world, and a third blue to symbolize the sky and the heavens. Profuse use was made of trees and gardens on the stepped-back terraces. Rising high above the flat valley floor, the vari-colored temples with their rows of terraced verdure shimmering under the brilliant sun must have presented a spectacle of great beauty.

A signature seal and its impression, showing a Sumerian ruler in audience with his local god. Seated on his throne, a dragon snake springing from each shoulder, the bearded god gestures impressively, while behind the ruler his protective goddess raises her hands to intercede. The sun and moon are symbols which guided the ruler's destiny.

Sumerian harp with gold bulls head

The Egyptians, on the whole, surpassed the Sumerians in art. Scarcity of stone was a serious handicap to Sumerian sculpture. As a result, portrait sculpture never attained the excellence achieved by the Egyptians during the Old Kingdom. Generally speaking, Sumerian sculpture consisted of relief’s used for decorative and narrative purposes and small figures, or figurines. Strong, muscular people were typical subjects of Sumerian sculpture. The figures were squat and heavy and their features were depicted simply. Figurines of animals were, however, more skillfully executed.

Heraldic devices originated with the Sumerians. Ultimately such symbolic devices became widely copied by rulers and governments for their insignias and coats of arms. Our American eagle, for example, is an adaptation of the Sumerian eagle of five thousand years ago.

Perhaps the most delicate artistic work of the Sumerians was their seal cutting and metal work. Small seals of cylindrical stone were carved in low relief in ornamental pictorial designs of great beauty involving infinite patience and expert technique. Every important citizen had his seal, which he constantly used to "sign" letters and documents written on clay tablets. The seal shown in the picture above belonged to a wealthy Sumerian, possibly a ruler of one of the cities. The interesting wedge-shaped relief patterns on the clay impression are cuneiform characters in reverse, having been impressed on the seal itself in the usual manner. Metal ornaments, vessels, and weapons found when the royal tombs at Ur were uncovered show a high degree of artistic ability; The harp with the golden bull's head shows Sumerian skill in handling the medium of gold. The mosaics decorating its base are patterned of shell and lapis lazuli, and the bull has a delicate beard of lapis lazuli.

Religion. Religion occupied almost as important a place in Sumerian life as it did in Egyptian. But there were significant differences. The Sumerians were little concerned with the future life. They had no conception of heaven or hell and placed little emphasis upon the ethical aspects of human behavior. Religion was for them primarily an instrument to guide and control man's activities on earth, a belie£ in keeping with the practical nature of the Sumerian people. Each Sumerian city had its favorite god.

Literature. The literature of the Sumerians, and that of the later Babylonians and Assyrians, which was based upon it, was largely religious in origin and content. Two great epics are outstanding, one relating the story of creation and the other the story of the flood. Their legends are also notable: the stories of Etana, the shepherd who searched the heavens for the herb which was the source of life; of the fisherman Adapa, the first man, Who like Adam lost the treasure of immortal life; and of Tammuz, who came back from the lower world.

Sumerian literature is more significant than that of Egypt, for it included the first great historical and mythological epics. The two Sumerian epics of the flood and the creation are similar to the later Hebrew stories of those events, as found in the Old Testament. The flood epic was adopted by the later Semitic Babylonians and incorporated in the longest and most beautiful of their epics, Gilgamesh. In it are recounted the adventures of Gilgamesh, a Sumerian Ulysses Who sought to gain immortal life but failed and who heard the story of the flood from the Noah of Babylon, Ut-napishtim. The remarkable resemblances between the Babylonian epic and the later flood story as found in Genesis can be seen in the following lines from Gilgamesh.

What I had, I loaded thereon, the whole harvest of life

I caused to embark within the vessel; all my family and relations,

The beasts of the field, the cattle of the field,

the craftsmen, I made them all embark.

I entered the vessel and closed the door. ...

I sent forth a dove, I released it;

It went, the dove, it came back,

As there was no place it came back. ...

I gent forth a crow, I released it;

It went, the crow, and beheld the subsidence of the waters;

It eats, it splashes about, it claws, it comes not back.

Other Sumerian contributions. The Sumerians made numerous other contributions to civilization. They invented certain techniques of warfare. The military phalanx, in its elementary form, was probably their invention. In mathematics they made important progress. They originated a number system based upon the unit 60, which today is the basis for dividing a circle into 360 degrees

(60 x 6) and an hour into 60 minutes. They devised geometric formulas to compute the areas of triangles and irregular four-sided figures and also formulated the earliest known cubic equation. Additional gifts to civilization were the beginnings of city-state government and the foundations of business organization. Summer also furnishes the earliest documents relating to international law, the most ancient international compacts, and the earliest known example of an attempt to settle a dispute by arbitration instead of going to war over it.

Sumerian .shortcomings. Notwithstanding such important contributions, Sumerian civilization exhibited certain ills which were generally characteristic of all civilizations in the Ancient Near East. A large proportion of the population were slaves, government was despotic, and men suffered from the tyranny of a priesthood which forced complete acceptance of traditional ideas .and gave little opportunity for intellectual freedom. .

Semitic culture. In the land of Sumer and Akkad the Sumerians did not enjoy a monopoly of significant contributions. The rude Semitic tribes from the desert and from far-off Syria which invaded Shinar simply copied Sumerian culture at the outset, but soon they were making contributions of their own. Sargon's empire was progressive, but the second period of Semite dominance was especially rich in original contributions. We have already seen that Semitic people named Amorites established themselves in Summer and Akkad about 2050 B;C. making Babylon their capital, and that Hammurabi, the sixth king of his line, subjugated the entire plain. So important did the new capital become that we usually lump together all the various peoples who figure in the history of the plain from the earliest time to about 1750 B.C. Sumerians, Amorites, and all others - and refer to them as Babylonians and the period as Old Babylonia.

Hammurabi was one of the greatest rulers of the ancient world. We are fortunate to possess fifty-five of his letters, which give a vivid picture of the Babylon of his day and reveal how the king's eagle eye supervised every phase of governmental activity. In these ancient burnt clay tablets we can see Hammurabi sending orders to his subordinates in the local districts, checking delinquent taxes, and ordering the dredging of the Euphrates and the canals.

Hammurabi receives his code from the sun god in the scene which heads the monument on which the code is carved.

Hammurabi's code. Valuable as his letters are, Hammurabi's law code is infinitely more important. It is the oldest code in existence. It is written in cuneiform on a black diorite monument nearly eight feet high. The code of Hammurabi is notable for the harshness of its punishments, which invoke the lex talionis principle, "an eye for an eye." For example it stipulated: "If a man destroy the eye of another man, they shall destroy his eye." Implicit obedience of their father was demanded from children, for we read: "If a son strike his father, they shall cut off his fingers." Medical quacks and corrupt building contractors were punished also: "If a physician operate on a man for a severe wound with a bronze lancet and cause the man's death; or open an abscess (in the eye) of a man. ..and destroy the man's eye, they shall cut off his fingers." And again: "If a builder build a house for a man and do not make its construction firm, and the house which he has built collapse and cause the death of the owner of the house, that builder shall be put to death:” But while punishments were stern, on the whole, the code attempted to secure a crude form of justice. Punishments were graded in their severity so that the higher the culprit in the social scale, the more severe the penalty. The status of women was fairly high, but in the main the code was designed for a man's world. The following clause refers to an erring wife: "If she has not been economical, but a gadder-about, has neglected her house and belittled her husband, they shall throw that woman into the street." The code shows that punishment for offenses was no longer in private hands by recourse to the blood feud between families but that justice had become a function of the state.

Achievements under Hammurabi. The age of Hammurabi, when compared to the Sumerian period, is not especially notable for advances in civilization. It is particularly lacking in art. During the first Semitic period, under Sargon, there had been some artistic advance, especially in sculpture. But during the age of Hammurabi seal cutting and sculpture declined. .

The Semites of Old Babylonia made their mark in law and government. They also adapted the old Sumerian legends into such great epics as Gilgamesh. Of very great significance was the development of business procedures during the age of Hammurabi. During his time wills, promissory notes, and all kinds of witnessed and sealed documents were being used. Here was the invention of what we now call commercial paper. It was not until about 1500 A.D, with the rise of modern capitalism, that western Europe utilized a more advanced variety of contractual instruments in business.

The Age of Transition and the Era of Small Nations

Eclipse of civilization in Babylonia. The empire of Hammurabi was of short duration. Soon after his death hostile mountaineers from the east invaded the plain of Shinar. By 1750 B.C. they had become its masters and remained so for six hundred years. The Old Babylonian civilization described in the previous section, so brilliantly inaugurated by the Sumerians and carried forward by the Semites under Hammurabi and his house, went into an eclipse from which it did not emerge for more than a thousand years.

The Hittite empire. The center of emphasis now shifts to the lands of the Near East bordering the Mediterranean-to Asia Minor, Syria, and Palestine. During the Hyksos domination in Egypt (1788-1580 B.C.), a powerful new empire arose in the north central part of Asia Minor. The Hittites, who inhabited this area, rapidly extended their influence after 2000 B.C. and reached their height of power about 1500 B.C., when they controlled much of Asia Minor and Syria. The rapid expansion of the Hittites down the western band of the Fertile Crescent aroused the fear of the Egyptians, and a long and desperate struggle ensued between the two powers. This so weakened the antagonists that the Hittite empire fell apart about 1200 B.C., and Egyptian power collapsed in the following century.

We may note in passing that during this period of turmoil and transition the Aegean world was also in confusion. As we shall see in our discussion of Greece, during the period from 2000 to 1400 B.C. a highly cultivated civilization had developed in the eastern Mediterranean with its center at Cnossus on the island of Crete. But shortly after the beginning of the second millennium, streams of northern invaders-Indo-European tribes whom we now call Greeks-invaded the Aegean world and by 400 B.C. had destroyed Aegean culture. Another such Indo-European attack overwhelmed the Hittite empire.

What part did the Hittites play in the history of civilization? Until a few years ago they were a people of mystery, neglected by most historians. Recent discoveries, however, are demonstrating that such neglect was hardly justified. Imposing ruins of a once-great city have been uncovered in modern Turkey together with over 20,000 clay tablets. Hittite civilization was not equal to that in Babylonia or Egypt. The Hittite empire was a group of semi-independent clans acknowledging one king rather than a strongly organized and autocratic state. But it had considerable influence on contemporary civilizations. Its use of guardian lions and sculptured relief’s in architecture was copied by the Assyrians, and it influenced the diffusion of the art of writing. Babylonian clay tablets probably came to Crete through the Hittites. Most important is the fact that they were among the earliest people to work Iron, and through them that metal was distributed throughout the Near East.

An era of small nations. Following the collapse of the Hittites about 1200 B.C., the peoples of the Fertile Crescent were without a master power. Egypt was weak, Babylonia was impotent, and Assyria was just beginning to be powerful. The Near East as yet did not need to £ear the Greeks, since from about 1200 to 800 B.C. the newcomers in the Aegean world were experiencing the "middle ages" of their history, a period of little advance in civilization or power. For nearly five hundred years a number of small states flourished in the Fertile Crescent. Many individual cultures had an opportunity to develop, because no one state could impose uniformity.

As we have seen, Babylonia was subject to constant infiltration of Semitic peoples from the adjacent desert. Similarly, droves of nomadic Semites had pushed west into Syria-Palestine, the narrow band of land fronting the eastern Mediterranean. Most important of these peoples were the Phoenicians, the Arameans, and the Hebrews. The country in which they settled was a narrow avenue of land four hundred miles long and from eighty to a hundred miles wide. It was admirably located for trade. In north Syria were splendid harbors. But Syria-Palestine was not fitted to support the rise of a great power; its natural resources and its area were too limited. It has always been the prey of strong powers, and only the absence of such powers in the period from 1200 to 700 explains why small independent monarchies were permitted to develop there and make a brief bid for historical fame.

The Lydians. The most powerful state to arise in Asia Minor following the end of the Hittite empire was Lydia. Under their king Croesus the Lydians reached the height of their power in the early sixth century B.C. The wealth derived from valuable gold-bearing streams and prosperous commerce made Lydia the envy of its neighbors, and even today the phrase "rich as Croesus" is a reminder of Lydian opulence. As early as the ninth century B.C. Lydia originated coined money, a most important invention. Unlike the several small states in Syria, such as those of the Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Aiameans, Lydia was able to maintain its independence against the Assyrians but finally fell a victim to the Persian army in the sixth century B.C.

The Phoenicians. Little is known of the early history of the Phoenicians. It is believed that this Semitic people entered the western band of the Fertile Crescent during the third millennium B.C. They founded a number of coastal settlements, the mountain ranges protecting them from attack on the land side. Their cities were all seaports, the most important being Tyre and Sidon. The Phoenicians were successively conquered by Sargon and Hammurabi, and about 1600 B.C. the Egyptian pharaoh brought them under his influence. For another £our hundred years they remained under foreign rule until about 1200 BC, when the decline of Crete, of the Hittite empire, and of Egyptian power gave them an opportunity to play an independent role. In a remarkably short period they became the greatest traders, navigators, and colonizers before the Greeks and were rivals of the, Greeks for many years. Their settlements could be found in the Mediterranean area, of which the greatest colony was Carthage. Passing though the Strait of Gibraltar, intrepid Phoenician sailors founded a settlement on the Atlantic coast of Spain and even ventured down the west coast of Africa.

The Phoenicians were skilled manufacturers. Their purple dye became famous, and their textiles, metal goods, and glassware had a wide market. They learned most of their industrial skill from Egypt. As the preeminent middlemen and great international traders of their age they acted as the intermediaries between the west and the east. These Phoenician traders brought to the Greeks a desire for the luxuries of the Near East, as well as some knowledge of oriental art.

There was little originality in Phoenician civilization, except perhaps for their skill in navigation and their business methods. The Phoenicians were not creative. They have left behind no literature, and their art is negligible. Yet as imitators they made their most important contribution, the perfection of the alphabet. The origin of the alphabet is still a moot question. Perhaps between 1800 and 1600 B.C. certain western Semitic peoples, influenced by the Egyptian semi-alphabetic writing, started to evolve a simplified method of writing. The Phoenicians, seeing the value of this, carried on the experiment and developed a system made up of individual consonants. Their alphabet consisted of twenty-two consonant signs (the vowel signs were later introduced by the Greeks). The Phoenicians arranged their signs in a definite order, their first two symbols being aleph and beth. Our word alphabet reminds us that the Phoenicians are primarily responsible for alphabetic writing.

The Phoenicians never became a politically united people. They were evidently not interested in conquest or fighting. Rather they influenced the advance of civilization through peace, colonization, and trade.

The Arameans. Another Semitic people, similar to the Phoenicians, were the Arameans. Entering the fertile region around Damascus during the latter half of the second millennium B.C., the Arameans established a group of prosperous little kingdoms, the most important of which was Damascus. Situated at the head of the caravan route to Babylonia, the Arameans served the caravans just as the Phoenician harbors served Mediterranean shipping. The Arameans have therefore been called the" Phoenicians of inner Asia. For several hundred years the Aramean cities acted as a buffer against Assyrian expansion into Syria and Palestine, enabling the Hebrew kingdoms to enjoy national independence much longer than would otherwise have been possible. In 732 B.C., however, the Arameans fell before the might of Assyria, just as the Phoenicians had lost their independence to the same power a century earlier, in 854 B.C.

Political domination by the Assyrians, however, did riot terminate the influence of the Arameans. Energetic Aramean merchants still took their trade caravans allover western Asia. They were excellent scribes and businessmen and often found employment in Babylonia, Assyria, and Persia. The Arameans, realizing the advantages of the Phoenician alphabet, used it in preference to the Babylonian cuneiform. Aramean merchants in their caravans carried bills and receipts in the simplified writing all over the Fertile Crescent. The alphabet was thus widely diffused and rapidly displaced the use of cuneiform. Its use then spread to Babylonia, Persia, Assyria, and even to India.

In the centuries just before the time of Christ, Aramaic became the general language of the entire Fertile Crescent. It even displaced Hebrew in Palestine. On this point M. I. Rostovtzeff says: "It is still a puzzle how they were able to drive out of general use the Babylonian language and cuneiform writing, which had been to some extent international in the second millennium, and to have their own speech and character accepted instead." Whatever the reason, the Arameans serve as an early example of trade as a carrier of civilization, a frequent phenomenon in history.

The Hebrews. Accompanying the Arameans into the Fertile Crescent was another Semitic people who are called Hebrews, Israelites, or Jews. Racially these people were probably a mingling of several types. Their mixing with the Hittites may have given the Hebrews their characteristic aquiline nose, for it is not originally Semitic. In war, diplomacy, architecture, and art the Hebrews made little splash in the stream of history, but in the fields of ethics and religion their contributions to world civilization were tremendous. It has been said that no other people in history so few in number and so weak in political power, except the Greeks, have so influenced civilization.

Tradition has it that the Hebrews originally made their home in the lower Euphrates valley and that Abraham was their patriarchal founder. Nomads £or hundreds of years, they wandered in search of a homeland that offered a reasonable chance to develop a prosperous and contented society. From 1400 to 1200 D.C. they filtered into the land of Canaan, later to be called Palestine, a small region tucked between the desert and the sea. It was only 150 miles long, about the size of the state of Vermont. Another group of tribes had, according to tradition, been enslaved by the Egyptians. They were led out of bondage by the great national hero Moses, who gave his people the Ten Commandments and a new conception of God. Nearly all of Palestine was at that time in the hands of the Canaanites, a mixed Semitic and Hittite people. The conquest of these people by the Hebrews took a long time, for the various tribes were slow to unite against their common enemy.

When the Canaanites had been subjugated, another and far more dangerous foe appeared. The Philistines (from whom we get the word Palestine) came originally from southern Asia Minor and from certain Mediterranean islands, chiefly Crete. Capable and warlike, they drove the Hebrews to the hill country.

About 1025 B.C., however, the Hebrews, led by Saul, a popular leader who was made king, began a series of revolts against the Philistines. Saul was defeated and thereupon committed suicide, but his place was taken by David, who, like Saul, was a military man. He was in addition endowed with religious fervor and a strong capacity for political leadership. King David (1000-960 B.C.) made Jerusalem, an impregnable stronghold, the center of his power and speedily subjugated the Philistines. A promising kingdom was now established, the strongest in the region of Palestine-Syria.

Palestine reached the height of its influence and power during the reign of Solomon, David's son. Solomon became one of the leading patrons of trade in the Near East. He owned a fleet in partnership with the king of Tyre. Living in oriental luxury, he loved display and built a magnificent temple at Jerusalem. His influence and power enabled him to claim a daughter of a pharaoh as his wife. But his kingdom was short-lived. Solomon taxed his people so heavily that discontent was aroused, which led in his son's reign to the secession of the northern part of Palestine. There were now two Hebrew kingdoms, Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Thus weakened, the Hebrews were in no position to defend themselves. In 722 B.C. the Assyrians captured the capital of Israel, and the northern kingdom came to an end. The Assyrian king Sennacherib then attacked Jerusalem, but a mysterious plague decimated his army, and for the time being Judah was saved. But in 586 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar, the Chaldean from Babylonia, destroyed Jerusalem and carried the inhabitants into exile. The Hebrew nation had been conquered after only some 450 years of existence. Following the defeat of the Chaideans by the Persians about fifty years later, however, the Hebrews were permitted to return to Jerusalem, where they restored the temple destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.

After Persian rule came that of the Greeks and the Romans. The Jews rebelled against the rule of the Roman Caesars. For four years savage fighting desolated the Holy Land, and in 70 A.D. Jerusalem was totally destroyed and her population massacred or scattered. The Jews were driven to all parts of the earth, and the Diaspora-the "scattering"-was at its height.

The story of the past nineteen centuries is replete with sorrow and tragedy for the Jewish people. To the miseries of the medieval ghetto (the residence quarter to which the Jew was restricted) was added the horror of the pogrom (organized massacre) in early modern times, and during the past ten years there has been brutal persecution in many lands, especially in Nazi Germany. Only with this back-ground in mind can one understand present day Jewish Zionism, the effort to create a new homeland in modern Palestine.

The Hebrew religion. In the beginning, Hebrew religion was a primitive polytheism, or worship of many gods. Gradually there was developed the concept of one tribal god, Yahveh Gehovah), who was a stern, warlike deity. After their entrance into Palestine many of the Hebrews adopted the religious customs of the Canaanites as well as their more sophisticated and luxurious manner of living, This was especially true of the northern Hebrews. In the south there .was much resentment against the renunciation of Hebrew traditions. Many people chafed .against the growth of wealth and consequent social injustice in the north and idealized the simplicity and purity of the old folk traditions, the adventures of the patriarchs such as Abraham, Isaac, and Joseph.

About 750 B.C. a succession of great spiritual, leaders, the Hebrew Prophets, began to try to purge Hebrew thought and religion of all corrupting influence in order to elevate and dignify the concept of Yahveh. In inspired messages such Prophets as Amos, Isaiah, and Ezekiel taught that the Hebrew God was a loving Father, that He alone was the only and the true God of the universe. During the Babylonian captivity the Hebrew exiles at first seemed crushed by their misfortune, but a great unknown Prophet again emphasized in a series of soul-stirring speeches that Yahveh was the sole God and that the tribulations of the Hebrews were according to God's design, for only through suffering could a people be prepared for true greatness. When Cyrus the Persian defeated the Chaldeans, and the Hebrews were permitted to return to Palestine, they came back with renewed faith in their destiny and a new comprehension of their religion. They had now attained a monotheistic religion, that is, a belief in one God. Coupled with this was their belief that a Messiah would arise among them to establish an ideal order on earth.

Upon the return to Jerusalem the old writings of the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms were arranged and collected. It was not until Christian times that these were. put into one book, which we call the Old Testament. Its influence upon western civilization is incalculable. The phraseology of the Bible has become an integral part of nearly all European languages. We unconsciously use such Biblical expressions as "a land flowing with milk and honey," "eat, drink, and be merry," "a still, small voice," "an apple of one's eye," and such suggestions as "Put not thy trust in princes," "Go to the ant, thou sluggard," and "Righteousness exalteth a nation." An example of the great literature to be found in the Old Testament is this famous passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes:

Remember now thy Creator in the days of a of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;

While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not .darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:

In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened,

And the doors shall be shut in the streets; when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and ,

all the daughters of music shall be brought low;

Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, arid desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:

Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

The Period of Assyrian Dominance

Assyrian expansion. By 700 B.C., although Lydia and the Hebrew kingdom of Judah still retained their independence, the era of such small states as those of the Arameans, Phoenicians, and Hebrews was ended. A new power, Assyria, was ready to make a bid for empire which was to give her complete mastery of the Fertile Crescent in just three generations. The secret of her meteoric rise lies in the nature of her people and in her geographical position. Assyria was a highland region overlooking the Tigris River north of Babylon. Unlike Egypt, which was favored with protective barriers along most of her frontier, this country lay open on all sides to attack and invasion. For a thousand years the Assyrians were forced to struggle for survival, especially against the Babylonians and the Hittites. In the face of constant menace from invasion, Assyria had to conquer or be destroyed. Racially the Assyrians were a mixed stock, predominantly Semitic. Cradled in the invigorating climate of a highland region and schooled for a thousand years by constant war, the Assyrians, mostly peasants, became redoubtable soldiers. After several short periods of expansion, the Assyrians began their course of imperial conquest just before the close of the tenth century B.C. In 910 Babylon was conquered. A generation later Asurnasirpal II (884-860 B.C.) conducted a series of brilliant campaigns against the Arameans and marched to the Mediterranean. After a brief .period of decline, the process of expansion was again taken up by the Assyrian emperor Tiglath-Pileser, who again subdued Babylonia and recovered control over Syria. In 722 B.C. a new dynasty took over the government of Assyria. Its first emperor was Sargon II, who inaugurated a program of conquest which was to make Assyria the complete master of the Fertile Crescent by 700 B.C. The great Assyrian conqueror took the name of Sargon after the ruler of the first Semitic empire in the Tigris-Euphrates valley, some eighteen hundred years previously.

Assyrian methods of warfare. Sargon II and his descendants were the architects of the greatest empire in the western world before the sixth ,century B.C. What was the secret of its creation? The answer is threefold: a matchless army, the terrorization of all people who resisted As Syrian rule, and the most advanced system of provincial administration thus far developed by any people. The Assyrian empire existed by and for its army, which was the most highly trained and most efficient of its day. It was the first to be completely equipped with iron weapons. The bow, with vicious iron-tipped arrows, was its principal weapon. After a stream of well-directed arrows had weakened the enemy, the Assyrian heavy cavalry and chariots would smash with relentless fury the ranks of their foes, driving them headlong from the field. All the ancient world dreaded these fighters, "whose arrows were sharp and all their bows bent; the horses' hooves were like flint and their wheels like a whirlwind." After victory came great feasts and celebrations of triumph, Huge parades were held in which the conquering soldiers showed off their booty and long lines of miserable prisoners who were soon to suffer cruel deaths of torture. The climax came in an orgy of feasting and drinking in which the whole populace participated.

The second factor explaining the success of the Assyrians in making their empire was their use of systematic terrorization. Perhaps no people in history have been so frankly cruel and heartless. Following a battle the Assyrian soldiers would search the field for wounded foes, whose heads would be cut off and brought back to camp. Assyrian military history is a dreadful chronicle of massacres, the burning of cities, and barbarous cruelties to captives. In boasting of his exploits, one Assyrian emperor inscribed on a monument, "Their booty and possessions, cattle, sheep, I carried away; many captives I burned with fire. I reared a column of the living and a column of heads. I hung up on high their heads on trees in the vicinity of their city. Their boys and girls I burned up in flame. I devastated the city, dug it up, in fire burned it; I annihilated it."

Assyrian political administration. The third factor in the success of the Assyrian empire was the well coordinated system of political administration developed by its rulers. Here the Assyrians made their one valuable contribution. Within the empire a closely knit cosmopolitan civilization developed, for now there was peaceful contact and trade among heretofore warring peoples. The forcible transplantation of people from their homeland after conquest by the Assyrians, although an inhuman act, in the long run served to make civilization more cosmopolitan, to bring the inventions and customs of one people to the attention of others. The advent of the Assyrians brought a new epoch in political history. By using new agencies of internal organization and centralization, they created a better coordinated state than the Egyptian empire. Royal messengers continually traversed the empire, carrying the dictates of the emperor to his provincial governors. Communication between the ruler and his governors required roads, and thus the earliest system of nation-wide highways was inaugurated. The Assyrians also developed the first postal system.

These four Assyrians seem to be rowing their boat in opposite directions. At the right is a man fishing from a goat skin filled with air. The fancy stream is the Tigris.

Two Assyrian generals, making camp for the night, talk things over and perhaps exchange a toast. At the right a servant is making the bed for them. Outside the tent the camels and goats are settling down for the night on the desert.

Art and architecture. In order to glorify themselves and enhance their prestige, Assyrian rulers built imposing and luxurious palaces. Sargon's palace at Khorsabad, built into the wall of the city, was on a high platform, and its walls were thick and heavy, like a fortress. It contained not only the king's living quarters, and the royal stables but also a temple and a ziggurat. The arch, borrowed from Babylonia, became an impressive feature in Assyrian palace gates.

To guard the palace gateways, the Assyrians installed huge human-headed winged bulls carved from imported stone. In these and other Assyrian motifs can be seen combinations of beasts later used in European heraldry. These impressive creatures were carved with five legs so that they would not seem to be lacking a leg when seen from the front or the side. The Assyrians knew a great deal about the anatomy 0£ men and animals. They exaggerated and stylized muscles, suggesting strength and brutality. Beards and hair were also treated in conventionalized fashion.

The inside brick walls of the royal palaces were masked below with stone relief’s and painted above in bright colors. Assyrian cruelty and ferocity are reflected in the vigorous relief’s, especially in battle and hunting scenes. Although the men's beards and hair and the lions' muscles, manes, and claws in the above relief are all stylized, the figures are remarkably real, in contrast to the static and monumental winged bull. The winged bulls functioned primarily as symbolic architectural decoration, while the relief’s depicted action or told a story.

Lion hunt from Assurbanipal’s Palace

Sargon II Fortress Palace at Khorsaban (reconstruction)

Assurbanipal's library. Assyrian kings were apparently interested in preserving the past.

The annals of the kings were kept with unrivaled exactness. The emperor Assurbanipal collected .over 22,000 clay tablets, comprising the first great library. At immense cost and effort the knowledge of the Fertile Crescent was gathered for the royal bibliophile. Sumerian hymns, temple rituals, myths of creation and the deluge, grammars, and medical texts found their way to his library. On each tablet was the emperor's mark of ownership, and just as a modern library stamps a warning on its books against surreptitious removal, Assurbanipal had inscribed on his tablets: "Whosoever shall carry off this tablet may Assur and Relit overthrow him in wrath and anger, and destroy his home and posterity in the land”.

Decline of Assyria. The Assyrian empire obtained its main resources from booty and conquest. The failure of such a system was inevitable in the long run. About the middle of the seventh century B.C. evidences of decline became apparent. The sturdy Assyrian stock had been decimated by the long series of wars, the task of ruling such a huge empire was proving too difficult for the ruling class, and finally the cruelties of the Assyrians had made implacable foes intent on their downfall. To the south, Babylonia had come under the control of a new group of Semites, the Chaldeans, who revolted against Assyrian rule. Wild tribes roamed north of the Fertile Crescent, constantly threatening Assyrian frontiers. Also to the north and northeast, the Indo-European Medes and Persians were on the march. By 616 B.C. the Chaldeans had captured Babylonia, and in 612 these people, joining the Medes, attacked Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, which was captured and totally destroyed. Not one building was left standing. From one end of the Fertile Crescent to the other there .was rejoicing over the extermination of Assyria. In the words of the Hebrew Prophet Nahum, "All that look upon thee shall flee from thee and say, 'Nineveh is laid waste.' "

With the exception of their animal sculpture, their innovations in military science, and their ability as imperial administrators, the Asyrians made few original contributions to civilization. Their role was rather one of borrowing from the cultures of other peoples, unifying the best elements into a new product, and assisting in its dissemination over the Fertile Crescent.

New Babylonia: The Empire of the Chaldeans

The kingdom of the Medes. The destruction of the Assyrian empire in 612 B.C. left four powers to struggle over its legacy, the Medes and Persians, the Chaldeans, Egypt, and Lydia. The Medes were an Indo-European people who by 1000 B.C. had established themselves just east of Assyria. In the eighth century B.C. they had managed to create a strong kingdom with Ecbatana as capital. Under King Cyaxaras the Medes had extended their over lordship to the Persians, who lived east of the Tigris. The Persians were of the same racial ancestry as the Medes and for a time were content to be their vassals.

Winged Bull from Sargon’s Palace

New Babylonia. While the Median kingdom controlled the highland region, the Chaldeans, with their capital at Babylon, were masters of the Fertile Crescent. Nebuchadnezzar, becoming Chaldean king in 604 B.C., raised Babylonia to another epoch of brilliance after over 1000 years of weakness following the reign of Hammurabi. Nebuchadnezzar routed the Egyptians from Syria, thus terminating Egyptian aspiration to re-create another empire. When the little Hebrew kingdom of Judah rebelled against his rule, the Chaldean king destroyed Jerusalem (586 B.C.) and carried several thousand Hebrew captives to Babylon.

Babylon was now rebuilt and became one 0£ the greatest cities of its day. Herodotus, the Greek historian, has left us a graphic description of its huge size and the tremendous walls that were wide enough at the top to have rows of small houses on each side with a space between them large enough for the passage of a chariot. In the center of the city ran the famous Procession Street, which passed through, Ishtar Gate. This great arch, still standing, is the best example of Chaldean architecture. In the city there were also several imposing temples, the grandest of which was dedicated to the Chaldean deity Marduk. There was also the immense palace of Nebuchadnezzar. Inclosed by walls, the palace towered terrace upon terrace, each resplendent with masses of fernery, flowers, and trees. These roof gardens, the famous Hanging Gardens, were so beautiful that they were selected by the Greeks as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Chaldean astronomy. New Babylonia made few original contributions to civilization apart from the field of science, but in astronomy her influence was profound. The Babylonians were interested in the stars as a means of foretelling the future. The observation of the stars with the view of showing their influence upon human affairs is called astrology, a pseudo science which still persists today. A reminder of its influence exists in our language idiom when we refer to our "lucky star" or to an "ill-starred venture." The interest of the Chaldeans in the heavens led to the identification of the twelve groups of stars identified under the twelve signs of the zodiac. Five planets were considered especially fateful in controlling the destinies of men. The names of the five most important Chaldean gods were applied to the five fateful stars. Later the Romans substituted the names of their gods. Thus the planet Marduk became Jupiter, Nabu was changed to Mercury, Ishtar to Venus, and so on.

Even though astronomy was primitive and illogical, it encouraged the systematic observation of the heavens. Astrology had been practiced in Old Babylon, but Ghaldean observations were much more accurate and complete. The prediction of eclipses was common, and continuous observations of the heavens were made for over three hundred years. One of the foremost Chaldean astronomers computed the length of the year to within twenty-six minutes.

The Persian Empire

Persian expansion. During the long reign of Nebuchadnezzar, some forty years, Babylon flourished, but. at his death the power he had evolved rapidly crumbled. In the latter years of his reign a new people, the Persians, began to assume the offensive. They threw off the Median yoke and captured Ecbatana in 549 B.C. The Medes apparently readily accepted their new ruler, the redoubtable Cyrus the Great. Within twenty years the Persian leader had created a great empire. His first opponent was wealthy King Croesus of Lydia, who met defeat in 546 B.C. At the same time Cyrus assumed control of the Greek Ionian cities and then turned east, establishing his power as far as the frontier of India. Babylon was next on his list, for in 539 B.C. without resistance the city capitulated to the Persian host. Following the death of Cyrus, his son Cambyses conquered Egypt. The next ruler, Darius, crossed the Hellespont and annexed Macedonia and Thrace to his empire. It now appeared as if the promising Greek city-states would also be crushed by the Persian steam roller. In 493 B.C. Darius began his first campaigns against Greece. They precipitated a bitter struggle in which the Greeks, fighting heroically, not only repelled the invasion but ultimately, under Alexander the Great, carried the war into the enemy's territory and crushed the great Persian army.

Persian imperial administration. The governmental structure designed by the Persian rulers to administer their extensive dominions was built upon the Assyrian model but was far more efficient than its predecessor. The Persian imperial system was first devised by Cyrus the Great and carried to completion by Darius. The empire was divided into twenty-one provinces, or satrapies, each under a provincial governor called a satrap. To check the satraps, a secretary and a military official representing the king were also installed in every province. Special inspectors, "the Eyes

and Ears of the King," were also sent to the satrapies to report on the administrative methods of the satraps. A great empire must possess good communications. Realizing that need, the Persians built great imperial post roads, which in the thoroughness of their construction rivaled the later Roman roads. The main highways connected the four capitals, Susa, Ecbatana, Babylon and Persepolis, which had been established in various parts of the empire. Along the Royal Road between Sardis and Susa there was a post station every fourteen miles, where fresh horses could be obtained by the king's messengers. By means of this first "pony express," royal messengers could cover a distance of 1500 miles in a little more than seven days, while ordinary travelers took three months.

Persian rulers demonstrated a high sense of responsibility toward all their subjects, alien or Persian. In fact, the Persian empire was the first attempt at governing many different racial groups on the principle of equal rights and responsibilities for all peoples. In their treatment of subject peoples there was a humaneness and spirit of consideration which had been absent in the Assyrian empire. The Persians respected the gods of all conquered people. The king made the prosperity of every part of the empire his concern, in order that all provinces would be enabled to provide the tribute levied against them. The tax burden, however, was not excessive. The introduction of a uniform system of coinage also did much to weld the empire together. .

These old men are subjects from Syria on the .other side of the Fertile Crescent, bringing gifts to the emperor at Persepolis - gold vessels, bracelets, horses, even a chariot. This relief decorated a wall of Xerxes' palace at Perspolis.

Zoroastrianism. The religion of the Persians was founded by a prophet named Zoroaster (called Zarathustra by the ancient Greeks). The date of his birth is a matter of dispute. Tradition places it about 1000 B.C., but the most recent scholarship puts his birth at 660 B.C. Zoroaster taught that there was a Continuous struggle in the world between two great cosmic forces. Mazda, or Ahura Mazda, symbolized righteousness; Ahriman was the summation of everything evil. The sayings and legends concerning Zoroaster were collected early in the Christian era and made into a sacred book called the Zend-Avesta. In it the principle of good is referred to as "Ahura Mazda, the creator, radiant, glorious, greatest and best, most beautiful, most firm, wisest, most perfect, the most bounteous spirit." The Avesta contained significant ideas on how the world would come to an end. The last days were conceived as involving a mighty battle between Mazda and Ahriman in which the forces of good should prevail. Then would come a last judgment involving a heaven for some and a hell for others. The word paradise is Persian in its origin.

The wise toleration of the Persian rulers was perhaps a result of their religion. In describing some of his victories, Darius, on the famous Behistun monument, declares: "On this account Ahura Mazda brought me help. ..because I was not wicked, nor was I a liar, nor was I a tyrant, neither I nor any of my line. I have ruled according to righteousness."

The followers of Zoroaster are sometimes called fire worshipers, because they regard fire as a symbol of the deity of light and purity. Their religion still persists among a group of about 100,000 people called Parsees, who live in and around the city of Bombay in India.

The ruined palace of Xerxes at Persepolis, showing columns and typical palace platform.

Art. The art of the Persians is not very original. They borrowed from their predecessors in the Fertile Crescent, especially the Assyrians. Their most important work was in palace architecture. The royal residences at Persepolis are the best remaining evidence of Persian building. Here a high terrace, or platform, was constructed, reached by a grand stairway, the face of which was covered with beautiful relief sculptures. The practice of raising the palace on a platform originated as a protection 'against disease from the swamps. Other features were brilliantly colored enameled bricks, entrances flanked by huge human headed bulls, and numerous columns to support the roof. The columns were topped by large heads of bulls, used for capitals as the Egyptians had used lotus motifs. Upon the terrace stood a number of palaces and halls used for audience chambers. The walls of the buildings were covered with brilliant enameled tiles. The arch was not copied from Babylonia; doors were capped with horizontal blocks of stone in the Egyptian fashion.

Summary

The evolution of human affairs in the Ancient Near East from primitive culture to civilization has now been recounted. The principal areas concerned were Egypt at the western terminus of the Fertile Crescent, Syria-Palestine, forming the western band of the Crescent, and Assyria and Babylonia, constituting the eastern bow. Civilization rose about the same time in the western and eastern ends of the Fertile Crescent, that is, in Egypt and in the plain of Shinar, later to be called Babylonia. Both those civilizations were river-made, one by the Nile, the other by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Natural barriers forming a defense for Egypt explain the almost uninterrupted continuity of its civilization. Along the Fertile Crescent, however, there were constant fighting and movements of people, owing to the absence of any such barriers. The history of that region, then, is a rather complex account of the rise and fall of numerous nations.

The story of Old Babylonia is primarily concerned with the significant achievements of the Sumerians and the later adoption of their civilization by Semitic invaders. The most important of the Semitic states was Babylon, created by the great Semitic leader Hammurabi. Following an era of brilliant civilization in Old Babylonia, attention was focused on Syria-Palestine. There the duel between Egypt and the Hittite empire, which weakened both contestants, gave small nations, Phoenicia, the Arameans, and the Hebrews, a chance to enjoy a brief period of independence. Political diversity was ended by the rise of the Assyrian empire, which had a span of about three hundred years (900-600 B.C.). The fall of Assyria left four peoples to contest for the crumbs of empire: the Egyptians, the Lydians, the Medes and Persians, and the Chaldeans. At the outset New Babylonia, or Chaldea, under the great Nebuchadnezzar was the center of a brilliant and powerful civilization, but the expansion of Persia quickly terminated its' independence. Persia became the greatest empire the world had yet seen; it even endeavored to extend its power over ancient Greece.

If the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods represent the first great chapter of progress in human history, the .accomplishments in the Ancient Near East represent a second. There metals were first used on an extensive scale and the wheeled vehicle, the plow, and irrigation introduced. Seagoing ships were built first by the Egyptians. the use of coinage was spread by the Lydians. and busil;1ess contractual instruments were developed by the Babylonians. In engineering, the Egyptians demonstrated remarkable skill in transporting tremendously heavy blocks of stone over long distances and then elevating them to great heights. During this early period in the history of man. warfare was put on a firm basis by the Sumerians and then developed to a high degree of efficiency by the Assyrians. Great political states were created in which there were remarkable centralization al;1d coordination in administration. Writing was evolved as early as 4000 B.C. later the Phoenicians made a notable contribution in devising an alphabet. In architecture the Egyptians evolved many of the basic features which were later developed to perfection by the Greeks. Sculpture was used with regard to its architectural setting, and Egyptian mural painters were highly skilled.

In the Tigris and Euphrates valley the outstanding artistic contributions were in palace building and sculpture. In the building of palaces some of the Mesopotamian , peoples used the arch and narrow vault successfully though not extensively. The Assyrian use of the arch may have influenced the Romans, and certainly some of their decorative animal motifs influenced later heraldry. In sculpture there were some beautiful wall decorations, especially in the Assyrian period. The greatest gift in literature was the Hebrew Bible, but mention should also be made of the Mesopotamian epics of the flood and creation and the Persian holy Zend-Avesta. Finally in religion, the Ancient Near East contributed some notable religious concepts.

Such is the role of the Ancient Near East in world history. But after several thousand years of advance, progress seemed to level off and almost entirely cease. One great bar to progress was that in all the countries of the N ear East there was no thought of political liberty or the right of the individual to have a part in the affairs of government. Coupled with the despotism of kings was the tyranny of priests. The old gods had to be obeyed, old customs and mores implicitly accepted. There was little opportunity for speculation, and society tended to become more and more static.