Lecture notes by Eric Snow
History begins with written documents being available c. 3100 to 3000 b.c.
Shift from pastoral nomads
(more militaristic, aggressive) to agricultural life, settled villages (more
peaceful, passive). Before 3000 b.c.,
cows/oxen, plows in Neolithic villages.
Conventions from Sumerians in
math: Created multiplication, division,
and square and cube roots. They used a
10-base/decimal system of math plus a 60-base system to use 60 seconds/minute,
60 minutes/1 hour. Used 60-base system
in geometry to make a circle of 360 degrees.
Division of Labor: Not fully possible in villages, need cities,
coordinating class at top that doesn’t farm for a living. Peasants had to cooperate. Priests guide, administer: masses of men labor to build ditches, cities,
temples. Sumeria religion centered,
work done for gods.
Why did civilization begin in
river valleys? (Put up overhead)
Rich soil, silt automatically
deposited, so didn’t need to know about rotation, irrigation provides
water. Denser population resulted, also
need more coordination between stock raisers, hunters in bayous, farmers with
complicated ditch systems (organized community effort needed to maintain them). Plowing easy in Mesopotamia’s (land between
rivers, Greek) alluvial soil, easy to create a surplus to support a managerial
and artisan class in cities. Flooding
fertilized the soil, silt in both Egypt, Mesopotamia. Boats could move goods.
Mesopotamia’s lack of stone, timber, metals, encourages trade, travel.
Floods as dangers, politics
of controlling upstream water: Cyrus at
Babylon example, diverted water to take it.
Sumerians priests: calculated seasons, kept accounts, laid out
canals.
Achievements: writing, form of money used in trade, bronze
(copper & 10% tin), irrigation works, religious literature, schools,
medicine, lunar calendar (like Jewish some, Muslim).
Bronze age (3000-1000
b.c.): Sumerians invented this metal
also.
Sumerians: 12 city-states, waged war over land, water
rights (anything new?)
Sargon the Great: c. 2350 b.c., Semitic Akkad, city to
north. First Empire, Persian gulf to
Mediterranean, lasted to 2180 b.c.
(Sumerians not Semites, unknown language family). Gutian attacks end.
Assyria: Compare to Klingons, Kardessian Empire in
Star Trek: Would skin people alive,
impale those who revolted. Put on wall
reliefs in palace for propaganda/intimidation purposes (ambassadors from other
kingdoms, etc.) Ashurnasirpal (r.
884-860 b.c.): “I flayed the chief men
of the rebels and I covered the walls with their skins. . . . Some of them were
enclosed alive within the bricks of the wall, some were crucified with stakes
along the wall . . . From some of them I cut off their hands and fingers, from
others their noses and ears, of many I put out their eyes.” Calculated terror policy to intimidate,
discourage revolts. Used prisoners of
war to build capital at Calah.
Egypt vs.
Sumeria/Mesopotamia: Egypt’s natural
environment much more predictable, less change, flooding seasonally. Egypt more protected from attack, due to
deserts, mountains in south, better natural resources (such as having stone,
copper, gold). Gods of Mesopotamia seen
as more capricious, whimsical, unpredictable.
Nabonidus vs. Belshazzar
error (text, p. 26): Error exposed,
archeological investigation has found.
At Ur, an inscription found in which Nabonidus prayed for himself then
his son, “Bel-shar-usur,” a type of prayer only offered for the reigning
monarch. Gleason Archer: “Still other cuneiform documents record how
Belshazzar present sheep and oxen at the temples of Sippar as ‘an offering of
the king.’” Only third place in
kingdom offered (Daniel 5:7) by Belshazzar as a reward for reading the writing
on the wall shows Nabonidus was still alive.
Much more stable politically, geographically protected against invasion more. “Challenge response” idea of Toynbee: This culture had fewer challenges in the long run, so it eventually succumbed to outsiders despite literally millennia of glory.
Two crops/year, Nile’s
overflow fairly predictable. White
Nile: Vegetable matter, from central
Africa (Lake Victoria); Blue Nile, Potash, Ethiopia. Khartoum, Sudan, where two come together.
Flood then retreat,
seasonal/yearly.
Mostly desert, but Nile the
salvation, “Egypt the gift of the Nile,” according to Herodotus. Good climate, not cold.
Theocracy: Pharaoh a god-king, somewhat different from
Mesopotamia often, since for Assyria/Babylon, the king intercessor between God
and the people, but not a god himself.
Principle of Maat: order, truth, justice, righteousness, “right
order” or “just state of things.”
Existed if ordained as gods said.
NOT tied to a specific god.
Optimistic view of afterlife, relatively speaking, compared to shades in
dark view (found in Homer’s Illiad).
Highly religious, more ethically motivated compared to Mesopotamia, more
legalistic, worshiped gods for protection, what could get more. Mesopotamia: Polytheistic, more struggle, self-seek, since had to figure out
unpredictable gods more.
Pharaoh: unchanging, timeless order, tradition: makes art solemn, massive, sacramental.
Hykshoes: Chariots, aggressiveness increases in
response.
Re: Amon-Re: sun-god.
Osiris: vegation god: killed—thrown into Nile after brother Set and 72 others soldered
him into a coffer. Isis: Left body to see Horus, Set found it, cut up
into 14 pieces. Isis found them one by
one, buried them. Revived, didn’t
regain kingdom, just became god of underworld:
p. 37 in text mistaken. Son
& heir took place as king. Wrong to
see Osiris death and revival as promise of resurrection, personal immortality.
Gunter Wagner: Pauline Baptism and the Pagan Mysteries
(p. 117): Isis cult: gain only protection, not immortality.
“There are thus two
traditions about the manner of Osiris’ death—that he was murdered; that he was
(perhaps criminally) drowned—but in neither is his death regarded as involving
atonement or salvation for other men.”
Hieroglyphics: Egyptian writing, “Sacred carvings.” Cuneiform might have influenced its
creation. Pictorial initially, later
became phonetic. Ra: “mouth” and “R” sound. Pictograms and alphabetical.
Egyptian art: Tied to religious beliefs—Mummification done
since believed had to preserve the body to preserve the soul. Ka & Ba: Reanimate the body.
Brains taken out the nose, vital organs put into jars.
Sculptor: “He-who-keeps-alive.”
To make extra sure, made an
image of the king, out of granite.
Kings, then nobles, then
average people would prepare for death, stock tombs with food, mummy, likeness
if could afford it. Pictures of
servants replace real ones.
ART conventions:
Not fully-life like, always from standard angle: Heroic—broad shoulders, narrow hips.
Solemn, simple, rigid,
focused on essentials, regular, cubic form.
Geometric regularity: Keenly observed nature, but filtered through
conventions. Not meant to be seen by
anyone but soul, not to be enjoyed by public, etc. Art done for the dead mainly.
Not haphazard drawn from a particular randomly chosen angle. Individuality sacrificed since not
permanent, immortal.
Drew from memory, following
strict rules to picture is totally clear in intent. Perspective ignored. All
objects: trees, fish, birds from side;
lake, pond from above.
Examples: Full eye seen from side, feet seen from
inside foot’s side, so often big toe on outside. Torso seen from front, but face from side. Arms and legs in movement shown from
side. No foreshortening. Both shoulders shown, regardless of position
of arms. Hips and legs drawn in
profile, but navel also shown. Standing
man with left leg forward.
Artists followed rules, not
how literally saw nature or people. Big
people vs. small: not literal, but
societal importance dramatized. Man
larger than wife or servants. Gods
drawn in certain ways. Horus: sun god, falcon or falcon’s head. Anubis:
god of death, Jackal. Still
accurate in ways: Can recognize bird or
fish species.
Conventions followed: seated gods have hands on knees, men’s skin
darker than women’s.
Originally not a
virtue—little change (one exception) for 3000 years.
Kings: Profile view of head, legs, arms; front
views of eyes & shoulders.
King Amenhotep IV
(Akhenaten): Amarna Style (1379-62
b.c.). Nefertiti, wife. More relaxed, “homey,” informal, not as
rigid. No solemn and rigid
dignity. Worshiped god of Aten,
attacked priests of Amon-Re.
Examples: daughter on Pharaoh’s
knees, walked with wife in garden, leaning on stick, even portrayed as ugly. “The Horizon of Aten,” Akhetaton, new
capital. People prayed to him, not
Aten: Not true monotheism. Moses issue: influenced by or from?
Post & Lintel: Flat hewn rock put on top of columns. Doesn’t distribute pressure as effectively
as arch, need more stone to use.
Senmet, mortuary temple of
Queen Hatshepsut, female pharaoh for 22 years, Thutmose III her son, “Napoleon
of Egypt.” Luxor temples.
The Book of the Dead: Collection of purchase prayers. Deceiving gods to let dead into
salvation—passage of dead. Priests sell
magical charms. Amenhotep IV: drove priests from temples, took property,
possessions, removed names of gods from land.
Aten—sun god, worship directed to him (Pharaoh), the god-king.
Tell El-Armana: New capital. Tablets for Biblical history found here. Shifted back to Thebes, old gods. Diplomatic correspondence: King of Byblos asks for military help 60 times. Cuneiform tablets. Canaanites kings: Hebron,
Tyre, Hazor, Jerusalem, Megiddo. Shows
background of trouble during Joshua’s invasion.
Pyramid building: Mastabas:
Brick-lined pits covered by a superstructure.
Pyramids (text, p. 38): symbol of god Re, pyramid, frozen burst of
sunlight. The pharaoh was believed to
be the incarnation of Re on earth.
Pyramids: Imhotep, first
architect known. Step Pyramid: For Zoser (c. 2686-2613 b.c.). Bent Pyramid: 54 degree angle, changed to 42 degree part way up! Seneferus’ at Sahsur.
Cheops (Kkufu) (r. 2590-2568
b.c., 4th dynasty): 481.4
feet originally, now 450 feet. 13.1
acres, 2.3 million stone blocks, some up to 15 tons each, hewn from quarries
without explosives or iron tools. 755
feet wide on each of four sides, no more than 8 inch variations on each (nearly
perfectly square). Large, yet precise,
engineering feet. Alpha Draconis, pole
star then, northern shaft of Great Pyramid very nearly in alignment at 30
degree angle.
Chephren (Khafra): 447 feet high presently, was 471 feet. Only about 48 feet shorter on each
side. 4000 man barracks found by
Flinders Petrie.
Mycerinus (or Menkaure,
smallest of three at Gizeh).
Sphinx: Pharaoh Khafre (fl. c. 2869 b.c.) now 66 feet tall, 240 feet long, carved from
hill, not built up.
Herodotus: 100,000 men to build over 20 years? 1 man can push a 1 ton block of limestone
over ground of mud (modern experiment).