If you learned something additional about the reading, post it here. Put what you learned into your own words and explain briefly why you think it's important and/or how it helps us make more sense of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.
For instance, there is a cool decorative wall carving, or frieze, at the U.S. Supreme Court that depicts famous lawgivers such as Menes (of Egypt unification fame) and Hammurabi (from the reading you just did this weekend) and Moses.
Here's a map of the Fertile Crescent (from comment #1).
And here's some more information about women in Egypt (related to comment #2)
Here's a great link to many civilizations that Alex T. found (see comment #9)
One point about the timeline I provided: That timeline says the Hyksos came into Egypt in 1640 BCE, but the reading says the invasion happened in 1730 BCE. How could both be right? Keep in mind that dates are kind of shaky for this long ago. We have limited evidence, and different historians have different interpretations of the evidence. It's safe to say that "around 1700 BCE," the Hyksos invaded. Our book makes this point on p. 80 (p. 126 electronic version) when it says that "nothing in ancient Egyptian chronology is certain."
As we move along in the course, dates will become more certain. For instance, we have tons of evidence that tells us that Charlemagne was crowned emperor by the Pope on Christmas Day in the year 800.
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The Fertile Crescent was mentioned in the reading when talking about how the, "Chaldean Empire encompassed nearly the entire Fertile Crescent". This made me wonder how large and where exactly the Fertile Crescent was. I learned that it spans from Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and western Syria, into southeast Turkey and, along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, into Iraq and the western flanks of Iran. Basically from the Nile to the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Here is a link to a map. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Fertile_Crescent_map.png
Also, I'd consider taking a look at this site (http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/middle_east/) because it shows the civilizations and the order these civilizations lived on the Fertile Crescent. It's a good site to get some context about how long each civilization was around. For instance, it demonstrates that Sumer was around way longer than Assyria and started much earlier.
I found it interesting that this book claimed Hatshepsut to be the first known female ruler of Egypt. All other books I've read on Egypt give that honor to Pharaoh/Queen Sobeknefru of the Twelfth Dynasty, six dynasties before Hatshepshut. The Wikipedia article on Sobeknefru is very well written and detailed, here is an extract:
Sobeknefru (sometimes written "Nefrusobek") was an Egyptian female pharaoh of the Twelfth dynasty. Her name meant "the beauties of Sobek." Some scholars believe she was the daughter of Pharaoh Amenemhat III; Manetho states she was the sister of Amenemhat IV. She is the first known female ruler of Egypt, though Nitocris may have ruled in the Sixth Dynasty.
In the reading, it mentioned that the Hittites came from Asia Minor. I was wondering where that was, and I found out that Asia Minor refers to the peninsula of Southwest Asia. Hope that helps anyone who didn't know what it was either. Also, the reading said that after the Hittites destroyed Babylonia, the Kassites ruled the area for more than 4 centuries. It didn't give very much description on the Kassites, so I was curious. I found out that the Kassites were a Near-Eastern mountain tribe that moved Zagros Mountains (currently make up Iran and Iraq's largest mountain range) and Mesopotamia. The Kassites brought the independent, competitive city-states into one. Another fact I found interesting in the reading was that Imhotep was the designer of the first-known pyramid. I had heard his name before, but didn't really remember who he was exactly. Apparently, he served under the Third Dynasty's King Djoser and was of pretty important status. Imhotep is one of the few common people in Egypt that had divine status after death, which I think shows that he was a pretty significant person, especially during the reign of King Djoser.
Here is a description of the Hanging Gardens, and how they weren't really hanging, but probably overhanging which is different than how most people imagine the Hanging Gardens:
The Hanging Gardens probably did not really "hang" in the sense of being suspended from cables or ropes. The name comes from an inexact translation of the Greek word kremastos or the Latin word pensilis, which mean not just "hanging", but "overhanging" as in the case of a terrace or balcony.
The Greek geographer Strabo, who described the gardens in first century BC, wrote, "It consists of vaulted terraces raised one above another, and resting upon cube-shaped pillars. These are hollow and filled with earth to allow trees of the largest size to be planted. The pillars, the vaults, and terraces are constructed of baked brick and asphalt."
For more accounts of what the gardens were like take a look at this site:
http://cleveleys.co.uk/wonders/gardensofbabylon.htm
The following sites give a very short explanation of what happened during the First and Second Intermediate Periods, and how things went downhill for Egypt. In First Intermediate Period the old kingdom of Egypt fell apart and was separated into chiefdoms. In the Second Intermediate Period Egypt was ruled by foreign kings, who were later called Hyksos. Eventually the Hyksos were driven out of Egypt.
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/EGYPT/1ST.HTM http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/EGYPT/2ND.HTM
I found a cool picture of "Sargon the great"
http://www.talariaenterprises.com/6400_6599/6461a.jpg
He was a ruler in Mesopotamia of the Babylonians. Sargon was the founder of the military in Mesopotamia and was one of the strongest leaders in that period of time. His story was very similar to Moses since he also floated in a basket on the river and fate took him from there.
These are the laws in Hammurabi's Code: http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/211ham.html. I found it interesting that there were so many references to women. There were not as many references to women as to men, but these laws show us that women did have a role in society. For instance, law 212 says that "If this woman die, he shall pay half a mina". A mina is one pound of sivler, http://www.iisg.nl/hpw/babylon.php)So, a women's death is not just forgotten, there is a punishment. The punishment for a man putting out the eye of another man means that the first man's eye is put out (law 196) and the punishment for a man breaking another man's bone is for the first man's bone to be broken. This suggests that, if a man kills a man, the first man will be killed. So, there was still a big gap between the gender equalities in Babylon.
Another intesting law was law 156, if a man betroth a girl to his son, but his son has not known her, and if then he defile her, he shall pay her half a gold mina, and compensate her for all that she brought out of her father's house. She may marry the man of her heart. In short, if a father wants his son to marry a girl the son does not know and if the son does not like her, then the girl get paid, gets her dowry back, and can marry whomever she likes. This is very different from other civilizations throughout history. Usually the fathers agree on a match and the children has to deal with it. It is interesting to see the rights of women in Babylon, based upon the Hammurabi's Code
Like Georgia I was interested in finding out more about the Codes of Hammurabi. http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/CODE.HTM Some of the ones I found interesting were Codes 215-217. If a Dr.Operates on you and cures you he gets 10 shekels, 5 shekels from a freeman and 2 from the owner of the slave that was operated on.Those were not so unusual. However, if he operates on you and you die or you lose an eye because of it his hands get cut off and if the Dr. kills a slave he has to replace him ,Codes 218-219. I was surprised that they would cut off the hands of a Doctor. These laws are really fascinating and amazing considering when they were written.
I was interested in learning more about the contributions to civilization from the Sumerican’s such as the system of numbers, astronomy, and literature. The topic the interested me the most was the astronomy. The priests would study the skies, and record any changes. Off of this they would make calendars. I found this cool website about the Sumericans, that I really liked. http://home.cfl.rr.com/crossland/AncientCivilizations/Middle_East_Civilizations/Sumerians/sumerians.html
Like Georgia and Ian, I looked up the Code of Hammurabi. The laws were very interesting, and the harshness of the punishments (drowning, death, etc.) must have been due to the trouble Hammurabi had unifying the city states and ensuring obedience.
It said on pg. 27 of the reading that Hammurabi made a law code "Like Ur-Nammu before him." I looked up to see how Ur-Nammu's code differed from Hammurabi's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Ur-Nammu)
Ur-Nammu's code is three centuries older than Hammurabi's and a lot of it has been lost. The impression I got from reading it was that Hammurabi's code was a bit harsher. However, they are both written in the same style, with a prologue and an epilogue that invokes the gods. The laws themselves are both written in 'If someone should do something, then this will happen to them' format.
While looking up Hatshepsut during the reading, I noticed several inconsistencies with the facts from the book and the facts from Wikipedia. According to the book, Hatshepsut ruled Egypt from 1503 BCE to 1482 BCE. However, Wikipedia states that Hatshepsut's reign was 1479 BCE to 1458 BCE, and lists 1458 as Hatshepsut's date of death. Wanting to find out more about the dates, I did a quick Google search of Hatshepsut and found another site that listed the dates of Hatshepsut's reign to be from 1473 to 1458 BCE. Here is the site in case anyone is interested:
(http://www.thekeep.org/~kunoichi/kunoichi/themestream/hatshepsut.html)
Also, the book stated that Hatshepsut was the "first known female ruler in history". Again, the facts on Wikipedia disagreed; while Hatshepsut's reign was during the 18th dynasty of Egypt, Queen Sobekneferu was supposedly briefly the ruler of Lower and Upper Egypt during the 2th dynasty from 1806 BCE to 1802 BCE. With another quick Google search, I found a website that stated that Queen Sobekneferu's rule was from 1763 to 1759 BCE. Here is the website:
(http://au.geocities.com/aten_nz/QueenSobekneferu.htm)
I found it very interesting that there are many different dates listed for events that occurred in Egyptian history. Obviously, this is bound to happen; since nobody alive today witnessed these events, nobody is sure when they are happened. Still, I couldn't help but wonder why dates that were uncertain were published in school textbooks and on websites as specific dates. One final Wikipedia search led to a page on the chronology of ancient Egypt. The article states that Egyptian chronology is uncertain, confusing, and often hard to follow. Here is a link to the site:
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_chronology)
I thought that it was interesting that the Hanging Gardens are one of the original (ancient) Seven Wonders of the World along with The Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Mausoleum, the Statue of Zeus, and the Pyramids at Giza. The hanging gardens were built by Nebuchadnezzar in order to please his wife who longed for the tress and beautiful plants of her homeland. Like Katelyn I was also interested in finding out more information on the Fertile Crescent. It is a historical crescent-shaped region in the Middle East. Stretching between 400-500,000 square kilometers, this region extends from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea around the north of the Syrian Desert and through the Jazirah and Mesopotamia to the Persian Gulf. The Fertile crescent in present day goes through Egypt ,Israel, West Bank, Gaza Strip, Lebanon, and parts of Jordan, Syria, Iraq, southern-eastern turkey, and south-western Iran. http://www.crystalinks.com/mesopotamia.html
On the website above there is a really good and helpful time-line of Mesopotamia and also a good picture of the Fertile Crescent.
We looked briefly at Menes, while studying the Egyptian river civilization. Menes, again, was mentioned in this chapter so I wanted to see if there were more contributions besides the obvious unification of North and South Egypt. Upon viewing this Wikipedia article; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menes I found something unexpected. Pharaohs named Narmer and Hor-Aha were listed as the two Pharaohs during the first dynasty on 2 different lists of kings. On these lists, Menes is not present.
Archaeological finds from 31st century BCE of the Narmer Palette depict the Pharaoh, Narmer,unifying North and South Egypt, an act which was supposedly committed by Menes. Some argue that Menes and Narmer were the same person, and some say that Menes never unified the kingdoms, and some say that he completed the unification process. I thought that this piece of evidence was very curious.
This led me to look up the Palette of Narmer. I found a great site that does almost a "full body scan" of the palette. http://www.ancient-egypt.org/index.html
The top of the palette includes the name of the king between two bull-like animal heads. These heads may represent the cow-goddess or the forceful rule of the king. The back depicts Narmer ready to strike an enemy. The enemy is naked, crouching, casting light on the pharaoh and denoting the enemy's status. Two dead men lay below the king's feet signifying the king's power. When the palette is further examined it can be concluded that Narmer unified upper and lower Egypt. I thought this very curious and I would like to further research this contradictory theory.
I found really good information for Sumer at this website, like seriously, everything.
(http://lexicorient.com/e.o/sumer.htm).
Info about Sumerian's
http://www.crystalinks.com/sumerculture.html
Info about Sargon
Sargon of Akkad, also known as Sargon the Great was an Akkadian king famous for his conquest of the Sumerian city-states in the 24th and 23rd centuries BC. The founder of the Dynasty of Akkad, Sargon reigned for 56 years, c. 2333 – 2279 BC. He became a prominent member of the royal court of Kish, ultimately overthrowing its king before embarking on the conquest of Mesopotamia. Sargon's vast empire is known to have extended from Elam to the Mediterranean sea, including Mesopotamia, parts of modern-day Iran and Syria, and possibly parts of Anatolia and the Arabian peninsula. Sargon is regarded as one of the first individuals in recorded history to create a multiethnic, centrally ruled empire, and his dynasty controlled Mesopotamia for around a century and a half.
I found this picture that is supposed to be people lined up to give tribute to Assyrian kings.
http://www.betnahrain.org/Gallery/Ancient_Assyrian_Art/A_image/63_panel2.jpg
And some clay tablets...
http://images.google.com/images?q=clay+tablets&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi
Hanging Gardetns of Babylon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging_Gardens
Something that caught my eye in the reading was the name "Imhotep". I knew that name, after watching "The mummy" movie series as a child. However, I never knew his historical importance.
Imhotep was an egyptian architect, who lived during the reign of Djose. He is reconized as the first architect and the first physician in history. Because of his works in medicine (treatments of diseases such as appendicitis, gout, and arthritis), he is actually considered the father of medicine by some people.
Along with designing the Step Pyramid at Saqqara (the first stone monument in history), he is also credited with the invention of the papyrus and use of colums in buildings. With all of these important "firsts", he was naturally very famous in his time. He was considered a living god, and even the pharaoh Djose often bowed to him.
When the Greeks took over Egypt, they discovered Imhotep's legacy and dedicated temples to him, worshiping him like a god.
In the reading for tuesday, the first thing that i noticed was the word Canaan, and i (or course) thought of dogs. So i went to the AKC website and found information about the Canaan Dog, a herding dog from the Middle east. Here is the link for more info. http://www.akc.org/breeds/canaan_dog/
In the reading it talks about King David, Saul's son. I remembered hearing about David and a Giant, so I decided to do more research.
Goliath was a strong Philistine warrior. Everyday he would challenge the Israelites to fight him. David decides to accept this challenge, and Saul offers him his armour. David declines, adn ends up killing Goliath with a sling.
As for Goliath being a giant, the Dead Sea Scrolls say that he was about 6feet 6 inches. Which is pretty tall, especially considering the average height of people back then was considerably lower than now. For more information and pictures of Goliath or David you can look at the sites I listed below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliath
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/David.html
my questions were not answered in class, but i have some.
1. in the essay, there was a lot of comparison between mesopotamia and egpyt, over all, like across the board, which civilization was better/more advanced?
2. why was there so many controversial issues between pharaohs about religion?
3. do the "cultural difference" between mesopotamia and egypt come from outside influences, through trade?
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