Notes on The Cambridge Ancient History Vol. 2, Part II:
The Middle East and the Aegean Region, 1380-1000 B.C.
Introduction:
A big orange book sits beside me, some 1,100 pages thick. In it, detail by detail, is the history of Iliadic Greece, of the Mideast as the Bible knew it, and indeed, of the Hebrew folk who taught us God.
Very important, yes. I still must lament – the Golden Age of Egypt and the Sumerian empires having been left behind – little by way of true literature accompanies this time period.
And these cultures by and large being extinct – or, for those which have survived, being vastly different from their modern descendants – I have no music, no cuisine of their vintage, to enjoy as I explore their world.
I must be patient. The days of full and joyous immersion will come.
– Sunday, November 4, 2001
* * * *
Chapter XVII: Struggle for the domination of Syria, 1400-1300 B.C.
Syria: Key to domination of the ancient world. Egypt controlled the region until the end of the Amarna Age. Then the Hittites, then Hurrians allied with Mitannians.
1385 B.C.: Tushratta, king of Mitanni. His rival, Shuppilu-liumash, king of the Hittites circa 1380.
Circa 1365: Hittites under Shuppilu win first battle for control of Syria.
Circa 1360: Second war: Tushratta crushed; his empire is destroyed. Assyria thus regains its independence.
Shuppilu, though, had stepped onto Egyptian turf and soon had to fight that country, probably then ruled by Tutankhamun. Shuppilu died circa 1346, victim of a plague brought back by his own soldiers.
This would all have been about the time of the Israelite judges.
Chapter XVIII: Assyria and Babylon, 1370-1300 B.C.
As had Egypt under the Hyksos, Assyria and Babylon suffered several centuries of a dark age under the control of foreign invaders.
As we noted, Assyria regained her freedom with the crushing of Mitanni, which had dominated her.
First king of resurgent Assyria was Ashur-uballit.
Meanwhile, the Kassite king of Babylon, Burnaburiash II, wrote to Amenophis IV of Egypt, complaining about the Assyrians’ conduct. But Assyria, one-time vassal of the Kassites, then made marital alliances with Burnaburiash and ultimately put a descendant of Ashur-uballit, one Kurigalzu, on the Babylonian throne.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Cambridge Ancient History, Vol 1,
Early History of the Middle East (Notes from CAH Vol 1 )
Chapter 11: The Early Dynastic Period in Egypt
Egypt began as two nations: Lower (northern) and Upper Egypt (southern). Horus appears to have been the first patron deity [of the region?].
First known king of upper Egypt was Ka (Scorpion).
The following bracketed paragraphs are pasted from touregypt.net.
[In the ancient Upper Egyptian town of Nekhen, The Falcon, aka Hierakonpolis, where archaeological finds have been made that are significant to the earliest days of the unification of Egypt, a fragmented and incomplete macehead attributed to King Scorpion was found by J.E. Quibell in 1897-98.
Maceheads were early considered to be symbolic of Kingly power, and throughout Egypt’s history, were shown in relief carvings as the weapon of the king as he smote his enemies who were the enemies of Egypt.
This macehead depicts a King or Chieftain wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt in full ritual dress, with the bull’s tail representing power, hanging from the back of his belt.
The multi-petalled rosette or star at this time was used to identify Egyptian kings and in fact, in neighboring Sumer, signified divinity itself. It is shown in front of his face, along with a clearly drawn scorpion sign, thereby giving his name as indicated earlier to be Srqt, or Scorpion.
In another convention of Egyptian art, this kingly, perhaps quasi-divine, figure is drawn towering over his companions and attendants.
King Scorpion is accompanied by his high officers, who carry standards on which are displayed symbols identified with particular districts into which Egypt was divided. Many of these district symbols are familiar throughout Egypt’s history. Two of these interestingly enough are Set animals, showing that at this very early time followers of Set supported the royal clan; others represent falcons, a jackal, the god Min, and possibly the mountains.
On this macehead, Scorpion is apparently performing a ceremony using a hoe. Perhaps he is opening the irrigation dikes to begin the flooding of the fields, or perhaps he is cutting the first furrow for a temple or even a city to be built, thus beginning a foundation ritual which was a kingly prerogative in Egypt (similar to Roman emperors millennia later, shown on coins ploughing the outline of a city at its foundation).
The decorative frieze around the remaining top of the macehead has lapwing birds hanging by their necks from vertical standards. In hieroglyphics these rekhyts have been interpreted to represent the common people of Egypt, and their fate seems to indicate that they were conquered by King Scorpion. However, some authorities have interpreted the rekhyt symbol as only later representing the Egyptian population, whereas early in predynastic history they referred to foreigners or non-Egyptians instead. Thus the Scorpion macehead and Narmer palette may represent the respective rulers as having successfully defeated foreigners from the west Delta (something which happened later in history as well.)
Although a four-chambered tomb in Abydos designated as B50 has been speculated as being Scorpion’s burial place, no conclusive evidence of Scorpions’ existence has yet been found at Abydos, where the tombs of several First Dynasty kings and even some preceding Dynasty 0 kings have been found. Some scholars are not even sure Scorpion actually existed (perhaps Scorpion was a title; perhaps the Scorpion sign did not signify the personage’s name at all).
He may have come from the royal house of Hierakonpolis, rather than from This, the origin city of the Thinite dynasty from whence came his later successor Narmer, the King Catfish. Perhaps This and Hierakonpolis each were the centers of rival chiefdoms, and when Scorpion’s reign ended, This assumed an uncontested position as sovereign of Egypt. Perhaps Narmer was the first king who actually reigned unchallenged throughout the country. Based upon Scorpion’s apparent connection with Hierakonpolis and from the stylistic similarities between his macehead and the palette and macehead attributed to Narmer, the two rulers may well have been close contemporaries.]
This king was followed by Narmer, who is believed to have unified Egypt. [I.e., conducted a successful campaign against Lower (northern) Egypt.]
Circa 3100 B.C. Meni or Menes, meaning “He who endures.” This could have been a specific person or a title for either of his two predecessors. (Herodotus (p. 119, line 99) called him Min.)
3000 B.C. Aha, “Fighter.”
Then Iti, aka Djer (his Horus name). Also read as Khent. Then Den, whose reign marks the appearance of the double crown (shmty). He is identified on an ivory piece now at the British Museum. Then Anedjib, Semerkhet and Qaa.
Second Dynasty, circa 2800s B.C.
Hetepsekheny, then Reneb. Reneb’s name indicates ascendancy of Re, the Sun God. It is preserved on a stelae now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Then Nynetjer.
The original Egyptian stock was supplemented by an Armenoid race. [Jaredite kin?]
Mesopotamia and Egypt had early and rich contacts and the Sumerians may have inspired their hieroglyphic script.
Early enemies included: 1. Libya to the northwest – originally of the same ethnic stock and perhaps remnants of the unconquered portions of Lower Egypt. 2. Nubians in the south, also of the same stock. 3. Nomads in the Sinai desert.
Religions and funerary beliefs: Horus was the primary god, later associated with Seth. Ptah was primary god of Memphis. He was Opener or Sculptor, patron of crafts.
Others were Anubis, Thoth and Bastet. Later came Osiris. Like the future Rome, Egypt appears to have tolerated and allowed its conquered peoples to worship other local gods.
The cult of rebirth: The deceased needed a preserved body, or a stone/wood likeness of it, to continue his/her existence. A privilege of royalty. Lesser folk put a mound of sand over their graves, in symbolism of the primeval hill which emerged from the waters of Chaos at the time of creation. Early royalty engaged in human sacrifice – perhaps to assure themselves a supply of servants in the afterlife. Small mastabas of this period were the precursors of the later great pyramids.
Serekh: a rectangular frame, surmounted by the falcon of Horus, in which a king’s name was inscribed. Bows: in hieroglyphics, signify enemies.
Chapter 12: The Last Predynastic Period in Babylonia
4000 BC: Mideast cultures are all similar – peasant farmers and stock breeders.
Differences between this region and Egypt: Egypt has obvious natural boundaries and was from earliest times under the rule of a divine king. Thus, the first great buildings were royal tombs. Mesopotamia has no definite boundaries and became a land of autonomous city states.
Two early centers of Mesopotamia. Sumer in the south, took primacy in culture and writing. Akkad, to the north.
Religion centered on the relationship between men and gods. Thus, a focus on temples, such as that of Inanna, an early fertility goddess. Temple architecture had much color and patterns. Facings were baked clay cones, inserted like nails.
Engravings on cylinder seals depict ritual scenes, heraldic animals and other symbols. Myths appear later.
Writing appears already in a high stage of development, in the period called Uruk 4.
A bearded, long-haired skirted figure is often depicted, but his identity remains unknown.
Mesopotamian influence eventually spread in all directions, from Anatolia to Romania and even to Egypt. Seals have been found in all those places.
Other contemporary inventions: The wheel and then the chariot. The first cities.
Chapter 13: The Cities of Babylonia.
Now we enter genuine history. The first writing, used for business transactions, is now broadening to include the first literature.
Uruk and Jamdat Nasr yielded the oldest writing tablets known – all business documents. Then comes Ur and then Shur uppak (Farah), the first site to provide proto-literature.
Scholars are not sure whether the Sumerians, who figured so largely in the development of civilization, were natives of Mesopotamia or overwhelmed an earlier, indigenous population with a proto-civilization of its own.
Belief was in a watery, chaotic universe into which came the gods. Man was created merely to serve them.
On p. 101-2 of this chapter is mentioned a goddess who stole from the gods all the concepts of civilization. I think of Lamech from Genesis and the other children of Cain, masters of technology and craft work, but shut out from God, dealers in evil partnerships, led, in at least some prominent accounts, by powerful and conspiring women.)
Priests and kings in this society were separate and rivals.
A carefully-preserved king list details the anti-deluvian rulers of Sumeria. After the flood, Kish became the seat of power, and “king of Kish” became proverbial for a mighty ruler (p. 109).
Etana, a shepherd taken to heaven on the back of an eagle. (Inspiration for Ganymede?)
2750 BC: War between Agga, king of Kish; and Gilgamesh, king of Uruk. Gilgamesh prevailed, and power shifted to Uruk.
Next to rise was Ur, [supposedly the] city of Abraham. Here the king-records become much more believable, then relapse again into absurdity.
Babylonian government was believed to be the earthly pattern of the heavenly original. With time, priests took more power and control of the government.
Royal tombs of Ur should provide the richest sources of knowledge about their religious beliefs. But the many artifacts uncovered are frustratingly silent on the motivation of their makers.
We do know that as the priests grew in power, they naturally raised their prices for service. Popular resentment grew and was supported by one of history’s first known reformers, Urukagina of Lagash.
Successful in his attacks, Urukagina justified himself as the very agent of the city god, Ningursu. His energetic ideas reached all levels of Sumerian society but it was his own office, that of governor, that took the greatest power-cut through his efforts.
His reign was cut tragically short, by the attack of Lugalzaggisi, new king of an old enemy-city, Umma. Lagash was virtually destroyed in this savage conquest.
Lugalzaggisi went on to conquer Uruk and other cities, forming a small empire. But he in turn was to fall to Sargon of Akade (2341 BC), leader of the first Akkadian state.
With Lugalzaggisi’s death, the Early Dynastic period ended. The era of Sumerian city-states was, with a few lapses, over – replaced by the Age of Empires.
Chapter 14
The Old Kingdom in Egypt and the Beginning of the First Intermediate Period
Third Dynasty: Circa 3000-2900 B.C., acc. to Ermon. 3000-2600, by the Herodotus chronology.
Sanakhte.
King Djoser (Horus-name Netjerykhet), possibly Sanakhte’s brother. Built the first great stone pyramid, step pyramid at Saqquara. Imhotep the architect.
Early records were wall carvings and the king lists inscribed on the Palermo Stone, then on the Cairo stone. Others: Westcar papyrus – a little story.
Trends: Pyramids built with larger and larger blocks of stone. Plant motifs done in stone.
Menka: He of the curtain (page 160 in this volume of CAH).
Fourth Dynasty: 2900-2750 B.C., Ermon. 2600-2500, Herodotus.
Sneferu (Nebmaat). Considered genial.
Khufu (Cheops in Greek), 2596-2573. More autocratic. Very disliked, acc. to Herodotus.
Writings: Precepts of Prince Hordedef.
Redjedef.
Chephren. (Khafre) Building of the Sphinx.
Fifth Dynasty. Circa 2750-2625 B.C.
State cult of the Sun God, Re.
First three kings: Userkaf, Sahure and Neferirkare (not mentioned by Herodotus). Then Shepseskare, Neferefre, Nyuserre, Menkauhor, Isesi, Unas (Wadjtowy). In Unas’ tomb were found the first Pyramid Texts – spells to win celestial life.
Sixth Dynasty 2625-2500:
Followed by the end of the Old Kingdom.
Teti (Seheteptowy), then Userkare or possibly Phiops I (Meryre), Merenre and Phiops II. Decree of the latter extant at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
The throne had overspent, the nobles had gained vast power and the end was near.
Seventh and Eighth Dynasties 2500-1700 (?):
Obscure, confused, “dark” time. Invasion of Semitic Hykos; purported visit of Abraham circa 2100 B.C. Literature and art very pessimistic.
Chapter 15
Palestine in the Early Bronze Age
Earliest settlements (Chalcolithic) were primitive villages without fortifications. The Early Bronze Age saw the rise of cities; the newest cities, such as Ai, were rocky citadels.
Dwellings were almost exclusively of unbaked brick.
Examples have been found of primitive temples – the Biblical ramah or high places.
During this time, the donkey was the only beast of burden.
People grew wheat, barley, lentils, beans, peas, almonds and olives. Also had their first grapes and enjoyed figs and beer.
Archaeological evidence indicates Egyptian control over the region (cf. the Narmer Palette) even as Semitic tribes from the north filtered in to overwhelm the native Canaanites.
Chapter 16
Early Dynastic Period in Mesopotamia (circa 2700 BC)
Archaeology reveals improvement in works of art.
Evidence of a great, albeit not universal flood in Mesopotamia during the reign of Ziusudra at Shuruppak.
Important cities: Kish, Eridu, Shuruppak, Nippur, Ur, Lagash and Uruk.
Chapter 17
Syria Before 2200 BC
Background: An often disunified region whose borders today would be the Mediterranean, Turkey, Sinai and the eastern desert.
Once a wooded, well-watered land which furnished much timber for ancient empires. But it was considered a no-man’s land between those empires. Early archaeological and literary evidence of human activities there is scanty. Mari, Byblos and Brak alone provide second millennium BC writing artifacts.
By the second millennium BC, we find the Execration Texts with Semitic names. But that race, as indicated by various place names, fades out in the north of the region.
Syria in the Agade period:
In 2341 BC (cf. Ch. 13), Sargon of Agade conquered Mesopotamia and turned to the fertile west, the land of the Amorites, today’s Palestine. We have written records of his exploits and the route of his campaign, from Tuttul (Hit), west of Baghdad, the gateway of the Upper Country; to Mari northwest of Tuttul, then Iarmuti (Lebanon?) and Ibla, on the Balikh River, further north.
These last two Syrian towns, listed as military objectives, thus indicate their importance in the region.
But Sargon’s hold on Syria – and that of his immediate successors – was never complete.
Cities of the Euphrates and the Khabur:
Mari (Tell el-Hariri), which once dominated south Mesopotamia. Destroyed and rebuilt by Sargon (cf p. 41 in this notebook).
Cities of the plain and coast:
Carchemish (modern Jerablus) and Aleppo, Tell Rifa’at (ancient Arpad), Ugarit just south of the embouchure of the Orontes (Nahr el-Asi).
Byblos and the land of Negau:
We study now a most ancient coastal Mediterranean city, called also Gebal (Phoenician, Mountain City), today’s Jubeil.
Its people were among the earliest workers in bronze. By the third millennium BC, it had become very important to Egypt for its resin and timber.
Plutarch notes this connection in his telling of the legend of the death of Osiris (De Iside et Osiride). Earlier version of this myth may be found in the Egyptian “Tale of Two Brothers).
Worship of Osiris may early have been linked to a Syrian tree cult.
Egyptians in Sinai and Palestine:
Egypt was ever threatened by nomadic bands coveting Delta wealth. These nomads also challenged Egypt’s hold on Sinai’s mining treasures, such as the beloved turquoise.
But Egyptians themselves found Palestine an early and rich source of slaves and made frequent raids of their own. Djer “smote Asia” circa 3000 BC and the “tradition” continued for centuries even while Byblos was left unscathed – more valuable as a trade partner.
Chapter 18
Anatolia 4000-2300 BC
The Bronze Age brought to the region by invading newcomers, at least in the plains of Cilicia, circa 3500 B.C. Assyria and Syria would in time import much of their metals from this region.
No literature or texts extant from this time period.
The second phase of the Anatolian Bronze Age began circa 2800 B.C. It ended circa 2300 BC in a terrible catastrophe, in which hundreds of cities were burned.
The cause: Balkan invaders joined with northwestern Anatolians in savage conquest.
In the northwest corner of the region stood Troy, a powerful city already occupied in the early Bronze Age. Its first phase, Troy I, ended with a huge fire. The rebuilders expanded their city, only to see it burn again. This was the gold-rich layer reached by Schliemann.
Chapter 19
The Dynasty of Agade and the Gutian Invasion
Onto the stage of history steps the mighty Sargon, son of a priestess and an unknown wanderer. His name means True King. He served in the court of Ur-Zababa, ruler of Kish, before founding his own kingdom. Sargon is pictured on a fragment housed at the Louvre.
His first conquest: Lugalzaggisi of Uruk. Then Ur, Lagash and Umma, all the principal cities of Sumer. Then came expeditions north and into Syria.
Sargon led a new northern people, called Akkadians, hostile to, and distinct from, the Sumer people in the south. Of this, the Akkadian Age, we have letters and business documents in abundance. Their Old Akkadian script, beautifully written, is the first known written Semitic language. There seems also to have been a flourishing maritime trade between this empire and an ancient Indus civilization.
Sargon was followed by his son Rimush, who spent his reign re-subjecting the rebellious empire. His biggest triumph was over Elam.
Rimush died after nine years and was succeeded by his brother Manishtusu. (Memorialized in a celebrated obelisk). Manishtusu died mysteriously and his son, Naram-Sin (circa 2200 B.C.), whose portrait is preserved on a victory stela at the Louvre, next reigned. At Tell Brak are bricks stamped with his name.
Naram-Sin was followed by his son, Shar-Kali-sharri, who reigned over the kingdom in its decline. The dynasty died at the hands of Gutian invaders. (Did Abraham leave Ur at this troubled time?)
The hated Gutians were overthrown by Utu-khegal, king of Uruk.
Chapter 20
Middle Kingdom in Egypt
Circa 2160 BC, the weak Eighth Dynasty of Egypt gave way to a strong, new claimant to the throne: Achtoes, governor of Heracleopolis, the modern Ihnasya-el-Medina. His throne name: Meryibre. (He is known in archaeology from an inscription at the First Cataract and in literature from the “Instruction for King Merikare.”)
Seventeen Heracleopolitan kings followed him, to circa 2040 BC. The fourth was Achthoes II, subject of the “Tale of the Eloquent Peasant.”
Rising in rivalry during this time was Egyptian Thebes, which would ultimately reunite all Egypt under the 11th Dynasty founded by Mentuhotpe. It controlled Thebes in 2133 BC; all Egypt by 2040, approximate time period of Joseph ben Israel. This reuniting occurred during the reign of Mentuhotpe II, Horus-name Netjeryhedjet (also Nebhepetre), who came to power in 2060 BC. He was the son of Wahankh (Inyotef II), son of Mentuhotpe I.
Next was Horus Sanktowyef, Sankhkhare Mentuhotpe, his son, 2009 BC.
End of 11th Dynasty. Brief reign of Horus Nebtowy, Nebtowyre Mentuhotpe IV, son of a harem woman and the above.
His throne was usurped by Sehetepibre Ammenemes I or Amenemhet I, a government official, circa 1991 BC. At this time was written the “prophecy” of Neferty, foretelling his “glorious” reign.
Ammenemes elevated Amun to top-god status and moved the capital from Thebes to a new city, Itj-towy, just south of Memphis. Also inaguarated the practice of co-reigning with sons for a more stable transfer of power.
So in 1972 BC, his son Sesostris I, became co-ruler. This is the first pharaoh since Mycerinus (Menkaura) of the 4th Dynasty, to be mentioned by Herodotus.
Ammenemes was assassinated in 1962 BC, an event mentioned in the contemporary (?) “Story of Sinuhe.” Thereupon, after dealing with the conspirators, Sesostris began a reign of grandiose proportions.
Followed by son Nubkaure Ammenemes II, then Sesostris II and III. Of the latter, a statuette is preserved in the British Museum.
Sesostris III (1878-1843 BC) led an expedition against the Mentju of Palestine. He reached Shechem, and, according to the “Execration Texts,” Jerusalem and Ashkelon.
This would have been before the Israelite Exodus.
The old state religion faltered after the move from Memphis; other, more obscure deities such as Mont and Amon came to the fore.
Mont was linked to the bull-god Buchis; patron god of the Mentuhotpe kings, he achieved first rank in Egypt during the eleventh dynasty.
But Ammenemes I established Amun, The Hidden One, as the state god, linking his name to Re.
This was Egypt’s Golden Age of literature:
Tale of King Cheops and the Magicians. Extant on the Westcar papyrus. Written 1786-1600 BC. (Erman, p. 36).
Instructions for Kagemni. On the Paris papyrus. (Erman, p. 66).
The Maxims of Djedethor and Ptahotpe. Ibid. (Erman, p. 54).
Story of King Neferkare and General Sisinet. (An object lesson in self-control).
Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage.
Tale of the Eloquent Peasant. (Indictment of contemporary social injustice).
Instruction for King Merykare.
Prophecy of Neferty.
Instruction of King Ammenemes I.
Story of Sinuhe. (The Egyptian abroad).
Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor.
Book of Kemyt. (Reveals the need for conscientious personnel in the newly established national administration.)
Satire on the Trades.
Dispute of a Man Weary of Life. (A product of the unrest in the fall of the Old Kingdom.)
The Destruction of Mankind.
Outwitting of Re by Isis.
Contendings of Horus and Seth.
Sacramental dramas have been preserved on the Shabako Stone (Memphite and Coronation dramas.) Also many mathematical and medical texts.
Chapter 21
Syria and Palestine, 2160-1780 BC
As Egypt weakened circa 2181 BC, so did its trade with Palestine, including Byblos. Note Ipuwer. And Asiatic nomads poured across her borders.
Achtoes in the Tenth Dynasty improved things somewhat. Note Instruction to Merikare.
But by the end of the Eleventh Dynasty (1991 BC), disorder reigned again, and the “Asians” surged back into Egypt. Joseph ben Israel would have been among them. Time period chronicled in Prophecy of Neferty.
Syria and Palestine, 12th Dynasty
Sesostris I (1971 to 1928) is reported in the Story of Sinuhe to have smitten the Asiatics. But at least in Sinai, relations were apparently peaceful. Seals and statuettes of Egyptian origin, 12th Dynasty, are plentiful throughout Palestine.
“Egyptians were well-established in Sinai … cattle and slaves came from Asia into Egypt. From these facts there emerges the impression of domination by the pharaohs … on the whole, vigorous. Its precise nature still eludes us; fifty years ago, it was barely suspected.”
First historical mention of Jerusalem: Exacration Texts (cf. p. 555).
Syria during Third Dynasty of Ur
During the Gutian period, Syria probably remained under Sumer/Akkad influence. Gudea imported Amanus timber for a temple in Lagash.
After the Gutians were overthrown, Mesopotamia was reunited in the Neo-Sumerian period of the Third Dynasty of Ur. Ur-Nammu, first king, may have made some conquests in Syria. Sakkana and ensi from Ur are found in Mari, Apishal, even Byblos.
A time of pressure from the Semitic Amaru (Amorites).
Arachaelogical evidence from Palestine.
Of walled towns destroyed by savage nomads, circa end of third millennium B.C.
Syria
Byblos -- no longer visited by Egyptians (Ipuwer) – may have been the center of the area, dominated by Amorites, in which developed the metallurgically proficient Middle Bronze Age culture that spread through Syria and Palestine.
Chapter 22
The Third Dynasty of Ur
Utu-Khegal’s glory was brief as king of Sumer, and Uruk’s time as head city. 2120 to 2114 B.C. (Suggested time of Isaac-ben Abraham).
His appointee Ur-Nammu, deputy of Ur, apparently led a rebellion against him; succeeding, Ur became the chief city and Ur-Nammu the king of Sumeria. 2113-2096.
Ur-Nammu left a hymn, a victory boast; and a set of laws. (Cf. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 22 (1968-9), 66. f.f. He also built many temples. The main structure of the tower of the moon god still stands, and his description of it is extant at the University Museum, Philadelphia.
Followed by Shulgi, his son, who ruled 48 years and launched a vigorous campaign of expansion. His tomb is still extant.
Under his successors, we hear of Asshur, a vassal city, later to become the center of the Assyrian empire.
Shulgi’s son: Amar-Sin (2047-2039). Had a peaceful reign.
Shu-Sin, his brother, ruled next. His repulse of an Amorite raid circa 2030 BC is extant in the Istanbul Museum. Eastern Elamites rising, while Ammaru in the west also threaten.
Ibbi-Sin, son of Shu-Sin pictured on a tablet at University Museum, Philadelphia, ruled next. (2029-2006). His authority swiftly crumbled as Elamite invaders from the west pushed into his realm. Ur was sacked and he was carried captive into the east. The city forever dropped out of importance in history.
The rebel Ishbi-Erra won control of the west and ruled from Isin. (2017 – year of his rebellion? – to 1985. Time of Joseph ben Israel.
Parallel rulers were in the city of Larsa; but neither were strong enough to engage the other.
Then the minor city of Babylon rose to become a third power, a capital city for the first time, under a dynasty founded by Semitic Amorites. Sumuabum, 1894-1881; Sumulael, 1880-1845; Sabium,, 1884-1831; Apil-Sin, 1830-1813; Sin-Muballit, 1812-1790; and the famous Hammurabi, 1792-1750, who conquered Larsa.
Chapter 23
Persia 2400-1800 BC
Before the Medes and Persians reached what is today Iran, in 1000 BC, this was the land of the Elamites. Capital, Susa.
[Called descendants of Shem in Gen. 10. Mentioned again in Gen. 14, in connection with the “battles of the kings that involved Abraham and Lot].
Their power as a federation came from control of both lowland and mountains, effected by merger of lowland Susians with highland Elamites.
Elam first mentioned: 2700 BC, in the Sumerian king-list. (the Weld Blundell Prism at the Ashmolean Museum).
Sargon (2300s BC) campaigned against and conquered them. They rebelled and suffered disaster.
First important Elamite document: a treaty between Narim-Sin and the king of Awan.
Under Kutik-In-Shushinak, Elam won independence and had its golden age. Then, like Agade, it fell under Gutian control, followed by the Third Dynasty of Ur.
Ibbi-Sin, however, saw Elam smash Ur’s power, destroy the city and drive him into exile. (Probably by Khutran-tempti).
Religion in Elam: A reverence for the “female” element in magic, and powers of the underword. Elamites loved the fantastic and from them derives the concept of the griffin. The goddess Pinenkir stood at the head of their pantheon. The snake was the leitmotif of their culture.
Though no early Elamite temples survive, depictions of them are as rectangular buildings with pairs of horns affixed to the side.
Civilization in Elam: No extant literature. Our knowledge is derived from pictographs, seals and a few rock reliefs, such as one nw of Fahliyan (Kurangan).
The snake a leitmotiv of Elamite culture.
Chapter 24a, Anatolia 2300 to 1750 b.c.
Following the devastating invasion of Indo-European nomads at the end of the Second Early Bronze Age, only gradually did settled civilization recover.
Troy appeared to meet its final doom circa 1900 b.c. Exactly how – with apologies to Homer – remains unknown.
Chapter 24b, Anatolia in the old Assyrian period.
First mentioned in the Sargon epic, King of the Battle, re: the Anatolian city of Purushkhanda.
Considerable portion of Anatolian population were Amorites, many of whose gods became part of the Assyrian pantheon. Viz., Dagan, Laban and Ilaprat. The latter, in Hebrew Efrath, may have had his center in ancient Bethlehem! (Note Jerome, “Eusebi Chronicorum libri duo,” vol 2, 169.
Chapter 25 Assyria 2600-1800 B.C.
The N/E corner of upper Mesopotamia, bordered by the Tigris.
Asshur: today Qal’at Sherqat. Nineveh: Koyuncik and Nabi Yunis.
Asshur artifacts probably destroyed by ancient earth-moving projects. Those of Nineveh better preserved.
Earliest population of ancient Assyria same as pre-Sumerian Babylonia: Hurrians or Subarians. Pushed out by Akkadian-speaking Semites into the Kurdish mountains.
By the Sargonic period, Nineveh was under that dynasty’s control, and an important city of the empire.
By the time of Babylonian independence, the memory of Sargon there was of a despised foreign invader; not so in Assyria, where his name and ideals (i.e. world conquest) remained popular.
Semitic moon-worship assisted this; the moon was a universal god who could convey the entire Semitic world upon his chosen king.
Names: Laban (White One), in Lebanon; Sin in Mesopotamia.
It was believed that each of the ten Assyrian deities took turns ruling the universe, and the earthly ruler was assumed to reside in one of the cities dedicated to the current deity-in-charge.
Our writer sees an allusion to this in Micah 4:8. Jerusalem, sacred city to Shulmanu (Saturn), would regain its original dominance.
Chronology
Was always taken very seriously by Assyrians, who believed in the regular reoccurrence of historic events.
Seventeen men (tent-dwellers) are listed as the nomadic tribal founders of the nation: Ushpia, Irishum, Abazu, Didanu (cf. Gen. 25:3), Khanu, Kharkharu, Imsu, Apiashal, Aminu …. , Son of Aminu, Sulili, first king.
Rulers
Ilushima
Erishum, his son (1941 to 1902 B.C.) Perfected the first large-scale experiment in free enterprise.
Ikunum.
Sharrum-ken, his son.
Naram-Sin.
National product was silver in galena ore.
Pantheon: Ashur: Son of Lakhmu; Enlil, god of weather; Adad, also a weather god; Ishtar, the planet Venus; and Shamash.
Chapter 26 (a)
Greece, Crete and the Aegean in the early Bronze Age
A pre-literate period, illuminated only with difficulty, through artifacts. Neolithic natives were joined in waves by people from the east, i.e., Anatolia.
Chapter 26 (b)
Little to note in this chapter.
Chapter 27
Immigrants from the north
The people who swept down from the north, populating Europe, parts of the Mideast and India, are styled Indo-Europeans. But we should not see them as some vigorous, virtue-bringing master race. We don’t even know their homeland, nor even need assume that all IE speakers were of one culture.
Sanskrit (Vedic) was once believed to have been the oldest recorded IE language. Now texts from Bogazkoy, an ancient Hittite city, reveal otherwise. You could have gone there and asked for water, and they would have brought you a glass!
The region of the Urnfield cultures (Poland) was a source of Indo-European peoples in the 13th century BC, who may have destroyed the Hittite empire, pushed the Dorian Greeks south from Macedonia and caused the migrations of the Sea Peoples who tormented Egypt.
Herodotus is thus vindicated. (I. 94 and VII. 73).
The Indo-European homeland may have been the Pontic region. They were steppe dwellers; their war advantage was the horse.
They stimulated more effective political organizations in lands where they settled. Relatively egalitarian; gods were anthropomorphic.
Epilogue
April 21, 2001
Closing this book (the History, not these notes), after two years, I feel great satisfaction. The first great foundation stone of historical study (3000 to 1750 BC), I now tamp securely into place. I may now move on in literature; I halted at Cicero while I played historical catch-up.
Of course, this book is only Vol. 1, Part II. Technically Cambridge History Vol. 2-7 now lie between this and Cicero, if I would be true to the expanded parameters of Knowledge Project.
But at least I will be in literature as I read them, literature that will already be familiar to me, making the catch-up go faster. You have no idea how dry all those chapters on Chalcolithic pottery were!
Chapter 11: The Early Dynastic Period in Egypt
Egypt began as two nations: Lower (northern) and Upper Egypt (southern). Horus appears to have been the first patron deity [of the region?].
First known king of upper Egypt was Ka (Scorpion).
The following bracketed paragraphs are pasted from touregypt.net.
[In the ancient Upper Egyptian town of Nekhen, The Falcon, aka Hierakonpolis, where archaeological finds have been made that are significant to the earliest days of the unification of Egypt, a fragmented and incomplete macehead attributed to King Scorpion was found by J.E. Quibell in 1897-98.
Maceheads were early considered to be symbolic of Kingly power, and throughout Egypt’s history, were shown in relief carvings as the weapon of the king as he smote his enemies who were the enemies of Egypt.
This macehead depicts a King or Chieftain wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt in full ritual dress, with the bull’s tail representing power, hanging from the back of his belt.
The multi-petalled rosette or star at this time was used to identify Egyptian kings and in fact, in neighboring Sumer, signified divinity itself. It is shown in front of his face, along with a clearly drawn scorpion sign, thereby giving his name as indicated earlier to be Srqt, or Scorpion.
In another convention of Egyptian art, this kingly, perhaps quasi-divine, figure is drawn towering over his companions and attendants.
King Scorpion is accompanied by his high officers, who carry standards on which are displayed symbols identified with particular districts into which Egypt was divided. Many of these district symbols are familiar throughout Egypt’s history. Two of these interestingly enough are Set animals, showing that at this very early time followers of Set supported the royal clan; others represent falcons, a jackal, the god Min, and possibly the mountains.
On this macehead, Scorpion is apparently performing a ceremony using a hoe. Perhaps he is opening the irrigation dikes to begin the flooding of the fields, or perhaps he is cutting the first furrow for a temple or even a city to be built, thus beginning a foundation ritual which was a kingly prerogative in Egypt (similar to Roman emperors millennia later, shown on coins ploughing the outline of a city at its foundation).
The decorative frieze around the remaining top of the macehead has lapwing birds hanging by their necks from vertical standards. In hieroglyphics these rekhyts have been interpreted to represent the common people of Egypt, and their fate seems to indicate that they were conquered by King Scorpion. However, some authorities have interpreted the rekhyt symbol as only later representing the Egyptian population, whereas early in predynastic history they referred to foreigners or non-Egyptians instead. Thus the Scorpion macehead and Narmer palette may represent the respective rulers as having successfully defeated foreigners from the west Delta (something which happened later in history as well.)
Although a four-chambered tomb in Abydos designated as B50 has been speculated as being Scorpion’s burial place, no conclusive evidence of Scorpions’ existence has yet been found at Abydos, where the tombs of several First Dynasty kings and even some preceding Dynasty 0 kings have been found. Some scholars are not even sure Scorpion actually existed (perhaps Scorpion was a title; perhaps the Scorpion sign did not signify the personage’s name at all).
He may have come from the royal house of Hierakonpolis, rather than from This, the origin city of the Thinite dynasty from whence came his later successor Narmer, the King Catfish. Perhaps This and Hierakonpolis each were the centers of rival chiefdoms, and when Scorpion’s reign ended, This assumed an uncontested position as sovereign of Egypt. Perhaps Narmer was the first king who actually reigned unchallenged throughout the country. Based upon Scorpion’s apparent connection with Hierakonpolis and from the stylistic similarities between his macehead and the palette and macehead attributed to Narmer, the two rulers may well have been close contemporaries.]
This king was followed by Narmer, who is believed to have unified Egypt. [I.e., conducted a successful campaign against Lower (northern) Egypt.]
Circa 3100 B.C. Meni or Menes, meaning “He who endures.” This could have been a specific person or a title for either of his two predecessors. (Herodotus (p. 119, line 99) called him Min.)
3000 B.C. Aha, “Fighter.”
Then Iti, aka Djer (his Horus name). Also read as Khent. Then Den, whose reign marks the appearance of the double crown (shmty). He is identified on an ivory piece now at the British Museum. Then Anedjib, Semerkhet and Qaa.
Second Dynasty, circa 2800s B.C.
Hetepsekheny, then Reneb. Reneb’s name indicates ascendancy of Re, the Sun God. It is preserved on a stelae now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Then Nynetjer.
The original Egyptian stock was supplemented by an Armenoid race. [Jaredite kin?]
Mesopotamia and Egypt had early and rich contacts and the Sumerians may have inspired their hieroglyphic script.
Early enemies included: 1. Libya to the northwest – originally of the same ethnic stock and perhaps remnants of the unconquered portions of Lower Egypt. 2. Nubians in the south, also of the same stock. 3. Nomads in the Sinai desert.
Religions and funerary beliefs: Horus was the primary god, later associated with Seth. Ptah was primary god of Memphis. He was Opener or Sculptor, patron of crafts.
Others were Anubis, Thoth and Bastet. Later came Osiris. Like the future Rome, Egypt appears to have tolerated and allowed its conquered peoples to worship other local gods.
The cult of rebirth: The deceased needed a preserved body, or a stone/wood likeness of it, to continue his/her existence. A privilege of royalty. Lesser folk put a mound of sand over their graves, in symbolism of the primeval hill which emerged from the waters of Chaos at the time of creation. Early royalty engaged in human sacrifice – perhaps to assure themselves a supply of servants in the afterlife. Small mastabas of this period were the precursors of the later great pyramids.
Serekh: a rectangular frame, surmounted by the falcon of Horus, in which a king’s name was inscribed. Bows: in hieroglyphics, signify enemies.
Chapter 12: The Last Predynastic Period in Babylonia
4000 BC: Mideast cultures are all similar – peasant farmers and stock breeders.
Differences between this region and Egypt: Egypt has obvious natural boundaries and was from earliest times under the rule of a divine king. Thus, the first great buildings were royal tombs. Mesopotamia has no definite boundaries and became a land of autonomous city states.
Two early centers of Mesopotamia. Sumer in the south, took primacy in culture and writing. Akkad, to the north.
Religion centered on the relationship between men and gods. Thus, a focus on temples, such as that of Inanna, an early fertility goddess. Temple architecture had much color and patterns. Facings were baked clay cones, inserted like nails.
Engravings on cylinder seals depict ritual scenes, heraldic animals and other symbols. Myths appear later.
Writing appears already in a high stage of development, in the period called Uruk 4.
A bearded, long-haired skirted figure is often depicted, but his identity remains unknown.
Mesopotamian influence eventually spread in all directions, from Anatolia to Romania and even to Egypt. Seals have been found in all those places.
Other contemporary inventions: The wheel and then the chariot. The first cities.
Chapter 13: The Cities of Babylonia.
Now we enter genuine history. The first writing, used for business transactions, is now broadening to include the first literature.
Uruk and Jamdat Nasr yielded the oldest writing tablets known – all business documents. Then comes Ur and then Shur uppak (Farah), the first site to provide proto-literature.
Scholars are not sure whether the Sumerians, who figured so largely in the development of civilization, were natives of Mesopotamia or overwhelmed an earlier, indigenous population with a proto-civilization of its own.
Belief was in a watery, chaotic universe into which came the gods. Man was created merely to serve them.
On p. 101-2 of this chapter is mentioned a goddess who stole from the gods all the concepts of civilization. I think of Lamech from Genesis and the other children of Cain, masters of technology and craft work, but shut out from God, dealers in evil partnerships, led, in at least some prominent accounts, by powerful and conspiring women.)
Priests and kings in this society were separate and rivals.
A carefully-preserved king list details the anti-deluvian rulers of Sumeria. After the flood, Kish became the seat of power, and “king of Kish” became proverbial for a mighty ruler (p. 109).
Etana, a shepherd taken to heaven on the back of an eagle. (Inspiration for Ganymede?)
2750 BC: War between Agga, king of Kish; and Gilgamesh, king of Uruk. Gilgamesh prevailed, and power shifted to Uruk.
Next to rise was Ur, [supposedly the] city of Abraham. Here the king-records become much more believable, then relapse again into absurdity.
Babylonian government was believed to be the earthly pattern of the heavenly original. With time, priests took more power and control of the government.
Royal tombs of Ur should provide the richest sources of knowledge about their religious beliefs. But the many artifacts uncovered are frustratingly silent on the motivation of their makers.
We do know that as the priests grew in power, they naturally raised their prices for service. Popular resentment grew and was supported by one of history’s first known reformers, Urukagina of Lagash.
Successful in his attacks, Urukagina justified himself as the very agent of the city god, Ningursu. His energetic ideas reached all levels of Sumerian society but it was his own office, that of governor, that took the greatest power-cut through his efforts.
His reign was cut tragically short, by the attack of Lugalzaggisi, new king of an old enemy-city, Umma. Lagash was virtually destroyed in this savage conquest.
Lugalzaggisi went on to conquer Uruk and other cities, forming a small empire. But he in turn was to fall to Sargon of Akade (2341 BC), leader of the first Akkadian state.
With Lugalzaggisi’s death, the Early Dynastic period ended. The era of Sumerian city-states was, with a few lapses, over – replaced by the Age of Empires.
Chapter 14
The Old Kingdom in Egypt and the Beginning of the First Intermediate Period
Third Dynasty: Circa 3000-2900 B.C., acc. to Ermon. 3000-2600, by the Herodotus chronology.
Sanakhte.
King Djoser (Horus-name Netjerykhet), possibly Sanakhte’s brother. Built the first great stone pyramid, step pyramid at Saqquara. Imhotep the architect.
Early records were wall carvings and the king lists inscribed on the Palermo Stone, then on the Cairo stone. Others: Westcar papyrus – a little story.
Trends: Pyramids built with larger and larger blocks of stone. Plant motifs done in stone.
Menka: He of the curtain (page 160 in this volume of CAH).
Fourth Dynasty: 2900-2750 B.C., Ermon. 2600-2500, Herodotus.
Sneferu (Nebmaat). Considered genial.
Khufu (Cheops in Greek), 2596-2573. More autocratic. Very disliked, acc. to Herodotus.
Writings: Precepts of Prince Hordedef.
Redjedef.
Chephren. (Khafre) Building of the Sphinx.
Fifth Dynasty. Circa 2750-2625 B.C.
State cult of the Sun God, Re.
First three kings: Userkaf, Sahure and Neferirkare (not mentioned by Herodotus). Then Shepseskare, Neferefre, Nyuserre, Menkauhor, Isesi, Unas (Wadjtowy). In Unas’ tomb were found the first Pyramid Texts – spells to win celestial life.
Sixth Dynasty 2625-2500:
Followed by the end of the Old Kingdom.
Teti (Seheteptowy), then Userkare or possibly Phiops I (Meryre), Merenre and Phiops II. Decree of the latter extant at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
The throne had overspent, the nobles had gained vast power and the end was near.
Seventh and Eighth Dynasties 2500-1700 (?):
Obscure, confused, “dark” time. Invasion of Semitic Hykos; purported visit of Abraham circa 2100 B.C. Literature and art very pessimistic.
Chapter 15
Palestine in the Early Bronze Age
Earliest settlements (Chalcolithic) were primitive villages without fortifications. The Early Bronze Age saw the rise of cities; the newest cities, such as Ai, were rocky citadels.
Dwellings were almost exclusively of unbaked brick.
Examples have been found of primitive temples – the Biblical ramah or high places.
During this time, the donkey was the only beast of burden.
People grew wheat, barley, lentils, beans, peas, almonds and olives. Also had their first grapes and enjoyed figs and beer.
Archaeological evidence indicates Egyptian control over the region (cf. the Narmer Palette) even as Semitic tribes from the north filtered in to overwhelm the native Canaanites.
Chapter 16
Early Dynastic Period in Mesopotamia (circa 2700 BC)
Archaeology reveals improvement in works of art.
Evidence of a great, albeit not universal flood in Mesopotamia during the reign of Ziusudra at Shuruppak.
Important cities: Kish, Eridu, Shuruppak, Nippur, Ur, Lagash and Uruk.
Chapter 17
Syria Before 2200 BC
Background: An often disunified region whose borders today would be the Mediterranean, Turkey, Sinai and the eastern desert.
Once a wooded, well-watered land which furnished much timber for ancient empires. But it was considered a no-man’s land between those empires. Early archaeological and literary evidence of human activities there is scanty. Mari, Byblos and Brak alone provide second millennium BC writing artifacts.
By the second millennium BC, we find the Execration Texts with Semitic names. But that race, as indicated by various place names, fades out in the north of the region.
Syria in the Agade period:
In 2341 BC (cf. Ch. 13), Sargon of Agade conquered Mesopotamia and turned to the fertile west, the land of the Amorites, today’s Palestine. We have written records of his exploits and the route of his campaign, from Tuttul (Hit), west of Baghdad, the gateway of the Upper Country; to Mari northwest of Tuttul, then Iarmuti (Lebanon?) and Ibla, on the Balikh River, further north.
These last two Syrian towns, listed as military objectives, thus indicate their importance in the region.
But Sargon’s hold on Syria – and that of his immediate successors – was never complete.
Cities of the Euphrates and the Khabur:
Mari (Tell el-Hariri), which once dominated south Mesopotamia. Destroyed and rebuilt by Sargon (cf p. 41 in this notebook).
Cities of the plain and coast:
Carchemish (modern Jerablus) and Aleppo, Tell Rifa’at (ancient Arpad), Ugarit just south of the embouchure of the Orontes (Nahr el-Asi).
Byblos and the land of Negau:
We study now a most ancient coastal Mediterranean city, called also Gebal (Phoenician, Mountain City), today’s Jubeil.
Its people were among the earliest workers in bronze. By the third millennium BC, it had become very important to Egypt for its resin and timber.
Plutarch notes this connection in his telling of the legend of the death of Osiris (De Iside et Osiride). Earlier version of this myth may be found in the Egyptian “Tale of Two Brothers).
Worship of Osiris may early have been linked to a Syrian tree cult.
Egyptians in Sinai and Palestine:
Egypt was ever threatened by nomadic bands coveting Delta wealth. These nomads also challenged Egypt’s hold on Sinai’s mining treasures, such as the beloved turquoise.
But Egyptians themselves found Palestine an early and rich source of slaves and made frequent raids of their own. Djer “smote Asia” circa 3000 BC and the “tradition” continued for centuries even while Byblos was left unscathed – more valuable as a trade partner.
Chapter 18
Anatolia 4000-2300 BC
The Bronze Age brought to the region by invading newcomers, at least in the plains of Cilicia, circa 3500 B.C. Assyria and Syria would in time import much of their metals from this region.
No literature or texts extant from this time period.
The second phase of the Anatolian Bronze Age began circa 2800 B.C. It ended circa 2300 BC in a terrible catastrophe, in which hundreds of cities were burned.
The cause: Balkan invaders joined with northwestern Anatolians in savage conquest.
In the northwest corner of the region stood Troy, a powerful city already occupied in the early Bronze Age. Its first phase, Troy I, ended with a huge fire. The rebuilders expanded their city, only to see it burn again. This was the gold-rich layer reached by Schliemann.
Chapter 19
The Dynasty of Agade and the Gutian Invasion
Onto the stage of history steps the mighty Sargon, son of a priestess and an unknown wanderer. His name means True King. He served in the court of Ur-Zababa, ruler of Kish, before founding his own kingdom. Sargon is pictured on a fragment housed at the Louvre.
His first conquest: Lugalzaggisi of Uruk. Then Ur, Lagash and Umma, all the principal cities of Sumer. Then came expeditions north and into Syria.
Sargon led a new northern people, called Akkadians, hostile to, and distinct from, the Sumer people in the south. Of this, the Akkadian Age, we have letters and business documents in abundance. Their Old Akkadian script, beautifully written, is the first known written Semitic language. There seems also to have been a flourishing maritime trade between this empire and an ancient Indus civilization.
Sargon was followed by his son Rimush, who spent his reign re-subjecting the rebellious empire. His biggest triumph was over Elam.
Rimush died after nine years and was succeeded by his brother Manishtusu. (Memorialized in a celebrated obelisk). Manishtusu died mysteriously and his son, Naram-Sin (circa 2200 B.C.), whose portrait is preserved on a victory stela at the Louvre, next reigned. At Tell Brak are bricks stamped with his name.
Naram-Sin was followed by his son, Shar-Kali-sharri, who reigned over the kingdom in its decline. The dynasty died at the hands of Gutian invaders. (Did Abraham leave Ur at this troubled time?)
The hated Gutians were overthrown by Utu-khegal, king of Uruk.
Chapter 20
Middle Kingdom in Egypt
Circa 2160 BC, the weak Eighth Dynasty of Egypt gave way to a strong, new claimant to the throne: Achtoes, governor of Heracleopolis, the modern Ihnasya-el-Medina. His throne name: Meryibre. (He is known in archaeology from an inscription at the First Cataract and in literature from the “Instruction for King Merikare.”)
Seventeen Heracleopolitan kings followed him, to circa 2040 BC. The fourth was Achthoes II, subject of the “Tale of the Eloquent Peasant.”
Rising in rivalry during this time was Egyptian Thebes, which would ultimately reunite all Egypt under the 11th Dynasty founded by Mentuhotpe. It controlled Thebes in 2133 BC; all Egypt by 2040, approximate time period of Joseph ben Israel. This reuniting occurred during the reign of Mentuhotpe II, Horus-name Netjeryhedjet (also Nebhepetre), who came to power in 2060 BC. He was the son of Wahankh (Inyotef II), son of Mentuhotpe I.
Next was Horus Sanktowyef, Sankhkhare Mentuhotpe, his son, 2009 BC.
End of 11th Dynasty. Brief reign of Horus Nebtowy, Nebtowyre Mentuhotpe IV, son of a harem woman and the above.
His throne was usurped by Sehetepibre Ammenemes I or Amenemhet I, a government official, circa 1991 BC. At this time was written the “prophecy” of Neferty, foretelling his “glorious” reign.
Ammenemes elevated Amun to top-god status and moved the capital from Thebes to a new city, Itj-towy, just south of Memphis. Also inaguarated the practice of co-reigning with sons for a more stable transfer of power.
So in 1972 BC, his son Sesostris I, became co-ruler. This is the first pharaoh since Mycerinus (Menkaura) of the 4th Dynasty, to be mentioned by Herodotus.
Ammenemes was assassinated in 1962 BC, an event mentioned in the contemporary (?) “Story of Sinuhe.” Thereupon, after dealing with the conspirators, Sesostris began a reign of grandiose proportions.
Followed by son Nubkaure Ammenemes II, then Sesostris II and III. Of the latter, a statuette is preserved in the British Museum.
Sesostris III (1878-1843 BC) led an expedition against the Mentju of Palestine. He reached Shechem, and, according to the “Execration Texts,” Jerusalem and Ashkelon.
This would have been before the Israelite Exodus.
The old state religion faltered after the move from Memphis; other, more obscure deities such as Mont and Amon came to the fore.
Mont was linked to the bull-god Buchis; patron god of the Mentuhotpe kings, he achieved first rank in Egypt during the eleventh dynasty.
But Ammenemes I established Amun, The Hidden One, as the state god, linking his name to Re.
This was Egypt’s Golden Age of literature:
Tale of King Cheops and the Magicians. Extant on the Westcar papyrus. Written 1786-1600 BC. (Erman, p. 36).
Instructions for Kagemni. On the Paris papyrus. (Erman, p. 66).
The Maxims of Djedethor and Ptahotpe. Ibid. (Erman, p. 54).
Story of King Neferkare and General Sisinet. (An object lesson in self-control).
Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage.
Tale of the Eloquent Peasant. (Indictment of contemporary social injustice).
Instruction for King Merykare.
Prophecy of Neferty.
Instruction of King Ammenemes I.
Story of Sinuhe. (The Egyptian abroad).
Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor.
Book of Kemyt. (Reveals the need for conscientious personnel in the newly established national administration.)
Satire on the Trades.
Dispute of a Man Weary of Life. (A product of the unrest in the fall of the Old Kingdom.)
The Destruction of Mankind.
Outwitting of Re by Isis.
Contendings of Horus and Seth.
Sacramental dramas have been preserved on the Shabako Stone (Memphite and Coronation dramas.) Also many mathematical and medical texts.
Chapter 21
Syria and Palestine, 2160-1780 BC
As Egypt weakened circa 2181 BC, so did its trade with Palestine, including Byblos. Note Ipuwer. And Asiatic nomads poured across her borders.
Achtoes in the Tenth Dynasty improved things somewhat. Note Instruction to Merikare.
But by the end of the Eleventh Dynasty (1991 BC), disorder reigned again, and the “Asians” surged back into Egypt. Joseph ben Israel would have been among them. Time period chronicled in Prophecy of Neferty.
Syria and Palestine, 12th Dynasty
Sesostris I (1971 to 1928) is reported in the Story of Sinuhe to have smitten the Asiatics. But at least in Sinai, relations were apparently peaceful. Seals and statuettes of Egyptian origin, 12th Dynasty, are plentiful throughout Palestine.
“Egyptians were well-established in Sinai … cattle and slaves came from Asia into Egypt. From these facts there emerges the impression of domination by the pharaohs … on the whole, vigorous. Its precise nature still eludes us; fifty years ago, it was barely suspected.”
First historical mention of Jerusalem: Exacration Texts (cf. p. 555).
Syria during Third Dynasty of Ur
During the Gutian period, Syria probably remained under Sumer/Akkad influence. Gudea imported Amanus timber for a temple in Lagash.
After the Gutians were overthrown, Mesopotamia was reunited in the Neo-Sumerian period of the Third Dynasty of Ur. Ur-Nammu, first king, may have made some conquests in Syria. Sakkana and ensi from Ur are found in Mari, Apishal, even Byblos.
A time of pressure from the Semitic Amaru (Amorites).
Arachaelogical evidence from Palestine.
Of walled towns destroyed by savage nomads, circa end of third millennium B.C.
Syria
Byblos -- no longer visited by Egyptians (Ipuwer) – may have been the center of the area, dominated by Amorites, in which developed the metallurgically proficient Middle Bronze Age culture that spread through Syria and Palestine.
Chapter 22
The Third Dynasty of Ur
Utu-Khegal’s glory was brief as king of Sumer, and Uruk’s time as head city. 2120 to 2114 B.C. (Suggested time of Isaac-ben Abraham).
His appointee Ur-Nammu, deputy of Ur, apparently led a rebellion against him; succeeding, Ur became the chief city and Ur-Nammu the king of Sumeria. 2113-2096.
Ur-Nammu left a hymn, a victory boast; and a set of laws. (Cf. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 22 (1968-9), 66. f.f. He also built many temples. The main structure of the tower of the moon god still stands, and his description of it is extant at the University Museum, Philadelphia.
Followed by Shulgi, his son, who ruled 48 years and launched a vigorous campaign of expansion. His tomb is still extant.
Under his successors, we hear of Asshur, a vassal city, later to become the center of the Assyrian empire.
Shulgi’s son: Amar-Sin (2047-2039). Had a peaceful reign.
Shu-Sin, his brother, ruled next. His repulse of an Amorite raid circa 2030 BC is extant in the Istanbul Museum. Eastern Elamites rising, while Ammaru in the west also threaten.
Ibbi-Sin, son of Shu-Sin pictured on a tablet at University Museum, Philadelphia, ruled next. (2029-2006). His authority swiftly crumbled as Elamite invaders from the west pushed into his realm. Ur was sacked and he was carried captive into the east. The city forever dropped out of importance in history.
The rebel Ishbi-Erra won control of the west and ruled from Isin. (2017 – year of his rebellion? – to 1985. Time of Joseph ben Israel.
Parallel rulers were in the city of Larsa; but neither were strong enough to engage the other.
Then the minor city of Babylon rose to become a third power, a capital city for the first time, under a dynasty founded by Semitic Amorites. Sumuabum, 1894-1881; Sumulael, 1880-1845; Sabium,, 1884-1831; Apil-Sin, 1830-1813; Sin-Muballit, 1812-1790; and the famous Hammurabi, 1792-1750, who conquered Larsa.
Chapter 23
Persia 2400-1800 BC
Before the Medes and Persians reached what is today Iran, in 1000 BC, this was the land of the Elamites. Capital, Susa.
[Called descendants of Shem in Gen. 10. Mentioned again in Gen. 14, in connection with the “battles of the kings that involved Abraham and Lot].
Their power as a federation came from control of both lowland and mountains, effected by merger of lowland Susians with highland Elamites.
Elam first mentioned: 2700 BC, in the Sumerian king-list. (the Weld Blundell Prism at the Ashmolean Museum).
Sargon (2300s BC) campaigned against and conquered them. They rebelled and suffered disaster.
First important Elamite document: a treaty between Narim-Sin and the king of Awan.
Under Kutik-In-Shushinak, Elam won independence and had its golden age. Then, like Agade, it fell under Gutian control, followed by the Third Dynasty of Ur.
Ibbi-Sin, however, saw Elam smash Ur’s power, destroy the city and drive him into exile. (Probably by Khutran-tempti).
Religion in Elam: A reverence for the “female” element in magic, and powers of the underword. Elamites loved the fantastic and from them derives the concept of the griffin. The goddess Pinenkir stood at the head of their pantheon. The snake was the leitmotif of their culture.
Though no early Elamite temples survive, depictions of them are as rectangular buildings with pairs of horns affixed to the side.
Civilization in Elam: No extant literature. Our knowledge is derived from pictographs, seals and a few rock reliefs, such as one nw of Fahliyan (Kurangan).
The snake a leitmotiv of Elamite culture.
Chapter 24a, Anatolia 2300 to 1750 b.c.
Following the devastating invasion of Indo-European nomads at the end of the Second Early Bronze Age, only gradually did settled civilization recover.
Troy appeared to meet its final doom circa 1900 b.c. Exactly how – with apologies to Homer – remains unknown.
Chapter 24b, Anatolia in the old Assyrian period.
First mentioned in the Sargon epic, King of the Battle, re: the Anatolian city of Purushkhanda.
Considerable portion of Anatolian population were Amorites, many of whose gods became part of the Assyrian pantheon. Viz., Dagan, Laban and Ilaprat. The latter, in Hebrew Efrath, may have had his center in ancient Bethlehem! (Note Jerome, “Eusebi Chronicorum libri duo,” vol 2, 169.
Chapter 25 Assyria 2600-1800 B.C.
The N/E corner of upper Mesopotamia, bordered by the Tigris.
Asshur: today Qal’at Sherqat. Nineveh: Koyuncik and Nabi Yunis.
Asshur artifacts probably destroyed by ancient earth-moving projects. Those of Nineveh better preserved.
Earliest population of ancient Assyria same as pre-Sumerian Babylonia: Hurrians or Subarians. Pushed out by Akkadian-speaking Semites into the Kurdish mountains.
By the Sargonic period, Nineveh was under that dynasty’s control, and an important city of the empire.
By the time of Babylonian independence, the memory of Sargon there was of a despised foreign invader; not so in Assyria, where his name and ideals (i.e. world conquest) remained popular.
Semitic moon-worship assisted this; the moon was a universal god who could convey the entire Semitic world upon his chosen king.
Names: Laban (White One), in Lebanon; Sin in Mesopotamia.
It was believed that each of the ten Assyrian deities took turns ruling the universe, and the earthly ruler was assumed to reside in one of the cities dedicated to the current deity-in-charge.
Our writer sees an allusion to this in Micah 4:8. Jerusalem, sacred city to Shulmanu (Saturn), would regain its original dominance.
Chronology
Was always taken very seriously by Assyrians, who believed in the regular reoccurrence of historic events.
Seventeen men (tent-dwellers) are listed as the nomadic tribal founders of the nation: Ushpia, Irishum, Abazu, Didanu (cf. Gen. 25:3), Khanu, Kharkharu, Imsu, Apiashal, Aminu …. , Son of Aminu, Sulili, first king.
Rulers
Ilushima
Erishum, his son (1941 to 1902 B.C.) Perfected the first large-scale experiment in free enterprise.
Ikunum.
Sharrum-ken, his son.
Naram-Sin.
National product was silver in galena ore.
Pantheon: Ashur: Son of Lakhmu; Enlil, god of weather; Adad, also a weather god; Ishtar, the planet Venus; and Shamash.
Chapter 26 (a)
Greece, Crete and the Aegean in the early Bronze Age
A pre-literate period, illuminated only with difficulty, through artifacts. Neolithic natives were joined in waves by people from the east, i.e., Anatolia.
Chapter 26 (b)
Little to note in this chapter.
Chapter 27
Immigrants from the north
The people who swept down from the north, populating Europe, parts of the Mideast and India, are styled Indo-Europeans. But we should not see them as some vigorous, virtue-bringing master race. We don’t even know their homeland, nor even need assume that all IE speakers were of one culture.
Sanskrit (Vedic) was once believed to have been the oldest recorded IE language. Now texts from Bogazkoy, an ancient Hittite city, reveal otherwise. You could have gone there and asked for water, and they would have brought you a glass!
The region of the Urnfield cultures (Poland) was a source of Indo-European peoples in the 13th century BC, who may have destroyed the Hittite empire, pushed the Dorian Greeks south from Macedonia and caused the migrations of the Sea Peoples who tormented Egypt.
Herodotus is thus vindicated. (I. 94 and VII. 73).
The Indo-European homeland may have been the Pontic region. They were steppe dwellers; their war advantage was the horse.
They stimulated more effective political organizations in lands where they settled. Relatively egalitarian; gods were anthropomorphic.
Epilogue
April 21, 2001
Closing this book (the History, not these notes), after two years, I feel great satisfaction. The first great foundation stone of historical study (3000 to 1750 BC), I now tamp securely into place. I may now move on in literature; I halted at Cicero while I played historical catch-up.
Of course, this book is only Vol. 1, Part II. Technically Cambridge History Vol. 2-7 now lie between this and Cicero, if I would be true to the expanded parameters of Knowledge Project.
But at least I will be in literature as I read them, literature that will already be familiar to me, making the catch-up go faster. You have no idea how dry all those chapters on Chalcolithic pottery were!
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Decline and Fall of Byzantium
In 1994 or 1995, a few years before I began to read chronologically, and before I paired that with reading the Cambridge Ancient History, I found this little book in the college library and read it for fun.
(These are just notes, notes of a common man, nothing profound, and in those long ago years, even rougher than the ones I write these days.)
***
Harry J. Magoulias has translated the writings of an eyewitness to the digestion of Byzantium and the fall of Constantinople, one Doukas.
Doukas details the bickering between Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christianity that weakened Constantinople [today Istanbul in Turkey] even as the Turkish threat washed against its bulwarks.
City by city, the [Byzantine]empire,[the last remnant of the once great Roman empire] is taken, in a period from 1360 to 1450 A.D., when Mehmed II finally brings down the walls of Constantinople and the sickly empire dies. Doukas rightly blames the myopic inhabitants for it.
Details in the book: the failed attempt to [reunify] the Christian church. A [Christian] traitor designs the lethal cannon which brings down Constantinople's walls. False prophets played a part in helping to [destroy the city].
(These are just notes, notes of a common man, nothing profound, and in those long ago years, even rougher than the ones I write these days.)
***
Harry J. Magoulias has translated the writings of an eyewitness to the digestion of Byzantium and the fall of Constantinople, one Doukas.
Doukas details the bickering between Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christianity that weakened Constantinople [today Istanbul in Turkey] even as the Turkish threat washed against its bulwarks.
City by city, the [Byzantine]empire,[the last remnant of the once great Roman empire] is taken, in a period from 1360 to 1450 A.D., when Mehmed II finally brings down the walls of Constantinople and the sickly empire dies. Doukas rightly blames the myopic inhabitants for it.
Details in the book: the failed attempt to [reunify] the Christian church. A [Christian] traitor designs the lethal cannon which brings down Constantinople's walls. False prophets played a part in helping to [destroy the city].
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Introduction
I am sitting in a hard wooden chair, alternately clicking and clacking on this keyboard and looking out the window at the apples ripening upon the tree, the tomato plants bathing in the sun and the fig tree in all its summer exuberance -- and to the woods beyond.
In another room, my beautiful Wife is waiting my return from this computer excursion: She has Saturday chores for me -- and if ever that grates upon me, I must remember how many lonely men there are in the world who pine, if not for chores, at least for the love and friendship of a Woman.
Though I scarcely have time for the blogs I have already begun, yet stubbornly I launch this newest one today. For in my leisure moments, for ten years or more now, I have taken notes on what I read, notes which until now only my eyes have seen. If I die unexpectedly, perhaps those notes will be tossed out on the trash pile. Perhaps they deserve to be. In the meantime, through this blog, I will share them with anyone who is interested.
I will begin, next Tuesday, with a look at The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. 1 Part 2: The Early History of the Middle East. That volume discusses the beginning of civilization, from earliest Egypt, Sumer and Greece all the way to the 18th century B.C.
In another room, my beautiful Wife is waiting my return from this computer excursion: She has Saturday chores for me -- and if ever that grates upon me, I must remember how many lonely men there are in the world who pine, if not for chores, at least for the love and friendship of a Woman.
Though I scarcely have time for the blogs I have already begun, yet stubbornly I launch this newest one today. For in my leisure moments, for ten years or more now, I have taken notes on what I read, notes which until now only my eyes have seen. If I die unexpectedly, perhaps those notes will be tossed out on the trash pile. Perhaps they deserve to be. In the meantime, through this blog, I will share them with anyone who is interested.
I will begin, next Tuesday, with a look at The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. 1 Part 2: The Early History of the Middle East. That volume discusses the beginning of civilization, from earliest Egypt, Sumer and Greece all the way to the 18th century B.C.
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