Karlo Soto Tolentino, LPT

Beginnings of Civilization
in Asia
 Mesopotamian Civilization
• Appeared 5,000 years ago
• Greeks gave its name, which means “land between
rivers”
• Rivers of Tigris and Euphrates
• It is Iraq today
• It was a part of Fertile Crescent
• a great arc of arable land stretching from the Persian Gulf
to the eastern shore of the Mediterrenean Sea
 Fertile Crescent

• It was referred to in the

Bible as the Plain of Shinar
• The part of this valley
nearest the Persian Gulf is
called Sumer.
Fertile Crescent at present
SUMERIANS
 Sumerians
• Described as dark-haired people
• Descended from one of the farming villages near
Mediterranean and the Caucasus
• They moved into the fertile river valley of Tigris and
Euphrates rivers in the southern end of Mesopotamia
• Created number of independent city-states
 City-States of Sumerians

• Cities of Ur, Uruk, Lagash and Kish

• Ur was located west of the
Euphrates
• Uruk is the oldest city and now is
the modern Warka
• The Cities of Ur and Uruk proved
the existence of Sumerian city-
states
Ruins of the city of Ur
 Theocracy
• System of government in which priests rule in the
name of God or a god
• Each city-state was a Theocracy
• Local god, believed to be the real ruler
• Represented by an earthly ruler
• Patesi – (priest-king)
• Ensi – (title designating the ruler or prince of a city-state)
• Lugal – (“king, ruler” - ruler par excellence)
• Had unlimited power, but not considered as god
PATESI ENSI LUGAL
 ZIGGURAT
• Sumerians believed in many gods
• Each district had its own god with its own temple
(Ziggurat)
• Center of popular social and economic activities
• Built to serve as artificial mountains
• To “raise to heaven” the main god whom the
Sumerians worship
• Also meant to serve as a bridge between men and
their gods
• Elamite ziggurat – largest and best preserved at
Choga Zanbil
The Elamite Ziggurat
The Elamite Ziggurat
 CUNEIFORM
• System of writing of Sumerians
• Wedge-type writing
• Done by writing on a clay tablet with the use of a
reed (stylus) cut squarely at the end
• Originally, pictographic representations of persons
and ideas were used
• Later on, adopted phonetic representations of names
SEXAGESIMAL
The Sumerians did not form a
strong or united government...
Around 2350 BCE, Sumer
falls to Conquerors – the
Akkadians
AKKADIANS
SARGON THE GREAT
• Sargon I
• Ruler of neighboring Akkad
• Conquered the city-states of Sumerians
• Brought Sumerians under his control as part of
the “world’s first empire”
• A state in which one ruler controls other kingdoms
or territories
• His empire extended up to Mediterranean
• Sargon’s family rule lasted for about 160 years
TASHLULTUM
•Sargon’s Wife
•Queen of the Akkadian
Empire
 Rimush Manishtushu
• Reigned as second king • Reigned as king of Akkad
after the death of his
father, King Sargon the after his brother
Great (Rimush) death
• Faced widespread revolts • freed of the rebellions
and reconquered Sumerian
city-states of his brother's reign
NARAM-SIN
• The third successor of the
Akkadian empire
• Sargon’s grandson
• Empire reached its maximum
strength
• Claimed divinity for himself,
taking the title – “God of
Akkad”
After the death of Naram-Sin, the
Akkadian Empire came under
increasing pressure from the more and
more frequent Gutian incursions, to
the point that by 2100 BCE, it seems
that all of Akkad except the city itself
was in the hands of the Gutians.
BABYLONIANS
 HAMMURABI
• Sixth Amorite King
• Drove the Elamites out of Mesopotamia and unified
the region
• Little town of Babylon
• Extended his territory westward to the
Mediterranean and southward to the Persian Gulf
• United all the Akkadian and Sumerian city-states
• Trade and commerce flourished
 CODE OF HAMMURABI
• Greatest contribution was a Code of Laws
• “Code of Hammurabi”
• Contained several ideas derived from the Sumerians
• Inscribed on a block of stone found by French
archeologists in Susa, Iran in 1901
• Consisted of 262 articles
• Political, economic, and social organizations of
Babylonians
• Prescribe punishments
• Protected the right of women
CODE OF HAMMURABI
• Establishes
divisions of
Babylonian society:
• Aristocrats
• Merchants &
Artisans, and
• Slave Class
After Hammurabi’s death,
the Hittites attacked the
Amorites’ stronghold in
northern Syria and
invaded the Babylon.
HITTITES
 HITTITES
• Lived in an area to the northwest of Babylonia
• Mixture of Indo-Europeans and Aramenoids
• Dominated Asia Minor (Turkey) from 1600-1200 BCE
• System of writing was composed of Akkadian
cuneiform and pictographs similar to hieroglyphics
• “First to use horses in pulling chariots”
• THERE MOST IMPORTANT DISCOVERY,
HOWEVER, WAS THE KNOWLEDGE OF
HOW TO WORK IRON
 HITTITES
• They refined iron ore and used it to make tools and
weapons.
• Soon became a powerful force in the Middle East
• Conquered Jerusalem
• Took over northern Syria
• Seized Phoenicia from the Pharoahs
Hittite power declined
sometime in 1200 BCE
due to attacks from the
Assyrians
ASSYRIANS
 ASSYRIANS
• Originally from a highland region of the upper Tigris
River
• CRUEL, HARDY and WARLIKE people
• Likes to overthrew neighboring small states and
established a chain of rule
• First set up their capital at Assur, and later at
Nineveh.
 KING ADAD-NIRARI I
• the king of the Assyrian Empire who
initiated the first major expansion of the
Assyrian kingdom from the city of Ashur
(Assur) throughout the region
of Mesopotamia

• “INITIATED WHAT WOULD BECOME

STANDARD PROCEDURE FOR THE
ASSYRIAN EMPIRE: THE
DEPORTATION OF LARGE
SEGMENTS OF THE POPULATION”
ASHURNASIRPAL
• known for his ruthless military conquests
and the consolidation of the Assyrian Empire

•“IN THE UNDERSTANDING OF

THE PEOPLE OF THE NEAR
EAST AT THAT TIME,
ASHURNASIRPAL REALLY WAS
“KING OF THE WORLD”.
TIGLATH PILESER I
• an Assyrian king of the period known as the Middle
Empire, revitalized the economy and the military
• His reign reached the peak of power of the
Assyrians

• IN EVERY ASPECT OF HIS REIGN,

TIGLATH PILESER I FOCUSED ON A
POLICY BEST EXPRESSED BY LATIN
POET LUCIUS ACCIUS: ODERINT DUM
METUANT – LET THEM HATE, SO LONG
AS THEY FEAR.
TIGLATH PILESER III
• was among the most powerful kings of the
Neo-Assyrian Empire
• His reign reached the widest territory of the
Assyrian Empire

• ONCE LOYALTY WAS ASSURED,

CONQUERED REGIONS WERE
ALLOWED TO RETAIN SOME
AUTONOMY AND CONTINUE ON
WITH THEIR LIVES AS BEFORE.
 KING SARGON II
• Emerged as a powerful kingdom in the
fertile crescent
• Established the largest empire that
extended to Palestine to Egypt as far south
as Thebes and to the valley of Tigris and
Euphrates
• Took Damascus and Samaria
• Succeeded by his son Sennacherib, and his
grandsons, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal
SENNACHERIB
• was the second king of the Sargonid
Dynasty of Assyria

• SENNACHERIB HAD SPENT MORE

TIME DEALING WITH BABYLON
AND THE ELAMITES AND
EXPENDED MORE MEN AND
RESOURCES ON SUBDUING THAT
CITY THAN ANY OTHER, SO HE
ORDERED BABYLON TO BE RAZED
TO THE GROUND.
 ASHURBANIPAL
• Last ruler of the Assyrian Empire
• Responsible for building the oldest library in
history
• He established his famous library of over
30,000 clay tablets at Nineveh.
• Information on mathematics and literature which
they borrowed from the Babylonian
• IN BETWEEN COLLECTING HIS LIBRARY,
RENOVATING NINEVEH, AND RUNNING
THE EMPIRE, ASHURBANIPAL
CONTINUED TO LEAD HIS OWN
MILITARY CAMPAIGNS.
Between 627 and 612 BCE the
empire steadily dissolved as
Medes, Persians, Babylonians,
Cimmerians, Scythians and
Chaldeans burned and sacked
the Assyrian cities.
CHALDEANS
 CHALDEANS
• Also known as “Ancient Babylon”
• “The Second Babylonian Empire” or “Neo Babylonia”
• First Semitic people to rule over ancient
Mesopotamia under the leadership of Nabopolassar
NABOPOLASSAR
• Founder of the Chaldean Empire
• First King of the Chaldeans
• Established Babylonia as the capital
of Chaldea
• Freed Babylonians and finally
terminated the Assyrians
• Succeeded by his son,
Nebuchadnezzar
NEBUCHADNEZZAR
• The greatest monarch of the Chaldean empire
• Revived the ancient glory of Babylonia and called it
“New Babylon” (The Greatest City of Antiquity)
• Overthrew Egyptians in Syria
• His story can be found at the book of Daniel in the
Bible
• Spent all of his time beautifying the empire
• Built the Hanging Gardens for his wife Amytis of
Media
• Diagnosed with a mental disorder: Lycanthropy
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
NABONIDUS
• Son of Nebuchadnezzar
• Last king of the Neo Babylonia
• Interested in the religion and very
uncertain with scholarship
• During his reign, the Chaldean fell under
the force of the Persians led by Cyrus the
Great
PERSIANS
 PERSIANS
• Gained supremacy of West Asia under the
leadership of Cyrus II or Cyrus the Great
• It’s empire extended east to the borders of
India, west to the Aegean Sea, and South to
Egypt
CYRUS THE GREAT
• the founder of the Persian Achaemenid
Empire
• Cyrus means “Sun-Like”
• Known for his good leadership
• Freed and allowed Jews to go back to their
land, Jerusalem
• Allowed captive to retain their culture and
religions
• Built Satrapy or provinces of the empire
• Satraps, governor or the Satrapy. Serve as eyes
and ears of the king
ZOROASTRIANISM
• Founded by Zoroaster or Zarathustra
• Zoroastrianism emphasized that two great
deities ruled over the universe.
• Ahura Mazda (god of Wisdom and goodness,
supremely good and embodied the principles of
light, thruth and righteousness)
• Ahriman (the evil god, presided over the forces of
darkness and evil)
• Zend Avesta – sacred Zoroastrianism text
DARIUS I “THE GREAT”
• Under his reign, the empire
reached its greatest size
• Divided the empire into 20
satrapies
• Susa, Ecbatana, Babylon,
and Persopolis
 XERXES
• Son of Darius the Great
• Also known as Xerxes The Great
• His official title was Shahanshah which,
though usually translated as “emperor”,
actually means “king of kings”
• Attacked the Greece in the Battle of
Thermopylae after his father death in the
Battle of Marathon
XERXES REFERRED TO HIMSELF AS THE KING OF THE
PERSIANS AND THE MEDES, AND TREATED ALL AS
SUBJECT TO HIS RULE.
The Persian empire led
by Darius II, fell under
the hands of the emperor
of Macedonia named
Alexander the Great
HEBREWS
HEBREWS
• Palestine, the Holy land of the Hebrews or Jews
• Stretching between the Mediterranean in the west
and Jordan River and the Dead Sea in the east
• There were rich pastures in the valley and the hills
were covered with vines and olive, fig, and almond
trees
• Jews who came back to Palestine from slavery in
Egypt were not united.
• The 12 different tribes fought against each other
 PATRIACHS AND ORIGINS OF
JUDAISM (HEBREWS)

• Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, known as the Patriarchs

• both the physical and spiritual ancestors of Judaism
• They founded the religion now known as Judaism,
and their descendants are the Jewish people.
ABRAHAM
• According to Jewish tradition, Abraham
was born under the name Abram in the
city of Ur in Babylonia
• He was the son of Terach, an idol
merchant,
• But from his early childhood, he
questioned the faith of his father and
sought the truth
• The first Hebrew
ISAAC
• Son of Abraham
• Isaac was the subject of the tenth and most
difficult test of Abraham's faith: God
commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac as a
burnt offering. (Gen 22). This test is known in
Jewish tradition as the Akeidah (the Binding, a
reference to the fact that Isaac was bound on
the altar).
• Isaac knew that he was to be sacrificed, yet he
did not resist, and was united with his father in
dedication.
• At the last moment, God sent an angel to stop
the sacrifice.
JACOB (ISRAEL)
• Jacob and his brother Esau were at war
with each other even before they were
born.
• They struggled within Rebecca's womb.
• Esau was Isaac's favorite, because he was a
good hunter, but the more spiritually-
minded Jacob was Rebecca's favorite.
• God blessed Jacob and gave him the name
"Israel" (Yisrael), meaning "the one who
wrestled with God" or "the Champion of
God."
•Jacob fathered 12 sons: Reuben,
Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun,
Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali,
Joseph and Benjamin

•This is the origin of the 12 tribes of

Israel
SAMUEL
• The last and the greatest judge
• Urge to unite and fight their oppressors
• The two books of Samuel were originally one
book in Hebrew
• First Samuel deals with the transition from the
period of judges to that of the monarchy
• Second Samuel opens up with David
 SAUL
• First king of the Hebrews
• Anointed by the prophet, Samuel
• Nobody agreed with anybody of his
ideas
• Fell on his own sword
DAVID
• A shepherd boy who killed
the Philistine Giant,
Goliath
• Son of King Saul
SOLOMON
• Son of David
• “The Wise Man”
• Under his rule, the kingdom reached
its golden age
• Built the Temple of Jerusalem
After the death of King
Solomon, the ten
northern tribes seceded
from the kingdom and
established their own
state, called Israel.
• TORAH – the first five books of the Bible: Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy
• Torah is the entire body of Jewish teachings.

• EXODUS - the departure of the Israelites from Egypt

• DIASPORA - the dispersion of the Jews beyond their

homeland – Israel

• YAHWEH – “the one who is, the existing” (Jehovah)

• MOSES – went to Mt. Sinai and prayed

• 2 stone tablets – with the inscription of the 10 commandments
LEGACY OF THE JEWS
• The greatest legacy of the Jews to the world was
monotheism, or belief in only one God – Yahweh.
• Their religion was called Judaism
• Their sufferings gave them a deeper understanding of
what is meant to worship Yahweh
• Their idea of God is that He is a loving, just, and
merciful Father – not only of the Jews but all of
them.
PHOENICIANS
PHOENICIA
• Got its name from Phoenix – the purple dye
extracted from a special variety of shellfish called
“Murex”
• The infertility of their land made Phoenicians sailors
and sea traders
• Built ships out of the cedar trees of the Lebanon
mountains
• Some of their most important products were
perfume, incense, woolen and linen fabrics, and iron
implements
PURPLE DYE
• Principal export
• Very expensive
• Became the chosen color of the rich and
famous
• Kings wore this and it became known as
royal purple
LEGACY OF THE PHEONICIANS
• “Greatest traders of Antiquity”
• “Missionaries of Civilization”
• Developed a system of writing that is more advance
than cuneiform and hieroglyphics
• Used letter signs that represented sounds to make an
alphabet
• The alphabet had 22 signs or letters
• They taught this to the Greeks, who added vowel
sounds
• The alphabet we use today evolved from this
combination of consonant and vowel signs
END
K.S.T.