...The Values and World Views of the Ancient Sumerians The Ancient Sumerians were highly authoritative and interesting people. Their system of beliefs and values set them apart from many other ancient civilizations. Each god had a different persona and function. Strict laws were set for their people and harsh punishments were believed in for those who did not follow the religion’s strict code of conduct. The beliefs of the ancient Sumerians were the precedent for developing civilizations to follow. God and goddesses in the Sumerian’s belief system had very diverse personalities. The women were particularly portrayed as deceitful, moody, upset, disturbed, protective, and sometimes even creators of evil. The males, on the other hand, were written as wise, fearless, bold, god of gods, majestic, victorious, perfect, and radiant. In many stories, the male god has to either save the world and humans from something that a woman initiated, or save the women because she herself is helpless. Inanna, the beloved goddess of Sumerian culture, does not help the belief. Throughout the hymns that were written for her and published in a collection by Diane Wolkstein, Inanna must turn to the men of her life for help. In the hymn The Hulupu Tree, Inanna runs to her brother Gilgamesh for help ridding her beloved tree from pests. “I wept! How I wept! Yet they would not leave me tree.” She weeps to both her brothers yet does nothing to try and rid the tree of the pests herself before turning to them...
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...Spread of agriculture through most of Middle east. • 5,000 BCE: Farming along Nile River • 4,000 BCE: Sumerians settle in Tigris- Euphrates valley • 4,000 BCE: Sumerians (a people who had migrated into the area from the north) provided final boost toward establishing civilization • 4,000 BCE: cumulative effects of agriculture & technology → civilization as a new organizational form (wheel, bronze use, and writing facilitated) • 3,500 BCE: Writing is introduced. (based on new needs for commercial property and political records → celebration of the deeds of proud local kings) • 3,500 BCE: Early Sumerian alphabet • 3,100~2,700 BCE: Initial kingdoms in Mesopotamia and Egypt • 3,000 BCE: Introduction to bronze tools • 3,000 BCE: Mesopotamian husbands veiled their wives on marriage → to protect the wife’s honor • 2,700~2,200 BCE: Old Kingdom period , Egypt • 2,600 BCE: First great pyramid • 3,400~2,200 BCE: Akkadian Empire conquers Sumer • 2,052~1,786 BCE: Middle Kingdom period → civilization spreads to Upper Nile. • 2,000 BCE: Sumerians wrote the Epic of Gilgamesh ( world’s oldest story) • 2,000 BCE: Sumerians produced the potter’s wheel, invented glass, introduced useof fertilizer and silver → Trade expands → Sumerians had trading contact with India • 1800BCE: Babylonian Empire rose again • 1600BCE: fall of Babylonian Empire • 1,300 BCE: (Egypt) Queen Nefertiti → role in religious reforms → men and women have equal access to afterlife Trends/Ideas • MIDDLE EAST ...
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...sculpture of Two gypsum statuettes with folded hands (Votive Figures) is Sumerian Art. This sculpture is of two figures of a man and woman with their hands folded in front of their chests in a signal of prayer. The men wear belts and fringed skirts and most men have beards and shoulder-length hair. The women wear long robes, with the right shoulder bare. Comparable figures from other locations have writings,...
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...HUM101: WORLD CIVILIZATION AND CULTURE TOPIC 1: STONE AGE- PROLOGUE TO CIVILIZATION History: History is the record and interpretation of human past. It is useful and it teaches us many things about the world we live in. History is about everyday things which includes the factors how people use to travel, live, wear, eat, cook food, what were there beliefs, what kind of government they had, what theye use to do in their free time etc. All these factors makes history interesting and gives us an idea about the past actions of human beings. Before discovering what happened in history we must know when it happened. Chronology in history : BC: Before Christ BCE: Before Christian Era AD: Anno Domini CE: Christian Era Decade Century Millennium For example, we can count our age from the time we were born but we cannot count like these in history. No one knows when the world began and no one could write about 6000 years ago. But we must have a date that we can call Year One. People in different countries use different dates for Year One and sometimes often measure the date which is important in their religion. In Christian Calendar Year One is denoted as the year when Jesus Christ was born. AD means Anno Domini. These are Latin Word for ‘In the year of our Lord’. But also we want to count years before Christ was born which is before Year One. Time before Christ was born is known as (Before Christ). There are no written records about how people use to live in the past. Time before...
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...the Old Testament. His synopsis of comparative Old Testament studies begins with the resurgence of Egyptian and Mesopotamian archaeological studies during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.[1] He then moves on to discuss the impact of Friedrich Delitzsch’s lectures concerning how the writers of the Old Testament borrowed from extrabiblical sources set the stage for many secular ideologies removing the special revelation aspect from the Bible. This allowed two things to take place. First, it brought out the comparative study of the Bible into a critical realm; and second, it made Assyriology, Egyptology, and Hittitology serious academic disciplines which have greatly enhanced modern man’s understanding of these ancient cultures. While Walton discusses several forms of Old Testament study, his opinion favors comparative studies. He starts with explaining the reasoning for sound methodological comparative study and moves on to answer the “why” it should be performed over other studies. In his view, it expands the student’s understanding of four culturally significant areas: language and literature, literary genre, religious practice, and theology. His conclusion provides ten specific principles which, in his opinion are the foundational matters of comparative studies. He ends this chapter with four goals for each student in order to have a cognitive foundation for understanding the conceptual world...
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...the Tigris-Euphrates, the theory that Mesopotamia is the cradle of civilization is widely accepted.[14]The Mesopotamian civilization of Sumer emerges in the Ubaid period (6500-3800 BC) and Uruk period (ca. 4000 to 3100 BC), culminating in the mid-3rd millennium before giving rise to the Akkadian Empire in the 24th century BC. This is often identified as the first empire in history. Eridu was the oldest Sumerian site, settled during the proto-civilized Ubaid period. Situated several miles southwest of Ur, Eridu was the southernmost of a conglomeration of early temple-cities, in Sumer, southern Mesopotamia, with the earliest of these settlements dating to around 5000 BC. By the 4th millennium BC in Nippur we[who?] find — in connection with a sort of ziggurat and shrine — a conduit built of bricks in the form of an arch. Sumerian inscriptions written on clay also appear in Nippur. By 4000 BC an ancient Elamite city of Susa, in Mesopotamia, also seems to emerge from earlier villages. Whilst the Elamites originally had their own script, from an early age they adapted the Sumerian cuneiform script to their own language. The earliest recognizable cuneiform dates to no later than about 3500 BC. Other villages that began to spring up around this time in the Ancient Near East (Middle East) were greatly impacted and shifted rapidly from a proto-civilized to a fully civilized state (e.g. Ebla, Mari and...
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...Mesopotamia, an ancient Greek term meaning “the land between rivers”, is considered to be the cradle of civilization because this is where we find the origins of agriculture, written language, and cities. It was known as the land between two rivers, the Tigris to the north and the Euphrates to the south. Rains were seasonal in this area, which meant that the land flooded in the winter and spring and water was scarce at other times. Farming in the region depended on irrigation from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. In ancient times, many resources in Mesopotamia were scarce or absent, which stimulated trade within the region and beyond. Supported by lucrative trade with its neighbors, Mesopotamia grew to become a powerful empire. Life in Mesopotamia Prehistory The settlement of humans in the Near East began with the movement of Homo erectus off the African continent roughly 2 million years ago during the Paleolithic period. Over the course of several thousand years, Homo erectus spread rapidly throughout the Near East and then into Europe and Southeast Asia. The first three phases of the Paleolithic period (Lower, Middle, and Upper) extend from roughly 2.5 million years BC through 14,000 BC. Each phase is defined by changes in human habitat, stone tool technology, and diet. During most of that time, humans lived in open-air campsites and in small natural caves. They hunted wild animals and fished, gathered wild plants, and wandered over a large geographic area. During...
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...LIBERTY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY BOOK SUMMARY OF “ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN THOUGHT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT” BY JOHN H. WALTON SUBMITTED TO PROFESSOR DANIEL WARNER IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR OBST 590 BY JOEY F. LANGLINAIS LYNCHBURG, VA JUNE 23, 2013 Chapter 1 History and Methods John Walton begins this chapter by stating that the “rediscovery of Egypt began in the eighteenth century AD and of Mesopotamia in the mid nineteenth century AD.” This allowed the tens of thousands of texts that were being unearthed to be translated and studied. The motives of those involved ranged from political to interest in antiquities to biblical apologetics. Regardless of the motive, this allowed scholars to assess what might be learned from one to enhance the understanding of another . The noted Assyriologist Freidrich Delitzsch claimed that the Bible was borrowed from Mesopotamian literature, specifically the regions of the Tigris and Euphrates. His conclusion was that the Old Testament was not divine and that Christianity was rooted in pagan mythology. The result was growing division among biblical scholars. Some even took the stand that the Old Testament should be excluded from Christian theology. Others came to the defense of the Bible. This division was between a confessional standpoint and the secular view. This work actually spawned a movement called “Pan-Babylonianism” which asserted that all world myths and Christian Scriptures were...
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...“Civilization” and how we characterize it? What role do the humanities play in this definition? The definition of civilization is an advance state of human society that shows high levels of culture, science, industry and the government have been reached. Specifically the state of cultural development at which writing and the keeping of written records is attained. Humanities by definition is the documentation of human being through stories, paintings, religion and beliefs. The stories around the campfire, family heirlooms that come with a story, the journaling of our experiences and lives all become a form of humanities that is passed on to the next civilization after it. Humanities is shown through art and paintings, but does not stop there. The paintings not only tell a story in picture, but document the evolvement in skill of art with techniques and tools. The documentation of beliefs allowing for the development of religion organized societies, giving order or sense of normalcy in the burial of bodies and or praying to a god. In religion art made its presence through sculptures used in religious content. These definitions of humanities were first present in the First Human Era which has become the 1st example on record. This era marks the beginning signs of humanities and the form in which we measure humanities by. It later developed during the Mesopotamia Era into more with the beginning signs of humanities in science and culture. Sumerians were the 1st to use writing, construct...
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...Genieva Subic HIST – 1110 WESTERN CIVILIZATION I E Journal #1 Chapter one of our text covers a broad range of history beginning with the legend of Babel. (1) The story tells us how spoken communication has been lost over the years and it also creates a foundation for spoken history. (1) The text then moves on to the city of Çatalhöyük, which was established around nine thousand years ago in south central Turkey. (2) This city had eight thousand occupants living in two thousand homes, which is an average of four occupants per home, that’s not so different from how we live today. The people of Çatalhöyük were an organized and technologically sophisticated society that practiced religion, and had domesticated plants and animals. (2) This is just another example of how even though these people lived nine thousand years ago people today are still living in the same ways. I think that has been the most interesting part of the beginning of chapter one; our society still has many of the same values and practices of our ancient ancestors. The next section of chapter one focuses on the Old Stone Age or Paleolithic era. (3) The people of this era lived before written history existed, around 3000 B.C.E. However, they were tool-makers and artists. The cave paintings at Lascaux act as a type of history as do the finely made tools and jewelry that historians have discovered. (3) The Paleolithic people were known to be hunters and gatherers, they did not have domesticated animals, they had...
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...LIBERTY UNIVERSITY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY Book Summary of Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament by John H. Walton Submitted to Dr. Peter Hamilton in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of the course 201420 Spring 2014 OBST 510-B08 LUO by March 2, 2014 ABSTRACT There are fourteen chapters in the book Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible written by John H. Walton. It includes five main sections. Along with these sections there are historical pictures that consist of over 20 images. Each one of those images are included in a complete appendix at the beginning of the book. Walton gives acknowledgements, which are followed by a list of abbreviations. Part 1- Comparative Studies In this first section it includes the first two chapters. Chapter one is appropriately named history and methods. The resolution of this part of the book is to protect the Bible from the harm done by comparative studies which warped evidence to work against the historicity, canonicity, and divine revelation of the Bible. Chapter 1- History and Methods This chapter opens up with the rediscovery of Egypt and Mesopotamia, dating back to the 1800s and the mid 1900s. The author states that archeologists were very quickly discovering that the Bible in its entirety was completely and wholly accurate and true. It was during this time that evolution and the scientific...
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...Testament”, by Walton covers many issues which an individual unless wanting to seek more than what is written in the bible would want to perform endless days of research and ability to see firsthand by reading Walton’s book. These areas covered in Walton’s book cover the time from when the Old Testament had begun to be written back in BC and later re-found along with other textual artifacts earth in the 18 and mid 19th century AD. The discoveries of both biblical, and other un-biblical artifacts is covered within Walton’s book to how and why some individuals who have a different form of religious beliefs. To how in the past the individual living during early Near Eastern thought processes had been in regards to God or in many cases when not Israeli or Christian involved gods which were based off an individual’s personal interpretation. Which then in many cases spawned a different form of religion, in many cases were based off an event which. The many different form of religious beliefs covered in stem from the mythological Near Eastern form of thought process. In addition, to the aspect of how such un-Christian aspects from the past being so different from Christian gave further need...
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...Interaction of geography and climate with the development of human society a. Five Themes of Geography – consider these 1. Relative location – location compared to others 2. Physical characteristics – climate, vegetation and human characteristics 3. Human/environment interaction – how do humans interact/alter environ a. Leads to change 4. Movement – peoples, goods, ideas among/between groups 5. Regions – cultural/physical characteristics in common with surrounding areas b. E. Africa first people – 750,000 years ago started to move 1. moving in search of food c. Role of Climate – End of Ice Age 12000 BCE – large areas of N. America, Europe, Asia became habitable – big game hunters already migrated 1. Geographical changes - 3000 BCE Green Sahara began to dry up, seeds to forests – N. America 2. Effect on humans – nomadic hunters didn’t move so much a. Settle near abundant plant life – beginning of civilization b. Sedentary life w/ dependable food supply 3. milder conditions, warmer temperatures, higher ocean levels 2. Demography: Major population changes resulting from human and environmental factors 1. 2 million people during Ice Age – allowed for growth ...
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...civilization began around 5500 BC and then began to flourish as a result of new innovations in agriculture and the abundance of natural resources around the Nile. Over time, Egyptians made great achievements in mathematics, writing, astronomy, medicine, engineering, and architecture. This played a huge part in the progression of Egypt into a powerful and influential civilization. In addition to these achievements, the significance of religion was another extremely important factor that allowed the Egyptian civilization to thrive. Egyptians practiced polytheism. In their religion, not only were there multiple gods, but their gods were sometimes in human form, animal form, and even a combination of the two. Egyptians also believed that their king, or Pharaoh, was sent from the gods to protect and rule them and that “he was the indispensable link between his people and the gods.” The strong belief of the afterlife in the Egyptian religion led to the mummification process of royalty...
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...of spring, the rivers overflow causing a flood, however it does not happen every year. Whenever the rivers overflow and flood it can be catastrophic to the people as well as to the crops. Human advancement helped intervene this situation and build ditches and drainage so that water can be taken out for use later. The rivers helped the Mesopotamians gather abundant amounts of foods and crops. The water from the rivers were a crucial part in the advancement of this civilization. The first Mesopotamian civilization were the Sumerians, what ways made them advance economically and politically? In the early form of government, scientists believe that priests and priestesses had a very important role. Sumerians believed in theocracy, a government ruled by a divine authority. This form of organization, making one high authority over others, helped shape the civilization. Kings ruled in the Sumerian city and believed kings were divine and had powers from the gods or were the agents of god's. The kings had power; their words could not be reversed, they led armies and workers. Everyone in the city aided the king showing the amount of power in the rule. This shows hierarchy existed back then with the kings at the very top and workers being under the rulings of the king. There were the elites at the top, dependent commoners as the elite's assistants , free commoners as the farmers and fisherman, and the slaves who built palaces and did as officials asked them to do. How did Hammurabi’s...
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