Unit 5

FIRST CIVILISATIONS

1st level ESO

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Introduction

The Ancient Age began at the end of the Iron Age, that is Prehistory, and it starts with the
appearance of writing around 3.500 B.C. and ends with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in
476 A.D.

During this period the first civilizations arose and developed. I am sure you have heard of
them…Egypt and its pyramids and pharaohs, Greece and its wise philosophers and the Olympics,
Rome and its strong gladiators and vast empire.

The main characteristics of the Ancient Age are the following:

Urban life begins to develop, the cities grow larger both in size and amount of people. So as to
organize these cities, the political power was in the hands of the kings, emperors and pharaohs and
they had the maximum authority. The population began to divide into free men and slaves. In the
Ancient Age there were continuous wars, trade between cities grew in relevance, allowing a great
intercultural exchange to take place.

Vocabulary

Civilisation, harvest, livestock, tax, kingdom, government, trade, craftwork, crop, city state,
conquer, empire, rule, god/goddess, social group, priest, pharaoh, papyrus, pyramid, scribe, clay
Tablet, army, law, worship, mummify, adobe bricks, flood, dynasty, free people, slaves, polytheist,
cuneiform, peoples, dykes, mud, population growth, Fertile Crescent, clay Tablet, hieroglyphic, ink,
reed, chisel,wedge, people, grow up, polytheistic, workshop

Topics

1. First civilisations.
2. The invention of writing
3. Mesopotamia.
4. Ancient Egypt.

Dossier Arte

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What is a civilisation?

A civilisation is a complex human society, usually made up of different cities, with certain
characteristics of cultural and technological development.

The river civilisations

Around 5000 years ago, the first historical civilisations emerged. They are called river civilisations
because developed along large rivers sourrounded by fertile lands.

The most important river civilisations were:

 Mesopotamian civilisations, (between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates).

 Egyptian civilisation, (close to river Nile),
 Indian civilisation, (along the rivers Indus and Ganges),
 Chinese civilisation, (along rivers Huang He and Yangtze).

First civilisations

All these civilizations had certain features in common:

 They were located near to a river that fertilised the soil.

 The land produced abundant harvest which led to a population growth.
 They built cities with a system of goverment and public administration to organise the city.
 They invented forms of writing, (around 3500 B.C).
 Trade developed together to a transport system.
 New skills emerged, (make pottery, metallurgy…) and there were new social groups.

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What is Fertil Crescent?

Fertile Crescent is the region where the first settled agricultural communities appeared by the
early 9th millennium B.C.

2. The invention of writing

Writing appeared in Mesopotamia and Egypt almost at the

same time, (around 3500 B.C.), to meet the needs of
administration and commerce. This marks the beginning of
history.

Sumerians, in southern Mesopotamia, developed one of the

earliest writing systems in the world. The system was
developed so that information could be recorded.

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 In Mesopotamia, people wrote on clay tablets that
where then left to dry. They wrote with a sharp reed. This
kind of writing is called cuneiform, because the signs
they wrote were composed of wedges (cuñas).

Cuneiform writing
Scribes were very important people. They were trained to write cuneiform and record many of the
languages spoken in Mesopotamia. Without scribes, letters would not have been written or read,
royal monuments would not have been carved with cuneiform, and stories would have been told
and then forgotten.

In Egypt, people usually wrote on papyrus,

using brushes and ink, or on stone, using a
hammer and a chisel. The writing called
hieroglyphics, represented words
through pictures of figures, animals, etc…

Hieroglyphic writing

The experts in this type of writing were the scribes, some of them were civil
servants of the State. They produced a large amount of works of all
kinds: literary, religious, scientific, ... In the Ancient Egypt scribes had a
relevant role because they knew the hyerogliphic writing, mathematics and
calculation. Some of them became really important in society.

Thanks to the Rosetta Stone, a piece of engraved black granite, they could
decipher the hieroglyphics. The French Champollion achieved this in 1822,
thanks three types of writing appearing on said
stone: hieroglyphics, demotics, and Greek, that made reference to the
same text. As Greek was known, they could find out the contents of the
other writings.
Rosetta stone

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3. Mesopotamia.

Mesopotamia, which in Greek means, “land between two rivers”, was a urban civilization that grew
up around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

The location of Mesopotamia and the fertility of its lands made it an attractive place for humans to
live. Many different groups of people settle there and built independent, walled city states. These
were sometimes conquered and held by different empires for long periods of time.

The history of Mesopotamia is marked by the different peoples that ruled it at a different times:

 Sumerians and Akkadians

The Sumerians inhabited city states in Mesopotamia around 3500 B.C. they built dykes and Canals
to control river floods and irrigate crops. They invented writing and were conquered by
Akkadians.

 Baybilonians and Assyrians

Towards 1950 B.C. various nomadic tribes conquered Mesopotamia and some city states such as
Babylon unified Mesopotamia and founded the first Babylonian Empire, one of his greatest King
was Hammurabi who wrote the oldest set of laws known to exist. Later Babylon was conquered by
the Assyrians ruled by kings as Ashurbanipal . Assyrians built a large empire, its capital city was
Ninevah.

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  Persians and Greeks

In 539 B.C., the Persians conquered babylon and converted Mesopotamia in a province of the
Persian Empire, later the Persians were conquered by the Greeks, under the rule of Alexander the
Great

3.1. Life in Mesopotamia

Mesopotamian society has privileged and non-privileged groups. Privileged people are very rich and
have all the power:

 The aristocracy consists of the king’s family and the nobility. They govern and own most of the
land. The king is a religious and military leader.
 Priests control religious rituals, agriculture and taxes.
 Scribes write laws and commercial transactions. They know how to read, write and count.

Non-privileged people are free people or slaves:

 Peasants or country people are free, but they rent the lands around cities from the king or the
temple. Peasants have to give part of the crops to the king or temple. They cultivate crops, such
as wheat, beans and barley, and use simple ploughs.
 Craftsmen work in workshops. There are different types of craftsmen, such as carpenters,
weavers and jewellers.
 Merchants exchanged products with other regions: stone wood, metals for wool, cerals, clay
pots etc…
 Slaves are war prisoners. They have no rights.

Standart of Ur: on the top row is the ruling caste and below, farmers and merchants

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People lived in cities with defensive walls, the palace and the temple were the
most important buildings in Mesopotamian cities. People worshipped various
gods, (polytheistic), and believed in live after death.

There were many libraries in Mesopotamia, the most significant literary works were epic poems. In
science Meopotamians made advances in matemathics, astronomy and medicine.

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4. Ancient Egypt.

Egypt is located in a large desert crossed from north to

south by the long river Nile, which flows from lake
Victoria to the Mediterranean Sea.

Ancient Egypt was divided in two areas:

 The delta or Lower Egypt, (in the north).

 The Nile River Valley or Upper Egypt, (in the

south).

For an agricultural civilization like the Egyptians, the Nile

was a vital importance. It was also used as a means
of communication.

In Ancient Egypt, the Nile overflowed its banks once in

a year, flooding the river valley and fertilising the
sourrounding land. The Ancient Egyptians worshipped
the Nile as a god, becaosue for them it was a source of
life, it was also the main transport rute..

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The history of Egypt is divided into the following periods:

 Old Kingdom, (2700-2200 B.C), was the period of greatest splendour in Egypt. Pyramids
were built during this periods in Giza by the pharaohs Chepos, Khafre and Menkaure. TThe
capital city was Menphis.

 Middle Kingdom, (2200-2052 B.C), the capital city was transfered to Thebes and the
kingdom increased its territory. Other peoples conquered Egypt.

 New Kingdom, (1567.1085 B.C), was a period of enormous prosperity, Egypt was governed
by pharaohs such as: Akhenaten, Tutankhamun, Rameses II….

 Late Period, this was a period of decline, Egypt was invaded by other peoples. Alexander the
Great conquered Egyptin 332 B.C.. After the death of Queen Cleopatra, Egypt became a
Roman´s province.

Abu Simbel temple, built by Rameses II

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 4.1. Life in Ancient Egypt.

The Egyptian Society was not equal. Egyptian Society was hierarchical and was structured into
different groups.

 The Pharaoh and the royal family. Pharaoh was considered a god, had
an absolute rpower and was the owner of all the lands
 The ruling caste was made up of priests, high-ranking officials,
province governors, military chiefs and scribes of high standing.

Scribe

 Peasants, which constituted around 97% of the total population.

The craftsmen and merchants were also in this group.

 Slaves were regarded as objects or animals and could be bought and sold. Many of them
were working in the domestic service.

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  Women played a more significant role in Egypt
than in other Ancient cultures. Some of them had
great power, and even became pharaohs such as
Queen Hatshepsut.

The Egyptian economy was based on agriculture and livestock. The also produced high-quality
crafts and traded goods and products.

The Egyptian mainly cultivated cereals to make bread and beer and flax to make clothes. They built
dams and canals, which held floodwater from the Nile.

4.2. Religion and culture

The Egyptians are polytheistic: they believe in many gods. The principal god is the Sun, called Ra,
Amun or Atum. Other important gods are Isis, Osiris and Horus. Each god had a temple, where a
group of priests made offerings to its statue. Some gods and goddesses are identified with particular
animals. There is often a connection between the god or goddess and the actions of the animal. For
example, the goddess of war has the head of a lioness to show that she is ferocious.

The Book of the Dead. Painting on papyrus

Egyptians believe that the pharaohs are gods. Nobody can look at the pharaoh in the eye or touch
his body. They believe that the pharaohs have magical powers. The pharaoh is all-powerful. He
passes laws, rules the country, owns most of land, controls trade and leads the armies.

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 Egyptians believe there is an afterlife, so the dead body has
to be preserved. It is made a mummy, which is put in a
sarcophagus. The tombs contain the things which are
necessary in the afterlife, such as food, jewels or statues of
servants.

A product of the belief in the afterlife was mummification,

or the preparation of the dead for the next life. The bodies
were subjectedto a long process during which their
intestineswere extracted, (and deposited in glasses called
“canopic jars”) and, through the coated in
different substances, they were carefully wrapped in
bandage to preserve the appearance they had when they
were alive

Tutankhamun´s sarcophagus

Many written texts have been preserved, including religious works, literary works and sientific and
technical treatises. The text were written on papyrus. They also wrote inscriptions on temple and
tombs walls.

The Egyptinas understood elementary mathemathics. They coul add, subtract, multiply and divide.
They also knew how to calculate the volume of shapes such as cylinders and pyramids.

Their knowledge of medicine was advanced for the times. They practised surgery and had a wide
understanding of fractures and others medical problems.

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Dossier Arte

Arte en Mesopotamia
La arquitectura mesopotámica usó nuevos materiales de construcción:

 El ladrillo a diferencia del adobe. El ladrillo no tiene paja y es más consistente porque no se
seca al sol, sino en hornos a mayor temperatura. Todas las construcciones se hacían con
ladrillos porque en Mesopotamia escasea la piedra.

 Las cerámicas vidriadas o azulejos. La pieza de barro se recubre con una capa aislante y
brillante (con polvo de óxido de diferentes colores). Se usa para decorar la parte exterior de
los edificios o para cubrir las construcciones en forma de teja.

Como no tenían piedras, no podían usar cubiertas planas. Las cubiertas planas con ladrillos no
aguantan el peso y se caen. Por eso tuvieron que usar cubiertas curvas:

 El arco de medio punto de forma semicircular.

 La bóveda de cañón, una sucesión de arcos de medio punto. como se puede ver en la puerta
de Ishtar.

Puerta de Isthar. Museo de Pérgamo (Berlin)

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Construyeron torres escalonadas llamadas zigurats, como el de Ur, o el de Marduk. Cada planta del
zigurat representaba uno de los siete planetas del sistema solar. Sobre la planta superior se colocaba
un templo.

Esquema Zigurat

Por lo que se refiere a la escultura, hicieron:

 Bajorrelieves en los muros, es decir, relieves de poca profundidad en los que representaban
a sus dioses, animales mitológicos, reyes, badallas, etc. Los primeros maestros del relieve
fueron los hititas en Anatolia, en Mesopotamia los primeros fueron los asirios.

El rey asirio Asurbanipal cazando leones. Museo Británico

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  Esculturas exentas, es decir, separadas del edificio. Representaban a
sus reyes y a sus dioses.

 Estelas que eran monolitos (una gran piedra) verticales

conmemorativas, es decir, que recordaban o conmemoraban un gran
acontecimiento.

Estela. Código de
Hammurabi

Arte en Egipto

La arquitectura egipcia se caracterizó por el uso de la piedra y el colosalismo, es decir, el gran

tamaño de sus construcciones. Las principales fueron las tumbas y los templos. Es una
arquitectura adintelada, con predominio de la línea recta sobre la curva.

Los templos más famosos son los de Karnak, Luxor y Abu Simbel. La mayoría tenían los siguientes
elementos:

 Una avenida de esfinges (animales fantásticos con cuerpo de león y cabeza humana).
 La entrada la forma un pilono, una enorme estructura con paredes inclinadas. A cada lado,
se situaban obeliscos (monolitos verticales terminados en una pequeña pirámide) y estatuas
colosales.
 Dentro había un patio y salas con columnas (hipóstilos), en el fondo del templo se
encontraba el santuario, la cámara con la estatua del dios.
 Cerca había un gran estanque que simbolizaba el origen de la vida.

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Las tumbas. El lugar de enterramiento fue cambiando. Al principio los faraones se
enterraban en construcciones de una planta y paredes inclinadas llamadas mastabas. Luego
construyeron más plantas y levantaron espectaculares pirámides escalonadas (como la de
Zoser) y pirámides clásicas de caras lisas. (como las de Giza; Keops, Kefrén y Mikerinos).

Pirámides de Giza

Como muchas tumbas eran víctimas de los saqueadores, se decidió usar otra forma de
sepultura más discreta, los hipogeos, cuevas subterráneas excavadas en la roca y tapadas
para que no se puedan ser localizadas.

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 La mayoría de los hipogeos están en el Valle de los reyes y en el Valle de las Reinas, como
por ejemplo el de Tutankamón, que descubrió el arqueólogo inglés Howard Carter en 1922.

Howard Carter examinando el tercer ataúd de Tutankamón, el de oro macizo.

La escultura y la pintura se usaba para decorar el interior de los templos y de las sepulturas. Como
buscaban reflejar la solemnidad, su estilo es antinatural, es decir, que no se parece a lo que vemos
en la naturaleza. Las posiciones son frontales y rígidas y los rostros son serios e inexpresivos.

Las pinturas se usaron para decorar palacios, templos y tumbas. El estilo pictórico se denomina
canon de perfil (tronco y ojos de frente, resto de perfil). Hacían las figuras de distinto tamaño según
su importancia y utilizaron colores planos (sin sombras ni luces).

Frescos tumba de Nefertari. Valle de las Reinas (Egipto)

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