asb222notes1027.doc

Mesopotamia- land between the two rivers (tigres and Euphrates). Matches with Iraq Egypt- defined narrowly by the flood plane of the Nile River. Lower Egypt is the Nile delta area; Upper Egypt refers to the balance of the Nile flood plane Southern Levant- comes from a Latin root, the Eastern Mediterranean sea board. Island of Cyprus- Geologically interesting because it provides us with some of the oldest rocks anywhere. Formed by an upthrust of material from the mantle and has extraordinarily pure copper deposits. Provides some of the purest and best copper in the world. Tigres is susceptible to floods and has caused cities like Baghdad to flood. In the lower regions of Mesopotamia, there is a river course with the marsh Arabs. They farm water buffalo and build houses out of reeds on marshes. The homes can be extraordinarily large and have the same architecture as early civilization. Tell Irbil has tell deposits which are 10-15 meters thick Ziggurats- are step pyramids and best thought of temple platforms, not used to bury anyone or anything Hit Sumera line is Moden Baghdad, one of the first pieces of evidence of civilization Sumerian is a language unrelated to any modern or past language, completely unique. First language written in cuneiform In 2000 BC there was a major sea change and Sumerian was the language of choice Complex society refers to societies that have developed social and political stratifications. They are demonstratively not even with their access to political power. Archaelogically we tend to see cities and states with complex societies Memphis was a capital similar to Washington D.C. In 2000 B.C. it became Acadian speaking society, in the South we have Babylonia and in the north we have Assyria. At various times in the 1500 year interval power shifts from one another. Persian is a corruption of Farsi (which is a language spoken there) Bronze age basically is the time span between 3500 BC and 1200 BC, this is a timespan during which the major group of people called the Canaanites 1200 BC marks a period when there is a set of major upheavals throughout the Eastern Mediterranean. The iron age in the southern levant is a point in time when we read about the Israelites and the Canaanites.