DEVELOPMENT+OF+CIVILIZATION

Development of Civilization

Civilization is literally cities in Greek, but such definition is just too simple to define the complex ways Civilizations work today and back way in the past. For me, Civilization is an integrated social ground for political, cultural, and economic activities. It's the type of place where many people gather in order to contribute to the cultural and intellectual atmosphere while allowing politics to design a civilization's role in it's region of influence. Civilization is a place, a home to the greater atmosphere from which writing, language, currency, trade, gods, God, astronomy, medicine, legalism, democracy had all been born in.
 * Assignment 1.1** //What is __Civilization__?//

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 * Assignment 1.2** //E.S.P.I.R.I.T. in// Neolithic Age & Civilization

Period 6 ESPIRIT Chart - Changes associated with the development of Civilization

- Government began collecting tributes and taxes from subjects.- Hammurabi establishes formal code of law. -- Sumer were the first to have city-states with formalized boundaries. ||
 * Economic || * The Middle East came up with cuneiform which slowly spread across the world when the Sumerians came up with their own alphabet and soon the Egyptians, Indians and Chinese adopted their own writing.
 * Trade was between Mesopotamia and the Indian and Chinese civilizations. -
 * The Mesopotamia civilization was based on a more capitalist government while the Egyptian civilization was based on a socialist government. ||
 * Social || - Agricultural groups grew large enough for several people to specialize in jobs, thus leading to a separation in social classes amongst economic identification- Is this Social or Economic? ->- Social Distinctions often include Slaves, Monarchy, Nobles, and economic distinctions.. Such as in Egyptian times where pharoahs were playing the lead role in politics-- Due to population growth the need for childcare became urgent, thus pushing woman towards a more subordinate way of life . But prior to this, distinction between genders weren’t easily recognizable- ||
 * Political || - Communities, rather than isolated farms, formed because need for manpower to create irrigation systems, take care of farms etc.- Early communities appointed a leader or ‘king’ with divine status.- Military and political structures were formed. -
 * Interactions || * Mesopotamians had trading roots within the due to the civilization based along it, thus helping its growth
 * They did make trading contact with other middle eastern civilization and India.
 * Most people lived in a really congested area and that attracted diseases so they started to spread. ||
 * Religious || * Catal Huyuk people had strong religious belief. The houses there contemplated those beliefs through the images of the “mother Goddesses”
 * Sumerians had religious rituals, cities have a patron god and erected impressive shrines to please and honors cities (Polytheism) ||
 * Intellectual developments || * cuneiform - Explain - Sumerian alphabet
 * advancement of mathematics ||
 * Technology || * irrigation systems
 * pottery -> potter wheel/basket-weaving
 * slash and burn agriculture
 * metal work/development of metal tools
 * population growth - any evidence??? - why?
 * wood crafting ||

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 * Assignment 1.3** //E.S.P.I.R.I.T. in __Babylonia__//

Babylonia

612 BCE (fall of the Assyrian Empire) – 539 BCE (Overthrown by Persian king)

Economic:

1. Babylon didn’t have a lot of their own natural resources, which made them more reliant in trading with neighboring civilization in order to live more efficiently.

2. Some of the goods being traded by the Babylonians to foreigners included grains, oils, and textiles, and what the civilization was importing included wood, wine, metals, and stones.

3. During Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, the installment of many canals and irrigation systems had increased the land’s fertility and allowed for Mesopotamia to increase the abundance of goods and allow for increased trade.

Social:

1. During the sacking of pre-Babylonian civilization, hundreds of thousands of slaves (mostly Jews) were taken into custody of the King, leaving the social class system dependent on the work of the slaves and further widened the gap of the social class system.

2. The Social structure was mainly an upper class/ middle class/ and extremely lower class system, where the upper class was mainly a king, noble, or priest. The middle class were free people, soldiers, and generally those with jobs. The extremely low class was basically all slaves, some captured from war, and others who would be punished with this class if they were to perform an act of offense, or were people who were sold into slavery.

3. Women and men were often of close to equal statuses, with women being in school, and also protected by the law, of being cheated on, and allowing for them to divorce by law.

Political:

1. During Babylonia’s time of rule over Mesopotamia, the king, Hammurabi introduced his sets of codes in which was written laws for citizens of the city-state should abide to. It established a written system of justice that is still being used today.

2. High tax and duties were placed in Babylonia due to the cost of keeping an army together in a time of constant warfare, and to afford all of the building projects that were taking place due to the king’s desire to keep up with traditions

3. In the Babylonian region, everyone including women and slaves had their legal rights, so it wasn’t a simple barbaric chaotic society any longer, and especially with the development of prisons to punish criminals.

Interactions:

<span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 84pt; marginbottom: 0pt; marginleft: 84pt; marginright: 0in; margintop: 0in; tabstops: list 84.0pt; textindent: -48pt;">1. The Mesopotamian region was a place of constant change. There would be this one empire ruled by the Sumerians, taken over by the Assyrians and then again taken over by Babylonia. In turn again these take-over’s would add further onto the cultural and social systems of each successive empire, thus making the Mesopotamian region, and especially Babylonia a diverse society as it is.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 84pt; marginbottom: 0pt; marginleft: 84pt; marginright: 0in; margintop: 0in; tabstops: list 84.0pt; textindent: -48pt;">2. Besides having Mesopotamia being a civil battle ground, other civilizations were watching the Babylonians, such as the Egyptians and the Persians and the Arabs and the Jews, who were for the most part those who wanted to sack Babylonia of its wealth.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 84pt; marginbottom: 0pt; marginleft: 84pt; marginright: 0in; margintop: 0in; tabstops: list 84.0pt; textindent: -48pt;">Religion:

<span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 84pt; marginbottom: 0pt; marginleft: 84pt; marginright: 0in; margintop: 0in; tabstops: list 84.0pt; textindent: -48pt;">1. Priests during the Babylonian time, were of great influence. They were the ones who had power in deciding the king, which was apparent when Nebuchadnezzar’s son, Awil Marduk was in power. He didn’t have support of the priest, thus he was allowed to rule for a short period of time.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 84pt; marginbottom: 0pt; marginleft: 84pt; marginright: 0in; margintop: 0in; tabstops: list 84.0pt; textindent: -48pt;">2. The gods that Babylonia, even the entire Mesopotamian region had been a combination of different gods from different cultures that came along the regions, spreading from the Phoenicians to the Semites. And the main purpose of a human’s interaction towards to the gods were to obey and follow their laws

<span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 84pt; marginbottom: 0pt; marginleft: 84pt; marginright: 0in; margintop: 0in; tabstops: list 84.0pt; textindent: -48pt;">Cultural & Intellectual:

<span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 84pt; marginbottom: 0pt; marginleft: 84pt; marginright: 0in; margintop: 0in; tabstops: list 84.0pt; textindent: -48pt;">1. Babylonians already developed a system of language and writing, where it was potent enough for the study of astronomy to take place.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 84pt; marginbottom: 0pt; marginleft: 84pt; marginright: 0in; margintop: 0in; tabstops: list 84.0pt; textindent: -48pt;">2. Many of Babylonia’s citizens had been concerned with culture, so they even modified their cuneiform script to match that of the Akkadians 3thousand years ago. They also preserved art as if they were religious symbols

<span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 84pt; marginbottom: 0pt; marginleft: 84pt; marginright: 0in; margintop: 0in; tabstops: list 84.0pt; textindent: -48pt;">3. It was Nebuchadnezzar II that wanted Babylonia’s culture to remain traditional and beautiful, so on a large budget scale, he started to rebuild all of Babylon’s national treasures, spanning from art to architecture.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 84pt; marginbottom: 0pt; marginleft: 84pt; marginright: 0in; margintop: 0in; tabstops: list 84.0pt; textindent: -48pt;">4. School was basically a place for scribes, mainly for boys, but girls were not out of the question. And Often kings and nobles themselves were illiterate thus would pay scribes a lot to translate and record texts for them.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 84pt; marginbottom: 0pt; marginleft: 84pt; marginright: 0in; margintop: 0in; tabstops: list 84.0pt; textindent: -48pt;">Technology and Demographic Changes:

<span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 84pt; marginbottom: 0pt; marginleft: 84pt; marginright: 0in; margintop: 0in; tabstops: list 84.0pt; textindent: -48pt;">1. For Merchants, there were already boats in which could carry a massive across the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, domestication and use of donkeys, carts with wheels.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 84pt; marginbottom: 0pt; marginleft: 84pt; marginright: 0in; margintop: 0in; tabstops: list 84.0pt; textindent: -48pt;">2. Along side with trading technologies, the Babylonians had created their own irrigation and canal system.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 84pt; marginbottom: 0pt; marginleft: 84pt; marginright: 0in; margintop: 0in; tabstops: list 84.0pt; textindent: -48pt;">3. Medical procedures had become part of Babylonia’s technological advancements, where they had already discovered surgery and the idea of blood and pulse.

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//**Summary:**//

<span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Babylonia was one of the latest civilizations to occupy the space known as Mesopotamia, but that did not mean it lacked in other aspects as well. <span style="background-color: #00ffff; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">It had been an advanced civilization for its time, having a complicated language system dating over thousands of years old, and having already experimenting in Astronomy and Medicine. One of it's greatest products though, was the justice system, created by King Hammurabi, spanning over a hundred different laws and some Sections of code. To today, that code is still implanted within the system that America uses. This civilization, as great as it was, had been a major impact in the political, social, and intelletual sections of it's history.

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 * Assignment 1.4** //Definition of Terms in// Neolithic Age &Civilzation



** From Hunting and Gathering to Civilizations **
 * Neolithic Revolution || Meaning the New Stone Age, the Neolithic revolution refers to the transition of human societies towards better technologies (weapons, tools), social developments, and more importantly the transition to agricultural societies as opposed to the hunter-gatherer societies, and to the creation of independent civilizations. This development occurred throughout the world, where it seemed to begin in 10,000 BCE in the middle east, and spread to parts of India, North Africa, Europe, and Asia. The result of this Neolithic revolution though, was the even quicker development of civilizations, socioeconomic systems that ultimately became a part of modern day society, and the ability to evolve sciences and cultures. ||
 * Bronze Age || Dating bate to 4000BCE, the development of metal tools were beginning, and by 3000BCE metal tools had become so commonplace, that this time was to be known as the bronze age. This age refers to the development of not only metal tools, but of the increased specialization of socioeconomic jobs throughout civilizations, which widened the social barrier. ||
 * Catal Huyuk || Founded in 7000 BCE, C.H. was a village spread across 32 acres, with an intricate system that developed in the Middle East. There were signs of cultural/religious teachings and beliefs, signs of economic marketing mostly self sufficiency, interactions with neighbors mainly to keep peace, advanced technologies in the form of buildings/houses, and political bargaining between smaller villages that was beginning to develop in the Neolithic Age. ||
 * Civilization || A Civilization is a formed group of citizens who live and participate in a social, economic, and political system that allows for a civilization to be different than most hunting/agricultural societies. And w/ said economic, social and political developments, it meant that civilization were able to contribute to an exchange of ideas/thoughts and gathered economic surpluses, along with specialization in jobs that allowed for a social system defining one’s life. ||
 * Ziggurats || The Ziggurats were massive towers that were mainly used to worship the Sumerians gods. They were also one of the first large architectural pieces that demonstrated the advanced knowledge and technology that the Sumerians had developed. It was also used mainly as a religious symbol of worship in the Sumer region ||
 * City States || A political structure used by the Sumerians that allowed for a king to rule with absolute authority. This type of politics gave way to enforcing duties, religion and allowed for increased capabilities of an army during wartime. Also with monarchy being of the highest social class, it would have further widened the social class gap. ||
 * Sumerians || People who had invaded the Mesopotamian region, who had developed the first known signs of human language, cuneiform. The Sumerians also developed their own artistic values, and sciences (astronomy, math). They also had developed their own religion to worship their gods through prayers and offerings. Priests had been an outcome of such demonstrations and grew to become some of the many different areas of work that people had opportunities at. ||
 * Hammurabi || A Babylonian king, whose influence resulted in Hammurabi’s code, a justice system that established rules and rights for a country’s people. It was under these codes that made Hammurabi the first to develop a strong intricate written code of law that regulated the many ways civilizations worked in their premises. ||
 * Huanghe || The Huanghe River valley was one of the earliest settlements in China which according to records have had advanced technologies for their time. They already had domesticated horses, developed and used iron, while further experimenting with coal. There was also art, music and interest in the sciences; although they didn’t have large architectural pieces other than the mud houses they built. ||
 * Indus River || Supporting two of the largest cities around, Harappa and Mohenjo Daro, the Indus river valley was a region of urban civilization that had their own market economy, culture and language. This type of civilization though, wasn’t made from scratch, and instead their political and religious practices were taken from earlier cities. ||

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========================================================== Primary Source Analysis Document: Hammurabi’s Law of Code
 * Assignment 1.5** //Hammurabi's code __APPARTS__//


 * Author – Who created this? What do we know about the author? What might influence their opinions? || Mesopotamian King Hammurabi, who united the Mesopotamian city-states under the Babylonian Empire. And due to the fact that Hammurabi is king of Mesopotamia, he’s supposed to be the guy that deals with all kinds of punishment and law and justice within his own city-state/empire. ||
 * Place – Where and when was it created - || It was created in Mesopotamia, in 1800, 1750 B.C.E. Babylonia ||
 * Prior Knowledge

What do we know about where this was created? What have we learned about this topic? Society that may be relevant? || This was created in Mesopotamia. One of the earliest known civilizations. We also know that civilization is basically a society governed by a political system, which is probably why the Mesopotamian empires were able to efficiently run their empire of city-states. Females were closely equal to men, probably given protection from law. They were also pretty religious. ||
 * Audience

Who is the intended audience? How might they receive this? – quotes to support your claims? || Most likely this law code was intended for all citizens of his empire, well those that can read at least. His code does always start with “if a man” which could be reasoned out to saying that this man would be those who are in trouble, and would suffer this punishment if the condition is met. The question is who suffers punishments by law? Basically everyone who lives in the city-state thus means all citizens of the empire. And even before the “if” one can see that this code is a law code, and law almost always applies to everyone.

● “ if a man”, “if he”, “if a judge”, “if a free person”, “ if the robber”, “if a person owes money”, “if the slave”, “if that woman”, “ if a trader”, “if a merchant” ||
 * Reason for Creation

What is the purpose of this document? Read between the lines, support claims with a quote || It says in the beginning that it was Murduk, the chief of gods, who told the King to instill justice and good governance within his kingdom

● “when Murduk commanded me to give justice to the people of the land and to let[them] have [good] governance], I set forth truth and justice throughout the land and prospered the people.”

Hammurabi might have created this to insure peace within his empire. He might have created it to settle a long line of disputes, or to have make law easier to carry out in his kingdom. Either way law is a way to insure peace and justice. ||
 * The Main Idea

Support with quotes || - When accusing another, one must have satisfactory evidence and claim to support, and must have true testimonies, else they will be the ones punished (most likely to tell people how to present their cases) death is used often to induce to idea of fear within a law and to get the audience to obey his laws

> “if a man has accused a man and has charges him with manslaughter and then has not proved him, his accuser shall be put to death”

>”if he has come forward to bear witness to corn or money, he shall remain liable for the penalty”

- Hammurabi also talks about corruption in his judges and if they show signs then they to shall be punished

>if a judge has tried a suit, given a decision … and thereafter varies his judgment, they shall convict that judge”

-Later Hammurabi talks about the rights of people, including that of money, marriage, theft, and trade

>Laws 6-15

- Next he talks about equal punishment, or at least the idea of “an eye for an eye” when doing damage to another

> “if a man has put out the eye of a free man, they shall put out his eye”

So what the main idea could be is that everyone is equal under the law, and the law shall serve as judgment to crimes and offense presented in court. He wanted to set a standard and consequences for justice ||
 * Significance

How does this relate to the big picture? What can it tell us as historians? Relate to ESPIRIT if possible || As Historians, we can tell from the piece of text, the ways this Mesopotamian civilization was living in terms of social interactions, protection by laws, economic dealings(trade), and just generally how culture seemed to be like for these Mesopotamians. It’s clear that there is an air of spiritual influence as well on leaders or people in general. And from what we can tell, people were influenced greatly by these laws, since they would be the ones living with it for the next 50 or so years of their lives. Basically these rules govern societal meanings and idea of cultural importance to these babylonians during their time. I mean the code wouldn’t be based upon these laws if they didn’t give importance. ||

Questions?

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 * Summary:**

Civilization had only started to accomodate itself at around the time of the __Neolithic Revolution__, (9000-4000BCE), mostly on part because agriculture had started to replace the modest amount of game and gathering societies, and through this sedantary practice, societies converged to introduce the small but growing intellectual/economic/social/political spheres of civilization. Most of these early groups had taken root into fertile-rich land, between the Tigris-Euphratus, the Huanghe, and the Nile, and one Civilization, __Catal Huyuk__ settling in Turkey had been just one of the many nations growing out in Middle China, The Mediterrean, the Sub-Saharan Desert. But one of the earliest and prominent of civilizations had taken its roots in the Mesopotamian region, where City-states, Social Systems, Code of Law, Sanskrit, Cuneiform, and a barter system had came to define the complex role of civilization in the pre-historic world.