Babylonian Civilization example essay topic

#3 During the years of 2700 to 2200 BC the Egyptians enjoyed stability and prosperity. In Egypt the king was the god and acted as the welfare for the citizens of the land; the King used a set of ethics that included order, justice, and truth. All the kings lived in the pharaoh, which was a sign of power that meant great house in the Egyptian language. A third dynasty King was the first king to construct a six-step pyramid of hard stone.

The fourth dynasty Sne fru put up spectacular pharaoh of three monuments, then his son Giza created the largest pyramid at the time which covered 13.1 acres, 756 feet long and 481 feet high. Not only did these pyramids represent wealth; they show great technical skills, and the ability to focus and their impressive human effort. Many of these pharaohs rise above the land and the tombs were in the base and showed signs of the Egyptian state being more powerful then most others. However over time despite great attempts to keep the pyramids sacred; the tomb robbers took everything. At the end 2200 B.C. E of the Old Kingdom had dissipated and the middle Kingdom had risen by the Amunehmet I who reunited upper and Lower Egypt. As he became a ruler he made three drastic changes that the Egyptian people up until then have not seen.

First, he moved the royal house to represent a fresh start. Secondly, he reorganized the nome structure by more clearly defining the nomarch's duties to the state, granting them some local autonomy within royal structure (Kagan p 21). Thirdly he created a system to where it would be easier for a transition of kings. As opposed to the rulers of the Old Kingdom the rulers of the Middle Kingdom were more thoughtful and caring. In the New Kingdom Hyksos was the ruler for a century and was considered the leader of the foreign lands, but was replaced by Ka mose then Ah mose who was the founder of the New Kingdom and eighteenth dynasty replaced him. It was during this dynasty that the Egyptian army was trying to gain political and economical power.

Once the control they wanted to achieve was in place; they were able to fool the tomb robbers and build tombs that were built into the rocks of cliffs and only one King; Tutankhamun who died prematurely at an early age was discovered. Towards the end of the 20th dynasty Mernepath who was a child of Ramses II was able to hold off the attacks from a Libyan attack, but soon the Egyptian power and glory dissolved and were over taken by Alexander the Great in 30 B.C.E. #1 The Sumerians founded some of the oldest cities in Mesopotamian in the land of Sumer (hence the name). From 2800 to 2370 B.C. E there were many Sumerian cities such as Uruk, Ur, Nippur, Shurppak, and La gash that were on the southern part of Mesopotamia. At times the Sumerian fought within themselves over water and agriculture, which eventually made some of the towns stronger then others.

In the Far East part of the Mesopotamian's people known as the Akkadians developed their own kingdom and eventually took over the all the Sumerian cities. They were led by a ruler named Sargon who was the "first great conqueror of history" with a city that had languages and different cultures. Around the time of 2125 B.C.E. Sumerian culture was beginning to thrive with many documents of poems and detailed records of agriculture and commerce have been found. Unfortunately a group called the Amorites who founded their own cities of Uruk, Babylon, Isin and Larsa overtook the Sumerians and they eventually disappeared. Although the Sumerians were no longer; the one thing that lasted in the Western World is the Sumerian language and religion.

After a war began between the Amorites and Babylonians and the Babylonians had taken over Isin, Larsa, and others. King Hammurabi ruled the Babylonians and the society was ranked and treated according to the Hammurabi's Code. The Babylonian society consisted of three classes. They were the nobles, which was a person of the upper class; the commoner a person of the lower class; and the other was a slave. The Babylonians developed a court system that you would go to if you had certain issues. For example: If you had a dispute with property you went to local city assembly.

If you wanted to see a professional judge you could pay fee and see a local judge and any false testimony would be sentenced to death. By 1600 B.C. E the Babylonians fell and were over taken by the Hittites, Hurri ans, and Kas sites. In the Babylonian civilization, the political structure was strong, and the laws were very strict. The Hammurabi's Code had a positive influence on Babylonia; their respected nature, and their strong militaristic skills show that the Babylonian civilization had an effective way of life. It required little change within a period of about 1200 years-the Code of Hammurabi was a big part of western civilization. In the northern section of the Tigris River of Mesopotamia, the ancient territory of Assyria was once an impressive empire.

Named for Assur the original capital of the region, Assyria was populated by Semitic-speaking individuals and was an early center for trade. However the Hittites, a group of Indo-European speaking people from north of the Black Sea, and to the south. Assyrian strength in Mesopotamia continued to decline as the empire of Babylonia increased in power in the region and tended to take over the position of the Assyrians. The Assyrians managed to increase their dominance in all of Mesopotamia and took over sections that include Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. However their army became too large to govern properly and soon was divided by a civil war. A powerful group called the Medes from the west and the Babylonians who were always uncomfortable with the Assyrian rule attacked the Assyria Empire.

A general by the name of Nebuchadnezzar eventually destroyed all Assyrian cities and they were never able to recover. Although the Assyrian government was not run properly the concept of the empire being broken into different provinces was efficient and is still used in the both eastern and western civilization. SHORT ANSWERS What are the defining characteristics of the form of human culture called civilization? Urbanism, technological, industrial, social change, long distance trade and symbolic communications. What conditions are necessary for urban life? Urban Life you need to have large buildings that are built better and stronger then the other houses, elaborate representation of art work, new technologies with manufacturing of metal tools and weapons.

What was the Epic of Gilgamesh? It was a Babylonian story of a flood; Gilgamesh was a king that was afraid of death when his friend and companion died. He went to find Utanapishtim who was the only survivor of the great flood and he told him how it was one time event in the past and would not be able to share his destiny. Who were the Phoenicians, and why were they important? The Phoenicians were descendants of the Canaanites they were very involved in the Mediterranean trade sailing from places such as: Cyprus, Asia Minor, Greece, Italy, France and Spain. Many of the Phoenicians cities were also important for transmission of culture from east to west.

What Jewish religious ideas became a crucial part of Western culture? They believe in all-powerful creator (who is righteous himself and demands righteousness and obedience from human kind), which can go back as far as mosses when it was also referred to as monotheism. They also believed in a universal creator (who is father and ruler of all peoples).