Historia

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

1.1 Neolithic Revolution

This article is about the introduction of agriculture dur-ing the Stone Age. For later historical breakthroughs inagriculture, see agricultural revolution (disambiguation).

The Neolithic Revolution or Neolithic DemographicTransition, sometimes called the Agricultural Revolu-tion, was the wide-scale transition of many human cul-tures from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to one ofagriculture and settlement, allowing the ability to sup-port an increasingly large population.[1] Archaeologicaldata indicates that the domestication of various types ofplants and animals evolved in separate locations world-wide, starting in the geological epoch of the Holocene[2]

around 12,000 years ago.[3] It was the world’s first histor-ically verifiable revolution in agriculture.However, the Neolithic Revolution involved far morethan the adoption of a limited set of food-producingtechniques. During the next millennia it would trans-form the small and mobile groups of hunter-gatherers thathad hitherto dominated human pre-history into sedentary(here meaning non-nomadic) societies based in built-upvillages and towns. These societies radically modifiedtheir natural environment by means of specialized food-crop cultivation (e.g., irrigation and deforestation) whichallowed extensive surplus food production. These devel-opments provided the basis for densely populated set-tlements, specialization and division of labour, tradingeconomies, the development of non-portable art andarchitecture, centralized administrations and politicalstructures, hierarchical ideologies, depersonalized sys-tems of knowledge (e.g., writing), and property own-ership. The first full-blown manifestation of the en-tire Neolithic complex is seen in the Middle EasternSumerian cities (c. 5,500 BP), whose emergence alsoheralded the beginning of the Bronze Age.The relationship of the above-mentioned Neolithic char-acteristics to the onset of agriculture, their sequence ofemergence, and empirical relation to each other at vari-ous Neolithic sites remains the subject of academic de-bate, and varies from place to place, rather than being theoutcome of universal laws of social evolution.[4][5]

1.1.1 Agricultural transition

Map of the world showing approximate centers of origin ofagriculture and its spread in prehistory: the Fertile Crescent(11,000 BP), the Yangtze and Yellow River basins (9,000 BP)and the New Guinea Highlands (9,000–6,000 BP), Central Mex-ico (5,000–4,000 BP), Northern South America (5,000–4,000BP), sub-Saharan Africa (5,000–4,000 BP, exact location un-known), eastern North America (4,000–3,000 BP).[6]

Knap ofHowar farmstead on a site occupied from 5,500 to 5,100BP

The term Neolithic Revolution was coined in 1923 by V.Gordon Childe to describe the first in a series of agricul-tural revolutions in Middle Eastern history. The periodis described as a “revolution” to denote its importance,and the great significance and degree of change affectingthe communities in which new agricultural practices weregradually adopted and refined.The beginning of this process in different regions hasbeen dated from 10,000 to 8,000 BC in the Fertile Cres-

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1.1. NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION 3

cent[3][7] and perhaps 8000 BC in the Kuk Early Agricul-tural Site of Melanesia[8][9] to 2500 BC in SubsaharanAfrica, with some considering the developments of9000–7000 BC in the Fertile Crescent to be the mostimportant. This transition everywhere seems associatedwith a change from a largely nomadic hunter-gathererway of life to a more settled, agrarian-based one, withthe inception of the domestication of various plant andanimal species—depending on the species locally avail-able, and probably also influenced by local culture. Re-cent archaeological research suggests that in some re-gions such as the Southeast Asian peninsula, the transitionfrom hunter-gatherer to agriculturalist was not linear, butregion-specific.[10]

There are several competing (but not mutually exclusive)theories as to the factors that drove populations to take upagriculture. The most prominent of these are:

• The Oasis Theory, originally proposed by RaphaelPumpelly in 1908, popularized by V. Gordon Childein 1928 and summarised in Childe’s book ManMakes Himself.[11] This theory maintains that asthe climate got drier due to the Atlantic depres-sions shifting northward, communities contracted tooases where they were forced into close associa-tion with animals, which were then domesticated to-gether with planting of seeds. However, today thistheory has little support amongst archaeologists be-cause subsequent climate data suggests that the re-gion was getting wetter rather than drier.[12]

• The Hilly Flanks hypothesis, proposed by RobertBraidwood in 1948, suggests that agriculture beganin the hilly flanks of the Taurus and Zagros moun-tains, where the climate was not drier as Childehad believed, and fertile land supported a variety ofplants and animals amenable to domestication.[13]

• The Feasting model by Brian Hayden[14] suggeststhat agriculture was driven by ostentatious displaysof power, such as giving feasts, to exert dominance.This required assembling large quantities of food,which drove agricultural technology.

• The Demographic theories proposed by CarlSauer[15] and adapted by Lewis Binford[16] and KentFlannery posit an increasingly sedentary populationthat expanded up to the carrying capacity of the lo-cal environment and required more food than couldbe gathered. Various social and economic factorshelped drive the need for food.

• The evolutionary/intentionality theory, devel-oped by David Rindos[17] and others, views agricul-ture as an evolutionary adaptation of plants and hu-mans. Starting with domestication by protection ofwild plants, it led to specialization of location andthen full-fledged domestication.

• Peter Richerson, Robert Boyd, and Robert Bet-tinger[18] make a case for the development of agri-culture coinciding with an increasingly stable cli-mate at the beginning of the Holocene. RonaldWright's book and Massey Lecture Series A ShortHistory of Progress[19] popularized this hypothesis.

• The postulated Younger Dryas impact event,claimed to be in part responsible for megafauna ex-tinction and ending the last glacial period, couldhave provided circumstances that required the evo-lution of agricultural societies for humanity tosurvive.[20] The agrarian revolution itself is a re-flection of typical overpopulation by certain speciesfollowing initial events during extinction eras; thisoverpopulation itself ultimately propagates the ex-tinction event.

• Leonid Grinin argues that whatever plants were cul-tivated, the independent invention of agriculturealways took place in special natural environments(e.g., South-East Asia). It is supposed that the cul-tivation of cereals started somewhere in the NearEast: in the hills of Palestine or Egypt. So Grinindates the beginning of the agricultural revolutionwithin the interval 12,000 to 9,000 BP, though insome cases the first cultivated plants or domesticatedanimals’ bones are even of a more ancient age of 14–15 thousand years ago.[21]

• Andrew Moore suggested that the Neolithic Rev-olution originated over long periods of develop-ment in the Levant, possibly beginning during theEpipaleolithic. In “A Reassessment of the NeolithicRevolution”, Frank Hole further expanded the rela-tionship between plant and animal domestication.He suggested the events could have occurred in-dependently over different periods of time, in asyet unexplored locations. He noted that no transi-tion site had been found documenting the shift fromwhat he termed immediate and delayed return so-cial systems. He noted that the full range of do-mesticated animals (goats, sheep, cattle and pigs)were not found until the sixth millennium at Tell Ra-mad. Hole concluded that “close attention should bepaid in future investigations to the western marginsof the Euphrates basin, perhaps as far south as theArabian Peninsula, especially where wadis carryingPleistocene rainfall runoff flowed.” [22]

1.1.2 Domestication of plants

Once agriculture started gaining momentum, human ac-tivity resulted in the selective breeding of cereal grasses(beginning with emmer, einkorn and barley), and notsimply of those that would favour greater caloric returnsthrough larger seeds. Plants that possessed traits such assmall seeds or bitter taste would have been seen as unde-sirable. Plants that rapidly shed their seeds on maturity

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Neolithic grindstone for processing grain

tended not to be gathered at harvest, therefore not storedand not seeded the following season; years of harvestingselected for strains that retained their edible seeds longer.Several plant species, the “pioneer crops” or Neolithicfounder crops were named by Daniel Zohary, who high-lighted importance of the three cereals, and suggest-ing domestication of flax, pea, chickpea, bitter vetchand lentil came a little later. Based on analysis of thegenes of domesticated plants, he preferred theories ofa single, or at most a very small number of domestica-tion events for each taxa that spread in an arc from theLevantine corridor around the fertile crescent and laterinto Europe.[23][24] Gordon Hillman and Stuart Daviescarried out experiments with wild wheat varieties to showthat the process of domestication would have happenedover a relatively short period of between twenty and twohundred years.[25] Some of these pioneering attemptsfailed at first and crops were abandoned, sometimes tobe taken up again and successfully domesticated thou-sands of years later: rye, tried and abandoned in NeolithicAnatolia, made its way to Europe as weed seeds and wassuccessfully domesticated in Europe, thousands of yearsafter the earliest agriculture.[26] Wild lentils present a dif-ferent challenge that needed to be overcome: most of thewild seeds do not germinate in the first year; the first evi-dence of lentil domestication, breaking dormancy in theirfirst year, was found in the early Neolithic at Jerf el Ah-mar (in modern Syria), and quickly spread south to theNetiv HaGdud site in the Jordan Valley.[26] This processof domestication allowed the founder crops to adapt andeventually become larger, more easily harvested, moredependable in storage and more useful to the human pop-ulationSelectively propagated figs, wild barley and wild oats werecultivated at the early Neolithic site of Gilgal I, where in2006[27] archaeologists found caches of seeds of each inquantities too large to be accounted for even by intensivegathering, at strata datable c. 11,000 years ago. Some ofthe plants tried and then abandoned during the Neolithicperiod in the Ancient Near East, at sites like Gilgal, werelater successfully domesticated in other parts of the world.Once early farmers perfected their agricultural techniqueslike irrigation, their crops would yield surpluses that

An “Orange slice” sickle blade element with inverse, discontinuousretouch on each side, not denticulated. Found in large quantitiesat Qaraoun II and often with Heavy Neolithic tools in the flintworkshops of the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon. Suggested by JamesMellaart to be older than the Pottery Neolithic of Byblos (around8,400 cal. BP).

A Sumerian harvester’s sickle dated to 5,000 BP

needed storage. Most hunter gatherers could not eas-ily store food for long due to their migratory lifestyle,whereas those with a sedentary dwelling could store theirsurplus grain. Eventually granaries were developed thatallowed villages to store their seeds longer. So with morefood, the population expanded and communities devel-oped specialized workers and more advanced tools.The process was not as linear as was once thought, but amore complicated effort, which was undertaken by dif-ferent human populations in different regions in manydifferent ways.

Agriculture in the Fertile Crescent

Early agriculture is believed to have originated and be-come widespread in Southwest Asia around 10,000–9,000 BP, though earlier individual sites have been identi-fied. The Fertile Crescent region of Southwest Asia is thecentre of domestication for three cereals (einkorn wheat,emmer wheat and barley) four legumes (lentil, pea, bit-ter vetch and chickpea) and flax.[28] The Mediterranean

1.1. NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION 5

climate consists of a long dry season with a short periodof rain, which may have favored small plants with largeseeds, like wheat and barley. The Fertile Crescent alsohad a large area of varied geographical settings and alti-tudes and this variety may have made agriculture moreprofitable for former hunter-gatherers in this region incomparison with other areas with a similar climate .Finds of large quantities of seeds and a grinding stone atthe paleolithic site of Ohalo II in the vicinity of the Seaof Galilee, dated to around 19,400 BP has shown someof the earliest evidence for advanced planning of plantfood consumption and suggests that humans at OhaloII processed the grain before consumption.[29][30] TellAswad is oldest site of agriculture with domesticatedemmer wheat dated by Willem van Zeist and his assis-tant Johanna Bakker-Heeres to 8800 BC.[31][32] Soon af-ter came hulled, two-row barley found domesticated ear-liest at Jericho in the Jordan valley and Iraq ed-Dubbin Jordan.[33] Other sites in the Levantine corridor thatshow the first evidence of agriculture include Wadi Fay-nan 16 and Netiv Hagdud.[3] Jacques Cauvin noted thatthe settlers of Aswad did not domesticate on site, but “ar-rived, perhaps from the neighbouring Anti-Lebanon, al-ready equipped with the seed for planting”.[34] The HeavyNeolithic Qaraoun culture has been identified at aroundfifty sites in Lebanon around the source springs of theRiver Jordan, however the dating of the culture has neverbeen reliably determined.[35][36]

Agriculture in China

Northern China appears to have been the domesticationcenter for foxtail millet (Setaria italica) and broomcornmillet (Panicum miliaceum) with evidence of domestica-tion of these species approximately 8,000 years ago.[37]

These species were subsequently widely cultivated inthe Yellow River basin (7,500 years ago).[37] Rice wasdomesticated in southern China later on.[37] Soybeanwas domesticated in northern China 5000 years ago.[38]

Orange and peach also originated in China. They werecultivated around 2500 BC.[39][40]

Agriculture in Africa

The Revolution developed independently in differentparts of the world, not just in the Fertile Crescent. On theAfrican continent, three areas have been identified as in-dependently developing agriculture: the Ethiopian high-lands, the Sahel and West Africa.[41]

The most famous crop domesticated in the Ethiopianhighlands is coffee. In addition, khat, ensete, noog, teffand finger millet were also domesticated in the Ethiopianhighlands. Crops domesticated in the Sahel region in-clude sorghum and pearl millet. The kola nut, extractsfrom which became an ingredient in Coca Cola, was firstdomesticated in West Africa. Other crops domesticated

Nile River Valley, Egypt

in West Africa include African rice, yams and the oilpalm.[41]

A number of crops that have been cultivated inAfrica for millennia came after their domestication else-where. Agriculture in the Nile River Valley devel-oped from crops domesticated in the Fertile Crescent.Bananas and plantains, which were first domesticated inSoutheast Asia, most likely Papua New Guinea, werere-domesticated in Africa possibly as early as 5,000years ago. Asian yams and taro were also cultivated inAfrica.[41]

Many grinding stones are found with the early EgyptianSebilian and Mechian cultures and evidence has beenfound of a neolithic domesticated crop-based economydating around 7,000 BP.[42] Philip E. L. Smith[43] writes:“With the benefit of hindsight we can now see that manyLate Paleolithic peoples in the Old World were poised onthe brink of plant cultivation and animal husbandry as analternative to the hunter-gatherer’s way of life”. Unlikethe Middle East, this evidence appears as a “false dawn”to agriculture, as the sites were later abandoned, and per-manent farming then was delayed until 6,500 BP with theTasian and Badarian cultures and the arrival of crops andanimals from the Near East.

Agriculture in the Americas

Further information: New World Crops, Ancient PuebloPeoples, Oasisamerica and Proto-Uto-Aztecan

Corn, beans and squash were among the earliest crops do-mesticated in Mesoamerica, with maize beginning about7500 BC, squash, as early as 8000 to 6000 BC and beansby no later than 4000 BC. Potatoes and manioc weredomesticated in South America. In what is now theeastern United States, Native Americans domesticatedsunflower, sumpweed and goosefoot around 2500 BC. AtGuilá Naquitz cave in the Mexican highlands, fragmentsof maize pollen, bottle gourd and pepo squash were re-covered and variously dated between 8000 to 7000 BC. In

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this area of the world people relied on hunting and gath-ering for several millennia to come. Sedentary village lifebased on farming did not develop until the second millen-nium BC, referred to as the formative period.[3]

Agriculture in Papua New Guinea

Evidence of drainage ditches at Kuk Swamp on the bor-ders of the Western and Southern Highlands of PapuaNew Guinea shows evidence of the cultivation of taro anda variety of other crops, dating back to 11,000 BP. Twopotentially significant economic species, taro (Colocasiaesculenta) and yam (Dioscorea sp.), have been identifieddating at least to 10,200 calibrated years before present(cal BP). Further evidence of bananas and sugarcanedates to 6,950 to 6,440 BP. This was at the altitudinallimits of these crops, and it has been suggested that cul-tivation in more favourable ranges in the lowlands mayhave been even earlier. CSIRO has found evidence thattaro was introduced into the Solomons for human use,from 28,000 years ago, making taro cultivation the ear-liest crop in the world.[44][45] It seems to have resultedin the spread of the Trans–New Guinea languages fromNew Guinea east into the Solomon Islands and west intoTimor and adjacent areas of Indonesia. This seems toconfirm the theories of Carl Sauer who, in “AgriculturalOrigins and Dispersals”, suggested as early as 1952 thatthis region was a centre of early agriculture.

1.1.3 Domestication of animals

Further information: Domestication

When hunter-gathering began to be replaced by seden-tary food production it became more profitable to keepanimals close at hand. Therefore, it became necessary tobring animals permanently to their settlements, althoughin many cases there was a distinction between relativelysedentary farmers and nomadic herders. The animals’size, temperament, diet, mating patterns, and life spanwere factors in the desire and success in domesticatinganimals. Animals that provided milk, such as cows andgoats, offered a source of protein that was renewableand therefore quite valuable. The animal’s ability as aworker (for example ploughing or towing), as well as afood source, also had to be taken into account. Besidesbeing a direct source of food, certain animals could pro-vide leather, wool, hides, and fertilizer. Some of the earli-est domesticated animals included dogs (East Asia, about15,000 years ago),[46] sheep, goats, cows, and pigs.

Domestication of animals in the Middle East

The Middle East served as the source for many animalsthat could be domesticated, such as sheep, goats and pigs.This area was also the first region to domesticate the

Dromedary camel caravan in Algeria

dromedary camel. Henri Fleisch discovered and termedthe Shepherd Neolithic flint industry from the Bekaa Val-ley in Lebanon and suggested that it could have been usedby the earliest nomadic shepherds. He dated this indus-try to the Epipaleolithic or Pre-Pottery Neolithic as itis evidently not Paleolithic, Mesolithic or even PotteryNeolithic.[36][47] The presence of these animals gave theregion a large advantage in cultural and economic devel-opment. As the climate in the Middle East changed andbecame drier, many of the farmers were forced to leave,taking their domesticated animals with them. It was thismassive emigration from the Middle East that would laterhelp distribute these animals to the rest of Afroeurasia.This emigration was mainly on an east-west axis of sim-ilar climates, as crops usually have a narrow optimal cli-matic range outside of which they cannot grow for rea-sons of light or rain changes. For instance, wheat does notnormally grow in tropical climates, just like tropical cropssuch as bananas do not grow in colder climates. Some au-thors, like Jared Diamond, have postulated that this East-West axis is the main reason why plant and animal do-mestication spread so quickly from the Fertile Crescentto the rest of Eurasia and North Africa, while it did notreach through the North-South axis of Africa to reach theMediterranean climates of South Africa, where temper-ate crops were successfully imported by ships in the last500 years. Similarly, the African Zebu of central Africaand the domesticated bovines of the fertile-crescent —separated by the dry sahara desert — were not introducedinto each other’s region.

1.1.4 Consequence

Social change

It has long been taken for granted that the introductionof agriculture had been an unequivocal progress. Thisis now questioned in view of findings by archaeologistsand paleopathologists showing that nutritional standardsof Neolithic populations were generally inferior to thatof hunter-gatherers, and that their life expectancy may

1.1. NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION 7

well have been shorter too, in part due to diseases andharder work - hunter-gatherers must have covered theirfood needs with about 20 hours’ work a week, while agri-culture required much more and was at least as uncertain.The hunter-gatherers’ diet was more varied and balancedthan what agriculture later allowed. Average height wentdown from 5'10” (178 cm) for men and 5'6” (168 cm)for women to 5'5” (165 cm) and 5'1” (155 cm), respec-tively, and it took until the twentieth century for averagehuman height to come back to the pre-Neolithic Revo-lution levels.[48] Agriculturalists had more anaemias andvitamin deficiencies, more spinal deformations and moredental pathologies.[49]

From the social viewpoint, the traditional view is that theshift to agricultural food production supported a denserpopulation, which in turn supported larger sedentarycommunities, the accumulation of goods and tools, andspecialization in diverse forms of new labor. The de-velopment of larger societies led to the development ofdifferent means of decision making and to governmentalorganization. Food surpluses made possible the develop-ment of a social elite who were not otherwise engaged inagriculture, industry or commerce, but dominated theircommunities by other means and monopolized decision-making.[50] Jared Diamond (in The World Until Yester-day) identifies the availability of milk and/or cereal grainsas permitting mothers to raise both an older (e.g. 3 or 4year old) child and a younger child concurrently, whereasthis was not possible previously. The result is that a popu-lation can significantly more-rapidly increase its size thanwould otherwise be the case, resources permitting.However, recent analyses point out that agriculture alsobrought about deep social divisions and in particular en-couraged inequality between the sexes.[51]

Subsequent revolutions

Domesticated cow being milked in Ancient Egypt.

Andrew Sherratt has argued that following upon the Ne-olithic Revolution was a second phase of discovery that herefers to as the secondary products revolution. Animals,it appears, were first domesticated purely as a source ofmeat.[52] The Secondary Products Revolution occurredwhen it was recognised that animals also provided a num-ber of other useful products. These included:

• hides and skins (from undomesticated animals)

• manure for soil conditioning (from all domesticatedanimals)

• wool (from sheep, llamas, alpacas, and Angoragoats)

• milk (from goats, cattle, yaks, sheep, horses andcamels)

• traction (from oxen, onagers, donkeys, horses,camels and dogs)

• guarding and herding assistance (dogs)

Sherratt argues that this phase in agricultural develop-ment enabled humans to make use of the energy possi-bilities of their animals in new ways, and permitted per-manent intensive subsistence farming and crop produc-tion, and the opening up of heavier soils for farming. Italso made possible nomadic pastoralism in semi arid ar-eas, along the margins of deserts, and eventually led tothe domestication of both the dromedary and Bactriancamel. Overgrazing of these areas, particularly by herdsof goats, greatly extended the areal extent of deserts. Liv-ing in one spot would have more easily permitted the ac-crual of personal possessions and an attachment to certainareas of land. From such a position, it is argued, prehis-toric people were able to stockpile food to survive leantimes and trade unwanted surpluses with others. Oncetrade and a secure food supply were established, popula-tions could grow, and society would have diversified intofood producers and artisans, who could afford to developtheir trade by virtue of the free time they enjoyed becauseof a surplus of food. The artisans, in turn, were able todevelop technology such as metal weapons. Such rela-tive complexity would have required some form of socialorganisation to work efficiently, so it is likely that pop-ulations that had such organisation, perhaps such as thatprovided by religion, were better prepared and more suc-cessful. In addition, the denser populations could formand support legions of professional soldiers. Also, dur-ing this time property ownership became increasingly im-portant to all people. Ultimately, Childe argued that thisgrowing social complexity, all rooted in the original deci-sion to settle, led to a second Urban Revolution in whichthe first cities were built.

Disease

Throughout the development of sedentary societies, dis-ease spread more rapidly than it had during the time inwhich hunter-gatherer societies existed. Inadequate san-itary practices and the domestication of animals may ex-plain the rise in deaths and sickness following the Ne-olithic Revolution, as diseases jumped from the animalto the human population. Some examples of diseasesspread from animals to humans are influenza, smallpox,

8 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

Llama overlooking the ruins of the Inca city of Machu Picchu.

and measles.[53] In concordance with a process of naturalselection, the humans who first domesticated the bigmammals quickly built up immunities to the diseases aswithin each generation the individuals with better immu-nities had better chances of survival. In their approxi-mately 10,000 years of shared proximity with animals,such as cows, Eurasians and Africans became more re-sistant to those diseases compared with the indigenouspopulations encountered outside Eurasia and Africa.[54]

For instance, the population of most Caribbean and sev-eral Pacific Islands have been completely wiped out bydiseases. According to the Population history of Ameri-can indigenous peoples, 90% of the population of certainregions of North and South America were wiped out, per-haps by contact with European trappers, before recordedcontact with European explorers or colonists. Some cul-tures like the Inca Empire did have one big mammal do-mesticated, the Llama, but the Inca did not drink its milkor live in a closed space with their herds, hence limit-ing the risk of contagion. According to bioarchaeologicalresearch, the effects of agriculture on physical and den-tal health in Southeast Asian rice farming societies from4000 to 1500 B.P. was not detrimental to the same extentas in other world regions.[55]

The causal link between the type or lack of agriculturaldevelopment, disease and colonisation is not supportedby colonization in other parts of the world. Disease in-creased after the establishment of British Colonial rulein Africa and India despite the areas having diseases forwhich Europeans lacked natural immunity. In India,agriculture developed during the Neolithic period with

a wide range of animals domesticated. During colonialrule an estimated 23 million people died from cholerabetween 1865 and 1949, and millions more died fromplague, malaria, influenza and tuberculosis. In Africa,European colonization was accompanied by great epi-demics, including malaria and sleeping sickness and de-spite parts of colonized Africa having little or no agri-culture, Europeans were more susceptible to disease thanthe Africans. The increase of disease has been attributedto increased mobility of people, increased populationdensity, urbanisation, environmental deterioration andirrigation schemes that helped to spread malaria ratherthan the development of agriculture.[56]

Technology

In his book Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond ar-gues that Europeans and East Asians benefited from anadvantageous geographical location that afforded them ahead start in the Neolithic Revolution. Both shared thetemperate climate ideal for the first agricultural settings,both were near a number of easily domesticable plantand animal species, and both were safer from attacks ofother people than civilizations in the middle part of theEurasian continent. Being among the first to adopt agri-culture and sedentary lifestyles, and neighboring otherearly agricultural societies with whom they could com-pete and trade, both Europeans and East Asians werealso among the first to benefit from technologies suchas firearms and steel swords. In addition, they devel-oped resistances to infectious disease, such as smallpox,due to their close relationship with domesticated animals.Groups of people who had not lived in proximity withother large mammals, such as the Australian Aboriginesand American indigenous peoples, were more vulnerableto infection and largely wiped out by diseases.During and after the Age of Discovery, European explor-ers, such as the Spanish conquistadors, encountered othergroups of people who had never or only recently adoptedagriculture.

1.1.5 Archaeogenetics

The dispersal of Neolithic culture from the Middle Easthas recently been associated with the distribution of hu-man genetic markers. In Europe, the spread of the Ne-olithic culture has been associated with distribution of theE1b1b lineages and Haplogroup J that are thought to havearrived in Europe from North Africa and the Near Eastrespectively.[57][58] In Africa, the spread of farming, andnotably the Bantu expansion, is associated with the dis-persal of Y-chromosome haplogroup E1b1a from WestAfrica.[57]

1.1. NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION 9

1.1.6 Notes and references

[1] Jean-Pierre Bocquet-Appel (July 29, 2011). “Whenthe World’s Population Took Off: The Springboardof the Neolithic Demographic Transition”. Science333 (6042): 560–561. Bibcode:2011Sci...333..560B.doi:10.1126/science.1208880. PMID 21798934. Re-trieved June 10, 2012.

[2] “International Stratigraphic Chart”. International Com-mission on Stratigraphy. Retrieved 2012-12-06.

[3] Graeme Barker (25 March 2009). The Agricultural Revo-lution in Prehistory: Why did Foragers become Farmers?.Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-955995-4. Re-trieved 15 August 2012.

[4] “The Slow Birth of Agriculture”, Heather Pringle*

[5] “Wizard Chemi Shanidar”, EMuseum, Minnesota StateUniversity

[6] Diamond, J.; Bellwood, P. (2003). “Farmers andTheir Languages: The First Expansions”. Science300 (5619): 597–603. Bibcode:2003Sci...300..597D.doi:10.1126/science.1078208. PMID 12714734.

[7] Thissen, L. 2002. Appendix I, The CANeW 14Cdatabases, Anatolia 10,000-5000 cal. BC. In The Ne-olithic of Central Anatolia. Internal developments andexternal relations during the 9th–6th millennia cal BC,Proc. Int. CANeW Round Table, Istanbul 23–24 Novem-ber 2001, edited by F. Gérard and L. Thissen. Istanbul:Ege Yayınları.

[8] Denham, Tim P.; Haberle, S. G. et al. (2003).“Origins of Agriculture at Kuk Swamp in the High-lands of New Guinea”. Science 301 (5630): 189–193.doi:10.1126/science.1085255. PMID 12817084.

[9] The Kuk Early Agricultural Site

[10] Kealhofer, Lisa (2003). “Looking into the gap: land useand the tropical forests of southern Thailand”. Asian Per-spectives 42 (1): 72–95. doi:10.1353/asi.2003.0022.

[11] Gordon Childe (1936). Man Makes Himself. Oxford uni-versity press.

[12] Scarre, Chris (2005). “The World Transformed: FromForagers and Farmers to States and Empires” in The Hu-man Past: World Prehistory and the Development of Hu-man Societies (Ed: Chris Scarre). London: Thames andHudson. Page 188. ISBN 0-500-28531-4

[13] Charles E. Redman (1978). Rise of Civilization: FromEarly Hunters to Urban Society in the Ancient Near East.San Francisco: Freeman.

[14] Hayden, Brian (1992). “Models of Domestication”. InAnne Birgitte Gebauer and T. Douglas Price. Transitionsto Agriculture in Prehistory. Madison: Prehistory Press.pp. 11–18.

[15] Sauer, Carl O. (1952). Agricultural origins and dispersals.Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

[16] Binford, Lewis R. (1968). “Post-Pleistocene Adapta-tions”. In Sally R. Binford and Lewis R. Binford. NewPerspectives in Archaeology. Chicago: Aldine PublishingCompany. pp. 313–342.

[17] Rindos, David (December 1987). The Origins of Agricul-ture: An Evolutionary Perspective. Academic Press. ISBN978-0-12-589281-0.

[18] Richerson, Peter J.; Boyd, Robert et al. (2001). “WasAgriculture Impossible during the Pleistocene but Manda-tory during the Holocene?". American Antiquity 66 (3):387–411. doi:10.2307/2694241. JSTOR 2694241.

[19] Wright, Ronald (2004). A Short History of Progress.Anansi. ISBN 0-88784-706-4.

[20] Anderson, David G; Albert C. Goodyear; JamesKennett; Allen West (2011). “Multiple linesof evidence for possible Human population de-cline/settlement reorganization during the early YoungerDryas”. Quaternary International 242 (2): 570–583.doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2011.04.020.

[21] Grinin L.E. Production Revolutions and Periodization ofHistory: A Comparative and Theoretic-mathematical Ap-proach. / Social Evolution & History. Volume 6, Number2 / September 2007

[22] Hole, Frank., A Reassessment of the Neolithic Revolu-tion, Paléorient, Volume 10, Issue 10-2, pp. 49-60, 1984.

[23] Zohary, D., The mode of domestication of the foundercrops of Southwest Asian agriculture. pp. 142-158 in D.R. Harris (ed.) The Origins and Spread of Agriculture andPastoralism in Eurasia. UCL Press Ltd, London, 1996

[24] Zohary, D., Monophyletic vs. polyphyletic origin of thecrops on which agriculture was founded in the Near East.Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 46 (2) pp. 133-142

[25] Hillman, G. C. and M. S. Davies., Domestication rate inwild wheats and barley under primitive cultivation: pre-liminary results and archaeological implications of fieldmeasurements of selection coefficient, pp. 124-132 inP. Anderson-Gerfaud (ed.) Préhistoire de l'agriculture:nouvelles approches expérimentales et ethnographiques.Monographie du CRA 6, Éditions Centre NationaleRecherches Scientifiques: Paris, 1992

[26] Weiss, Ehud; Kislev, Mordechai E.; Hartmann,Anat (2006). “Autonomous Cultivation BeforeDomestication”. Science 312 (5780): 1608–1610.doi:10.1126/science.1127235. PMID 16778044.

[27] “Tamed 11,400 Years Ago, Figs Were Likely First Do-mesticated Crop”.

[28] Brown, T. A.; Jones, M. K.; Powell, W.; Allaby, R. G.(2009). “The complex origins of domesticated crops inthe Fertile Crescent”. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 24(2): 103. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2008.09.008.

[29] Mithen, Steven (2006). After the ice : a global human his-tory, 20.000 - 5.000 BC (1. paperback ed.). Cambridge,Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press. p. 517. ISBN 0-674-01570-3.

10 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

[30] Compiled largely with reference to: Weiss, E.,Mordechai, E., Simchoni, O., Nadel, D., & Tschauner,H. (2008). Plant-food preparation area on an UpperPaleolithic brush hut floor at Ohalo II, Israel. Journal ofArchaeological Science, 35 (8), 2400-2414.

[31] Ozkan, H; Brandolini, A; Schäfer-Pregl, R; Salamini,F (October 2002). “AFLP analysis of a collectionof tetraploid wheats indicates the origin of emmerand hard wheat domestication in southeast Turkey”.Molecular Biology and Evolution 19 (10): 1797–801.doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a004002. PMID12270906.

[32] van Zeist, W. Bakker-Heeres, J.A.H., ArchaeobotanicalStudies in the Levant 1. Neolithic Sites in the Damas-cus Basin: Aswad, Ghoraifé, Ramad., Palaeohistoria, 24,165-256, 1982.

[33] Hopf, Maria., “Jericho plant remains” in Kathleen M.Kenyon and T. A. Holland (eds.) Excavations at Jericho 5,pp. 576-621, British School of Archaeology at Jerusalem,London, 1983.

[34] Jacques Cauvin (27 July 2000). The Birth of the Gods andthe Origins of Agriculture, p. 53. Cambridge UniversityPress. ISBN 978-0-521-65135-6. Retrieved 15 August2012.

[35] E. J. Peltenburg; Alexander Wasse; Council for BritishResearch in the Levant (2004). Maya Haïdar Boustani,Flint workshops of the Southern Beqa' valley (Lebanon):preliminary results from Qar'oun* in Neolithic revolution:new perspectives on southwest Asia in light of recent dis-coveries on Cyprus. Oxbow Books. ISBN 978-1-84217-132-5. Retrieved 18 January 2012.

[36] L. Copeland; P. Wescombe (1966). Inventory of Stone-Age Sites in Lebanon: North, South and East-CentralLebanon, p. 89. Impr. Catholique. Retrieved 3 March2011.

[37] Fuller, D. Q. (2007). “Contrasting Patterns in Crop Do-mestication and Domestication Rates: Recent Archaeob-otanical Insights from the Old World”. Annals of Botany100 (5): 903–924. doi:10.1093/aob/mcm048. PMC2759199. PMID 17495986.

[38] Siddiqi, Mohammad Rafiq. Tylenchida: Parasites ofPlants and Insects. New York: CABI Pub. 389. p.(2001).

[39] Thacker, Christopher (1985). The history of gardens.Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 57. ISBN978-0-520-05629-9.

[40] Webber, Herbert John (1967–1989). Chapter I. Historyand Development of the Citrus Industry in ORIGIN OFCITRUS, Vol. 1. University of California

[41] Diamond, Jared (1999). Guns, Germs, and Steel. NewYork: Norton Press. ISBN 0-393-31755-2.

[42] The Cambridge History of Africa

[43] Smith, Philip E.L., Stone Age Man on the Nile, ScientificAmerican Vol. 235 No. 2, August 1976.

[44] Denham, Tim et al. (received July 2005) “Early and midHolocene tool-use and processing of taro (Colocasia es-culenta), yam (Dioscorea sp.) and other plants at KukSwamp in the highlands of Papua New Guinea” (Jour-nal of Archaeological Science, Volume 33, Issue 5, May2006)

[45] Hoy, Thomas & Matthew Springs (1992), " Direct evi-dence for human use of plants 28,000 years ago: starchresidues on stone artefacts from the northern Solomon Is-lands” (Antiquity Volume: 66 Number: 253 Page: 898–912)

[46] McGourty, Christine (2002-11-22). “Origin of dogstraced”. BBC News. Retrieved 2006-11-29.

[47] Fleisch, Henri., Notes de Préhistoire Libanaise : 1) Ardes Saoude. 2) La Bekaa Nord. 3) Un polissoir en pleinair. BSPF, vol. 63.

[48] Hermanussen, Michael; Poustka, Fritz (July–September2003). “Stature of early Europeans”. Hormones(Athens) 2 (3): 175–8. doi:10.1159/000079404. PMID17003019.

[49] Shermer, Michael (2001) The Borderlands of Science,Oxford University Press p.250

[50] Eagly, Alice H. & Wood, Wendy (June 1999). “The Ori-gins of Sex Differences in Human Behavior: Evolved Dis-positions Versus Social Roles”. American Psychologist 54(6): 408–423.

[51] Jared Diamond: “The Worst Mistake in the History of theHuman Race,” Discover Magazine, May 1987, pp. 64-66.

[52] Sherratt 1981

[53] Furuse, Y.; Suzuki, A.; Oshitani, H. (2010). “Origin ofmeasles virus: Divergence from rinderpest virus betweenthe 11th and 12th centuries”. Virology Journal 7: 52.doi:10.1186/1743-422X-7-52. PMC 2838858. PMID20202190.

[54] Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies -Jared Diamond, 1997

[55] Halcrow, S.; E., Harris, N. J., Tayles, N., Ike-hara‐Quebral, R., & Pietrusewsky, M. (2013). “Fromthe mouths of babes: Dental caries in infants and chil-dren and the intensification of agriculture in mainlandSoutheast Asia”. American Journal of Physical Anthropol-ogy 150 (3): 409–420. doi:10.1002/ajpa.22215. PMID23359102.

[56] Marshall, P. J. Ed. (1996), Cambridge illustrated History:British Empire, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-00254-0, p. 142

[57] Semino, O et al. (2004). “Origin, Diffusion, and Dif-ferentiation of Y-Chromosome Haplogroups E and J:Inferences on the Neolithization of Europe and LaterMigratory Events in the Mediterranean Area”. Amer-ican Journal of Human Genetics 74 (5): 1023–34.doi:10.1086/386295. PMC 1181965. PMID 15069642.

[58] Lancaster, Andrew (2009). “Y Haplogroups, Archaeo-logical Cultures and Language Families: a Review of theMultidisciplinary Comparisons using the case of E-M35”.Journal of Genetic Genealogy 5 (1).

1.2. INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION 11

1.1.7 Bibliography

• Bailey, Douglass. (2001). Balkan Prehistory: Ex-clusions, Incorporation and Identity. Routledge Pub-lishers. ISBN 0-415-21598-6.

• Bailey, Douglass. (2005). Prehistoric Figurines:Representation and Corporeality in the Neolithic.Routledge Publishers. ISBN 0-415-33152-8.

• Balter, Michael (2005). The Goddess and the Bull:Catalhoyuk, An Archaeological Journey to the Dawnof Civilization. New York: Free Press. ISBN 0-7432-4360-9.

• Bellwood, Peter. (2004). First Farmers: The Ori-gins of Agricultural Societies. Blackwell Publishers.ISBN 0-631-20566-7

• Bocquet-Appel, Jean-Pierre, editor and Ofer Bar-Yosef, editor, The Neolithic Demographic Transitionand its Consequences, Springer (October 21, 2008),hardcover, 544 pages, ISBN 978-1402085383,trade paperback and Kindle editions are also avail-able.

• Cohen, Mark Nathan (1977)The Food Crisis in Pre-history: Overpopulation and the Origins of Agri-culture. New Haven and London: Yale UniversityPress. ISBN 0-300-02016-3.

• Jared Diamond, Guns, germs and steel. A short his-tory of everybody for the last 13'000 years, 1997.

• Diamond, Jared (2002). “Evolution, Consequencesand Future of Plant and Animal Domestication”.Nature, Vol 418.

• Harlan, Jack R. (1992). Crops & Man: Viewson Agricultural Origins ASA, CSA, Madison,WI. http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/history/lecture03/r_3-1.html

• Wright, Gary A. (1971). “Origins of Food Produc-tion in Southwestern Asia: A Survey of Ideas” Cur-rent Anthropology, Vol. 12, No. 4/5 (Oct.–Dec.,1971), pp. 447–477

• Bartmen, Jeff M. (2008). Disease.

• Evidence for food storage and predomestication gra-naries 11,000 years ago in the Jordan Valley .

• Co-Creators How our ancestors used Artificial Se-lection during the Neolithic Revolution

1.1.8 See also

• Çatalhöyük, a Neolithic site in southern Anatolia

• Aşıklı Höyük, in Anatolia

• Natufians, a settled culture preceding agriculture

• Original affluent society

• Haplogroup G (Y-DNA)

• Haplogroup J2 (Y-DNA)

• Haplogroup J (mtDNA)

• Neolithic tomb

• Surplus product

• Göbekli Tepe

• Mehrgarh, a Neolithic site in Balochistan

1.1.9 External links

• The Agricultural Revolution on YouTube: CrashCourse World History #1

1.2 Indus Valley Civilization

The major sites of the Indus Valley Civilization imposed overmodern borders

The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) was a Bronze Agecivilization (3300–1300 BCE; mature period 2600–1900BCE) extending from what today is northeast Afghanistanto Pakistan and northwest India (see map).[1] Along withAncient Egypt and Mesopotamia, it was one of three earlycivilizations of the Old World, and the most widespreadamong them,[2] covering an area of 1.25 million km2.[3]

It flourished in the basins of the Indus River, one of themajor rivers of Asia, and the now dried up Sarasvati

12 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

River,[4][5] which once coursed through northwest In-dia and eastern Pakistan [6] together with its tributariesflowed along a channel, presently identified as that of theGhaggar-Hakra River on the basis of various scientificstudies.[7][8][9]

At its peak, the Indus Civilization may have had a pop-ulation of over five million.[10] Inhabitants of the ancientIndus river valley developed new techniques in handicraft(carnelian products, seal carving) and metallurgy (copper,bronze, lead, and tin). The Indus cities are noted for theirurban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainagesystems, water supply systems, and clusters of large non-residential buildings.[11]

The Indus Valley Civilization is also known as theHarap-pan Civilization, after Harappa, the first of its sites tobe excavated in the 1920s, in what was then the Punjabprovince of British India, and is now in Pakistan.[12] Thediscovery of Harappa, and soon afterwards, Mohenjo-Daro, was the culmination of work beginning in 1861with the founding of the Archaeological Survey of In-dia in the British Raj.[13] Excavation of Harappan siteshas been ongoing since 1920, with important break-throughs occurring as recently as 1999.[14] There wereearlier and later cultures, often called Early Harappan andLate Harappan, in the same area of the Harappan Civi-lization. The Harappan civilization is sometimes calledthe Mature Harappan culture to distinguish it fromthese cultures. By 1999, over 1,056 cities and settlementshad been found, of which 96 have been excavated,[15]

mainly in the general region of the Indus and the SarasvatiRiver[16]and their tributaries. Among the settlementswere the major urban centres of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro(UNESCO World Heritage Site), Dholavira, Ganeriwalain Cholistan and Rakhigarhi.[17]

The Harappan language is not directly attested and its af-filiation is uncertain since the Indus script is still unde-ciphered. A relationship with the Dravidian or Elamo-Dravidian language family is favored by a section ofscholars,[18][19] while others suggest an Austroasiatic lan-guage related to Munda.[20]

Skeletal remains at Harappan sites belonged to proto-Australoid, Mongoloid, Mediterranean and Alpine.[21]

1.2.1 Discovery and history of excavation

The ruins of Harappa were first described in 1842 byCharles Masson in his Narrative of Various Journeysin Balochistan, Afghanistan, and the Punjab, where lo-cals talked of an ancient city extending “thirteen cosses"(about 25 miles), but no archaeological interest would at-tach to this for nearly a century.[note 1]

In 1856, General Alexander Cunningham, later direc-tor general of the archaeological survey of northern In-dia, visited Harappa where the British engineers Johnand William Brunton were laying the East Indian Rail-

Excavated ruins of Mohenjo-daro, with the Great Bath in thefront

Early Harappan Period, c. 3300-2600 BCE

Mature Harappan Period, c. 2600-1900 BCE

way Company line connecting the cities of Karachi andLahore. John wrote: “I was much exercised in my mindhow we were to get ballast for the line of the railway”.They were told of an ancient ruined city near the lines,called Brahminabad. Visiting the city, he found it full ofhard well-burnt bricks, and, “convinced that there was agrand quarry for the ballast I wanted”, the city of Brah-minabad was reduced to ballast.[23] A few months later,further north, John’s brother William Brunton’s “sectionof the line ran near another ruined city, bricks from whichhad already been used by villagers in the nearby village of

1.2. INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION 13

Late Harappan Period, c. 1900-1300 BCE

Skull of Indus Valley inhabitants, Indian Museum

Harappa at the same site. These bricks now provided bal-last along 93 miles (150 km) of the railroad track runningfrom Karachi to Lahore”.[23]

In 1872–75 Alexander Cunningham published the firstHarappan seal (with an erroneous identification asBrahmi letters).[24] It was half a century later, in 1912,that more Harappan seals were discovered by J. Fleet,prompting an excavation campaign under Sir John Hu-bert Marshall in 1921–22 and resulting in the discov-ery of the civilization at Harappa by Sir John Marshall,Rai Bahadur Daya Ram Sahni and Madho Sarup Vats,and at Mohenjo-daro by Rakhal Das Banerjee, E. J. H.MacKay, and Sir John Marshall. By 1931, much ofMohenjo-Daro had been excavated, but excavations con-tinued, such as that led by Sir Mortimer Wheeler, directorof the Archaeological Survey of India in 1944. Amongother archaeologists who worked on IVC sites before theindependence in 1947 were Ahmad Hasan Dani, Brij BasiLal, Nani Gopal Majumdar, and Sir Marc Aurel Stein.Following the independence, the bulk of the archaeolog-ical finds were inherited by Pakistan where most of theIVC was based, and excavations from this time includethose led by Sir Mortimer Wheeler in 1949, archaeolog-ical adviser to the Government of Pakistan. Outposts ofthe Indus Valley civilization were excavated as far west asSutkagan Dor in Baluchistan, as far north as at Shortugaion the Amu Darya (the river’s ancient name was Oxus) incurrent Afghanistan, as far east as at Alamgirpur, Uttar

Pradesh, India and as far south as at Malwan, Surat Dist.,India.[25]

In 2010, heavy floods hit Haryana in India and dam-aged the archaeological site of Jognakhera, where ancientcopper smelting were found dating back almost 5,000years. The Indus Valley Civilization site was hit by al-most 10 feet of water as the Sutlej Yamuna link canaloverflowed.[26]

1.2.2 Chronology

Indus Valley pottery, 2500-1900 BC

Main article: Periodization of the Indus Valley Civiliza-tion

The mature phase of the Harappan civilization lastedfrom c. 2600 to 1900 BCE. With the inclusion ofthe predecessor and successor cultures—Early Harappanand Late Harappan, respectively—the entire Indus Val-ley Civilization may be taken to have lasted from the33rd to the 14th centuries BCE. Two terms are employedfor the periodization of the IVC: Phases and Eras.[27][28]

The Early Harappan, Mature Harappan, and Late Harap-pan phases are also called the Regionalisation, Integra-tion, and Localisation eras, respectively, with the Region-alization era reaching back to the Neolithic MehrgarhII period. “Discoveries at Mehrgarh changed the entireconcept of the Indus civilization”, according to AhmadHasan Dani, professor emeritus at Quaid-e-Azam Uni-versity, Islamabad. “There we have the whole sequence,right from the beginning of settled village life.”[29]

14 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

1.2.3 Geography

The Indus Valley Civilization encompassed most of Pak-istan and parts of northwestern India, Afghanistan andIran, extending from Balochistan in the west to UttarPradesh in the east, northeastern Afghanistan to the northand Maharashtra to the south.[30] The geography of theIndus Valley put the civilizations that arose there in ahighly similar situation to those in Egypt and Peru, withrich agricultural lands being surrounded by highlands,desert, and ocean. Recently, Indus sites have been dis-covered in Pakistan’s northwestern Frontier Province aswell. Other IVC colonies can be found in Afghanistanwhile smaller isolated colonies can be found as far awayas Turkmenistan and in Gujarat. Coastal settlementsextended from Sutkagan Dor[31] in Western Baluchis-tan to Lothal[32] in Gujarat. An Indus Valley site hasbeen found on the Oxus River at Shortughai in north-ern Afghanistan,[33] in the Gomal River valley in north-western Pakistan,[34] at Manda,Jammu on the Beas Rivernear Jammu,[35] India, and at Alamgirpur on the HindonRiver, only 28 km from Delhi.[36] Indus Valley sites havebeen found most often on rivers, but also on the ancientseacoast,[37] for example, Balakot,[38] and on islands, forexample, Dholavira.[39]

There is evidence of dry river beds overlapping withthe Hakra channel in Pakistan and the seasonal GhaggarRiver in India. Many Indus Valley (or Harappan) siteshave been discovered along the Ghaggar-Hakra beds.[40]

Among them are: Rupar, Rakhigarhi, Sothi, Kalibangan,and Ganwariwala.[41] According to J. G. Shaffer and D.A. Lichtenstein,[42] the Harappan Civilization “is a fusionof the Bagor, Hakra, and Koti Dij traditions or 'ethnicgroups’ in the Ghaggar-Hakra valley on the borders ofIndia and Pakistan”.[40]

According to some archaeologists, more than 500 Harap-pan sites have been discovered along the dried up riverbeds of the Ghaggar-Hakra River and its tributaries,[43]

in contrast to only about 100 along the Indus and itstributaries;[44] consequently, in their opinion, the appella-tion Indus Ghaggar-Hakra civilization or Indus-Saraswaticivilization is justified. However, these politically in-spired arguments are disputed by other archaeologistswho state that the Ghaggar-Hakra desert area has beenleft untouched by settlements and agriculture since theend of the Indus period and hence shows more sites thanfound in the alluvium of the Indus valley; second, thatthe number of Harappan sites along the Ghaggar-Hakrariver beds have been exaggerated and that the Ghaggar-Hakra, when it existed, was a tributary of the Indus, sothe new nomenclature is redundant.[45] “Harappan Civi-lization” remains the correct one, according to the com-mon archaeological usage of naming a civilization afterits first findspot.

Ceremonial vessel, Harappan, 2600-2450 BC. LACMA

1.2.4 Early Harappan

The Early Harappan Ravi Phase, named after the nearbyRavi River, lasted from circa 3300 BCE until 2800 BCE.It is related to the Hakra Phase, identified in the Ghaggar-Hakra River Valley to the west, and predates the Kot DijiPhase (2800–2600 BCE, Harappan 2), named after a sitein northern Sindh, Pakistan, near Mohenjo Daro. Theearliest examples of the Indus script dated to 3rd millen-nium BC.[46][47] Discoveries from Bhirrana, Rajasthan, inIndia, by archeologist K. N. Dikshit indicate that Hakraware from this area dates from as early as 7500 BC.[48]

The mature phase of earlier village cultures is representedby Rehman Dheri and Amri in Pakistan.[49] Kot Diji rep-resents the phase leading up to Mature Harappan, withthe citadel representing centralised authority and an in-creasingly urban quality of life. Another town of thisstage was found at Kalibangan in India on the HakraRiver.[50]

Trade networks linked this culture with related regionalcultures and distant sources of raw materials, includinglapis lazuli and other materials for bead-making. Vil-lagers had, by this time, domesticated numerous crops,including peas, sesame seeds, dates, and cotton, as wellas animals, including the water buffalo. Early Harappancommunities turned to large urban centres by 2600 BCE,from where the mature Harappan phase started.

1.2. INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION 15

1.2.5 Mature Harappan

By 2600 BCE, the Early Harappan communities had beenturned into large urban centres. Such urban centres in-clude Harappa, Ganeriwala, Mohenjo-Daro in modernday Pakistan, and Dholavira, Kalibangan, Rakhigarhi,Rupar, and Lothal in modern day India. In total, morethan 1,052 cities and settlements have been found, mainlyin the general region of the Indus Rivers and their tribu-taries.

Cities

Computer-aided reconstruction of coastal Harappan settlementat Sokhta Koh near Pasni, Pakistan

A sophisticated and technologically advanced urban cul-ture is evident in the Indus Valley Civilization makingthem the first urban centres in the region. The qual-ity of municipal town planning suggests the knowledgeof urban planning and efficient municipal governmentswhich placed a high priority on hygiene, or, alternatively,accessibility to the means of religious ritual.As seen in Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro and the recentlypartially excavated Rakhigarhi, this urban plan includedthe world’s first known urban sanitation systems: seehydraulic engineering of the Indus Valley Civilization.Within the city, individual homes or groups of homesobtained water from wells. From a room that appearsto have been set aside for bathing, waste water was di-rected to covered drains, which lined the major streets.Houses opened only to inner courtyards and smaller lanes.The house-building in some villages in the region stillresembles in some respects the house-building of theHarappans.[51]

The ancient Indus systems of sewerage and drainage thatwere developed and used in cities throughout the Indusregion were far more advanced than any found in con-temporary urban sites in the Middle East and even moreefficient than those in many areas of Pakistan and In-dia today. The advanced architecture of the Harappansis shown by their impressive dockyards, granaries, ware-

houses, brick platforms, and protective walls. The mas-sive walls of Indus cities most likely protected the Harap-pans from floods and may have dissuaded military con-flicts.

So-called “Priest King” statue, Mohenjo-Daro, late MatureHarappan period, National Museum, Karachi, Pakistan

The purpose of the citadel remains debated. In sharp con-trast to this civilization’s contemporaries, Mesopotamiaand Ancient Egypt, no large monumental structures werebuilt. There is no conclusive evidence of palaces ortemples—or of kings, armies, or priests. Some structuresare thought to have been granaries. Found at one city isan enormous well-built bath (the "Great Bath"), whichmay have been a public bath. Although the citadels werewalled, it is far from clear that these structures were de-fensive. They may have been built to divert flood waters.Most city dwellers appear to have been traders or artisans,who lived with others pursuing the same occupation inwell-defined neighbourhoods. Materials from distant re-gions were used in the cities for constructing seals, beadsand other objects. Among the artifacts discovered werebeautiful glazed faïence beads. Steatite seals have imagesof animals, people (perhaps gods), and other types of in-scriptions, including the yet un-deciphered writing sys-tem of the Indus Valley Civilization. Some of the sealswere used to stamp clay on trade goods and most probablyhad other uses as well.Although some houses were larger than others, Indus Civ-ilization cities were remarkable for their apparent, if rel-ative, egalitarianism. All the houses had access to wa-ter and drainage facilities. This gives the impression of asociety with relatively low wealth concentration, though

16 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

clear social levelling is seen in personal adornments. Theprehistory of Indo-Iranian borderlands shows a steady in-crease over time in the number and density of settlements.The population increased in Indus plains because of hunt-ing and gathering. [52]

Authority and governance

Archaeological records provide no immediate answers fora center of power or for depictions of people in power inHarappan society. But, there are indications of complexdecisions being taken and implemented. For instance, theextraordinary uniformity of Harappan artifacts as evidentin pottery, seals, weights and bricks. These are the majortheories:

• There was a single state, given the similarity in arti-facts, the evidence for planned settlements, the stan-dardised ratio of brick size, and the establishment ofsettlements near sources of raw material.

• There was no single ruler but several: Mohenjo-darohad a separate ruler, Harappa another, and so forth.

• Harappan society had no rulers, and everybody en-joyed equal status.

Technology

Further information: Indian mathematics - PrehistoryThe people of the Indus Civilization achieved great ac-

Unicorn seal of Indus Valley, Indian Museum

Elephant seal of Indus Valley, Indian Museum

Indus Valley seals, British Museum

curacy in measuring length, mass, and time. They wereamong the first to develop a system of uniform weightsand measures. A comparison of available objects in-dicates large scale variation across the Indus territories.Their smallest division, which is marked on an ivoryscale found in Lothal, was approximately 1.704 mm, thesmallest division ever recorded on a scale of the BronzeAge. Harappan engineers followed the decimal divisionof measurement for all practical purposes, including themeasurement of mass as revealed by their hexahedronweights.[53]

These chert weights were in a ratio of 5:2:1 with weightsof 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200,and 500 units, with each unit weighing approximately 28grams, similar to the English Imperial ounce or Greekuncia, and smaller objects were weighed in similar ra-tios with the units of 0.871. However, as in other cul-tures, actual weights were not uniform throughout thearea. The weights and measures later used in Kautilya'sArthashastra (4th century BCE) are the same as thoseused in Lothal.[54]

Harappans evolved some new techniques in metallurgyand produced copper, bronze, lead, and tin. The engi-neering skill of the Harappans was remarkable, especiallyin building docks.In 2001, archaeologists studying the remains of two menfrom Mehrgarh, Pakistan, made the discovery that thepeople of the Indus Valley Civilization, from the earlyHarappan periods, had knowledge of proto-dentistry.Later, in April 2006, it was announced in the scientificjournal Nature that the oldest (and first early Neolithic)evidence for the drilling of human teeth in vivo (i.e., in aliving person) was found in Mehrgarh. Eleven drilled mo-lar crowns from nine adults were discovered in a Neolithicgraveyard in Mehrgarh that dates from 7,500–9,000 yearsago. According to the authors, their discoveries point toa tradition of proto-dentistry in the early farming culturesof that region.[55]

A touchstone bearing gold streaks was found in Banawali,which was probably used for testing the purity of gold(such a technique is still used in some parts of India).[56]

1.2. INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION 17

Arts and crafts

The "dancing girl of Mohenjo Daro"

Chanhudaro. Fragment of Large Deep Vessel, circa 2500B.C.E. Red pottery with red and black slip-painted decoration,415/16×6⅛ in. (12.5×15.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum

Various sculptures, seals, pottery, gold jewelry, andanatomically detailed figurines in terracotta, bronze, and

steatite have been found at excavation sites.A number of gold, terracotta and stone figurines of girlsin dancing poses reveal the presence of some dance form.Also, these terracotta figurines included cows, bears,monkeys, and dogs. The animal depicted on a majorityof seals at sites of the mature period has not been clearlyidentified. Part bull, part zebra, with a majestic horn, ithas been a source of speculation. As yet, there is insuf-ficient evidence to substantiate claims that the image hadreligious or cultic significance, but the prevalence of theimage raises the question of whether or not the animalsin images of the IVC are religious symbols.[57]

Sir John Marshall reacted with surprise when he saw thefamous Indus bronze statuette of a slender-limbed danc-ing girl in Mohenjo-Daro:

When I first saw them I found it difficult tobelieve that they were prehistoric; they seemedto completely upset all established ideas aboutearly art, and culture. Modeling such as thiswas unknown in the ancient world up to theHellenistic age of Greece, and I thought, there-fore, that some mistake must surely have beenmade; that these figures had found their wayinto levels some 3000 years older than thoseto which they properly belonged .... Now, inthese statuettes, it is just this anatomical truthwhich is so startling; that makes us wonderwhether, in this all-important matter, Greekartistry could possibly have been anticipated bythe sculptors of a far-off age on the banks of theIndus.[58]

Many crafts “such as shell working, ceramics, and agateand glazed steatite bead making” were used in the mak-ing of necklaces, bangles, and other ornaments from allphases of Harappan sites and some of these crafts arestill practised in the subcontinent today.[59] Some make-up and toiletry items (a special kind of combs (kakai),the use of collyrium and a special three-in-one toiletrygadget) that were found in Harappan contexts still havesimilar counterparts in modern India.[60] Terracotta fe-male figurines were found (ca. 2800-2600 BCE) whichhad red colour applied to the “manga” (line of partitionof the hair).[60]

Seals have been found at Mohenjo-Daro depicting a figurestanding on its head, and another sitting cross-legged inwhat some call a yoga-like pose (see image, the so-calledPashupati, below).This figure, sometimes known as a Pashupati, has beenvariously identified. Sir John Marshall identified a re-semblance to the Hindu god, Shiva.[61] If this can be val-idated, it would be evidence that some aspects of Hin-duism predate the earliest texts, the Veda.A harp-like instrument depicted on an Indus seal and twoshell objects found at Lothal indicate the use of stringed

18 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

musical instruments. The Harappans also made varioustoys and games, among them cubical dice (with one tosix holes on the faces), which were found in sites likeMohenjo-Daro.[62]

Trade and transportation

The docks of ancient Lothal as they are today

Further information: Lothal and Meluhha

The Indus civilization’s economy appears to have de-pended significantly on trade, which was facilitatedby major advances in transport technology. The IVCmay have been the first civilization to use wheeledtransport.[63] These advances may have included bullockcarts that are identical to those seen throughout SouthAsia today, as well as boats. Most of these boats wereprobably small, flat-bottomed craft, perhaps driven bysail, similar to those one can see on the Indus River today;however, there is secondary evidence of sea-going craft.Archaeologists have discovered a massive, dredged canaland what they regard as a docking facility at the coastalcity of Lothal in western India (Gujarat state). An exten-sive canal network, used for irrigation, has however alsobeen discovered by H.-P. Francfort.During 4300–3200 BCE of the chalcolithic period (cop-per age), the Indus Valley Civilization area shows ce-ramic similarities with southern Turkmenistan and north-ern Iran which suggest considerable mobility and trade.During the Early Harappan period (about 3200–2600BCE), similarities in pottery, seals, figurines, ornaments,etc. document intensive caravan trade with Central Asiaand the Iranian plateau.[64]

Judging from the dispersal of Indus civilization artifacts,the trade networks, economically, integrated a huge area,including portions of Afghanistan, the coastal regions ofPersia, northern and western India, and Mesopotamia.Studies of tooth enamel from individuals buried atHarappa suggest that some residents had migrated to thecity from beyond the Indus valley.[65] There is some evi-dence that trade contacts extended to Crete and possiblyto Egypt.[66]

There was an extensive maritime trade network operatingbetween the Harappan and Mesopotamian civilizationsas early as the middle Harappan Phase, with much com-merce being handled by “middlemen merchants from Dil-mun” (modern Bahrain and Failaka located in the PersianGulf).[67] Such long-distance sea trade became feasiblewith the innovative development of plank-built water-craft, equipped with a single central mast supporting asail of woven rushes or cloth.Several coastal settlements like Sotkagen-dor (astrideDasht River, north of Jiwani), Sokhta Koh (astride ShadiRiver, north of Pasni), and Balakot (near Sonmiani) inPakistan along with Lothal in India testify to their roleas Harappan trading outposts. Shallow harbors located atthe estuaries of rivers opening into the sea allowed briskmaritime trade with Mesopotamian cities.

Subsistence

Some post-1980 studies indicate that food productionwas largely indigenous to the Indus Valley. It is knownthat the people of Mehrgarh used domesticated wheatsand barley,[68] and the major cultivated cereal crop wasnaked six-row barley, a crop derived from two-row barley(see Shaffer and Liechtenstein 1995, 1999). Archaeolo-gist Jim G. Shaffer (1999: 245) writes that the Mehrgarhsite “demonstrates that food production was an indige-nous South Asian phenomenon” and that the data sup-port interpretation of “the prehistoric urbanization andcomplex social organization in South Asia as based on in-digenous, but not isolated, cultural developments”. Oth-ers, such as Dorian Fuller, however, indicate that it tooksome 2000 years before Middle Eastern wheat was accli-matised to South Asian conditions.

Writing system

Main article: Indus script

Between 400 and as many as 600 distinct Indussymbols[69] have been found on seals, small tablets, ce-ramic pots and more than a dozen other materials, in-cluding a “signboard” that apparently once hung over thegate of the inner citadel of the Indus city of Dholavira.

Ten Indus Signs, dubbed Dholavira Signboard

Typical Indus inscriptions are no more than four or fivecharacters in length, most of which (aside from theDholavira “signboard”) are tiny; the longest on a single

1.2. INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION 19

surface, which is less than 1 inch (2.54 cm) square, is 17signs long; the longest on any object (found on three dif-ferent faces of a mass-produced object) has a length of26 symbols.While the Indus Valley Civilization is generally character-ized as a literate society on the evidence of these inscrip-tions, this description has been challenged by Farmer,Sproat, and Witzel (2004)[70] who argue that the Indussystem did not encode language, but was instead simi-lar to a variety of non-linguistic sign systems used ex-tensively in the Near East and other societies, to sym-bolise families, clans, gods, and religious concepts. Oth-ers have claimed on occasion that the symbols were ex-clusively used for economic transactions, but this claimleaves unexplained the appearance of Indus symbols onmany ritual objects, many of which were mass-producedin moulds. No parallels to these mass-produced inscrip-tions are known in any other early ancient civilizations.[71]

In a 2009 study by P. N. Rao et al. published in Science,computer scientists, comparing the pattern of symbols tovarious linguistic scripts and non-linguistic systems, in-cluding DNA and a computer programming language,found that the Indus script’s pattern is closer to that ofspoken words, supporting the hypothesis that it codes foran as-yet-unknown language.[72][73]

Farmer, Sproat, and Witzel have disputed this finding,pointing out that Rao et al. did not actually comparethe Indus signs with “real-world non-linguistic systems”but rather with “two wholly artificial systems invented bythe authors, one consisting of 200,000 randomly orderedsigns and another of 200,000 fully ordered signs, that theyspuriously claim represent the structures of all real-worldnon-linguistic sign systems”.[74] Farmer et al. have alsodemonstrated that a comparison of a non-linguistic sys-tem like medieval heraldic signs with natural languagesyields results similar to those that Rao et al. obtainedwith Indus signs. They conclude that the method usedby Rao et al. cannot distinguish linguistic systems fromnon-linguistic ones.[75]

The messages on the seals have proved to be too shortto be decoded by a computer. Each seal has a distinc-tive combination of symbols and there are too few ex-amples of each sequence to provide a sufficient context.The symbols that accompany the images vary from sealto seal, making it impossible to derive a meaning for thesymbols from the images. There have, nonetheless, beena number of interpretations offered for the meaning of theseals. These interpretations have been marked by ambi-guity and subjectivity.[75]:69

Photos of many of the thousands of extant inscriptionsare published in the Corpus of Indus Seals and Inscrip-tions (1987, 1991, 2010), edited by Asko Parpola and hiscolleagues. The final, third, volume, republished photostaken in the 1920s and 1930s of hundreds of lost or stoleninscriptions, along with many discovered in the last fewdecades. Formerly, researchers had to supplement the

materials in the Corpus by study of the tiny photos in theexcavation reports of Marshall (1931), MacKay (1938,1943), Wheeler (1947), or reproductions in more recentscattered sources.

Religion

The so-called Pashupati seal, showing a seated and possiblyithyphallic figure, surrounded by animals.

Further information: Prehistoric religion

The religion and belief system of the Indus valley peo-ple have received considerable attention, especially fromthe view of identifying precursors to deities and religiouspractices of Indian religions that later developed in thearea. However due to the sparsity of evidence, which isopen to varying interpretations, and the fact that the Indusscript remains undeciphered, the conclusions are partlyspeculative and largely based on a retrospective view froma much later Hindu perspective.[76][77] An early and influ-ential work in the area that set the trend for Hindu inter-pretations of archaeological evidence from the Harrapansites[78] was that of John Marshall, who in 1931 identifiedthe following as prominent features of the Indus religion:a Great Male God and a Mother Goddess; deification orveneration of animals and plants; symbolic representationof the phallus (linga) and vulva (yoni); and, use of bathsand water in religious practice. Marshall’s interpretationshave been much debated, and sometimes disputed overthe following decades.[79][80]

One Indus valley seal shows a seated, possibly ithyphallicand tricephalic, figure with a horned headdress, sur-rounded by animals. Marshall identified the figure as anearly form of the Hindu god Shiva (or Rudra), who isassociated with asceticism, yoga, and linga; regarded as alord of animals; and often depicted as having three heads.The seal has hence come to be known as the Pashupati

20 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

Seal, after Pashupati (lord of the beasts), an epithet ofShiva.[79][81] While Marshall’s work has earned some sup-port, many critics and even supporters have raised sev-eral objections. Doris Srinivasan has argued that thefigure does not have three faces, or yogic posture, andthat in Vedic literature Rudra was not a protector of wildanimals.[82][83] Herbert Sullivan and Alf Hiltebeitel alsorejected Marshall’s conclusions, with the former claimingthat the figure was female, while the latter associated thefigure with Mahisha, the Buffalo God and the surround-ing animals with vahanas (vehicles) of deities for the fourcardinal directions.[84][85] Writing in 2002, Gregory L.Possehl concluded that while it would be appropriate torecognize the figure as a deity, its association with thewater buffalo, and its posture as one of ritual discipline,regarding it as a proto-Shiva would be going too far.[81]

Despite the criticisms of Marshall’s association of the sealwith a proto-Shiva icon, it has been interpreted by Jainsand Buddhists as representing an early Tirthankara or anearly Buddha.[78]

Marshall hypothesized the existence of a cult of MotherGoddess worship based upon excavation of several fe-male figurines, and thought that this was a precursor ofthe Hindu sect of Shaktism. However the function ofthe female figurines in the life of Indus Valley peopleremains unclear, and Possehl does not regard the evi-dence for Marshall’s hypothesis to be “terribly robust”.[86]

Some of the baetyls interpreted by Marshall to be sa-cred phallic representations are now thought to have beenused as pestles or game counters instead, while the ringstones that were thought to symbolize yoni were deter-mined to be architectural features used to stand pillars, al-though the possibility of their religious symbolism cannotbe eliminated.[87] Many Indus Valley seals show animals,with some depicting them being carried in processions,while others show chimeric creations. One seal fromMohen-jodaro shows a half-human, half-buffalo mon-ster attacking a tiger, which may be a reference to theSumerian myth of such a monster created by goddessAruru to fight Gilgamesh.[88]

In contrast to contemporary Egyptian and Mesopotamiancivilizations, Indus valley lacks any monumental palaces,even though excavated cities indicate that the society pos-sessed the requisite engineering knowledge.[89][90] Thismay suggest that religious ceremonies, if any, may havebeen largely confined to individual homes, small temples,or the open air. Several sites have been proposed by Mar-shall and later scholars as possibly devoted to religiouspurpose, but at present only the Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro is widely thought to have been so used, as a placefor ritual purification.[86][91] The funerary practices of theHarappan civilization is marked by its diversity with evi-dence of supine burial; fractional burial in which the bodyis reduced to skeletal remains by exposure to the elementsbefore final interment; and even cremation. [92][93]

1.2.6 Collapse and Late Harappan

Main article: Late Harappan

Around 1800 BCE, signs of a gradual decline began toemerge, and by around 1700 BCE, most of the cities wereabandoned. In 1953, Sir Mortimer Wheeler proposedthat the decline of the Indus Civilization was caused bythe invasion of an Indo-European tribe from Central Asiacalled the "Aryans". As evidence, he cited a group of37 skeletons found in various parts of Mohenjo-Daro,and passages in the Vedas referring to battles and forts.However, scholars soon started to reject Wheeler’s the-ory, since the skeletons belonged to a period after thecity’s abandonment and none were found near the citadel.Subsequent examinations of the skeletons by KennethKennedy in 1994 showed that the marks on the skullswere caused by erosion, and not violent aggression.[94]

Today, many scholars believe that the collapse of the In-dus Civilization was caused by drought and a decline intrade with Egypt and Mesopotamia.[95] It has also beensuggested that immigration by new peoples, deforesta-tion, floods, or changes in the course of the river mayhave contributed to the collapse of the IVC.[96]

Previously, it was also believed that the decline of theHarappan civilization led to an interruption of urban lifein the Indian subcontinent. However, the Indus ValleyCivilization did not disappear suddenly, and many el-ements of the Indus Civilization can be found in latercultures. David Gordon White cites three other main-stream scholars who “have emphatically demonstrated”that Vedic religion is partially derived from the Indus Val-ley Civilizations.[97]

Current archaeological data suggest that material cultureclassified as Late Harappan may have persisted until atleast c. 1000–900 BCE and was partially contempora-neous with the Painted Grey Ware culture.[98] Harvardarchaeologist Richard Meadow points to the late Harap-pan settlement of Pirak, which thrived continuously from1800 BCE to the time of the invasion of Alexander theGreat in 325 BCE.[95]

Recent archaeological excavations indicate that the de-cline of Harappa drove people eastward. After 1900BCE, the number of sites in India increased from 218 to853. Excavations in the Gangetic plain show that urbansettlement began around 1200 BCE, only a few centuriesafter the decline of Harappa and much earlier than previ-ously expected.[95] Archaeologists have emphasized that,just as in most areas of the world, there was a continuousseries of cultural developments. These link “the so-calledtwo major phases of urbanization in South Asia”.[98]

A possible natural reason for the IVC’s decline is con-nected with climate change[99] that is also signalled forthe neighbouring areas of the Middle East: The Indusvalley climate grew significantly cooler and drier fromabout 1800 BCE, linked to a general weakening of the

1.2. INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION 21

monsoon at that time. Alternatively, a crucial factor mayhave been the disappearance of substantial portions of theGhaggar Hakra river system. A tectonic event may havediverted the system’s sources toward the Ganges Plain,though there is complete uncertainty about the date of thisevent, as most settlements inside Ghaggar-Hakra riverbeds have not yet been dated. The actual reason for de-cline might be any combination of these factors. A 2004paper indicated that the isotopes of sediments carried bythe Ghaggar-Hakra system over the last 20 thousand yearsdo not come from the glaciated Higher Himalaya but havea Sub-Himalayan source. They speculated that the riversystem was rain-fed instead and thus contradicted the ideaof a Harappan-time mighty “Sarasvati” river.[100] Recentgeological research by a group led by Peter Clift inves-tigated how the courses of rivers have changed in thisregion since 8000 years ago, to test whether climate orriver reorganizations are responsible for the decline of theHarappan. Using U-Pb dating of zircon sand grains theyfound that sediments typical of the Beas, Sutlej and Ya-muna rivers (Himalayan tributaries of the Indus) are ac-tually present in former Ghaggar-Hakra channels. How-ever, sediment contributions from these glacial-fed riversstopped at least by 10,000 years ago, well before the de-velopment of the Indus civilization.[101]

A research team led by the geologist Liviu Giosan ofthe Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution also con-cluded that climate change in form of the easterwardmigration of the monsoons led to the decline of theIVC.[102] The team’s findings were published in PNAS inMay 2012.[103][104] According to their theory, the sloweastward migration of the monsoons across Asia ini-tially allowed the civilization to develop. The monsoon-supported farming led to large agricultural surpluses,which in turn supported the development of cities. TheIVC residents did not develop irrigation capabilities, rely-ing mainly on the seasonal monsoons. As the monsoonskept shifting eastward, the water supply for the agricul-tural activities dried up. The residents then migrated to-wards the Ganges basin in the east, where they estab-lished smaller villages and isolated farms. The small sur-plus produced in these small communities did not allowdevelopment of trade, and the cities died out.[105] Thereis also a Harappan site called Rojdi in Rajkot district ofSaurashtra. Its excavation started under archaeologicalteam from Gujarat State Department of Archaeology andUniversity of Museum of the University of Pennsylvaniain the year 1982 - 83. [106]

1.2.7 Legacy

Main article: Iron Age India

In the aftermath of the Indus Civilization’s collapse, re-gional cultures emerged, to varying degrees showing theinfluence of the Indus Civilization. In the formerly greatcity of Harappa, burials have been found that correspond

to a regional culture called the Cemetery H culture. At thesame time, the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture expandedfrom Rajasthan into the Gangetic Plain. The Cemetery Hculture has the earliest evidence for cremation; a practicedominant in Hinduism today.

1.2.8 Historical context and linguistic af-filiation

See also: Substratum in Vedic Sanskrit and Harappanlanguage

The IVC has been tentatively identified with the toponymMeluhha known from Sumerian records; the Sumeri-ans called them Meluhhaites.[107] It has been comparedin particular with the civilizations of Elam (also in thecontext of the Elamo-Dravidian hypothesis) and withMinoan Crete (because of isolated cultural parallels suchas the ubiquitous goddess worship and depictions of bull-leaping).[108] The mature (Harappan) phase of the IVCis contemporary to the Early to Middle Bronze Age inthe Ancient Near East, in particular the Old Elamite pe-riod, Early Dynastic to Ur III Mesopotamia, PrepalatialMinoan Crete and Old Kingdom to First Intermediate Pe-riod Egypt.After the discovery of the IVC in the 1920s, it was im-mediately associated with the indigenous Dasyu inimicalto the Rigvedic tribes in numerous hymns of the Rigveda.Mortimer Wheeler interpreted the presence of many un-buried corpses found in the top levels of Mohenjo-Daroas the victims of a warlike conquest, and famously statedthat "Indra stands accused” of the destruction of the IVC.The association of the IVC with the city-dwelling Dasyusremains alluring because the assumed timeframe of thefirst Indo-Aryan migration into India corresponds neatlywith the period of decline of the IVC seen in the archaeo-logical record. The discovery of the advanced, urban IVChowever changed the 19th-century view of early Indo-Aryan migration as an “invasion” of an advanced cultureat the expense of a “primitive” aboriginal population to agradual acculturation of nomadic “barbarians” on an ad-vanced urban civilization, comparable to the Germanicmigrations after the Fall of Rome, or the Kassite inva-sion of Babylonia. This move away from simplistic “inva-sionist” scenarios parallels similar developments in think-ing about language transfer and population movement ingeneral, such as in the case of the migration of the proto-Greek speakers into Greece, or the Indo-Europeanizationof Western Europe.It was often suggested that the bearers of the IVC cor-responded to proto-Dravidians linguistically, the breakupof proto-Dravidian corresponding to the breakup of theLate Harappan culture.[109] Today, the Dravidian lan-guage family is concentrated mostly in southern India andnorthern and eastern Sri Lanka, but pockets of it stillremain throughout the rest of India and Pakistan (the

22 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

Brahui language), which lends credence to the theory.Finnish Indologist Asko Parpola concludes that the uni-formity of the Indus inscriptions precludes any possibilityof widely different languages being used, and that an earlyform of Dravidian language must have been the languageof the Indus people. However, in an interview with theDeccan Herald on 12 August 2012, Asko Parpola clari-fied his position by admitting that "Sanskrit has also pre-served a very important part of the Indus heritage” andthat even Sangam Tamil had possible influences of theBrahmins .[110]

Proto-Munda (or Para-Munda) and a “lost phylum” (per-haps related or ancestral to the Nihali language)[111] havebeen proposed as other candidates for the language ofthe IVC. Michael Witzel suggests an underlying, prefixinglanguage that is similar to Austroasiatic, notably Khasi; heargues that the Rigveda (composed by the Indo-Aryansafter the decline of the Harappans) shows signs of thishypothetical Harappan influence in the earliest historiclevel, and Dravidian only in later levels, suggesting thatspeakers of Austroasiatic were the original inhabitants ofPunjab and that the Indo-Aryans encountered speakers ofDravidian only in later times.[20]

The civilization is sometimes referred to as the IndusGhaggar-Hakra civilization or the Indus-Sarasvati Civ-ilization .[112][113]

1.2.9 See also

• List of Indus Valley Civilization sites

• List of inventions and discoveries of the Indus ValleyCivilization

• Bronze Age

• Iron Age India

• Synoptic table of the principal old world prehistoriccultures

1.2.10 Notes

[1] Masson: “A long march preceded our arrival at Haripah,through jangal of the closest description.... When I joinedthe camp I found it in front of the village and ruinous brickcastle. Behind us was a large circular mound, or eminence,and to the west was an irregular rocky height, crownedwith the remains of buildings, in fragments of walls, withniches, after the eastern manner.... Tradition affirms theexistence here of a city, so considerable that it extendedto Chicha Watni, thirteen cosses distant, and that it wasdestroyed by a particular visitation of Providence, broughtdown by the lust and crimes of the sovereign.”[22] Note thatthe coss, a measure of distance used from Vedic period toMughal times, is approximately 2 miles (3.2 km).

1.2.11 References

[1] Wright 2009, p. 1.

[2] Wright 2010:Quote: “The Indus civilization is one ofthree in the 'Ancient East' that, along with Mesopotamiaand Pharonic Egypt, was a cradle of early civilization inthe Old World (Childe 1950). Mesopotamia and Egyptwere longer lived, but coexisted with Indus civilizationduring its florescence between 2600 and 1900 B.C. Of thethree, the Indus was the most expansive, extending fromtoday’s northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and India.”

[3] Blanc De La, Paul. “Indus Epigraphic Perspectives: Ex-ploring Past Decipherment Attempts & Possible New Ap-proaches 2013 Pg 11”. University of Ottawa Research.University of Ottawa. Retrieved 11 August 2014.

[4] http://164.100.47.132/LssNew/psearch/QResult15.aspx?qref=138704 | “The work on delineation of entirecourse of river ‘Saraswati’ in North West India wascarried out using Indian Remote Sensing Satellite dataalong with digital elevation model. Satellite images aremulti-spectral, multi-temporal and have advantages ofsynoptic view, which are useful to detect palaeochannels.The palaeochannels are validated using historical maps,archaeological sites, hydro- geological and drilling data.It was observed that major Harappan sites of Kaliban-gan (Rajasthan), Banawali and Rakhigarhi (Haryana),Dholavira and Lothal (Gujarat) lie along the RiverSaraswati ."- Ministry of Space, Government of India.

[5] http://www.iisc.ernet.in/currsci/oct25/articles20.htm |A.V.Shankaran.:"Saraswati – The ancient river lost in thedesert.”

[6] Wright 2010, p. 1.

[7] http://164.100.47.132/LssNew/psearch/QResult15.aspx?qref=138704 | " Indian Space Research Organi-zation (ISRO) has studied the palaeochannels in NorthWest India and related them to the channels of RiverSaraswati.”

[8] http://www.iisc.ernet.in/currsci/oct25/articles20.htm |A.V.Shankaran.:"Saraswati was believed to have hadthree tributaries, Shatadru (Sutlej) arising from MountKailas, Drishadvati from Siwalik Hills and the old Ya-muna. Together, they flowed along a channel, presentlyidentified as that of the Ghaggar river, also called HakraRiver in Rajasthan and Nara in Sindh.”

[9] Michel Danino: The Lost River - On the trail of the Saras-vati (Penguin Books, 2010). ISBN 978-0-14-306864-8

[10] Charles Kahn (2005). World History: Societies of the Past.Portage & Main Press.

[11] Wright 2010, pp. 115–125.

[12] Beck, Roger B.; Linda Black, Larry S. Krieger, PhillipC. Naylor, Dahia Ibo Shabaka, (1999). World History:Patterns of Interaction. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell.ISBN 0-395-87274-X.

[13] Wright 2010, p. 2.

1.2. INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION 23

[14] "'Earliest writing' found”. BBC News. 4 May 1999. Re-trieved 2010-01-05.

[15] Morrison, Kathleen D. (Ed.); Junker, Laura L. (2002).Forager-traders in South and Southeast Asia : long termhistories ([Online-Ausg.] ed.). Cambridge [u.a.]: Cam-bridge Univ. Press. p. 62. ISBN 9780521016360.

[16] http://164.100.47.132/LssNew/psearch/QResult15.aspx?qref=138704 | “It was observed that major Harap-pan sites of Kalibangan (Rajasthan), Banawali andRakhigarhi (Haryana), Dholavira and Lothal (Gujarat)lie along the River Saraswati."- Ministry of Space,Government of India.

[17] Wright 2010, p. 107: Quote: “Five major Indus cities arediscussed in this chapter. During the Urban period, theearly town of Harappa expanded in size and populationand became a major center in the Upper Indus. Othercities emerging during the Urban period include Mohenjo-daro in the Lower Indus, Dholavira to the south on thewestern edge of peninsular India in Kutch, Ganweriwalain Cholistan, and a fifth city, Rakhigarhi, on the Ghaggar-Hakra. Rakhigarhi will be discussed briefly in view of thelimited published material.”

[18] Ratnagar, Shereen (2006). Trading Encounters: From theEuphrates to the Indus in the Bronze Age (2nd ed.). India:Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195666038.

[19] Lockard, Craig (2010). Societies, Networks, and Tran-sitions, Volume 1: To 1500 (2nd ed.). India: CengageLearning. p. 40. ISBN 1439085358.

[20] Witzel, Michael (February 2000). “The Languages ofHarappa”. Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies.

[21] A History of India - Romila Thapar - 1990 - History

[22] Masson 1842.

[23] Davreau, Robert (1976). “Indus Valley”. In Reader’s Di-gest. World’s Last Mysteries.

[24] Cunningham, A., 1875. Archaeological Survey of India,Report for the Year 1872-73, 5: 105-8 and pl. 32-3. Cal-cutta: Archaeological Survey of India.

[25] Singh, Upinder (2008). A History of Ancient and Earlymedieval India : from the Stone Age to the 12th cen-tury. New Delhi: Pearson Education. p. 137. ISBN9788131711200.

[26] Sabharwal, Vijay (11 July 2010). “Indus Valley site rav-aged by floods”. The Times Of India.

[27] Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark (1991). “The Indus Valley tra-dition of Pakistan and Western India”. Journal of WorldPrehistory 5 (4): 1–64. doi:10.1007/BF00978474.

[28] Shaffer 1992, I:441-464, II:425-446.

[29] Chandler, Graham (September–October 1999). “Tradersof the Plain”. Saudi Aramco World: 34–42.

[30] “The Largest Bronze Age Urban Civilization”.harappa.com. Retrieved 2013-04-29.

[31] Dales, George F. (1962). “Harappan Outposts on theMakran Coast”. Antiquity 36 (142): 86.

[32] Rao, Shikaripura Ranganatha (1973). Lothal and the In-dus civilization. London: Asia Publishing House. ISBN0-210-22278-6.

[33] Kenoyer 1998, p. 96

[34] Dani, Ahmad Hassan (1970–1971). “Excavations in theGomal Valley”. Ancient Pakistan (5): 1–177.

[35] Joshi, J. P.; Bala, M. (1982). “Manda: A Harappan sitein Jammu and Kashmir”. In Possehl, Gregory L. (ed.).Harappan Civilization: A recent perspective. New Delhi:Oxford University Press. pp. 185–95.

[36] A. Ghosh (ed.). “Excavations at Alamgirpur”. IndianArchaeology, A Review (1958-1959). Delhi: Archaeol.Surv. India. pp. 51–52.

[37] Ray, Himanshu Prabha (2003). The Archaeology of Sea-faring in Ancient South Asia. Cambridge University Press.p. 95. ISBN 0-521-01109-4.

[38] Dales, George F. (1979). “The Balakot Project: summaryof four years excavations in Pakistan”. In Maurizio Taddei(ed.). South Asian Archaeology 1977. Naples: Seminariodi Studi Asiatici Series Minor 6. Instituto UniversitarioOrientate. pp. 241–274.

[39] Bisht, R. S. (1989). “A new model of the Harappan townplanning as revealed at Dholavira in Kutch: a surface studyof its plan and architecture”. In Chatterjee, Bhaskar (ed.).History and Archaeology. New Delhi: Ramanand VidyaBhawan. pp. 379–408. ISBN 81-85205-46-9.

[40] Possehl, Gregory L. (1990). “Revolution in the UrbanRevolution: The Emergence of Indus Urbanization”. An-nual Reviews of Anthropology 19 (19): 261–282 (Map onpage 263). doi:10.1146/annurev.an.19.100190.001401.

[41] Mughal, M. R. 1982. “Recent archaeological researchin the Cholistan desert”. In Possehl, Gregory L. (ed.).Harappan Civilization. Delhi: Oxford & IBH & A.I.1.S.pp. 85–95.

[42] Shaffer, Jim G.; Lichtenstein, Diane A. (1989). “Ethnic-ity and Change in the Indus Valley Cultural Tradition”.Old Problems and New Perspectives in the Archaeologyof South Asia. Wisconsin Archaeological Reports 2. pp.117–126.

[43] Gupta 1995, p. 183

[44] e.g. Misra, Virendra Nath (1992). Indus Civilization, aspecial Number of the Eastern Anthropologist. pp. 1–19.

[45] Ratnagar, Shereen (2006). Understanding Harappa: Civ-ilization in the Greater Indus Valley. New Delhi: TulikaBooks. ISBN 81-89487-02-7.

[46] Peter T. Daniels. The World’s Writing Systems. OxfordUniversity. p. 372.

[47] Parpola, Asko (1994). Deciphering the Indus Script. Cam-bridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-43079-8.

24 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

[48] Archeologists confirm Indian civilization is 2000 yearsolder than previously believed, Jason Overdorf, Global-post, November 28, 2012

[49] Durrani, F. A. (1984). “Some Early Harappan sites inGomal and Bannu Valleys”. In Lal, B. B. and Gupta, S.P.. Frontiers of Indus Civilisation. Delhi: Books & Books.pp. 505–510.

[50] Thapar, B. K. (1975). “Kalibangan: A HarappanMetropolis Beyond the Indus Valley”. Expedition 17 (2):19–32.

[51] It has been noted that the courtyard pattern and techniquesof flooring of Harappan houses has similarities to the wayhouse-building is still done in some villages of the region.Lal 2002, pp. 93–95

[52] James Mclntosh - The Ancient Indus Valley : New Perspec-tives

[53] Feuerstein, Georg; Kak, Subhash; Frawley, David (2001).In Search of the Cradle of Civilization:New Light on An-cient India. Quest Books. p. 73. ISBN 0-8356-0741-0.

[54] Sergent, Bernard (1997). Genèse de l'Inde (in French).Paris: Payot. p. 113. ISBN 2-228-89116-9.

[55] Coppa, A.; et al. (6 April 2006). “Early Neolithic tra-dition of dentistry: Flint tips were surprisingly effectivefor drilling tooth enamel in a prehistoric population”. Na-ture 440 (7085): 755–6. doi:10.1038/440755a. PMID16598247.

[56] Bisht, R. S. (1982). “Excavations at Banawali: 1974-77”.In Possehl, Gregory L. (ed.). Harappan Civilization: AContemporary Perspective. New Delhi: Oxford and IBHPublishing Co. pp. 113–124.

[57] Keay, John, India, a History. New York: Grove Press,2000.

[58] John Keay (1988). India discovered. Collins. p. 172.

[59] Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark (1997). “Trade and Technol-ogy of the Indus Valley: New Insights from Harappa,Pakistan”. World Archaeology 29 (2: “High–DefinitionArchaeology: Threads Through the Past”): 262–280.doi:10.1080/00438243.1997.9980377.

[60] Lal 2002, p. 82

[61] Marshall, Sir John. Mohenjo-Daro and the Indus Civili-sation, 3 vols, London: Arthur Probsthain, 1931

[62] Lal 2002, p. 89

[63] Hasenpflug, Rainer, The Inscriptions of the Indus civiliza-tion Norderstedt, Germany, 2006.

[64] Parpola 2005, pp. 2–3

[65] “Surprising Discoveries From the Indus Civilization”,National Geographic, Traci Watson, April 29, 2013,http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130425-indus-civilization-discoveries-harappa-archaeology-science/

[66] Doniger, Wendy (September 30, 2010). The Hindus: analternative history. Oxford University Press. p. 67. ISBN978-0-1-9959334-7.

[67] Neyland, R. S. (1992). “The seagoing vessels on Dilmunseals”. In Keith, D.H.; Carrell, T.L. (eds.). Underwa-ter archaeology proceedings of the Society for HistoricalArchaeology Conference at Kingston, Jamaica 1992. Tuc-son, AZ: Society for Historical Archaeology. pp. 68–74.

[68] Jarrige, J.-F. (1986). “Excavations at Mehrgarh-Nausharo”. Pakistan Archaeology 10 (22): 63–131.

[69] Wells, B. An Introduction to Indus Writing. Early SitesResearch Society (West) Monograph Series, 2, Indepen-dence MO 1999

[70] Farmer, Steve; Sproat, Richard; Witzel, Michael. “TheCollapse of the Indus-Script Thesis: The Myth of a Liter-ate Harappan Civilization”.

[71] These and other issues are addressed in Parpola (2005)

[72] Rao, Rajesh P. N.; Yadav, Nisha; Vahia, Mayank N.;Joglekar, Hrishikesh; Adhikari, R.; Mahadevan, Ira-vatham (May 2009). “Entropic Evidence for LinguisticStructure in the Indus Script”. Science 324 (5931): 1165.doi:10.1126/science.1170391. PMID 19389998.

[73] Indus Script Encodes Language, Reveals New Study ofAncient Symbols Newswise, Retrieved on 5 June 2009.

[74] A Refutation of the Claimed Refutation of the Non-linguistic Nature of Indus Symbols: Invented Data Setsin the Statistical Paper of Rao et al. (Science, 2009) Re-trieved on 19 September 2009.

[75] 'Conditional Entropy' Cannot Distinguish Linguistic fromNon-linguistic Systems Retrieved on 19 September 2009.

[76] keay.

[77] Wright 2010, pp. 281-282.

[78] Ratnagar, Shereen (April 2004). “Archaeology at theHeart of a Political Confrontation The Case of Ayodhya”.Current Anthropology (University of Chicago Press) 45(2).

[79] Marshall 1931, pp. 48–78.

[80] Possehl 2002, pp. 141-156.

[81] Possehl 2002, pp. 141-144.

[82] Srinivasan 1975.

[83] Srinivasan 1997, pp. 180-181.

[84] Sullivan 1964.

[85] Hiltebeitel 2011, pp. 399-432.

[86] Possehl 2002, pp. 141-145.

[87] Mcintosh 2008, pp. 286-287.

[88] Marshall 1931, p. 67.

[89] Possehl 2002, p. 18.

[90] Thapar 2004, p. 85.

[91] McIntosh 2008, pp. 275-277, 292.

1.2. INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION 25

[92] Possehl 2002, pp. 152, 157-176.

[93] McIntosh 2008, pp. 293-299.

[94] Edwin Bryant (2001). The Quest for the Origins of VedicCulture. pp. 159–60.

[95] “Indus Collapse: The End or the Beginning of an AsianCulture?". Science Magazine 320: 1282–3. 6 June 2008.

[96] Knipe, David. Hinduism. San Francisco: Harper, 1991

[97] White, David Gordon (2003). Kiss of the Yogini. Chicago:University of Chicago Press. p. 28. ISBN 0-226-89483-5.

[98] Shaffer, Jim (1993). “Reurbanization: The eastern Punjaband beyond”. In Spodek, Howard; Srinivasan, Doris M.Urban Form and Meaning in South Asia: The Shaping ofCities from Prehistoric to Precolonial Times.

[99] phys.org/news/2014-02-decline-bronze-age-megacities-linked.html

[100] Tripathi, Jayant K.; Tripathi, K.; Bock, Barbara; Raja-mani, V. & Eisenhauer, A. (25 October 2004). “Is RiverGhaggar, Saraswati? Geochemical Constraints”. CurrentScience 87 (8).

[101] Clift et al., 2011, U-Pb zircon dating evidence for a Pleis-tocene Sarasvati River and capture of the Yamuna River,Geology, 40, 211-214 (2011).

[102] Charles Choi (28 May 2012). “Huge Ancient Civiliza-tion’s Collapse Explained”. LiveScience. Retrieved 2012-05-29.

[103] “Fluvial landscapes of the Harappan civilization”.

[104] “Supporting Information Fluvial landscapes of the Harap-pan civilization”.

[105] Thomas H. Maugh II (28 May 2012). “Migration of mon-soons created, then killed Harappan civilization”. Los An-geles Times. Retrieved 2012-05-29.

[106] Harappan Civilisation and Rojdi

[107] John Haywood, The Penguin Historical Atlas of AncientCivilizations, Penguin Books, London, ç2005, p.76

[108] Mode, H. (1944). Indische Frühkulturen und ihreBeziehungen zum Westen. Basel.

[109] Indus Writing Analysis by Asko Parpola

[110] Sanskrit has also contributed to Indus Civilization, DeccanHerald, 12 August 2012

[111] Witzel, Michael (1999). “Substrate Languages in OldIndo-Aryan (Ṛgvedic, Middle and Late Vedic)". Elec-tronic Journal of Vedic Studies 5 (1).

[112] Indus-Sarasvati Civilization. Ms.uky.edu. Retrieved on2013-07-12.

[113] Keynote Address. Webpages.uidaho.edu. Retrieved on2013-07-12.

1.2.12 Bibliography

• Allchin, Bridget (1997). Origins of a Civilization:The Prehistory and Early Archaeology of South Asia.New York: Viking.

• Allchin, Raymond (ed.) (1995). The Archaeol-ogy of Early Historic South Asia: The Emergence ofCities and States. New York: Cambridge UniversityPress.

• Aronovsky, Ilona; Gopinath, Sujata (2005). The In-dus Valley. Chicago: Heinemann.

• Basham, A. L. (1967). TheWonder That Was India.London: Sidgwick & Jackson. pp. 11–14.

• Chakrabarti, D. K. (2004). Indus Civilization Sitesin India: New Discoveries. Mumbai: Marg Publica-tions. ISBN 81-85026-63-7.

• Dani, Ahmad Hassan (1984). Short History of Pak-istan (Book 1). University of Karachi.

• Dani, Ahmad Hassan; Mohen, J-P. (eds.) (1996).History of Humanity, Volume III, From the ThirdMillennium to the Seventh Century BC. NewYork/Paris: Routledge/UNESCO. ISBN 0-415-09306-6.

• Hiltebeitel, Alf (2011). “The Indus Valley “Proto-Śiva”, Reexamined through Reflections on the God-dess, the Buffalo, and the Symbolism of vāhanas”.In Adluri, Vishwa; Bagchee, Joydeep. When theGoddess was a Woman: Mahabharata Ethnogra-phies - Essays by Alf Hiltebeitel. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-19380-2.

• Gupta, S. P. (1996). The Indus-Saraswati Civiliza-tion: Origins, Problems and Issues. Delhi: PratibhaPrakashan. ISBN 81-85268-46-0.

• Gupta, S. P. (ed.) (1995). The lost Sarasvatiand the Indus Civilisation. Jodhpur: KusumanjaliPrakashan.

• Kathiroli; et al. (2004). “Recent Marine Archae-ological Finds in Khambhat, Gujarat”. Journal ofIndian Ocean Archaeology (1): 141–149.

• Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark (1998). Ancient cities ofthe Indus Valley Civilisation. Oxford UniversityPress. ISBN 0-19-577940-1.

• Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark (1991). “The IndusValley tradition of Pakistan and Western In-dia”. Journal of World Prehistory 5 (4): 1–64.doi:10.1007/BF00978474.

• Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark; Heuston, Kimberly(2005). The Ancient South Asian World. Ox-ford/New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-517422-4.

26 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

• Kirkpatrick, Naida (2002). The Indus Valley.Chicago: Heinemann.

• Lahiri, Nayanjot (ed.) (2000). The Decline and Fallof the Indus Civilisation. Delhi: Permanent Black.ISBN 81-7530-034-5.

• Lal, B. B. (1998). India 1947-1997: New Light onthe Indus Civilization. New Delhi: Aryan Books In-ternational. ISBN 81-7305-129-1.

• Lal, B. B. (1997). The Earliest Civilisation of SouthAsia (Rise, Maturity and Decline).

• Lal, B. B. (2002). The Sarasvati flows on.

• Marshall, John (1931). Mohenjo-Daro and the In-dus Civilization: Being an Official Account of Ar-chaeological Excavations at Mohenjo-Daro CarriedOut by the Government of India Between the Years1922 and 1927. Asian Educational Services. ISBN978-81-206-1179-5.

• Masson, Charles (1842). “Chapter 2: Hari-pah”. Narrative of Various Journeys in Balochistan,Afghanistan and the Panjab; including a residence inthose countries from 1826 to 1838. London: RichardBentley. p. 472.

• McIntosh, Jane (2001). A Peaceful Realm: The RiseAnd Fall of the Indus Civilization. Boulder: West-view Press. ISBN 0-8133-3532-9.

• McIntosh, Jane (2008). “Religion and ideology”.The Ancient Indus Valley: New Perspectives. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-57607-907-2.

• Mughal, Mohammad Rafique (1997). AncientCholistan, Archaeology and Architecture. Fer-ozesons. ISBN 969-0-01350-5.

• Parpola, Asko (19 May 2005). “Study of the IndusScript”. (50th ICES Tokyo Session)

• Pittman, Holly (1984). Art of the Bronze Age:southeastern Iran, western Central Asia, and the In-dus Valley. New York: The Metropolitan Museumof Art. ISBN 9780870993657.

• Possehl, Gregory L. (11 November 2002). The In-dus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective. Row-man Altamira. ISBN 978-0-7591-1642-9.

• Rao, Shikaripura Ranganatha (1991). Dawn andDevolution of the Indus Civilisation. New Delhi:Aditya Prakashan. ISBN 81-85179-74-3.

• Shaffer, Jim G. (1995). “Cultural tradition andPalaeoethnicity in South Asian Archaeology”. InGeorge Erdosy (ed.). Indo-Aryans of Ancient SouthAsia. Berlin u.a.: de Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-014447-6.

• Shaffer, Jim G. (1999). “Migration, Philologyand South Asian Archaeology”. In Bronkhorst andDeshpande (eds.). Aryan and Non-Aryan in SouthAsia. Cambridge: Harvard University, Dept. ofSanskrit and Indian Studies. ISBN 1-888789-04-2.

• Shaffer, Jim G. (1992). “The Indus Valley,Baluchistan and Helmand Traditions: NeolithicThrough Bronze Age”. In R. W. Ehrich (ed.).Chronologies in Old World Archaeology (Seconded.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

• Srinivasan, Doris (1975). “The So-Called Proto-śiva Seal from Mohenjo-Daro: An Iconological As-sessment”. Archives of Asian Art 29: 47–58.

• Srinivasan, Doris Meth (1997). Many Heads, Armsand Eyes: Origin, Meaning and Form in Multiplicityin Indian Art. Brill. ISBN 978-9004107588.

• Sullivan, Herbert P. (1964). “A Re-Examination ofthe Religion of the Indus Civilization”. History ofReligion 4 (1): 115–125. doi:10.1086/462498.

• Thapar, Romila (2004). Early India: From the Ori-gins to AD 1300. University of California Press.ISBN 978-0-520-24225-8.

• Witzel, Michael (February 2000). “The Languagesof Harappa”. Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies.

• Wright, Rita P. (2010), The Ancient Indus: Ur-banism, Economy, and Society, Cambridge Univer-sity Press, ISBN 978-0-521-57219-4, retrieved 29September 2013

1.2.13 External links

• Harappa and Indus Valley Civilization atharappa.com

• An invitation to the Indus Civilization (TokyoMetropolitan Museum)

• Cache of Seal Impressions Discovered in WesternIndia

1.3 Mesopotamia

For other uses, see Mesopotamia (disambiguation).Mesopotamia (/ˌmɛsəpəˈteɪmiə/, from the Ancient

Greek: Μεσοποταμία "[land] between rivers"; Arabic:الرافدين bilād) بلاد al-rāfidayn); Syriac: (BethNahrain) “land of rivers”) is a name for the area of theTigris–Euphrates river system, corresponding to modern-day Iraq, Kuwait, the northeastern section of Syria andto a much lesser extent southeastern Turkey and smallerparts of southwestern Iran.

1.3. MESOPOTAMIA 27

Turkey

Gaziantep

Diyabakir

Waśśukani

Taur

us M

ount

ains

MediterraneanSea

Lebanon

Israel

Jordan

300 km

Iraq

SyriaS y r i s c h e W ü s t e

Kuwait

IranZ

ag

ro

s

Mo

un

ta

in

s

Aleppo

Hama

Beirut

Damaskus

Jerusalem Amman

Persian Gulf

Caspian Sea

Basra

AhvazNadschafNadschaf

Kerbela

Baghdad

Kirkuk

Mosul

Palmyra Mari

Ninive

NuziHatra

Assur

SipparBabylon

Kisch

IsinNippur

LagaśUruk

UrCharax-Spasinu

approximate extent of the Persian Gulf until 5500 B.C.

ME

SO

PO

TA

MI

A

Kha

bur

Euphrates

Tigris

Map showing the extent of Mesopotamia

Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization bythe Western world, Bronze Age Mesopotamia includedSumer and the Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian em-pires, all native to the territory of modern-day Iraq. Inthe Iron Age, it was controlled by the Neo-Assyrian andNeo-Babylonian empires. The indigenous Sumerians andAkkadians (including Assyrians and Babylonians) dom-inated Mesopotamia from the beginning of written his-tory (c. 3100 BC) to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC, whenit was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire. It fell toAlexander the Great in 332 BC, and after his death, itbecame part of the Greek Seleucid Empire.Around 150 BC, Mesopotamia was under the con-trol of the Parthians. Mesopotamia became a battle-ground between the Romans and Parthians, with parts ofMesopotamia coming under ephemeral Roman control.In AD 226, it fell to the Sassanid Persians and remainedunder Persian rule until the 7th century Arab Islamic con-quest of the Sassanid Empire. A number of primarilyneo-Assyrian and Christian native Mesopotamian statesexisted between the 1st century BCE and 3rd century CE,including Adiabene, Osroene, and Hatra.

1.3.1 Etymology

The regional toponym Mesopotamia comes from theancient Greek root words μέσος (meso) “middle” andποταμός (potamia) “river” and literally means "(Land)between rivers”. It is used throughout the GreekSeptuagint (ca. 250 BC) to translate the Hebrew equiv-alent Naharaim. An even earlier Greek usage of thename Mesopotamia is evident from the Anabasis Alexan-dri, which was written in the late 2nd century AD, butspecifically refers to sources from the time of Alexanderthe Great. In the Anabasis, Mesopotamia was usedto designate the land east of the Euphrates in northSyria. The Aramaic term biritum/birit narim corre-sponded to a similar geographical concept.[1] Later, theterm Mesopotamia was more generally applied to all thelands between the Euphrates and the Tigris, thereby in-corporating not only parts of Syria but also almost all

Map showing the Tigris–Euphrates river system, which definesMesopotamia

of Iraq and southeastern Turkey.[2] The neighbouringsteppes to the west of the Euphrates and the westernpart of the Zagros Mountains are also often included un-der the wider term Mesopotamia.[3][4][5] A further dis-tinction is usually made between Upper or NorthernMesopotamia and Lower or Southern Mesopotamia.[6]

Upper Mesopotamia, also known as the Jezirah, isthe area between the Euphrates and the Tigris fromtheir sources down to Baghdad.[3] Lower Mesopotamiaconsists of southern Iraq, Kuwait and parts of west-ern Iran.[7][8][9] In modern academic usage, the termMesopotamia often also has a chronological connotation.It is usually used to designate the area until the Muslimconquests, with names like Syria, Jezirah, and Iraq be-ing used to describe the region after that date.[2][10] It hasbeen argued that these later euphemisms are Eurocentricterms attributed to the region in the midst of various 19th-century Western encroachments.[10][11]

1.3.2 Geography

Main article: Geography of MesopotamiaMesopotamia encompasses the land between the

Euphrates and Tigris rivers, both of which have theirheadwaters in the mountains of Armenia in modern-dayTurkey. Both rivers are fed by numerous tributaries, andthe entire river system drains a vast mountainous region.Overland routes in Mesopotamia usually follow the Eu-phrates because the banks of the Tigris are frequentlysteep and difficult. The climate of the region is semi-arid with a vast desert expanse in the north which givesway to a 15,000 square kilometres (5,800 sq mi) region ofmarshes, lagoons, mud flats, and reed banks in the south.In the extreme south, the Euphrates and the Tigris uniteand empty into the Persian Gulf.

28 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

Known world of the Mesopotamian, Babylonian, and Assyriancultures from documentary sources

The arid environment which ranges from the northern ar-eas of rain-fed agriculture to the south where irrigationof agriculture is essential if a surplus energy returned onenergy invested (EROEI) is to be obtained. This irriga-tion is aided by a high water table and by melting snowsfrom the high peaks of the northern Zagros Mountainsand from the Armenian cordillera, the source of the Tigrisand Euphrates Rivers that give the region its name. Theusefulness of irrigation depends upon the ability to mobi-lize sufficient labor for the construction and maintenanceof canals, and this, from the earliest period, has assistedthe development of urban settlements and centralized sys-tems of political authority.Agriculture throughout the region has been supplementedby nomadic pastoralism, where tent-dwelling nomadsherded sheep and goats (and later camels) from the riverpastures in the dry summer months, out into seasonalgrazing lands on the desert fringe in the wet winter sea-son. The area is generally lacking in building stone, pre-cious metals and timber, and so historically has reliedupon long-distance trade of agricultural products to se-cure these items from outlying areas. In the marshlandsto the south of the area, a complex water-borne fishingculture has existed since prehistoric times, and has addedto the cultural mix.Periodic breakdowns in the cultural system have oc-curred for a number of reasons. The demands for la-bor has from time to time led to population increasesthat push the limits of the ecological carrying capacity,and should a period of climatic instability ensue, collaps-ing central government and declining populations can oc-cur. Alternatively, military vulnerability to invasion frommarginal hill tribes or nomadic pastoralists has led to pe-riods of trade collapse and neglect of irrigation systems.Equally, centripetal tendencies amongst city states hasmeant that central authority over the whole region, whenimposed, has tended to be ephemeral, and localism hasfragmented power into tribal or smaller regional units.[12]

These trends have continued to the present day in Iraq.

1.3.3 History

One of 18 Statues of Gudea, a ruler around 2090 BC

Main article: History of MesopotamiaFurther information: History of Iraq, History of theMiddle East and Chronology of the Ancient Near East

The pre-history of the Ancient Near East begins in theLower Paleolithic period, but writing began with a pic-tographic script in the Uruk IV period (ca. 4th millen-nium BC), and the documented record of actual historicalevents — and the ancient history of lower Mesopotamia— commence in the mid-third millennium BC withcuneiform records of early dynastic kings, and ends witheither the arrival of the Achaemenid Empire in the late6th century BC, or with the Arab Islamic conquest ofMesopotamia and the establishment of the Caliphatein the late 7th century AD, from which point the re-gion came to be known as Iraq. During this periodMesopotamia housed some of the world’s most ancienthighly developed and socially complex states. The regionwas one of the four riverine civilizations where writingwas invented, along with the Nile valley in Egypt, theIndus Valley in the Indian subcontinent, and Yellow Rivervalley in China. Mesopotamia housed historically im-portant cities such as Uruk, Nippur, Nineveh, Assur and

1.3. MESOPOTAMIA 29

Babylon, as well as major territorial states such as thecity of Eridu, the Akkadian kingdom, the Third Dy-nasty of Ur, and the various Assyrian empires. Someof the important historical Mesopotamian leaders wereUr-Nammu (king of Ur), Sargon (who established theAkkadian Empire), Hammurabi (who established the OldBabylonian state), Ashur-uballit II and Tiglath-Pileser I(who established the Assyrian Empires).

Periodization

• Pre- and protohistory

• Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (10,000–8700 BC)• Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (8700–6800)• Hassuna (~6000 bc–? BC), Samarra (~5700

BC–4900 BC) and Halaf (~6000 BC–5300BC) cultures

• Ubaid period (~5900–4400 BC)• Uruk period (~4400–3100 BC)• Jemdet Nasr period (~3100–2900 BC)[13]

• Early Bronze Age

• Early Dynastic period (~2900–2350 BC)• Akkadian Empire (~2350–2100 BC)• Ur III period (2112–2004 BC)• Early Assyrian kingdom (24th to 18th century

BC)

• Middle Bronze Age

• Early Babylonia (19th to 18th century BC)• First Babylonian Dynasty (18th to 17th cen-

tury BC)• collapse: Minoan Eruption (c. 1620 BC)

• Late Bronze Age

• Middle Assyrian period (16th to 11th centuryBC)

• Assyrian Empire (c. 1365 BC–1076 BC)• Kassite dynasty in Babylon, (c. 1595 BC–

1155 BC)• collapse: Bronze Age collapse (12th to 11th

century BC)

• Iron Age

• Neo-Hittite or Syro-Hittite regional states(11th to 7th century BC)

• Neo-Assyrian Empire (10th to 7th centuryBC)

• Neo-Babylonian Empire (7th to 6th centuryBC)

• Classical Antiquity

• Persian Babylonia, Achaemenid Assyria (6thto 4th century BC)

• Seleucid Mesopotamia (4th to 3rd century BC)• Parthian Babylonia (3rd century BC to 3rd

century AD)• Osroene (2nd century BC to 3rd century AD)• Adiabene (1st to 2nd century AD)• Hatra (1st to 2nd century AD)• Roman Mesopotamia, Roman Assyria (2nd

century AD)

• Late Antiquity

• Persian Mesopotamia, Persian Asuristan(Assyria) (3rd to 7th century AD)

• Arab Muslim conquest of Mesopotamia (mid-7th century AD)

1.3.4 Language and writing

One of the Nimrud ivories shows a lion eating a man. Neo-Assyrian period, 9th to 7th centuries BC.

The earliest language written in Mesopotamia wasSumerian, an agglutinative language isolate. Along withSumerian, Semitic languages were also spoken in earlyMesopotamia. Subartuan[14] a language of the Zagros,perhaps related to the Hurro-Urartuan language family isattested in personal names, rivers and mountains and invarious crafts. Akkadian came to be the dominant lan-guage during the Akkadian Empire and the Assyrian em-pires, but Sumerian was retained for administrative, re-ligious, literary and scientific purposes. Different vari-eties of Akkadian were used until the end of the Neo-Babylonian period. Old Aramaic, which had already be-come common in Mesopotamia, then became the offi-cial provincial administration language of first the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and then the Achaemenid Empire: the

30 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

official lect is called Imperial Aramaic. Akkadian fellinto disuse, but both it and Sumerian were still used intemples for some centuries. The last Akkadian texts datefrom the late 1st century AD.Early in Mesopotamia’s history (around the mid-4th mil-lennium BC) cuneiform was invented for the Sumerianlanguage. Cuneiform literally means “wedge-shaped”,due to the triangular tip of the stylus used for impress-ing signs on wet clay. The standardized form of eachcuneiform sign appears to have been developed frompictograms. The earliest texts (7 archaic tablets) comefrom the É, a temple dedicated to the goddess Inanna atUruk, from a building labeled as Temple C by its excava-tors.The early logographic system of cuneiform script tookmany years to master. Thus, only a limited number ofindividuals were hired as scribes to be trained in its use.It was not until the widespread use of a syllabic scriptwas adopted under Sargon’s rule that significant portionsof Mesopotamian population became literate. Massivearchives of texts were recovered from the archaeologi-cal contexts of Old Babylonian scribal schools, throughwhich literacy was disseminated.During the third millennium BC, there developed a veryintimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerian andthe Akkadian language users, which included widespreadbilingualism.[15] The influence of Sumerian on Akka-dian (and vice versa) is evident in all areas, from lexicalborrowing on a massive scale, to syntactic, morphologi-cal, and phonological convergence.[15] This has promptedscholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the thirdmillennium as a sprachbund.[15] Akkadian gradually re-placed Sumerian as the spoken language of Mesopotamiasomewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millen-nium BC (the exact dating being a matter of debate),[16]

but Sumerian continued to be used as a sacred, ceremo-nial, literary, and scientific language in Mesopotamia un-til the 1st century AD.

Literature

Main article: Akkadian literature

Libraries were extant in towns and temples during theBabylonian Empire. An old Sumerian proverb averredthat “he who would excel in the school of the scribes mustrise with the dawn.” Women as well as men learned toread and write,[17] and for the Semitic Babylonians, thisinvolved knowledge of the extinct Sumerian language,and a complicated and extensive syllabary.A considerable amount of Babylonian literature wastranslated from Sumerian originals, and the language ofreligion and law long continued to be the old agglutinativelanguage of Sumer. Vocabularies, grammars, and inter-linear translations were compiled for the use of students,

as well as commentaries on the older texts and explana-tions of obscure words and phrases. The characters ofthe syllabary were all arranged and named, and elaboratelists were drawn up.Many Babylonian literary works are still studied today.One of the most famous of these was the Epic of Gil-gamesh, in twelve books, translated from the originalSumerian by a certain Sîn-lēqi-unninni, and arrangedupon an astronomical principle. Each division containsthe story of a single adventure in the career of Gilgamesh.The whole story is a composite product, although it isprobable that some of the stories are artificially attachedto the central figure.

1.3.5 Science and technology

Mathematics

Main article: Babylonian mathematics

Mesopotamian mathematics and science was based on asexagesimal (base 60) numeral system. This is the sourceof the 60-minute hour, the 24-hour day, and the 360-degree circle. The Sumerian calendar was based on theseven-day week. This form of mathematics was instru-mental in early map-making. The Babylonians also hadtheorems on how to measure the area of several shapesand solids. They measured the circumference of a circleas three times the diameter and the area as one-twelfth thesquare of the circumference, which would be correct if piwere fixed at 3. The volume of a cylinder was taken as theproduct of the area of the base and the height; however,the volume of the frustum of a cone or a square pyra-mid was incorrectly taken as the product of the heightand half the sum of the bases. Also, there was a recentdiscovery in which a tablet used pi as 25/8 (3.125 insteadof 3.14159~). The Babylonians are also known for theBabylonian mile, which was a measure of distance equalto about seven modern miles (11 km). This measure-ment for distances eventually was converted to a time-mile used for measuring the travel of the Sun, therefore,representing time.[18]

Astronomy

Main article: Mesopotamian astronomy

From Sumerian times, temple priesthoods had attemptedto associate current events with certain positions of theplanets and stars. This continued to Assyrian times whenLimmu lists were created as a year by year association ofevents with planetary positions, which, when they havesurvived to the present day, allow accurate associations ofrelative with absolute dating for establishing the history ofMesopotamia.

1.3. MESOPOTAMIA 31

The Babylonian astronomers were very adept at mathe-matics and could predict eclipses and solstices. Schol-ars thought that everything had some purpose in as-tronomy. Most of these related to religion and omens.Mesopotamian astronomers worked out a 12-month cal-endar based on the cycles of the moon. They divided theyear into two seasons: summer and winter. The originsof astronomy as well as astrology date from this time.During the 8th and 7th centuries BC, Babylonian as-tronomers developed a new approach to astronomy. Theybegan studying philosophy dealing with the ideal na-ture of the early universe and began employing an in-ternal logic within their predictive planetary systems.This was an important contribution to astronomy and thephilosophy of science and some scholars have thus re-ferred to this new approach as the first scientific revo-lution.[19] This new approach to astronomy was adoptedand further developed in Greek and Hellenistic astron-omy.In Seleucid and Parthian times, the astronomical reportswere thoroughly scientific; how much earlier their ad-vanced knowledge and methods were developed is uncer-tain. The Babylonian development of methods for pre-dicting the motions of the planets is considered to be amajor episode in the history of astronomy.The only Greek Babylonian astronomer known to havesupported a heliocentric model of planetary motion wasSeleucus of Seleucia (b. 190 BC).[20][21][22] Seleucusis known from the writings of Plutarch. He supportedAristarchus of Samos’ heliocentric theory where theEarth rotated around its own axis which in turn revolvedaround the Sun. According to Plutarch, Seleucus evenproved the heliocentric system, but it is not known whatarguments he used (except that he correctly theorized ontides as a result of Moon’s attraction).Babylonian astronomy served as the basis for much ofGreek, classical Indian, Sassanian, Byzantine, Syrian,medieval Islamic, Central Asian, and Western Europeanastronomy.[23]

Medicine

The oldest Babylonian texts on medicine date back to theOld Babylonian period in the first half of the 2nd millen-nium BC. The most extensive Babylonian medical text,however, is the Diagnostic Handbook written by the um-mânū, or chief scholar, Esagil-kin-apli of Borsippa,[24]

during the reign of the Babylonian king Adad-apla-iddina(1069-1046 BC).[25]

Along with contemporary Egyptian medicine, the Baby-lonians introduced the concepts of diagnosis, prognosis,physical examination, and prescriptions. In addition, theDiagnostic Handbook introduced the methods of therapyand aetiology and the use of empiricism, logic, andrationality in diagnosis, prognosis and therapy. The text

contains a list of medical symptoms and often detailedempirical observations along with logical rules used incombining observed symptoms on the body of a patientwith its diagnosis and prognosis.[26]

The symptoms and diseases of a patient were treatedthrough therapeutic means such as bandages, creams andpills. If a patient could not be cured physically, theBabylonian physicians often relied on exorcism to cleansethe patient from any curses. Esagil-kin-apli’s DiagnosticHandbook was based on a logical set of axioms and as-sumptions, including the modern view that through theexamination and inspection of the symptoms of a patient,it is possible to determine the patient’s disease, its aetiol-ogy, its future development, and the chances of the pa-tient’s recovery.[24]

Esagil-kin-apli discovered a variety of illnesses and dis-eases and described their symptoms in his DiagnosticHandbook. These include the symptoms for many va-rieties of epilepsy and related ailments along with theirdiagnosis and prognosis.[27]

Technology

Mesopotamian people invented many technologies in-cluding metal and copper-working, glass and lamp mak-ing, textile weaving, flood control, water storage, and irri-gation. They were also one of the first Bronze age peoplein the world. They developed from copper, bronze, andgold on to iron. Palaces were decorated with hundredsof kilograms of these very expensive metals. Also, cop-per, bronze, and iron were used for armor as well as fordifferent weapons such as swords, daggers, spears, andmaces.According to a recent hypothesis, the Archimedes’ screwmay have been used by Sennacherib, King of Assyria,for the water systems at the Hanging Gardens of Baby-lon and Nineveh in the 7th century BC, although main-stream scholarship holds it to be a Greek invention of latertimes.[28] Later during the Parthian or Sassanid periods,the Baghdad Battery, which may have been the world’sfirst battery, was created in Mesopotamia.[29]

1.3.6 Religion and philosophy

Mesopotamian religion was the first to be recorded.Mesopotamians believed that the world was a flat disc,surrounded by a huge, holed space, and above that,heaven. They also believed that water was everywhere,the top, bottom and sides, and that the universe was bornfrom this enormous sea. In addition, Mesopotamian re-ligion was polytheistic. Although the beliefs describedabove were held in common among Mesopotamians,there were also regional variations. The Sumerian wordfor universe is an-ki, which refers to the god An and thegoddess Ki. Their son was Enlil, the air god. They be-lieved that Enlil was the most powerful god. He was the

32 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

The Burney Relief, Old Babylonian, around 1800 BC

chief god of the Pantheon, equivalent to the Greek godZeus and the Roman god Jupiter. The Sumerians alsoposed philosophical questions, such as: Who are we?,Where are we?, How did we get here?. They attributedanswers to these questions to explanations provided bytheir gods.

Philosophy

Giorgio Buccellati believes that the origins of philosophycan be traced back to early Mesopotamian wisdom, whichembodied certain philosophies of life, particularly ethics,in the forms of dialectic, dialogs, epic poetry, folklore,hymns, lyrics, prose works, and proverbs. Babylonianreasoning and rationality developed beyond empiricalobservation.[30]

The earliest form of logic was developed by the Babylo-nians, notably in the rigorous nonergodic nature of theirsocial systems. Babylonian thought was axiomatic andis comparable to the “ordinary logic” described by JohnMaynard Keynes. Babylonian thought was also basedon an open-systems ontology which is compatible withergodic axioms.[31] Logic was employed to some extentin Babylonian astronomy and medicine.Babylonian thought had a considerable influence on earlyGreek and Hellenistic philosophy. In particular, theBabylonian text Dialogue of Pessimism contains sim-ilarities to the agonistic thought of the sophists, theHeraclitean doctrine of contrasts, and the dialectic anddialogs of Plato, as well as a precursor to the maieuticmethod of Socrates.[32] The Ionian philosopher Thales

was influenced by Babylonian cosmological ideas.

1.3.7 Culture

Alabaster with shell eyes, Sumerian male worshiper, 2750-2600BC

Festivals

Ancient Mesopotamians had ceremonies each month.The theme of the rituals and festivals for each month wasdetermined by at least six important factors:

1. The Lunar phase (a waxing moon meant abundanceand growth, while a waning moon was associatedwith decline, conservation, and festivals of the Un-derworld)

2. The phase of the annual agricultural cycle

3. Equinoxes and solstices

4. The local mythos and its divine Patrons

5. The success of the reigning Monarch

6. The Akitu, or New Year Festival (First full moonafter spring equinox)

7. Commemoration of specific historical events(founding, military victories, temple holidays, etc.)

1.3. MESOPOTAMIA 33

Music

Main article: Music of Mesopotamia

Some songs were written for the gods but many werewritten to describe important events. Although musicand songs amused kings, they were also enjoyed by or-dinary people who liked to sing and dance in their homesor in the marketplaces. Songs were sung to childrenwho passed them on to their children. Thus songs werepassed on through many generations as an oral traditionuntil writing was more universal. These songs provided ameans of passing on through the centuries highly impor-tant information about historical events.The Oud (Arabic:العود) is a small, stringed musical in-strument used by the Mesopotamians. The oldest picto-rial record of the Oud dates back to the Uruk period inSouthern Mesopotamia over 5000 years ago. It is on acylinder seal currently housed at the British Museum andacquired by Dr. Dominique Collon. The image depicts afemale crouching with her instruments upon a boat, play-ing right-handed. This instrument appears hundreds oftimes throughout Mesopotamian history and again in an-cient Egypt from the 18th dynasty onwards in long- andshort-neck varieties. The oud is regarded as a precursorto the European lute. Its name is derived from the Arabicword العود al-‘ūd 'the wood', which is probably the nameof the tree from which the oud was made. (The Arabicname, with the definite article, is the source of the word'lute'.)

Games

Hunting was popular among Assyrian kings. Boxing andwrestling feature frequently in art, and some form of polowas probably popular, with men sitting on the shouldersof other men rather than on horses.[33] They also playedmajore, a game similar to the sport rugby, but played witha ball made of wood. They also played a board game sim-ilar to senet and backgammon, now known as the "RoyalGame of Ur.”

Family life

Mesopotamia, as shown by successive law codes, thoseof Urukagina, Lipit Ishtar and Hammurabi, across itshistory became more and more a patriarchal society,one in which the men were far more powerful than thewomen. For example, during the earliest Sumerian pe-riod, the “en”, or high priest of male gods was originallya woman, that of female goddesses, a man. Thorkild Ja-cobsen, as well as many others, has suggested that earlyMesopotamian society was ruled by a “council of elders”in which men and women were equally represented, butthat over time, as the status of women fell, that of men in-creased. As for schooling, only royal offspring and sons

The Babylonian marriage market by the 19th-century painterEdwin Long

of the rich and professionals, such as scribes, physicians,temple administrators, went to school. Most boys weretaught their father’s trade or were apprenticed out to learna trade.[34] Girls had to stay home with their mothers tolearn housekeeping and cooking, and to look after theyounger children. Some children would help with crush-ing grain or cleaning birds. Unusual for that time in his-tory, women in Mesopotamia had rights. They could ownproperty and, if they had good reason, get a divorce.

Burials

Hundreds of graves have been excavated in partsof Mesopotamia, revealing information aboutMesopotamian burial habits. In the city of Ur, mostpeople were buried in family graves under their houses,along with some possessions. A few have been foundwrapped in mats and carpets. Deceased children wereput in big “jars” which were placed in the family chapel.Other remains have been found buried in common citygraveyards. 17 graves have been found with very pre-cious objects in them. It is assumed that these were royalgraves. Rich of various periods, have been discovered tohave sought burial in Bahrein, identified with SumerianDilmun.[35]

1.3.8 Economy and agriculture

Irrigated agriculture spread southwards from the Zagrosfoothills with the Samara and Hadji Muhammed culture,from about 5,000 BC.[36] Sumerian temples functioned asbanks and developed the first large-scale system of loansand credit, but the Babylonians developed the earliest sys-tem of commercial banking. It was comparable in someways to modern post-Keynesian economics, but with amore “anything goes” approach.[31]

In the early period down to Ur III temples owned up to onethird of the available land, declining over time as royaland other private holdings increased in frequency. Theword Ensi was used to describe the official who organizedthe work of all facets of temple agriculture. Villeins areknown to have worked most frequently within agriculture,

34 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

Mining areas of the ancient West Asia. Boxes colors: arsenic isin brown, copper in red, tin in grey, iron in reddish brown, goldin yellow, silver in white and lead in black. Yellow area standsfor arsenic bronze, while grey area stands for tin bronze.

especially in the grounds of temples or palaces.[37]

The geography of southern Mesopotamia is such thatagriculture is possible only with irrigation and gooddrainage, a fact which has had a profound effect on theevolution of early Mesopotamian civilization. The needfor irrigation led the Sumerians, and later the Akkadi-ans, to build their cities along the Tigris and Euphratesand the branches of these rivers. Major cities, such asUr and Uruk, took root on tributaries of the Euphrates,while others, notably Lagash, were built on branchesof the Tigris. The rivers provided the further benefitsof fish (used both for food and fertilizer), reeds, andclay (for building materials). With irrigation, the foodsupply in Mesopotamia was compabale to the Canadianprairies.[38] The Tigris and Euphrates River valleys formthe northeastern portion of the Fertile Crescent, whichalso included the Jordan River valley and that of the Nile.Although land nearer to the rivers was fertile and goodfor crops, portions of land farther from the water were dryand largely uninhabitable. This is why the development ofirrigation was very important for settlers of Mesopotamia.Other Mesopotamian innovations include the control ofwater by dams and the use of aqueducts. Early settlers offertile land in Mesopotamia used wooden plows to softenthe soil before planting crops such as barley, onions,grapes, turnips, and apples. Mesopotamian settlers weresome of the first people to make beer and wine. As a re-sult of the skill involved in farming in the Mesopotamian,farmers did not depend on slaves to complete farm workfor them, but there were some exceptions. There were toomany risks involved to make slavery practical (i.e. the es-cape/mutiny of the slave). Although the rivers sustainedlife, they also destroyed it by frequent floods that ravagedentire cities. The unpredictable Mesopotamian weatherwas often hard on farmers; crops were often ruined sobackup sources of food such as cows and lambs werealso kept. Over time the southernmost parts of Sume-rian Mesopotamia suffered from increased salinity of thesoils, leading to a slow urban decline and a centring ofpower in Akkad, further north.

1.3.9 Government

The geography of Mesopotamia had a profound impacton the political development of the region. Among therivers and streams, the Sumerian people built the firstcities along with irrigation canals which were separatedby vast stretches of open desert or swamp where nomadictribes roamed. Communication among the isolated citieswas difficult and, at times, dangerous. Thus, each Sume-rian city became a city-state, independent of the othersand protective of its independence. At times one citywould try to conquer and unify the region, but such ef-forts were resisted and failed for centuries. As a result,the political history of Sumer is one of almost constantwarfare. Eventually Sumer was unified by Eannatum, butthe unification was tenuous and failed to last as the Akka-dians conquered Sumeria in 2331 BC only a generationlater. The Akkadian Empire was the first successful em-pire to last beyond a generation and see the peaceful suc-cession of kings. The empire was relatively short-lived, asthe Babylonians conquered them within only a few gen-erations.

Kings

Further information: Sumerian King List, List of kingsof Babylon and List of Assyrian kings

The Mesopotamians believed their kings and queenswere descended from the City of Gods, but, unlike theancient Egyptians, they never believed their kings werereal gods.[39] Most kings named themselves “king of theuniverse” or “great king”. Another common name was“shepherd”, as kings had to look after their people.

Power

When Assyria grew into an empire, it was divided intosmaller parts, called provinces. Each of these were namedafter their main cities, like Nineveh, Samaria, Damascus,and Arpad. They all had their own governor who hadto make sure everyone paid their taxes. Governors alsohad to call up soldiers to war and supply workers whena temple was built. He was also responsible for enforc-ing the laws. In this way, it was easier to keep controlof a large empire. Although Babylon was quite a smallstate in the Sumerian, it grew tremendously throughoutthe time of Hammurabi's rule. He was known as “the lawmaker”, and soon Babylon became one of the main citiesin Mesopotamia. It was later called Babylonia, whichmeant “the gateway of the gods.” It also became one ofhistory’s greatest centers of learning.

1.3. MESOPOTAMIA 35

Fragment of the Stele of the Vultures showing marching warriors,Early Dynastic III period, 2600–2350 BC

One of two figures of the Ram in a Thicket found in the RoyalCemetery in Ur, 2600-2400 BC

Warfare

With the end of the Uruk phase, walled cities grew andmany isolated Ubaid villages were abandoned indicatinga rise in communal violence. An early king Lugalbandawas supposed to have built the white walls around thecity. As city-states began to grow, their spheres of influ-ence overlapped, creating arguments between other city-states, especially over land and canals. These argumentswere recorded in tablets several hundreds of years be-fore any major war—the first recording of a war occurred

around 3200 BC but was not common until about 2500BC. An Early Dynastic II king (Ensi) of Uruk in Sumer,Gilgamesh (c. 2,600 BC), was commended for militaryexploits against Humbaba guardian of the Cedar Moun-tain, and was later celebrated in many later poems andsongs in which he was claimed to be two-thirds god andonly one-third human. The later Stele of the Vultures atthe end of the Early Dynastic III period (2600–2350 BC),commemorating the victory of Eannatum of Lagash overthe neighbouring rival city of Umma is the oldest monu-ment in the world that celebrates a massacre.[40] Fromthis point forwards, warfare was incorporated into theMesopotamian political system. At times a neutral citymay act as an arbitrator for the two rival cities. Thishelped to form unions between cities, leading to regionalstates.[39] When empires were created, they went to warmore with foreign countries. King Sargon, for example,conquered all the cities of Sumer, some cities in Mari, andthen went to war with northern Syria. Many Assyrian andBabylonian palace walls were decorated with the picturesof the successful fights and the enemy either desperatelyescaping or hiding amongst reeds.

Laws

City-states of Mesopotamia created the first law codes,drawn from legal precedence and decisions made byKings. The codes of Urukagina and Lipit Ishtar havebeen found. The most renowned of these was that ofHammurabi, as mentioned above, who was posthumouslyfamous for his set of laws, the Code of Hammurabi (cre-ated c. 1780 BC), which is one of the earliest sets oflaws found and one of the best preserved examples of thistype of document from ancient Mesopotamia. He codi-fied over 200 laws for Mesopotamia.

1.3.10 Art

Main article: Art of Mesopotamia

The art of Mesopotamia rivalled that of Ancient Egyptas the most grand, sophisticated and elaborate in west-ern Eurasia from the 4th millennium BC until the PersianAchaemenid Empire conquered the region in the 6th cen-tury BC. The main emphasis was on various, fortunatelyvery durable, forms of sculpture in stone and clay; littlepainting has survived, but what has suggests that paintingwas mainly used for geometrical and plant-based decora-tive schemes, though most sculpture was also painted.The Protoliterate period, dominated by Uruk, saw theproduction of sophisticated works like the Warka Vaseand cylinder seals. The Guennol Lioness is an outstandingsmall limestone figure from Elam of about 3000–2800BC, part man and part lion.[41] A little later there are anumber of figures of large-eyed priests and worshippers,mostly in alabaster and up to a foot high, who attended

36 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

temple cult images of the deity, but very few of these havesurvived.[42] Sculptures from the Sumerian and Akkadianperiod generally had large, staring eyes, and long beardson the men. Many masterpieces have also been found atthe Royal Cemetery at Ur (c. 2650 BC), including thetwo figures of a Ram in a Thicket, the Copper Bull and abull’s head on one of the Lyres of Ur.[43]

From the many subsequent periods before the ascendencyof the Neo-Assyrian Empire Mesopotamian art survivesin a number of forms: cylinder seals, relatively small fig-ures in the round, and reliefs of various sizes, includingcheap plaques of moulded pottery for the home, some re-ligious and some apparently not.[44] The Burney Relief isan unusual elaborate and relatively large (20 x 15 inches)terracotta plaque of a naked winged goddess with the feetof a bird of prey, and attendant owls and lions. It comesfrom the 18th or 19th centuries BC, and may also bemoulded.[45] Stone stelae, votive offerings, or ones proba-bly commemorating victories and showing feasts, are alsofound from temples, which unlike more official ones lackinscriptions that would explain them;[46] the fragmentaryStele of the Vultures is an early example of the inscribedtype,[47] and the Assyrian Black Obelisk of ShalmaneserIII a large and solid late one.[48]

The conquest of the whole of Mesopotamia and muchsurrounding territory by the Assyrians created a largerand wealthier state than the region had known before,and very grandiose art in palaces and public places, nodoubt partly intended to match the splendour of the artof the neighbouring Egyptian empire. The Assyrians de-veloped a style of extremely large schemes of very finelydetailed narrative low reliefs in stone for palaces, withscenes of war or hunting; the British Museum has an out-standing collection. They produced very little sculpture inthe round, except for colossal guardian figures, often thehuman-headed lamassu, which are sculpted in high reliefon two sides of a rectangular block, with the heads effec-tively in the round (and also five legs, so that both viewsseem complete). Even before dominating the region theyhad continued the cylinder seal tradition with designswhich are often exceptionally energetic and refined.[49]

1.3.11 Architecture

Main article: Architecture of Mesopotamia

The study of ancient Mesopotamian architecture is basedon available archaeological evidence, pictorial represen-tation of buildings, and texts on building practices. Schol-arly literature usually concentrates on temples, palaces,city walls and gates, and other monumental buildings, butoccasionally one finds works on residential architecture aswell.[50] Archaeological surface surveys also allowed forthe study of urban form in early Mesopotamian cities.Brick is the dominant material, as the material wasfreely available locally, whereas building stone had to

A suggested reconstruction of the appearance of a Sumerianziggurat

be brought a considerable distance to most cities. Theziggurat is the most distinctive form, and cities of-ten had large gateways, of which the Ishtar Gate fromNeo-Babylonian Babylon, decorated with beasts in poly-chrome brick, is the most famous, now largely in thePergamon Museum in Berlin.The most notable architectural remains from earlyMesopotamia are the temple complexes at Uruk fromthe 4th millennium BC, temples and palaces from theEarly Dynastic period sites in the Diyala River valleysuch as Khafajah and Tell Asmar, the Third Dynastyof Ur remains at Nippur (Sanctuary of Enlil) and Ur(Sanctuary of Nanna), Middle Bronze Age remains atSyrian-Turkish sites of Ebla, Mari, Alalakh, Aleppoand Kultepe, Late Bronze Age palaces at Bogazkoy(Hattusha), Ugarit, Ashur and Nuzi, Iron Age palacesand temples at Assyrian (Kalhu/Nimrud, Khorsabad,Nineveh), Babylonian (Babylon), Urartian (Tushpa/VanKalesi, Cavustepe, Ayanis, Armavir, Erebuni, Bastam)and Neo-Hittite sites (Karkamis, Tell Halaf, Karatepe).Houses are mostly known from Old Babylonian remainsat Nippur and Ur. Among the textual sources on buildingconstruction and associated rituals are Gudea’s cylindersfrom the late 3rd millennium are notable, as well as theAssyrian and Babylonian royal inscriptions from the IronAge.

1.3.12 References

[1] Finkelstein, J.J. (1962), “Mesopotamia”, Journal of NearEastern Studies 21 (2): 73–92, doi:10.1086/371676,JSTOR 543884

[2] Foster, Benjamin R.; Polinger Foster, Karen (2009), Civ-ilizations of ancient Iraq, Princeton: Princeton UniversityPress, ISBN 978-0-691-13722-3

[3] Canard, M. (2011), “al-ḎJazīra, Ḏjazīrat Aḳūr or IḳlīmAḳūr”, in Bearman, P.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C.E.;

1.3. MESOPOTAMIA 37

van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W.P., Encyclopaedia of Islam,Second Edition, Leiden: Brill Online, OCLC 624382576

[4] Wilkinson, Tony J. (2000), “Regional approaches toMesopotamian archaeology: the contribution of archaeo-logical surveys”, Journal of Archaeological Research 8 (3):219–267, doi:10.1023/A:1009487620969, ISSN 1573-7756

[5] Matthews, Roger (2003), The archaeology ofMesopotamia. Theories and approaches, Approaching thepast, Milton Square: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-25317-9

[6] Miquel, A.; Brice, W.C.; Sourdel, D.; Aubin, J.; Holt,P.M.; Kelidar, A.; Blanc, H.; MacKenzie, D.N.; Pel-lat, Ch. (2011), "ʿIrāḳ", in Bearman, P.; Bianquis, Th.;Bosworth, C.E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W.P., Ency-clopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Leiden: Brill Online,OCLC 624382576

[7] “Who Were The Babylonians?", Bill T. Arnold, 2004: 2

[8] “From Adam to Noah-The Numbers Game: Why the Ge-nealogy Puzzles of Genesis 5”, Leonard Timmons, 2012

[9] “Southern Mesopotamia During the Bronze Age”, Lisa E.Gross, 2003

[10] Bahrani, Z. (1998), “Conjuring Mesopotamia: imagina-tive geography a world past”, in Meskell, L., Archaeologyunder fire: Nationalism, politics and heritage in the East-ern Mediterranean and Middle East, London: Routledge,pp. 159–174, ISBN 978-0-415-19655-0

[11] Scheffler, Thomas; 2003. “ 'Fertile crescent', 'Orient','Middle East': the changing mental maps of SoutheastAsia,” European Review of History 10/2: 253–272.

[12] Thompson, William R. (2004) “Complexity, DiminishingMarginal Returns, and Serial Mesopotamian Fragmenta-tion” (Vol 3, Journal of World Systems Research)

[13] Pollock, Susan (1999), Ancient Mesopotamia. The Edenthat never was, Case Studies in Early Societies, Cam-bridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 2, ISBN 978-0-521-57568-3

[14] Finkelstein, J.J. (1955), “Subartu and Subarian in OldBabylonian Sources”, (Journal of Cuneiform Studies Vol9, No. 1)

[15] Deutscher, Guy (2007), Syntactic Change in Akkadian:The Evolution of Sentential Complementation, Oxford Uni-versity Press US, pp. 20–21, ISBN 978-0-19-953222-3

[16] Woods C. 2006 “Bilingualism, Scribal Learning, and theDeath of Sumerian”. In S.L. Sanders (ed) Margins ofWriting, Origins of Culture: 91-120 Chicago

[17] Tatlow, Elisabeth Meier Women, Crime, and Punishmentin Ancient Law and Society: The ancient Near East Con-tinuum International Publishing Group Ltd. (31 March2005) ISBN 978-0-8264-1628-5 p. 75

[18] Eves, Howard An Introduction to the History of Mathemat-ics Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969 p. 31

[19] D. Brown (2000), Mesopotamian Planetary Astronomy-Astrology, Styx Publications, ISBN 90-5693-036-2.

[20] Otto E. Neugebauer (1945). “The History of Ancient As-tronomy Problems and Methods”, Journal of Near EasternStudies 4 (1), p. 1-38.

[21] George Sarton (1955). “Chaldaean Astronomy of the LastThree Centuries B.C.”, Journal of the American OrientalSociety 75 (3), p. 166-173 [169].

[22] William P. D. Wightman (1951, 1953), The Growth ofScientific Ideas, Yale University Press p.38.

[23] Pingree (1998)

[24] H. F. J. Horstmanshoff, Marten Stol, Cornelis Tilburg(2004), Magic and Rationality in Ancient Near Eastern andGraeco-Roman Medicine, p. 99, Brill Publishers, ISBN90-04-13666-5.

[25] Marten Stol (1993), Epilepsy in Babylonia, p. 55, BrillPublishers, ISBN 90-72371-63-1.

[26] H. F. J. Horstmanshoff, Marten Stol, Cornelis Tilburg(2004), Magic and Rationality in Ancient Near Easternand Graeco-Roman Medicine, p. 97-98, Brill Publishers,ISBN 90-04-13666-5.

[27] Marten Stol (1993), Epilepsy in Babylonia, p. 5, Brill Pub-lishers, ISBN 90-72371-63-1.

[28] Stephanie Dalley and John Peter Oleson (January 2003).“Sennacherib, Archimedes, and the Water Screw: TheContext of Invention in the Ancient World”, Technologyand Culture 44 (1).

[29] Twist, Jo (20 November 2005), Open media to connectcommunities, BBC News, retrieved 6 August 2007

[30] Giorgio Buccellati (1981), “Wisdom and Not: The Caseof Mesopotamia”, Journal of the American Oriental Soci-ety 101 (1), p. 35-47.

[31] Sheila C. Dow (2005), “Axioms and Babylonian thought:a reply”, Journal of Post Keynesian Economics 27 (3), p.385-391.

[32] Giorgio Buccellati (1981), “Wisdom and Not: The Caseof Mesopotamia”, Journal of the American Oriental Soci-ety 101 (1), p. 35-47 43.

[33] Karen Rhea Nemet-Nejat (1998), Daily Life in AncientMesopotamia

[34] Rivkah Harris (2000), Gender and Aging in Mesopotamia

[35] Bibby, Geoffrey and Phillips, Carl (1996), “Looking forDilmun” (Interlink Pub Group)

[36] Richard Bulliet, Pamela Kyle Crossley, Daniel Headrick,Steven Hirsch, Lyman Johnson, David Northup (2010-01-01), The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History, CengageLearning, 1 Jan 2010, ISBN 0538744383, retrieved 2012-05-30

[37] H. W. F. Saggs - Professor Emeritus of SemiticLanguages at University College, Cardiff (2000),Babylonians, University of California Press, 1 Jun 2000,ISBN 9780520202221, retrieved 29 May 2012 ISBN0520202228

38 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

[38] Roux, Georges, (1993) “Ancient Iraq” (Penguin)

[39] Robert Dalling (2004), The Story of Us Humans, fromAtoms to Today’s Civilization

[40] Winter, Irene J. (1985). “After the Battle is Over: The'Stele of the Vultures’ and the Beginning of HistoricalNarrative in the Art of the Ancient Near East”. In Kessler,Herbert L.; Simpson, Marianna Shreve. Pictorial Narra-tive in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Center for Ad-vanced Study in the Visual Arts, Symposium Series IV.16. Washington DC: National Gallery of Art. pp. 11–32.ISSN 0091-7338.

[41] Frankfort, 24–37

[42] Frankfort, 45–59

[43] Frankfort, 61–66

[44] Frankfort, Chapters 2–5

[45] Frankfort, 110–112

[46] Frankfort, 66–74

[47] Frankfort, 71–73

[48] Frankfort, 66–74; 167

[49] Frankfort, 141–193

[50] Dunham, Sally (2005), “Ancient Near Eastern architec-ture”, in Daniel Snell, A Companion to the Ancient NearEast, Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 266–280, ISBN 0-631-23293-1

• Frankfort, Henri, The Art and Architecture of theAncient Orient, Pelican History of Art, 4th ed1970, Penguin (now Yale History of Art), ISBN0140561072

1.3.13 Further reading

• Atlas de la Mésopotamie et du Proche-Orient ancien,Brepols, 1996 ISBN|2503500463.

• Benoit, Agnès; 2003. Art et archéologie : les civili-sations du Proche-Orient ancien, Manuels de l'Ecoledu Louvre.

• Bottéro, Jean; 1987. (French) Mésopotamie.L'écriture, la raison et les dieux, Gallimard, coll. «Folio Histoire », ISBN 2070403084.

• Bottéro, Jean; 1995. Mesopotamia: writing, reason-ing and the gods. Trans. by Zainab Bahrani andMarc Van de Mieroop, University of Chicago Press.ISBN 978-0226067278

• Edzard, Dietz Otto; 2004. GeschichteMesopotamiens. Von den Sumerern bis zu Alexanderdem Großen, München, ISBN 3-406-51664-5

• Hrouda, Barthel and Rene Pfeilschifter; 2005.Mesopotamien. Die antiken Kulturen zwischen Eu-phrat und Tigris. München 2005 (4. Aufl.), ISBN3-406-46530-7

• Joannès, Francis; 2001. Dictionnaire de la civilisa-tion mésopotamienne, Robert Laffont.

• Korn, Wolfgang; 2004. Mesopotamien – Wiege derZivilisation. 6000 Jahre Hochkulturen an Euphratund Tigris, Stuttgart, ISBN 3-8062-1851-X

• Kuhrt, Amélie; 1995. The Ancient Near East: c.3000-330 B.C. 2 Vols. Routledge: London and NewYork.

• Liverani, Mario; 1991. Antico Oriente: storia, soci-età, economia. Editori Laterza: Roma.

• Matthews, Roger; 2005. The early prehistory ofMesopotamia – 500,000 to 4,500 BC, Turnhout2005, ISBN 2-503-50729-8

• Oppenheim, A. Leo; 1964. Ancient Mesopotamia:Portrait of a dead civilization. The University ofChicago Press: Chicago and London. Revised edi-tion completed by Erica Reiner, 1977.

• Pollock, Susan; 1999. Ancient Mesopotamia: theEden that never was. Cambridge University Press:Cambridge.

• Postgate, J. Nicholas; 1992. Early Mesopotamia:Society and Economy at the dawn of history. Rout-ledge: London and New York.

• Roux, Georges; 1964. Ancient Iraq, Penguin Books.

• Silver, Morris; 2007. Redistribution and Marketsin the Economy of Ancient Mesopotamia: UpdatingPolanyi, Antiguo Oriente 5: 89-112.

• Snell, Daniel (ed.); 2005. A Companion to the An-cient Near East. Malden, MA : Blackwell Pub, 2005.

• Van de Mieroop, Marc; 2004. A history of the an-cient Near East. ca 3000-323 BC. Oxford: Black-well Publishing.

1.3.14 External links

• Ancient Mesopotamia — timeline, definition, andarticles at Ancient History Encyclopedia

• Mesopotamia — introduction to Mesopotamia fromthe British Museum

• By Nile and Tigris, a narrative of journeys in Egyptand Mesopotamia on behalf of the British museumbetween the years 1886 and 1913, by Sir E. A.Wallis Budge, 1920 (a searchable facsimile at theUniversity of Georgia Libraries; DjVu & layeredPDF format)

1.4. ANCIENT EGYPT 39

• A Dweller in Mesopotamia, being the adventures ofan official artist in the Garden of Eden, by DonaldMaxwell, 1921 (a searchable facsimile at the Uni-versity of Georgia Libraries; DjVu & layered PDFPDF (7.53 MB) format)

• Mesopotamian Archaeology, by Percy S. P. Pillow,1912 (a searchable facsimile at the University ofGeorgia Libraries; DjVu & layered PDF PDF (12.8MB) format)

• Mesopotamia, 1920

1.4 Ancient Egypt

For the British history magazine, see Ancient Egypt(magazine).

Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient

The Great Sphinx and the pyramids of Giza are among the mostrecognizable symbols of the civilization of ancient Egypt.

Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lowerreaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern coun-try of Egypt. It is one of six civilizations globally to ariseindependently. Egyptian civilization coalesced around3150 BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronol-ogy)[1] with the political unification of Upper and LowerEgypt under the first pharaoh.[2] The history of ancientEgypt occurred in a series of stable Kingdoms, separatedby periods of relative instability known as IntermediatePeriods: the Old Kingdom of the Early Bronze Age, theMiddle Kingdom of the Middle Bronze Age and the NewKingdom of the Late Bronze Age.Egypt reached the pinnacle of its power during the NewKingdom, in the Ramesside period where it rivalled theHittite Empire, Assyrian Empire and Mitanni Empire, af-ter which it entered a period of slow decline. Egypt wasinvaded or conquered by a succession of foreign powers,such as the Canaanites/Hyksos, Libyans, the Nubians, theAssyrians, Babylonians, the Achaemenid Persians, andthe Macedonians in the Third Intermediate Period andthe Late Period of Egypt. In the aftermath of Alexander

the Great's death, one of his generals, Ptolemy Soter, es-tablished himself as the new ruler of Egypt. This GreekPtolemaic Dynasty ruled Egypt until 30 BC, when, un-der Cleopatra, it fell to the Roman Empire and became aRoman province.[3]

The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came partlyfrom its ability to adapt to the conditions of the NileRiver valley for agriculture. The predictable flooding andcontrolled irrigation of the fertile valley produced sur-plus crops, which supported a more dense population,and social development and culture. With resources tospare, the administration sponsored mineral exploitationof the valley and surrounding desert regions, the early de-velopment of an independent writing system, the organi-zation of collective construction and agricultural projects,trade with surrounding regions, and a military intended todefeat foreign enemies and assert Egyptian dominance.Motivating and organizing these activities was a bureau-cracy of elite scribes, religious leaders, and administra-tors under the control of a pharaoh, who ensured the co-operation and unity of the Egyptian people in the contextof an elaborate system of religious beliefs.[4][5]

The many achievements of the ancient Egyptians includethe quarrying, surveying and construction techniquesthat supported the building of monumental pyramids,temples, and obelisks; a system of mathematics, a prac-tical and effective system of medicine, irrigation sys-tems and agricultural production techniques, the firstknown ships,[6] Egyptian faience and glass technology,new forms of literature, and the earliest known peacetreaty, made with the Hittites.[7] Egypt left a lastinglegacy. Its art and architecture were widely copied, andits antiquities carried off to far corners of the world. Itsmonumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of trav-elers and writers for centuries. A new-found respect forantiquities and excavations in the early modern period byEuropeans and Egyptians led to the scientific investiga-tion of Egyptian civilization and a greater appreciation ofits cultural legacy.[8]

1.4.1 History

Main articles: History of ancient Egypt, History of Egyptand Population history of EgyptThe Nile has been the lifeline of its region for much

of human history.[9] The fertile floodplain of the Nilegave humans the opportunity to develop a settled agri-cultural economy and a more sophisticated, centralizedsociety that became a cornerstone in the history of hu-man civilization.[10] Nomadic modern human hunter-gatherers began living in the Nile valley through the endof the Middle Pleistocene some 120,000 years ago. Bythe late Paleolithic period, the arid climate of NorthernAfrica became increasingly hot and dry, forcing the pop-ulations of the area to concentrate along the river region.

40 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

Rosetta

Alexandria

Wadi Natrun

Buto

SaisBusiris

Tanis

Avaris

Bubastis

Heliopolis

Cairo

HelwanMemphisSaqqara

Meydum

Lahun

Herakleopolis

Faiyum

Sinai

Serabit al-Khadim

Bahariya Oasis

Timna

Beni Hasan

AmarnaHermopolis

Asyut

Qau

Eastern Desert

Western Desert Akhmim

Thinis

Abydos

Dakhla Oasis

Kharga Oasis Naqada

Dendera

Wadi HammamatKoptos

Thebes(Luxor and Karnak)

Hierakonpolis

Edfu

Kom Ombo

AswanFirst Cataract

Dunqul Oasis

Nubian Desert

Abu Simbel

Buhen

Second Cataract Kush

Third Cataract

Kawa

Fourth Cataract

Napata Gebel BarkalFifth Cataract

Meroe

Dahshur

Kerma

LowerEgypt

Upper Egypt

Damietta

Merimda

Naukratis

Giza

Pelusium

Quseir

Nabta Playa

Badari

Gaza

Rafah

Jerusalem

Dead S

ea

Great Bitter Lake

Gulf of Suez G

ulf o

f A

qaba

Wadi G

abgaba

Wadi Allaqi

Bernike

Tod

Mediterranean Sea

Red Sea

Nile Delta

Lake Moeris

N

E

S

W

SESW

NENW

0 100(km)

0 60(mi)

Nile

riv

er

Nile river

Nile ri

ver

Map of ancient Egypt, showing major cities and sites of the Dy-nastic period (c. 3150 BC to 30 BC)

Predynastic period

Main article: Predynastic EgyptIn Predynastic and Early Dynastic times, the Egyptian

climate was much less arid than it is today. Large regionsof Egypt were covered in treed savanna and traversed byherds of grazing ungulates. Foliage and fauna were farmore prolific in all environs and the Nile region supportedlarge populations of waterfowl. Hunting would have beencommon for Egyptians, and this is also the period whenmany animals were first domesticated.[11]

By about 5500 BC, small tribes living in the Nile valleyhad developed into a series of cultures demonstrating firmcontrol of agriculture and animal husbandry, and identi-fiable by their pottery and personal items, such as combs,bracelets, and beads. The largest of these early cultures inupper (Southern) Egypt was the Badari, which probably

A typical Naqada II jar decorated with gazelles. (PredynasticPeriod)

originated in the Western Desert; it was known for its highquality ceramics, stone tools, and its use of copper.[12]

The Badari was followed by the Amratian (Naqada I) andGerzeh (Naqada II) cultures,[13] which brought a numberof technological improvements. As early as the NaqadaI Period, predynastic Egyptians imported obsidian fromEthiopia, used to shape blades and other objects fromflakes.[14] In Naqada II times, early evidence exists ofcontact with the Near East, particularly Canaan and theByblos coast.[15] Over a period of about 1,000 years,the Naqada culture developed from a few small farm-ing communities into a powerful civilization whose lead-ers were in complete control of the people and resourcesof the Nile valley.[16] Establishing a power center atHierakonpolis, and later at Abydos, Naqada III leadersexpanded their control of Egypt northwards along theNile.[17] They also traded with Nubia to the south, theoases of the western desert to the west, and the culturesof the eastern Mediterranean and Near East to the east.[17]

Royal Nubian burials at Qustul produced artifacts bear-ing the oldest-known examples of Egyptian dynastic sym-bols, such as the white crown of Egypt and falcon.[18][19]

The Naqada culture manufactured a diverse selection ofmaterial goods, reflective of the increasing power andwealth of the elite, as well as societal personal-use items,which included combs, small statuary, painted pottery,high quality decorative stone vases, cosmetic palettes, andjewelry made of gold, lapis, and ivory. They also devel-oped a ceramic glaze known as faience, which was usedwell into the Roman Period to decorate cups, amulets,and figurines.[20] During the last predynastic phase, theNaqada culture began using written symbols that eventu-

1.4. ANCIENT EGYPT 41

ally were developed into a full system of hieroglyphs forwriting the ancient Egyptian language.[21]

Early Dynastic Period (c. 3050–2686 BC)

Main article: Early Dynastic Period of Egypt

The Early Dynastic Period was approximately contem-porary to the early Sumerian-Akkadian civilisation ofMesopotamia and of ancient Elam. The third-centuryBC Egyptian priest Manetho grouped the long line ofpharaohs from Menes to his own time into 30 dynasties,a system still used today.[22] He chose to begin his of-ficial history with the king named “Meni” (or Menes inGreek) who was believed to have united the two king-doms of Upper and Lower Egypt (around 3100 BC).[23]

The transition to a unified state happened more graduallythan ancient Egyptian writers represented, and there is nocontemporary record of Menes. Some scholars now be-lieve, however, that the mythical Menes may have beenthe pharaoh Narmer, who is depicted wearing royal re-galia on the ceremonial Narmer Palette, in a symbolic actof unification.[24] In the Early Dynastic Period about 3150BC, the first of the Dynastic pharaohs solidified controlover lower Egypt by establishing a capital at Memphis,from which he could control the labour force and agri-culture of the fertile delta region, as well as the lucrativeand critical trade routes to the Levant. The increasingpower and wealth of the pharaohs during the early dynas-tic period was reflected in their elaborate mastaba tombsand mortuary cult structures at Abydos, which were usedto celebrate the deified pharaoh after his death.[25] Thestrong institution of kingship developed by the pharaohsserved to legitimize state control over the land, labour,and resources that were essential to the survival andgrowth of ancient Egyptian civilization.[26]

The Narmer Palette depicts the unification of the Two Lands.[27]

Old Kingdom (2686–2181 BC)

Main article: Old KingdomMajor advances in architecture, art, and technology were

The Giza Pyramids

made during the Old Kingdom, fueled by the increasedagricultural productivity and resulting population, madepossible by a well-developed central administration.[28]

Some of ancient Egypt’s crowning achievements, theGiza pyramids and Great Sphinx, were constructed dur-ing the Old Kingdom. Under the direction of thevizier, state officials collected taxes, coordinated irriga-tion projects to improve crop yield, drafted peasants towork on construction projects, and established a justicesystem to maintain peace and order.[29]

Khafre Enthroned

Along with the rising importance of a central administra-tion arose a new class of educated scribes and officialswho were granted estates by the pharaoh in payment fortheir services. Pharaohs also made land grants to theirmortuary cults and local temples, to ensure that these in-stitutions had the resources to worship the pharaoh af-

42 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

ter his death. Scholars believe that five centuries ofthese practices slowly eroded the economic power ofthe pharaoh, and that the economy could no longer af-ford to support a large centralized administration.[30] Asthe power of the pharaoh diminished, regional governorscalled nomarchs began to challenge the supremacy of thepharaoh. This, coupled with severe droughts between2200 and 2150 BC,[31] is assumed to have caused thecountry to enter the 140-year period of famine and strifeknown as the First Intermediate Period.[32]

First Intermediate Period (2181–1991 BC)

Main article: First Intermediate Period of Egypt

After Egypt’s central government collapsed at the end ofthe Old Kingdom, the administration could no longer sup-port or stabilize the country’s economy. Regional gover-nors could not rely on the king for help in times of crisis,and the ensuing food shortages and political disputes es-calated into famines and small-scale civil wars. Yet de-spite difficult problems, local leaders, owing no tribute tothe pharaoh, used their new-found independence to estab-lish a thriving culture in the provinces. Once in controlof their own resources, the provinces became economi-cally richer—which was demonstrated by larger and bet-ter burials among all social classes.[33] In bursts of cre-ativity, provincial artisans adopted and adapted culturalmotifs formerly restricted to the royalty of the Old King-dom, and scribes developed literary styles that expressedthe optimism and originality of the period.[34]

Free from their loyalties to the pharaoh, local rulers be-gan competing with each other for territorial control andpolitical power. By 2160 BC, rulers in Herakleopolis con-trolled Lower Egypt in the north, while a rival clan basedin Thebes, the Intef family, took control of Upper Egyptin the south. As the Intefs grew in power and expandedtheir control northward, a clash between the two rival dy-nasties became inevitable. Around 2055 BC the north-ern Theban forces under Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II fi-nally defeated the Herakleopolitan rulers, reuniting theTwo Lands. They inaugurated a period of economic andcultural renaissance known as the Middle Kingdom.[35]

Middle Kingdom (2134–1690 BC)

Main article: Middle Kingdom of EgyptThe pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom restored the

country’s prosperity and stability, thereby stimulating aresurgence of art, literature, and monumental buildingprojects.[36] Mentuhotep II and his Eleventh Dynasty suc-cessors ruled from Thebes, but the vizier Amenemhat I,upon assuming kingship at the beginning of the TwelfthDynasty around 1985 BC, shifted the nation’s capital tothe city of Itjtawy, located in Faiyum.[37] From Itjtawy,the pharaohs of the Twelfth Dynasty undertook a far-

Amenemhat III, the last great ruler of the Middle Kingdom

sighted land reclamation and irrigation scheme to in-crease agricultural output in the region. Moreover, themilitary reconquered territory in Nubia that was rich inquarries and gold mines, while laborers built a defensivestructure in the Eastern Delta, called the "Walls-of-the-Ruler", to defend against foreign attack.[38]

With the pharaohs’ having secured military and polit-ical security and vast agricultural and mineral wealth,the nation’s population, arts, and religion flourished. Incontrast to elitist Old Kingdom attitudes towards thegods, the Middle Kingdom experienced an increase inexpressions of personal piety and what could be called ademocratization of the afterlife, in which all people pos-sessed a soul and could be welcomed into the companyof the gods after death.[39] Middle Kingdom literaturefeatured sophisticated themes and characters written in aconfident, eloquent style.[34] The relief and portrait sculp-ture of the period captured subtle, individual details thatreached new heights of technical perfection.[40]

The last great ruler of the Middle Kingdom, AmenemhatIII, allowed Semitic-speaking Canaanite settlers from theNear East into the delta region to provide a sufficientlabour force for his especially active mining and buildingcampaigns. These ambitious building and mining activ-ities, however, combined with severe Nile floods later inhis reign, strained the economy and precipitated the slowdecline into the Second Intermediate Period during thelater Thirteenth and Fourteenth dynasties. During thisdecline, the Canaanite settlers began to seize control ofthe delta region, eventually coming to power in Egypt asthe Hyksos.[41]

1.4. ANCIENT EGYPT 43

Second Intermediate Period (1674–1549 BC) and theHyksos

Main article: Second Intermediate Period of Egypt

Around 1785 BC, as the power of the Middle Kingdompharaohs weakened, a Semitic Canaanite people calledthe Hyksos had already settled in the Eastern Delta townof Avaris, seized control of Egypt, and forced the cen-tral government to retreat to Thebes. The pharaoh wastreated as a vassal and expected to pay tribute.[42] TheHyksos (“foreign rulers”) retained Egyptian models ofgovernment and identified as pharaohs, thus integratingEgyptian elements into their culture. They and otherSemitic invaders introduced new tools of warfare intoEgypt, most notably the composite bow and the horse-drawn chariot.[43]

After their retreat, the native Theban kings found them-selves trapped between the Canaanite Hyksos ruling thenorth and the Hyksos’ Nubian allies, the Kushites, to thesouth of Egypt. After years of vassalage, Thebes gath-ered enough strength to challenge the Hyksos in a con-flict that lasted more than 30 years, until 1555 BC [42]

The pharaohs Seqenenre Tao II and Kamose were ulti-mately able to defeat the Nubians to the south of Egypt,but failed to defeat the Hyksos. That task fell to Kamose’ssuccessor, Ahmose I, who successfully waged a series ofcampaigns that permanently eradicated the Hyksos’ pres-ence in Egypt. He established a new dynasty. In the NewKingdom that followed, the military became a central pri-ority for the pharaohs seeking to expand Egypt’s bordersand attempting to gain mastery of the Near East.[44]

Nippur

Ur

Babylon

Assur

NinevehCarchemish

Sardes

Tanis

Avaris

Mycenae

Citium

Byblos KadeshSidonTyre

Damascus

Memphis Heliopolis

Abydos

THEBES

AswanElephantine

Abu Simbel

Napata

II

III IV

V

VI

Herakleopolis

Gaza

A R A B I A

M E S O P O T A M I A

A S S Y R I A

H I T T I T EE M P I R E

L I B Y A

K U S H

P U N T

S Y R I A

S I N A I

E G Y P T I A N

I

CA

NA

AN

C I L I C I A

M e d i t e r a n e a n

B l a c k

C a s p i a n

P e r s i a nG u l f

R e d

Nile

S e a

S e a

E M P I R E

S e a

S e a

The Egyptian Empire 15th century BC

(under Egyptian influence)

The maximum territorial extent of ancient Egypt (15th centuryBC)

New Kingdom (1549–1069 BC)

Main article: New Kingdom

The New Kingdom pharaohs established a period ofunprecedented prosperity by securing their borders andstrengthening diplomatic ties with their neighbours, in-cluding the Mitanni Empire, Assyria, and Canaan. Mili-tary campaigns waged under Tuthmosis I and his grand-son Tuthmosis III extended the influence of the pharaohsto the largest empire Egypt had ever seen. Between theirreigns, Hatshepsut generally promoted peace and restoredtrade routes lost during the Hyksos occupation, as wellas expanding to new regions. When Tuthmosis III diedin 1425 BC, Egypt had an empire extending from Niyain north west Syria to the fourth waterfall of the Nile inNubia, cementing loyalties and opening access to criticalimports such as bronze and wood.[45]

Djeser-Djeseru is the main building of Hatshepsut’s mortuarytemple complex at Deir el-Bahri, the building is an example ofperfect symmetry that predates the Parthenon by a thousandyears

The New Kingdom pharaohs began a large-scale buildingcampaign to promote the god Amun, whose growing cultwas based in Karnak. They also constructed monumentsto glorify their own achievements, both real and imag-ined. The pharaoh Hatshepsut used such hyperbole andgrandeur during her reign of almost twenty-two years.[46]

Her reign was very successful, marked by an extendedperiod of peace and wealth-building, trading expeditionsto Punt, restoration of foreign trade networks, and greatbuilding projects, including an elegant mortuary templethat rivaled the Greek architecture of a thousand yearslater, a colossal pair of obelisks, and a chapel at Karnak.Despite her achievements, Amenhotep II, the heir to Hat-shepsut’s nephew-stepson Tuthmosis III, sought to eraseher legacy near the end of his father’s reign and through-out his, touting many of her accomplishments as his.[47]

He also tried to change many established traditions thathad developed over the centuries, which some suggest wasa futile attempt to prevent other women from becomingpharaoh and to curb their influence in the kingdom.

44 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

Around 1350 BC, the stability of the New Kingdomseemed threatened further when Amenhotep IV ascendedthe throne and instituted a series of radical and chaoticreforms. Changing his name to Akhenaten, he toutedthe previously obscure sun deity Aten as the supreme de-ity, suppressed the worship of most other deities, and at-tacked the power of the temple that had become domi-nated by the priests of Amun in Thebes, whom he sawas corrupt.[48] Moving the capital to the new city ofAkhetaten (modern-day Amarna), Akhenaten turned adeaf ear to events in the Near East (where the Hittites,Mitanni, and Assyrians were vying for control). He wasdevoted to his new religion and artistic style. After hisdeath, the cult of the Aten was quickly abandoned, thepriests of Amun soon regained power and returned thecapital to Thebes. Under their influence the subsequentpharaohs Tutankhamun, Ay, and Horemheb worked toerase all mention of Akhenaten’s heresy, now known asthe Amarna Period.[49]

Four colossal statues of Ramesses II flank the entrance of histemple Abu Simbel

Around 1279 BC, Ramesses II, also known as Ramessesthe Great, ascended the throne, and went on to build moretemples, erect more statues and obelisks, and sire morechildren than any other pharaoh in history.[50] A bold mil-itary leader, Ramesses II led his army against the Hittitesin the Battle of Kadesh (in modern Syria) and, after fight-ing to a stalemate, finally agreed to the first recordedpeace treaty, around 1258 BC.[51] With both the Egyp-

tians and Hittite Empire proving unable to gain the upperhand over one another, and both powers also fearful ofthe expanding Middle Assyrian Empire, Egypt withdrewfrom much of the Near East. The Hittites were thus left tocompete unsuccessfully with the powerful Assyrians andthe newly arrived Phrygians.Egypt’s wealth, however, made it a tempting target forinvasion, particularly by the Libyan Berbers to the west,and the Sea Peoples, a powerful confederation of largelyGreek, Luwian and Phoenician/Caananite pirates fromthe Aegean. Initially, the military was able to repel theseinvasions, but Egypt eventually lost control of its remain-ing territories in southern Caanan, much of it falling tothe Assyrians. The effects of external threats were ex-acerbated by internal problems such as corruption, tombrobbery, and civil unrest. After regaining their power,the high priests at the temple of Amun in Thebes accu-mulated vast tracts of land and wealth, and their expandedpower splintered the country during the Third Intermedi-ate Period.[52]

Third Intermediate Period (1069–653 BC)

Main article: Third Intermediate Period of Egypt

Following the death of Ramesses XI in 1078 BC,Smendes assumed authority over the northern part ofEgypt, ruling from the city of Tanis. The south was effec-tively controlled by the High Priests of Amun at Thebes,who recognized Smendes in name only.[53] During thistime, Berber tribes from what was later to be called Libyahad been settling in the western delta, and the chieftainsof these settlers began increasing their autonomy. Libyanprinces took control of the delta under Shoshenq I in 945BC, founding the Libyan Berber, or Bubastite, dynastythat ruled for some 200 years. Shoshenq also gained con-trol of southern Egypt by placing his family members inimportant priestly positions.In the mid-ninth century BC, Egypt made a failed at-tempt to once more gain a foothold in Western Asia.Osorkon II of Egypt, along with a large alliance ofnations and peoples, including; Egypt, Persia, Israel,Hamath, Phoenicia/Caanan, the Arabs, Arameans, andneo Hittites among others, engaged in the Battle ofKarkar against the powerful Assyrian king ShalmaneserIII in 853 BC. However, this coalition of powers failedand the Neo Assyrian Empire continued to dominateWestern Asia.Libyan Berber control began to erode as a rival nativedynasty in the delta arose under Leontopolis. Also, theNubians of the Kushites threatened Egypt from the landsto the south.[54]

Drawing on millennia of interaction (trade, acculturation,occupation, assimilation, and war[55]) with Egypt,[56] theKushite king Piye left his Nubian capital of Napata and

1.4. ANCIENT EGYPT 45

Chiefs of the West

Around 730 BC Libyans from the west fractured the politicalunity of the country

invaded Egypt around 727 BC. Piye easily seized controlof Thebes and eventually the Nile Delta.[57] He recordedthe episode on his stela of victory. Piye set the stagefor subsequent Twenty-fifth dynasty pharaohs,[58] suchas Taharqa, to reunite the “Two lands” of Northern andSouthern Egypt. The Nile valley empire was as large asit had been since the New Kingdom.The Twenty-fifth dynasty ushered in a renaissance pe-riod for ancient Egypt.[59] Religion, the arts, and archi-tecture were restored to their glorious Old, Middle, andNew Kingdom forms. Pharaohs, such as Taharqa, built orrestored temples and monuments throughout the Nile val-ley, including at Memphis, Karnak, Kawa, Jebel Barkal,etc.[60] It was during the Twenty-fifth dynasty that therewas the first widespread construction of pyramids (manyin modern Sudan) in the Nile Valley since the MiddleKingdom.[61][62][63]

Piye made various unsuccessful attempts to extend Egyp-tian influence in the Near East, then controlled by Assyria.In 720 BC, he sent an army in support a rebellion against

Assyria, which was taking place in Philistia and Gaza.However, Piye was defeated by Sargon II and the rebel-lion failed. In 711 BC, Piye again supported a revoltagainst the Assyrians by the Israelites of Ashdod and wasonce again defeated by the Assyrian king Sargon II. Sub-sequently, Piye was forced from the Near East.[64]

From the 10th century BC onwards, Assyria fought forcontrol of the southern Levant. Frequently, cities andkingdoms of the southern Levant appealed to Egyptfor aide in their struggles against the powerful Assyr-ian army. Taharqa enjoyed some initial success inhis attempts to regain a foothold in the Near East.Taharqa aided the Judean King Hezekiah when Hezekiahand Jerusalem was besieged by the Assyrian king,Sennacherib. Scholars disagree on the primary reasonfor Assyria’s abandonment of their siege on Jerusalem.Reasons for the Assyrian withdrawal range from con-flict with the Egyptian/Kushite army to divine interven-tion to surrender to disease.[65] Henry Aubin argues thatthe Kushite/Egyptian army saved Jerusalem from the As-syrians and prevented the Assyrians from returning tocapture Jerusalem for the remainder of Sennacherib’slife (20 years).[66] Some argue that disease was the pri-mary reason for failing to actually take the city, howeverSenacherib’s annals claim Judah was forced into tributeregardless.[67]

Sennacherib had been murdered by his own sons for de-stroying the rebellious city of Babylon, a city sacred toall Mesopotamians, the Assyrians included. In 674 BCEsarhaddon launched a preliminary incursion into Egypt,however this attempt was repelled by Taharqa.[68] How-ever, In 671 BC, Esarhaddon launched a full-scale inva-sion. Part of his army stayed behind to deal with rebel-lions in Phoenicia, and Israel. The remainder went southto Rapihu, then crossed the Sinai, and entered Egypt.Esarhaddon decisively defeated Taharqa, took Memphis,Thebes and all the major cities of Egypt, and Taharqa waschased back to his Nubian homeland. Esarhaddon nowcalled himself “king of Egypt, Patros, and Kush", andreturned with rich booty from the cities of the delta; heerected a victory stele at this time, and paraded the cap-tive Prince Ushankhuru, the son of Taharqa in Nineveh.Esarhaddon stationed a small army in northern Egypt anddescribes how; “All Ethiopians (read Nubians/Kushites)I deported from Egypt, leaving not one left to do homageto me”.[69] He installed native Egyptian princes through-out the land to rule on his behalf.[70] The conquest byEsarhaddon effectively marked the end of the short livedKushite Empire.However, the native Egyptian rulers installed by Esarhad-don were unable to retain full control of the whole coun-try for long. Two years later, Taharqa returned from Nu-bia and seized control of a section of southern Egypt asfar north as Memphis. Esarhaddon prepared to returnto Egypt and once more eject Taharqa, however he fellill and died in his capital, Nineveh, before he left As-syria. His successor, Ashurbanipal, sent an Assyrian gen-

46 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

eral named Sha-Nabu-shu with a small, but well trainedarmy, which conclusively defeated Taharqa at Memphisand once more drove him from Egypt. Taharqa died inNubia two years later.

Twenty-fifth Dynasty

His successor, Tanutamun, also made a failed attempt toregain Egypt for Nubia. He successfully defeated Necho,the native Egyptian puppet ruler installed by Ashurban-ipal, taking Thebes in the process. The Assyrians thensent a large army southwards. Tantamani (Tanutamun)was heavily routed and fled back to Nubia. The Assyrianarmy sacked Thebes to such an extent it never truly recov-ered. A native ruler, Psammetichus I was placed on thethrone, as a vassal of Ashurbanipal, and the Nubians werenever again to pose a threat to either Assyria or Egypt.[71]

Late Period (672–332 BC)

Main articles: Late Period of ancient Egypt and Historyof Achaemenid Egypt

With no permanent plans for conquest, the Assyrians leftcontrol of Egypt to a series of vassals who became knownas the Saite kings of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. By 653BC, the Saite king Psamtik I (taking advantage of the factthat Assyria was involved in a fierce war conquering Elamand that few Assyrian troops were stationed in Egypt) wasable to free Egypt relatively peacefully from Assyrian vas-salage with the help of Lydian and Greek mercenaries,the latter of whom were recruited to form Egypt’s firstnavy. Psamtik and his successors however were carefulto maintain peaceful relations with Assyria. Greek influ-ence expanded greatly as the city of Naukratis becamethe home of Greeks in the delta.In 609 BC Necho II went to war with Babylonia, theChaldeans, the Medians and the Scythians in an attemptto save Assyria, which after a brutal civil war was be-ing ovverrun by this coalition of powers. However, theattempt to save Egypts former masters failed. The Egyp-tians delayed intervening too long, and Nineveh had al-ready fallen and King Sin-shar-ishkun was dead by thetime Necho II sent his armies northwards. However, Ne-

cho easily brushed aside the Israelite army under KingJosiah but he and the Assyrians then lost a battle atHarran to the Babylonians, Medes and Scythians. NechoII and Ashur-uballit II of Assyria were finally defeatedat Carchemish in Aramea (modern Syria) in 605 BC.The Egyptians remained in the area for some decades,struggling with the Babylonian kings Nabopolassar andNebuchadnezzar II for control of portions of the formerAssyrian Empire in The Levant. However, they wereeventually driven back into Egypt, and Nebuchadnezzar IIeven briefly invaded Egypt itself in 567 BC.[67] The Saitekings based in the new capital of Sais witnessed a briefbut spirited resurgence in the economy and culture, butin 525 BC, the powerful Persians, led by Cambyses II,began their conquest of Egypt, eventually capturing thepharaoh Psamtik III at the battle of Pelusium. Camby-ses II then assumed the formal title of pharaoh, but ruledEgypt from his home of Susa in Persia (modern Iran),leaving Egypt under the control of a satrapy. A few tem-porarily successful revolts against the Persians marked thefifth century BC, but Egypt was never able to permanentlyoverthrow the Persians.[72]

Following its annexation by Persia, Egypt was joined withCyprus and Phoenicia (modern Lebanon) in the sixthsatrapy of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. This firstperiod of Persian rule over Egypt, also known as theTwenty-seventh dynasty, ended in 402 BC, and from380–343 BC the Thirtieth Dynasty ruled as the last na-tive royal house of dynastic Egypt, which ended with thekingship of Nectanebo II. A brief restoration of Persianrule, sometimes known as the Thirty-first Dynasty, be-gan in 343 BC, but shortly after, in 332 BC, the Persianruler Mazaces handed Egypt over to the Macedonian rulerAlexander the Great without a fight.[73]

Ptolemaic dynasty

Main articles: History of Ptolemaic Egypt and Ptolemaicdynasty

In 332 BC, Alexander the Great conquered Egypt with lit-tle resistance from the Persians and was welcomed by theEgyptians as a deliverer. The administration establishedby Alexander’s successors, the Macedonian Ptolemaic dy-nasty, was based on an Egyptian model and based in thenew capital city of Alexandria. The city showcased thepower and prestige of Hellenistic rule, and became a seatof learning and culture, centered at the famous Libraryof Alexandria.[74] The Lighthouse of Alexandria lit theway for the many ships that kept trade flowing throughthe city—as the Ptolemies made commerce and revenue-generating enterprises, such as papyrus manufacturing,their top priority.[75]

Hellenistic culture did not supplant native Egyptian cul-ture, as the Ptolemies supported time-honored traditionsin an effort to secure the loyalty of the populace. They

1.4. ANCIENT EGYPT 47

Alexander the Great, 100 BC – 100 AD, 54.162, Brooklyn Mu-seum

built new temples in Egyptian style, supported tradi-tional cults, and portrayed themselves as pharaohs. Sometraditions merged, as Greek and Egyptian gods weresyncretized into composite deities, such as Serapis, andclassical Greek forms of sculpture influenced traditionalEgyptian motifs. Despite their efforts to appease theEgyptians, the Ptolemies were challenged by native re-bellion, bitter family rivalries, and the powerful mob ofAlexandria that formed after the death of Ptolemy IV.[76]

In addition, as Rome relied more heavily on imports ofgrain from Egypt, the Romans took great interest in thepolitical situation in the country. Continued Egyptian re-volts, ambitious politicians, and powerful Syriac oppo-nents from the Near East made this situation unstable,leading Rome to send forces to secure the country as aprovince of its empire.[77]

Roman Period

Main article: History of Roman EgyptEgypt became a province of the Roman Empire in 30

BC, following the defeat of Marc Antony and PtolemaicQueen Cleopatra VII by Octavian (later Emperor Au-gustus) in the Battle of Actium. The Romans reliedheavily on grain shipments from Egypt, and the Romanarmy, under the control of a prefect appointed by the Em-peror, quelled rebellions, strictly enforced the collectionof heavy taxes, and prevented attacks by bandits, which

The Fayum mummy portraits epitomize the meeting of Egyptianand Roman cultures.

had become a notorious problem during the period.[78]

Alexandria became an increasingly important center onthe trade route with the orient, as exotic luxuries were inhigh demand in Rome.[79]

Although the Romans had a more hostile attitude thanthe Greeks towards the Egyptians, some traditions suchas mummification and worship of the traditional godscontinued.[80] The art of mummy portraiture flourished,and some Roman emperors had themselves depicted aspharaohs, though not to the extent that the Ptolemies had.The former lived outside Egypt and did not perform theceremonial functions of Egyptian kingship. Local ad-ministration became Roman in style and closed to nativeEgyptians.[80]

From the mid-first century AD, Christianity took root inEgypt as it was seen as another cult that could be ac-cepted. However, it was an uncompromising religion

48 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

that sought to win converts from Egyptian Religion andGreco-Roman religion and threatened the popular reli-gious traditions. This led to persecution of converts toChristianity, culminating in the great purges of Diocletianstarting in 303, but eventually Christianity won out.[81] In391 the Christian Emperor Theodosius introduced leg-islation that banned pagan rites and closed temples.[82]

Alexandria became the scene of great anti-pagan riotswith public and private religious imagery destroyed.[83]

As a consequence, Egypt’s native religious culture wascontinually in decline. While the native population cer-tainly continued to speak their language, the ability toread hieroglyphic writing slowly disappeared as the roleof the Egyptian temple priests and priestesses diminished.The temples themselves were sometimes converted tochurches or abandoned to the desert.[84]

In the fourth century AD, the Roman Empire split intotwo, and Egypt became part of the Eastern Empire,known as the Byzantine Empire. The Eastern Empire be-came increasingly “oriental” and “Eastern” in style, as itslinks with the old Greco-Roman world faded. The Greeksystem of local government by citizens had now entirelydisappeared.The Sassanid Persians who were involved in a longrunning and draining war with Byzantium for controlof the Near East, Asia Minor, North Africa and theeast Mediterranean, briefly recaptured Egypt under KingKhosrow II in 618 AD, but were ejected by the ByzantineEmperor Heraclius in 628 AD.

Arab Muslim Period

An army of 4,000 Arabs led by Amr Ibn Al-Aas wassent by the Caliph Umar, successor to Muhammad, tospread Islamic rule to the west. The Arabs crossed intoEgypt from Palestine in December 639 AD, and ad-vanced rapidly into the Nile Delta. The Imperial gar-risons, exhausted by constant war with the Persians, re-treated into the walled towns, where they successfullyheld out for a year or more. But the Arabs sent for re-inforcements, and in April 641 they captured Alexan-dria. The Byzantines did assemble a fleet with the aimof recapturing Egypt, and won back Alexandria in 645,but the Muslims retook the city in 646, completing theArab Muslim conquest of Egypt. Thus ended 975 yearsof Græco-Roman rule over Egypt.Local resistance by the native Egyptian Copts however,began to materialize shortly thereafter and would last un-til at least the ninth century. The Arabs imposed a spe-cial tax, known as Jizya, on the Egyptians, who wereby this time Coptic Christians. They acquired the sta-tus of dhimmis, and all native Egyptians were prohibitedfrom joining the army. The Arabs in the seventh centuryused the term quft to describe the indigenous people ofEgypt. Thus, Egyptians became known as Copts, and thenon-Chalcedonian Egyptian Church became known as

the Coptic Church. The indigenous population of Egyptwas gradually and largely Arabized and Islamicized overthe following centuries, However, native Egyptian iden-tity and language survived among the Copts, who spokethe Coptic language, a direct descendant of the DemoticEgyptian (which itself was an evolution of Ancient Egyp-tian) spoken in the Roman era. Since the eighteenth cen-tury, Coptic has mostly been limited to liturgical use andtoday Coptic is extinct as a primary language. Copts stillto this day espouse an Egyptian rather than Arab ethnicidentity.

1.4.2 Government and economy

Administration and commerce

The pharaoh was usually depicted wearing symbols of royaltyand power.

The pharaoh was the absolute monarch of the countryand, at least in theory, wielded complete control of theland and its resources. The king was the supreme military

1.4. ANCIENT EGYPT 49

commander and head of the government, who relied on abureaucracy of officials to manage his affairs. In chargeof the administration was his second in command, thevizier, who acted as the king’s representative and coor-dinated land surveys, the treasury, building projects, thelegal system, and the archives.[85] At a regional level, thecountry was divided into as many as 42 administrativeregions called nomes each governed by a nomarch, whowas accountable to the vizier for his jurisdiction. Thetemples formed the backbone of the economy. Not onlywere they houses of worship, but were also responsible forcollecting and storing the nation’s wealth in a system ofgranaries and treasuries administered by overseers, whoredistributed grain and goods.[86]

Much of the economy was centrally organized and strictlycontrolled. Although the ancient Egyptians did not usecoinage until the Late period, they did use a type ofmoney-barter system,[87] with standard sacks of grain andthe deben, a weight of roughly 91 grams (3 oz) of copperor silver, forming a common denominator.[88] Workerswere paid in grain; a simple laborer might earn 5½ sacks(200 kg or 400 lb) of grain per month, while a foremanmight earn 7½ sacks (250 kg or 550 lb). Prices werefixed across the country and recorded in lists to facili-tate trading; for example a shirt cost five copper deben,while a cow cost 140 deben.[88] Grain could be traded forother goods, according to the fixed price list.[88] Duringthe fifth century BC coined money was introduced intoEgypt from abroad. At first the coins were used as stan-dardized pieces of precious metal rather than true money,but in the following centuries international traders cameto rely on coinage.[89]

Social status

Egyptian society was highly stratified, and social statuswas expressly displayed. Farmers made up the bulk ofthe population, but agricultural produce was owned di-rectly by the state, temple, or noble family that owned theland.[90] Farmers were also subject to a labor tax and wererequired to work on irrigation or construction projects ina corvée system.[91] Artists and craftsmen were of higherstatus than farmers, but they were also under state con-trol, working in the shops attached to the temples andpaid directly from the state treasury. Scribes and offi-cials formed the upper class in ancient Egypt, known asthe “white kilt class” in reference to the bleached linengarments that served as a mark of their rank.[92] The up-per class prominently displayed their social status in artand literature. Below the nobility were the priests, physi-cians, and engineers with specialized training in theirfield. Slavery was known in ancient Egypt, but the ex-tent and prevalence of its practice are unclear.[93]

The ancient Egyptians viewed men and women, includingpeople from all social classes except slaves, as essentiallyequal under the law, and even the lowliest peasant wasentitled to petition the vizier and his court for redress.[94]

Punishment in ancient Egypt.

Young Egyptian laborers treated by doctors after circumcision, asa part of a rite of passage to citizenship.

Although, slaves were mostly used as indentured servants.They were able to buy and sell, or work their way to free-dom or nobility, and usually were treated by doctors inthe workplace.[95] Both men and women had the rightto own and sell property, make contracts, marry and di-vorce, receive inheritance, and pursue legal disputes incourt. Married couples could own property jointly andprotect themselves from divorce by agreeing to marriagecontracts, which stipulated the financial obligations ofthe husband to his wife and children should the mar-riage end. Compared with their counterparts in ancientGreece, Rome, and even more modern places aroundthe world, ancient Egyptian women had a greater rangeof personal choices and opportunities for achievement.Women such as Hatshepsut and Cleopatra VI even be-came pharaohs, while others wielded power as DivineWives of Amun. Despite these freedoms, ancient Egyp-tian women did not often take part in official roles in theadministration, served only secondary roles in the tem-ples, and were not as likely to be as educated as men.[94]

Legal system

The head of the legal system was officially the pharaoh,who was responsible for enacting laws, delivering jus-tice, and maintaining law and order, a concept the an-cient Egyptians referred to as Ma'at.[85] Although no legalcodes from ancient Egypt survive, court documents show

50 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

Scribes were elite and well educated. They assessed taxes, keptrecords, and were responsible for administration.

that Egyptian law was based on a common-sense viewof right and wrong that emphasized reaching agreementsand resolving conflicts rather than strictly adhering to acomplicated set of statutes.[94] Local councils of elders,known as Kenbet in the New Kingdom, were responsi-ble for ruling in court cases involving small claims andminor disputes.[85] More serious cases involving murder,major land transactions, and tomb robbery were referredto the Great Kenbet, over which the vizier or pharaohpresided. Plaintiffs and defendants were expected to rep-resent themselves and were required to swear an oaththat they had told the truth. In some cases, the statetook on both the role of prosecutor and judge, and itcould torture the accused with beatings to obtain a con-fession and the names of any co-conspirators. Whetherthe charges were trivial or serious, court scribes docu-mented the complaint, testimony, and verdict of the casefor future reference.[96]

Punishment for minor crimes involved either impositionof fines, beatings, facial mutilation, or exile, dependingon the severity of the offense. Serious crimes such asmurder and tomb robbery were punished by execution,carried out by decapitation, drowning, or impaling thecriminal on a stake. Punishment could also be extended tothe criminal’s family.[85] Beginning in the New Kingdom,oracles played a major role in the legal system, dispens-ing justice in both civil and criminal cases. The proce-dure was to ask the god a “yes” or “no” question concern-ing the right or wrong of an issue. The god, carried bya number of priests, rendered judgment by choosing one

or the other, moving forward or backward, or pointing toone of the answers written on a piece of papyrus or anostracon.[97]

Agriculture

See also: Ancient Egyptian agriculture, Ancient Egyptiancuisine and Gardens of ancient EgyptA combination of favorable geographical features con-

A tomb relief depicts workers plowing the fields, harvesting thecrops, and threshing the grain under the direction of an overseer,painting in the tomb of Nakht.

Measuring and recording the harvest is shown in a wall paintingin the tomb of Menna, at Thebes, Egypt (Eighteenth dynasty).

tributed to the success of ancient Egyptian culture, themost important of which was the rich fertile soil result-ing from annual inundations of the Nile River. The an-cient Egyptians were thus able to produce an abundanceof food, allowing the population to devote more time andresources to cultural, technological, and artistic pursuits.Land management was crucial in ancient Egypt because

1.4. ANCIENT EGYPT 51

taxes were assessed based on the amount of land a personowned.[98]

Farming in Egypt was dependent on the cycle of the NileRiver. The Egyptians recognized three seasons: Akhet(flooding), Peret (planting), and Shemu (harvesting). Theflooding season lasted from June to September, deposit-ing on the river’s banks a layer of mineral-rich silt idealfor growing crops. After the floodwaters had receded, thegrowing season lasted from October to February. Farm-ers plowed and planted seeds in the fields, which were ir-rigated with ditches and canals. Egypt received little rain-fall, so farmers relied on the Nile to water their crops.[99]

From March to May, farmers used sickles to harvest theircrops, which were then threshed with a flail to separatethe straw from the grain. Winnowing removed the chafffrom the grain, and the grain was then ground into flour,brewed to make beer, or stored for later use.[100]

The ancient Egyptians cultivated emmer and barley, andseveral other cereal grains, all of which were used tomake the two main food staples of bread and beer.[101]

Flax plants, uprooted before they started flowering, weregrown for the fibers of their stems. These fibers were splitalong their length and spun into thread, which was usedto weave sheets of linen and to make clothing. Papyrusgrowing on the banks of the Nile River was used to makepaper. Vegetables and fruits were grown in garden plots,close to habitations and on higher ground, and had to bewatered by hand. Vegetables included leeks, garlic, mel-ons, squashes, pulses, lettuce, and other crops, in additionto grapes that were made into wine.[102]

Sennedjem plows his fields with a pair of oxen, used as beasts ofburden and a source of food.

Animals The Egyptians believed that a balanced re-lationship between people and animals was an essentialelement of the cosmic order; thus humans, animals andplants were believed to be members of a single whole.[103]

Animals, both domesticated and wild, were therefore acritical source of spirituality, companionship, and suste-nance to the ancient Egyptians. Cattle were the most im-portant livestock; the administration collected taxes onlivestock in regular censuses, and the size of a herd re-flected the prestige and importance of the estate or tem-

ple that owned them. In addition to cattle, the ancientEgyptians kept sheep, goats, and pigs. Poultry such asducks, geese, and pigeons were captured in nets and bredon farms, where they were force-fed with dough to fattenthem.[104] The Nile provided a plentiful source of fish.Bees were also domesticated from at least the Old King-dom, and they provided both honey and wax.[105]

The ancient Egyptians used donkeys and oxen as beasts ofburden, and they were responsible for plowing the fieldsand trampling seed into the soil. The slaughter of a fat-tened ox was also a central part of an offering ritual.[104]

Horses were introduced by the Hyksos in the Second In-termediate Period, and the camel, although known fromthe New Kingdom, was not used as a beast of burdenuntil the Late Period. There is also evidence to suggestthat elephants were briefly utilized in the Late Period, butlargely abandoned due to lack of grazing land.[104] Dogs,cats and monkeys were common family pets, while moreexotic pets imported from the heart of Africa, such as li-ons, were reserved for royalty. Herodotus observed thatthe Egyptians were the only people to keep their animalswith them in their houses.[103] During the Predynastic andLate periods, the worship of the gods in their animal formwas extremely popular, such as the cat goddess Bastet andthe ibis god Thoth, and these animals were bred in largenumbers on farms for the purpose of ritual sacrifice.[106]

Natural resources

Further information: Mining industry of Egypt

Egypt is rich in building and decorative stone, copperand lead ores, gold, and semiprecious stones. Thesenatural resources allowed the ancient Egyptians to buildmonuments, sculpt statues, make tools, and fashion jew-elry.[107] Embalmers used salts from the Wadi Natrun formummification, which also provided the gypsum neededto make plaster.[108] Ore-bearing rock formations werefound in distant, inhospitable wadis in the eastern desertand the Sinai, requiring large, state-controlled expedi-tions to obtain natural resources found there. There wereextensive gold mines in Nubia, and one of the first mapsknown is of a gold mine in this region. The Wadi Ham-mamat was a notable source of granite, greywacke, andgold. Flint was the first mineral collected and used tomake tools, and flint handaxes are the earliest pieces ofevidence of habitation in the Nile valley. Nodules of themineral were carefully flaked to make blades and arrow-heads of moderate hardness and durability even after cop-per was adopted for this purpose.[109] Ancient Egyptianswere among the first to use minerals such as sulfur as cos-metic substances.[110]

The Egyptians worked deposits of the lead ore galenaat Gebel Rosas to make net sinkers, plumb bobs, andsmall figurines. Copper was the most important metalfor toolmaking in ancient Egypt and was smelted in fur-

52 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

naces from malachite ore mined in the Sinai.[111] Work-ers collected gold by washing the nuggets out of sedimentin alluvial deposits, or by the more labor-intensive pro-cess of grinding and washing gold-bearing quartzite. Irondeposits found in upper Egypt were utilized in the LatePeriod.[112] High-quality building stones were abundant inEgypt; the ancient Egyptians quarried limestone all alongthe Nile valley, granite from Aswan, and basalt and sand-stone from the wadis of the eastern desert. Deposits ofdecorative stones such as porphyry, greywacke, alabaster,and carnelian dotted the eastern desert and were collectedeven before the First Dynasty. In the Ptolemaic andRoman Periods, miners worked deposits of emeralds inWadi Sikait and amethyst in Wadi el-Hudi.[113]

Trade

Main article: Ancient Egyptian tradeThe ancient Egyptians engaged in trade with their foreign

Hatshepsut’s trading expedition to the Land of Punt.

neighbors to obtain rare, exotic goods not found in Egypt.In the Predynastic Period, they established trade with Nu-bia to obtain gold and incense. They also established tradewith Palestine, as evidenced by Palestinian-style oil jugsfound in the burials of the First Dynasty pharaohs.[114]

An Egyptian colony stationed in southern Canaan dates toslightly before the First Dynasty.[115] Narmer had Egyp-tian pottery produced in Canaan and exported back toEgypt.[116]

By the Second Dynasty at latest, ancient Egyptian tradewith Byblos yielded a critical source of quality timber notfound in Egypt. By the Fifth Dynasty, trade with Puntprovided gold, aromatic resins, ebony, ivory, and wild an-imals such as monkeys and baboons.[117] Egypt relied ontrade with Anatolia for essential quantities of tin as well assupplementary supplies of copper, both metals being nec-essary for the manufacture of bronze. The ancient Egyp-tians prized the blue stone lapis lazuli, which had to beimported from far-away Afghanistan. Egypt’s Mediter-ranean trade partners also included Greece and Crete,which provided, among other goods, supplies of oliveoil.[118] In exchange for its luxury imports and raw ma-terials, Egypt mainly exported grain, gold, linen, and pa-

pyrus, in addition to other finished goods including glassand stone objects.[119]

1.4.3 Language

Main article: Egyptian language

Historical development

The Egyptian language is a northern Afro-Asiatic lan-guage closely related to the Berber and Semitic lan-guages.[120] It has the second longest history of any lan-guage (after Sumerian), having been written from c. 3200BC to the Middle Ages and remaining as a spoken lan-guage for longer. The phases of ancient Egyptian are OldEgyptian, Middle Egyptian (Classical Egyptian), LateEgyptian, Demotic and Coptic.[121] Egyptian writings donot show dialect differences before Coptic, but it wasprobably spoken in regional dialects around Memphis andlater Thebes.[122]

Ancient Egyptian was a synthetic language, but it be-came more analytic later on. Late Egyptian develops pre-fixal definite and indefinite articles, which replace theolder inflectional suffixes. There is a change from theolder verb–subject–object word order to subject–verb–object.[123] The Egyptian hieroglyphic, hieratic, and de-motic scripts were eventually replaced by the more pho-netic Coptic alphabet. Coptic is still used in the liturgy ofthe Egyptian Orthodox Church, and traces of it are foundin modern Egyptian Arabic.[124]

Sounds and grammar

Ancient Egyptian has 25 consonants similar to those ofother Afro-Asiatic languages. These include pharyngealand emphatic consonants, voiced and voiceless stops,voiceless fricatives and voiced and voiceless affricates. Ithas three long and three short vowels, which expandedin Later Egyptian to about nine.[125] The basic word inEgyptian, similar to Semitic and Berber, is a triliteral orbiliteral root of consonants and semiconsonants. Suffixesare added to form words. The verb conjugation corre-sponds to the person. For example, the triconsonantalskeleton S-Ḏ-M is the semantic core of the word 'hear';its basic conjugation is sḏm, 'he hears’. If the subject isa noun, suffixes are not added to the verb:[126] sḏm ḥmt,'the woman hears’.Adjectives are derived from nouns through a process thatEgyptologists call nisbation because of its similarity withArabic.[127] The word order is predicate–subject in ver-bal and adjectival sentences, and subject–predicate innominal and adverbial sentences.[128] The subject can bemoved to the beginning of sentences if it is long and isfollowed by a resumptive pronoun.[129] Verbs and nouns

1.4. ANCIENT EGYPT 53

are negated by the particle n, but nn is used for adverbialand adjectival sentences. Stress falls on the ultimate orpenultimate syllable, which can be open (CV) or closed(CVC).[130]

Writing

Main articles: Egyptian hieroglyphs and HieraticHieroglyphic writing dates from c. 3000 BC, and is com-

The Rosetta stone (ca 196 BC) enabled linguists to begin the pro-cess of hieroglyph decipherment.[131]

posed of hundreds of symbols. A hieroglyph can rep-resent a word, a sound, or a silent determinative; andthe same symbol can serve different purposes in differ-ent contexts. Hieroglyphs were a formal script, used onstone monuments and in tombs, that could be as detailedas individual works of art. In day-to-day writing, scribesused a cursive form of writing, called hieratic, whichwas quicker and easier. While formal hieroglyphs maybe read in rows or columns in either direction (thoughtypically written from right to left), hieratic was alwayswritten from right to left, usually in horizontal rows. Anew form of writing, Demotic, became the prevalent writ-ing style, and it is this form of writing—along with for-mal hieroglyphs—that accompany the Greek text on theRosetta Stone.[132]

Around the first century AD, the Coptic alphabet startedto be used alongside the Demotic script. Coptic is a mod-ified Greek alphabet with the addition of some Demoticsigns.[133] Although formal hieroglyphs were used in aceremonial role until the fourth century, towards the endonly a small handful of priests could still read them. As

the traditional religious establishments were disbanded,knowledge of hieroglyphic writing was mostly lost. At-tempts to decipher them date to the Byzantine[134] andIslamic periods in Egypt,[135] but only in 1822, after thediscovery of the Rosetta stone and years of research byThomas Young and Jean-François Champollion, were hi-eroglyphs almost fully deciphered.[136]

Literature

Main article: Ancient Egyptian literatureWriting first appeared in association with kingship on

The Edwin Smith surgical papyrus (c. 16th century BC) describesanatomy and medical treatments and is written in hieratic.

labels and tags for items found in royal tombs. It was pri-marily an occupation of the scribes, who worked out ofthe Per Ankh institution or the House of Life. The lattercomprised offices, libraries (called House of Books), lab-oratories and observatories.[137] Some of the best-knownpieces of ancient Egyptian literature, such as the Pyramidand Coffin Texts, were written in Classical Egyptian,which continued to be the language of writing until about1300 BC. Later Egyptian was spoken from the New King-dom onward and is represented in Ramesside adminis-trative documents, love poetry and tales, as well as inDemotic and Coptic texts. During this period, the tradi-tion of writing had evolved into the tomb autobiography,such as those of Harkhuf and Weni. The genre knownas Sebayt (“instructions”) was developed to communicateteachings and guidance from famous nobles; the Ipuwerpapyrus, a poem of lamentations describing natural dis-asters and social upheaval, is a famous example.The Story of Sinuhe, written in Middle Egyptian, mightbe the classic of Egyptian literature.[138] Also written atthis time was the Westcar Papyrus, a set of stories toldto Khufu by his sons relating the marvels performed bypriests.[139] The Instruction of Amenemope is considereda masterpiece of near-eastern literature.[140] Towards theend of the New Kingdom, the vernacular language wasmore often employed to write popular pieces like theStory of Wenamun and the Instruction of Any. The for-

54 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

mer tells the story of a noble who is robbed on his way tobuy cedar from Lebanon and of his struggle to return toEgypt. From about 700 BC, narrative stories and instruc-tions, such as the popular Instructions of Onchsheshonqy,as well as personal and business documents were writtenin the demotic script and phase of Egyptian. Many storieswritten in demotic during the Graeco-Roman period wereset in previous historical eras, when Egypt was an inde-pendent nation ruled by great pharaohs such as RamessesII.[141]

1.4.4 Culture

Daily life

Ostraca of hunting a lion with a spear, aided by a dog.

Statues depicting lower-class ancient Egyptian occupations.

Most ancient Egyptians were farmers tied to the land.Their dwellings were restricted to immediate familymembers, and were constructed of mud-brick designedto remain cool in the heat of the day. Each home hada kitchen with an open roof, which contained a grind-stone for milling grain and a small oven for baking thebread.[142] Walls were painted white and could be cov-ered with dyed linen wall hangings. Floors were coveredwith reed mats, while wooden stools, beds raised from thefloor and individual tables comprised the furniture.[143]

The ancient Egyptians placed a great value on hygieneand appearance. Most bathed in the Nile and used a pasty

A painted depiction of Senet (in the tomb of Queen Nefertari,Valley of the Queens, Thebes, Egypt), one of the world’s earliestknown board games.

soap made from animal fat and chalk. Men shaved theirentire bodies for cleanliness; perfumes and aromatic oint-ments covered bad odors and soothed skin.[144] Clothingwas made from simple linen sheets that were bleachedwhite, and both men and women of the upper classeswore wigs, jewelry, and cosmetics. Children went with-out clothing until maturity, at about age 12, and at thisage males were circumcised and had their heads shaved.Mothers were responsible for taking care of the children,while the father provided the family’s income.[145]

The ancient Egyptians maintained a rich cultural heritage com-plete with feasts and festivals accompanied by music and dance.

Music and dance were popular entertainments for thosewho could afford them. Early instruments included flutesand harps, while instruments similar to trumpets, oboes,and pipes developed later and became popular. In theNew Kingdom, the Egyptians played on bells, cymbals,tambourines, drums, and imported lutes and lyres fromAsia.[146] The sistrum was a rattle-like musical instrumentthat was especially important in religious ceremonies.

1.4. ANCIENT EGYPT 55

The ancient Egyptians enjoyed a variety of leisure activ-ities, including games and music. Senet, a board gamewhere pieces moved according to random chance, wasparticularly popular from the earliest times; another sim-ilar game was mehen, which had a circular gaming board.Juggling and ball games were popular with children, andwrestling is also documented in a tomb at Beni Hasan.[147]

The wealthy members of ancient Egyptian society en-joyed hunting and boating as well.The excavation of the workers’ village of Deir el-Madinahhas resulted in one of the most thoroughly documentedaccounts of community life in the ancient world that spansalmost four hundred years. There is no comparable site inwhich the organisation, social interactions, working andliving conditions of a community were studied in suchdetail.[148]

Cuisine

Main article: Ancient Egyptian cuisine

Egyptian cuisine remained remarkably stable over time;indeed, the cuisine of modern Egypt retains some strik-ing similarities to the cuisine of the ancients. The staplediet consisted of bread and beer, supplemented with veg-etables such as onions and garlic, and fruit such as datesand figs. Wine and meat were enjoyed by all on feast dayswhile the upper classes indulged on a more regular basis.Fish, meat, and fowl could be salted or dried, and couldbe cooked in stews or roasted on a grill.[149]

Architecture

Main article: Ancient Egyptian architectureThe architecture of ancient Egypt includes some of the

most famous structures in the world: the Great Pyramidsof Giza and the temples at Thebes. Building projects wereorganized and funded by the state for religious and com-memorative purposes, but also to reinforce the power ofthe pharaoh. The ancient Egyptians were skilled builders;using simple but effective tools and sighting instruments,architects could build large stone structures with accuracyand precision.[150]

The domestic dwellings of elite and ordinary Egyptiansalike were constructed from perishable materials such asmud bricks and wood, and have not survived. Peasantslived in simple homes, while the palaces of the elite weremore elaborate structures. A few surviving New King-dom palaces, such as those in Malkata and Amarna, showrichly decorated walls and floors with scenes of people,birds, water pools, deities and geometric designs.[151] Im-portant structures such as temples and tombs that wereintended to last forever were constructed of stone insteadof bricks. The architectural elements used in the world’sfirst large-scale stone building, Djoser's mortuary com-plex, include post and lintel supports in the papyrus and

Karnak temple’s hypostyle halls are constructed with rows ofthick columns supporting the roof beams.

The well preserved Temple of Horus at Edfu is an exemplar ofEgyptian architecture.

lotus motif.The earliest preserved ancient Egyptian temples, such asthose at Giza, consist of single, enclosed halls with roofslabs supported by columns. In the New Kingdom, ar-chitects added the pylon, the open courtyard, and the en-closed hypostyle hall to the front of the temple’s sanc-tuary, a style that was standard until the Graeco-Romanperiod.[152] The earliest and most popular tomb architec-ture in the Old Kingdom was the mastaba, a flat-roofedrectangular structure of mudbrick or stone built over anunderground burial chamber. The step pyramid of Djoser

56 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

is a series of stone mastabas stacked on top of each other.Pyramids were built during the Old and Middle King-doms, but most later rulers abandoned them in favor ofless conspicuous rock-cut tombs.[153] The Twenty-fifthdynasty was a notable exception, as all Twenty-fifth dy-nasty pharaohs constructed pyramids.[61][62][63]

Art

The Bust of Nefertiti, by the sculptor Thutmose, is one of the mostfamous masterpieces of ancient Egyptian art.

Main article: Art of ancient Egypt

The ancient Egyptians produced art to serve functionalpurposes. For over 3500 years, artists adhered to artisticforms and iconography that were developed during theOld Kingdom, following a strict set of principles that re-sisted foreign influence and internal change.[154] Theseartistic standards—simple lines, shapes, and flat areasof color combined with the characteristic flat projectionof figures with no indication of spatial depth—created asense of order and balance within a composition. Imagesand text were intimately interwoven on tomb and tem-ple walls, coffins, stelae, and even statues. The NarmerPalette, for example, displays figures that can also be readas hieroglyphs.[155] Because of the rigid rules that gov-erned its highly stylized and symbolic appearance, an-cient Egyptian art served its political and religious pur-poses with precision and clarity.[156]

Ancient Egyptian artisans used stone to carve statues andfine reliefs, but used wood as a cheap and easily carvedsubstitute. Paints were obtained from minerals such asiron ores (red and yellow ochres), copper ores (blue andgreen), soot or charcoal (black), and limestone (white).Paints could be mixed with gum arabic as a binder andpressed into cakes, which could be moistened with waterwhen needed.[157]

Hathor-Menkaure-Bat triad of the Fourth Dynasty – the deitiesflank the pharaoh and provide the authority to rule – Cairo Mu-seum

Pharaohs used reliefs to record victories in battle, royaldecrees, and religious scenes. Common citizens had ac-cess to pieces of funerary art, such as shabti statues andbooks of the dead, which they believed would protectthem in the afterlife.[158] During the Middle Kingdom,wooden or clay models depicting scenes from everydaylife became popular additions to the tomb. In an attemptto duplicate the activities of the living in the afterlife,these models show laborers, houses, boats, and even mil-itary formations that are scale representations of the idealancient Egyptian afterlife.[159]

Despite the homogeneity of ancient Egyptian art, thestyles of particular times and places sometimes reflectedchanging cultural or political attitudes. After the in-vasion of the Hyksos in the Second Intermediate Pe-

1.4. ANCIENT EGYPT 57

riod, Minoan-style frescoes were found in Avaris.[160] Themost striking example of a politically driven change inartistic forms comes from the Amarna period, where fig-ures were radically altered to conform to Akhenaten'srevolutionary religious ideas.[161] This style, known asAmarna art, was quickly and thoroughly erased af-ter Akhenaten’s death and replaced by the traditionalforms.[162]

Religious beliefs

Main article: Ancient Egyptian religionBeliefs in the divine and in the afterlife were in-

The Book of the Dead was a guide to the deceased’s journey inthe afterlife.

grained in ancient Egyptian civilization from its incep-tion; pharaonic rule was based on the divine right ofkings. The Egyptian pantheon was populated by godswho had supernatural powers and were called on for helpor protection. However, the gods were not always viewedas benevolent, and Egyptians believed they had to be ap-peased with offerings and prayers. The structure of thispantheon changed continually as new deities were pro-moted in the hierarchy, but priests made no effort to or-ganize the diverse and sometimes conflicting myths andstories into a coherent system.[163] These various concep-tions of divinity were not considered contradictory butrather layers in the multiple facets of reality.[164]

Gods were worshiped in cult temples administered bypriests acting on the king’s behalf. At the center of thetemple was the cult statue in a shrine. Temples werenot places of public worship or congregation, and onlyon select feast days and celebrations was a shrine carry-ing the statue of the god brought out for public worship.Normally, the god’s domain was sealed off from the out-side world and was only accessible to temple officials.Common citizens could worship private statues in theirhomes, and amulets offered protection against the forcesof chaos.[165] After the New Kingdom, the pharaoh’s roleas a spiritual intermediary was de-emphasized as reli-gious customs shifted to direct worship of the gods. Asa result, priests developed a system of oracles to commu-nicate the will of the gods directly to the people.[166]

The Egyptians believed that every human being was com-posed of physical and spiritual parts or aspects. In addi-tion to the body, each person had a šwt (shadow), a ba(personality or soul), a ka (life-force), and a name.[167]

The Ka statue provided a physical place for the Ka to manifest

The heart, rather than the brain, was considered the seatof thoughts and emotions. After death, the spiritual as-pects were released from the body and could move at will,but they required the physical remains (or a substitute,such as a statue) as a permanent home. The ultimate goalof the deceased was to rejoin his ka and ba and becomeone of the “blessed dead”, living on as an akh, or “ef-fective one”. For this to happen, the deceased had to bejudged worthy in a trial, in which the heart was weighedagainst a “feather of truth”. If deemed worthy, the de-ceased could continue their existence on earth in spiritualform.[168]

Burial customs

Main article: Ancient Egyptian burial customs

The ancient Egyptians maintained an elaborate set ofburial customs that they believed were necessary to en-sure immortality after death. These customs involvedpreserving the body by mummification, performing burialceremonies, and interring with the body goods the de-ceased would use in the afterlife.[158] Before the OldKingdom, bodies buried in desert pits were naturally pre-served by desiccation. The arid, desert conditions werea boon throughout the history of ancient Egypt for buri-als of the poor, who could not afford the elaborate burial

58 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

Pharaohs’ tombs were provided with vast quantities of wealth,such as this golden mask from the mummy of Tutankhamun.

preparations available to the elite. Wealthier Egyptiansbegan to bury their dead in stone tombs and use artificialmummification, which involved removing the internal or-gans, wrapping the body in linen, and burying it in a rect-angular stone sarcophagus or wooden coffin. Beginningin the Fourth Dynasty, some parts were preserved sepa-rately in canopic jars.[169]

Anubis was the ancient Egyptian god associated with mummifi-cation and burial rituals; here, he attends to a mummy.

By the New Kingdom, the ancient Egyptians had per-fected the art of mummification; the best technique took70 days and involved removing the internal organs, re-moving the brain through the nose, and desiccating thebody in a mixture of salts called natron. The body wasthen wrapped in linen with protective amulets inserted

between layers and placed in a decorated anthropoid cof-fin. Mummies of the Late Period were also placed inpainted cartonnage mummy cases. Actual preservationpractices declined during the Ptolemaic and Roman eras,while greater emphasis was placed on the outer appear-ance of the mummy, which was decorated.[170]

Wealthy Egyptians were buried with larger quantities ofluxury items, but all burials, regardless of social sta-tus, included goods for the deceased. Beginning in theNew Kingdom, books of the dead were included in thegrave, along with shabti statues that were believed to per-form manual labor for them in the afterlife.[171] Rituals inwhich the deceased was magically re-animated accompa-nied burials. After burial, living relatives were expectedto occasionally bring food to the tomb and recite prayerson behalf of the deceased.[172]

1.4.5 Military

Main article: Military of ancient EgyptThe ancient Egyptian military was responsible for de-

An Egyptian chariot.

fending Egypt against foreign invasion, and for maintain-ing Egypt’s domination in the ancient Near East. The mil-itary protected mining expeditions to the Sinai during theOld Kingdom and fought civil wars during the First andSecond Intermediate Periods. The military was respon-sible for maintaining fortifications along important traderoutes, such as those found at the city of Buhen on theway to Nubia. Forts also were constructed to serve as mil-itary bases, such as the fortress at Sile, which was a baseof operations for expeditions to the Levant. In the NewKingdom, a series of pharaohs used the standing Egyp-tian army to attack and conquer Kush and parts of theLevant.[173]

Typical military equipment included bows and arrows,spears, and round-topped shields made by stretchinganimal skin over a wooden frame. In the New King-dom, the military began using chariots that had ear-lier been introduced by the Hyksos invaders. Weaponsand armor continued to improve after the adoption ofbronze: shields were now made from solid wood with a

1.4. ANCIENT EGYPT 59

bronze buckle, spears were tipped with a bronze point,and the Khopesh was adopted from Asiatic soldiers.[174]

The pharaoh was usually depicted in art and literature rid-ing at the head of the army, it has been suggested thatat least a few pharaohs, such as Seqenenre Tao II andhis sons, did do so.[175] although it has also been arguedthat “kings of this period did not personally act as front-line war leaders, fighting alongside their troops.”[176] Sol-diers were recruited from the general population, but dur-ing, and especially after, the New Kingdom, mercenar-ies from Nubia, Kush, and Libya were hired to fight forEgypt.[177]

1.4.6 Technology, medicine, and mathe-matics

Technology

Main article: Ancient Egyptian technology

In technology, medicine and mathematics, ancient Egyptachieved a relatively high standard of productivity and so-phistication. Traditional empiricism, as evidenced by theEdwin Smith and Ebers papyri (c. 1600 BC), is first cred-ited to Egypt. The Egyptians created their own alphabetand decimal system.

Glassmaking was a highly developed art.

Faience and glass

Even before the Old Kingdom, the ancient Egyptians haddeveloped a glassy material known as faience, which theytreated as a type of artificial semi-precious stone. Faienceis a non-clay ceramic made of silica, small amounts oflime and soda, and a colorant, typically copper.[178] Thematerial was used to make beads, tiles, figurines, andsmall wares. Several methods can be used to createfaience, but typically production involved application ofthe powdered materials in the form of a paste over a claycore, which was then fired. By a related technique, the an-cient Egyptians produced a pigment known as EgyptianBlue, also called blue frit, which is produced by fusing(or sintering) silica, copper, lime, and an alkali such asnatron. The product can be ground up and used as apigment.[179]

The ancient Egyptians could fabricate a wide variety ofobjects from glass with great skill, but it is not clearwhether they developed the process independently.[180] Itis also unclear whether they made their own raw glass ormerely imported pre-made ingots, which they melted andfinished. However, they did have technical expertise inmaking objects, as well as adding trace elements to con-trol the color of the finished glass. A range of colors couldbe produced, including yellow, red, green, blue, purple,and white, and the glass could be made either transparentor opaque.[181]

Medicine

Main article: Ancient Egyptian medicineThe medical problems of the ancient Egyptians stemmeddirectly from their environment. Living and workingclose to the Nile brought hazards from malaria and debil-itating schistosomiasis parasites, which caused liver andintestinal damage. Dangerous wildlife such as crocodilesand hippos were also a common threat. The lifelonglabors of farming and building put stress on the spine andjoints, and traumatic injuries from construction and war-fare all took a significant toll on the body. The grit andsand from stone-ground flour abraded teeth, leaving themsusceptible to abscesses (though caries were rare).[182]

The diets of the wealthy were rich in sugars, whichpromoted periodontal disease.[183] Despite the flatteringphysiques portrayed on tomb walls, the overweight mum-mies of many of the upper class show the effects of a lifeof overindulgence.[184] Adult life expectancy was about35 for men and 30 for women, but reaching adulthoodwas difficult as about one-third of the population died ininfancy.[185]

Ancient Egyptian physicians were renowned in the an-cient Near East for their healing skills, and some, suchas Imhotep, remained famous long after their deaths.[186]

Herodotus remarked that there was a high degree of spe-cialization among Egyptian physicians, with some treat-

60 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

Ancient Egyptian medical instruments depicted in a Ptolemaic pe-riod inscription on the temple at Kom Ombo.

ing only the head or the stomach, while others wereeye-doctors and dentists.[187] Training of physicians tookplace at the Per Ankh or “House of Life” institution, mostnotably those headquartered in Per-Bastet during the NewKingdom and at Abydos and Saïs in the Late period.Medical papyri show empirical knowledge of anatomy,injuries, and practical treatments.[188]

Wounds were treated by bandaging with raw meat, whitelinen, sutures, nets, pads, and swabs soaked with honey toprevent infection,[189] while opium thyme and belladonawere used to relieve pain. The earliest records of burntreatment describe burn dressings that use the milk frommothers of male babies. Prayers were made to the god-dess Isis. Moldy bread, honey and copper salts were alsoused to prevent infection from dirt in burns.[190] Garlicand onions were used regularly to promote good healthand were thought to relieve asthma symptoms. AncientEgyptian surgeons stitched wounds, set broken bones, andamputated diseased limbs, but they recognized that someinjuries were so serious that they could only make the pa-tient comfortable until death occurred.[191]

Shipbuilding

Seagoing ship from Hateshepsut’s Deir el-Bahari temple relief ofa Punt Expedition

Documented extent of Ancient Egyptian geographic knowledge

Early Egyptians knew how to assemble planks of woodinto a ship hull and had mastered advanced forms ofshipbuilding as early as 3000 BC. The Archaeological In-stitute of America reports that some of the oldest shipsyet unearthed are known as the Abydos boats.[6] Theseare a group of 14 discovered ships in Abydos that wereconstructed of wooden planks “sewn” together. Dis-covered by Egyptologist David O'Connor of New YorkUniversity,[192] woven straps were found to have beenused to lash the planks together,[6] and reeds or grassstuffed between the planks helped to seal the seams.[6] Be-cause the ships are all buried together and near a mortu-ary belonging to Pharaoh Khasekhemwy, originally theywere all thought to have belonged to him, but one ofthe 14 ships dates to 3000 BC, and the associated pot-tery jars buried with the vessels also suggest earlier dat-ing. The ship dating to 3000 BC was 75 feet (23 m)long and is now thought to perhaps have belonged to anearlier pharaoh. According to professor O'Connor, the5,000-year-old ship may have even belonged to PharaohAha.[192]

Early Egyptians also knew how to assemble planks ofwood with treenails to fasten them together, using pitch

1.4. ANCIENT EGYPT 61

for caulking the seams. The "Khufu ship", a 43.6-metervessel sealed into a pit in the Giza pyramid complex at thefoot of the Great Pyramid of Giza in the Fourth Dynastyaround 2500 BC, is a full-size surviving example that mayhave filled the symbolic function of a solar barque. EarlyEgyptians also knew how to fasten the planks of this shiptogether with mortise and tenon joints.[6]

Large seagoing ships are known to have been heavily usedby the Egyptians in their trade with the city states of theeastern Mediterranean, especially Byblos (on the coast ofmodern day Lebanon), and in several expeditions downthe Red Sea to the Land of Punt.[193] In fact one of theearliest Egyptian words for a seagoing ship is a “ByblosShip” which originally defined a class of Egyptian seago-ing ships used on the Byblos run;however, by the end ofthe Old Kingdom, the term had come to include largeseagoing ships, whatever their destination.[194]

In 2011 archaeologists from Italy, the United States, andEgypt excavating a dried-up lagoon known as MersaGawasis have unearthed traces of an ancient harbor thatonce launched early voyages like Hatshepsut’s Punt expe-dition onto the open ocean.[195] Some of the site’s mostevocative evidence for the ancient Egyptians’ seafaringprowess include large ship timbers and hundreds of feetof ropes, made from papyrus, coiled in huge bundles.[195]

And in 2013 a team of Franco-Egyptian archaeologistsdiscovered what is believed to be the world’s oldest port,dating back about 4500 years, from the time of KingCheops on the Red Sea coast near Wadi el-Jarf (about110 miles south of Suez) [196]

Mathematics

Main article: Egyptian mathematicsThe earliest attested examples of mathematical calcula-

Astronomical chart in Senemut’s tomb, 18th dynasty[197]

tions date to the predynastic Naqada period, and show afully developed numeral system.[198] The importance ofmathematics to an educated Egyptian is suggested by aNew Kingdom fictional letter in which the writer pro-poses a scholarly competition between himself and an-other scribe regarding everyday calculation tasks suchas accounting of land, labor, and grain.[199] Texts such

as the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus and the MoscowMathematical Papyrus show that the ancient Egyptianscould perform the four basic mathematical operations—addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division—usefractions, compute the volumes of boxes and pyra-mids, and calculate the surface areas of rectangles, tri-angles, and circles. They understood basic concepts ofalgebra and geometry, and could solve simple sets ofsimultaneous equations.[200]

Mathematical notation was decimal, and based on hiero-glyphic signs for each power of ten up to one million.Each of these could be written as many times as nec-essary to add up to the desired number; so to write thenumber eighty or eight hundred, the symbol for ten orone hundred was written eight times respectively.[201] Be-cause their methods of calculation could not handle mostfractions with a numerator greater than one, they had towrite fractions as the sum of several fractions. For exam-ple, they resolved the fraction two-fifths into the sum ofone-third + one-fifteenth. Standard tables of values facil-itated this.[202] Some common fractions, however, werewritten with a special glyph—the equivalent of the mod-ern two-thirds is shown on the right.[203]

Ancient Egyptian mathematicians had a grasp of the prin-ciples underlying the Pythagorean theorem, knowing, forexample, that a triangle had a right angle opposite thehypotenuse when its sides were in a 3–4–5 ratio.[204] Theywere able to estimate the area of a circle by subtractingone-ninth from its diameter and squaring the result:

Area ≈ [(8⁄9)D]2 = (256 ⁄81)r 2 ≈ 3.16r 2,

a reasonable approximation of the formula πr 2.[204][205]

The golden ratio seems to be reflected in many Egyp-tian constructions, including the pyramids, but its usemay have been an unintended consequence of the ancientEgyptian practice of combining the use of knotted ropeswith an intuitive sense of proportion and harmony.[206]

1.4.7 Legacy

See also: Tourism in EgyptThe culture and monuments of ancient Egypt have left

a lasting legacy on the world. The cult of the goddessIsis, for example, became popular in the Roman Em-pire, as obelisks and other relics were transported backto Rome.[207] The Romans also imported building mate-rials from Egypt to erect Egyptian style structures. Earlyhistorians such as Herodotus, Strabo, and Diodorus Sicu-lus studied and wrote about the land, which Romans cameto view as a place of mystery.[208]

During the Middle Ages and The Renaissance, Egyptianpagan culture was in decline after the rise of Christianityand later Islam, but interest in Egyptian antiquity contin-ued in the writings of medieval scholars such as Dhul-Nun

62 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

Tourists riding a camel in front of Giza pyramids

Frontispiece of Description de l'Égypte, published in 38 volumesbetween 1809 and 1829.

al-Misri and al-Maqrizi.[209] In the seventeenth and eigh-teenth centuries, European travelers and tourists broughtback antiquities and wrote stories of their journeys, lead-ing to a wave of Egyptomania across Europe. This re-newed interest sent collectors to Egypt, who took, pur-chased, or were given many important antiquities.[210]

Although the European colonial occupation of Egyptdestroyed a significant portion of the country’s histor-ical legacy, some foreigners had more positive results.Napoleon, for example, arranged the first studies inEgyptology when he brought some 150 scientists andartists to study and document Egypt’s natural history,which was published in the Description de l'Ėgypte.[211]

In the 20th century AD, the Egyptian Government and ar-chaeologists alike recognized the importance of culturalrespect and integrity in excavations. The Supreme Coun-cil of Antiquities now approves and oversees all excava-tions, which are aimed at finding information rather thantreasure. The council also supervises museums and mon-ument reconstruction programs designed to preserve thehistorical legacy of Egypt.

1.4.8 See also

• Outline of ancient Egypt

• Glossary of ancient Egypt artifacts

• Index of ancient Egypt-related articles

• Toynbee’s law of challenge and response

1.4.9 Notes[1] “Chronology”. Digital Egypt for Universities, University

College London. Archived from the original on 16 March2008. Retrieved 25 March 2008.

[2] Dodson (2004) p. 46

[3] Clayton (1994) p. 217

[4] James (2005) p. 8

[5] Manuelian (1998) pp. 6–7

[6] Ward, Cheryl. "World’s Oldest Planked Boats",inArchaeology (Volume 54, Number 3, May/June 2001).Archaeological Institute of America.

[7] Clayton (1994) p. 153

[8] James (2005) p. 84

[9] Shaw (2002) pp. 17, 67–69

[10] Shaw (2002) p. 17

[11] Ikram, Salima (1992). Choice Cuts: Meat Production inAncient Egypt. University of Cambridge. p. 5. ISBN 978-90-6831-745-9. LCCN 1997140867. OCLC 60255819.Retrieved 22 July 2009.

[12] Hayes (1964) p. 220

[13] Childe, V. Gordon (1953), New Light on the Most AncientNear East, (Praeger Publications)

[14] Barbara G. Aston, James A. Harrell, Ian Shaw (2000).Paul T. Nicholson and Ian Shaw editors. “Stone,” in An-cient Egyptian Materials and Technology, Cambridge, 5–77, pp. 46–47. Also note: Barbara G. Aston (1994).“Ancient Egyptian Stone Vessels,” Studien zur Archäolo-gie und Geschichte Altägyptens 5, Heidelberg, pp. 23–26.(See on-line posts: and .)

[15] Patai, Raphael (1998), 'Children of Noah: Jewish Seafar-ing in Ancient Times (Princeton Uni Press)

1.4. ANCIENT EGYPT 63

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[17] Shaw (2002) p. 61

[18] Emberling, Geoff (2011). Nubia: Ancient Kingdoms ofAfrica. New York: Institute for the Study of the AncientWorld. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-615-48102-9.

[19] “The Qustul Incense Burner”.

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[21] Allen (2000) p. 1

[22] Clayton (1994) p. 6

[23] Shaw (2002) pp. 78–80

[24] Clayton (1994) pp. 12–13

[25] Shaw (2002) p. 70

[26] “Early Dynastic Egypt”. Digital Egypt for Universities,University College London. Archived from the originalon 4 March 2008. Retrieved 9 March 2008.

[27] Robins (1997) p. 32

[28] James (2005) p. 40

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[30] Shaw (2002) pp. 116–7

[31] Fekri Hassan. “The Fall of the Old Kingdom”. BritishBroadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 10 March 2008.

[32] Clayton (1994) p. 69

[33] Shaw (2002) p. 120

[34] Shaw (2002) p. 146

[35] Clayton (1994) p. 29

[36] Shaw (2002) p. 148

[37] Clayton (1994) p. 79

[38] Shaw (2002) p. 158

[39] Shaw (2002) pp. 179–82

[40] Robins (1997) p. 90

[41] Shaw (2002) p. 188

[42] Ryholt (1997) p. 310

[43] Shaw (2002) p. 189

[44] Shaw (2002) p. 224

[45] James (2005) p. 48

[46] “Hatshepsut”. Digital Egypt for Universities, Univer-sity College London. Archived from the original on 18November 2007. Retrieved 9 December 2007.

[47] Clayton (1994) p. 108

[48] Aldred (1988) p. 259

[49] Cline (2001) p. 273

[50] With his two principal wives and large harem, RamessesII sired more than 100 children. Clayton (1994) p. 146

[51] Tyldesley (2001) pp. 76–7

[52] James (2005) p. 54

[53] Cerny (1975) p. 645

[54] Emberling, Geoff (2011). Nubia: Ancient Kingdoms ofAfrica. New York, NY: Institute for the Study of the An-cient World, NYU. pp. 9–10. ISBN 978-0-615-48102-9.

[55] “Tomb reveals Ancient Egypt’s humiliating secret”. DailyTimes, Pakistan. July 29, 2003. Retrieved August 12,2013.

[56] Herodotus (2003). The Histories. Penguin Books. pp.106–107, 133–134,. ISBN 978-0-14-044908-2.

[57] Shaw (2002) p. 345

[58] Herodotus (2003). The Histories. Penguin Books. pp.151–158. ISBN 978-0-14-044908-2.

[59] Diop, Cheikh Anta (1974). The African Origin of Civiliza-tion. Chicago, Illinois: Lawrence Hill Books. pp. 219–221. ISBN 1-55652-072-7.

[60] Bonnet, Charles (2006). The Nubian Pharaohs. NewYork: The American University in Cairo Press. pp. 142–154. ISBN 978-977-416-010-3.

[61] Mokhtar, G. (1990). General History of Africa. Califor-nia, USA: University of California Press. pp. 161–163.ISBN 0-520-06697-9.

[62] Emberling, Geoff (2011). Nubia: Ancient Kingdoms ofAfrica. New York: Institute for the Study of the AncientWorld. pp. 9–11.

[63] Silverman, David (1997). Ancient Egypt. New York: Ox-ford University Press. pp. 36–37. ISBN 0-19-521270-3.

[64] A. Leo Oppenheim (1964), Ancient Mesopotamia

[65] Aubin, Henry T. (2002). The Rescue of Jerusalem. NewYork, NY: Soho Press, Inc. pp. 6–13. ISBN 1-56947-275-0.

[66] Aubin, Henry T. (2002). The Rescue of Jerusalem. NewYork, NY: Soho Press, Inc. pp. 152–153. ISBN 1-56947-275-0.

[67] Georges Roux (1964), Ancient Iraq

[68] Aubin, Henry T. (2002). The Rescue of Jerusalem. NewYork, NY: Soho Press, Inc. p. 160. ISBN 1-56947-275-0.

[69] George Roux - Ancient Iraq

[70] Esharhaddon’s Syrio-Palestinian Campaign

[71] Georges Roux (1964), Ancient Iraq, pp 330–332

64 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

[72] Shaw (2002) p. 383

[73] Shaw (2002) p. 385

[74] Shaw (2002) p. 405

[75] Shaw (2002) p. 411

[76] Shaw (2002) p. 418

[77] James (2005) p. 62

[78] James (2005) p. 63

[79] Shaw (2002) p. 426

[80] Shaw (2002) p. 422

[81] Shaw (2003) p. 431

[82] "The Church in Ancient Society", Henry Chadwick, p. 373,Oxford University Press US, 2001, ISBN 0-19-924695-5

[83] "Christianizing the Roman Empire A.D 100–400”, RamsayMacMullen, p. 63, Yale University Press, 1984, ISBN 0-300-03216-1

[84] Shaw (2002) p. 445

[85] Manuelian (1998) p. 358

[86] Manuelian (1998) p. 363

[87] Meskell (2004) p. 23

[88] Manuelian (1998) p. 372

[89] Walbank (1984) p. 125

[90] Manuelian (1998) p. 383

[91] James (2005) p. 136

[92] Billard (1978) p. 109

[93] “Social classes in ancient Egypt”. Digital Egypt for Uni-versities, University College London. Archived from theoriginal on 13 December 2007. Retrieved 11 December2007.

[94] Janet H. Johnson. “Women’s Legal Rights in AncientEgypt”. University of Chicago, 2004. Retrieved 31 Au-gust 2010.

[95] Slavery in Ancient Egyptfrom http://www.reshafim.org.il. Retrieved August 28, 2012.

[96] Oakes (2003) p. 472

[97] McDowell (1999) p. 168

[98] Manuelian (1998) p. 361

[99] Nicholson (2000) p. 514

[100] Nicholson (2000) p. 506

[101] Nicholson (2000) p. 510

[102] Nicholson (2000) pp. 577 and 630

[103] Strouhal (1989) p. 117

[104] Manuelian (1998) p. 381

[105] Nicholson (2000) p. 409

[106] Oakes (2003) p. 229

[107] Greaves (1929) p. 123

[108] Lucas (1962) p. 413

[109] Nicholson (2000) p. 28

[110] C.Michael Hogan. 2011. Sulfur. Encyclopedia of Earth,eds. A. Jorgensen and C.J. Cleveland, National Councilfor Science and the environment, Washington DC

[111] Scheel (1989) p. 14

[112] Nicholson (2000) p. 166

[113] Nicholson (2000) p. 51

[114] Shaw (2002) p. 72

[115] Naomi Porat and Edwin van den Brink (editor), “AnEgyptian Colony in Southern Palestine During the LatePredynastic to Early Dynastic,” in The Nile Delta in Tran-sition: 4th to 3rd Millennium BC (1992), pp. 433–440.

[116] Naomi Porat, “Local Industry of Egyptian Pottery inSouthern Palestine During the Early Bronze I Period,” inBulletin of the Egyptological, Seminar 8 (1986/1987), pp.109–129. See also University College London web post,2000.

[117] Shaw (2002) p. 322

[118] Manuelian (1998) p. 145

[119] Harris (1990) p. 13

[120] Loprieno (1995b) p. 2137

[121] Loprieno (2004) p. 161

[122] Loprieno (2004) p. 162

[123] Loprieno (1995b) p. 2137–38

[124] Vittman (1991) pp. 197–227

[125] Loprieno (1995a) p. 46

[126] Loprieno (1995a) p. 74

[127] Loprieno (2004) p. 175

[128] Allen (2000) pp. 67, 70, 109

[129] Loprieno (2005) p. 2147

[130] Loprieno (2004) p. 173

[131] Allen (2000) p. 13

[132] Loprieno (1995a) pp. 10–26

[133] Allen (2000) p. 7

[134] Loprieno (2004) p. 166

[135] El-Daly (2005) p. 164

1.4. ANCIENT EGYPT 65

[136] Allen (2000) p. 8

[137] Strouhal (1989) p. 235

[138] Lichtheim (1975) p. 11

[139] Lichtheim (1975) p. 215

[140] "Wisdom in Ancient Israel”, John Day,/John AdneyEmerton,/Robert P. Gordon/ Hugh Godfrey/MaturinWilliamson, p23, Cambridge University Press, 1997,ISBN 0-521-62489-4

[141] Lichtheim (1980) p. 159

[142] Manuelian (1998) p. 401

[143] Manuelian (1998) p. 403

[144] Manuelian (1998) p. 405

[145] Manuelian (1998) pp. 406–7

[146] “Music in Ancient Egypt”. Digital Egypt for Universities,University College London. Archived from the original on28 March 2008. Retrieved 9 March 2008.

[147] Manuelian (1998) p. 126

[148] "The Cambridge Ancient History: II Part I, The MiddleEast and the Aegean Region, c.1800-13380 B.C”, EditedI.E.S Edwards–C.JGadd–N.G.L Hammond-E.Sollberger,Cambridge at the University Press, p. 380, 1973, ISBN0-521-08230-7

[149] Manuelian (1998) pp. 399–400

[150] Clarke (1990) pp. 94–7

[151] Badawy (1968) p. 50

[152] “Types of temples in ancient Egypt”. Digital Egypt forUniversities, University College London. Archived fromthe original on 19 March 2008. Retrieved 9 March 2008.

[153] Dodson (1991) p. 23

[154] Robins (1997) p. 29

[155] Robins (1997) p. 21

[156] Robins (2001) p. 12

[157] Nicholson (2000) p. 105

[158] James (2005) p. 122

[159] Robins (1998) p. 74

[160] Shaw (2002) p. 216

[161] Robins (1998) p. 149

[162] Robins (1998) p. 158

[163] James (2005) p. 102

[164] "The Oxford Guide: Essential Guide to Egyptian Mythol-ogy", edited by Donald B. Redford, p. 106, BerkleyBooks, 2003, ISBN 0-425-19096-X

[165] James (2005) p. 117

[166] Shaw (2002) p. 313

[167] Allen (2000) pp. 79, 94–5

[168] Wasserman, et al. (1994) pp. 150–3

[169] “Mummies and Mummification: Old Kingdom”. DigitalEgypt for Universities, University College London. Re-trieved 9 March 2008.

[170] “Mummies and Mummification: Late Period, Ptolemaic,Roman and Christian Period”. Digital Egypt for Universi-ties, University College London. Archived from the orig-inal on 30 March 2008. Retrieved 9 March 2008.

[171] “Shabtis”. Digital Egypt for Universities, University Col-lege London. Archived from the original on 24 March2008. Retrieved 9 March 2008.

[172] James (2005) p. 124

[173] Shaw (2002) p. 245

[174] Manuelian (1998) pp. 366–67

[175] Clayton (1994) p. 96

[176] Shaw, Garry J. (2009). “The Death of King SeqenenreTao”. Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt45.

[177] Shaw (2002) p. 400

[178] Nicholson (2000) p. 177

[179] Nicholson (2000) p. 109

[180] Nicholson (2000) p. 195

[181] Nicholson (2000) p. 215

[182] Filer (1995) p. 94

[183] Filer (1995) pp. 78–80

[184] Filer (1995) p. 21

[185] Figures are given for adult life expectancy and do not re-flect life expectancy at birth. Filer (1995) p. 25

[186] Filer (1995) p. 39

[187] Strouhal (1989) p. 243

[188] Stroual (1989) pp. 244–46

[189] Stroual (1989) p. 250

[190] Pećanac M, Janjić Z, Komarcević A, Pajić M,Dobanovacki D, Misković SS; Janjić; Komarcević;Pajić; Dobanovacki; Misković (May–Jun 2013). “Burnstreatment in ancient times”. Medicinski pregled 66 (5–6):263–7. doi:10.1016/s0264-410x(02)00603-5. PMID23888738.

[191] Filer (1995) p. 38

[192] Schuster, Angela M.H. "This Old Boat", 11 December2000. Archaeological Institute of America.

66 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

[193] Shelley Wachsmann, Seagoing Ships and Seamanship inthe Bronze Age Levant (Texas A&M University Press,2009), p. 19.

[194] Shelley Wachsmann , Seagoing Ships and Seamanship inthe Bronze Age Levant (Texas A&M University Press,2009), p. 19.

[195] “Egypt’s Ancient Fleet: Lost for Thousands of Years, Dis-covered in a Desolate Cave”. Discover Magazine.

[196] “Most Ancient Port, Hieroglyphic Papyri Found”. DNews.

[197] Full version at Met Museum

[198] Understanding of Egyptian mathematics is incompletedue to paucity of available material and lack of exhaustivestudy of the texts that have been uncovered. Imhausen etal. (2007) p. 13

[199] Imhausen et al. (2007) p. 11

[200] Clarke (1990) p. 222

[201] Clarke (1990) p. 217

[202] Clarke (1990) p. 218

[203] Gardiner (1957) p. 197

[204] Strouhal (1989) p. 241

[205] Imhausen et al. (2007) p. 31

[206] Kemp (1989) p. 138

[207] Siliotti (1998) p. 8

[208] Siliotti (1998) p. 10

[209] El-Daly (2005) p. 112

[210] Siliotti (1998) p. 13

[211] Siliotti (1998) p. 100

1.4.10 References

• Aldred, Cyril (1988). Akhenaten, King of Egypt.London, England: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05048-1.

• Allen, James P. (2000). Middle Egyptian: An In-troduction to the Language and Culture of Hiero-glyphs. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UniversityPress. ISBN 0-521-77483-7.

• Badawy, Alexander (1968). A History of EgyptianArchitecture. Vol III. Berkeley, California: Univer-sity of California Press. ISBN 0-520-00057-9.

• Billard, Jules B. (1978). Ancient Egypt: Discover-ing its Splendors. Washington D.C.: National Geo-graphic Society.

• Cerny, J (1975). Egypt from the Death of RamessesIII to the End of the Twenty-First Dynasty' in TheMiddle East and the Aegean Region c.1380–1000BC. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 0-521-08691-4.

• Clarke, Somers; R. Engelbach (1990). AncientEgyptian Construction and Architecture. New York,New York: Dover Publications, Unabridged Doverreprint of Ancient Egyptian Masonry: The Build-ing Craft originally published by Oxford UniversityPress/Humphrey Milford, London, (1930). ISBN0-486-26485-8.

• Clayton, Peter A. (1994). Chronicle of thePharaohs. London, England: Thames and Hudson.ISBN 0-500-05074-0.

• Cline, Eric H.; O'Connor, David Kevin (2001).Amenhotep III: Perspectives on His Reign. Ann Ar-bor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press. p.273. ISBN 0-472-08833-5.

• Dodson, Aidan (1991). Egyptian Rock Cut Tombs.Buckinghamshire, UK: Shire Publications Ltd.ISBN 0-7478-0128-2.

• Dodson, Aidan; Hilton, Dyan (2004). The CompleteRoyal Families of Ancient Egypt. London, England:Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05128-3.

• El-Daly, Okasha (2005). Egyptology: The MissingMillennium. London, England: UCL Press. ISBN1-84472-062-4.

• Filer, Joyce (1996). Disease. Austin, Texas: Uni-versity of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-72498-5.

• Gardiner, Sir Alan (1957). Egyptian Grammar: Be-ing an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs. Ox-ford, England: Griffith Institute. ISBN 0-900416-35-1.

• Hayes, W. C. (October 1964). “Most AncientEgypt: Chapter III. The Neolithic and ChalcolithicCommunities of Northern Egypt”. JNES (No. 4 ed.)23 (4): 217–272. doi:10.1086/371778.

• Imhausen, Annette; Robson, Eleanor, Dauben,Joseph W., Plofker, Kim & Berggren, J. Lennart(2007). Katz, V. J., Jr., ed. The Mathematics ofEgypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, and Islam: ASourcebook. Princeton: Princeton University Press.ISBN 0-691-11485-4.

• James, T.G.H. (2005). The British Museum ConciseIntroduction to Ancient Egypt. Ann Arbor, Michi-gan: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-03137-6.

• Kemp, Barry (1991). Ancient Egypt: Anatomy ofa Civilization. London, England: Routledge. ISBN0-415-06346-9.

1.4. ANCIENT EGYPT 67

• Lichtheim, Miriam (1975). Ancient Egyptian Liter-ature, vol 1. London, England: University of Cali-fornia Press. ISBN 0-520-02899-6.

• Lichtheim, Miriam (1980). Ancient Egyptian Liter-ature, A Book of Readings. Vol III: The Late Period.Berkeley, California: University of California Press.

• Loprieno, Antonio (1995a). Ancient Egyptian: Alinguistic introduction. Cambridge, UK: CambridgeUniversity Press. ISBN 0-521-44849-2.

• Loprieno, Antonio (1995b). “Ancient Egyptian andother Afroasiatic Languages”. In Sasson, J. M. Civi-lizations of the Ancient Near East 4. New York, NewYork: Charles Scribner. pp. 2137–2150. ISBN 1-56563-607-4.

• Loprieno, Antonio (2004). “Ancient Egyptian andCoptic”. In Woodward, Roger D. The CambridgeEncyclopedia of the World’s Ancient Languages.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp.160–192. ISBN 0-521-56256-2.

• Lucas, Alfred (1962). Ancient Egyptian Materialsand Industries, 4th Ed. London, England: EdwardArnold Publishers. ISBN 1-85417-046-5.

• Mallory-Greenough, Leanne M. (2002). “The Ge-ographical, Spatial, and Temporal Distribution ofPredynastic and First Dynasty Basalt Vessels”. TheJournal of Egyptian Archaeology (London, Eng-land: Egypt Exploration Society) 88: 67–93.doi:10.2307/3822337. JSTOR 3822337.

• Manuelian, Peter Der (1998). Egypt: The Worldof the Pharaohs. Bonner Straße, Cologne Ger-many: Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH. ISBN3-89508-913-3.

• McDowell, A. G. (1999). Village life in ancientEgypt: laundry lists and love songs. Oxford, Eng-land: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-814998-0.

• Meskell, Lynn (2004). Object Worlds in AncientEgypt: Material Biographies Past and Present (Mate-rializing Culture). Oxford, England: Berg Publish-ers. ISBN 1-85973-867-2.

• Midant-Reynes, Béatrix (2000). The Prehistoryof Egypt: From the First Egyptians to the FirstPharaohs. Oxford, England: Blackwell Publishers.ISBN 0-631-21787-8.

• Nicholson, Paul T. (2000). Ancient Egyptian Mate-rials and Technology. Cambridge, UK: CambridgeUniversity Press. ISBN 0-521-45257-0.

• Oakes, Lorna (2003). Ancient Egypt: An IllustratedReference to the Myths, Religions, Pyramids andTemples of the Land of the Pharaohs. New York,New York: Barnes & Noble. ISBN 0-7607-4943-4.

• Robins, Gay (2000). The Art of Ancient Egypt.Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard UniversityPress. ISBN 0-674-00376-4.

• Ryholt, Kim (January 1997). The Political Situ-ation in Egypt During the Second Intermediate Pe-riod. Copenhagen, Denmark: Museum Tuscu-lanum. ISBN 87-7289-421-0.

• Scheel, Bernd (1989). Egyptian Metalworking andTools. Haverfordwest, Great Britain: Shire Publica-tions Ltd. ISBN 0-7478-0001-4.

• Shaw, Ian (2003). The Oxford History of AncientEgypt. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.ISBN 0-19-280458-8.

• Siliotti, Alberto (1998). The Discovery of AncientEgypt. Edison, New Jersey: Book Sales, Inc. ISBN0-7858-1360-8.

• Strouhal, Eugen (1989). Life in Ancient Egypt. Nor-man, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press.ISBN 0-8061-2475-X.

• Tyldesley, Joyce A. (2001). Ramesses: Egypt’sgreatest pharaoh. Harmondsworth, England: Pen-guin. pp. 76–77. ISBN 0-14-028097-9.

• Vittman, G. (1991). “Zum koptischen Sprachgutim Ägyptisch-Arabisch”. Wiener Zeitschrift für dieKunde des Morgenlandes (Vienna, Austria: Institutfür Orientalistik, Vienna University) 81: 197–227.

• Walbank, Frank William (1984). The Cambridgeancient history. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Uni-versity Press. ISBN 0-521-23445-X.

• Wasserman, James; Faulkner, Raymond Oliver;Goelet, Ogden; Von Dassow, Eva (1994). The Egyp-tian Book of the dead, the Book of going forth by day:being the Papyrus of Ani. San Francisco, California:Chronicle Books. ISBN 0-8118-0767-3.

• Wilkinson, R. H. (2000). The Complete Temples ofAncient Egypt. London, England: Thames and Hud-son. ISBN 0-500-05100-3.

1.4.11 Further reading

• Baines, John and Jaromir Malek (2000). The Cul-tural Atlas of Ancient Egypt (revised ed.). Facts onFile. ISBN 0-8160-4036-2.

• Bard, KA (1999). Encyclopedia of the Archaeologyof Ancient Egypt. NY, NY: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-18589-0.

• Grimal, Nicolas (1992). A History of Ancient Egypt(in German). Blackwell Books. ISBN 0-631-19396-0.

68 CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1

• Helck, Wolfgang; Otto, Eberhard, eds. (1972–1992). Lexikon der Ägyptologie. O. Harrassowitz.ISBN 3-447-01441-5.

• Lehner, Mark (1997). The Complete Pyramids.London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05084-8.

• Redford, Donald B., ed. (2001). The Oxford Ency-clopedia of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press.ISBN 0-19-510234-7.

• Wilkinson, R.H. (2003). The Complete Gods andGoddesses of Ancient Egypt. London: Thames andHudson. ISBN 0-500-05120-8.

1.4.12 External links

• BBC History: Egyptians—provides a reliable gen-eral overview and further links

• Ancient History Encyclopedia on Egypt

• Ancient Egyptian Science: A Source Book DoorMarshall Clagett, 1989

• Ancient Egyptian Metallurgy A site that shows thehistory of Egyptian metalworking

• Napoleon on the Nile: Soldiers, Artists, and the Re-discovery of Egypt, Art History.

• Ancient Egypt—maintained by the British Museum,this site provides a useful introduction to AncientEgypt for older children and young adolescents

• Digital Egypt for Universities. Outstanding schol-arly treatment with broad coverage and cross refer-ences (internal and external). Artifacts used exten-sively to illustrate topics.

• Priests of Ancient Egypt In-depth-informationabout Ancient Egypt’s priests, religious services andtemples. Much picture material and bibliography.In English and German.

• Ancient Egypt

• UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology

• Ancient Egypt and the Role of Women by Dr JoannFletcher

Chapter 2

Text and image sources, contributors, andlicenses

2.1 Text• Neolithic Revolution Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic%20Revolution?oldid=646274129 Contributors: Bryan Derksen, The

Anome, William Avery, Paul Barlow, Llywrch, Fred Bauder, Wintran, Ellywa, Ahoerstemeier, Glenn, Raven in Orbit, Guaka, Reddi,IceKarma, AnonMoos, Wetman, Penfold, Pakaran, JorgeGG, AlainV, Goethean, Altenmann, Arkuat, Cornellier, Academic Challenger,GreatWhiteNortherner, Alan Liefting, Centrx, DocWatson42, Christopher Parham, Erdal Ronahi, Archie, Foobar, Jackol, Ilikeverin, An-tandrus, Beland, Bcameron54, Adamsan, Pat Berry, Karl-Henner, Gscshoyru, Gary D, Redfax, Pm215, Ukexpat, Avihu, Adashiel, Thor-wald, Alsocal, An Siarach, Discospinster, Brianhe, Rich Farmbrough, MCBastos, Vsmith, Florian Blaschke, Smyth, LindsayH, Dbachmann,Pavel Vozenilek, Bender235, Aranel, Carlon, Screensaver, Bobo192, Denorris, Nectarflowed, Nyenyec, MPerel, Polylerus, Pharos, Nsaa,Ranveig, Storm Rider, Gow, Alansohn, Gary, Albrecht Conz, Atlant, PatrickFisher, Logologist, Zyqqh, Hu, Bart133, A.Kurtz, Sleigh, Lor-dAmeth, AlexTiefling, WilliamKF, Angr, Woohookitty, Webwanderer56, GeorgeTSLC, Jwanders, Eleassar777, Terence, Stefanomione,Phlebas, Joe Roe, Tslocum, Graham87, Magister Mathematicae, BD2412, Psm, Jclemens, Edison, Rjwilmsi, Nightscream, Bill37212,Kalogeropoulos, Lairor, Yamamoto Ichiro, FlaBot, Margosbot, Gurch, Losecontrol, Davepetr, CJLL Wright, Ggb667, DVdm, Bgwhite,Debivort, YurikBot, Hairy Dude, Peter G Werner, RussBot, Hede2000, Gardar Rurak, Rada, CanadianCaesar, Gaius Cornelius, AlexBakharev, Wimt, GeeJo, ML, Thane, NawlinWiki, Muntuwandi, Dialectric, Aeusoes1, Grafen, Irishguy, Number 57, Kortoso, Brent.devos,Wknight94, Leptictidium, Zzuuzz, StuRat, Andrew Lancaster, Grw, Josh3580, Kf4bdy, WikiFew, Bibliomaniac15, Yvwv, Choatewh1,Crystallina, SmackBot, Pfly, Steve carlson, Wegesrand, Jagged 85, GraemeMcRae, Francisco Valverde, Yamaguchi , Gilliam, Por-tillo, Hmains, Skizzik, Bluebot, Full Shunyata, Snori, Kemet, SchfiftyThree, Hibernian, Ikiroid, Darth Panda, A. 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Anderson, Lradrama, Sanfranman59, Mzmadmike, Natg19, Steve Masterson, FinnWiki, Enviroboy, FKmailliW, Alfrodull, Symane, Logan, Struway, Kaly99, SieBot, Slb49, Pengyanan, Caltas,Zugspitze, Flyer22, Radon210, Oxymoron83, Antonio Lopez, Robertcurrey, Mahmud II, PbBot, Mygerardromance, TypoBot, Nn123645,Into The Fray, Randy Kryn, Counterfact, Elassint, ClueBot, The Thing That Should Not Be, Eric Wester, Voxpuppet, John.D.Ward, Gabeth,Arakunem, Razimantv, Mild Bill Hiccup, Capellan, Ooooooohhhhaaahhhhhh, CounterVandalismBot, Niceguyedc, Piledhigheranddeeper,Postgirl, Grunty Thraveswain, Seanwal111111, Alexbot, Jusdafax, Esdraelon, Keysanger, SchreiberBike, La Pianista, Rui Gabriel Cor-reia, Versus22, Berean Hunter, Trulystand700, DumZiBoT, Heironymous Rowe, ShoshanaRose, Vvvladut, Alexius08, ZooFari, Al tally,Thatguyflint, Thebestofall007, Addbot, Man with one red shoe, Roentgenium111, DOI bot, Tcncv, AkhtaBot, Ronhjones, Hattar393,CanadianLinuxUser, NjardarBot, Asfreeas, CarsracBot, Glane23, Bassbonerocks, AnnaFrance, ChenzwBot, 5 albert square, Tide rolls,Qemist, Jarble, Bcoopxx, Ben Pirard, Legobot, Luckas-bot, Yobot, 2D, Ptbotgourou, Fraggle81, Backslash Forwardslash, AnomieBOT,Dwayne, Music+mas, Neptune5000, Piano non troppo, Kingpin13, AdamSkeen, TParis, Shambalala, Citation bot, Defication, Mouldybis-cuits, Neurolysis, Madalibi, Xqbot, Romanfall, Capricorn42, Shashamula, Bashman71594, Lele giannoni, Control.valve, Crzer07, J04n,GrouchoBot, Dirrival, BluenoseGuy, TonyTrupp, TarseeRota, L Seed, Blahblahwikiwiki, FrescoBot, Chronus, Mark1999er, Izzedine,Kwiki, Citation bot 1, Citation bot 4, Pinethicket, I dream of horses, Abductive, Jonesey95, Poopylovesyou123, IExXoIN, Actarus Princed'Euphor, RedBot, Jandalhandler, Albertadave, Full-date unlinking bot, December21st2012Freak, Elena Emanova, Wotnow, Xook1kaiChoa6aur, Ifbrocks, Amfoes, Diannaa, 14asun, Yappy2bhere, Tbhotch, WillNess, DARTH SIDIOUS 2, Onel5969, Aviv007, Asnla, El-lenfisher, Dynamicpricing, NerdyScienceDude, EmausBot, WikitanvirBot, Sonofmaths, Gfoley4, Heymid, Ibbn, Rotcaeroib, Wikipelli,Paul Bedson, WittyMan1986, ZéroBot, Zen9400, MithrandirAgain, Acogscope, Confession0791, Aok6666, Rcsprinter123, Brandmeis-ter, Dagko, L Kensington, Korruski, Semeticdruwa, Llightex, DASHBotAV, 28bot, Kinkreet, Signalizing, ClueBot NG, Rtucker913,Millermk, Delusion23, Braincricket, Theresas124, Widr, Antiqueight, Pluma, Helpful Pixie Bot, HMSSolent, Wbm1058, Gob Lofa, Bib-

69

70 CHAPTER 2. TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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• Indus Valley Civilization Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus%20Valley%20Civilization?oldid=645514752 Contributors:MichaelTinkler, Derek Ross, Mav, Bryan Derksen, Andre Engels, Josh Grosse, Danny, Arvindn, Fubar Obfusco, Heron, Olivier, Stev-ertigo, Edward, Infrogmation, Michael Hardy, Paul Barlow, Llywrch, Norm, Ixfd64, AlexR, Yann, (, Ahoerstemeier, Pfaffenblogger,Angela, Kingturtle, Glenn, Marteau, Susurrus, Jiang, Pizza Puzzle, Michael T. 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2.1. TEXT 71

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• Mesopotamia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesopotamia?oldid=645720132 Contributors: MichaelTinkler, Bryan Derksen, Ben-wbrum, XJaM, Ben-Zin, Stepnwolf, Heron, Olivier, Stevertigo, Lorenzarius, Lir, D, Michael Hardy, Llywrch, Dominus, Ixfd64, Chmouel,IZAK, Paul A, Egil, Ahoerstemeier, Pjamescowie, Setu, Александър, LittleDan, Julesd, Andres, Jouster, Caffelice, Mxn, BRG, Ravenin Orbit, Zarius, Hashar, WhisperToMe, Wik, Selket, Tpbradbury, Hyacinth, Thue, Jecar, Finlay McWalter, Carlossuarez46, Shantavira,Branddobbe, Robbot, Psmith, Sander123, PBS, SVoid, Modulatum, Flauto Dolce, SoLando, Dina, Carnildo, Adam78, ManuelGR, AlanLiefting, Dave6, Ancheta Wis, DocWatson42, Lproven, Webmaster, Sentinel, Rj, Everyking, Bkonrad, No Guru, Maha ts, MichaelDevore, Guanaco, Danno, Gzornenplatz, Jackol, Utcursch, Alexf, Knutux, SURIV, Antandrus, Jossi, Gscshoyru, Rellis1067, Raylu,Thorsten1, Asim Led, Adashiel, Trevor MacInnis, Shotwell, Ultratomio, RossPatterson, Discospinster, ElTyrant, Rich Farmbrough, Guan-abot, C12H22O11, Wrp103, EliasAlucard, Kooo, Xezbeth, Dbachmann, Mani1, Stereotek, JoeSmack, Kaszeta, QuartierLatin1968, Aude,Shanes, AreJay, Briséis, Art LaPella, RoyBoy, Deanos, Bobo192, Sentience, Smalljim, Viriditas, Cmdrjameson, Foobaz, JW1805, Juzeris,Man vyi, Rje, Pearle, Nsaa, Ogress, Conny, Jumbuck, Hedgey42, Danski14, Gary, Qwe, Lacrimulae, Calton, Ynhockey, Yummifruitbat,Bart133, Binabik80, Mtiedemann, Yuckfoo, Garzo, Dtcdthingy, Amorymeltzer, Sciurinæ, Dominic, Bkobres, HGB, Siafu, Hojimachong,Joriki, Woohookitty, TigerShark, Camw, LOL, Briangotts, WadeSimMiser, Tabletop, Kmg90, Cbustapeck, Gimboid13, Pfalstad, Cata-clysm, Paxsimius, Rzm, Graham87, Taivo, Magister Mathematicae, Ilya, BD2412, FreplySpang, JIP, Dpv, Ketiltrout, Crzrussian, Rjwilmsi,Angusmclellan, Coemgenus, El presidente, Seraphimblade, Mike s, Lordkinbote, Oblivious, Ghepeu, Durin, DoubleBlue, Hermione1980,Yuber, Sango123, Leithp, FayssalF, FlaBot, John Alan Halloran, RobertG, Nivix, 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Pasha Abd, Hmains, Oscarthecat, Kurykh, TimBentley, Persian PoetGal, MK8, Sandycx, Cattus, KHarbaugh, Tree Biting Conspiracy, Mnemoc, Miquonranger03, Dlohcierekim’s sock, Ralhazzaa, Whisper-ing, ZyMOS, Baronnet, Jxm, DHN-bot, Hongooi, Darth Panda, Ducky0397, Can't sleep, clown will eat me, Tamfang, AussieLegend,OrphanBot, Blankfrackis, Zvar, Alieseraj, RedHillian, Edivorce, Monacat, SundarBot, Jmlk17, Mikedow, Flyguy649, Nakon, John D.Croft, Mjefm, Jester29, RandomP, Ryan Roos, Hgilbert, Wizardman, Where, Fragholio, DDima, Matthew hk, Pilotguy, Kukini, JLo-gan, Barrel Roll, SashatoBot, Eliyak, Harryboyles, Ariefwn, Kuru, Simonkoldyk, Pratheek, Naphureya, Cobblers, Heimstern, SilkTork,Calum MacÙisdean, Joelmills, IronGargoyle, Deviathan, Chasisaac, Rjbrock, MarkSutton, Erika Yurken, Stwalkerster, LarryBH, Amir-man, Dhp1080, Midnightblueowl, Condem, KJS77, BranStark, Emx, Iridescent, Zmmz, Dekaels, Lakers, Antonio Prates, Sander Säde,Joao.caprivi, Kire56, MGlosenger, Blehfu, Stereorock, Gilabrand, Tawkerbot2, Dlohcierekim, Alexbrewer, Lbr123, SkyWalker, JForget,GeneralIroh, CmdrObot, Deon, Mattbr, Blue-Haired Lawyer, RedRollerskate, Dhoyos, ShelfSkewed, Ankimai, Kallagin, Neelix, Gui-tarmankev1, Xzqx, Hojmatt, Oden, MaxEnt, Cydebot, Road Wizard, ArgentTurquoise, Gogo Dodo, Travelbird, 01011000, FallenStar,Llort, ST47, Hanfresco, Odie5533, Tawkerbot4, Dougweller, DumbBOT, Chrislk02, Dougcast, Sp, Kozuch, Noémi, UberScienceNerd,Vkvora2001, Estevanmunguia, FrancoGG, Mattisse, Epbr123, Mercury, Wikid77, Andrew.hermiz, Leondegrance, Kablammo, Johnny-boomboom, Tonyle, Marek69, West Brom 4ever, Missvain, John254, Kathovo, RobDe68, Hapa gurl, Redmolly, Jimhoward72, Char-lotteWebb, AbcXyz, Squishy Vic, Hawaiianwahine11, Igorwindsor, Dantheman531, Zunkir, AntiVandalBot, Konman72, Luna Santin,Akradecki, Manny K, Prolog, Tchoutoye, Doc Tropics, HMAccount, ILLeSt, Tadas12, Katxijasotzaile, Res2216firestar, JAnDbot, Do-gru144, Leuko, Husond, EmersonLowry, MER-C, Mcorazao, Arch 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Nate3990, Squids and Chips, CardinalDan, Idioma-bot, Lights, Kechu723,LyndaIsFwakinCool, VolkovBot, ABF, Beingme, The Duke of Waltham, Jeff G., Jennavecia, Stagyar Zil Doggo, Bsroiaadn, LeilaniLad,QuackGuru, Philip Trueman, SamMichaels, TXiKiBoT, Malinaccier, Emo muzik sux, Miranda, Accipheran, Nrswanson, CoJaBo, Xn-quist, Someguy1221, Vanished user ikijeirw34iuaeolaseriffic, Steven J. 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72 CHAPTER 2. TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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S. Shaw, Clarkbhm, Joeedh, Pokrajac, Jojit fb, Nk, Microtony, Deryck Chan, PWilkinson, Pperos, MPerel, WMMartin, Kaf, Nsaa,Merope, Espoo, Kubiwan, Knucmo2, Jumbuck, Storm Rider, Stephen G. 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2.2. IMAGES 73

Chrislk02, Lee, Kozuch, Editor at Large, NMChico24, Omicronpersei8, Lo2u, Thijs!bot, Epbr123, King Bee, Subliminal., Jmg38, Iironmunat, Daniel, Mojo Hand, Mdawg728, Headbomb, Djfeldman, Marek69, Bruske, West Brom 4ever, Frank, Picus viridis, Cool Blue,BehnamFarid, Kislay, G4rfunkel, Sven Erixon, Dr. Friendly, Dfrg.msc, NigelR, CharlotteWebb, The Hybrid, Ludde23, Michael A. White,Eddie Tor, Pruy0001, Wikidenizen, Natalie Erin, Amun1, RoboServien, Escarbot, Oreo Priest, Dantheman531, Mentifisto, Porqin, Kraka-toaKatie, Gossamers, AntiVandalBot, Teentje, Chaleyer61, Majorly, Yonatan, Sebeex3, Luna Santin, Adammgriggs, Wengero, Quintote,DarkAudit, Drakonicon, D. 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2.2 Images• File:Alexander_the_Great,_100_B.C.E._–_100_C.E.,_54.162.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/

Alexander_the_Great%2C_100_B.C.E._%E2%80%93_100_C.E.%2C_54.162.jpg License: ? Contributors: Brooklyn Museum Original

74 CHAPTER 2. TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

artist: Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund• File:All_Gizah_Pyramids.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/All_Gizah_Pyramids.jpg License: CC

BY-SA 2.0 Contributors: All Gizah Pyramids Original artist: Ricardo Liberato• File:Ancient_Egypt_map-en.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Ancient_Egypt_map-en.svg License:

GFDL Contributors: Own work. See [#References #References] for references used creating the map.Original artist: Jeff Dahl

• File:Ancient_Egyptian_Seafaring_Ship.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Ancient_Egyptian_Seafaring_Ship.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Memphis University Press Original artist: Hateshepsut Deir-Bahari temple wallrelief

• File:Ancient_Egyptian_medical_instruments.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Ancient_Egyptian_medical_instruments.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: self-made, taken May 2005 Original artist: Jeff Dahl

• File:Anubis_attending_the_mummy_of_Sennedjem.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Anubis_attending_the_mummy_of_Sennedjem.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: website Original artist: self

• File:BD_Hunefer.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/BD_Hunefer.jpg License: Public domain Contrib-utors: Jon Bodsworth (photographer) Original artist: unknown Egyptian artisan

• File:Babylonian_marriage_market.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Babylonian_marriage_market.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Originally from en.wikipedia; description page is/was here. 23 May 2007 (original upload date).Original uploader was Briangotts at en.wikipedia Original artist: Edwin Long

• File:Camel_and_the_pyramids.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Camel_and_the_pyramids.jpg Li-cense: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: kallerna

• File:Centres_of_origin_and_spread_of_agriculture.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Centres_of_origin_and_spread_of_agriculture.svg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Joey Roe

• File:Ceremonial_Vessel_LACMA_AC1997.93.1.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Ceremonial_Vessel_LACMA_AC1997.93.1.jpg License: Public domain Contributors:

• Image: http://collections.lacma.org/sites/default/files/remote_images/piction/ma-31963494-O3.jpg Original artist: ?• File:ClaySumerianSickle.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/ClaySumerianSickle.jpg License: CC BY

2.0 Contributors: ? Original artist: ?• File:Commons-logo.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg License: ? Contributors: ? Original

artist: ?• File:Cscr-featured.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e7/Cscr-featured.svg License: ? Contributors: ? Original

artist: ?• File:Cylinder_seal_lions_Louvre_MNB1167_n2.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Cylinder_seal_

lions_Louvre_MNB1167_n2.jpg License: CC BY 3.0 Contributors: Marie-Lan Nguyen (2010) Original artist: Marie-Lan Nguyen• File:Dancing_girl.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Dancing_girl.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contrib-

utors: Own work Original artist: Jen with modifications by Ismoon 20 February 2012 (earlier version by Calliopejen1)• File:Edwin_Smith_Papyrus_v2.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Edwin_Smith_Papyrus_v2.jpg Li-

cense: Public domain Contributors: Edited version of Image:EdSmPaPlateVIandVIIPrintsx.jpg Original artist: Jeff Dahl• File:Egypt.Giza.Sphinx.02.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Egypt.Giza.Sphinx.02.jpg License: CC-

BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: Most likely Hamish2k, the first uploader Original artist: Most likely Hamish2k, the first uploader• File:EgyptFrontispiece.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/EgyptFrontispiece.jpg License: Public do-

main Contributors: http://www.daheshmuseum.org/collection/gr/egyptFrontispiece_a.jpg Transferred from en.wikipedia; transfer wasstated to be made by User:SnowFire. Original artist: Original uploader was SnowFire at en.wikipedia

• File:Egypt_NK_edit.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Egypt_NK_edit.svg License: CC BY-SA 3.0Contributors: Modified from en:Image:Egypt_1450_BC.svg by en:User:Andrei Nacu, modified by uploader Original artist: Original byen:User:Andrei Nacu, edits by Jeff Dahl

• File:Egypte_louvre_231_visage.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Egypte_louvre_231_visage.jpg Li-cense: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: Own work (Guillaume Blanchard) Original artist: ?

• File:Egypte_louvre_316.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Egypte_louvre_316.jpg License: CC BY-SA 1.0 Contributors: Guillaume Blanchard, Juillet 2004, Fujifilm S6900 Original artist: Unknown

• File:Egyptian-Chariot.png Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Egyptian-Chariot.png License: Public do-main Contributors: Scanned from Nineveh and Its Palaces, by Joseph Bonomi, figure 108 Original artist: Joseph Bonomi

• File:Egyptian_Doctor_healing_laborers_on_papyrus.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Egyptian_Doctor_healing_laborers_on_papyrus.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own workFlickr photo Original artist: GoShow

• File:Egyptian_Domesticated_Animals.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Egyptian_Domesticated_Animals.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Scanned from 1000 Fragen an die Natur, via The Metropolitan Museum of Art, RogersFund, 1948. Original artist: Unknown

• File:Egyptian_glass_jar.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Egyptian_glass_jar.jpg License: Copy-righted free use Contributors: http://www.egyptarchive.co.uk/html/louvre_museum/louvre_museum_frame.html Original artist: JonBodsworth

• File:Elephantseal1.JPG Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Elephantseal1.JPG License: CC BY-SA 4.0Con-tributors: Own work Original artist: Royroydeb

• File:Fayum-22.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Fayum-22.jpg License: Public domain Contributors:? Original artist: ?

2.2. IMAGES 75

• File:Flag_of_Egypt.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Flag_of_Egypt.svg License: CC0 Contributors:From the Open Clip Art website. Original artist: Open Clip Art

• File:Folder_Hexagonal_Icon.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/48/Folder_Hexagonal_Icon.svg License: Cc-by-sa-3.0 Contributors: ? Original artist: ?

• File:Hathor_Menkaure_Bat_triad_fourth_dynasty_Cairo_Museum.JPG Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b4/Hathor_Menkaure_Bat_triad_fourth_dynasty_Cairo_Museum.JPG License: PD Contributors: ? Original artist: ?

• File:Hypostyle_hall,_Karnak_temple.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Hypostyle_hall%2C_Karnak_temple.jpg License: Copyrighted free use Contributors: http://www.egyptarchive.co.uk/html/karnak_html/karnak_12.htmlOriginal artist: Jon Bodsworth

• File:IVC-major-sites-2.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/IVC-major-sites-2.jpg License: Public do-main Contributors: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/pakistan_rel96.jpg Original artist: US Federal Central Intelli-gence Agency (CIA)

• File:Il_tempio_di_Hatshepsut.JPG Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Il_tempio_di_Hatshepsut.JPG Li-cense: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Andrea Piroddi

• File:IndusSkull.JPG Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/IndusSkull.JPG License: CC BY-SA 4.0 Contribu-tors: Own work Original artist: Royroydeb

• File:IndusValleySeals.JPG Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/IndusValleySeals.JPG License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: Self-photographed Original artist: World Imaging

• File:Indus_Valley_Civilization,_Early_Phase_(3300-2600_BCE).png Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Indus_Valley_Civilization%2C_Early_Phase_%283300-2600_BCE%29.png License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Origi-nal artist: Avantiputra7

• File:Indus_Valley_Civilization,_Late_Phase_(1900-1300_BCE).png Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Indus_Valley_Civilization%2C_Late_Phase_%281900-1300_BCE%29.png License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Originalartist: Avantiputra7

• File:Indus_Valley_Civilization,_Mature_Phase_(2600-1900_BCE).png Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Indus_Valley_Civilization%2C_Mature_Phase_%282600-1900_BCE%29.png License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Orig-inal artist: Avantiputra7

• File:Indusseal.JPG Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Indusseal.JPG License: CC BY-SA 4.0 Contributors:Own work Original artist: Royroydeb

• File:Jar,_Indus_Valley_Tradition,_Harappan_Phase,_Quetta,_Southern_Baluchistan,_Pakistan,_c._2500-1900_BC_-_Royal_Ontario_Museum_-_DSC09717.JPG Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Jar%2C_Indus_Valley_Tradition%2C_Harappan_Phase%2C_Quetta%2C_Southern_Baluchistan%2C_Pakistan%2C_c._2500-1900_BC_-_Royal_Ontario_Museum_-_DSC09717.JPG License: CC0 Contributors: Daderot Original artist: Daderot

• File:Ka_Statue_of_horawibra.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Ka_Statue_of_horawibra.jpg Li-cense: Copyrighted free use Contributors: http://www.egyptarchive.co.uk/html/cairo_museum_24.html Original artist: Jon Bodsworth

• File:Khafre_statue.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Khafre_statue.jpg License: Copyrighted free useContributors: http://www.egyptarchive.co.uk/html/cairo_museum_10.html Original artist: Jon Bodsworth

• File:Knapp_of_Howar_2.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Knapp_of_Howar_2.jpg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: ? Original artist: ?

• File:Language_Maps_Known_Egyptian_World_1.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Language_Maps_Known_Egyptian_World_1.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: John D. Croft

• File:Lilith_Periodo_de_Isin_Larsa_y_Babilonia.JPG Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Lilith_Periodo_de_Isin_Larsa_y_Babilonia.JPG License: Public domain Contributors: Own work Original artist: Manuel Parada López de Corselas User:Manuel de Corselas ARS SUMMUM, Centro para el Estudio y Difusión Libres de la Historia del Arte

• File:Llama,_peru,_machu_picchu.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Llama%2C_peru%2C_machu_picchu.jpg License: CC BY-SA 2.5 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Schuyler Shepherd

• File:Lothal_dock.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Lothal_dock.jpg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contrib-utors: English Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:A006_%28Small%29.jpg Original artist: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Rama%27s_Arrow

• File:Louvre-antiquites-egyptiennes-p1020372_Cropped_and_bg_reduced.png Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Louvre-antiquites-egyptiennes-p1020372_Cropped_and_bg_reduced.png License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Originalby User:Rama, photoshop cropped and background darkened version by User:Jeff Dahl Original artist: Original by User:Rama, photoshopcropped and background darkened version by User:Jeff Dahl

• File:LowClassAncientEgyptianStatuettes.png Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/13/LowClassAncientEgyptianStatuettes.png License: PD-US Contributors:The outline of history, being a plain history of life and mankind. New York: The Macmillan.Original artist:Wells, H. G.

• File:Maler_der_Grabkammer_der_Nefertari_003.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Maler_der_Grabkammer_der_Nefertari_003.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. Original artist: Maler der Grabkammer der Nefertari

• File:Maler_der_Grabkammer_des_Sennudem_001.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Maler_der_Grabkammer_des_Sennudem_001.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. Original artist: Painter of the burial chamber ofSennedjem

76 CHAPTER 2. TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

• File:Measure_and_Harvest005.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Measure_and_Harvest005.jpg Li-cense: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Guiness, Alma E.."Reader’s Digest: Mysteries of the Bible: The Enduring Question of the Scrip-tures”.Pleasantville, New York/Montreal.The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.1988.ISBN: 0-89577-293-0 Original artist: Alma E. Guin-ness

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