LECTURE #2: YOU ARE WHAT YOU WRITE: Writing as Prerequisite to the First States

First writing, Sumerians and Egyptians, around 3500-3200 B.C.E

I. The Birth of Writing

   A. Cuneiform: 3500 BCE

   B. Hieroglyph: 3,300 BCE until 394 CE in Egypt

   C. Phonetic Alphabet:

Semitic speaking miners in Egypt

D. Stages of Writing

1. Pictographs (c.3500 - 3000 B.C.E.).

2. Ideographs (c.3000 - 2100 B.C.E.).

3. Rebus writing (c.2100 - 1000 B.C.E.).

4. Phonetic alphabet (c. 1000 B.C.E. to the present).

II. Writing and Leading in between the Rivers:

A. Mesopotamia:

meso=middle

potamia=river

The people between the Tigris and the Euphrates.

B. How they organized their world:

               1. Three main crops:

                           Barley, dates, sesame seeds

                           Elaborate system of trade and barter.

2. They worshipped at ziggurats:

THE AMAZING ZIGGURThe ziggurat at Ur, dedicated to the moon god Nanna, completed around 2110 BCE by King Shulgi:

They also worshiped the following:

Enlil                                Supreme god and god of air

Ishtar                  goddess of fertility and life

Enki                                god of water and underworld

An                                  god of heaven

Shimash             god of sun and giver of law

How did King Shulgi maintain power? Through writing:

Here is what he had to say about one of his  political opponents:

"He is spawn of a dog, seed of a wolf, a helpless hyena's whelp, and an addlepated mountain monkey whose reasoning is nonsensical!"

Sumeria important for many reasons:

First to use the wheel, the first to use arches and inclined walls and columns, the first to use the plow, and the first to create a 12 month calendar, as well as a system of math that would become the 60 minute hour and 60 second minute.

After Shulgi, the Sumerians would decline, eventually invaded and conquered by Sargon, king of the Akkadians.

C. Mesopotamia under Gilgamesh:

 King Gilgamesh, Anu, Enkidu, Shamhat, Humbaba

The Epic of Gilgamesh         

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOrfrHys8g8   

D. Mesopotamia under King Hammurabi

1. General Info:

--ruled Babylonia from 1792-1750 BCE, leader of the Amorites, ruled what we know as the Babylonian Empire, worshiped Marduk as his chief god.

2. Hammurabi created an early legal code:

   Why create law?

Hamurrabi’s answer:

“To cause justice to prevail in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil, to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak, and to further the welfare of the people.”

WHAT IS MORE POWERFUL, LAW OR CUSTOM?

Look at the code: What is valued in Hammurabi’s world? What types of laws are represented?

III. Conclusion: Writing as a matter of life and death

“Writing means sharing. It's part of the human condition to want to share things - thoughts, ideas, opinions.”  Paulo Coelho