BEGINNINGS OF THE GREEKS
(FINISH UP LAST LECTURE)
HEBREWS: ANOTHER NEW (MUCH SMALLER) PRINCIPALITY OF THE 2ND C BC
Early history
It's difficult to narrate the early history of the Hebrews because the earliest parts of the Old Testament (the Hebrew Bible) weren't composed until the 10th century BC or after, so hundreds or (in case of Genesis) thousands of years after the events they relate.
It seems likely that the Hebrews were among the various Semitic speaking groups who begin to move around the Near East in the third millennium BCE
- Biblical narrative
Abraham was said in the Hebrew Bible to have migrated from Ur (a city in Mesopotamia) to the land of Canaan (Palestine).
This might have been around 1800 BCE.
According to the Bible, Abraham's great- grandson Joseph - brought the Hebrews to Egypt.
There they lived for generations until Moses (a man with an Egyptian name) led them out of Egypt, miraculously crossed the Red Sea, and made a covenant with Yahweh.
After wandering through the desert, the Hebrews returned to Canaan ("the Promised land") and conquered it.
Other evidence for early Hebrews
This is the story in the Bible.
Very little of it can be confirmed by archaeological or other textual evidence.
The earliest external reference to Israel comes from the
Stele of Merneptah - late 13th century BC - an inscription on a standing rock put up by an Egyptian pharaoh who was bragging about a victory in Palestine - including a victory over a people called "Israel"
So it would seem that the Hebrews were in Palestine from the 13th century BCE.
But these early Hebrews were a weak people - surrounded by powerful and sophisticated neighbors.
Kingdom of Israel
10th century BC
In late 11th century BC, the Hebrews had their first king - Saul, followed by David and his son Solomon.
These kings made Jerusalem their capital and had at their peak a kingdom approaching the size of modern Israel - still tiny by their neighbors' standards.
As we've seen before, political unification went hand in hand with learning how to write - the earliest bits of Old Testament date from this period, the 10th century.
Borrowings from neighbors
Most aspects of technology they borrowed from their neighbors - their form of writing from ancient Palestinians (Canaanites), iron weapons from the Philistines, architecture of their temple from the Philistines.
Many of the Hebrews' early religious stories were derived from other Near Eastern cultures - stories picked up during their wanderings, or from their immediate neighbors.
account of Noah's flood shows up in Sumerian epic
Early Hebrew Law - the Ten Commandments - had a lot in common with other Near Eastern law codes like Hammurabi's - only simpler.
Monotheistic religion
What was special about the Hebrews was their monotheism and the way they formalized this monotheism into a holy book - the Hebrew Bible.
All of the other peoples we have been talking about worshiped multiple gods.
From an early period, the Hebrews vowed to worship Yahweh above all gods.
Eventually, they regarded Yahweh as the only god who existed, and a god who demanded a strong moral commitment from his people.
Formalization of their religion belongs to period after the independent Israel - to the period when the Hebrews were being defeated and deported by their more powerful neighbors.
End of the independent Hebrew State
Unlike the Assyrians, the Hebrews never created a mighty empire, they never became very wealthy or numerous, they didn't even remain independent more than a few centuries.
By 722, an Assyrian king (Tiglath-Pileser III) had conquered Israel
The century after that, a Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar (II) (Neo-Babylonians had replaced the Assyrians) took the other Hebrew kingdom, Judah, and Jerusulem, (597)
He destroyed the temple and deported many Hebrews to Babylon, "the Babylonian captivity."
It was in the period of foreign domination that the Hebrew Bible started to come together (by 5th century Torah compiled) and the Jewish prophets write.
The Hebrews would never have another truly independent state until the 20th century.
But they were able to transmit their culture without a state – by becoming a society centered around a text
SUMMARY
Migrations after 2000: IndoEuropean and Semitic speakers into western Asia and (in the former case), Europe.
Chariot-warfare helped them gain footholds, but still dependent on older civilizations for much of their culture other than warfare.
12th-century crisis led to destruction of most of the older civilization; formation of new states
Assyrians – built up first great multiethnic empire
Hebrews - religious innovators
Both serve as transmitters of much of ancient Near Eastern culture - esp. Mesopotamian.
II. MYCENAEANS and Dark age
A. The Mycenaeans were the first Greeks, who flourished from 1600 - 1200 BCE.
Which language family? (Indo-European)
Geography of the Greeks:
the Mediterranean Sea
To understand these early Greeks, you have to understand their geography -
(MAP)
Greece is not a fertile region.
Its biggest natural advantage is ready access to the sea - the Mediterranean Sea.
Early Greeks soon depended on the sea for communication and survival - not rivers like the Mesopotamians or Egyptians.
The sea connected the early Greeks with one another -
Early Greeks traveled as traders to Crete, Palestine, Egypt, and Asia Minor (MAP)
(shipwreck at Ulul Burun (Kas) of sw Turkey - Mycenaean trade)
From these older civilizations, they learned things - they learned how to write from the Minoans of Crete
Political system:
Palace societies
The political and economic system of these Mycenaean Greeks was centered on the palaces of their war chiefs (chiefs called kings - wanax).
There were many different chiefs - not one.
(This was not a centralized political system as we saw in Egypt, nor did the Mycenaeans have city-states)
These chiefs owned the most land, and controlled the craftsmen and traders (this was not a market economy).
Warlike character of Mycenaean society
As we'll see next week - the Greeks become famous for their intellectual attainments - invention of democracy, drama, philosophy - and so on.
But these early Greeks were warriors and traders (or raiders), not intellectuals -
As far as we know, they didn't write anything except fiscal records - no literature
They buried their chiefs with weapons.
They loved to paint pictures of men fighting - with the horse and war-chariot that the Indo-Europeans had brought to Europe. (IMAGE)
Military expansion
They begin to conquer other peoples -
First Crete (ca. 1365)
Coast of Asia Minor
Around 1200 BC, the Mycenaeans attacked a city of Asia Minor
called Troy.
This conflict forms the historical kernal to the Iliad of Homer, which was composed in its final form centuries later (8th century BC).
But soon after this campaign in Asia Minor, Mycenaean civilization collapsed.
The Mycenaean palaces and citadels are abandoned, the tholos tombs stop being built,
Greeks forget how to write - they become once again illiterate agriculturalists - like the other peoples of
Europe.
Greece enters the Greek Dark Age. for four hundred years (1200-800 BC)
But the stories of the great Mycenaean age continued to be told - oral poets sung about the siege of Troy - creating stories which eventually will make their way into Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.
The Mycenaean gods - Zeus, Hera, Dionysus - continued to be worshipped by the Greeks.
The classical Greeks we will talk about next week are recognizably the descendants of these Mycenaeans of the 2nd millenium.
Part of a wider disruption of the ancient Near East (and indeed other parts of the world) that scientists are currently trying to explain.
B. Greek Dark Ages (Lerner 155 – 7)
Greece was in the Greek Dark Age. for four hundred years (1150 - 800 BC)
Greek Society in Dark Age
basileus : leaders of aristocratic clans commanded local armies and ships, not organized states
women worked in home esp. at weaving (Penelope) but not excluded from male society: could receive male guests
Religion: polytheistic; aimed at obtaining earthly benefits like health, victory, good weather (similar to Sumerian religion); no clear belief in the afterlife – so achievements on earth are what mattered
- Towards 800 BC, the Near East began to emerge from an economic depression.
Trade picked up - and Greeks travelled to Egypt, Asia Minor, etc. - as both traders and soldiers for hire (mercenaries)
Rediscovery of writing
Political change went hand in hand with rediscovery of writing.
Greeks drew on Phoenician alphabet (symbols for consonants); Greeks added vowels
Literacy more widespread with alphabet than with syllabic writing systems like cuneiform or hieroglyphics
Beginnings of the polis
Once again, political change went hand in hand with discovery of writing.
It's only after 800 BC that the most important Greek institution takes shape - the polis - or Greek city-state.
The polis began to develop ca. 750 BC, before this Greeks lived in villages and farms
Aristocratic clans controlled the earliest cities.
Many competing Greek city-states
These Greeks were not unified.
Sparta and Athens are the best known classical Greek city states; but there were many - about 130 city statesin mainland Greece and Ionia; over 1500 in Mediterranean as a whole.
Until the Alexander the Great, these city-states never united into one state - they were independent nations; constantly fighting each other; each with a different constitution - some democratic like Athens, others military aristocracies like Sparta.
Hoplite Warfare
Through this constant warfare, Greeks developed a novel sort of warfare.
Instead of aristocrats with their war chariots, the Greeks started to rely on middle-class infantry - the hoplites.
The Greek hoplites would form into a line - a phalanx, shoulder to shoulder, each holding a shield which would partly protect his neighbor, and thrust at the enemy with a spear.
The discipline and courage it took to withstand foreign cavalry on foot like this was significant, and the Greeks in the front row had a very good chance of dying.
But the men behind, would step into their place.
We will see the advantages this warfare gave Greeks over Persians.
Connection between Greek warfare and democracy
Polis is characterized by sense of collective membership - citizenship.
In a Greek polis, citizens were in control - not warrior aristocrats like Achilles
Colonization movement - spread of Greek polis throughout
Mediterranean
Greeks traveled as mercenaries and traders.
Then they began to settle - colonization peaking 735 to 600 BC (MAP)
Southern Italy / Sicily became mostly Greek: Magna Graecia
One thing colonization did for Greeks was popularize
practice of inventing new city-governments: colonists could establish new
practices if they didn't like the old.
Unlike Egyptians, the Greeks did not have stable society
Next, I will briefly described the constitutions of the two
most famous - Sparta and Athens, who were at opposite extremes of the political
spectrum - and then describe how their form of government helped them defeat
the Persians.