ANCIENT HISTORY
Lecture notes
Made by Janneke Doff
, Lectures Ancient History
Week 1 Bronze Age
Ancient history is foundational for our lives now, seeds for the current society are
found there (like: hierarchy, believe, trade, inequality etc)
Who’s ancient history are we looking at? We look at the Greeks and the romans for
our western society, these are seen as more important than other societies. But there
are also outside of Europe important societies, like in north America and in the east.
Focus on the Mediterranean societies for this course.
3000 – 1000 BCE Bronze age
Four questions:
The emergence of complex societies in the Near East
1. How did complex societies arise?
We are in Iraq in UR, there was found a box (called standard of UR) around 2600-
2400 BCE, we don’t know the use. It is important because it can tells us about the
society that made it. It was found in Ur one of the first cities and this box helps
understand this time. What is this book: material: wood and mosaic (this material
comes from Afghanistan, also the red comes from India and other elements from
other societies), it shows society that was needed to create such a box ( an
agricultural surplus was needed, mobilising surplus to trade for luxury products,
structure of power and control that allows for this trade along extended trade
routes, craftsmen needed specialisation). On the box we see a social hierarchy
from the bottom to the top. King you can see because he is pictured bigger than the
rest (normal for art in Ancient History). We see a new class that can have the
higher power to take the role of leader in this new society system. On the other
side of the box we can see what the king hast to do to keep his power and land
save, we see an army with the king as leader and we see prisoners stripped of their
cloths. We can also see horses on the box moving and that is very modern as well.
This object gives us a good look of the lives in Ur and how the new society works.
2. How did rulers govern these new societies
Military force (warrior class got paid in land and they were supported by the state)
Ideology: religion and cosmologies (rulers can use this to keep their control on the
society)
But also: writing as a form of social control (Writing clay tablet, this one is found
in Uruk, on the tablet spijkerschrift is used, one of the earliest found items that still
survived this one is from between 3100 – 3000 BCE. This tablet gives information
about beer rations and trade information. Early literature was used for things
humans could not remember, it developed for administration, later it will be used
for more emotional texts. Writing was used to keep big places like palaces
running.) Why is writing important? It helps us learning about ancient societies,
but it is also change how humans life: 1. It helps to develop mathematic because
we need writing to be able to solve things 2. You create with writing new
government forms etc, it helped with the needs. Writing was developed separately
in different parts of the world. Writing was also used for diplomacy: envoys &
correspondence.
Connectivity in the Bronze age
3. The first globalisation?
The rise and fall of the Bronze age connectivity: Late Bronze Age ‘Concert of
nations’. There where huge powers. We have a lot of sources for this period, for
1
, example for the international trade (for example we have the Uluburun shipwreck,
the contents that was found on the ship can tell us a lot about the trade in this
period, there was copper, jewellery, species for example on the boat)
4. How do we explain the Bronze Age Collapse?
The simultaneous destruction of many sites c 1200. Proxy: the decline in number
of shipwreck (this says that there were less trade in this time). Confirms the Fall of
Troy (c. 1180)? This was a great city and something happened to it around this
time. What happened? The culprits: the sea people, name for a phenomenon seen
in Egypt and Near Eastern sources, it is mysterious what they are. Other cause was
the climate change, like drought and Famines. Other cause earthquakes. Other part
that played maybe political unrest? There is not one single factor that caused it but
there were multiple factor that caused the collapse, it was called a polycrisis. We
can talk about systems collapse symptoms (information on the picture).
Stone age (neolithic) Bronze age Iron age
Neolithic revolution 10000 – 9000 BC: agriculture, domestication of animals, pottery
Hunter became famers
Sheep, goat, pigs and cattle where domesticated
Pottery was for storage very important
The revolution spread over the world individually from each other
The Fertile Crescent: irrigation agriculture
Irrigation channels
Regular harvest
Grains are easily stored
Why where this changes important? It transition us in to a new life style.
Consequences: economic: sedentary agriculture, demographic: rise of population,
social: larger permanent settlements, social differentiation, specialisation of labour,
technological: innovation leads to use of metal (copper and later bronze)
The development of writing
The Bronze age:
Bronze Alloy of copper and tin
Improved tools and weapons
Not found together (copper an tin), societies had to work together to move copper and
tin around
Connectivity is cause and effect (globalisation?)
Ur, an early city
Mesopotamia in the early bronze age (3000 – 2000 BCE):
o 2900-2300 Early dynastic period: Sumer Ur, Lagash and Akkad
Sumerian city states
Temple was the centre of the states
Invitations: mathematics, astronomy, cuneiform script
o 2300-2100: rise of Akkad (King Sargon)
Centralisation
Devine kingship
Global Ambitions
o 2100-2000: Renaissance of Sumer (Ur)
Palace more important than the temple
Ziggurat
o C. 2000 destruction by Amorites and Elamites
Mesopotamia in the middle bronze age (c. 2000 – 1600):
o C. 2000 – 1800 Old Assyrian Empire in Assur (North):
2
, City of Assur benefits from trade with Anatolia
Kingship
Dominance in N. Mesopotamia
o C. 1800 – 1600 Old Babylonian empire:
C. 1700 Hammurabi rules Mesopotamia and issues law code
Disintegration under successors
Establishment of the Kassite dynasty (after 1600)
Egypt in the early Bronze Age: different from Mesopotamia it is very isolated
Middle Bronze Age c. 2100 – 1800 Egypt
Aegean: early bronze age
They did not have big buildings, lesser people and lesser hierarchy
2. 3200 – 2200 early middle Cycladic: small island communities, intensive maritime
connections, figurines.
Mainland – early to middle Helladic: small communities
Aegean: middle Bronze Age
Minoan Crete: c. 1900 – 1550
Palaces: Knossos for example
Minoan influence over southern Aegean
So there where different societies with the same development at similar times.
This development happened all around the world
Bronze Age societies: common features
o Politically and militarily:
Palac as the centre of society
Kingship nearly universal
Warrior elites and chariots
o Social and economic:
Redistribution
Writing and administration
Converging material culture (NB. not identical)
o High degree of interconnectivity:
Trade
Warfare
Diplomacy
Redistribution, but palaces main interest was its own need, exchange with other states,
part of production/trade not in the hands of palaces.
There was a big social network for diplomacy in the Bronze Age.
Systems collapse symptoms:
o The central administrative organizations (palaces) are weakened
o The central economic processes (trade, taxation, redistribution) supporting the
system crash
o The traditional elite class is under threat and disappears (replaced)
o Number and size of settlements contracts
o Population decline and shift (< lover birth rate, migrations)
Week 2 The Iron Age & Archaic Period
The Early Iron Age (1000 – 750 BC)
1. Recovery and new beginnings in the Near East
o Innovation in the Early Iron Age: Iron and Steel (was for luxury goods),
use of Iron spread around 900 BC from Egypt.
3
Lecture notes
Made by Janneke Doff
, Lectures Ancient History
Week 1 Bronze Age
Ancient history is foundational for our lives now, seeds for the current society are
found there (like: hierarchy, believe, trade, inequality etc)
Who’s ancient history are we looking at? We look at the Greeks and the romans for
our western society, these are seen as more important than other societies. But there
are also outside of Europe important societies, like in north America and in the east.
Focus on the Mediterranean societies for this course.
3000 – 1000 BCE Bronze age
Four questions:
The emergence of complex societies in the Near East
1. How did complex societies arise?
We are in Iraq in UR, there was found a box (called standard of UR) around 2600-
2400 BCE, we don’t know the use. It is important because it can tells us about the
society that made it. It was found in Ur one of the first cities and this box helps
understand this time. What is this book: material: wood and mosaic (this material
comes from Afghanistan, also the red comes from India and other elements from
other societies), it shows society that was needed to create such a box ( an
agricultural surplus was needed, mobilising surplus to trade for luxury products,
structure of power and control that allows for this trade along extended trade
routes, craftsmen needed specialisation). On the box we see a social hierarchy
from the bottom to the top. King you can see because he is pictured bigger than the
rest (normal for art in Ancient History). We see a new class that can have the
higher power to take the role of leader in this new society system. On the other
side of the box we can see what the king hast to do to keep his power and land
save, we see an army with the king as leader and we see prisoners stripped of their
cloths. We can also see horses on the box moving and that is very modern as well.
This object gives us a good look of the lives in Ur and how the new society works.
2. How did rulers govern these new societies
Military force (warrior class got paid in land and they were supported by the state)
Ideology: religion and cosmologies (rulers can use this to keep their control on the
society)
But also: writing as a form of social control (Writing clay tablet, this one is found
in Uruk, on the tablet spijkerschrift is used, one of the earliest found items that still
survived this one is from between 3100 – 3000 BCE. This tablet gives information
about beer rations and trade information. Early literature was used for things
humans could not remember, it developed for administration, later it will be used
for more emotional texts. Writing was used to keep big places like palaces
running.) Why is writing important? It helps us learning about ancient societies,
but it is also change how humans life: 1. It helps to develop mathematic because
we need writing to be able to solve things 2. You create with writing new
government forms etc, it helped with the needs. Writing was developed separately
in different parts of the world. Writing was also used for diplomacy: envoys &
correspondence.
Connectivity in the Bronze age
3. The first globalisation?
The rise and fall of the Bronze age connectivity: Late Bronze Age ‘Concert of
nations’. There where huge powers. We have a lot of sources for this period, for
1
, example for the international trade (for example we have the Uluburun shipwreck,
the contents that was found on the ship can tell us a lot about the trade in this
period, there was copper, jewellery, species for example on the boat)
4. How do we explain the Bronze Age Collapse?
The simultaneous destruction of many sites c 1200. Proxy: the decline in number
of shipwreck (this says that there were less trade in this time). Confirms the Fall of
Troy (c. 1180)? This was a great city and something happened to it around this
time. What happened? The culprits: the sea people, name for a phenomenon seen
in Egypt and Near Eastern sources, it is mysterious what they are. Other cause was
the climate change, like drought and Famines. Other cause earthquakes. Other part
that played maybe political unrest? There is not one single factor that caused it but
there were multiple factor that caused the collapse, it was called a polycrisis. We
can talk about systems collapse symptoms (information on the picture).
Stone age (neolithic) Bronze age Iron age
Neolithic revolution 10000 – 9000 BC: agriculture, domestication of animals, pottery
Hunter became famers
Sheep, goat, pigs and cattle where domesticated
Pottery was for storage very important
The revolution spread over the world individually from each other
The Fertile Crescent: irrigation agriculture
Irrigation channels
Regular harvest
Grains are easily stored
Why where this changes important? It transition us in to a new life style.
Consequences: economic: sedentary agriculture, demographic: rise of population,
social: larger permanent settlements, social differentiation, specialisation of labour,
technological: innovation leads to use of metal (copper and later bronze)
The development of writing
The Bronze age:
Bronze Alloy of copper and tin
Improved tools and weapons
Not found together (copper an tin), societies had to work together to move copper and
tin around
Connectivity is cause and effect (globalisation?)
Ur, an early city
Mesopotamia in the early bronze age (3000 – 2000 BCE):
o 2900-2300 Early dynastic period: Sumer Ur, Lagash and Akkad
Sumerian city states
Temple was the centre of the states
Invitations: mathematics, astronomy, cuneiform script
o 2300-2100: rise of Akkad (King Sargon)
Centralisation
Devine kingship
Global Ambitions
o 2100-2000: Renaissance of Sumer (Ur)
Palace more important than the temple
Ziggurat
o C. 2000 destruction by Amorites and Elamites
Mesopotamia in the middle bronze age (c. 2000 – 1600):
o C. 2000 – 1800 Old Assyrian Empire in Assur (North):
2
, City of Assur benefits from trade with Anatolia
Kingship
Dominance in N. Mesopotamia
o C. 1800 – 1600 Old Babylonian empire:
C. 1700 Hammurabi rules Mesopotamia and issues law code
Disintegration under successors
Establishment of the Kassite dynasty (after 1600)
Egypt in the early Bronze Age: different from Mesopotamia it is very isolated
Middle Bronze Age c. 2100 – 1800 Egypt
Aegean: early bronze age
They did not have big buildings, lesser people and lesser hierarchy
2. 3200 – 2200 early middle Cycladic: small island communities, intensive maritime
connections, figurines.
Mainland – early to middle Helladic: small communities
Aegean: middle Bronze Age
Minoan Crete: c. 1900 – 1550
Palaces: Knossos for example
Minoan influence over southern Aegean
So there where different societies with the same development at similar times.
This development happened all around the world
Bronze Age societies: common features
o Politically and militarily:
Palac as the centre of society
Kingship nearly universal
Warrior elites and chariots
o Social and economic:
Redistribution
Writing and administration
Converging material culture (NB. not identical)
o High degree of interconnectivity:
Trade
Warfare
Diplomacy
Redistribution, but palaces main interest was its own need, exchange with other states,
part of production/trade not in the hands of palaces.
There was a big social network for diplomacy in the Bronze Age.
Systems collapse symptoms:
o The central administrative organizations (palaces) are weakened
o The central economic processes (trade, taxation, redistribution) supporting the
system crash
o The traditional elite class is under threat and disappears (replaced)
o Number and size of settlements contracts
o Population decline and shift (< lover birth rate, migrations)
Week 2 The Iron Age & Archaic Period
The Early Iron Age (1000 – 750 BC)
1. Recovery and new beginnings in the Near East
o Innovation in the Early Iron Age: Iron and Steel (was for luxury goods),
use of Iron spread around 900 BC from Egypt.
3
