Episode 1 – “Climb the Stone Staircase”

>> The Viori Core Short moves with you. With everyday versatility and classic athletic fit. It's the one short for everything your day brings. Invest in your happiness, and get 20% off your first purchase at viori.com/core20. That's v-u-o-r-i.com/k-o-r-e-2-0. Exclusions apply, visit the website for full terms and conditions. >> Hi, this is Scott. If you're a fan of the ancient world, please help us get the word out. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and rate the series on iTunes. Thanks again for listening. >> Hi, I'm Scott Chesworth, and welcome to the ancient world. Episode one, climb the stone staircase. So, why am I doing this podcast? Well, I really, really love ancient history. I particularly love reading about historical firsts. The first time someone did something, or thought of something, or built something ever in human history. Especially things that are so commonplace in our modern world that we don't even give them a second thought nowadays. But really, the concepts of written language, or government, or the pyramids, the fact that nothing like that existed, and then somewhere in the ancient world, someone, or some group of people, came up with the idea and executed on it, and the world has never been the same since. That has always been very interesting to me. Now, of course, I'm also a big fan of the classical world, the Greeks, the Romans, and all that fun stuff. But the fact is that when I looked online for podcasts covering the beginnings of human civilization across the globe, it didn't seem like there were a ton out there. So I figured, if I can't find what I'm looking for, maybe I should just go ahead and create it. So hopefully you'll find it interesting, too. Long story short, what I'm planning to cover in this podcast series is an introduction to the various human civilizations that existed across the globe between the beginnings of recorded human history down through around 500 BC. We'll be looking at the Near East, Egypt, and the Mediterranean, China and India, as well as pre-Columbian Central and South America and beyond, and talking about early human achievements in the realms of religion and politics, construction and trade, science and warfare, and all the other aspects of early human civilization. Again, this is only intended as a broad survey and introduction, so I definitely invite you to dig deeper wherever your own interests may lie. A few words about the time frame. Ancient history starts with the invention of writing, which happened at different times in different places, but nowhere earlier than around 3,500 BC. The period before recorded history is known as prehistory, and most of what's known about it comes from either the archeological record or sometimes less reliably, but no less interestingly, from the stories and myths from prehistory that made their way into the earliest written records. The ending point for ancient history is a bit less well-defined, but for this podcast, I've decided to use 500 BC as a cutoff. This allows me to discuss the foundation of the Persian Empire, the archaic period of Greece, and the formation of the Roman Republic, among other subjects, without encroaching too far into the classical period, which has already been covered much more thoroughly and expertly in other podcasts. Since I'm not a professional historian, only in enthusiastic amateur, I also wanted to mention that I have no doubt I will screw up some names and dates, and particularly some pronunciations along the way, but I promise to do my best to keep the slipups to a minimum. The information and materials used to generate this podcast came from a wide variety of sources, including books, websites, and other podcasts. I've attempted to list my major references on the companion website, ancientworldpodcast.com, where I will also be posting photographs, maps, and other information to supplement the podcast. Okay, so let's start at the very beginning. Agriculture and irrigation. I know, I know, agriculture can be boring, and we all wanna get to armies and empires and conquests and betrayals and all that good stuff, and we will get there, trust me, but we really need to start with agriculture. The first steps toward civilization were taken around 10,000 BC, when modern humans in various parts of the ancient world began to domesticate plants and animals and settle in villages, usually near freshwater sources like rivers or lakes. The next major milestone came around 5,000 BC, with the invention of irrigation. To the best of our knowledge, the locations where irrigation was first practiced were in Mesopotamia, the land between rivers and modern-day Iraq, in Elam, which is located in modern-day Iran, and on the island of Crete. Other locations where irrigation was developed independently at a somewhat later date include Egypt, the Norte Chico region in modern-day Peru, Mesoamerica, essentially Central Southern Mexico, and along the Yellow River in China. The Near East and Crete got the jump on the rest of the ancient world irrigation-wise, due to a couple of key factors. The first was that these regions possessed exceptionally fertile flood plains. The second is that the Near East was home to the greatest number of plants and animals suitable for domestication, in other words, selective breeding to make them more useful to humans, particularly cereal crops and other staples that could be stored for long periods of time. Additionally, in Crete, the tactic of growing olives and vines on hillsides that were unsuitable for growing cereals also increased agricultural productivity. So why was irrigation such an important development? Well, simply put, irrigation led to agricultural surpluses growing more than was needed for mere human survival. These surpluses had to be stored somewhere, which led to the construction of the first public buildings. Both irrigation and the construction of public buildings requires an organized labor force and a labor force means you need an efficient system to collect food and then redistribute it as rations. So what kind of strong hand would emerge to guide such an effort? To see at least one way that question was answered, let's introduce one of the most important players on the stage of early human history, the Sumerians of Mesopotamia. The Sumerians were a mix of farmers, hunter fishermen, and nomadic pastoralists, all of whom were considered Sumerian in that they spoke a common Sumerian language. The early power brokers in Sumerian society were the priests, who positioned themselves as intermediaries between the people and the gods. They either thanked for their bounty or feared as the cause of ruinous floods and other disasters. Sumerians had a huge pantheon of gods over time growing into the thousands. But the main ones at the time were on key and end-lil, their offspring. Through their special role in Sumerian society, priests had the ability to motivate the population to construct and maintain public works by claiming that such efforts were mandated or at least looked upon favorably by the gods. Sir plus grain was stored in temples where priests controlled his collection, distribution, and trade. Again, all in the service of the gods, of course. In bad harvest years, priests loaned out grain in exchange for commodities or services or to be repaid with significant interest. In addition to the wealth and power tied to their central role in grain distribution, priests also owned land and supervised large temple staffs, including cooks, weavers, and musicians. Early evidence of the career specialization permitted by agricultural surplus. A structure of intensive year round agriculture, sustaining a priestly ruling class, is believed to have been practiced first at the Sumerian city of Eridu, around 5,000 BC. Eridu is commonly believed to be the world's oldest, continuously inhabited city, and was thought by the Sumerians to be one of only five cities built on Earth period before the Great Flood, which was a parallel Sumerian mythology to the biblical flood. The development of agriculture accelerated and spread with the invention of the plow, around 4,500 BC, and it was soon being practiced across the entire Sumerian region and beyond. Over the following centuries, Sumerian temples grew in size and cities grew up around the temples, with the priests continuing to exercise a strong influence over the ever-increasing population. Sumerian religion also changed and adapted in response to the increasing urbanization and Sumerian gods began to be associated with particular cities. For example, Enke, the god of freshwater, male fertility, and knowledge, nice grouping, by the way, became the patron god of Eridu. Around 3,500 BC came the Sumerian invention of writing. First begun when priests started using pictographs of common objects such as sheaves of grain to record food transactions. Over time, these pictographs evolved into abstract, wedge-shaped characters called "cuneiform" that were inscribed in clay with a pointed stick called a stylus. Along with agriculture, the invention of writing, the concept of pictorially representing sounds, objects, or ideas, is considered another major milestone along the path of human development. It is believed that writing was only invented independently by a handful of cultures across the world, Sumer, Manoan Crete, Shang Dynasty China, Egypt, the Indus Valley civilization, and the Olmec. From those locations, writing spread, changed, and developed over thousands of years into all the written languages that now exist across the world. To take one example, the English alphabet comes down to us from the Latins who adapted it from the Greeks, who adapted it from the Phoenicians through the addition of vowels, who adapted their writing system from a proto-canonite script, who adapted some of their phonetic elements from Egyptian hieroglyphics. See, it's just that simple. Priests were not the only important members of the crystallizing Sumerian power structure. Leaders of wealthy families formed councils of elders, which, in times of crisis, appointed a chief called a "Lugal", "Big Man", or "Nc", "Great Man". By 3,000 BC, Sumerian cities were fast expanding into city-states by taking control of surrounding villages, which ensured them a steady flow of food coming in from the countryside. This expansion eventually brought neighboring city-states into competition for land and water, resulting in warfare. Big Man, who led city-states into battle against their rivals and won great victories, remained in power and essentially became kings. These kings then further enhanced their prestige by building palaces near the temples, and thereby associating themselves with the grain supply, the priests, and the city gods. Trade also became important to the growth of the early Sumerian city-states, and also served as spread Sumerian culture throughout the surrounding region. Since the Sumerians had no local resources other than their fertile soil, commodities such as stone, timber, and metals all had to be imported through developing trade networks. Such trade networks were often managed by centralized bodies that grew wealthy from their control over import and distribution. Among the most precious metals in demand at the time were tin and copper, which around 3,000 BC were first combined by the Sumerians to make tin bronze. This development gave birth to the Bronze Age, the term that defined the next 2,000 years of human civilization. As in Egypt, which we'll be discussing shortly, Sumerian rulers were often buried with great treasures, and their retainers were put to death during the burial and accompanied their rulers into the afterlife. The wealth and power of Sumerian rulers stood in stark contrast to the multitude of slaves that populated the bottom rungs of Sumerian society, mainly foreigners seized in battle or from slave raids into the neighboring hills. In between these two extremes, many specialized occupations began to emerge to fill the needs of kings, priests, and the masses that lived within the city walls. Among the new job descriptions were scribes, merchants, woodworkers, copper smiths, and acres, and, oh yes, there were also brewers, who fermented mashed barley into ale, the Sumerian's favorite beverage. In addition to the invention of ale, which should be enough to put any civilization into the history books, Sumerians were also the first to develop written laws. These laws were often designed to reinforce the rulers' authority, as well as demonstrate his commitment to good governance to the city gods, but the laws also offered people at least some assurance that their rights and property would not be taken away from them arbitrarily. And in case ale and laws weren't enough, the Sumerians were also the first people to make extensive use of wheeled vehicles. Okay, have I made the point the Sumerians were innovative, then I'll move on. Among the strongest of the early Sumerian city-states were Ur and Uruk. Ur was situated close to the Persian Gulf and profited from maritime trade with other early civilizations to the east. It was defended by a massive city wall of mud brick and held a population of more than thirty thousand, a huge number in ancient times. Ur is also known as the traditional birthplace of the biblical Abraham. Uruk to the north along the Euphrates was even larger with more than fifty thousand inhabitants. This incidentally made it the largest city anywhere in the ancient world at that time. The walls of Uruk were supposedly built by the hero king Gilgamesh, who ruled the city around 2700 BC, a time of increasing violence between rival city-states. While Gilgamesh was likely a historical figure, he's best known as the protagonist of the legendary Epic of Gilgamesh, which originated as a series of Sumerian legends and poems before being fashioned into a longer Akkadian epic much later. At some point the story was inscribed on Bait Clay tablets that lay hidden for over two thousand years until rediscovered at Nineveh in modern-day Iraq in 1853. The Epic of Gilgamesh is rightfully called the world's first story, being at least a thousand years older than either the Iliad or the Bible. In addition to being a literary masterpiece, which it is, it also gives us valuable insights into the beliefs and practices of ancient Sumerian culture, in particular their views on death and the afterlife. I would encourage everyone to read it, particularly Stephen Mitchell's modern translation. It is a truly amazing work. Let's leave the Sumerians to enjoy their golden age for a while, and take a look at another ancient civilization that was taken root at around the same time, the Ilamites. The early Ilamite city of Susa was founded around 4,000 BC in the southwest of modern-day Iran, just to the east of Mesopotamia. The influence of Ilamite culture on the Persian plateau became prominent around 3,200 BC, and texts in the still undecided Proto-Ilamite writing system are present from this time down through around 2,700 BC. Unfortunately, we don't know a great deal about early Ilamite civilization, and what we do know mainly comes from contemporary Mesopotamian sources. At least three Ilamite city-states, Anshan, Awan and Samashki, merged to form Ilam. To this core group, the city of Shushiana was periodically annexed and then broken off again. The combined state of Ilam was formed around 2,700 BC primarily as a strengthened numbers type response to frequent Sumerian incursions. Stone, timber and metals were abundant on the Persian plateau, which was at least one reason why nearby civilizations had started to take more of an interest in the region. Strong Ilamite kings were able to hold the compound city-states together under a kind of federal system, which facilitated internal trade while fostering military cooperation against external threats, such as the Sumerians. The Ilamites will continue to be major players in the ancient Near East for some time, so we'll get to know them much better as we go along. Moving down across Asia Minor, south along the Levant, and into North Africa, we would witness the beginning of one of the most powerful and influential civilizations of the ancient world. Egypt at this time was primarily a land of villages, with the Nile serving as a communication conduit between them. The prevailing winds in Egypt blow from north to south, which enabled ships to travel upstream using sails, and then make the return journey downstream with the flow of the river. Along with its usefulness as a highway, the Nile was also critically important as the only freshwater source in Lansing virtually no rainfall. The yearly flooding of the Nile every July through October, the season of inundation, fed by torrential rains in Ethiopia, was regularly followed by a season of drought used for harvesting. The early Egyptians learned to master this cycle, and at some point, right on the heels of the Mesopotamians, began to implement intensive agricultural irrigation along the narrow fertile strip adjacent to the Nile. Beyond this strip, to the east and west, were deserts, which served to so effectively isolate Egypt that Egyptian civilization would be nearly 1500 years old before it experienced its first major foreign invasion. As in other ancient societies, the need for a strong hand to direct large-scale irrigation projects led to the emergence of leadership figures, in this case kings. With the founding of its first dynasty or ruling family, in around 3150 BC, Egyptian civilization officially enters the historical record. The concept of breaking down Egyptian history by ruling dynasties was given to us by by Manif-- Manito was a Greco-Egyptian priest who lived in Heliopolis in Egypt around 300 BC. He was also an advisor to King Potolome the First, the former general of Alexander the Great whose family ruled Egypt from 323 BC down until the death of Cleopatra in 30 BC. But now we're really getting ahead of ourselves. Anyway, as a priest and advisor to the king, Manito had access to the best available historical records of the time, including both scrolls and the inscriptions in temple walls, and use them to write his Egyptian history. In it, he divided Egyptian history into 30 ruling dynasties from the unification of Egypt around 3150 BC down to the death of the last native Egyptian Pharaoh, Noctonnebo II in 343 BC. A good rule of thumb to use for Egypt is the number 3, 30 native ruling dynasties between around 3,300 BC or 30 BC if you want to take things down through a Cleopatra. Manito's dynastic history has been corroborated by Egyptian kings lists and other sources, and presents a fairly realistic timeline of periods of rule with some notable exceptions. This is in contrast to Sumerian kings lists, which do not provide realistic periods of rule prior to around 2200 BC, before that many Sumerian kings were described as ruling for centuries, which makes them more legendary than historical. Egyptian civilization began, according to Manito, with the unification of the two lands, namely Upper and Lower Egypt, under one king. The first king of this ruling dynasty was named Scorpion, and the scanty evidence suggests that he may have only been king of Upper Egypt, the term given to the southern portion along the Nile. His depiction on the Scorpion Macehead, which gives us the king's name, show him wearing the tall white crown of Upper Egypt, and performing a ceremony that may represent the seasonal flooding of the fields, or possibly the founding of a temple or city. The depiction of small birds hanging by their necks was intended to suggest that those who opposed him did not end up very well. The villages of Upper Egypt that he conquered were all located within a narrow portion of the Nile floodplain, hemmed in by cliffs and desert, and it's not too surprising that this was the first area of Egypt to be united under a single ruler. It was up to the next king of this dynasty, named Norma, to complete the unification of Egypt, supposedly by marching his forces north to the Nile Delta and conquering Lower Egypt. In unifying Upper and Lower Egypt, Norma may have been assisted by the effects of a sustained regional drought in the preceding period, which had served to concentrate the population into an even narrower ban along the Nile than usual. It should be noted that some scholars believe that Norma may not have single-handedly unified Egypt through military conquest, but that he was instead merely a symbolic figure associated with the final stages of a unification that had been happening organically for some time. Regardless of the precise cause, the evidence we have for Egyptian unification is contained in the historically invaluable and artistically stunning Norma palette. The palette which probably served as a cosmetic aid for preparing eye paint depicts Norma on one side wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt, while threatening an asiatic captive whom he grabs by the hair with an upraised mace. This is the earliest known occurrence of what was to become an icon of majesty throughout the rest of Egyptian history, right down to Roman times. This image also tells us a few other things. First, even at this very early stage, Egypt was clearly already engaging with the Near East. Even if that engagement involved grabbing Near Easterners roughly by their hair. It's probably safe to assume that there were also other, more mutually beneficial, exchanges going on. Also, if you're like me when you hear of ancient armies marching into battle, you typically think of them using swords and armor. But as we discussed earlier, the Sumerians only started using tin bronze, giving them at least the capability to make metal armor and weapons a few hundred years after this time period, and they were the first civilization to do so. That means that the weapons used in this early stage of Egyptian warfare were still literally stone age weapons. There was the mace, its shape refined over thousands of years to inflict maximum damage, but still essentially a stone head with a wooden handle. There was also the bow in use in Egypt since at least 5,000 BC, and what is called the pre-dynastic period, and the spear used with a copper spearhead. Simple clubs and slings would have rounded out the period arsenal. Though they didn't use armor, Egyptian soldiers did use large wooden shields covered by leather hides. We're talking about very, very ancient warfare here. The widespread use of metal armor and weapons was still a little waste down the road. Turning to the armor palette, on the opposite side, armor is shown wearing the red crown of lower Egypt, implying that he is now king of both lands. The rows of decapitated captives reinforce the image of king as conqueror, as does the image of armor as a rampaging bull, breaching the walls of a fortified town, and crushing an enemy beneath his hooves. The scenes on another find, the armor mace head, show the king participating in a hebset festival, to renew his own potency, and through that the fertility of the land. Narmer, hill trample your enemies and keep your land fertile. There's a campaign slogan I'm guessing every ancient Egyptian could get behind. Narmer likely ruled from necken in Upper Egypt, a city with a population between 5 and 10,000 that was already several centuries old by the time he came to power. The city not only boasted Egypt's oldest known temple complex, dedicated to the Egyptian hot god Horus, but also a brewery capable of producing 300 gallons of beer per day. Aside from drinking beer and worshiping Horus, other staples of later Egyptian civilization, including mummification, painted tombs, and hieroglyphic writing, were also being practiced at necken even during this early period. Egypt's next ruler, Horaha, consolidated his predecessors military gains and also founded a new capital at Memphis, just south of the apex of the Nile Delta. After ruling for over 60 years, again based on Manetho, he earned the distinction of being the first Egyptian ruler to meet his end by being carried off by a hippopotamus during a hunt. Only slightly weirder is the fact that he wouldn't be the last. Anyway, all things being equal, I'm guessing he'd prefer being remembered more for the founding Memphis thing. As in Mesopotamia, grain surpluses increased trade specialization, which in turn led to the construction of monumental architecture. However, unlike in Mesopotamia, Egyptian monuments were focused mainly on the afterlife. After Memphis was founded the early Egyptian kings, they were not known as pharaohs until much later, began to construct their tombs at the sacred site of Abidos in Middle Egypt. The nobles in turn constructed theirs on the edge of the desert plateau at Sacara, overlooking Memphis. Ivory and wood labels from these two locations provide much of the archaeological evidence for the existence of these ancient rulers, whose names were enclosed in a seric, resembling the front of a palace, the precursor to the better known cartouche. Egypt, along with Sumer, was also one of the very few places in the ancient world where writing originated independently. Ivory labels of the Egyptian king Dejere, found at Abidos, show ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics at a very early stage of development. One label shows four lines of characters, including two ships, the sign for town, and Dejere's name and a seric, and appears to record a visit to the northern Delta. Another label records some kind of religious event involving the sacrifice of retainers, a practice intended to provide rulers with manual labor in the afterlife. This practice was eventually replaced by the entombment of small mummy-like figures called Ushabtees, a change no doubt met with great enthusiasm among the retainer lobby. Dejere was the successor to Hoorahah, and ruled Egypt around 3000 BC. After Dejere came Dejere and Den, who were followed by a Nedjib, Smerichet, and Ka'ah. The historical record is strong for some of these rulers, such as Den and Weaker for others. It speaks of several wars, internal unrest between north and south, and a few potential assertions, inferred when prior rulers were removed from Kingslis. The subsequent Second Dynasty consisted of six rulers, about which the historical record tells us little aside from their names. During this period, the internal unrest between north and south reached a boiling point. and took on religious overtones with partisans of Upper Egypt, aligning themselves with the god Seth, and those in the Nile Delta with Horus. One ruler, Sakemib, ended up dropping his Horus name and adopted the name Seth Peribson, suggesting that the followers of Seth gained the upper hand during his reign. The last ruler of the dynasty, Kasek Hemui, incorporated the names of both gods within his Seric, showing that he wanted to be some kind of religious diplomat and peacemaker between the two factions. The 500 years between 3200 BC and 2700 BC established the foundation of Egyptian civilization, but the next era of rulers would be among the most important in the history of that region and indeed of the entire ancient world. They would build on the advances of previous centuries, in technology, hieroglyphic writing, and artistic representation, and establish and rule over what is known as the Egyptian Old Kingdom. But you might know them even better from the huge, massive, architecturally stunning pyramid-shaped funeral monuments they built, which it just so happens you can still see today. Half of a hint? Yes, that's right, we're talking about the pyramid builders, but that's a story for another podcast. Next episode, we'll turn our gaze northward from Egypt into the Mediterranean to study one of the most colorful and vibrant civilizations of the ancient world, and one of my own personal favorites, the Minoan Civilization of Ancient Crete. Then we'll move northward to visit the Neolithic Monument Builders of Ancient Britain, and finally, we'll visit the only other multi-city urban complex with large-scale public buildings in the entire ancient world in 3000 BC, aside from Sumer. Where was this, you ask? Would you be surprised to hear that was located along the Peruvian coast? Meet the Norte Chico Civilization, next time on the Ancient World. [Music]