The Ancient Near East

Civilizations by definition are complex societies. By complex, it is assumed that these societies had agricultural surpluses, allowing them to not only have reliable food sources but also specialized work and governments. In this way, many early civilizations are composed of interconnected parts that work together to allow the civilization to grow and thrive. This can be seen in many of the early civilizations including the Babylonian civilization, the Mesopotamian civilization, Hebrew civilization, and the Sumerian civilization. For example, one of the main characteristics of a civilization is an urban focus, which can be found in ancient Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia had cities who focused purely on religion and politics. The temple and the palace of the rulers were the focus of the city. Even the streets in the neighborhood of the city had house shrines and crafts. These streets were all connected and led to the city gates. In the city, people could trade, work, and live. The city also served a social purpose as unifying people and bringing them together. Another important aspect of civilization is religion, which can be exemplified through Hebrew religion. There are some key points regarding Hebrew religion that are both important to understanding the religion itself and also the success it still has today. To begin, Hebrew religion was a religion of the prophets. This religion was initially henotheism as they believed in the existence of lesser Gods along with Yahweh/Jehovah. In a way, this allowed for Hebrew religion to have a competitive element to it. However, as time went on, Hebrew religion evolved to ethical monotheism as clearly documented in the prophets of Isaiah, Ezekiel and Daniel - the eastern deities really don’t exist. The emphasis on the covenant is also a really important component of Hebrew religion. Basically, the covenant states that if one keeps God’s commandments, he will bless them and vice versa, if one fails to keep God’s commandments, he will curse them. By blessing, this can include land, food, fertility and much more. In fact, a part of the covenant is that God promises successive generations to those who keep his commandments, meaning that he will give those people the gift of fertility. In addition, the covenant helps protect the people who keep his word from the enemies too. In this way, the covenant allows for comfort and hope if one follows God’s commands. Along with all of that, Hebrew religion has a universalist and separatist component to it as well, and one can see this when God makes covenant to Abraham. God states here that the covenants and blessings will extend to other nations - giving this religion a universalist notion. However, this religion also has a separatist component to it as well as the ancient Israelites were commanded to not mix with other nations in an attempt to stay separate and pure. All of this together allowed Hebrew religion to be super successful as it even affects us today. A lot of major religions today such as Christianity, Islam, and Judaism stem fom the Hebrew religion. As one can tell, religion was a major part of civilizations. Another important component of civilization is their political as well as military structures. For instance, the Babylonian civilization is a prime example of this. This civilization was under the rule of Hammurabi, who was a strict leader, as displayed by the harsh punishments given in the written Hammurabi’s code. This civilization used trade and took control of close by city states using it’s military. The strict and clear rules made by the powerful ruler, in addition to trade and the strong military allowed for the Babylonian civilization to become a political and military powerhouse, focused in the city of Babylon. Along with that, the Babylonians also had a complex social structure. The social structure of the Babylonians consisted of three classes: the amelu, the muskinu, and the ardu. To begin, the amelu was a person who had full civil rights and had aristocratic responsibilities and privileges. This class belonged to people of higher class including the king, court, higher officials, and some people of specialized professions. Next. the muskinu is the class between the amelu and the ardu. They are not necessarily poor, but they aren’t necessarily wealthy either. They have less fees to pay and less to give to the Gods. They are not associated with the people in the city, or the people of the amelu class. Thirdly, the ardu class was full of slaves. They had identification marks to properly identify them and they had strict punishments for their actions. Most slaves could not learn, meaning that many of them are uneducated and couldn’t read nor write. Despite this however, civilizations were able to still thrive and develop writing. This can be displayed by the strict Hammurabi’s code and the Epic of Gilgamesh. Both of these written masterpieces are written in cuneiform and have big impacts on their civilization. For instance, Hammurabi’s code established justice and fairness within Babylonian society and also has served as a model for other civilizations to do the same and set rules to best serve their societies. On the other hand, the Epic of Gilgamesh is significant as it gives the readers a look into the ancient Mesopotamian civilization and it also creates a parallel to the bible and Mesopotamia. Indeed the epic is known as one of the first masterpieces of world literature. Indeed, these civilizations were very skilled writers. The Babylonian’s in particular were also very skilled in arts, science, and mathematics. They even were skilled architecturally using sun dried bricks to build. Overall, civilizations are very complex. They come in many forms and connect in many different ways, but they have given us the tools to become even more advanced and have shaped how we run societies today.