HIST 221 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Arameans, Mitanni, Iron Age
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Hittites, Assyrians, Persians
What problems with the U.S. have in 2150?
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Paper: How to Read
I. Have question
A. title of paper = question
II. Handwrite passage
A. include author, page #
B. analyze w/ “how to think”
III. Compare notes
A. look for connections & anomalies
--Ideas abound in pencils; shallowness in keyboards
IV. Change environment
V. Move: hike, walk, & ruminate
--a body in motion = a mind in motion
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Hittites (1650-1200)
I. Semantics
Hatti: civilization
Hittites: ppl
Hattusha: capital 50,000 ppl
II. Adopt Mesopotamian culture
A. Hattusili (r. 1650-20 BC) boasted in conquered Haha & Sargon didn’t
B. Mesopt. Failures
1. Revolts
a. Solution: loyalty oaths
2. Invasions
a. Solution: war machine
i) 3 person chariots
ii) Aleppo, Babylon sacked
b. Solution: remote location
c. Solution: big walls
YOUTUBE: BBC Lost Cities of the Ancients, Dark Lords of Hattusha 3of 3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gvBzVPsyGk (9:05-13:20)
3. Diplomacy
a. land of 1000 gods
b. adopted Gods of ppl they conquered
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III. Palace bloodbaths/Dark Age (1590-20)
A. nobles murdered successful king who spent most of time away from capital at war
IV. Recrudescence (1300s)
A. Suppiluliumas I (r. ca 1370-25) SUE-PIL-LOU-LEE-MAS
1. consolidated Anatolia
2. expansion
a. Damascus (south)
b. Euphrates (east)
B. repel Egyptians at Battle of Kadesh
VII. Cultural History: Sexual Laws
A. Rape
1. In mountains, man executed
2. At home, woman execute
B. Adultery
1. If husband catches wife, he may kill both
C. Bestiality
1. Illegal: dog, pig, cow, sheep
2. Legal: horses & mules
a. horse or mule: cannot be priest, cannot talk to king
3. if ox assaults a man, ox & sheep executed
4. Why?
a. polluted food
D. Incest
1. Illegal: mom, daughter, son, 2 sisters, sister-in-law if bro still living, stepdaughter,
mother-in-law, sister-in-law
2. Legal: stepmother if father dead, 2 sisters who live in different countries,
marrying sister of dead wife
E. Penalty almost always death
F. Oath breakers castrated
1. Comb, weaving kit, women’s clothing
VIII. Decline (ca. 1200 BC)
A. FACT: quick collapse
1. archives abruptly end
B. FACT: Omnidirectional insecurity: Enemies on all sides
1. Gasga clans (north)
2. Egypt
3. Mitanni (east)
C. FACT: Hattusha sacked & destroyed
Youtube: BBC, Lost Cities of the Ancients: Dark Lords of Hattusha 5/6 (8:15-6/6 all 7:34)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27WCNFNg-Z4
D. Why important?
1. ppl don’t recognize or talk about decline
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IX. Discovered
A. Egypt, Babylon, Assyrians ALWAYS remembered
B. fragments of lost lang emerged 1800s
C. 1906 ruins discovered (Hattusha)
1. clay tablets
2. discovered treaty written in Babylonian (Egyptian & Hittite. Battle of
Kadesh)
X. Why forgotten?
A. capital = remote location
1. NO RIVER (50 miles)
2. not trade connector
3. high elevation
4. landlocked
5. snowed-in several months
6. why choose?
a. defensive
b. well defended hilltop
B. lang forgotten
1. Lang = Indo-Eur
2. likely migrated from Eur to Anatolia
3. +25,000 texts
a. most last 200 yrs of Hittite empire
b. 7 langs in archives (4 Anatolia; 3 Mesopt)
c. syllabary (+300 syllables)
Assyrians (1365--612 BC)
I. Pre-911 BC…meh
A. Babylonians: country bumpkins
II. Why did Assyrians rise in 900s > Egypt & Babylon?
A. iron age
1. Egypt & Babylon Ļ iron
B. Libyan occupiers uninterested in east expansion
C. army
1. Ĺ mountaineers & pastoralists
2. grasslands ĺ Ĺ chariots & cavalry
III. Government
A. promote agricultural experimentation
1. import fruit trees
B. public works
1. canals, roads
C. encouraged immigration
1. Aramaeans assimilated
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