Ancient Civilizations

Egypt

Hebrews

Phoenicians

Egypt

• Settled along the Nile Valley.• Developed a writing system similar to

cuneiform with pictures representing ideas or thoughts.

• Politics centered around the Pharaoh who was the King of Egypt.

• Egyptian religion was polytheistic and centered around the worship of the Pharaoh and other deities.

Egypt

• History broken up into 3 parts– Old Kingdom: Pyramid Builders– Middle Kingdom: Expansion– New Kingdom: Expansion and trade,

strongest Egypt.

• Egypt would eventually fall to the Greeks who would rule them until the Romans took over in 30 C.E.

Hebrews

• The Hebrews came out of the peoples of Mesopotamia.

• They migrated under Abraham around 1800 C.E. from the Sumerian city state of Ur to Canaan.

• They would eventually migrate and be forced around the Middle East.

Monotheism• Monotheism means one God• Zoroastrianism developed in Persia (Iran)

under the idea of duality• Duality is the idea of two opposing forces

contradicting each other. • Examples would include:

– God vs. Devil– Light vs. Dark– Good vs. Evil

• They worshiped a God names Ahura-Mazda

Monotheism

• The Jews would adapt this idea and would develop the first major monotheistic religion

• They would worship a God by the name of Yahweh or Jehovah.

• The Christians would adopt many of these same ideas from the teachings of Jesus

• The Muslims would also follow this pattern in the worship of Allah.

Phoenicians

• They would be the first sea faring people• Their civilization would center around

modern day Lebanon and Israel• They would sail as far as England to the

north and down the Atlantic coast to the south.

• They would found the city of Carthage which would become the center of their civilization after the Assyrians conquered their homeland.

Phoenician Language

• Unlike Cuneiform and Hieroglyphics Phoenician language did not use pictures to represent words or ideas

• The Phoenicians would use characters to represent sounds from which words would be made.

• Sumerians had over 500 symbols whereas the Phoenicians only had 22 and could combine them to make just as many words

Phoenician Language

• The Phoenician language would be picked up by the Greeks and later the Romans (Latin) which is how our own English alphabet developed.

• From the Phoenicians we get the word Phonetic

• http://www.greatscott.com/hiero/hiero_alpha.html