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Click to go to specific pages-- A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z BIOGRAPHIES WORLD HISTORY ANCIENT ASSYRIA Ancient Assyria was located in north Mesopotamia and spanned four countries: In Syria it extends west to the Euphrates river; in Turkey it extends north to Harran, Edessa, Diyarbakir, and Lake Van; in Iran it extends east to Lake Urmi, and in Iraq it extends to about 100 miles south of Kirkuk. This is the Assyrian heartland, from which so much of the ancient Near East came to be controlled. Two great rivers run through Assyria, the Tigris and the Euhprates, and many lesser ones, the most important of which being the Upper Zab and Lower Zab, both tributaries to the Tigris. Strategically surrounding the Tigris and the two Zabs are the Assyrian cities of Nineveh (Mosul Iraq), Ashur, Arbel, Nimrod and Arrapkha. Asshur, the son of Shem, was considered to be the founder of the Assyrian nation whose king list names the earliest founders as tent dwellers in the southern and western deserts Genesis 10:22. Old Assyrian texts, the primary literary source for this period of history, mention the ciy of Sumer and an Ishtar Temple about 2350 B.C.until it fell to the Medes and Babylonians in 614 B.C. Iraq's Assyrians claim direct descent from the original inhabitants of Iraq, who built the tower of Babel and enthusiastically received Jonah's grudging call for repentance at Nineveh. They have names like Sargon, the king described by Isaiah, or Nimrod, the "mighty hunter before the Lord" portrayed in Genesis. Abraham, also a descendant of Shem, was born in Ur of the Chaldees, located 9 miles west of Nasiriyeh on the Euphrates in southern Iraq. They are an ancient ethnic group distinct from the Arabs, who invaded their land in the seventh century. Ashurism was the first religion of the Assyrians. Sennacherib made Nineveh the Capital. The Assyrian Annals record that King Ahab of Israel supplied 2000 chariots and 14000 men to Shalmaneser for the battle against a 10 king coalition headed by Ben Hadad of Damascus in 853 B.C. Asshur, the first capital, is located 56 miles south of Mosul Iraq (Nineveh) on the west bank of the Tigris River. Ashur was the Assyrian national god. Assyrians continued to practice Ashurism until 256 A.D, although by that time, most Assyrians had accepted Christianity. Indeed, Assyrians were the first nation to accept Christianity, and the Assyrian Church was founded in 33 A.D. by Thomas the Apostle, Bortholemew and Thaddeus. The large majority of the world's most ancient people is now Christian. They continue to speak a version of Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. Since many of them dissented from decisions by early church councils on the nature of Christ, they were often attacked by Byzantine Christians and The Ancient Church of the East, often called "Nestorian," responded to this persecution by becoming one of the greatest missionary churches in history, establishing 250 dioceses and 1,000 monasteries from Iraq to India and China. Under growing Islamic persecution and repression the Church declined. In the 16th century portions of the Church of the East sought relief by establishing relations with the Church of Rome. Thereafter, those Christians in union with Rome were known as Chaldeans which now includes the majority of Iraq's Christians. Whereas the remaining Christians were called Assyrians. Many Assyrians have fled to southern California and Chicago, and Chaldeans to Detroit. The liturgical language of both Churches is Aramaic.The Christian populations of the Middle East, once dominant, have either vanished altogether or have been reduced to small minorities by forced conversions, persecutions and emigration.. Europe, North America and Australia have all experienced increased immigration by Middle Eastern Christians seeking to escape discrimination and persecution. In the United States about 74% of the Arabs are Christians In the region of Baghdad and southwards the predominant vegetation is palm trees. . .The terrain is sun-parched earth. arid and dead wherever irrigation ditches do not reach. Approaching Mosul [Nineveh] to the north the traveller finds a striking change. The flat terrrain gives way to undulating plains, with pasturage or cereal crop and scented with flowers and clover. The rolling plains are cut with wadis, aflow after rains, with higher ranges of hills on the horizon. The Assyrian land is rich and fertile, with growing fields found in every region. Two large areas comprise the Assyrian breadbasket: the Arbel plain and the Nineveh plain. To this day these areas remain critical crop producers. This is from where Assyria derived her strength, as it could feed a large population of professionals and craftsman, which allowed it to expand and advance the art of civilization. Assyrians have used two languages throughout their history: ancient Assyrian (Akkadian), and Modern Assyrian (neo-syriac). Akkadian was written with the cuneiform writing system, on clay tablets, and was in use from the beginning to about 750 B.C.. By 750 B.C., a new way of writing, on parchment, leather, or papyrus, was developed, and the people who brought this method of writing with them, the Arameans, would eventually see their language, Aramaic, supplant Ancient Assyrian because of the technological breakthrough in writing. Aramaic was made the second official language of the Assyrian empire in 752 B.C. Although Assyrians switched to Aramaic, it was not wholesale transplantation. The brand of Aramaic that Assyrians spoke was, and is, heavily infused with Akkadian words, so much so that scholars refer to it as Assyrian Aramaic. In 1932, Sir Max Mallowan, the eminent British archaeologist, dug a deep sounding which reached virgin soil ninety feet below the top of the mound of Nineveh (Mosul); this gave a pottery sequence back to prehistoric times and showed that the site was already inhabited by 4000 B.C.. Very soon after that, the two other great Assyrian cities were settled, Ashur and Arbel, although an exact date has yet to be determined. Arbel is the oldest extant city, and remains largely unexcavated, its archaeological treasures waiting to be discovered. The same holds for Ashur. It is clear that by 2500 B.C., these three cities were well established and were thriving metropoli. Some of our most basic and fundamental devices of daily survival originated in Assyria. It is in Assyria where locks and keys were first used. It is in Assyria that the sexagesimal system of keeping time was developed. It is in Assyria where paved roads were first used. And the list goes on, including the first postal system, the first use of iron, the first magnifying glasses, the first libraries, the first plumbing and flush toilets, the first electric batteries, the first guitars, the first aqueducts, the first arch etc.etc. It is in Assyria that the story of the flood originates, 2000 years before the old testament is written. It is here that the first epic is written, the Epic of Gilgamesh, with its universal and timeless theme of the struggle and purpose of humanity. It is here that civilization itself is developed and handed down to future generations. It is here where the first steps in the cultural unification of the Middle East are taken by bringing under Assyrian rule the diverse groups in the area, from Iran to Egypt, breaking down ethnic and national barriers and preparing the way for the cultural unification which facilitated the subsequent spread of Hellenism and Christianity.ideas that would shape the world to come. The example, of imperial administration, of dividing the land into territories administered by local governors who report to the central authority, the King of Assyria. This fundamental model of administration can be seen in America's federal-state system. The Golden Age: 33 A.D. to 1300 A.D. Assyrians continued living in their homeland throughout this dark age, until that momentous moment in human history, when the Lord Son of God gave himself for the salvation of mankind. Very soon after the crucifixion, the bulk of the Assyrian population converted to Christianity, although there remained someAshurites, until 256 A.D. It was the Apostle Thomas, with Thaddeus and Bartholomew who came to the Assyrian city of Edessa and founded the Assyrian Church of the East, said by many to be the oldest church in the world. Armed with the word of God, and after 600 years of dormancy, the Assyrians once again set out to build an empire founded on divine revelation and Christian brotherhood. So successful was the Assyrian missionary enterprise, by the end of the twelfth century the Assyrian Church was larger than the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches combined, and it spanned the Asian continent, from Syria to Mongolia, Korea, China, Japan and the Philippines. When Marco Polo visited China in the thirteenth century, he was astonished to find Assyrian priests in the Chinese royal court, and tens of thousands of Chinese Christians. The Assyrian missionaries had reached China in the sixth century. With only the bible, a cross, and a loaf of bread in hand, these messengers had walked thousands of miles along the old silk road to deliver the word of God. When Genghis Khan swept through Asia, he brought with him an army over half of which belonged to the Assyrian Church of the East. So successful were the missionaries, the first Mongolian system of writing used the Assyrian alphabet. In the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries they began a systematic translation of the Greek body of knowledge into Assyrian. At first they concentrated on the religious works but then quickly moved to science, philosophy and medicine. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Galen, and many others were translated into Assyrian, and from Assyrian into Arabic. It is these Arabic translations which the Moors brought with them into Spain, and which the Spaniards translated into Latin and spread throughout Europe, thus igniting the European renaissance. By the sixth century A.D., Assyrians had begun exporting back to Byzantia their own works on science, philosophy and medicine. In the field of medicine, the Bakhteesho Assyrian family produced nine generations of physicians, and founded the great medical school at Gundeshapur. Also in the area of medicine, Hunayn ibn-Ishaq*s textbook on ophthalmology, written in 950 A.D., remained the authoritative source on the subject until 1800 A.D. In the area of philosophy, the Assyrian philosopher Job of Edessa developed a physical theory of the universe, in the Assyrian language, that rivaled Aristotle's theory, and that sought to replace matter with forces. One of the greatest Assyrian achievements of the fourth century was the founding of the first University in the world. The School of Nisibis had three departments: theology, philosophy and medicine, and became a magnet and center of intellectual development in the Middle East. The statutes of the School of Nisibis, which have been preserved, later became the model upon which the first Italian university, The University of Bologna, which began as a law school in the Middle Ages, recently celebrated its ninth centennial. Founded in 1088 it is the oldest continuing institution of higher learning in the world. Among its alumni are Thomas Aquinas and Italy's most famous writers, Dante, Petrarch and Torquato Tasso. Part of the national system of higher education, the University is a large public institution with over 90,000 students. When Arabs and Islam swept through the Middle East in 630 A.D., they encountered 600 years of Assyrian Christian civilization, with a rich heritage, a highly developed culture, and advanced learning institutions. It is this civilization which became the foundation of the Arab civilization. The Assyrian missionary enterprise, which had been so successful throughout the Asian continent, came to an abrupt end with the coming of Timurlane the Mongol. The indiscriminate destruction leveled by Timurlane against the civilizations he encountered put to a permanent end the Assyrian missionary enterprise. A large segment of the Assyrian population escaped the ravages of Timurlane by fleeing into the Hakkary mountains (present day eastern Turkey); the remaining Assyrians continued to live in their homelands (presently North Iraq and Syria), and Urmi. The four Assyrian communities, over time, begin defining themselves in terms of their church affiliation. The western Assyrians, all of whom belonging to the Syrian Orthodox Church, began identifying themselves as "Jacobites". The remaining communities belonged to the Assyrian Church of the East. After the division of the Church of the East in 1550 A.D., the Chaldean Church of Babylon, a Roman Catholic Uniate, was created, and members of this church began to call themselves Chaldean. these three communities no longer saw themselves as one and the same. The Assyrian people today stand at a crossroad. One third of is in a diaspora, while the remaining two-thirds lives perilously in its native lands. Although the Assyrian empire ended in 612 B.C., history is replete with recorded details of the continuous presence of the Assyrian people till the present time. Mass emigration to the West and absorption into Western societies World Assyrian Population . Iraq 1,500,000 .. France 20,000 ... Syria 700,000 .. Belgium 15,000 ... USA 400,000 Georgia 15,000 ... Sweden 120,000 .. Armenia 15,000 ...Lebanon 100,000 ... Switzerland 10,000 ...Brazil 80,000 Denmark 10,000 ... Germany 70,000... Russia 70,000 ...Iran 50,000 ... Jordan 44,000 ... Australia 30,000
History Link 101The cultures of Africa, Aztec, China, Egypt, Greece, Mayan, Mesopotamia, Rome, Olmec, Prehistory, Middle Ages and World War II are divided into categories of Art, Biographies, Daily Life, Maps, Pictures and Research and more
Lecture 1 Hy 101
1. Archeologist- studies remains left behind, artifacts 2. Anthropologist- anthro=man, studies remains of early “men” 3. Sociologist- studies social organization, exisiting societies 4. astrology- (astro=star) belief that stars one born under have direct effect upon persons A believer in astrology might be interested in reading his or her horoscope 5. Astronomy- science, study of movement of stars and planets, involves use of math in calculations of orbits, predicting solar and lunar eclipses. Early peoples evidenced a greater knowledge and interest in astronomy
First calendar in use by early peoples was a Lunar Calendar. A solar year =13 lunar years. Methuselah (mentioned in Bible) is supposed to have lived 969 years. The figure originally given was incorrect. Methuselah’s age, 969 years, is based on the Lunar Calendar.
Mesopotamia= ancient name for Iraq where first civilization(s) developed. Means-Land of two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates.
Garden of Eden supposed location at point where these two rivers intersect. Now, except for Vegetation along rive banks, is desert.
Problems in Historical accounts- (1) Bias – reporting from a particular viewpoint (2) Ignorance- not having enough information or knowledge to provide an accurate account 7. Divination- effort of early people to determine will of god(s) by examining (reading) the liver of an animal. 8. and 9. Lex talonis and retribution both refer to law systems which make the punishment fit the crime: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, etc. Example the Hebrew (Jewish) Old Testament.
Mesopotamian Law Codes modified the idea of retribution to provide for monetary compensation to victims. Mesopotamian Cities were capitalist (money-business oriented) An example is the Law Code of the Babylonian King Hammurabi dating from 18 centuries BC (Before Christ)
10. Prehistory- History before the existence of written records-more dependent upon archeology. 11. Paleolithic= Old Stone Age- begins at point man-like individuals seen as use stone tools. Originally thought to have begun around 500,000 years ago, the beginning date has been gradually extended backward to include earlier Hominids. The Paleolithic Period extends until the beginning of the Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) around 30,000 years ago. Lithic=stone 12. Hominid- means like man. Early hominids differ from primates (monkeys and apes) in their ability to walk upright (not merely stand on two feet). This ability to walk on two feet is based on a slight difference in the pelvic bone. Hominids were not noted for their large brains. They were small, slightly larger than chimpanzees. Several different types of hominids which lived two to four million years ago were found in Tanzania, Africa by the Leakeys, British anthropologists. 13. Out of Africa- refers to the theory held by many anthropologist that mankind originated in Africa and migrated from Africa into Europe and Asia. 14. and 15. The Leakeys are identified in #12. 17. Carbon Dating-measuring how much carbon atoms in a specimen of organic material has decayed. Organic material =remains of plants and animals that have lived, comprised of Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen compounds. 18. Fire first used by Homo Erectus (man) during the Paleolithic age 500,000 years ago, 19 First domesticated animal=dog (from wolf), hunting companion during Mesolithic Period, Around 30,000 BC, possibly before. 20 Homo Erectus- early man, means Erect Man, stood erect, approximate size that of modern man, accomplished hunter, but brain size suggests that he mentally was equal to a nine year old child in terms of his reasoning ability. His species continued to exist on several islands in the Pacific until 14,000 BC before dying out. He was also called Java man (after the island of Java where he was found) and Peking (China) man. 21. “survival of the fittest” idea that individuals that have characteristics (abilities) which make it possible for them to survive and produce offspring will survive and produce offspring while those who do not-will not, will become extinct. A number of species have become extinct because they could not adapt to changing conditions such as loss of habitat. This idea is found in Charles Darwin’s On the Survival of the Species. 22. Charles Darwin- 19th. century British biologist/scientist and author of On the Survival of the Species. He described different species which survived on the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador, South America by virtue of their possessing certain characteristics that enabled them to survive. Darwin is associated with the Theory of Evolution, that species evolve and develop, those which are successful being those which have or develop characteristics that enable them to survive. He never directly stated that mankind developed from apes, although he noted similarities between apes (primates) and men. 24. Homo sapien- term meaning Knowing man. We are Homo sapiens; some like to refer to us As Homo sapien sapien in order to suggest that we are somehow superior to other Homo sapiens. 25. Neanderthal man- existed in Europe 100,000 years ago. A Homo sapien (true man). His remains were first found in a cave in Neanderthal, Germany, hence his name-Neanderthal. He was shorter and not as attractive as Cro Magnon man and many anthropologists claim he became extinct around 30,000 years ago and is not an ancestor of modern man. You will need to copy Notes on Neanderthal man from this web site to answer questions on Neanderthal man. 25. The adjective Neanderthal has come to mean, ugly, stupid (subject of a recent Geico Auto Commercial which states that it, getting Geico Insurance, is so easy a caveman (Neanderthal) can do it. 26. See notes on Neanderthal 27. Cro Magnon Man- Homo sapien, found in CroMagnon Cave, France. Lived at same time as Neanderthal. Modern man is described as a modern CroMagnon. You could dress him up in modern clothes and have him walk down the street and no one would notice his being different. 28. See notes on Neanderthal 29. Info. on child of with mixed Neanderthal and CroMagnon characteristics who died at the age of approximately 4, found buried in Portugal (Europe) found in notes (link) on Neanderthals. This is listed as one of several proofs that Neanderthal and CroMagnon were the same species and could and did produce offspring, that Neanderthal mixed with CroMagnon and present population of mankind has Neanderthal genes and is descended from both. 30. Religious practices of Neanderthal suggest a belief in an afterlife, life after physical death in this world. He buried dead with food and tools and flowers. 31. Humanitarian behavior- old, arthritic individual found in cave. The individual a man, was crippled, bone formation showed he had existed in this state for a long period of time and to have survived would have had to been fed by his companions. American Indians were not so kind. Old and useless members of the tribe were abandoned after performance of death rituals to await Death. 32. Oldest musical instrument- a flute made out of bone, more than 30,000 years old, by Neanderthal man. 33. Symbolic Magic-practiced by CroMagnon man who painted the animals who wanted to control by painting them on sides of the caves he inhabited. He wanted to control predators whom he feared (giant cats and bears) because they might attack him and also wanted to control, catch, those he ate. Favorite prey: bison (cattle) and especially horses. He seems to have believed that by painting an animal, you captured its spirit. American Indians in the past have refused to allow themselves to be photographed or painted because they believed that those who wanted to photograph or paint them were trying to capture their spirits. 34. Altamira-Spain, Lascaux and Chauvet in France are caves inhabited by CroMagnon man where examples of cave paintings are found (symbolic magic) 35. Europeans described the part of Asia nearest to them in Europe as the Near East=Western Asia: Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, + what is now Israel Mid-East-further East Would include Iran (Persia), Afghanistan Far East- China, India (lands bordering Pacific Ocean in the East 36. See problems in Historical accounts (after #5) 37. Mistook saddle horn piece shaped similar to a penis for a phallic symbol and assumed that Assyrians were obsessed sex and failed to realize Assyrian armies had many men on horseback who had saddles with saddlehornes. 39. Megaliths- large stones: circles such as Stonehenge, passage tombs, dolmens, all created during the Stone Age by pre-Agricultural groups in Europe, some in North Africa. All evidenced on the part of the builders an extraordinary knowledge of astronomy and required builders to use levers and pulleys to move stone weighing many tons long distances from quarry to sites where they placed them. Period of construction: 5,000 BC to 1,400 BC. Stonehenge served as a celestial (sky) calendar which marked the phases of the moon and the sun: its solstices such the summer solstice=longest day on June 21 and the winter solstice on December 21st=shortest day. Stonehenge, which is probably the most famous, is located an hour’s travel by train from London, England. 41. Neolithic Revolution- Neolithic=New Stone Age. Represented a change in lives of men as a Consequence of discovery and development of agriculture (bread crops) + developed animal husbandry (domestic animals for meat and wool). a. guaranteed food supply allowed larger populations to settle and live in one place b. provided man with more leisure time to make discoveries, improve the conditions of his life. c. growth of villages, with specialized labor =specialization, brick maker made bricks, weavers wove cloth, potters made pots and jugs, soldiers defended town, d. Significance: made development of civilization possible Cities and organized societies developed from villages as population, products and trade Grew When: 10,000 BC - First in Mesopotamia, Turkey, Egypt Later in Europe- 4,000 BC 43. Types of pottery and baskets, their design, helped archeologist identify where something was Produced. If two groups made same pottery, it was reasonable to assume a relationship existed between the two group. If a pot made it Syria turned up in Iran, it was reasonable to suppose some contact (possibly trade) existed between those in Syria who made the pot and those in Iran who came to possess it. 44. Relic- a piece of anything which remains. Sometimes also called artifacts. 45. and 46. Catal Huyak in Turkey and Jerico in Palestine are well known examples of Neolithic Villages which were much studied by archeologists. 48. Nomad- someone who travels, go from place to place. Best example of a nomadic people= The Hebrews (Jews) who lived in tents, moved with their animals. 48. Other examples of nomads: Early man –hunters and gatherers who moved from place to Place following the animals they hunted. 49. Bronze= first metal used by men, an alloy created by melting tin and copper together. Was too soft, softer than later iron. 50. The Bronze Age began around 4,000 BC in Mesopotamia. 51. Notes re. the Otzi=Iceman are found in Notes entitled the Iceman: Anthropologists Studied the mummified (frozen) body of this man who died in Alps Mountains in Europe on border of Italy and Austria. His body, clothes and weapons provide us with valuable information regarding how Neolithic individuals lived in Western Europe 3,000 years before Christ. He knew how to smelt copper and used snow shoes (see text pages 7-8).. 52. Purpose religion –sought support power outside source –protection/ help solution problems individual could not solve for himself by natural means (science). An example might be help with an illness. Primitive societies with less scientific knowledge more likely to seek non-scientific aid provided by religion. 53. Belief of primitive societies that anima (spirits) existed, could cause illness, accidents. 54. Treatment of disease in such societies would include appeasing (pleasing) spirits or using spells to drive them out of the body of an ill person. 55. Two types of problem solving: scientific-natural solutions or religious supernatural solutions. 57. Kennewick man- found in Washington State, Columbia River. Lived more than 9,000 years ago. Was determined to have not been related to American Indians, but a member of the White Race. His existence and several other individuals found on North American continent Are clearly members of the white race who were raises question whether American Indians were the the first people to live in America. Indian tribes living in the area wanted to prevent anthropologists from examining remains of Kennewick man; they claim he was their ancient relative and claimed the right to bury him under the terms of the Native American Graves and Repatriation Acts which was intended to protect Indian burial sites. Problem: There appears to have been a non-Indian population here co-existing with that of American Indians which was either exterminated by Indians or conquered by Indians with some of the survivors producing offspring with Indian partners, that such offspring with subsequent unions with pure Indians would be mostly Indian and not identifiable as having white characteristics.
Second problem: original theory that Indians entered America by walking across 25 mile strip of Ice (the Bering Strait) that separated Alaska from Siberia in Russia during the Ice Age, around 25,000 years ago does not fit with chronology. Indians have been living in southern part of South America longer 40 to 50,000 years ago. Bering Strait (water passage northern Pacific between Alaska and Siberia) today is a Strait, water.
58. A tribe=a group of related individuals claiming descent from a common ancestor The Hebrews are an example, composed of 12 sub-tribes, all of whom claimed descent from A single individual, Abraham. 59. A Tribal god is a god which belongs to one tribal group and is interested only in them. The enemies of the tribal group are the tribal god’s enemies. His function is to help and protect his chosen people, his tribal group, as long as they please him by doing what he wants. If he is pleased, he will eliminate the tribal group’s enemies and give the tribal group the land of its enemies. Example: the god of the Hebrews (Jews in the Old Testament) He protected them and killed their enemies He promised them The Promised Land, land in Palestine belonging to the Canaanites. He withdrew his protection and aid and caused them to suffer whenever they disobeyed Him or His representatives, the priests. 60. A Universal God, a god who is interested in ALL men, a god who loves and helps all of those who choose to follow Him, offering the gift of salvation. Example: The Christian God. The Jews refused to accept Jesus Christ because he said that all men who followed Him had a place in His father’s house. Some of you may remember that Jesus was involved in a conflict with Jewish leaders, referred to as Pharisees, who insisted that it was more important to follow rules such as no work on the Sabbath and refused to accept Jesus. 61. monotheism- the worship of one only one god. 62. polytheism the worship of many gods 63. polygamy having more than one wife 64. monogamy having only one wife/husband 65 patriarchal a society dominated by men, typical of early societies 66 matriarchal a society dominated by women 67 anthropomorphic – having the body (and nature) of men. This term certainly does not describe Egyptian gods which had the bodies and heads of various animals, although it can be argued that some of these gods behaved like humans by becoming angry, being greedy, etc. 68. city-states- the unit of government of ancient Mesopotamia while it was ruled by the Sumerians who created the first civilization (based on cities-civilization) in Mesopotamia, now Iraq. Each city state was independent of others; later under the Akkadians (called Old Babylonians) the cities were unified into a kingdom and under the later Assyrians the Mesopotamian cities became cities in an empire. A Democratic feature of city states during the Sumerian period was that the important Citizens of the community elected a council that served as advisors to the ruler. Sumeria - the dawn of civilization;We now know the Sumerians first appeared about 4800 B.C. at a place called Al-Ubaid. In Mesopotamia (Iraq) During the next few centuries they established other cities primarily along the southern half of the Mesopotamian river system. They were not indigenous: from where they originated is debated by scholars. What is known is that they were a tremendously gifted and imaginative people. Their language, linguistically related to no other, ancient or modern, is preserved for us through the thousands of clay tablets on which they inscribed and developed the first writing as yet known to man. Fortunately, the Sumerians were prolific writers and meticulous record- keepers: these tablets richly describe their existence. With the invention of writing the simple village life could evolve into complex civilization. They developed schools for an educated elite and for the many scribes who were needed for all the record-keeping and letter-writing they liked to do. Not only business records were written down but also the first numbers, calendars, literature, laws, agricultural methods, pharmacopoeias, personal notes, maps, jokes, curses, religious practices, and thousands of lists and inventories of all manner of human interests.
These cuneiform tablets show the Sumerians established great city states at Ur and elsewhere, absorbing the indigenous peoples and extending their influence beyond Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean Coast, the Arabian Peninsula, to Egypt, and India. Theirs was an urban civilization in which architects were familiar with all the basic architectural principles known to us today, the artist possessed the highest skills and standards of excellence, and the metal worker had a knowledge of metallurgy and technical skill which few ancient people ever rivaled. The merchant carried on a far-flung trade facilitated by the development of the wheel and axle and the sail-driven boat. The armed forces were well organized and victorious. Agriculture was productive and prosperous. Indeed, the great wealth accumulated by their civilization enabled the Sumerians to live in relative luxury for some 2000 years or more. Human civilization was born with Sumerians who, at the beginning of the fifth millenium B.C., started building the first cities in the alluvial plains of Mesopotamia, in what is now modern Iraq. Their way of life gave birth to a social organization whose consequence was a mature form of art. The Sumerians (not the much later Greeks) were the first to use geometry. Their law code dealt with modern problems such as consumer protection, medical malpractice, fees charged by medical doctors, regulated interest rates, and water sharing. The later and better known Code of Hammurabi (18 centuries BC) promulgated by the Akkadian ruler of Babylon is a reproduction of an earlier Sumerian Law Code. Lecture 3 IV. Egyptian Civilization: Isolation/ Loss of Knowledge that during period of Old Kingdom Allowed building of pyramids.
fix the machine and were incapable of producing another machine or making any improvement to the machinery they had inherited from the Old Kingdom.
Perhaps one of the greatest contributions of the Hyksos was the preservation of famous Egyptians documents, both literary and scientific. During the reign of Apophis, the fifth king of “the Great Hyksos,” scribes were commissioned to recopy Egyptian texts so that they would not be lost. One such text was the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus. This unique text, dating from about 3,000 BC, gives a clear perspective of the human body as studied by the Egyptians, with details of specific clinical cases, examinations, and prognosis.
The Westcar Papyrus preserved the only known version of an ancient Egyptian story that may have otherwise been lost. Other restored documents include the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, the most important mathematical exposition ever found in Egypt.
2. Final decline of Egyptian Civilization is related to the fall of Nineveh (the Assyrian Empire) in 612 BC. a. Assyrians had been allied with and were protectors of Egyptians who paid taxes to Assyrian king and contributed soldiers to his army. b. Fall of Assyrian Empire left Egypt unprotected, opened the way for invasion of Egypt by African tribesmen from Lydia from the west and from Sudan from the south. c. The Chaldeans who had succeeded the Assyrians as Chaldean Empire did not attempt to take control of Egypt. IV. B. Observations made in lecture regarding Egyptians: 1. Pharaohs married their sisters. The pharaoh could have numerous concubines in his Harem, but his heir had to be the son of a sister. 2. Egypt declined during its long history 3,000-300 BC 3. Pyramids built during Old Kingdom by free seasonal laborers, not slaves. The farmers were farmers eight months out of every year. They worked as contract laborers for the other four months during their off season. Extensive records exist for labor encampments around pyramid sites; these sites also have been surveyed by archeologists. Sometimes the entire family came to work during the off season where they lived together in family units, but appear to have eaten in large dinning halls.
V. Difference Between Egyptian Civilization and those of Mesopotamia
those who preceded them
Historians:
1.Greeks came into contact Mesopotamia through direct contact with Babylonian Scientists and astronomers. 2. Greeks took knowledge gained from Mesopotamian Aramaic sources and transmitted and added to it. 3. Greeks acted as a bridge through which knowledge passed from western Asia, Near East, into eastern Europe.
the priests of Yahweh/God
using scientific method and math to solve problem because of what their enemies said about them and because what they had accomplished was hidden underground.
1 .A Naturalistic Explanation of phenomena: An explanation that provides a natural (scientific) explanation for events and phenomena that exist as opposed to a superstitious explanation based on gods or supernatural forces.
2. . Mesopotamian mathematics
“rediscovered” by Pythagoras.
Assyrian Science and MathThe odd paradox of Assyrian culture was the dramatic growth in science and mathematics; this can not be explained by the Assyrian obsession with war and invasion. Among the great mathematical inventions of the Assyrians were the division of the circle into 360 degrees and were among the first to invent longitude and latitude in geographical navigation. They also developed a sophisticated medical science which greatly influenced medical science as far away as Greece. (Richard Hooker) Hooker is raising question whether description made of Assyrians is accurate.VI. BIBLE EVENTS WHICH RESEMBLE EARLIER ACCOUNTS FOUND IN MESOPOTAMIAN SOURCES:· Creation of the World-- In Bible Book of Genesis like earlier Sumerian account· Great Flood- Sumerian account in Poem of Gilgamesh· Upnapistim - Sumerian Noah, instructed to build boat, preserve animals, survives· Book of Job- Suffering of a righteous man Bible, earlier Old Babylonian account· Sargon I, who became an Akkadian ruler, found floating in river in basket by a shepherd = Akkadian Moses. Moses found floating in basket by pharaoh’s daughter. Different rivers.· Jonah, a historical figure. Sent to Nineveh to preach to Assyrians, the reluctant Jonah is welcomed by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal.1. hill behind site of city of Nineveh where Jonah lived, called hill of Jonah. He established a temple of worship there.2. hill now the site of a Muslim mosqueVII. Hebrews and Early Christianity1.. Hebrews a nomadic group of herdsmen who originated in Mesopotamia 2,000 BC2. Abraham- lives in Mesopotamia- ancestor of all Jewish tribes through his son Isaac and according to Bible of Ishmael, the ancestor of all Arabs by a different wife. 3. Hebrew· Also called Jews· Hebrew also refers to language spoken by first Jews which later was replaced by Aramaic. Jews spoke Aramaic at the time of Christ.· Hebrew language being learned by Jews living in nation of Israel created in 1948 as a Jewish Homeland out of country of Palestine.4. A Tribal god- a god or God who is interested in only one group of peoplev Example Hebrew god called Yahweh by Hebrews5. The Covenant- a contract or agreement between Yahweh and his Chosen People, the Jews (Hebrews)v He will help the Hebrews and protect them if they obey him/ his priests1. He will destroy the Hebrews’ enemies2. He will give his Chosen People the land of the Canaanites who are not His Chosen People because He is not their God; He is the God of the Hebrews.· If they disobey Him, he will allow their enemies to conquer themv Assyrians and Chaldeans (Neo-Babylonians) are allowed to conquer them in order to punish them.v Assyrians are referred to as “the Sword of God which punishes” for this reasonv He punishes by bringing pestilences against themv He causes them and their children to diev He destroys their townsv He kills their animalsv He will kill them and their childrenv He will cause storms, bring pestilences He will destroy their cattle and sheep, and destroy town by turning them to ash as He did in the case of Sodom and Gomorra, etc.6. Nature of Yahweh- He is a “wrathful” (angry with the Jews if they disobey Him and also angry with the Hebrews’ enemies). The punishments He inflicts are horrible7. Control over Kingdom of Judea by priest based on Fear of Consequences if they disobeyed God-Yahweh and also the horrible things He would do to their enemies: Leadership of Judea –priests, government a theocracy (defined elsewhere)
happened): The following is quoted from 8th. ed. of text: Western Civilization (large ed) quoting of Bible: 2nd. Isaiah: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and raise my signal to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mother, With their faces to the ground THEY SHALL BOW DOWN TO YOU, AND LICK THE DUST OF YOUR FEET.
Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame. Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of the tyrant rescued? Surely, thus says the Lord: Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken and the prey of the tyrant rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you and I will save your children.
I WILL MAKE YOUR OPPRESSORS EAT THEIR OWN FLESH, AND THEY SHALL BE DRUNK WITH THEIR OWN BLOOD AS WITH WINE. THEN ALL FLESH SHALL KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD YOUR SAVIOR…
fall of Nineveh to make Babylon their capital.
.
Egypt helped by Yahweh (God).
Israel angered over expenditure of Solomon/ large harem
Judea- priesthood angry with Israel because: it engaged in traded with others/ because Israel disinclined to accept authority of priesthood Jerusalem (temple) because Israel did not follow all of dietary and Sabbath laws as strictly as they did
18. Ten Lost Tribes- claim that people of Israel (Samaria) became lost. a. Lost to Jewish faith? Converted later to Christianity to become ancestors of Christian Palestinians in area. b. Lost to Jewish faith? in Mesopotamia which many refused to leave when they later had a choice, had been successful, had homes, families etc. 19. Babylonian Captivity- 586 BC-539 BC leaders of Judah carried off to Babylon by Chaldeans; the actual numbers carried off are exaggerated since population on site of Jerusalem continues and records of Neo- Babylonians indicate amount of food in terms of rations provided for captives. 20. See Persians-King Cyrus for return to Jerusalem in Dictionary notes. 21. Universal God- A God who is interested in all Mankind
Message: God is love; he wants us to love one another. 22. Zionist- a Jewish nationalist. Also called Zealots. They rejected Jesus because he refused to be a political Messiah (savior) who got rid of the Roman rulers: Jesus had insisted that “ My kingdom is not of this world.” In my Father’s house there are many Mansions (in heaven, not here) and had demonstrated that he was indifferent to whether Jews paid taxes to Rome when he stated: “Render (give) unto Caesar (the Roman ruler) what is Caesar’s. The issue under discussion was Roman money.
23. Barabbas – Zionist whom priests preferred to save from crucifixion, and have Jesus crucified
24. Statement in text that in 70 AD (c.e) Romans destroyed temple in Jerusalem. a. it should be noted that there was a Civil War taking place in the province of Judea b. Zealots were killing Jews who refused to support them and also those who converted Christianity c. Jesus’ brother James was murdered by Zealots in 69 AD d. The Romans contributed to problem by an actual refusal to interfere; instead of troubling sending in large numbers of soldiers to maintain order and stop the killing and let persons living in Judea continue Civil War and intervened only when they were forced to do so by escalating violence. e. It is not clear who destroyed, burned the temple. It was a wooden structure. 25. Jerusalem at the time of Christ did not qualify as a city; it had a very small population, only a couple thousand.
26. Diaspora- Forced exodus of/ dispersal of Jews from Judea. Judea had difficulty keeping any population because the opportunities were elsewhere in the Roman Empire. Large numbers of persons from Judea, Jewish and Christianity, moved voluntarily to other parts of the Roman Empire, especially to commercial centers in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire.
27. Monotheism is not uniformly practiced until after return from Babylonian Captivity five centuries before Christ. Monotheism represents an ideal that the priesthood wishes to maintain in spite of frequent conflict priests (rules) and people. Yahweh was worshipped with a female counterpart, Ashera. The priests of the Kingdom of Judah stoned offenders to death for maintaining shrines dedicated to Ashera, the helper of women. It also stoned women to death for adultery Figure shown in text with two heads (page 7) is thought by some to be a Neolithic representation of Ashera with her Yahweh who were supposed to have been joined together, she being Yahweh’s feminine helper and the helper of women in general. 28.Problems with Historiography (History Writing) Jewish archeologists in Israel (University of Tel Aviv) have found no collaboration for Biblical account that Israelites were captives in Egypt, nothing to substantiate the Passover occurred. Similar problems have been found with the area around Jerusalem which was largely unpopulated at the time Solomon is believed to have constructed the Temple. VIII. Zoroaster/ Religion of Persian A. Text pages 24-25 Zoroasterian Religion
Babylon
(bad =darkness, absence of light)
Good
into a pit. End of the world included resurrection of souls of dead.
#s 7,8,9,10, and 11. similar to later Christinaity.
who came to Bethleham following star, supernatural astrological sign. Mithras: Ahura Mazda’s son. Perhaps, originally a Persian sun-god who was given the qualities of other pagan gods by Romans who worshipped Mithras, Mitras resembled Jesus:
which followers consumed bread marked by a cross and wine representing his blood (similar to Holy Communion)
Churchmen in Roman Catholic Church adopted ring to represent their union with Christ, religious pilgrims the shepherd’s crooked staff or walking stick and the Cardinals, The high ranking officials of the Roman Catholic church who chose the pope (head of Church) wore red hats.Roman Mithras was, perhaps, the greatest rival to early Christianity for many reasons. As well as being a popular pagan religion practiced by the Roman Army, Mithraism had many similarities to Christianity. Mithras was born of a virgin, remained celibate, his worship involving baptism, the partaking of bread marked with a cross and wine as sacrificial blood, held Sundays sacred and Mithras was born on 25th of December. Mithraist called themselves 'brother' and were led by a priest called 'father' (Pater). The symbol of the father were a staff, a hooked sword, a ring and hat.
These similarities frightened the early Christian leaders - that almost 500 years before arrival of Christ all of the Christian mysteries were already known. To combat this, Christian witters said that the Devil knew of the coming of Christ in advance and had imitated them before they existed in order to denigrate them. As Christianity gained strength and became the formal religion of the Roman Empire, the 'Cult of Mithras' was one of the first pagan cults to come under attack in the fifth century; Temples of Mithras, like most other pagan Temples, were destroyed and Churches build on them. SEE Lecture Series This region is going to be Notes and materials from History 101 courses taught by myself, Linda Shabo .Lectures 1 and 2
Iconoclasts= Jews, followers of Islam, and some within Byzantine Empire
4. 622 A.D. (Christian calendar) year 0 in calendar of Islam; their calendar 10. Caliph - political and religious leader. The Abbasid Caliph became a religious leader without political power to enforce his will on followers of religion of Islam after Seljuk Turks conquered Baghdad in 1055. The Seljuk Turks who were followers of Islam did not want to do away with Caliphs as a religious leaders
He was not a temporal (territory) ruler.
knights and serfs vassals of nobles, etc.
Page 217 Carolingian misi (Latin script)
(goals communication, reading scripture and mathematics for calculations)
32. Feudal obligations of vassal to ruler: to provide a minimum of 40 days military service a year VIKINGS-NORSEMEN-NORMANS Notes on Vikings-Norsemen http://viking.no/e/maps/index.html The Viking Timeline
Viking trade
The Vikings were the international tradesmen of their time. In Constantinople (Istanbul) they traded silk and spices for slaves that they had brought from Russia. Amber they found in the Baltic area. From the north and Greenland in the west, they brought furs, skins and walrus tusk ivory to the trading towns in western Europe. Jorvik (York) - Introductory pageYork (to give the city its modern name) has for many centuries been an important place in the history and geography of England. Romans, Angles, Vikings and Normans all used York as a capital for governing and keeping military control over a large part of northern England. It also became an important religious centre. Jorvik - the centre of Scandinavian power in EnglandEoforwic fell to Scandinavian invaders in AD 866. The first part of the name was simplified to 'jor', perhaps a result of the Old English and Scandinavian languages being combined. The veterans of the Viking Great Army settled, "....proceeded to plough and support themselves", and mixed with the local population through marriage. The Vikings, like the Romans and Angles before them, appreciated the importance of Jorvik's location for control of the region. It became the capital of a Viking kingdom within The Danelaw, a kingdom which more or less extended over what became known as Yorkshire. It was the Vikings who divided 'Jorvikskyr' (Yorkshire) into three administrative parts 'thridjungr'. Under Scandinavian rule, Jorvik developed further as an important trading centre.. Leif EricssonAbout AD 970 -1020 The first European to reach the shores of North America grew up on GreenlandWatch out for that iceberg! Eric the Red shouted the order to the rowers. Exiled from Iceland, he was searching for a new home for his family. Young Leif, his son, kept staring at the huge iceberg while they slowly and carefully rowed past it in their Viking ship. Soon the fjord opened up and Leif could see green grassland both to the right and left. The men stopped rowing and soon the ship gently grounded on the beach and they all went ashore. Come West - to GreenlandAfter three years had passed, Eric the Red returned to Iceland and told of the bounty which he had found in the new land to the west, the land he named Greenland. Stimulated and excited by his tales and descriptions, hundreds of people packed up their families and belongings and followed him to their new home. Leif becomes a ChristianLeif grew to be a large and imposing man, one known for his fair judgment and honesty. Having been reared under his father's adventurous hand, Leif had a strong urge to travel and explore. One of his first trips was eastward, to Norway, the homeland of his family. He arrived in Nidaros (Trondheim) and was well received by King Olav Tryggvasson. Leif and his men stayed there for the winter, and were taught the foundations of Christianity. Before they left Norway, Leif, along with all of his men, accepted the faith and were baptised Christians. Returning to Greenland, Leif taught the people of his new-found beliefs. His mother listened to his words and became a Christian. So devout in her belief was she, she asked Eric to have a church built for worship. Grudgingly, Eric fulfilled her request, but he himself never accepted the faith or visited the finished church. New land to the west!Some years before AD 1000, Bjarni Herjólfsson relayed exciting news of a new land to the west. Leif, an adventurer in his own right, bought Bjarni's ship, gathered a crew of 35 and sailed westward as Bjarni had instructed. With favourable weather and winds, Leif and his crew were soon following the outlines of the new lands that they had heard of. They continued onward, stopping only briefly at the other two lands, until they reached the third new land. Vinland the GoodThere, they came ashore and constructed some booths, and later a large house for the winter. They found their winter to be frost-free, and agreed that fodder and other food, that normally would need to be kept during the cold harsh winter for the animals, would be unnecessary here. Also, the rivers and lakes were filled with salmon and a large variety of other fish. And the earth! It seemed to be black and rich, where they could easily grow their crops. So pleased was Leif by the land and its bounty, he named it Vinland. Leif the LuckyIn the spring, Leif and his men returned to Greenland. On his return journey, Leif came upon a wrecked trading vessel whose crew he rescued; for this deed he received the entire rich cargo and the nickname Leif the Lucky. A year later his father, Eric the Red, died and Leif settled on Brattahlid taking over his father's farm. Thorvald goes to VinlandThorvald, Leif's brother, borrowed Leif's ship and sailed westward to Vinland two years later. He used Leif's sailing directions and ship to complete the journey. For two years he and his men sailed along the coasts, exploring the new land. Snorri - the first European-AmericanThorfinn Karlsefni and his wife, Gudrid, also sailed to Vinland and resided in Leif's house. While they lived there, they collected many valuable products, including many samples of wood, which was of high value to the Vikings. Gudrid gave birth to a son during their stay and they named him Snorri. He was the first European child to be born in the New World. Where was Vinland?In the 1960's, the Norwegian explorer and writer Helge Ingstad and his archaeologist wife, Stine, decided to resolve the question of whether Vinland meant "Grassland" or "Wine-land?"
The Longship WALLS OF CONSTANTINOPLE (Norse called Miklagard=Great City) Miklagard (The Great City)
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THE BATTLE OF STAMFORD BRIDGE Few people in England have heard of the Battle of Stamford Bridge, even though it was the last Viking battle on English soil and ended the Viking era of English history.
The Norman Invasion
When the slaughter was over, Harold gave quarter to the defeated, and the Viking survivors went home in 24 ships. They had arrived in 300 ships.
When King Harold arrived, after a forced march from Yorkshire, the Normans had marched inland to good defensive positions. |
Most of the Vikings in Constantinople were from Sweden but there were also Danes and Norwegians. The most famous of the Varangians was perhaps Harald Sigurdsson (1015-1066) who later became King of Norway under the name HaraldHardrada. He was commander of the emperors bodyguard, the Varangians for many years. He led the Varangians into battle in North-Africa, Syria, Palestine and Sicily. He sent all the goods he could get hold of north to Holmgaard in Russia, to his father-in-law to be, King Jaroslav the Wise. "There was an accumulation of wealth such that no man of the north had seen in the possession of a single man", said Snorre.
When Harald, after many years service, planned to go home he wanted to take with him the empress's niece, Maria, but the empress said no. The Varangians said that there were rumours that Empress Zoe herself wanted Harald. Emperor Constantine imprisoned Harald, but Harald received help in escaping. He took Maria by force, grabbed a ship and rowed out of the harbour. When they reached the chain that protected the harbour he ordered everyone that wasn't rowing to the back of the boat and the rowers rowed for their lives. When they had rowed the ship up on the chain he ordered everyone forward. The ship tipped forward and slid off the chain. They could continue on into the Black Sea towards Russia. But before going on to Norway he graciously sent Maria back to Miklagard with a company and married Jaroslav's daughter Ellisif. They left for Norway in 1045.
Harald Hardrada's last battle
Vikings, Norsemen or Northmen, common names for the inhabitants of Scandinavia in the period 800-1050. The origin of the word Viking is disputed, as are the reasons for the sudden expansion of Scandinavian activities in this period, though over population, the weakness of neighbouring states, and favourable trading conditions were probably influential factors.
Although the Vikings are best known as pirates, some of their raids were political in nature, and they were equally energetic as colonists - with colonies stretching from North America to central Russia - and as traders, with main trading posts at Birka (near Stockholm) and Hedeby (near Schleswig).
A signal for the start of Viking raids on the British Isles was the sacking of the monastery at Lindisfarne in 793. Soon Viking rule was established in the Orkneys, Shetlands, Hebrides, and parts of north and western Scotland, in parts of Ireland, and increasingly in England. The kingdom of Wessex under Alfred the Great resisted strongly however, and was victorious in 899.
In the 10th century the Scandinavian settlers in England lost their power, but towards the end of the century raids from Denmark increased, culminating in the invasion and conquest of England under Sweyn I and Cnut (Canute) the Great. The Vikings in Ireland however, were halted by their defeat at the battle of Clontarf, 1014.
Under Charlemagne and his successor, Louis the Pious, the Carolingian empire proved too strong for the Vikings, but after the latter's death in 840 they raided the areas round the Seine and the Loire frequently, sacking Paris in 845. As in England, they were prepared to be bought off by Danegeld. In 912 the Viking Rollo was granted lands in France which were to form the nucleus of the duchy of Normandy.
In Spain and the Mediterranean the Vikings met determined opposition from the Arabs and made only infrequent raids.
In the Atlantic, the Vikings had colonised the Faeroes and Iceland by the end of the 9th century. Eric the Red began the settlement of Greenland in about 986, and his son Leif Ericsson discovered 'Vinland' in North America in 1000, though the Viking colonies that were established there do not seem to have survived long. In the East, the Vikings (known as Rus) traded down the Dnieper and Volga rivers, establishing trading posts at Novgorod and Kiev, where they founded a dynasty. Vikings also served in the imperial guard in Byzantium, where they were known as Varangians.
Viking success was based very much on their superior ships and seamanship, whether in the military longship or in the colonists' broad knarr. Viking ships are preserved in Oslo and in Denmark at Roskilde. The Vikings were not disorganised pirates, but had an established system of law and social organisation and a rich poetic culture.
© JM Dent/Historybookshop.com
The Long Ship
The Viking Long Ship was used from the 700's to about 1000AD by the Vikings of Northern Europe. The first known European exploration of America was probably made in these Viking ships. It was between 25 and 35 metres long. The Viking Long Ship had a single mast and one large square sail. It could also be rowed. With its shallow hull, it could easily be rowed up rivers to attack villages and towns far inland.
Secrets of Norse Ships by Evan Hadingham For three turbulent centuries, the glimpse of a square sail and dragon-headed prow on the horizon struck terror into the hearts of medieval Europeans. Indeed, the Viking Age, from A.D. 800-1100, was the age of the sleek, speedy longship. Without this crucial advance in ship technology, the Vikings would never have become a dominant force in medieval warfare, politics, and trade. The drekar, or dragon-headed longships, were stealthy troop-carriers. They could cross the open oceans under sail and then switch to oars for lightning-fast hit-and-run attacks on undefended towns and monasteries. Far surpassing contemporary English or Frankish vessels in lightness and efficiency, longships carried Viking raiders from northern England to north Africa. Viking expertise in naval craftsmanship soon led to the evolution of other types of ship. Among these were the knarr, or ocean-going cargo vessel, which facilitated far-flung trade networks and the colonization of Iceland, Greenland, and America. The knarr drew on similar design principles as the longship but was higher and wider in relation to its length and had only limited numbers of oars to assist with maneuvers in narrow channels. Cargo decks were installed fore and aft. Proof in the planking The secret of the Viking ship lay in its unique construction. Using a broad ax rather than a saw, expert woodworkers would first split oak tree trunks into long, thin planks. They then fastened the boards with iron nails to a single sturdy keel and then to each other, one plank overlapping the next. The Vikings gave shape to the hull using this "clinker" technique rather than the more conventional method of first building an inner skeleton for the hull.
Next, the boatbuilders affixed evenly spaced floor timbers to the keel and not to the hull; this insured resilience and flexibility. They then added crossbeams to provide a deck and rowing benches, and secured a massive beam along the keel to support the mast. Famous discoveries of Viking ships at Gokstad and Oseberg, Norway, in 1880 and 1906, respectively, established the classic image of the dragon-headed warship. Longships from both sites were preserved almost intact, with lavish carved decoration, in the waterlogged clay of royal burial mounds. Built around A.D. 890, three quarters of a century after the Oseberg ship, the Gokstad vessel shows great improvements in design, particularly in the sturdiness of the mast supports. Not surprisingly, this era, during which the Norse perfected longship design, coincides with the eruption of seaborne Viking raids on the monasteries and towns of Europe.
The modern phase of Viking ship investigation began with the recovery of five vessels at Skuldelev in Roskilde fjord, Denmark, between 1957 and 1962. The excavation involved building a coffer dam around the ships, which Norsemen deliberately sunk in a desperate bid to barricade the fjord against invaders. Editor's Picks | Previous Sites | Join Us/E-mail | TV/Web Schedule |
The Scandinavians who, in the ninth and tenth centuries, first ravaged the coasts of Western Europe and its islands and then turned from raiding into settlers. This article will be confined to the history of their exodus.
Tacitus refers to the "Suiones" (Germ., xliv, xlv) living beyond the Baltic as rich in arms and ships and men. But, except for the chance appearance of a small Viking fleet in the Meuse early in the sixth century, nothing more is heard of the Scandinavians until the end of the eighth century, when the forerunners of the exodus appeared as raiders off the English and Scottish coasts.
In their broad outlines the political divisions of Scandinavia were much as they are at the present day, except that the Swedes were confined to a narrower territory. The Finns occupied the northern part of modern Sweden, and the Danes the southern extremity and the eastern shores of the Cattegat, while the Norwegians stretched down the coast of the Skager-Rack, cutting off the Swedes from the western sea. The inhabitants of these kingdoms bore a general resemblance to the Teutonic peoples, with whom they were connected in race and language.
In their social condition and religion they were not unlike the Angles and Saxons of the sixth century. Though we cannot account satisfactorily for the exodus, we may say that it was due generally to the increase of the population, to the breaking down of the old tribal system, and the efforts of the kings, especially Harold Fairhair, to consolidate their power, and finally to the love of adventure and the discovery that the lands and cities of Western Christendom lay at their mercy.
Summary from a Roman Catholic Sources which emphasizes raids of Norsemen-Vikings
The Northmen invaded the West in three main streams:
The work of destruction which the first stream of Northmen wrought on the continent is told in words of despair in what is left of the Frankish Chronicles, for the pagan and greedy invaders seem to have singled out the monasteries for attack and must have destroyed most of the records of their own devastation. A Danish fleet appeared off Frisia in 810, and ten years later another reached the mouth of the Loire, but the systematic and persevering assault did not begin until about 835. From that date till the early years of the following century the Viking ships were almost annual visitors to the coasts and river valleys of Germany and Gaul.
About 850 they began to establish island strongholds near the mouths of the rivers, where they could winter and store their booty, and to which they could retire on the rare occasions when the Frankish or English kings were able to check their raids. Such were Walcheren at the mouth of the Scheldt, Sheppey at that of the Thames, Oissel in the lower Seine, and Noirmoutier near the Loire.
For over seventy years Gaul seemed to lie almost at the mercy of the Danes. Their ravages spread backwards from the coasts and river valleys; they penetrated even to Auvergne. There was little resistance whether from king or count. Robert the Strong did, indeed, succeed in defending Paris and so laid the foundations of what was afterward the House of Capet, but he was killed in 866. In the end the success of the Danes brought this period of destruction to a close; the raiders turned into colonists, and in 911 Charles the Simple, by granting Normandy to Rollo, was able to establish a barrier against further invasion.
Meanwhile, England had been assailed not only from the Channel and the southwest, but also by Viking ships crossing the North Sea. The Danes for a time had been even more successful than in Gaul, for Northern and Eastern districts fell together into their hands and the fate of Wessex seemed to have been decided by a succession of Danish victories in 871. Alfred, however, succeeded in recovering the upper hand, the country was partitioned between Dane and West Saxon, and for a time further raids were stopped by the formation of a fleet and the defeat of Hastings in 893.
To Ireland, too, the Northmen came from two directions, from south and north. It was one of the first countries of the West to suffer, for at the beginning of the ninth century it was the weakest. The Vikings arrived even before 800, and as early as 807 their ships visited the west coast. They were, however, defeated near Killarney in 812 and the full fury of the attack did not fall on the country until 820. Twenty years later there appear to have been three Norse "kingdoms" in Ireland, those of Dublin, Waterford, and Limerick, with an overking, but the Irish won a series of victories, while war broke out between the Danes coming by the Channel and the Norwegians descending from the north. For the next century and a half the Danish wars continued. Neither party gained a distinct advantage and both the face of the country and the national character suffered. Finally in 1014, on Good Friday, at Clontarf, on the shores of Dublin Bay, the Danes suffered a great defeat from Brian Boru. Henceforth they ceased to be an aggressive force in Ireland, though they kept their position in a number of the coast towns.
During the earlier attacks on Ireland, the Scottish Islands and especially the Orkneys had become a permanent centre of Norse power and the home of those who had been driven out by Harold Fairhair. They even returned to help the king's enemies; to such an extent that about 855 Harold followed up victory in Norway by taking possession of the Orkneys. The result was that the independent spirits amongst the Vikings pushed on to the Faroes and Iceland, which had been already explored, and established there one of the most remarkable homes of Norse civilization. About a hundred years later the Icelanders founded a colony on the strip of coast between the glaciers and the sea, which, to attract settlers, they called Greenland, and soon after occurred the temporary settlement in Vinland on the mainland of North America.
But the prows of the Viking ships were not always turned towards the West. They also followed the Norwegian coast past the North Cape and established trade relations with "Biarmaland" on the shores of the White Sea. The Baltic, however, provided an easier route to the east and in the ninth and tenth centuries it was a Swedish Lake. By the middle of the ninth century a half-mythical Ruric reigned over a Norse or "Varangian" Kingdom at Novgorod and, in 880, one of his successors, Oleg, moved his capital to Kiev, and ruled from the Baltic to the Black Sea. He imposed on Constantinople itself in 907 the humiliation which had befallen so many of the cities of the West, and "Micklegarth" had to pay Danegeld to the Norse sovereign of a Russian army. The Varangian ships are even said to have sailed down the Volga and across the remote waters of the Caspian.
There is, however, a second stage of Norse enterprise as remarkable, though for different reasons, as the first. The Norman conquests of Southern Italy and of England and in part the Crusades, in which the Normans took so large a share, prove what the astonishing vitality of the Northmen could do when they had received Christianity and Frankish civilization from the people they had plundered.