Who lived at Ur?
Ur was one of the city-states built by the ancient Sumerians.
Its ruins lie in southern Iraq.
The Sumerians founded Ur during the 3000s B.C. The River
Euphrates flowed nearby.
The early settlement at Ur was wiped out by a flood. It is
remembered in the Bible as the Great Flood.
A highly civilized group of Sumerian people settled at Ur
after the Flood. They included sculptors, potters, metalworkers and builders.
A royal graveyard, containing gold, silver and bronze objects
dating from about 2700 B.C. was excavated in the 1920s.
The kings and queens of Ur were buried with a large retinue of
their poisoned courtiers who hoped to serve them in the next world.
Who was Sargon of
Akkad?
Sargon was a king who reigned from about 2630 to 2305 B.C. He
founded the world’s first major empire.
Sargon was vizier (chief minister) to one of the kings who
ruled in Sumer (modern Iraq). He took over the throne and founded the city of
Agade (or Akkad), somewhere in north Babylonia.
In time he conquered all the other kings of Sumer, extending
his rule south to the Persian Gulf, west to the Mediterranean and north into
what is now Turkey.
The people of this empire were called Akkadians.
Under Sargon’s successors, the Akkadians developed the art of
writing. They also designed the first helmets to be used in warfare, made out
of copper and leather.
Who were the Hittites?
The Hittites had an empire based on what is now central
Turkey. It lasted for about 700 years, from the 1900s to the 1200s B.C.
The Hittites were related to the peoples of Europe and
northern India. They crossed the Caucasus Mountains from east-central Europe to
conquer Anatolia (modern Turkey). Their capital was the city of Hattusas near
modern Ankara.
After they became powerful around 1500 B.C. the Hittites
spread south along the Mediterranean coast.
They wrote on clay, both in hieroglyphics (picture writing)
and in cuneiform (wedge-shaped) script. Hittite kings also served as high
priests. They had a legal system. The Hittites were among the first people to
use iron.
Who was Moses?
Moses was the Hebrew prophet who led the people of Israel
from bondage in Egypt to Canaan.
The story of Moses is told in four books of the Bible – Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
This is the only direct reference to him.
However, an Egyptian inscription of about 1200 B.C. mentions
Israel and an Egyptian historian, Manetheo, writing in 200 B.C., told how
certain Hebrews were expelled from Egypt. “Moses” used to be an Egyptian name.
According to the Bible account, the Israelites were an
oppressed group in Egypt, which provided slave labour. Moses became their leader
and led them out of Egypt towards Canaan (Palestine), probably during the 1200s
B.C.
For many years the Israelites were nomads (Wanderers). They
did not reach Canaan until after Moses' death.
Who were the Assyrians?
The Assyrians lived in the northern part of what is now Iraq.
They flourished from about 2300 B.C. to 600 B.C.
The Assyrians lived in a highland area on the Tigris River.
Their chief cities were Assur and Nineveh. Their buildings were made of
sun-baked bricks, but their temples and palaces had stone foundations and
elaborate stone wall carvings.
The Assyrian state was built up around its army, the first
large force to be equipped with iron weapons. The Assyrians had an empire
stretching from Egypt to the Persian Gulf.
They extracted silver from mines in what is now Southern
Turkey and Assur soon became a thriving trade centre between East and West.
Small rods of silver were used in exchange for goods (especially fabrics,
horses and camels).
The Assyrians worshipped Ashur, the god of war. In 600 B.C.
Assyria was conquered by the Medes and Babylonians.
Who was King
Nebuchadrezzar?
Nebuchadrezzar was a king of Babylon from 605 to 562 B.C. In
the Bible, his name is spelt Nebuchadnezzar.
A few months before he succeeded his father Nebuchadrezzar
took Syria and Palestine from Egypt in a battle at Carchemish, now in southern
Turkey.
The Egyptians encouraged the defeated people to rebel, so
Nebuchadrezzar had to mount a series of fresh campaigns. He overran the little
Hebrew kingdom of Judah, sacked its capital, Jerusalem and took many captives
to Babylon.
Babylon was already a big and wealthy city when Nebuchadrezzar
became king, and he added many fine buildings to it, including the Ishtar Gate.
To please his wife, Amytis, who disliked the flat plain of
Babylon, Nebuchadrezzar built a huge terraced garden, famed as the Hanging
Gardens of Babylon and one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
Which king first United
Egypt?
Menes, the ruler of Upper Egypt, conquered the Nile Delta area
(Lower Egypt) in about 2850 B.C.
The kingdom of Upper Egypt extended south from where Cairo is
now to the first Cataract (steep rapids) on the Nile, the site of present-day
Aswan.
Menes wore a white, cone-shaped crown. The rulers of Lower
Egypt, the swampy area of the delta, wore a red crown. After his conquest,
Menes wore a double crown the white crown inside the red one.
Menes was a personal name. He took a different name as a
ruler and appeared in lists of early kings as Narmer, Lord of the two lands.
The king built a capital city for his double kingdom at
Memphis, southwest of Cairo. Its citadel was surrounded by a white wall.
Egyptian history tells us that Menes/Narmer reigned for 62
years and that his wife was Neith-help. Soon after he died – killed by a
hippopotamus – he was declared a god.
Who sent a trading
expedition to the land of Punt?
Many Egyptian rulers sent traders to the Land of Punt, but
the two most famous expeditions were sent by Mentohotep III and Queen Hatshepsut.
The Land of Punt lay on the Red Sea Coast, now occupied by
part of Ethiopia Djibouti and north Somalia. It was rich in gold, ivory and
spices.
Early trading between Egypt and Punt was apparently overland.
By about 2000 B.C., the third king Mentohotep decided that it would be better
to go by sea and sent one ship.
About 500 years later Queen Hatshepsut, who ruled from 1503
to 1482 B.C., sent a fleet of five ships to Punt. An inscription in her
mortuary temple at Deirel-Bahri, near Luxor, describes the cargo of fragrant
woods, incense, eye makeup, apes, dogs, panther skins and living myrrh trees.