REL S 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Bantu Languages, Puberty, Theogony
Document Summary
Mesopotamia: between the rivers tigris and euphrates. By 5000 bce, complex irrigaion networks: known today as iran, iraq; cultural coninuum of ferile crescents, sumerian city states appear 4000 bce; dominate region from 3200-2350 bce (ur: home of abraham, nineveh) Tiamat: water goddess and mother of the gods (chaos) Marduk: god of creaion, who defeated tiamat. Humans created from the blood of tiamat"s husband kingsu. Dumuzi and inanna ferility, seasons, underworld (plagues and pesilence, demons: sumerian wriing systems formed around 3500 bce: pictographs. Declines from 400 bce with spread of greek alphabeic script. Uses for wriing: religion, laws- hammurabi, trade, astronomy, mathemaics, ime. Mesopotamian literature included: epic of gilgamesh, heroic saga, search for meaning, lood, immortality, role of humans, aterlife: egypt and the nile. Increased in importance w desiccaion of saraha in 5000 bce: early agriculture in nile valley. 10,000 bce migrants from red sea hills (northern ethiopia) 5000 bce sudanese culivators and herders migrate to nile river valley.
