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23990 results in Ancient history

Page 1026 of 1200

  • 6 - Iranians and Greeks

  • Arnaldo Momigliano, University College London
  • Book:
    Alien Wisdom
    Published online:
    01 June 2011
    Print publication:
    18 December 1975, pp 123-150

  • Summary

    ‘Such things should be said beside the fire in winter-time when a man reclines full-fed on a soft couch, drinking the sweet wine and munching chick-peas – such things as: “Who and whence are you? and how old are you, good man? how old were you when the Mede came?”’ (Xenophanes, fr. 18 Diehl = 22 Edmonds). The arrival of the Mede in Ionia – that is, Harpagus the Mede's conquest on behalf of Cyrus the Persian about 545 b.c. – was the beginning of a new age for Xenophanes of Colophon. He himself had left his native city as a young man in consequence of that event. At the age of 92 he was still alive, about 472 b.c. The Persian conquest of the kingdom of Lydia involved in one form or another all the Greeks of Asia Minor. The Greeks had crossed swords with the Assyrians and had had their troubles with the Egyptians, but had never lived inside a great empire – at least not after the Hittite Empire of which they remembered nothing. The Lydian rule had been easy to accept, as Lydia was soon dominated by Greek culture – open to Greek traders, artists, soldiers and oracles. Cyrus was as epoch-making for the Greeks as he was for the Jews – though the reasons were different.

    The comparative philologists want us to push back the contacts between Iranians and Greeks to earlier times.

  • (c) - TROY VII

  • Edited by I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond, E. Sollberger
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Ancient History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 September 1975, pp 161-164

  • Summary

    Under the Troy VII designation, Dörpfeld grouped two layers of very different character, and called them VII1 and VII2 respectively, which are referred as VIIa and VIIb in this chapter. Settlement VIIa represents a direct continuation after the earthquake of the culture that flourished in Troy VI. The layer of accumulated deposit of Period VIIa had an average thickness of little more than 0-50m; but in streets and certain other places debris from the final destruction was heaped up to a height of 1-1.5m. One, or at the most two, generations would seem to be a reasonable estimate of the duration of the settlement. In Settlement VIIb, two successive strata have been recognized. The objects recovered from the lower stratum in VIIb1 make it clear that some part of the Trojan population survived the disaster. The upper stratum of Troy VIIb reveals an abrupt change in culture which unmistakably signifies the arrival of a new people on the scene.

  • CHAPTER XXIII - EGYPT: FROM THE INCEPTION OF THE NINETEENTH DYNASTY TO THE DEATH OF RAMESSES III

  • Edited by I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond, E. Sollberger
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Ancient History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 September 1975, pp 217-251

  • Summary

    This chapter talks about Egypt from the rise of the Nineteenth Dynasty till the death of Ramesses III. To Sethos I, who succeeded to the throne in 1318 BC, there fell the task of restoring Egypt to the standing of a Great Power for which he undertook a series of foreign campaigns. At home in Egypt it was the task of Sethos I to round off the work set on foot by Horemheb in restoring the ravages of the Amarna episode. Ramesses III came to the throne in circa 1198 BC. In the period from Year 5 to Year 11 inclusive there were three major wars. The war of Year 5 was against the Libyans, who in a coalition of Libya, Meshwesh and an unknown tribe named Seped, were again contemplating a descent into Egypt. With the death of Ramesses III the glory of Egypt departed, and the nation was never again an imperial power.

  • CHAPTER XXVIII - THE SEA PEOPLES

  • Edited by I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond, E. Sollberger
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Ancient History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 September 1975, pp 359-378

  • Summary

    In the year 1300 BC, the great clash took place at Qadesh in Syria between the young Ramesses II and Muwatallish, the Great King of the Hittites. It is now accepted that Mukshush, the companion of Madduwattash, is identical in name with Mopsus, a strange figure of Greek legend, a seer and prince of Colophon. The razzia of Mopsus may be reasonably regarded as part of the downward thrust of the horde of assailants whom the Egyptians called collectively the Peoples of the Sea. There are some archaeological reasons to think that some settlement by Philistines or other closely related Sea Peoples in Palestine may start in this period before 1200 BC. In 1194 BC, Ramesses III clashed with the Libyans. The clash took the form of two battles: the first in Syria against the Land Raiders; the second real fight, against the Sea Raiders, taking place in the Delta at the entrance to Egypt itself.

  • CHAPTER XXXVII - THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN

  • Edited by I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond, E. Sollberger
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Ancient History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 September 1975, pp 713-772

  • Summary

    This chapter presents the history of the following countries and regions in the Western Mediterranean during the period 1380-1000 BC: Italy, Sicily, Malta, Sardinia, Corsica, Southern France, Spain, Portugal, and North Africa. The first Neolithic societies with a mixed farming economy have so far been found in quantity only in the south-east and in Liguria, though traces are beginning to turn up in Calabria also. At the end of the fifths millennium BC, South France was occupied by small semi-nomadic groups of hunters and fishers and collectors technically known as Mesolithic people. The cardial wares are restricted in distribution in South France to the littoral and extend a short way up the Rhone valley. In the North African region, we find no great flourishing of Late Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures, nothing to compare with Los Millares and El Argar, with the Nuraghic civilization of Sardinia and the Torrean civilization of Corsica.

  • CHAPTER XXIX - ELAM c. 1600-1200 B.C.

  • Edited by I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond, E. Sollberger
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Ancient History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 September 1975, pp 379-416

  • Summary

    Events occurring just before the foundation of the new Elamite dynasty are known to us through the texts of Kurigalzu II. It was during the reign of Untash-(d)GAL, which probably lasted some twenty years that the dynasty founded by Ike-khalki reached its apogee. The city of Susa grew continually in importance during his reign and consequently the kingdom opened out more and more towards the west. All the information concerning military and political affairs during this period of Elamite history comes from foreign sources. The excavations at Chogha-Zanbil have furnished us with much precious information on Elamite architecture at the time of Untash-(d)GAL, on building materials, planning, systems of measurement, use of the arch and the vault. The progressive decline of the great goddess in favour of the major gods is one characteristic of religious evolution in Elam. Another characteristic is the rise in importance of In-Shushinak the god of Susa.

  • CHAPTER XX - THE AMARNA LETTERS FROM PALESTINE

  • Edited by I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond, E. Sollberger
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Ancient History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 September 1975, pp 98-116

  • Summary

    In 1915 the publication of all then available Amarna Tablets, begun by J. A. Knudtzon in 1907, was completed. Since then another seven important tablets belonging to the original find have been published. About 150 of the letters either are written directly from or to Palestine, or are so immediately concerned with Palestinian affairs that they fall within the scope of this chapter. During the two centuries of Egyptian occupation of Palestine since the conquest under Amosis and Amenophis I, its political organization had become more or less normalized. Certain princes exercised acknowledged feudal rights over other weaker chieftains; for example, Tagu was the immediate suzerain of the chief of Gath (Jett) in Sharon. The population of Palestine in the Amarna age was small; it was mostly concentrated on the coastal plains and the adjacent low hills, the plain of Esdraelon and the Jordan valley.

  • (a) - : THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND

  • from CHAPTER XXXVI - THE END OF MYCENAEAN CIVILIZATION AND THE DARK AGE
  • Edited by I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond, E. Sollberger
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Ancient History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 September 1975, pp 658-677

  • Summary

    The final disintegration of Mycenaean civilization, marked in certain areas by the survival of Mycenaean settlements until their total or partial desertion, and in central mainland Greece by the introduction of new factors which, even though in some aspects based on the old, maybe said to constitute the beginning of the Dark Age. The period from about the middle of the eleventh century to the end of the tenth is marked by a time of settling down and resumption of peaceful communication. The period is named Protogeometric because much of Greece and the Aegean is dominated by pottery of this style. The island of Crete, in spite of its very close connexions with the Mycenaean world, exhibits individual characteristics which place it, in other ways, outside the Mycenaean koine. The Cretans enjoyed an advantage apparently denied to the rest of the Greek world, except the Dodecanese, until the final years of the tenth century: their contacts with Cyprus.

  • (b) - THE LITERARY TRADITION FOR THE MIGRATIONS

  • from CHAPTER XXXVI - THE END OF MYCENAEAN CIVILIZATION AND THE DARK AGE
  • Edited by I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond, E. Sollberger
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Ancient History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 September 1975, pp 678-712

  • Summary

    Archaeological evidence affects the attitude towards literary tradition. Continuity of literary tradition was maintained between the Mycenaean period and the archaic Greek period by the recitation of epic lays. The movements of the Dorian group are all anterior to the so-called Dorian invasion. They afford some insight into the way of life of these primitive people. This chapter presents the traditions of Dorians and Heracleidae before the Trojan War, as well as the traditions of Dorians and Heracleidae between the Trojan War and their entry into the Peloponnese. The Dorians chose to attack Melos and Thera first before other conquests, presumably because these islands were on the way to their friends in east Crete, Rhodes and the Dodecanese and also because they held important positions on the trade routes to the Levant. The chapter also talks about the invasions of Thessalians, Boeotians, and Eleans, and ends with a note on the effects of the invasions on the Mycenaean Greeks.

  • CHAPTER XXXIX (b) - THE HOMERIC POEMS AS HISTORY

  • Edited by I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond, E. Sollberger
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Ancient History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 September 1975, pp 820-850

  • Summary

    Oral tradition in an age of illiteracy also included oral poetical tradition. The Iliad and Odyssey are traditional poems which incorporate elements from the Bronze Age background of their formal subjects, from the Ionian environment of the singers to whom the poems in their developed form belonged. The evidence of language takes on a new importance against the background of archaism and innovation. The Homeric language is an artificial amalgam, in which a predominantly Ionic dialect is interspersed with Arcado-Cypriot, Aeolic, and even a few Attic forms. The degree of detailed Bronze Age knowledge preserved in the poems does suggest that heroic poetry on this subject must have established itself at least within some two or three generations of the final Mycenaean cataclysm around 1125 BC. The chapter also discusses the continuity and discontinuity of tradition from Bronze Age down to Homer, before ending with a note on the poems during the Dark Age and after.

  • (b) - CYPRUS IN THE LATE BRONZE AGE

  • Edited by I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond, E. Sollberger
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Ancient History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 September 1975, pp 188-216

  • Summary

    In the five hundred years that the Late Bronze Age lasted in Cyprus the island finally entered into full association with her more developed neighbours. By Late Cypriot II (LC II) there had been a great increase in population, which can be deduced from the corresponding increase in the number of occupied settlements and in the overall size of individual sites. Only a minute number of Cypriot goods travelled to the Aegean during LC I, although Cypriots continued to enjoy and to develop their trade links with the Levant and Egypt. For well over a century after 1550 BC the Aegean states were even less interested in Cyprus, or less able to visit her than they had been in the Middle Bronze Age. However, this changed during LC Ib Although the location of Alashiya has not been definitely established, it is commonly considered to be Cyprus, whether in part or whole.

  • CHAPTER XVII - THE STRUGGLE FOR THE DOMINATION OF SYRIA (1400-1300 B.C.)

  • Edited by I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond, E. Sollberger
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Ancient History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 September 1975, pp 1-20

  • Summary

    Both Mesopotamia and Anatolia are lacking in indispensable raw materials which they must acquire by trade. For them, Syria meant access to international trade. Syria possesses ports where merchandise from far-away countries is received and exchanged for whatever Asia has to offer. Hence, all political development in the Near East tends toward the domination of Syria by its neighbours. The interplay of the Egyptians, the Mitannians with their Hurrian partisans, and the Hittites, determined the fate of Syria in the fourteenth century. This chapter first deals with the war between Tushratta of the Mitannians, and the Shuppiluliumash of the Hittites. Then, it discusses the first and second Syrian wars of Shuppiluliumash. The first war was with Tushratta in which the Mittanni king was defeated. In the second war, he removed the Hurrian city-rulers who had been the mainstay of Mitannian domination and replaced them with men of his own choice. The chapter also discusses the Hurrian War of Shuppiluliumash.

  • CHAPTER XXXIX (a) - THE PREHISTORY OF THE GREEK LANGUAGE

  • Edited by I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond, E. Sollberger
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Ancient History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 September 1975, pp 805-819

  • Summary

    Historic Greek may be defined as the language as it is known from texts and monuments from the eighth century BC onwards. All Greek dialects exhibit certain features in common, and these are numerous and particular enough for us to be able to presume a common origin for them. This chapter presents a list, which though incomplete, can give some indication of the features which distinguished Greek from the other languages of the Indo-European family in the second millennium BC. These are divided on the basis of phonology, morphology and syntax, and vocabulary. It has been customary to regard the three main dialect groups, Doric, Ionic and Achaean, as corresponding to three separate waves of invaders, who brought to Greece their distinct dialects of the Greek language. All Greek dialects share a number of words borrowed from unknown languages, and some of these show differing forms in the dialects which prove that the borrowing took place in prehistoric times.

  • CHAPTER XXXII - ELAM AND WESTERN PERSIA, c. 1200-1000 B.C.

  • Edited by I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond, E. Sollberger
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Ancient History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 September 1975, pp 482-506

  • Summary

    With the reign of Shutruk-Nahhunte begins one of the most glorious periods in Elamite history. During a space of almost seventy years five kings succeed to the throne: Shutruk-Nahhunte, Kutir-Nahhunte, Shilkhak-In-Shushinak, Khutelutush-In-Shushinak and Silkhinakhamru-Lakamar. Their personal qualities were to make Elam one of the greatest military powers in the Middle East for a period lasting over fifty years. Susa owes much of its splendour to Shilkhak-In-Shushinak. There are many texts which commemorate the foundation or restoration of temples at Susa. A curious bronze tray known as the sīt šamši, 'sunrise' shows us certain ablution rites, for it is probably a model of the acropolis of Susa, with two of its temples, their appurtenances, their ornaments and sacred grove, at the time of Shilkhak-In-Shushinak. This allows us to complete, to a certain extent, the information we have from the excavations concerning the topography of Susa. The chapter also presents a note on the political geography of Western Persia.

  • CHAPTER XXXI - ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA, c. 1200-1000 B.C.

  • Edited by I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond, E. Sollberger
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Ancient History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 September 1975, pp 443-481

  • Summary

    The abduction of Kashtiliash by Tukulti-Ninurta I paved the way for direct Assyrian control of Babylonian affairs. The Kassites strengthened and continued the ancient Babylonian customs and culture. Long after they had lost political control, they remained a strong foreign element in Babylonia and provided the chief element in the Babylonian armed forces till the ninth century. Marduk-kabitahhēshu of Isin who, according to Babylonian tradition followed Enlil-nadin-akhi without any Elamite interregnum, founded a new dynasty in which eleven members of the line were to rule Babylonia for 132 years and 6 months. Nebuchadrezzar was less successful in his relations with Assyria, but it is the Assyrian account of events between them which alone survives. As the Babylonians had neutralized the Elamites and taken a part in controlling the raiders both from the Lullubi tribes and from the nomadic tribes of the western desert, Tiglath-pileser I was free to face the growing storm clouds in the north in his accession year.

Page 1026 of 1200