1. All of the following are true of Sargon EXCEPT:

a. He claimed to be the lover of Ishtar

b. He was king of the Akkadians

c. He ruled weakly and passively(not true)

d. He established the first Near Eastern empire

Sargon was a king of Akkad, one of the Semitic cities that rose in Mesopotamia after the Sumerians, during the Bronze Age. He’s credited with creating the first multinational empire, after conquering or absorbing many of the lands and peoples of the Fertile Crescent. He rules over this empire oppressively and ruthlessly—one of the reasons it did not last.

2. The Old Babylonian Empire was known for

a. Mathematics and astronomy(true)

b. Romance novels

c. Inventing an early form of baseball

d. Lasting for thousands of years

The Bronze Age Babylonian Empire, also known as the Old Babylonian Empire, attracted those skilled in mathematics and astronomy and was one of the first powerhouses in these fields. The empire lasted c. 1894 BCE – c. 1595 BCE, about 400 years.

3. All of the following are true of the Code of Hammurabi EXCEPT:

a. It was a compilation of laws relating to civil and criminal procedures

b. Its penalties were harsher than older laws

c. It helped to unify the empire by placing it under a single legal system

d. The three classes—noble, free, and slave—were treated exactly equally(not true)

It was a law code, one of the earliest known in history, issued by Hammurabi, a king of the Old Babylonian empire during the 18th century BCE. For the most part it dealt with applying justice to conflicts between individuals, often having to do with property or commercial transactions, with different provisions depending on class.

4. The Indo-European people who settled in central Anatolia (modern Turkey) were the

a. Hittites(true)

b. Mennonites

c. Kassites

d. Outtasights

The Hittites were an Indo-European people who settled in central Anatolia. They were among the earliest masters of bronze.

5. All of the following are true of the Indo-Europeans EXCEPT:

a. They were originally nomads

b. They were pastoral (animal herders)

c. They never went anywhere and stayed in their homeland until they died out (not true)

d. Their language was the origin of many related later languages, including Persian, Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit

The Indo-Europeans were a pastoral people and so constantly in search of new grazing lands as their populations increased. As such, whole nations of Indo-Europeans left the Indo-European Homeland on the central Asian steppes, migrating into new lands to the south, west, and east. These nations were the ancestors of the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, and the Vedic Hindu peoples, among many others.

Optional Extra Credit

EC. Give an example of one of the punishments you remember from the Code of Hammurabi.

Examples of provisions include:

• If a man accuses another man and charges him with homicide, but cannot bring proof against him, his accuser shall be killed.
• If a man breaks into a house, they shall kill him and hang him(?) in front of that very breach.
• If a man has a debt lodged against him, and the storm-god Adad devastates his field or a flood sweeps away the crops, or there is no grain grown in the field due to insufficient water—in that year he will not repay grain to his creditor; he shall suspend performance of his contract [literally “wet his clay tablet”] and he will not give interest payments for that year.
• If a merchant should give silver to a trading agent for an investment venture, and he [the trading agent] incurs a loss on his journeys, he shall return silver to the merchant in the amount of the capital sum.
• If a man takes in adoption a young child at birth [literally “in its water”] and then rears him, that rearling will not be reclaimed.
• If an [awīlum] should blind the eye of another [awīlum], they shall blind his eye.
• If a builder constructs a house for a man but does not make it conform to specifications so that a wall then buckles, that builder shall make that wall sound using his own silver.
• If an ox gores to death a man while it is passing through the streets, that case has no basis for a claim.
• If a man rents a boat of 60-[kur] capacity, he shall give one sixth [of a shekel] of silver per day as its hire.
• If a slave should declare to his master, “You are not my master”, he [the master] shall bring charge and proof against him that he is indeed his slave, and his master shall cut off his ear.

1. The Nile delta is found in

a. Nubia

b. Kush

c. Lower Egypt(true)

d. Upper Egypt

The delta is where the Nile empties into the Mediterranean. This is downstream (Lower Egypt).

2. All of the following are true of the pyramids EXCEPT:

a. They are associated with the earliest period of united Egypt, the Old Kingdom

b. They were intended to protect the mortal remains of the pharaoh buried within

c. They could only have been constructed by alien gods from outer space(not true)

d. The largest and most famous, the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops), took 23 years to build

The pyramids were visible symbols of the pharaoh’s divine rule, unifying the people’s shared identity and religion. They represented power unlike any human’s and so reinforced the pharaoh’s divinity. Pyramids were also the ultimate in prestige and luxury, which was controlled by the pharaohs, and so showed precedence over all classes and over past kings as well. They employed huge numbers of people, impressing the people directly with his power and keeping them busy between harvests. They served as temples for the worship of pharaohs after death. Like all monumental building (e.g., the ziggurats) they displayed Egypt’s (and so the pharaoh’s) immense economic power—to its own people and to outsiders as well, as well as serving as a visual focal point for a strong central identity as Egyptians and a home to a protective patron deity, in this case the pharaoh as a manifestation of Horus.

3. Akhenaten was famous for

a. religious reforms focusing on the supremacy of one god, Aten(true)

b. having no wife

c. being born in Arizona before moving to Babylonia

d. sharing the throne with his cousin Amenhotep

Akhenaten was an Egyptian pharaoh of the New Kingdom (during the 18th Dynasty). He and his queen, Nefertiti, sought to bring about religious reform in Egypt by shifting the focus of worship to Aten, calling him more important than the other gods. This brought about a form of polytheism in which one god is greatly predominant called henotheism. Akhenaten pushed the exclusive worship of Aten by changing his regnal name from Amunhotep IV to Akhenaten, building a new royal city sacred to Aten, and instituting new rituals and priesthoods. In so doing, Akhenaten sought to undo the shift in religious power from the pharaohs, who had held unquestionable religious authority in the Old Kingdom, to the priests, who now held much greater power in the New Kingdom. The priests emphasized the significance of Amun-Ra, the sun god, in the pharaoh’s rule, so by associating the kingship with Aten he sought to wrest power from the priests. It was too late for that, however: the authority of the priests was now too well established, and the pharaoh’s power too diminished from the absolute in the New Kingdom. Egyptian religion reverted the control of the priests after the deaths of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, as signified by the regnal name of his son and eventual successor, Tutankhamun.

4. The collection of spells that was wrapped around a mummy is known as

a. “The Spells of Ra”

b. “The Tale of Sinuhe”

c. “Book of the Dead” (true)

d. “Osiris Among the Shades”

The Book of the Dead was what was used to ensure the passage of the spirit to the lands of the dead.

5. All of the following are true of the Semitic invaders who dominated Egypt between the Middle and New Kingdoms EXCEPT:

a. The Egyptians called them the Hyksos, meaning “foreign rulers”

b. They embraced and preserved Egyptian culture

c. They ruled peacefully over Egypt for many thousands of years(not true)

d. They fought using horses and chariots, bronze weapons, and complex bows

The Hyksos only ruled for about a hundred years. Despite being foreigners from the Semitic east, they embraced and promoted Egyptian culture and religion enthusiastically.

Optional Extra Credit

EC. What do you think made unification possible in Egypt, when it was impossible in Sumer?

The main point here is that the city-states of Sumer were in competition for limited resources, and so remained in rivalry with each other and were often hostile. In Egypt, however, the environment provided plenty for all, so there was no need to compete for resources, and everyone had in common the protection and nurturing of the gods—eventually manifested as a single god-king.