Egypt Middle Kingdom

Ancient Egyptian language begins with Middle Egyptian, accepted by later Egyptians as the classical period of language, literature, and culture. The Middle Kingdom dated from approximately 2055 to 1650 b.c.e.

It comprised the second half of the Eleventh Dynasty, the Twelfth Dynasty that spanned 212 years (1985–1773 b.c.e.), and the Thirteenth Dynasty, at the end of which the central administration was once again weakening, leading into the Second Intermediate Period.

The pharaohs of the Twelfth Dynasty had remarkably long reigns: two, Senusret I and Amenemhat III, reigned for some 45 years. The First Intermediate Period was one of decentralization, but local rulers, religious institutions, and customs developed and flourished.


By the end of the First Intermediate Period power had concentrated in two centers, Herakleopolis, near the Faiyum in Middle Egypt, and Thebes. From the latter city the first three kings of the Eleventh Dynasty, all three named Intef, ruled Upper Egypt and gradually pushed the boundary of their rules further north. Around 2055 b.c.e. Mentuhotep II managed to reunify Egypt and reigned for 50 years, ushering in a period of peace and stability.

His two successors reigned a further 18 years, and Mentuhotep III was likely succeeded by his vizier, Amenemhat, as the first pharaoh of that name and of the Twelfth Dynasty.

His name, compounded with Amun, signaled the demotion of the local Theban patron god, Montu, and Amun’s steady rise to unrivaled prominence and wealth. In his 30-year reign Amenemhat I conducted campaigns in the eastern Delta and south in Nubia to secure Egypt’s access to gold.

He also sailed the Nile dealing severely with any signs of rebellion from local rulers. Amenemhat moved the capital to a site about 20 miles south of the old capital, Memphis. This was named Itjtawy, or "Seizer-of-the-Two-Lands". Amenemhat I was murdered as the result of a palace coup.

Though Senusret I was campaigning in Libya when his father Amenemhat I died, he returned, quelled any rebellion, and ruled on his own for 34 years—having reigned approximately 10 years with his father. He extended Egypt’s borders as far as Buhen at the Second Cataract in Nubia and led expeditions into Syria.

Like his father, he was a great builder and rebuilt the temple of Re-Atum at Heliopolis. Amenemhat II succeeded around 1928 b.c.e. His reign saw an expansion of trading contacts with Syria and the Aegean.

Egyptian artifacts from his reign have been found at Byblos in Lebanon and Knossos in Crete. A treasure trove from his reign was found in the temple of Montu at el-Tod, immediately south of Luxor, with silver goblets from Canaan and the Aegean, along with seals and jewelry from Mesopotamia.

His son, Senusret II, continued his father’s interest in the Faiyum by beginning to irrigate the area. His statues display a realistic appearance of the royal subject, which would continue into the succeeding reigns.

This was a break from the traditional representation of the pharaoh, especially in the Old Kingdom, as a remote, godlike being. This trend, copied among the nobility, makes the portraiture of this period unique and vivid.

The last two major pharaohs of the Twelfth Dynasty were Senusret III and Amenemhat III. Senusret III was apparently a commanding figure. He conducted several campaigns in Nubia, noted for their brutality.

He extended the southern boundary of Egypt well into Nubia, building a fortress at Semna beyond the Second Cataract. Even into the Thirteenth Dynasty military dispatches show how stringently the Egyptians controlled the natives and exploited resources.

Much of the wealth that poured in from Nubia was given to the gods. The shrine of Osiris at Abydos was gifted with precious metals and stones, and funds for priestly maintenance were given to the temple of Amun at Thebes.

The last of the long-reigning and powerful pharaohs of the Twelfth Dynasty was Amenemhat III (1831–1796 b.c.e.). His reign was long and peaceful, and the Middle Kingdom reached its cultural and economic peak. He expanded the use of the turquoise and copper mines in Sinai and quarried at Aswan and Tura and in Nubia, all recorded on inscriptions.

There are two statues that seem to show him in youth and maturity, displaying the strong features of his ancestors. The Twelfth Dynasty slid peaceably into the Thirteenth with the short reigns of Amenemhat IV and his sister-queen, Sobekneferu.

The Middle Kingdom saw the emergence of a comfortable "middle" class, the increase in endowments of mid-level temple priests, and a mercantile class who traded independently of royal interests. There was a more confident appropriation and expression of a blessed afterlife that relied less on proximity to the deceased pharaoh and more on the preparations of the individual.

As noted, the Middle Kingdom produced a great number of literary works, many of which became "classics" of genre, language, and style. In sum, it was an age that encouraged the rise of the individual and became aware of the world beyond Egypt.

Migration Patterns of The Americas

Migration Patterns of The Americasn

Native Americans inhabited every region of the Western Hemisphere, from arctic North America to Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America. There are more than 500 distinct Native American tribal groups or nations in North America alone. Native people showed a remarkable ability to adapt to the different physical environments throughout North America.

They organized themselves into communities, governments, and cultures that were adapted to their local environment and were recognized as distinct tribes or nations by the people within the tribe as well as by the other Native nations. Native Americans’ own stories of how they arrived in their homelands are as varied as the tribes themselves.

There are some common themes, however, to these creation stories and oral traditions. All tribes have a creation story; most tell of humans being brought up from the ground by spiritual powers, and each culture tells of its own tribe as being the original people. This is usually a positive story, with humans being brought into this world with joy, companionship, and laughter.


Native cultures have a strong sense of distinct male and female powers and principles in the universe, and often these creation stories tell of the male spirits of the sky and Sun bringing humanity up from the female counterpart, the womb of Mother Earth. Sometimes these stories tell of the women pushing the men to venture out of the earth (or up from a lake or to embark on a long journey) to find the new world in the light.

Some tribes’ creation stories tell of their people emerging from the earth directly into their homeland. But many of them tell of a long migration: The people emerge and travel a great distance to their eventual homeland. Some tribes’ creation stories contain both subterrestial and terrestrial journeys.

The San Juan Tewa tribe of New Mexico tells of human beings first living in Sipofene, a dark world beneath a lake far to the north. The first mothers of the Tewa, Blue Corn Woman and White Corn Maiden, directed a man to travel to the world above the lake, where he eventually obtains the gifts that allow the Tewa to live in the terrestrial world.

The Potawatomi of the southern Great Lakes are another example. The Potawatomi are culturally, politically, and linguistically linked to the Ojibwa and Odawa people in the northern Great Lakes, and many stories link the Potawatomi to the Great Migration of the Ojibwa from the Atlantic seaboard to the Great Lakes.

But Potawatomi creation stories also tell of the original people arising from the St. Joseph River southwest of Lake Michigan. Native creation stories always carry a sense that it was a journey of great distance to arrive at the homeland, whether it was a journey from underground or a journey over land. And the goal is always to arrive at a distinct homeland for the original people.

This is a question that puzzled the European immigrants and settlers, beginning with the early explorers (once they realized they had not reached Asia as they had expected). Some Europeans speculated that the Native Americans were the lost tribes of Israel cited in the Bible.

The Jesuit missionary José de Acosta in the late 1500s proposed the theory that the Native Americans traveled from Asia following the great herds of animals that they hunted. Anthropology grew as a science in America in the 1800s, focusing on Native cultures and their origins.

Most contemporary evidence points to a migration of the Native American people from Asia, coming from north-eastern Siberia into Alaska sometime between 25,000 to 11,000 years ago. But there is still much debate about the exact time of this migration and whether it was one migration by a single group of people or different migrations by different groups.

The geological record points to an ice age that occurred from 40,000 to 11,000 years ago. There are two factors that would have influenced this migration. First, tying up so much of the earth’s water into ice would have resulted in a drop in the level of the oceans.

About 60 miles of water presently separate Alaska and Siberia, but in the last ice age, the ocean would have been low enough for these two landmasses to be connected, permitting easy migration from Asia into North America.

Studies of the fossil record indicate that this type of migration has occurred among the great herding animals. Caribou, mammoths, elk, and moose apparently traveled from Asia to North America, and horses and camels migrated the opposite way.

Secondly, the scarring of rock strata indicate that the ice sheet covering North America in this time period was vast, stretching south to the Canadian Pacific coast and across to the Atlantic Ocean. While migration from Asia into Alaska was feasible as early as 25,000 years ago, the ice sheet would have blocked further overland travel into the interior of North America until 14,000 years ago.

Some scientists argue that travel would have been possible along the Alaskan and Canadian coastline, but no evidence has been found as yet to indicate boats or a fishing-based culture in this region prior to 11,000 years ago.

Anthropologists have applied modern language theory and biological techniques to the question of migration. There are more than 1,000 Native American languages, and the North American languages are commonly recognized as falling into eight large, related groups.

Anthropologists have attempted to determine migration patterns tribes based on the dispersion of these language groups. Most agree that three or more migrations occurred, with the first beginning more than 11,000 years ago. The largest language group, the Amerind, links many languages in all regions of North America and is believed to be the earliest.

This migration was then followed later by the Na-Dene group, which is found in the U.S. Southwest and Northwest Coast (some 9,000 years ago), and still later by the Inuit and Aleut speakers of the Arctic (less than 8,000 years ago). Studies of dental traits and blood-group traits among Native Americans also tend to support the concept of three large migration events.

Once Native Americans did become established in central North America, they began to spread out to every region of the continent, and cultures and lifestyles began to evolve and adapt to the various regions. Scientists refer to these earliest cultures as Paleo-Indians. One artifact common to these people is a distinctive flint spear point referred to as the Clovis point.

A number of archaeological sites along the Great Plains have been dated to 11,000 years old, and they show evidence for the use of the Clovis point for hunting the great herds of mammoth, bison, and other animals. Other studies indicate that use of the Clovis point spread throughout North and South America as far north as the Yukon and as far south as the Andes.

Gradually, the climate warmed in North America. The huge herd animals of the ice age, such as the mammoths and mastodons, died out, the vast lakes in the U.S. West dried out and turned to desert, and deciduous forests became widespread in the East.

Native Americans adapted to their new environments and established new ways of life different from their Paleo-Indian ancestors. This second wave of cultures is referred to as the Archaic Tradition.

Archaic-period cultures developed more specific, regionalized characteristics. People of the western deserts utilized the lowland seasonal marshes and rivers for their sustenance or became hunter-gatherers in the foothills and mountains. People of the Northwest developed into great ocean and river fishers.

California Archaic people developed hunting-foraging cultures utilizing the abundance of resources in their region and practiced controlled burning to encourage plant and animal populations, particularly for oaks and acorns. The people of the Great Plains developed a greater reliance on the bison.

Eastern groups began to adapt to the growing woodlands. One particular cultural group is referred to as the Poverty Point culture. This group was first studied based on the Poverty Point earthworks in Louisiana, dated between 4,000 and 2,000 years old.

Poverty Point includes several earthen mound constructions, with the largest taking the form of a bird with outstretched wings. Artifacts uncovered at Poverty Point reveal trade materials originating as far away as the Great Lakes. Clay figurines, stone beads, and other ornaments are distinctive to the Poverty Point culture.

The Woodland culture was the next stage to develop. This term as used by archaeologists refers to a specific Native American cultural pattern that became common about 3,000 years ago and spread from the edge of the Great Plains to the Atlantic Ocean.

The Woodland culture had three main characteristics: a distinctive style of ceramics, community-based agriculture, and the construction of burial mounds. Mound building is perhaps the most recognized Woodland culture feature. Mound structures from this stage have been discovered from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and from the southern Great Plains to Ontario.

The Woodland groups again were not a single vast tribe or nation but instead were distinct communities that centered on local village or city sites often with mound structures. The mounds were usually burial structures but also frequently served ceremonial and political purposes.

The Woodland culture showed local variations, but certain practices were common to all. Trade was extensive throughout the network of mound communities, and a certain commonality of cultural practices likely served to unite these communities and help maintain the trade routes.

Elements of both the Archaic and Woodland stages existed in Native cultures up to 1600 c.e. For example, the Archaic fishing cultures of the Northwest and the hunter-gatherer-fishers of California inhabited some of the richest regions on the face of the earth.

Their life-styles never experienced any pressure to change their cultural practices. The early Spanish explorers reported city-states of the Woodland mound culture in the 1500s. The Iroquois tribes in New York are also organized on Woodland culture patterns.

The size of the Native population prior to 1492 is also subject to much debate. Scientific studies in the early 1900s relied on the reports and estimates of the European explorers and American settlers from the 1500s forward. These studies generally agreed on a figure of about 1 million Native Americans north of Mexico at the time of European contact.

More recent studies have begun to take into account additional factors, particularly the effect of Old World diseases. Diseases such as smallpox, chicken pox, the plague, and measles did not exist in the Native American population prior to 1492.

The disastrous effect of these diseases in Mesoamerican and Central and South American Native populations was well documented by the Spanish conquistadores in the 1500s. Given the existence of the extensive Native trade routes and the virulence of these diseases, it is reasonable to assume that these diseases had a similar devastating effect in interior North America as well.

More recent population studies, taking into account the effects of disease and the estimated carrying capacity of the various regions of the continent, have revised the Native American population estimate upward. Some studies have ranged as high as 18 million, but most recent estimates project Native population in North America prior to 1492 as closer to 5 million people.

The indigenous people of North America, their governments, and cultures were incredibly varied, with great adaptation to their respective regions, and they showed a great awareness of and respect for their physical environment.

Native American cultures were not static and had been undergoing cultural changes independent of and prior to European contact. But by 1600 a radical transformation had begun resulting from Old World immigration. At that point disease had begun to decimate Native populations, and this would be one of the key factors in opening the Atlantic seaboard to English colonization in the 1600s.

Edict of Milan

Edict of Milan

Emperor Diocletian pursued a comprehensive program against Christianity from 302 c.e. until his retirement in 305 c.e. His successors continued hostilities toward the church, especially in the eastern empire for several years, until it became clear that such programs were futile.

Sometime around 311 Galerius, one of the ruling Caesars, grudgingly and condescendingly issued the Edict of Toleration for all religious subjects, understood to apply mainly to the benefit of the persecuted Christians.

Shortly thereafter Galerius died. The western empire’s Caesar, Constantine the Great, immediately seized initiative and forged a similar agreement at Milan in 313 with his eastern counterpart Licinius.


This edict was more sympathetic to the Christian cause, reflecting Constantine’s sympathies for the faith. In time Christian causes even started to receive funds from the imperial treasury.

Ten years later Licinius unsuccessfully broke from Constantine’s religious revolution and renounced the accord of Milan; some 40 years later Constantine’s nephew Julian the Apostate also went this route and tried to reinstate conventional Greco-Roman religion.

The chronology and development of the Edict of Toleration and Edict of Milan is suspect, as the main sources (Lactantius and Eusebius of Caesaria) do not agree in detail; nonetheless, it is clear that Christians won their civic rights through these proclamations.

Contrary to popular opinion, Constantine the Great did not make Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Only overt and widespread persecutions stopped. In fact, it was Theodosius I, called "the Great" by an appreciative church, who issued the edict Cunctos Populos in 380 that made orthodox teachings on the Trinity and the Incarnation of Jesus (Christ) of Nazareth mandatory for all citizens.

Anyone who did not go along was deemed "an extravagant madman". In 381 he summoned the bishops to the Council of Constantinople, as he began to deal seriously with church divisions.

Ten years later he fined and forcibly removed all church leaders who accepted Arianism. In addition, he forbade all Roman officials from participating in Greco-Roman religious sacrifices. By 392 Theodosius I had banned all pagan worship.

These aggressive religious programs effectively established Christianity as the state religion. From the fourth century onward Orthodox or Catholic Christianity was the dominant religion in the Mediterranean world.

Minoans

The Minoan civilization has its roots on the island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea during the Neolithic Period (7000–3000 b.c.e.). The original inhabitants most likely emigrated from Asia Minor, which had already developed cities and conducted trade by 2000 b.c.e.

The Greek poet Homer refers to the Minoan population as "Eteo-Cretans" in book 9 of the Odyssey. This early culture used hieroglyphics similar to that of the Egyptians, which they eventually developed into a linear script for keeping records.

Most of what is known about this civilization was discovered during the excavations of Sir Arthur Evans during the early 1900s. Despite a strong naval influence, Minoan culture has no evidence of any warlike activity or organization.


The most important center of Minoan civilization was the palace city of Knossos. Located inland on the island of Crete, Knossos was built at the confluence of the Vlihia stream and the Keratos River, with good lands for vineyards and olive groves. The main palace was constructed on Kefala Hill in the early second millennium b.c.e.

The Minoans also built a sophisticated system of drains, roads, and warehouses to promote trade. The structures at Knossos show evidence of compartmentalized homes with working doors and partitions, with no difference between the homes of the wealthy and the workers.

This suggests that wealth may have been more evenly shared as the Minoan trade routes prospered. The palace and larger buildings may have even had functioning toilets. Many of the ruins at Knossos have colorful frescos or intricately designed pottery, which display a unique form of art in the ancient world.

Nearly all of the artwork uncovered displays Minoan daily life, showing fishing, sailors trading goods, young men and women participating in sporting games or rituals, wildlife, and religious figures. The Minoans developed art for art’s sake, a revolutionary concept in the ancient world. Through the Mycenaeans they passed this love of art on to mainland Greece.

Inside Minoan building

The religious beliefs of the early Minoan culture were polytheistic and matriarchal, a goddess religion. The serpent goddess played a prominent role in the homes of Minoans, perhaps a foreshadowing of the strong female deities in the Greek religion. Minoan influence in the Mediterranean spread through trade.

The Cretans and their Aegean relatives developed what was one of the most advanced mercantile navies in history. There is evidence of trade with diverse areas such as Turkey, Cyprus, Egypt, Afghanistan, and Scandinavia. Goods traded with Knossos included copper, ivory, amethyst, lapis lazuli, carnelian, gold, and amber.

Clay tablets have been found at Knossos with both Linear A and B writing styles that contain records of goods traded and stored. Evidence of this vast trading network can also be found in the palace city of Akrotiri, located on the southwestern tip of Santorini island.


This city had only been rediscovered in the mid-1900s, having been buried by a volcanic eruption. Excavations revealed an elaborate drainage system built under sophisticated, multi-tiered buildings.

The building interiors were decorated with magnificent frescos, furniture, and vessels. The absence of skeletal remains or any valuables hints that the population may have been warned of the eruption and evacuated.

The most important Minoan artifact is the Law Code of Gortyn, which dates to 450 b.c.e. It is inscribed in marble at the Odeion using Dorian Greek in the boustrophedon style (one line is read right to left, then the next left to right).

Most of the laws pertain to property rights, marriage, divorce, and inheritance relating to free men and women and slaves. The content of the code corroborates the concept that men and women were given equal status in Minoan society.

Scholars cannot agree on what exactly brought about the end of the Minoan civilization. It was, perhaps, a combination of calamities over a short period of time. Crete is susceptible to seismic events. It is believed that the volcanic eruption at Thíra (Thera) may have caused a tsunami that decimated the civilization.

Other theories point to the adoption of Linear B writing as proof that the Mycenaeans conquered Crete and treated it as its colony. All that is known for certain is that Minoan culture declined as the Mycenaeans prospered.

Mishnah

When Palestinian society emerged from the turbulence of the two Jewish revolts against the Romans at the end of the second century c.e., rabbis united to promote a religious document called the Mishnah. The Mishnah and its subsidiary books, commonly called the Tosefta and the Talmud, serve Judaism to the present day just as a constitution unites citizens to a state.

The Mishnah is the core of this constitution; its name comes from the Hebrew word for "repeat". It was compiled under the leadership of Judah ha-Nasi, organized into six "orders", 63 tractates, and 531 chapters.

The six orders are Zera’im (agricultural laws), Mo’ed (seasonal observances), Nashim (relations with women), Neziqin (civil law), Qodashim (cultic law), and Tohorot (taboos). The Tosefta is a collection of supplements to the Mishnah, with approximately three-fourths devoted merely to citation and amplification of the contents of the Mishnah.


The Tosefta has no independent standing, being organized around the Mishnah, probably closed around the fifth century c.e. Both of these documents are the basis for the Talmuds, Palestinian (fourth century c.e.) and Babylonian (fifth century c.e.). The organization of the Talmuds also follows the Mishnah’s orders and tractates.

The Mishnah is something like the New Testament for Christians in two important ways: It represents a new and limited perspective of the Bible, and it presents itself as divinely inspired.

After the Temple was destroyed there was a need to reorient Judaism from a temple-oriented cult to a Torah-oriented culture of study and exposition. Similarly, after the life of Jesus (Christ) of Nazareth, Christians reinterpreted the Old Testament in a way that centered on his messiahship.

Thus, neither document was a repetition of the Jewish Bible, since neither pays attention to all aspects of the Bible’s themes. The Mishnah projects itself as an orally transmitted supplement to the written inspiration of the Bible.

It claims to be the words of Moses that were not originally written down like the Bible, now safeguarded in written form to preserve the Jewish faith. The Bible is the written Torah; the Mishnah is the oral Torah. Both are from Moses and authoritative.

Surprisingly, however, the Mishnah is not at all focused on the historical plight or future destiny of the Jewish people. Rather, it is a compendium of topics that the rabbis found relevant for their religious imagination.

The only historical references are the some 150 teachers and rabbis that speak out in the book, but not much description surrounds them to help the reader figure out their "real world". In fact, the only historical context reflects the Jewish world after 150 c.e.

Its value for historians is therefore limited. Modern scholar ship holds that the Mishnah reflects what the second-century rabbis considered important for their faith: not the temporary and changing face of external history, but the permanent and enduring world of holiness and eternality.

For example, the fifth order mainly concerns the Temple, even though the Temple had been destroyed generations earlier and its grounds were off-limits to Jews. Half of the Mishnah addresses this imaginary world of officials and customs that were no longer present or possible in Judah ha-Nasi’s day.

Jews in late antiquity, however, could take "real-world" consolation in the message of the Mishnah. Its message hinted at an imaginary world that countered the Roman worldview where Caesar demanded total allegiance.

The Mishnah says that God owns the land of Palestine and gives it to the people of Israel, Israel must pay God representative payments (tithes and offerings) and observe religious calendars to show divine ownership, and God has sovereignty over the social dimensions of human life as in clan and culture.

If the Mishnah is a selective treatment of the Bible and refl ects a theology that its compilers found inspiring but not overtly related to the external world, then its sequel, the Talmud, also commented on the Mishnah according to its later priorities.

Whole sections of the Mishnah were ignored. The Jerusalem Talmud covers only 39 of the 63 tractates and says nary a word on the fifth order and little on the sixth order; the Babylonian Talmud has its own set of equally limited applications.

Together, both treated the Mishnah in a manner that was different than what the compilers of the Mishnah intended. If the Mishnah is analogous to the New Testament, then the Talmuds are analogous to the writings of the fathers of the church.

Very soon after the Mishnah was compiled, Jews made it the centerpiece of their study, and it became the structure and content of their discussions. Other academies outside of Yavneh (Tiberias, Caesarea, Sepphoris, and Lydda in Palestine; Sura, Pumbedita, and Nehardea in Babylonia) adopted the Mishnah as their base text.

Even non-Mishnaic materials (such as the baraitot) were studied in relation to their parallels in the Mishnah. Its language, commonly called Mishnaic Hebrew, is a direct development of the spoken Hebrew language of the late biblical period with heavy infl uence by the predominant Aramaic language.

Because of the Mishnah’s authority not only in Palestine but also in the other great center of Jewish culture, Babylon, the Hebrew language was revitalized and never died out in rabbinic circles.

Mittani

The kingdom of Mittani was an impressive Indo-European empire that ruled over northern Mesopotamia, or the Fertile Crescent, during the 15th and 14th centuries b.c.e. At its height the geographical region of Mittani stretched from the ancient city of Nuzi and the Tigris River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.

The two capital cities, Taite and Waššukanni, were most likely located in the heartland of the Khabur river valley or at its headwaters. The capitals’ archaeological sites have not yet been located.

Despite its greatness no Mittani texts regarding its own history have been found, so most of the information concerning the Mittani comes from Egyptian, Hittite, and Assyrian records. The Hurrians, a people who were present in the Khabur River valley for several hundred years prior to the Mittani’s political establishment, composed the majority of the population.


The ruling class of Mittani, however, seems to have been an Indo-European people in origin and worshipped Vedic deities; that is, the marks of this society planted in today’s Middle Eastern heartland bore resemblance to classical Indian culture.

Whether the Mittani introduced the horse to the Fertile Crescent is disputed, yet they did make use of it in a new form of chariot warfare. The Mittani developed a two-wheeled chariot drawn by two horses.

The elite aristocratic warriors, called Maryannu (meaning "noble in chariot"), and an accompanying archer manned these chariots. The Maryannu, along with their horses, were clothed in bronze or iron scale armor.

Mittani warriors

The chariots were used as a vehicle to surround enemies and a base from which to fire consistent volleys of arrows and javelins. The chariots were also used as collision and trampling weapons. This form of warfare served as a model for the Egyptians, Hittites, Babylonians, and Canaanites.

The Mittani kingdom ruled over all of northern Mesopotamia in the 15th century b.c.e. and reduced the former Assyrian state to vassal status. By the 14th century b.c.e. the constant conflict with the Hittites and Egyptians caused a significant reduction in the size of the Mittani Empire.

After the Mittani king Artatama established a treaty with Thutmose IV, pharaoh of Egypt, the two nations lived in relative peace, and the Egyptians acquired daughters of the Mittani kings for wives. However, the growing power of the Hittite kingdom in the west and the resurgence of the Assyrians in the east quickly became too much for the Mittani to handle.


During Tushratta’s reign, the last independent Mittani monarch, the Hittite king Suppiluliumas sacked Waššukanni. This event marked the fall of the Mittani Empire around 1370 b.c.e. The region of the Mittani was reduced to a Hittite vassalage known as Hanilgalbat and would later be controlled by the Assyrians.

A Hittite and Assyrian alliance destroyed the last remnant of the Mittani state in the north about 1340 b.c.e. Finally, an Assyrian king by the name of Shalmaneser I wiped history clean of the Mittani by securing the territory of Hanilgalbat (1280–70 b.c.e.) and deporting the Mittani people across the known world as cheap labor.

Mohenjo-Daro

Mohenjo-Daro

Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa are two ancient cities located on the banks of the Indus and its tributary the Ravi River in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. They represent the earliest civilization in the region, called the Indus, or Harappan, civilization, dating to approximately 2500–1500 b.c.e.

Excavation of the Indus civilization began in 1921 under the direction of Sir John Marshall. Mohenjo-Daro is located on the bank of the Indus River in present-day Pakistan and is the best-preserved city of the Indus civilization.

Its name means the "Mound of the Dead" because the center of the town is an artificial mound about 50 feet high surrounded with a brick wall and fortified with towers. The mound also had a great bath 39 feet by 23 feet, flanked by a large pillared hall, small rooms, and a granary.


A well-laid-out town lay below the citadel with streets running in a grid pattern oriented to the points of the compass. The town was divided into wards according to function, such as areas for shops, workshops, and residences. All buildings were made with baked bricks of uniform size.

Besides private wells in the courtyards of two-story individual residences, there were also public wells at street intersections. Covered sewers disposed of waste. There was also a cemetery where graves were neatly oriented in the same direction. There were no palaces or royal cemeteries.

Inscribed seals found at Mohenjo-Daro and other Indus cities show pictographic writing, to date undeciphered. So few characters are inscribed on each seal that they would not give much information even if they were deciphered.

Thus despite a high-level material culture, the Indus civilization is still considered prehistoric. The absence of palaces and royal cemeteries and the presence of a ceremonial bath and great hall lead specialists to guess that a college of priests ruled.

The abundance of small female figurines indicates a fertility cult. The uniform-sized bricks throughout the Indus Valley and nearby regions lead to speculation that some kind of government supervised the entire area; hence the name Indus Empire is also used to describe this civilization.

In Mohenjo-Daro archaeologists have discovered an advanced metal-using culture (bronze and copper), where people used wheel-made pottery vessels, wove cotton cloths, lived under a well-organized municipal government, and traded among one another and with other cultures. Indus seals have been found in Mesopotamia and lapis lazuli, a semiprecious stone used by Indus artisans, is mined in Afghanistan.

Conditions in Mohenjo-Daro deteriorated around 1700 b.c.e., shown by hoards of buried jewelry and precious objects, pots and utensils strewn about, evidence of fire, and at least 30 skeletons scattered about indicating that the people were trapped and died or were killed.

Whether natural disaster or invaders caused the final disaster, the city was abandoned, hence, posterity’s name Mound of the Dead for its ruins. Mohenjo-Daro is the best preserved of the Indus civilization cities excavated to date.

Mozi - Chinese Philosopher

Mozi, which means "Master Mo", began a Chinese school of philosophy called Moism. His personal name was Di (Ti). After studying under disciples of Confucius, he broke away and founded his own school of philosophy. During the era of the Hundred Schools of Philosophy Moism was a significant challenger to both Confucianism and Daoism (Taoism).

Mozi and his disciples are the authors of a book of 71 chapters (18 are missing), the Mozi, that explain their views. They can be summarized under three categories: universal love, utilitarianism, and pacifism, or opposition to offensive warfare.

Mozi taught that heaven was an active force in human lives and would punish humans for persisting in evil. He therefore urged people to follow heaven by practicing universal love.

He said: "The way of universal love is to regard the country of others as one’s own, the family of others as one’s own, the persons of others as one’s self. When feudal lords love one another there will be no more war ... When individuals love one another there will be no more mutual injury ... When all the people of the world love one another, then the strong will not overpower the weak, the many will not oppress the few, the wealthy will not mock the poor ... the cunning will not deceive the simple."


Moists also emphasized utilitarianism, the rejection of all activities and expenses that do not contribute to the welfare of the people. Moists took strong issue with Confucians who taught the importance of all forms of ritual and music and mocked Confucian insistence that children formally mourn the death of their parents as a waste of time and resources that could be better used in feeding and caring for the living.

They also condemned Confucians as pompous elitists who would only take up government positions that suited them. They moreover taught that thought should be consistent with action, that leaders obey the will of heaven and the people obey their leaders.

The third major point of Moism concerned warfare. Mozi lived in an era when interstate wars were intensifying. He denounced aggressive warfare as the greatest crime against heaven but justified the right of self-defense. Thus Moists became experts in defensive tactics and made their help available to any state threatened by aggression.

The story goes that Mozi once walked for 10 days and nights on a peace mission, binding his sore feet but not resting. When he failed to persuade the aggressor he would hurry to warn the potential victim. Many folk tales survived of Robin Hood–like acts of Moists in the cause of justice.

Mozi and his followers were idealists and militant do-gooders. They criticized Confucians for being traditionalists and for their graded approach to relationships and responsibilities. In time Confucianism became the mainstream Chinese philosophy, while Moism was abandoned.