Paradigm Shifts - A History Of Knowledge

A seminar by Piero Scaruffi

(View the slides)
This page contains the Powerpoint slides outline of my seminar of history of knowledge. If you are taking my seminar, ask me for a CDROM of the Powerpoint or Acrobat slides. If you are not taking my class but would still like a CDROM with the slides, for educational or personal purposes only, see this page.

TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.

Oldest Knowledge


Oldest Knowledge
What the Near East knew
What the Near East knew II
What the Near East knew III
What the Egyptians knew
What the Egyptians knew II
What the Egyptians knew III
What the Indians knew I
What the Indians knew II
What the Indians knew III
What the Chinese knew I
What the Phoenicians knew
What the Greeks knew I
What the Greeks knew II
What the Greeks knew III
What the Greeks knew IV
What the Romans knew I
What the Romans knew II
What the Barbarians knew
What the Jews knews
What the Christians knews
Tang & Song China
What the Japanese knew
What the Muslims knew
What the Middle Ages knew I
What the Middle Ages knew II
What the Middle Ages knew III
What the Middle Ages knew IV
Ming & Manchu China
What the Renaissance knew I
What the Renaissance knew II
What the Renaissance knew III
What the Industrial Age knew
What the Victorian Age knew
The Modern World 1919-1939
The Modern World 1939-1945
The Modern World 1946-1968
The Modern World 1969-1990
The Modern World 1991-

Paradigm Shifts-History of Knowledgect
Who I Am
Piero Scaruffi
Degree in Math/Physics ("Scientific" background)
Career in Cognitive Science ("Philosophical" background)
Career as Music/Cinema/Fiction critic ("Artistic" background)
Traveled to 83 countries ("History")
Published 15 books
Latest: "Thinking About Thought" (2003)
www.scaruffi.com
E-mail: editor@scaruffi.com
What is this class
History
Philosophy
Religion
Science
Economy
Art
Architecture
Literature
Music
Liabilities
Lots of History
Lots of Theories
Lots of Names
Lack of Depth
No conclusions

Assetts
Interdisciplinary
Ancient and modern
Western and eastern
No single book in print covers this much ground
Modular (you can miss any evening)
Emphasis on paradigm shifts
Requirements
English language
Open mind
Patience
Metric system
Pluses
Familiarity with History
Curiosity

Goals
My goals
Teach you what i know

Not my goals
Convince you one way or another
Promote one civilization/theory/religion/etc over the other
Audience
Who is it for?
Knowledge sharks
Casual readers
Philosophers
Psychologists
Scientists
Travelers
Business men
...
Bibliography
William McNeill: A History of the Human Community (1987)
Charles VanDoren: A History of Knowledge (1991)
Mark Kishlansky: Civilization In The West (1995)
Ian McGreal: Great Thinkers of the Eastern World (1995)
David Cooper: World Philosophies (1996)
Paul Johnson: Art - A New History (2003)
Ian Sutton: Western Architecture (1999)
Donald Grout: A History of Western Music (1960)
Geoffrey Hindley: Larousse Encyclopedia of Music (1971)
John Keegan: A History of Warfare (1993)
Bernard Comrie: The Atlas Of Languages (1996)
Mircea Eliade: A History of Religious Ideas (1982)
The other half of the story
Sarah Pomeroy: Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity
M.Lefkowitz and M.Fant: Women's Life in Greece and Rome
Shulamith Shahar: The Fourth Estate: A History of Women in the Middle Ages
Emilie Amt: Women1s Lives in Medieval Europe
Georges Duby, Michelle Perrot, etc: Histoire des femmes en Occident
Women's History: http://www.womenintheancientworld.com/
Class Material

Additional class material if you have Internet access:
Click on Seminar on History of Knowledge
Click on Course material
Check out the "Timelines"
Additional class material if you have want it:
CDROM with all slides
Why is the History of Knowledge relevant to you
The Space Shuttle booster rockets are built by Thiokol in Utah
Thiokol's engineers designed them so that they could easily be transported by train to the launching pad.
The railway goes through a number of tunnels, and the rockets have to fit inside the tunnels.
Railway tunnels are designed according to the width of a train car, which is based on the width between the railway tracks, which is 4'8.5".
This size was adopted when the first railway was built in the USA, using British engineers and materials compliant with British standards
British railways were originally built by the same companies that built streetcars, and they simply used the same specifications used for streetcars
The engineers who built streetcars used the same materials/ tools used to build carriages. E.g., the distance between the two sets of weels of the streetcar was the same as the length of the axle of all carriages
Why is the History of Knowledge relevant to you
All carriages used the same length for the axle because, in the old days, most country roads had grooves that greatly increased both comfort and safety.
Those grooves had been created by centuries of traffic since the construction of the first roads.
The first roads were built by the Roman empire, and the first grooves on those roads were caused by the war carriages of the first Roman legions to use those roads. Subsequent carriages had to use the same axle length has the one used by the Romans in order to use the same grooves.
The Romans chose an axle of 4'8.5" because that is the size that fits two war-horse asses.
Thus, the specifications of the Space Shuttle booster rockets, one of the most advanced pieces of technology of the modern world, are based on the ass of a Roman horse.

A Brief History of Humans
0: The Big Bang
200,000,000: The first stars form
9,000,000,000: The Sun forms
9,050,000,000: The Earth forms
9,200,000,000: The oceans and the atmosphere form
9,700,000,000: Life appears on Earth (sea, lakes)
12,900,000,000: Multicellular organisms evolve
13,350,000,000: Pangaea forms
13,380,000,000: The first creature lives on land
Pangaea
A Brief History of Humans
13,450,000,000: A meteor over Antarctica causes the extinction of 90% of Earth species
13,470,000,000: Dinosaurs appear
13,500,000,000: Antarctica, South America, Africa, India, and Australia are joined in a single continent (Gondwanaland)
13,635,000,000: A meteor over Yucatan (Mexico) causes the extinction of dinosaurs
A Brief History of Humans
13,640,000,000: Apes appear in Africa
13,665,000,000: Global cooling
13,683,000,000: Apes in Europe
13,690,000,000: European apes move to Africa
13,694,000,000: Apes stand upright ("Millennium ancestor")
13,696,500,000: The first humanoids in Ethiopia ("Lucy")
"Lucy" Australopithecus afarensis, łto 3.7 million years)A Brief History of Humans
13,696,800,000: The first glaciers, fluctuating climate
13,698,000,000: Homo Habilis appears (tools)
13,698,100,000: Fire is invented
13,698,200,000: Homo Erectus spreads to Europe and Asia
13,699,250,000: Homo Erectus reaches Java ("Pithecanthropus")
The Extension of Homo Herectus
A Brief History of Humans
13,699,500,000: The world's population is about 5,000
13,699,750,000: Homo Sapiens evolves in Africa
13,699,860,000: Home Sapiens Sapiens evolves in Africa ("Eve", mother of all current humans)
13,699,882,000: Wurms glaciation ("Ice Age")
13,699,900,000: Neanderthal Men in Europe
13,699,930,000: Neanderthal Men bury their dead
13,699,950,000: "Adam" is born in Africa
13,699,960,000: Homo Sapiens Sapiens spreads to Eurasia
13,699,965,000: Neanderthal Men disappear
A Brief History of Humans
A Brief History of Humans
13,699,970,000: cave dwellers sculpt the statue of a woman (Willendorf, Austria) and cave dwellers sculpt figurines (Hohle Fels Cave, Southwestern Germany)
13,699,981,000: Oldest lamp (France)
13,699,983,000: Cave dwellers paint animals on the walls (Lascaux, France)
13,699,985,000: End of the Ice Age (Holocene) - ice retreats
13,699,986,000: Humans cross the Bering Strait and begin populating America

A Brief History of Humans
A Brief History of Humans
A Brief History of Humans
13,699,986,000: Transition from hunting-gathering to agriculture
13,699,988,000: First towns in Mesopotamia
13,699,990,000: The world's population is 1-10 million
13,699,994,000: Stable weather patterns (seasons)
13,699,994,300: The Egyptians
13,699,996,000: The Chinese empire
13,699,998,000: The Roman empire
13,699,999,776: The USA
13,700,000,000: The world's population is 7 billion
_
17,403,588,402: The Sun dies
A Brief History of Humans
Empires
EMPIRE TIMEFRAME AREA CAPITAL
SUMERS XXXVI BC - XXBC MESOPOTAMIA UR
EGYPTIANS XXXV BC - VI BC EGYPT, SUDAN, PALESTINE THEBES
ELAMITES XXVIII BC - VIIBC PERSIA ELAM
MINOANS XXVI BC - XV BC CRETE KNOSSOS
CHINA XXIII BC - NOW CHINA XIAN
ASSYRIA XX BC - VII BC MESOPOTAMIA NINIVE
BABYLON XVIII BC - VI BC MESOPOTAMIA TO EGYPT BABYLON
HITTITES XVII BC - XIII TURKEY, PALESTINE, EGYPT HATTUSA
ACHEMENIDS XVII BC - XII BC GREECE MYCENAE
PHOENICIANS XII BC - VIII BC MEDITERRANEAN TYRO
GREECE XII BC - IV BC GREECE, ITALY, TURKEY ATHENS
PERSIA IX BC - IV BC EGYPT TO IRAN PERSEPOLIS
ROME VIII BC - V AD PORTUGAL TO SYRIA ROME
MACEDONIA IV BC - IV BC EGYPT TO NORTH INDIA ALEXANDRIA

EMPIRE TIMEFRAME AREA CAPITAL
SELEUCIDS IV BC - I BC TURKEY TO AFGHANISTAN ANTIOCH
BACTRIA III BC - II BC AFGHANISTAN TO INDIA SOGDIANA
MAURYA IV BC - II BC INDIA PATNA
PARTHIA III BC - III AD TURKMENISTAN, IRAN NISA
SASSANIDS III AD - VII AD PERSIA CTESIPHON
JAPAN I AD - XX AD JAPAN, KOREA NARA
BYZANTHIUM V AD - XV AD TURKEY TO NORTH AFRICA CONSTANTINOPLE
FRANCE V AD - XX AD WEST EUROPE/ NORTH AFRICA FRANCE
ARABS VII AD - XV AD IRAN TO SPAIN BAGHDAD
VIKINGS IX AD - XII AD SCANDINAVIA TO BRITAIN OSLO
SPAIN IX AD - XX AD SPAIN, SOUTH AMERICA MADRID
MAYA IX AD - XV AD CENTRAL AMERICA TIKAL
KHMER IX AD - XV AD INDOCHINA ANGKOR
RUSSIA X AD - NOW RUSSIA TO SIBERIA KIEV
POLAND X AD - XVII AD POLAND, WEST RUSSIA KRACOW
BRITAIN X AD - XX AD INDIA, NORTH AM, AFRICA, AUS LONDON

EMPIRE TIMEFRAME AREA CAPITAL
MONGOLS XIII AD - XV AD CHINA TO MIDDLE EAST KARAKORUM
OTTOMANS XIV AD - XX AD EGYPT TO MESOPOTAMIA ISTANBUL
AZTEC XIV AD - XV AD MEXICO TENOCHTITLAN
INCA XV AD - XVI AD SOUTHWEST AMERICA CUZCO
MOGUL XV AD - XVIII AD AFGHANISTAN, NORTH INDIA DELHI
USA XIX AD - NOW NORTH AMERICA WASHINGTON
Causes of Paradigm Shifts
1. Nature (climate)
2. Demographics (population)
3. Technology (inventions)
3. Economics (flow of goods and services)
3. Culture (prophets, philosophers, writers, painters, architects, _)
4. Politics (individuals, e.g. kings, revolutionaries, presidents_)
Causes of Paradigm Shifts
Climate patterns cause population patterns which cause both conflict and innovation, which in turn cause other population patterns.
Case Study
1. Arabian and North-African deserts cause spread of Arabs towards East and North
2. Population boom in Islamic countries causes poverty and expansionist pressures
3. Sophisticated weapons, airplanes, cell phones_
3. Oil economy creates wealth in Arab world
3. Islam preaches jihad (fighting non-Muslims)
4. Osama bin Laden
What Early Humans Knew
Gathering
Hunting
Language
Clothes
Tools (2 million years, Africa)
Fire (1.9 million years, Africa)
Buildings (500,000 BC, Japan)
Burial (70,000 BC, Neanderthal)
Art (28,000 BC, Austria)
Lamp (17,000 BC, France)
Farming (14,000 BC, Mesopotamia)
Domesticated animals (12,000 BC)
Boat (8,000 BC, Holland)
What Early Humans Knew
Weapons (bow, sling, dagger, mace) (8,000 BC)
Pottery (7,900 BC, China)
Weaving (6,500 BC, Palestine)
Money
Musical instruments (5,000 BC, Sumeria)
Metal (4,500 BC, Egypt)
Bridge (4,000 BC, Egypt)
Wheel (3,500 BC, Mesopotamia)
Glass (3,000 BC, Phoenicia)
Sundial (3,000 BC, Egypt)
What Early Humans Knew
Prehistoric beliefs
Unity of Heaven and Earth (were separated by a God)
Immortality (life in the Afterlife)
Natural world pervaded by supernatural forces
Linguistic Families
Semitic languages: Akkadian, Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Arabic, Amharic (Ethiopic)
Egyptian
Indo-European (Italic, German, Indian...)
Dravidian (South Indian)
Sino-tibetan languages: Mandarin, Cantonese, Tibetan, Burmese)
Altaic (Turkish, Mongolian, Central Asian, Japanese, Korean)
Austric (Thai, Malay, Khmer, Vietnamese)
Niger-Congo
...

Linguistic Families
Literature
(Sumer, 2500 BC): "Flood"
(Egypt, 1800 BC): "Adventures of Sinuhe"
(Hittite, 1600 BC): "The disappeared God"
(Hittite, 1600 BC): "Kumarbi-ullikummi"
(Hittite, 1600 BC): "The dragon Illujanka"
(Egypt, 1500 BC): "Book Of The Dead"
(Ugarit, 1400 BC): "Baal & Anat"
(Babylon, 1200 BC): "Gilgamesh"
(Babylon, 1100 BC): "Enuma Elish"
(Babylon, 1000 BC): "Atrakhasis"
(India, 1000 BC): "Veda"

Homer (900 BC, Greece): "Iliad"
Homer (850 BC, Greece): "Odyssey"
Hesiod (850 BC, Greece): "Battle Of The Gods"
(Israel, 800 BC): "Ancient Testament"
(Babylon, 700 BC): "Descent of Ishtar to the underground world"
Sappho (Greece, b 612 BC)
Pindar (Greece, b 518 BC)
Lao Tzu (604, China): "Tao Te Ching"
Ancient Art

The Seven Wonders:
Pyramid of Cheops (by Hemon, Egypt, 2500 BC)
Hanging Gardens (Babylon, 580 BC)
The Statue of Zeus at Olympia (by Pheidias, Greece, 432 BC)
Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (Greece, 356 BC)
The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Greece, 354 BC)
The Pharos of Alexandria (Egypt, 300 BC)
The Colossus of Rhodos (Greece, 290 BC)
Ephesus & Halicarnassus
Lions

What the Near East knew


Bibliography
Henry Hodges: Technology in the Ancient World (1970)
Arthur Cotterell: Penguin Encyclopedia of Ancient Civilizations (1980)
Michael Roaf: Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East (1990)
Hans Nissen: The Early History of the Ancient Near East (1988)
Annie Caubet: The Ancient Near East (1997)
Alberto Siliotti: The Dwellings of Eternity (2000)
Trevor Bryce: The kingdom of the Hittites (1998)
Ancient Civilizations
The Ancient Near East
Ancient Near East
The evolution of knowledge
End of the ice age
Climatic changes
Hunters follow game that moves to new areas (e.g., northern Europe)
Others turn to farming and hunting new game (cattle, sheep)
Technology ("what farmers need")
Deforestation
Irrigation
Pottery
Copper/bronze
Wheel
Yoke
Cities
Ancient Near East
Ancient Near East
15000 BC: end of the ice age
12000 BC: small urban centers develop in Mallaha (Jordan valley) and Mureybet (Syria), houses in pits
9500 BC: agriculture (sowing and harvesting)
8500 BC: 700m-long walls of Jericho (Jordan valley), houses on the surface of the ground, built of stone (2-3000 people)
8000 BC: domestication of animals, pastoral nomadic life
7500 BC: Catal Huyuk (Taurus mountains in eastern Anatolia), obsidian trade, no city streets, terraced roofs, wall paintings, built of mud (5-7000 people)
7000 BC: Hassuna culture (north Iraq): ceramic pottery, geometric motifs
The Near East
Catal Huyuk
Catal Huyuk
Catal Huyuk

6200 BC: Samarra culture (north Iraq): symbolic motifs on pottery, planned settlements, egalitarian society, funerary objects
6000 BC: Ubaid culture (south Iraq): irrigation, riverside settlements
5300 BC: Eridu culture (south Iraq): hierarchical social organization, monumental buildings (first ziggurats)
3500 BC: Sumerians control city-states between the lower Euphrates and Tigris rivers: Eridu, Ur, Uruk, Lagash, Umma, Nippur
3300 BC: Sumerians of Uruk invent pictographic writing on clay tablets
3200 BC: Sumerians invent the wheel
3100 BC: Sumerians of Uruk invent cuneiform writing
3000 BC: Sumerians employ mathematics on base 60 (360 degrees in a circle, 60 minutes in an hour)
Cities of Mesopotamia

2900 BC: Uruk has 40,000 people and is divided in an administrative city and a residential city, while agriculture is delegated to the subjects outside the city
2700 BC: a first dynasty creates the Elamite kingdom (Susa)
2340 BC: Sargon I of Kish builds a new capital, Agade (Akkad, later Babylon), adopts the Semitic language Akkadian instead of Sumerian, conquers the Sumerian cities and becomes the first emperor in history
2330 BC: Sargon's daughter Enheduanna is a poetess
2018 BC: the Sumerian empire disintegrates
1900 BC: Assur and Nineveh form an Assyrian kingdom
1800 BC: the Hittites invent iron and build the first weapons made of iron
1800 BC: the Babylonians employ a duodecimal system (a system based on 12 and 6) to measure time
The Hittites

1792 BC: Hammurabi, fifth king of the Amorite dynasty, is crowned king of Babylon
1500 BC: a caravan trader, Abraham, leads nomads from Sumer to Canaan and then on to Egypt (Hebrews)
1350 BC: Ugarit (in Syria) employs an alphabet of 32 letters
1250 BC: the Hebrews return from Egypt and establish a kingdom in Palestine
1250 BC: the Assyrian army employs iron weapons
1000 BC: the Phoenicians control trade in the Mediterranean
746 BC: Tiglath-Pileser III becomes king of Assyria and creates the Assyrian empire
700 BC: the Achaemenid dynasty is founded in Persia
612 BC: Babylonia and Media destroy the Assyrian empire

Babylonia and Assyria

600 BC: Zarathustra forms a new religion in Persia
600 BC: Phoenicians circumnavigate Africa
600 BC: Aramaic is the "lingua franca" of Syria and Palestine
521 BC: Darius of Persia expands the Persian empire beyond the Indus River
500 BC: Darius makes Aramaic the official language of the Persian empire
490 BC: Darius of Persia attacks mainland Greece
333 BC: Alexander invades the Persian empire
The Persian Empire
Hellenistic empires
What the Near East knew
Continues on Part II

What the Near East knew II


What the Near-East knew
Part II
What the Sumerians knew
Irrigation
Domestic animals (12,000 BC)
Urbanization
Ziggurats (monumental buildings for religious purposes) (5,000 BC)
Wheel (3,200 BC)
Wheeled vehicles (chariot 3,000 BC)
Bronze (3,000 BC, weapons and tools)
Boat
Fired mud bricks
Plow
What the Sumerians knew
Urbanization
Towns (mud-brick walls, flat roofs, no streets)
Cities (3,900 BC, 13 cities in 3000 BC)
Consequences of urbanization
Social classes
Technological innovation
Organized religion
Writing
Monarchy
Bureaucracy
What the Sumerians knew
Social classes
Ur's ziggurat (2250 BC)
What the Sumerians knew
What the Sumerians knew
Literature
Writing (3,400 BC)
Cuneiform language: 800 symbols, one per syllable
Scribes evolved pictures of objects into stylized representations of the objects, and eventually pure symbols
Function: business activities of temple and palace
3,000 BC: Curved lines replaced by linear strokes and wedges
Cuneiform used to render Sumerian, Akkadian, Elamite (neither Semitic nor Indo-European), Hurrian, Hittite (Indo-European)
Decline of cuneiform in 1000 BC with Aramaic's alphabetical system (easier to learn)
What the Sumerians knew
Cuneiform
What the Sumerians knew
Literature
Poetry, music and dance originated as collective expression of religious themes during rituals
The dance rhythm (clapping, stomping, chanting) evolved into rhythmic songs and rhymed poetry
Religious narratives (creation myths) evolved into epic poetry
Epic of Gilgamesh (2,600 BC): vain quest for immortality
Kings' List (2125 BC)
Enheduanna: poetry
The meaning became more important than the sound/rhythm
What the Sumerians knew
Literature
Sumerian not spoken anymore in 18th century BC, but scribes still use it
Cuneiform still in use till 2nd century AD
What the Sumerians knew
Trade
Gold from Indus valley
Lapis lazuli from Afghanistan
Silver from turkey
Copper from Arabia
Tin from Caspian Sea
What the Sumerians knew
Theocracy (4000-3000 BC)
Irrigation requires cooperation because river beds tend to change
Changing river beds causes expanded irrigation
Expanding irrigation causes expanding settlements
The whims of rivers are ascribed to gods
Thus priests are natural arbiters of the community
Religious cults acquire political power
Priests are natural arbiters of the economic surplus
Temples become administration buildings
Religious cults acquire economic power
The irrigation society naturally creates cities, and such city-states are theocracies
What the Sumerians knew
Warrior leaders (3000-2300 BC)
Territorial expansion leads to territorial disputes with other city-states
Wealth attracts immigrants (eg, Akkadians)
War becomes more relevant than administration
Priests are replaced by warriors
Cities are surrounded by walls
Standard of Ur
Sumerian Chariot
What the Sumerians knew
Metalwork
Ancient metal technology: copper
Chalcolithis age (4000BC): stone and copper technology coexist
Melting of metals (3500BC): copper+tin=bronze
Peak of bronze age (3000BC): smelting, casting, alloying, soldering
Bronze warfare: Sargon, first emperor (2340BC)


What the Sumerians knew
What the Sumerians knew
Religion
Anthropomorphic gods, associated with the forces of nature (wind, months)
Deification of kings
Hierarchical vision of the universe (unified pantheon)
Each city was the property of a deity
The goddess Nammu, who had no beginning in time, created the world and all living creatures
2500 BC: Enlil, dwelling in Nippur, becomes the greatest of the gods, and the god who punishes people
What the Sumerians knew
Evolution of Religion
Evolution from alien forces to the human society
Ancient times: a nature religion of natural spirits/forces (sky, wind, river, etc)
Identity between the natural phenomenon and the deity
Non-human forms were then replaced by human forms
This created a gap between the natural phenomenon (a lifeless event/object) and the deity (the force that causes/creates that event/object)
What the Sumerians knew
Evolution of Religion
Human-like deities began to behave like human beings
The world of natural phenomena became a model of the human world
The legends of deities became metaphors of natural phenomena
Deities became as a kind of aristocracy, humans became a kind of servants
Deities came to be worshipped like aristocracy, in abodes (temples) with servants (priests) and nhousehold chores (rituals)
What the Sumerians knew
Evolution of Religion
Deities came to be identified with the political leaders of the community/city/nation
Each city came to be dominated by a deity, and cities often grew around the main temple
The main deity of a city became a virtual ruler of the city, defending it against enemies and enforcing justice within the city (deity no longer related to natural phenomena but to human phenomena, i.e. politics)
National deities representing national aspirations
What the Sumerians knew
Evolution of Religion
Assembly of the deities in Nippur, presided by An and Enlil, made strategic decisions (eg, capital) for the entire Sumer nation
Will of the deities communicated to the human rules via dreams, omens, natural events
What the Sumerians knew
Pantheon
An: god of the sky, head of pantheon
Enlil: god of the wind, leader of the divine assembly (Nippur)
Ninhursaga, goddess of birth (Kesh)
Enki: god of irrigation waters (Eridu)
Nanna: god of the Moon (Ur)
Marduk: god of Babylon (2nd nillenium)
Assur: god of Assyria (2nd nillenium)
What the Sumerians knew
Creation myth ("Eridu Genesis")
Nammu: the Mother who gave birth to Heaven (An) and Earth (Ki, later Ninhursag)
All the gods are sons of An and his wife Ki
Enki, son of An and Ki, created the world
The gods created humankind and the Sumer cities
Humanity was created to serve the gods
The gods lived in the Eden (Bahrein island?)
Enki ate a forbidden plant and was cursed by his mother who cursed his rib which was cured by the goddess of life Nin-ti
Enlil, the god of the storm, caused the Flood
What the Sumerians knew
The meaning of life
Top: Man delivering offerings to goddess Inanna (Ishtar)
Middle: Men carrying offerings
Bottom: Sheep, crop, water
What the Sumerians knew
Uruk in 2700 BC (time of Gilgamesh):
Six kms of ramparts protected by 900 towers
10 square kms of houses, palaces, workshops and temples
50,000 people
Gilgamesh
King of Uruk (2300BC)
Leads a military expedition to a distance place to find cedar wood
Gilgamesh
Tablet 1
"The one who saw all _
He saw the great Mystery, he knew the Hidden:
He recovered the knowledge of all the times before the Flood.
He journeyed beyond the distant, he journeyed beyond exhaustion..."

Gilgamesh is two-thirds god and one-third human.
He is the most powerful king that ever existed, but is a brutal dictator.
The people of Uruk ask god Anu for help.
Anu sends a powerful savage, Enkidu,
He has sex with one of the sacred prostitutes of the temple
and suddenly becomes civilized and knowledgeable.
Gilgamesh dreams that a meteor falls to Earth which is so great that not even Gilgamesh can lift it.
Gilgamesh
Tablet 2
Enkidu moves to the city. Enkidu briefly fights Gilgamesh over a woman but then they become friends. When Gilgamesh decides to leave on a journey and confront the demon Humbaba, Enkidu follows him to protect him.

Tablet 4
Gilgamesh has several dreams, including a dream of the apocalypse:
"The skies roared with thunder and the earth heaved,
Then came darkness and a stillness like death.
Lightening smashed the ground and fires blazed out;
Death flooded from the skies.
When the heat died and the fires went out,
The plains had turned to ash."
Gilgamesh
Tablet 5
Gilgamesh and Enkidu find and kill the demon.

Tablet 6
The goddess Ishtar hears of the event and offers herself to Gilgamesh, but Gilgamesh despises her as a slut and a jinx. Ishtar then begs her father Anu to wreak vengeance on Gilgamesh and Uruk, threatening to
"...pull down the Gates of Hell itself,
Crush the doorposts and flatten the door,
And I will let the dead leave
And let the dead roam the earth
And they shall eat the living.
The dead will overwhelm all the living"
Gilgamesh
Tablet 7
The gods condemn Enkidu to hell for helping G. kill Humbaba:
"The house where the dead dwell in total darkness,
Where they drink dirt and eat stone,
Where they wear feathers like birds,
Where no light ever invades their everlasting darkness,
Where the door and the lock of Hell is coated with thick dust.
When I entered the House of Dust,
On every side the crowns of kings were heaped,
On every side the voices of the kings who wore those crowns,
Who now only served food to the gods Anu and Enlil,
Candy, meat, and water poured from skins.
I saw sitting in this House of Dust a priest and a servant...
There sat Etana and Sumukan,
There sat Ereshkigal, the queen of Hell,
Beletseri, the scribe of Hell, sitting before her."
Gilgamesh
Tablet 9
Gilgamesh fears that the gods will now come after him, and decides to set out on a journey to find out the secret of immortality.
Utnapishtim and his wife are the only humans who are immortal: they are the only humans who survived the Flood and now live at the mouth of all rivers.

Tablet 11
After many encounters (everybody telling him that his quest is futile), Gilgamesh meets Utnapishtim, who tells him the story of the Flood.
The Flood
Gilgamesh
Tablet 11/ The Flood
When the gods followed the suggestion of one of them (Enlil) and decided to punish the humans with the Flood, the goddess Ea warned Utnapishtim in time so that he could build an ark, gather all living beings and survive the Flood.
The Flood lasted for seven days and seven nights, and destroyed everything, but the gods felt remorse. The gods found Utnapishtim's ark on the top of Mount Nimush, and Enlil in person granted him immortality and the right to live at the source of all the rivers.
Gilgamesh
Tablet 11/ The End
Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh that he will become immortal if he too can stay awake for six days and seven nights, but Gilgamesh falls asleep and sleeps the whole time and when he wakes up he is condemned:
"What do I do now, where do I go now?
Death has devoured my body,
Death dwells in my body,
Wherever I go, wherever I look, there stands Death"
Utnapishtim grants Gilgamesh only the secret to become young again. Gilgamesh does not trust him and brings back to Uruk the magic plant, but a snake eats the magic plant. Gilgamesh returns to Uruk and contemplates the city's splendour.
Kings List
"After kingship had descended from heaven, Eridu became the seat of kingship. In Eridu Aululim reigned 28,800 years as king. Alalgar reigned 36,000 years. Two kings, reigned 64,800 years. Eridu was abandoned and its kingship was carried off to Bad-tabira. . . .
Total: Five Cities, eight kings, reigned 241,200 years.
The flood then swept over. After the Flood had swept over, and kingship had descended from heaven, Kish became the seat of Kingship. In Kish .... Total: twenty-three kings, reigned 24,510 years, 3 months, 3 1/2 days. Kish was defeated; its kingship was carried off to Eanna.
Kings List
"In Eanna, Meskiaggasher, the son of (the sun god) Utu reigned as En (Priest) and Lugal (King) 324 years--Meskiaggasher entered the sea, ascended the mountains. Enmerkar, the son of Meskiaggasher, the king of erech who had built Erech, reigned 420 years as king. Lugalbanda, the shepherd, reigned 1,200 years. Dumuzi the fisherman, whose city was Kua, reigned 100 years. Gilgamesh, whose father was a nomad (?) reigned 126 years. Urnungal, the son of Gilgamesh, reigned 30 years. Labasher reigned 9 years. Ennundaranna reigned 8 years. Meshede reigned 36 years. Melamanna reigned 6 years. Lugalkidul reigned 36 years.
Total: twelve kings, reigned 2,130 years. Erech was defeated, its kingship was carried off to Ur...."
King List
Kings After the Flood
Dynasty of Kish: 23 kings ruled for 24,510 years (the first three all ruled 1,200 years, the second three ruled 960 years, the third three ruled 900 years)
Dynasty of Uruk: 12 kings ruled for 2,310 years
Dynasty of Ur: 4 kings ruled 171 years
Dynasty of Awan: 3 kings for 356 years
Kish 2: 8 kings for 3,195 years
Hamazi: 1 king for 360 years
Uruk 2: 3 kings for 187 years
Ur 2: 4 kings for 108 years
Adah: 1 king for 90 years
Mari: 6 kings for 136 years
Kish 3: 1 king for 100 years
King List
Kings After the Flood
Akshak: 6 kings for 99 years
Kish 4: 7 kings for 491 years
Uruk 3: 1 king for 25 years
Akkad: 11 kings for 197 years
Uruk 4: 5 kings for 30 years
Gutian: 21 kings for 91 years
Uruk 5: 1 king for 7 years
Ur 3: 5 kings for 108 years
Isin: 14 kings for 203 years
What the Sumerians knew
Where is Eden?
Legend of a pure land that knew neither sickness nor death, that Enki, son of An/Anu and god of subterranean freshwaters, turned into a lush garden (cuneiform tablet from Nippur)
"A river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads" (Genesis)
Confluence (now at the bottom of the Persian Gulf) of Euphrates, Tigris, the Karum from Iran, and a dry riverbed in the Arabian desert?
Eden in Sumer: "uncultivated plain"
Adam in Sumer: "settlement on the plain"
What the Near-East knew
See Part III

What the Near East knew III


What the Near East knew
Part III
What the Akkadians knew
Creation myth
Eland the bull (northern mountains) and his wife Asherah the sea (Persian Gulf)
Their children-gods created the cities of Mesopotamia
What the Akkadians knew
Creation myth
The gods were tired of having to work in the fields for their survival
Enki created humans to work on behalf of the gods
Enlil, annoyed that humans proliferated and made so much noise, ordered the flood
Enki warned Atra-hasis who built an ark
What the Babylonians knew
Agriculture
Valleys and rivers as the source of civilization
Basic crop: barley grown on irrigated fields (requires manpower, equipment and coordination)
Social contract (aristocrats/paesants)
Astronomy, mathematics and medicine
Positional notation
Zero
What the Babylonians knew
Religion
Human life depends on the gods
But the gods depend on human labor and sacrifice
Religion as a cult of fertility
The temple is the household of the gods
The temple organizes agricultural activity for the whole community (men in the fields, women and children in the production of textile and food)
The temple (not the palace) is the identity of the people of the city
A temple rules only over one city
The destruction of a temple is a catastrophe
Largest temples: Marduk at Babylonia, Anu at Uruk
What the Babylonians knew
Religion
Anu, god of the sky
Ea, god of wisdom, master-magician
Ellil, original leader of the gods
(Gods reside in specific cities)
Ishtar, goddess of war (Uruk)
Marduk, son of Ea, leader of the gods (Babylon)
Nabu (Borsippa)
Sin (Ur)
Shamash (Sippar)
What the Babylonians knew
State
The king as the divinely appointed leader
The palace is the household of the king, who could be a foreigner (eg Amorites, Kassites)
The palace organizes agricultural activity for the well-being of the king (mainly through slaves captured in war)
The palace rules over more than one city
The destruction of the palace is a regime change, not necessarily a catastrophe
No tomb of a Babylonian king has ever been found
What the Babylonians knew
Business
Birth of the mercantile class (eg, trading surplus of food for metals)
Trade along the Euphrates
Silver as a means of payment for materials (2500 BC) but not labor
People's wages paid in cereals and beer
Birth of venture capital and usury
What the Babylonians knew
Scribes
Employed by temples, palace and merchants
Letters, contracts and accounting
Tablets
What the Babylonians knew
Hammurabi law code (2100 BC)
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth
Pragmatic: avoid endless cycles of revenge
Each group has rights and duties proportional to its status
Protection of women and children from indiscriminate abuses
Even slaves have rights
Severe restrictions on female sexuality
Professional standards for physicians, architects and engineers enforced via draconian punishments
What the Babylonians knew
Hammurabi law code (2100 BC)
What the Babylonians knew
"Enuma Elish" (1700 BC):
Marduk, the supreme god (a third-generation god), and Ishtar (his wife), goddess of the Earth
The male freshwater ocean (Apsu) and the female saltwater ocean (Tiamat) created the elohim (gods) that created the world
Conflict between the gods (Apsu gets killed, Tiamat leads persecution of the gods)
Gods are tired of their tough life
Marduk creates humanity to be the servants of the gods
Grateful, the gods declare Marduk the supreme god
Struggle between order and chaos (Marduk's battle with Tiamat)
Enuma Elish
Enuma Elish
Enuma Elish
What the Babylonians knew
Divination
Summa alu
Compendium of omens related to the Earth
Enuma Anu Enlil
Compendium of omens related to the Cosmos
The future is predetermined by the gods
Rituals
The will of the gods can be changed by appropriate rituals
The same gods that created the future also created the rituals for humans to change the future
What the invaders knew
The Chariot
1700 BC: the Hyskos (Semitic people from Arabia) invade Egypt
1500 BC: the Hurrians (Indo-Europeans from the northern mountains) invade Mesopotamia
1600 BC: Indo-Europeans invade the Indus valley
1500 BC: the Shang invade China
Enabling technologies:
Metallurgy (lightness)
Woodworking (integration)
Tanning (comfort)
Domestication of horses (motor)
What the invaders knew
The Chariot
Origin
Border between steppes (horse civilization) and river valleys (metal civiliazions)
Hunting, farming, building
Effects
Increased speed tenfold (ox-transport: 3kms/hr, horse-transport: 30 kms/hr)
New class of warriors
Composite bow (invented at about the same time)
The Chariot
Mounted warrior
What the Hittites knew
What the Hittites knew
Old Hittite Kingdom (1720 to 1480 BC)
Great Hittite Kingdom or Imperial Hittites (1480-1190 BC)
Late Hittite City States (1190 to 712 BC)

What the Hittites knew

Oldest recorded Indo-European language (6,000 BC)
Iron (1,400 BC)
Extreme polytheism: the world is populated by a multitude of deities (every natural object is conscious and is inhabited by a deity)
Religious tolerance: all deities are legitimate dieties
The "Storm God" of Hatti as the supreme deity (married to the Sun Goddess of Arinna)
Temple of the Storm God at Hattusa (160x135m)
El and his consort Ashera, mother of Baal (Ras Shamra texts , 1,500 BC)
What the Hittites knew
Storm God (bull) from Alacah”yk
What the Hittites knew
Origins of the Indo-Europeans
Marija Gimbutas' thesis: warriors moved west and southeast from the Russian steppes 4,000 BC
Colin Renfrew's thesis: agriculture spread from Turkey west and east 7,000 BC
What the Hittites knew
Broadcasters of Mesopotamian culture to the Mediterranean civilizations, from Egypt to Greece to Phoenicia
No private property (the king owns all the land)
The bulk of the population are tenant farmers
Kings cremated not buried
What the Assyrians knew
Empire of Tiglath-pileser III (746 BC-727 BC)
Multi-ethnic imperial system
Scientific warfare
Army of peasants and slaves replaced by professional army from the conquered lands
Iron weapons employed on a massive scale
Balance of infantry, cavalry and chariots
Imperialist ideology
Warfare a religious duty
Control of subjects via terror
What the Babylonians knew
Empire of Nebuchadnezzar II (605 BC - 562 BC)
Babylonia has 100,000 people
Eight monumental gates
Esagila complex
Seven-story ziggurat
Hanging gardens
Babylonia
Babylonia
What the Persians knew
Bibliography:
Zaehner: "The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism"
What the Persians knew
God of Light vs God of Darkness
Spiritual, immaterial God
Zarathustra (b 628BC)
Good-evil dualism (the universe is under the control of two contrary gods: Ahura-mazda, the creating god who is full of light and good, and Ahriman, the god of dark and evil)
Monotheism
Eschatological (at the end of time, Ahura-mazda will emerge victorious)
Zurvan (500 BC): god of infinite time
What the Persians knew
The Cyrus Cylinder, 538 BC
First Charter of The Rights of Nations
The First Declaration of Human Rights
"Cyrus, King of Kings..., has dictated a new world order, for the man to be free, for the man to live as he pleases and be protected by the law, all men to have rights_
... by the will of Ahura Mazda, all subordinates and subjects of the Empire, nations of the four quarters, shall respect... the various religions of the Persian Empire. We shall not rule by force and oppress no nation. Each is free to accept or reject, we shall bestow internal autonomy to all states ...
What the Persians knew
The Cyrus Cylinder, 538 BC
What the Persians knew
What the Persians knew

What the Egyptians knew


Bibliography
Henry Hodges: Technology in the Ancient World (1970)
Arthur Cotterell: Penguin Encyclopedia of Ancient Civilizations (1980)
Rosalie David: Handbook to Life in Ancient Egypt (1998)
Henri Stierlin: Pharaohs Master-builders (1992)
Arthur Cotterell: Penguin Encyclopedia of Ancient Civilizations (1980)
Alberto Siliotti: The Dwellings of Eternity (2000)
Ancient Civilizations
Egypt
Egypt
4000 BC: Egyptians trace their origins to the Mount Rwenzori range in East Africa
3500 BC: Egyptians invent the sail
3400-3100: two independent kingdoms
capital in Pe (north, Delta), chief deity Edjo (cobra goddess) worshipped at Buto
capital in Nekhen (south), chief deity Nekhbet (vulture goddess) worshipped at Nekheb
corresponding to the two geographical regions (Delta and Valley)
What the Egyptians knew
Sources
"Turin Canon" (13th c BC): Kings list, written in hieratic papyrus
Manetho: "Aegyptiaca" (3rd c BC): history of ancient Egypt, written in Greek
"Admonition of the Prophets" (): fiction that expresses the decline of the Old Kingdom
"Prophecy of Nefertiti" (): decline of the Old Kingdom
What the Egyptians knew
3000 BC: Narmer/Menes unifies Egypt and founds new capital Hiku-Ptah (Memphis) in the north (Delta)
Memphis: first megalopolis
This/Abydos (in the south): main religious center
Saqqara: royal burials
Hieroglyphic writing (3000 BC)
Calendar based on the three natural cycles (the solar day, the lunar month and the solar year)
Worship of the sun
Deities of animal form, later anthropomorphized
2900 BC: king Djer is buried at Abydos, seat of the cult of Osiris, lord of the Underworld and husband of Isis, and his "mastaba" becomes the grave of Osiris
What the Egyptians knew
The Narmer Palette commemorates the unification of Egypt
What the Egyptians knew
Hunters' Palette (3100 BC)
What the Egyptians knew
Oldest royal cemetery: Abydos
What the Egyptians knew
Old Kingdom (dynasties 3-6, 27th c.BC-22nd c.BC)
1.5 million people
Centralized theocracy
Only the king (demigod) is eternal
Religious centers: Iwnw/Heliopolis (Re), Hermopolis (Thoth), Memphis (Ptah)
Chief deity: Re/Atum/Khepri (Sun cult)
The king is the sun of Sun god (Re, Atum)
Six temples to the Sun (dynasty 5), modeled after Heliopolis' temple (never found)
What the Egyptians knew
Pharaoh
The king is a divine administrator, not a warrior
The Old Kingdom had few enemies
The Old Kingdom had no standing army
The king's job is to administer the land of the Nile, not to conquer
The king is assisted by a bureaucracy of court officials, provincial administrators, project supervisors, scribes, tax collectors
Projects are carried out by metalworkers, stonemasons, artisans, painters, etc employed by the king
What the Egyptians knew
Old Kingdom (dynasties 3-6, 27th c.BC-22nd c.BC)
Royal burial: pyramids (originally associated with sun cult)
Step Pyramid at Saqqara (Imhotep, 2620 BC)
Red Pyramid at Dahshur (2575 BC)
Great Pyramid at Giza (Hemon, 2550 BC)
The Sphinx is built in Giza for pharaoh Khephren (2515 BC)
Religious texts are inscribed in the burial chamber of pharoah Unas/Wenis (2350 BC)
Nobles' burial: tombs around the pyramid
What the Egyptians knew
Pyramid-driven economy
Pyramids and temples become a focus of Egypt's economy, from training to quarrying to transportation to engineering
Up to 70,000 workers per pyramid
Agricultural surplus used to feed the pyramid and temple workers
Furnishing pyramids and temples creates demand for luxury goods
What the Egyptians knew
Old Kingdom (dynasties 3-6, 27th c.BC-22nd c.BC)
Writing on papyrus (2700 BC)
Copper age (weapons and tools)
Sail (3,500 BC)
Mud bricks for domestic building, stone for monumental building
Limited use of the wheel (sledges instead of wheeled vehicles)

What the Egyptians knew
Old Kingdom (dynasties 3-6, 27th c.BC-22nd c.BC)
Women have the same rights as men except for education (which de facto keeps them out of the bureaucracy)
Saqqara/ Giza
Egypt
Rahotpe's stele (2600 BC)
Oldest royal sarcophagus (2600 BC)
Menkaura triad (2480 BC)
Limestone statue of scribe (2500 BC)
Diorite statue of Khafra (2500 BC)
What the Egyptians knew
What the Egyptians knew
First Intermediate Period, Middle Kingdom, Second Intermediate Period (dynasties 6-17, 22nd c.BC-17th c.BC)
Osiris replaces Re, promising eternal life to everybody
Democratization and decentralization of power
The king is the son of Osiris (and the incarnation of Horus at death)
Egyptian Book of the Dead (2100 BC)
Ceremonies are held in Abydos to honor Osiris ("Osiris' mysteries") that recount the death and resurrection of the god (1900 BC)
What the Egyptians knew
Mysteries of Osiris
Stela of Nemtyemhat ("Ikhernofret Stela") at Abydos
The First Day: procession of Wepwawet:
The Second Day, procession of Wesir
The Night of Vigil
The Third Day: Wesir is reborn
Weighing of the Heart
The Papyrus of Ani (1250 BC)
What the Egyptians knew
First Intermediate Period, Middle Kingdom, Second Intermediate Period (dynasties 6-17, 22nd c.BC-17th c.BC)
"The Adventures of Sinuhe" (1800 BC)
Political capitals: Memphis in the north and Thebes in the south
The first obelisks are erected at Heliopolis (2000 BC)
Chariot
Bronze age
What the Egyptians knew
Red granite sphinx at Tanis of Amenemhet III (1800 BC)
Black basalt pyramidion of Amenemhet III (1800 BC)
What the Egyptians knew
Senet
What the Egyptians knew
1640 BC - 1532 BC: Hyksos invasion of the Delta (during dynasties 15-17)
Semitic people from Palestine
Technological innovations
Horse-driven chariot (of Aryan origin)
The foreign world
Main political center: Memphis
Spoked wheel (faster chariots)
Egypt
What the Egyptians knew
Continued on Part II

What the Egyptians knew II


What the Egyptians knew
What the Egyptians knew
New Kingdom (dynasties 18-20, 1532 BC - 1070 BC)
Main political center: Thebes (liberated Egypt from the Hyksos)
Main religious center: Karnak (Thebes), temple of Amun (1530 BC)
Chief deity: Amun, associated with the north's Re and now regarded as creator of all people
The king's chief wife becomes the divine wife of Atum
Thebes as the original place of creation (creation myth)
Royal burial: rock-cut tombs in the Valley of the Kings (Karnak)
Ramesses II rock-cut temples at Abu Simbel (1250 BC)
Karnak/ Luxor
Karnak
Abu Simbel
What the Egyptians knew
New Kingdom (dynasties 18-20, 1532 BC - 1070 BC)
Amenhotep I's experiment (1520 BC): Separation of Royal burial site and Royal cult sites
Divine cult complexes (houses of the gods) and Royal cult complexes, between the Nile and the necropolis (royal burial rites)
Sundial (1450)
What the Egyptians knew
New Kingdom (dynasties 18-20, 1532 BC - 1070 BC)
Burgeoning economy of Amenhotep III (1391-1353 BC) and Ramesses II (1290-1224 BC)
Urban expansion
Temple construction
Agricultural surpluses
Influx of gold from Nubia
Egyptian economy fuels Mediterranean trade
What the Egyptians knew
New Kingdom (dynasties 18-20, 1532 BC - 1070 BC)
Imports from Phoenicia:
Afghan tin
Cyprus' copper
Timber
Ships
Temples
Coffins
What the Egyptians knew
New Kingdom (dynasties 18-20, 1532 BC - 1070 BC)
Foreign policy (Palestine, Syria, Nubia, Mitannis, Hittites, Mesopotamia)
1458 BC: Tuthmosis III defeats the Mitannis and conquers Syria, the peak of Egyptian power
1415: Marriage between Tuthmosis IV and Artatama's daughter seal peace with Mitannis
1353 BC: monotheism (Atum) of Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten) and his wife Nefertiti at new capital Akhetaten (Amarna)
1275 BC: the battle of Kadesh
Tutankhamun Treasure (1300 BC)
Battle of Kadesh (1275BC)
The Chariot
Continued on Part III


What the Egyptians knew III


What the Egyptians knew
Part III
What the Egyptians knew
Third Intermediate Period, Late Period (dynasties 21-25, 1070 BC - 525 BC)
Political capital: Tanis (Delta), Thebes (Nubian dynasty 25)
Main religion center: Thebes
The king's elder daughter becomes the divine wife of Atum, is forbidden to marry and resides at Thebes
Royal burial: the Nuri pyramid 664 BC), the first pyramid in a thousand years
Egypt's weakness: still no iron
What the Egyptians knew
Third Intermediate Period, Late Period (dynasties 21-25, 1070 BC - 525 BC)
Foreign rulers: Libyan, Nubian, Greek mercenaries
671 BC: the Assyrians capture the capital Memphis
605 BC: the Babylonians (Nabuchadnezzar) defeat the Egyptians at Carchemish
525 BC: the Persians (Cambyses) defeat Egypt at Pelusium
What the Egyptians knew
Persian rule (525 BC - 332 BC)
Macenodian rule (332 BC -47 BC)
Foundation of Alexandria
Ptolemaic rulers (Greeks)
Roman rule (47 BC - 641 AD)
Arab rule (642:1252)
Mumluk rule (1252-1516)
Ottoman rule (1516-1798)
Egyptian rule (1811-1882)
British rule (1882-1922)
What the Egyptians knew
Agriculture
Valleys and rivers as the source of civilization
Social Order
800 hieroglyphs
Calendar of 12 months of 30 days
What the Egyptians knew
No word/hieroglyph for "religion"
Maat: goddess that personifies cosmic harmony and a model for human behavior
Human life must mirror cosmic order, and death is the vehicle to become part of that cosmic order
High priests to lead rites and festivals
Pharaoh as intermediary between gods and humans (son of the Sun god)
No theory of gods, only rites and festivals that make people mirror the divine order (as interpreted by the priests)
What the Egyptians knew
What the Egyptians knew
What the Egyptians knew
Dual hierarchy: the gods, the dead, the pharaoh, the priests, the people
What the Egyptians knew
Gods behave like humans: mythology not theology (legend of Isis, wife of Osiris, who died, etc)
Animals to represent gods (Apis the bull, Anubis the jackal, Uadjet the cobra, Horus the falcon, Thoth the ibis)
Every Egyptian is created by the gods (a divine nation)
Religion as a cult of fertility
Festivals to rehearse god's myths: "Osiris' mysteries" recount the death and resurrection of Osiris, lord of the Underworld, and bring salvation, resurrection and eternal bliss to humans
Book of Thoth (never found): summary of Egyptian knowledge and instructions for festivals


What the Egyptians knew
What the Egyptians knew
Tuat as the immortal omniscient creator and as the Underworld
Ptah (and later Amon) as the creator, and the other gods as a manifestation of his creative powers
Faith on a monumental scale (Karnak for Amon)
Obelisks
Pyramids
Step pyramid at Saqqara (2600 BC): a miniature city
Cheope's pyramid at Giza (2550 BC): a cosmic city
What the Egyptians knew
Ancient creation myths
Different creation myths from ancient times
What the Egyptians knew
Cosmogony of Hermopolis
Nun: age of no space and no time, no sky and no earth, primordial abyss
Nun: "nothingness, nowhere, darkness"
Nun: later became a ersonified deity, but no temples, primeval waters from which the sun god emerged
Eight attributes of primeval waters (endlessness, invisibility, darkness, etc) were also personified deities (one being Amun), and they gave rise to the egg that originated the world
Chief deity until 8th dynasty: Thoth (inventor of writing and law)
Chief deity after 8th dynasty: Atum
What the Egyptians knew
Cosmogony of Heliopolis
Atum: arose from the primeval waters (Nun) and created the universe
Atum: bisexual deity Khopri
Later trinity: Atum (immanent in Nun), Shu (Atum's son), Tefnut (Atum's daughter)
Shu and Tefnut parented Geb (earth) and Nut (sky)
Geb and Nut parented Osiris, Isis, Seth, Nephthys
Osiris and Isis parented Horus
What the Egyptians knew
Cosmogony of Memphis
Nun: product of the eternal mind Ptah, state of non-existence prior to creation
Ptah: creator of the world
All other gods were manifestations of Ptah's body parts
What the Egyptians knew
Thebes
Ken-Ken Ur laid the original egg
Chief deity from 12th dynasty on: Amun (inherited from Hermopolis and eventually associated with the sun god Re)
What the Egyptians knew
Abydos
Chief deity: Osiris (originally symbolized the annual rebirth of the land)
Risen from the dead, became the ruler of the world of the dead
Osiris determines if one will live forever or not
Osiris presides over the universal judgement (Book of the Dead)
Mysteries of Osiris
His wife Isis more famous during the Roman era outside Egypt
What the Egyptians knew
Cynopolis
Chief deity: Anubis, funerary deity all over Egypt
Oldest deity of Egypt: Min, god of the nomads and hunters (eastern desert) in the first dynasty
Pharaoh of divine origin (originally son of Re, and later manifestation of Amun)
What the Egyptians knew
Death = immortality
Mummies (2600BC-400AD)
Book of the Dead (1,600 BC): formulas to help the deads in the afterlife journey to Tuat and assume mythological shapes
Tomb not as the resting place of the dead, but as the instrument by which death can be overcome, a place of connection with the heavens and the afterlife ("spirit to the sky, corpse into the earth")
Death as the gateway to eternal life
Ba, the soul, vs Ka, the divine, the spirit (or spirits) that accompanies and guides human as well as divine beings, and that bestows immortality on the Ba
What the Egyptians knew
The self is made of multiple independent entities
The ba (immortal soul)
The ka (immortal divine quality)
The heart (site of the mind)
The shadow (khaibit)
The name (ren)
The body
_.

What the Egyptians knew
Royal burial
First dynasty (3032 BC): Abydos (tumuli)
Third dynasty (2707) - Eight dynasty (2216): Memphis (pyramid)
Eleventh dynasty (2119): Thebes (rock caves)
Twelfth dynasty (1976): Memphis (pyramid)
Seventeenth dynasty (1645): Thebes (rock caves)
Eighteenth dynasty (1550) - Twentysecond dynasty (946): Thebes, Valley of the Kings (rock caves)
What the Egyptians knew
The temple
Mansion of the god
Representation of the creation
Microcosm of the universe
What the Egyptians knew
Society
Motivation for linking the scattered communities of Egypt:
Irrigation
Motivation for bureaucracy:
Funerary monuments (e.g., pyramids)
Motivation for technological progress:
Funerary architecture (furniture, jewelry, pottery, clothing)
What the Egyptians knew
Society
Peasants (80% of population)
Artisans
Scribes (archivists, librarians, record-keepers, not writers)
Thoth, god of knowledge (patron of scribes)
"Adventures of Sinuhe" (1800 BC)
Architects: simple, imposing structures
Musicians: musical instruments
Doctors: medicine
What the Egyptians knew
Society
Governors
Central bureaucracy (headed by vizier and including treasury)
Priests (usually chosen from the scribes)
Priest-magicians
Oracles
What the Egyptians knew
Justice
Administered by precedents
Personified by goddess Maat
Chief justice was the high priest of Maat
All judges were also priests of Maat
What the Egyptians knew
Writing
Hieroglyphic system: 700 signs expressing different phonetic combinations
Mainly used for official and monumental purposes
Abbreviated scripts for business and literary purposes: Hieratic, Demotic, Coptic
A hieroglyphic sign can indicate either an object, an idea or a sound
Ambiguity of signs led to additional symbol to indicate the sound: pseudo-alphabet of 24 consonants
Used also to spell foreign words and names
What the Egyptians knew
Economy
Wheat and barley (bread and beer)
Wine
Linen
Papyrus (for ropes, sails, sandals, paper)
Imports
Gold from Nubia
Copper from the Sinai, Cyprus, Syria
Cedarwood from Lebanon
What the Egyptians knew
Monopolies of the king
Import/export
Quarries/mines
What the Egyptians knew
Egyptian women
Women could become Pharaoh
Laws were equal for men and women
Women could own land and run businesses
Women could divorce
People of both sexes could have more than one spouse
The wife was the mistress of the house, directing all household activities


What the Indians knew I


Bibliography
Gordon Johnson: Cultural Atlas of India (1996)
Henri Stierlin: Hindu India (2002)
Hermann Goetz: The Art of India (1959)
Alberto Siliotti: The Dwellings of Eternity (2000)
Heinrich Zimmer: Philosophies of India (1951)
Surendranath Dasgupta: A History of Indian Philosophy (1988)
Ancient Civilizations
India
7000 BC: Earliest settled societies (Mehrgarh)
3000 BC: Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro in the Indus Valley
2000 BC: Indus Valley is the largest bronze-age civilization
1800 BC: the civilization of the Indus Valley declines
1500 BC: Indo-Aryan tribes speaking Sanskrit invade India and settle in the Ganges valley
1100 BC: Aryans use iron
1000 BC: the Rig-Veda are composed in Vedic
900 BC: the Aryans are divided in four social classes
800 BC: end of Aryan migrations
600 BC: the Upanishads are composed in Sanskrit
Mohenjo-Daro
Mohenjo-Daro
India
527 BC: Siddhartha Gautama is enlightened (the Buddha)
500 BC: the ascetic prince Mahavira founds Jainism
327 BC: Alexander of Macedonia invades the Indus valley
323 BC: at the death of Alexander, Seleucus obtains India
304 BC: Chandragupta Maurya buys the Indus valley for 500 elephants
300 BC: the Ramayama is composed
259 BC: the Mauryan king Ashoka, grandson of Chandragupta, converts to Buddhism and sends out Buddhist missionaries to nearby states
220 BC: the Maurya dynasty under Ashoka's son Bindusara expands to almost all of India
The Maurya Empire
India
200 BC: the "Mahabarata" is composed
150 BC: Patanjali publishes the "Yoga Sutras"
150 BC: the "Kama Sutra" is composed
100 BC: India is mainly divided into Bactria (northwest), Andhras (east) and Shungas (south)
100 BC: Buddhist sanctuary at Sanchi
78 BC: the Kushan expand into Kashmir and Punjab
India 100 AD
India
200: the Manu code prescribes the rules of everyday life and divides people into four castes (Brahmins, warriors, farmers/traders, non-Aryans)
233: The Sassanid (Persia) conquer the Kushan empire
318: Chandra Gupta founds the Gupta kingom in Magadha and extends its domains throughout northern India with capital at Patna
India 400
India
350: the Puranas are composed (a compendium of Hindu mythology)
380: Buddhist monks carve two giant Buddha statues in the rock at Bamiya, Bactria (Afghanistan)
465: the Ajanta caves


India
499: the Hindu mathematician Aryabhata writes the "Aryabhatiya", the first book on Algebra
510: Huns led by Mihiragula conquer Punjab, Gujarat and Malwa from the Gupta
528: the Gupta empire collapses under continuous barbaric invasions
600: shakti cult (mother-goddess)
650: Ellora caves
India 625
India
711: the Arabs conquer Sindh and Multan (Pakistan)
773: Kailasa temple at Ellora
800: kingdoms are created in central India and in Rajastan by Rajputs (warlords)


India 900

India
1030: the Solanki kings build the Jain temples at Mount Abu
1192: Turkic-speaking chieftains from Afghanistans led by Muhammad of Ghor defeat Prithvi Raj, capture Delhi and establish a Muslim sultanate at Delhi
1250: a temple to the Sun in the form of a giant chariot is built at Konarak
India, 1280
Delhi Sultanate, «00-1400

India
1526: the Mogul empire (Babur) destroys the Dehli Sultanate and unifies northern and parts of southern India
1550: Jain complex at Palitana
1627: Shivaji (Sivaji) founds the Maratha kingdom
1631: Sultan Shah Jahan builds the Taj Mahal
1639: Britain acquires Madras
1665: Britian acquires Bombay from Portugal
1688: the Moguls complete the conquest of India
1690: Britain acquires Calcutta
1707:Sultan Aurangjeb dies, destabalizing the Mogul Empire

Marathas794
India
304 BC - 184 BC: Maurya
184 BC - 78 BC: Sunga
78 AD -233: Kushan
318 - 528: Gupta
550 - 1190 : Chalukya
1192-1526: Delhi sultanate
1526-1707: Moghul
1707-1802: Maratha
What the Indians knew
Continues on Part II

What the Indians knew II



What the Indians knew
Part II
Indo-European Languages
Indo-European or "Aryan" languages: Indo-Iranian, Italic, Slavic, Germanic, Greek, Baltic, Celtic, Albanian, Armenian
5000 BC: the Kurgan culture in the steppes west of the Ural Mountains (Indo-Aryans)
3000 BC: Dravidian speaking people develop the civilization of the Indus Valley
3000 BC: the proto-indo-european language develops in Central Asia
2000 BC: the Kurgan culture spreads to eastern Europe and northern Iran
Indo-European Languages
1700 BC: Indo-Aryans migrate eastward, away from the other Indo-European peoples, and settle in Iran
1600 BC: Indo-Aryans invade India from the west and expel the Dravidians
1500 BC: Religious texts are written in Vedic, an Indo-European language
400 BC: Panini's grammar formalizes Sanskrit, an evolution of Vedic
Indo-European Languages
Today:
India has 112 mother tongues with at least 10,000 speakers
23 Dravidian (non-Indoeuropean) languages are spoken by 180 million people, mainly in the south (Tamil in Tamil Nadu, Telugu in Andhra Pradesh, Kannada in Mysore, Malayalam in Kerala)
Refresh your memory:
Semitic languages: Akkadian, Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Arabic, Amharic (Ethiopic)
Egyptian languages
Sino-tibetan languages: Mandarin, Cantonese, Tibetan, Burmese
What the Indians knew
Castes (brahmans, warriors, merchants)
Karma ("action")
Dharma ("duty")
Duty depends on caste, age (four stages of life), sex (a woman's dharma is obedience to father, husband and son)
Samsara ("cycle of rebirth", mundane world, world of becoming))
Chakras (12 centers of energy located in the body, each associated with a different kind of consciousness/ energy, a ladder leading to higher consciousness/ energy)
Panchagavya ("Five Products of the Cow"): milk, butter, curds, urine, feces
What the Indians knew
Problem of evil
Right and wrong actions ("karma") increase positive and negative potential energy ("apurva", later also called "karma")
Karma causes apurva
Apurva (positive or negative energy) eventually is released and causes good or evil to the person
Misfortune is caused by prior wrongful deeds (is not only deserved but even required)
What the Indians knew
Problem of evil
Causality is a loop from the individual back to the individual
Nobody is an "innocent" victim (every victim is guilty of something done before or in a previous life)
Justification of the caste system (you are what you are because that is what you deserve)
Cosmic justice totally independent of gods
Pointless to try to improve one's lot
What the Indians knew
Rig-veda (1500 BC)
1028 hymns to a pantheon of gods
Polytheism
Deities as vehicles of the force
Sacrifice, prayer and ritual to please the deities
Rebirth
Karma determines rebirth
Salvation as avoidance of rebirth
Salvation achieved through devotional acts
Three goals of human life: artha (material success), dharma (righteous social behavior), and kama (sensual pleasures), plus release

What the Indians knew
The Vedas
Veda means "knowledge" in ancient Vedic
Beliefs of the Aryans
Yajur-Veda (1000 BC): rites of sacrifice
Sama-Veda: religious hymns
Atharva-Veda (900 BC): magic spells
Brahmanas (900 BC): priestly rites
All Vedas were reserved for male priests of the upper caste
What the Indians knew
Hindu cosmogony
Many different cosmogonies
The universe is a sphere centered on India, made of concentric heavens, hells, oceans, continents
The history of the universe is cyclic
from the golden age (Krita Yuga) to the present age (Kali Yuga) back to the golden age via fire and flood
Human life is cyclic (karma, samsara)
Brahma
The creator
Brahma: primordial being that originated a variety of gods and spirits
Unusually low-profile
What the Indians knew
Creation myth (later collected in the Puranas)
The Earth as a disk between two bowls, the heavens and the underworld (the cosmic egg of Brahma, "biranya garbha")
Infinite universes (infinite cosmic eggs)
Mt Meru as the center of the world
We live in the Kali Yuga (the Age of Iron), the final and most negative of four cycles (cosmic seasons)
Sati-yuga = 432,000 X 4 yugas = 1,728,000
Tretaa-yuga = 432,000 X 3 = 1,296,000
Dwaapara-yuga = 432,000 X 2 = 864,000
Kali-yuga = 432,000 X 1 = 432,000
1 Mahayuga (ten yugas) = 4,320,000 years
1 day of Brahma = 1,000 mahayugas = 4.32 billion years
The Earth is 1,955,889,031 years old
What the Indians knew
Hindu cosmogony
Shiva
God of ascetics and god of the phallus
Shiva beheaded his father, the incestuous Brahma, and was condemned to carry the skull until he found release in Varanasi
Shiva appeared on Earth in various human, animal, and vegetable forms
Kapalika sect carries skull to reenact the myth
Aghori sect are indifferent to pleasure or pain
Shiva's phallus is the central shrine of temples and the personal shrine of households
Vishnu the Sustainer and Shiva the Destroyer
What the Indians knew
Hindu cosmogony
Vishnu
Vishnu gave birth to the creator (Brahma)
Vishnu separated heaven and earth
Many incarnations (Avatar): Rama, Krishna,_
Vishnu the Sustainer and Shiva the Destroyer
What the Indians knew
Hindu cosmogony
Devi
The "Goddess"
The prime mover, who commands the male gods to do the work of creation and destruction
Durga, Kali,
Shakti, the female power
Lakshmi, the wife of Vishnu
Parvati, the wife of Shiva (daughter of the Himalayas)

What the Indians knew
Upanishads (600 BC)
The metaphysical counterpart of the Veda
Philosophical meditations on the meaning of life and the nature of the universe, rather than mythology of gods
Union of the individual soul ("atman") with the universal soul ("brahman"), rather than devotional acts
Reserved for male priests of the upper caste
What the Indians knew
Upanishads (500 BC)
Brahman: the absolute, the soul of the world
Atman: the divine within the self, the soul of the individual
Karma: moral determination of reincarnation
Samsara: endless cycle of death and rebirth, transience of ordinary life
Dharma: social and cosmic order
Dhyana: meditation
Maya: the multiplicity of the world as an illusion of the senses
Moksha: liberation from maya and experience of the brahman
Yoga: a method for salvation, of union of brahman and atman, of experiencing the divine within the self
What the Indians knew
Brahman
The ultimate cosmic principle
The first cause of the universe
The source of existence
Beyond all material forms
Pure knowledge
Eternal, infinite, and conscious being
It is the subject, not the object, of thought
Can only be described in negative terms (what it is not):
nirguna (without qualities)
nirakara (without form)
nirvishesha (without particularity)
nirupadhika (without limitations)
What the Indians knew
Upanishads (600 BC)
Salvation is liberation (moksha) from the illusory world (maya)
Moksha is achieved when the individual soul ("atman") knows the universal soul ("brahman")
The soul is divine
The order of the soul is a reflection of the order of the absolute
Thus understanding one's self is understanding the absolute
Self-knowledge is knowledge of the absolute
What the Indians knew
Upanishads (600 BC)
All matter/energy is made up of three qualities (gunas) in increasing order of fineness:
Tamas (inertia): the grossness, that gives rise to form, to the three dimensions of space
Rajas (change): the quality that gives rise to movement or force
Sattva (purity): the finest quality, that gives rise to life or thought
Sattva and tamas are opposed to each other, while rajas is complementary to both
What the Indians knew
Upanishads (600 BC)
The creation is the interplay of the three gunas
Before Creation: the primal equilibrium of sattva, rajas and tamas
Creation: when the three gunas begin to interact and the process of evolution begins
After creation: tamas destroys an existing state while, simultaneously, Sattva creates a new state
Evolution is the simultaneous process of creation and destruction due to the three gunas
Rajas maintains a bond between the sattva and tamas
What the Indians knew
Upanishads (600 BC)
An element of each quality is present in every object/event
The laws of nature are due to a combination of the three gunas
In the material world of the three gunas we react to objects and events
Only in enlightenment are the gunas completely transcended
What the Indians knew
Siddhartha Gautama (527BC)
Budh: to be aware
Salvation does not lie in eternal existence but in escape from the illusion of the self
Nirvana (state of complete liberation) via practice and enlightenment
Karma is not action but only causation



What the Indians knew
Buddha (527BC)
No atman: no enduring consciousness, consciousness is a substance not a being
Personal identity through time does not consist of a self that is continuously reborn but of a continuity of karma
Dharmas (elements of existence): the components of a cart exist, but the cart itself is only a concept and does not truly exist
Each dharma is relative to every other dharma, each dharma is caused by another dharma (conditioned existence)
Nothing exists for any period of time (no duration to dharmas, dharmas are momentary)
What the Indians knew
Buddha (527BC)
Each moment is an entirely new existence
No transmigration: souls do not migrate from this life to the next one (there is no self)
What the Indians knew
Buddha (527BC)
No god: no Brahman
Brahman becomes "righteousness" (dharma), living a life of moral and ethical standard (the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path)
Four-fold negation of nirvana (it is not true that we exist or do not exist, and it is not true that we both exist and not exist, and it is not true that we neither exist nor do not exist; i.e. nothing can be said about nirvana)
Gods are not creators of the universe, and cannot influence human life. They are subject to the same cycle of rebirth. Enlightenment is actually possible only for humans.

What the Indians knew
Buddha (527BC)
Ignorance causes desire ("tanha") which causes ignorance
Decay is inherent in all complex things
Suffering (existential suffering) is inherent in all living beings
Equality of all beings (no castes)

What the Indians knew
Buddha (527BC)
Eternalists: the soul is eternal
Annihilists: nothing is eternal and nothing is connected
The Third Way: the soul is not eternal, but all events influence other events

Buddhism
Theravada Buddhist scriptures ("Tipitaka"):
Buddha's sermons, or "Pali" canon
Monastic rules
Philosophical classics
Buddhism
Four Noble Truths:
Life is suffering ("dukkha")
All suffering is caused by ignorance of the nature of reality and by the attachment to Earthly belongings that results from such ignorance.
Suffering can be ended by overcoming ignorance and attachment.
The path to the end of suffering is the Noble Eightfold Path: right views, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right-mindedness, right contemplation.
Buddhism
The ultimate goal of the path is release from the human condition, i.e. from ignorance, from greed, and from suffering (to attain nirvana)
Nirvana is infinite consciousness
Nirvana can be attained by cultivating four attitudes ("palaces"):
love (kindness)
compassion (for negative events)
joy (for positive events)
fairness
Only monks can achieve nirvana
Five commandments (do not kill, steal, fornicate, take drugs, lie)
Buddhism
Human existence consists of five aggregates (skandhas): body, feelings, concepts, disposition to act, consciousness.
The five aggregates separate at death
At each point in time an individual is a combination of the five skandhas. The combination changes all the time.
The self (atman) changes continuously
Denial of the atman (anatman)
12-step chain of events that causes the continuous repetition of the cycle of birth and death, each life's karma influencing the following one (pratityasamutpada, dependent origination)
Buddhism
Meditation/mantra:
The mind changes all the time (Buddha)
The mind becomes the object of its thought
In order to become God, the mind has to focus on God
Each God is associated to a sound, a mantra
Concentrating on the mantra of God, the mind becomes that God (I.e., absorbs its power)
Same principle in Hinduism and Magic
Buddhism
528 BC: Siddhartha Gautama achieves enlightenment
479 BC: at the first Buddhist council Buddha's teachings (Sutta) and the rules of monastic discipline (Vinaya) are codified
383 BC: the second Buddhist Council at Vesali chooses Hinayana over Mahayana
259 BC: king Asoka of India converts to Buddhism and sends out Buddhist missionaries to nearby states
250 BC: Buddhists carve the first cave temples (at Lomas Rishi)
247 BC: Asoka calls for the third Buddhist Council at Patna to codify the Buddhist canon of scriptures (Tipitaka)
200 BC: Buddhism spreads in central Asia
50 BC: Hinayana Buddhism (the Pali canon) spreads in Ceylon, Burma, Thailand
50 AD: Mahayana Buddhism spreads to Tibet, China, Japan
100 AD: the Pure Land sutra is composed
Buddhism
350: Huiyuan founds Pure Land Buddhism in China
366: Buddhists begin the Mogao caves near Dunhuang in China
372: Buddhism is introduced in Korea from China
380: Buddhist monks carve two giant Buddha statues in the rock at Bamiya, Bactria (Afghanistan)
520: Bodhidharma travels to China and founds Chan (Zen) Buddhism
538: a delegation from Korea introduces Japan's emperor to Buddhism
560: Zhiyi founds Tendai Buddhism in China (centered around the teachings of the Lotus Sutra)
625: Shotoku Taishi adopts Buddhism and Confucianism as state religions of Japan
650: Vajrayana Buddhism (Tantrism)
750: Guru Rinpoche/ Padmasambhava converts Tibet to Buddhism
805: Saicho brings Tendai Buddhism to Japan
806: the monk Kukai (Kobo Daishi) introduces the Shingon (Tantric) school into Japan
Buddhist Art
Cave temples
What the Indians knew
Jainism (470BC)
Parsva (8th century BC)
Vardhamana Mahavira (6th)
What the Indians knew
Jainism (470BC)
Buddha: the soul of the individual does not exist
Mahavira:
The soul of the individual ("jiva") is the only thing that is eternal
The universe is the set of all souls (humans, animals, plants)
A jiva undergoes an endless cycle of rebirths
The actions of a jiva cause the jiva to become impure
In order to purify itself, the jiva must practise non-violence ("ahimsa") and austerity ("tapas")
Each jiva is responsible for its own purification/salvation
What the Indians knew
Jainism (470BC)
No god or universal soul
Perfect knowledge (kevala) is the goal
Syad-vada: any topic allows for 353 different valid viewpoints (there is no certainty, just "perhaps")
Kevala can be achieved through purification
Jiva (vital force that is in all humans, animals, plants and objects) and ajiva (atoms, space, time, motion, rest)
No difference between body and soul
Salvation by non-violence (including animals)
Salvation by self-starvation
Digambara naked monks
What the Indians knew
Jainism (470BC)
Karma is increased by acts of violence and sticks to jiva
Karma is reduced by abstaining from violence, lies, stealing, sex, ownership
Karma is completely removed only by death
What the Indians knew
Jainism (470BC)
Sanctuaries

What the Indians knew
Six darshana (schools) of philosophy
1. Samkhya
Oldest school (400 BC)
Atheism (no god)
Purusha: the self, the mind (infinite number of purushas)
Prakriti (Pra=first, Kri=to do) is the first cause (Matter, Nature, natural order of the universe) and is made of the three gunas (inertia, change and purity)
Prakriti is the active (female) material principle and it is the actor of samsara (cycle of rebirth)
Purusha is the inert (male) spiritual principle and it is a mere spectator of samsara (it is conscious of samsara)
What the Indians knew
Samkhya
The evolution of the world is due to the interaction between purusha and prakriti
The self neither affects nor is affected by nature: it is a mere spectator, it creates consciousness of the samsara which is occurring
Prakriti is, in turn, an amalgam of the three gunas (originally in perfect equilibrium)
Prakriti is both matter and mind. Purusha is the awareness of them. Both an object and its mental representation belong to the realm of prakriti: only the awareness of the mental representation belongs to the realm of purusha.
What the Indians knew
Samkhya
Prakriti evolves, purusha is immutable. Lower animals have bodies and minds, but not awareness.
There is no original creator, but there is a universal destiny/goal: prakriti will eventually dissolve and only purusha will be left
Ishvarakrishna (400 AD)
What the Indians knew
Samkhya
At each cycle of the universe, the sequence of creation is:
Mahat, an inner organ that represents awareness
Ahamkara, an inner organ that represents free will
Manas, an inner organ that represents the collective mind
Five sense-organs
Five organs of action
Five elements of matter
Purusa transforms the activity of the three inner organs into our conscious life
We cannot perceive nature directly, only a representation of nature through manas
What the Indians knew
Six darshana (schools) of philosophy
2. Nyaya
Logic
Four kinds of means of knowledge (pramanas): perception, inference, analogy and testimony
Knowledge is a relationship between self and non-self
Atomism (the world is composed of an infinite number of elementary units)
What the Indians knew
Six darshana (schools) of philosophy
3. Vaisesika
Epistemology
Metaphysics
Atomism (the world is composed of an infinite number of elementary units)
What the Indians knew
Six darshana (schools) of philosophy
4. Purva-mimamsa
Interpretation of the first half of the vedas
Kumarila Bhatta (700)
What the Indians knew
Six darshana (schools) of philosophy
5. Royal Yoga
Patanjali's "Yoga Sutra" (150 BC)
Theism: God Isvara (not the creator but an examplar of liberated being, a reference point for meditation, one of the many purushas)
Raya Yoga = Bhakti (devotion) + Karma (deeds) + Jnana (knowledge) Yogas
Discipline to achieve liberation (e.g., understanding of prakriti/purusha) and ultimate knowledge
What the Indians knew
Six darshana (schools) of philosophy
Royal Yoga - Eight steps of meditation
Self-control (yama)
Devotional rites (niyama)
Postures (asana)
Regulation of the breath (pranayama)
Restraint of the senses (pratyahara)
Focusing the mind on a specific part of the body (dharana)
Meditation (dhyana) on a metaphysical object
Profound contemplation (samadhi) leading to the union and identification with the object of meditation (pure purusha)
Liberation (kaivalya) from the illusions of sense and limitations of reason
What the Indians knew
Six darshana (schools) of philosophy
6. Vedanta
Badarayana (450BC)
Gaudapada: "Mandukyopanisad-karika" (750 AD)
Interpretation of the second half of the vedas
Systematic analysis of the nature of body, mind, and the ultimate
Inert matter originates from pure consciousness
All souls share in the absolute consciousness (Brahman = Atman) and are enveloped in karma
Phenomenal reality emanates from the absolute (Brahman)
Nothing is real but pure consciousness
Mind-body dualism is an illusion
What the Indians knew
Six darshana (schools) of philosophy
Vedanta
Monism (only one substance, Brahman=Atman)
Monotheism (only one God, as opposed to Vedic polytheism)
Theoretical counterpart to yoga
Subschools
Shankara - Non-dualism (advaita)
Ramanuja - Qualified monism (visistadvaita)
Dualism (dvaita)
What the Indians knew
Smriti (200 BC)
The Vedas are "shruti" ("what has been heard from the gods"). "Smriti" ("what is remembered") is a compendium of the Vedas/Upanishad for ordinary people
Sanskrit epics (Mahabharata, Ramayana)
Sanskrit Puranas (Vedic textbooks for women and lower-caste men)
Bhagavata-Purana (18,000 verses dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu and his human incarnations Krishna and Rama)
Several Dharmashastras and Dharmasutras
What the Indians knew
Bhagavad-Gita (200BC-200AD)
200,000 lines
An encyclopedia od Hinduism
Tale of the rivalry between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, which eventually destroy each other
Hundreds of side stories and meditations
What the Indians knew
Bhagavad-Gita/ Song of the Lord (book VI of Mahabarata, 100 BC)
Dialogue between Krishna (God incarnate) and a human hero before the battle
Attempt at reconciling worldly view of the Veda and metaphysical view of the Upanishad.
Three paths to religious realization
path of deeds (karma yoga)
path of knowledge (jnana yoga)
path of devotion to God (bhakti yoga)
Attempt at reconciling Vedantic monism and Vedic polytheism: the gods emanate from the godhead "without attributes")
What the Indians knew
Bhagavad-Gita/ Song of the Lord (book VI of Mahabarata, 100 BC)
Gunas are born from Prakriti
They cause the division of reality and unreality
Gunas create the illusion of the material world
The illusion keeps living beings under the control of Prakriti, i.e. of desire and attachment
The relative strength and combination of gunas determine the nature/behavior of beings
Sattva (purity) is pure knowledge
Rajas (change) is passion caused by desire and attachment and causing greed
Tamas (inertia) is darkness caused by ignorance and delusion and causing inaction
Each one tries to annihilate the others
What the Indians knew
Shanti Parvan (book XII of Mahabarata, 100 BC)
Only philosophical meditation
What the Indians knew
Ramayana (by Valmiki)
King Rama's wife is kidnapped by the demon Ravana
Rama recovers his wife the the help of the monkey Hanuman
In books one and seven Rama is an incarnation of Vishnu
What the Indians knew
Puranas (5th century)
Encyclopedias of folk tales, mostly taken from the Mahabharata
Stories the gods fighting the demons
Mythology of Vishnu (several incarnations and parables, including Rama and Krishna)
Mythology of Shiva (sex and violence, ambiguous qualities, pre-Aryan themes)

What the Indians knew
Bharata Muni: "Natya Shastra" (2nd c. BC)
Oldest extant manual on stagecraft
Scenography, choreography, music
What the Indians knew
Hinayana ("Theravada") Buddhism
The Pali canon (50BC, Ceylon, Burma, Thailand)
Individual nirvana as the goal (each individual has to take care of her own salvation)
Reality consists of an infinite number of momentary realities (dharmas)
Nirvana (liberation) and samsara (death and rebirth) are different (nirvana eliminates the world)
Arhat is the Theravadin who has achieved enlightenment
Buddhism
Deification of Buddha (Mahasanghika Buddhism)
Buddha as the eternal, omnipresent, transcendental being
The human Buddha was but an apparition of the transcendental Buddha
What the Indians knew
Mahayana Buddhism
Ashvaghosha: "The Awakening of Faith" (50AD)
Tibet, China, Japan
Prajna (wisdom) and karuna (love)
Universal nirvana as the goal
Bodhisattvas help individuals achieve salvation
Buddha nature (tathagata-garbha) of all living beings (gods, humans, animals)
All sentient beings can become Buddhas
Multiple Buddhas
Nirvana and samsara are neither different nor identical, nor both identical and different, nor neither identical nor different
What the Indians knew
Mahayana Buddhism scriptures:
"Tipitaka"
Additional non-Tipitaka sutras (Buddhavacana):
Avatamsaka sutra (Garland sutra, first sutra, 50 AD)
Saddharmapundarika Sutra (Lotus Sutra)
Sukhavativyuha Sutra (Western Paradise Sutra)
Vimalakirti Sutra
Lankavatara Sutra (Sri Lanka Sutra)
Praj€aparamita (Perfection of Wisdom)
etc
Buddhism
Trikaya (threefold nature) of the Buddha:
Dharma-kaya, the body of essence
The essence of the Buddha quality, consciousness, void
The universal quality of being, as revealed in the Lotus Sutra
It can only be known by intuition, not by reason
The historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, was an emanation of the body of essence
Infinite number of Buddhas in innumerable worlds to help sentient beings reach enlightenment
Buddhism
Trikaya (threefold nature) of the Buddha:
Sambhoga-kaya, the body of communal bliss/ enjoyment
God-like quality revealed during meditation
The five cosmic Buddhas that sustain the world (Vairocana, Aksobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amida, Amoghasiddhi) are manifestations of the body of communal bliss
Buddhism
Trikaya (threefold nature) of the Buddha:
Nirmana-kaya , the body of transformation
Human manifestation in a mortal body of the transient world of death and rebirth to save sentient beings (lead sentient beings to enlightenment)
The historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, was the first body of transformation
Bodhisattvas can achieve Buddhahood (the body of essence) through ten stages of perfection
Buddhism
Trikaya (threefold nature) of the Buddha:
Nirmana-kaya , the body of transformation
Bodhisattvas is a sentient being that achieves Buddhahood (the body of essence) through ten stages
Bodhisattvas postpone nirvana to help others achieve enlightenment
Deification of bodhisattvas: Amida (God of infinite light), Avalokiteshvara (God of compassion), Maitreya (God of salvation)
The Amida Buddha dwells in a "pure land" where salvation can be achieved
Maitreya is a future Buddha who will come from Heaven to lead all beings to enlightenment)
Buddhism
Theravada
The Buddha as a supremely enlightened human being
Only one Buddha
Very difficult to achieve salvation
Arhat only saves himself
Atheistic
Mahayana
The Buddha as a manifestation of a divine being
Many Buddhas
Easier to achieve salvation
Bodhisattva can save others
Monotheistic
What the Indians knew
Avatamsaka sutra (Garland sutra, first sutra, 50 AD)
A description of enlightenment
All things are inter-related
No distinction between mind and body
No distinction between subject and object
No distinction between space and time
What the Indians knew
Nagarjuna (150 AD, Buddhist)
Founder of the Madhyamika (Middle Path) school of Mahayana Buddhism
Reality cannot be grasped (logical agnosticism)
All theories, including Buddhism, lead to inconsistencies
Dharmas neither exist nor don't exist ("four-fold negation")
We cannot distinguish between samsara and nirvana (they are both conditioned, samsara by karma and nirvana by meditation/practice)
What the Indians knew
Nagarjuna (150 AD, Buddhist)
The essential nature of reality is Sunyata (emptiness) of all things
The phenomenal world is a fiction of our mind, that creates categories/forms to understand reality
The Absolute does not need categories/forms and is therefore "empty"
There is a correspondence between the Absolute and reality as we see it
Dharmas do not exist, nor does the atman, nor do things
Emptiness is meditation that cleans one's mind of fictitious reality (the mind dissolves in emptiness)
What the Indians knew
Nagarjuna (150 AD, Buddhist)
Everything that exists owes its existence to something else
All absolute views must be wrong because everything is relative to something else
Absolute truth is not possible
Wisdom (prajna), which is direct insight, leads to higher and higher truth

Middle way between identity and difference, existence and non-existence, truth and falsity, eternity and non-eternity, ...

What the Indians knew
Vasubandhu (350AD, Buddhist)
Founder of the Vijnanavada or Yogacara school (Consciousness Only) of Mahayana Buddhism
The way we see things is shaped by previous experience, therefore things do not exist, or, better, are inside our consciousness
Only consciousness exists
Consciousness is inter-subjective because each "mind" (vehicle of consciousness) influences the others
Karma is also inter-subjective, and therefore collective
What the Indians knew
Vasubandhu (350AD, Buddhist)
There are eight kinds of consciousness (vijnana): five senses, self (manas), practical consciousness, subconscious (alaya-vijnana).
The subconscious is a store of seeds planted by previous actions and is responsible for karma.
What the Indians knew
Ishvarakrishna (b 350AD)
Samkhya school
The material and and the mental are real
They emanate from the primordial substance (prakriti) that is evolving towards its final cause (purusha)
Prakriti is made of inertia (tamas), activity (rajas) and rationality (sattva)
The universe is but the vehicle for prakriti to reach purusha
Prakriti evolves into thought (mahat) and then the world splits into matter and mind
Matter is ruled by tamas, mind is ruled by sattva, and the two interact via rajas
What the Indians knew
Ishvarakrishna (b 350AD)
Everything evolves except purusha, which is the goal of evolution, and is at each step the fuel of evolution
Humans may liberate their purusha from their body and achieve kaivalya, a state of pure consciousness
What the Indians knew
Continues on Part III

What the Indians knew III


What the Indians knewart II
What the Indians knew
Tantra
Esoteric Hinduism
Dialogues between the god Shiva and his wife Parvati
Reversals of Hindu social practices (e.g., incest)
Reversals of physiological processes
Forbidden substances are eaten and forbidden sexual acts are performed ritually
"Five m's": maithuna ("intercourse"), matsya ("fish"), mansa ("flesh"), mudra ("grain"), mada ("wine")
The chakras of the body as steps in magic
Increasing psychosexual energy (the serpent power of Kundalini) to achieve the union of the god and the goddess
Buddhism
Tantrism/ Vajrayana Buddhism (650 AD)
Mainly Tibet
Esoteric
Mandalas (symbolic maps of the spiritual universe)
Ritual gestures (mudras)
Ritual recitations (mantras, eg "om mane padme hum - the jewel is in the lotus")
Female bodhisattvas
Buddhism
Carvaka school (600 AD)
Materialism and hedonism
Only one surviving author: Jayarasi Bhatta
Sacred literature is false
There is no god, there are no supernatural phenomena
The soul is not immortal
Karma is an illusion
Everything is matter, including mind
The goal of life should be just to... enjoy it
What the Indians knew
Shankara (b 788AD)
Vedanta Advaita (non-dualist) school of monotheism
Unifying view of the Hindu religion
Only one substance exists, Brahman
Atman as pure consciousness and equivalent to Brahman
Brahman and Atman are identical
The Atman cannot grasp its Brahman nature and the fundamental unity of everything, thus it perceives separate selves and objects and periods
"The self cannoy be denied because it would be the very self that does the denying" (cfr Descartes)
What the Indians knew
Shankara (b 788AD)
The phenomenal world of selves, objects and time periods is only an appearance (maya) that leads to the cycle of karma and samsara
Through a process of superimposition (adhyasa), the unity formed by atman and Brahman is refracted as a multitude of conscious beings
Reality is an indifferentiated unity. It can only be defined by saying what it is not.
Reality is immanency: the more permanent something is, the more real it is.
The phenomenal world disappears once Brahman is attained (moksha)
What the Indians knew
Shankara (b 788AD)
The key to achieving release from samsara is knowledge (jnana), the spontaneous mystical realization of the fundamental oneness of reality
The Path of Knowledge is the main path to salvation
What the Indians knew
Abhinavagupta (1000AD)
God is pure consciousness
The selves and the universe emanate from God
Both the ultimate subjective reality of the self and the ultimate objective reality of the universe are God
"Liberation is the revelation of one's identity"
The identity of the self is consciousness
Consciousness makes the universe appear
Therefore "Liberation is knowledge"
What the Indians knew
Abhinavagupta (1000AD)
Experiencing the flavor of a work of art requires not only that the work evoke a response, but also that the experiencer possess the aesthetic sophistication and knowledge required to respond in an appropriate way
The experience of a work of art is a process of exchange between the creator and the spectator
There are nine rasa (emotional experience incited by performance, poetry and art): shringara (the erotic), hasya (the comic), karuna (the compassionate or pathetic), raudra (the angry), bibhatasa (the unappealing), vira (the heroic), abhuta (the awe-inspiring), bhayanhaka (the terrifying), and shanta (the peaceful)
What the Indians knew
Ramanuja (1150)
Vedanta - Qualified monism (visistadvaita)
Brahman is God and contains everything that exists
Brahman and Atman are not the same
The Path of Devotion is the main path to salvation
The soul does not become one with God, but simply similar to God
Madhva (b 1197AD)
Vedanta - Dualism: objects exist as well as souls
What the Tibetans knew
Oracles
Bon (shamanism)
Mandala (a profound representation of the nature of the universe)
Gesar: bridging the nomadic culture and Buddhist ideals
Guru Rinpoche/ Padmasambhava (750AD): conversion to Buddhism, Samye monastery
Monastic life
Lamas (1578AD)
The Indian influence
Summary
Vedas: The belief of the Aryans, Multiple gods, deeds cause karma which causes good/evil, Castes
Upanishads: Atman, Brahman, Maya, Moksha, three gunas
Buddhism: No atman, no Brahman, life is suffering, suffering is caused by ignorance, all beings are equal
Jainism: Perfect knowledge (kevala) is the goal
Six darshana
Samkhy: The evolution of the world is due to the interaction between purusha and prakriti
Vedanta: All souls share in the absolute consciousness
Bhagavad-Gita: karma yoga, jnana yoga, bhakti yoga
Theravada vs Mahayana
Nagarjuna: The essential nature of reality is Sunyata
Summary
Vasubandhu (350AD): Only consciousness exists, Consciousness is inter-subjective
Tantra
Carvaka (600AD): Materialism
Shankara (b 788AD): Unifying view of the Hindu religion
Abhinavagupta (1000AD): God is pure consciousness
Ramanuja (1150): Brahman and Atman are not the same


What the Chinese knew I


Bibliography:
Charles Hucker: "China's Imperial Past" (1975)
Ian McGreal: Great Thinkers of the Eastern World (1995)
Alberto Siliotti: The Dwellings of Eternity (2000)
Ancient Civilizations
Yellow River valley
The Chinese Empire
2500BC: ink, tea and silk are invented
2205BC: the Xia dynasty is founded by Yu: Yellow River valley
900BC: I Ching
700 BC: the Chinese invent gunpowder
500BC: Confucius
500BC: Taoism
350BC: the period of the "warring states" is characterized by coins, iron weapons, public works (canals, walls)
221BC: Qin Shi Huangdi conquers all of China and becomes the first emperor of China (first Great Wall of China, about 5,000 kms)
The Chinese Empire
213BC: Shi Huangdi outlaws all schools of thought except the legalist one, and buries alive 346 scholars
210BC: Shi Huangdi is buried in a colossal tomb near Xian, surrounded by thousands of terracotta soldiers
206BC: the Han dynasty develops bureaucracy
200BC: Mao-tun unites the Huns (Xiongnu, Hsiung-nu) in Central Asia around Lake Bajkal and southeastern Mongolia
121BC: China defeats the Huns
106BC: the Silk Road
100 BC: the Chinese invent paper
2 AD: the Han empire has 57 million people, the most populous country in the world
50AD: Buddhism is introduced in China
520: Bodhidharma brings Chan/Zen Buddhism to China
Qin and Han empires
Chinese dynasties
Xia Dynasty 2070-1766 BC
Shang Dynasty 1766-1122 BC
Zhou 1122 - 403 BC
Warring States
Qin 256-210 BC
Han Dynasty 206 BC - 220 AD
Tang Dynasty 618-907
Sung (960-1279)
Mongol Yuan 1279-1368
Ming Dynasty 1368-1644
Manchu Qing 1644-1911
Republic 1912-1949
Communists 1949-present
What the Chinese Knew
Society as superior to the individual
Government as a natural phenomenon
Moral values
Cyclic patterns
Neither intolerance for other religions nor quest for material wealth
What the Chinese Knew
The "Six Classics" (four books of Confucianism and two books of Taoism)
Holistic approach to mind and body
Interaction among nature, man, and government (as opposed to supernatural mythology)
Fundamental unity of the physical, the emotional and the social
The numbers are the logic of the universe (yin/yang, ten heavenly stems, twelve earthly branches, five elements)
What the Chinese Knew
Holistic approach to meaning: a word/symbol is a sound that evokes emotions (not necessarily logical arguments)
Short cryptic sentences are "gestalt", not a simple statement
Each sentence is all the interpretations it can possibly have
What the Chinese Knew
Lungshan culture
Neolithic peoples of the northern Yangtze River plains
No bronze
No horse
No writing
What the Chinese Knew
Shang (1766 BC - 1122 BC)
From northern China
Chinese-speaking descendants of Lungshan neolithic peoples
Chariot-riding warrior elite
Sophisticated bronze technology
Chinese alphabet
Oracle bones for divination, oldest known form of Chinese writing (Anyang)
Human sacrifice
Succession from elder brother to younger brother and then to the oldest maternal nephew
Capital at Yin, near Anyang (1395BC)
No creation myth: no need to explain the universe, no need to explain where the Chinese race came from
Shang Oracle Bones
What the Chinese Knew
Zhou (1122 BC - 403 BC)
From western China
Chinese-speaking descendants of Lungshan neolithic peoples
Longest-lived dynasty of Chinese history
Idealized model for subsequent dynasties
Decentralized feudal rule (federation of city-states, parceling out of conquered territories among relatives and friends)
Expansion through the Yangtze River
Capital at Luoyang (771BC)
What the Chinese Knew
Zhou (1122 BC - 403 BC)
Mandate of heaven (tien-ming): the cosmos is dominated by Heaven (tien) which bestows the emperor (the son of Heaven) with the power to rule over the empire (tien-hsia)
Father-to-son succession system
Government's function is to provide peace, order and prosperity: Heaven wants humans to live harmoniously (both among themselves and with the rest of the universe)
Government should be humane and compassionate
What the Chinese Knew
Zhou (1122 BC - 403 BC)
Classes: bureucratic scholars, farmers, artisans, merchants (no priests, no intellectuals/artists)
Optimistic age: this life is all that matters, and it can always be improved
What the Chinese Knew
Zhou (1122 BC - 403 BC)
Silk (2,600 BC)
Coal (1,000 BC)
Gunpowder (700 BC)
Iron (513 BC)
Technological and organizational advances in agriculture (the "well-field" system)
The Grand (Jinghang) Canal (486 BC)
What the Chinese Knew
Zhou (1122 BC - 403 BC)
The universe is a single whole/organism, with no beginning and no end, and is divided in three main realms: an all-powerful Heaven (tien), Earth and Human
Polytheism: the world is inhabited by a multitude of spirits (one for each natural phenomenon) and ghosts
Humans have two souls, one that sinks into Earth and one that rises into Heaven
The supernatural is natural
Religion is natural philosophy: no holy wars, crusades, jihad, etc, no fear of damnation, no anxiety of salvation, no prophets, no dogmas
What the Chinese Knew
Zhou (1122 BC - 403 BC)
Yang and ying
I Ching
Confucius (native of the Zhou heartland)
Taoism
Legalism (7th c BC): totalitarian regimentation of society to serve the interest of the state
What the Chinese Knew
I Ching/ Book of Changes (900 BC)
64 symbolic hexagrams, each hexagram consisting of a pair of trigrams chosen from a family of eight basic trigrams, each named for a natural phenomenon
The eight trigrams represent the possible combinations of Yang and Yin, or unbroken and broken lines
Divination and numerology
Commentaries on change
"Yin" (quiescence)
"Yang" (movement)
What the Chinese Knew
Confucius/ Kung Fu-tzu (500 BC)
Lun Y (Analects)
Shih Shu (Four Books)
Philosophy of social organization
Literal objective: ethical basis for family
Abstract objective: social harmony through moral values
All humans are born alike
Human nature is not evil or good, humans become evil or good
The power of example
Ideal: the "chun tzu" (ideal person, humanity at its best)
What the Chinese Knew
Confucius
Cultivation of the self
Ultimate goal of an individual's life: self-realization through socialization

Foundations: yi (righteousness, fairness) and ren/jen (love, kindess, virtue, benevolence)
Yi includes "shu" (reciprocity: don't do to others what you would not want done to yourself)

Greed is source of evil
Limitation of self-interest
What the Chinese Knew
Confucius
Regularity and morality
Public = private
Duty of obedience of the subordinate to the superior (ruler, father, husband) contingent upon benevolence and care of the superior for the subordinate (subject, child, wife)
Benevolent ruler
Government by example of virtue (by moral education)
Transformative power of education
Indifferent to gods
What the Chinese Knew
Lao-tzu/ Laozi (520 BC)
"Tao-te Ching" (The Virtue of the Way)
The "tao" (the "way"): ultimate unity that underlies the world's multiplicity
The "tao" underlies the continuous flow and change of the world
The way things do what they do
Understanding the "tao" means identifying the patterns in the flow and change of the world (harmony with nature)
What the Chinese Knew
Lao-tzu/ Laozi (520 BC)
The fundamental pattern is the cycle
The cycle is due to the interplay of yin and yang
Contraries are aspects of the same thing
What the Chinese Knew
Lao-tzu
Philosophy of nature
Change is inherent in nature (not caused by a god)
"Tao" (empty void of infinite potential) is the supreme being
"Qi" is vital energy in constant flux that arises from the "Tao"
"Yin" and "Yang" are opposites that harmonize to direct the movement of Qi
Everything is made of yin and yang
Matter = energy (matter "is" Qi)
What the Chinese Knew
Lao-tzu
Action through inaction (wuwei, flow with the natural order)
Primacy of "feminine" behavior (yin)
Advocates a return to infancy (yin)
Critique of Confucianism:
Spontaneous behavior vs calculated behavior (eg, rituals, education, learning)
Government is an obnoxious interference with nature
What the Chinese knew
Taoism
Lao Tzu deified (142 AD)
Inclusive religion (local Gods, deified heroes)
Gods are divine emanation of the Tao
Very elaborate ritual to invoke/petition the Gods
Pantheon organized as a celestial court
Goddesses represent the "yin" of the world
Immortality (achieved via elixirs or discipline)
Mt Taishan
What the Chinese Knew
Mozi (Mo Tzu, b 470BC)
Anti-Confucianism
Heaven/God and spirits ensure the world's moral order (instead of Confucius' atheism)
Utilitarianism: moral values are determined by the welfare of the community (towards general utility and away from general harm)
But humans are selfish and cannot understand what is good for them as a whole
Mutual love (ai) produces mutual profit (li)
Universal love (one loves all fathers like his own father) can be achieved only by rulers who respect the Heaven (pseudo-monotheism)
What the Chinese Knew
Mozi (Mo Tzu, b 470BC)
Organized society is to be preferred over the original state of nature for utilitarian reasons
War is the worst ill (built anti-war militia specialized in defensive warfare)
Universal unbiased love (same love criteria for everybody) instead of Confucius' "partial love" (more love for one's own family than others)
What the Chinese Knew
Mozi (Mo Tzu, b 470BC)
Pragmatic view of language - its social function: guiding and coordinating group behavior
A word is defined by a way to shi (is this/right) and to fei (is not this/wrong) in using it. Society should prefer the shi/fei practice of natural `will' toward benefit (and against harm)
What the Chinese Knew
Civil war/ Warring states (403 BC - 256 BC)
Anarchy: Chinese nadir to Zhou's golden age
Iron weapons
Cast iron
Coins
What the Chinese Knew
Mencius/ Meng-zi (b 371BC)
"Mengzi" (second book of Confucianism)
Human nature (xing) was generated by Heaven
Heaven is good, therefore human nature is also good
All humans are equally good by nature
If people live a relaxed, orderly life, their good nature prevails
Humans should seek out their "lost child's mind" (good nature)
If the ruler cannot provide that orderly life, the people are relieved of their duties towards the ruler

What the Chinese Knew
"Zuangzi/ Chuang Tzu" (330BC)
Second classic of taoism
"If one asks about the Tao and another one answers it, neither of them knows it"
Taoism is ultimately relativism
Truth depends on the perspective
Words have meaning only insofar as they are part of a context (contextual semantics)
The "butterfly" model of life: am I piero dreaming of a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming of piero?
Death is part of life
What the Chinese Knew
Great Learning/ Da Xue (3rd c. BC)
Third book of Confucianism
Political program, from educating people to world peace
What the Chinese Knew
Doctrine of the Mean/ Zhong Yong (3rd c BC)
Fourth book of Confucianism
Metaphysical foundation
Unity of man and Heaven (Tian)
Zhong = equilibrium; Yong = harmony;
Xing (human nature) is from Tian
To follow Xing is to follow the Tao
What the Chinese Knew
Gongsun Long/ Kung-sun Lung (b 320BC)
Naming ("a white horse is not a horse")
Kung-sun Yang: "Shang-chun Shu/ Book of Lord Shang" (300 BC)
Oldest legalist treatise
What the Chinese Knew
Xun-zi/ Hsun-tzu (b 300BC)
Human nature is evil
Goodness must be learned (fundamental role of teachers in society)
All humans are equivally uncivilized by nature
Goodness must derive from society's action (wei)
Human nature (xing) is both innate (evil) and acquired (good) because of desires
Human selfishness requires draconian laws ("legalism")
What the Chinese Knew
Civil war/ Warring states (403 BC - 256 BC)
Poetry
Chu Yuan (332 BC): lush and verbose poems (chu-tzu style)
Shih style (folk songs)
Chu Yuan (332 BC)
The God of the River
With you I wander the Nine Rivers.
The whirlwind and the waves arise.
Riding the water chariot with the roof of lotus leaves,
I am drawn by two dragons and a hornless serpent.
Climbing on K'un-lun Mountains I look in the four directions.
My spirit wanders over the face of the deep.
The day is waning. Bemused, I forget my home.
I am dreaming of a distant shore.
In a fish-scale house, in a hall of dragons,
Under a purple-shell gateway, in a palace of pearl,
O spirit, why do you dwell in the waters?
Riding the white tortoise, chasing the spotted fishes,
I wander with you among the small islets.
The swift-flowing freshet comes swirling down-river.
With a gentle bow you turn towards the East.
So I escort the beautiful one to the south anchorage.
Wave after wave comes to welcome me;
Multitudes of fishes bid me farewell.
What the Chinese Knew
Qin (256BC - 210 BC)
Defeudalization: centralization of Chinese government in a non-feudal, non-hereditary, bureaucracy
Tripartite division of power (administration, military, censorship)
Eunuchs
Freehold farmers
Legalism
Meritocracy (emphasis on merit, not on inherited status)
De-facto abolition of social classes
Merchants despised as unproductive
Tyranny
What the Chinese Knew
Qin (256BC - 210 BC)
Standardization of the Chinese script -> fosters a national literature
Art: Cast bronze vessels, non-representational (decorative)
What the Chinese Knew
Han Fei (b 250BC)
Folk psychology centered on selfishness
"Han Fei Tzu" (200 BC) legalist synthesis, set of guidelines for rulers
Law is not divine or natural, it is human-made and pragmatic, based on a system of punishment and reward
Terracotta Figures/ reat Wall
What the Chinese Knew
Han (206 BC - 220 AD)
Tripartite division of power (ministers, army, censors)
Meritocracy
Noble families: landowner (up to several villages, mines, mills) + household, concubines, servants, slaves (up to thousands) + peasants working the land + astrologers, scholars, spies, bodyguards (up to hundreds) + army manning the fortifications (up to tens of thousands)
Rule by law (legalism)
Discrimination against merchants
Population explosion
Capital at Xian
What the Chinese Knew
Han (206 BC - 220 AD)
Classical scholarship (recovery and restoration of classic texts)
Historiography
Ssu-ma Chien: "Shih-chi" (90 BC), a history of the world and compendium of knowledge
Pan Ku: "Han-shu" (92 AD), history of the Han dynasty
What the Chinese Knew
Han (206 BC - 220 AD)
Education spreads and the dominant classes engage in literature (eg, poetry)
Emergence of the class of officials-scholars (recruited nationwide on the basis of their knowledge of the classics)
minimizes regional differences
What the Chinese Knew
Han (206 BC - 220 AD)
Buddhism
Neo-taoism
Absolute reality is nothingness (wu)
Escapism and hedonism (indulging in pleasure, evading social duties)
Government is only an expedient for the clever to dominate the masses
Religion of immortality incorporating traditional spirits (polytheistic church preaching salvation through immortality)
Alchemy
Kung-fu
What the Chinese Knew
Han (206 BC - 220 AD)
Metaphysical speculation
Balance of yin/yang forces
Cycles of five elements (wood, metal, fire, water, earth)
Wood is shaped by metal, metal is melted by fire, fire is extinguished by water, water is controlled by earth, earth is broken by wood
What the Chinese Knew
Han (206 BC - 220 AD)
Paper
Waterwheel (waterpower for grinding grain and casting iron)
Compass
What the Chinese Knew
Dong Zhongshu/ Tung Chung-shu (b 195BC)
Systematic theology based on Confucianism
Heaven ("Tian") creates moral values of people
Heaven creates patterns
People refine innate moral values by following patterns (rites; music, etc) and thus creating order in the world
Five fundamental forces: water, fire, earth, wood and metal
Everything arises from the forces
All phenomena are interconnected
What the Chinese Knew
Dong Zhongshu/ Tung Chung-shu (b 195BC)
The ruler is the personification of Heaven's will
Rulers must follow the patterns set by Heaven
The ruler must teach virtues to his subjects so that his subjects can bring out their innate goodness (i.e., harmony with Heaven)
Heaven's patterns change, rulers change
What the Chinese Knew
School of Yin-yang cosmology
Natural events are rewards/punishments for human behavior
Human behavior affects the future of nature
Destiny (ming) depends on deeds
All things are made of Qi which moves in patterns of "quiescence" (yin, form) and "activity" (yang, vitality)
Excessive yang creates supernatural beings
What the Chinese Knew
Wang Chong (b 27AD)
"Lunheng" (83 AD)
Nature is self-organizing
Tian is wuwei (Heaven is not a willing god, but rather the spontaneous way of Nature)
Natural phenomena have natural causes: no need for divine intervention or supernatural beings
What the Chinese Knew
Wang Chong (b 27AD)
Chance and predestination
Human behavior does not influence natural events
Destiny (ming) is fixed at birth (store of Qi) and can change (accidents of history)
Human behavior does not affect destiny
The human nature (xing) of an individual is a mixture of good and evil (and xing can even change within each individual)
What the Chinese Knew
Han (206 BC - 220 AD)
Poetry
The fu (baroque mixture of verse and prose, an evolution of the chu-tzu style)
Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju (179 BC): "Shang-lin Fu"
The shih style (the style of the folk songs)
What the Chinese Knew
Han (206 BC - 220 AD)
Art
Sculpture, painting, ceramics
Representational and naturalistic
Painting as a true art by auteurs, sculpture/metalwork/ceramics as anonymous artisans' craft
Calligraphy as a branch of painting
What the Chinese Knew
Han (206 BC - 220 AD)
The "Silk Road" is inaugurated by Parthian king Mithridates II and Chinese emperor Wu-Ti (106 BC)
Silk Road
What the Chinese Knew
Post-Han
Poetry
The yueh-fu (free-form shih)
The lu-shih (shih with tonal rules besides formal rules)
Tao Chien/Qian (365): landscape poet
Sculpture: mostly a Buddhist enterprise (cliff grottoes of Yun-kang and Longmen/Luoyang)
Painting: Ku Kai-chih/ Gu Kaizhi (344)
Calligraphy: Wang Hsi-chih (321)
What the Chinese Knew
"Liezi/ Lieh-tzu" (300AD)
Third classic of Taoism
Natural cycle of life and death
Action without self-awareness (action of no action, wuwei)
Live in harmony with nature
Hedonistic self-indulgence
What the Chinese Knew
Guo Xiang/ Kuo Hsiang (300AD)
Commentary on the Taoist classic "Chuang-tzu"
Self-organization of nature: nature is a field of interacting processes
Everything in the universe is interconnected (every event has an influence on every event)
Acting without action (wuwei): natural wisdom as opposed to attained knowledge
Change is the universal force, everything is in constant flux
What the Chinese Knew
Creation myth (3rd c AD)
In the beginning, the heavens and earth were still one and all was chaos.
There was only one living being, Pan Gu, and he was sleeping.
When he woke up, he crack open the egg that was enveloping him, and that created our universe: sky and earth. The universe expanded, so the distance between the sky and the earth increased.
One day Pan Gu died, and his last breath created the wind and his last words created the thunder and his last gaze became the sun and his limbs created the mountains and his blood created the rivers and his muscles created the land and his hair created the stars.

Ku Kai-chih (344):
Ku Kai-chih (344): "Admonitions to the Court Ladies"
British Museum)
Yun-kang caves (near Datong) of 465 BCLuoyang caves (494 BC)
What the Chinese Knew
Chinese Buddhism
Pure Land Buddhism
Chan/zen
Tendai
Hua-yen
What the Chinese Knew
Huiyuan (350 AD)
Sukhavativyuha Sutra (Western Paradise Sutra)
Pure Land Buddhism: devotional Buddhism for obtaining from Buddha Amitabha (Buddha of infinite light) entry in the eternal paradise of the Pure Land
Devotion instead of meditation
Paradise is not a reward for one's good deeds, but a gift from the god for one's faith in her/him
Devotion consists in repeating "Homage to the Buddha Amitabha"

What the Chinese Knew
Chan (zen) buddhism
Bodhidharma (520AD)
Dhyana/meditation school of India, a fusion of Buddhism and Taoism
"The Platform Scripture of the Sixth Patriarch" (677)
Focus on attainment of sudden enlightenment ("satori")

What the Chinese Knew
Chan (zen) buddhism
Every individual possesses perfect wisdom but it requires meditation (oneness) for a mind to view its own potential of wisdom
Northern school (Shen-hsiu): gradual enlightenment through guided meditation
Southern school (Huineng): sudden enlightenment through self-revelation of the underlying wisdom
Later development (13th c, Japan):
Soto Zen: meditation (zazen)
Rinzai zen: Koan, problem with no logical solution assigned to students as a subject for meditation
What the Chinese Knew
Chan (zen) buddhism
Spontaneous thinking as opposed to philosophical investigation (zen is the "everyday mind", daily experience)
Spontaneous behavior as opposed to calculated behavior ("when hungry eat, when tired sleep")
"Before a man has studied Zen, mountains are mountains, and rivers are rivers. While a man is studying Zen, mountains are no longer mountains, and rivers are no longer rivers. When one has mastered Zen, mountains are mountains, and rivers are rivers."
What the Chinese Knew
Zhiyi (b 538AD)
Founder of Tiantai/Tendai Buddhism
Buddhist canon reorganized around the Saddharmapundarika sutra ("Lotus sutra")
The "Lotus sutra" reveals the "greater vehicle" ("mahayana") to save a larger number of people
Nirvana can be achieved in this life
Buddhahood is open to all people rather than to a few
The teaching of Buddhist philosophy is of paramount importance, and is delegated to bodhisattvas ("beings in truth")
Nirvana and samsara are identical (nirvana transforms the world rather than eliminating it)
What the Chinese Knew
Post-Han
The Grand (Jinghang) Canal (610, emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty in Xian)
Runs north to south connecting theYangtze, Huaihe, Haihe and Qiantang (Beijing,Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hangzhou)
The oldest and longest man-made waterway in the world (1,795 Km)
Summary
Fundamental unity of the physical, the emotional and the social
Holistic approach to meaning
I Ching
Confucius: Power of example, Public = private, Duty of obedience
Lao-tzu: Tao, Qi, Yin/Yang, Wuwei
Dong Zhongshu: Tian creats Xing and patterns
School of Yin-yang cosmology: Natural events are rewards/punishments for human behavior
Wang Chong: Nature is self-organizing, Tian is Wuwei
Summary
Guo Xiang (300 AD): Change is the universal force, everything is in constant flux
Chan buddhism: Spontaneous thinking, Spontaneous behavior
Tendai Buddhism: Nirvana can be achieved in this life, Buddhahood is open to all people


What the Phoenicians knew



Bibliography
Glenn Moore: Phoenicians (2000)
Phoenicians and Greeks
What the Phoenicians knew
Canaanites (Semitic people, ancestors of both Phoenicians and Hebrews, 2500 BC - 1000 BC)
El chief god of the Canaanites, and his wife Anat
1800 BC-1400 BC: Phoenicia occupied by Egypt
tin and lapislazuli from Afghanistan to Egypt
copper from Cyprus to Egypt
timber from Phoenicia to Egypt
12th c BC: Collapse of Egyptian and Mesopotamian economies
Reshaping of the old trade routes
Phoenician merchants became the protagonists not the serfs of international trade
What the Phoenicians knew
1200 BC: Phoenicians move from Arabia to the Mediterranean coast
Shipbuilding (1200BC) and navigation (north star)
11th c BC: urban expansion and commercial expansion abroad
Sea trade
Colonization
Silver of Spain prompts the creation of a series of ports from Lebanon to Spain
Trinity of gods: the father El/Baal, creator of the universe; the son Baal/Melqart, responsible for the annual cycle of vegetation; the heavenly mother Astarte/Asherar-yam/Baalat, protector of the homes
What the Phoenicians knew
Language
1500 - 1000 BC: Canaanites develop an alphabet of 24 symbols by removing the vowels from the old Semitic cuneiform alphabet
1000 BC: Byblos condenses original 30 signs to 22
300 BC: Aramaic, a dialect of Byblos, becomes the most common language of Near East from 300 BC to 650 AD
Phoenicians used their letters to mean numbers.
What the Phoenicians knew
What the Phoenicians knew
What the Phoenicians knew
What the Phoenicians knew
What the Phoenicians knew
City-states (Tyre, 950 BC; Carthage , 800BC)
Straits of Gibraltar
Celts
605 BC: Babylonian occupation (Nebuchadnezzar II)
600 BC: Phoenicians circumnavigate Africa
333 BC: Alexander annexes all Phoenician cities
146 BC: Rome destroys Carthage
64 BC: Phoenicia becomes part of the Roman province Syria
What the Phoenicians knew
Carthage (Kart-Hadasht) before the Punic wars
Founded by Tyre 9th BC
Independent after Nebuchadnezzar's invasion of Palestine
Metal trade
Society of merchants,
not warriors
Duty to sacrifice first-born
Army of mercenaries
Numidians
Libyans
Spaniards
Gauls
Italians
Greeks
What the Phoenicians knew
Celts

What the Greeks knew I



Bibliography
David Abulafia: The Mediterranean in History (2003)
Thomas Martin: Ancient Greece (1996)
Katerina Servi: Greek Mythology (1997)
Robin Sowerby: The Greeks (1995)
Peter Levi: The Greek World (1990)
Duby & Perrot: A History of Women in the West vol 1 (1992)
Phoenicians and Greeks
Greece
2800 BC: Minoan civilization in Crete (domed tombs)
2200 BC: Indo-European people (Acheans) invade Greece creating the Greek language and founding Mycenae
1900 BC: palace of Knossos in Crete
1900 BC: earliest writing in Crete
1628 BC: a volcanic eruption in Thera causes destruction in Crete (legend of Atlantis)
1600 BC: royal tombs of Mycenae
1450 BC: the Minoan civilization is destroyed by the Myceneans
1250 BC: walls and palaces of Mycenae
1184 BC: Troy falls to Mycenae
1100 BC: Mycenae is destroyed by Dorian invaders who have iron weapons
Phaistos Disc
Greece
1000 BC: Greeks colonize the eastern coasts of the Aegean Sea
950 BC: Greeks found Miletus in Ionia (Anatolia, Turkey)
900 BC: origin of the Homeric poems
800 BC: city-states or "polis" (Athens, Thebes, Megara, Corinth, Sparta)
800 BC: Greeks adopt the alphabet from the Phoenicians
776 BC: the first Olympic Games
760 BC: Euboea founds the colony of Cumae in Italy
750 BC: first inscriptions in the Hellenic Greek alphabet
725 BC: the poet Hesiod writes the Theogony
640 BC: Sparta adopts a militaristic form of government
632 BC: Athens abolishes the monarchy in favor of an oligarchy

Greece
610 BC: Miletus founds a trading post in Egypt
594 BC: Solon founds the Athenian democracy
585 BC: philosopher Thales in Miletus
582 BC: the Pythian games are established in Delphi and the Isthmian games are established in Corinth
575 BC: poetess Sappho
570 BC: the first coins are minted by Athens
530 BC: Pythagora founds Mathematics
525 BC: tragedy (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides)
461 BC: Pericles promotes the ideals of democracy and peace
461 BC: first Peloponnesian War between Athenians and Spartans
Greece
450 BC: sculptor and architect Pheidias
450 BC: Herodotus writes a non-theological history
450 BC: Hippocrates founds Medicine
438 BC: the Parthenon is inaugurated in Athens
399 BC: Socrates is tried and commits suicide
388 BC: Plato, a pupil of Socrates, founds his philosophical Academy, the first university
367 BC: Aristotle enters the Academia of Plato
332 BC: Alexander conquers Egypt
331 BC: Alexander conquers Persia and destroys Persepolis
324 BC: Alexander invades the Punjab in India