INTELLECTUAL

by Will Egan and Kal Golde,
also in-part by elizabeth214

Philosophy

Egypt:

1. Old Kingdom

• Double Crown represents power over all of Egypt. The Pharaoh is the living God, Horus. Shown as a God-king with power over all.
• Believed time was Cyclical (in a continuous cycle). Day-Night, Inundation-Planting-Harvest, Horus-Osirus (for pharaohs) Interruptions could happen- the pharaoh's mummy rots, his soul wanders Egypt. Ma'at would be all of the cycles put together. Everything works like a well-oiled machine. But, if one thing stops working, Ma'at is disrupted and all of the cycles are in jeopardy. This creates a "If it isn't broken, don't fix it" mindset among the Egyptians (also why Akhenaten was so unpopular.) This belief is kept throughout the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms.

1. Middle Kingdom

• New emphasis on ruling with justice and forgiveness. Pharaoh is shown as the shepherd of his people and is caring, no longer a distant God-king
• Valued learning

1. New Kingdom

• Began to have a more expansionist mindset

China:

1. Neolithic

• Yangshao: second burials, would bury body after death, then dig it up a year or so later and place it in a final, more decorated/furnished grave/tomb with grave goods.

1. Shang

• oracle bones: Yangshao proto-writing and Longshan cracked bones; King asked question, positive/negative and multiple times, question written on bone; formula: date, diviner, question (written as a statement, ex. On December 1st Johnathan divined that it would snow); hot rod touched to holes in back of bone = cracks on front, interpreted by diviner as answer; usually turtle shells or oxen scapulas ( these things believed to have a connection to the divine); earliest record of official writing in China; 2 first, both Shang and Xia dynasties were thought to be myth, then oracle bones found with names of Shang Kings that matched the list in the Confucian Histories, proved the existence of the Shang (now we are less willing to give up on Xia)
• sacrifices: human war captives and animals, believed this was necessary to please the ancestors and nature gods; regularly scheduled

1. Western Zhou

• Mandate of Heaven: The emperor now has to rule by virtue in order to hold the mandate of heaven that was bestowed by all of heaven. This also legitimizes rebellions, both successful and unsuccessful. If a ruler had chaos during his reign, it was assumed he lost the Mandate.

1. Eastern Zhou

• Confucianism: Confucius lived during Warring States, wanted to be advisor to one of Kings, got this job but got fired repeatedly b/c of his advice that Kings didn't like (Rule with Virtue, not Punishment). Analects: written by students, compilation of his teachings; looked back on Western Zhou, wanted to change China to this time (b/c of virtuous people/rulers - Duke of Zhou, Shengsheng, King Wu, Wen and the Mandate of Heaven, idea of virtuous rulers). B/c he could not change times back to Western Zhou type, thought he died a failure; Confucius became teacher, taught six arts (calligrahpy, archery, etc.). Virtue = most impt. thing for ruler to have (Mandate), ruler's morality will trickle down to his people. Know your place in society, if people are taught their place they will behave accordingly. Relationships super impt.: interpersonal philosophy, Father-Son, Old Bro-Young Bro, Hubby-Wife, Ruler-Subject (all relationships between unequal people, first one listed in each here is always superior, applied to women too). Taught 5 virtues: REN (humaneness), PROPRIETY (manners), RECIPROCITY (negative of golden rule, relates to negative confession), FILIAL PIETY (honor for ancestors, parents, children), CULTURE (knowing and appreciating your culture). Relationships with self most impt., then with family, then friends, then society least impt.
• Daoism: Started by Laozi, wrote Daodejing (book w/ Daoist ideals, very metaphorical). About relationship between people and NATURE (contrast to people and peple with Confucianism). Yin/Yang: Yin= female, weaker; Yang = male, stronger; supposed to be balanced, but ideally Yin overcomes Yang; in symbol of Yin/Yang, supposed to be moving, they are always becoming each other. The Dao: "the way" , cannot be described with words, does not care about individuals like Heaven does, cannot be found through education but through experience/doing things in nature (butcher story). 4 impt virtues: EFFORTLESSNESS (non-action, going with the flow/path of least resistance - water: weak but because it goes with the flow it can wear down the strongest boulders), SIMPLICITY (self-explanatory), GENTLENESS (no weapons and war, peace and restraint preferred), RELATIVITY (don't think of I, you, etc., think of we; instead of dividing relationships like in Confucianism, see everyone/everything in the interconnected fabric of nature)
• Legalism: Han Feizi (our example of a Legalist, didn't start it though). Thought Confucianism = naive; just b/c you teach people their role in society does not mean they will behave inside their role. Need to rule with harsh punishment. Need to have clear laws with clear punishments, people have free will but will act under the laws to avoid punishments. Reward system or ratting out lawbreakers, to further discourage lawbreaking. Applied to all people, except ruler (which is why rulers liked it-could get much more done w/ obedient people). Free Speech not good, allows questioning of laws, etc. During Warring States, Qin state leaders adopted Legalism, so when Yin Zheng conquered all other Warring States and became Shi Huangdi, now entire China was ruled under Legalism.

1. Qin

• Dynasty who mainly ruled with Legalism (Shi Huangdi). Confucianist scholars tried to tell him to rule with virtue, so he buried 400 of them alive to silence his critics.

1. Han

• First dynasty to rule with Confucianism, but was a slightly evolved version (knowing your place now not so important- Liu Bang was a peasant emperor)
• Farmers and civil servants were high in social class, shows that tradition and working for your nation are important.

Persia:

1. Ruling philosophies:

• Assyrians: rule thru fear ad intimidation, people will be scared to rebel/break the law. Ashurbanipal used fear to discourage people from law breaking/rebelling vs. Shi Huangdi used legalism with its harsh punishments to discourage people from breaking the law.
• Persians: Cyrus adopted a policy of kindness/virtue. With Medes: "Land of the Medes and Persians," gave Astyages an open invitation to his royal court, granted Median generals and govt officials corresponding jobs under him. With Lydians/Babylonians: preserved their capitals and temples, did not pillage. With Jews: freed Jews from Babylon that were taken during the Babylonian Captivity of Nebuchadnezzar II, let them go home or wherever else throughout his empire (continued the diaspora-spreading out of the Jews), gave them (and everyone else) religious freedom. Cyrus was actually interested in Judaism b/c it was the only other ethical monotheism in the empire. Future Persian kings could not hold up to Cyrus' standard of kind ruling.

Literature

Egypt:

1. Old Kingdom

• Narmer Palette- showed Narmer defeating his enemy and uniting Egypt
• Hieroglyphs in tombs and on walls
• When something was written on stone, it was automatically true
• Book of the Dead

1. Middle Kingdom

• New genre- "Instruction"- message written by father or a scribe when the father was dead, and given to the first son. Used to tell the the son what to do and what not to do.
• Used papyrus and stone to write on

1. New Kingdom

• Stories of battle in memorial temples
  • Battle of Kadesh reliefs
• More people become literate

China:

1. Shang

• only written artifacts we have from the Shang are oracle bones (Confucian Histories wrote about them, but from a much later time)

1. Western Zhou

• Written record much more common than in Shang, widespread use- all parts of society, so we know much more about society (not just for divining like with Shang oracle bones). Writings are on wood/ bamboo books in ink.

1. Eastern Zhou

• Sun Wu- The Art of War, still used today by many buisness leaders
• The Analects- written by Confucius' students, contained his teachings
• The Daodejing - written by Laozi, contained the ideals of Daoism

1. Qin

• Shi Huangdi burned all books other than those on agriculture, medicine, and civilization b/c other books were "useless" and could give people dangerous ideas (questioning his laws and authority)

1. Han

• Paper invented, but for military uses instead of writing

Assyria:

Had an impressive collection of clay tablets in their capital Nineveh, the tablets were written in cuneiform.

Persia:

Avesta- sayings and thoughts of Zoroaster

Technology

Egypt:

1. Old Kingdom
   • Pyramid building involving levers and slopes etc.
   • Sand hydraulics used to lower bodies into mastabas
2. Middle Kingdom
   • Pyramids built of stone instead of mud-brick because of less deterioration
3. New Kingdom
   • More citizens literate and more focus on learning
   • Democratization of the Afterlife

China:

1. Shang

• Piece-Mold Method: 1) make model of finished product out of clay. 2) surround model with wet clay. 3) cut off the pieces of the outer mold, remove the original model from the center, and then piece the outer mold back together (now with a gap in the middle the shape of the desired product). 4) Pour molten bronze into mold, it will fill in the space in the center and cool in the shape of the desired product. 5) Remove the outer mold and there will be a finished bronze product in the middle. Does not allow for intricate designs, but you can reuse the outer mold again and again to mass-produce your bronze product.

1. Western Zhou

• Started making bronze bells which required immense care and craftsmanship.

1. Eastern Zhou

• during Spring & Autumn - Lost-Wax Method: 1) create a clay version of the empty space of your final product (i.e. crater where the food will go in a bowl). 2) mold the actual object out of wax around the clay-empty-space. 3) surround the clay/wax model with clay, leaving a hole in the top. 4) pour molten bronze into the hole, the wax will melt out of the hole and the bronze will fill in the space where the wax was before. 5) once bronze cools, remover the outer clay and you will have a bronze product, then remove the clay-empty-space. Good for intricate designs, but mold was not reusable.
• during Warring States, each of 7 states looked for every advantage over each other, even agricultural-wise, led to: large irrigation projects to distribute water to fields evenly, improved iron plow, let fields fallow anually and let animals "fertilize" the fallowing fields allowed for soil to stay nutrient-rich for longer, collar harness = animals can pull heavy loads more easily, rice cultivation started - harder to grow than wheat but way easier to prepare and just as nutritious.

1. Qin

• Standardization of weights, measures, currency, writing, cart width, etc. to improve centralization

1. Han

• wheelbarrow
• paper
• compass
• rudder

Persia:

• Avesta- sayings and thoughts of Zoroaster

Art & Architecture

Egypt

Conventions of Egyptian Art:

• Hieratic Scaling shows importance (larger = more, smaller = less)
• Things shown in Aspective View to show them from their most characteristic angles
  • Head - side
  • Eye - front
  • Shoulders - front
  • Hands - side (both right hands)
  • Hips & Legs - side
• Canon of Proportion: all body sections have a proportion, every body drawn/engraved, etc. using this idea so that every human body looked PROPORTIONATELY the same. Drew grid on surface, then would draw a body over the grid using the proportion (i.e. shoulder to finger = 7 blocks long, legs = 8 blocks tall, etc; - these are only examples). The grids would change size/the blocks in the grid were bigger or smaller (resulting in bigger/smaller bodies) but the proportion always stayed the same. Proportion strayed from rarely to show wealth.
• Square beard on Pharaoh = he was alive at time of art-making, cylindrical beard = mummified beard, Pharaoh was dead.
• Amarna style art: Akhenaten kept the square/cylindrical beard, heiroglyphs, aspective view, croook & flail, and heiratic scaling. But different b/c NO CANON OF PROPORTION, curvey lines (most other Egyptian art, human bodies had very straight lines), sun disk (Aten) appear very often with little hands at the end of the sun rays.

1. Old Kingdom

• Mastabas - Mud brick tombs with shaft extending below ground to underground chamber/above ground portion looked like the benches upper class egyptians had outside their homes. Sarcophagus was lowered down shaft of mastaba to underground burial chamber using sand hydraulics. In the third dynasty Djoser stacked six mastabas on top of each other, with the ones on top smaller than the ones below.
• Step pyramids - Introduced by Djoser's step pyramid, the idea was engineered by the famous architect, Inhotep. Also used by Sneferu.
• Sneferu made first "true pyramid"
  • Red pyramid
  • Bent Pyramid and Pyramid at Medium
• Khufu built the Great Pyramid, largest pyramid built
• Khafre built The Sphinx
• In the 5th and 6th dynasties, the pharaohs began building large sun temples for Ra

1. Middle Kingdom

• Original Karnak Temple artwork and architecture
• Pyramids built of brick instead of stone

1. New Kingdom

• Most tombs are underground to prevent tomb theft
  • Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens
• Artwork peaks during the reign of Seti I- absolutely exquisite tomb
• Much artwork done in the relief style
• Cult Temples - Luxor, Karnak
• Memorial Temples - Abu Simbel, Deir el-Bahri
• Akhenaten's Amarna Style:
  • No canon of proportion
  • Much more intimate artwork
  • Curvy lines and shapes

China

1. Neolithic

• Yangshao pottery made from coiled-clay method, red pottery, some had proto-writing. Longshan pottery made form pottery wheel, black.
• Yangshao, no defensive walls (also few weapons, so probably not warlike). Longshan had huge defensive walls at most 40 ft thick (we also have plenty of spear and arrowheads from them, so probably were constantly defending themselves).

1. Shang

• Fu Hao's tomb: 7000+ cowry shells, lots of bronze goods, jade jewelry, Fu Hao's and other servants' bodies (to serve her in the afterlife).

1. Western Zhou

• Artisans very valued, worked in workshops in walled cities. Owned by the lords, traded between the lords, but not like slave trade.

1. Qin

• B/c Shi Huangdi ruled w/ Legalism, he had obedient people and was able to get a lot done: 1000s of miles of roads across the empire, canals to connect rivers, connected many partial-walls to create Great Wall of China
• Shi Huangdi's tomb: contained 100,000s of terracotta soldiers (life-size, all unique, had real weapons). 36 years to build, started when he was still ruler of Qin state (before empire). Resettles 30,000 people and used 700,000 convict workers to build it. Had separate pits for different types of soldiers in the army. Ceramic-tile floor, wooden logs held up the earthen roof. Also found actual horse skeletons, exotic animals buried alive (perhaps for a zoo), pit w/ 100+ workers that died on the job. Record of but not found: Shi Huangdi's childless wives, craftsmen. Huge unexcavated mound of earth in middle, believed to old Shi Huangdi's body, mound supposedly contains: mini-model of all of China at the time, sky w/ constellations made of precious gems, river of mercury. Believed to have died drinking an "eternal life potion" that contained mercury. we have only excavated a tiny part of the tomb, but test pits have revealed that there is much more under the earth. He was paranoid of assassination (head-in-box story, this was while he was only leader of Qin Warring State!)

1. Han

Early Middle-Eastern civilizatons

New babylon

• Utilized glazed bricks/added appearance of illustration popping out of surface, used on floors,walls and other vertical surfaces.
• Achievements included hanging gardens,
• Historians still speculate about how it was built and it's actual appearance
• A theory is that it was made of mud-brick and covered with plants
• Built by Nebudchanezzar II for his wife, the median princess Amytis
• Also built gate of Ishtar at the entrance of babylon
• The gate was designed out of glazed bricks with numerous animals designed on it.

Persia

• Beaded hair and beards were common
• Palace of Persepolis
• Paradaisias
  • gardens built by Cyrus
• Cyrus's tomb: modest
• Most tombs cut into the sides of rock
• Royal Road connected Susa and Sardis
• Canal connected Mediterranean and Red Sea through the Nile
• Double pontoon bridges were used to convey troops over Hellespont/Bosporus

Greece

Bronze Age

Minoans

• basic form of writing found on linear A
• have columns that become thicker as they go up and have pillow shaped capitols
• religion and art mainly focuses on bulls, snakes, and aquatic animals.
• myth of the minotaur
  • king mitus's wife has a child with a bull to create the minotaur
  • banishes into labyrinth
  • forces subjects to sacrifice humans to the minotaur
• palace complexes were government centers
  • had no protective walls

Mycenaeans

• basic form of writing found on linear B
  • was found on crete, proving they were there for a period of time.
• Homer's epics based on this time period
  • Iliad and Odyssey
• simliar palaces to Minoans except smaller and had walls.

Dark Age

Technology

• loss of writing
• loss of bronze work

Culture

• Poetry
  • traveling performers(bards) paid to recite poems
  • Homer's epic poems were composed
  • used meter and valued elite warrior
• basic forms of pottery at first, evolved into geometric style pottery

Iron Age

Archaic Period

Technology

• regained writing
  • greek alphabet emerged due to Phoenician influence
• regained bronzwork
• gained iron working

Culture

• Homer's epics written down
• black figure pottery
  • black figure painted on red pot
• Sculpture
  • was static and stylized
  • Kouros was male statue
    • often naked
  • Kore was female statue
    • always clothed
• lyric poetry

Classical Period

Theater

• began with sacrifice to dionysius
• each play consisted of a trilogy of tragedies and a short comic satyr play.
• chorus granted by a wealthy volunteer(A.K.A. choregos)
• judged by 10 random citizens, only five of the votes counted
  • winner granted ivy wreath
• 1-3 male actors
  • males played female roles
• masks, props and costumes were used
  • Ekkyklema was a platform that could move on and off the stage usually used to show an off stage death
  • Machima was a crane used to lift actors to appear as a god
• Chorus consisted of 15 citizens

Tragedy

• common themes included human struggle to overcome lifes hardships, everyone bears responsibility for the consequences of their actions.
• A higher power plays a role in life
• wanted to provide audience with a release of emotional tension(catharsis)
• Tragedians
  • Aeschylus- added second actor, had moral religious focuse and grand sweeping style. wrote Agamemnon
  • Sophocles-added third actor, focused on character motivation, chorus was less important. wrote Oedipus the king
  • Euripides- questioned traditional values, characters were more real and less noble, gods resolved plot at the end. Wrote Medes

Sculpture and Pottery

• Red figure vases
  • painted whole pot black then scratched out figure
• common pots
  • Amphora
  • Krater
  • Kylix
• Sculpture shift to idealism
  • concerned with beauty not realism

Architecture

• capitols of columns
  • Doric- plain
  • Ionian- rams horns
  • Corinthian- leaves
• Frieze was a long decorated area over the columns
  • was sculpted
  • didn't have to be symmetrical
  • Corinthian- blank
  • Doric- Triglyph and metope
  • Ionic- Decorated and long
• Pediment- triangular space between roof and frieze
• Golden Triangle ratio was used

Philosophy

• Socrates
  • disliked sophists because they didn't seek out truth and justice
  • truth can be uncovered through socratic method
    • a dialogue of questions and answers in which a student puts forward their beliefs and the teacher questions the logic of their assumptions without offering a solution(what is a chair?)
  • Distrusted Democracy
• Plato
  • Theory of ideas
    • realm of ideas existed where all perfect versions of ideas exists
    • our experience is a shadow of the perfect ideas formed of imperfect matter
    • souls are preexistent and eternal
    • idea of the good gives purpose to the universe and provides an ethical principle by which to live our lives
  • view of knowlege
    • learning is remembering what we knew in the realm of ideas
    • remembering is aided by socratic method
    • we recognize material things by comparing them to the perfect idea of the thing which doesn't physically exist
  • The academy
    • taught many students including some women
    • writings were mostly written in dialogue form
    • Aristotle was taught there
  • Platos Republic
    • his ideal government
    • philosopher kings on top, intellectual aristocracy after that, warriors after that, farmers and artisans at the bottom
    • social classes based on intellect
    • professions assigned based on ability
    • communal marriage and child raising
• Aristotle
  • was both a scientist and a philosopher
  • disagreed with plato's ideas
    • all ideas are equally important and can't exist separately
    • no realm of ideas
    • no soul without the body
  • View of knowledge
    • disagrees with plato again, thinks that the mind classifies things based on common attributes
    • by observing changes in the world, it is possible to identify constants
    • learned through observation and categorization
      • very similar to scientific method but without experimentation
  • His legacy
    • believed that nothinh should be in excess
    • created geometric model of the solar system
    • believed world was created by the prime mover
      • a being that can create anything
    • studied the constitutions of governments and their failings
    • wrote many books on different subjects like biology, medicine, astronomy, etc.

Hellenistic Period

Art

• switch back to realism
• shows emotion
• Individualism
• use of clothing

Science

• Alexandria becomes center of science and math
  • lighthouse of alexandria
  • great library
• Aristarchus
  • believed earth revolved around its own axis
  • ideas rejected by most scholars
• Eratoshenes
  • measured the circumference of the earth
    • based merely on distance and the angle of the sun

Rome