Understanding Mesopotamian Civilization.
video description
One thing that always perturbed me is how cuneiform and hieroglyphic literature didn't survive Hellenism and the Roman period. How is it that the capital of Greek civilization for several centuries was Alexandria, but there was only marginal knowledge of the land where this city was founded? I had originally attributed it to some kind of cultural chauvanism or cultural genocide. However, what you suggest is something a bit more subtle. That the high cultures of Egypt and Mesopotamia had become so disconnected from the post-Axial age mindset of the times that they just had no appeal for people.
Indeed, one of the things I find fascinating about Egyptian hieroglyphics is how people thought of them as sort of this mystical thought-language, disconnected from human language. When they were deciphered, it turns out that no, they displayed the behavior of any written language. However, this idea came from late Egypt. Hieroglyphics had become very obscurantist and pun-ish and implicatory. People were losing touch with the elite, and vice-versa.
Date: 2022-07-15
Related videos
Comments and reviews: 9
Jonathan
Good video as always, but do you think you might be overlooking the influence of the proto-indo-Euopean culture in the transition to large aristocratic city-states with the introduction of the chariot? Definitely seems like they rode out all over the place and suddenly there was a totally different civilization. Would be a good topic for a future video and I recommend checking out Survive the Jive's video on proto-indo-Europeans.
reply
Good video as always, but do you think you might be overlooking the influence of the proto-indo-Euopean culture in the transition to large aristocratic city-states with the introduction of the chariot? Definitely seems like they rode out all over the place and suddenly there was a totally different civilization. Would be a good topic for a future video and I recommend checking out Survive the Jive's video on proto-indo-Europeans.
reply
Ryan
28: 20 Wait are you saying that the Accanadid Persian empire didnt have a well established culture & it took until Alexander & the Greeks to Hellenanise & replace Mesopotamian languages?
It feels like here youre conflating culture of civilisations with language? Didnt the Persians have an extremely rich culture that extremely academic, Zoroastrian yet tolerant?
Alexander was obsessed with Persian culture.
reply
28: 20 Wait are you saying that the Accanadid Persian empire didnt have a well established culture & it took until Alexander & the Greeks to Hellenanise & replace Mesopotamian languages?
It feels like here youre conflating culture of civilisations with language? Didnt the Persians have an extremely rich culture that extremely academic, Zoroastrian yet tolerant?
Alexander was obsessed with Persian culture.
reply
elbowstrike
You keep mentioning how social stratification leads to decline. Do you support measures like those in European democracies that put higher taxes on the wealthy and powerful to pay for services for the less wealthy and less powerful so that people have a fair shot at climbing the social ladder based on their ability and not their inherited and circumstantial privileges?
reply
You keep mentioning how social stratification leads to decline. Do you support measures like those in European democracies that put higher taxes on the wealthy and powerful to pay for services for the less wealthy and less powerful so that people have a fair shot at climbing the social ladder based on their ability and not their inherited and circumstantial privileges?
reply
Brian
Before the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the sons of Aries there was an age undreamed of, and onto this CONAN destined to wear the jeweled crown of Aqualonia upon a troubled brow. It is I his chronicler that alone can tell thee of his saga. Let me tell you of the days of high adventure! (Anvil of crom plays) absolutely from MEMORY of a damn good opening for a movie!
reply
Before the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the sons of Aries there was an age undreamed of, and onto this CONAN destined to wear the jeweled crown of Aqualonia upon a troubled brow. It is I his chronicler that alone can tell thee of his saga. Let me tell you of the days of high adventure! (Anvil of crom plays) absolutely from MEMORY of a damn good opening for a movie!
reply
Bas
9: 55, there is a picture out there of an Egyptian wall carving showing a bird headed person using the exact same 'cone tool' and wearing the exact same bracelet as the man in this wall carving. Another similarity of note is how close the wings look between carvings; right down to the details of how each feather looks too.
reply
9: 55, there is a picture out there of an Egyptian wall carving showing a bird headed person using the exact same 'cone tool' and wearing the exact same bracelet as the man in this wall carving. Another similarity of note is how close the wings look between carvings; right down to the details of how each feather looks too.
reply
Leandro
Hey could you tell us the sources for your videos. I find a lot of the things you say interesting and would like to know more but I can never look up where you got these ideas from because you dont post sources. Like the idea that weapons systems effect what kind of political system a society has is very interesting
reply
Hey could you tell us the sources for your videos. I find a lot of the things you say interesting and would like to know more but I can never look up where you got these ideas from because you dont post sources. Like the idea that weapons systems effect what kind of political system a society has is very interesting
reply
education
This video got me points on my AP World Midterm and Ive never been more thankful for watching a video that was thousands of years out of time zone instead of watching relevant curriculum. I just went blank during the midterm and thought about Mesopotamia, and started writing and it was beautiful.
reply
This video got me points on my AP World Midterm and Ive never been more thankful for watching a video that was thousands of years out of time zone instead of watching relevant curriculum. I just went blank during the midterm and thought about Mesopotamia, and started writing and it was beautiful.
reply
Donald
It took 6000 years from the invention of agriculture until civilization took hold because of the genocides and conquerors. Producers first obstacle is still their biggest obstacle today: the gangs fighting over the right to tax/manage their productivity.
reply
It took 6000 years from the invention of agriculture until civilization took hold because of the genocides and conquerors. Producers first obstacle is still their biggest obstacle today: the gangs fighting over the right to tax/manage their productivity.
reply
Detlef
Like - what? People do not like to pay taxes so they decide to remain hunter-gatherers?
This is a rather disingenous take, imho, way to put the wagon before the horse.
Are you completely sure you are not foisting your ideology on history there?
reply
Like - what? People do not like to pay taxes so they decide to remain hunter-gatherers?
This is a rather disingenous take, imho, way to put the wagon before the horse.
Are you completely sure you are not foisting your ideology on history there?
reply
Add a review, comment
Other channel videos
