Religions Reform of Akhenaten

The hereditary tradition of Egyptian kingship could often bring the unexpected. A warrior pharaoh, intent upon expanding the nation's bor­ders, might well be followed by a ruler for whom military affairs were greeted with indifference.

In 1364 ВС a new pharaoh ascended the throne, Amenhotep IV. As was the custom, he chose his sister Nefertiti to be his wife. The royal cou­ple, despite following a long list of warrior pharaohs, turned their atten­tion to a religious revolution. They announced to a startled court and pop­ulace that there was but one god in the universe who shared his divinity with the pharaoh. This was Aton, symbolized by the sun disk. The pha­raoh and his family, in very lifelike poses, were sculpted receiving the sun's rays, invigorating them to rule the nation.

Amenhotep, to show his determination, changed his own name to Akhenaten, the spirit of Aton, and Thebes was to be known as the City of the 'Brightness of Aton. The pharaoh ordered the construction of three new cities, all of them, of course, dedicated to Aton, and he moved to one of them. This is the modern El-Amarna. Fortunately, when archaeologists dug the site, they discovered Akhenaten's archive, a treasure of informa­tion on the pharaoh's rule. While he busied himself with these religious activities, the Hittites pounced upon the Egyptian towns of Syria and Pal­estine. By the time of his death, not only was the empire considerably re­duced in size, but all the multiple priests whom he had discharged along with their believers could hardly wait for his demise. Egyptians hastened to try and forget all about his Aton worship. They had an easy time, since Akhenaten's successor was only a boy of 11.

The boy was Tutankhamen. His 10-year rule was, in fact, rather uneventful. Only in the twentieth century did he reach fame, for his tomb was found nearly intact. The grave goods discovered in his tomb were one of the great archaeological finds of modern times.

INDUS VALLEY

 

Early settlements in the Indus Valley develop into urban civilization. During this period, walled settlements were common. Cities were con-" structed on a grid plan and drainage systems were introduced.

Some people living in the Indus Valley cities farmed the land, raised animals and were merchants and traders. Other people trained in crafts such as bead making, seal and pottery manufacture and metal working.

Trade networks were quite active bringing raw materials and manufac­tured goods to Indus cities. Goods manufactured in the Indus Valley cities were also transported over great distances to places like Mesopotamia and the Gulf.

The distinctive signs of the Indus script appear on seals, pottery, cop­per tablets and stone. Examples of the Indus script have been found at all the Indus Valley sites found so far. Indus Valley seals and other examples of the Indus script have also been found in Mesopotamia and Afghanistan. Although it is difficult to date the Indus Valley inscriptions, archaeologists believe that the Indus script was no longer used after about 1700 ВС.

CHINA JADE

 

Whereas graves of the Hongshan culture (about 3800-2700 ВС) might have held as many as twenty jade artefacts, those of the Liangzhu culture (about 3000-2000 ВС) sometimes had as many as three hundred. These included bead necklaces and other decorative pieces such as ornaments for an axe. Many are carved with motifs derived from monster and hu­man-like faces. The carving is often of the highest quality, with fine mod­ulated relief, openwork and very complicated incised designs. The massive jade "cong" and discs must have belonged to a society of considerable complexity.

During the Shang (about 1500-1050 ВС) and early Western Zhou(1050-771 ВС) dynasties, small jade carvings in the shape of animals were made in large numbers and in a wide variety of forms. Their earliest appearance seems to be in the Anyang period, at the time of Fu Hao (around 1200 ВС), the consort of a Shang-dynasty king. She was a formidable woman, who led armies into battle and conducted peace treaties. Her tomb, found in 1976 at Anyang (the major centre of the Shang dynasty from about 1300 ВС, in Henan prov­ince, northern China), is the only royal tomb there to be discovered unrobbed.

It contained over 750 jade artefacts, several of which were Neolithic. They may have been collected by Fu Hao on her travels and conquests.

Small carvings of human figures were made intermittently during the Neolithic period in China, but apart from a few figures from the tomb of Fu Hao, the consort of a Shang-dynasty king, and other royal tombs, there are almost no human images from central China in the Shang period (about 1500-1050 ВС).

Figures from the Western Zhou (1050-771 ВС) are equally rare, and. they may also have been a product of renewed contact with the south of China which resulted in the use of human-like figures, in combination with birds, as surface decoration.

Figures usually have large round and rather flat faces, with eyes, eye­brows, a rounded nose and a small mouth. The man's hands are folded in front of him, and he wears a robe hanging in folds from the waist, with a long 'knee-cover' below the hands. The manner in which the garment hangs below the man's hands has prompted scholars to include this figure within a small group that has been dated to the Western Zhou, following the find­ing of such a figure in a Western Zhou tomb in the eastern suburbs of Lu-oyang.

Axes were decorated with a number of fittings: sections for the top and bottom of the handle, small beads in the shape of "cong", and small in­lays. They took the shape of an extended narrow rectangle, curved in three dimensions, which encloses the slot which would have fitted over the wood­en handle of the axe. Axe shaft ornaments have been found of varying de­grees of workmanship.

Deer are relatively rare among jade animal pendants. However, a num­ber of examples exist, among the most interesting of which is a crouching deer from a tomb dating to the Shang dynasty (about 1500-1050 ВС). Its head is turned to look over its back and its front leg is bent under its body. This form seems to be an early one that was later ignored as creatures were usually shown standing. Such sophisticated poses were probably developed on the borders of China. Contact between the capitals of metropolitan China and the peoples on the western and north-western borders encour­aged trade and exchange between two quite different cultures.

CHINA DURING Q1N DYNASTY

 

The Qin dynasty was one of the China's shortest, extending only 15 years, from 221 to 206 ВС. Yet its influence lasted for centuries. Its founder created the first true dynasty in Chinese history bent upon imperial ex­pansion.

This first of the Qin rulers was Shi Huangdi, whose name means First emperor, born about 246 ВС in one of the poorer and smaller provinces of Zhou China. However, in this region the rulers paid great attention to the army. Equipped with crossbows, Shi Huangdi's forces toppled the last of the Zhou emperors and then established his own centralized state over provinces that had long shown independence from Luoyang. For the first time northern and southern China had a single ruler.

Shi Huangdi brought the nobles to his capital, once more at Qangan, where he could watch them and nip in the bud any tendencies toward rebel­lion. In a law code he issued, he took away the privileges they once enjoyed.

The emperor envisioned an empire far beyond the borders he inherit­ed from the Eastern Zhou. His armies campaigned in Southeast Asia, where the Vietnamese people first experienced the might of Chinese arms. Next to fall to Shi Huangdi was Korea, a nation that inhabits the peninsula that juts into the Sea of Japan from the Asian mainland. The spread of Chinese arms also meant the diffusion of Chinese culture, which the Vietnamese and Koreans now experienced in close fashion.

Moderation was not found in Shi Huangdi character, hence his con­tempt for Confucian values. His advisors, the Legalists, assured him that might makes right and supported all the imperialist ambitions of the First Emperor. The emperor's rage at Confucianism translated into a purge of scholars at his court (several hundred were buried alive) and the destruc­tion of any books that carried Confucian doctrine. The only exceptions were books dealing with farming and medicine, which the First Emperor deemed harmless. Many Confucianists hid their scrolls, convinced that' their cause would prevail.

The most lasting monument to Shi Huangdi's activities is still to be seen. While other rulers built sections of walls to keep out the Mongol and Turkic nomads who raided China, Shi Huangdi sought to connect these partial barriers into a single Great Wall. To accomplish this huge construc­tion effort, his government conscripted tens of thousands of workers from all over China. Built and rebuilt many times after Shi Huangdi's time, the Great Wall now traverses 1,400 miles across the north of the country.

To provide for his tomb, he chose a mountain near Qangan to be hol­lowed out so as to contain his body. According to one estimate, half a mil­lion people labored for 30 years to complete this project, which compares favorably to the pyramids of Egypt. To guard his final resting place, arti­sans cast 7,500 life-size soldiers made of baked clay, each with his own individual characteristics, to be buried with their master. Lost for centu­ries, the emperor's tomb was only discovered in AD 1974.

The list of Shi Huangdi's accomplishments is impressive. He standard­ized a system of weights and measures, reformed the Chinese script so that the writing of characters should be more uniform, and centralized both the bureaucracy and the tax system in Qangan. His minister Li Ping is still held in honor in modern China, for he found a way to control the worst of the annual spring flood of the Yellow River.

The Chinese remembered the burdens Shi Huangdi placed on them during his rule. His less than able successors could not enforce the rigid rule of First Emperor. Only four years after Shi Huangdi was buried in his magnificent tomb, rebels overthrew the third of the Qin emperors, his sec­ond son. A new dynasty came to the fore, and ancient China entered its most prosperous era.

 

 

THE OLYMPIC GAMES

 

Origins and Preparations

The Olympic Games were held in honour of the god Zeus because he was thought to give athletes their skills. Olympia, the permanent home of the Games, developed on the site of Zeus's sacred grove, known as the Altis. Zeus had already been worshipped here for several centuries, and the sanctuary flourished with the establishment of the Olympics. The most remarkable statue of the god, which stood inside his temple, was thirteen metres high and made of gold and ivory.

The Games probably developed from the funeral games held in ho­nour of local heroes. Informal competitions definitely took place long be­fore the official establishment of the Olympics in 776 ВС. In order that athletes and spectators could attend the Games in safety, the Sacred Truce was set up, suspending warfare for a period before, during and after the festival. Preparations for each Olympic festival were extensive, and sacri­fices took place throughout its five-day duration.

 

Preparations and Sacrifices

The Olympic festival lasted for five days, during which time many sacri­fices were made. One hundred oxen were offered to Zeus on the middle day, although many minor sacrifices to a variety of gods were also made through­out the Games. One of the vases shows a youth, possibly an athlete in cere­monial dress, pouring a libation over flames rising from an altar. Behind the altar is a herm, a pillar shaped at the top like the god Hermes, who together with Herakles (Hercules) presided over the gymnasium.

Although the sacrifices were not made until the festival started, other preparations took virtually the whole of the preceding year. The sports fa­cilities at Olympia had to be cleared of undergrowth, the courses dug and buildings and monuments repaired. The athletes would be in strict train­ing prior to the Games. They moved to Elis, 58 km from Olympia, up to ten months beforehand, to undergo strict training under the supervision of the judges. Two days before the festival, the whole company set out on the long journey to Olympia - an exhausting prospect for those competing the next day.

Athletics Events

The athletics events at the ancient Olympics were discus, long-jump, javelin and running. Of these, only running was a stand-alone event; the others took place as part of the pentathlon, which was a test for the all-round athlete. Competitors had to participate in all these events as well as wrestling during the course of one afternoon. It is not clear how the win­ner of the pentathlon was decided, but it seems likely that, if an athlete won the first three events — discus, long-jump and javelin — he would be declared the overall winner, and the running and wrestling competitions would be cancelled.

The programme of events for the five-day Olympic festival typically ran something like this:

Day one

Morning: Swearing-in ceremony; boys' running, wrestling and boxing;

prayers and sacrifices

Afternoon: Orations and recitals

Day two

Morning. Procession of competitors; chariot- and horse-races

Afternoon: Pentathlon: discus, long-jump, javelin, running, wrestling

Evening: Funeral rites in honour of the hero Pelops; parade of victors; singing and revelry

Day three

Morning. Procession of judges; sacrifice of one hundred oxen

Afternoon: Foot-races

Evening: Public banquet in the Prytaneion

Day four

Morning. Wrestling

Midday: Boxing and the /pankration/

Afternoon: Race-in-armour

Day five

Procession of victors; feasting and celebrations.

GLADIATORS

 

For more than five hundred years spectacular events took place in amphitheatres, circuses and theatres across the Roman Empire. The most important leisure activities of their day, they captured the popular imagi­nation, and remain fascinating to this day. In the year of Ridley Scott's epic film Gladiator, The British Museum held the sensational exhibition "Gladiators and Caesars" in 2001, which looked at all aspects of the an­cient Roman entertainment industry. Using objects lent from European museums and major pieces from the British Museum's own collections, there were sections on gladiatorial combat, chariot-racing, athletics, box­ing, and the theatre.

Two armed men faced each other in an arena. There was no time limit; they fought until victory was decided. There was usually a clear winner; either one of the gladiators was so severely wounded that he died or was unable to continue, or he was forced to capitulate through exhaustion or loss of blood. His ultimate fate, however, still hung in the balance.

This was decided by the editor, the organizer or sponsor of the games, but he usually went along with the feeling of the crowd. If the loser had fought courageously and fairly, they might feel sympathy, and wave the hems of their togas or cloaks, crying 'missum!' or 'mitte!' ('let him go'). However, if his performance displeased them, they would demand his death, turning their thumbs up (pollice verso) and crying 'iugula!' ('kill him').

The first public appearance of gladiators in the city of Rome was in the third century ВС. Gladiatorial combat originated in warrior fights staged as part of funeral ceremonies for important citizens. The shedding of blood beside a dead man's grave is an ancient practice common to many Mediter­ranean cultures. During the second and first centuries ВС these spectacles became more and more common and elaborate. Gladiatorial schools re­cruited from among prisoners of war, slaves, condemned criminals and vol­unteers.