Phoenician terracotta jug with inscribed letters, 7th cen. B.C. (The Met)
Between them, Sumer and Egypt, two early civilization centers at opposite ends of the Fertile Crescent, invented writing, accounting, and astronomy, and diffused and disseminated a variety of cultural arts to peoples of the Near East. Archaeological research and findings now allow us to trace the evolution of spiritual values, codes of law, and early science among these two early cultures, which provided the foundation for the development and evolution of several that followed. Join archaeologist Robert Stieglitz for a fascinating exploration of achievements that still resonate with us today.
9:30–10:45 a.m. Sumerians and Babylonians
The Sumerians created cuneiform—the first writing system, which became an international script—and produced the first literature, epics, law codes, capitalism, and the ideology of kingship. Their successors, the Babylonians, perfected the lunar calendar and a base-60 arithmetic to measure time and space, which we inherited through ancient astronomers.
11 a.m.–12:15 p.m. Eternal Egypt
At the southern end of the Fertile Crescent, Egyptians created the first enduring nation-state, arts and architecture, unique spiritual values, and concepts of the afterlife that greatly influenced the Hebrews and Greeks. They also devised hieroglyphic and cursive writing systems, the familiar decimal arithmetic, and a precise solar year whose revised Roman version is used as our calendar.
12:15–1:30 p.m. Lunch (participants provide their own)
1:30–2:45 p.m. Crossroads at Canaan
Phoenicians, Hebrews, and the Philistines from the Aegean, all inhabiting the Promised Land of Canaan, were influenced primarily by Egyptian culture and iconography. An alphabetic writing system invented in Canaan was adopted for Semitic languages such as Phoenician, Hebrew, and Aramaic. The Hebrew innovations found in ethical Mosaic monotheism remained obscure until the translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek in the third century B.C.
3–4:15 p.m. The Hellenic Transformation
Cultural changes that swept the ancient world after Alexander the Great were rooted in the adoption of Hellenistic civilization. The Greek rulers diffused their politics, language, literature, and their alphabet—a revised Phoenician system—and their philosophical teachings paved the way for the Roman world.
Stieglitz, professor emeritus at Rutgers University, specializes in ancient maritime interconnections and epigraphy. He has excavated at various harbors in Greece and Israel, and has led numerous Mediterranean archaeological tours.
Smithsonian Connections
Learn more about Robert Stieglitz.
