Ancient times, a history of the early world by James Henry Breasted - PDF ebook

Ancient times, a history of the early world - Illustrated.

 

an introduction to the study of ancient history and the career of early man.

The book illustrates Ancient History the same as an encyclopedia with many illustrations, maps, fossils, and wonderful drawings.

Excerpt from the introduction:

In the selection of subject matter as well as in style and diction, it has been the purpose of the author to make this book sufficiently simple to be put into the hands of first-year high-school pupils. A great deal of labor has been devoted to the mere task of clear and simple statements and arrangements. While simple enough for first-year high-school work, it nevertheless is planned to interest and stimulate all students of high-school age.

 In dealing with each civilization a sufficient framework of political organization and of historical events has been laid down; but the bulk of the space has been devoted, to the life of man in all its manifestations — society, industry, commerce, religion, art, literature. These things are so presented as to make it clear how one age grows out of another, and how each civilization profits by that which has preceded it. 

The story of each great race or nation is thus clearly disengaged and presented in the period after period; but, nevertheless, the book purposes to present the career of man as a whole, in a connected story of expanding life and civilization from the days of the rudest stone hatchet to the Christian cathedrals of Europe, without a serious gap.

 Asymmetrical presentation of the career of man requires adequate space for the origins of civilization and the history of the Orient, as these two subjects have been revealed by the excavations and discoveries of the last two generations, especially the last twenty-five years. The reasons for devoting more than the customary space to these subjects in this book may therefore be briefly noted. 

 The length of the career of man discernible by us has been enormously increased at the present day by archaeological Furthermore, the value of the early oriental monuments as teaching material has as yet hardly been discerned. The highly graphic pictorial monuments and records of the East, when accompanied by proper explanations, may be made to convey to the young student the meaning and character of a contemporary historical source more vividly than anybody of ancient records surviving elsewhere. 

When adequately explained, such records also serve to dispel that sense of complete unreality that besets the young person in studying the career of ancient man. These materials have not been employed in our schools, because they have not been available to the teacher in the current textbooks. Finally, when we recall that the leading religion of the world — the one which still dominates Western civilization today — came to us out of the Orient; when we further remember that before it fell the Roman Empire was completely orientalized, it would appear to be only fair to our schools to give them books furnish- ing an adequate treatment of pre-Greek civilization. This does not mean to question for a moment the undeniable supremacy of Greek culture or to give it any less space than before. The author believes that no one who reads the chapters on Greece in this survey will gain the impression that Hellas has been sacrificed to Moloch — in other words, to her oriental predecessors. The author is convinced that the surviving monuments of the entire ancient world can be so visualized as to render ancient history a very real story even to young students and that these monuments may be made to tell their own story with great vividness. 

This method he has already introduced into the ancient-history chapters of Outlines of European History^ Part / where it has demonstrated its availability. The same method has been employed in illustrating this ancient history. The result has been a book somewhat larger than the current textbooks on ancient history, but the excess is due to the series of illustrations. The book actually contains a text of about five hundred pages, with a " picture book " of about two hundred Preface vii and fifteen pages. Teachers will do well to make the illustrations and accompanying descriptive matter part of each lesson. 

The references in the text to the illustrations, and the references to the text in the descriptive matter under the illustrations, if noted and used, will be found to -merge text and illustrations into a unified whole. It should be noted that all references to the text are by paragraph (§) except a few references by " Section." An elaborate system of maps has been arranged by the author for the purpose of bringing the successive epochs of history before the pupil in terms of geography. 

The underlying principle is the arrangement on the same plate of from two to four maps representing successive historical epochs- It is believed that these composite maps, called by the author sequence maps, will prove a powerful aid to the teacher.

 The author has not found it an easy task to turn from twenty-five years of research in a laboratory of ancient history, extending from g. university post in America to the frontiers of the oriental lands, and endeavor to summarize for youthful readers the facts" now discernible in the career of ancient man. Under these circumstances, the experience of my friend Professor James Harvey Robinson, who has done so much for the study of history in the schools of America, has been invaluable. The book owes a great deal to the inspiration of his unflagging interest and the helpfulness of his long experience in the art of simplification. It may be mentioned here that Professor Robinson's Medieval and Modern Times forms the continuation of this volume on ancient history. 

To my colleague Professor C. F. Huth also I am indebted for careful reading of the proofs, accompanied by unfailingly valuable counsel. To him, furthermore, I owe the excellent bibliography of Greece and Rome at the end of the volume. Mr. Robert I. Adriance, head of the history department of the East Orange high schools, has kindly read all the proofs. His discerning criticisms and wide knowledge have proved very valuable to the book, and his unfailing interest has been a great encouragement. viii Ancient Times It will be noticed that some of the author's treatment of the ancient world in Outlines of European History, Fart J, has been retained here. These portions had already been looked over by Mr. A. F. Barnard of the University High School of Chicago, and he has also very kindly read the proofs of the remainder of the volume. 

screenshot from the book

Some contents of the book:

PART I. THE EARLIEST European

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Early Mankind in Europe

1. Earliest Man's Ignorance and Progress i

3. The Early Stone Age . ..... 5

3. The Middle Stone Age .... . . . . 9

4. The Late Stone Age .... . . . 14

PART II. THE ORIENT

11. The Story of Egypt: the Earliest Nile-Dwellers
AND THE Pyramid Age

5. Egypt and its Earliest Inhabitants 35

6. The Pyramid Age (about 3000 to 2500 B.C.) ... .49

7. Art and Architecture in the Pyramid Age . . .68

III. The Story of Egypt: the Feudal Age and the Empire

8. The Nile Voyage and the Feudal Age. 74

9. The Founding of the Empire . . 80

10. The Higher Life of the Empire ... . 86

1 1 . The Decline and Fall of the Egyptian Empire. 93

12. The Decipherment of Egyptian Writing by Champollion 97

IV. Western Asia: Babylonia

13. The Lands and Races of Western Asia . . . loo

14. Rise of Sumerian Civilization and Early Struggle of

Sumerian and Semite ... . . ... 107

15. The First Semitic Triumph -.: the Age of Sargon. 122

16. Union of Sumerians and Semites: the Kings of Sumer

and Akkad ... ... ..... 126

17. The Second Semitic Triumph: the Age of Hammurapi

and After ..128

V. The Assyrians and Chaldeans

18. Early Assyria and her Rivals . . 140

19. The Assyrian Empire (about 750 to 606 B.C.) 151

20. The Chaldean Empire: the Last Semitic Empire . . . 164

xii Ancient Times

CHAPTER FAGE

VI. The Medo-Persian Empire

21. The Indo-European Peoples and their Dispersion. i?'

22. The Aryan Peoples and the Iranian Prophet Zoroaster 176

23. Rise of the Persian Empire: Cyrus i79

24. The Civilization of the Persian Empire (about 530

to 330 B.C.) 182

25. Persian Documents and the Decipherment of Cuneiform 189

26. The Results of Persian Rule and its Religious Influence 194

VII. The Hebrews and the Decline of the Orient

27. Palestine and the Predecessors of the Hebrews there 197

28. The Settlement of the Hebrews in Palestine and the

The United Hebrew Kingdom 200

29. The Two Hebrew Kingdoms 206

30. The Destruction of the Hebrew Kingdoms by Assyria

and Chaldea 210

31. The Hebrews in Exile and their Deliverance by the

Persians

32. Decline of Oriental Leadership; Estimate of Oriental

Civilization . . ... . .

PART III. THE GREEKS

VIII. The Dawn of European Civilization and the Rise
OF the Eastern Mediterranean World

33. The Dawn of Civilization in Europe ... 221

34. The ^gean World: the Islands . . . . . 22c

35. The Aegean World: the Mainland . . . ,,g

36. Modern Discovery in the Northern Mediterranean and

the Rise of an Eastern Mediterranean World 

IX. The Greek Conquest of the Aegean World

37. The Coming of the Greeks .... . _ ^,

38. The Nomad Greeks make the Transition to the Settled

X. Greek Civilization in the Age of the Kings

39. The Aegean Inheritance and the Spread of Phoenician

Commerce f

40. The Phoenicians bring the First Alphabet to Europe 270

41. Greek Warriors and the Hero Songs 271

42. The Beginnings and Early Development of Greek

Religion 276

XI. The Age of the Nobles and Greek Expansion in
THE Mediterranean

43. The Disappearance of the Kings and the Leadership.

of the Nobles 282

44. Greek Expansion in the Age of the Nobles .... 287

45. Greek Civilization in the Age of the Nobles . . 290

XII. The Industrial Revolution and the Age of theTyrants

46. The Industrial and Commercial Revolution .... 295

47. Rise of the Democracy and the Age of the Tyrants. 301

48. Civilization of the Age of the Tyrants 307

XIII. The Repulse of Persia

49. The Coming of the Persians 322

Author:	James Henry Breasted
Publication date:	1916
Keywords:	Ancient times. civilizations- Greek Civilization - Egyptian Civilization- Encyclopedia of History

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