ANTH 320/ARCG 320/EVST 321 /NELC 320  From Babylon to Bush Spr 16 Th 3.30-5.30 Harvey Weiss (harvey.weiss@yale.edu)      

Goal: Analysis of Mesopotamian transformations from the earliest agriculture villages to the earliest cities, states and civilization, to the earliest empires --- and the region-wide collapses that punctuated these developments. What forces drove these uniquely early Mesopotamian developments? The essential archaeological, historical, and environmental questions will be asked at each interval: Why did this happen, develop, evolve? The collapse of the Ottoman empire will be explored last, with the British (1917) and American (1991, 2003) invasions of Iraq, with their consequences the most destructive since the thirteenth century.

Organization: weekly seminar, midterm, final exam, ArcheoSim v.4 simulation report due May 1.

There are no prerequisites for this course.

Textbooks:Diamond, J. 1999. Guns, Germs and Steel. Norton.Matthews, Roger 2003 Archaeology of Mesopotamia. Routledge. available at Yale Bookstore.Roaf, M. 1990 Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia. Facts on File. out of print, available here sub Resources/pdfSluglett, P. 2007 Britain in Iraq: contriving king and country. Columbia UP. available at Yale Bookstore.journal articles:all available as pdf files sub Resources

Tower of Babel, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1563.

1. Jan 21. The Natural Environment, then and now

NASA satellite image west Asia (red = wet).

What is the distance from Basra to Beirut, from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean?

NASA satellite image, Mediterranean cyclonic westerlies seasonally break through the Mediterranean trough.

This is the only precipitation delivery system for west Asia.

Paleoclimate proxy sites, Mediterranean westerlies and Indian Summer Monsoon (Weiss and Besonen 2014).

What are the five types of paleoclimate proxies that inform us of the pre-instrumental climate record?

2. Jan 28. The Younger Dryas Event, and the Origins of Agriculture

"The first revolution that transformed human economy gave man control over his own food supply." V. Gordon Childe 1951 Man Makes Himself. p. 59.

Gobekli, where farming began. Notice the horizontal and vertical axes of the cartoon,and the major changes in subsistence and settlement through time. (see Gobekli pdf).

Fertile Crescent, Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and Pre-Pottery Neolithic B sites. (Riehl, Zedevi, Conrad 2013)

Assignment:Bar Yosef 2011 Flannery, K. 2002 Origins of the Village Revisited Matthews 2003: 67-92.Gobekli pdf..

Seminar questions:What was the Younger Dryas event?How does Bar-Yosef understand the origins of west Asian agriculture?What is “surplus”? In Flannery’s analysis, how is surplus generated?Why is the retrieval of Gobekli so revolutionary?

Timucua cultivators, North America, an engraving of Theodor de Bry (1591).

The independent origins of agriculture, in west Asia, east Asia, and the western hemisphere, raise profound questions about the global social trajectory emanating from hunting and gathering.

3a. Feb 4. The earliest settlement of southern Mesopotamia and climate change.

North Mesopotamian dry-farming harvest, view from Tell ‘Aid, northeast Syria (photo H. Weiss, 1984). Note fallow, cereal fields, animal traction transport, and sheep flock forage in the background.

Irrigation agriculture, the Euphrates River at Dura. (Photo: H.Weiss, 1982)

Oueilli, southern Iraq, Ubaid 0 temple, ca. 6200 B.C. (photo: J.-D. Forrest).Why would anyone choose to live here?

Multi-proxy stack illustrating 8.2k abrupt climate change event. (Rohling and Pailke 2008).

 Assignment:

Roaf 1990: 18-41.Rohling, E. and H. Pailke 2008  Centennial-scale climate cooling with a sudden cold event around 8,200

years Ago Nature 434:975-979.Matthews 2003: 93-107.Weiss 1978 Irrigation Agriculture Science 200: 1377-1378.

Seminar questions:1.What was “the 8.2 event”?2. What might have been its effect in west Asia?3. What was “Schilf and Lehm” for Ubaid period settlers?4. Where did the Ubaid settlers come from?5. What do their temples tell us about “Ubaid chiefdoms”?

3b. Feb 4. The Urban Revolution, the origin of cities and states in Uruk period southern Mesopotamia

“And as men migrated in the East, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, 'Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.' And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.'" Genesis 11: 2-4

"Gilgamesh says to him, to Urshanabi, the boatman: 'Go up, Urshanabi, walk on the ramparts of Uruk.Inspect the base terrace, examine its brickwork, if its brickwork is not of baked brick, if the Seven Wise Ones laid not its foundation!One sar is city, one sar is orchards, one sar is swamp, (and) the precinct of the Temple of Ishtar.Three sar and the precinct comprise Uruk.'" Gilgamesh Tablet XI: 302-307

"When kingship was lowered from heaven, kingship was first in Eridu. In Eridu, A-lulim became king and ruled 28,800 years. Alalgar ruled 36,000 years. Two kings thus ruled it for 64,800 years...." (ca. 2100 BC) T. Jacobsen, 1935 The Sumerian King List.

" The foundation of every division of labor which has attained a certain degree of development and has been brought about by the exchange of commodities, is the separation of town from country. One might well say that the whole economic history of society is summed up in the movement of this antithesis. However, for the moment we shall not go into this." Karl Marx 1867 Capital, vol. I p. 472

"...the available evidence supports the conclusion that the transformation at the core of the Urban Revolution lay in the realm of social organization. And, while the onset of the transformation obviously cannot be understood apart from its cultural and ecological context, it seems to have been primarily changes in social institutions that precipitated changes in technology, subsistence and other aspects of the wider cultural realm, such as religion, rather than vice versa." R. Adams, 1966 Evolution of Urban Society. p. 12.

"The central fact which emerges is that Uruk and its sister cities grew through the depopulation of the countryside around them." R. Adams and H.-J. Nissen, 1972 The Uruk Countryside. p. 87

Wheat and barley production, 1968, regional centers of Iraq, dry-farming v. irrigation(Weiss 1993).

“What was the relationship, if any, between a precociously early and long-persisting growth of urban life and major reliance on irrigation agriculture? Probably the most fundamental advantage of irrigation, here as elsewhere, was the relatively high agricultural productivity it permitted. It was unquestionably of great importance that yields were high, in relation to land as well as labor inputs." R.McC. Adams

1981, Heartland of Cities.  p. 243. “Unquestionably”?

Five perspectives on the origins of social stratification:

1. J.-J. Rousseau 1754 Discours sur l'origine et les fondements de l'inégalité parmi les hommes."The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said "This is mine," and found people naïve enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society."]

2. V.G. Childe 1936 Man Makes Himself. London: Watts (1st edition)"Finally, war helped to a great discovery---that men as well as animals can be domesticated. Instead of killing adefeated enemy, he might be enslaved: in return for his life he could be made to work. This discovery has been compared in importance to that of the taming of animals. In any case, by early historic times slavery was a foundation of ancient industry and a potent instrument in the accumulation of capital." p. 151.

3. Robert McC. Adams 1966 Evolution of Urban Society. Chicago: Aldine."Such [F. Barth (1961)-analyzed nomadic] groups have no recourse but to trickle into the cultivated zones as a disorganized, depressed, landless labor force. ...we can identify potent, disequilbrating factors arising from the symbiotic interaction of herdsmen and farmers that must always have been reflected in tendencies toward increasing inequalities in landholdings." p. 58-59.

4. Robert Carneiro 1970 A Theory of the Origins of the State Science 139: 733-738."But what is the significance of circumscribed agricultural land for the origin of the state? ...Naturally, as autonomous political units increased in size, they decreased in number, with the result that an entire valley was eventually unified under the banner of its strongest chiefdom. The political unit thus formed was undoubtedly sufficiently centralized and complex to warrant being called a state." p. 736.

5. Marshall Sahlins 1972 Stone Age Economics. Chicago: Aldine."What the famine did was to reveal the solidarity of the elementary family...." "...crises révélatrices..." pp. 128, 143.

Assignment: Roaf 1990: 58-72.Matthews 2003: 107-126.

4. Feb 11. Early Dynastic cities and the Second Urban Revolution "diffusion" mystery

Sebastiao Salgado, 1985, Serra Pellada gold mine, Brazil. Workers. Aperture.

Assignment:Roaf 1990: 80-96.Hruska 2007 Sumerian Agriculture.Weiss, H. 1990 Tell Leilan 1989: New Data for Mid-Third Millennium Urbanization MDOG 1990.

Seminar questions:1.What accounts for the exceptional productivity of Sumerian agriculture?2.What were the materials and sources for the Royal Cemetery’s burial goods? 3. What was the extent of urbanization across the ED III southern Mesopotamian landscape?4. How did “civilization” diffuse to northern Mesopotamia (according to V. Gordon Childe)?

5. Feb 18. Akkadian empire problem

" Sargon, king of Kish, was victorious in 34 campaigns and dismantled all the cities, as far as the shore of the sea. At the wharf of Agade he made moor ships from Meluhha, ships from Magan, and ships from Tilmun. Sargon, the king, prostrated himself in prayer before the god Dagan in Tuttul, and he gave him the Upper Region, Mari, Yarmuti, and Ebla, as far as the Cedar Forest and the Silver Mountain. Enlil did not let anybody oppose Sargon, the king. 54,000 soldiers ate daily in his presence. May Anu destroy the name and Enlil finish off the offspring, Inanna do.... to whosoever destroys this inscription. (Copy of) inscription on a statue the pedestal of which is not inscribed." (original ca. 2250 BC) trans. A.L. Oppenheim, in J. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts, p. 268.

"Ships brought the goods of Sumer itself upstream to Akkade,The highland Amorites, a people who knew niot grain,Came before Inanna there with spirited bulls and bucks,Meluhhans, people of the black mountain,Brought exotic wares down to her,Elam and Subir carried goods to her like packasses,All the governors, temple administrators, and land registrars of the guedenaRegularly supplied monthly and New Year offerings there. Curse of Agade,  ll. 45-54.  (ca. 2100 BC). trans. J. Cooper.

Akkadian Empire(Weiss and Maples 2014)

2350-2250 BC expansion of imperialized agricultural wealth:

---Lugalzaggisi, 2350 BC, Ur to Kish ____kms

---Sargon, 2300 BC, Ur to Akkad ___kms

Naram-Sin, Victory Stele detail, sandstone, height 2 m., ca. 2250 BC, retrieved Susa, southwest Iran. Paris, Louvre.

Paris, Louvre.

---Naram-Sin, 2250 BC, Ur to Gasur, Nineveh,. Nagar, Shehna, Urkesh ____kms

Tell Leilan, northeast Syria, 30 x 20 m excavation sample of Lower Town South residential quarter, occupied 2700-2200 BC. (photo: H. Weiss, 1989.)

How do we know the terminal occupation was Akkadian imperialized?

Assignment: Roaf 1990: 96-108.

Sommerfeld, Archi, Weiss 2004 Why "Dada

Measured..."?

http://leilan.yale.edu/pubs/files/poster2/poster2.jpg

Weiss, et al., 2012 Tell Leilan Akkadian Imperialization...

Seminar question:

1. Was the Akkadian empire imperial?

2. Did imperialism "work"?

"But the whole problem of the extraction of value from a subject population, its deployment  within the region in which it was levied as taxation, or its possible export to Rome or elsewhere in the Empire, presents fundamental difficulties which need to be faced...First, was Roman tribute raised predominantly in coin or in kind?...[Second,] Were these provinces in fact profitable?" "First, if large quantities of coin arising from tribute were regularly moved out of these (or any other) regions of the empire, how was this done?...If we suppose simply for the sake of argument, that in the first century AD the two Near Eastern provinces of Syria and Judea provided 10 per cent of the tribute revenue of the Empire, that would have

meant, if it were all exported elsewhere, the use of a total of over 160 waggons and over 600 animals. ...It is not an impossible notion that the Roman Empire expended more there [the Near East] than it raised in revenue. In the only survey of the provinces and (in outline) their 'profitability' which we have, that by Appian in the preface to his Roman History, the idea that Britain cost more than it contributed is clearly expressed [Appian, Hist. rom., praef. 7]."Millar, Fergus 1993 The Roman Near East 31 BC - AD 337. Harvard UP.  pp. 49-50

6. Feb 25. MIDTERM EXAM

7. Mar 4. Akkadian collapse and the 4.2 ka BP abrupt climate change

“In Agade, Sargon, whose father was a gardener, the cupbearer of Ur-Zababa, became king, the king of Agade, who built Agade, he ruled for 56 years. Rimuš, the son of Sargon, ruled for 9 years. Man-ištušu, the older brother of Rimuš, the son of Sargon, ruled for 15 years. Naram-Suen, the son of Man-ištušu, ruled for 56 years. Šar-kali-šarri, the son of Naram-Suen, ruled for 25 years. 157 are the years of the dynasty of Sargon. Then, who was king? Who was not king?” Sumerian King List, ca. 2100 BC.

" ...The large fields and acres produced no grain,the flooded acres produced no fish,the watered gardens produced no honey and wine,the heavy clouds brought no rain, there grew no mashgur-tree.Then did half a sila of oil equal one shekel,half a sila of grain -- one shekel,half a mina of wool -- one shekel,one ban of fish -- one shekel...."The Curse of Agade, ca. 2100 B.C.

Multi-proxy stack, Mediterranean westerlies and Kilimanjaro, illustrating 5.2 and 4.2 ka BP abrupt climate change events. (Weiss et al 2012). Note the spikes at 4200-3900 BP (before present). What is being measured, and where?

 

Societal adaptations to the 2200-1900 BC megadrought: --abandonment of rain-fed agriculture settlement, --habitat-tracking to riparian, paludal and karstic spring refugia, --Orontes river valley urbanization, --the transition from round- to rectangular-walled cities, --construction of the Très Long Mur (the western analog of the "Repeller-of-the-Amorites"Wall), --expansion of the Jebel Bishri regional cemetery for Habur-Euphrates seasonal pastoralist nomads (Weiss 2014).

Assignment:Weiss et al 1993 Genesis and Collapse of North Mesopotamian Civilization Science 291: 995-1004.Weiss 2014 Altered Trajectories: The Intermediate Bronze Age, Oxford Handbook Archaeology of the

Levant. pp. 367-387.Weiss et al., 2012 Tell Leilan Akkadian Imperialization, Collapse and Short-Lived Reoccupation ….,

in Weiss, ed., Seven Generations since the Fall of Akkad. Pp. 163-192. 

Tell Taya acropolis excavation, Sinjar Plain, NW Iraq, 1968. (photo: J. Reade, British Museum)

4 =  1900 - 1700 BC, Habur ware period buildings;

5 =   “Amorite pastoralists,” dung and gypsum floor laminations;   

6 =  2150-2100  “Ur III,” period, abandoned after <50 years;

7=  2200-2150 BC, “post-Akkadian” period;

8 =  2300-2200 BC Akkadian  period

8. Mar 31. 1900 BC Amorite sedentarization and re-settlement of rain-fed MesopotamiaNo king is powerful by himself: ten or fifteen kings follow Hammurabi, king of Babylon, as many follow Rim-Sin, king of Larsa, as many follow Ibal-pi-el, king of Eshnunna, as many follow Amut-pi-el, king of Qatna, twenty kings follow Yarim-Lim, king of Yamhad...." Letter to Zimri-Lim at Mari, ca. 1775 B.C.

"While your brother here is inflicting defeats, you, over there, you lie about amidst women. So now, when you go to Qatanum with the army, be a man!" Letter of Shamshi-Adad to Yasmah-Adad, his son, ca. 1780 B.C., Mari

Tell Leilan/Shubat Enlil, the capital established by Shamshi-Adad in the middle of the Khabur Plains, northeast Syria. ca. 1800 BC (photo H. Weiss, 1982).

Leilan Region Survey, 1650 kms2, documents --Akkadian collapse (2200 BC), --post-Akkadian remnant,--post-post Akkadian desertion, --Amorite nomad/ Khabur ware period resettlement (1900 BC) at the return of pre-aridification event precipitation (Weiss 2012).

Assignment:Roaf 1990: 108-131.Schwartz 2013 “Global Amorite Village”Ristvet and Weiss 2013 in History and Archaeology of Syria.

Film. GRASS. 1925. directed by Merian C. Cooper. http://www.veoh.com/watch/v19992694eNTTAYQS?h1=Grass

Seminar questions:

Four views of nomad – sedentary / Amorite dynamics at the end of the third – beginning of the second millennium BC.

1. Nomads banging at the urban gates: Kupper 19572. Immiseration and enrichment: the dynamic pastoral economy: Barth 1964.3. Dimorphic topography: Rowton 19714. The 4.2 – 3.9 kaBP abrupt climate change event driver: Weiss et al., 1993

What is their archeo-historical visibility / validity?

 

9. Apr 7. The Bronze Age Collapse at 1200 BC.

Eastern Mediterranean invasions by land and sea at ca. 1200 BC (D. Kaniewski et al. 2014).

Bas-relief, Medinet Habu. Mortuary Temple of Rameses III (ca. 1189-1155 BC), Luxor, Egypt.

Year 8 under the majesty of [Rameses III] “....The foreign countries made a conspiracy in their islands. All at once the lands were removed and scattered in the fray. No land could stand before their arms, from Hatti, Kode, Carchemish, Arzawa, and Alashiya on, being cut off at [one time]. A camp [was set up] in one place in Amor. They desolated its people, and its land is like that which has never come into being. They were coming forward toward Egypt, while the flame was prepared before them. The confederation was the Philistines, Tjeker, Shekelesh, Denyen, and Weshwesh, lands united. They laid their hands upon the lands as far as the circuit of the earth, their hearts confident and trusting: 'Our plans will succeed.'" Inscription of Rameses III (ca. 1188 B.C.), Medinet Habu, Thebes.

Assignment: Cline, Eric 2014 1177 BC: the year civilization collapsed. pp. 73-170.Kaniewski et al 2014

Seminar questions:How have Kaniewski, et al 2014 explained, at last, the Late Bronze Age Collapse?What exactly is their methodology? What remains to be explained?

Failed logic? “More current today is the theory that around 1200 the climate became dryer (sic) and that the part of the Eastern Mediterranean that relied on rain for its agriculture suffered declining harvest and even famine. Climatic data from tree rings and other scientific analyses seem to suggest this scenario. Agricultural problems may have been a factor…but they could not have caused the whole system to end: people must have confronted years of drought before and must have had ways of coping with them. The popularity of climate change in historical explanation should be no surprise. Global warming ranks very high on today’s list of popular concerns.” M. van de Mieroop 2007. The Eastern Mediterranean in the Age of Ramesses II. Blackwell. p. 247. Any logic?

10. Apr 14. The Empires: Assyrian, Persian, and Hellenistic

"I took the city and 800 of their fighting men I put to the sword, and cut off their heads. Multitudes I captured alive, and the rest of them I burned with fire, and carried off their heavy spoil. I found a pillar of the living, and of heads over against their city gate, and 700 men I impaled on stakes over against their city gate. The city I destroyed, I devastated, and I turned it into a mound and ruin heap. Their young men and their maidens I burned in the fire." Aššur-nasirpal, king of Assyria (883 859).

Assignment:Roaf 1990: 158-197.Matthews 2003: 127-154Van de Mieroop 2004 Assyria, A History of the Ancient Near East. pp 216-252.Davidson 2003 review of P. Briant 2003, From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire.

London Review of Books May 2003Yale University Art Gallery: Bas-reliefs palace of Aššur-nasirpal (883-859 BC) at Kalhu (Nimrud), Iraq

Seminar Questions: 1. What were the goals of the Assyrian empire, how were they accomplished, and why did it collapse?2. How did the Persian empire develop, and why did it collapse?3. Did imperialism make a difference (for the imperialized)? "The new cities performed no useful economic function, for the larger villages supplied  such manufactured goods as the villagers required, and the trade of the countryside was conducted at village markets. The only effect of the foundation of cities was the creation  of a wealthy landlord class which gradually stamped out peasant proprietorship. Culturally, the countryside remained unaffected by the Hellenism of the cities; the peasants continued to speak Syriac down to the Arab conquest. The only function which the cities performed was administrative; they policed and collected the taxes of the territories." Jones, A.H.M., 1971, Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press. pp. 293-294.

Assyrian terror shakedown: impalement in front of the city gates. Bas-relief, siege of Lachish detail, ripped from walls of the palace of Sennacherib (705-681 BC) at Nineveh by Austen Henry Layard in 1845, then installed in the British Museum, London. Read Lord Byron, “The Destruction of Sennacherib” (1815!).

Reconstruction, palace of Aššur-nasirpal at Kalhu (modern Nimrud), Iraq.

11. Apr 21. Bushes in Baghdad, part 1. BritainBushes in Baghdad Chronology

1908 Anglo-Persian Oil Company discovers oil at Masjid-i Suleiman village, in Khuzistan, SW Persia (Iran)“ It will provide all of our ships east of Suez with fuel; it will strengthen British influence in these parts. It will make us less dependent upon foreign-owned oil fields; it will be some reward for those who have ventured such great sums….”  Lieut. A.T. Wilson (later, Governor of Mesopotamia). [ Arnold Wilson, SW. Persia, a political officer's diary,1907-1914. Oxford University Press. p. 42.]

1914 British government (First Lord of Admiralty Winston Churchill) purchases 20 year, £2.2 million, oil contract for Royal Navy from Anglo-Persian Oil Company

1915“ I believe that at the moment Winston (Churchill) is very anxious that if, when the War ends, Russia has got Constantinople, and Italy Dalmatia, and France Syria, we should be able to appropriate some equivalent share of the spoils---Mesopotamia with or without Alexandretta, a sphere in Persia, and some German colonies, etc….(Foreign Secretary) Grey and I are the only two men who doubt and distrust any such settlement. …Taking Mesopotamia, for instance, means spending millions on irrigation and development with no immediate or early return, keeping up quite a large army in an unfamiliar country, tackling every kind of tangled administrative question worse than any we have ever had in India, with a hornet’s nest of Arab tribes and, even if that were all set right, having a perpetual menace on our flank in Kurdistan.” (Prime Minister Herbert Asquith) The Earl of Oxford and Asquith, Memories and Reflections, 1852-1927, London: Cassel 1928, vol. 2 p. 69.

1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement (discovered in Kremlin, revealed to world press by Foreign Minister Leon Trotsky, Moscow, 1917).1917 Collapse of Ottoman empire

Balfour declaration“ His Majesty’s Government views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use its best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

1919 Article 22 League of Nations creates "mandates" by Council of Four decision: French control for Syria and British control for Mesopotamia and Palestine.1920 Revolt in Syria and Mesopotamia1921 Cairo Conference. "Mandate for Mesopotamia" not enacted. "Forty Thieves" consolidate British control of Mesopotamian oil, and decide who will be the kings of "Iraq", “Saudi Arabia,” and “Jordan,” at conference convened by Churchill.

The “Forty Thieves” at the Cairo Conference, 1921. (photo: Gertrude Bell Archives, Newcastle University.)

Front row, center: Herbert Samuel (High Commissioner for Palestine), Winston Churchill (Secretary of State for the Colonies), Percy Cox (High Commissioner for Mesopotamia).

Second row, from left: Gertrude Bell (British Intelligence/secretary for Cox), Heskell Sassoon (wealthy Baghdadi  lawyer), Major John "Pasha" Glubb, Genl. Jaffar al-Askari (Mesopotamia Army).

Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) "exercised an almost messianic effect on his (Cox's) judgment and decisions when ... physically present in his counsels." ---Harry St. John Philby.

1925 The Great Revolt in Syria

1936 Revolt in Palestine“ [The Jewish Agency intends] to make of Palestine a Jewish National Home, or to make a Jewish National Home in Palestine? If the former, then we are categorically opposed to it and there is no way to come to an understanding. But if it means the latter then we are ready …to find a solution to the mutual advantage of both parties.” Shukri al-Quwwatli (Acting President, National Bloc, Syria) to Eliahu Epstein (Arab Affairs Department, The Jewish Agency), Bludan, Damascus, August 1, 1936. Central Zionist Archives, S25/10093 Minutes of the Meeting with Arab National Bloc of Syria.

1941 "This is to supplement the assignment given to you to solve the Jewish question by emigration or evacuation ...I further commission you to submit to me, before long, a master plan for the administrative, practical, and financial measures that need to be taken to carry out the final solution [Endlösung] of the Jewish question." Marshal Hermann Göring to S.S. Gruppenführer, Kommander Einsatz Gruppen, Reinhard Heydrich, July 31, 1941.1941-1945 Nazis murder 6 million Jews in Europe

1945 Syrians force French troop withdrawal; Syrian independence.1946 Bombing of Jerusalem’s King David Hotel by Menachem Begin’s Irgun. “We created the method of the urban guerilla.”-- M. Begin.1948 Britain abandons Palestine; UN Palestine partition fails; Israel recognized by UN

1953-54 France Defeated by Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu, Indochina.  US takes over French role in East Asia.1956 US takes over British Role in West Asia

Assignment (for this and following week):Sluglett, Peter, 2007 Britain in Iraq: contriving king and country. pp. 1-92.

FILM. Lawrence of Arabia. David Lean, dir. 1962. http://www.vudu.com/movies/#!content/351328/Lawrence-of-Arabia-Restored-Version

Seminar questions:What are the differences between ancient and modern imperialism? Why did the British Army continue to push north, to Mosul, after the armistice had been declared? What was Lord Curzon’s “big lie”?

“Human gangs bound in malice,blow after blow strikes the worldonly for someone’s vessels to pass without charge through the Bosporus. Soon the world

won’t have a rib intact.And its soul will be pulled out.And trampled downonly for someone,to lay their hands onMesopotamia…” V. Mayakovsky, 1917, “Mesopotamia.”

12. Apr 28. Bushes in Baghdad, part 2. USABushes in Baghdad Chronology

1956 “ People of Algeria, the colonial administration is responsible not only for the misery and enslavement of our people, but also for the brutalization, corruption and degrading vices of many of our brothers and sisters, who have forgotten their dignity.... Starting today, the FLN has assumed responsibility for the physical and moral health of the Algerian people and has therefore decided to forbid the use and sale of all types of drugs and alcoholic beverages, as well as prostitution and pimping. All offenders will be punished and habitual offenders will be executed." Fronte de Libération Nationale, Algiers

1965 Creation of Palestine Liberation Organization1977 M. Begin and Likud Party control Israel government

1980 US aid to Saddam Hussein, Iraq in Iran-Iraq War1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon1990 Saddam Hussein,Iraq invades Kuwait

1991 US Conquers Iraq, Part 1.

1996 Richard Perle, et al., Clean Break: a new strategy for securing the realm. (for Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel).1998 Paul Wolfowitz, et al., Excerpt from the letter on Iraq from the Project for the New American Century urging

removal of President Saddam Hussein from power,  New York Times, December 3, 2001

2001 September 11, al-Qaida attacks World Trade Center, New York and Pentagon, Washington DC (ca. 3,000 killed)

2003 US conquers Iraq, Part 2. (Total cost: $4 Trillion, ca. 300,000 killed).

" We believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons."— Vice President Dick Cheney on NBC's Meet the Press, March 16, 2003

"I don't believe anyone that I know in the administration ever said that Iraq had nuclear weapons."— Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, at a hearing of the Senate's appropriations subcommittee on defense, May 14, 2003

"We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do." --attributed to Karl Rove,  New York Times, March 17, 2004.

“I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.” --Alan Greenspan, Former Chmn., US Federal Reserve, September 16, 2006.

2011- Syria revolution against Bashar al-Assad government 2014- Islamic State of Iraq and Syria conquers eastern Syria and northern Iraq. http://nyti.ms/1vvUBTx May, PLO (West Bank) and Hamas (Gaza) establish unity government. July, Israel invades Gaza.

Assignment: Sluglett 2007: 93-218; Perle et al. 1996 Clean Break. FILM. http://www.hulu.com/search?q=battle+of+algiers

Gillo Pontecorvo, dir., 1966. The ultimate in cinema-verité. Ali La Pointe (1930-1957) today?