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2nd millennium BC
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1st millennium BC
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To grasp the spirit of the 2nd millennium BC, we must divide it in two parts, for there is a period of change around its middle so important that it creates two separate "sub-millennia".
The first part of the millennium is a time a bit less colorful than others, a lull in the history of Ancient
Near East , still living in the shadow of greater past times, and spending all energies in trying to recuperate from the deeply anarchic situation that was at the turn of the millennium. Even the most powerful civilizations of the time,
Egypt and
Mesopotamia , were having what could be called a low-profile period, aiming at modest, realistic goals. The
Pharaoh s of the
Middle Kingdom Of Egypt and their contemporary
Kings Of Babylon , of
Amorite origin, brought good governance without too much tyranny, favoured elegant art and architecture without overblown exaggeration, painstakingly achieved a good general balance that lasted only a short while.
Egypt and Babylonia's military tactics were still based on foot soldiers transporting their equipment on donkeys. Combined with a weak economy and difficulty in maintaining order, this was a fragile situation that crumbled under the pressure of external forces they could not oppose.
About a century before the middle of the millennium, bands of
Indo-European invaders burst from their
Central Asia plains and swept through the Near East like a series of electric shocks. They were riding fast two-wheeled
Chariot s powered by
Horse s, a system of weaponry developed earlier within the context of plains warfare. This tool of war was unknown among the classical oriental civilizations. Egypt and Babylonia's foot soldiers were simply no match for them, and all kingdoms across the Near East quickly fell, even in powerful Egypt where the new invaders, known as the
Hyksos , put an end to the Middle Kingdom.
The peoples in place were quick to adapt to the new tactics, and a whole new international situation resulted from the change. For most of the second half of the 2nd millennium BC, the Ancient Near East became a giant chessboard where several regional powers competed endlessly for hegemony, rolling their chariots at full speed in all directions. These actually became very colorful times, with new emphasis on grandiose architecture, new clothing fashions, vivid diplomatic correspondence on clay tablets, renewed economic exchanges, and the
New Kingdom of Egypt playing the role of the main
Superpower . Among the great states of the time, only
Babylon refrained from taking part in the rolling chessgame, satisfied with its prestigious new position as the World's religious and intellectual capital.
This was the
Bronze Age civilization at its final and brightest period of time, with all its characteristic social traits : low level of urbanization, small cities centered around temples or royal palaces, strict separation of classes between an illiterate mass and a powerful military elite, knowledge of writing and education reserved to a tiny minority of scribes, brilliant aristocratic life.
Near the end of the 2nd millennium BC, new waves of
Barbarian s, riding on horseback this time, wholly destroyed the Bronze Age world, and were to be followed by waves of social changes that marked the beginning of very different times. Also contributing to the changes were the
Sea Peoples , ship-faring raiders of the
Mediterranean Sea .
