Ancient Near East Essay Research Paper Ancient — страница 3

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story has many levels. In one sense, it tries to explain the natural force of seasonality on earth. In their religion, starting with a force of nature (birth and seasonality), and then personalizing this force as a goddess create the goddess Ishtar. Ishtar the goddess represents natural forces that reflect the environment and local surroundings in a society that observes life and death in the seasons, and asks the big question, Is there life after death? She is Venus, or the goddess of fertility, and she is good evidence of an exceptional religion that had not yet reached the stage of monotheism. In conclusion, modern, western behavioral schools of thought would emphasize historical sociological changes as dominant in the process of forming the first high civilization, but it

seems that a combination of these and additional factors play a significant role in explaining the essential elements of man s first high civilization. It is the combination of cultural changes, technological innovations, new tools, and other factors like societal conditioning via religion that make up the true achievement that is Sumer and Akkad. This crowning achievement is indeed the first high civilization known to man, and must be viewed as a major turning point in the civilized evolution of man. Knapp, Bernard. The History and Culture of Ancient Western Asia and Egypt. 1988, The Dorsey Press. New York.