eastern antiquity is the term given to the period of the Ancient Ages referring to peoples considered by European historians as inhabitants of the geographical space in eastern Europe. Oriental Antiquity is thus defined to differentiate itself from the so-called Classical Antiquity, referring to the history of Greece and Rome.
Eastern antiquity, in this way, refers to the history of the peoples who inhabited the Middle East it's the North Africa, being they mainly the Mesopotamians, the Egyptians, the Persians, the Phoenicians and the Hebrews.
Despite the cultural diversity of these peoples, there were some common points in their forms of social organization. They were founded in highly centralized States, controlled by a polytheistic theocracy, using agricultural production carried out on the banks of large rivers. There was in these peoples a rigid social stratification, with very little social mobility.
Most of the populations were made up of peasants or social groups that worked under collective serfdom, mainly in the construction of large public works, such as official buildings (temples, palaces, pyramids, etc.), cities and aqueducts.
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Despite these common features, there were exceptions that escaped this generalization. The Phoenicians, for example, were not organized around centralized states, but rather in city-states with political autonomy. Furthermore, they were much more engaged in trade across the Mediterranean Sea than in agricultural production. The Hebrews, in turn, were not polytheists but monotheists, an important difference in the configuration of the peoples of the Middle East.
Marxist historians coined the term Asian Mode of Production in order to define the organization of the peoples of that period and place. Due to the generalization of the term, Oriental Antiquity and Asian Mode of Production are presented together, seeking, in this way, to define as a starting point the form of material production of life of these peoples in order to explain the historical process in which they were inserted.
By Me. Tales Pinto
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
PINTO, Tales of the Saints. "What is Oriental Antiquity?"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/o-que-e/historia/o-que-e-antiguidade-oriental.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.