The basic attributions are that king possesses a divine status, he) " the good god " who is Horus's incarnation , a former god - sky and god - falcon. At the end of the empire, the deceased god was identifying himself with Osiris, god of the dead men. The texts that they treat as the divine monarchy of this period are: The theology Memphite, the papyrus diomatico of the Ramseo and The texts of the pyramids. Its object is to affirm the supremacy of the Pharaoh as god, after his reincarnation in the life of ultra tomb. In the Egyptian comprehension of the monarchy, it was fundamental the concept "maat”, which can be translated as "truth" or "justice". It is a term which sense goes far beyond of legal justice or of the fatuous accuracy. The dynasty IV is the only period of the Ancient Empire in which it is possible to obtain complete enough information over of the royal family. During the whole dynasty IV exists a line of viziers, most they deal with the projects of construction, they had a great power, though they were not being destined to succeed him to the throne. Though the princes were occupying a place of honour, they did not have any title, or in some case, they possessed it of priestly range. His existence passes more inadvertent in the Medium Empire. Undoubtedly the role reserved to the princes, insufficient, contributed to the stability of the government, especially in the difficult moment of the succession. The importance of the princes contrasts with that of the first queens and mothers of the Pharaohs. The marriage and with whom of the Pharaoh it was an event that would have political important implications, though for what regard to the New Empire, there are enough information that allow to affirm that there was existing the custom of which the Pharaoh was accepting in marriage the daughter of a foreign king as part of a diplomatic arrangement. During the completely ancient empire, the capital of Egypt continued being Memphis. It is not necessary to consider the holders of titles degrees as civil employees without another occupation.

1.2 The society.

The Egyptian society was being divided in three groups:

Firstly) Educated men who were exercising an activity derived from the study.

Second) Persons who were being subordinated them.

Third) Illiterate peasants.

The service in the government was a fundamental source of income. An important function of the government was the location and collection of the resources necessary for the project accomplishment.

The agricultural resources of Egypt were divided in three classes of properties:

& Those possessed directly by the crown.

& Those who were concerning to pious foundations which relation with the crown was very subtle.

& Those that were situated in hands of private individuals and that were subject to taxes.

The information about the taxes of the Medium Empire is very scanty. It is necessary to think that there was existing a net of agencies of the government extended all over the country trying, by means of bureaucratic measurements, the estimation and administration of the resources. These were supervising in their different registers the functioning of the religious foundations and of the private properties, which employees had had as principal worry, not to facilitate the transference of wealth to the crown, but the effective operation or the exploitation of the foundation of which they were the principal beneficiaries. The second important aspect of the government is the way of administering justice with the maat.

1.3 Administration and justice.

It was usual that the justice was administered by individuals who were occupying a position of authority. Other times, the judicial and administrative decisions were realized of collective form by advices or committees.

The most important attribution was of vizier, the more important person in charge of the fiscal, administrative and judicial matters. It is not sure if one or two viziers was existing, one in every part of the country, as would happen later. His aim was they assure the perpetual maintenance of the worships of the statues.

The revenues were assigned to whom they were supporting the worship and a specific personnel of maintenance, but if a legal agreement was established, it could be assigned to any different.

The nature and functioning of the pious foundations in the provinces reveals in a series of texts the narrow bow that could exist between a local temple and the worships to the statues that existed in the tombs.

Everything seems to indicate that the existence of a net of pious foundations for local divinities, of the statues of the Pharaohs, of the local temples and of the statues of private individuals, had an important function in the economic life of Former Egypt, and implied to the families of many individuals.

The temple was converted into an important centre of economic and administrative activity. In some zones, the monarch recovered the attribution of great priest. Never, during the ancient or Medium period we find individual of high position whose activities were strictly priestly.

At the end of the III dynasty the provincial government had been converted in a very important part of the society. This fact can be verified in the decrease of the size of the pyramids. The knowledge that we have on the royal court in this epoch reflects the great importance that had the cemeteries of the pyramids in the moment of forming our opinion about this period.

When the pyramids and the big constructions disappear, we come to a " Dark Age ". All the southern part of the High Egypt passed to be dominated by Tebas. Tebas passed to occupy the first plane. The success obtained by the governor Inyotep when suffocated the ambitions of the north and south governors, led him to proclaim king with Inyotep and Mentuhotep's names.

This Theban power did not reach his culmination up to Vahanj-Inyotep's reign. His position provoked wars with the kings of the dynasties IX and X in the north. In no inscription, anybody mentions the victory, though it looks like that corresponded to Mentuhotep II. During his reign, t is built Deir-el-Yalazi, works with which, begins the Average Empire.

The first intermediate period constitutes the break of the balance between a powerful court and a few aspirations of the provinces, and they indicate where the principal source of power was residing. The life of ultra tomb is democratised and there takes place a kind of social revolution. A new conscience arises between the philosophers because of the inequality and fragility of the State.

1.4 The African hinterland.

The sedentary life in the Valley of the Nile seems to have stimulated the appearance of leaders eager to extend his control on other neighbouring groups of the valley. In Egypt, this process had been the origin of a culture pre-dynastic.

Nevertheless, in Nubia, the minor natural potential of this part of the Valley and the aggressive politics adopted by Egypt, meant that this process had a limited future and that could be altered when it was situated in an incipient phase. The recent evaluation of the archaeological information and of the physical anthropology of the low Nubia tends to leave the theory of repeated big waves of migrations and to accept a cultural and ethnic founded continuity from the first moments.

It is necessary to think that the contacts between the desert and the valley of Nile were based always on the interchange of cattle. For the rest these contacts should have been constants, though sporadic. The semi nomadic groups would settle in ephemeral camps at the edge of the desert, entering relation with the sedentary groups of the Valley of the Nile. The practice of to encamp to the edges of the desert realized by the nomadic groups, that in occasions concluded in permanent accessions, it has been perpetuated up to the present time.

In numerous localities of the western desert there has been mentioned the appearance of archaeological finds that rarely have been investigated on a scientific base. The occupants of these deposits were dedicated to feed domesticated sheeps and perhaps, also of goats.

As for the material culture, it was consisting of a series of stone tools, glasses of ceramics of diverse types. In none of the deposits no cemetery was, what is common in all of them. When the Egyptians entered in contact with these peoples, they name them Chenehui, or Cheneh's country.

The most important nuclei of accession were settled in a forming oasis. The most valuable interest that provoked these peoples was the strategic importance of the places where they were settling, to safeguard the routes of the desert that were providing alternatives for the trade and for another type of contacts with Nubia and the lands placed more to the south. The essential feature of this zone is the mountain range and hills that separate the Valley of the Nile of the Red Sea. These hills make possible a certain quantity of annual rainfalls. The former Egyptians realized expeditions regularly to exploit the natural resources of these mountains and they should have been in permanent contact with the local population. The Valley of the low Nubia constituted a way of access to the most important mines and quarries placed in the edge of desert, both in East and in West.

1)Vadi Gabgaba: Gold and copper.

2)Vadi-el-Hudi: Amethyst and gold.

3) Quarries of the western desert, to Toshca's northwest: diorite.

The Egyptian politics was always aggressive, though it is certain that at the same time the Egyptians had to trade with these peoples, especially with those of the Low Nubia. The Egyptians supported always the hope of which finally they might accede for the river or for land to the sources of the exotic products and to the golden mines, which alternatively only they could obtain by means of the navigation up to Opone.

The inhabitants of the Low Nubia were sheltered in a system of semi nomadic life in a zone placed between the Valley of the Nile and the springs and oasis of adjacent peoples. One of the features definers of these peoples is the shortage of cemeteries.

In the Ancient Empire there was an attempt on the part of Egypt of controlling the Low Nubia establishing permanent centres of occupation. As for the material culture that we know, the ceramics it is the most apparent feature, particularly a set of complex geometric decoration.

The deposit of most interest is Khmer, a kind of African Biblos, during the second intermediate period. It was an independent state beyond the political borders with Egypt, with a monarchy that was looking towards Egypt. The conquest of the Low Nubia begins with Mentuhotep II's reign, but we do not find there archaeological remains of this epoch. On the contrary, there exist numerous proofs that indicate the Egyptian presence during the mandate of Sesostris I, as strengthened nuclei. It is known that these nuclei were containing a garrison with modest effective, which was contrasting with an administration that constituted a specializing variant of the existing one in Egypt.

The defensive measurements of the Egyptians did not limit itself to the erection of battlements and walls. They used positions of observation used in rocky promontories in the zone of the Second Cataract. The worry for the nomads of the oriental zone of the desert does not explain the orientation towards the south of the group of Semner's fortresses.

Though the relation between archaeology and the political structure always is debatable, it seems to be improbable, on the base of the nature of the country and of the absence of archaeological vestiges, which the zone of Semner and of Ukmer had had so many importance. The volume of the Nubian trade was important. The Egyptian demand of gold and incense was equivalent in the south to the wood demand that was obtaining the north across Biblos.

His importance resides in the fact that it was the only place where the Egyptians could trade directly with the region that was producing articles of value and that at the same time was too far as became dangerous from the political point of view. The archaeological investigation point the conclusion of which the urban civilization accompanied by a social relatively advanced order was the normal situation not only of Syria, but also of Palestine. During almost the whole period that is mentioned they were spreading towards desert zones where it would not have been so supremely easy the urban life without a careful organization.

This period is characterized by a general declivity of the urban life, which assumes to the disturbances provoked by the appearance of groups of immigrants. The new model is a mixture of villages and camps of nomadic and semi nomadic groups. In occasions, it has been said that the region of oriental Delta of the Nile did not join to the Egyptian state up to the Medium Empire. On the other hand, more recent archaeological works have allowed the discovery of numerous camps for the whole north coast of the Sinai, and that were spreading up to the proximities of delta of the Nile.

A very instructive parallelism can be established with the history of the Low Nubia in this epoch. The constant flow of Egyptian products eastward and in Northwest it would be an incentive or an indication of commercial activity on a local base, which would escape to the control of a centralized administration. The disappearance of inhabitable nuclei on the north coast of the Sinai during or after the period proto-dynastic place would have given to politics of hardness in the borders. During most of the historical period, the peninsula of the Sinai had been a nucleus of tribal nomadic life, separating two urban civilizations: Egypt and Palestine.

During the second one and third millennium Bp the fundamental difference between both was the existing between a centralized government that was canalising the national resources towards one only nucleus of power and a set of cities which resources were more dispersed and that partly was pushed to a constant struggle to preserve his independence. The Egyptians finally did with the exclusive control of the Sinai at the expense of this cultural Palestinian redoubt in Egyptian land. With the exception of the Sinai, the Egyptian sources are extraordinarily scanty regarding the relations with Palestine and Syria. Often, for the terminology that they use they do not allow a difference between the nomadic zone of the Sinai and the inhabited hinterland.

There are some exceptions that they seem to refer to war like expeditions against the zone urbanized of Palestine, someone of whose cities are known by us that they were important fortifications of the type that appears represented in the ancient illustrations. The archaeological finds of the south of Palestine and of the Sinai, as well as high development that had reached the military defensive architecture in Egypt at the beginning of the Average Empire allows to affirm that when the Egyptians refer or represent fortresses we must think about the cities strengthened of the initial or average Bronze about Palestine.

Biblos was supporting a very special relation with Egypt and his archaeological remains constituted a testimony of incalculable value to illustrate the Egyptian contact with the oriental Mediterranean. The Egyptian influence is more evident in the funeral equipment of some princesses or kings of Biblos whose reigns coincided with the last phase of the dynasty XII. The only zone of the Aegean Sea that received Egyptian products in important quantity and whose products were exported to Egypt it was Crete. It is probable that the name of Crete in Egyptian, Keptio, was been known by the Egyptians in the Medium Empire, though it does not appear in any text that indicates a direct contact.

The administrative and cultural model of the dynasty XII was perpetuated during the dynasty XIII. A certain fragmentation takes place in the government of the North. MANETON excludes completely the possibility that existed several kings at the same time and he divided all the previous kings in 4 more dynasties from the XIII. The clarity of MANETON's scheme remains invalidated for this period: There was a Pharaohs' proliferation, grouped in:

1) Those who happened to the dynasty XII. They were recognized in the High Nile, though most continued governing from Memphis.

2) Kings’ dynasty that governed the high Egypt from Tebas, after these.

3) Six foreign kings: Hicsos. They subdued to the group 1 and governed at the same time as it.

4) Kings client of state-cities

The hicsos have been presented as a destructive interval in the history of Egypt. They presented themselves as Pharaohs, using the traditional titles with the names composed of the god Ra. At the end of the Average Empire there exist proofs of the existence of a great number of "Asian" in the Egyptian society, assimilated.

In Palestine there was lived the period of big strengthened cities and military camps. According to has been said it was the epoch of major prosperity that knew the zone up to the Roman epoch. This way, the northeast of Egypt had stayed under Palestinian domination.

As in Egypt in the transition of the dynasty XII to the XIII, do not appreciate signs of discontinuity. Some fortresses show signs of clashes, though it is very difficult to affirm if it is a question of assaults of the forces loshes Nubians, of local clashes (fruit of a confused situation) or of Egyptian invaders of the New Empire.

Kerma's court was rich and the recollections of Egypt will give the tone of the civilized life. In the high Nubia an intense commercial activity developed with Egypt during the Medium Empire; though there is ignored the benefit that they were obtaining the Nubians. The rich classic phase of Kerma's cultures seems to have coincided with the government of the hicsos in the north.

During this epoch, the kings of Cush had the opportunity to obtain the monopoly of the Nubian gold. The political influence of Kerna's leaders cannot be determined of precise form on the part of the archaeology. It is necessary to add another element to the complex situation of the Low Nubia and Egypt: the immigration and accession of the peoples of the desert which culture is known with Pau-grave's name.

The reasons of this immigration are known, as well as his effects in the long term. The culture of the Pau-grave did not preserve its identity beyond the beginning of the New Empire, though there do not exist proofs that indicate that its representatives were submitted by the hostility of the High Egypt. It is evident that the final phase of the dynasty XIII and the period of the hicsos was complex and full of events in the Low Nubia. In the North of Egypt was produced fragmentation of the cities, overstocked of inhabitants due to the immigration and the power in hands of a foreign power, Cush's kingdom.

A stage of weakness in Egypt that began a period of development and prosperity in Palestine and Nubia, so that for once the Egyptians were victims of the political initiative and of the cultural achievements of other peoples. Both kingdoms were destroyed simultaneously in a period of conflicts initiated by Kanose, last Pharaoh of the dynasty XVII and continued by his successors of the dynasty XVIII. The definitive success of the Theban revolt will not be reached up to the reigns of the New Empire. It does not limit to recovering the control of the territory dominated during the Average Empire, but it was converted into conquest and the attempt of control of the countries wherefrom there had their origins the kings of Cush and the foreign kings. With the exception of the dynasty of the hicsos the roots of the historical change seem to be situated inside Egypt, in the political maat, particularly in the relations between the Pharaoh, the nobles of his court and the most ambitious men of the provinces. Though the Nile has a regime different of the system Tigris-Eúfrates, it would have possessed also the aptitude to produce an agricultural surplus, once satisfied the needs of the population.

The bureaucracy is a fundamental factor in the first civilizations and in Egypt. It arose to satisfy the ambitions of the first Pharaohs. The religious foundations had a fundamental role in the economy. An examination thoroughly of the history of the Egypt of this period suggests the appearance of a political dichotomy in the epochs in which did not exist a strong and centralized government. In these periods the country tended to be divided in two part at the same time: delta and the seven or eight nomos more north of the High Egypt on the one hand and the rest of the High Egypt for other one. The following step in the north was the successive fragmentation in cities to reach a model with a hierarchy of authorities between them. That included a nominal capital in Memphis or in another place of the North, whereas at the end of the Ancient Empire they were the provincial governors of the High Empire who began to compete for the resources with the court.

Testimonies of very different nature have allowed affirming that during the empires Ancient and Medium there took place a series of important variations, so much in the seasonal rainfalls on Egypt as in the levels of flood of the Nile. From the period that continues at the end of the Ancient Empire, there were a very important number of the ancient references to situations of hunger in the High Egypt.

There takes place a decadence of the official culture after the dynasties VI and VII. The fact was produced in a period of weakness of the monarchy, and joined with two periods of irregularities of the Nile, they can constitute a proof of the existence of groups of individuals before which the power of the monarchs was obliged to yield.

The absolute Egyptian chronology is of an enormous help for the system of radiocarbon and other methods of date in the reconstruction of the ancient history of the northeast and of this of Africa in his set. The political, social and economic changes inside Egypt and the chronology are reflected with all intensity in the archaeological information, which often show aspects of these historical phenomena to which the historical sources never refers.

During the period 1552-644 BC. Egypt generated a great quantity of information, all of them very varied, capable of be analysed by the historians.

There abound the temples of different classes. All the dead men were buried in cemeteries. A wide spectrum of socio-economic strata and of pre-pharaohs is reflected in the remains of cities of bigger size. The Egyptians believed that a god had fixed the fundamental character of their political, economic and cultural system previously. The idealism that dominates in the ancient texts has a great theoretical importance. One of the methods to know his history is the epigraphy: the writing in stone.

1.5 The political evolution.

1.5.1 Period tinita. (The first half of the III millennium to. C).

- Unification of High and Low Egypt for the Pharaoh Menes. I dynasty (3000 to. C) in Memphis.

- Theocratic monarchy at the head of which was the Pharaoh (king - god).

- One who intercedes between the gods and the men; person in charge of the order of the world.

- Judge, priest and chief of the army.

- High employees were existing: priests, judges, treasurers, and military men...

- Burials in mastabas.

1.5.2 Ancient empire (the second half of the III millennium to. C).

- Crystallization of the civilization forged in the previous epoch.

- Brilliance of the figure of the king - god, demonstrated in the pyramids.

- Egyptian influence in Nubia and Sinai, in search of copper, gold and precious(beautiful) stones.

1.5.3 The first intermediate period (Final III millennium- beginning II millennium to. C).

- Economic problems, power of little gentlemen, central power weak, lacking in resources, troops and power.

- Invasion of the Bedouin peoples of the north and revolt of the people(village) against the gentlemen.

- One begins to doubt the divine character of the Pharaoh.

1.5.4 Medium empire. (The first half of the II millennium to. C).

- Unification of the empire by means of tebans princes. The capital was in Tebas.

- Strong centralization and absolutist power. The employees were residing in Tebas.

- It colonise the Low Nubia and the relations are intensified with The Lebanon and Palestine.

1.5.5 The second intermediate period. (Middle of the II millenium to. C).

- New political division of Egypt.

- Invasion of the hicsos that introduced the car drawn by horses.

- His princes govern Tebas weakly.

1.5.6 New empire (The Second half of the II millenium to. C).

- Expulsion of the hicsos for the tebans kings about 1540 to. C.

- Annexation of the fourth cataract of the Nile to insure the supply of the caravans.

- Annexation of Syria and Palestine, alliances with the Asian powers.

- Enrichment of the Amon's priestly caste that was opposed to the royalty.

- Amenofis IV's religious revolution (Akenatón) that it(he,she) separated of the power to Amón's caste and imposed the monotheism with Atón.

- After Akenatón's death, the situation returned to the normality.

- These facts gave place to the loss of the hegemony in the exterior.

- Ramsés II try to restore this power by means of the alliance with the Hittites.

1.5.7 Third intermediate period (Final II millennium-middle I millennium to. C).

- Internal division provoked by Amón's caste.

- A great priest assumed the royal power. Only in Tebas.

- The country was impoverished considerably.

- Unification done by the Ethiopians, which were converted into Pharaohs.

- The unit lasted slightly due to the invasion asiria, the saita authority and the Persian invasion.

1.5.8 The socio-economic structure.

- Agricultural base (cereal) based on the motive force of the animals.

- The rise of the river was waited to sow the seeds.

- Bovine cattle, ovine, pork and fowls.

- The hunt was a sport of rich, and ranchers with fishhooks and harpoons practised the fishing.

- Artisans as goldsmiths, carpenters, bakers, butchers and brewers.

- Trade of interchange of products using the Nile to sail.

- Cereal was exported and wood of the Lebanon was imported, lapis lazuli.

- The Pharaoh was in the top of the social pyramid, after priests, military men and employees.

- The rest was living precariously, giving the same thing that they were free or slaves.

1.5.9 The Egyptian religion.

- The Egyptian culture was eminently religious.

- The Pharaoh was the god on the land, intermediary between gods and men.

- Only the priests could enter the temples.

- There was practised popular religion that ended in magic.

- So much the official religion since the popular one they were practising the worship to the animals.

- Special relevancy of the area of the dead men.

- The tombs were a form of prestige

- Because of it, they were full of food, jewels, statues and figures that were acting as workers.

2 Israel's state.

Towards 973 BC, the Aramaic initiated an offensive against diverse cities, which it) finished with the capture of several of them, though Hamat, one of the most important of the country, would resist one more century. From the XII century, it was constituted in a kind of federation of 12 tribes, to similarity of the Greek, though joined because of their religion. It was more a sacred league. They did not constitute a state, since they were lacking administration, capital and central government.

2.1 The judges

The judges practised the authority. They were a few men who were standing out on the others and they tried to face to the threats of the country. Their authority neither was permanent nor was spreading generally to all the tribes, what none could obtain the union of all of them. Thanks to these men, there was a balance with other countries of the zone. This balance was broken because of the Philistine threat, which did that Israel was advancing in every sense to a top level. They belong to the peoples of the sea culture, which were pushed back by Egypt. They established themselves on the coast of Canaan and they strengthened in the nuclei of Gaza, Gath and Ascalón. They spread towards the Hebrew zone without finding too much resistance. This invasion made appear Israel's state.

2.2 Saul and David.

The Philistine assault did that a man, Saul, was putting at the head of on his people to liberate it of the enemies. Nevertheless, this monarchy did not go I obtain the formation of a state on having lacked administration, court and capital. In spite of the military victories, the king and his monarchy were not exempt of tensions: it surrounded itself with professional troops breaking the unit with the people and usurped the priestly functions. He do not have respected the heren (total destruction of the booty) what made him fall down in misfortune before Samuel (supreme priest) and God. David entered in Saul’s court as musician to calm the depressions of the monarch. He became important on having conquered Goliath and having put in fugue the Philistines. Because of these actions, Saul began to feel envy of him and David had to flee. For several years, he served to the enemies of Saul, though then he will turn against them. After the battle of the mount Gélboe, where Saul died, David was proclaimed a king, after be demonstrating Isbaal's disability, son of Saul. David conquered Jerusalem from the jebuseos, turned it into his capital and moved there the Ark of the Alliance. Firstly, the Philistines attacked Jerusalem. After the defeat, his power lasted little. Later he conquered the territories of all the tribes that were gravitating about Israel. Finally Soba and Damascus was annexed. After these conquests, his kingdom was spreading from the gulf of Ácaba up to Hamalh's proximities. In the last years of David's reign revolts were produced, as that of Absalom, which ramifications were overcome in Salomon’s reign.

2.3 reigned of salomón.

For his tranquillity, he coordinated agreements with the Egyptians and married the daughter of the Pharaoh. Likewise, he strengthened Jerusalem and the principal cities. He organized and modernized his army, whose number was 1900 cars and 1200 riders approximately. In the commercial aspect, he coordinated important deals with Hiram of Shot and thanks to it could trade with Tarsis (Tartesos), Arabia and the Somali coast. Erion-Geber's port was converted into an important commercial centre.

2.3.1 Interior work.

He tackled big architectural works, between which the temple of Jerusalem stands out. It was an epoch of cultural brilliance. There was done the first history of Israel's origins. The music received a great summit. Because of all the works, the expenses of maintenance of the great army etc ... the economy was weakening. The taxes were increased and it was divided to the country in districts, which produced disunity among the tribes.

A change took place was produced in the society: tensions were provoked between the former shepherds and new rich and well-off commercial. This propitiated the appearance of revolts against the corona.

2.3.2 The schism.

Roboam succeeded to his father. He continued an aggressive politics, which made lose Israel's control, which was separated of his side.

3 Assyria.

Because of the division, all the peoples that had been submitted become free. Assur-dan (934-911) tried to finish with the crisis that his country was suffering. Nevertheless, his fruits were not seen up to the reign of his son Adad-ninari II (934-911). He initiated a process of conquest. He won to Hanigalbal, to the Aramaics. Hit and Zaggu returned to be the frontier ports of long ago. He adopted a new method of assault, turning from the rapid cavalcades of his predecessors, to a constant harassment on a small space, stored there big quotas of troops. The army was converted into a collector of ambulant taxes. Tukulti-Ninurta dealt with the same matters that his father: the oriental zone and north of the country.

3.1 Asurnasipal II's plunders.

From his reign the army Assyrian demonstrated a cruelty without limits. This terror made to the neighbouring kingdoms to not to refuse before him. He extended his conquests in two fronts: Eastward because of the conquest itself, and towards the west, as personal desire, to finish with the power of the Aramaic people.

3.2 The Babylonian renaissance.

The summit Assyrian favoured also to Babylonia. During Nabu-apla-iddina's reign, the nomadic bands of looters were expelled. From then, he led to end an economic politics that would not be late in to give its fruits. There was restored the religious life of the sanctuaries, the centres of worship were repopulated, the urban life was reborn, and place took a summit cultural.

3.3 Aram.

In this epoch, an expansion of Damascus took place towards Palestine (Israel and Judá). In both countries had finished the period of prosperity and they were being plunged in a great crisis. Israel was devastated and Judá was saved thanks to the payment of a rescue. During a certain time the king of Damascus Ben-hadad was an owner of the situation. Everything changed when Acab won king of Israel in Afec. After the victory he signed an alliance to try to contain to a sweeping force that was coming closer: the Assyrians of Salmanasar III

3.4 The Salmanasar III's great project

It was the conquest of the Mediterranean countries. He initiated its invasion in 858 BC His beginning was brilliant; he won everything what faced him. Nevertheless, he did not manage to take the Phoenician cities and his neighbours were joining to face him.

These expeditions show the tactics of expansion asiria. There were using as method a long harassment of the enemy, tactics inherited from Assurdan. In 853 BC. he went to the Syrian - Palestinian zone. In Quaryar he faced the inhabitants of the zone.

The result was uncertain, but it is believed that, on no having been documents that denies it, took place an asiria defeat. After a period of two years of small operations, he directed his forces to Babylonia; where he submitted a revolt of the brother of the king. The he went against the caldeos of Iraq, from whom he wrested an abundant booty.

After other four attempts in the year 841BC. He achieved that all the Mediterranean countries were paying to him taxes, though he could not get hold of Aram. From this moment, the king gave up directing his campaigns in person and moved retired. A few years later, a civil war took place.

3.5 The internal crises and the formation of the empire (827-785).

3.5.1 The civil war (827-822).

It had its crucial years in the last years of the reign of Salmanasar and of his son Shamshi-adad IV, who finished with the revolt of his brother Assur-dannin-apli and of other 27 important cities of the country. The crushing of the revolt cost to the king diplomatic and territorial grants, and that lost the territories of the west of the Euphrates, as well as he had to pay the help to the Babylonians.

3.5.2 Shamshi-adad IV's restoration (821-815).

After these events, he began a period of containment of Nairi's peoples, to which he expelled of his kingdom (821-815). In 814 BC. , he went to Babylonia to take revenge for the humiliation suffered on the occasion of the civil war. He faced the Babylonian army, composed exclusively for mercenaries, and defeated it. On the following year, he did the same trip and defeated in Der the king of Babylonia, whom he made a prisoner. Though there were no brilliant consequences of the victory of the Assyrians, Asiria had a good time of a few years of tranquillity. In 810 Adad-Minari III (810-783) rose to the throne, after a brief regency of his mother Sammuramat. His more important labour was restoring the order in Syria. Due to the difficulties crossed Shamsi-adad there were kingdoms that suspended the sending of taxes. At the same time, they began a process of expansion and of alliances with a view to possible reprisals. In the south a country, Damascus, which submitted to the whole Palestine, making it defenceless. His king Hazael tried to empower of the north to form a great Aram, but his death it prevented. In a period of four years, (806-803) Adab-ninari III came even Philistine, crossing for zones of Syria, Phoenicia, Israel and Edom. Ben-Hadad, son of Hazael had to surrender and to pay to him taxes. He established his frame of operations in the south, concretely in Der and Caldea . He gathered there the treated and was going to fulfil his religious duties in Babylonia as his predecessor had made it.

4 The Phoenician civilization.

In all the zones of the Mediterranean area, you find vestiges of the Phoenician civilization. They were intermediary between cultures taking objects of civilizations that were not travelling to so distant places.

The sacred statements mention a constant relation between Palestine and Phoenicia propitiated by the proximity between them. In Tiro were written a few historical annals transmitted by the Greek historians Menandro and Dion to the Greek civilization. The Roman historian Flavio Josefo wrote an important work on the Jews in which describes the Phoenician civilization. They existed in the zone from 3000 BC.

They are known at first as cananeos. The word Phoenician comes from the Greek Phoenix. They did not have scarcely expansion towards the interior of their territory, because of its narrowness. They were joined in urban accessions, in which the commercial activities had great importance. Biblos, Sidón and Tiro stand out between them. The latter was going the most important, due to the existence of a port.

In these cities there developed a culture and a few religious concrete forms. In them subsisted the ancient tradition of that femininity in the religion. The goddess Astarté was standing out. The gods were intervening in the social life, since demonstrates the foundation of Biblos's city for the god El. The Phoenicians supported a series of contacts with other peoples, mentioned in diverse writings of different places, as Ugarit's city.

In the II millennium Sinúe of Egypt had commercial relations with Phoenicia. They were dependent on Egypt, to whom they had to pay taxes.

With Tutmosis III there was a special interest in the wood (cedars of the Lebanon), important material of construction. In the XIV century, the governor of Biblos, harassed by the Hittites and the hurritas, asks for help the Pharaoh, which shows the subjection to which it was being submitted.

In the year 1295 took place a battle in Kadesh in which Phoenicia remains incorporated into Egypt of an absolute form. The invasion of the peoples of the sea makes eliminate the empire Hittite and the Egyptian suffered their invasion. Hebrew and Philistine culture appears. The Phoenicians are submitted by Israel's people, which they were recovering his independence thanks to the crisis of their oppressors, beginning an expansion towards west. There appears Tarsis's name, which has identified with Tartesos.

According to the chronicles, Cadiz, Gadir, was founded in 1100 (80 years after the fall of Troy), but the found remains are more modern, of the centuries VI, V BC. They bring metals of the trips and expeditions, not for them, but for their clients, the bordering kingdoms.

There exists a recovery of the kingdoms of the region, except Egypt. The brief recovery of Phoenicia with Hiram of Tiro will finish and in the century IX they will have to pay taxes to the Assyrians of Asurnasipal and Salmanasar III. Later they will be invaded by the Assyrian Tiolat-Pisalar. Asarhadon destroys in the century VII Biblos, Sidón and Tiro.

When the neo-Babylonians defeats the Assyrians, (Nabuconodosor) they destroy and devastate the country. With the Persian, Phoenicia and Syria, together with Cyprus, they are organized like satrapies or provinces. This satrapy acquires a new identity, on having constructed the Persian seacoast. This will smooth its situation with the Persian Empire. They took part in the Medical Wars in those who constituted the thickness of the Persian seacoast. Alexander the Great conquered, after a hard resistance, the city of Tiro.

The Phoenician expansion began in the century VIII. Previously it had an epoch of expeditions without accessions, in which the principal rivalry was commercial. With the arrival of the invaders, Phoenicians’ exit takes place to settle in other lands. It is the epoch of the foundation of the colonies, which will be converted into important centres. In these dates, it will begin the Greek settling.

In some cases, they collaborate of pacific form, though sometimes also rivalries and struggles arise. About the VIII century, the Phoenicians initiated a series of interchanges with Tartesos and created a mixed civilization with it. Gradually the control of the Mediterranean went on to hands of the Greeks, to the detriment of the Phoenicians. In the V century, a Phoenician strengthening took place thanks to their collaboration with the Persian. One of his more important colonies was Carthage, founded in the century VIII. The Carthaginian had an aristocratic organization.

They possessed a kind of Senate, with the military chiefs as men of power. An agricultural base existed. It fortified to some sectors of the population. The existence of an army of mercenaries allows the development of the currency as form of payment. They will lead to end an imperialistic expansion and will end for facing Rome. The first news on Tartesos appears in the Bible " Tarsis's ships ", though exists more information on Greek part. Two theories exist:

Firstly) Rich city with metal abundance.

Second) River with " roots of silver ", which had silver in its waters. The first one has prevailed.

It was a big city, as Mycenaean and Mesopotamia. There have not been remains of this city, but there is of a civilization in the south of Spain during the II millennium. It does not have uniformity, but the Cyclopean walls, and the abundance of metal characterize it. Indications of metal interchange are observed during the first millennium.

It is possible to speak more than one horizon of Tartesos that of a city. This horizon spreads up to Extremadura. It is inside the final bronze, being a named Atlantic Bronze. It is believed that the principal economic activity was the cattle, since there have been neither equipment of tillage nor agricultural utensils. They exist a great quantity of myths and legends that reflect this Tartesos's wealth (Argantonio).