WEBVTT

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- [Instructor] In the next
few videos, we're gonna do

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a very high-level overview
of ancient history.

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We're literally going to try
to cover 3,000 years of history

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in a handful of videos.

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And we're going to focus on

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not all of the history in the world,

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and it's worth noting that
there's going to be history

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in North and South America
that we're not gonna talk about

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in this video, history in
Africa or parts of Africa

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that we're not going to
talk about in this video,

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parts of Europe, parts of the Far East,

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but we're gonna focus
mainly on the Middle East.

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So, this yellow line, this is going to be

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the historical timeline for ancient Egypt.

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So, that is Egypt.

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We're talking about that
area right over there.

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This green timeline right over here,

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you could view this as Judea.

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We could also include,
we could include Judea,

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which is where modern-day
Israel, Palestine.

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If we're talking about Lebanon,

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then we could include
Phoenicia right over there.

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So, I'll just write Judea.

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Judea.

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That's a little hard to read.

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Judea.

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This blue and red and
white line right over here,

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this will be Mesopotamia.

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So, this will be Mesopotamia.

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We talk a little bit about
that in another video,

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the area between or around the
Tigris and Euphrates River,

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mainly in modern-day Iraq,
that region right over there.

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So, if we say this is
Judea, this is Mesopotamia.

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And we will also touch a
little bit later on Persia,

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which is that area there.

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The ancient Greece.

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We're gonna talk a little bit
about Rome, about Carthage,

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and a little bit about the Indus Valley,

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the Indus Valley civilizations,

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which is in now modern-day Pakistan.

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So, with that geographic bearing,

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and this is a line for, I'll
call this the Indus Valley.

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Or Indus Valley, or I could say India.

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And, obviously, India's much more

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than just the Indus Valley.

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And even this line over
here, that's China,

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although I'm not gonna go much
into that into this video.

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So, let's start about 5,000 years ago.

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And there were already people

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in all of the regions that I talk about,

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but where I'm really highlighting

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is where you start to have
significant empires develop.

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And I'll start in Egypt,
where you have the Pharaoh,

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you have King Menes.

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He's able to unify Upper and Lower Egypt.

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And it's a little counter-intuitive;

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Upper Egypt is actually
south of Lower Egypt,

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and that's because the Nile
River forms further South

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and then it flows northward.

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And so, he's able to unify
Upper and Lower Egypt,

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Upper's off the map here,
into the Egyptian civilization

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that we often associate
with ancient Egypt.

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And it is a very, very, very
long-lived civilization.

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And this is right at around the same time

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you have folks living in
Mesopotamia, you have the Acadians.

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We're going into deep history now,

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so we don't know exactly what was going on

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in the Indus Valley,

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but we believe that there
were people there as well,

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and there were people
many, many other places.

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But now, let's fast-forward.

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We're gonna go about 500 years.

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And we associate ancient
Egypt with the pyramids,

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and, relatively speaking,
the pyramids were built

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fairly early in the
history of ancient Egypt.

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They were built about 2500 BCE,

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or so we're talking about
4,500-4,600 years ago

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was the time that,
especially the most famous,

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the Great Pyramid of Giza was built.

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But now, let's fast-forward even more.

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And in this narrative
that I'm gonna talk about

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in this video, I'm going to
introduce some characters

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from the Old Testament.

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And a lotta the stories
from the Old Testament,

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they have bases in
history, but some of them,

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the historical evidence isn't as clear.

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But I'm gonna include it

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because it's so much a
part of Judeo-Christian,

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Islamic, Western, and
not just Western culture

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that I think it gives us
an interesting bearing

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and, frankly, a lotta the
stories from the Old Testament

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are just really fascinating stories.

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So now, let's fast-forward to 1700 BCE.

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And even though that seems like
a very, very long time ago,

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and it was, it's nice to get our bearings.

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Because in 1700 BCE, and we're
gonna talk about Hammurabi,

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who lived in, who ruled over
Babylon, the Babylonian Empire.

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So, Hammurabi right over here in Babylon,

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famous for the Code of Hammurabi.

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He codified a series of laws.

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We believe Abraham grew up at
around the same time in Ur.

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And Abraham, we believe
that he was coincident

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or maybe came a little bit after Hammurabi

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because a lotta the Old Testament

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seems to at least be inspired

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by some of what we see
in Hammurabi's Code.

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And it's worth noting that

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even though this seems
like a long time ago,

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around 1700 BCE, the time of Hammurabi,

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and it turns a little white here

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'cause this is where the Babylonians

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become one of the dominant
empires in Mesopotamia,

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even though it seems like a long time ago,

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it's worth noting that
in the time of Hammurabi

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and in the time of Abraham,

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the pyramids were already close
to, what, 700-800 years old.

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So, they already would've
viewed the pyramids

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as a very, very old thing.

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But if we go with roughly the year 1700

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for about the time of Abraham,

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he goes to what becomes Judea

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and his tribe becomes established there

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and then ends up, that's
where I have this line

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going from Mesopotamia to Judea,

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and we kinda see the
established Judea here.

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And once again, they're
not the first people there.

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You had the Canaanites,
you had the Phoenicians,

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you had many other folks in this region,

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but this is interesting because it relates

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to the Old Testament that
many folks are familiar with.

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And then you have the Old,
so this is around 1700.

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Let me write this.

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This is 1700 BCE.

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And once again, I'll put approximately.

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And then you go a few hundred years

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and there isn't a lot of
historical basis here,

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but based on the Old
Testament, the story of Joseph,

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Joseph going to Egypt
and becoming the vizier

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for the Pharaoh and
then his family coming,

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Joseph, who is Abraham's grandson,

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according to the Old Testament,
that story happens around,

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and once again, this is not
established well historically

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and I encourage you to look up

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and see if you can find evidence yourself

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of when folks think this
is, but the best evidence,

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if this happened, the
best evidence I've seen

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is it's around 1500
BCE, the story of Joseph

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and the migration of the Jewish people,

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or a significant chunk
of the Jewish people,

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to Egypt, where they get enslaved.

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And that enslavement is from 1500,

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they get enslaved by the Pharaoh, 1500,

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to approximately 1200 BCE.

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And so, that story, you go all the way

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from Abraham through Joseph,
this is in the Old Testament,

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this happens in Genesis,

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and then we get to the story of Moses,

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where he sets his people
free, the story of Exodus

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and the Jews are able
to go back to Jerusalem.

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Moses leads them, parts the Red Sea,

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according to the Old Testament,

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and there established
the kingdom of Jerusalem

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where you have the famous kings,

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King Saul, then King
David, then King Solomon;

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Solomon, who famous for
building the first temple.

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And now, since I'm already
close to the 10-minute mark,

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I'll leave you there,
because we've already covered

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about 2,000 years of history (laughs)

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in about eight minutes.

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In the next video, we're
gonna go from about 1,000 BCE

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to the Roman Empire
and the birth of Jesus.