Ancient mesopotamia the land between two rivers study guide summary

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Ancient mesopotamia the land between two rivers study guide summary

Mesopotamia

A. The Twin Rivers

group from S & group from N
- 5000 BC
- groups of herders went north from the Arabian Peninsula
- lakes and grasslands had begun to dry up
- peoples from the highlands near present – day Turkey moved south
- poor weather, war & overpopulation
Fertile Crescent:
- headed into the crescent – shaped strip of fertile land
- Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf
- parts of the modern nations of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Syria & Iraq
Mesopotamia:
- ‘land between the rivers’ in Greek
- the eastern part of the Fertile Crescent
- low plain lying between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
- first people to live in Mesopotamia led a nomadic life
Tigris and Euphrates Rivers:
- deposits of silt
- often overflowed onto the plain
- strong floods sometimes swept away whole villages and fields
- never predictable
- water level of the rivers often varied from year to year
Greeks original names
- Tigris = Idiglat
- Euphrates = Buranum
- names that were first used by the inhabitants in prehistoric times & are in their earliest records.
in the Bible
- Tigris = Hiddekel
- Hebrew pronunciation of the river’s authentic name
- Euphrates = Prat
- book of Genesis describes them as two of the four rivers that flowed out of Eden
- Biblical tradition connects Mesopotamian geography with the beginning of the human race.
first built dams and escape channels
- to control the seasonal floodwaters
- constructed canals and ditches
- to bring water to irrigate their fields
irrigation
- required a great deal of labor
- not technically difficult.
- Tigris and Euphrates have built up high levees
- river beds are actually higher than the surrounding plains
- no special technology was required to lift water form the river
- canals dug from the river into the surrounding countryside were simply fed by gravity
- irrigation canals needed frequent digging out as they silted up quickly
- flood damage had to be repaired
- completely new canals had to be dug
- rivers often changed course
need for a central body to organize these vital tasks
- beginning of state formation in Mesopotamia
- labor had to be divided up
- workers had to be fed
- required the collection of food supplied
- efficient redistribution as rations
- farmers were producing food, especially grain crops, in abundance by 5300 BC

B. The Sumerian Civilization

Sumerians:
- 3500 BC
- from either central Asia or Asia Minor
- arrived in Mesopotamia
- settled in the lower part of the Tigris – Euphrates river valley
- known as Sumer
- Sumer became the birthplace of the world’s first cities

1. The Sumerian City – States

early farming villages grew into towns
- many people were able to live in the town without having to farm
- able to work full time as scribes, metalworkers, potters, weavers, or bakers
- able to develop into cities surrounded by farmland
- provided enough food for all the people living there
lacked important resources
- building stone
- construction – grade timber
- minerals, including copper and tin (needed to make bronze), iron, silver, and gold
unique resource of Mesopotamia was bitumen
- natural asphalt that seeped from beds in the ground
- adhesive for bricks, waterproof coating in construction, & cement to create works of art
cities could also trade
- some of their produce for goods which they could not grow or make themselves
- caravans went overland trade routes throughout the Middle East
- ships sailed the Persian Gulf
- timber was from the Zagros Mountains & Lebanon
- copper & tin from Anatolia, the Caucasus, & Iran
- silver from the Taurus Mountains
- gold from Egypt & India
- ships were sailing between Mesopotamia & ports in Bahrain and Oman
- c. fifth millennium BCE
- between Mesopotamia & Indus Valley
- third millennium BCE
- Akkadian language & cuneiform script became tools for international commercial & diplomatic correspondence throughout the ancient Near East
city – state:
- consisted of the city itself and the land surrounding it
- 3000 BC
- formed 12 city – states in the Tigris – Euphrates valley
- population of each city – state ranged from 20,000 to 250,000
early cities in Mesopotamia were city – states
- each city was governed by its own ruler
- surrounded by farmland
- one of these cities would become particularly powerful & rule the other cities around it
- powerful enough to rule all of Mesopotamia
Ur:
- Mesopotamia’s main port
- two harbors built along the Euphrates River
- ships could sail down the river to the Persian Gulf
- city’s merchants traded as far away as India
Uruk:
- built alongside the Euphrates River
- major religious center
- contained two temples
- one dedicated to the god An
- other to the goddess Inanna
- nearly 10,000 people lived in Uruk by 3400 BC

2. Sumerian Government

1) each Sumerian city – state usually governed itself independently
2) secular ruler (lugal) & priest – bureaucrats jointly ruled each city – state
- king & his priests closely supervised farming
- high priest represented the city – state’s deity
3) leaders of several city – states ruled as kings
- 2700 BC
- claimed to rule by divine sanction
- kingships became hereditary
- served as military leader & as the high priest
- governments of the city – states were monarchies & theocracies
- enforced the law and set penalties for law-breakers
- punishments consisted of fines
- did not involve bodily injury or loss of life
- wars between the communities over disputed water rights
- land boundaries enhanced the power of warrior kings
Uruk:
- council of nobles and an assembly of citizens ran political affairs at first
- citizens of each city – state typically chose a military leader from among themselves
- faced threats of foreign invaders
- began to compete for land & water rights

3. Sumer’s Many Deities

practiced a polytheistic religion
- each Sumerian deity presided over a specific natural force
- or over a human activity
each city – state claimed as its own one god or goddess
- its citizens prayed and offered sacrifices
- Sumerians honored all the deities
gods and goddesses as unpredictable
- selfish beings who had little regard for human beings
- if deities became angry
- would cause misfortunes such as floods or famine.
- appease their temperamental gods and goddesses
- priests and priestesses performed religious ceremonies and rituals
humans had little control over their daily lives
could not look forward to happy life after death
- grim underworld
- without light or air
- afterlife where the dead were only pale shadows
An / Anu:
- the highest Sumerian deity was responsible for the seasons
- name literally meant ‘heaven’
- supreme source of authority among the gods, and among men, upon whom he conferred kingship
- dispensed justice and controlled the laws (the me) that governed the universe
- myths name various goddesses as his wife:
- goddess of the earth (Ki / Uras)
- female heavenly counterpart (Antum)
- mother – goddess (Nammu / Ninmah)
- sex – goddess (Inanna / Ishtar) who is sometimes also spoken of as his daughter
Enlil / Ellil:
- god of winds or agriculture
- created the hoe
- second in authority only to An / Anu
- ruled the earth itself
- directed the forces of nature
- bestowed kingship upon the leaders of humankind
- keeper of the Tablet of Destinies
- decreed the fate of gods and men
- cosmic headquarters were based at Nippur
- married to Ninlil /Sud
- children:
- son Nushka
- moon – god Nanna / Sin
- sun – god Utu / Shamash
- weather – god Ishkur / Adad
- love – goddess Inanna / Ishtar
Marduk:
- originally a patron deity of Babylon
- farmer’s god whose symbol was the marru, or spade
- become a national deity & chief god of the Babylonian
- heroic deeds:
- organization of the cosmos and the creation of man
- resuce of the Tablet of Destinies from the Zu – bird
- defense of the moon against the gods who tried to steal its light
- divine champion of good against the forces of evil
- frequently invoked in incantations by petitioners who sought his protection
- first – born son of Enki / Ea
- spouse of Sarpanitum
- father of Nabu: patron of scribes and god of wisdom
- main sanctuary, the Esagila, in the city of Babylon

C. First Mesopotamian Empires

1. Akkadians

semites
- one of the nomadic groups that had migrated from the Arabian Peninsula to the Fertile Crescent
- c. 5000 BC
- established a kingdom called Akkad in northern Mesopotamia
3000 BC
- Sumerians built a number of powerful city states across southern Mesopotamia
- Akkadians were settling & building cities in central Mesopotamia
King Sargon:
- Sargon I
- reigned from c. 2334 to 2279 BC
- founded a new capital, Agade
- immediately launched a military campaign of expansion
- conquered Elam, parts of Syria and Anatolia, and united the independent city – states of southern Mesopotamia
- conquests united all of the city – states of Mesopotamia in one empire
- predated the empire of the Egyptian New Kingdom by more than 800 years
- world’s first empire
began to use the Akkadian language instead of Sumerian
- Akkadians adopted various Sumerian religious & farming practices
Akkadian Empire disintegrated
- after successful rule of his grandson
- collapsed under the impact of internal conflict & invasion by the Gutians
period of revival of the Sumerian city – state system
- c. 2193 BC
Ur emerged as the dominant power in the region

2. Third Dynasty of Ur

a) King Ur – Nammu

former military governor to Utuhegal
- declared himself a divine ruler
- reigned from c. 2112 to 2095 BC
transformed Ur into an empire
- occupying Uruk & taking control of most of the Akkadian territories
- reunited the Sumerian cities
- established absolutist rule through innovative administrative reforms
- maintained law & order by forcibly deporting rebellious subjects
Urnammu’s law code:
- first of its kind
- distinct advance in the field of law and jurisprudence
- allowing monetary recompense for damages
- focusing on social and economic justice

b) King Shulgi

Ur – Nammu’s son
- reigned from c. 2095 to 2047 BC
created an empire
- controlled the whole of Mesopotamia.
- overthrown c. 2004 BCE

c) Ur Dynasty

provided Mesopotamia a century of peace & prosperity
- implementing political stability
- state – controlled economy
- major public – works projects
- culture flourished
- scribal schools evolved into major centers of learning
- orally transmitted myths & legends were set down in written form
Ur’s primacy ended
- 2004 BC
- rebellious Elamites
- from south – west Iran
- destroyed the capital city
- took captive King Ibbi – Sin

3. Kingdom of Ebla

kingdom located in N. Syria
fought unsuccessfully against Sargon
- control of the Euphrates River trade
- overland trade that passed between Egypt and Mesopotamia
- made Elba wealthy & powerful
- controlled a number of neighboring towns
- exacted tribute from these towns
Sargon’s grandson captured Ebla
- burned the royal archives
- fire did not destroy the thousands of clay tablets stored there
- tablets have convinced historians that highly developed Semitic civilizations prospered in that area of Syria earlier than previously believed
kings of Elba
- elected for seven – year terms
- political role & looked after the welfare of the poor
- could be removed by a council if they failed
Ebla declined
- 2000 BC
- eventually was destroyed by the Amorites
- a Semitic people from western Syria

4. Hammurabi’s Babylonian Empire

Amorites
- expanded beyond Syria
- military forces poured into Mesopotamia
- in decline after a short period of prosperity under the kings of Ur
- overran many Sumerian centers, including Babylon
- dynasty that they founded at Babylon
- produced a ruler who would dominate Mesopotamia
Hammurabi
- ruled of Babylon from 1792 to 1750 BC
- took control of many other cities in southern Mesopotamia
- 29th year of his reign
- created the first Babylonian empire

- used his might to put down other Mesopotamia rulers
- included the whole of southern Mesopotamia & northern Mesopotamia which had been controlled by the Assyrians
- brought the entire region under his control
reorganized the tax system
ordered local officials to build and repair irrigation canals
organized a strong government
worked to increase the economic prosperity of his people
- Babylon became a major trade center
- merchants from as far away as India and China paid gold and silver for the grain and cloth the Babylonians produced

a) Hammurabi’s Law Code

‘to make justice appear in the land’
Hammurabi collected laws
- various Mesopotamian city – states
created a law code covering the entire region
- consisted of 282 sections
- dealing with most aspects of daily life
stated which actions were considered violations
- assigned a specific punishment for each
- code penalized wrongdoers more severely than did the old Sumerian laws
- ‘an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth’
- instead of fining violators

b) Babylonian Society

from Hammurabi’s code
- a threefold division of Babylonian social classes:
1. awilum
- patrician
- a member of one of the landholding families
- kings, priests, & nobles
2. mushkenum
- plebeian
- citizen who was free but did not possess land
- artisans, small merchants, scribes, & farmers
3. wardum
- slave
- member of society who neither owned land nor was free
classes were not rigidly separated
- patrician could become a plebian
- if he surrendered his land because of debt
- plebian could become a patrician
- if he acquired land
- slave could be granted his freedom
- free citizen in poor financial status could lose his freedom
laws varied
- according to the class of the person offended against
- more severe penalties for assaulting a landowner than for hurting a slave
- most privileged were also held to the highest standard of responsibility under the law
- most slaves had been captured in war or had failed to pay their debts
Babylonian law tended to foster upward social mobility
- member of one class married a member of another
- children born of their marriage would belong to the higher of the two classes
larges parcels of land were always in the hands of the priests & kings
- priests were the servants of the gods
- kings were the gods’ surrogates on earth
- those who held supreme authority also controlled most property & the wealth it produced

c) Decline and Fall

Babylonian Empire declined
- after Hammurabi’s death
- Mesopotamia divided into a number of small states
Hammurabi’s dynasty finally ended
- Hittites raided Babylon in 1595 BC
- people from Asia Minor

5. Kassite Dynasty

Kassite kingdom:
- Babylon & southern Mesopotamia
- tribes of horse – breeding herders
- shared grasslands in the Zagros mountains with the Guti
- spoke an Asian language
- may have been ethnically related to the Hittites and the Hurrians
Kassites successfully invaded & occupied Babylon
- 1500 BC
maintained political control over the region
- exploit its wealth
- roughly nearly five hundred years
provided Babylon a long era of political stability
- marked by peace, prosperity, and cultural stagnation
- readily embraced Babylonian culture
- made only minor contributions of their own
- ended in the late twelfth century when the militant Assyrians absorbed Babylon

6. Assyrian Kingdom

Assyrian kingdom
- north
- main city at Ashur in the valley of the River Tigris
moved their capital to Kalhu
now known as Nimrud
- during 9th century BC
began to expand their kingdom
- gradually took control of all of Mesopotamia
- 650 BC
- under the rule of king Ashurbanipal
- Nineveh as the capital city
- empire was at its greatest extent
- from Mesopotamia across to the Mediterranean Sea and Egypt
Mesopotamia was controlled by the neo-Babylonian empire
- founded in 625 BC
- Babylon
- capital of Chaldean empire
Babylonians & Medes revolted against Assyrian rule
- 612 BC
- attacked all the major Assyrian cities

D. Life in the Fertile Crescent

1. Rulers

Babylonian queens
- often controlled their own royal lands
- had their own royal officials
- actively involved in the economy of their region

2. Learning

Mesopotamian cities were centers of knowledge and learning
Assyrians
- occasionally used a system based on 10
- people used multiplication tables written on clay tablets
- help with mathematical calculations
Babylon
- astronomers studied the night sky and recorded the movement of the moon and planets
Sumerians
- developed a number system based on 60
- started to write down stories about their kings and gods
- c. 2500 BC
- cuneiform tablets containing stories, histories and scientific information were kept in the royal palaces and temples

3. Writing

began in the Sumerian cities
- c. 3200 BC
used to record the collection and distribution of food
first Sumerian writing used pictograms:
- simple pictures which represent objects
pictograms changed into cuneiform:
- a form of writing which used wedge – shapes
- cuneiform symbols represented syllables
- could be complete word, an object or an idea
- more than 600 cuneiform symbols
first cuneiform
- represented the Sumerian language
- Assyrians & Babylonians also wrote their languages down using cuneiform
most of the writing from Mesopotamia is on small clay tablets
- damp clay was formed into a flat tablet, which could be held in one hand
- writer pressed a stylus made from reed, wood or ivory into the clay
- make the cuneiform symbols
- left the tablet in the sun to harden
long time to learn to read & write cuneiform
- over 600 signs to remember
- scribes learnt cuneiform at an edubba:
- ‘tablet house’
cuneiform was used in Mesopotamia for over 3000 years
- last known use is a second – century AD Babylonian astronomy text

4. Epic of Gilgamesh

Babylonian scholars produced the world’s first epic poem
- shares many similarities with that told in the Bible by the Hebrews
it speaks of the human condition:
- love & loss
- striving & failure
- innocence & regret
- boundless dreams & reality’s cruel limits
traditionally divided into chapters (tablets)
- each fills the surface of a single clay document
tale is incomplete
- only 80 percent of the story survives:
- 575 of its original 3,000 or so lines are lost
- plot is riddled with holes
focused on the heroic quest for immortality by the hero, Gilgamesh
- king of Uruk
- c. 2800 - 2700 BC
- fifth king to rule Uruk after the legendary Great Flood
- actual deeds:
- conquest of Kish
- construction of Uruk’s great walls
- a man ‘2/3 divine and 1/3 mortal,’ as the story goes, who ‘probed the depths of existence… and finally found wisdom.’
‘standard version’ of the epic has been pieced together
- remains of some 70 clay ‘manuscripts’ found in Mesopotamia
- most from the seventh century BCE
- library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh
- one tradition attributes its authorship to a scholar from Uruk named Sinleqqiunninni
- lived in the 13th century BCE
- fragments exist of an even earlier version of the text
- dating back to the Old Babylonian period c. 1800 – 1600 BCE
- older story written in Sumerian of individual heroic episodes that later were integrated into a single grand design transcribed into Akkadian

5. Architecture

most Mesopotamian buildings
- built using timber & mud bricks
- bricks were made from river mud
- shaped & dried in the sun
- mud – brick walls were plastered & whitewashed
some houses in the cities were two stories high
- built facing into a central courtyard
city also contained the royal palaces, temples, workshops, shops & schools
high walls were built around the cities
- to protect them from floods & attack
most important buildings in a city (royal palace) were decorated with sculptures
- walls were probably painted

6. Ziggurats

some Ancient Mesopotamian temples were built on top of tall, stepped structures
- ziggurats
- remains of 19 ziggurats have so far been identified in Mesopotamia
built in layers of mud bricks
- rose up in square or rectangular platforms to the sacred shrine at the top
- each platform was smaller than the one below
- long ramps or flights of stairs were used to climb up from one platform to the next
relgious rituals
- performed by priests & priestesses
- at the top of a ziggurat
- in honor of the god
ziggurat was surrounded by a sacred area
- pathway led to the royal palace for ceremonial processions between the two buildings.
first ziggurats
- built by King Ur – Nammu
- reigned from c. 2112 to 2095 BC
- Sumerian cities of Ur, Eridu, Nippur and Uruk
Ur
- dedicated to the moon god Nanna
- shrine for the god was built at the top
Babylon
- ziggurat dedicated to the Mesopotamian god Marduk
- may have been built about 1750 BC
- Nebuchadnezzar II
- reigned form 605 to 562 BC
- it had eight platforms of bricks
- temple for Marduk on the summit
- where the Babylonians believed the god slept at night
- ziggurat was so tall
- had benches halfway up
- people to rest on during the climb up the ramps
- linking the different platforms
Dur – Sharrukin
- built by the Assyrians c. 710 BC
- possibly had a spiral ramp leading to the top
- each platform of bricks painted a different color

7. Later History

Neo – Babylonian empire
- fell to the Persians in 539 BC
- Persian king Cyrus entered Babylon
- made Mesopotamia part of the Achaemenid Persian empire
Persian empire
- later conquered by the Macedonian ruler Alexander
- made Mesopotamia part of his empire
- Alexander’s death
- 323 BC
- empire was divided up amongst his generals
- Mesopotamia was ruled by the Seleucid dynasty founded by Seleucus
Parthian king Mithradates I took control of Mesopotamia
- 141 BC
- briefly lost control of Mesopotamia
- invaded by the Romans
- AD 115
- returned to the Parthians
- by the Roman emperor Hadrian
- AD 117
empire was overthrown by the Sasanian king Ardashir
- AD 224 – 226
- ruled by Sasanian kings until AD 637
- Muslim Arabs invaded the Sasanian empire
- Mesopotamia became part of the Islamic empire
Mesopotamia was part of the Turkish empire ruled by the Ottoman dynasty
- AD 1534 – 1918
most of Mesopotamia is in the country of Iraq
- capital city at Baghdad, in central Mesopotamia

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