Mesopotamia "land
between the rivers" (Aramaic:
ܒܝܬ ܢܗܪܝܢ "Bet Nahrain", Arabic: بلاد الرافدين translit: "Bilad
Al-Rafidayn") is a name for the
Tigris
–Euphrates region in the
eastern Mediterranean
, largely corresponding to Iraq
, as
well as northeastern Syria
, some parts
of southeastern Turkey
, and some
parts of the Khūzestān Province
of southwestern Iran
.
Widely
considered as the cradle of
civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia
included Sumerian, Akkadian
, Babylonian and Assyrian
empires. In the
Iron Age, it was
ruled by the
Neo-Assyrian Empire
and
Neo-Babylonian Empire, and
later conquered by the
Achaemenid
Empire. It mostly remained
under
Persian rule until the 7th century
Islamic conquest of the
Sassanid Empire.
Etymology
The regional toponym Mesopotamia (compounded from Greek
mesos [μέσος] 'middle' and
potamos [ποταμός]
'river', traditionally translated "Land between the Rivers") was
coined in the
Hellenistic period without
any definite
boundaries, to refer to a broad
geographical area and probably used by
the
Seleucids. The term
biritum/birit
narim corresponded to a similar geographical concept and
coined at the time of the
Aramaicization of
the region, in the 10th century BCE. It is however widely accepted
that early Mesopotamian societies simply referred to the entire
alluvium as
kalam in Sumerian (lit. "land"). More
recently terms like "
Greater
Mesopotamia" or "
Syro-Mesopotamia"
have been adopted to refer to wider geographies corresponding to
the Near East or Middle East. The later euphemisms are
Eurocentric terms attributed to the region in
the midst of various 19th century Western encroachments.
History
Overview map of ancient
Mesopotamia
The urban history of Mesopotamia begins with the emergence of urban
societies in northern Iraq in the early
6th millennium BCE.
A cultural continuity and spatial homogeneity for this entire
historical geography ("the Great Tradition") is popularly assumed,
though the assumption is problematic. Mesopotamia housed some of
the world's most ancient states with highly developed social
complexity.
The region was famous as one of the four
riverine civilizations where writing was first invented, along with the Nile valley in Egypt
, the
Indus Valley in the
Indian Subcontinent and Yellow River
valley in China
.
Mesopotamia housed historically important
cities such as Uruk
, Nippur
, Nineveh
, and
Babylon
as well as
major territorial states such as the city of Ma-asesblu, Akkadian kingdom,
Third Dynasty of Ur, and
Assyrian empire. Some of the
important historical Mesopotamian leaders were
Ur-Nammu (king of Ur),
Sargon (who established the Akkadian
Kingdom),
Hammurabi (who established the
Old Babylonian state), and
Tiglath-Pileser I (who established the
Assyrian Empire).
"Ancient Mesopotamia" begins in the late
6th millennium BC, and ends with either
the rise of the
Achaemenid
Persians in the 6th century BCE or
the
Islamic conquest of
Iraq in the 7th century CE. This long period may be divided as
follows:
Trends in Mesopotamian History
Dates are approximate for the second and third millennia BCE;
compare
Chronology
of the Ancient Near East.
Geography
Mesopotamia encompasses the land between the Euphrates and Tigris
rivers, both of which have their headwaters in the mountains of
Armenia in modern Turkey. Both rivers are fed by numerous
tributaries, and the entire river system drains a vast mountainous
region. Overland routes in Mesopotamia usually follow the Euphrates
because the banks of the Tigris are frequently steep and difficult.
The climate of the region is semi-arid with a vast desert expanse
in the north which gives way to a 6,000 square mile region of
marshes, lagoons, mud flats, and reed banks in the south. In the
extreme south the Euphrates and the Tigris unite and empty into the
Persian Gulf.
The arid environment which ranges from the northern areas of rain
fed agriculture, to the south where irrigation of agriculture is
essential if a surplus
energy returned on energy
invested (EROEI) is to be obtained.
This irrigation is
aided by a high water table and by melted snows from the high peaks
of the Zagros
Mountains
and from the
Armenian
cordillera
, the source of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers,
that give the region its name. The usefulness of irrigation
depends upon the ability to mobilize sufficient labor for the
construction and maintenance of canals, and this, from the earliest
period, has assisted the development of urban settlements and
centralized systems of political authority. Agriculture throughout
the region has been supplemented by nomadic pastoralism, where tent
dwelling nomads move herds of sheep and goats (and later camels)
from the river pastures in the dry summer months, out into seasonal
grazing lands on the desert fringe in the wet winter season. The
area is generally lacking in building stone, precious metals and
timber, and so historically has relied upon long distance trade of
agricultural products to secure these items from outlying areas. In
the marshlands to the south of the country, a complex water-borne
fishing culture has existed since pre-historic times, and has added
to the cultural mix.
Periodic breakdowns in the cultural system have occurred for a
number of reasons. The demands for labour has from time to time led
to population increases that push the limits of the ecological
carrying capacity, and should a period of climatic instability
ensue, collapsing central government and declining populations can
occur. Alternatively, military vulnerability to invasion from
marginal hill tribes or nomadic pastoralists have led to periods of
trade collapse and neglect of irrigation systems. Equally,
centripetal tendencies amongst city states has meant that central
authority over the whole region, when imposed, has tended to be
ephemeral, and localism has fragmented power into tribal or smaller
regional units. These trends have continued to the present day in
Iraq.
Language and writing
The earliest known written
language in
Mesopotamia was the
Sumerian, an
agglutinative language isolate. Semitic dialects were
also spoken in early Mesopotamia along with Sumerian. Later a
Semitic language,
Akkadian, came to be the dominant
language, although Sumerian was retained for
administration,
religious,
literary, and
scientific purposes. Different varieties
of Akkadian were used until the end of the Neo-Babylonian period.
Then
Aramaic, which had already become
common in Mesopotamia, became the official provincial
administration language of the
Achaemenid Persian Empire. Akkadian fell into disuse,
but both it and Sumerian were still used in
temples for some centuries.
In Early Mesopotamia (around mid 4th millennium BC)
cuneiform script was invented. Cuneiform
literally means "wedge-shaped", due to the triangular tip of the
stylus used for impressing signs on wet clay. The standardized form
of each cuneiform sign appear to have been developed from
pictograms. The earliest texts (7 archaic
tablets) come from the
E-anna super
sacred precinct dedicated to the goddess Inanna at Uruk, Level III,
from a building labeled as Temple C by its excavators.
The early
logographic system of
cuneiform script took many years to master. Thus only a limited
number of individuals were hired as
scribes
to be trained in its reading and writing. It was not until the
widespread use of a
syllabic script was
adopted under Sargon's rule that significant portions of
Mesopotamian population became literate. Massive archives of texts
were recovered from the archaeological contexts of Old Babylonian
scribal schools, through which literacy was disseminated.
Literature and mythology
In Babylonian times there were libraries in most towns and temples;
an old
Sumerian proverb averred that "he who
would excel in the school of the scribes must rise with the dawn."
Women as well as men learned to read and write, and for the
Semitic Babylonians, this involved
knowledge of the extinct
Sumerian
language, and a complicated and extensive syllabary.
A considerable amount of Babylonian literature was translated from
Sumerian originals, and the language of religion and law long
continued to be the old agglutinative language of Sumer.
Vocabularies, grammars, and interlinear translations were compiled
for the use of students, as well as commentaries on the older texts
and explanations of obscure words and phrases. The characters of
the syllabary were all arranged and named, and elaborate lists of
them were drawn up.
There are many Babylonian literary works whose titles have come
down to us. One of the most famous of these was the
Epic of Gilgamesh, in twelve books,
translated from the original Sumerian by a certain
Sin-liqe-unninni, and arranged upon an
astronomical principle. Each division contains the story of a
single adventure in the career of
Gilgamesh. The whole story is a composite product,
and it is probable that some of the stories are artificially
attached to the central figure.
Philosophy
- Further information: Babylonian literature:
Philosophy
The origins of
philosophy can be traced
back to early Mesopotamian
wisdom, which
embodied certain philosophies of life, particularly
ethics, in the forms of
dialectic,
dialogs,
epic poetry,
folklore,
hymns,
lyrics,
prose, and
proverbs. Babylonian
reasoning and
rationality developed beyond
empirical observation.
The earliest form of
logic was developed by
the Babylonians, notably in the rigorous
nonergodic nature of their
social systems. Babylonian
thought was
axiomatic and is
comparable to the "ordinary logic" described by
John Maynard Keynes. Babylonian thought
was also based on an
open-systems ontology which is compatible with
ergodic axioms. Logic was employed to some extent in
Babylonian astronomy and
medicine.
Babylonian thought had a considerable influence on early
Greek philosophy and
Hellenistic philosophy. In
particular, the Babylonian text
Dialog of Pessimism
contains similarities to the
agonistic
thought of the
sophists, the
Heraclitean doctrine of contrasts, and the
dialectic and dialogs of
Plato, as well as a precursor to the
maieutic Socratic
method of
Socrates.
The Phoenician
philosopher Thales had also
studied in Babylonia.
Science and technology
Astronomy
The Babylonian astronomers were very interested in studying the
stars and sky, and most could already predict eclipses and
solstices. People thought that everything had some purpose in
astronomy. Most of these related to religion and omens.
Mesopotamian astronomers worked out a 12 month calendar based on
the cycles of the moon. They divided the year into two seasons:
summer and winter. The origins of astronomy as well as
astrology date from this time.
During the 8th and 7th centuries BC, Babylonian astronomers
developed a new approach to astronomy. They began studying
philosophy dealing with the ideal nature of the
early
universe and began employing an
internal
logic within their predictive
planetary systems. This was an important contribution to astronomy
and the
philosophy of science
and some scholars have thus referred to this new approach as the
first
scientific revolution. This new approach to
astronomy was adopted and further developed in Greek and
Hellenistic astronomy.
In
Seleucid and
Parthian times, the astronomical reports were of a
thoroughly scientific character; how much earlier their advanced
knowledge and methods were developed is uncertain. The Babylonian
development of methods for predicting the motions of the planets is
considered to be a major episode in the
history of astronomy.
The only Babylonian astronomer known to have supported a
heliocentric model of planetary motion was
Seleucus of Seleucia (b. 190
BC). Seleucus is known from the writings of
Plutarch. He supported the heliocentric theory
where the
Earth rotated around its
own axis which in turn revolved around the
Sun.
According to
Plutarch, Seleucus even proved
the heliocentric system, but it is not known what arguments he
used.
Babylonian astronomy was the basis for much
of what was done in Greek and
Hellenistic astronomy, in classical Indian astronomy, in Sassanian, Byzantine and Syrian astronomy,
in medieval Islamic astronomy, and
in Central Asian and Western European astronomy.
Mathematics
The Mesopotamians used a
sexagesimal
(base 60)
numeral system. This is the
source of the current 60-minute hours and 24-hour days, as well as
the 360
degree circle. The Sumerian
calendar also measured weeks of seven days each. This mathematical
knowledge was used in
mapmaking.
The Babylonians might have been familiar with the general rules for
measuring the areas. They measured the circumference of a circle as
three times the diameter and the area as one-twelfth the square of
the circumference, which would be correct if
pi were estimated as 3. The volume of
a cylinder was taken as the product of the base and the height,
however, the volume of the frustum of a cone or a square pyramid
was incorrectly taken as the product of the height and half the sum
of the bases. Also, there was a recent discovery in which a tablet
used
pi as 3 and 1/8
(3.125 for 3.14159~). The Babylonians are also known for the
Babylonian mile, which was a measure of distance equal to about
seven miles (11 km) today. This measurement for distances
eventually was converted to a time-mile used for measuring the
travel of the Sun, therefore, representing time.
Medicine
The oldest Babylonian texts on
medicine
date back to the
Old Babylonian
period in the first half of the
2nd
millennium BC.
The most extensive Babylonian medical text,
however, is the Diagnostic Handbook written by the
physician Esagil-kin-apli of Borsippa
, during the reign of the Babylonian king Adad-apla-iddina
(1069-1046 BC).
Along with contemporary
ancient Egyptian medicine, the
Babylonians introduced the concepts of
diagnosis,
prognosis,
physical examination, and
prescription. In addition, the
Diagnostic Handbook introduced the methods of
therapy and
aetiology and
the use of
empiricism,
logic and
rationality in
diagnosis, prognosis and therapy. The text contains a list of
medical
symptoms and often detailed
empirical
observations along with
logical rules used in combining observed symptoms on the body of a
patient with its diagnosis and
prognosis.
The symptoms and diseases of a patient were treated through
therapeutic means such as
bandages,
cream and
pills.
If a patient could not be cured physically, the Babylonian
physicians often relied on
exorcism to
cleanse the patient from any
curses.
Esagil-kin-apli's
Diagnostic Handbook was based on a
logical set of
axioms and assumptions,
including the modern view that through the examination and
inspection of the symptoms of a patient, it is
possible to determine the patient's
disease,
its aetiology and future development, and the chances of the
patient's recovery.H. F. J. Horstmanshoff, Marten Stol, Cornelis
Tilburg (2004),
Magic and Rationality in Ancient Near Eastern
and Graeco–Roman Medicine, p. 99,
Brill Publishers, ISBN 9004136665.
Esagil-kin-apli discovered a variety of
illnesses and diseases and described their symptoms
in his
Diagnostic Handbook. These include the symptoms for
many varieties of
epilepsy and related
ailments along with their diagnosis and
prognosis.
Technology
Mesopotamian people invented many technologies including metal and
copper-working, glass and lamp making, textile weaving, flood
control, water storage, and irrigation.
They were also one of the first
Bronze
age people in the world. Early on they used copper, bronze and
gold, and later they used iron. Palaces were decorated with
hundreds of kilograms of these very expensive metals. Also, copper,
bronze, and iron were used for armor as well as for different
weapons such as swords, daggers, spears, and
maces.
The
earliest type of pump was the Archimedes screw, first used by Sennacherib, King of Assyria, for the water systems at the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and
Nineveh in the 7th century BC, and later described in more
detail by Archimedes in the 3rd century
BC. Later during the
Parthian or
Sassanid periods, the
Baghdad Battery, which may have been the
first batteries, were created in Mesopotamia.
Religion
Mesopotamian
religion was the first to be
recorded. Mesopotamians believed that the world was a flat disc ,
surrounded by a huge, holed space, and above that,
heaven. They also believed that water was everywhere,
the top, bottom and sides, and that the
universe was born from this enormous sea. In
addition, Mesopotamian religion was
polytheistic.
Although the
beliefs described above were
held in common among Mesopotamians, there were also regional
variations. The Sumerian word for universe is an-ki, which refers
to the god An and the goddess Ki. Their son was Enlil, the air god.
They believed that Enlil was the most powerful god. He was the
chief god of the
Pantheon, as the
Greeks had
Zeus and the Romans had
Jupiter. The Sumerians also posed
philosophical questions, such as: Who are
we?, Where are we?, How did we get here?. They attributed answers
to these questions to explanations provided by their gods.
Holidays, Feasts, and Festivals
Ancient Mesopotamians had ceremonies each month. The theme of the
rituals and festivals for each month is determined by six important
factors:
- The phase of the Moon;
/>waxing Moon = abundance and growth;
/>waning Moon = decline, conservation, and festivals of the
Underworld;
- the phase of the annual agricultural cycle;
- equinoxes and solstices of the solar year;
- the mythos of the City and its divine Patrons;
- the success of the reigning Monarch;
- commemoration of specific historical events (founding, military
victories, temple holidays, etc.)
Primary gods and goddesses
- Anu was the Sumerian god of the sky. He was
married to Ki, but in some other Mesopotamian religions he has a
wife called Uraš. Though he was considered the most important god
in the pantheon, he took a mostly passive role in epics, allowing
Enlil to claim the position as most powerful god.
- Enlil was initially the most powerful god
in Mesopotamian religion. His wife was Ninlil, and his children were Iškur (sometimes), Nanna – Suen,
Nergal, Nisaba,
Namtar, Ninurta
(sometimes), Pabilsag, Nushu, Enbilulu, Uraš Zababa and Ennugi. His position at the top of the pantheon was
later usurped by Marduk and then by Ashur.
- Enki (Ea) god of
Eridu
. He was the god of rain.
- Marduk was the
principal god of Babylon. When Babylon rose to power, the mythologies
raised Marduk from his original position as an agricultural god to
the principal god in the pantheon.
- Ashur was god of the Assyrian empire and
likewise when the Assyrians rose
to power their myths raised Ashur to a position of importance.
- Gula or Utu (in
Sumerian), Shamash (in Akkadian) was the sun
god and god of justice.
- Ereshkigal was goddess of the
Netherworld.
- Nabu was the Mesopotamian god of writing.
He was very wise, and was praised for his writing ability. In some
places he was believed to be in control of heaven and earth. His
importance was increased considerably in the later periods.
- Ninurta was the Sumerian god of war. He
was also the god of heroes.
- Iškur (or Adad) was
the god of storms.
- Erra was probably the god of drought. He is
often mentioned in conjunction with Adad and
Nergal in laying waste to the land.
- Nergal was probably a plague god. He was
also spouse of Ereshkigal.
- Pazuzu, also known as Zu, was an evil god, who stole the tablets of
Enlil’s destiny, and is killed because of
this. He also brought diseases which had no known cure.
Burials
Hundreds of
graves have been
excavated in parts of Mesopotamia, revealing information about
Mesopotamian
burial habits.
In the city of
Ur
, most people were buried in family graves under
their houses (as in Catalhuyuk
), along with some possessions. A few have
been found wrapped in mats and
carpets.
Deceased children were put in big "jars" which were placed in the
family
chapel. Other remains have been found
buried in common city
graveyards. 17
graves have been found with very precious objects in them ; it is
assumed that these were royal graves.
Culture
Music, songs and instruments
Some songs were written for the gods but many were written to
describe important events. Although music and songs amused
kings, they were also enjoyed by ordinary people who
liked to sing and dance in their homes or in the
marketplaces. Songs were sung to children who
passed them on to their children. Thus songs were passed on through
many
generations until someone wrote them
down. These songs provided a means of passing on through the
centuries highly important
information about
historical
events that were eventually passed on to modern
historians.
The
Oud (Arabic:العود) is a small, stringed
musical instrument.
The oldest pictorial record of the Oud dates
back to the Uruk period in
Southern Mesopotamia over 5000 years ago. It is on a
cylinder seal currently housed at the
British Museum and acquired by Dr. Dominique Collon. The
image depicts a female crouching with her instruments
upon a
boat, playing
right-handed.
This instrument appears hundreds of times
throughout Mesopotamian history and again in ancient Egypt from the
18th dynasty onwards in long- and short-neck
varieties.
The oud is regarded as a
precursor to the
European lute. Its name is
derived from the Arabic word العود al-‘ūd 'the wood', which is
probably the name of the tree from which the oud was made. (The
Arabic name, with the definite article, is the source of the word
'lute'.)
Games
Hunting was popular among Assyrian kings.
Boxing and
wrestling
feature frequently in art, and some form of
polo was probably popular, with men sitting on the
shoulders of other men rather than on horses. They also played
majore, a game similar to the sport rugby, but played with a ball
made of wood. They also played a board game similar to
senet and
backgammon, now
known as the "Royal Game of Ma-asesblu."
Family life
The Babylonian marriage market, in the
Royal Holloway College.
Mesopotamia across its history became more and more a
patriarchal society, in which the men
were far more powerful than the women. Thorkild Jacobsen, and
others have suggested that early Mesopotamian society was ruled by
a "council of elders" in which men and women were equally
represented, but that over time, as the status of women fell, that
of men increased. As for schooling, only royal offspring and sons
of the rich and professionals such as scribes, physicians, temple
administrators, and so on, went to school. Most boys were taught
their father's trade or were apprenticed out to learn a trade.
Girls had to stay home with their mothers to learn
housekeeping and
cooking, and to look after the younger children.
Some children would help with crushing grain, or cleaning birds.
Unusual for that time in history, women in Mesopotamia had
rights. They could own
property and, if they had good reason, get a
divorce.
Economy
Sumer developed the first
economy, while the Babylonians developed the
earliest system of
economics, which was
comparable to modern
post-Keynesian economics, but with
a more "anything goes" approach.
Agriculture
The geography of Mesopotamia is such that agriculture is possible
only with irrigation and good drainage, a fact which has had a
profound effect on the evolution of Mesopotamian civilization. The
need for irrigation led the Sumerians and later the Akkadians to
build their cities along the Tigris and Euphrates and the branches
of these rivers. Some major cities, such as Ur and Uruk, took root
on tributaries of the Euphrates, while others, notably Lagash, were
built on branches of the Tigris. The rivers provided the further
benefits of fish (used both for food and fertilizer), reeds and
clay (for building materials).
With
irrigation the food supply in
Mesopotamia was quite rich with the Tigris and Euphrates River
valleys forming the northeastern portion of the Fertile Crescent, which also included the
Jordan
River
valley & that of the Nile. Although land nearer to the rivers was
fertile and good for
crops, portions of land farther from the
water were dry and largely uninhabitable. This is why the
development of
irrigation was very
important for
settlers of Mesopotamia. Other
Mesopotamian
innovations include the
control of water by
dams and the use of
aqueducts.Early settlers of fertile land in
Mesopotamia used
wooden plows to soften the
soil before
planting crops such as
barley,
onions,
grapes,
turnips and
apples. Mesopotamian
settlers were some of the first people to make
beer and
wine.
Although the rivers sustained life, they also destroyed it by
frequent floods that ravaged entire cities. The unpredictable
Mesopotamian weather was often hard on farmers; crops were often
ruined so backup sources of food such as cows and lambs were also
kept.As a result of the skill involved in farming in the
Mesopotamian, farmers did not depend on
slaves to complete farm work for them, with some
exceptions. There were too many risks involved to make slavery
practical (i.e. the escape/
mutiny of the
slave).
Government
The geography of Mesopotamia had a profound impact on the political
development of the region. Among the rivers and streams, the
Sumerian people built the first cities along with irrigation canals
which were separated by vast stretchs of open desert or swamp where
nomadic tribes roamed. Communication among the isolated cities was
difficult and at times dangerous. Thus each Sumerian city became a
city-state, independent of the others and
protective of its independence. At times one city would try to
conquer and unify the region, but such efforts were resisted and
failed for centuries. As a result, the political history of Sumer
is one of almost constant warfare. Eventually Sumer was unified by
Eannatum, but the unification was tenuous
and failed to last as the Akkadians conquered Sumeria in 2331B.C.
only a generation later.
The Akkadian Empire was the first successful empire to last beyond
a generation and see the peaceful succession of kings. The empire
was relatively short lived, as the Babylonians conquered them
within only a few generations.
Kings
The Mesopotamians believed their kings and queens were descended
from the City of
Gods, but, unlike the
ancient Egyptians, they never believed
their kings were real gods. Most kings named themselves “king of
the universe” or “great king”. Another common name was “
shepherd”, as kings had to look after their
people.
Notable Mesopotamian kings include:
Eannatum of Lagash
who founded
the first (short-lived) empire.
Sargon of Akkad who
conquered all of Mesopotamia and created the first empire that
outlived its founder.
Hammurabi founded the first Babylonian empire.
Tiglath-Pileser III founded the
neo-
Assyrian empire.
Nebuchadnezzar was the most powerful
king in the neo-
Babylonian Empire. He was
thought to be the son of the god Nabu. He married the daughter of
Cyaxeres, so the Median and the
Babylonian
dynasties had a familial connection.
Nebuchadnezzar’s name means: Nabo, protect the crown!
Belshedezzar was the last king of Babylonia. He was the son of
Nabonidus whose wife was Nictoris, the daughter of
Nebuchadnezzar.
Power
When
Assyria grew into an
empire, it was divided into smaller
parts, called
provinces.
Each of these were
named after their main cities, like Nineveh, Samaria
, Damascus
and Arpad. They all had
their own
governor who had to make sure
everyone paid their taxes; he had to call up
soldiers to
war, and supply
workers when a
temple was built. He was
also responsible for the laws being enforced. In this way it was
easier to keep control of an empire like Assyria.Although Babylon
was quite a small
state in the
Sumerian era, it grew tremendously throughout
the time of
Hammurabi's rule.
He was known as “the
law maker”, and soon Babylon became one of the main cities in
Mesopotamia. It was later called
Babylonia, which meant "the gateway of the gods."
It also became one of history's greatest centers of learning.
Warfare
As
city-states began to grow, their
spheres of influence overlapped, creating arguments between other
city-states, especially over land and canals. These arguments were
recorded in tablets several hundreds of years before any major war
– the first recording of a war occurred around 3200BCE but was not
common until about 2500BCE. At this point warfare was incorporated
into the Mesopotamian political system, where a neutral city may
act as an arbitrator for the two rival cities. This helped to form
unions between cities, leading to regional states.When
empires were created, they went to war more with
foreign countries.
King Sargon, for example conquered all the
cities of Sumer, some cities in Mari, and then
went to war with northern Syria.Many
Babylonian
palace walls were decorated with
the pictures of the successful fights and the enemy, whether
desperately escaping, or hiding amongst reeds.A king in Sumer,
Gilgamesh, was thought two-thirds god and only one third human.
There were legendary stories and poems about him, which were passed
on for many generations, because he had many adventures that were
believed very important, and won many wars and battles.
Laws
King Hammurabi, as mentioned above, was
famous for his set of laws,
The Code
of Hammurabi(created ca. 1780 BC), which is one of the earliest
sets of laws found and one of the best preserved examples of this
type of document from ancient Mesopotamia. He made over 200 laws
for Mesopotamia.
Architecture
The study of ancient Mesopotamian architecture is based on
available
archaeological evidence,
pictorial representation of buildings and texts on building
practices. Scholarly literature usually concentrates on temples,
palaces, city walls and gates and other monumental buildings, but
occasionally one finds works on residential architecture as well.
Archaeological surface surveys also allowed for the study of urban
form in early Mesopotamian cities.
Most notably known architectural remains
from early Mesopotamia are the temple complexes at Uruk from the
4th millennium BC, temples and
palaces from the Early
Dynastic period sites in the Diyala
River valley such as Khafajah and Tell Asmar, the Third Dynasty of Ur remains at Nippur (Sanctuary
of Enlil) and Ur (Sanctuary
of Nanna), Middle Bronze Age remains at Syrian-Turkish sites of
Ebla
, Mari
, Alalakh
, Aleppo
and
Kultepe
, Late Bronze Age palaces at Bogazkoy
(Hattusha), Ugarit
, Ashur and Nuzi
, Iron Age
palaces and temples at Assyrian (Kalhu
/Nimrud,
Khorsabad
, Nineveh), Babylonian (Babylon), Urartian (Tushpa
/Van Kalesi,
Cavustepe, Ayanis, Armavir
, Erebuni, Bastam) and Neo-Hittite
sites (Karkamis
, Tell
Halaf
, Karatepe
). Houses are mostly known from Old
Babylonian remains at Nippur and Ur. Among the textual sources on
building construction and associated rituals, Gudea's cylinders
from the late
3rd millennium BC
are notable, as well as the Assyrian and Babylonian royal
inscriptions from the
Iron Age.
Houses
The materials used to build a Mesopotamian house were the same as
those used today: mud brick, mud plaster and wooden doors, which
were all naturally available around the city, although wood could
not be naturally made very well during the particular time period
described. Most houses had a square center room with other rooms
attached to it, but a great variation in the size and materials
used to build the houses suggest they were built by the inhabitants
themselves
[3190]. The smallest rooms may not have coincided with
the poorest people; in fact it could be that the poorest people
built houses out of perishable materials such as reeds on the
outside of the city, but there is very little direct evidence for
this.
The palace
The
palaces of the early Mesopotamian elites
were large scale complexes, and were often lavishly decorated.
Earliest examples are known from the
Diyala
River valley sites such as Khafajah and Tell Asmar. These third
millennium BC palaces functioned as a large scale socio-economic
institutions, therefore, along with residential and private
function, they housed craftsmen workshops, food storehouses,
ceremonial courtyards, and often associated with shrines.
For
instance, the so-called "giparu" (or Gig-Par-Ku in Sumerian) at Ur
where the Moon god Nanna's priestesses resided
was a major complex with multiple courtyards, a number of
sanctuaries, burial chambers for dead priestesses, a ceremonial
banquet hall, etc. A similarly complex example of a Mesopotamian
palace was excavated at Mari in Syria, dating from
the Old Babylonian
period.
Assyrian
palaces of the Iron Age, especially at Kalhu/Nimrud
, Dur
Sharrukin/Khorsabad and Ninuwa/Nineveh, have become famous due to the pictorial and
textual narrative programs on their walls, all carved on stone
slabs known as orthostats. These pictorial programs either
incorporated cultic scenes or the narrative accounts of the kings'
military and civic accomplishments. Gates and important passageways
were flanked with massive stone sculpture of apotropaic
mythological figures. The architectural arrangement of these Iron
Age palaces were also organized around large and small courtyards.
Usually the king's throneroom opened to a massive ceremonial
courtyard where important state councils met, state ceremonies
performed.
Massive amounts of ivory furniture pieces were found in many
Assyrian palaces pointing out an intense
trade relationship with North Syrian
Neo-Hittite states at the time. There is also
good evidence that bronze repousse bands decorated the wooden
gates.
Ziggurats
Ziggurats were huge pyramidal temple towers built in the ancient
Mesopotamian valley
and western
Iranian plateau, having
the form of a terraced
step pyramid of
successively receding stories or levels. There are 32 ziggurats
known at, and near, Mesopotamia.
Twenty-eight of them are in Iraq, and four of
them are in Iran.
Notable
Ziggurats include the Great Ziggurat of Ur
near Nasiriyah
, Iraq, the Ziggurat of Aqar Quf
near Baghdad
, Iraq, Chogha Zanbil
in Khūzestān, Iran, the most recent to be discovered – Sialk
near Kashan
, Iran and
others. Ziggurats were built by the Sumerians, Babylonians, Elamites
and Assyrians as monuments
to local religions. The earliest examples of the ziggurat were
raised platforms that date from the Ubaid period
during the fourth millennium BC, and the latest date from the 6th
century BC. The top of the ziggurat was flat, unlike many
pyramids. The step pyramid style began near the end of the Early
Dynastic Period. Built in receding tiers upon a rectangular, oval,
or square platform, the ziggurat was a
pyramidal structure. Sun-baked
bricks made up the core of the ziggurat with facings
of fired bricks on the outside. The facings were often glazed in
different colors and may have had
astrological significance. Kings sometimes had
their names engraved on these glazed bricks. The number of tiers
ranged from two to seven, with a shrine or temple at the summit.
Access to the shrine was provided by a series of ramps on one side
of the ziggurat or by a spiral ramp from base to summit. It has
been suggested that ziggurats were built to resemble mountains, but
there is little textual or archaeological evidence to support that
hypothesis.
Ur-Nammu's ziggurat at Ur was designed as a three-stage
construction, today only two of these survive. This entire mudbrick
core structure was originally given a facing of baked brick
envelope set in
bitumen, circa 2.5 m on
the first lowest stage, and 1.15 m on the second. Each of
these baked bricks were stamped with the name of the king. The
sloping walls of the stages were buttressed. The access to the top
was by means of a triple monumental staircase, which all converges
at a portal that opened on a landing between the first and second
stages. The height of the first stage was about 11 m while the
second stage rose some 5.7 m. Usually a third stage is
reconstructed by the excavator of the ziggurat (
Leonard Woolley), and crowned by a temple.
At the Tschoga Zanbil ziggurat archaeologists have found massive
reed ropes that ran across the core of the ziggurat structure and
tied together the mudbrick mass.The Ancient Mesopotamians were
located at the center of the near east. It was in present day
Syria, Turkey, and Iraq. Ancient Mesopotamia was between the Tigris
and Euphrates rivers. Mesopotamia literally means “The land between
two rivers”. The southern part of Mesopotamia made up part of the
Fertile Crescent. Because of where it is, Mesopotamia has hot
summers and cold winters. The first city in Mesopotamia was
Eridu.The rivers of Mesopotamia helped sustain life and provide
food. The rivers helped the Mesopotamians by wetting and irrigating
the soil and land. The rivers could also be dangerous, and cause
floods and wash away crops and newly planted seeds. The
Mesopotamians lived a similar lifestyle to the Marsh Arabs, who
live on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and use them to help them
live. During the rain bringing season sometimes the rivers would
partially flood the land, so only the highest points or dirt mounds
would not be covered with water. If this happened then the
Mesopotamians would have to use boats to go to other people’s
houses or to outside of the flooding areas. The river affected
Mesopotamian life in many different ways.The Mesopotamians had
complex and intricate ways of farming. They would use canals (which
they often had to repair and re-dig) to irrigate during the dry
season. The Mesopotamians had bucket lifting devices to move water
between different levels in the canals and to bring water to the
crops. The irrigation was counted on so crops could grow and the
crops would be enough food to last through the winter. Irrigation
in Mesopotamia played an important role.The Mesopotamians were the
first people to invent writing, or an alphabet! At the beginning,
writing was simple, a picture to show what you wanted to show.
Eventually writing evolved to complex cuneiform. There were
hundreds of letters in the cuneiform alphabet. The language
Mesopotamians spoken was not called Mesopotamian, but Sumerian.
Cuneiform has been adapted for use with Akkadian, Babylonian,
Persian, and many other languages.
Farmers grew food to feed the people of Mesopotamia, but the wealth
of the cities of Mesopotamia came from merchants and craftspeople.
The Mesopotamians placed great value on commerce. Mesopotamia
didn’t have many natural resources, so they traded mostly grain and
textiles. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers were responsible for
getting the goods to and from Mesopotamia. They traded goods as far
as Africa, Asia, and Europe. Mesopotamia didn’t use coins, but
standards based on the weight of silver and grains were
established. Money from taxes helped a program to build a bridge
across the Euphrates river to trade even more. Without trade
Mesopotamia would have easily failed.Mesopotamians created the
first wheeled vehicles in about 3500 B.C.E. They first used the
wheel to make wheel – thrown pottery and then in Uruk, while trying
to figure out how to carry a heavy load of goods a man created a
sort of wheel. He placed a block of wood on a log and used it to
pull his goods.Without the invention of the wheel the modern world
would not be the same.
References
Notes
Bibliography
- Atlas de la Mésopotamie et du Proche-Orient ancien,
Brepols, 1996 ISBN|2503500463.
- Benoit, Agnès; 2003. Art et archéologie : les civilisations
du Proche-Orient ancien, Manuels de l'Ecole du Louvre.
- Jean Bottéro;
1987.Mésopotamie. L'écriture, la raison et les
dieux, Gallimard, coll. « Folio Histoire »,
ISBN|2070403084.
- Jean Bottéro; 1992.
Mesopotamia: writing, reasoning and the gods. Trans. by
Zainab Bahrani and Marc Van de Mieroop, University of Chicago
Press: Chicago.
- Edzard, Dietz Otto; 2004. Geschichte Mesopotamiens.
Von den Sumerern bis zu Alexander dem Großen, München,
ISBN 3-406-51664-5
- Hrouda, Barthel and Rene Pfeilschifter; 2005.
Mesopotamien. Die antiken Kulturen zwischen Euphrat
und Tigris. München 2005 (4. Aufl.), ISBN 3-406-46530-7
- Joannès, Francis; 2001. Dictionnaire de la civilisation
mésopotamienne, Robert Laffont.
- Korn, Wolfgang; 2004. Mesopotamien – Wiege der
Zivilisation. 6000 Jahre Hochkulturen Euphrat und
Tigris, Stuttgart, ISBN 3-8062-1851-X
- Kuhrt, Amélie; 1995. The Ancient Near East: c.
3000–330 B.C. 2 Vols. Routledge: London and New York.
- Liverani, Mario; 1991. Antico Oriente: storia, società,
economia. Editori Laterza: Roma.
- Matthews, Roger: 2003. The archaeology of Mesopotamia.
Theories and approaches, London 2003, ISBN
0-415-25317-9
- Matthews, Roger; 2005. The early prehistory of Mesopotamia
– 500,000 to 4,500 BC, Turnhout 2005, ISBN 2-503-50729-8
- Oppenheim, A. Leo; 1964. Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a
dead civilization. The University of Chicago Press: Chicago
and London. Revised edition completed by Erica Reiner, 1977.
- Pollock, Susan; 1999. Ancient Mesopotamia: the Eden that
never was. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.
- Postgate, J. Nicholas; 1992. Early Mesopotamia: Society and
Economy at the dawn of history. Routledge: London and New
York.
- Roux, Georges; 1964. Ancient Iraq, Penguin Books.
- Silver, Morris; 2007. "Redistribution and Markets in the
Economy of Ancient Mesopotamia: Updating Polanyi", Antiguo Oriente 5: 89–112.
- Snell, Daniel (ed.); 2005. A Companion to the Ancient Near
East. Malden, MA : Blackwell Pub, 2005.
- Van de Mieroop, Marc; 2004. A history of the ancient Near
East. ca 3000–323 BC. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
External links
- Iraq’s Ancient Past — Penn Museum
- Mesopotamia — introduction to Mesopotamia from
the British
Museum
- Mesopotamia at the Ancient History Encyclopedia —
timeline, articles, illustrations, and book references
- By Nile and Tigris, a narrative of journeys in Egypt
and Mesopotamia on behalf of the British museum between the years
1886 and 1913, by Sir E. A. Wallis
Budge, 1920 (a searchable facsimile at the University of
Georgia Libraries; DjVu & layered
PDF format)
- A Dweller in Mesopotamia, being the adventures of an
official artist in the Garden of Eden, by Donald Maxwell, 1921
(a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries;
DjVu & format)
- Mesopotamian Archaeology, by Percy S. P. Pillow, 1912
(a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries;
DjVu & format)
(ca. 7000
bce–? bce [lower-case bce=uncalibrated C-14 dates])
(ca. 2350 BCE–2193 BCE).
Top topics
Wikis
Quiz
Facts
Map
Misc
Search
