Mesopotamia
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Map showing the extent of Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia (
//, from the
Ancient Greek:
Μεσοποταμία "[land] between rivers";
Arabic:
بلاد الرافدين (
bilād al-rāfidayn);
Syriac:
ܒܝܬ ܢܗܪܝܢ (
Beth Nahrain) "land of rivers") is a name for the area of the
Tigris–Euphrates river system, corresponding to modern-day
Iraq,
Kuwait, the northeastern section of
Syria and to a much lesser extent southeastern
Turkey and smaller parts of southwestern
Iran.
Widely considered to be the
cradle of civilization in the West,
Bronze Age Mesopotamia included
Sumer and the
Akkadian,
Babylonian, and
Assyrian empires, all native to the territory of modern-day Iraq. In the
Iron Age, it was controlled by the
Neo-Assyrian and
Neo-Babylonian empires.
The indigenous Sumerians and Akkadians (including Assyrians and
Babylonians) dominated Mesopotamia from the beginning of written history
(c. 3100 BC) to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC, when it was conquered by
the
Achaemenid Empire. It fell to
Alexander the Great in 332 BC, and after his death, it became part of the Greek
Seleucid Empire.
Around 150 BC, Mesopotamia was under the control of the
Parthians. Mesopotamia became a battleground between the
Romans
and Parthians, with parts of Mesopotamia coming under ephemeral Roman
control. In AD 226, it fell to the Sassanid Persians and remained under
Persian rule until the 7th-century Arab
Islamic conquest of the
Sassanid Empire.
A number of primarily neo Assyrian and Christian native Mesopotamian
states existed between the 1st century BC and 3rd century AD, including
Adiabene,
Osroene, and
Hatra.
Etymology
The regional toponym
Mesopotamia comes from the
ancient Greek root words μέσος (
meso) "middle" and ποταμός (
potamia) "river" and literally means "(Land) between rivers". It is used throughout the Greek
Septuagint (ca. 250 BC) to translate the Hebrew equivalent
Naharaim. An even earlier Greek usage of the name
Mesopotamia is evident from the
Anabasis Alexandri, which was written in the late 2nd century AD, but specifically refers to sources from the time of
Alexander the Great. In the
Anabasis, Mesopotamia was used to designate the land east of the
Euphrates in north
Syria. The
Aramaic term
biritum/birit narim corresponded to a similar geographical concept.
[1] Later, the term Mesopotamia was more generally applied to all the lands between the Euphrates and the
Tigris, thereby incorporating not only parts of Syria but also almost all of
Iraq and southeastern
Turkey.
[2] The neighbouring steppes to the west of the Euphrates and the western part of the
Zagros Mountains are also often included under the wider term Mesopotamia.
[3][4][5] A further distinction is usually made between Upper or Northern Mesopotamia and Lower or Southern Mesopotamia.
[6]
Upper Mesopotamia, also known as the
Jezirah, is the area between the Euphrates and the Tigris from their sources down to
Baghdad.
[3] Lower Mesopotamia consists of southern Iraq,
Kuwait and parts of western Iran.
[7][8][9]
In modern academic usage, the term Mesopotamia often also has a
chronological connotation. It is usually used to designate the area
until the
Muslim conquests, with names like Syria, Jezirah, and Iraq being used to describe the region after that date.
[2][10] It has been argued that these later euphemisms are
Eurocentric terms attributed to the region in the midst of various 19th-century Western encroachments.
[10][11]
Geography
Known world of the Mesopotamian, Babylonian, and Assyrian cultures from documentary sources
Mesopotamia encompasses the land between the
Euphrates and
Tigris rivers, both of which have their headwaters in the mountains of
Armenia
in modern-day 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 15,000 square kilometres (5,800 sq mi) 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 melting 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 herded 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 area, a complex water-borne fishing
culture has existed since prehistoric times, and has added to the
cultural mix.
Periodic breakdowns in the cultural system have occurred for a number
of reasons. The demands for labor 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 has 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.
[12] These trends have continued to the present day in Iraq.
History
The pre-history of the
Ancient Near East begins in the
Lower Paleolithic
period, but writing began with a pictographic script in the Uruk IV
period (ca. 4th millennium BC), and the documented record of actual
historical events — and the ancient history of lower Mesopotamia —
commence in the mid-third millennium BC with cuneiform records of early
dynastic kings, and ends with either the arrival of the
Achaemenid Empire in the late 6th century BC, or with the
Arab Islamic conquest of Mesopotamia and the establishment of the
Caliphate in the late 7th century AD, from which point the region came to be known as
Iraq.
During this period Mesopotamia housed some of the world's most ancient
highly developed and socially complex states. The region was one of the
four riverine civilizations where
writing was 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,
Assur and
Babylon, as well as major territorial states such as the city of
Eridu, the
Akkadian kingdom, the
Third Dynasty of Ur, and the various
Assyrian empires. Some of the important historical Mesopotamian leaders were
Ur-Nammu (king of Ur),
Sargon (who established the Akkadian Empire),
Hammurabi (who established the Old Babylonian state),
Ashur-uballit II and
Tiglath-Pileser I (who established the Assyrian Empires).
Periodization
Language and writing
One of the
Nimrud ivories shows a lion eating a man. Neo-Assyrian period, 9th to 7th centuries BC.
The earliest language written in Mesopotamia was
Sumerian, an
agglutinative language isolate. Along with Sumerian,
Semitic dialects were also spoken in early Mesopotamia.
Subartuan[14] a language of the Zagros, perhaps related to the
Hurro-Urartuan language family is attested in personal names, rivers and mountains and in various crafts.
Akkadian came to be the dominant language during the
Akkadian Empire and the
Assyrian empires, but Sumerian was retained for
administration,
religious,
literary, and
scientific purposes. Different varieties of Akkadian were used until the end of the
Neo-Babylonian period.
Aramaic, which had already become common in Mesopotamia, then became the official provincial administration language of first the
Neo Assyrian Empire, and then the
Achaemenid Persian Empire.
Akkadian fell into disuse, but both it and Sumerian were still used in
temples for some centuries. The last Akkadian texts date from the late
1st century AD.
Early in Mesopotamia's history (around the mid-4th millennium BC)
cuneiform script
was invented for the Sumerian language. 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 appears to have been developed from
pictograms. The earliest texts (7 archaic tablets) come from the
E Temple dedicated to the goddess Inanna at Uruk, 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 use. It was not until the widespread use of a
syllabic script was adopted under Sargon's rule
[citation needed]
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.
During the third millennium BC, there developed a very intimate
cultural symbiosis between the Sumerian and the Akkadian language users,
which included widespread
bilingualism.
[15]
The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian (and vice versa) is evident in
all areas, from lexical borrowing on a massive scale, to syntactic,
morphological, and phonological convergence.
[15] This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the third millennium as a
sprachbund.
[15]
Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as the spoken language of
Mesopotamia somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium
BC (the exact dating being a matter of debate),
[16]
but Sumerian continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary,
and scientific language in Mesopotamia until the 1st century AD.
Literature
Libraries were extant in towns and temples during the Babylonian
Empire. 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,
[17] 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 were drawn up.
Many Babylonian literary works are still studied today. 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, although it is probable that
some of the stories are artificially attached to the central figure.
Science and technology
Mathematics
Mesopotamian mathematics and science was based on a
sexagesimal (base 60)
numeral system. This is the source of the 60-minute hour, the 24-hour day, and the 360-
degree circle. The Sumerian calendar was based on the seven-day week. This form of mathematics was instrumental in early
map-making.
The Babylonians also had theorems on how to measure the area of several
shapes and solids. 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 fixed at 3. The volume of a cylinder was taken as the product of
the area 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 25/8 (3.125 instead of 3.14159~). The Babylonians are also known for
the Babylonian mile, which was a measure of distance equal to about
seven modern miles (11 km). This measurement for distances eventually
was converted to a time-mile used for measuring the travel of the Sun,
therefore, representing time.
[18]
Astronomy
From
Sumerian
times, temple priesthoods had attempted to associate current events
with certain positions of the planets and stars. This continued to
Assyrian times when
Limmu
lists were created as a year by year association of events with
planetary positions, which, when they have survived to the present day,
allow accurate associations of relative with absolute dating for
establishing the history of Mesopotamia.
The Babylonian astronomers were very adept at mathematics and could
predict eclipses and
solstices.
Scholars 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.
[19] This new approach to astronomy was adopted and further developed in Greek and Hellenistic astronomy.
In
Seleucid and
Parthian
times, the astronomical reports were thoroughly scientific; 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 Greek Babylonian astronomer known to have supported a
heliocentric model of planetary motion was
Seleucus of Seleucia (b. 190 BC).
[20][21][22] Seleucus is known from the writings of
Plutarch. He supported Aristarchus of Samos' 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 (except that he correctly theorized on tides as a
result of Moon's attraction).
Babylonian astronomy served as the basis for much of
Greek, classical
Indian,
Sassanian,
Byzantine,
Syrian, medieval
Islamic,
Central Asian, and
Western European astronomy.
[23]
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
ummânū, or chief scholar,
Esagil-kin-apli of
Borsippa,
[24] during the reign of the Babylonian king
Adad-apla-iddina (1069-1046 BC).
[25]
Along with contemporary
Egyptian medicine, the Babylonians introduced the concepts of
diagnosis,
prognosis,
physical examination, and
prescriptions. 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.
[26]
The symptoms and diseases of a patient were treated through therapeutic means such as
bandages,
creams 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, its future development, and the chances of the patient's recovery.
[24]
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.
[27]
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. They developed from copper, bronze, and gold on to
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.
According to a recent hypothesis, the
Archimedes' screw may have been used by
Sennacherib, King of
Assyria, for the water systems at the
Hanging Gardens of Babylon and
Nineveh in the 7th century BC, although mainstream scholarship holds it to be a
Greek invention of later times.
[28] Later during the
Parthian or
Sassanid periods, the
Baghdad Battery, which may have been the world's first battery, was created in Mesopotamia.
[29]
Religion and philosophy
Mesopotamian religion was the first to be recorded. Mesopotamians believed that the world was a flat disc,
[citation needed] 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.
[citation needed] Their son was Enlil, the air god. They believed that Enlil was the most powerful god. He was the chief god of the
Pantheon, equivalent to the Greek god
Zeus and the Roman god
Jupiter. The Sumerians also posed philosophical questions, such as: Who are we?, Where are we?, How did we get here?.
[citation needed] They attributed answers to these questions to explanations provided by their gods.
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 works, and
proverbs. Babylonian
reasoning and
rationality developed beyond
empirical observation.
[30]
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.
[31] Logic was employed to some extent in
Babylonian astronomy and medicine.
Babylonian thought had a considerable influence on early
Greek and
Hellenistic philosophy. In particular, the Babylonian text
Dialogue 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 method of
Socrates.
[32] The
Ionian philosopher
Thales was influenced by Babylonian cosmological ideas.
Culture
Festivals
Ancient Mesopotamians had ceremonies each month. The theme of the
rituals and festivals for each month was determined by at least six
important factors:
- The Lunar phase
(a waxing moon meant abundance and growth, while a waning moon was
associated with decline, conservation, and festivals of the Underworld)
- The phase of the annual agricultural cycle
- Equinoxes and solstices
- The local mythos and its divine Patrons
- The success of the reigning Monarch
- Commemoration of specific historical events (founding, military victories, temple holidays, etc.)
Music
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 as an oral tradition until writing was more universal. These songs provided a means of passing on through the
centuries highly important information about historical events.
The
Oud
(Arabic:العود) is a small, stringed musical instrument used by the
Mesopotamians. 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.
[33] 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 Ur."
Family life
The Babylonian marriage market by the 19th-century painter
Edwin Long
Mesopotamia, as shown by successive law codes, those of
Urukagina,
Lipit Ishtar and
Hammurabi, across its history became more and more a
patriarchal society, one in which the men were far more powerful than the women. For example, during the earliest Sumerian period, the
"en",
or high priest of male gods was originally a woman, that of female
goddesses, a man. Thorkild Jacobsen, as well as many others, has
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, went to school. Most
boys were taught their father's trade or were apprenticed out to learn a
trade.
[34] 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.
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, 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. Rich of various periods, have been
discovered to have sought burial in Bahrein, identified with Sumerian
Dilmun.
[35]
Economy and agriculture
Mining areas of the ancient
West Asia. Boxes colors:
arsenic is in brown,
copper in red,
tin in grey, iron in reddish brown, gold in yellow, silver in white and
lead in black. Yellow area stands for
arsenic bronze, while grey area stands for tin
bronze.
Irrigated agriculture spread southwards from the Zagros foothills
with the Samara and Hadji Muhammed culture, from about 5,000 BC.
[36] Sumerian temples functioned as banks and developed the first large-scale
system of loans and credit, but the Babylonians developed the earliest system of commercial
banking. It was comparable in some ways to modern
post-Keynesian economics, but with a more "anything goes" approach.
[31]
In the early period down to
Ur III
temples owned up to one third of the available land, declining over
time as royal and other private holdings increased in frequency. The
word
Ensi was used to describe the official who organized the work of all facets of temple agriculture.
Villeins are known to have worked most frequently within agriculture, especially in the grounds of temples or palaces.
[37]
The geography of southern 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 early 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. 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 compabale to the Canadian prairies.
[38] The Tigris and Euphrates River valleys form the northeastern portion of the
Fertile Crescent, which also included the Jordan River valley and 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. As a result of the skill involved in farming in the Mesopotamian, farmers did not depend on
slaves
to complete farm work for them, but there were some exceptions. There
were too many risks involved to make slavery practical (i.e. the
escape/mutiny of the slave). 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. Over time the southernmost parts of Sumerian Mesopotamia suffered
from increased salinity of the soils, leading to a slow urban decline
and a centring of power in Akkad, further north.
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 stretches 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 2331 BC 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.
[39] Most kings named themselves “king of the universe” or “great king”. Another common name was “
shepherd”, as kings had to look after their people.
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. Governors also had to call up soldiers to war and supply
workers when a temple was built. He was also responsible for enforcing
the laws. In this way, it was easier to keep control of a large empire.
Although Babylon was quite a small
state in the Sumerian, 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
One of two figures of the
Ram in a Thicket found in the Royal Cemetery in
Ur, 2600-2400 BC
With the end of the
Uruk phase, walled cities grew and many isolated
Ubaid villages were abandoned indicating a rise in communal violence. An early king
Lugalbanda was supposed to have built the white walls around the city. 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 3200
BC but was not common until about 2500 BC. An
Early Dynastic II king (Ensi) of Uruk in Sumer, Gilgamesh (c. 2,600 BC), was commended for military exploits against
Humbaba
guardian of the Cedar Mountain, and was later celebrated in many later
poems and songs in which he was claimed to be two-thirds god and only
one-third human. The later
Stele of the Vultures at the end of the
Early Dynastic III period (2600–2350 BC), commemorating the victory of
Eannatum of
Lagash over the neighbouring rival city of
Umma is the oldest monument in the world that celebrates a massacre.
[40]
From this point forwards, warfare was incorporated into the
Mesopotamian political system. At times a neutral city may act as an
arbitrator for the two rival cities. This helped to form unions between
cities, leading to regional states.
[39]
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
Assyrian and Babylonian palace walls were decorated with the pictures of
the successful fights and the enemy either desperately escaping or
hiding amongst reeds.
Laws
City-states of Mesopotamia created the first law codes, drawn from legal precedence and decisions made by Kings. The codes of
Urukagina and
Lipit Ishtar have been found. The most renowned of these was that of
Hammurabi, as mentioned above, who was posthumously famous for his set of laws, the
Code of Hammurabi
(created c. 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 codified over 200 laws for Mesopotamia.
Art
The art of Mesopotamia rivalled
that of Ancient Egypt as the most grand, sophisticated and elaborate in western
Eurasia from the 4th millennium BC until the
Persian
Achaemenid Empire conquered the region in the 6th century BC. The main
emphasis was on various, fortunately very durable, forms of sculpture in
stone and clay; little painting has survived, but what has suggests
that painting was mainly used for geometrical and plant-based decorative
schemes, though most sculpture was also painted.
The
Protoliterate period, dominated by
Uruk, saw the production of sophisticated works like the
Warka Vase and
cylinder seals. The
Guennol Lioness is an outstanding small
limestone figure from
Elam of about 3000–2800 BC, part man and part lion.
[41]
A little later there are a number of figures of large-eyed priests and
worshippers, mostly in alabaster and up to a foot high, who attended
temple
cult images of the deity, but very few of these have survived.
[42] Sculptures from the
Sumerian and
Akkadian
period generally had large, staring eyes, and long beards on the men.
Many masterpieces have also been found at the Royal Cemetery at
Ur (c. 2650 BC), including the two figures of a
Ram in a Thicket, the
Copper Bull and a bull's head on one of the
Lyres of Ur.
[43]
From the many subsequent periods before the ascendency of the
Neo-Assyrian Empire Mesopotamian art survives in a number of forms:
cylinder seals, relatively small figures in the round, and reliefs of
various sizes, including cheap plaques of moulded pottery for the home,
some religious and some apparently not.
[44] The
Burney Relief is an unusual elaborate and relatively large (20 x 15 inches)
terracotta
plaque of a naked winged goddess with the feet of a bird of prey, and
attendant owls and lions. It comes from the 18th or 19th centuries BC,
and may also be moulded.
[45] Stone
stelae,
votive offerings,
or ones probably commemorating victories and showing feasts, are also
found from temples, which unlike more official ones lack inscriptions
that would explain them;
[46] the fragmentary
Stele of the Vultures is an early example of the inscribed type,
[47] and the Assyrian
Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III a large and solid late one.
[48]
The conquest of the whole of Mesopotamia and much surrounding
territory by the Assyrians created a larger and wealthier state than the
region had known before, and very grandiose art in palaces and public
places, no doubt partly intended to match the splendour of the art of
the neighbouring Egyptian empire. The Assyrians developed a style of
extremely large schemes of very finely detailed narrative low reliefs in
stone for palaces, with scenes of war or hunting; the
British Museum
has an outstanding collection. They produced very little sculpture in
the round, except for colossal guardian figures, often the human-headed
lamassu,
which are sculpted in high relief on two sides of a rectangular block,
with the heads effectively in the round (and also five legs, so that
both views seem complete). Even before dominating the region they had
continued the cylinder seal tradition with designs which are often
exceptionally energetic and refined.
[49]
Architecture
A suggested reconstruction of the appearance of a Sumerian
ziggurat
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.
[50] Archaeological surface surveys also allowed for the study of urban form in early Mesopotamian cities.
Brick is the dominant material, as the material was freely available
locally, whereas building stone had to be brought a considerable
distance to most cities. The
ziggurat is the most distinctive form, and cities often had large gateways, of which the
Ishtar Gate from Neo-Babylonian Babylon, decorated with beasts in polychrome brick, is the most famous, now largely in the
Pergamon Museum in
Berlin.
The most notable 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 are Gudea's cylinders from the late 3rd millennium are notable,
as well as the Assyrian and Babylonian royal inscriptions from the
Iron Age.
,,[6]
.
