Mesopotamian Civilization Primary Phase: lower TigrisEuphrates river valley Per

sian gulf to modern Baghdad habitable area: app. 10,000 sq... miles bottom 1/3
of the river valley
Mesopotamia: 3 parts Sumer Akkad
Sumer and Akkad: eventually form Babylon

Earliest human occupation

ca. 7000-6000 B.C.

archaeologists detect several different phases

settlement: from north to south, downriver
Mesopotamia
Proto-literate Period ca. 3500-3100 B.C. most characteristics of Mesopotamia ha
ve developed towns and cities rudimentary system of writing and metal technolo
gy temple architecture
The Early Dynastic Period ca. 3100 B.C. the Sumerians not the first inhabitant
s arrived by sea ??
Sumerian language unique unrelated to any known language but we cannot read it
Pre-Sumerian element Semites? continues to survive but dominated by Sumerians
until 2350 B.C., more or less
Political organization city-states ruled by kings

(lugals)
who fought more or constantly over land and water-rights

less
Political organization, cont territorial acquisition by conquest gradual incorpo
ration and civilizing of Semites ca. 2350 B.C., Semites become dominant
Map of ancient Nippur
Sargon of Akkad

name means: True King first empire in history first personality in history legendary
figures:
Miracle birth, evil king, baby-in-a basket, found eventually becomes the leader
of his people The original story from which all others are copied

dynasty ruled until 2200 B.C.

Sargon the Great King of Akkad
Third Dynasty of Ur Sumerian renaissance claim to be kings of Sumer and Akkad
influence on northern TigrisEuphrates
Ur III , cont provinces, with royal governors moved regularly kings claim to be
divine, unlike earlier kings Ur-Nammu: most significant built a great city an
d issued a code of laws
Collapse of Ur III civilization over 1,000 years old but much of what developed
survives into modern times math, time-keeping, beer (!!!), astronomy, astrolog
y, medicine, etc.
Sources of Information archaeological remains texts: stone, metal, clay, tablet
s cloths, art, etc. remember our archaeological lesson ?
Problems evidence not equal for all times and all places hard to interpret but s
ome things can be known
Architecture lack stone and wood use sun-dried brick resulting in a somewhat r
uined state of things focal point of the city: the Temple complex successive t
emples built on the same holy spot
Architecture, cont the temple form: ziggurat a sort of step-temple usually seven
layers,

with a shrine on top

a magic mountain a landing place for the god/goddess
The great ziggarut at the city of Ur ca. 1200only partially surviving
Ziggarut of king Ur-Nammu,
The ziggarut at Ur from a city wall
ziggurat of Choga Zambil, ca. 1250 B.C
The ziggarut at Ur
Sculpture crude and primitive clay, not stone metal sculpture and jewelry more
sophisticated
Frontpiece
Gold lapislazuli
Harp
wood
Cylinder Seal
Goat in a tree...
Lady-inwaiting to the Queen of Ur
Sacrificed and buried with the Queen at the time of her death
Clay tablets writing medium religious texts to contracts with written texts we
enter History documents as insights into peoples thoughts as well as records
Cuneiform Writing different from modern scripts written on damp clay with a wed
geshaped stick cuneiform (wedge-shaped writing)
Cuneiform, cont evolved from use of simple symbols rebus theory eventually beca
me conventionalized abstract shapes used first for business, trade, records lit
erature came later....
Partial text of Hammurabis law code
Tokensfor games?
Game board with counters: Ur
Bullae with tokens
token shapes pressed into the outside of each
flattened-out bulla = a tablet
Evolution of symbols from simple line drawings to cuniform
Fully developed cuniform tablet
Agriculture grain, mostly barley, planted in the fall land prepared by hand too
ls and intensive labor irrigated by complex system harvest in the spring the
whole community helps with planting, harvesting, etc.
Development of irrigation systems
Agriculture, cont average crop: 25 to 30 bushels per acre land controlled by lar
ge, temple corporations
Bureaucracy fundamental to efficiency necessary for urban living and for the te
mple corporation and the civil government
Social Classes freemen priest, aristocrats and warriors, commoners slaves
Religion polytheistic hundreds of deities each usually had a special function b
ut you could have your own, special god to get lucky translates as to get a god
Ex. Yahweh as the god of Abraham
Religion, cont ancient religion (and modern) is contractual: quid pro quo Nippur
was the religious center of Mesopotamia major deities associate with major hea
venly bodies and with specific cities
Religion, cont gods and humans were similar but gods were more powerful and immo
rtal gods were the masters humans were the slaves gods were ill-tempered, err
atic, and very dangerous
Worshippers from the ziggarut at Ur
Goddess figure northern Mesopotamia fertility? Or water goddess?
Skirt decorated with fish and stylized water
centerpiece in a fountain
Religion: the afterlife cold and dark believed in ghosts of dead relatives dem
ons
Literature: began in Sumer priests began to try to explain the how and why of th
ings creation stories: Enuma Elish and other stories flood stories: Utnapishti
m (etc.) practical works: farmers almanacs medicine, divination, astronomy, mat
h, astrology, etc.
Literature, cont Epic of Gilgamesh the first piece of literature dealing with c
omic questions

more later
Literacy taught in temple schools to scribes and priests we do not know the pe
rcentage of literacy probably fairly small
Ur III, collapse assaults of peripherial peoples internal localism desires for
independence
Hammurabi most successful leader king of the Amorites a Semitic people ruler
of Babylon
Hammurabi, cont sixth king of Babylon, of his line 1800s B.C. ruled for 43 years
Hammurabi, capable administrator legal reformer

(Hammurabis Law Code)

military leader
The Law Code his most famous achievement fusion of Sumerian and Semitic customs
and usages designed to render justice that is, what a person deserved what is ap
propriate to the circumstance
An example of columns (stelae), which were set up in public places, on which wer
e inscribed the laws of Hammurabi.
Hammurabi receiving the law from the God Shamash, who lives on a mountain. Preda
tes the Moses story by over one thousand years, and is probably the model for it
.
His rule

to legitimize: a revision of traditional theology substitution of Babylonian Mar

duk
for the older Sumerian god Enlil in a new version of the Enuma Elish common prac
tice in the ancient world

similar to later Old Testament stories

Yahweh assumes the place of El and of Baal
The Enuma Elish describes the creation of the universe in a system based on seve
ns the first three generations: gods of water, earth, sky next three: gods of m
oving things finally: Marduk make man so the gods can rest
The Enuma Elish, cont

corresponds with early Hebrew stories

with which you are more familiar which are much later, derived from Sumerian mod
els
creation based on a system of sevens corresponding to the creation story in Genes
is
Changes during the era of Hammurabi development of agriculture trade and commer
ce private enterprise private property
Changes, cont. writing more widely adopted (cunieform) algebra and astronomy wer
e developed The Epic of Gilgamesh the first tragic hero earlier edition of many Genes
is stories
Questions about Life

the Epic of Gilgamesh

containing everything from the original flood story to the tree of life stolen b
y a serpent
Gilgamesh and mythical animals
Mesopotamian Empires 1800-600 BCE
More books to read

The Cambridge Ancient History J.N. Postgate. Early Mesopotamia: Society and Econ
omy at the Dawn of History Samuel Noah Kramer. The Sumerians: Their History, Cul
ture, and Character. A. Leo Oppenheim. Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead C
ivilizastion. A. Bernard Knapp. The History and Culture of Ancient Western Asia
and Egypt Jean Bottero. Mesopotamia: Writing, Reasoning, and the Gods J.B. Pritc
hard. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament J.B. Pritchard. T
he Ancient Near East, 2 vols., An anthology of Texts and Pictures
More good books to read

Robert M. Seltzer. Religions of Antiquity Guy E. Swanson. The Birth of the Gods]
Alexander Heidel. The Babylonian Genesis Maureen Gallery Kovacs. The Epic of Gi
lgamesh Hans J. Nissen. The Early History of the Ancient Near East Georges Roux.
Ancient Iraq Robert M. Seltzer. Religions of Antiquity Ancient Religions biblio
graphy online:
www.etsu.edu/cas/history/religionbib.htm