Meso

Mesopotamian Civilization: 

Mesopotamian Civilization Primary Phase: lower Tigris-Euphrates river valley Persian gulf to modern Baghdad habitable area: app. 10,000 sq... miles bottom 1/3 of the river valley

Mesopotamia: 3 parts: 

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

Slide3: 

Mesopotamia

Proto-literate Period : 

Proto-literate Period ca. 3500-3100 B.C. most characteristics of Mesopotamia have developed towns and cities rudimentary system of writing and metal technology temple architecture

The Early Dynastic Period : 

The Early Dynastic Period ca. 3100 B.C. the Sumerians not the first inhabitants arrived by sea ??

Sumerian language: 

Sumerian language unique unrelated to any known language but we cannot read it

Pre-Sumerian element: 

Pre-Sumerian element Semites? continues to survive but dominated by Sumerians until 2350 B.C., more or less

Political organization: 

Political organization city-states ruled by “kings” (lugals) who fought more or less constantly over land and water-rights

Political organization, con’t : 

Political organization, con’t territorial acquisition by conquest gradual incorporation and civilizing of Semites ca. 2350 B.C., Semites become dominant

Slide12: 

Map of ancient Nippur

Sargon of Akkad: 

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.

Slide14: 

Sargon the Great King of Akkad

Third Dynasty of Ur: 

Third Dynasty of Ur Sumerian renaissance claim to be kings of Sumer and Akkad influence on northern Tigris-Euphrates

Ur III , con’t: 

Ur III , con’t provinces, with royal governors moved regularly kings claim to be divine, unlike earlier kings Ur-Nammu: most significant built a great city and issued a code of laws

Collapse of Ur III: 

Collapse of Ur III civilization over 1,000 years old but much of what developed survives into modern times math, time-keeping, beer (!!!), astronomy, astrology, medicine, etc.

Sources of Information: 

Sources of Information archaeological remains texts: stone, metal, clay, tablets cloths, art, etc. remember our “archaeological lesson” ?

Problems: 

Problems evidence not equal for all times and all places hard to interpret but some things can be known

Architecture: 

Architecture lack stone and wood use sun-dried brick resulting in a somewhat ruined state of things focal point of the city: the Temple complex successive temples built on the same holy spot

Architecture, con’t : 

Architecture, con’t 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

Slide22: 

The great ziggarut at the city of Ur ca. 1200…only partially surviving

Slide23: 

Ziggarut of king Ur-Nammu,

Slide24: 

The ziggarut at Ur from a city wall

Slide25: 

ziggurat of Choga Zambil, ca. 1250 B.C

Slide26: 

The ziggarut at Ur For an extra 2 points on the first test, tell me the first year in which this photo could have been taken. First person only. Think like an historian...

Sculpture: 

Sculpture crude and primitive clay, not stone metal sculpture and jewelry more sophisticated

Slide29: 

Front-piece Harp Gold lapis-lazuli wood

Slide30: 

Cylinder Seal

Slide31: 

Goat in a tree...

Slide32: 

Lady-in-waiting to the Queen of Ur Sacrificed and buried with the Queen at the time of her death

Clay tablets: 

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: 

Cuneiform Writing different from modern scripts written on damp clay with a wedge-shaped stick cuneiform (“wedge-shaped writing”)

Cuneiform, con’t : 

Cuneiform, con’t evolved from use of simple symbols rebus theory eventually became conventionalized abstract shapes used first for business, trade, records “literature” came later....

Slide36: 

Partial text of Hammurabi’s law code

Slide37: 

Tokens…for games?

Slide38: 

Game board with counters: Ur

Slide39: 

Bullae with tokens token shapes pressed into the outside of each

Slide40: 

“flattened-out” bulla = a tablet

Slide42: 

A ‘rebus’ ::; *-) --more

Slide43: 

What does this one say? Two extra points on the first test for the first person to figure it out….

Slide44: 

Evolution of symbols from simple line drawings to cuniform

Slide45: 

Fully developed cuniform tablet

Agriculture: 

Agriculture grain, mostly barley, planted in the fall land prepared by hand tools and intensive labor irrigated by complex system harvest in the spring the whole community helps with planting, harvesting, etc.

Slide47: 

Development of irrigation systems

Agriculture, con’t: 

Agriculture, con’t average crop: 25 to 30 bushels per acre land controlled by large, temple corporations

Bureaucracy: 

Bureaucracy fundamental to efficiency necessary for urban living and for the temple corporation and the civil government

Social Classes: 

Social Classes freemen priest, aristocrats and warriors, commoners slaves

Religion: 

Religion polytheistic hundreds of deities each usually had a special function but you could have your own, special god to “get lucky” translates as “to get a god” Ex. Yahweh as the “god of Abraham”

Religion, con’t: 

Religion, con’t ancient religion (and modern) is contractual: quid pro quo Nippur was the religious center of Mesopotamia major deities associate with major heavenly bodies and with specific cities

Religion, con’t: 

Religion, con’t gods and humans were similar but gods were more powerful and immortal gods were the masters humans were the slaves gods were ill-tempered, erratic, and very dangerous

Slide54: 

Worshippers from the ziggarut at Ur

Slide55: 

Goddess figure northern Mesopotamia fertility? Or water goddess? Skirt decorated with fish and stylized water centerpiece in a fountain

Religion: the afterlife: 

Religion: the afterlife cold and dark believed in ghosts of dead relatives demons

Literature: began in Sumer: 

Literature: began in Sumer priests began to try to explain the how and why of things creation stories: Enuma Elish and other stories flood stories: Utnapishtim (etc.) practical works: farmer’s almanacs medicine, divination, astronomy, math, astrology, etc.

Literature, con’t : 

Literature, con’t Epic of Gilgamesh the first piece of literature dealing with comic questions more later

Literacy: 

Literacy taught in temple schools to scribes and priests we do not know the percentage of literacy probably fairly small

Ur III, collapse: 

Ur III, collapse assaults of peripherial peoples internal localism desires for independence

Hammurabi: 

Hammurabi most successful leader king of the Amorites a Semitic people ruler of Babylon

Hammurabi, con’t: 

Hammurabi, con’t sixth king of Babylon, of his line 1800’s B.C. ruled for 43 years

Hammurabi, con’t: 

Hammurabi, con’t capable administrator legal reformer (Hammurabi’s Law Code) military leader

The Law Code: 

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 appropriate to the circumstance

Slide65: 

An example of columns (stelae), which were set up in public places, on which were inscribed the laws of Hammurabi. Hammurabi receiving the law from the God Shamash, who lives on a mountain. Predates the Moses story by over one thousand years, and is probably the model for it.

His rule: 

His rule to legitimize: a revision of traditional theology substitution of Babylonian Marduk for the older Sumerian god Enlil in a new version of the Enuma Elish common practice in the ancient world similar to later Old Testament stories Yahweh assumes the place of El and of Baal

The Enuma Elish: 

The Enuma Elish describes the creation of the universe in a system based on “sevens” the first three generations: gods of water, earth, sky next three: gods of moving things finally: Marduk make man so the gods can rest

The Enuma Elish, con’t: 

The Enuma Elish, con’t corresponds with early Hebrew stories with which you are more familiar which are much later, derived from Sumerian models creation based on a system of “sevens” corresponding to the creation story in Genesis

Changes during the era of Hammurabi: 

Changes during the era of Hammurabi development of agriculture trade and commerce private enterprise private property

Changes, con’t.: 

Changes, con’t. writing more widely adopted (cunieform) algebra and astronomy were developed The Epic of Gilgamesh the first “tragic hero” earlier “edition” of many Genesis stories

Questions about Life: 

Questions about Life the Epic of Gilgamesh containing everything from the original flood story to the tree of life stolen by a serpent

Slide72: 

Gilgamesh and mythical animals

Mesopotamian Empires1800-600 BCE: 

Mesopotamian Empires 1800-600 BCE

More books to read: 

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

More good books to read: 

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 Gilgamesh Hans J. Nissen. The Early History of the Ancient Near East Georges Roux. Ancient Iraq Robert M. Seltzer. Religions of Antiquity Ancient Religions bibliography online: www.etsu.edu/cas/history/religionbib.htm