Mesopotamia Theme: Comparing civilizations

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MesopotamiaTheme Comparing civilizations

• Lsn 2

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ID SIG

• Babylon, Code of Hammurabi, cuneiform, Epic of
  Gilgamesch, lex talionis, metallurgy, temple
  communities, Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, wheel

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Mesopotamia

• Greek for land between the rivers
• Tigris and Euphrates
• Modern-day Iraq

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Empires and Dominance

• Sumer 3200-2350 B.C.
• Babylonian 2350-1600 B.C.
• Sargon of Akkad 2334-2315 B.C.
• Hittite 1450-1200 B.C.
• Assyrian 1000-612 B.C.
• New Babylonian 605-550 B.C.

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Sumer

• Population growth was especially rapid in Sumer
• By 3000 B. C., the population of Sumer approached
  100,000 and Sumerians were the dominant people of
  Mesopotamia

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Babylonian Empire

• Akkadians and Babylonians of northern Mesopotamia
  began to overshadow Sumerians
• Sargon of Akkad defeated Sumerian city-states one
  by one
• By 2000 B.C. Sargons empire collapsed from a
  combination of internal rebellion and external
  aggression
• Babylonians dominated from about 2350 to 1600
  B.C.
• Most prominent king was Hammurabi (1792 to 1750
  B.C.)

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Assyrian Empire

• After the fall of the Babylonian Empire, the
  Assyrians gradually came to power, extending
  their authority to Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine,
  much of Anatolia, and most of Egypt
• Preserved much from Mesopotamia
• Extremely unpopular rule
• Couldnt administer far-flung empire
• Collapsed in 612 B.C.

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New Babylonian Empire (Chaldean Empire)

• 605 to 550 B.C.
• Known for its wealth and excess
• King Nebuchadnezzar ruled from 605 to 562 B.C.
• Built Hanging Gardens of Babylon
• Captured Judah in 586, destroyed the great temple
  in Jerusalem, and forced many Hebrews into exile
  in Babylon.

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Characteristics of a Civilization

• Intensive agricultural techniques
• Specialization of labor
• Cities
• A social hierarchy
• Organized religion and education
• Development of complex forms of economic exchange
• Development of new technologies
• Advanced development of the arts. (This can
  include writing.)

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Agriculture
Sumerian sledge
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Agriculture

• Tigris and Euphrates brought large volumes of
  water to an otherwise dry region
• As early as 6000 B.C., people began small scale
  irrigation
• Artificial irrigation increased food supplies
  which in turn supported a rapidly increasing
  population

Fertile Crescent
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Irrigation

• Tigris and Euphrates irrigation allowed
  Mesopotamians to grow barley, wheat, and peas

Map of fields and irrigation canals near Nippur,
Mesopotamia from cuneiform tablet, ca 1300 B.C.
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Agricultures Impact

• Abundant harvests supported increased populations
• Semetic people (those who spoke Akkadian,
  Aramaic, Hebrew, and Phoenician) began to migrate
  to Sumer

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Cities
Ur and Babylon
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Cities

• Beginning around 4000 B.C., as populations
  increased in southern Mesopotamia, the Sumerians
  built the worlds first cities

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Cities

• Unlike earlier villages, these cities were
  centers of political and military authority, and
  their jurisdiction extended into the surrounding
  regions
• Economic centers where buyers and sellers
  congregated
• Cultural centers where priests maintained
  organized religion and scribes developed
  traditions of writing and formal education
• Mesopotamians had numerous, densely-populated
  city-states

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Ur

• Built around 2100 B.C.
• Sometimes called the worlds first city
• Sumerian capital of Mesopotamia
• Believed to have been surrounded by a moat
• Home of Abraham (Genesis Chapter 11)

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Ur
Leonard Woolley Archeologist who excavated Ur in
the 1920s and 30s
Ziggurat at Ur
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Babylon

• Made a lavish showplace by Nebuchadnezzar
• More than 2,100 acres
• 1,179 temples
• Massive defensive walls
• Hanging Gardens
• Fell to Cyrus the Great in 539 B.C.

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Specialization
Mesopotamian potters wheel from Uruk
Sumerian earrings
Engraving
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Specialization
rivers
agriculture

• Abundant food supplies and cities as population
  centers allowed some people to perform tasks not
  associated with agriculture
• People expanded into the areas of pottery,
  textile manufacture, woodworking, leather
  production, brick making, stonecutting, and
  masonry

populations
cities
specialization
hierarchy
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Social Hierarchy
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Social Hierarchy

• Kings and nobles originally won their positions
  by community election based on valor and success
  as warriors
• Soon royal status become hereditary
• Nobles were mostly members of the royal family
• Closely allied with the ruling elites were
  priests and priestesses, many who were younger
  relatives of the rulers
• Lived in temple communities

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Social Hierarchy

• Free commoners worked mostly as peasant
  cultivators in the countryside on land owned by
  their families, although some worked in cities
• Dependent clients usually worked on agricultural
  estates owned by others
• Both free commoners and dependent clients paid
  taxes to support the ruling classes, military,
  and temple communities

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Social Hierarchy

• Slaves came from
• Prisoners of war
• Convicted criminals
• Heavily indebted individuals who sold themselves
  into slavery to satisfy their obligations
• Patriarchal society
• Authority over public and private affairs vested
  in adult men
• Law recognized men as heads of households and had
  disproportionate punishments for men and women

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Religion and Education
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Religion and Education

• Polytheism
• The ancient Mesopotamians worshipped hundreds of
  gods, each with his/her own name and sphere of
  activity.
• Every city had its own patron god or goddess, and
  there were also deities connected with various
  professions such as scribes and builders.
• Individual people also had their own personal god
  who protected them and interceded for them with
  the great deities.  

Enki, god of water
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Religion and Education

• Kings often portrayed as offspring of gods or
  gods themselves
• Priests intervened with the gods to ensure good
  fortune for their communities
• In exchange, priests and priestesses lived in
  temple communities and received offerings of
  food, drink, and clothing from the city
  inhabitants
• Temples also generated income and work
• Epic of Gilgamesh taught there is no afterlife
• Death is dark, dank, and inert

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Ziggurats

• Ziggurats were huge stepped structures with a
  temple on top
• Built in honor of the citys god (other gods
  might have smaller temples)
• Intended to reach nearer to the heavens

Tower of Babel
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Code of Hammurabi

• Hammurabi (King of Babylonian Empire from 1792 to
  1750 B.C.) maintained control of empire by a code
  of law
• Claimed the gods had chosen him to promote the
  welfare of the people, to cause justice to
  prevail in the land, to destroy the wicked and
  evil, so that the strong might not oppress the
  weak, to rise like the sun over the people, and
  to light up the land.

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Code of Hammurabi

• High standards of behavior and stern punishments
  for violators
• Death penalty for murder, theft, fraud, false
  accusations, sheltering of runaway slaves,
  failure to obey royal orders, adultery, and
  incest
• Civil laws regulating prices, wages, commercial
  dealings, marital relationships, and the
  conditions of slavery

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Code of Hammurabi

• Relied on lex talionis the law of retaliation
• Offenders suffered punishments resembling their
  violations
• If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye
  shall be put out. An eye for an eye (196)
• If he break another man's bone, his bone shall be
  broken. (197)
• If a man knock out the teeth of his equal, his
  teeth shall be knocked out. A tooth for a tooth
  (200)

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Economic Exchange
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Economic Exchange

• Trade occurred by ship and donkey caravan
• Sumerians traded woolen textiles, leather goods,
  sesame oil, and jewelry with India for copper,
  ivory, pearls, and semi-precious stones
• Babylonians imported silver from Anatolia, cedar
  wood from Lebanon, copper from Arabia, gold from
  Egypt, tin from Persia, lapis lazuli from
  Afghanistan, and semiprecious stones from India
• Barter was the main form of commerce until silver
  became popular around 1750 B.C.

Cylinder seals were used to record a contract,
record, or official receipt. By affixing a seal
to a tablet, the user validated its contents.
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New Technologies
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Metallurgy

• Metallurgy ranks among the most important aspects
  of technology and specialization
• Metallurgy evolved from copper to bronze and by
  1000 B.C., Mesopotamians were working with iron
  as well
• Important implications for agriculture and
  weaponry

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The Wheel

• First use of wheels probably occurred about 3500
  B.C.
• Sumerians were building wheeled carts by 3000
  B.C.
• The wheel increased the mobility of society and
  allowed heavy loads to be moved over great
  distances

Chariot model, discovered in the Royal tomb of Ur
in Sumer around 6000 BC
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Development of the Wheel
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Art and Writing
Dragon of Marduk
Gudea of Lagash
Winged Guardian
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Art and Writing

• Cuneiform
• Epic of Gilgamesch
• Hanging Gardens of Babylon

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Cuneiform

• Latin for wedge-shaped
• Beginning around 2900 B. C., Sumerians developed
  a flexible writing system that combined
  pictographs and other symbols
• Scribes used a reed stylus to impress symbols on
  wet clay leaving lines and wedge-shaped marks
• Babylonians, Assyrians, and others later adapted
  the Sumerians script to their own languages and
  cuneiform writing continued for three thousand
  years

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Cuneiform Examples
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Epic of Gilgamesh

• Classic example of Mesopotamian literature
• Began in the Sumerian city-states, but the entire
  epic represents the work of compilers during the
  days of the Babylonian empire
• Originally written on 12 clay tablets in
  cuneiform script
• Recounts experiences of Gilgamesh and Enkidu
• Gilgamesh was the legendary king of Uruk, ca.
  3000 B.C., and Enkidu was a wild-man, raised by
  animals that became the friend of Gilgamesh after
  they fought.

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Epic of Gilgamesh

• Principle vehicle for Mesopotamian reflection on
  moral issues
• Friendship
• Relations between humans and the gods
• The meaning of life and death

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Excerpt from the Epic of Gilgamesh

• When their heart led the great gods to produce
  the flood. There were Anu, their father, Valiant
  Enlil, their counselor, Ninurta, their herald,
  Ennuge, their irrigator. Ninigiku-Ea was also
  present with them
• Their words he repeats to the reed-hut
• Reed-hut, reed-hut! Wall! Wall!
• Reed-hut, hearken! Wall, reflect!
• Man of Shuruppak, son of Ubar-Tutu,
  Tear down (this) house, build a ship! Give
  up possessions, seek thou life. Despise property
  and keep the soul alive. Aboard the ship take
  thou the seed of all living things. The ship
  that thou shalt build, Her dimensions shall be
  to measure. Equal shall be her width and her
  length. Like the Apsu thou shalt ceil her.

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Hanging Gardens of Babylon

• One of the Seven Wonders of the World
• Built by King Nebuchadnezzar II around 600 B.C.
  on top of stone arches 23 meters above ground and
  watered from the Euphrates by a complicated
  mechanical system.
• Series of terraces filled with plants.

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