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Mesopotamia
A Case Study in Civilization
Requirements for Civilization
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Urban revolution
New Political and Military Structures
Social Structure based on economic power
The development of complex technology
Development of Writing
Distinct religious structure
New forms of artistic and cultural activity
The Geography
• The land “between the rivers”.
• Arid yet, fertile. • Silt, irrigation, and civilization.
The Mesopotamian City
• Towns gradually •
outgrew themselves and became walled cities.
City states, large population groups ruled by all powerful kings grew in the place of the town. Famous sites such as Ur, Uruk, and Eridu are examples.
The City Center: The Ziggurat
• While the walls provided protection from without, the temple protected the people within.
Ziggurat
Religion
• Gods and Goddesses owned the cities and as a result much wealth was devoted to temple construction. The temples played a significant role in the daily life of Mesopotamians.
Significant Deities
• Anu: God of the Sky
• Enlil: God of the Wind
• Enki: God of the Earth
• Ninhursaga: God of Soil and Vegetation
Mesopotamian Outlook
• Many felt helpless with “Anthromophorbic”
gods who “meddled” in the lives of people. • Life filled with strife, discomfort, and war.
• “The rampant flood which no man can oppose, which shakes the heavens and casuses the earth to tremble, In an appalling blanket folds mother and child, beats down the meadows full luxuriant greenery, and drowns the harvest in time of ripeness.” Epic of Gilgamesh
Relationships with the divine
• Mesopotamians believed they were placed on earth to “serve”.
• They felt they could never be secure of the gods actions.
Economy
• Largely agricultural
• Small industries: pottery, metallurgy, textiles, and crafts brought them fame and foreign trade.
Innovation
• Foreign trade led to, and facilitated “cultural diffusion”.
• As economies grew in scale, innovations such as writing and the wheel facilitated these innovations.
Copper
Mass production
Social Class in Sumeria
• The Elite: Nobles
• The Labor: Commoners
• The Slaves
Empires in Ancient Mesopotamia
• A kingdom to which • “Ur is destroyed bitter in rulers have added areas its lament. The belonging to other country’s blood now fills rulers. its holes like hot bronze • Warfare nearly in a mold. Bodies constant…as men like dissolve like fat in the Senacharib of Assyria sun. Our temple is sought conquest
destroyed,d the gods have abandoned us, like migrating birds. Smoke lies on our city like a shroud.”
Akkadians
• Led by the legendary Sargon. • Semitic language speaking peoples.
• Overran the Sumerian city states and established an empire.
Hammurabi
• Organized the Amorites (Old Babylonians) into an empire, built the legendary city of Babylon.
• Known for incredible military discipline.
• “The Sun of Babylon”.
The Great Lawgiver
• “An Eye For An Eye”
• Complex societies required codified legal systems. • Examples: The Cultivation of New Arts and Sciences
• Cuneiform
• Schools for the elite, scribes.
• The Epic of Gilgamesh
• Time, calendar, mathematics, etc…
The Standard of Ur
The Royal Game of Ur
Akkadians
2340-2125 BC
Amorites
1800-1530 BC
Sumeria
3500-1800 BC
Mesopotamian
Civilization
Hittites
1600-717 BC
Chaldeans
612-539 BC
Assyrians
1170-612 BC
Kassites
1530-1170 BC
The World’s Oldest Story?
The Meaning of Life and the Epic of Gilgamesh
The Epic
• The Epic of Gilgamesh
is probably the oldest written story in the world. The story was written down on 12 clay tablets somewhere in ancient Sumer. It is the first heroic epos that we know of, predating the Greek by at least 1500 years. Piecing Together History?
• Problems?
• Epic: incomplete, as you can see portions of the original are in tatters.
• Persia destroyed the great library of Nineveh in 612 BCE.
• However, we do have it in multiple ancient languages.
Gilgamesh?
• Fabled king of Uruk, the true, legendary city in Sumer.
The Story
• The King: Gilgamesh is a flawed figure, the worlds first tragic hero. In his story we find bits and pieces of all that makes us human. The desire for compassion, greatness, sympathy, and friendship…while displaying ignorance, greed, and intolerance.
Elements of an Epic
• Within Gilgamesh we find:
• Flood myth
• Eden
• Discussion of life and death
• Cornerstone philosophies of modern religion.
Assyria
Assyria by theme
• Signature characteristic: military prowess
and strength.
– Library of Nineveh
• Geography: located on upper Tigris River
– Controlled: Asia Minor, Iran, Syria, Palestine
and northern Egypt.
• Language: Semitic speaking peoples
• Signature leaders: Senacherib, Asurbanipal
• Problems? Overextension of empire, anger
of constituents, internal strife, harsh rule
• Fall: fell to Chaldean and Median coalition
in 612 BCE
• Politics: Assyrian kings had absolute,
despotic power.
Tigleth-Pilsar II
• Most centralized and efficient state the
world had seen. (745 BCE)
Military Might
Use of terror
• “I fixed up a pile of copses in front of the
city’s gate. I flayed the nobles, as many as
had rebelled and spread their skins out on
the piles…I flayed many leaders and spread
their skins on the walls.” Ashurbaninapl
• Political leaders were directly responsible to the
king. Rarely acted without “divine approval”
• Developed an efficient administrative system to
govern more effectively.
• Developed a primitive postal system.
• Military was gifted in all types of fighting and was
extremely large and well organizaed.
• Technological superiority came from their use of
Hittite technology of Iron weapons.
• Economics: largely agrarian. Did trade in metals,,
precious metals, and acted in control of regional
trade routes.
• Culture: despite their violent reputation. They
acted as guardians of Mesopotamian heritage and
built the great library to safeguard it.
• Religion: patron god of Ashur, the rest were
previously existing Mesopotamian gods.
Indo Europeans
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Subfamily Languages
Indo-Iranian: Sanskrit, Persian
Balto-Slavic: Russia, Serbo-Croat, Polish,
Czech.
Italic: Latin, Romantic languages
Celtic: Irish, Gaelic
Germanic: Swedish, Danis, German,
English
History
• Based somewhere in black sea region.
Substantial migration of peoples to diverse
areas.
• Empires and groups formed: Hittites,
Aryan, Greeks, Romans, and Persians
Phoenicians
• Language: Semitic
• Geography: Palestine along the
mediteranean coast
• Signature achievement: Phonetic alphabet.
• Identifying trait: trade, commerce, and sea
faring ability, trade in “Phoenecian purple”
and the famed Lebanese cedars.
The Hebrews
• Lived to the south of the Phoenecians.
• Identifying characteristic: Judaism.
• Great cultural achievement: Old Testament
(Torah)
• Nomadic people in earliest times.
• Patriarch-Abraham.
• Drought caused movement to Egypt where
they lived until enslaved.
• Exodus in the first half of the 13th
millenium BCE-wandered in desert for
many years until resettleing into Palestine.
• Organized into 12 tribes—became
embroiled in conflict with Phillistines,
living in the same region.
• 1000 BCE organized into a league of tribes
who established the kingdom of Israel.
Hebrew challenges
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Egyptian enslavement
Philistine conflicts
Babylonian captivity (role of Persians)
Assyrian siege
United Kingdom
• First kingdom under Saul, later reunified under
David who united reunited the Israelites and led a
siege against the Philistines and established
control over the area. David centralized the
kingdom into an agrarian culture with an urban
center.
• Solomon, David’s son is known for his great
building projects, high taxes and military
expansion.
Divided Kingdom
• Tribal tensions emerge between Northern and
Southern tribes within Israel.
• Two kingdoms created
– 10 Northern tribes—Israel
– 2 Southern tribes—Judah capital at Jerusalem
– Each kingdom threatened at brought under the control
of Assyria by 722 BCE
– Gradually moved and merged with other cultures and
lost their identity (Ten lost tribes of Israel)
– South preserved their culture and heritage…until
Babylonian Captivity
• 586 BCE: Chaldeans destroy Assyria (what is left)
conquer Judah and destroy Jerusalem in the
process deporting thousands to Bablyon for
captivity.
• Psalm 137:
• “By the rivers of Bablyon we sat and remembered
Zion. How can we sing the songs of the Lord in a
Foreign land”.
• Persians destroy Chaldeans and liberate the
Hebrews even helping the people of Jerusalem
return and build their temples.
Liberation
• The Babylonian Captivity lasted exactly 70 years as predicted, extending from the burning of the Temple to its reconstruction, 586 B.C. ‐ 516 B.C.
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• The Babylonian captivity ended with the decree of Cyrus in 537 B.C.
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• Ezra 1:2‐4
• 2 Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the LORD God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah. • 3 Who is among you of all His people? May his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel (He is God), which is in Jerusalem
Hittites
Capital City: Hattusa
Technology
Hittite legacy
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Controlled Turkey as far back as 1800 BCE
Part of IE migrations
Pioneers of Iron usage
Governed with a despotic king who
received advice from the first known
assembly the Hittite Pankus, a council of
warriors that acted as a cabinet/legislature.
• Treaty of Kadesh-1st international peace
treaty
• Destroyed by the “Sea Peoples” the mystery
group that also befell Egyptian civilization
Treaty of Kadesh: Egypt and Hittites