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MESOPOTAMIA
“Land between the rivers”.
FEATURES OF THE
MESOPOTAMIAN SOCIETY.
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Considered the
cradle of civilization.
Urban societies are
known from the 6th
Millennium BC.
They invented
writing: cuneiform
script.
CUNEIFORM SCRIPT
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The Sumerians wrote
on clay tablets.
They used punches
to write on the
tablets.
Then these tablets
were baked to be
stored in an archive.
Archaeologists have
found thousands of
these tablets in the
archives.
ARCHITECTURE
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The three main buildings were the palace,
the temple and the ziggurat.
The temple was a religious center, economic
and political. The temple had farmland and
herds of sheep, as well as warehouses and
workshops.
The palace was organized around an inner
courtyard and was usually surrounded by a
wall.
ZIGGURAT.
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The ziggurat is a templeshaped tower.
It is built on sun-dried brick
(ladrillos de adobe).
The ziggurat were
considered the houses of the
gods. Ceremonies were held
outside the building.
To access the ziggurat there
was a series of steps up to
the chapel at the top of the
ziggurat.
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The ziggurat may be a
symbolic representation of
the union of heaven and
earth.
In total 32 ziggurat are
known, most of whom are
in Iraq and Iran.
The best known is the
ziggurat of Ur, rebuilt in
the 80s by Saddam
Hussein. In rebuilding one
of 200 bricks contains the
name of the dictator.
ISHTAR'S GATE.
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It is one of eight large
doors that had the
city walls of Babylon.
This gate was
dedicated to the
goddess Ishtar.
It was built in 575
B.C. by king
Nabucodonosor II.
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It is made of brick,
most of them blue and
includes images of
dragons, bulls, lions
and mythological
beings.
The archaeological
remains were
discovered by German
archaeologists
between 1902 and
1914.
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Most of the
archaeological
remains were taken
to Germany, where
they were
reconstructed in the
Pergamo Museum.
During the time of
Saddam Hussein's
rule, the
government rebuilt a
replica of the gate at
the original site.
Me at the Pergamo Museum.
HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON.
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One of the seven
wonders of the Ancient
World.
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They were built by the
king Nabucodonosor II
around 600 B.C.
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The
gardens
were
constructed to please
Queen Amytis who
longed for the trees and
fragant plants of her
homeland.
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It created a series of
stone terraces in
which trees were
planted and various
plants for the Queen
could
remember
where she grew up.
SOCIETY
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Mesopotamian society was divided between
free men and slaves.
The society was organized in a pyramid with
the king at the very top and slaves at the very
bottom.
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The king was the
representative of
the gods.
The king was the
military
commander and
participated in
religious
ceremonies.
In this photo, the
King Naram-Sim of
Akad.
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Within the pyramid
below the king, we find
the priests, government
officials, soldiers and
traders.
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Further down the
pyramid, we find
farmers. Their land was
owned by the nobility or
the church and the
farmers had to deliver
part of the harvest to
the temple and the
palace.
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Finally we find the
slaves at the bottom.
HAMMURABI'S CODE.
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It was created by
the King
Hammurabi in 1760
B.C.
It is one of the
oldest law codes
known. The articles
of the law are
written in the stone.
At the top the king
is receiving the law
from the hands of
the god.
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The stone
measured 2.25
metres and
contains 282 laws
delivered by the
god of justice,
Shamash.
MESOPOTAMIAN RELIGION
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The
religion
was
polytheistic. Each city
had
different
gods,
though
some
were
common.
- Among these we can see:
Aun (sky god and father
of the gods); Enki (god of
the earth); Nannar (moon
goddess); Utu (sun god);
Inanna (love goddess);
Ea (creator of the men);
Enlil (wind god).
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In the seventeenth
century B.C. King
Hammurabi united
the State, made
Babylon the capital
of the Empire and
imposed Marduk as
a main god.