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Humanities
6-C
Ancient Mesopotamia: Laws, Empire, Government,
and Society (L.E.G.S.)
Essential Question: In order to maintain order and stability, how
have past civilizations arranged different groups and their
responsibilities (society), organized power to control their
populations (government and law), and extended power over other
territories (empire)?
Society
Based upon a careful reading of pages 55, 56, 58, 59, 60, 61 of the
Our World textbook, we can come to certain conclusions about the different
parts of Mesopotamian society and their different jobs. On page 55 of Our
World, we learn that there were people whose job it was to bring water from
artificial lakes to irrigate and grow crops. Such people who grow
domesticated crops are called farmers. Some of the crops that this group of
people specialized in growing, according to page 56 of Our World, were
wheat, barley, beans, onions, and lettuce. Another group in Mesopotamian
society, described on page 56 of Our World is a group whose job it was to
protect and herd sheep and goats that were raised for their for their milk and
wool. These people were called shepherds.
On page 59 of Our World we learn about yet another social group in
Mesopotamia. There was a group of people, made up mostly of boys, who
went to school to learn to make clay tablets, to make “pens” from river
reeds, to write and read cuneiform letters, and to learn mathematics. This
group of trained writers were called scribe.
There were other social groups in Mesopotamia. On page 60 of Our
World we learn that, “People entered and exited the city through large gates
in [the city] walls.” Because Sumerian city-states had walls around them, we
can logically infer that there were workers—or social groups—whose job it
was to make bricks that were used to build or construct the walls that
guarded or enclosed a city.
“The king’s palace could be seen from almost any point in
the city. The king ruled the city-state from his palace, operated
the courts and the army, and planned canals and other needed
projects.” (Our World, page 60)
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Based on the quote above, we can infer not only that there was a king,
but also builders of the king’s palace, clerks who worked in the courts,
soldiers who served in the army, and engineers who planned and designed
the all-important irrigation canals and other projects.
Furthermore, a careful reading of page 61 of Our World indicates that
in Sumer a vast variety of people were employed in—worked in—the
temples. Not only were there priests and priestesses, but weavers who
wove cloth for temple workers and for the statutes, and also musicians,
barbers, bakers, craft workers and scribes. And if there were statues of gods
or goddesses, we can assume that there were sculptors who sculpted them.
Perhaps the lowest social group in Sumer are discussed on page 62 of
Our World. These were people who were prisoners of war. They were called
slaves, and they were sold by merchants.
The list of social groups, or workers, in Mesopotamia includes at least
17 separate social groups: farmers; shepherds; scribes; craft-makers;
construction workers; court clerks; army soldiers; designers, engineers or
construction workers; priests and priestesses; clothing makers; sculptors of
statues; musicians; craft workers; bakers; barbers; slaves who were prisoners
of war; and merchants.
Some of these social groups can be seen on the “Peace” side of the
Standard of Ur, on page 58 and 59 of Our World. This is an ancient artifact
that archeologists unearthed from a king’s grave in the city-state of Ur.
On the lowest level of the Standard of Ur, we may see either slaves or
farmers carrying the grain that they have grown; on the middle level, we can
see the farmers herding or leading their cattle, goats, and sheep. On the top
row, on the top right side, we can see musicians playing a hand harp or a
lute. We see six seated men in “skirts” holding goblets. They are facing a
tall, seated man in a throne, whom we can assume is the king. Perhaps these
seated men who are raising wine goblets in a toast to the king are the king’s
scribes or court clerks.
Government
On page 60 of Our World, we learn that life and government in Sumer
centered around a unit of political organization called a city-state. A citystate is a self governing city, that also lived by nearby villages. The ruler of
each city-state was the king, who ruled his city-state from his palace. The
responsibilities of the king included running the courts and the kingdom, and
planned huge public projects like irrigation canals.
Law
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On page 68 of Our World, we learn that Babylonian King
Hammurabi’s jobs included directing the building and repairing of canals
and acting as a judge to make decisions about legal matters.
A code of
laws is a written collection of the laws that apply to the people ruled by one
government. History’s very first code of laws was the Code of Hammurabi.
Hammurabi’s laws numbered about 200 laws in all. They were written on
six-foot stone pillar with a picture of King Hammurabi receiving the laws
from Shamash, the Sumerian Sun god. (See page 68 of Our World.)
Because copies of Hammurabi’s laws were found all over his empire,
we can conclude that all citizens were expected to obey the laws. Some
people today might view Hammurabi’s Code of Laws as harsh. The
expression, “An eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth,” which means that the
punishment must exactly repay the crime, comes to us from Hammurabi.
For example, on page 68, we learn that if a free person blinds another free
person, then they shall put out his eye;
that if a free person breaks another free person’s bone, then they shall break
his bone.
Moreover, the Code of Hammurabi also gives us a clue that poor
people and slaves were not as highly ranked or valued in Mesopotamian
society as that of free people. We can infer this, because on page 68 of Our
World, we learn that according to the Code of Hammurabi, if a poor man is
blinded or his bone is broken, then the person who committed the injury
must pay with silver, not with his own eye or leg.
Empire and Warfare
On page 67 of Our World, we learn that the by the year 1750 B.C., the
powerful city-state of Assyria in southern Mesopotamia, began to reunite
[rejoin] the city-states of Sumer. According to the map on page 67, by 1750
B.C., the Babylonian Empire controlled the five following city-states: Asher,
Nineveh, Nimrid, UR, and Babylon. The powerful king of this city-state,
whose name was King Hammurabi, gained power by controlling the flow of
water from the Cooprate River. Because many important trade goods, such
as silver, timber [wood], copper, and wine had to pass through Babylon,
Babylonia became the center of a Babylon empire.
Even before King Hammurabi built the powerful empire of Babylonia,
there had been another powerful empire builder. On page 61 of Our World,
we learn that in 2300 B.C. King Saragon of the city-state of Kish had built
the first great empire in history. An empire is a land that is ruled by a king
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one government. In order to rule his 900-mile empire, Sargon relied on
weinform writing in order to send messages and laws across the empire.
The “War” side of the Standard of Ur, above, gives us a pretty good
idea of how Sumerian armies might have fought wars. According to the
British Museum website, the war side shows “chariots, each pulled by four
donkeys, trampling] enemies; infantry [foot soldiers] with cloaks carry[ing]
spears; enemy soldiers [being] killed with axes, [while] others are paraded
naked and presented to the king who holds a spear.”
On page 69 of Our World we learn that after Hammurabi’s death, the
Babylonian Empire began to weaken and was eventually replaced, by the
year 600 B.C., by the Assyria Empire as the dominant power. Its empire
ranged from what is today modern turkey in the north to the Persian Gulf in
the north and Egypt in the aqueduct. Among the tools of war used by the
Assyrians were battering rams to knock in the doors of city gates and towers
on wheels for soldiers to climb over the walls of enemy cities.
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