Transcript Mesopotamia - TeacherWeb

Mesopotamia:
“The Cradle of Civilization”
Earliest Civilization: the
Fertile Crescent
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Categorized as the earliest of all civilizations as
people formed permanent settlements
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Mesopotamia is a Greek word that means
“between the rivers”
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Specifically, the area between the Tigris River
and Euphrates River (present day Iraq)
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Mesopotamia is not within the "Fertile crescent“, it is in
the more desert area that the "Fertile crescent" arcs
around
Tigris River
Northern Mesopotamia
Geographic Conditions
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Little rainfall for crops
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Hot and dry climate in the summers
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Winters brought fierce windstorms leaving
muddy river valleys
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Springs brought catastrophic flooding of
the rivers
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Arid soil containing little minerals
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No stone or timber resources
Northern Mesopotamia is made up of hills and
plains. The land is quite fertile due to seasonal
rains, and the rivers and streams flowing from the
mountains. Early settlers farmed the land and used
timber, metals and stone from the mountains
nearby.
Southern Mesopotamia is made up of marshy areas
and wide, flat, barren plains. Cities developed along
the rivers which flow through the region. Early
settlers had to irrigate the land along the banks of
the rivers in order for their crops to grow. Since
they did not have many natural resources, contact
with neighbouring lands was important.
Then why live in
Mesopotamia?
NATURAL LEVEES: embankments produced by build-up of sediment
over thousands of years of flooding
Natural Levee
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create a high and safe flood plain
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make irrigation and canal construction easy
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provide protection
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the surrounding swamps were full of fish &
waterfowl
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reeds provided food for sheep / goats
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reeds also were used as building resources
•During the growing season, each
farmer was allowed only a certain
amount of water. When it was a
farmer's turn to water his fields the
regulator was adjusted so that water
ran from the canal into an irrigation
ditch which ran alongside the
farmer's fields. The farmer could then
water his fields.
What evidence do archaeologists
have for making the statements in
the previous slide?
The next slide contains some useful
vocabulary.
Flood- Before you can work the soil, you must flood
your field with water from the irrigation ditch.
 Plough- After the field has been flooded, you must run
the plough through the field to break up the soil.
 Harrow- After the large chunks of dirt have been
broken up by the plough, you must run the harrow
through the field to make the field smooth and level.
 Sow- After the ground has been ploughed and
harrowed, you must drop seeds into the ground using
the seeder-plough.
 Water- You must water your field three times after it
has been sown.
 Harvest- When the crops are ripe, you must cut the
barley, gather it together and take it to the threshing
house.
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History of Mesopotamia
Over the centuries, many different people
lived in this area creating a collection of
independent states
 Sumer- southern part (3500-2000 BCE)
 Akkad- northern part (2340 – 2180 BCE)
 Babylonia- these two regions were unified
(1830-1500 BCE and 650-500 BCE)
 Assyria- Assyrian Empire (1100 -612 BCE)
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Religion
gods were worshipped at
huge temples called
ziggurats
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Position of King was
enhanced and supported
by religion
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Kingship believed to be
created by gods and the
king’s power was divinely
ordained
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Polytheistic religion consisting
of over 3600 gods and
demigods
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Shows diversity of religion
from different regions
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Yet all of Mesopotamia shared
the same religion and the
same prominent gods
Prominent Mesopotamian gods
Enlil (supreme god & god of air)
Ishtar (goddess of fertility & life)
An (god of heaven)
Enki (god of water & underworld)
Shamash (god of sun and giver of law)
Ziggurats
Ziggurat of Ur -2000BCE
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Important for gods to be
honoured by religious
ceremonies
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Ceremonies performed by
priests in sacred temples
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Temples created from mud
brick and placed on
platforms due to constant
flooding
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Temples evolved to
ziggurats- a stack of 1-7
platforms decreasing in size
from bottom to top
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Famous ziggurat was
Tower of Babel (over 100m
above ground and 91m
base)
 Political
structure an early form of
democracy
 Frequent
wars led to the emergence
of warriors as leaders
 Eventually
rise of monarchial
NOBILITY
FREE CLIENTS
COMMONERS
SLAVES
Sumerians
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Established the social, economic and intellectual basis of Mesopotamia
First to develop writing in the form of cuneiform
Sumerians are credited to have invented the wheel
Became the first city of the world
However, the Sumerians were not successful in uniting lower
Mesopotamia
Akkadians
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Leader: Sargon the Great
Sargon’s greatest achievement was the unification of lower
Mesopotamia (after conquering Sumerians in 2331 BCE)
Established capital at Akkad
Spread Mesopotamian culture throughout Fertile Crescent
Yet dynasty established by Sargon was short-lived… Akkadians were
conquered by the invading barbarians by 2200 BCE
Babylonians
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Babylonians
reunited
Mesopotamia in
1830 BCE
Used their central
location to
dominate trade and
establish control
over all of
Mesopotamia
KING HAMMURABI
– conquered Akkad
and Assyria and
gained control of
north and south
Hammurabi’s
Legacy: law code
YET AGAIN,
Mesopotamia was
not unified for
long…
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10th century BCE, Assyria emerged as dominant force
Assyrian reunited Mesopotamia and established the first true empire
Assyrian army was most feared due to their brutal, bloodthirsty & terrorizing tactics
and use of iron weapons, battering rams, chariots
Assyrian Empire stretched from Persian Gulf north and West to Syria, Palestine and
Egypt
However, states began to revolt and ONCE AGAIN, Assyrian Empire collapsed by
late 7th century BCE
By 539 BCE, Mesopotamia part of the vast Persian Empire (led by Cyrus the Great)
Persian Empire dominated for 800 years until Alexander the Great
Code of Hammurabi
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Code of 282 laws inscribed on a stone pillar
placed in the public hall for all to see
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Hammurabi Stone depicts Hammurabi as
receiving his authority from god Shamash
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Set of divinely inspired laws; as well as societal
laws
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Punishments were designed to fit the crimes as
people must be responsible for own actions
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Hammurabi Code was an origin to the concept
of “eye for an eye…” ie. If a son struck his
father, the son’s hand would be cut off
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Consequences for crimes depended on rank in
society (ie. only fines for nobility)
Development
Of
WRITING
Writing
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Greatest contribution of
Mesopotamia to western civilization
was the invention of writing
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allowed the transmission of
knowledge, the codification of laws,
records to facilitate trade
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First written communication was
PICTOGRAMS
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As society evolved, the first form of
writing was developed called
CUNEIFORM (meaning “wedge
shaped”), dating to 3500 BCE
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Cuneiform spread to Persia and
Egypt and became the vehicle for
the growth and spread of civilization
and the exchange of ideas among
cultures
Development of Writing
Click on the following link to see the development of
writing from pictograms to cuneiform
http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/writing/story/sto_set.html
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Gilgamesh
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Gilgamesh is an ancient story or epic
written in Mesopotamia more than
4000 thousand years ago
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Gilgamesh is the first known work of
great literature and epic poem
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Epic mentions a great flood
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Gilgamesh parallels the Nippur Tablet,
a six-columned tablet telling the story
of the creation of humans and animals,
the cities and their rulers, and the
great flood
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ANALYSIS
Gilgamesh and the Nippur tablet both
parallel the story of Noah and the Ark
(great flood) in the Old Testament of
the Jewish and Christian holy books
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Modern science argues an increase in
the sea levels about 6,000 years ago
(end of ice age)
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the melting ice drained to the oceans
causing the sea level to rise more than
ten feet in one century
Royal Tombs
of Ur
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From 1922 to 1934, an archaeologist
named C. Leonard Woolley excavated the
site of the ancient Sumerian city of Ur
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City famed in Bible as the home of
patriarch Abraham
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many great discoveries such as
extravagant jewelry of gold, cups of gold
and silver, bowls of alabaster, and
extraordinary objects of art and culture
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opened the world's eyes to the full glory
of ancient Sumerian culture
Great Death Pit
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Found at Ur was a mass grave containing
the bodies of 6 guards and 68 court ladies
(servants of kings and queens)
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servants walked down into the grave in a
great funeral procession
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they drank a poisoned drink and fell
asleep never to wake again, choosing to
accompany the kings and queens in the
afterlife
Legacies of Mesopotamia
Revolutionary innovations emerged in
Mesopotamia such as:
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codified laws
the concept of kinship and the city-state
the building of places of worship
(ziggurats)
the birthplace of writing (cuneiform)
Invention of the wheel
Oldest written records of a story of
creation date back to Mesopotamia
First civilization to make a prosperous living
based on large scale agriculture
Mesopotamian Women
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Because the majority of surviving documents
from the ancient Mesopotamia were created in
male spheres of influence (palaces and temples)
by male scribes, women are not very visible. It is
possible to compile a list of important women
from inscriptions of the Early Dynastic period;
but almost all are wives and daughters of rulers
and high officials. Legal documents show that
women could act independently, buying and
selling houses, acting as a guarantor for another
person. They could also become involved in
court cases.
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Further down the social scale weaving was a
principal occupation of women. Documents
mention hundreds of women working together
in weaving 'factories'. In the Old Assyrian period
merchant's wives represented their husbands in
various commercial and legal transactions. By
the Middle Assyrian period there is evidence
from Assyria for the first harems. A series of
very harsh laws has survived from the same
period, which regulate the activities of women.
Some Assyrian queens were very powerful but
these women are exceptions. Only occasionally
are women portrayed in Assyrian art and then
most are shown as prisoners of war or as
deportees.
What does this relief tell you about
women in Ashurbanipal’s court?
How do archaeologists know if a skeleton
belonged to a male or a female?
 What can the way someone is buried tell
us about her/his status in life?
 What do grave goods tell us about the
person buried there?
 Why are there so few infant and child
burials?
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This is thought to be a figurine of a
female. What do you think she is
doing?
Archaeologists believe that this artifact is
of Phoenician origin.
 They also believe that it might be a female
tambourine player.
 What does the artifact tell us about
Phoenician females?
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Bibliography (Farming Section)
C.B.F. Walker, Cuneiform (Reading the
Past) (London, The British Museum Press,
1987)
 H.J. Nissen, P. Damerow and R.K.
Englund, Archaic bookkeeping (Chicago
University Press, 1993)
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Bibliography: Women
M. Durand, La femme dans le Proche-Orient
antique. Paris, Editions Recherche sur les
Civilisations, 1987
A. Cameron and A. Kuhrt (eds.), Images of women
in antiquity. London, Croom Helm, 1983
C. Saporetti, The status of women in the Middle
Assyrian period, Monographs on the ancient
Near East, vol. 2, fasc. 1. Malibu, CA, 1979
M. Stol, 'Women in Mesopotamia', Journal of the
Economic and Social History of the Orient, 38,
pp. 123-44