Transcript Because they needed to keep records of their livestock, food, and

CIVILIZATION AS DEVELOPED
IN MESOPOTAMIA (Geography)
 FERTILE CRESCENT (a horseshoe or
crescent shaped areas of good farmland
between river Tigris and Euphrates). As it
touched three continents it may be regarded
as the crossroads of ancient world.
 FLOODING (overflow of the two rivers less
predictable than Nile though and often very
violent)
 CLIMATE (much harsher than in Egypt):
Blazing summers heat and winter storms
The Ancient Fertile Crescent
Area
The Middle East: “The Cradle of Civilization”
 EASIER TO INVADE THAN EGYPT as
nomads and other powerful fighters often
tried to seize the wealth and splendor of the
people developing civilizations in the area.
Therefore SEVERAL DIFFERENT GROUPS
OF PEOPLE CONTROLLED
MESOPOTAMIA for some periods and then
disappeared.
Sumer, 3200-2350 B.C.
Sargon’s Empire, 23502320 B.C.
The Amorite invasions, 2100-1900 B.C.
The Dynasty of Ur,
2100-2000 B.C.
Reign of Hammurapi of Babylon,
1792-1750 B.C.
Proto-literate Period
 ca. 3500-3100 B.C.
 most characteristics of Mesopotamia
have developed
 towns and cities
 rudimentary system of writing and
metal technology
 temple architecture
The Early Dynastic Period
 ca. 3100 B.C.
 the Sumerians
 not the first inhabitants
 arrived by sea ??
Political organization
 city-states (12)
 ruled by “kings”
– (lugals)
 whose main source of
wealth was land and therefore
often at war for water-rights
The State and Urban Revolution:
“In the city-state (or state), kin and tribal loyalties are, by definition,
subordinated and replaced by political ties…. What makes a city-state
different from an agricultural town is the synergy created by its people
interacting with each other on the basis of political relationships rather
than traditional blood ties.”
UR
CLAY TABLETS
The Beginnings of Writing
Farmers needed to keep records.
The Sumerians were very good farmers. They raised animals such as goats and cows (called
livestock). Because they needed to keep records of their livestock, food, and other things,
officials began using tokens.
The Beginnings of Writing
Farmers needed to keep records.
The Sumerians were very good farmers. They raised animals such as goats and cows (called
livestock). Because they needed to keep records of their livestock, food, and other things,
officials began using tokens.
Tokens were used for trade.
Clay tokens came in different shapes and sizes. These represented different objects. For
example, a cone shape could have represented a bag of wheat. These tokens were placed
inside clay balls that were sealed. If you were sending five goats to someone, then you
would put five tokens in the clay ball. When the goat arrived, the person would open the clay
ball and count the tokens to make sure the correct number of goats had arrived. The
number of tokens began to be pressed on the outside of the clay balls. Many experts believe
that this is how writing on clay tablets began.
The Beginnings of Writing
Farmers needed to keep records.
The Sumerians were very good farmers. They raised animals such as goats and cows (called
livestock). Because they needed to keep records of their livestock, food, and other things,
officials began using tokens.
Tokens were used for trade.
Clay tokens came in different shapes and sizes. These represented different objects. For
example, a cone shape could have represented a bag of wheat. These tokens were placed
inside clay balls that were sealed. If you were sending five goats to someone, then you
would put five tokens in the clay ball. When the goat arrived, the person would open the clay
ball and count the tokens to make sure the correct number of goats had arrived. The
number of tokens began to be pressed on the outside of the clay balls. Many experts believe
that this is how writing on clay tablets began.
A system of writing develops.
The earliest form of writing dates back to 3300 B.C. People back then would draw "wordpictures" on clay tablets using a pointed instrument called a stylus. These "word-pictures"
then developed into wedge-shaped signs. This type of script was called cuneiform (from the
Latin word cuneus which means wedge).
The Beginnings of Writing
Farmers needed to keep records.
The Sumerians were very good farmers. They raised animals such as goats and cows (called
livestock). Because they needed to keep records of their livestock, food, and other things,
officials began using tokens.
Tokens were used for trade.
Clay tokens came in different shapes and sizes. These represented different objects. For
example, a cone shape could have represented a bag of wheat. These tokens were placed
inside clay balls that were sealed. If you were sending five goats to someone, then you
would put five tokens in the clay ball. When the goat arrived, the person would open the clay
ball and count the tokens to make sure the correct number of goats had arrived. The
number of tokens began to be pressed on the outside of the clay balls. Many experts believe
that this is how writing on clay tablets began.
A system of writing develops.
The earliest form of writing dates back to 3300 B.C. People back then would draw "wordpictures" on clay tablets using a pointed instrument called a stylus. These "word-pictures"
then developed into wedge-shaped signs. This type of script was called cuneiform (from the
Latin word cuneus which means wedge).
Who used cuneiform?
Not everyone learned to read and write. The ones that were picked by the gods were called
scribes. Boys that were chosen to become scribes (professional writers) began to study at
the age of 8. They finished when they were 20 years old. The scribes wrote on clay tablets
and used a triangular shaped reed called a stylus to make marks in the clay. The marks
represented the tens of thousands of words in their language.
THE ORIGINS OF WRITING: Tokens are small geometric clay objects (cylinders, cones,
spheres, etc.) found all over the Near East from about 8000 B.C. until the development
of writing. The earliest tokens were simple shapes and were comparatively unadorned;
they stood for basic agricultural commodities such as grain and sheep. A specific shape
of token always represented a specific quantity of a particular item. For example, "the
cone ... stood for a small measure of grain, the sphere represented a large measure of
grain, the ovoid stood for a jar of oil." (Before Writing 161). Two jars of oil would be
represented by two ovoids, three jars by three ovoids, and so on. Thus, the tokens
presented an abstraction of the things being counted, but also a system of great
specificity and precision.
Sumerian Scribes
“Tablet House”
Deciphering Cuneiform
THE DEVELOPMENT OF
CUNEIFORM: The Sumerian writing
system during the early periods was
constantly in flux. The original
direction of writing was from top to
bottom, but for reasons unknown, it
changed to left-to-right very early on
(perhaps around 3000 BCE). This
also affected the orientation of the
signs by rotating all of them 90°
counterclockwise. Another change in
this early system involved the "style"
of the signs. The early signs were
more "linear" in that the strokes
making up the signs were lines and
curves. But starting after 3000 BC,
these strokes started to evolve into
wedges, thus changing the visual
style of the signs from linear to
"cuneiform".
Social and political organization:
•
The King: he had military powers.
•
The Governors: they governed the territories of the kingdom. They were generals
and judges at the same time.
•
The aristocracy: they were priests and traders.
•
The peasants: the people who work the land.
The King
The Governors
The Aristocracy
The Peasantry
Gilgamesh
A king of Uruk, Mesopotamia, who lived sometime
between 2800 and 2500 BC.He is the main
character in the Epic of Gilgamesh, a Mesopotamian
poem that is considered the first great work of
literature.
In the epic, Gilgamesh is a demigod of superhuman
strength who built the city walls of Uruk to defend his
people and traveled to meet the sage Utnapishtim,
who survived the Great Deluge. According to the
Sumerian King List, Gilgamesh ruled his city for 126
years
EPIC OF GILGAMESH
 The one who saw all [Sha nagba imuru ]I will
declare to the world,
The one who knew all I will tell about
[line missing]
He saw the great Mystery, he knew the Hidden:
He recovered the knowledge of all the times
before the Flood.
He journeyed beyond the distant, he journeyed
beyond exhaustion,
And then carved his story on stone. [naru :
stone tablets ]
For thousands of years, Nippur was the religious center of Mesopotamia.
According to Sumerian religion, it was at Nippur where Enlil, the supreme god
of the Sumerian pantheon, created mankind. Although never a capital city,
Nippur had great political importance because royal rule over Mesopotamia was
not considered legitimate without recognition in its temples. Thus, Nippur was
the focus of pilgrimage and building programs by dozens of kings including
Hammurabi of Babylon and Ashurbanipal of Assyria.
Map of
Nippur
ZIGGURAT
Sargon of Akkad unifies
Mesopotamia: world’s first empire,
ca. 2240 B.C.
Head of an
Akkadian
Ruler, from
Nineveh, Iraq.
2300-2200
B.C.
Bronze, Iraq
Museum,
Baghdad
Head of Gudea (King of
Lagash; the last Akkadian
survivor) c.a. 2200 B.C.
 HITTITES (invaded the Fertile Crescent
around 1600 coming from modern Turkey.
Fought with Egypt over Syria until 1250
B.C.E when they made peace with Ramses
II and then basically disappeared).
 ASSYRIANS (lived 300 miles north of
Babylon; almost unbeatablein battle partly
because they were armed with copper,
bronze and iron weapons; they used horse
drawn chariots. They ruled Mesopotamia
between 1100 and 600 B.C.E.
Reign of Hammurabi of Babylon, 1792-1750 B.C.
STELE OF HAMMURRABI
1792-1750 B.C.
2. If any one bring an
accusation against a man, and
the accused go to the river and
leap into the river, if he sink in
the river his accuser shall take
possession of his house. But if
the river prove that the
accused is not guilty, and he
escape unhurt, then he who
had brought the accusation
shall be put to death, while he
who leaped into the river shall
take possession of the house
that had belonged to his
accuser. 14. If persons are
stolen, then shall the community
and . . . pay one mina of silver to
their relatives. 110. If a "sister of
a god" open a tavern, or enter
a tavern to drink, then shall
this woman be burned to
death. 118. If he give a male or
female slave away for forced
labour, and the merchant
sublease them, or sell them for
RELIGION
Apsu: the fresh waters (male principle)
Tiamat: the salt waters (female principle)
Ea, the god of intelligence and wisdom,
puts Apsu in a trance and then kills him.
The statue of the god Marduk
with his dragon, from a
Babylonian cylinder seal.
Marduk killed Tiamat.
These carved stone figures, their eyes
wide with awe and their hands clasped
in reverence, were placed in
Mesopotamian temples by worshippers
to stand in perpetual prayer on their
behalf before the god or goddess to
whom the sanctuary was dedicated.
There were many gods. For
example, Anu was the father of the gods
and the god of the sky; Enlil was the
god of the air; Utu was the sun god and
the lord of truth and justice; Nanna was
the moon god; Inanna was the goddess
of love and war; Ninhursag was the
goddess of earth; and Enki was the god
of fresh water as well as the lord of
While they served and revered the great gods,
wisdom and magic.
most people felt little connection with these
distant beings. Ordinary people depended on a
relationship with their own personal god - a kind
of guardian angel - who protected individuals
and interceded for them with the great deities.
URUK VASE
ANCIENT PERSIA
FRIEZE AT THE PALACE OF DARIUS (PERSEPOLIS)
PERSIAN EMPIRE
 Including almost all the of the civilized world
under DARIUS I (550 -486 B.C.E.) as
Mesopotamia was just one part of the
Empire.
 Conquered people allowed to practice their
own religion and keep their own language
and customs.
 Improved communications and roads (Royal
Road from Asia Minor to the capital SUSA
covering 2500 kilometers
CYRUS’S TOMB
 Issued metal coins of equal size and weight
as people can trade more easily as they can
pay with coins of standard value.
 Open attitudes to a new religion….
ZOROASTRIANISM: THE RELIGION OF THE
PERSIANS