Mesopotamia

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Mesopotamia refers to the region now occupied by modern Iraq, eastern Syria, and southern Turkey. The name comes from the Greek words μέσος "between" and ποταμός "river", referring to the area between the Euphrates and the Tigris (the Arabic term is بين نهرين Bayn Nahrain "between two rivers"). The fertile area watered by these two rivers is known as the "Cradle of Civilization," and it was here that the first literate societies developed. There has never been a political entity called Mesopotamia, nor does Mesopotamia have any definite boundaries; the name is simply a convenient one invented by Greek historians to refer to a broad geographical area.

Ancient Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia has been home to some of the world's major ancient civilizations, including the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. It was also home to major prehistoric cultures such as the Ubaid and Jemdet Nasr, as well as the city Jarmo. Some of the important Mesopotamian leaders were Gilgamesh, Sargon, and Hammurabi.

Language and writing

The earliest written language in Mesopotamia was Sumerian, a language isolate. Later a Semitic language, Akkadian, came to be the dominant language, although Sumerian was retained for administrative, religious, literary, and scientific purposes. Different varieties of Akkadian were used until the end of the Neo-Babalonian period. Then Aramaic, which had already become common in Mesopotamia, became the official language of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Akkadian fell into disuse, although both it and Sumerian were still used in temples for some centuries.

Development of writing

Mesopotamia was one of the first, if not the first, place in the world where writing developed. The earliest form of writing was pictographic, based on pictures that represented objects or ideas. In the late 4th millennium BC this system became more simplified and abstract, developing into cuneiform, a syllabary writing system. This form of writing eventually spread across much of the Near East. Akkadians, Elamites, Hittites and Assyrians all wrote with this system. Cuneiform was written on clay tablets with a reed stylus, which produced the characteristic wedge shape of cuneiform writing.

Royal libraries and museums

One of the largest collections of cuneiform writing comes from the archives of Ashurbanipal, the leader of Assyria. Around 650 BC he decided to create a library in Nineveh. As all temples in Babylonia had libraries, he sent his scribes to collect tablets from them. If a temple was unwilling to give away a tablet, the scribes had to make a copy. Soon the royal library in Nineveh was the largest in Assyria. Much of what we know about ancient Mesopotamia today comes from this library.

The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II founded a museum where important statues, objects and some tablets were displayed. This is an example of Babylonian literature.

Science and technology

Mesopotamian people developed many technologies, among them metalworking, glassmaking, textile weaving, food control, and water storage and irrigation. They were also one of the first Bronze age people in the world. Early on they used copper, bronze and gold, and later they used iron. Palaces were decorated with hundreds of kilograms of these very expensive metals. Also, copper, bronze, and iron were used for armor as well as for different weapons such as swords, daggers, and spears. They also made weapons from gold, but most likely these were used only for decoration.

Mathematics

The Mesopotamians used a sexagesimal (base 60) numeral system. This is the source of the current 60-minute hour and 24-hour day, as well as the 360 degree circle. The Sumerian calendar also measured weeks of seven days each. This mathematical knowledge was used in mapmaking.

Astronomy

The Babylonian astronomers were very interested in studying the stars and sky, and could predict eclipses and solstices. In astronomy everything was seen to have some purpose, usually related to religion and omens.

In ancient Mesopotamia eclipses were considered as bad omens, but only the ones that were seen counted. If an eclipse was not seen in the royal city, then that the omen had nothing to do with the king or his country.

Constellations still in use today, such as Leo, Taurus, Scorpius, Auriga, Gemini, Capricornus and Sagittarius were picked out by Sumerian and Babylonian astronomers. The constellations were useful in determining the planting and harvesting of crops, and in calculating time.

Mesopotamians also have the distinction of originating astrology. However, most of what we now think of as astrology developed during the decline of their civilization.

Medicine

Mesopotamian medicine was largely ineffective. Doctors, who often had little medical training, used a variety of holistic and spritual cures for ailments. Knowledge of the nature of disease steadily accumulated as it was passed down from generation to generation. The experiences of Mesopotamian doctors provided a basis for the development of medicine.

Religion

Mesopotamian religion is the oldest religion on record. Mesopotamians believed that the world was a flat disc, surrounded by a huge, holed space, and above that, heaven. They also believed that water was everywhere, the top, bottom and sides, and that the universe was born from this enormous sea. Mesopotamian religion was highly polytheistic, that is people believed in many gods.

Although the beliefs described above were held in common among Mesopotamians, there were also regional variations. The Sumerian word for universe is an-ki, which refers to the god An and the goddess Ki. Their son was Enlil, the air god. They believed that Enlil was the most powerful god. He was the chief god of the Pantheon, as the Greeks had Zeus and the Romans had Jupiter. The Sumerians also posed philosophical questions, such as: Who are we?, Where are we?, How did we get here?. They attributed answers to these questions to explanations provided by their gods.

If someone was sick they prayed to the gods so that person would recover. As mentioned above, the Mesopotamian doctors were not medically advanced, so instead people asked help from the gods.

Primary gods and goddesses

• An was the Sumerian god of the sky, later known as Anu. He was married to Ki, but in some other Mesopotamian religions he has a wife called Uraš.
• Marduk was the principal god of Babylon. The people glorified him, so he would allow Babylon to rise into a great empire from a small state.
• Gula, or in other places Ninishina, was the goddess of healing. When somebody was sick, she was one of the goddess they prayed to.
• Nanna (some places called Suen, Nanna-Suen or Sin) was the moon god. He was one of the sons of Enlil.
• Utu (also called Šamaš or Sahamash) was the sun god.
• Ishtar was the goddess of love and of sex.
• Enlil was the most powerful god in Mesopotamian religion. His wife was Ninlil, and his children were Inanna, Iškur, Nanna-Suen, Nergal, Ninurta, Pabilsag, Nushu, Utu, Uraš Zababa and Ennugi.
• Nabu was the Mesopotamian god of writing. He was very wise, and was praised for his writing ability. In some places he was believed to be in control of heaven and earth.
• Iškur (or Adad) was the god of storms.
• Ninurta was the Sumerian god of war. He was also the god of heros.
• Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of love and war, was also the wife of Ninurta.
• Pazuzu, also known as Zu, was an evil god, who stole the tablets of Enlil’s destiny, and is killed because of this. He also brought diseases which had no known cure.

Demons

The belief in demons was also a large part of ancient Mesopotamian religion. People were afraid of bad souls, so they set up many statues and painted pictures to scare away those unwanted ghosts. Like gods, there were different demons with their own names and specializing in different evil actions.

Burials

Archeologists found hundreds of graves in some parts of Mesopotamia. These graves tell us many things about Mesopotamian burial habits. In the city of Ur, most people were buried in family graves under their houses. Children were put in big jars and were taken to the family chapel. Other people were just buried into common city graveyards. A few people were wrapped in mats and carpets. In most graves some belongings of the people were with them, and there were 17 graves with very precious objects in them so it is assumed that these were royal graves.

Ziggurats

Ziggurats were huge temples built to worship the gods. They were built from clay and mud and had three or four parts. They were very high so that at times of flood they would stay dry. Many workers were required to build a ziggurat. There had to be enough people to dig clay, make bricks, and carry those bricks and put them together. Only the Ur ziggurat survived because the builders in the later years learnt that firing the clay would make the bricks last longer.

Culture

Music and songs

Music and songs were a large part of Mesopotamian entertainment. Some were written for the gods but many were written to describe important events. Although music and songs amused kings and rulers, they were also enjoyed by ordinary people who liked to sing and dance in their homes or in the marketplaces. Songs were sung to children who passed them on to their children. Thus songs were passed on through many generations until someone wrote them down. These songs provided a means of passing on through the centuries highly important information about historical events that were eventually passed on to us.

The Oud (Arabic:العود) is a small, stringed musical instrument. The oldest pictorial record of the Oud dates back to the Uruk period in Southern Mesopotamia over 5000 years ago. It is on a cylinder seal currently housed at the British Museum and acquired by Dr. Dominique Collon. The image depicts a female crouching with her instruments upon a boat, playing right-handed. This instrument appears hundreds of times throughout Mesopotamian history and again in ancient Egypt from the 18th dynasty onwards in long- and short-neck varieties.

The oud is regarded as a precursor to the European lute. Its name is derived from the Arabic word العود al-‘ūd 'the wood', which is probably the name of the tree from which the oud was made. (The Arabic name, with the definite article, is the source of the word 'lute'.)

Games

Games were also popular, especially for royalties. The other people did not have any games, or else did not have time for them. A beautiful board game was found in one of the royal graves of Ur. Nobody knows for sure how to play it because the rules were not found. There are only suggestions of playing it.

Family life

Life was very hard for ordinary people in ancient Mesopotamia, partly because many babies died of incurable diseases. Most boys had to go to work with their fathers and had their own part of the work to do. Girls had to stay home with their mothers to learn housekeeping and cooking, and to look after the younger children. Some boys from richer families were able to go to school. Unusual for that time in history, women had rights. They could own property and, if they had good reason, get a divorce.

Agriculture

Food supply in Mesopotamia was quite rich due to the location of the two rivers from which its name is derived, Tigris and Euphrates. Although land nearer to the rivers was fertile and good for crops, portions of land further from the water were dry and largely uninhabitable. This is why the development of irrigation was very important for settlers of Mesopotamia. Other Mesopotamian innovations include the control of water by dams and the use of aqueducts. Early settlers of fertile land in Mesopotamia used wooden plows to soften the soil before planting crops such as barley. onions, grapes, turnips, and apples. Mesopotamian settlers were some of the first people to make beer and wine. The unpredictable Mesopotamian weather was often hard on farmers; crops were often ruined so backup sources of food such as cows and lambs were also kept.

Tigris and Euphrates

The two rivers surrounding ancient Mesopotamia were the Tigris and the Euphrates. These two rivers made the dry land fertile. Most ordinary people were quite poor and so these two rivers were very important to them. Yearly rainfall was low so river water was their only water supply. People had to irrigate their lands, otherwise crops would dry out. So they had to collect and control water with dams. If a dam was built in a high place, the dammed water did not go further down. This caused a problem for the lower cities, resulting many wars in that region.

Government

Kings

Most kings in Ancient Mesopotamia were thought to be chosen by a god, be a son of a god, or be a god himself. They were helping the gods by running the state. Most kings named themselves “king of the universe” or “great king”. Another common name was “shepherd”, as kings had to look after their people. Nebuchadnezzar was the most powerful king in Babylonia. He was thought to be the son of the god Nabu. He married the daughter of Cyaxeres, so the Median and the Babylonian dynasties had a familial connection. Nebuchadnezzar’s name means: Nabo, protect the crown! Belshedezzar was the last king of Babylonia. He was the son of Nabonidus whose wife was Nictoris, the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar. The first king of the first dynasty of Ur (around 2560) was Mesanepada. He made Ur Sumer’s main city.

First Dynasty of Ur c. 2563-2387 B.C.

2563-2524: Mesannepadda

2523-2484: A'annepadda

2483-2448: Meskiagnunna

2447-2423: Elulu

2422-2387: Balulu

Dynasty of Lagash c. 2494-2342 B.C.

2494-2465: Ur-Nanshe

2464-2455: Akurgal

2454-2425: Ennatum

2424-2405: Enannatum I

2402-2375: Entemena

2374-2365: Enannatum II

2364-2359: Enentarzi

2358-2352: Lugal-anda

2351-2342: Uru-inim-gina

Dynasty of Uruk c. 2340-2316 B.C.

2340-2316: Lugal-zaggesi

Dynasty of Akkad c. 2334-2154 B.C.

2334-2279: Sargon

2278-2270: Rimush

Power

When Assyria grew into an empire, it was divided into smaller parts, called provinces. Each of these were named after their main cities, like Nivenah, Samaria, Damascus and Arpad. They all had their own governor who had to make sure everyone paid their taxes; he had to call up soldiers to war, and supply workers when a temple was built. He was also responsible for the laws being enforced. In this way it was easier to keep control of an empire like Assyria. Although Babylon was quite a small state in the Sumerian, it grew tremendously throughout the time of Hammurabi’s rule. He was known as “the law maker”, and soon Babylon became one of the main cities in Mesopotamia. It was later called Babylonia, which meant, the gateway of the gods. It also became one of the greatest centers of learning.

Warfare

The civilizations, and within them city-states, of Mesopotamia had many wars, amongst each other for land and power. They also fought for the rivers’ control, transportation, irrigation, and for places they could get timber, stone and metal. When empires were created, they went to war more with foreign countries. King Sargon, for example conquered all the cities of Sumer, some cities in Mari, and then went to war with northern Syria. Many Babylonian palace walls were decorated with the pictures of the successful fights and the enemy, whether desperately escaping, or hiding amongst reeds. A king in Sumer, Gilgamesh, was thought two-thirds god and only one third human. There were legendary stories and poems about him, which were passed on for many generations, because he had many adventures that were believed very important, and he won lots of wars and battles.

Laws

King Hammurabi, as mentioned above, was famous for his laws. He had about three hundred laws, which were quite strict. Some of these were:

• If one accuses another, but cannot prove it, the accuser will be killed.

• If one accuses another, and can prove it, he shall be rewarded with money.

• If a judge decides in a case, and later it turns out that he was wrong, he will have to pay twelve times as much as he set for the accused, and will never be allowed to judge anymore.

• If one steals the son of another, he will be killed.

• If one finds a slave who has run away, and he brings the slave back to his owner, the owner will pay two shekels.

• If a robber is caught while stealing, he will be killed.

• If one does not take good enough care of a dam, and the dam breaks, he shall be sold for money, which will replace the corn ruined due to the over-flooding of the crops.

• If one over-floods a neighbor’s crops, then he shall pay the loss.

• If one gives his garden to a gardener to take care of, and the gardener has done his job well for four years, on the fifth year the owner will have to take part in the gardening.

• If the gardener did not do his job well, and the plants go bad, he shall pay the loss of the bad years according to the neighbor's plant product.

• If one is in debt, and cannot pay, he can sell himself, his wife, his son and his daughter to work; after three years they shall be set free.

• If the one in debt sells a slave to pay his debt, and the slave is good enough, there can be no objection.

• If one marries a woman, but has no relationship with her, it is not considered as a marriage.

• If a wife has a relationship with another man, both shall be tied and thrown into water, but the wife can be pardoned by her husband and given to the king as a slave.

• If a man uses violence on another man’s wife to sleep with her, the man shall be killed, but the wife shall be blameless.

• If a man is captured in war, and the wife leaves the house, even though there is enough food, she shall be thrown into water.

• If a man is captured in war, and there is no food, the wife is blameless if she leaves the house.

• If a husband runs away from home, the wife goes to another house, and the husband subsequently returns, the wife does not have to go back.

• If a man wants to separate from a woman who has given birth to his children, a part of land and money has to be given to her by the husband. When the children grow up, the wife can remarry.

• If a man wants to separate from a woman, with no children, he shall have to give back her dowry and the money she has brought from her father’s house.

• If a man adopts a son and he grows up in the adopter’s house, the original parents cannot demand his return.

• If anyone strikes a man whose rank is higher than his, the man shall be whipped sixty times with an ox-whip in public.

• If someone strikes another man equally ranked, he shall pay one gold mina.

• If a slave strikes a free man, his ear will be cut off.

• If a man strikes a pregnant woman, and she therefore loses her child, he shall pay ten shekels for her.

• If a builder builds a house, and constructs it well, the owner will pay two shekels for each surface of the house.

• If, however, he does not succeed, and the house falls in, killing the owner, the builder will be killed.

• If the son of the owner dies, the son of the builder shall be killed.

Architecture

Houses

The houses of rich people were very big. They had two or three floors, with a roof, (which could also be used as a place to live). They had a large courtyard around the house. In the house there were a few bedrooms, a reception room, a chapel, a kitchen, a lavatory and a tomb under the house. The houses of ordinary people were much simpler, with only a couple of rooms in it.

The

The palaces of the kings in Mesopotamia were huge buildings, which were beautifully decorated. Most walls had pictures carved into ivory, about great victories of the Mesopotamians. They also had large sculptures at entrances, to protect the king from demons and other evil spirits. Most furniture was also made from ivory, because it was easy to decorate and carve into shape. Their palaces contained large amount of metals as well. Bronze and gold was used the most for decorations on the walls, the rooms, the sculptures and the throne. Palaces were also the main centers of the government.

Economy

There was a large difference in money and wealth between rich and ordinary people. Ordinary people were highly depended on their crops, because they had very little money. Rich people had many slaves and usually lots of money.

1 talent

60 mina

30 kg of silver 1 mina

60 shekel 500 grams silver 1 shekel 8.333 grams silver

 1 shekel

 1 shekel = 8 slices

 1 shekel = 12 grains

 1 shekel = 24 carats

 1 shekel = 24 chickpeas

 1 shekel = 180 barleycorns

Silver coins were not pure silver. About 87% of the coin was silver.

Travel

Most people in Mesopotamia traveled by water rather than by foot, because it was much more convenient. They made boats from reeds, and it was easy to get through swampy areas, too. Later, when the use of wheels was invented, chariots were used, especially rich people, to look around the city with the pull of a couple of horses.

More recent history

• The region then came under the rule of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, apparently as two satrapies, Babylonia in the south and Athura (from Assyria) in the north. During this time, 500-330 BC, Persia, an Indo-European language-speaking nation, became the pre-eminent power of the world.
• After the conquest of all Persia by the Hellenizing Macedonian king Alexander the Great, the satrapies were part of the major diadochy, the Seleucid Empire, until just before its elimination by Greater Armenia in 42 BC.
• Most of Mesopotamia then became part of the Parthian Empire of Persia, which lasted until 224 AD. Ctesiphon was made the capital of the Parthian Empire. However, part in the northwest became Roman. Under the Tetrarchy this part was divided into two provinces: Osrhoene (around Edessa, roughly the modern-day border between Turkey and Syria) and Mesopotamia (a bit more northeast).
• During the time of the Persian Empire of Sassanids, the much larger share of Mesopotamia was called Del-e Iranshahr meaning "Iran's Heart" and the metropol Ctesiphon (facing ancient Seleukia across the Tigris), the capital of Persia, was situated in Mesopotamia.
• In the early 7th century AD, the caliphs of the Arab Empire came to power in Damascus and annexed all of the Sassanid Empire. Consequently Mesopotamia was reunited under the Arabs, but governed as two provinces: northern, with Mosul (also known as Nineveh) as its capital, and southern, with Baghdad as its capital. Later Baghdad also became the caliphal capital. Baghdad was the seat of the Arab Empire until 1258.
• From 1508-1534 AD, the Persian Safavids took control of Mesopotamia.
• In 1535 AD, Ottoman Turks took over Baghdad. During the reign of the Ottoman Empire, Mesopotamia was ruled as three separate vilayats, or territories: Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra, which included the territory that is now present-day Kuwait.
• At the end of World War I Mesopotamia was briefly occupied by the British, who set up the government of what is now present day Syria and Iraq under one Hashemite ruler.
• In 1920 the nation-state of Iraq was created by the British, with its present-day borders and including the territory that is now known as Kuwait. Kuwait, which had originally been a part of the Basra province under Ottoman rule, declared its independence from Iraq in 1961.

See also

These civilizations arose from earlier settlements and cultures which were among the first to make use of agriculture.

• Neolithic settlements e.g., Jarmo, Tell Abu Hureyra
• Hassuna period
• Halaf period (or Halafian)
• Samarra period (or Samarran), e.g., Choga Mami
• Ubaid period, e.g., Eridu
• Uruk period, named after the city Uruk.
• Sumerian Early Dynastic period

Early cities in this region include:

• lower Mesopotamia / Sumer
• * Uruk
• * Isin
• * Lagash
• Akkad
• * Agade
• * Babylon
• * Kish
• * Nippur
• upper Mesopotamia / Assyria
• * Assur
• * Nineveh
• * Mari
• * Aleppo

Further reading

• [A Dweller in Mesopotamia], being the adventures of an official artist in the Garden of Eden, by Donald Maxwell, 1921 (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu & [layered PDF] format)
• [Mesopotamian Archaeology], by Percy S. P. Handcock, 1912 (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu & [layered PDF] format)

• A Companion to the Ancient Middle East, edited by Daniel Snell (Malden 2004)

• Dholavira Ancient Metropolitan City.

 

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