Ancient Mesopotamia

Sumer

Earliest known civilization that flourished from 4100 - 1750 BCE.

City-States of Sumer

City plus farmland: Surrounding fields, canals, and villages. Farmland fed urban population.

Walled centers

Massive mud-brick walls ringed cities like Uruk or Ur for defense and to mark political boundaries.

Central Temple Complex

A ziggurat and attached temple precinct dominated the skyline and served as both a religious and administrative hub.

Independent rule

Each city-state—Uruk, Lagash, Ur, Eridu, Kish—had its own government and army.

Hierarchy

Nobles and priests at the top; merchants, artisans, and farmers formed the middle and lower classes; enslaved people were at the bottom.

Rulers

Priest-kings (ensi or lugal): Early on, powerful priests or priest-kings directed both ritual and political life.

Irrigation and Agriculture

Managed canals and dikes turned unpredictable floods into dependable harvests.

Trade networks

Lacking stone, timber, and metals, cities traded widely—up the Persian Gulf, across the Iranian plateau, and into Anatolia.

Specialization

Surplus grain supported full-time potters, metalworkers, and scribes.

City gods

Each city was thought to belong to its patron deity (e.g., Inanna for Uruk, Enlil for Nippur).

Record-keeping

Temple accountants invented early cuneiform to track offerings, rations, and trade.

Frequent warfare

Competing over water rights and farmland, city-states built armies and fortifications.

Victory steles

Record battles, such as the Stele of the Vultures.

Shifting hegemony

Power centers rose and fell—Uruk, Kish, Ur—long before Sargon's Akkadian Empire united them.

Sargon the Great

Reigned c. 2334-2279 BCE; began as the royal cupbearer for the king of Kish.

First multi-city empire

Created the Akkadian Empire, uniting Sumer and northern Mesopotamia under one centralized government.

Standardization

Imposed Akkadian (a Semitic language) for administration while allowing Sumerian to persist in religion and scholarship.

Trade and expansion

Extended influence from the Persian Gulf up to the Mediterranean, opening wide trade routes for metals, timber, and luxury goods.

Standing army

Maintained a permanent, professional army—an innovation for the era.

Enheduana

Sargon appointed his daughter Enheduana as high priestess of Ur; her hymns are the earliest known works of literature attributed to a named author.

Character and Reputation

Ancient texts portray him as a capable general and a pragmatic, detail-oriented ruler.

Hammurabi's law code

Became a model for later Near Eastern legal traditions and is one of the earliest extensive written legal systems in world history.

Code of Ur-Nammu

Date & Place: c. 2100 BCE, city of Ur (Sumer). Significance: Earliest known surviving law code. Format: Mostly fines and restitution—monetary penalties rather than harsh physical punishments. Focus: Maintaining social order, protecting the vulnerable (widows, orphans), and regulating marriage, theft, and injury.

Lipit-Ishar Code

Date & Place: c. 1930 BCE, Isin. Role: Transitional code showing continuity between Ur-Nammu and Hammurabi. Content: Property rights, inheritance, and protection of tenants and slaves.

Code of Hammurabi

Date & Place: c. 1750 BCE, Babylon. Famous Stele: A tall basalt monument topped with an image of Hammurabi receiving authority from the sun god Shamash. Principles: "Eye for an eye" (lex talionis) for some offenses. Punishments vary by social class (noble, commoner, slave). Covers contracts, wages, marriage, divorce, theft, assault, and irrigation disputes. Purpose: Public posting of laws to show the king as a just ruler chosen by the gods.

Key Themes Across The Code

Divine Authority: Kings present themselves as carrying out the gods' will. Class-Based Justice: Different penalties for nobles, commoners, and slaves. Practical Concerns: Property rights, trade, agriculture, and family life dominate the texts.

Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia

Polytheistic & Anthropomorphic: Gods had human-like personalities—jealous, loving, vengeful—and controlled every natural force.

City Guardians

Each city-state was the earthly home of a particular patron deity; citizens saw themselves as that god's servants.

Maintaining Cosmic Order

Humans existed to provide food, offerings, and labor so the gods could keep the world running smoothly.

Temples & Ziggurats

Each city had a grand temple complex housing the god's statue, treated as a living being—fed and clothed by priests.

Priestly Administration

Temples controlled large estates, employed scribes, and distributed food; religion and government were intertwined.

Rituals & Festivals

Daily offerings of food and incense; major festivals like the Babylonian New Year reenacted the creation myth to renew cosmic order.

Omens & Divination

Priests read signs in animal livers, stars, or smoke to learn the gods' will.

Cuneiform

Origins: Began around 3200 BCE as pictographs pressed into soft clay tablets with a reed stylus to record grain deliveries and temple inventories.

Evolution of Cuneiform

Symbols became abstract wedge shapes (hence cuneiform, "wedge-shaped") so scribes could write faster.

Languages of Cuneiform

First used for Sumerian; later adapted for Akkadian, Babylonian, and many neighboring tongues.

Uses of Cuneiform

Economic records—rations, trade contracts, taxes. Royal inscriptions and laws (e.g., Hammurabi's stele). Literature such as the Epic of Gilgamesh and hymns of Enheduana.

Scribal schools

Training was long and rigorous; scribes held prestigious government and temple jobs.

Mathematics in Mesopotamia

Base-60 (sexagesimal) system: Allowed easy division by many factors (2, 3, 4, 5, 6). Legacy lives on in 60 minutes/hour, 360 degrees/circle.

Practical applications of Mathematics

Calculating areas of fields, volumes of grain bins, and construction projects. Sophisticated tables for reciprocals, squares, and cubes.

Weights & measures

Standardized units of silver, barley, and length facilitated trade across city-states.

Akkad

region north of Sumer; first empire under Sargon

Ashurbanipal

Assyrian king; built great library at Nineveh in which the first tablets recording the Epic of Gilgamesh were found.

Babylon

major city of Mesopotamia; capital under Hammurabi

Babylonian Exile

period when Jewish leaders were exiled to Babylon

Bahrain / Dilmun

island possibly identified with the Garden of Eden

Base-60 System

Mesopotamian math system; basis for 60 minutes/hour

Book of Kings

biblical text describing Assyrian attack on Judea

City-State

independent city with its own government and farmland

Code of Lipit-Ishtar

earlier Mesopotamian law code

Dead Sea Scrolls

ancient Jewish manuscripts found near Qumran

Dilmun

ancient Mesopotamian paradise, possibly real-world Bahrain

Eye for an Eye (Lex Talionis)

law of equal retribution

Gilgamesh

legendary king of Uruk

Hammurabi

Babylonian king who unified Mesopotamia

Inanna

Sumerian goddess of love and war, patron of Uruk

Judea

ancient kingdom attacked by Assyrian

Leonard Woolley

archaeologist who excavated Ur

Lugal / Ensi

Sumerian terms for ruler or 'big man'

Moabite Stone (also 'Mesha Stele')

inscription confirming biblical events

Mesopotamia

'land between the rivers,' cradle of civilization

Nineveh

Assyrian capital, site of Ashurbanipal's library

Qumran

site where Dead Sea Scrolls were found

Royal Tombs of Ur

graves showing wealth and mass burial rituals

Ur

important Sumerian city; site of royal tombs

Uruk

one of the first major cities; associated with Inanna

Ziggurat

stepped temple tower at city center

Agriculture and Irrigation

Controlled flooding allowed stable food supply

Biblical Archaeology

Studies artifacts to understand/confirm the world of the Bible. Finds like the Moabite Stone support historical context.

City-State Independence

Each Sumerian city ruled itself before empires

Codified Law

Written laws brought order and consistency to justice

Complex Societies

key characteristics include: Social stratification, Specialization of labor, Urban centers, Centralized government, Food surplus, Advanced technology, Interconnected systems

Cultural Exchange

Trade spread ideas and goods across the Near East

Empire-Building

Akkad and Babylon unified multiple regions under one rule

Mathematics and Writing

Base-60 math and cuneiform influenced later cultures

Religion and Government

Temples and rulers shared power and purpose

Scientific Observation

Priests used astronomy and omens for prediction

Social Hierarchy

Clear divisions between classes and occupations

The 'Eden' Theory

Film suggests Dilmun (Bahrain) inspired Eden legend