2 Mesopotamia 2 Furious

3 sources of authority in ED

1. Temple

2. Palace

3. City council (assembly in Stone)

Temple authority

Permanent installation at the heart of the city

Patron deity is a basic element of the city’s identity

Temple leadership may have been hereditary (Stone)

Palace authority- duties of kings

Temple maintenance

Military

Regulation of criminal, commercial, and family activities

Stabilize the economy (Stone)

Maintain peace (Stone)

Satisfy the gods (Stone)

Protect the weak (Stone)

Appoint governors (Stone)

Palaces (Stone)

e.g. Mari

Bathrooms with tubs

Elaborate kitchens

Audience halls - kings as arbiters of justice

ED Kings vibes

Representative of gods, but still human

• “Chosen” by the gods

• Accountable to gods

Multiple short dynasties (Stone)

City council authority

Little known about them

• Cuneiform tablets were mostly from temples

Councils of elders, younger men (free part-time soldiers)

Kings consult on major decisions

• I.e. when to go to war

May sometimes have chosen the king

Probably had other civic decision making functions, but we just don’t know

ED Mesopotamian society

Stratified by at least the Uruk period

• Wealth and privilege disparities

Status marked by clothing and hairstyles

• I.e. in cemetery at Ur

Builder kings

i.e. Gilgamesh of Uruk, King Gudea of Lagash

Metaphor of walls as creating a distinct city space

It’s the responsibility of kings to build temples, improve the city through building grand projects

• Also: architects of society, build and maintain social and cosmological order as representatives of the gods (very Wheatley)

Later, kings, have names inscribed on bricks

Gilgamesh of Uruk

(ca. 2800-2500 BCE)

• Dates unclear, because the Epic is thought to refer to an earlier time period

Believed to be a real king

Tale describes rise to power, fights with adversaries, gods, etc

Credited with building the first wall around Uruk

• Defensive, but also symbolic establishing the city as a distinct social and political order

King Gudea of Lagash

Seated with text on skirts

Holding a model of a temple precinct

Akkadian/ Sargonic Dynasty

(2350-2154 BCE)

Unification of Sumerian and Akkadian city-states by Sargon the Great

• The era’s first nation-state (McMahon)

Era of empire

• Regional governors (McMahon)

• Royal images in key locations (McMahon)

Akkadian language spreads

• Official written language (McMahon)

• By the later 3rd millennium BCE, the population is bilingual (McMahon)

Capital in Akkad/ Agade

• Not yet found (possibly in modern-day Baghdad?)

Ruled for 5 generations

• Rulers considered “Kings of the Four Quarters” (McMahon)

Trade and interactions amp up with the Persian Gulf

• Bahrain, Oman, IVC

New systems of weights, measures, and legal oaths (McMahon)

Sargon the Great

Had humble beginnings, apparently

• Son of a gardener and a priestess

• Abandoned as a child

• Became cup-bearer at the court of Kish (a position of trust)

Became a military leader, took over all of Southern Mesopotamia for 56 years

Myth persists long after the nation is gone (McMahon)

Enheduanna

Daughter of Sargon the Great

Priestess to Moon Goddess Nanna at Ur

The world’s first (known) great poet

• Literary star

Example of the trend where women of high status often moved to other parts of the empire to consolidate power

Naram-Sin

Most infamous of the Sargonic kings

Noted for expansion, ruled for 56 years

Known to be extremely confident, proud, and arrogant

• Humility was socially expected of kings, therefore bad bad bad

“King of the Four Corners of the Universe”

Made himself a divine king, proclaimed himself a god equal to any gods in the pantheon

• This succeeded, even if it was considered impious

Depicted with a horned helmet

• Divine and militaristic symbolism

• Denoted his status as a god-king (horns were previously only shown on deities)

Naram-Sin’s victory stele

Victory Stele over the Lullubi people in the Zagros mountains

• Eastern frontier of the Akkadian empire

Shown larger than everyone else

Stark contrast with early depictions of kings

Akkadian era art (McMahon)

More movement

More detail

Maintains many ED/ Sumerian traditions

Military conquests are celebrated more than buildings

Akkadian seal style (McMahon)

Similar to Northern Mesopotamia

Often had elaborate animal conflict

Akkadian (McMahon)

The oldest known Semitic language

Sumerian (McMahon)

Ergative isolate

Collapse of the Sargonic dynasty

2154 BCE

Rapid collapse (McMahon)

Things began to fall apart after Naram-Sin

Short-lived dynasties are a repeating theme

UR III

2112-2004 BCE

Another attempt at empire after Sargon

• There is not a lot of evidence for some time after the Akkadian empire collapses

Established by Ur-Nammu

• Builder king

Covers all of Southern Mesopotamia

Political center at Ur

Sumerian as the main language

Return to many ED values

• Emphasis on the religious side of kings

• Big building boom in Ur

• Ziggurats at their greatest height

• Monumental art returns in ED forms (McMahon)

Defeated by the Elamite army

Some gaps in the archaeology because of excavation priorities (Pollock)

• Or newer buildings destroyed older ones

UR III art (McMahon)

Ziggurats out of stepped platform temples

Icons representing both gods and the kings that built the temples

• Art emphasizes the religious aspect of kingship

Baked clay figurines - usually naked and female

Ur III seals (McMahon)

Simplified from the Akkadian period

After Ur III

Era of political collapse after the king is captured by the Elamite army (Isin-Larsa) (McMahon)

Amorite kings filtered in and partially took over some city-states

Babylonians

Kasirtes

Assyrians

Persians (Cyrus the Great)

Isin- Larsa Period (McMahon)

2004-1763 BCE

Time of power struggle after the king of Ur was captured by the Elamite army

Leaders of Isin and Larsa were fighting for control

Hard to distinguish ceramically

Not a lot of monumental architecture

• But urban domestic architecture at Ur is from this period

• Courtyards surrounded by rooms, irregular architecture, winding streets

Old Babylonian Period (McMahon)

1763-1595 BCE

Babylon eventually won the power struggle

King Hammurabi

Mass-produced clay figures

Social classes in the Old Babylonian Period (McMahon)

Slave

Poor

Free

Female

3rd- early second-millennium BCE (McMahon)

Unclear era

Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia/ Assyria (McMahon)

1813-1741 BCE

Mari: huge palace containing texts

Distinct ceramic culture

Eventually defeated by an Anatolian army

• Also, an environmental disaster

After this, there is a “dark age” with very little record

Era of empires (McMahon)

Kassites

Mitanni

Assyrians

Elamites

Hittities

Lots of trade

• City-states in Northwest Syria

Bronze Age Collapse (McMahon)

~1200 BCE - political collapse

Neo-Assyrian kings (McMahon)

Concept and image of kings were important

Palaces with miles of stone reliefs

Lots of art, seals became elaborate again

Defeated by Mede and Babylon

Neo-Babylonian period (McMahon)

The Ishtar gate was built

The Persian Empire (McMahon)

Started 539 BCE

Main source of Mesopotamia data

Excavation

Most important resource for archaeologists in Mesopotamia (McMahon)

Pottery

Mesopotamia excavation advantages

Rich architectural record

Many large sites

• Some with very long occupation

Pretty good preservation

• Apart from 20th century military damage

• Preserved well because of desert conditions (Stone)

Mesopotamia excavation challenges

Massive tell sites

Very deep stratigraphy

• Up to 50 m of continuous occupation

Alluvial accumulation, dune abrasion (in the south), wind and water erosion lead to the destruction of many sites (McMahon)

History of the field of archaeology

Takes off in West Asia, Egypt after Napoleon

By the mid-19th c., Europeans are fascinated with Mesopotamia

The Ottoman Empire begins to lose its hold, enabling research

Massive projects in West Asia

• Sometimes for decades, even up to 100+ years

Funded by wealthy patrons in “The Golden Age of (Colonial) Archaeology”

• Museum collection was the main motivation (McMahon)

• The Louvre et al. refuse to recognize return claims of stolen things

• Time of massive institutional looting

1920s (McMahon)

• Shift to categorization and material culture sequencing

1960s onward (McMahon)

• Wider questions of structure and progress drive research

Modern conflict

• Over past 50 years, field research has declined

• Many archaeologists now document damage and looting

Excavations at Tell Muquayyer

The City of Ur

Tells rises ~20 m in height above the desert plain

Ur

Sumerian city in southern Mesopotamia

By the Euphrates

At a strategic point controlling trade from the Persian Gulf

• Materials from the Gulf itself, IVC

Known from biblical texts as the birthplace of Abraham

Early excavations at Ur - who?

John George Taylor

• British Museum (check out my collab on next week’s video!)

Main urban occupation period of Ur

ED period, Akkadian era, Ur III

Ur city dimensions

~1200 m long, ~800 m wide

Ur city fun facts

2 ports

Walled city - 8 m tall walls

• Both defensive and symbolic

• Practice goes back to Uruk

• Cities associated with temples of gods, so walls enclose and protect that sacred space, too

• Probably connected to self-identification as urbanites

Ur population estimates

2600 BCE: 34,000

By 2000 BCE: 65,000

Leonard Woolley - background

Modest roots, had to get scholarships (rare at the time)

Studied theology at Oxford, became a freelance archaeologist

Trained by Flinders Petrie at Tell Amarna in Egypt

• Petrie trained a lot of women and people from the Global South (more slayful than his name implies)

Never held an academic position

Spent a lot of time in Mesopotamia and Anatolia

• Tell Achana in Turkey as a British spy (strong Laurie vibes ☹ )

Ur Excavation dates

1923-1934

Ended due to the Great Depression

Ur Excavation - Institutions

British Museum (everywhere? everywhere.)

University of Pennsylvania

Iraq National Museum

Guest stars at the Ur excavation

TE Lawrence

Max Mallowan

Gertrude Bell

Max Mallowan

Trainee at Ur

Went on to work at Nineveh

Agatha Christie’s husband