Mesopotamia Study Notes

Mesopotamia

• Located on the Fertile Crescent, a crescent-shaped area with fertile soil.
• Situated near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
  • Tigris: Northern river
  • Euphrates: Southern river
• Challenges:
  • Unpredictable flooding
  • Clay bed issues
  • Few building materials (trees, stones)
  • Lots of weeds
  • Few natural barriers

Fertile Crescent

• Hills facilitated hunting and gathering
• Received rainfall.
• Food shortages led to movement south to the plains.
• Uncontrolled water supply

Sumer

Ubayd Period

• Hunting and gathering, beginnings of farming.
• Painted pottery.
• Settled at Eridu, a coastal city in the South.

Uruk Period

• Rise of cities based around gods and priests.
• Priests managed government, taxes, and division of labor.
• Religious leaders maintained favor with gods.
• First temples emerged.
• Belief: If gods were displeased, they would abandon the city, leading to its decline.
• Cities divided by canals.
• Lugal (Mesopotamian version of kings) took power.
  • Initially, priests sought to focus more on religion.
• Pottery made on wheels.

Dynastic Period

• Rise of cities based around kings.
• Kings claimed appointment by gods or being human versions of gods.
• Anme Baragasi: First named king.
• Walled cities.
• Development of writing.

City States

• Important city-states: Eridu, Ur, and Uruk.

Ur

• Divided into neighborhoods.
• Flood and water control structures.
• Burial customs: Individuals buried alone and standing up near mud brick houses.
• Ziggurats: Form of temples.
• Inanna: Patron goddess, one of the most powerful.
• Location: Persian Gulf and Southern Mesopotamia.
• Port city facilitating trade and price setting, leading to wealth.

Epic of Gilgamesh

• Collection of poems about a king (two-thirds god, one-third human).
• Likely based on a king of Uruk.
• Moral: Despite divinity, mortality remains.

Fall of Sumer

• Ian Atum united Sumer by uniting city states for one generation.
• Next king was weak.

Akkad

Cosmology

• Earth, air, sky, heavens (top layer), and underworld.

Enuma Elish

• Creation story spanning Sumer, Akkad, and Babylon.
• Based on the cosmology of the ancient Near East/Mesopotamia.

Afterlife

• Buried bodies were right side up.
• Dark, gloomy existence; ate dust unless offerings were provided.
• Arish Qigal: Ruler of the underworld.
• Unburied individuals became tortured demons who tortured their family members unwillingly; but were conscious while doing so.

Akkad (City)

• Capital city location is unknown.
• Sargon the Great: Founder and unifier of Mesopotamia.
  • Birth legend similar to Moses'.
• Anheduanna: Daughter of Sargon, first named author, high priestess of Inanna.
  • Combined Sumerian and Akkadian myths to unify Akkadian Sumerians.
  • Composed poems.
• Victory Stele of Sargon: Believed to depict military victories (not found).

Fall of Akkad

• Drought and famine (soil analysis).
• Abandoned Akkadian cities mainly to South Mesopotamia due to increased populations there.
• Related poem about an Egyptian drought.

Old Babylonia

Hammurabi

• Expanded Babylonian influence.
• Transferred religious center from Nippur (Enlil) to Babylon (Marduk).
• Law Codes:
  • Featured Marduk giving laws to Hammurabi.
  • Meant to unify and preserve order.
  • Theoretically applied to everyone.
  • Great leader, warrior, and builder.

Rise of Babylonia

• Small town during the Akkadian Empire.
• Experienced influence under Hammurabi.

Fall of Babylonia

• Hammurabi died, followed by weak rulers.
• Other towns ganged up against it.
• Hittites attacked from the Northwest.
• Assyrians drove them out from the North.
• Amorites sacked it from the West.
• Kassites (Neo Babylonians) took over from the East.

Decline of the Bronze Age

• Collapse of Mesopotamian society.
• Destroyed cities.
• Chaos in The Levant.
• Interrupted trade routes.
• Decreased literacy.
• Possible reasons:
  • Volcanic eruptions in Iceland.
  • Drought and famine.
  • Sea Peoples (pirates).

Assyria

• World's first true empire.
• Ashur: City and god, spurred a move to monotheism.
• Strong military:
  • Siege tactics (battery rams).
  • Iron weapons.
  • Cruel punishments for opposition.
• Kings sent scholars to copy texts.
• Gardens, e.g., Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
• Advanced infrastructure:
  • Royal roads throughout the empire (for military movement).
• Forced assimilation: Removed people from their homes to erode identity and instill Assyrian identity.

Religion

• Shift to monotheism (Ashur as main god).
• Decline in women's rights due to decreased goddess worship.

Fall of Assyria

• Too big, expanded beyond infrastructure.
• Too tyrannical.
• Rebellions.
• Nineveh sacked, including Persians, Neo-Babylonians, and others.

Aramaics

• Aramaic Language: Easy to write, used alphabet (instead of Akkadian/Sumerian symbols).
• TP3 commissioned translations of Akkadian/Sumerian documents into Aramaic.
• Helped scholars translate Akkadian for the first time then and now.

Neo-Babylon

Nebuchadnezzar II

• Reigned for the bulk of the empire's existence.
• Built fortified walls of Babylon (three rings of 40-foot walls).
• Built palaces and shrines.
• Used blue and lines in artwork.
• Exiled only the top 10% to serve the king.
• Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
• Returned to polytheism.

Fall of Neo-Babylon

• Conquered by Cyrus the Great (Persians).

Persia

Rise

• First a nomadic tribe.
• Cyrus the Great united city states.
• Cyrus Cylinder: Account of conquering Neo-Babylon and uniting the Indus Valley, Egypt, and Mesopotamia.
• World's first superpower.

Darius the Great

• Ruled at its largest extent.
• Successor of Cyrus the Great.
• Made Aramaic the official language.
• Built roads.
• Standardized weights, currency, and measures.
• Behistun Inscription: Depicted Darius' life in multiple languages.

Fall of Persia

• Too big and bold.
• Failed invasions of Greece led to heavy taxation.
• Rebellions and lost territories.
• Fell to Alexander the Great.

Art

• Rock carvings in palaces.
• Metalwork, weaving, Persian rugs.
• Capital: Persepolis.

Zoroastrianism

• Main religion during the Persians.
• Monotheistic, founded by Zoroaster.

Principles:

• Main god: Ahura Mazda.
• Good versus evil framework.
• Ahura Mazda is all good.
• Angra Mainyu is all evil.
• Goodness shown through thoughts, deeds, and words.
• Free will to choose between good and evil.

Death

• Soul stays near the body for three days.
• God of value sorts the soul.

Zoroastrianism's Popularity

• Wasn't forced upon conquered peoples.
• Persian peace: Conquered people sent back home.