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.