Mesopotamia

Euphrates – river in Mesopotamia

Tigris – river in Mesopotamia

Uruk – early urban center in Mesopotamia, c. 50k population around 2900 BC

Eridu – early urban center in Mesopotamia, c. 4k population around 4000 BC; a famous

temple dominated the city, possibly the Tower of Babel in the Old Testament

Epic of Gilgamesh – epic story of a Sumerian king looking for immortality

Innana (Sumerian)/ Ishtar (Akkadian) – goddess of love and fertility in Mesopotamian

religion

An – Sumerian sky/creator god

Shamash – sun god and god of justice

Eanna complex – temple complex dedicated to Inanna at Uruk – some 15k laborers

worked ten hours a day for five years to complete the project.

Akkad – urban center in northern Mesopotamia, became the dominant center around

2350 BC

Sargon – Akkadian king who created the first territorial kingdom in Mesopotamia

Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC) - Babylonian king famous for his code and for creating a

large empire centered on Babylon

ziggurat – Sumerian temple

Amorite and Aramaic – Semitic languages spoken in northern Mesopotamia

bala taxation system – a form of advance budgeting used by the city of Ur – each

province’s contribution was calculated in advance on the basis of its agricultural potential.

Hittites – people from Anatolia (in Turkey) who mastered chariot warfare and sacked

Babylon in 1595 BC

Suppiluliuma I (1344-1322) – the founder and most successful Hittite ruler of the New

Kingdom

Hurrians – population group in northern Mesopotamia, developed their own state called

Mittani. They emphasized horsemanship and they may have been responsible for the

spread of horsemanship throughout the Near East.

Nabuchadnezzar I (1125-1104) – king of Babylon during the Isin Dynasty, took revenge

on Elam, sacking their capital Susa and recovering Marduk’s statue taken by the

Elamites from Babylon in 1158.