Mesopotamia: Early Societies and Empires
Mesopotamia: Early Societies in Southwest Asia and Indo-European Migrations (3000-2000 ext{ B.C.E.})
The Quest for Order: Emergence of Cities and States
Population Growth and Need for Order: During the 4th millennium B.C.E., human population in Mesopotamia increased rapidly. Inhabitants, with few precedents beyond Neolithic village order, developed states and governmental machinery through experimentation.
Mesopotamia: "The Land Between the Rivers":
Derived from Greek words, referring to the fertile valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in modern-day Iraq.
Characterized by dry soils, a drying/warming environment post-ice age, and seasonally flooding rivers enabling irrigation agriculture.
Despite little rainfall, the rivers provided large volumes of freshwater, allowing cultivation of barley, wheat, and peas through irrigation, which began after 6000 ext{ B.C.E.}.
Sumer and the First Cities:
Artificial irrigation led to increased food supplies, supporting a rapidly growing population and attracting migrants.
Sumer, in southern Mesopotamia, saw particularly fast population growth.
Sumerians, possibly indigenous or later migrants, constructed elaborate irrigation networks by about 5000 ext{ B.C.E.}, leading to abundant harvests.
By 3000 ext{ B.C.E.} Sumer's population approached 100,000, making Sumerians the dominant people.
Semitic Migrants:
Sumer's wealth attracted Semitic peoples (speakers of Akkadian, Aramaic, Hebrew, Phoenician, and modern Arabic/Hebrew) from Arabian and Syrian deserts.
These nomadic herders intermarried with Sumerians and generally adapted to Sumerian ways.
Sumerian City-States:
Beginning around 4000 ext{ B.C.E.}, Sumerians built the world's first cities, differing significantly from Neolithic villages.
Characteristics: Centers of political/military authority, economic hubs with marketplaces, and cultural centers for organized religions and writing/education.
City-States: Controlled public life within city walls and extended authority to surrounding agricultural regions.
Internal Pressures for State Formation: Maintaining order, ensuring cooperation on community projects (like irrigation), and preventing conflicts escalated by expanding populations.
Governmental Role in Public Works: Organized labor for projects like palaces, temples, and defensive walls (e.g., Gilgamesh at Uruk). Ziggurats, distinctive stepped pyramids housing temples to principal local deities, were central (e.g., Uruk's ziggurat for Inanna, requiring 1500 laborers for 5 years).
Importance of Irrigation Systems: Construction, maintenance, and repair required thousands of workers, necessitating recognized governmental authority to draft labor, ensure equitable water distribution, and resolve disputes.
External Pressures for State Formation: Sumerian cities' wealth attracted raiders due to Mesopotamia's flat landscape. This led to building defensive walls and organizing military forces, demanding recognized authority.
Sumerian Kings (Lugals):
Early governments were assemblies of prominent men.
During crises, assemblies yielded power to individuals, who gradually usurped authority and established themselves as monarchs.
By about 3000 ext{ B.C.E.}, all Sumerian cities had kings (lugals) claiming absolute authority, often ruling in cooperation with local nobles (military leaders).
By 2500 ext{ B.C.E.} city-states dominated Sumer, with others emerging in northern Mesopotamia (e.g., Assur, Nineveh).
The Course of Empire
Inter-City Conflicts and the Rise of Empires:
As early as 2800 ext{ B.C.E.}, conflicts between city-states were common, with kings seeking to punish or conquer neighbors (e.g., King of Kish extending rule, Gilgamesh liberating Uruk).
Conquerors sought to establish order beyond city-states by building empires.
After 2350 ext{ B.C.E.}, Mesopotamia came under the control of powerful regional empires.
Sargon of Akkad (2370-2315 ext{ B.C.E.}) and the Akkadian Empire:
Semitic peoples (Akkadians, Babylonians) began to overshadow Sumerians.
Sargon, a talented administrator and brilliant warrior, established the first empire in Mesopotamia.
Rise to Power: Began as minister to the king of Kish, organized a coup (circa 2334 ext{ B.C.E.}), recruited an army, and conquered Sumerian city-states by destroying defensive walls and placing them under his governors.
Administrative Techniques: Relied heavily on his personal presence, traveling with armies (sometimes over 5000 men), which caused resentment among host cities due to resource demands.
Economic Strategy: Seized control of trade routes and natural resources (silver, tin, cedar wood) to fund his army and transform Akkad into the wealthiest city.
Extent of Empire: Embraced all of Mesopotamia, with armies reaching the Mediterranean and Black Sea.
Decline: Successors maintained the empire for generations, but it weakened due to chronic rebellions and invasions. Collapsed by about 2150 ext{ B.C.E.}. His deeds, however, inspired later conquerors.
Hammurabi (1792-1750 ext{ B.C.E.}) and the Babylonian Empire:
Hammurabi, styled "king of the four quarters of the world," dominated Mesopotamia until about 1600 ext{ B.C.E.}.
Improved Administration: Enhanced Sargon's techniques through centralized bureaucratic rule and regular taxation.
Ruled from Babylon, stationing deputies in controlled territories and instituting regular taxes instead of confiscating supplies.
Developed a more efficient, predictable, and equitably cost-distributed government.
Hammurabi's Laws: Compiled the most extensive Mesopotamian law code, borrowing from Sumerian predecessors (laws existed possibly as early as 2500 ext{ B.C.E.}).
Purpose: To "promote the welfare of the people… to cause justice to prevail… to destroy the wicked and evil… that the strong might not oppress the weak."
Punishments: Established high standards and stern punishments, including death penalties for murder, theft, fraud, false accusations, sheltering slaves, disobeying royal orders, adultery, and incest.
Civil Laws: Regulated prices, wages, commercial dealings, marital relationships, and slavery conditions.
Principle of Lex Talionis: Latin for "law of retaliation," prescribing punishments resembling violations (e.g., eye for an eye, bone for a bone).
Social Standing: Applied lex talionis with consideration for social status (e.g., noble harming another noble suffered the same injury, but noble harming commoner paid a silver fine).
Significance: Though local judges sometimes deviated, the code established standards that lent cultural unity to the Babylonian empire.
Decline: The empire's wealth attracted invaders, particularly the Indo-European-speaking Hittites from Anatolia. The Babylonian empire crumbled under Hittite assaults around 1595 ext{ B.C.E.}.
The Later Mesopotamian Empires:
Assyrian Empire:
A hardy people from northern Mesopotamia, they built a state in the Tigris River valley during the 19th century B.C.E.
Flourished due to location on north-south and east-west trade routes, with cities like Assur and Nineveh.
Military Prowess: Built a powerful army with standardized units, professional officers appointed by merit, and a combination of infantry, cavalry, and fast horse-drawn chariots (borrowed from Hittites).
Iron Weapons: Made effective use of recently invented iron weapons to strengthen their army (upwards of 50,000 troops).
Extent of Empire: At its peak (8th and 7th centuries B.C.E.), embraced Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, much of Anatolia, and most of Egypt.
King Assurbanipal (668-627 ext{ B.C.E.}): Coincided with high tide of Assyrian domination, styled himself "king of Assyria" and "king of the universe."
Administration and Culture: Relied on Babylonian administrative techniques and law codes (like Hammurabi's). Preserved Mesopotamian literature in vast libraries (e.g., Assurbanipal's library in Nineveh contained thousands of texts, including the Epic of Gilgamesh).
Decline: Assyrian rule was unpopular, facing intermittent rebellions. The empire's size presented administrative challenges. A combination of internal unrest and external assault led to its collapse in 612 ext{ B.C.E.}.
Nebuchadnezzar (605-562 ext{ B.C.E.}) and the New Babylonian Empire:
Also called the Chaldean empire, Babylon once again dominated Mesopotamia for half a century (600-550 ext{ B.C.E.}).
Lavish Capital: Nebuchadnezzar invested immense wealth in Babylon (estimated 850 hectares/2100 acres), with thick defensive walls, enormous palaces, and 1179 temples.
Hanging Gardens: Reputedly constructed for one of his wives, symbolizing the city's luxuriousness (though recent research suggests they might have been in Nineveh).
End of Mesopotamian Dominance: By the mid-6th century B.C.E., Mesopotamians largely lost control of their affairs, absorbed into foreign empires as others acquired advanced weapons and administrative techniques.
The Formation of a Complex Society and Sophisticated Cultural Traditions
Economic Specialization and Trade:
Urbanization and Labor Diversity: Congregation of dense populations in cities led to specialized labor, expanding human skills beyond agriculture.
Craftsmanship: Pottery, textile manufacture, woodworking, leather production, brick making, stonecutting, and masonry became distinct occupations.
Bronze Metallurgy (circa 4000 ext{ B.C.E.}):
Early craftsmen worked with copper, but pure copper was too soft for weapons/heavy tools.
Mesopotamian metalworkers discovered alloying copper with tin created bronze, a harder, stronger metal.
Impact: Though expensive, bronze had an immediate military impact (swords, spears, axes, shields, armor) and later agricultural impact (knives, plow tips).
Iron Metallurgy (after 1000 ext{ B.C.E.}):
Experimentation began as early as the 4th millennium B.C.E., but early iron was brittle.
Around 1300 ext{ B.C.E.}, Hittite craftsmen developed techniques for forging strong iron tools/weapons, which spread rapidly.
Impact: Iron became the metal of choice due to its effectiveness and abundant, cheaper deposits compared to copper and tin. Assyrians effectively used iron weapons.
The Wheel (First use circa 3500 ext{ B.C.E.}):
Sumerians built wheeled carts by 3000 ext{ B.C.E.} for hauling heavy loads over long distances.
Diffusion: Rapidly spread throughout Mesopotamia and beyond within centuries.
Shipbuilding:
By 3500 ext{ B.C.E.}, Sumerians built watercraft for Persian Gulf ventures.
By 2300 ext{ B.C.E.}, they traded regularly with Harappan society in India, sailing through the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea.
Goods Traded: Exported woolen textiles, leather goods, sesame oil, jewelry; imported copper, ivory, pearls, semiprecious stones (until about 1750 ext{ B.C.E.}).
Babylonian Era Trade: Extensive trade in all directions, importing silver from Anatolia, cedar from Lebanon, copper from Arabia, gold from Egypt, tin from Persia, lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, and semiprecious stones from northern India.
Trade Networks (Assyrian Example):
Early 2nd millennium B.C.E. Assyrian merchants traveled 1600 ext{ kilometers} (1000 ext{ miles}) by donkey caravan from Assur to Kanesh (Anatolia).
Correspondence from 1810-1765 ext{ B.C.E.} shows transport of at least 80 tons of tin and 100,000 textiles from Assur, returning with at least 10 tons of silver.
Well-organized business: wives/children manufactured textiles in Assur, sent to men in trading colonies.
Stratified Patriarchal Society
Social Classes:
Accumulation of wealth led to sharper social distinctions than in Neolithic villages.
Ruling Classes: Kings and nobles, who gained positions through valor and military success. Early Sumerian kings were often portrayed as divine or semi-divine (e.g., Gilgamesh, two-thirds divine and one-third human).
Lavish displays: Large-scale construction projects and lavish decoration of capitals reflected high status.
Temple Communities and Priestly Elites: Closely allied with rulers, often from noble families. Roles included intervening with gods for good fortune.
Privileges: Lived in temple communities, received offerings, and generated income from vast landholdings and workshops (e.g., Lagash temple employed 6000 textile workers between 2150-2100 ext{ B.C.E.}).
Functions: Cultivated grains, herded animals, manufactured goods. Served as banks, underwrote trade, provided charity (orphans, famine relief, ransoms).
Free Commoners: Mostly peasant cultivators on family-owned land, also urban builders, craftsmen, physicians, engineers.
Dependent Clients: Lacked property, worked as agricultural laborers on estates owned by the king, nobles, or temples, owing landowners a portion of production.
Taxes and Labor: Both free commoners and dependent clients paid taxes (surplus agricultural produce) to support ruling classes, military, and temples. Also conscripted for large-scale construction (roads, walls, irrigation, temples).
Slaves: Came from three sources: prisoners of war, convicted criminals, and indebted individuals.
Roles: Agricultural laborers on estates, but mostly domestic servants in wealthy households.
Mobility: Many masters granted freedom (often with financial gift) after good service. Some slaves engaged in trade and earned enough to buy their freedom.
Patriarchal Society:
Authority over public and private affairs rested in adult men.
Household Authority: Men decided work for family members and arranged marriages.
Public Life: Men ruled as kings and dominated decision-making.
Hammurabi's Laws on Gender Relations: Recognized men as heads of households, granting them power to sell wives and children into slavery for debt.
Sexual Morality: Prescribed death by drowning for adulterous wives and their partners, but permitted men consensual sexual relations with concubines, slaves, or prostitutes without penalty.
Women's Roles:
Despite subordinate legal status, women exerted influence.
High-Status Roles: Advised kings, became high priestesses managing temple estates, obtained formal education as scribes (preparing administrative/legal documents).
Common Roles: Midwives, weavers, shopkeepers.
Cultural Traditions
Writing System: Mesopotamians invented systems of writing to record information, forming a foundation for education, science, literature, and religious reflection.
Organized Religions: Supported by cities and priests/priestesses.
Literature: The Epic of Gilgamesh:
Oldest surviving epic poem, dating from about 2500 ext{ B.C.E.} (preserved largely in Assurbanipal's library).
The Flood Story: Part of Gilgamesh's quest for immortality, a wise man named Ut-napishtim recounts how the god Ea warned him of a divine plot to destroy humankind with a massive flood.
Narrative: Ut-napishtim built a boat of specific dimensions (e.g., 14 measures in circuit), sealed it with bitumen, and gathered all his possessions, servants, beasts, and army personnel. A storm unleashed by Shamas turned the bright earth to waste. After six days and nights, the storm calmed on the seventh day. He released a dove, then a swallow, both returning without finding rest. A raven found corpses, ate, and did not return. Ut-napishtim then sent animals forth, poured a libation, and built an altar.
Similarities with Noah's Ark: Both stories feature a divine warning, a massive flood destroying life, a chosen individual building an ark/boat, saving family and animals, a storm lasting several days, and releasing birds to find dry land. These strong parallels suggest shared cultural narratives or influences among ancient peoples of Southwest Asia.
Significance: Reflects deep connections between different societies and their foundational myths.