HIST-132: Ch. 3.3 Ancient Mesopotamia

Southern Mesopotamia: first great cities in the fourth millennium BCE; Sumerian civilization centered around city-states like Uruk and Ur.
By the end of the fourth millennium BCE, urban centers proliferated; largest city Uruk possibly up to $ext{approx.} ext{50,000}$ inhabitants.
Bronze Age begins: bronze (tin + copper) becomes the dominant material for tools and weapons; growth in agriculture and urban structure.
Innovations include the plow, wheel, and irrigation networks that expand agricultural production and city growth.
Population shift from villages to cities: about 70 ext{–}80 ext{%} of residents in urban areas.

Writing emerged independently in multiple regions, with Sumerian cuneiform appearing around $3000 ext{ BCE}$ (earliest true writing).
Token-and-bullae theory: clay tokens used for accounting; bullae recorded the transactions, potentially leading to the development of written tablets (Denise Schmandt-Besserat view).
Alternative theories (Glassner) link writing to rendering language in script or omen interpretation; many scholars see tokens as important but not strictly linear precursors.
Cuneiform was highly adaptable and used for laws, religious texts, and economic records; literacy remained with trained scribes.

Sumerians were polytheists; each city had a patron god (e.g., Uruk—Inanna; Nippur—Enlil; Ur—Sin).
Temples formed the religious and economic centers: ziggurats were temple complexes with storage, workshops, and priestly housing; temples collected taxes and managed redistributive economies.
Gods were perceived as fickle and capable of anger; communal welfare depended on proper worship and temple maintenance.
Afterlife: belief in a gloomy underworld where all souls end up; reflects a pessimistic worldview shaped by floods and conflict.

Early Dynastic Period (c.【 $2650 ext{ BCE} ext{–} 2400 ext{ BCE}$ ) saw powerful lugals (kings) and inter-city warfare; rulers legitimated power via control of temples.
Sargon of Akkad founded the world’s first empire around $c. ext{2334 BCE}$ , uniting Sumer and Akkad; empire lasted ~ $1.5 ext{ centuries}$ and ended around $2193 ext{ BCE}$ .
Rival polities included Ebla (northwest Syria) and the Elamites (Susa); both were eventually defeated by Akkadian expansion.
After the Akkadian collapse, the city-states re-emerged under Ur III (the Third Dynasty of Ur) around $c. ext{2112 BCE}$ , with Ur-Nammu as a notable ruler; empire expanded but later declined amid external pressure.
Hammurabi of Babylon (late 2nd millennium BCE) forged a new Babylonian empire (~ $c. ext{1792–1750 BCE}$ ) and issued a comprehensive law code across his realm.
Babylon was sacked by the Hittites (~ $1595 BCE$ ); Kassites then ruled Babylon for nearly five centuries, adopting Mesopotamian culture.

The Code of Hammurabi propagated the principle that punishment should fit the crime, but penalties varied by social class (not universal equality).
Notable features include provisions on personal injury, marriage, property, and commercial disputes; emphasis on public display of the law to regulate behavior.
Examples (illustrative):
- If a man injures a slave, compensation is owed; punishment varies by status and offense.
- Offenses against high-status individuals incur harsher penalties.
The code reflects a stratified society where elite privilege affected legal outcomes; it informs legal systems for centuries.

Temples and royal palaces acted as redistribution centers; agriculture was the main economic base, with large landholdings controlled by elites and temple authorities.
Land worked by semi-free peasants tied to the land; free peasants and artisans formed the urban base; enslaved people were drawn from war captives or debt bondage.
Textiles and crafts: women often ran family businesses and could hold managerial roles; women in merchant networks traded with distant regions (e.g., Ashur to central Anatolia).
Gold and other precious metals served as a medium of exchange before coinage; trade involved long-distance networks and documented transactions on clay tablets.
Social hierarchy is reflected in law and practice: nobles, scribes, priests at the top; free commoners (peasants, merchants, artisans) middle; slaves at the bottom.

Men dominated public life; women could divorce (under certain conditions) and could gain dowry-backed protections; dowries could be used to secure position in marriage.
Women could influence family business and textile production; some held managerial roles within the economy.

Mesopotamians tracked celestial bodies to forecast events and informed a twelve-month calendar, aiding agricultural planning and religious ritual timing.

Epic of Gilgamesh emerges from Sumerian legends (developed into a literary epic by 2100 BCE); reflects themes of kingship, friendship, mortality, and human-celebrated heroism.
Religious stories and hymns preserved in cuneiform texts; gods’ caprices influenced daily life and political events.

The Tigris and Euphrates rivers supplied fertile soil but caused unpredictable flooding; irrigation and canal networks were essential for agricultural prosperity.