MESOPOTAMIA

(CHAP 2) The Ancient Near East


  • SUMERIANS people of Mesopotamia

    • Where first river valley civilization developed 

  • City-states of of Sumer 

    •  Organized Governments and religion 

    • Writing system, architecture and technology 

  • Civilization in egypt more stable in mesopotamia 

MESOPOTAMIA 

  • Civilization developed between Tigris and Euphrates river. 12 city states

  • The name means “ between rivers”

    • Today it is Iraq

  • Part of the “fertile crescent”; great arc of land stretching from the persian gulf to the eastern shore of mediterranean sea.



SUMERIAN CIVILIZATION 

  • City states developed in Sumer

    • Independent State consisting of a city and surrounding territory

      • State- own government

      • City- size[small]  

  • Late Neolithic times[6,000] nomadic herders in the southern part of Mesopotamia developed farming.

    • Between mouths of two rivers they found marshly area that provided grazing for herd, bountiful fish and bird life.

    • People drained the swamps so they could farm the rich land.

  • Built dams and dikes to keep to keep rivers from flooding

    • Northern areas built irrigation canals

  • Sumerian nomad from the mountains to the northeast.

    • Southern mesopotamians known as “Sumer” 

  • Farming villages grew into TWELVE (12) CITY STATES.

    • Each had their own government and was independent of other city states.

  • RELIGION: POLYTHEISM

    • To believe in many gods

    • Each city state considered itself a property of one of the gods who chose the city ruler and protected the city. Each city worshiped one god 

    • RULERS: were responsible to the gods for societal function 

    • Artifacts: statues of gods that looked like humans (also depicted how the dressed  and looked like) 

  • SUMERIAN ARTISAN 

    • Since there was little stone or timber in mesopotamia , sumerian artisan used clay from rivers to construct homes and materials etc. 

    • Shaped clay into bricks and baked them in the sun 

    • Houses were windowless and rooms built around a central court.

  • ZIGGURAT 

    • Large brick temple in each city to provide a home for gods

    • Pyramid, had several level with a shrine at top.  

    • BASE: surrounded by priests and artisans shops

    • Tall, closer to the heavens, used as evacuation centers when flooding 

  • ARTISANS

    • Potters, weavers, metalworkers etc

    • Worked for the temple or royal court 

  • TOOLS AND WEAPONS OF BRONZE

    • Wheel in sumer (6,000 years ago)[ exported materials] 

    • Pottery wheels; to contain water (pots) 

    • Wheels for transportation(later on) 

  • CUNEIFORM AND CLAY TABLETS

    • Cuneiform: wedge

    • A system of record keeping used damp clay wedged with sharp pointed stick(wooden stylus)

    • Form of writing called cuneiform

    • Once completed it was dried and baked and stored in library

      • Ended with (day, month, year) and name of city it was record in MARKED with signature seals made in a shape of hollowed cylinders worn around the owners neck.

    • Dampen to engrave on the clay

    • To make sure no one tampered they would wrap a thin layer of clay and words would be inscribed again in the outer layer of the “envelope” 

  • SUMERIAN SCHOOLS

    •  Only few people were trained to write in cuneiform

    • Trained boys, mostly sons of the upper class professional, priests, temple/ palace officials, armys and other scribes

      • No poor and no girls 

    • Teachers prepared “textbooks” of words list and math probs

    •  Work: scribes for temple, royal court ,wealthy merchants 

EMPIRES

SUMERIAN EMPIRE 

AKKADIAN

BABYLONIAN EMPIRE(CHALDEANS)

ASSYRIAN EMPIRE

RISE OF BABYLONIA

PERSIA EMPIRE- (first empire to extend 3 continents; asia, africa, europe) 

Cyrus the Great(first king to extend the empire)

-lydia(turkey), mesopotamia 


darius (sucessor) extended eastward 


Xerxes 

  • Conqured babylonia, assyrians, hebreews, phoenicians, hittities, lydians, egyptians 


Roads for communication; since the area was huge

-pos

AKKADIAN EMPIRE

  • Sargon the great of akkad; conquered the 12 city states= akkadian empire.[ 2350 bc ]   

ASSYRIAN EMPIRE 

  • Fall of akkadian empire; CITY STATE UR 

    • Regained power 2100 bc ruled sumer and akkad 

  • ASSYRIAN RULERS

    • Ruthless conquerors living in upper tigris; iron weapons, horse war chariots, battering dams 

      • Invaded other lands for plunder.

      • Conqueror Tiglath Pileser 

    •  Officials were appointed to collect taxes for law and order and to build works.

      • Roads built to tie the empire together and messengers carried news from place to place. 

    •  Assyrian Empire reached its height in 660bc  during the reign of ashurbanipal

    • In capital city of nineveh he built a library that contained thousandths of cuneiform tablets written in babylonian,assyrian, and sumerian

BABYLONIAN EMPIRE ARISES

  • BABYLONIAN EMPIRE; fall Ur 

    • Hammurabi 

  • Assyrians never had complete control. Conquered people frequently rebelled 

  • CHALDEANS; King Nebuchadnezzar[ 605-562 bc] conquered much of the fertile crescent capturing jerusalem and pheonician city of tyre.

  • Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt babylon

  • Made famous for its terraces planted with trees and flowers and watered by streams [ hanging gardens of babylon] built for his wife. 

  • ASSYRIAN EMPIRE 

    • Northern mesopotamia 

    • Europe invaders, they had to defend their territories

    • Upper tigris frequently invaded, they had to be skilled and ruthless in war

    • Iron weapons

    • Battering rams; knock down walls

    • Tiglath pilesar 

    • Well organized; appointed officials from the people themselves. 

    • Roads 

    • Ashurbanipal 660bce - library nineveh 


  • Fall of assyrians

    • Rebelled- alliance of chaldeans(neobabylon) from babylon , medes from persia 

    • Rise of 2nd babylon/neo-babylon

    • Abopolassar 

PERSIA 

  • Areas east of Mesopotamia 547 BC led by CYPRUS the great. Built the largest empire in the near east. Released the Hebrews from babylon. 

  • Took over the rest of the fertile crescent , and asia minor , his son brought the egypt into the empire 

  • DARIUS the great, extended expansion in India 

    • Failure; invasion of greece

  • Perisans united all of near east 

    •  Egyptians, bablyonians, assyrians, hebrews, pheonicians, hittities, lydians- under one rule and blended all the cultures., 

  • Measures to unite empires

    • Improved and extended assyrians roads to link distant cities and speed travel

    • Cyprus the great

      • efficient postal system 

      • 1,200miles long royal road w/ 80  stations where couriers could change horse

      • Used same currency 

      • Same language; aramaic 

      • To govern darius divided empire to 20 provinces and appointed governors 

    • New religion; Zoroastrianism 

      • Zoroaster; choice between good and evil

        • Ahura Mazda; the wise lord was seen as supreme god standing for truth goodness and light 

        • Ahriman; evil representing darkness

      • Zend avesta 

Persia 

  • Postal system

  • Sardes(turkey)- susa(iran)

  • Used coins (darius)

  • System of measurement 

  • Official language: Aramaic; spoken by Jesus 

  • Satrapies; diff states assigned with a leader(satrap) in each state. Despite distance from capital city the king had spies who reported to him. 

  • The conquered just had to pay tax; provide recruits for Army. 

  • Official religion; Zoroaster; zoroastrianism; zend Avesta book  




  • CONQUERORS

    • No form of strong government

    • Wars over land and water rights

    • [2350 bc] Sargon the great ruler of akkad

      • With his conquered land he created the world's first empire

      • A state which one ruler controls other kingdom or territories that are included within the empire's boundaries (from persian gulf to to mediterranean sea) 

      • Lasted 100 years 

    • Once city state UR regained power in 2100 bc 

      • Ruled both sumer and akkad 

    • BABYLON powerful in 1792 bc

      • Hammurabi conquered and united mesopotamia 

  • MESOPOTAMIANS ADOPTION OF SUMERIAN ACHIEVEMENTS

    • Akkadians and babylonians spoke SEMITIC languages ( unlike sumerian language) borrowed cuneiform writing but used it for their own language.

    • Sumerian religious beliefs, technology, art, written laws, and literature were foundations of mesopotamian civilization.

  • MESOPOTAMIAN SOCIETY AND CULTURE 

    • Worship many gods, deities in natural elements 

    • Prayer and rituals written in clay tablets  

    • Wore charms and performed rituals 

    • Rulers and priests consulted with god before making traditions, dreams studied dreams and stars 

    • EPIC OF GILGAMESH worlds earliest literary works: describes the underworld

      • Death and immortality 

  • MESOPOTAMIA WRITTEN LAWS 

    • Rulers to carry out gods wishes 

    • Written down in cuneiform, laws from Uranmu who ruled Ur about 2100 bc.

    • HAMMURABI rulers of Babylon had laws of the kingdom collected and organized: engraved these codes of laws and recorded on a stone eight feet high.

    • Copies of the law in clay tablets and sent to all the lands ruled by Babylon.

    •  

  • ADVANCES IN MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY

    • Maths- drew up multiplication and division tables and made calculations using GEOMETRY. Number system used a base of 60. System of diving a circle into 360 degrees and an 1hr=60min 

    •  Developed a twelve-month calendar based on the cycles of the moon 

  • DEVELOPED WIDESPREAD TRADE 

    • Lacked resources; stone, timber, metal

    • Wheel and sai improved transportation land and water

  • MARTKET PLACES

    • Each city had a bazar or marketplace

    • Merchants set up trading posts in foreign lands

      • Copper- persian gulf

      • Precious metals- central asia 

      • Ivory- africa and west coast of india 

      • Cedar and cypres woods and oils-  from lands around mediterranean sea

      • Wool, woven cloth, fine handicrafts, grain and hides

  •  CLAY TABLETS REVEAL HISTORY  

    • Cunei form tablets found it near east dating back to sumerian city states

      • Trade contracts, list of rules, maps, poems, legends, prayers, laws

      • Until the 19th century they could not be read

 

  • HENRY RAWLINSON in 1840’s BC

    • Identified 3 types of writing in a huge cliff - BEHISTUN ROCK [located in old caravan route between Babylon and Ecbatana] he made 3 copies

      • Babylonian cuneiform 

      • Semitic language

    • Old persian