Mesopotamia "
land between the rivers" (
AramaicAramaic is a Semitic language with a 3,000-year history. It has been the language of administration of empires and the language of divine worship...
: ܒܝܬ ܢܗܪܝܢ "
Bet Nahrain",
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
: بلاد الرافدين translit: "
Bilad Al-Rafidayn") is a
nameToponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The first part of the word is derived from the Greek tópos , place; followed by ónoma , meaning name. It is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...
for the
TigrisThe Tigris is the eastern member of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the Euphrates. The river flows from the mountains of southeastern Turkey through Iraq.-Geography:...
–
EuphratesThe Euphrates is the longest and historically one of the most important rivers of Southwest Asia. Together with the Tigris, the Euphrates is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia...
region in the eastern Mediterranean, largely corresponding to
IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
, as well as northeastern
SyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest....
, some parts of southeastern
TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
, and some parts of the
Khūzestān ProvinceKhūzestān is one of the 30 provinces of Iran. It is in the southwest of the country, bordering Iraq's Basra Province and the Persian Gulf. Its capital is Ahvaz and covers an area of 63,238 km²...
of southwestern
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
.
Widely considered as the
cradle of civilizationThe cradle of civilization is any of the possible locations for the emergence of civilization.It is usually applied to the Ancient Near Eastern Chalcolithic , especially in the Fertile Crescent , but also extended to sites in Anatolia and the Persian Plateau,besides other Asian cultures situated...
,
Bronze AgeThe Bronze Age of a culture is the period when the most advanced metalworking in that culture utilised bronze. This could either have been based on the local smelting of copper and tin from ores, or trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere...
Mesopotamia included
SumerSumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Iraq . It is the earliest known civilization in the world and is known as the Cradle of Civilization...
ian,
AkkadThe Akkadian Empire was an empire centered in the city of Akkad and its surrounding region in Ancient Iraq ....
ian,
BabyloniaBabylonia was a civilization in Lower Mesopotamia , with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged when Hammurabi created an empire out of the territories of the former kingdoms of Sumer and Akkad...
n and
AssyriaAssyria was a civilization centered on the Upper Tigris river, in Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times in history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
n empires. In the
Iron AgeIn archaeology, the Iron Age is the prehistoric period in any area during which cutting tools and weapons were mainly made of iron or steel. The adoption of this material coincided with other changes in society, including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles.The...
, it was ruled by the
Neo-Assyrian EmpireThe Neo-Assyrian Empire was a period of Mesopotamian history which began in 934 BC and ended in 609 BC. During this period, Assyria assumed a position as a great regional power, vying with Babylonia and other lesser powers for dominance of the region, though not until the reforms of Tiglath-Pileser...
and
Neo-Babylonian EmpireThe term Neo-Babylonian or Chaldean refers to Babylonia under the rule of the 11th dynasty, from the revolt of Nabopolassar in 626 BC until the invasion of Cyrus the Great in 539 BC, notably including the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II....
, and later conquered by the
Achaemenid EmpireThe Achaemenid Empire or Persian Empire was the successor state of the Median Empire, ruling over significant portions of what would become Greater Iran. The Persian and the Median Empire taken together are also known as the Medo-Persian Empire, succeeding the Neo-Assyrian Empire...
. It mostly remained under Persian rule until the 7th century
Islamic conquestThe Muslim conquest of Persia led to the end of the Sassanid Empire in 644, of the Sassanid dynasty in 651 and the eventual extirpation of the Zoroastrian religion in Persia. The Sassanid Empire was first invaded by Muslims in present day Iraq in 633 under general Khalid ibn Walid, which resulted...
of the
Sassanid EmpireThe Sassanid Empire or Sasanian Empire, known to its inhabitants as Ērānshahr, was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty who reigned from 224 to 651 CE...
.
Etymology
The regional toponym Mesopotamia ( < meso (μέσος) = middle and potamia < ποταμός = river, literally means "between two rivers") was coined in the Hellenistic period without any definite
boundariesBorders define geographic boundaries of political entities or legal jurisdictions, such as governments, states or subnational administrative divisions. They may foster the setting up of buffer zones...
, to refer to a broad geographical area and probably used by the Seleucids. The term
biritum/birit narim corresponded to a similar geographical concept and coined at the time of the Aramaicization of the region, in the 10th century BCE. It is however widely accepted that early Mesopotamian societies simply referred to the entire
alluviumAlluvium is soil or sediments deposited by a river or other running water...
as
kalamKalām is the Islamic philosophy of seeking Islamic theological principles through dialectic. In Arabic the word means "words, discussion, discourse". A scholar of kalam is referred to as a mutakallim...
in Sumerian (lit. "land"). More recently terms like "
Greater MesopotamiaGreater Syria , also known simply as Syria, is a term that denotes a region in the Near East bordering the Eastern Mediterranean Sea or the Levant....
" or "
Syro-MesopotamiaGreater Syria , also known simply as Syria, is a term that denotes a region in the Near East bordering the Eastern Mediterranean Sea or the Levant....
" have been adopted to refer to wider geographies corresponding to the Near East or Middle East. The later euphemisms are
EurocentricEurocentrism is a term coined during the period of decolonization in the later 20th century to refer to the practice of viewing the world from a European perspective, with an implied belief, either consciously or subconsciously, in the preeminence of European culture...
terms attributed to the region in the midst of various 19th century Western encroachments.
History
The urban history of Mesopotamia begins with the emergence of urban societies in northern Iraq in the early
6th millennium BCEDuring the 6th millennium BC, agriculture spreads from the Balkans to Italy and Eastern Europe and from Mesopotamia to Egypt. World population is essentially stable at ca. 5 million people.-Events:...
.
A cultural continuity and spatial homogeneity for this entire historical geography ("the Great Tradition") is popularly assumed, though the assumption is problematic. Mesopotamia housed some of the world's most ancient states with highly developed social complexity. The region was famous as one of the four riverine civilizations where
writingWriting is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and the recording of language via a non-textual medium such as magnetic tape audio.In Eurasia writing began as a...
was first invented, along with the
NileThe Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world....
valley in
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
, the
Indus ValleyThe Indus Valley Civilization was a Bronze Age civilization which centred mostly in the western part of the Indian Subcontinent and flourished around the Indus river basin....
in the
Indian SubcontinentThe Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent and other terms, is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate south of the Himalayas, forming a peninsula which extends southward into the Indian Ocean...
and
Yellow RiverThe Yellow River or Huang He / Hwang Ho is the second-longest river in China and the sixth-longest in the world at 5,464 kilometers . Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai Province in western China, it flows through nine provinces of China and empties into the Bohai Sea...
valley in
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
.
Mesopotamia housed historically important cities such as
UrukUruk was an ancient city of Sumer and later Babylonia, situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates river, on the ancient dry former channel of the Euphrates River, some 30 km east of modern As-Samawah, Al-Muthannā,...
,
NippurNippur , from the Sumerian for 'lord wind' , is modern Nuffar in Afak Al Qadisyah Governorate, Iraq. Nippur was one of the most ancient of all the Sumerian cities...
,
NinevehNineveh , an "exceeding great city", as it is called in the Book of Jonah, lay on the eastern bank of the Tigris in ancient Assyria, across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, Iraq.-Geography:Ancient Nineveh's mound-ruins of Kouyunjik and Nabī Yūnus are located...
, and
BabylonBabylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
as well as major territorial states such as the city of Ma-asesblu,
AkkadThe Akkadian Empire was an empire centered in the city of Akkad and its surrounding region in Ancient Iraq ....
ian kingdom,
Third Dynasty of UrThe Third Dynasty of Ur, also known as the Sumerian Renaissance, Neo-Sumerian Empire or the Ur III Empire refers simultaneously to a 21st to 20th century BC Sumerian ruling dynasty based in the city of Ur and a short-lived territorial-political state that some historians regard as a nascent empire...
, and
AssyriaAssyria was a civilization centered on the Upper Tigris river, in Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times in history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
n empire. Some of the important historical Mesopotamian leaders were
Ur-NammuUr-Nammu founded the Sumerian 3rd dynasty of Ur, in southern Mesopotamia, following several centuries of Akkadian and Gutian rule. He was succeeded by his son Shulgi, after an eighteen-year reign...
(king of Ur),
SargonSargon of Akkad, also known as Sargon the Great "The Great King" , was an Akkadian emperor famous for his conquest of the Sumerian city-states in the 24th and 23rd centuries BC. The founder of the Dynasty of Akkad, Sargon reigned from 2334 to 2279 BC...
(who established the Akkadian Kingdom),
HammurabiHammurabi Hammurabi Hammurabi (Akkadian from Amorite ˤAmmurāpi, "the kinsman is a healer," from ˤAmmu, "paternal kinsman," and Rāpi, "healer"; (ca. 1728 – 1686 BC middle chronology) was the sixth king of Babylon. He became the first king of the Babylonian Empire, extending Babylon's control over...
(who established the Old Babylonian state), and
Tiglath-Pileser ITiglath-Pileser I was a king of Assyria during the Middle Assyrian period . According to Georges Roux, Tiglath-Pileser was, "one of the two or three great Assyrian monarchs since the days of Shamshi-Adad I"...
(who established the Assyrian Empire).
"Ancient Mesopotamia" begins in the late
6th millennium BCDuring the 6th millennium BC, agriculture spreads from the Balkans to Italy and Eastern Europe and from Mesopotamia to Egypt. World population is essentially stable at ca. 5 million people.-Events:...
, and ends with either the rise of the
AchaemenidThe Achaemenid Empire or Persian Empire was the successor state of the Median Empire, ruling over significant portions of what would become Greater Iran. The Persian and the Median Empire taken together are also known as the Medo-Persian Empire, succeeding the Neo-Assyrian Empire...
Persians in the 6th century BCE or the Islamic conquest of Iraq in the 7th century CE. This long period may be divided as follows:
- Pre-Pottery Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BCE in the Middle East that is traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age...
:
- Jarmo
Jarmo is an archeological site located in Northern Iraq on the foothills of Zagros Mountains east of Kirkuk city . It is known as the oldest agricultural community in the world, dating back to 7000 BC...
(ca. 7000 bce–? bce [lower-case bce=uncalibrated C-14 dates])
- Pottery Neolithic:
- Hassuna
Hassuna or Tell Hassuna is an ancient Mesopotamian site situated in Iraq, south of Mosul.Excavations were initiated at Hassuna in the 1930s by British archaeologist Seton Lloyd who worked closely with the Oriental Institute in Chicago...
(ca. 6000 bce–? bce), SamarraSāmarrā is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Salah ad-Din Governorate, north of Baghdad and, in 2003, had an estimated population of 348,700....
(ca. 5700 bce–4900 bce) and Halaf (ca. 6000 bce–5300 bce) "cultures"
- Chalcolithic or Copper age
The Chalcolithic period or Copper Age period [also known as the Eneolithic ], is a phase in the development of human culture in which the use of early metal tools appeared alongside the use of stone tools.The period is a transitional one outside of the traditional three-age system, and occurs...
:
- Ubaid period
The Ubaid period is a prehistoric period of Mesopotamia. The tell of al-'Ubaid west of nearby Ur in southern Iraq's Dhi Qar Governorate has given its name to the prehistoric Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic culture, which represents the earliest settlement on the alluvial plain of southern...
(ca. 5900 BCE–4400 BCE)
- Uruk period
The Uruk period existed from the protohistoric Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age period in the history of Mesopotamia, following the Ubaid period and succeeded by the Jemdet Nasr period. Named after the Sumerian city of Uruk, this period saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia. It was...
(ca. 4400 BCE–3200 BCE)
- Jemdet Nasr period (ca. 3100 BCE–2900 BCE)
- Early Bronze Age
The Bronze Age of a culture is the period when the most advanced metalworking in that culture utilised bronze. This could either have been based on the local smelting of copper and tin from ores, or trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere...
- Early Dynastic Sumer
Sumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Iraq . It is the earliest known civilization in the world and is known as the Cradle of Civilization...
ian city-states (ca. 2900 BCE–2350 BCE)
- Akkadian Empire (ca. 2350 BCE–2193 BCE).
- Third dynasty of Ur
The Third Dynasty of Ur, also known as the Sumerian Renaissance, Neo-Sumerian Empire or the Ur III Empire refers simultaneously to a 21st to 20th century BC Sumerian ruling dynasty based in the city of Ur and a short-lived territorial-political state that some historians regard as a nascent empire...
("Sumerian Renaissance" or "Neo-Sumerian Period") (ca. 2119 BCE–2004 BCE)
- Middle Bronze Age
- Early Assyrian kingdom (20th to 18th c. BCE)
- First Babylonian Dynasty
The chronology of the first dynasty of Babylonia is debated as there is a Babylonian King List A and a Babylonian King List B. In this chronology, the regnal years of List A are used due to their wide usage...
(18th to 17th c. BCE)
- Late Bronze Age
- Kassite dynasty, Middle Assyrian period (16th to 12th c. BCE)
- Bronze Age collapse
The Bronze Age collapse is the name given by those historians who see the transition in the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age, as violent, sudden and culturally disruptive...
(12th to 11th c. BCE)
- Iron Age
In archaeology, the Iron Age is the prehistoric period in any area during which cutting tools and weapons were mainly made of iron or steel. The adoption of this material coincided with other changes in society, including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles.The...
- Neo-Hittite
The states that are called Neo-Hittite, or more recently Syro-Hittite, were Luwian, Aramaic and Phoenician-speaking political entities of Iron Age northern Syria and southern Anatolia that arose following the collapse of the Hittite Empire around 1180 BC and lasted until roughly 700 BC...
or Syro-Hittite regional states (11th–7th c. BCE)
- Neo-Assyrian Empire
The Neo-Assyrian Empire was a period of Mesopotamian history which began in 934 BC and ended in 609 BC. During this period, Assyria assumed a position as a great regional power, vying with Babylonia and other lesser powers for dominance of the region, though not until the reforms of Tiglath-Pileser...
(10th to 7th c. BCE)
- Neo-Babylonian Empire
The term Neo-Babylonian or Chaldean refers to Babylonia under the rule of the 11th dynasty, from the revolt of Nabopolassar in 626 BC until the invasion of Cyrus the Great in 539 BC, notably including the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II....
(7th to 6th c. BCE)
- Classical Antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
- Achaemenid Assyria
Athura was a geographical area within the Persian Achaemenid Empire during the period of 539 BC to 330 BC...
(6th to 4th c. BCE)
- Seleucid
The Seleucid Empire was a Hellenistic empire, i.e. a successor state of Alexander the Great's empire. The Seleucid Empire was centered in the near East and at the height of its power included central Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Persia, today's Turkmenistan, Pamir and parts of Pakistan...
Mesopotamia (4th to 1st c. BCE)
- Parthian
The Parthian Empire , was a major Iranian political and cultural power in the ancient Near East, and a counterweight to the Roman Empire in the region....
Mesopotamia (3rd c. BCE to 3rd c. CE)
- Roman Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia was one of three provinces created by the Roman emperor Trajan in AD 116 following a successful military campaign against Parthia. The acquisitions marked the peak of expansion of the Roman Empire and were evacuated by Hadrian only two years later, in AD 118. They did get to keep the...
(2nd c. CE)
- Sassanid
The Sassanid Empire or Sasanian Empire, known to its inhabitants as Ērānshahr, was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty who reigned from 224 to 651 CE...
Mesopotamia (3rd to 7th c. CE)
- Islamic conquest of Iraq (7th c.CE)
Dates are approximate for the second and third millennia BCE; compare
Chronology of the Ancient Near EastThe chronology of the Ancient Near East is a framework of dates for various events, rulers and dynasties of the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC.The following periods need to be distinguished:...
.
Geography
Mesopotamia encompasses the land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, both of which have their headwaters in the mountains of Armenia in modern Turkey. Both rivers are fed by numerous tributaries, and the entire river system drains a vast mountainous region. Overland routes in Mesopotamia usually follow the Euphrates because the banks of the Tigris are frequently steep and difficult. The climate of the region is semi-arid with a vast desert expanse in the north which gives way to a 6,000 square mile region of marshes, lagoons, mud flats, and reed banks in the south. In the extreme south the Euphrates and the Tigris unite and empty into the Persian Gulf.
The arid environment which ranges from the northern areas of rain fed agriculture, to the south where irrigation of agriculture is essential if a surplus
energy returned on energy investedIn physics, energy economics and ecological energetics, EROEI , ERoEI, EROI or less frequently, eMergy, is the ratio of the amount of usable energy acquired from a particular energy resource to the amount of energy expended to obtain that energy resource...
(EROEI) is to be obtained. This irrigation is aided by a high water table and by melted snows from the high peaks of the
Zagros MountainsThe Zagros Mountains are the largest mountain range in Iran and Iraq...
and from the Armenian cordillera, the source of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, that give the region its name. The usefulness of irrigation depends upon the ability to mobilize sufficient labor for the construction and maintenance of canals, and this, from the earliest period, has assisted the development of urban settlements and centralized systems of political authority. Agriculture throughout the region has been supplemented by nomadic pastoralism, where tent dwelling nomads move herds of sheep and goats (and later camels) from the river pastures in the dry summer months, out into seasonal grazing lands on the desert fringe in the wet winter season. The area is generally lacking in building stone, precious metals and timber, and so historically has relied upon long distance trade of agricultural products to secure these items from outlying areas. In the marshlands to the south of the country, a complex water-borne fishing culture has existed since pre-historic times, and has added to the cultural mix.
Periodic breakdowns in the cultural system have occurred for a number of reasons. The demands for labour has from time to time led to population increases that push the limits of the ecological carrying capacity, and should a period of climatic instability ensue, collapsing central government and declining populations can occur. Alternatively, military vulnerability to invasion from marginal hill tribes or nomadic pastoralists have led to periods of trade collapse and neglect of irrigation systems. Equally, centripetal tendencies amongst city states has meant that central authority over the whole region, when imposed, has tended to be ephemeral, and localism has fragmented power into tribal or smaller regional units. These trends have continued to the present day in Iraq.
Language and writing
The earliest known written
languageA language is a system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using...
in Mesopotamia was the
SumerianSumerian was the language of ancient Sumer, spoken in Southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BCE . It was gradually replaced by Akkadian as a spoken language somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BCE , but continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary...
, an
agglutinativeAn agglutinative language is a language that uses agglutination extensively: most words are formed by joining morphemes together. This term was introduced by Wilhelm von Humboldt in 1836 to classify languages from a morphological point of view...
language isolateA language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single...
. Semitic dialects were also spoken in early Mesopotamia along with Sumerian. Later a
Semitic languageThe Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa...
,
AkkadianAkkadian is an extinct Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated language isolate...
, came to be the dominant language, although Sumerian was retained for administration, religious, literary, and scientific purposes. Different varieties of Akkadian were used until the end of the Neo-Babylonian period. Then Aramaic, which had already become common in Mesopotamia, became the official provincial administration language of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Akkadian fell into disuse, but both it and Sumerian were still used in temples for some centuries.
In Early Mesopotamia (around mid 4th millennium BC)
cuneiform scriptCuneiform script is the earliest known writing system in the world. Cuneiform writing emerged in the Sumerian civilization of southern Iraq around the 34th century BC during the middle Uruk period, beginning as a pictographic system of writing...
was invented. Cuneiform literally means "wedge-shaped", due to the triangular tip of the stylus used for impressing signs on wet clay. The standardized form of each cuneiform sign appear to have been developed from pictograms. The earliest texts (7 archaic tablets) come from the
EÉ is the Sumerian for "house" or "temple", written ideographically with the cuneiform sign Specific temples:*E-ab-lua temple to Suen in Urum...
-anna super sacred precinct dedicated to the goddess Inanna at Uruk, Level III, from a building labeled as Temple C by its excavators.
The early logographic system of cuneiform script took many years to master. Thus only a limited number of individuals were hired as
scribesScribes is a programmers' text editor for GNOME with a simple design. It provides syntax highlighting, automatic word completion, smart indentation, pair character completion, and bookmarks....
to be trained in its reading and writing. It was not until the widespread use of a
syllabicSyllabic may refer to:*Syllabary, writing system using symbols for syllables*Abugida, writing system using symbols for consonant-vowel combinations *Syllable...
script was adopted under Sargon's rule that significant portions of Mesopotamian population became literate. Massive archives of texts were recovered from the archaeological contexts of Old Babylonian scribal schools, through which literacy was disseminated.
Literature and mythology
In Babylonian times there were libraries in most towns and temples; an old
SumerSumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Iraq . It is the earliest known civilization in the world and is known as the Cradle of Civilization...
ian proverb averred that "he who would excel in the school of the scribes must rise with the dawn." Women as well as men learned to read and write, and for the
SemiticThe Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa...
Babylonians, this involved knowledge of the extinct
Sumerian languageSumerian was the language of ancient Sumer, spoken in Southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BCE . It was gradually replaced by Akkadian as a spoken language somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BCE , but continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary...
, and a complicated and extensive syllabary.
A considerable amount of Babylonian literature was translated from Sumerian originals, and the language of religion and law long continued to be the old agglutinative language of Sumer. Vocabularies, grammars, and interlinear translations were compiled for the use of students, as well as commentaries on the older texts and explanations of obscure words and phrases. The characters of the syllabary were all arranged and named, and elaborate lists of them were drawn up.
There are many Babylonian literary works whose titles have come down to us. One of the most famous of these was the
Epic of GilgameshThe Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from Ancient Iraq and is among the earliest known works of literary writings. Scholars believe that it originated as a series of Sumerian legends and poems about the mythological hero-king Gilgamesh, which were gathered into a longer Akkadian poem much later;...
, in twelve books, translated from the original Sumerian by a certain
Sin-liqe-unninniSin-liqe-unninni was a scribe who lived in Babylonia between 1300 BC and 1000 BC. He is the compiler of the best preserved version of the Epic of Gilgamesh. His name is listed in the text itself, which is unusual for ancient works...
, and arranged upon an astronomical principle. Each division contains the story of a single adventure in the career of
GilgameshGilgamesh, also known as Bilgameṣ in the earliest text, was the son of Lugalbanda and the fifth king of Uruk , ruling circa 2700 BC, according to the Sumerian king list...
. The whole story is a composite product, and it is probable that some of the stories are artificially attached to the central figure.
Philosophy
- Further information: Babylonian literature: Philosophy
The origins of
philosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
can be traced back to early Mesopotamian
wisdomWisdom is knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action; sagacity, discernment, or insight. It is an ideal that has been celebrated since antiquity as the application of knowledge needed to live a good life...
, which embodied certain philosophies of life, particularly
ethicsEthics is a branch of philosophy which seeks to address questions about morality, such as what the fundamental semantic, ontological, and epistemic nature of ethics or morality is , how moral values should be determined , how a moral outcome can be achieved in specific situations , how moral...
, in the forms of
dialecticDialectic is a method of argument, which has been central to both Eastern and Western philosophy since ancient times. The word "dialectic" originates in Ancient Greece, and was made popular by Plato's Socratic dialogues...
, dialogs,
epic poetryAn epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
,
folkloreFolklore is the body of expressive culture, including stories, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, customs, and so forth within a particular population comprising the traditions of that culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which...
,
hymnA hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word hymn derives from Greek , "a song of praise"...
s,
lyricsLyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
,
proseProse is the ordinary form of written language. The word "prose" is derived from the Latin prosa, which literally translates to "straightforward". Prose is adopted for the discussion of facts and topical reading, as it is often articulated in free form writing style...
, and
proverbA proverb , also called a byword or nayword, is a simple and concrete saying popularly known and repeated, which expresses a truth, based on common sense or the practical experience of humanity. They are often metaphorical. A proverb that describes a basic rule of conduct may also be known as a maxim...
s. Babylonian
reasoningReasoning is the cognitive process of looking for reasons for beliefs, conclusions, actions or feelings.Humans have the ability to engage in reasoning about their own reasoning. Different forms of such reflection on reasoning occur in different fields...
and
rationalityIn philosophy, rationality and reason are the key methods used to analyze the data gathered through systematically gathered observations. In economics, sociology, and political science, a decision or situation is often called rational if it is in some sense optimal, and individuals or organizations...
developed beyond
empiricalIn philosophy, empiricism is a theory of knowledge which asserts that knowledge arises from sense experience. Empiricism is one of several competing views about how we know "things," part of the branch of philosophy called epistemology, or "the Theory of Knowledge"...
observation.
The earliest form of
logicLogic, from the Greek λογική is the art and science of reasoning. More specifically, it is defined by the Penguin Encyclopedia to be "The formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning". As a discipline, logic dates back to Aristotle, who established its...
was developed by the Babylonians, notably in the rigorous nonergodic nature of their
social systemsSocial structure is a term used in sociology and anthropology to refer to relationships or bonds between groups of individuals . Whereas 'structure' refers to "the macro", "agency" refers to "the micro"...
. Babylonian
thoughtThought and thinking are mental forms and processes, respectively . Thinking allows beings to model the world and to deal with it according to their objectives, plans, ends and desires. Words referring to similar concepts and processes include cognition, sentience, consciousness, idea, and...
was
axiomIn traditional logic, an axiom or postulate is a proposition that is not proved or demonstrated but considered to be either self-evident, or subject to necessary decision...
atic and is comparable to the "ordinary logic" described by
John Maynard KeynesJohn Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, CB was a British economist whose ideas have been a central influence on modern macroeconomics, both in theory and practice...
. Babylonian thought was also based on an open-systems
ontologyOntology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality in general, as well as of the basic categories of being and their relations...
which is compatible with ergodic axioms. Logic was employed to some extent in Babylonian astronomy and medicine.
Babylonian thought had a considerable influence on early
Greek philosophyGreek philosophy focused on the role of reason and inquiry. Many philosophers today concede that Greek philosophy has shaped the entire Western thought since its inception...
and
Hellenistic philosophyHellenistic philosophy is the period of Western philosophy that was developed in the Hellenistic civilization following Aristotle and ending with Neoplatonism.-Platonism:...
. In particular, the Babylonian text
Dialog of Pessimism contains similarities to the
agonistAn agonist is a drug that binds to a receptor of a cell and triggers a response by the cell. An agonist often mimics the action of a naturally occurring substance.An agonist produces an action...
ic thought of the
sophistsSophism can mean two very different things: In the modern definition, a sophism is a confusing or illogical argument used for deceiving someone...
, the
HeracliteanHeraclitus of Ephesus was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, a native of Ephesus, Ionia, on the coast of Asia Minor. He was of distinguished parentage. Little is known about his early life and education, but he regarded himself as self-taught and a pioneer of wisdom...
doctrine of contrasts, and the
dialecticDialectic is a method of argument, which has been central to both Eastern and Western philosophy since ancient times. The word "dialectic" originates in Ancient Greece, and was made popular by Plato's Socratic dialogues...
and dialogs of
PlatoPlato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world...
, as well as a precursor to the
maieuticMaieutics is a procedure of pedagogy. It is based on the idea that the truth is latent in the mind of every human being due to his innate reason but has to be "given birth" by answering questions intelligently proposed...
Socratic methodThe Socratic Method , named after the Classical Greek philosopher Socrates, is a form of inquiry and debate between individuals with opposing viewpoints based on asking and answering questions to stimulate rational thinking and to illuminate ideas...
of
Socrates Socrates was a Classical Greek philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known only through the classical accounts of his students...
. The
PhoeniciaPhoenicia what is now modern day Lebanon, was an ancient civilization centered in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal regions of modern day Lebanon, extending to parts of Israel, Syria and Palestine...
n philosopher
ThalesThales of Miletus , was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Miletus in Asia Minor, and one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regard him as the first philosopher in the Greek tradition...
had also studied in Babylonia.
Astronomy
The Babylonian astronomers were very interested in studying the stars and sky, and most could already predict eclipses and solstices. People thought that everything had some purpose in astronomy. Most of these related to religion and omens. Mesopotamian astronomers worked out a 12 month calendar based on the cycles of the moon. They divided the year into two seasons: summer and winter. The origins of astronomy as well as
astrologyIn Babylonia as well as in Assyria as a direct offshoot of Babylonian culture , astrology takes its place in the...
date from this time.
During the 8th and 7th centuries BC, Babylonian astronomers developed a new approach to astronomy. They began studying
philosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
dealing with the ideal nature of the early
universeThe Universe comprises everything that physically exists, the entirety of space and time, all forms of matter and energy, and the physical laws and constants that govern them...
and began employing an internal
logicLogic, from the Greek λογική is the art and science of reasoning. More specifically, it is defined by the Penguin Encyclopedia to be "The formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning". As a discipline, logic dates back to Aristotle, who established its...
within their predictive planetary systems. This was an important contribution to astronomy and the
philosophy of scienceThe philosophy of science is concerned with the assumptions, foundations, and implications of science. The field is defined by an interest in one of a set of "traditional" problems or an interest in central or foundational concerns in science...
and some scholars have thus referred to this new approach as the first
scientific revolution. This new approach to astronomy was adopted and further developed in Greek and Hellenistic astronomy.
In Seleucid and
ParthiaParthia is a region of north-eastern Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasts, after which the Arsacid Empire is then also known as the 'Parthian Empire'....
n times, the astronomical reports were of a thoroughly scientific character; how much earlier their advanced knowledge and methods were developed is uncertain. The Babylonian development of methods for predicting the motions of the planets is considered to be a major episode in the history of astronomy.
The only Babylonian astronomer known to have supported a
heliocentricIn astronomy, heliocentrism is the theory that the Sun is stationary and at the center of the universe. The word came from the Greek . Historically, heliocentrism was opposed to geocentrism, which placed the Earth at the center. Discussions on the possibility of heliocentrism date to classical...
model of planetary motion was
Seleucus of SeleuciaSeleucus of Seleucia was a Hellenistic astronomer and philosopher from the Seleucia region of Mesopotamia who supported the heliocentric theory of planetary motion. Seleucus is known from the writings of Plutarch, Strabo and Aetius...
(b. 190 BC). Seleucus is known from the writings of
PlutarchPlutarch, born Plutarchos then, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. AD 46 – 120, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
. He supported the heliocentric theory where the Earth rotated around its own axis which in turn revolved around the
SunThe Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. The Earth and other matter orbit the Sun, which by itself accounts for about 99.86% of the Solar System's mass....
. According to
PlutarchPlutarch, born Plutarchos then, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. AD 46 – 120, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
, Seleucus even proved the heliocentric system, but it is not known what arguments he used.
Babylonian astronomy was the basis for much of what was done in
Greek and Hellenistic astronomyGreek astronomy is the astronomy of those who wrote in the Greek language in classical antiquity; for example, Aristarchus of Samos Greek astronomer/mathematician and his heliocentric model of the solar system. Greek astronomy is understood to include the ancient Greek, Hellenistic, Greco-Roman,...
, in classical Indian astronomy, in
SassanianThe Sassanid Empire or Sasanian Empire, known to its inhabitants as Ērānshahr, was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty who reigned from 224 to 651 CE...
,
ByzantineThe Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and ruled by Emperors in direct and de jure succession to the ancient Roman Emperors...
and
SyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest....
n astronomy, in medieval
Islamic astronomyIn the history of astronomy, Islamic astronomy or Arabic astronomy refers to the astronomical developments made in the Islamic world, particularly during the Islamic Golden Age , and mostly written in the Arabic language. These developments mostly took place in the Middle East, Central Asia,...
, and in
Central AsiaAsia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent.Various definitions of its...
n and
Western EuropeWestern Europe is the collection of countries in the westernmost region of Europe, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a cultural entity—the region lying west of Central Europe...
an astronomy.
Mathematics
The Mesopotamians used a
sexagesimalSexagesimal is a numeral system with sixty as the base. It originated with the ancient Sumerians in the 2000s BCE, was transmitted to the Babylonians, and is still used—in modified form—for measuring time, angles, and geographic coordinates....
(base 60)
numeral systemA numeral system is a writing system for expressing numbers, that is a mathematical notation for representing numbers of a given set, using graphemes or symbols in a consistent manner....
. This is the source of the current 60-minute hours and 24-hour days, as well as the 360
degreeA degree , usually denoted by ° , is a measurement of plane angle, representing 1⁄360 of a full rotation; one degree is equivalent to π/180 radians...
circle. The Sumerian calendar also measured weeks of seven days each. This mathematical knowledge was used in
mapmakingCartography , or mapmaking, has been an integral part of the human story for a long time, possibly up to 8,000 years...
.
The Babylonians might have been familiar with the general rules for measuring the areas. They measured the circumference of a circle as three times the diameter and the area as one-twelfth the square of the circumference, which would be correct if
pi were estimated as 3. The volume of a cylinder was taken as the product of the base and the height, however, the volume of the frustum of a cone or a square pyramid was incorrectly taken as the product of the height and half the sum of the bases. Also, there was a recent discovery in which a tablet used
pi as 3 and 1/8 (3.125 for 3.14159~). The Babylonians are also known for the Babylonian mile, which was a measure of distance equal to about seven miles (11 km) today. This measurement for distances eventually was converted to a time-mile used for measuring the travel of the Sun, therefore, representing time.
Medicine
The oldest Babylonian texts on
medicineMedicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
date back to the
Old BabylonianOld Babylonian may refer to:*the period of the First Babylonian Dynasty *the historical stage of the Akkadian language of that time...
period in the first half of the
2nd millennium BCThe 2nd millennium BC marks the transition from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age.Its first half is dominated by the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and Babylonia. The alphabet develops. Indo-Iranian migration onto the Iranian plateau and onto the Indian subcontinent propagates the use of the chariot...
. The most extensive Babylonian medical text, however, is the
Diagnostic Handbook written by the physician Esagil-kin-apli of
BorsippaBorsippa was an important ancient city of Sumer, built on both sides of a lake about 17.7 km southwest of Babylon, on the east bank of the Euphrates. The site of Borsippa is now called Birs Nimrud, identifying the site with Nimrod...
, during the reign of the
Babylonian king Adad-apla-iddina (1069-1046 BC).
Along with contemporary
ancient Egyptian medicineAncient Egyptian Medicine refers to the practices of healing common in Ancient Egypt from circa 3300 BC until the Persian invasion of 523 BC. This medicine was highly advanced for the time, and included simple, non-invasive surgery, setting of bones and an extensive set of pharmacopoeia...
, the Babylonians introduced the concepts of
diagnosisIn medicine, diagnosis is a label given for a medical condition or disease identified by its signs, symptoms, and from the results of various diagnostic procedures...
,
prognosisPrognosis is a medical term to describe the likely outcome of an illness. When applied to large populations, prognostic estimates can be very accurate: for example the statement "45% of patients with severe septic shock will die within 28 days" can be made with some confidence, because previous...
,
physical examinationPhysical examination or clinical examination is the process by which a doctor investigates the body of a patient for signs of disease. It generally follows the taking of the medical history — an account of the symptoms as experienced by the patient...
, and
prescriptionPrescription may refer to:Health care*Prescription drug, a drug available only by a medical prescription*Medical prescription, a plan of care written by a physician or other health care professional...
s. In addition, the
Diagnostic Handbook introduced the methods of
therapyThis is a list of types of therapy.* Adventure therapy* Animal-assisted therapy* Aromatherapy* Art therapy* Authentic Movement* Behavioral therapy* Bibliotherapy* Chemotherapy* Cognitive analytic therapy* Cognitive therapy* Coherence therapy...
and aetiology and the use of
empiricismIn philosophy, empiricism is a theory of knowledge which asserts that knowledge arises from sense experience. Empiricism is one of several competing views about how we know "things," part of the branch of philosophy called epistemology, or "the Theory of Knowledge"...
,
logicLogic, from the Greek λογική is the art and science of reasoning. More specifically, it is defined by the Penguin Encyclopedia to be "The formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning". As a discipline, logic dates back to Aristotle, who established its...
and
rationalityIn philosophy, rationality and reason are the key methods used to analyze the data gathered through systematically gathered observations. In economics, sociology, and political science, a decision or situation is often called rational if it is in some sense optimal, and individuals or organizations...
in diagnosis, prognosis and therapy. The text contains a list of medical
symptomA symptom is a departure from normal function or feeling which is noticed by a patient, indicating the presence of disease or abnormality...
s and often detailed empirical
observationObservation is either an activity of a living being , consisting of receiving knowledge of the outside world through the senses, or the recording of data using scientific instruments. The term may also refer to any datum collected during this activity.-Observation in science:A scientific method...
s along with logical rules used in combining observed symptoms on the body of a
patientA patient is any person who receives medical attention, care, or treatment. The person is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician or other health care professional, although one who is visiting a physician for a routine check-up may also be viewed as a patient.The word...
with its diagnosis and prognosis.
The symptoms and diseases of a patient were treated through therapeutic means such as
bandageA bandage is a piece of material used either to support a medical device such as a dressing or splint, or on its own to provide support to the body...
s,
cream- Description:A cream is a topical preparation usually for application to the skin. Creams for application to mucus membranes such as those of the rectum or vagina are also used...
s and
pillPill or the pill may refer to:* A ball, or anything small and round, the origin of the now-obsolete term pill , referring to a specific dose of medicine...
s. If a patient could not be cured physically, the Babylonian physicians often relied on
exorcismExorcism is the practice of evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed...
to cleanse the patient from any
curseA curse is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or unhappiness will befall another person or persons. In particular, a wish that harm or hurt will be inflicted by any supernatural power, such as a spell, a prayer, an imprecation, an execration, magic, witchcraft, a god, a natural force,...
s. Esagil-kin-apli's
Diagnostic Handbook was based on a logical set of
axiomIn traditional logic, an axiom or postulate is a proposition that is not proved or demonstrated but considered to be either self-evident, or subject to necessary decision...
s and assumptions, including the modern view that through the examination and
inspectionAn inspection is, most generally, an organized examination or formal evaluation exercise. It involves the measurements, tests, and gauges applied to certain characteristics in regard to an object or activity. The results are usually compared to specified requirements and standards for determining...
of the symptoms of a patient, it is possible to determine the patient's
diseaseA disease or medical condition isan abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions, associated with specific symptoms and signs...
, its aetiology and future development, and the chances of the patient's recovery.
Esagil-kin-apli discovered a variety of
illnessIllness can be defined as a state of poor health. Illness is sometimes considered a synonym for disease. Others maintain that fine distinctions exist...
es and diseases and described their symptoms in his
Diagnostic Handbook. These include the symptoms for many varieties of
epilepsyEpilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures...
and related ailments along with their diagnosis and prognosis.
Technology
Mesopotamian people invented many technologies including metal and copper-working, glass and lamp making, textile weaving, flood control, water storage, and irrigation.
They were also one of the first
Bronze ageThe Bronze Age of a culture is the period when the most advanced metalworking in that culture utilised bronze. This could either have been based on the local smelting of copper and tin from ores, or trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere...
people in the world. Early on they used copper, bronze and gold, and later they used iron. Palaces were decorated with hundreds of kilograms of these very expensive metals. Also, copper, bronze, and iron were used for armor as well as for different weapons such as swords, daggers, spears, and maces.
The earliest type of pump was the Archimedes screw, first used by
SennacheribSennacherib Sennacherib Sennacherib (Akkadian Sîn-ahhī-erība ("(Moon god) Sîn has replaced (lost) brothers for me") was the son of Sargon II, whom he succeeded on the throne of Assyria (704 – 681 BC).- Rise to power :...
, King of
AssyriaAssyria was a civilization centered on the Upper Tigris river, in Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times in history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
, for the water systems at the
Hanging Gardens of BabylonThe Hanging Gardens of Babylon, also known as the Hanging Gardens of Semiramis, near present-day Al Hillah, Babil in Iraq, are considered to be one of the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. They were built by the Chaldean king Nebuchadnezzar II around 600 BC...
and
NinevehNineveh , an "exceeding great city", as it is called in the Book of Jonah, lay on the eastern bank of the Tigris in ancient Assyria, across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, Iraq.-Geography:Ancient Nineveh's mound-ruins of Kouyunjik and Nabī Yūnus are located...
in the 7th century BC, and later described in more detail by
ArchimedesArchimedes of Syracuse was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity...
in the 3rd century BC. Later during the
ParthiaParthia is a region of north-eastern Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasts, after which the Arsacid Empire is then also known as the 'Parthian Empire'....
n or
SassanidThe Sassanid Empire or Sasanian Empire, known to its inhabitants as Ērānshahr, was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty who reigned from 224 to 651 CE...
periods, the
Baghdad Battery]The Baghdad Battery, sometimes referred to as the Parthian Battery, is the common name for a number of artifacts created in Mesopotamia, possibly during the Parthian or Sassanid period . These jars were probably discovered in 1936 in the village of Khuyut Rabbou'a, near Baghdad, Iraq...
, which may have been the first batteries, were created in Mesopotamia.
Religion
Mesopotamian
religionA religion is a system of human thought which usually includes a set of narratives, symbols, beliefs and practices that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power, deity or deities, or ultimate truth...
was the first to be recorded. Mesopotamians believed that the world was a flat disc, surrounded by a huge, holed space, and above that,
heavenHeaven may refer to the physical heavens, the sky or the seemingly endless expanse of the universe beyond. This is the traditional literal meaning of the term in English...
. They also believed that water was everywhere, the top, bottom and sides, and that the
universeThe Universe comprises everything that physically exists, the entirety of space and time, all forms of matter and energy, and the physical laws and constants that govern them...
was born from this enormous sea. In addition, Mesopotamian religion was polytheistic.
Although the
beliefBelief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true.- Belief, knowledge and epistemology :The terms belief and knowledge are used differently in philosophy....
s described above were held in common among Mesopotamians, there were also regional variations. The Sumerian word for universe is an-ki, which refers to the god An and the goddess Ki. Their son was Enlil, the air god. They believed that Enlil was the most powerful god. He was the chief god of the
PantheonA pantheon is a set of all the gods of a particular polytheistic religion or mythology.Max Weber's 1922 opus, Economy and Society...
, as the Greeks had
ZeusIn Greek mythology, Zeus is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky and thunder. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer" also derives certain iconographic traits from the...
and the Romans had
JupiterIn Roman mythology, Jupiter or Jove was the king of the gods, and the god of sky and thunder. He is the equivalent of Zeus in the Greek pantheon. He was called Iuppiter Optimus Maximus ; as the patron deity of the Roman state, he ruled over laws and social order...
. The Sumerians also posed
philosophicalPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
questions, such as: Who are we?, Where are we?, How did we get here?. They attributed answers to these questions to explanations provided by their gods.
Holidays, Feasts, and Festivals
Ancient Mesopotamians had ceremonies each month. The theme of the rituals and festivals for each month is determined by six important factors:
- The phase of the Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is , about thirty times the diameter of the Earth. The common centre of mass of the system is located at about —a quarter the Earth's...
;
/>waxing Moon = abundance and growth;
/>waning Moon = decline, conservation, and festivals of the Underworld;
- the phase of the annual agricultural cycle;
- equinoxes and solstices of the solar year;
- the mythos of the City and its divine Patrons;
- the success of the reigning Monarch;
- commemoration of specific historical events (founding, military victories, temple holidays, etc.)
Primary gods and goddesses
- Anu
In Sumerian mythology and later for Assyrians and Babylonians, Anu was a sky-god, the god of heaven, lord of constellations, king of gods, spirits and demons, and dwelt in the highest heavenly regions...
was the Sumerian god of the sky. He was married to Ki, but in some other Mesopotamian religions he has a wife called Uraš. Though he was considered the most important god in the pantheon, he took a mostly passive role in epics, allowing Enlil to claim the position as most powerful god.
- Enlil
Enlil , was the name of a chief deity listed and written about in ancient Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, Canaanite and other Mesopotamian clay and stone tablets...
was initially the most powerful god in Mesopotamian religion. His wife was NinlilIn Sumerian mythology, Ninlil , first called Sud, in Assyrian called Mullitu, is the consort goddess of Enlil. Her parentage is variously described. Most commonly she is called the daughter of Haia and Nunbarsegunu...
, and his children were Iškur (sometimes), Nanna – Suen, NergalThe name Nergal refers to a deity in Babylonia with the main seat of his cult at Cuthah represented by the mound of Tell-Ibrahim. Nergal is mentioned in the Hebrew bible as the deity of the city of Cuth : "And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal"...
, Nisaba, NamtarIn Mesopotamian mythology Namtar was a hellish deity, god of death, and the messenger of An, Ereshkigal, and Nergal.Namtar was considered responsible for diseases and pests. It was said that he commanded sixty diseases in the form of demons that could penetrate different parts of the human body;...
, NinurtaNinurta in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology was the god of Nippur, identified with Ningirsu with whom he may always have been identical...
(sometimes), Pabilsag, Nushu, EnbiluluEnbilulu was a rivers and canals god in Mesopotamian mythology. In the creation mythology he was placed in charge of the sacred rivers Tigris and Euphrates by the god Enki. Also he was the deity of irrigation and farming. In the Sumerian "Enlil and Ninlil" story he is a son and husband of Enlil and...
, Uraš Zababa and EnnugiEnnugi in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology is the attendant and throne-bearer of Enlil...
. His position at the top of the pantheon was later usurped by Marduk and then by Ashur.
- Enki
Enki was a god in Sumerian mythology, later known as Ea in Akkadian and Babylonian mythology. He was originally patron god of the city of Eridu, but later the influence of his cult spread throughout Mesopotamia and to the Hittites and Hurrians...
(Ea) god of EriduEridu is an ancient city in what is now Tell Abu Shahrain, in Iraq. Eridu was the earliest city in southern Mesopotamia, founded c. 5400 BCE. Located 12 km southwest of Ur, Eridu was the southernmost of a conglomeration of Sumerian cities that grew about temples, almost in sight of one another...
. He was the god of rain.
- Marduk
Marduk was the Babylonian name of a late-generation god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon, who, when Babylon became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of Hammurabi , started to slowly...
was the principal god of BabylonBabylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
. When Babylon rose to power, the mythologies raised Marduk from his original position as an agricultural god to the principal god in the pantheon.
- Ashur
Ashur , was the second son of Shem, the son of Noah. Ashur's brothers were Elam, Aram, Arpachshad and Lud....
was god of the Assyrian empire and likewise when the Assyrians rose to power their myths raised Ashur to a position of importance.
- Gula
Nintinugga was a Babylonian goddess, the consort of Ninurta. She is identical with another goddess, known as Bau, though it would seem that the two were originally independent....
or UtuUtu is the Sumerian for "Sun". The Sumerian cuneiform character is encoded in Unicode at U+12313 ....
(in Sumerian), ShamashShamash or Šamaš was the common Akkadian name of the sun god and god of justice in Babylonia and Assyria, corresponding to Sumerian Utu.-History and meaning:...
(in Akkadian) was the sun god and god of justice.
- Ereshkigal
In Mesopotamian mythology, Ereshkigal was the goddess of Irkalla, the land of the dead or underworld. Sometimes her name is given as Irkalla, similar to way the name Hades was used in Greek mythology for both the underworld and its ruler.Ereshkigal was the only one who could pass judgement and...
was goddess of the Netherworld.
- Nabu
Nabu is the Babylonian god of wisdom and writing, worshipped by Babylonians as the son of Marduk and his consort, Sarpanitum, and as the grandson of Ea. Nabu's consort was Tashmetum....
was the Mesopotamian god of writing. He was very wise, and was praised for his writing ability. In some places he was believed to be in control of heaven and earth. His importance was increased considerably in the later periods.
- Ninurta
Ninurta in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology was the god of Nippur, identified with Ningirsu with whom he may always have been identical...
was the Sumerian god of war. He was also the god of heroes.
- Iškur (or Adad
Adad in Akkadian and Ishkur in Sumerian are the names of the storm-god in the Babylonian-Assyrian pantheon, both usually written by the logogram dIM...
) was the god of storms.
- Erra
Erra is an Akkadian plague god known from the Erra epos of the eighth century BCE. Erra is the god of mayhem and pestilence that is responsible for periods of political confusion...
was probably the god of drought. He is often mentioned in conjunction with AdadAdad in Akkadian and Ishkur in Sumerian are the names of the storm-god in the Babylonian-Assyrian pantheon, both usually written by the logogram dIM...
and NergalThe name Nergal refers to a deity in Babylonia with the main seat of his cult at Cuthah represented by the mound of Tell-Ibrahim. Nergal is mentioned in the Hebrew bible as the deity of the city of Cuth : "And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal"...
in laying waste to the land.
- Nergal
The name Nergal refers to a deity in Babylonia with the main seat of his cult at Cuthah represented by the mound of Tell-Ibrahim. Nergal is mentioned in the Hebrew bible as the deity of the city of Cuth : "And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal"...
was probably a plague god. He was also spouse of EreshkigalIn Mesopotamian mythology, Ereshkigal was the goddess of Irkalla, the land of the dead or underworld. Sometimes her name is given as Irkalla, similar to way the name Hades was used in Greek mythology for both the underworld and its ruler.Ereshkigal was the only one who could pass judgement and...
.
- Pazuzu
In Assyrian and Babylonian mythology, Pazuzu was the king of the demons of the wind, and son of the god Hanbi. He also represented the southwestern wind, the bearer of storms and drought.- Iconography :...
, also known as Zu, was an evil god, who stole the tablets of EnlilEnlil , was the name of a chief deity listed and written about in ancient Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, Canaanite and other Mesopotamian clay and stone tablets...
’s destiny, and is killed because of this. He also brought diseases which had no known cure.
Burials
Hundreds of
gravesA grave is a location where a dead body is buried. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as graveyards or cemeteries....
have been excavated in parts of Mesopotamia, revealing information about Mesopotamian
burialBurial, also called interment and inhumation, is the act of placing a person or object into the ground. This is accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing an object in it, and covering it over.-History:...
habits. In the city of
UrUr was a city in ancient Sumer, located at the site of modern Tell el-Mukayyar in Iraq's Dhi Qar Governorate....
, most people were buried in family graves under their houses (as in Catalhuyuk), along with some possessions. A few have been found wrapped in mats and carpets. Deceased children were put in big "jars" which were placed in the family
chapelA chapel is a building used as a place for fellowship and of worship for Christians. It may be attached to an institution such as a large church, a college, a hospital, a palace, a prison or a cemetery, or may be an entirely free-standing building, sometimes with its own grounds...
. Other remains have been found buried in common city
graveyardA graveyard is any place set aside for long-term burial of the dead, with or without monuments such as headstones. It is usually located near and administered by a church....
s. 17 graves have been found with very precious objects in them ; it is assumed that these were royal graves.
Music, songs and instruments
Some songs were written for the gods but many were written to describe important events. Although music and songs amused
kingsA monarch is the person who heads a monarchy, a form of government in which the country or entity usually ruled or controlled by an individual who usually rules for life or until abdication...
, they were also enjoyed by ordinary people who liked to sing and dance in their homes or in the
marketplaceA marketplace is the space, actual or metaphorical, in which a market operates. The term is also used in a trademark law context to denote the actual consumer environment, ie...
s. Songs were sung to children who passed them on to their children. Thus songs were passed on through many
generationGeneration , also known as procreation, is the act of producing offspring. In a more generic sense, it can also refer to the act of creating something inanimate such as electrical generation or cryptographic code generation....
s until someone wrote them down. These songs provided a means of passing on through the
centuriesA century is one hundred consecutive years.Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages .-Start and end in the Gregorian Calendar:...
highly important
informationInformation as a concept has many meanings, from everyday usage to technical settings. The concept of information is closely related to notions of constraint, communication, control, data, form, instruction, knowledge, meaning, mental stimulus, pattern, perception, and representation.The English...
about
historical eventsHistory is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns...
that were eventually passed on to modern historians.
The
OudThe oud is a pear-shaped, stringed instrument, which is often seen as the predecessor of the western lute, distinguished primarily by being without frets, commonly used in Middle Eastern music.-Name:The words "lute" and "oud" are both suspected to be derived from the...
(Arabic:العود) is a small, stringed musical instrument. The oldest pictorial record of the Oud dates back to the
UrukUruk was an ancient city of Sumer and later Babylonia, situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates river, on the ancient dry former channel of the Euphrates River, some 30 km east of modern As-Samawah, Al-Muthannā,...
period in Southern Mesopotamia over 5000 years ago. It is on a
cylinder sealA cylinder seal is a cylinder engraved with a 'picture story', used in ancient times to roll an impression onto a two-dimensional surface, generally wet clay. First appearing in the Near East during the Uruk period, later versions would employ notations with Mesopotamian hieroglyphs...
currently housed at the British Museum and acquired by Dr. Dominique Collon. The
imageAn image is an artifact, for example a two-dimensional picture, that has a similar appearance to some subject—usually a physical object or a person....
depicts a female crouching with her instruments upon a
boatA boat is a watercraft of modest size designed to float or plane, to provide passage across water. Usually this water will be inland or in protected coastal areas. However, boats such as the whaleboat were designed to be operated from a ship in an offshore environment. In naval terms, a boat is...
, playing
right-handedRight-handedness is the form of handedness in which one has greater coordination and dexterity in the right hand than in the left hand. Right-handed individuals will perform everyday tasks such as writing, cooking and carrying out one's personal hygiene with the right hand.A variety of studies...
. This instrument appears hundreds of times throughout Mesopotamian history and again in ancient
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
from the 18th
dynastyA dynasty is a succession of people belonging to the same family, who, through various means and forms maintain power, influence or authority over the course of generations. Most commonly the term is used specifically in reference to royal houses and imperial dynasties — their authority manifests...
onwards in long- and short-neck varieties.
The oud is regarded as a precursor to the
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
an
luteLute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
. Its name is derived from the Arabic word العود al-‘ūd 'the wood', which is probably the name of the tree from which the oud was made. (The Arabic name, with the definite article, is the source of the word 'lute'.)
Games
HuntingHunting is the practice of pursuing living animals for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
was popular among Assyrian kings.
BoxingBoxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds. There are three ways to win...
and
wrestlingWrestling is an ancient martial art that uses grappling type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. A wrestling bout is a physical competition, generally between two people, who attempt to gain and maintain a superior position...
feature frequently in art, and some form of
poloPolo is a team sport played on horseback in which the objective is to score goals against an opposing team. Players score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team's goal using a long-handled mallet...
was probably popular, with men sitting on the shoulders of other men rather than on horses. They also played majore, a game similar to the sport rugby, but played with a ball made of wood. They also played a board game similar to
senetSenet , a board game from predynastic and ancient Egypt, is the oldest board game whose ancient existence has been confirmed, dating to circa 3500 BC. The full name of the game in Egyptian was zn.t n.t ḥˁb meaning the "game of passing."...
and
backgammonBackgammon is a board game for two players in which the playing pieces are moved according to the roll of dice. A player wins by removing all of his pieces from the board. There are many variants of backgammon, most of which share common traits...
, now known as the "Royal Game of Ma-asesblu."
Family life
Mesopotamia across its history became more and more a patriarchal society, in which the men were far more powerful than the women. Thorkild Jacobsen, and others have suggested that early Mesopotamian society was ruled by a "council of elders" in which men and women were equally represented, but that over time, as the status of women fell, that of men increased. As for schooling, only royal offspring and sons of the rich and professionals such as scribes, physicians, temple administrators, and so on, went to school. Most boys were taught their father's trade or were apprenticed out to learn a trade. Girls had to stay home with their mothers to learn
housekeepingHousekeeping or Housecleaning is the systematic process of making a home neat and clean in approximately that order. This maybe applied more broadly that just an individual home, or as a metaphor for a similar "clean up" process applied elsewhere such as a procedural reform...
and
cookingCooking is the process of preparing food by applying heat, selecting, measuring and combining of ingredients in an ordered procedure for producing safe and edible food. The process encompasses a vast range of methods, tools and combinations of ingredients to alter the flavor, appearance, texture,...
, and to look after the younger children. Some children would help with crushing grain, or cleaning birds. Unusual for that time in history, women in Mesopotamia had
rightsRights are entitlements or permissions, usually of a legal or moral nature. Rights are of vital importance in the fields of law and ethics, especially theories of justice and deontology.-Theoretical distinctions:...
. They could own
propertyProperty is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of persons. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property has the right to consume, sell, rent, mortgage, transfer, exchange or destroy his or her property, and/or to exclude others from...
and, if they had good reason, get a
divorceDivorce or dissolution of marriage is the final termination of a marriage, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between two persons...
.
Economy
SumerSumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Iraq . It is the earliest known civilization in the world and is known as the Cradle of Civilization...
developed the first economy, while the Babylonians developed the earliest system of
economicsEconomics is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
, which was comparable to modern
post-Keynesian economicsPost-Keynesian economics is a school of economic thought with its origins in The General Theory of John Maynard Keynes, although its subsequent development was influenced to a large degree by Joan Robinson, Nicholas Kaldor and Paul Davidson...
, but with a more "anything goes" approach.
Agriculture
The geography of Mesopotamia is such that agriculture is possible only with irrigation and good drainage, a fact which has had a profound effect on the evolution of Mesopotamian civilization. The need for irrigation led the Sumerians and later the Akkadians to build their cities along the Tigris and Euphrates and the branches of these rivers. Some major cities, such as Ur and Uruk, took root on tributaries of the Euphrates, while others, notably Lagash, were built on branches of the Tigris. The rivers provided the further benefits of fish (used both for food and fertilizer), reeds and clay (for building materials).
With irrigation the food supply in Mesopotamia was quite rich with the Tigris and Euphrates River valleys forming the northeastern portion of the
Fertile CrescentThe Fertile Crescent is a region in the Near East, incorporating the Levant and Mesopotamia, and often incorrectly extended to Egypt. Mesopotamia is considered the cradle of civilization and saw the development of the earliest human civilizations and is the birthplace of writing and the wheel.The...
, which also included the
Jordan RiverThe Jordan River or River Jordan is a river in Southwest Asia which flows into the Dead Sea. It is considered to be one of the world's most sacred rivers...
valley & that of the
NileThe Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world....
. Although land nearer to the rivers was
fertileFertile is the ability in organisms, including people or animals, to produce healthy offspring.Fertile may also refer to:*Fertile material, nuclides which generally themselves do not undergo induced fission, but from which fissile material can be generated*Fertile, Iowa, a small city in the United...
and good for
cropsA crop is the annual or season's yield of any plant that is grown in significant quantities to be harvested as food, as livestock fodder, fuel, or for any other economic purpose. This category includes crop species as well as agricultural techniques related to cropping.There are many types of crops...
, portions of land farther from the water were dry and largely uninhabitable. This is why the development of
irrigationIrrigation is an artificial application of water to the soil. It is usually used to assist in growing crops in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...
was very important for
settlerA settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. Settlers are generally people who take up residence on land and cultivate it, as opposed to nomads...
s of Mesopotamia. Other Mesopotamian
innovationAn innovation is a new way of doing something. It may refer to incremental and emergent or radical and revolutionary changes in thinking, products, processes, or organizations. Following Schumpeter , contributors to the scholarly literature on innovation typically distinguish between invention, an...
s include the control of water by
damA dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions...
s and the use of
aqueductAn aqueduct is a water supply or navigable channel constructed to convey water. In modern engineering, the term is used for any system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this purpose....
s.
Early settlers of fertile land in Mesopotamia used
woodWood is an organic material; in the strict sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of trees . In a living tree it transfers water and nutrients to the leaves and other growing tissues, and has a support function, enabling woody plants to reach large sizes or to stand up for themselves...
en plows to soften the
soilSoil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics. It is composed of particles of broken rock that have been altered by chemical and...
before planting crops such as
barleyBarley is a cereal grain derived from the annual grass Hordeum vulgare. It serves as a major animal feed crop, with smaller amounts used for malting and in health food. It is used in soups, stews and barley bread in various countries, such as Scotland and in Africa...
,
onionOnion is a term used for many plants in the genus Allium. They are known by the common name "onion" but, used without qualifiers, it usually refers to Allium cepa. Allium cepa is also known as the "garden onion" or "bulb" onion...
s,
grapeA grape is the non-climacteric fruit, botanically a true berry, that grows on the perennial and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis. Grapes can be eaten raw or used for making jam, juice, jelly, vinegar, wine, grape seed extracts, raisins, and grape seed oil...
s,
turnipThe turnip or white turnip is a root vegetable commonly grown in temperate climates worldwide for its white, bulbous taproot...
s and
appleThe apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family Rosaceae. It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits...
s. Mesopotamian settlers were some of the first people to make
beerBeer is the world's oldest and most widely consumed alcoholic beverage and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from cereal grains—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize , and rice are widely...
and
wineWine is an alcoholic beverage typically made of fermented grape juice. The natural chemical balance of grapes is such that they can ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes or other nutrients. Wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast consumes...
.
Although the rivers sustained life, they also destroyed it by frequent floods that ravaged entire cities. The unpredictable Mesopotamian weather was often hard on farmers; crops were often ruined so backup sources of food such as cows and lambs were also kept.
As a result of the skill involved in farming in the Mesopotamian, farmers did not depend on slaves to complete farm work for them, with some exceptions. There were too many risks involved to make slavery practical (i.e. the escape/
mutinyMutiny is a conspiracy among members of a group of similarly-situated individuals to openly oppose, change or overthrow an existing authority...
of the slave).
Government
The geography of Mesopotamia had a profound impact on the political development of the region. Among the rivers and streams, the Sumerian people built the first cities along with irrigation canals which were separated by vast stretchs of open desert or swamp where nomadic tribes roamed. Communication among the isolated cities was difficult and at times dangerous. Thus each Sumerian city became a
city-stateA city-state is an independent republican country whose territory consists of a city which is not administered as part of another local government....
, independent of the others and protective of its independence. At times one city would try to conquer and unify the region, but such efforts were resisted and failed for centuries. As a result, the political history of Sumer is one of almost constant warfare. Eventually Sumer was unified by
EannatumEannatum was a Sumerian king of Lagash who established one of the first verifiable empires in history.-Conquest of Sumer:Eannatum, grandson of Ur-Nanshe, was a king of Lagash who conquered all of Sumer, including Ur, Nippur, Akshak, Larsa, and Uruk, which was controlled by Enshakushanna, a king on...
, but the unification was tenuous and failed to last as the Akkadians conquered Sumeria in 2331B.C. only a generation later.
The Akkadian Empire was the first successful empire to last beyond a generation and see the peaceful succession of kings. The empire was relatively short lived, as the Babylonians conquered them within only a few generations.
Kings
The Mesopotamians believed their kings and queens were descended from the City of
GodGod is a deity in theistic and deistic religions and other belief systems, representing either the sole deity in monotheism, or a principal deity in polytheism....
s, but, unlike the ancient Egyptians, they never believed their kings were real gods. Most kings named themselves “king of the universe” or “great king”. Another common name was “
shepherdA shepherd is a person who tends to, feeds or guards sheep, especially in flocks. The word may also refer to one who provides religious guidance, as a pastor.- Origins :...
”, as kings had to look after their people.
Notable Mesopotamian kings include:
EannatumEannatum was a Sumerian king of Lagash who established one of the first verifiable empires in history.-Conquest of Sumer:Eannatum, grandson of Ur-Nanshe, was a king of Lagash who conquered all of Sumer, including Ur, Nippur, Akshak, Larsa, and Uruk, which was controlled by Enshakushanna, a king on...
of
LagashLagash is located northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk, Lagash was one of the oldest cities of Sumer and later Babylonia...
who founded the first (short-lived) empire.
Sargon- People :*Sargon of Akkad , also known as Sargon the Great or Sargon I, Mesopotamian king*Sargon I , Assyrian king*Sargon II , Assyrian king...
of
AkkadThe Akkadian Empire was an empire centered in the city of Akkad and its surrounding region in Ancient Iraq ....
who conquered all of Mesopotamia and created the first empire that outlived its founder.
HammurabiHammurabi Hammurabi Hammurabi (Akkadian from Amorite ˤAmmurāpi, "the kinsman is a healer," from ˤAmmu, "paternal kinsman," and Rāpi, "healer"; (ca. 1728 – 1686 BC middle chronology) was the sixth king of Babylon. He became the first king of the Babylonian Empire, extending Babylon's control over...
founded the first
BabylonBabylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
ian empire.
Tiglath-Pileser III founded the neo-Assyrian empire.
NebuchadnezzarNebuchadnezzar was the name of several kings of Babylonia.* Nebuchadnezzar I, who ruled the Babylonian Empire in the 1100s BC* Nebuchadnezzar II , the Babylonian ruler mentioned in the biblical Book of Daniel...
was the most powerful king in the neo-
BabyloniaBabylonia was a civilization in Lower Mesopotamia , with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged when Hammurabi created an empire out of the territories of the former kingdoms of Sumer and Akkad...
n Empire. He was thought to be the son of the god Nabu. He married the daughter of Cyaxeres, so the Median and the
BabyloniaBabylonia was a civilization in Lower Mesopotamia , with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged when Hammurabi created an empire out of the territories of the former kingdoms of Sumer and Akkad...
n
dynastiesA dynasty is a succession of people belonging to the same family, who, through various means and forms maintain power, influence or authority over the course of generations. Most commonly the term is used specifically in reference to royal houses and imperial dynasties — their authority manifests...
had a familial connection. Nebuchadnezzar’s name means: Nabo, protect the crown!
Belshedezzar was the last king of Babylonia. He was the son of Nabonidus whose wife was Nictoris, the daughter of
NebuchadnezzarNebuchadnezzar was the name of several kings of Babylonia.* Nebuchadnezzar I, who ruled the Babylonian Empire in the 1100s BC* Nebuchadnezzar II , the Babylonian ruler mentioned in the biblical Book of Daniel...
.
Power
When
AssyriaAssyria was a civilization centered on the Upper Tigris river, in Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times in history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
grew into an
empireThe Neo-Assyrian Empire was a period of Mesopotamian history which began in 934 BC and ended in 609 BC. During this period, Assyria assumed a position as a great regional power, vying with Babylonia and other lesser powers for dominance of the region, though not until the reforms of Tiglath-Pileser...
, it was divided into smaller parts, called provinces. Each of these were named after their main cities, like
NinevehNineveh , an "exceeding great city", as it is called in the Book of Jonah, lay on the eastern bank of the Tigris in ancient Assyria, across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, Iraq.-Geography:Ancient Nineveh's mound-ruins of Kouyunjik and Nabī Yūnus are located...
,
SamariaSamaria, or the Shomron is a term used for a mountainous region roughly corresponding to the northern part of the West Bank.- Etymology :...
,
DamascusDamascus is the capital and largest city of Syria. It is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world and its current population is estimated at about 1,669,000...
and
ArpadÁrpád , the second Grand Prince of the Magyars . Under his rule the Magyar people settled in the Carpathian basin...
. They all had their own
governorA governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
who had to make sure everyone paid their taxes; he had to call up
soldierA soldier is a member of the land component of national armed forces; whereas a soldier hired for service in a foreign army would be termed a mercenary...
s to
warWar is a reciprocated, armed conflict, between two or more non-congruous entities, aimed at reorganising a subjectively designed, geo-politically desired result...
, and supply workers when a
templeZiggurats were massive pyramidal temples built in the ancient Mesopotamian valley and western Iranian plateau, having the form of a terraced step pyramid of successively receding stories or levels. There are 32 ziggurats known at, and near, Mesopotamia...
was built. He was also responsible for the laws being enforced. In this way it was easier to keep control of an empire like Assyria.
Although Babylon was quite a small
stateA sovereign state is a political association with effective internal and external sovereignty over a geographic area and population which is not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state...
in the
Sumerian eraSumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Iraq . It is the earliest known civilization in the world and is known as the Cradle of Civilization...
, it grew tremendously throughout the time of
HammurabiHammurabi Hammurabi Hammurabi (Akkadian from Amorite ˤAmmurāpi, "the kinsman is a healer," from ˤAmmu, "paternal kinsman," and Rāpi, "healer"; (ca. 1728 – 1686 BC middle chronology) was the sixth king of Babylon. He became the first king of the Babylonian Empire, extending Babylon's control over...
's rule. He was known as “the law maker”, and soon
BabylonBabylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
became one of the main cities in Mesopotamia. It was later called
BabyloniaBabylonia was a civilization in Lower Mesopotamia , with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged when Hammurabi created an empire out of the territories of the former kingdoms of Sumer and Akkad...
, which meant "the gateway of the gods." It also became one of history's greatest centers of learning.
Warfare
As city-states began to grow, their spheres of influence overlapped, creating arguments between other city-states, especially over land and canals. These arguments were recorded in tablets several hundreds of years before any major war – the first recording of a war occurred around 3200BCE but was not common until about 2500BCE. At this point warfare was incorporated into the Mesopotamian political system, where a neutral city may act as an arbitrator for the two rival cities. This helped to form unions between cities, leading to regional states.
When
empireThe term empire derives from the Latin imperium. Politically, an empire is a geographically extensive group of states and peoples united and ruled either by a monarch or an oligarchy...
s were created, they went to war more with foreign countries. King Sargon, for example conquered all the cities of
SumerSumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Iraq . It is the earliest known civilization in the world and is known as the Cradle of Civilization...
, some cities in Mari, and then went to war with northern
SyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest....
.
Many Babylonian
palaceA palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word itself is derived from the Latin name Palātium, for Palatine Hill, one of the seven hills in Rome...
walls were decorated with the pictures of the successful fights and the enemy, whether desperately escaping, or hiding amongst reeds.
A king in Sumer, Gilgamesh, was thought two-thirds god and only one third human. There were legendary stories and poems about him, which were passed on for many generations, because he had many adventures that were believed very important, and won many wars and battles.
Laws
King HammurabiHammurabi Hammurabi Hammurabi (Akkadian from Amorite ˤAmmurāpi, "the kinsman is a healer," from ˤAmmu, "paternal kinsman," and Rāpi, "healer"; (ca. 1728 – 1686 BC middle chronology) was the sixth king of Babylon. He became the first king of the Babylonian Empire, extending Babylon's control over...
, as mentioned above, was famous for his set of laws,
The Code of HammurabiThe Code of Hammurabi is a well-preserved ancient law code, created ca. 1790 BC in ancient Babylon. It was enacted by the sixth Babylonian king, Hammurabi...
(created ca. 1780 BC), which is one of the earliest sets of laws found and one of the best preserved examples of this type of document from ancient Mesopotamia. He made over 200 laws for Mesopotamia.
Architecture
The study of ancient Mesopotamian architecture is based on available archaeological evidence, pictorial representation of buildings and texts on building practices. Scholarly literature usually concentrates on temples, palaces, city walls and gates and other monumental buildings, but occasionally one finds works on residential architecture as well. Archaeological surface surveys also allowed for the study of urban form in early Mesopotamian cities. Most notably known architectural remains from early Mesopotamia are the temple complexes at
UrukUruk was an ancient city of Sumer and later Babylonia, situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates river, on the ancient dry former channel of the Euphrates River, some 30 km east of modern As-Samawah, Al-Muthannā,...
from the
4th millennium BCThe 4th millennium BC saw major changes in human culture. It marks the beginning of the Bronze Age and of writing.The city states of Sumer and the kingdom of Egypt are established and grow to prominence. Agriculture spreads widely across Eurasia...
, temples and palaces from the Early Dynastic period sites in the
Diyala RiverThe Diyala River is a river and tributary of the Tigris that runs through Kurdistan Iran and Iraq. It covers a total distance of 445 km ....
valley such as Khafajah and Tell Asmar, the
Third Dynasty of UrThe Third Dynasty of Ur, also known as the Sumerian Renaissance, Neo-Sumerian Empire or the Ur III Empire refers simultaneously to a 21st to 20th century BC Sumerian ruling dynasty based in the city of Ur and a short-lived territorial-political state that some historians regard as a nascent empire...
remains at
NippurNippur , from the Sumerian for 'lord wind' , is modern Nuffar in Afak Al Qadisyah Governorate, Iraq. Nippur was one of the most ancient of all the Sumerian cities...
(Sanctuary of
EnlilEnlil , was the name of a chief deity listed and written about in ancient Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, Canaanite and other Mesopotamian clay and stone tablets...
) and
UrUr was a city in ancient Sumer, located at the site of modern Tell el-Mukayyar in Iraq's Dhi Qar Governorate....
(Sanctuary of
NannaSin or Nanna was the god of the moon in Mesopotamian mythology. Nanna is a Sumerian deity, the son of Enlil and Ninlil, and became identified with Semitic Sin . The two chief seats of Nanna's/Sin's worship were Ur in the south of Mesopotamia and Harran in the north.- Name :The original meaning of...
), Middle
Bronze AgeThe Bronze Age of a culture is the period when the most advanced metalworking in that culture utilised bronze. This could either have been based on the local smelting of copper and tin from ores, or trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere...
remains at Syrian-Turkish sites of
EblaEbla was an ancient city about southwest of Aleppo. It was an important city-state in two periods, first in the late third millennium BC, then again between 1800 and 1650 BC....
,
MariMari was an ancient Sumerian and Amorite city, located 11 kilometers north-west of the modern town of Abu Kamal on the western bank of Euphrates river, some 120 km southeast of Deir ez-Zor, Syria...
,
AlalakhAlalakh , is the name of an ancient Amorite city and its associated city-state of the Amuq River valley, located in the Hatay region of southern Turkey, now represented by an extensive city-mound.-History:Alalakh was founded during the Middle Bronze Age in the 2nd millennium BC, as one of the first...
,
AleppoAleppo is a city in northern Syria, the second largest Syrian city and the capital of the Aleppo Governorate; the Governorate extends around the city for over 16,000 km² and has a population of 4,393,000, making it the largest Governorate in Syria by population...
and
KultepeKültepe is a modern village near the ancient city of Kaneš , located in the Kayseri Province of Turkey's Central Anatolia Region. The nearest modern city is Kayseri, about 20 km southwest....
, Late Bronze Age palaces at Bogazkoy (Hattusha),
UgaritUgarit was an ancient cosmopolitan port city, sited on the Mediterranean coast...
,
AshurAshur , was the second son of Shem, the son of Noah. Ashur's brothers were Elam, Aram, Arpachshad and Lud....
and
NuziNuzi was an ancient Mesopotamian city southwest of Kirkuk in modern Al-Tamim governorate of Iraq, located near the Tigris river...
, Iron Age palaces and temples at
AssyriaAssyria was a civilization centered on the Upper Tigris river, in Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times in history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
n (Kalhu/Nimrud, Khorsabad,
NinevehNineveh , an "exceeding great city", as it is called in the Book of Jonah, lay on the eastern bank of the Tigris in ancient Assyria, across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, Iraq.-Geography:Ancient Nineveh's mound-ruins of Kouyunjik and Nabī Yūnus are located...
), Babylonian (
BabylonBabylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
), Urartian (
TushpaTushpa was the capital of Urartu in the late 9th century BC....
/Van Kalesi, Cavustepe, Ayanis,
ArmavirArmavir is a city located in western Armenia...
,
ErebuniErebuni may refer to:*Erebuni Fortress, an ancient Armenian fortress*Yerevan, capital of Armenia*Erebuni, Armenia, a district of Yerevan...
,
BastamBastam is the site of an ancient Urartian citadel from ca. the 7th century BC, located in modern NW Iran. On August 9th, 2007, it was proposed to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site which has universal cultural value.-External links:...
) and
Neo-HittiteThe states that are called Neo-Hittite, or more recently Syro-Hittite, were Luwian, Aramaic and Phoenician-speaking political entities of Iron Age northern Syria and southern Anatolia that arose following the collapse of the Hittite Empire around 1180 BC and lasted until roughly 700 BC...
sites (
KarkamisCarchemish was an important ancient city of the Mitanni and Hittite empires, now on the frontier between Turkey and Syria. It was the location of an important battle between the Babylonians and Egyptians, mentioned in the Bible...
,
Tell HalafTell Halaf is an archaeological site in the Al Hasakah governorate of northeastern Syria, near the Turkish border, just opposite Ceylanpınar. It was the first find of a Neolithic culture, subsequently dubbed the Halaf culture, characterized by glazed pottery painted with geometric and animal designs...
,
Karatepe Karatepe, is a late Hittite fortress and open air museum in Osmaniye Province in southern Turkey. It is sited in the Taurus Mountains, on the right bank of the Ceyhan River. The site is contained within Karatepe-Arslantaş National Park....
). Houses are mostly known from Old Babylonian remains at Nippur and Ur. Among the textual sources on building construction and associated rituals, Gudea's cylinders from the late
3rd millennium BCThe 3rd millennium BC spans the Early to Middle Bronze Age.It represents a period of time in which imperialism, or the desire to conquer, grew to prominence, in the city states of the Middle East, but also throughout Eurasia, with Indo-European expansion to Anatolia, Europe and Central Asia. The...
are notable, as well as the Assyrian and Babylonian royal inscriptions from the
Iron AgeIn archaeology, the Iron Age is the prehistoric period in any area during which cutting tools and weapons were mainly made of iron or steel. The adoption of this material coincided with other changes in society, including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles.The...
.
Houses
The materials used to build a Mesopotamian house were the same as those used today: mud brick, mud plaster and wooden doors, which were all naturally available around the city, although wood could not be naturally made very well during the particular time period described. Most houses had a square center room with other rooms attached to it, but a great variation in the size and materials used to build the houses suggest they were built by the inhabitants themselves
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/282/5393/1442. The smallest rooms may not have coincided with the poorest people; in fact it could be that the poorest people built houses out of perishable materials such as reeds on the outside of the city, but there is very little direct evidence for this.
The palace
The
palaceA palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word itself is derived from the Latin name Palātium, for Palatine Hill, one of the seven hills in Rome...
s of the early Mesopotamian elites were large scale complexes, and were often lavishly decorated. Earliest examples are known from the
Diyala RiverThe Diyala River is a river and tributary of the Tigris that runs through Kurdistan Iran and Iraq. It covers a total distance of 445 km ....
valley sites such as Khafajah and Tell Asmar. These third millennium BC palaces functioned as a large scale socio-economic institutions, therefore, along with residential and private function, they housed craftsmen workshops, food storehouses, ceremonial courtyards, and often associated with shrines. For instance, the so-called "giparu" (or Gig-Par-Ku in Sumerian) at Ur where the Moon god
NannaNanna may refer to:* A term for grandmothers* Nanna , god of the moon in Sumerian mythology, also called Suen* Nanna , the wife of Baldr in Norse mythology* Rafi Khawar Nanna, film actor and comedian of Lollywood...
's priestesses resided was a major complex with multiple courtyards, a number of sanctuaries, burial chambers for dead priestesses, a ceremonial banquet hall, etc. A similarly complex example of a Mesopotamian palace was excavated at
MariMari was an ancient Sumerian and Amorite city, located 11 kilometers north-west of the modern town of Abu Kamal on the western bank of Euphrates river, some 120 km southeast of Deir ez-Zor, Syria...
in
SyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest....
, dating from the
Old BabylonianOld Babylonian may refer to:*the period of the First Babylonian Dynasty *the historical stage of the Akkadian language of that time...
period.
Assyrian palaces of the Iron Age, especially at Kalhu/
NimrudNimrud is an ancient Assyrian city located south of Nineveh on the river Tigris. In ancient times the city was called Kalḫu. The Arabs called the city Nimrud after Nimrod, a legendary hunting hero....
, Dur Sharrukin/Khorsabad and Ninuwa/
NinevehNineveh , an "exceeding great city", as it is called in the Book of Jonah, lay on the eastern bank of the Tigris in ancient Assyria, across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, Iraq.-Geography:Ancient Nineveh's mound-ruins of Kouyunjik and Nabī Yūnus are located...
, have become famous due to the pictorial and textual narrative programs on their walls, all carved on stone slabs known as orthostats. These pictorial programs either incorporated cultic scenes or the narrative accounts of the kings' military and civic accomplishments. Gates and important passageways were flanked with massive stone sculpture of apotropaic mythological figures. The architectural arrangement of these Iron Age palaces were also organized around large and small courtyards. Usually the king's throneroom opened to a massive ceremonial courtyard where important state councils met, state ceremonies performed.
Massive amounts of ivory furniture pieces were found in many
AssyriaAssyria was a civilization centered on the Upper Tigris river, in Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times in history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
n palaces pointing out an intense trade relationship with North Syrian
Neo-HittiteThe states that are called Neo-Hittite, or more recently Syro-Hittite, were Luwian, Aramaic and Phoenician-speaking political entities of Iron Age northern Syria and southern Anatolia that arose following the collapse of the Hittite Empire around 1180 BC and lasted until roughly 700 BC...
states at the time. There is also good evidence that bronze repousse bands decorated the wooden gates.
Ziggurats
Ziggurats were huge pyramidal temple towers built in the ancient
Mesopotamian valleyThe Tigris-Euphrates river system is part of the Tigris-Euphrates alluvial salt marsh ecoregion of West Asia, and is characterized by two large rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates. The rivers have several small tributaries which feed into shallow freshwater lakes, swamps, and marshes, all surrounded...
and western
Iranian plateauThe Iranian plateau, also known as the Persian plateau is a geological formation in Southwest Asia and Southern Asia. It is the part of the Eurasian Plate wedged between the Arabian and Indian plates, situated between the Zagros mountains to the west, the Caspian Sea and the Kopet Dag to the north,...
, having the form of a terraced
step pyramidThe construction of the step pyramids has been an ancient part of several cultures throughout history. These pyramids typically are large and made of several layers, or steps, of stone...
of successively receding stories or levels. There are 32 ziggurats known at, and near, Mesopotamia. Twenty-eight of them are in
IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
, and four of them are in
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
. Notable Ziggurats include the
Great Ziggurat of UrThe Ziggurat of Ur was a Neo-Sumerian ziggurat, located in the city of Ur, located near Nasiriyah in the present-day Dhi Qar Province, Iraq...
near
NasiriyahNasiriyah is a city in Iraq. It is on the Euphrates River about 225 miles southeast of Baghdad, near the ruins of the ancient city of Ur. It is the capital of the province of Dhi Qar...
, Iraq, the Ziggurat of Aqar Quf near
BaghdadBaghdad is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is coterminous. Having a municipal population estimated at 6.5 million, it is the largest city in Iraq and the second largest in the Arab World....
, Iraq, Chogha Zanbil in
KhūzestānKhūzestān is one of the 30 provinces of Iran. It is in the southwest of the country, bordering Iraq's Basra Province and the Persian Gulf. Its capital is Ahvaz and covers an area of 63,238 km²...
, Iran, the most recent to be discovered – Sialk near
KashanKashan is a city in the province of Isfahan, Iran. It had an estimated population of 272,359 in 2005.The etymology of the city name comes from Kasian, the original inhabitants of the city, whose remains are found at Tapeh Sialk dating back 9,000 years; later this changed to Kashian, whence the...
, Iran and others. Ziggurats were built by the
SumerSumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Iraq . It is the earliest known civilization in the world and is known as the Cradle of Civilization...
ians,
BabylonBabylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
ians,
ElamElam was an ancient civilization located in what is now southwest Iran. Elam was centered in the far west and the southwest of modern-day Iran, stretching from the lowlands of Khuzestan and Ilam Province , as far as Jiroft in Kerman province and Burned City in Zabol, as well as a small part of...
ites and
AssyriaAssyria was a civilization centered on the Upper Tigris river, in Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times in history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
ns as monuments to local religions. The earliest examples of the ziggurat were raised platforms that date from the
Ubaid periodThe Ubaid period is a prehistoric period of Mesopotamia. The tell of al-'Ubaid west of nearby Ur in southern Iraq's Dhi Qar Governorate has given its name to the prehistoric Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic culture, which represents the earliest settlement on the alluvial plain of southern...
during the fourth
millenniumA millennium is a period of time equal to one thousand years...
BC, and the latest date from the 6th century BC. The top of the ziggurat was flat, unlike many pyramids. The step pyramid style began near the end of the Early Dynastic Period. Built in receding tiers upon a rectangular, oval, or square platform, the ziggurat was a
pyramidA pyramid is a building where the outer surfaces are triangular and converge at a point. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilateral, or any polygon shape, meaning that a pyramid has at least four faces...
al structure. Sun-baked
brickA brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using mortar.-History:The oldest shaped bricks found date back to 7,500 B.C. They have been found in Çayönü, in the upper Tigris region, and in south east Anatolia close to Diyarbakir. Other more recent findings,...
s made up the core of the ziggurat with facings of fired bricks on the outside. The facings were often glazed in different colors and may have had
astrologicalAstrology is a group of systems, traditions, and beliefs which hold that the relative positions of celestial bodies and related details can provide information about personality, human affairs, and other terrestrial matters. A practitioner of astrology is called an astrologer...
significance. Kings sometimes had their names engraved on these glazed bricks. The number of tiers ranged from two to seven, with a shrine or temple at the summit. Access to the shrine was provided by a series of ramps on one side of the ziggurat or by a spiral ramp from base to summit. It has been suggested that ziggurats were built to resemble mountains, but there is little textual or archaeological evidence to support that hypothesis.
Ur-Nammu's ziggurat at Ur was designed as a three-stage construction, today only two of these survive. This entire mudbrick core structure was originally given a facing of baked brick envelope set in
bitumenBitumen is a mixture of organic liquids that are highly viscous, black, sticky, entirely soluble in carbon disulfide, and composed primarily of highly condensed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons....
, circa 2.5 m on the first lowest stage, and 1.15 m on the second. Each of these baked bricks were stamped with the name of the king. The sloping walls of the stages were buttressed. The access to the top was by means of a triple monumental staircase, which all converges at a portal that opened on a landing between the first and second stages. The height of the first stage was about 11 m while the second stage rose some 5.7 m. Usually a third stage is reconstructed by the excavator of the ziggurat (
Leonard WoolleySir Charles Leonard Woolley was a British archaeologist best known for his excavations at Ur in Mesopotamia...
), and crowned by a temple. At the Tschoga Zanbil ziggurat archaeologists have found massive reed ropes that ran across the core of the ziggurat structure and tied together the mudbrick mass.
The Ancient Mesopotamians were located at the center of the near east. It was in present day Syria, Turkey, and Iraq. Ancient Mesopotamia was between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Mesopotamia literally means “The land between two rivers”. The southern part of Mesopotamia made up part of the Fertile Crescent. Because of where it is, Mesopotamia has hot summers and cold winters. The first city in Mesopotamia was Eridu.
The rivers of Mesopotamia helped sustain life and provide food. The rivers helped the Mesopotamians by wetting and irrigating the soil and land. The rivers could also be dangerous, and cause floods and wash away crops and newly planted seeds. The Mesopotamians lived a similar lifestyle to the Marsh Arabs, who live on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and use them to help them live. During the rain bringing season sometimes the rivers would partially flood the land, so only the highest points or dirt mounds would not be covered with water. If this happened then the Mesopotamians would have to use boats to go to other people’s houses or to outside of the flooding areas. The river affected Mesopotamian life in many different ways.
The Mesopotamians had complex and intricate ways of farming. They would use canals (which they often had to repair and re-dig) to irrigate during the dry season. The Mesopotamians had bucket lifting devices to move water between different levels in the canals and to bring water to the crops. The irrigation was counted on so crops could grow and the crops would be enough food to last through the winter. Irrigation in Mesopotamia played an important role.
The Mesopotamians were the first people to invent writing, or an alphabet! At the beginning, writing was simple, a picture to show what you wanted to show. Eventually writing evolved to complex cuneiform. There were hundreds of letters in the cuneiform alphabet. The language Mesopotamians spoken was not called Mesopotamian, but Sumerian. Cuneiform has been adapted for use with Akkadian, Babylonian, Persian, and many other languages.
Farmers grew food to feed the people of Mesopotamia, but the wealth of the cities of Mesopotamia came from merchants and craftspeople. The Mesopotamians placed great value on commerce. Mesopotamia didn’t have many natural resources, so they traded mostly grain and textiles. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers were responsible for getting the goods to and from Mesopotamia. They traded goods as far as Africa, Asia, and Europe. Mesopotamia didn’t use coins, but standards based on the weight of silver and grains were established. Money from taxes helped a program to build a bridge across the Euphrates river to trade even more. Without trade Mesopotamia would have easily failed.
Mesopotamians created the first wheeled vehicles in about 3500 B.C.E. They first used the wheel to make wheel – thrown pottery and then in Uruk, while trying to figure out how to carry a heavy load of goods a man created a sort of wheel. He placed a block of wood on a log and used it to pull his goods.Without the invention of the wheel the modern world would not be the same.
In Popular Culture
The B-52'sThe B-52s originated is a New Wave rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, United States, in 1976. The B-52s' sound is marked by the vocals — the female harmonies of Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson, and the generally spoken-word or sprechgesang male vocal counterpoint of Fred Schneider, Ricky Wilson's...
and
They Might Be GiantsThey Might Be Giants is a double Grammy Award-winning American alternative rock band which began as a duo of John Flansburgh and John Linnell, and currently also includes Marty Beller, Dan Miller, and Danny Weinkauf. Formed in 1982, they are best known for an unconventional and experimental style...
have both written songs referencing Mesopotamian history and culture.
External links
- Mesopotamia — introduction to Mesopotamia from the British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture situated in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from...
- Mesopotamia at the Ancient History Encyclopedia — timeline, articles, illustrations, and book references
- By Nile and Tigris, a narrative of journeys in Egypt and Mesopotamia on behalf of the British museum between the years 1886 and 1913, by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, 1920 (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu
DjVu is a computer file format designed primarily to store scanned documents, especially those containing a combination of text, line drawings, and photographs. It uses technologies such as image layer separation of text and background/images, progressive loading, arithmetic coding, and lossy...
& layered PDF format)
- A Dweller in Mesopotamia, being the adventures of an official artist in the Garden of Eden, by Donald Maxwell, 1921 (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu
DjVu is a computer file format designed primarily to store scanned documents, especially those containing a combination of text, line drawings, and photographs. It uses technologies such as image layer separation of text and background/images, progressive loading, arithmetic coding, and lossy...
& format)
- Mesopotamian Archaeology, by Percy S. P. Pillow, 1912 (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu
DjVu is a computer file format designed primarily to store scanned documents, especially those containing a combination of text, line drawings, and photographs. It uses technologies such as image layer separation of text and background/images, progressive loading, arithmetic coding, and lossy...
& format)