MESOPOTAMIA

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Chapter 2

• MESOPOTAMIA

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1. Geography
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1. Geography

• Etymology
• mesos (Gk middle) potamos (Gk river)
• Meso-potamia land between rivers
• The area between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris.
• Approximately modern Iraq

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2. Historical Overview

• A succession of different peoples occupying the
  same territory and assimilating elements of the
  previous culture.
• 3000- 2350 BCE Sumerian (Gilgamesh)
• 2350-2000 BCE Akkadian (Sargon)
• 2000-1600 BCE Neo-Sumerian (Gudea)
• Babylonian (Hammurabi)

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2. Historical Overview

• 1600- 850 BCE Hittites
• Elamites
• 850- 612 BCE Assyrian (Ashurnasirpal II)
• 612-538 BCE Neo-Babylonian (Nebuchadnezzar)
• 538-327 BCE Persian (Cyrus, Darius)

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3. Sumerian Civilization

• Their economy was based on agriculture.
• They introduced technological innovations
• Plow
• Channels of irrigation
• Wheel
• Sailing boats (trade through the river)

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3. Sumerian Civilization

• With the successful development of agriculture
  only a portion of the population had to engage in
  food production.
• This made possible the specialization of labor
  while some farmed the land, others took care of
  manufacturing, trade and administration.
• Excess crops were used for trade or as goods for
  recreational/ ritual consumption (i.e. beer)

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3. Sumerian Civilization

• Their agricultural success allowed the Sumerians
  to grow and establish the first great urban
  centers
• Uruk, Lagash and Ur (10,000-50,000 inhabitants)
  

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3. Sumerian Civilization

• Standard of Ur (2600 BCE)

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3. Sumerian Civilization
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3. Sumerian civilization

• Politics
• Monarchy with extreme divisions between social
  classes
• Ruler
• Aristocracy (rich landowners, wealthy
  merchants, priests, military chiefs)
• Small business people, traders, artisans
• Small landowners and tenant farmers.
• Slaves (captured in war or prisoners)

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4. Religion

• Gods personified the forces of nature which
  threatened human existence.
• Anu heaven god
• Enlil air god
• Ea/Enki water god
• Ninhursag/ Belitini mother goddess
• Sin Moon god
• Shamash Sun god
• Innana/Isthar planet Venus, love and war goddess
• Marduck Patron of Babylon
• Kudurru (boundary post) of Melishihu, Babylon
  1202-1188 BCE

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4. Religion

• Mesopotamian religion was
• Polytheistic (many gods)
• Anthropomorphic (gods have human traits)
• Humans are seen as imperfect and obligated to
  some higher being.

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4. Religion.

• To placate these powers religion becomes a system
  of transaction between humans and gods.
• As propitiatory devices Sumerians used prayer,
  sacrifice, and ritual.

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5. Architecture

• Ziggurat at Ur (2100 BCE)

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5. Architecture

• Function and visual meaning

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5. Architecture

• Used clay bricks as the primary material for
  their buildings.
• They used post-and-lintel constructions for
  entranceways
• Overseeing the city there was a ziggurat
  (platform topped by a temple)

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5. Architecture

• Khorsabad, the fortified city and palace of
  Sargon II (721-705 BCE)
• Mesopotamian cities where surrounded by a wall.

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6. Writing

• Sumerians were the first people to create a
  system of symbols representing a human language
  they invented writing.
• Their writing system is called cuneiform.
• It consisted of incisions made with a
  wedge-shaped reed on clay tablets.

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6. Writing

• The first writing system was pictographic.
• Later it became ideographic.
• Finally Sumerians used phonograms and created a
  syllabic writing system.

• ? eye
• ? Look!
• ? I

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6. Writing

• Archives and extensive libraries

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7. Literature

• Epic of Gilgamesh
• An epic is a long narrative poem that recounts
  the deeds of a hero in quest of meaning and
  identity.
• Gilgamesh probably ruled over the Sumerian city
  of Uruk around 2700 BCE.
• Originally a Sumerian tale, preserved in
  Akkadian.

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8. Sculpture and crafts

• Lyre and goat from the Royal Cemetery of Ur (2600
  BCE)

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8. Recapitulation

• 3,000- 2,350 BCE Sumerian (Gilgamesh)
• 2,350-2,000 BCE Akkadian (Sargon)
• 2,000-1600 BCE Babylonian (Hammurabi)
• 1600- 850 BCE Hitites
• Elamites

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9. Akkadian Civilization (2,350-2,000 BCE)

• Sargon I (2332-2249 BCE)
• Adopted Sumerian culture
• Head of an Akkadian Ruler, from Nineveh
  (Kuyunjik) Iraq. c. 2300-2200 B.C Bronze,
  height 12 (3.7 cm). Iraq Museum, Baghdad. Lost
  wax technique.

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10. Babylonian Civilization (2,000-1600 BCE)

• Code of Hammurabi (Babylon, 1700 BCE)
• First code of law
• Includes criminal and civil law (protection of
  property).
• To some extent it interprets justice as
  retaliation (punishment crime).
• Law resides in the written code rather than on
  the kings wishes.

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11. Recapitulation

• 850- 612 BCE Assyrian (Ashurnasirpal II)
• 612-538 BCE Neo-Babylonian (Nebuchadnezzar)
• Medean
• 538-327 BCE Persian (Cyrus, Darius)

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12. Assyrian Civilization 850- 612 BCE

• Use or iron for weaponry.
• Extensive empire (all the Middle East including
  Egypt).
• Lamassu or winged lion
• Palace of Ashurnasirpal II, Nimrud (883-859 BCE)

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12. Assyrian civilization 850- 612 BCE

• Ashurnasirpal II, Nimrud (883-859 BCE)

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12. Assyrian civilization 850- 612 BCE
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13. Hebrews

• Originated in Mesopotamia (garden of Eden, Noahs
  Ark, Abraham of Ur).
• Moved to Canaan, then Egypt, settled in the
  Sinai/ Dead Sea region.
• Later founded Jerusalem (Solomon- 961-933 BCE).
• Split kingdom Samaria/ Jerusalem
• 587 BCE -Jerusalem captured by Nebuchadnezzar
  (deportation to Babylon)
• 520 BCE. Return to Jerusalem and reconstruction.

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13. Hebrews

• Covenant
• Ten Commandments
• Ethical monotheism

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12. Neo-Babylonian 612-538 BCE

• Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar, 604-562 BCE

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Ishtar Gate and the throne room, from Babylon,
Iraq. C. 575 B.C. Glazed brick, height of gate
originally 40 (12.2 m) with towers rising 100
(30.5 m., Staatliche Museen zu Berlin).
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12. Neo-Babylonian 612-538 BCE
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13. Persian Empire 538-327 BCE

• Persepolis

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13. Persian Empire 538-327 BCE

• Winged lions and column capital Persepolis.