Mesopotamia
History
Geography
Economy
Social Structure
Government
Religion
Achievements
Architecture
- The Sumer is the oldest civilization known
- The Sumerians had developed the world's first civilization
- No one knows where they came from or when they moved into Mesopotamia
- We only know that by around 3000 BC, several hundred thousand Sumerians had settled in Mesopotamia
- They built a very advanced society
- Until the 1900s, all that we knew about Mesopotamia was what was in the bible
- Mesopotamian settlements, over time, grew in both size and complexity
- The settlements gradually developed into cities between 4000 and 3000 BC
- Another society had developed along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers built by the Akkadians
- They lived north of Sumer, but were not Sumerians
- The two societies lived in peace for many years, until Sargon, an Akkadian ruler, sought to extend Akkadian territory
- He was the first ruler to have a permanent army, and had built a new capital, Akkad, on the Euphrates River
- He used his army to wage wars against neighboring kingdoms
- They defeated Sumer, and conquered northern Mesopotamia
- Sargon had established the world's first empire
- He ruled for 50 years, but after his death, the empire lasted only for a century
- The rulers could not keep the empire safe from invaders and so hostile tribes from the east had raided and captured Akkad
- Eventually, the city-state of Sumer rebuilt its strength and conquered the rest of Mesopotamia
- Ur lied in ruins by 2000 BC from repeated foreign attacks
- Babylon had once been a Sumerian town, but by 1800 BC, it was home to a powerful government of its own
- 1792 BC, Hammurabi became the king of Babylon and became the city's greatest ruler
- He was a brilliant war leader and brought all of Mesopotamia into his power, and then calling Babylon the capital
- He was skilled in the battlefield and could govern a huge empire
- He brought wealth through trade
- Hammurabi is best known for his law codes called Hammurabi's Code
- It consisted of 282 laws that dealt with every part of daily life
- Hammurabi ruled for 42 years, and after his death, Babylon declined
- The rulers after had faced invasions from the people of the kingdom and soon Babylon came to an end
- People known as the Hittites had built a strong kingdom in Asia Minor
- They mastered iron working and was skilled in using the chariot
- They captured Babylon around 1595 BC but their rule didn't last long
- The king was killed by an assassin and the Kassites, people who had lived north of Babylon, captured the city and ruled for almost 400 years
- Around 1200 BC, the Assyrians from northern Mesopotamia had briefly gained control of Babylon
- Their empire was soon overrun by invaders and after their defeat, it took the Assyrians about 300 years to recover
- They began conquering all of the Fertile Crescent at about 900 BC and parts of Asia Minor and Egypt
- In 652 BC, however, a series of wars broke out in the Assyrian Empire over who should rule
- The Chaldeans took advantage of the weakening of the empire and attacked
- By 612 BC, they destroyed Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire
- Nebuchadnezzar was the most famous Chaldean king, and rebuilt Babylon
- The Chaldeans also built temples to Sumerian gods, charted the positions of the stars, kept track of events, created a calendar, and solved complex problems of geometry
- Phoenicia was land along the Mediterranean Sea
- The Phoenicians had cedar trees, prized for their timber and was a valuable trade item
- They couldn't trade over land because of the geography and hostile neighbors so they looked to the sea for travel
- They became expert sailors and built harbors
- However, their greatest achievement was developing the world's first alphabet
- Our alphabet is based off of the Phoenician's
- Mesopotamia ended in 500 BC, lasting from 7000 BC to 500 BC
- Mesopotamia means 'between the rivers' in Greek
Geography
- The land was fertile, giving the area the name Fertile Crescent
- Two rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris
- The rivers are the most important physical features in the region
- Mesopotamia lies between Asia Minor and Persian Gulf
- The Fertile Crescent extends out from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea
- Mesopotamia was split into two parts in ancient times: Northern Mesopotamia and Southern Mesopotamia
- Northern Mesopotamia used to be a plateau bordered on the east and north part of the mountain
- Southern Mesopotamia used to be a flat plain
- The Euphrates and Tigris flowed down to this low plain from the hills
Economy
- The kingdoms of Mesopotamia farmed by the rivers
- The Euphrates and Tigris floods every year, bringing silt to the land
- The first farm settlements formed as early as 7000 BC
- They grew wheat, barley, and other grains
- It was hard to farm there though
- The area didn't receive much rain and when it did rain, the floods would destroy crops
- The people used irrigation trenches to solve the problem
- They dug canals and connected them to basins storing water from the irrigation trenches
Social Structure
- Sumerians had statuses on Sumer's social hierarchy, the division of the society by class or rank
- The kings of Sumer claimed that they had been chosen by the gods to rule
- The priests were just below the rulers, since the priests were the connection from the gods and Earth
- Just below the priests were Sumer's skilled craftspeople, merchants, and traders
- Trade had had a great impact on the Sumerian society
- The traders had to travel far away to exchange grain for gold, silver, copper, lumber, and precious stones
- Then below the traders were the farmers and laborers that made up the large working class
- Slaves were then at the bottom of the social order
- The Sumerian men had held political power and made laws
- The Sumerian women took care of the home and children
- Education was also reserved for men, but some upper-class women were educated
Government
- The kings were above everyone else
- They were believed, by the people, to have been chosen from the gods
- With Hammurabi, each crime had brought a specific penalty according to the code
- Social class did matter, however
- Injuring a rich man brought a greater penalty than injuring a poor man
Religion
- The Sumerians had practiced polytheism, which was the worship of many gods
- Some of the gods were; Enlil, who was lord of the air; Enki, who was the god of wisdom; and Inanna, who was the goddess of love and war
- The sun and moon were also represented by the gods Utu and Nanna
- Each city-state of Sumer had considered one god to be its special protector
- The people had believed that their gods had enormous powers
- The gods could bring good harvests or disastrous floods and bring illness or good health and wealth
- The people believed that success in life had depended on pleasing the gods, so every Sumerian had to serve and worship the gods
- The priests had great status in Sumer because people had relied on them to help gain the gods' favor
- The priests had interpreted the wishes of the gods and made offering to them
- The offerings were made in temples, where the priests performed their religious ceremonies
Achievements
- The Sumerians had made one of the greatest cultural advancements in history
- They had developed cuneiform, which was the world's first writing system
- The Sumerians didn't use pens or paper though, they used wooden styluses to make the wedge-shaped symbols on clay tablets
- Before cuneiform, written communication used pictographs, picture symbols
- Each pictograph represented an object
- In cuneiform, the symbols could have also represented syllables or basic parts of words
- The Sumerians had first used cuneiform to keep business records
- A scribe, writer, would have been hired to keep track of the items people traded
- Government officials and temples had also hired scribes to keep their records
- Sumerian students had gone to school to learn to read and write
- Some Sumerians had put their writing skills to use, like writing poems, stories, and songs about the gods or military victories
- These stories were called epics, long poems that tell the stories of heroes
- The Sumerians also invented the wheel
- They were the first people to build with the wheel to make wheeled vehicles, like carts
- They also developed the plow that was pulled by oxen through the fields to break through hard clay soil to prepare it for planting
- They also invented a clock that had used falling water to measure time
- They built sewers under city streets
- The Sumerians used bronze to make strong tools and weapons
- They had even made makeup and glass jewelry
- The Sumerians also excelled in math
- They had even developed a math system based on the number 60
- They divided the circle into 360 degrees and divided the year into 12 months
- They also calculated the areas of triangles and rectangles
- The Sumerian scholars studied science too
- The scholars had written long lists to record their study of the natural world like names of thousands of animals, plants, and minerals
- They also made advancements in medicine
- Using ingredients from animals, minerals, and plants, they had produced healing drugs
- The Sumerians used in these medicines were milk, turtle shells, figs, and salt
- The Sumerian sculptors had also produced many fine works of art
- They made statues of gods created for the temples
- They sometimes sculpted small objects out of ivory and rare woods
- Jewelry was also a popular item in Sumer
- They were made of imported gold, silver, and gems
- Cylinder seals are may have been Sumer's most famous works of art
- The seals were stone cylinders engraved with signs
- The seals, when rolled over clay, would leave behind their imprint
- The seals were used to "sign" documents and show ownership of a container
- The seals showed battle scenes, others displayed worship rituals, and some were highly decorative
- Sumerians had also loved music
- The kings would hire musicians to play on special occasions
- The musicians had played reed pipes, drums, tambourines, and these harplike string instruments called lyres
Architecture
- Most Sumerian rulers had lived in large palaces
- Some rich Sumerians had two-story homes with as many as a dozen rooms
- Most people, however, had lived in smaller one-story homes
- The homes had six or seven rooms arranged in a small courtyard
- Both large and small houses stood side by side along the narrow, unpaved streets of the cities
- The houses were mainly made of bricks made of mud
- The city centers were also dominated by temples
- The temples were the largest and most impressive buildings in Sumer
- A ziggurat, which was a pyramid-shaped temple, rose above every city
- The outdoor staircases led to a platform and a shrine at the top
- Some of the temples had columns to make them more attractive