An Introduction to Mesopotamia
First settlements
The first settlements in the Near East were at places where there was a range of
animals and plants but which also had a good supply of fresh water. Some of the
earliest are found in the Levant and Palestine (modern Jordan, Israel, Palestine,
Lebanon and Syria). From around 12,000 B.C., following the last Ice Age, caves were
inhabited or temporary open-air camps and work areas were established. Wild varieties
of wheat and barley are common in parts of the region and formed an important part of
the diet. Gradually over thousands of years these wild grasses were selected and grown
to produce new varieties which were easier to harvest and process. By about 9000 B.C.
some of these settlements had become permanent, e.g. at Jericho in the Jordan Valley.
By 7000 B.C. people were farming the land - wild grasses and animals had been
selected and bred producing domesticated varieties. Religious ideas were expressed in
clay models and pottery developed as part of this experimentation with clay. Different
regions of the Near East were increasingly exploited. Small agricultural villages grew up
across north Mesopotamia sharing styles of pottery and architecture. The people
continued to hunt some of the wild animals but increasingly relied on domesticated
sheep, goats, pigs, and later, cattle.
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a Greek term meaning ‘between the rivers' and refers to the land
bordered by the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. In modern political terms this covers the
country of Iraq and eastern Syria. The region is very diverse with hills and undulating
plains in the north where wheat growing and cattle-rearing could be practised. Further
south, the rivers are rich in fish and the river banks, which teem with wild animals and
birds, were once jungles of vegetation where lions prowled and wild boar could be
hunted. The rich wildlife was probably what first attracted humans to the Mesopotamian
plain. The southern plain is outside the area of rain-fed agriculture but, over the
millennia, the rivers have laid down thick deposits of very fertile silt and, once water is
brought to this soil in ditches and canals, it proves a very attractive area to farmers. For
materials such as wood, stone and metals, however, people have to look north and
east, to the mountains.
The southern Mesopotamian plain
As far as archaeologists can tell, farmers and fishermen started to settle the southern
Mesopotamian plain around 5500 B.C. Over time some of their small villages grew into
large settlements. The focus of these communities was the temple of the town's patron
god or goddess. The rich farmland provided a surplus of agricultural goods and some of
the wealth generated was invested in monumental buildings such as those found at
Eridu, Uruk and Ur. Temples and ordinary houses were built using the reeds and mud
that line the river banks. Centuries of rebuilding using sun-dried mud bricks resulted in
high mounds, or tells, rising above the fields and canals.
By the end of the fourth millennium B.C. Uruk was probably the largest city in
Mesopotamia. It was centred on enormous temple buildings where archaeologists have
discovered beautiful stone sculpture. Here was also discovered some of the world's
earliest writing. Using a piece of reed to draw on tablets of clay, administrators recorded
the movement of agricultural produce in and out of central storerooms including rations
of beer and grain. Initially the records took the form of pictures of the objects being
counted, together with signs representing numerals. Gradually these pictographs
became more stylised and wedge-like or cuneiform (Latin for wedge = cuneus) and by
3000 B.C. the script was sufficiently sophisticated to write the local language which we
call Sumerian. The ability to write allowed the Sumerians to record not only lists of
goods but also events around them. This development, therefore, takes us from prehistory to history.
Uruk was not the only large settlement in southern Mesopotamia. The wealth of one of
these city-states is demonstrated by the Royal Graves of Ur which date to around 2600
B.C. Of the hundreds of graves, excavated by Leonard Woolley in the 1920s, sixteen
were particularly rich. Woolley called them ‘Royal' because he believed they were the
graves of Ur's kings and queens. The most remarkable aspect of these burials is the
large number of human bodies in the pits. These are interpreted as sacrificial victims,
accompanying their leader in death. Woolley thought they may have taken poison as he
found cups next to some of the bodies. The victims are identified as soldiers, harpists
and serving ladies, based on their rich clothes and ornaments made from gold, lapis
lazuli, carnelian and shell.
Around 2350 B.C. the southern city states were united into one empire by Sargon, king
of the city of Agade (also read as Akkad). The administration was centralised and the
Semitic language Akkadian (named after Sargon's capital) was introduced as the official
language in preference to Sumerian. Agade has not been located but the period
produced some astonishing works of art.
Sargon and his successors ruled Mesopotamia for 150 years through force of arms.
Gradually, however, the Agade empire declined and by around 2100 B.C. many cities
reasserted their independence. Chief among these was the city of Ur. Under King UrNammu, the city swiftly established itself as the capital of an empire that stretched
beyond southern Mesopotamia onto the Iranian plateau to the east. By this time it
appears that the Sumerian language was not widely spoken (it had gradually been
replaced by the Akkadian language). However, with this new phase of imperial control,
Sumerian was reintroduced as the official language of the dynasty which is known to
historians as the Third Dynasty of Ur or Neo-Sumerian Period.
Ur-Nammu was a prodigious builder. The most impressive surviving monument of his
reign was the ziggurat at Ur. Although similar in shape to the pyramids of Egypt,
ziggurats were not tombs but were made of solid brickwork and were stepped.
Staircases led up several stages. At the summit was a shrine. From this time onwards
ziggurats became a feature of the sacred architecture of all Mesopotamian cities.
The rulers of the Third Dynasty of Ur had to fight with groups of people moving into
Mesopotamia from the surrounding mountains and deserts, attracted by the wealth of
the country. Under Ur-Nammu's great-great-grandson the empire collapsed as Amorite
tribes established themselves throughout Mesopotamia. For the next three hundred
years the cities of southern Mesopotamia competed for control of the region.
North Mesopotamia
Further north lay the city of Ashur overlooking an important crossing of the River Tigris.
The city dominated the caravans of donkeys carrying metals and rare materials from
east and west, and the boats moving to and from the Sumerian cities to the south. As
an important trading centre, Ashur had, by 2000 B.C., established commercial colonies
in Turkey. Cloth and tin were exchanged for silver. Records of these activities on clay
tablets have been found at a number of sites in Turkey. Deeds were often protected by
an envelope of clay on which a summary of the transaction was written and sealed with
cylinder seals.
At the end of the nineteenth century B.C. an ambitious soldier called Shamshi-Adad
brought Ashur under his control. He established an empire which stretched across north
Mesopotamia. Around 1780 B.C. Shamshi-Adad died and his sons lacked their father's
abilities. The empire collapsed and Ashur and the north was now open to attack. When
it came it was from the south.
Babylonia
As king of the city of Babylon, Hammurabi (c. 1792-1750 B.C.) would unite
Mesopotamia into a single empire. In the second half of his reign he launched a series
of campaigns. Marching north he destroyed the city of Mari and received the submission
of many rulers including the king of Ashur. Unlike the rapid collapse of Shamsh-Adad's
kingdom, Hammurabi's death did not cause his empire to fall apart immediately but,
nonetheless, it did slowly decline. Hammurabi's lasting achievement was that from this
time onwards the city of Babylon would remain the capital of the southern plain
(Babylonia). However, he is probably best remembered for his code of laws (the famous
stela of Hammurabi is now in the Louvre Museum in Paris). In 1595 B.C. the dynasty of
Hammurabi was brought to an end when the Hittites from Turkey raided down the
Euphrates and sacked Babylon.
For the next 100 years or so there is little information to reconstruct events. When
evidence becomes available it is clear that Mesopotamia is dominated by two major
powers: the Kassites ruling Babylonia and a Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni in the north.
Much of what is known of these two kingdoms comes from areas outside Mesopotamia
such as Egypt.
Assyria
Around 1350 B.C. the kingdom of Mitanni collapsed under increasing pressure from the
Hittites who were expanding from eastern Turkey into Syria. Mitanni was squeezed
between the Hittites and the growing power of Assyria in the east. Assyria now
reasserted her independence and began a process of consolidation which included the
conquest of much of north Mesopotamia.
Around 1200 B.C. the Near East faced conflict and devastation. The Hittite Empire
collapsed and Aramaean tribes moved into Mesopotamia from the west, pushing the
boundaries of Assyria back to the capital Ashur.
By 1000 B.C. various Aramaean and Chaldaean tribal groups competed for supremacy
in Babylonia while the Assyrians maintained a firm hold on their homeland, slowly
moving against the groups which had settled in the region.
At the beginning of the ninth century B.C., Assyrian kings started sending military
expeditions north and west in an attempt to control important trade routes and receive
tribute from less powerful states. Among the first important kings of the so-called NeoAssyrian period was Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 B.C.). He moved the capital from Ashur
to Kalhu (modern Nimrud).
The movement of the Assyrian armies towards the Mediterranean continued under
Ashurnasirpal's successors. Over the following two hundred years kings such as Sargon
and Sennacherib not only built new capital cities (Khorsabad and Nineveh) but
expanded the empire. By the time of king Ashurbanipal (669-631 B.C.) Assyrian control
stretched from Iran to Egypt. Ashurbanipal boasts in his inscriptions of a peaceful and
prosperous reign allowing him time to learn to read and write as well as engage in the
royal sport of hunting.
However, within twenty years of Ashurbanipal's death Assyria was faced with conflict
and eventual destruction. To the east (in modern day Iran) lay the kingdom of the
Medes. In 614 B.C. a Median army destroyed the city of Ashur. Two years later the
combined forces of the Medes and Babylonians captured Nineveh. The Assyrian empire
passed into the hands of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon.
The last native empire
For sixty years the rulers of Babylon controlled Mesopotamia. Under Nebuchadnezzar II
(605-562 B.C.) the city of Babylon was rebuilt on a grand scale. However, in 539 B.C.
the armies of the Persian king Cyrus (from SW Iran) marched on Babylon, captured the
city and with it the Babylonian empire. Mesopotamia thus became part of the great
Achaemenid Persian empire which stretched from Egypt and the Aegean to Central
Asia and India. It was to remain under the control of foreign dynasties until the twentieth
century A.D.