MESOPOTAMIA/ˌmɛs ə pəˈteɪ mi ə/
- from the Greek language, means 'land between rivers'. It consisted of the fertile
(úrodná)land between 2 rivers (Euphrates/yuˈfreɪ tiz/ and Tigris/ˈtaɪ grɪs/). Most
of the area is in todays´ Iraq.
- part of the Fertile Crescent (úrodný polmesiac/ˈfɜː(r)taɪl ˈkrez(ə)nt/)
- fundamentally an agrarian society, the principal occupations were
growing crops and raising livestock. Other occupations included those of
the scribe, the healer, artisan, weaver, potter, shoemaker, fisherman,
teacher, and priest or priestess.
Women enjoyed nearly equal rights and could own land, file for divorce, own their own businesses,
and make contracts in trade. The early brewers of beer and wine, as well as the healers in the
community, were initially women. These trades were later taken over by men, it seems, when it
became apparent they were lucrative occupations.
The work one did, however, was never considered simply a `job’ but one’s
contribution to the community and, by extension, to the gods’ efforts in
keeping the world at peace and in harmony.
A temple economy – the city was governed by temple/priests and scribes
A palace economy or redistribution economy is a system of economic
organization in which a substantial share of the wealth flows into the
control of a centralized administration, the palace, and out from there to
the general population, which may be allowed its own sources of income
but relies heavily on the wealth redistributed by the palace. The ruler
considers himself to be the descendant(/dɪˈsɛn dənt / potomok) of gods.
The irrigation (/ˌɪrɪˈɡeɪʃ(ə)n/zavlažovanie) and good drainage /ˈdreɪnɪdʒ/
enabled agriculture. Early settlers of fertile land in Mesopotamia used
wooden plows (/plaʊ/pluh)to soften the soil (/sɔɪl/pôda) before planting
crops
such
as
barley(/ˈbɑː(r)li/jačmeň),
onions,
grapes,
turnips(/ˈtɜː(r)nɪp/kvaka), and apples. Mesopotamian settlers were some
of the first people to make beer and wine.
Ziggurats /ˈzɪg ʊˌræt / were massive structures built in the ancient
Mesopotamian valley and western Iranian plateau, having the form of a
terraced step pyramid of successively receding stories or levels. Each
ziggurat was part of a temple complex which included other buildings.
Each Sumerian city became a city-state, independent of the others and
protective of its independence. At times one city would try to conquer and
unify the region. The Akkadian Empire (circa 2334 B.C. — circa 2154 B.C.)
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.
The Babylonian Empire (1894-1594) remained a minor territory for
a century until the reign of Hammurabi /ˌhɑ mʊˈrɑ bi, / (1792-1750). He
was a very efficient ruler, establishing a bureaucracy, with taxation and
centralized government.
The Code of Hammurabi was inscribed on a stele (/stil /is a stone or
wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected as a monument, very
often for funerary or commemorative purposes) and placed in a public
place so that all could see it, although it is thought that few were literate.
The structure of the code is very specific, with each offense receiving a
specified punishment. The punishments tended to be very harsh by
modern standards, with many offenses resulting in death, disfigurement,
or the use of the "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth" philosophy. The code is also
one of the earliest examples of the idea of presumption of innocence, and
it also suggests that the accused and accuser have the opportunity to
provide evidence.
In 9th century BC the country found itself under the domination of the
Assyrian Empire. Sennacherib(c.700BC) made Nineveh a truly magnificent
city (Nineveh/ nɪn ə və /(Ninive) – library - a large number of cuneiform
tablets). It comprised at least 80 rooms, many of which were lined with
sculpture.
Mesopotamian religion was polytheistic /ˌpɒl i θiˈɪs tɪk/ - refers to the
worship of or belief in multiple deities (deity/ˈdi ɪ ti/ božstvo) usually
assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own
religions and rituals.
Inventions and important discoveries:
- wheel
- beer
- division of time (each month had 4 weeks each consiting of 7 days each
consisting of 2 halfdays(each 12hours)
- hours and minutes (sixty-second minute and the sixty-minute hour)
- irrigation
- writing - cuneiform (klinové písmo/kjuːnɪfɔː(r)m/) distinguished by its
wedge-shaped (wedʒ klin) marks on clay (kleɪ hlina)tablets, made by
means of a reed (riːd trstina ) The standardized form of each cuneiform
sign appears to have been developed from pictograms
- first cities which were largely built of sun-dried brick – Ur, Uruk. Lagash, - Libraries in towns and temples during the Babylonian Empire - literary
work Epic of Gilgamesh(/ ˈgɪl gəˌmɛʃ /Epos o Gilgamešovi)
- the 360-degree circle
- could predict eclipses and solstices
- Babylon City-states of Mesopotamia created the first law codes
Mesopotamia became a patriarchal society, one in which the men were
far more powerful than the women. As for schooling, only royal offspring
and sons of the rich and professionals, such as scribes, physicians, temple
administrators, 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 housekeeping and cooking, 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 rights. They
could own property and, if they had good reason, get a divorce.
"Anu and Bel called by name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who
feared God, to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy
the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the
weak; so that I should rule over the black-headed people like Shamash, and
enlighten the land, to further the well-being of mankind ..."
So begins the Law Code of Hammurabi, a list of nearly 300 laws etched into
a two and one-half meter high black diorite pillar, discovered in 1902 but
dating back to the time of Hammurabi himself (1792-1750 B.C.E).
Some laws were quite brutal, others rather progressive. Members of the
upper-class often received harsher punishments than commoners, and
women had quite a few important rights.
Most of the nearly 300 laws written on the pillar pertain to property rights
of landowners, slavemasters, merchants, and builders.
Here are some of the more unusual laws that seem very foreign to a
modern society:
If any one finds runaway male or female slaves in the open country and
bring them to their masters, the master of the slaves shall pay him two
shekels of silver.
If any one is committing a robbery and is caught, then he shall be put to
death.
If a tavern-keeper (feminine) does not accept corn according to gross
weight in payment of a drink, but takes money, and the price of the drink is
less than that of the corn, she shall be convicted and thrown into the water.
If a son of a paramour or a prostitute say to his adoptive father or mother:
"You are not my father, or my mother," his tongue shall be cut off.
If a son strike his father, his hands shall be hewn off.
If a man knock out the teeth of his equal, his teeth shall be knocked out.
If a man strike a free-born woman so that she lose her unborn child, he
shall pay ten shekels for her loss.
If a barber, without the knowledge of his master, cut the sign of a slave on
a slave not to be sold, the hands of this barber shall be cut off.
If a slave says to his master: "You are not my master," if they convict him
his master shall cut off his ear.
"If a man has destroyed the eye of a man of the gentleman class, they shall
destroy his eye .... If he has destroyed the eye of a commoner ... he shall pay one
mina of silver. If he has destroyed the eye of a gentleman's slave ... he shall pay
half the slave's price." The Babylonians clearly did not live under a social system
that treated all people equally.
Slander (/ˈslæn dər/klebeta, nactiutŕhanie)
Ex. Law #127: "If any one "point the finger" at a sister of a god or
the wife of any one, and can not prove it, this man shall be taken
before the judges and his brow shall be marked. (by cutting the
skin, or perhaps hair.)" ]
Trade
Ex. Law #265: "If a herdsman, to whose care cattle or sheep have
been entrusted, be guilty of fraud and make false returns of the
natural increase, or sell them for money, then shall he be convicted
and pay the owner ten times the loss."
Slavery
Ex. Law #15: "If any one take a male or female slave of the court, or
a male or female slave of a freed man, outside the city gates, he
shall be put to death."
The duties of workers
Ex. Law #42: "If any one take over a field to till it, and obtain no
harvest therefrom, it must be proved that he did no work on the
field, and he must deliver grain, just as his neighbor raised, to the
owner of the field."
Theft
Ex. Law #22: "If any one is committing a robbery and is caught, then
he shall be put to death."
Food
Ex. Law #104: "If a merchant give an agent corn, wool, oil, or any
other goods to transport, the agent shall give a receipt for the
amount, and compensate the merchant therefor. Then he shall
obtain a receipt from the merchant for the money that he gives the
merchant."
One of the best known laws from Hammurabi's code was:
Ex. Law #196: "If a man destroy the eye of another man, they shall
destroy his eye. If one break a man's bone, they shall break his
bone. If one destroy the eye of a freeman or break the bone of a
freeman he shall pay one gold mina. If one destroy the eye of a
man's slave or break a bone of a man's slave he shall pay one-half
his price."
Hammurabi had many other punishments as well. If a son strikes his
father, his hands shall be hewn off (translations vary).