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Neolithic Revolution – Gordon Childe
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Prestige trade – coral, lapis lazuli
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Ain Ghazal – mirrors Jericho in religious practices and pottery
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Halaf Culture – Northern Mesopotamia
o Tel Halaf
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Ubaid – Persian Gulf; contained Ur, Tel El Oueili, Eridu
o Wheel pottery, top qual. Lizard figurines
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Urban Revolution – writing revolution, pictographs earliest
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Poem from Sumer – 1900bc
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Uruk – 50-100k pop. 3 temples; Inanna, Irigal, Bit-resh
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Ubartutu – Last king of Shuruppak and culminated over the 5
o 5 cities ruled by 8 kings over the 241,00yrs
Natufian Culture – Dorothy Garrod; Central and N. Israel
Abu Hureya – gathering community, spanning transitional period
Beidha – Diana Kirkbride 1960’s: social stratification, ex of trans to ag
o Trade network most striking
Jericho – Kathleen Keyon; series of trenches excavated
o Oldest occupied site in the world
o First piece of monumental architecture
Tepe Gawra – Syria; adornments of dead from wide range of places
Calal Huyuk – James Mellaart; population density!
o First non-subsistent “city”
o Pottery and metal working
Uruk Period – 3,000bc (UR, Eridu and Uruk)
o Depended on rivers exclusively
o Neolithic trade: for prestige, Urban trade; bulk movement of commodities
Amar Sin (King) during 8th year of reign 2039bc – cuneiform
Warka Uruk Vase – Temple of Treasury of Uruk III 3000bc
Lugal – King or Law Giver
En – Religious leader/ Priest
Ensi – Military governor/ leader
Eridu – 60% of area is temple! First Iraqi excavation
Temple of Inanna, moon goddess, Ziggurat
 Ur – Inanna
 Kish – Zabada
Sumerian King List – 1st written text
o 8th century BC earliest copies found
 Eridu, Bad-Tibira, Larak, Sippar and Shuruppak = Kish = Uruk
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Sumerian Flood Tablet – George Smith, 1872
o Story of Utnapishtim (Noah?)
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Epic of Gilgamesh – 2000bc
o 5th king of Uruk after flood
o 12 separate inscriptions in 1849
o Morality, immortality through the city of Uruk, Ishtar = Jealousy,
Huwawa =Chaos
o Gil. Versus Enkidu = civilized by Gil!
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Ur – Sr. Leonard Woolley 1930s
o 17 Tombs; 2 names found on bricks;
 Akalamdug
 Meskalamdug
o Pu-Abi grave 800
o Great Death Pit – 65 attendants, Ram in Thicket
o Mostly women in tombs, priestesses?
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Tel Madhhur – Robert Adams 1977-8
o Snapshot at typical dwelling
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Ur-Nanshe, king of Lagash
Sargon, ruler of Akkad, supersedes Ur-Nanshe of Lagash
o Rules from 2334-2279bc, centralized outside cities into one power
o Empire extended from S. Turkey to the Persian Gulf
o Reflects power shift from religious to secular
Naram-Sin, grandson of Sargon, rules empire from 2260-2223bc, unable to
maintain/ expand empire to point where we don’t even know where it was.
Lagash rose again through Gudea (general), propaganda (20+ statues)
Ur-Nannu ruled Ur III 2112-2095bc
o Expanded far north as Mari and Ashur
o Aggressive building program; Inannas Ziggurat in Ur
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Shulgi – Grandson of Ur-Nannu ruled Ur III 2094-2047
o Evidence of super-regional government;
 Governers- ensis, judges- shagins
 Weights/measures
 Laws (Dinat Misenum – Decrees of Righteousness) – free
oppression and debt bondage – Ammi Sudaqua
 Taxation (Puzrish-Dagan: archive of payment/owing books)
 Calendar
 Literacy
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Ibbi Sin – 2004 Ur III sacked by Elamites
Ishbi-Erra (Ibbi Sin’s officer) creates Isin-Larsa 2017-1985bc
Rim-Sin takes over Larsa, due to Assur 1822-1763
o Assur- valuable trade route
o Kanesh excavation shows importance of Assur as trade post
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Shamshi-Adad I 1813-1781- took over reign of Assur and surrounding
Boom/Bust cycle broken by Babylon (demand exceeds supply, cities too big to
britches and die out.)
o 1894bc- dynasty of Sumuabum
o Hammurabi 1792
 7th year of reign – vassal king to Rim Sin
 30th yr – campaign into Elam, Larsa and Rim Sins land (Lagash,
Elam)
 1755 – captures Eshnunna, passage north to Assur (Shamshi-Adad)
 Perhaps had Edessa and as far as Med. Sea!
o Shift from religious to secular
o Greatest land owner
Hammurabi’s Law Code – 1900, home in temple of Shamash
o 282 legal decisions
 Family/land, sale/confiscation, irrigation reg.
 Equality/ economic justice (theme of all law codes discussed)
 Wardum – Lowest class
 Awilum – social superior
 Known for severe punishments
Code of Urukagina 2350BC (Ruler of Lagash)
o Remission of taxes
Code of Ur-Nammu (of Ur III)
o 1952 and 1965 fragmentally published
o 57 laws, 40 legible
Code of Lipit-Ishtar of Isin
o 38 laws – regarding property, social conscious, family rights
Accadian Law Code – Eshnunna 1800bc
o Non-sumerian
o Excav. 1947
o 48 laws
No idea where/how law codes were used, but some case minutes exist
o 1290bc in Isin – murder trial minutes
 Murder of Lu-Inanna
 Ku-Enlillu, Enlili-Ennam and Nin-Dadal (wife). DEATH