“Drinking beer, in a blissful mood
With joy in the heart and a happy liver”
----Sumerian poem 3000 BCE
MESOPOTAMIA
ORIGINS OF CIVILIZATION, CITIES, AND
THE EMERGENCE OF POWERFUL STATES
“THE LAND BETWEEN TWO RIVERS”
• Why did populations abandon urban sites in
Anatolia? Was it environmental change?
• Between 7000BCE and 5000 BCE (9-10,000 years
ago) peoples settled permanently and began
irrigation based farming in the region of the Tigris
and Euphrates rivers.
• By 3500 BCE several cities had emerged from these
settlements under independent kings.
Jericho
CRITICAL THEMES DRIVING
RESEARCH 1850-2011
1850-1920
• Origins of Civilization
• Root causes of civilization
• Biblical scholarship
• Focus on Royal Dynasties
After 1920 the above and…
• Emphasis on everyday life; “the common man”
• New focus on trade networks
• New interest in urban life in terms of problem solving
ANCIENT ENVIRONMENT
• Biblical text describes Eden as at the confluence of
four rivers. Tigris and Euphrates are two of the four.
The other two named rivers do not exist (but did
they once exist?)
• Recent NASA satellite radar imaging reveals two
extensive dry riverbeds beneath the sands in
southern Iraq that once joined to the other rivers.
Significant evidence of a radically changed
environment.
CHRONOLOGY
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•
•
•
Eridu 5500BC-1800 BCE
Ubaid period from 4500 BCE (first written records)
Uruk 4000BC-500 BC (first true city)
Early Dynastic Period, Sumerian Empire from 3200
BCE (use of bronze for tools)
QUESTION
• What impact on local environment and social
relationships are likely to have occurred as a result
of concentrated populations engaging in intensive
farming?
IMPACT
• Agriculture in support of urban development
directly led to n-transforms of the environment:
modification of landscape, air polution, irrigation,
canals, dams and reservoirs, deforestation, altered
biota (focus on specific plants and animals),
concentrated populations, concentrated waste…
BIO-CULTURAL EVOLUTION
• Profound changes in human biology resulted from
shift to farming:
•
•
•
•
Dietary segmentation and reduction
Lactose tolerance (recent mutation in some populations)
Malaria and sickle-cell anemic response
Dental carries
Jarmo. Braidwood
excavations. 1960
Interior view of
sectioned rooms.
Braidwood 1960
Household scale
partitions.
Tell Choga Mami. Ubaid period. Samarrans pre-date the Sumerians.
FINDINGS
• Jarmo: oldest (between 7000-6500 BC) undisputed
evidence of agriculturally based community (wheat
and barley) Approx 150 people
• Evidence for fertility cult
• Jericho: (Approx 5000 BC) town with extensive walls,
ancestor veneration, population around 2000.
• Occupied from 5000 BC – 1350 BC with intermittent
periods of abandonment. Walls rebuilt at least 19
times.
SCALES OF ANALYSIS
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•
•
•
•
•
Public
Household
Monumental (non-residential)
Administrative
Sacred
Spatial differentiation
JERICHO
• No break in Natufian cultural sequence.
• Round houses of mud-brick construction
• Kenyon suggests defensive walls and towers up to
60 feet with narrow interior passageway to top.
• Bar Josef disagrees with the findings of Kenyon at
Jericho and suggests the city walls were intended
to protect against flooding, not armies. (Jericho is
below sea level).
Jericho.
Kenyon excavation 1954.
No clear evidence of
what Jericho’s
wealth was based
on.
Poor agricultural
area 600 feet below
sea level.
Site of Jericho. Recent excavations.
Exposed tower. Reached 60 feet
in height by 3000BC. Granary or
defensive works?
Plastered skull with inset
shell eyes. Portrait heads.
Numerous skulls reposed in
living quarters: possible
indication of ancestor
veneration.
North wall exterior
WORLD CHANGING TECHNOLOGY
• The use of metals has been profound.
• Metallurgy has implications for power relations,
status, trade, conflict, religion, and exchange.
• Metal working associated with religious authority
and state secrets.
• Metals attributed to divine sources.
• Uneven development. Metals not used in all places
at same time.
BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY
SEARCH FOR SITES IN POPULAR IMAGINATION
Tell Ubaid
Tell dated to the Ubaid period. Formerly a walled compound.
UNTIL 1930S
• Biblical scholarship in Mesopotamia has been
directed toward locating ancient cities described in
religious texts.
• Many ancient Mesopotamian texts are the sources
of ancient Hebrew writings and the Biblical writings.
The writings of Sumerians record the histories of
even earlier civilizations.
ARCHAEOLOGY 1930’S
• Discovery and excavation at Sumerian city of Ur
gained tremendous global attention.
• Research into origins of writing was spurred by
further discoveries at Ubaid and Uruk
• Epic of Gilgamesh among the first literature of the
world. Existed in several forms and fragments.
Sir Leonard Wooley
excavating at Sumerian city of
Ur
Wooley believed he had found
evidence of the great flood
mentioned in the bible.
With T.E. Lawrence at excavations of Royal tombs at Ur.
Weaponry from the Royal tomb.
QUESTION
• Identify three indications of social differentiation
and stratification that might be visible on the
landscape or in cemeteries.
GILGAMESH EPIC
• We are told by the narrator that Gilgamesh was the
5th King of Uruk “of the great walls.”
• The tale was written as if retold from oral histories by
a narrator.
• The story contains accounts later adopted into
Hebrew and Jewish sacred texts, forming the basis
of Biblical liturgy.
• Gilgamesh epic is more than history. It represents
great themes in the human condition--loyalty,
vanity, loss of innocence, love, facing mortality,
greed and avarice…
• It also contains tantalizing evidence of ancient
geography.
• One text describes “the deluge” and building of an
“ark” to carry the seed of all living things. The Bible
echoes these tales.
Tablet containing a
version of the
Gilgamesh Epic
Common Assyrian
impression of Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh portrayed as
great King in standard
motifs in the later Assyrian
temples.
REALITY OF GILGAMESH?
His “real” story is that
of mankind coming to
understand mortality.
The epic also contains
intriguing
geographical
information of great
value to
archaeologists.
• City of Uruk has
been excavated
revealing several
layers of deposits
over representing
2000 years.
At Uruk. A great ziggurat and perimeter walls.
Mesopotamia as
a maritime
region
Clay cone
decorative
architecture
at Uruk.
Clay cone decorated columns at Uruk.
US soldiers at Babylon.
Reconstruction
Uruk temple mound.
British troops at Uruk, 2009.
Passageway to tombs.
Ziggaurat (reasonable reconstruction) Babylon.
Entrance to great
Zigaurat of
Babylon.
Reconstruction
initiated by
Saddam Hussein.
Reconstructed ziggurat. Significant
differences from contemporary Egyptian
pyramids in design, construction and
purpose.
Fairly imaginative reconstruction from a child’s book about Babylon.
Ziggurats were ceremonial and administrative centers. Places of worship,
commerce, and civic activity.
KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN MESOPOTAMIA
• Invention of writing *
• Invention of the
wheel*
• Invention of
“history”
• King lists
• Inventories
• Battles fought and
won described or
proclaimed
Mask: Sargon the Great
• Invention of literature
• Epic hero tales (see Gilgamesh)
• Codified laws
• Postal system
• Professional standing armies
• Siege machines
• First schools (sexes
separated)
• First farmer’s almanac
• First fables
• First “congress” of a
senate in two
chambers (elders and
men of military age)
• First recorded tax cut
for wealthy patrons.
QUESTION
• What “invention” of the Sumerians has had the most
significant impact on the trajectory or process of
civilization?
Excavations at Nippur.
• Area of modern Iraq has a deep and rich history.
But its history is one of conflict between rival states
over territory and resources.
• Recent archaeology by Iraqi scholars (until Gulf
War) focused on ancient cities, Babylon, and
legacy politics. Interest of modern leaders to link
themselves to a glorious past.
COMMUNICATION ARTS
FROM LITERATURE TO PROPAGANDA
Clay tablet written with
cuneiform script
Temple worshiper
votive.
Pictographic precursor to cuneiform.
Clay tablet letter
inside clay protective
envelope.
Map of the
city-State of
Nippur, 1300
BC
During this
period the
Hittites had
spread their
empire into
Mesopotamia
and Egypt.
Cylinder seals (and the rolled impression) from 3400-3200 BC
Babylonian seal. Circa
1000 BC. Craved from
chalcedony.
Babylonian seals from
ca. 800 BC. Carved
from chalcedony and
rock crystal (capped
with gold).
Two different statues of
Gudea of Lagash, great
builder of cities and
traveler. (Possible
inspiration for the
character Gilgamesh?)
SUMERIA
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•
•
•
•
Excavated by Sir Leonard Wooley 1928-34
Royal tombs
2500 burials
Emphasis on temples, royal graves, Royal treasures.
New studies are revising much of Wooley’s
interpretations whish were heavily influenced by
Biblical thought.
Archaeological
excavations in
Mesopotamia often
achieved great
depths.
Wooley excavations
at Ur.
Lyre (harp)
From Royal tombs at Ur.
The royal lyre destroyed by looters of the
Iraq National Museum, 2003.
Lapis lazuli, red sandstone, bitumen, cooper, and wood.
The so-called “Standard of Ur.” 4500 years old.
Reverse side of Standard of Ur. Notes
troops, charioteers, standardized
weapons and armor. Weapons were
largely of copper and flint, or poor
quality bronze.
CHANGING ENVIRONMENT
• Satellite imaging reveals evidence of several dried
river beds. These once large and powerful rivers no
longer flow through Southern Iraq.
• Sea level changes and wetland filling owing to
agriculture have altered the maritime conditions of
Iraq, the cultures of which were oriented toward
seafaring in ancient times.
• Draining the swamps engineered by Hussein further
damaged the ecology of southern Iraq.
Stop
CIVILIZATIONS OF
SIGNIFICANCE
MESOPOTAMIAN NEIGHBORS
• Phoenicians 3000 BCE -500 BCE
• sailors and traders
• Hebrews and Jews 2000 BCE --• literate traditions
• Egyptians 5000 BCE- 200CE
• builders and planners
Phoenician homeland.
INDO-EUROPEAN
MIGRATIONS
POPULATIONS FROM SOUTH CENTRAL
AREAS OF RUSSIA/EASTERN EUROPE
• Nineteenth century linguists hypothesized
population migrations based on analysis of
language attributes. Various routes and invasions
were suggested and diffusionist archaeologists were
quick to adopt these ideas for explanations of
change in Asia and the Middle East.
MIGRATION HYPOTHESIS
• Speakers of an Indo-European root language
migrated over the centuries and millennia between
3000-1000 BCE into western Europe, SE Asia and the
Middle East.
• These groups form the basis for regional civilizations,
such as the Greeks, Celts, Hittites, Persians, and
Indians.
INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGE
• Several languages share root words, syntax,
grammatical construction and conceptual links.
These similarities are numerous and can only be
explained by assuming a source, or root language
from which the others are derived.
MECHANISMS OF LANGUAGE
EXCHANGE
• Assumption is that migrations and dominance IndoEuropean speakers over subject groups led to
absorption of language of dominant culture.
• Attractive in it simplicity, there are recognized
problems with the hypothesis.
ARYAN INVASION
• The Indo-European model was fundamental in
theories of diffusion and the apparent replacement
of entire cultures. One popular theory suggested
ancient civilization in India was unsettled by an
invasion by Aryan peoples around 3000 BCE.
• An attractive hypothesis, but wrong.
WHAT CAN BE AGREED UPON...
• Indo-European
language roots are
wide spread.
• Indo Europeans had
horses and eventually
developed chariots.
• Indo-Europeans were
not one ethnicity or
“race”
• Indo-European
languages and
technologies were
adopted regionally,
but not necessarily
customs and cultures.
• The Hittites were
responsible for major
upheaval and
influence around
1900BCE.
• Copper was the first metal to be worked into tools.
Gold and silver are too soft and brittle.
• Copper mixed with tin, zinc, and arsenic in varying
degrees yield bronze. It can be cast or beaten into
the desired shape.
• Bronze is strong and holds an edge well.
• Iron ores can be cast or hammered into shape.
Hammereing actually strengthens iron alloys.
• Each metal requires specialized knowledge and
associated technology (including little understood
chemistry) and each came to be associated with
particular gods and forces in all cultures.
SUMMARY
• From Neolithic origins, cultures of Mesopotamia
developed into powerful complex states and are
the source civilization for many of the great
achievements of humankind.
• Indo-European speaking peoples spread out widely
and adopted many regional cultures while
contributing language roots.
• Already by 3000
BCE people were
trading among the
many civilizations of
the Old World.
• The rise of complex
state societies can
be traced to this
period.