Ancient Mesopotamia

1. Ancient Mesopotamia Mr. Skommesa -- AP World History

2. Civilization Defined • Urban • Political/military system • Social stratification • Economic specialization • Religion • Communications • “Higher Culture”

3. Civilization and the Means of Production • Essential element: concentration of wealth • Agriculture • Control over natural resources • Development of ancient civilization • not hunter-gatherer economics

4. Development of Agriculture

5. Mesopotamia • “Between the Rivers” • Tigris and Euphrates • Contemporary Iran, Iraq • Cultural continuum of “fertile crescent”

7. The Wealth of the Rivers • Nutrient-rich silt • Key: irrigation • Necessity of coordinated efforts • Promoted development of local governments • City-states • Sumer begins small-scale irrigation 6000BCE • By 5000BCE, complex irrigation networks • Population reaches 100,000 by 3000BCE • Attracts Semitic migrants, influences culture

8. Sumerian City-States • Cities appear 4000BCE • Dominate region from 3200-2350BCE • Ur (home of Abraham, see Genesis 11:28), Nineveh (see Jonah) • Ziggurat home of the god • Divine mandate to Kings • Regulation of Trade • Defense from nomadic marauders

9. The Ziggurat of Ur

10. Political Decline of Sumer • Semitic peoples from northern Mesopotamia overshadow Sumer • Sargon of Akkad (2370-2315BCE) • Destroyed Sumerian city-states one by one, created empire based in Akkad • Empire unable to maintain chronic rebellions • Hammurabi of Babylon (1792-1750BCE) • Improved taxation, legislation • Used local governors to maintain control of city-states • Babylonian Empire later destroyed by Hittites from Anatolia, c. 1595BCE

11. The Royal Standard of Ur

13. The Code of Hammurabi (18th century BCE) 282 items lex talionis (item 196: “eye for an eye”) Social status and punishment women as property, but some rights Legal System

14. Later Mesopotamian Empires • Weakening of central rule an invitation to foreign invaders • Assyrians use new iron weaponry • Beginning 1300BCE, by 8th-7th centuries BCE control Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, most of Egypt • Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (r. 605-562) takes advantage of internal dissent to create Chaldean (New Babylonian) Empire • Famously luxurious capital

15. Mesopotamian Empires1800-600BCE

16. Technological Development in Mesopotamia • Bronze (copper with tin), c. 4000BCE • Military, agricultural applications • Iron, c. 1000BCE • Cheaper than bronze • Wheel, boats, c. 3500BCE • Shipbuilding increases trade networks

17. Social Classes • Ruling classes based often on military prowess • Originally elected, later hereditary • Perceived as offspring of gods • Religious classes • Role: intervention with gods to ensure fertility, safety • Considerable landholdings, other economic activities • Free commoners: Peasant cultivators, some urban professionals • Slaves: Prisoners of war, convicted criminals, debtors

18. Patriarchal Society • Men as landowners, relationship to status • Patriarchy: “rule of the father” • Right to sell wives, children • Double standard of sexual morality • Women drowned for adultery • Relaxed sexual mores for men • Yet some possibilities of social mobility for women • Court advisers, temple priestesses, economic activity • Introduction of the veil at least c. 1500BCE

19. Development of Writing • Sumerian writing systems form 3500BCE • Pictographs • Cuneiform: “wedge-shaped” • Preservation of documents on clay • Declines from 400BCE with spread of Greek alphabetic script

21. Uses for Writing • Trade • Astronomy • Mathematics • Agricultural applications • Calculation of time • 12-month year • 24-hour day, 60-minute hour

22. Mesopotamian Literature • Epic of Gilgamesh, compiled some time after 2000 BCE • Heroic saga • Search for meaning, esp. afterlife • This-worldly emphasis

23. The Early Hebrews • Patriarchs and Matriarchs from Babylon, c. 1850 BCE • Parallels between early biblical texts, Code of Hammurabi • Early settlement of Canaan (Israel), c. 1300 BCE • Biblical text: slavery in Egypt, divine redemption • On-going conflict with indigenous populations under King David (1000-970 BCE) and Solomon (970-930 BCE)

24. Moses and Monotheism • Hebrews shared polytheistic beliefs of other Mesopotamian civilizations • Moses introduces monotheism, belief in single god • Denies existence of competing parallel deities • Personal god: reward and punishment for conformity with revealed law • The Torah (“the teaching”)

26. Foreign conquests of Israel • Civil war • Northern tribes: Israel • Southern: Judah • Assyrian conquest, 722 BCE • Exiles Israel: ten lost tribes • Babylonian conquest, 586 BCE • Additional exile of many residents of Judah • Returned later than century

28. Israel and Phoenicia, 1500-600BCE

29. The Phoenicians • Set-up City-states along Mediterranean coast after 3000BCE • Extensive maritime trade • Dominated Mediterranean trade, 1200-800BCE • Development of alphabet symbols • Simpler alternative to cuneiform • Spread of literacy

30. Indo-European Migrations • Common roots of many languages of Europe, southwest Asia, India • Implies influence of a single Indo-European people • Probable original homeland: contemporary Ukraine and Russia, 4500-2500BCE • Domestication of horses, use of Sumerian weaponry allowed them to spread widely

31. The Indo-European Migrations

32. Implications of Indo-European Migration • Hittites migrate to central Anatolia, c. 1900BCE, later dominate Babylonia • Influence on trade • Horses, chariots with spoked wheels, use of Iron • Iron • Migrations to western China, Greece, Italy also significant • Influence on language and culture • Aryo, “noble, lord” • Aryan, Iranian, Irish • Caste system in India