Lecture # 3: Ancient Mesopotamian Civilization: Presented by Abul Kalam Azad Senior Lecturer, GED Northern University Bangladesh E-mail: [email protected]

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

Introduction to World Civilization

What civilization? This is the crucial asking to understand the chronology of ancient civilization. There are some debates to get a was the concrete starting history ancient. Therefore, we’ll point of world civilization. According to the existing literature, the most primitive civilization was that of Mesopotamian. Sometimes, this notion seems to be confusing for some writers showed in their analyses that Egyptian civilization was the most detect the of

certain point of the introduction to world civilization, the the basis theory of

timelines

of

firstly,

Lewis of the history.

on Henry Morgan’s measurement scale, a

savagery to barbarism to civilization

and

secondly,

on

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Fig: Successive Stages of History to Morgan

Stages Savagery Barbarism Civilization Traits

 

Hunting & Gathering; Technological inventions like fire, bow & pottery

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animals;

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Domestication of Agriculture; and

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Metalworking Alphabet and writing

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Civilization: Timelines Type Meso potamian Egyptian Timelines



the

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4000 BC : Mesopotamian culture & 1 st known writing by the Sumerians

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3500 BC : civilization 1st took shape 3100 BC : oldest poetry, first literate civilization

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4000 BC : Archeological records

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3150 BC : unified state & civilization developed around the river Nile

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3100 BC : Civilization blown before the appears full First Dynasty Writing; a solar calendar tec.

;

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Ancient Mesopotamian Civilization

Mesopotamian civilization is considered as the most ancient civilization on the planet earth. Mesopotamia" is derived from two Greek terms potamoi means Mesopotamia was geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, largely corresponding to modern Iraq as well as , some mesos ‘rivers’.

‘land parts , meaning ‘middle’ and So, the name literally between of the northeastern rivers.’ Syria southeastern Turkey , and southwestern Iran .

Due to its fertility, James Henry Breasted regarded this area as "Fertile Crescent”.

,

Map of Mesopotamian Civilization

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1. The Sumerians

The first true civilization on planet earth developed in Mesopotamia, and the people who built this first civilization are known been slowly pieced together.

as the Sumerians. Ironically, little more than a century ago, nothing was known of the Sumerians. The first civilization in history had been lost to history. Slowly, over the past hundred years, and largely due to the efforts of the Universities of Chicago and Pennsylvania, the puzzle has

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Features of Sumerian 1. No definite central government ; 2. Few city states were emerged; 3. City states were Free and self dependent e.g., Ur, Lagash, Umma and Nippur; 4. The king of the city state were called the Patesti .

He was the chief of the military, irrigation and agriculture system.

1. Three classes were Elite class, Middle class and lowest class; 2. The rulers, the Priests, The Imperial advisors and all the officers were in the elite class; 3. The doctors, the teachers, Small businessmen, landowners and all the labors were in the middle class.

4. All types of the slaves were in the lowest class.

Features of Sumerian 1. Writing system was known as Cuneiform; 2. Different designs or signs/ symbols were developed into graphs representing people, animals, plants temples, gods and cities; 3. They preserved the symbols after burning the plate of mud; 4. Though they introduced the written system, they failed to invent a particular alphabet.

1. Temple served as the home of goddes; 2. Unattractive huts for people but attractive for the priests; 3. They built palaces in different city states; 4. They used bricks in the wall; 5. The symbols of their expert in architecture were in the graveyard; and 6. They also built the graveyard after the death of their king or queen

Features of Sumerian 1. Religion were mainly nature worship; 2. They believed that every God had particular characteristics; 3. They thought that man has been created for the prayer of goddes like Shamash, Enlil (God of the air), Ishtar (goddess of love and fertility and war), Nergal (God of the death), and Enki (Water god and god of wisdom); 4. They thought Shamash as the source of light and temperature; 5. The main temple was called the Ziggurat.

2. The Babylonians (About 1900-1800BC) Over the centuries the ability of the "Kings of Sumer and Akkad" to maintain order in Mesopotamia gradually weakened, a new tribe of Semites began to descend into the Euphrates Valley, just as the Akkadians had done under Sargon. These were the Amorites (an ancient Semitic-speaking people) from Syria near the Mediterranean. They seized the city of Babylon, which is about 50 miles south of Baghdad, the current capital of Iraq. Now at that time Babylon was an insignificant town on the edge of the Euphrates river, but it was there that the Amorites established their capital and their king, thereby establishing what historians know as the Old Babylonian Empire. Eleven kings would occupy the throne of Babylon, and the sixth of these was Hammurabi.

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Features of Babylonians 1. Hammurabi reigned from 1792-1750 B.C.; 2. He established his kingdom upon order, justice, and peace; 3. An eight foot column of black stone was engraved with some 282 laws and statutes; 4. The top Hammurabi of the stone shows receiving the law from the sun god, Shamesh 1. T he laws were assumed as divine; 2. Judges were appointed to try cases where the principle of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” continued to be practiced; 3. Death penalties were common; 4. Conviction for adultery meant death for both parties concerned;

Features of Babylonians 5. Women occupied engaged in business; assured; pay; protected by law; a comparatively high position having own property, equal rights in divorce and bringing lawsuit and being 6. They became professional scribes; 7. Justice to the widow and the orphan was 8. Heavier fines were imposed upon the rich than upon the poor for they could better afford to 9. The lower classes and even slaves were 10. Slaves might own property, marry, and will their possessions to their children; and 11. Freedom from bondage was obtained easily.

Features of Babylonians 1. Highly developed Agriculture; 2. Their most important crops were grape, olive (see next slide), nut, and different types of fruits; 3. Trade was regulated under government supervision; 4. The interest rate, promissory notes, deeds of settlements were well defined.

Babylonian architecture has disappeared almost completely.

rooms for Grave etc.

Their main temple Ziggurats were built in stages. There were

Zigurat

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Features of Babylonians 1. Their chief god was Marduk; 2. The chief objective of the Babylonians behind their worship were to get more benefits from god to escape their sin; 3. They excused their sin that they were not god and could do no better; 4. They were relatively uninterested in after life; 5. They concentrated on improving man’s existence on earth.

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Babylonians were highly works were encouraged; prized for learning. “He who shall excel in tablet writing will shine like the sun” was one of the most popular proverb in that moment; 2. The people were trained for the work of the temple, school, and other cultural

Features of Babylonians 3.They were enriched in epic and other literature work; 4.They also developed the poetry that time; 5.Babylonians

studied the Mathematics, universe.

Astronomy and Astrology; 6.They first introduced the lunar calendar and surveyed the

Science and technology

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Astronomy: were enthusiastic to study the stars and sky .

The Babylonian astronomers

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Mathematics: The Mesopotamians used a sexagesimal (base 60) numeral system.

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Medicine: medical text was the written by the physician Esagil-kin-apli of Borsippa, 1046 BC).

The most extensive Babylonian during Diagnostic Handbook the reign of the Babylonian king Adad-apla-iddina (1069-

▶

Technology: They invented technologies e.g., the wheel.

many

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Holidays, Feasts, and Festivals Ancient mesopotamians had ceremonies each month. The theme of the rituals and festivals for each month is determined by six important factors:

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The phase of the Moon;

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The phase of the annual agricultural cycle;

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Solstices of the solar year; The mythos of the City and its divine Patrons;

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The success of the reigning Monarch; Remembrance of specific historical events (founding, military victories, temple holidays, etc.)

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Family life Mesopotamia across its history became more and more a patriarchal society, in which the men were far more powerful than the women. Thorkild Jacobsen and others have Mesopotamian society was ruled by a "council of elders" in which men and women were equally represented, but that over time, as the status of women fell, that of men increased .

suggested that early

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As for schooling, only royal offspring and sons of the rich and professionals such as scribes, physicians, temple administrators, and so on, went to school. Most boys were taught divorce.

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. Women in Mesopotamia had rights. They could own property and, if they had good reason, get a

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Causes of Decline The decay and death of the Mesopotamian civilization can be ascribed to three main causes:

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the absence of a national government, the foundation by Alexander and his successors of new cities competing with and eventually superseding the older settlements, and the profound ethnic, linguistic, religious and cultural successive waves of invaders --- Persians, Greeks, Arameans, pre-Islamic Arabs -- who could neither be kept at bay not assimilated.

changes

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introduced by