Transcript MESOPOTAMIA
The first civilization can serve as a model for other early civilizations like
Egypt, the Indus Valley Civilization, Shang Dynasty, Olmec, Chavin, and
Aegean Civilizations.
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Cities as administrative centers
Political system based on control of territory
(rather than kinship)
Specialized, non-food-producing activities
Status distinctions based largely on wealth
Monumental building
System of record keeping
Long-distance trade
Major advances in science & arts
Developed in
floodplains of
great rivers
Developed
technology to
protect
themselves
against forces
of nature
Created
religious
structures to
manipulate
the
environment
Alluvial plain between Tigris & Euphrates Rivers
Cons
Little rainfall
Rivers flood at wrong time for grain
agricultures
Rivers change course unpredictably
No significant wood, stone, or metal resources
Pros
Warm climate
Good soil
Cattle-pulled plows + planter to cultivate barley
by 4000BCE
Irrigation canals began 3000BCE
Natural resources
Date palms
Vegetables
Reeds
Fish
Fallow land for herds to graze
Sumerians
Present as early as 5000BCE
Supplanted by Semitic-speaking peoples by
2000BCE
Preserved many aspects of Sumerian culture
Villages & cities linked
together in system of
mutual interdependence
Cities depended on villages
to produce food
Cities provided villages with military protection,
markets, and craftsmen’s goods
City + agricultural hinterland = city-state
Sometimes fought with each other for resources
(Water & land)
Traded with one another
Mobilize human resources to build & maintain
irrigation systems
Little is known of Mesopotamian political institutions
Do know about temples & palaces!
Temples
Landowners
Priests controlled considerable wealth
Religious power predates secular power of palaces
Palaces
Secular leadership began in third millennium BCE
when “big men” emerged as secular leaders
Lugal ruled from their palaces
Tended to take over religious control of institutions
Example – Epic of Gilgamesh demonstrates secular
rule
Powerful absorb other city-states
Create larger terriotiral states
Akkadian State
Sargon of Akkad
2350BCE
Third Dynasty of Ur
2112-2004BCE
Needed resources to grow
Obtained through expansion & trade
Merchants employed at temples or palaces; later
private merchants emerged
Barter or trade for fixed weights of precious metals or
grain
Stratified society
Kings & priests
controlled much of
wealth
3 classes
Free landowning class
Dependent farmers &
artisans
Slaves
Not essential to the
economy
Most were prisoners of
war
Agriculture declined the status of women
Men did value-producing work of plowing &
irrigation
Before agriculture, all shared in obtaining food
Had rights
Own property
Control dowry
Engage in trade
Rise of urban merchant class put greater
emphasis on male privilege & also declined
women’s status
Mixture of Sumerian religion & later Semitic beliefs
and deities
Deities
Anthropomorphic
Each city had tutelary gods
Representations of the environment
Turbulent rivers vengeful, fear-evoking gods
Humans were servants of gods
Priesthood served gods
Temples contained religious & other buildings
Ziggurat most visible
Little known of beliefs & practices of common people
Evidence of popular belief in magic & use of magic
to influence gods
Definition – any specialized knowledge that is used to transform the natural environment &
society
Examples
Cuneiform evolved from pictures to represent sounds of words or parts of words
Hundreds of signs
Monopoly of the scribes
Military technology
Irrigation systems
Nonmaterial knowledge – religious lore, ceremony, writing systems
Boats, barges, donkey use for transportation
Bronze metallurgy
Brick-making
Engineering
Paid, full-time soldiers
Horses
Horse-drawn chariot
Bow & arrow
Siege machinery
Base-60 number system
Advances in astronomy