The Ancient Middle East

1. The Ancient Middle East Mesopotamia Crash Course

2. The Fertile Crescent:Crossroads of the World • The Tigris-Euphrates Valley lies in the eastern end of the Fertile Crescent, an area that stretches in a large arc from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. • The Fertile Crescent received its name from the rich soil of the region and its crescent shape. • The Fertile Crescent has often been called the "crossroads of the world" because it commands the land routes to three continents: • Asia • Africa • Europe • Unlike Egypt, the Fertile Crescent has few natural barriers. • The Arabian and Syrian deserts offered less protection to early civilizations than the Libyan Desert did in Egypt.

4. The Fertile Crescent Cont’d • Because of its position, the region was frequently overrun by invaders. • Waves of migrating peoples came down from the mountains north and west of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. • Invaders such as the Hittites swept into the Fertile Crescent from Asia Minor. • The diversity of the people living in the Fertile Crescent made it difficult to unite the area under a single ruler. • Yet the constant contact among different peoples also led to an exchange of ideas that led to major achievements.

5. Land Between Two Rivers • The Greeks called the Tigris-Euphrates Valley "Mesopotamia," meaning "land between two rivers." • Like the Nile in Egypt, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers dominated the lives of the people in Mesopotamia. • The two rivers flow from the rugged highlands of the Armenian Plateau to the Persian Gulf. • They run parallel for over 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers). • In the spring or early summer, melting snows from the mountains sometimes cause the rivers to overflow. • However, the floods of the Tigris and Euphrates, unlike those of the Nile, are unpredictable. • In some years, the rivers do not rise above their banks. • In others, savage floods cause enormous damage.

6. A Precarious Existence • In ancient times, many floods swept across lower Mesopotamia. • About 4000 B.C, a massive flood deposited a bed of clay eight feet (2.4 meters) thick. • The flood destroyed farms, villages, and animals and drowned many people. • Only a few towns built on high ground survived. • In addition to floods, lower Mesopotamia suffered summer droughts and hot winds, which could turn fertile soil to dust, shrivel crops, and cause famine. • Despite the danger of flooding, however, the rivers supported the development of an advanced civilization.

7. The Development of an Advanced Civilization • Trade along the rivers made Mesopotamian cities wealthy and powerful. • Silt left by floods made the soil fertile. • Good soil meant that the people living in Mesopotamia could rely on a stable food supply in most years. • Year after year, silt created a delta at the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. • Likethe Nile delta, the delta in lower Mesopotamia was a maze of swamps and marshlands. • Todrain the swamps and channel the water to farmland, the people of Mesopotamia built an intricate network of dikes and canals. • Thebuilding and upkeep of such a complex irrigation system required an elaborate, well-run government.

8. City-State Government • By 3000 B . C , the villages of lower Mesopotamia had grown into prosperous cities. • Tens of thousands of people lived in the chief Sumerian cities of Ur, Erech, and Kish. • Each city was an independent city-state with its own government and ruler. • In a city-state, a large town or city and the surrounding countryside cooperate for mutual defense. • The government of a Sumerian city-state supervised the building and maintenance of dikes and canals in the surrounding farmlands. • It also constructed strong defensive walls and stored food in case of invasion. • When threatened by attack, farmers took refuge behind the city walls.

10. City States Cont’d • Each city-state worshipped its own god or goddess as well as other gods. • The people of the city-state believed they were wholly dependent on their city's god for food and protection. • The land and everything people produced belonged to the god. • In fact, farmers turned over about two thirds of each harvest to the temple. • Because a disaster such as a flood or invasion could strike suddenly, people in Mesopotamia believed that their survival depended on keeping their gods content. • Priests alone knew how to please the gods, and they spoke with the gods for the people. • As a result, in the early city-states priests ruled in the name of the gods.

11. Sumerian City-States • As Sumerian city-states grew, they were constantly at war with each other. • For example, Ur fought with Erech for control of the lower Euphrates. • This frequent warfare may have increased the power of military leaders who could successfully defend their city-states. • Military leaders then gradually replaced priests as rulers of the Sumerian city-states. • The Sumerians did not worship their rulers as gods. • Instead, they believed their kings were the gods' representatives on earth. • But because they spoke directly with the gods and the people, Sumerian kings commanded absolute obedience.

12. Religion • Towering above each Sumerian city-state was the ziggurat the home or temple of the god of the city. • Pyramid-shaped, the ziggurat was often six to seven stories high. • The Sumerians believed that gods descended to earth using the ziggurat as a ladder. • Like the Egyptians, the Sumerians were polytheistic. • They worshipped other gods in addition to the god of their city-state. • Sumerians believed that a council of gods and goddesses ruled the earth, deciding the fate of individuals and cities. • Each god had a specific rank or place within this council.

14. The reconstructed facade of the Neo-Sumerian Great Ziggurate of Uhr , near Nasiriyah, Iraq

15. Inanna and Dumuzi • Sumerians explained natural events as the results of actions by gods and goddesses. • For example, they believed that winter, the season of hunger and hardship, occurred when the god Dumuzidied and descended into the underworld. • Only when the goddess Inannarescued her husband Dumuzifrom the underworld did spring arrive, bringing new life. • Every year, to ensure the return of the growing season, priests and priestesses reenacted the story of Inannaand Dumuzi.

17. Angry and Spiteful Gods • In Egypt, the favorable climate of the Nile Valley allowed the people to enjoy life and see their gods as kindly forces. • By contrast, fear of natural disasters and invasions probably contributed to the Sumerians' gloomy outlook on life. • They believed that the gods punished them by sending floods or famine. • This gloomy outlook colored their belief about the afterlife. • At death, they expected to descend forever into a dark underworld, a huge cave filled with 38 nothing but dust and silence.

18. Written Language • The need for accurate records led to the development of writing sometime after 3500 B.C. • Sumerian writing began as pictograms and ideograms. • Scribes gradually simplified the system, using symbols to represent sounds and syllables. • Sumerians used a stylus, or sharpened reed instrument, to make symbols on tablets of wet clay. • They then baked the tablets to harden the clay. • Because the symbols were made up of wedge-like shapes, the writing was later called cuneiform from the Latin word "cuneus," or wedge. • Traders and conquering armies helped spread cuneiform across the Fertile Crescent.

22.  Sumerian tablet from the period of King Shurrupak 2550BC describing the gift of a house and land (one and a half "SAR" approx 54 square meters) which includes a male slave. Early Cuneiform text with text groupings (words) in boxes. This technique developed from the very early pictographic text and soon after this period was changed in favor of text written in horizontal lines.

23. Cuneiform Tablet and Envelope • Cuneiform documents would often be sealed in a second layer of clay onto which the inner document text was rewritten. On receipt of the document the clay outer envelope could be broken away and the inner text checked if there was any suspicion of tampering. This tablet still has its outer envelope with seals still fully intact

24. Scribes • As the Sumerian city-states grew, the need for scribes increased. • Scribes wrote down laws, treaties, and religious texts. • As trade expanded, merchants hired scribes to record business deals, property holdings, and contracts. • To train scribes, priests set up schools in the temples. • Only boys, usually the sons of scribes, attended temple schools. • Students endured strict discipline in order to earn a privileged position as a scribe. • Although no schools existed for girls, priestesses and the daughters of wealthy Sumerians probably learned to read and write from private tutors.

25. The Sumerian Legacy • Sumerians were the first people known to use a wheel. • They either invented it or borrowed the idea from earlier settlers in Mesopotamia. • Wheeled carts and the sail, another Sumerian invention, enabled merchants to engage in long-distance trade. • Sumerians also used wheels on war chariots. • The use of wheeled vehicles spread slowly across the ancient world. • You will recall that the Hyksos used war chariots when they conquered Egypt. • The Sumerians made many improvements in farming. • They built complex irrigation systems to channel water through the sunbaked plains, planted trees to serve as wind breaks, and invented a plow. • They also developed an accurate 12-month calendar to keep track of the seasons.

26. 60 • Like the Egyptians, the Sumerians used arithmetic and geometry to survey land and reestablish property lines after floods swept away boundary markers. • The Sumerian system of arithmetic was based on the number 60, which led to such present-day measurements as the 60-second minute, the 60-minute hour, and the 360° circle.

27. This clay tablet exhibits a sky map above Mesopotamia in 3300BC. It is a "planisphere" found in the library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh of 650BC. It consists of segments mapping sections of the sky in cuneiform text. The Sumerians of the time were very sophisticated scholars, shown in that it took modern computer analysis to discover the true date of the star chart

28. Sumerian Architecture • Sumerian architecture influenced the civilizations of Mesopotamia for more than a thousand years. • The Sumerians were the first to use arches, columns, ramps, and inclined walks. • Because stone was scarce, Sumerian builders used bricks made of sunbaked clay. • Later peoples built temples that rose in a series of terraces to heights of six or seven stories like the Sumerian ziggurat. • The Egyptians may have adopted the idea of pyramids from the Sumerians.

29. The Fall of the Sumerians • About 2500 B.C, invaders conquered the city-states of Sumer. • Sumerian civilization ceased to exist about 1750 B.C, but its traditions and achievements left a lasting mark on the newcomers.

30. The First Empire • As older Sumerian city-states declined, Akkad, a city to the north, rose to power. • About 2350 BCE, Sargon, an Akkadian soldier, founded the first empire in recorded history. • With an empire reaching from southern Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean Sea, Sargon proclaimed himself "Lord of the Four Quarters of the World," a title used by many later conquerors. • A talented ruler, Sargon repaired and extended the flood control and irrigation systems of Mesopotamia. He also sent his armies to protect trade caravans.

31. The Akkadians • The Akkadians borrowed many things from Sumerian civilization. • Although the Akkadianlanguage differed from the Sumerian, the conquerors adopted cuneiform for writing. • Scribes translated Sumerian religious, scientific, and literary works into Akkadian. • As a result, the Akkadians absorbed Sumerian religious beliefs and ideas about government and society. • Later Akkadian rulers lacked Sargon's abilities, and civil war resumed. • For a brief time, Ur-Nammu, ruler of Ur, reunited the citystates. • About 2050 B.C, Ur-Nammucompiled the first known code of laws. • This code summarized Sumerian ideas of justice, emphasizing the king's duty to protect the people and to correct any existing wrongs.

32. The Amorites and the Rise of Babylon • About 2000 B.C, groups of nomadic peoples invaded Mesopotamia, attacking the rich river valley cities. • One group, the Amorites, built the small village of Babylon on the Euphrates River. • Slowly, the small village rose from obscurity into a magnificent city-state boasting of a giant ziggurat dedicated to the chief Babylonian god, Marduk. • By 1700 B.C, the king of Babylon, Hammurabi had carved out an empire in Mesopotamia.

33. The Code of Hammurabi • Hammurabi was one of the great rulers of ancient times. He was an outstanding general, an excellent administrator, and a patron of the arts. • In hundreds of surviving letters, he shows concern for details such as clearing blocked river channels, punishing dishonest officials, reforming the calendar, and honoring the gods. • However, he is best known for drawing up a uniform code of laws. • Hammurabi appointed a committee to revise existing laws and to create one set of laws for the whole empire. • His purpose, he declared, was: " to cause justice to prevail in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil, to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak, and to further the welfare of the people."

37. “An Eye For An Eye” • Although the resulting system of laws relied on earlier law codes, the Code of Hammurabi was the first effort by an empire to record all its laws. • The code contained 282 laws arranged under headings such as trade, family, labor, real estate, and personal property. • The basic principle behind Hammurabi's Code was "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." • A man who blinded another was punished by losing an eye. • If a house collapsed and killed the owner, the builder was put to death.

38. The Legacy of Hammurabi’s Code • Despite the severity of most punishments, Hammurabi's Code was an important contribution to civilization. • It distinguished between major and minor offenses, and it established the state as the authority that would enforce the law. • It also tried to guarantee social justice. • The punishment was supposed to fit the crime. • Hammurabi had the laws carved on a stone column, which was placed for everyone to see. • Atop the column sat Shamash, the sun god and god of justice, handing the laws to Hammurabi. • The god's image reminded Babylonians that by breaking a law they not only offended the king but also the gods.

40. Beginning of the Iron Age • After Hammurabi's death, rebellions and invasions weakened the Babylonian Empire. • In1600 BCE, it fell to invaders from the east. • About 1550 BCE, another group of invaders, the Hittites, moved into the Fertile Crescent from Asia Minor. • The empire established by the Hittites eventually reached as far as the northern Euphrates Valley. • Hittite rulers adopted Babylonian cuneiform and ideas about government and religion, which they carried back into Asia Minor.

41. The Hittites • The Hittites owed their military success to careful strategy, skillful diplomacy, and superior weapons. • Expert metalworkers, they were among the first people to use iron for spears and battle axes. • Iron weapons gave the Hittites an advantage over enemies armed with softer bronze spears. • The Hittites carefully guarded the secret of ironworking. • Even so, the new technology spread to other peoples. • By 1200 B . C , iron was being used in place of bronze, ushering in the Iron Age. • The Hittites soon lost their military advantage. About the same time, a new onslaught of invaders swept into Asia Minor and the Fertile Crescent, destroying the Hittite Empire and the sophisticated city-state civilizations of Mesopotamia.

42. The Assyrians • Among the peoples who invaded the Fertile Crescent after 1200 BCE, the most feared and hated were the Assyrians • The Assyrians were hardy nomads who settled in the Tigris Valley, where they built a city statenamed after their chief god, Assur • Beginning about 1100 B.C, the Assyrians conquered people after people until they had an empire that included the entire Fertile Crescent as well as Egypt.

43. The Assyrians did not Mess Around… • The mighty Assyrian Empire depended on a highly disciplined army. • Iron weapons, an excellent cavalry, and iron-tipped battering rams carried the Assyrians from one victory to the next. • Once a city was conquered, the Assyrians showed no mercy. "I cut off their heads and like heaps of grain, I piled them up,“ boasted one Assyrian ruler. " I skinned alive all the chief men. Their young men and maidens I burned in the fire," wrote another. • When the Assyrians captured Babylon, about 700 B.C, they tortured and beheaded prisoners, enslaved women and children, and reduced the city to rubble.

44. The Assyrian Empire • Assyrian government was as harsh and efficient as the Assyrian army. • The empire was divided into provinces, each ruled by a governor responsible to the king, who had absolute power. • The Assyrians built roads to speed the movement of their army from the capital to the provinces. • They deported groups of troublesome people to remote parts of the empire, where they could not organize rebellions. • Oneside effect of these forced migrations was an exchange of ideas among the conquered peoples of the Fertile Crescent.

45. The World’s First Library • With war loot and taxes collected from conquered peoples, the Assyrians built a capital at Nineveh • The Assyrian king Assurbanipal builta great library at Nineveh. • In it, he stored a vast collection of over 22,000 clay tablets written in the cuneiform of Sumer and Babylon. • Although the Assyrians were despised as brutal conquerors, they made a lasting contribution to civilization by organizing and preserving these invaluable records in the world's first library.

46. "I am Assurbanipal, King of the Universe, King of Assyria. I seized a fierce lion of the plain by his ears. I pierced his body with my lance.“ Thus, the ruthless Assyrian leader celebrated his hunting skill The lion hunt shown here was one of a series of sculptures that decorated Assurbanipalspalace at Nineoeh.

48. Revival of Babylon • In 612 B.C, oppressed peoples within the Assyrian Empire joined the Medes and Chaldeans to capture and destroy Nine-veh. • The victors divided up the Assyrian Empire. • The Medes occupied the highlands north of Mesopotamia, and the Chaldeans established an empire in Mesopotamia proper. • Duringthe reign of Nebuchadnezzarthe Chaldeans extended their empire over the Fertile Crescent.

49. Nebuchadnezzar • Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt Babylon as a symbol of his power. Massive walls surrounded the city and the outlying farmlands, protecting the food supply during a siege. • Nebuchadnezzar'simmense palace, decorated with blue glazed bricks, was rivaled in splendor by the famous hanging gardens of Babylon. • According to legend, Nebuchadnezzar designed the gardens for his wife, who despised the flat plains of Mesopotamia and longed for the mountains of her Median homeland. • The many terraces filled with exotic plants and trees amazed travelers, who returned home awed by this wonder of the ancient world.