Mesopotamia

Civilization began in southern Mesopotamia, the land of Sumer (Figure 15‑2), and then spread to Egypt and the rest of the ancient world. The first city with a centralized bureaucracy was Uruk (4,000 BC), which is the namesake of Iraq. The centralized bureaucracy governance model spread to other cities in Mesopotamia and northern Syria.

The original Ubaid language was Sumerian; however, an Afro-Asiatic (originated in Africa) Semitic language, Akkadian, became the dominant language in Sumer, and Sumerian became a dead language. Many scholars think that the Akkadian originated in the Middle East and that Semitic languages spread westward to Egypt, but they are probably incorrect.

Rather than everyone producing food for their own family, the laborers who lived in urban areas went outside the city and produced food for the city. This freed up other people to become priests, metalworkers, scribes, soldiers, teachers, weavers, merchants, government officials, potters, and farmers. The Sumerians developed and administered complex economic, law, and governmental institutions. Slaves and servants also worked on monumental structures, which included city walls, administrative buildings, ziggurats (Figure 15‑3 and Figure 15‑4), and temples (Figure 15‑5). This was a class system, but the system was not racist. People in debt or for other reasons were poor, became the menial laborers of the society.

The construction projects in the Uruk culture (the first Sumerian phase) were amazing. The Anu Ziggurat was constructed in 4000 BC, and the White Temple was constructed on top of it in 3500 BC. The Anu Ziggurat might have saved lives during the Great Ur Flood, which would have motivated other cities to build ziggurats. There was a particularly ruthless king of Uruk, probably a descendant of the Ubaid, who ruled several cities during the Uruk IV period, and he built many temples (Figure 15‑5). The Uruk culture collapsed at the end of Uruk IV period in 3000 BC, after which there was a dispersion of Middle Eastern people throughout Iran, the Steppe, Europe, and Africa between 3000 and 2500 BC.

The landscape of Mesopotamia became dotted with cities along canals and rivers. Major cities included Uruk, Ur, Lagash, Umma, Babylon, Akkad, and Ashur. The early Sumerian cities were 2 to 4 times larger than Eridu of the Late Neolithic. Uruk had 10,000 people, Lagash had 19,000 people, and Umma had 16,000 people. Beginning with the Uruk culture in 4000 BC, the subjugation of lower classes in menial labor enabled the construction of monumental architecture, walls around cities, canals, and farms.

The Uruk IV civilization (Sumer) collapsed in 3000 BC. Prior to the collapse, the primary language was Sumerian, which originated with the Ubaid in the Middle East and was not an Afroasiatic language. During the third millennium, the languages and cultures of the original Mesopotamians (Ubaid, Middle Eastern, Akkadian) and primary population of Sumer (black) blended. The people of the city of Ur, which was near Uruk in southern Mesopotamia, became bilingual (Akkadian and Sumerian) and there was extensive lexical borrowing of words in both languages. Scholars refer to the 3^rd millennium mix of Sumerian and Akkadian languages as Sprachbund.

One of the most famous art objects from the third millennium BC is the 2600 BC Standard of Ur, which is a box with two different panels on the sides depicting wartime and peacetime activities in Sumer (Figure 15‑6). One of the Sumerian inventions was bronze, which enabled them to make strong chariots, weapons, and armor. Sumerian weapons of war were used afterward by other civilizations, as they battled for supremacy of the “civilized” world.

The Sumerians developed highly refined agricultural practices. The Nippur Tablet, also called the Sumerian Farmer’s Almanac (1700 BC), records the detailed cultivation practices for production of wheat and barley. Notice the detailed methods, sequence of processes, recommendations on how to treat servants, the different types of plows, the method of seeding, the appeal to a deity for blessing, and leaving behind the remainder for children. In addition to their staple crops (wheat and barley), the Sumerians produced figs, apples, grapes, dates, cakes, and herbs.

(1-12) In days of yore a farmer instructed his son: When you are about to take hold of your field (for cultivation), keep a sharp eye on the opening of the dikes, ditches, and mounds, (so that), when you flood the field the water will not rise too high in it. When you have emptied it of water, watch the field's water-soaked ground that it stay virile ground for you. Let shod oxen (that is, oxen whose hooves are protected in one way or another) trample it for you; (and) After having its weeds ripped out (by them) (and) the field made level ground, dress it evenly with narrow axes weighing (no more than) two-thirds of a pound each. (Following which) Let the pickax wielder eradicate the ox hooves for you (and), Smooth them out; Have all crevices worked over with a drag, and have him go with the pickax all around the four edges of the field.

(13-21) While the field is drying, let your obedient (household (workforce)) prepare your tools for you, make fast the yoke bar, hang up your new whips on nails, and let the hanging handles of your old whips be mended by the artisans. Let the bronze ..... your tools "heed your arm"; let the leather "headbinder", goad, "mouth-opener", (and) whip uphold you (in matters requiring discipline and control); let your bandu-basket crackle; (all this) will make a mighty income for you.

(22-40) When your field has been supplied with what is needed, keep a sharp eye on your work. After adding an extra ox to the plow-ox — when one is harnessed to another ox, their plow is larger than (an ordinary) plow – make them ..... one bur; they will make for you a ..... like a storm, so that three gur barley will be planted in that one bur. Sustenance is in a plow! (Thus) Having had the field worked with the bardil-plow – (yes) the bardil-plow – (and then) having had it worked over with the shukin-plow, repeat (the process). (After) Having had it (the field) harrowed, (and) raked three times and pulverized fine with a hammer, let the handle of your whip uphold you; brook no idleness. Stand over them (the field laborers) during their work, (and) brook no interruptions. Do not [distract] your field workers. Since they must carry on by day, (and by) Heaven's stars for ten, (days), Their strength should be spent on the field. (And) They are not to dance attendance on you.

(41-47) When you are about to plow your field, let your plow break up the stubble for you. Leave your "mouth-cover" of the plow ....., (and) leave your ..... on a narrow nail. Let your moldboards spread to the side, set up your furrows — in one garush, set up eight furrows. Furrows which have been deeply dug — their barley will grow long.

(48-63) When you are about to plow your field, keep your eye on the man who puts in the barley seed. Let him drop the grain uniformly two fingers deep, (and) Use up one shekel of barley for each garush. If the barley seed does not sink in properly, change your share, the "tongue of the plow". If the ....., (then) plow diagonal furrows where you have plowed straight furrows, (And) Plow straight furrows where you have plowed diagonal furrows. Let your straight furrows make your borders into tulu-borders; let the lu-furrows make straight your borders; (and) Plow ab-furrows where .....; (Then) Let all its clods be removed; all its high spots be made into furrows; (and ) all its depressions be made into low furrows — (all this) (It) will be good for the sprout.

(64-72) After the sprout has broken through (the surface of) the ground, say a prayer to the goddess Ninkilim, (And) Shoo away the flying birds. When the barley has filled the narrow bottom of the furrow, water the top seed. When the barley stands up high as (the straw of) a mat in the middle of a boat, water it (a second time). Water (a third time)-its royal barley. If the watered barley has turned red, what you say is: "It is sick with the samana-disease." But if it has succeeded in producing kernel-rich barley, water it (a fourth time); (and) It will yield you an extra measure of barley in every ten (+10 %)

(73-86) When you are about to harvest your field, do not let the barley bend over on itself, (but) Harvest it at the moment of its (full) strength. A reaper, a man who bundles the mown barley, and a man who [sets up the sheaves] before him — these three (as a team) shall do the harvesting for you. The gleaners must do no damage; they must not tear apart the sheaves. During your daily harvesting, as in "days of need", make the earth supply the sustenance of the young and the gleaners according to their number (that is, presumably, he must leave the fallen kernels on the ground for needy children and gleaners to pick); (and) Let them sleep (in your field) as (in) the (open) marshland. After you have obtained ....., do not ....., (but) Roast (some of) the mown barley, (so that) the "prayer of the mown barley" will be said for you daily.

(87-99) When you are about to winnow the barley, let those who weigh your barley [prepare] for you (bins of) thirty gur. Have your threshing floor made level, (and) The gur (-bins) put in order (ready for) the road. When your tools have been [readied] for you, (and) your wagons put in order for you, have your wagons climb the (barley) mounds — your "mound-threshing" (is to take) five days. When you are about to "open the mound", bake arra-bread. When you "open" the barley, have the teeth of your threshing sledges fastened with leather and let bitumen cover the .....; When you are about to hitch the oxen (to the threshing sledge), let your men who "open" the barley, stand by with food (that is, the oxen's food).

(100-108) When you have heaped up the barley, say the "prayer of the (still) uncleaned barley". When you winnow the barley, pay attention to the men who lift the barley from the ground — two "barley-lifters" should lift it for you. On the day the barley is to be cleaned, have it laid on the sticks, (and) Say a prayer evening and night. (Then) Have the barley "unloosed" (from the chaff) like (with) an overpowering wind; (and) The "unloosed" barley will be stored for you.

The number of things invented by the Sumerians is astounding. They invented writing, mathematics, economics, banking, money (the shekel), commerce, civilization, government, law, large cities, schools, large irrigation canal systems, sanitary sewers, science, astronomy and astrology, open sea navigation (Figure 15-8), the arch, the vault, casting in copper and bronze, brazing and soldering, sculpture in stone, engraving, inlay, writing in clay, and intensive farming. They invented geometry and the concept of the 360-degree circle. The selection of 360 was a good choice because it is divisible by so many numbers. The Sumerians developed mathematics and the sexagesimal numerical system, which was the basis of our decimal system. They invented geometry and conceived of the 360-degree circle. They also thought of weeks and months. They developed the foundations of the major scientific and mathematical disciplines (mathematics, geometry, biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, agriculture). Two of the keys to the development of science are education and written records. The Sumerians developed a formal educational system and were able to pass on their knowledge to the next generation by recording their discoveries in writing. The Sumerians developed weaving. The main clothing style was a body length tunic with woven patterns. They also developed leatherwork inlaid with metal ornaments.

With large populations in widely separated cities, food, goods and people needed to be transported from one location to another. The Ubaid and then Sumerian cultures in Mesopotamia developed sailing. Sailboats helped the Sumerians develop a trading network stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to India. The Sumerians constructed large, seaworthy sailboats from wood floated down from Syria for the framework, and reeds in the marshes for the hull, which was lined with bitumen (tar) in order to prevent the reeds from becoming waterlogged.

The Sumerians imported precious metals for their artisans and craftspeople. They traded their abundant grain for raw materials such as copper, gold, and carnelian. Caravans with pack animals delivered gems and metals from Iran and the Mediterranian coastal areas to ports on the Euphrates River, Tigris River, or seaports, and then sailboats or float boats brought the goods to Sumerian cities.

The Sumerians built large canals to bring water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to their farms and cities; however, as with many water resource projects in world history, there were unintended consequences. A common pitfall of irrigation systems is soil salinization. The Sumerian king Entenmak built a canal in 2400 BC to irrigate the area of Girsu. Excessive leaking from this canal and the water from the irrigated farms that it supplied led to a high water table and soil salinization. The reason soil becomes salinized is that crops use irrigation water but leave most of the salts in the irrigation water in the soil. A high water table (saturated soil) does not allow the salt added to the soil by irrigation water to be leached below the root zone. It is possible that the problem was remediated when the Sumerian civilization collapsed and irrigation temporarily stopped, allowing the water table to drop and allowing pure rainwater to leach the soil. Modern Mesopotamians only farm the soil every other year in order to prevent the problem of a high water table. Eventually, the soil was desalinized and a series of empires followed the Sumerians and used their canals (Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians, etc..); however, the Mongols conquered Mesopotamia in 1258 AD and destroyed all of the irrigation canals.

The Akkadian Empire disintegrated during a drought in 2150 BC, and Sumer was briefly ruled again by the Sumerians in the Third Dynasty of Ur until 2000 BC. After the Third Dynasty of Ur, a series of invaders conquered Mesopotamia and surrounding regions over the next 2,000 years. In summary, the sequence was Babylonians (Amorites), Babylonians (Kassites), Assyrians, Babylonians (Isin), Persians (Cyrus the Great), Greeks (Alexander the Great), various groups, Romans and Byzantines, Arabs, Mongols, Turks, English, and Arabs. The Amorites from Iran established a small state in 1894 BC, which they administered from the town of Babylon. This town and its power greatly expanded during the time of Hammurabi (reigned from 1792 to 1750 BC). In addition to conquering most of Mesopotamia, Hammurabi was famous for writing the Code of Hammurabi, which was a set of laws that sought justice for victims, and which decreed physical punishment for perpetrators. The Code of Hammurabi had a presumption of innocence and limited retribution by individuals against perpetrators. The Babylonians lost power after Hammurabi, and Babylon was sacked by the Hittites in the 16^th century BC. Beginning in 1595, the Kassites ruled Babylon for 500 years and for some periods ruled all of Mesopotamia. In 1153, Babylon was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar I, who established a dynasty in Babylon for approximately 150 years, after which the Assyrians ruled the region for 300 years. The Assyrians built dirt roads to connect the cities in their empire, but they were unreliable. Babylonian power was resurrected in 620 BC under Nabopolassar and his son Nebuchadnezzar II. This was the point at which Babylon crushed Judah (Israel) and deported the Jews to Babylon. The Babylonians also crushed the Assyrian Empire in 612 BC. The Babylonians constructed the first “paved” road in 625 BC. They used bitumen to coat their road, which is an asphalt-like substance. The Persians (Cyrus the Great) invaded Babylon in 539 BC, and Babylon was incorporated into the Achaemenid Empire, which originated in the great city of Persepolis in Iran. The Persians (Achaemenid Empire) connected their vast empire with the “Royal Road” in 500 BC (Figure 15-6). This enabled the use of wheeled vehicles and established trade and rapid communication across the Persian Empire. Cyrus the Great is currently famous for returning the Jews to Israel. The Achaemenid Empire quickly grew and stretched from Turkey and Egypt on the west to Iran and India in the East; They engaged in the famous Graeco-Persian wars but failed to conquer the Greeks when they lost the famous battles of Salamis (sea battle) and Plataea (land battle). In 330 BC, the Greeks invaded and conquered the Persians under Alexander the Great. The region was ruled in whole or in part by several groups after the Greeks. The Romans/Byzantines ruled the region from the 2nd to 7th centuries AD. The Muslim conquest took place in the mid 7th century, and the Muslims (Arabs or Turks) have ruled the region since then, other than a brief period of rule by the British after World War II. Although it might seem like there were frequent changes in empires, this list of empires covers 4,000 years. In comparison, the United States has existed for 244 years.

References

[1] Access Excellence. 2006. About Biotech. 6000 B.C. – 1700 B.C. Early applications and speculation. http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/AB/BC/6000BC-1700AD.html

Banner

Euphrates River. Credit: Sergeant James McCauley. Public Domain.