world cultures

The Emergence of Early Civilizations – Mesopotamia

Review the PowerPoint slides that accompany this lecture:

The Emergence of Early Civilizations – Mesopotamia PPT  Download The Emergence of Early Civilizations – Mesopotamia PPT (includes live links to websites and videos).

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia means the land between the two rivers, according to the Greeks. Mesopotamia is part of the Fertile Crescent, an area in modern-day Iraq, Turkey, Israel, and Egypt, that provided for the development of the great social organization. There are disputes between experts about who developed first, Egypt or Mesopotamia, but so far it is widely accepted that Mesopotamia developed cities and bigger social structures a little earlier than Egypt.

Mesopotamia was somewhat at the center of the known world in those days. To the northwest, it had what today we call Europe and Turkey, to the east, present-day Iran, and a little further, China. To the southwest, we find present-day Israel and Egypt. It was flat land and dry, but it had the Tigris River to the north and the Euphrates to the south that provided water to develop a healthy agriculture system. This required higher levels of social organization and leadership and, as a result, the development of cities.

The Tigris and Euphrates, different from the Nile, would flood randomly. Mesopotamians could not predict when these rivers would flood their houses and lands. This created a view of life that was negative. Life was just hard, and then you die.    

The Epic of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh is the first ever written piece of literature ever. Although there was a real-life king called Gilgamesh in Mesopotamia, the Epic of Gilgamesh is a story told with many fantasies. In the Epic, we follow king Gilgamesh as he behaves like a tyrant with his subjects. Then, a worthy opponent is sent to destroy him. It so happens that they get along so well after their fight that they become best friends. The gods are not happy with this, so they decide to send a beast to finish Gilgamesh. But Gilgamesh and his new friend face the beast sent by the gods, and together they kill it. The gods are so upset that they take Gilgamesh's friend's life. Now Gilgamesh, who thought he was the strongest man alive and found the friend he longed for so much, realizes that we all die. He goes in search of eternal life. He finds an answer, but he loses it.

As you read the Epic of Gilgamesh now, you find familiar stories that you might have heard before in the Bible. The story of the flood and Noah are represented with minimal differences in the Epic of Gilgamesh. It tells you that the story of Gilgamesh as it became a legend was a popular tale in Mesopotamia by the time the Bible was put into writing.  The theme of the Epic of Gilgamesh might be the most important question we have been trying to answer for thousands of years. This is the question that shapes how we live and what we choose to believe. If life ends in death, then what does it mean to live?

Sargon

The Akkadians were the predominant people of central Mesopotamia, to the north of Sumer (Coffin 2008). The city of Sumer is considered the earliest example of civilization. These new forms of getting together, working and producing on a large scale formed cities with a certain power level. Sargon was the king of Akkad. Around 2350 B.C.E., Sargon conquered Sumer. Maybe Sargon, also known as Sargon the Great, was the first leader to benefit from invading other cities and, as a result, building the first empire known to us.

In a series of political moves, Sargon managed to unite the main cities of Ur, Uruk, and other territories to create the first Mesopotamian empire. Religion was very important for the Mesopotamians, and Sargon knew it. He placed his daughter Enheduanna as the high priestess of An, the principal god of Uruk and Nanna (Coffin 2008). Mesopotamians demonstrate with this that we have been building political and religious powerful relationships for thousands of years.

Hammurabi 

Around 1792 B.C.E. Hammurabi assumed the throne as king of Babylon. Hammurabi's major contribution to humanity is what we know today as Hammurabi's Code. The Code was a set of laws that Hammurabi placed in every city to make the citizens aware that there were some rules that we needed to follow when we wanted to live in a community.  The Code was an attempt to establish order among his people. It was not necessarily fair by today's standards. Women were not treated equally in many respects, and some laws were harsh.

One fascinating point is that in Hammurabi's Code, one of the most popular rules that we thought came to form the Bible. "An eye for an eye…", one of the most popular expressions in human history, before showing up in the Bible, was one of the laws in Hammurabi's Code. A famous stone is preserved and shown now as a museum piece of Hammurabi's Code. It's around six feet tall. We could imagine the citizens of the empire almost 4,000 years ago stopping to inform themselves and be aware of the expectations that king Hammurabi, through divine intervention, had of them.

Writing

Mesopotamia gave us one of the most important inventions of humanity, writing. It started to keep records of what was being sold and bought. Priests were the ones who mainly used it to keep track of the sacrifices being offered to the gods in the ziggurat or temple.  The Greeks called it cuneiform because of the shape of the marks made on mud tablets. Eventually, the Mesopotamians realized this form of accounting could be used for many other purposes. The Persians, for example, are the ones who created a postal system imitated now around the world. There was a powerful idea; an idea could be transferred from one person to many by inscribing certain signs in a piece of mud and sending it a long distance to share a common interest.

It is interesting that around 4,000 years ago, we started writing on "tablets." Today is part of our daily lives to write and get information from "tablets."   

Math and Time

Mesopotamia also gave us math. The region did not get much rain. It depended on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to irrigate. Mesopotamians developed an irrigation system that relied on the knowledge of geometry to make sure that water reached the crops. The development of agriculture on a large scale provided the opportunity for growth, trade, and surplus to the cities.

Another contribution of the Mesopotamians is the measuring of time. Today we follow the Mesopotamians when we look at our clocks, and the day is divided into 24 hours, 60 minutes each hour, and sixty seconds each minute. All of these are multiples of 12. Mesopotamians created this division to bring some order to the chaos of living in this region.   

Religion

Another contribution from Mesopotamia is organized religion. Some theorists say that when the Bible talks about the Tower of Babel, they are referring to the ziggurats or temples built in the different cities in Mesopotamia. According to the Mesopotamians, humans were created to work for the gods. There was no other reason for humans to exist but to serve the gods. But then, humans became too loud, and the gods decided to send them to a flood.

The story of the flood is another story in the Book of the Sumerians before it was in the Bible. There are incredible similarities in both stories. It tells us that the story of the flood was a popular one for many years in the Mesopotamian region before it was written down. 

References

Coffin, J. G. (2008).  Western civilizations: Their history and their culture. W.W. Norton and Company.

Spielvogel, J. J. (1997).  Western civilization: Volume I: To 1715. West Publishing.

The Emergence of Early Civilizations – Mesopotamia

Review the PowerPoint slides that accompany this lecture:

The Emergence of Early Civilizations – Mesopotamia PPT  Download The Emergence of Early Civilizations – Mesopotamia PPT (includes live links to websites and videos).

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia means the land between the two rivers, according to the Greeks. Mesopotamia is part of the Fertile Crescent, an area in modern-day Iraq, Turkey, Israel, and Egypt, that provided for the development of the great social organization. There are disputes between experts about who developed first, Egypt or Mesopotamia, but so far it is widely accepted that Mesopotamia developed cities and bigger social structures a little earlier than Egypt.

Mesopotamia was somewhat at the center of the known world in those days. To the northwest, it had what today we call Europe and Turkey, to the east, present-day Iran, and a little further, China. To the southwest, we find present-day Israel and Egypt. It was flat land and dry, but it had the Tigris River to the north and the Euphrates to the south that provided water to develop a healthy agriculture system. This required higher levels of social organization and leadership and, as a result, the development of cities.

The Tigris and Euphrates, different from the Nile, would flood randomly. Mesopotamians could not predict when these rivers would flood their houses and lands. This created a view of life that was negative. Life was just hard, and then you die.    

The Epic of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh is the first ever written piece of literature ever. Although there was a real-life king called Gilgamesh in Mesopotamia, the Epic of Gilgamesh is a story told with many fantasies. In the Epic, we follow king Gilgamesh as he behaves like a tyrant with his subjects. Then, a worthy opponent is sent to destroy him. It so happens that they get along so well after their fight that they become best friends. The gods are not happy with this, so they decide to send a beast to finish Gilgamesh. But Gilgamesh and his new friend face the beast sent by the gods, and together they kill it. The gods are so upset that they take Gilgamesh's friend's life. Now Gilgamesh, who thought he was the strongest man alive and found the friend he longed for so much, realizes that we all die. He goes in search of eternal life. He finds an answer, but he loses it.

As you read the Epic of Gilgamesh now, you find familiar stories that you might have heard before in the Bible. The story of the flood and Noah are represented with minimal differences in the Epic of Gilgamesh. It tells you that the story of Gilgamesh as it became a legend was a popular tale in Mesopotamia by the time the Bible was put into writing.  The theme of the Epic of Gilgamesh might be the most important question we have been trying to answer for thousands of years. This is the question that shapes how we live and what we choose to believe. If life ends in death, then what does it mean to live?

Sargon

The Akkadians were the predominant people of central Mesopotamia, to the north of Sumer (Coffin 2008). The city of Sumer is considered the earliest example of civilization. These new forms of getting together, working and producing on a large scale formed cities with a certain power level. Sargon was the king of Akkad. Around 2350 B.C.E., Sargon conquered Sumer. Maybe Sargon, also known as Sargon the Great, was the first leader to benefit from invading other cities and, as a result, building the first empire known to us.

In a series of political moves, Sargon managed to unite the main cities of Ur, Uruk, and other territories to create the first Mesopotamian empire. Religion was very important for the Mesopotamians, and Sargon knew it. He placed his daughter Enheduanna as the high priestess of An, the principal god of Uruk and Nanna (Coffin 2008). Mesopotamians demonstrate with this that we have been building political and religious powerful relationships for thousands of years.

Hammurabi 

Around 1792 B.C.E. Hammurabi assumed the throne as king of Babylon. Hammurabi's major contribution to humanity is what we know today as Hammurabi's Code. The Code was a set of laws that Hammurabi placed in every city to make the citizens aware that there were some rules that we needed to follow when we wanted to live in a community.  The Code was an attempt to establish order among his people. It was not necessarily fair by today's standards. Women were not treated equally in many respects, and some laws were harsh.

One fascinating point is that in Hammurabi's Code, one of the most popular rules that we thought came to form the Bible. "An eye for an eye…", one of the most popular expressions in human history, before showing up in the Bible, was one of the laws in Hammurabi's Code. A famous stone is preserved and shown now as a museum piece of Hammurabi's Code. It's around six feet tall. We could imagine the citizens of the empire almost 4,000 years ago stopping to inform themselves and be aware of the expectations that king Hammurabi, through divine intervention, had of them.

Writing

Mesopotamia gave us one of the most important inventions of humanity, writing. It started to keep records of what was being sold and bought. Priests were the ones who mainly used it to keep track of the sacrifices being offered to the gods in the ziggurat or temple.  The Greeks called it cuneiform because of the shape of the marks made on mud tablets. Eventually, the Mesopotamians realized this form of accounting could be used for many other purposes. The Persians, for example, are the ones who created a postal system imitated now around the world. There was a powerful idea; an idea could be transferred from one person to many by inscribing certain signs in a piece of mud and sending it a long distance to share a common interest.

It is interesting that around 4,000 years ago, we started writing on "tablets." Today is part of our daily lives to write and get information from "tablets."   

Math and Time

Mesopotamia also gave us math. The region did not get much rain. It depended on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to irrigate. Mesopotamians developed an irrigation system that relied on the knowledge of geometry to make sure that water reached the crops. The development of agriculture on a large scale provided the opportunity for growth, trade, and surplus to the cities.

Another contribution of the Mesopotamians is the measuring of time. Today we follow the Mesopotamians when we look at our clocks, and the day is divided into 24 hours, 60 minutes each hour, and sixty seconds each minute. All of these are multiples of 12. Mesopotamians created this division to bring some order to the chaos of living in this region.   

Religion

Another contribution from Mesopotamia is organized religion. Some theorists say that when the Bible talks about the Tower of Babel, they are referring to the ziggurats or temples built in the different cities in Mesopotamia. According to the Mesopotamians, humans were created to work for the gods. There was no other reason for humans to exist but to serve the gods. But then, humans became too loud, and the gods decided to send them to a flood.

The story of the flood is another story in the Book of the Sumerians before it was in the Bible. There are incredible similarities in both stories. It tells us that the story of the flood was a popular one for many years in the Mesopotamian region before it was written down. 

References

Coffin, J. G. (2008).  Western civilizations: Their history and their culture. W.W. Norton and Company.

Spielvogel, J. J. (1997).  Western civilization: Volume I: To 1715. West Publishing.