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Book No. – 48 (History)
Book Name – Western Civilisation: Their History and Their Culture (Edward Mcnall)
What’s Inside the Chapter? (After Subscription)
1. ANCIENT SUMER: THE WORLD OF THE FIRST CITIES
2. OLD BABYLONIAN DEVELOPMENTS
3. THE KASSITE AND HITTITE INTERLUDE
4. THE MIGHT OF THE ASSYRIANS
5. THE NEW BABYLONIAN REVIVAL
6. THE MESOPOTAMIAN LEGACY
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LANGUAGE
Mesopotamian Civilisation
Chapter – 2
Table of Contents
- History begins in Sumer, with the earliest forms of writing invented around 3200 B.C. in Mesopotamia.
- Prior to this, human history for the first 35,000 years was based entirely on the archaeological record because humans did not leave written records.
- The invention of writing in Mesopotamia marked the beginning of recorded history, allowing scholars to understand the actions of early humans.
- The ancient Mesopotamians were highly innovative, contributing significantly to human progress.
- Inventions credited to Mesopotamians include:
- The wheel, invented around 3000 B.C.
- The calendar
- The mathematical functions of multiplication and division.
- Mesopotamians were also profound thinkers in areas such as:
- Theology
- Jurisprudence (law)
- Astronomy
- Narrative literature
- These innovations laid the foundation for future developments in various fields of thought and expression.
- Despite their achievements, Mesopotamian rulers were often ruthless militarists, and their art could appear frigid or fierce.
- The “first chapter of history” written by the Mesopotamians was one of the most important in the entire book of human events.
ANCIENT SUMER: THE WORLD OF THE FIRST CITIES
- Between 500 and 3200 B.C., Mesopotamia, located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, became the first civilized territory with cities forming the foundation of its society and culture.
- The period from 3200 B.C. to 2000 B.C. is known as the Sumerian era, named after Sumer, the most advanced region of Mesopotamia in the south.
- During the first nine centuries of the Sumerian era, independent city-states like Uruk, Ur, and Lagash existed, with no unified government.
- Around 2320 B.C., Sargon the Great from Akkad, north of Sumer, conquered the region after winning thirty-four battles.
- After Sargon’s conquest, the Akkadian dynasty ruled over both Akkad and Sumer for nearly two centuries.
- Around 2130 B.C., Sumer regained its independence and experienced a revival, ruled by kings based in Ur until about 2000 B.C..
- Sumer’s accomplishments were influenced by its climate and geography:
- The fertile soil of the Tigris-Euphrates region required irrigation due to lack of rainfall for most of the year.
- The extreme summer heat (reaching 125°F) made summer months unproductive, necessitating careful water management.
- Social stratification, professional specialization, and the rise of cities were driven by the need for collective work on irrigation projects.
- Lack of natural resources in southern Mesopotamia, such as stone, minerals, and trees, led to a heavy reliance on trade and economic strategies.
- The invention of wheeled transport around 3200 B.C. is a significant achievement:
- Wheels were first used in pottery-making by 4000 B.C. and later adapted for transport around 2700 B.C..
- The Sumerians attached wheels to sledges, creating two-wheeled chariots and four-wheeled carts.
- The carts were drawn by oxen, as horses were unknown in the region until later invasions.
- These carts helped with irrigation and urban building projects.
- The lunar calendar was another crucial Sumerian invention, developed to aid agricultural activities:
- The moon cycles (about 29.5 days) served as units of time, creating the first form of the month.
- Twelve lunar cycles (sometimes adding extra months) were used to create a year for planting and harvesting.
- This calendar system led to the development of predictive science in agriculture.
- The Sumerian lunar calendar influenced later systems, such as the Jewish and Islamic calendars, which are also based on lunar cycles.
- Writing was one of Sumer’s three most significant contributions to Western civilization, alongside the wheel and the calendar.
- Writing emerged gradually over a millennium (c. 3500 to c. 2500 B.C.) from pictorial representations to a fully developed system.
- Around 3500 B.C., Sumerians began carving or stamping pictures on stone or clay to represent ownership, such as a rock for “Rocky” or a house for a dwelling.
- By 3000 B.C., pictographs evolved to include abstractions, such as a bowl representing any food or a head with a bowl symbolizing eating.
- By 2500 B.C., writing advanced to cuneiform, using wedge-shaped characters pressed into clay with a reed stylus.
- The cuneiform system included about 500 characters, many with multiple meanings, making it more complex than alphabetic systems.
- Cuneiform was used across Mesopotamia for two millennia, remaining the standard for commerce in western Asia until about 500 B.C.
- Surviving clay tablets show that about 90% of Sumerian writings were business or administrative records, while 10% were literary works, including dialogues, proverbs, hymns, and mythic tales.
- Sumerian dialogues were debates (e.g., summer vs. winter) intended to teach students by exploring various perspectives without clear winners.
- Proverbs expressed firm opinions, such as, “Where servants are, there is quarrel; where cosmeticians are, there is slander.”
- Hymns and mythic tales show the evolution of Sumerian beliefs about gods:
- Initially, gods were seen as natural forces, such as the power of growing grain or preserving food.
- Over time, gods were anthropomorphized, representing human-like traits and actions, such as marriage and death.
- By the late third millennium, gods took on political characteristics, becoming patron deities of cities or rulers of spheres like the sky or underworld.
- The god Enlil was regarded as the ruler of all gods, leading to notions of divine unity and omnipotence.
- Temples dominated Sumerian society from 3000 to 2000 B.C., towering over the cities on ziggurats, terraced towers made of sun-dried clay bricks.
- Building a typical temple required 1,500 laborers working ten hours daily for five years, and constant repairs were necessary.
- Most temple work was performed by volunteers as acts of devotion to the gods.
- Priests did not live in temples but in adjacent precincts, along with administrators, craftsmen, and slaves.
- Temple schools provided education in cuneiform and other knowledge for the priestly caste and administrators, making them the earliest known schools.
- Temples owned vast agricultural lands and engaged in trade, functioning as virtual states within the state.
- Before Sargon, temples often governed cities; after independence, secular kings ruled but often intermarried with priestly families.
- Sumerian society had three primary ranks:
- Specialists (administrators, merchants, and artisans) were well-off but dependent on priests.
- Free farmers worked poor land and often fell into debt to temples.
- Slaves, though rarely mentioned in records, likely endured extreme hardship and miserable conditions.