“Drinking beer, in a blissful mood

With joy in the heart and a happy liver”

----Sumerian poem 3000 BCE

ORIGINS OF CIVILIZATION, CITIES, AND THE EMERGENCE OF POWERFUL STATES

MESOPOTAMIA

“THE LAND BETWEEN TWO RIVERS”

• Why did populations abandon urban sites in Anatolia? Was it environmental change?

• Between 7000BCE and 5000 BCE (9-10,000 years ago) peoples settled permanently and began irrigation based farming in the region of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

• By 3500 BCE several cities had emerged from these settlements under independent kings.

Jericho

CRITICAL THEMES DRIVING RESEARCH 1850-2011

1850-1920•Origins of Civilization•Root causes of civilization•Biblical scholarship•Focus on Royal Dynasties After 1920 the above and…•Emphasis on everyday life; “the common man”•New focus on trade networks•New interest in urban life in terms of problem solving

ANCIENT ENVIRONMENT

• Biblical text describes Eden as at the confluence of four rivers. Tigris and Euphrates are two of the four. The other two named rivers do not exist (but did they once exist?)

• Recent NASA satellite radar imaging reveals two extensive dry riverbeds beneath the sands in southern Iraq that once joined to the other rivers. Significant evidence of a radically changed environment.

CHRONOLOGY

• Eridu 5500BC-1800 BCE• Ubaid period from 4500 BCE (first written records)• Uruk 4000BC-500 BC (first true city)• Early Dynastic Period, Sumerian Empire from

3200 BCE (use of bronze for tools)

QUESTION

• What impact on local environment and social relationships are likely to have occurred as a result of concentrated populations engaging in intensive farming?

IMPACT

• Agriculture in support of urban development directly led to n-transforms of the environment: modification of landscape, air polution, irrigation, canals, dams and reservoirs, deforestation, altered biota (focus on specific plants and animals), concentrated populations, concentrated waste…

BIO-CULTURAL EVOLUTION

• Profound changes in human biology resulted from shift to farming:• Dietary segmentation and reduction• Lactose tolerance (recent mutation in some populations)• Malaria and sickle-cell anemic response• Dental carries

Jarmo. Braidwood excavations. 1960

Interior view of sectioned rooms.

Braidwood 1960

Household scale partitions.

Tell Choga Mami. Ubaid period. Samarrans pre-date the Sumerians.

FINDINGS

• Jarmo: oldest (between 7000-6500 BC) undisputed evidence of agriculturally based community (wheat and barley) Approx 150 people• Evidence for fertility cult

• Jericho: (Approx 5000 BC) town with extensive walls, ancestor veneration, population around 2000. • Occupied from 5000 BC – 1350 BC with

intermittent periods of abandonment. Walls rebuilt at least 19 times.

SCALES OF ANALYSIS

• Public• Household• Monumental (non-residential)• Administrative• Sacred• Spatial differentiation

JERICHO

• No break in Natufian cultural sequence.• Round houses of mud-brick construction• Kenyon suggests defensive walls and towers up

to 60 feet with narrow interior passageway to top.

• Bar Josef disagrees with the findings of Kenyon at Jericho and suggests the city walls were intended to protect against flooding, not armies. (Jericho is below sea level).

Jericho.

Kenyon excavation 1954.

No clear evidence No clear evidence of what Jericho’s of what Jericho’s wealth was based wealth was based on. on. Poor agricultural Poor agricultural area 600 feet area 600 feet below sea level.below sea level.

Site of Jericho. Recent excavations.

Exposed tower. Reached 60 feet in height by 3000BC. Granary or defensive works?

Plastered skull with inset shell eyes. Portrait heads. Numerous skulls reposed in living quarters: possible indication of ancestor veneration.

North wall exterior

WORLD CHANGING TECHNOLOGY

• The use of metals has been profound.• Metallurgy has implications for power relations,

status, trade, conflict, religion, and exchange.• Metal working associated with religious authority

and state secrets.• Metals attributed to divine sources.• Uneven development. Metals not used in all

places at same time.

BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGYSEARCH FOR SITES IN POPULAR IMAGINATION

Tell Ubaid

Tell dated to the Ubaid period. Formerly a walled compound.

UNTIL 1930S

• Biblical scholarship in Mesopotamia has been directed toward locating ancient cities described in religious texts.

• Many ancient Mesopotamian texts are the sources of ancient Hebrew writings and the Biblical writings. The writings of Sumerians record the histories of even earlier civilizations.

ARCHAEOLOGY 1930’S

• Discovery and excavation at Sumerian city of Ur gained tremendous global attention.• Research into origins of writing was spurred by

further discoveries at Ubaid and Uruk• Epic of Gilgamesh among the first literature of the

world. Existed in several forms and fragments.

Sir Leonard Wooley excavating at Sumerian city of Ur

Wooley believed he had found evidence of the great flood mentioned in the bible.

With T.E. Lawrence at excavations of Royal tombs at Ur.

Weaponry from the Royal tomb.

QUESTION

• Identify three indications of social differentiation and stratification that might be visible on the landscape or in cemeteries.

GILGAMESH EPIC

• We are told by the narrator that Gilgamesh was the 5th King of Uruk “of the great walls.”• The tale was written as if retold from oral

histories by a narrator. • The story contains accounts later adopted into

Hebrew and Jewish sacred texts, forming the basis of Biblical liturgy.

• Gilgamesh epic is more than history. It represents great themes in the human condition--loyalty, vanity, loss of innocence, love, facing mortality, greed and avarice…• It also contains tantalizing evidence of ancient

geography.• One text describes “the deluge” and building of

an “ark” to carry the seed of all living things. The Bible echoes these tales.

Tablet containing a version of the Gilgamesh Epic

Common Assyrian impression of Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh portrayed as great King in standard motifs in the later Assyrian temples.

His “real” story is that of mankind coming to understand mortality. The epic also contains intriguing geographical information of great value to archaeologists.

REALITY OF GILGAMESH?

• City of Uruk has been excavated revealing several layers of deposits over representing 2000 years.

At Uruk. A great ziggurat and perimeter walls.

Mesopotamia as a maritime region

Clay cone decorative architecture at Uruk.

Clay cone decorated columns at Uruk.

US soldiers at Babylon.

Reconstruction

Uruk temple mound.

British troops at Uruk, 2009.

Passageway to tombs.

Ziggaurat (reasonable reconstruction) Babylon.

Entrance to great Zigaurat of Babylon.

Reconstruction initiated by Saddam Hussein.

Reconstructed ziggurat. Significant differences from contemporary Egyptian pyramids in design, construction and purpose.

Ziggurats were ceremonial and administrative centers. Places of worship, commerce, and civic activity.

Fairly imaginative reconstruction from a child’s book about Babylon.

KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN MESOPOTAMIA

• Invention of writing *• Invention of the

wheel*• Invention of

“history”• King lists• Inventories

• Battles fought and won described or proclaimed

Mask: Sargon the Great

• Invention of literature• Epic hero tales (see Gilgamesh)

• Codified laws• Postal system• Professional standing armies• Siege machines

• First schools (sexes separated)• First farmer’s almanac• First fables• First “congress” of a

senate in two chambers (elders and men of military age)• First recorded tax cut

for wealthy patrons.

QUESTION

• What “invention” of the Sumerians has had the most significant impact on the trajectory or process of civilization?

Excavations at Nippur.

• Area of modern Iraq has a deep and rich history. But its history is one of conflict between rival states over territory and resources.

• Recent archaeology by Iraqi scholars (until Gulf War) focused on ancient cities, Babylon, and legacy politics. Interest of modern leaders to link themselves to a glorious past.

FROM LITERATURE TO PROPAGANDA

COMMUNICATION ARTS

Temple worshiper votive.

Clay tablet written with cuneiform script

Pictographic precursor to cuneiform.

Clay tablet letter inside clay protective envelope.

Map of the city-State of Nippur, 1300 BC

During this period the Hittites had spread their empire into Mesopotamia and Egypt.

Cylinder seals (and the rolled impression) from 3400-3200 BC

Babylonian seal. Circa 1000 BC. Craved from chalcedony.

Babylonian seals from ca. 800 BC. Carved from chalcedony and rock crystal (capped with gold).

Two different statues of Gudea of Lagash, great builder of cities and traveler. (Possible inspiration for the character Gilgamesh?)

SUMERIA

• Excavated by Sir Leonard Wooley 1928-34• Royal tombs• 2500 burials• Emphasis on temples, royal graves, Royal

treasures.• New studies are revising much of Wooley’s

interpretations whish were heavily influenced by Biblical thought.

Archaeological excavations in Mesopotamia often achieved great depths.

Wooley excavations at Ur.

From Royal tombs at Ur.

Lyre (harp)

The royal lyre destroyed by looters of the Iraq National Museum, 2003.

The so-called “Standard of Ur.” 4500 years old.

Lapis lazuli, red sandstone, bitumen, cooper, and wood.

Reverse side of Standard of Ur. Notes troops, charioteers, standardized weapons and armor. Weapons were largely of copper and flint, or poor quality bronze.

CHANGING ENVIRONMENT

• Satellite imaging reveals evidence of several dried river beds. These once large and powerful rivers no longer flow through Southern Iraq. • Sea level changes and wetland filling owing to

agriculture have altered the maritime conditions of Iraq, the cultures of which were oriented toward seafaring in ancient times.

• Draining the swamps engineered by Hussein further damaged the ecology of southern Iraq.

MESOPOTAMIAN NEIGHBORS

CIVILIZATIONS OF SIGNIFICANCE

Stop

• Phoenicians 3000 BCE -500 BCE• sailors and traders

• Hebrews and Jews 2000 BCE ---• literate traditions

• Egyptians 5000 BCE- 200CE• builders and planners

Phoenician homeland.

INDO-EUROPEAN MIGRATIONS

POPULATIONS FROM SOUTH CENTRAL AREAS OF RUSSIA/EASTERN EUROPE

• Nineteenth century linguists hypothesized population migrations based on analysis of language attributes. Various routes and invasions were suggested and diffusionist archaeologists were quick to adopt these ideas for explanations of change in Asia and the Middle East.

MIGRATION HYPOTHESIS

• Speakers of an Indo-European root language migrated over the centuries and millennia between 3000-1000 BCE into western Europe, SE Asia and the Middle East. • These groups form the basis for regional

civilizations, such as the Greeks, Celts, Hittites, Persians, and Indians.

INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGE

• Several languages share root words, syntax, grammatical construction and conceptual links. These similarities are numerous and can only be explained by assuming a source, or root language from which the others are derived.

MECHANISMS OF LANGUAGE EXCHANGE

• Assumption is that migrations and dominance Indo-European speakers over subject groups led to absorption of language of dominant culture. • Attractive in it simplicity, there are recognized

problems with the hypothesis.

ARYAN INVASION

• The Indo-European model was fundamental in theories of diffusion and the apparent replacement of entire cultures. One popular theory suggested ancient civilization in India was unsettled by an invasion by Aryan peoples around 3000 BCE.• An attractive hypothesis, but wrong.

WHAT CAN BE AGREED UPON...

• Indo-European language roots are wide spread.• Indo Europeans had

horses and eventually developed chariots.• Indo-Europeans

were not one ethnicity or “race”

• Indo-European languages and technologies were adopted regionally, but not necessarily customs and cultures.• The Hittites were

responsible for major upheaval and influence around 1900BCE.

• Copper was the first metal to be worked into tools. Gold and silver are too soft and brittle. • Copper mixed with tin, zinc, and arsenic in

varying degrees yield bronze. It can be cast or beaten into the desired shape.• Bronze is strong and holds an edge well.• Iron ores can be cast or hammered into shape.

Hammereing actually strengthens iron alloys.

• Each metal requires specialized knowledge and associated technology (including little understood chemistry) and each came to be associated with particular gods and forces in all cultures.

SUMMARY

• From Neolithic origins, cultures of Mesopotamia developed into powerful complex states and are the source civilization for many of the great achievements of humankind.• Indo-European speaking peoples spread out

widely and adopted many regional cultures while contributing language roots.

• Already by 3000 BCE people were trading among the many civilizations of the Old World.

• The rise of complex state societies can be traced to this period.