WEEK TWO – MESOPOTAMIAN CIVILIZATIONS

1. How societies became Civilizations2. Features of the Fertile Crescent3. Features of the Sumerians – first Civilization

a) Myth and Ritual Patternb) Enuma Elishc) Epic of Gilgamesh

4. Features of the Akkadians – first Empire5. Ancient Law Codes6. Writing Sytems7. Sequence of Mesopotamian Civilizations and Cultures

Historical Theme = the Four Big “C”s

IN SUMMARY:

Neolithic Agrarian Attributes

•They were primarily rural societies.

•They were based primarily on peasant agriculture or livestock breeding.

•Most people maintained life in balance with their natural environment.

•Their religion was based heavily on gods and spirits that controlled their natural environment.

•Their religion emphasized ritual and sacrifice as ways to control the deities.

•They relied on religious specialists to communicate with the gods.

•They believed time to be cyclic.

•Their social values emphasized kinship and the clan.

•Significant advancements in new technologies and expansion of populations

Advancement to Civilization• Individual farms became farming villages

• Villages evolved into Towns – Social stratifications– Economic divisions **Must here stress the importance of– Occupational specialties Geography to advancement of

Civilizations**• Towns grew into Cities (centralized authority)

– Government centers – Religious ritual ** Family and Gender Roles Change**– Economic centers– Cultural sophistication

• Cities produced Civilization– Agrarianism -- Government -- Shared religious ritual – state level– Civic identity -- Trade Networks -- Shared cultural traditions, i.e. art– Social complexity -- Writing -- Monumental architecture

Northern Mesopotamia is made up of hills and plains. The land is quite fertile due to seasonal rains, and the rivers and streams flowing from the mountains. Early settlers farmed and used timber, metals and stone from the mountains nearby. Southern Mesopotamia consisted of marshy areas and wide, flat, barren plains. Cities developed along the rivers which flow through the region. Early settlers had to irrigate the land along the banks of the rivers in order for their crops to grow. Since they did not have many natural resources, contact with neighboring lands was important.

Another Historical Theme re: Mesopotamia = Geographic Determinism

Mesopotamia is a Greek word meaning 'between the rivers'. The rivers are the Tigris and Euphrates which flow through modern Iraq. The Euphrates also flows through much of Syria.

Human use of the rivers. •inland navigation possible ~ sometimes. •rivers yearly flood its banks, producing fertile land.•irrigation water for agricultural pursuits and water for sustenance of people and animals

The character of Euphrates and Tigris are different.

The Tigris is •rough and fast flowing. 'Tigris' meaning 'fast as an arrow'. •upper course difficult to pass – not conducive to travel•river cuts deep in the surrounding – not accessible for irrigation.

The Euphrates is •a lifeline. It is more easily used by ships. •banks are lower, suitable for irrigation, with less violent floods. •Precipitation in the mtns, north is large = rainfall-agriculture is possible. •In low lands precipitation is low - Without irrigation (manipulation of the water) agriculture is not possible.

Euphrates vs. Nile Delta. The Euphrates reaches its highest water levels at the end of March to the beginning of May, the Tigris a few weeks earlier. In both cases the crops are already growing on the field. The river flood can only be used for agriculture when the fields are shielded by a system of dams, dikes and canals. This contrasts with the Nile in Egypt. High water in the Nile are a result of the summer monsoon in Central Africa and has is highest water levels in September-October. The Nile fertilizes the land in the autumn and the crops can grow in (early) spring when no floods occur. Moreover the Nile, fed by rivers in a large area, has a more constant flow and carries the soluble salts and lime into the sea. The Euphrates is more easily prone to salination.

Irrigation systems first appeared around 6000 BCE. Dikes, dams and canals brought the waters from the rains in the north to use in the south. This required a high level of organization of the society and collective efforts for the construction, maintenance, supervision and adjustments of the irrigation network. Over-irrigation and limited drainage gradually brackished the fields, often causing ecological crisis. Together with the change of river flow, it stimulates throughout the Mesopotamian history the foundation of new settlements and cities

5500 BCE, the Ubaidians, a pre-urban culture •lived in large villages •first temples in Mesopotamia, •Grow wheat, barley and lentils •raise sheep, goats, and cattle. •Ubaidian sites include Lagash, Eridu and Ur. 4000 BCE Sumerians appear•moved into Mesopotamia, •perhaps from around the Caspian Sea.

3800 BCE the Sumerians had replaced the Ubaidians and others in the south•built better canals ~ irrigation•better transportation •crops by boat to village centers. •improved their roads, donkeys pulling wheeled carts. •The Sumerians increase in population •gave rise to what we call civilization – from an ancient word for city.

Sumerians invented urban living.

Sumerian society •was not secular •city-states were "owned" by the deity •the inhabitants served their patron deity. •city-states were theocracies =

– governed by a priest-bureaucracy. •cities were dominated by shrines or temples. •temple is on a man-made mountain (called a ziggurat) w/stairs leading up to the temple area on the top. •Each Sumerian city had a ziggurat or two dedicated to the deity of that city.

– The geographical conditions of Mesopotamia did not favor architectural development– lacked stone and timber = essential materials for monumental architecture. – Most buildings made of tall marsh reeds = highly perishable materials. – The ziggurats and temples made of mud brick dried in the sun– Temple’s name means literally "the waiting room" for the god. – Temples attempt to bridge gap between humans and gods. Lugals (priest-kings) = mediators between deity

and the people, commissioned by god/goddess to re-build temple or build new one• civic projects solidified the power of the Lugal and convinced the people that their way of life was

preserved by their obedience.

The mountain is an important symbol in Mesopotamian religion, representing the mysterious forces of life which bring rain and fertility.

This is an artist's conception of what an ancient city such as Uruk in Mesopotamia may have looked like. Typically, people lived in their homes, but slept on the flat roofs at night where the desert breeze cooled them off. Sumerians invented the concept of “urban” living.

July 25, 2005 - An Army C-23 Sherpa aircraft flies over a ziggurat at Ur, Iraq – still standing after 500 years of countless wars.

The statues from the Abu Temple were ritual furniture for the temple. The two largest figures are a god and goddess (designs on the base have symbols relating to their divinity). The large eyes also identify them as divine; the eye in many cultures has a mysterious force ("the evil eye," for example). The other figures in the grouping are thought to be worshippers -- or stand-ins (votive figurines) for worshippers, believed to be offering prayers on behalf of human beings.

Sumerian Lugals (priest-kings) portrayed themselves as mediators between deity and the people, often commissioned by a god or goddess to re-build an existing temple or build a new one. These kinds of civic projects solidified the power of the Lugal and convinced the people that their way of life was preserved by their obedience.

Cylinder seals and their impressions recorded and communicated Sumerian religious beliefs. In this instance, a male figure confronts a goddess whose gown is drawn aside. Two braided knots neatly separate images of animals, real and mythological, horizontally into four distinct registers. In the upper region of the seal, pairs of lions are depicted in heraldic fashion (facing one another). Below, two winged griffins raise their forearms over the hindquarters of submissive ibexes who stare backwards at their predators. Cylinder seals evolved from earlier round stamp seals with primitive markings designating ownership and tallying of goods.

From verses scattered throughout hymns and myths, we can compile a picture of the universe's (anki) creation according to the Sumerians. The primeval sea (abzu) existed before anything else and within that, the heaven (an) and the earth (ki) were formed. The boundary between heaven and earth was a solid (perhaps tin) vault, and the earth was a flat disk. Within the vault lay the gas-like 'lil', or atmosphere, the brighter portions therein formed the stars, planets, sun, and moon. Each of the four major Sumerian deities is associated with one of these regions. An, god of heaven, Ki is the original name of the earth goddess, whose name more often appears as Ninhursag (queen of the mountains), Ninmah (the exalted lady), or Nintu (the lady who gave birth). Akkadian myth names her Tiamat, whom Marduk will destroy. It seems likely that An & Tiamat were the progenitors of most of the gods. The eventual relegation of the female deity to an inferior position relative to the male deity reflects the domination and control of women by men as civilizations advanced, one of those paradoxes in history.

Babylonian myth of Semitic origins will

promote Marduk as the chief god who battles with Tiamat, the main goddess and destroys her, using her body to

create the earth – hence the male god becoming

the creator and the “mother goddess” is

supplanted.

Goddess Entreating (detail)c.2330-2150 B.C. Akkad period.Marble. Cylinder seal.Mesopotamia

Many Mesopotamian prayers had to be spoken out loud and accompanied by specific gestures. The best attested of these prayers is the type named su-ila, or "uplifted hands.“

On this seal, a goddess stands with an uplifted hand, perhaps performing a similar prayer-like ritual. Uplifted hands are characteristic of goddesses in Mesopotamian art, especially during the Neo-Sumerian and Old Babylonian period, c.2100-1600, B.C. Such goddesses have been identified as lama, female protective beings called "angels."

These goddesses served as supplicants on behalf of human worshippers, offering prayers for their well-being.

Orantes posture in Catacomb Christian art

Byzantine Christian Art

Cuneiform (“wedge”) was the system of writing used most extensively in the ancient Middle East. Cuneiform was employed for writing a number of languages from about the end of the 4th millennium BC until about the 1st century BC.

What elements of this Myth Pattern shows up in Jewish/Christian/Muslim beliefs?

The Enuma Elish, “When on High”, is a Mesopotamian myth of creation recounting the struggle between cosmic order and chaos. It is basically a myth of the cycle of seasons. It is named after its opening words and was recited on the fourth day of the ancient New Year's festival. The basic story exists in various forms in the area.

This version is written in Akkadian, an old Babylonian dialect, and stars Marduk, the patron deity of the city of Babylon. A similar earlier version in ancient Sumerian has Anu, Enil and Ninurta as the heroes, suggesting that this version was adapted to justify the religious practices in the cult of Marduk in Babylon.

Sumerian seal (carved cylinder), early dynastic period (third millenium B.C.). "Master or Mistress of animals" (beast master) themes took many forms in ancient Near Eastern art, including this Sumerian example.

Interior decoration in Catal Huyuk 8,000 years ago—5,000 years before the rise of Greece’s city-states. The walls were painted with vivid images of goddesses, hunters, and, in the bottom right hand corner, of the city’s ground plan and the nearby volcano that gave Catal Huyuk its rich store of exportable treasure: obsidian. Note the beast-master motif top center, which will show up in Sumerian art forms 2000-3000 years later.

Epic of Gilgamesh – notice the use of the beast master motif we saw 2000 years earlier at Çatal Höyük. This motif showed up in all forms of Mesopotamian art. Gilgamesh was the first piece of literature to create the pattern of the Hero Epic.

Among the earliest written documents from Mesopotamia are records of land sales or grants, often carved in stone with associated images, perhaps for public display. The Sumerian inscription on this stele records a transaction involving three fields, three houses, and some livestock. Ushumgal, a priest of the god Shara, and his daughter are the central figures of the transaction, but because of the archaic script, it is not clear whether Ushumgal is buying, selling, or granting these properties. The smaller figures along the sides very likely represent witnesses to the transaction.

Stele of Ushumgal, Early Dynastic I; 2900–2600 B.C.Mesopotamia, Umma (modern Jokha) (?)Alabaster (gypsum); H. 22.4 cm

Gilgamesh

•historical king of Uruk

•lived about 2700 B.C.

•stories were written about 2000 B.C. on clay tablets, still survive

•first written accounts in Sumerian language

the Sumerian language, as far as we know, bears no relation to any other human language we know about.

These Sumerian Gilgamesh stories were integrated into a longer poem.

•versions of which survive not only in Akkadian (the Semitic language, related to Hebrew, spoken by the Babylonians) but also on tablets written in Hurrian and Hittite (an Indo-European language, a family of languages which includes Greek and English, spoken in Asia Minor).

•All the above languages were written in cuneiform

•The fullest surviving version from twelve stone tablets, in the Akkadian language, found in the ruins of the library of Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria 669-633 B.C., at Nineveh. All the tablets are damaged.

•The tablets name an author, which is extremely rare in the ancient world, for this particular version of the story: Shin-eqi-unninni, the oldest known human author we know.

The Flood Tablet / The Gilgamesh Tablet /

Library of AshurbanipalNow in the British

Museum

The plot of the Epic of Gilgamesh goes something like this: The gods had created Enkidu -- a wild man-like creature -- in the hope that he might challenge the arrogant and ruthless Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, and thus temper his excesses. After an initial confrontation, Gilgamesh and Enkidu become friends. On an expedition to the west, they confront an evil monster, Humbaba, in the Cedar Forest. Enkidu slays Humbaba and, in retribution, the gods take Enkidu's life. Enkidu's death so haunts Gilgamesh that he undertakes to seek eternal life, and so Gilgamesh the mighty hero is transformed into Gilgamesh the broken mortal. The pursuit of immortality leads Gilgamesh into further adventures. The most famous is his encounter with Utnapishtim, and ancient hero who had survived a tragic flood. His tale, recounted in the epic, bears many resemblances to the Biblical story of the Flood that Utnapishtim is often called the Babylonian Noah. Gilgamesh, following Utnapishtim's advice, finds a plant capable of rendering him immortal, only to have it stolen by a snake while he sleeps, exhausted from his quest. He returned to his city-state of Uruk and realized his quest for immortality was always there in his city of Uruk.

Gilgamesh Plot Summary

Can you name modern Epic Stories that have followed this hero motif?

SUMERIANS SUMMARY

•earliest civilization living in the fertile valleys between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, Mesopotamia, which in Greek means, "between the rivers."

•Invented urbanization, city living, and invented & advanced Bronze Age technology

•a mysterious group of people, called their land Kengir, their language Emegir, and themselves Sag-giga, “black-headed ones”

•spoke a language unrelated to any other human language we know of,

•invented writing, cuneiform script.

• formed large city-states in southern Mesopotamia that controlled areas of several hundred square miles: Ur, Lagash, Eridu, Uruk, Nippur.

• Constantly at war with one another and other peoples over resources. The result over time was the growth of larger city-states as the more powerful swallowed up the smaller city-states.

•Eventually, the Sumerians battled another peoples, the Akkadians, who migrated up from the Arabian Peninsula.

The culture that later Semites inherited from the Sumerians:

•system of monarchy ruled by a type of priest-king, ensi, translated “lugal” - leading the military, admin. trade, judging disputes, and leading state religious ceremonies.

•a new legitimation of authority - some sort of divine selection, later asserting that the monarch himself was divine and worthy of worship.

•government bureaucracy and bureaucrats - middle management, which consisted largely of priests, who bore all the responsibility of surveying and distributing land as well as distributing crops.

•and to make the bureaucrat's life easier: record-keeping. And record-keeping means writing in some form or another.

•record keeping demanded system of measuring long periods of time - invented calendars, divided into twelve months based on the cycle of the moon - added a "leap month" every three years in order to catch up with the sun.

•develop a complicated knowledge of astronomy and the first human invention of the zodiac in order to measure yearly time.

•record-keeping demanded calculating - to be added up, subtracted, multiplied, divided,

•Sumerians developed a sophistication with mathematics—abstract mathematics.

•The Akkadians were a Semitic people, that is, they spoke a Semitic language related to languages such as Hebrew, Phoenician, Aramaic, and Arabic.

•When the two peoples clashed, the Sumerians gradually lost control over their city-states and fell under the hegemony of the Akkadian kingdom which was based in Akkad, the city that was later to become Babylon.

•But that was not the end of the Sumerians. The Akkadians abandoned much of their culture and absorbed vast amounts of Sumerian culture, including their religion, writing, government structure, literature, and law.

•But the Sumerians retained nominal control over many of their defeated city-states, and in 2125, the Sumerian city of Ur rose up against the Akkadians and gained for their daring control over the city-states of southern Mesopotamia.

•Revival of Sumerian fortune was to be short-lived, for after a short century, another wave of Semitic migrations, Amorites, brought the end of the original creators of Mesopotamian culture.

•Sumerians began civilization, as a culture transformed by the practical effects of urbanization, writing, and monarchy.

•While the Sumerians disappear around 2000 BCE, the invaders that overthrew them adopted their culture and became, more or less, Sumerian. They adopted the government, economy, city-living, writing, law, religion, and stories of the original peoples.

•Why? What would inspire a people to deliberately adopt foreign ways?

•The culture the later Semites inherited from the Sumerians consisted of the following:

•world's first systems of monarchy very first states in human history,

•ruled by a type of priest-king, called in Sumerian, ensi, translated “lugal”.

•leading the military, administering trade, judging disputes, and engaging in the most important religious ceremonies.

Sargon of AkkadSargon the GreatSargon the FirstHe was a gifted Akkadian warlord around 2850BCE. He conquered the city states and united them under his command to create the worlds first empire. Around 2000BCE, the empire fell to the nomadic tribes people of the north. Invaders of this region built on the accomplishments that the states they conquered had already achieved. Therefore, the advancements of the previous civilizations would carry forward from conqueror to conqueror.

LEGENDS OF SARGON

•According to legend his mother was a "changeling", which may mean a priestess prostitute, possibly of Kish. His father was either unknown or a gardener, and he was set adrift on the river and rescued like Moses.

•Originally he was royal cup-bearer to King of Kish. When the city is over taken in battle, Sargon moved to Akkad to build his power base. He either built Akkad, or more probably, rebuilt or fortified it.

•After consolidating his power he attacked Uruk and razed its walls. He next defeated a coalition of 50 Sumerian communities, along with the remaining Urukite army. He then quickly conquered Ur and the rest of Sumer. When he reached the Persian Gulf, he ritually washed his weapons in it. He called himself the "Great Ensi of Enlil" to show that he respected Sumerian traditions.

•Next he marched on Assyria, Mari, Iarmuti, and Ebla, conquering them all. His western conquests brought him "to the cedar Forests and the silver mountains", that is Lebanon and the Taurus mountains. Finally, he subjected Elam and western Iran. The war with the Elamites was tough. Eventually they were defeated and Susa made the capital of the Akkadian viceroy and Akkadian was imposed as the new language of Elam.

•Sargon called himself "King of the Lands" and "King of the Four Quarters". He was not only a great military leader, but also an ingenious administrator. He appointed Semites to high administrative offices and posted all-Akkadian garrisons in the major cities. He appointed his daughter Enheduanna as chief priestess of Nanna of Ur and as a ritual representative of Inanna of Uruk.

•According to legend he also sent expeditions to Anatolia, Egypt, Ethiopia, and India, but this is not proven. Although in the case of India, the Indus (or Harrapan) civilization did trade with Akkad and sent ships to dock there. A later Babylonian legend says that "all the Land" revolted against him late in his reign and besieged him in Akkad, but he was victorious. His reign was the first time that texts were written entirely in Akkadian. From his reign, a new kind of political ideal began to evolve, one that was different from the city-state concept.

• Last Sumerian dynasty of UR (revival after Akkadians) fell around 2000 BC, Mesopotamia drifted into conflict and chaos for almost a century.

•Around 1900 BC, a group of Semites called the Amorites gained control of most of the Mesopotamian region. Like the Akkadians, the Amorites centralized the government over the individual city-states and based their capital in the city of Babylon, which was originally called Akkad and served as the center of the Amorite empire. For this reason, the Amorites are called the Old Babylonians and the period of their ascendancy over the region, which lasted from 1900-1600 BC, is called the Old Babylonian period.

Old Babylonian Empire

•While the Sumerian civilization consisted of independent and autonomous city-states, the Old Babylonian state was a behemoth of dozens of cities. In order to make this system work, power and autonomy was taken from the individual cities and invested in the monarch. As a result, an entirely new set of laws were invented by the Old Babylonians: laws which dealt with crimes against the state.

•The History of Babylonia

•Traditionally the history of Babylonia has been broken down into three major periods:

The Old Babylonian Period (2000-1595 BCE) = Amorites

The Middle Babylonian Period (1595-1000 BCE) = Kassites

The Neo-Babylonian Period (1000-539 BCE) = Chaldeans

•It is in the realm of law that the Sumerian state was most dramatically changed by the Amorites. While law among the Sumerians was administered jointly by individuals and the state, the Old Babylonians allowed the state to more actively pursue and punish criminals. The punishments became dramatically more draconian: the death penalty was applied to many more crimes, including "bad behavior in a bar."

ANCIENT LAW CODES

A number of documents from Mesopotamia called Law Codes have been recovered and the fact that these contain parallels with biblical and modern law has evoked considerable interest in modern scholarship. The documents in question are:

The Laws of Urukagina (Sumerian, 2350 BC),

The Laws of Ur-Namrnu (Sumerian, 2112-2095 BC),

The Laws of Lipit-Ishtar (Sumerian 1934-1924 BC),

The Laws of Eshnunna (Babylonian, 1900 BC), and

The Code of Hammurabi (Babylonian, 1792-1750 BC).

The Law Code of Hammurabi shown here is preserved on a seven-foot-tall, black diorite stele, which depicts the king himself receiving the law from Shamash, the Babylonian god of justice. The Law Code of Hammurabi provides incredible insight into the civil laws and customs of the ancient world, and shows similarities to the laws contained in the Torah (first five books) of the Bible. The Law Code of Hammurabi currently resides in the Louvre Museum, Paris.

•Perhaps the most important legal text in history is an Old Babylonian code of laws written by Hammurabi (around 1792-1750 BC), the most famous of the Old Babylonian monarchs. This code, called the Code of Hammurabi is generally regarded as Sumerian in spirit, but with all the harshness of the Old Babylonian penalties.

•Although we know nothing of Old Babylonian religion, they seem to have adopted the religion of the Sumerians. We do know that the Amorites lived in close contact with the Sumerians for a long time preceding their ascendency over the region, so it's possible that they gradually adopted Sumerian religion over several centuries.

•The Amorites did, however, import a new god into Sumerian religion, Marduk, which they elevated to the supreme position over the other gods. Like the Sumerians, the Amorites did not believe that life after death held any promise or threat, so like the Sumerians, Amorite religion ruthlessly focused on this world.

The Kassites were known for establishing the second, or middle, Babylonian dynasty; they were believed to have originated in the Zagros Mountains of Iran. Although the Kassite kings traditionally ruled over Babylonia for 576 years, it is probable that the first Kassite kings reigned in Babylonia simultaneously with the last kings of the first Babylonian dynasty. The Kassite kings appear to have been members of a small military aristocracy but were apparently efficient rulers and not locally unpopular. The horse, the sacred animal of the Kassites, probably first came into use in Babylonia at this time.

In the 12th century Elam struck the final blow at Kassite power in Babylonia, already weakened by local insurrection. In the 1st millennium the Kassites withdrew to the Zagros Mountains, where they opposed the eastward expansion of Assyrian power and paid tribute to Persia. They were conquered by Alexander the Great but later regained their independence.

No inscription or document in the Kassite language has been preserved. Some 300 Kassite words have been found in Babylonian documents. Nor is much known about the social structure of the Kassites or their culture. Their religion was polytheistic; the names of some 30 gods are known.

• The Assyrians were a Semitic people • centered around their capital city of Ashur in the

northern area of Mesopotamia. • Their bids for conquest were squashed by the

Babylonian king, Hammurabi and then by the Asiatic Hurrians (Mitanni), and again by the Hittites,

• the Assyrians gained their independence around 1400 BCE.

• Assyrian ruler Tiglat-Pileser (1116-1090 BCE ) conquered Babylon and extended their empire into Syria and Armenia.

• Between 883 and 824 BCE, the Assyrians conquered all of Syria and Armenia, Palestine, Babylon and southern Mesopotamia.

• At its greatest extent, the Assyrian empire extended to the Mediterranean Sea from the western part of modern Iran, including Anatolia, and southward to the Nile delta.

• Assyrian hegemony ended when the Neo-Babylonians, with help from the Medes (Persians), destroyed the Assyrian Empire and burned Nineveh.

• Assyrian rule was ruthless = they were the most feared empire of the ancient world. • Assyrians practiced forced migrations as their conquered subjects were often exiled, including the Hebrews of the

northern Kingdom of Israel – hence the term the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel. • The southern kingdom of the Hebrews, Judah, resisted Assyrian conquest but would later be defeated and exiled by

the Babylonians, in an event known as the Babylonian Captivity.

Assyrians

Map showing the geographic boundaries of the Assyrian Empire

Assyrian displays the brutality waged against others in warfare, which included: impaling enemies, cutting off limbs, skinning captives alive, beheadings, etc.

Assyrian art also depicted the mass forced migration of the Israelites in the 8th century BCE. Dispersed to the far corners of the Assyrian world, this destroyed the ethnic and cultural identity of a people and this kingdom of Israelites became known as the Lost Ten Tribes in Jewish and Christian traditions.

Israelites at Lachish being skinned alive

Ivory plaque carved with a scene of a lion attacking a fallen Nubian. Assyrian, ca. 730-700 BCE.

Detailing the blood sport of lion hunting

The monuments excavated at Nineveh have revealed much about the religion of the ancient Assyrians. They worshipped the sun, moon and stars, and among their idols were heroes and rulers from earlier times who were made deities. Asshur was the father of the Assyrians and the country was named after him. He was regarded as "the great god, king of all the gods." It was Asshur who gave power and life to every priestly king, and this was his symbol = A winged circle or globe with the human figure of a warrior god armed with a bow in its center.

The Assyrian Tree of Life is probably the oldest, as it is the most famous of all sacred trees, and it still gives definite form to various ornamental designs. Starting in Assyria where it seems to have been associated with the worship of Ishtar it penetrated into Arabia, Central Asia, Asia Minor and Persia.

(Northwest Palace at Nimrud 883-859 BCE) = Two carved figures of Ashurmasirpal II, with winged genius on either side, facing a stylized Assyrian tree of Life.

Celtic

Jewish KabalaEgyptian

Makonde, Africa

Buddhist, Laos

Dissolution of the Assyrian Empire between the Neo-Babylonians and the Medes

Persian Empire ended all hegemony of Mesopotamian powers