MesopotamiaLand of Turmoil

Sumerian Civilization

Agenda

Quick review Sumeria The city and Royal tomb of UR

Chronology (Bronze Age)

3500-2000 BC Early Uruk and Ubaid Phases

Pre-dynastic phase of Sumeria 3000-2350 BC

Akkadian Period 2350-2150 BC (united Sumerian civilization)

Uruk and Ubaid

Uruk first true civilized state, developed writing and public architecture (mud-brick construction) and used the wheel. Small city-states linked by common language and trade.

Ubaid period advances technology, legal and political systems, irrigation projects.

Each independent city was centered on the Temple and rituals to their own dominant God of a shared pantheon.

The region and peoples came to be the Sumerian civilization.

The King of Akkadia, Sargon The Great united Sumeria through warfare into the world’s first empire 2370 BC

Sumerian city of Ur becomes dominant in 2125 BC

Great wealth, arts, literature Ur falls to invaders around 2000 BC and the

Sumerians; becomes splintered into small kingdoms.

Replaced by the Assyrian empire based in cities of Assur and Babylon

Uruk excavations

Fertility Priestess, Uruk.

Similar images found throughout Sumeria.

Inanna.

Early work at searching for Eden

Paul Emile Botta 1843, finds Khorsabad—ancient Assyrian capital for King Sargon.

Austen Henry Layard 1845, digs at Nineveh. Carries away great statues to Britain.

Henry Rawlinson 1835-1850, deciphers cuneiform. Used old Persian carving 520BC, with three languages--Cuneiform, Old Persian, Akkadian describing the achievements of Darius.

Sir Leonard Woolley 1922, digs at Ur in the newly established Kingdom of Iraq.

Scripture inspired early work.

Suggests Eden was at confluence of four rivers.

Tigris Euphrates, Gihon and Pison. Gihon might be modern Karun, which

begins in Iran. Pison???? No such river on the landscape.

Recent satellite imaging (NASA) reveals dry river bed in Arabian desert (Wadi Batin) may have linked with the Euphrates about 32,000 thousand years ago. Climate change 15,000 years ago dried up the region forcing hunter-gathers to migrate away.

“In the first days, in the very first days, when heaven had moved away from earth and earth had separated from heaven, the father set sail, Enki, the god of wisdom set sail.”

» From Sumerian Epic

Pantheon

Sumerians had dozens of gods and goddesses.

Each city had its own patron god in addition to the others.

Enki was the creator god (and evidence the Sumerians were also sailors).

Ziggurat

Artist conception of Ziggurat and daily life in Babylon.

Sargon the Great. First great ruler of Sumeria: (Akkadian period, 2350 BC)

Woolley excavation 1927.

“In your house on high in your beloved house I will come to live. Up above your cedar-perfumed mountain, in your citadel O Nanna, in your mansion of Ur…”

Sumerian song.

Modern work at Royal tombs. First excavated by Woolley in 1922-27

Discoveries by Woolley

Two separate grave zones 2350-2150 BC Lower cemetery from 2500 BC

In all 1850 graves 16 Royal graves

Key find: Tomb of Queen Puabi. King’s chamber also found (plundered in

antiquity).

The burial of Queen Puabi demonstrated that Sumerians occasionally practiced sacrifice. Numerous attendants went to the grave with the queen, along with carts, chariots, draft animals, soldiers and priests.

The “harpist”

A golden ram

Gold bull on lyre.

Treasures from royal Tomb at Ur

Headdress of Puabi.

Cylinder seal impressions

Temple priest (from horde of votive statues).

The “standard of Ur.”

Scenes of war.

Board game

necklace

– “Drinking beer, in a blissful mood With joy in the heart and a happy liver”

----Sumerian poem 3000 BC

Seal impression of beer drinking festival.

Beer was so important that Sumerians brewmasters had two protective goddesses.

Queen Puabi had her own silver beer bowl with filter and a gold straw for drinking.

“ They prepare bread in date syrup for her. They pour wine and honey for her at sunrise. The people of Sumer go to her with food and drink, they feed Inanna in the pure clean place.”

» Sumerian hymn to Inanna

Old Babylonian Period

Inherit the legacy of Sumeria--literacy, trade, agriculture.

Add codified legal system under Hammurabi in 18th century BC

Babylonian empire grew and shrank over the centuries dependent on power of King and neighboring groups.

Sumerian world map

Transistion

Hittite invasion in 1590

Babylon captured Several centuries of

decline or stagnation Around 870 BC

Assyria reasserts power under Ashurbanipal II

Various Kings of Assyria include Sargon II, Senneacherib, and Esarhaddon expands the empire nearly to old territory

Various insurrections, revolts and invasions weaken the empire.

Hammurabi

Environmental change

Ur was built on the banks of the Euphrates River

Over the millennia the river changed course such that by the 600BC it was 10 miles away.

Today it is 40 miles away.

Irrigation made it possible to make the fertile desert productive.

Centuries of agriculture caused the lands to become more saline leading to crop failures.

Declining productivity led to increased conflict between cities over food resources and labor.

Ashurbanipal

Another famous Sumerian.

Medes invade from Iran in 625 BC Medes, joined by armies of Chadeans and

Egyptians capture Babylon from in 605 BC. Under the rule of Nebachadnezzer Babylon

enjoys a revival and become masters of Mesopotamia.Captures Syria and Palestine, sacks Jerusalem and carries off Jews into captivity.

Meanwhile

Persians defeat Medes 539 BC Persian King Cyrus the Great

arrives at walls of Babylon and eventually defeats the Kingdom. Babylon is set up as a satrapy or jurisdictional province of the Persian Empire.

Alexander the Great “liberates” the city in but then advances toward India. 325 BC

Returning to Babylon to make it his eastern capital, Alexander catches a fever and dies in Babylon in 323 BC.

Squabbling among Alexander’s generals allows Seleucus to gain control. His descendants build new cities and Greek becomes the common language.

Finally the sands invade and bury all by the time of the Romans.

Assyrian hall at the British museum.

These sculptures once stood in front of gates to the capital of the Assyrian kingdom. Similar statues were removed by French archaeologists in 1853; one fell into the Tigris river.

Scroll seal in cuneiform