If this is your first time hearing about Mesopotamia you may be interested in learning more.
The time and place for this book is one of the most amazing periods of humanity. A society that was living harmoniously while taking on continual change in technology and lifestyle.
The Mesopotamian period spans thousands of years.
There were many epochs-
Ubaid Culture – 5500-3700 BC
Sumerian -3700-2500 BC
Akkadian – 2500-2300 BC
Uruk III, Elamites, Assyrians, Babylonians – 2300 BC – 600BC
Persian – 600BC – 300 BC
But this is just a timeline. Which can be as stale as the history lessons where memorising a date seemed more important than understanding significance.
Major developments that brought irrevocable change were-
People learned to live in houses in villages, hunting and farming (Ubaid)
An agricultural revolution occurs, producing more food than the farmers need. Much more.
The resulting workforce are freed from subsistence to become artisans and labourers.
Significant contributions to civilisation are made now food supply is stabilised. The plough, the wheel, the weaving loom, mathematics, astronomy and of course, writing. Writing being a game changer although for a long time writing would only talk about contracts, gods and kings.
Expansion exhausts the available land. Border disputes occur. Access to resources become harder to obtain.
Fighting breaks out over the resources, Kings gain prominence.
Various Kings do things like get very good at warfare.
I don’t think kings and warfare are the most interesting part of Mesopotamian history. But the kings spent a lot of time writing about how good they were and things like the invention of writing, the wheel and the plough get little mention.
Ubaid Culture
Firmly rooted in pre history, meaning before writing began, the Ubaid Culture began living in villages with mud brick houses. Their pottery was advanced and they most likely practiced some form of agriculture as well as hunting.
Little is known. Ubaid style housing and pottery has been found in the mountains of Turkey and the plains of Iraq.
Houses suggest some were more well off than others. It’s possible these were chiefs or religious figures.
Sumeria
The Sumerians dominated the region for over a thousand years.
Of interest is that no one knows where they came from. They looked different with black hair and large round eyes.
They spoke a language entirely different to the other Semitic tribes.
The theory this book follows is that sea levels rose after the last ice age and the land they lived in the Persian gulf was inundated.
Of all the Sumerian cities, and they are shown on the map at the start of this book, Uruk was the first to grow into a true city reaching forty thousand at it peak. The invention of writing definitely came from Uruk, a world first, only added to by the invention of the alphabet and the Gutenberg printing press.
However the nearby city of Ur eventually took over as the largest Sumerian city. This was due to the emergence of trade on a large scale and Ur being a port city able to trade over long distance.
Ur excavations revealed an elaborate burial of a King very much in the style of the pharaohs however only one of these has ever been found. A brief experiment perhaps.
With the kings, the wars started. This was called the proto dynastic period. The first war was between the Elamites to the north and Sumeria. And they did not stop.
Much of Mesopotamian history from here on is about which army beat the other. The contribution was very much soldiers, siege engines, weapons, many widows and things I don’t believe contributed very much to civilisation.
While this was going on city state alliances were formed and the city of Kish appears to rise as the most important Sumerian city while Nippur rose is prominence as a religious centre.
Akkadia
The major figure of Akkadian history in Sargon. A remarkable story. His crib was found floating in the reeds and he was taken to the king who took the baby in. It’s possible that the Moses story was based on this. Either that or floating your child down a river used to be very popular in those times.
In any case Sargon made killing efficient. Til then wars were between untrained farmers and they slugged it out with clubs. Sargon is reported to have beaten the Sumerian army while being outnumbered ten to one. Military innovation and organised, trained soldiers likely to have played a role. The world changed.
Akkadia really only lasted a hundred years after Sargon. No one succeeded him at the same level.
The significance is that for the first time the Sumerians had been beaten.
Uruk III, Elamites, Assyrians, Babylonians
Uruk came back to dominance briefly but it’s contributions to civilisation were done.
Everyone having learned to fight like Sargon, wars were common and the lines on the maps moved frequently.
The most important figure during this time was the Babylonian Hammurabi 1792 BC.
Hammurabi started out like all the other kings, conquering everyone else. However once that was done he set up a true empire. Most importantly he created the first laws, the presumption of innocence and prescribed punishments for itemised misdeeds.
However, all of the above is the briefest of introductions.
The most important thing here is that the civilisation started in Sumeria lives on today.
GODS BEFORE KINGS - The golden age of Uruk 