More books to read

1. More books to read • The Cambridge Ancient History • J.N. Postgate. Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Dawn of History • Samuel Noah Kramer. The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character. • A. Leo Oppenheim. Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilizastion. • A. Bernard Knapp. The History and Culture of Ancient Western Asia and Egypt • Jean Bottero. Mesopotamia: Writing, Reasoning, and the Gods • J.B. Pritchard. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament • J.B. Pritchard. The Ancient Near East, 2 vols., An anthology of Texts and Pictures

2. More good books to read • Robert M. Seltzer. Religions of Antiquity • Guy E. Swanson. The Birth of the Gods • Alexander Heidel. The Babylonian Genesis • Maureen Gallery Kovacs. The Epic of Gilgamesh • Hans J. Nissen. The Early History of the Ancient Near East • Georges Roux. Ancient Iraq • Robert M. Seltzer. Religions of Antiquity • Ancient Religions bibliography online: www.etsu.edu/cas/history/religionbib.htm

3. Mesopotamian Civilization • Primary Phase: lower Tigris-Euphrates river valley • Persian gulf to modern Baghdad • habitable area: app. 10,000 sq... miles • bottom 1/3 of the river valley

4. Mesopotamia: 3 parts • Sumer • Akkad • Sumer and Akkad: eventually form Babylon • Earliest human occupation • ca. 7000-6000 B.C. • archaeologists detect several different phases • settlement: from north to south, downriver

6. Mesopotamia

8. Proto-literate Period • ca. 3500-3100 B.C. • most characteristics of Mesopotamia have developed • towns and cities • rudimentary system of writing and metal technology • temple architecture

9. The Early Dynastic Period • ca. 3100 B.C. • the Sumerians • not the first inhabitants • arrived by sea ??

10. Sumerian language • unique • unrelated to any known language • but we can read it

11. Pre-Sumerian element • Semites? • continues to survive • but dominated by Sumerians • until 2350 B.C., more or less

12. Political organization • city-states • ruled by “kings” • (lugals) • who fought more or less constantly • over land and water-rights

14. Political organization, con’t • territorial acquisition by conquest • gradual incorporation and civilizing of Semites • ca. 2350 B.C., Semites become dominant

15. Map of ancient Nippur

16. Sargon of Akkad • name means: “True King” • first empire in history • first “personality” in history • legendary figures: • Miracle birth, evil king, baby-in-a basket, found eventually becomes the leader of his people • The original story from which all others are copied • dynasty ruled until 2200 B.C.

17. Sargon the Great King of Akkad

18. Third Dynasty of Ur • Sumerian renaissance • claim to be kings of Sumer and Akkad • influence on northern Tigris-Euphrates

19. Ur III , con’t • provinces, with royal governors • moved regularly • kings claim to be divine, unlike earlier kings • Ur-Nammu: most significant • built a great city and issued a • code of laws

20. Collapse of Ur III • civilization over 1,000 years old • but much of what developed survives into modern times • math, time-keeping, beer (!!!), astronomy, astrology, medicine, etc.

21. Sources of Information • archaeological remains • texts: stone, metal, clay, tablets • cloths, art, etc. • remember our “archaeological lesson” ?

22. Problems • evidence not equal for all times and all places • hard to interpret • but some things can be known

23. Architecture • lack stone and wood • use sun-dried brick • resulting in a somewhat ruined state of things • focal point of the city: the Temple complex • successive temples built on the same holy spot

24. Architecture, con’t • the temple form: ziggurat • a sort of “step-temple” • usually seven layers, • with a shrine on top • a magic mountain • a “landing place” for the god/goddess • Becomes the “standard model” for the ancient middle east

25. The great ziggarut at the city of Ur ca. 1200…only partially surviving

26. Ziggarut of king Ur-Nammu,

27. Example of Standard Model

28. The ziggarut at Ur from a city wall

29. ziggurat of Choga Zambil, ca. 1250 B.C

30. The ziggarut at Ur For an extra 2 points on the first test, tell me the first year in which this photo could have been taken. First person only. Think like an historian...

31. Drawing of the city of Ur

32. Sculpture • crude and primitive • clay, not stone • metal sculpture and jewelry more sophisticated

33. Front-piece Harp Gold lapis-lazuli wood

34. Cylinder Seals

36. Goat in a tree...

37. The Queen’s of Ur’s crown

38. Lady-in-waiting to the Queen of Ur Sacrificed and buried with the Queen at the time of her death

39. Clay tablets • writing medium • religious texts to contracts • with written texts we enter “History” • documents as insights into peoples thoughts • as well as records

40. Clay Tablets

41. Cuneiform Writing • different from modern scripts • written on damp clay with a wedge-shaped stick • cuneiform (“wedge-shaped writing”)

42. Cuneiform, con’t • evolved from use of simple symbols • rebus theory • eventually became conventionalized abstract shapes • used first for business, trade, records • “literature” came later....

43. Partial text of Hammurabi’s law code

44. Tokens…for games?

45. Game board with counters: Ur

46. Bullae with tokens token shapes pressed into the outside of each

47. “flattened-out” bulla = a tablet

49. A ‘rebus’ *-) --more

50. + What does this one say? Two extra points on the first test for the first person to figure it out….