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The Ancient Middle East. Mesopotamia : "Land Between the Two Rivers". Indo-European Migrations: 4m-2m BCE. The Middle East: “The Crossroads of Three Continents”. The Ancient Fertile Crescent Area. The Middle East: “The Cradle of Civilization”. City-State. Urban Rural.
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The Ancient Middle East
Mesopotamia: "Land Between the Two Rivers"
Indo-European Migrations: 4m-2m BCE The Middle East: “The Crossroads of Three Continents”
The Ancient Fertile Crescent Area The Middle East: “The Cradle of Civilization”
City-State • Urban • Rural
Leadership • Lugal (king) • Increased warfare over resources • Military leaders rose to power • Not hereditary (but usually passed to son) • Power grew at expense of priesthood • The gods’ earthly representative (intermediary)
Duties of King • Upkeep of buildings / temples • Maintain defenses • Infrastructure • Military leadership • Justice
Economy • Agricultural • Gov’t did not control long distance trade • Conquest gave access to resources • Wool, cloth, barley vegetable oil • Early metallurgy (tin) • Semi-precious stones • Merchant class emerges (palaces/temples) • Barter system (mostly)
Society • Urbanization divisions • Free landowners • Royalty, high officials, warriors, priests, merchants, shopkeepers) • Dependent farmers and artisans • Slaves • Mostly POW’s, debtors • Hairstyles
Role of Women • Bearing / raising children • Own property • Control dowry • Trade • No political role • Textiles, breweries, prostitutes, bakers, fortunetellers • Steadily declines • Men take 2nd wife (if no kids) • Marriage alliances
Religion • Polytheistic • Anthropomorphic • Nourishment from sacrifices • Human emotions • Nature • Anu (sky); Enlil (air); Innana (sex / violence) • Environment cruel therefore deities must be as well • Environment affects beliefs in gods / afterlife!!!!!!!
Religions • Priesthood (hereditary powerful) • Lived off rations / foods from sacrifices • High Priest (took care of gods) • High walled complexes • Ziggurats • Amulets (ie. miscarriages) • Festivals
Genesis 10:10And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh in the land of Shinar (Sumer) ... Genesis 11:2And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there ... Sumer • Collective name for Sumerian cities • Wagon wheel • Plow • Potter wheel • Cuneiform • Ziggurats (temple w/shrine on top – wealth/stability- glorified gods- bridge b/w heavens and earth
Susa • B/w Tigris and Zagros mts • 4200 BCE
Uruk • Warka, Iraq • Ist independent city states • 1000 acres • 2 large complexes
Uruk: alabaster vases Lower: natural world 9water, plants, barley) 2nd rams/ewes 3rd: nude men carry food baskets Top: Inanna stands in front of her shrine, accepting offerings for storehouse from priest-king Ritual marriage b/w king and deity Meant to ensure fertility Registers
Urul Vase • Uruk (Wakra, Iraq) • C 3300-3000 BCE • Alabaster • Picture space organized into registers • Condenses narrative • Like comic strip • Profile legs/heads • ¾ torso
Votive Figures • Eshunna (Iraq) • C 2900-2600 • Limestone, alabaster, gypsum • Images dedicated to the gods • Images of donors • Representation dedicated in the shrine • Inscriptions detail accomplishments of donor • Perpetual eye contact • Traditional representation w/simplified faces and bodies • Cylindrical bodies • Hands clasped in respect • Tallest 30” high • Beards and hair styles of males pertain to social status (nobility or royalty)
Great Lyre with Bull’s Head • Royal Tomb of Ur • C 2550-2400 • Wood w/gold, silver, lapis, bitumen, shell • Head 14”, panel 13” • Lapis lazuli imported from Afghanistan (long distance trade) • Lifelike depiction of bull • Panel shell inlaid in bitumen
Front Panel of Great Lyre • Athletic, deceased, heroic feats • Long hair, beard = semi divine • Animal attendants bringing food for feast (hyena, lion) • 3 animal musicians (donkey and lyre, bear w/frame, fox and sistrum-rattle) • Scorpion man (land of demons) and journey of the dead attended by gazelle • Imagery depicts funeral banquet in realm of dead • Animals guardians of gateway
Sumerian Religion - Polytheistic Enki Innana Anthropomorphic Gods
Mesopotamian Trade “The Cuneiform World”
Sumerian Scribes “Tablet House”
Cylinder Seals • Seals to identify docs and establish property ownership • Rolled across soft clay • 2’’ in height • Made of hard stone • Leader protecting people from enemies (both human and animal)
Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, who was two-thirds god and one-third man. He built magnificent ziggurats, or temple towers, surrounded his city with high walls, and laid out its orchards and fields. He was physically beautiful, immensely strong, and very wise. Although Gilgamesh was godlike in body and mind, he began his kingship as a cruel despot. He lorded over his subjects, raping any woman who struck his fancy, whether she was the wife of one of his warriors or the daughter of a nobleman. He accomplished his building projects with forced labor, and his exhausted subjects groaned under his oppression. The gods heard his subjects’ pleas and decided to keep Gilgamesh in check by creating a wild man named Enkidu, who was as magnificent as Gilgamesh. Enkidu became Gilgamesh’s great friend, and Gilgamesh’s heart was shattered when Enkidu died of an illness inflicted by the gods. Gilgamesh then traveled to the edge of the world and learned about the days before the deluge and other secrets of the gods, and he recorded them on stone tablets.
Ziggurat at Ur • Temple • “Mountain of the Gods”
Achievements • Irrigation (canals, dams, dikes) • Cuneiform • Bronze metallurgy • Clay bricks • Potters wheel • Horse drawn chariots • Infantry • 60 base # system • Astronomy • Calendar • Hammurabi’s Code • Roads • Plows • Sailboats • Wheels • Cylinder seals
