CLASS110 Lecture 1: Classics 110: Notes For The Entire Course
15 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Classics 110
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia = “the Land Between the Rivers”
➔Located in modern day Iraq and Syria
➔Rivers make the low lying land fertile leading to settlement in early times
(very fertile compared to surrounding lands)
Tigris River (Baghdad, Iraq) and Euphrates River (Northern Iraq)
➔Provides water for irrigation and agriculture
Ancient “tell”
➔Ancient site located on higher ground (strategic location
➔Today is in ruin with accumulation of debris
➔A mound or hill where an ancient site is located
Chronology
➔Pre-Dynastic (protoliterate - period of first writing
) 3500-2800 BCE
➔Early Dynastic (old Summerian
) 2800-2350 BCE
➔Dynastic (first ‘empires’
) 2350-1600 BCE
Pre-Dynastic Period (protoliterate)
➔First urban settlements (previous people had been nomadic)
◆People produce their own resources in their own location
➔Settled agricultures
➔Stone and metal artifacts
◆Beginnings of early metal work
◆Previously tools had been made of stone
➔Wheel-made pottery
◆Invention of mechanism to turn wheel
◆Ceramics were “universal material” used for food storage, cooking, eating
e.t.c
➔First written script (cuneiform)
◆Hardened (fired) clay
◆An instrument (usually a reed) can be used to write or sketch in clay while
it is still wet
◆Pictograms= picture writings
● Triangle is the symbol for a woman
● When writing begins it is focused on creating images
Early Dynastic Period (Old Sumerian)
➔Developed cities
➔Sumerians were first developed culture to inhabit Mesopotamia
➔Kings and palaces
Classics 110
◆Royals leave a “rich” legacy because they have control of resources
◆King Gudea- King of Ladash
◆Ur - one of the best Mesopotamian archaeological sites
● Royal Cemetery
○ Metal artifacts
● Royal Palace
● “Royal Standard” of Ur
○ Wooden figures telling a story
○ Unknown what object was
➔Written Records
◆Writing is needed for record keeping (i.e laws and trade contracts)
◆Map of Nippur (ca. 2500 BCE) - one of the earliest maps
◆Cuneiform (NOT a LANGUAGE)
● Script, not language
● Pictograms → Ideograms (using picture symbols combined to
create “words” or new meanings” i.e mountain + woman= slave) →
Phonetic script
● Reed was cut to create triangular shapes
● Mathematics
○ Beginnings of accounting
● Administrative and Legal records
➔Social Stratification
◆Presences of a ruling class (kings, noblemen) and a warrior class
◆Artifacts from royal tombs reveal an upper class with control over
production and use of metal
➔Religion and Gods
◆Polytheistic Religions
◆Cult statues
◆Names of gods and goddesses
● Unu (sun)
● Entil (sky)
◆Ziggurats (Sumerian temples)
● Bricks were often inscribed
● Stairs would be climbed to upmost shrine
◆Priests
➔Temples
➔Irrigation
Classics 110
◆Any Sumerian town needed territory to farm (leading groups to become
territorial to protect their territories and potential for warfare ( leading to
slavery) and trade)
➔Agriculture
◆City lands
◆Irrigation and river transportation
◆Stone and clay tools
◆Barley, sheep
◆Loom weights
◆Food surplus
◆Wooden ploughs pulled by cattle
Dynastic Period
➔Agade (Akkadians) 2350-2150 BCE
◆King Sargon
● King of Agade, first king of Akkadian Empire
◆Conquest of Sumer
◆Extensive trading
➔Ur (Sumerians) 2150-2000 BCE
◆Neo-Sumerian revival
◆King Shulgi
◆King Ur-Nammu
● 3rd Dynasty King of Ur
● Builder of great Ziggurat
● Fragmentary Legal texts
● Amorite raids
● Described in inscription as “King of Sumer and Akkad”
● Rebuilding of Ur temples and canals
● Killed in battle
➔Babylon (Amorites) 2000-1600 BCE
◆King Hammurabi
● King of Babylon (1792-1750 BCE)
● Stele with Babylonian laws found in Iran in 1910
● Hammurabi and sun god
● Cuneiform text
◆Old Babylonian Law (first complete law)
● Early Sumerian law code fragments exist but none is complete
● Penalties vary according to social class; different laws for nobles,
commoners, slaves
Document Summary
Located in modern day iraq and syria. Rivers make the low lying land fertile leading to settlement in early times (very fertile compared to surrounding lands) Tigris river (baghdad, iraq) and euphrates river (northern iraq) Ancient site located on higher ground (strategic location. Today is in ruin with accumulation of debris. A mound or hill where an ancient site is located. Pre-dynastic ( protoliterate - period of first writing ) 3500-2800 bce. First urban settlements (previous people had been nomadic) People produce their own resources in their own location. Previously tools had been made of stone. Ceramics were universal material used for food storage, cooking, eating e. t. c. An instrument (usually a reed) can be used to write or sketch in clay while it is still wet. Triangle is the symbol for a woman. When writing begins it is focused on creating images. Sumerians were first developed culture to inhabit mesopotamia.
