Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia has given the world with the first Bronze Age civilization. The evolution of this society from an early food producing society to metal producing society can be clearly seen with the archaeological remains that have been found in the region.
Before we begin with the history of the region it is necessary to look into the geographical features of the Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia is situated roughly in the area of the present day Iran. The history of the civilization can be said be defined by the two major rivers that flow through this country-Tigris and the Euphrates. These rivers flow from North to South and flow into the Persian Gulf. Mesopotamia has two distinct regions: north and the south. The Northern region extends from the Zagros Mountains in the north to the middle Tigris. On the west this region is bound by the Syrian Desert. During ancient times this region was often called Assyria.
The Southern region is the region lying roughly between the middle Tigris and the Persian Gulf. This region is around 400 km long and 100 km across. In the east it is bordered by Iran. In the west there is an unending stretch of desert which merges with the Arabian Desert. This part of the land was flat with no stones or rocks. It is arid with scanty rainfall. It is with the help of Euphrates and Tigris that cultivation became possible in the region and so did habitation also.
At the beginning of the historical period the southern most part of the Mesopotamia was known as Sumer and the area in between Sumer and the Northern Mesopotamia was known as Akkad In fact Sumer and Akkad together can be said to have constituted the Mesopotamian civilization. From around 2000 BC Sumer and Akkad are together sometimes referred to as Babylonia.
Some of the earliest Neolithic settlements are located in northern Mesopotamia. The Zagros mountain foothills have been identified as the part of the West Asian in which evidence of the beginning of food production have been found. This goes back to around 10000 BP. Later the important settlement of Jarmo came up in the area. One of the reasons for the beginning of food production in the region was due to the availability of adequate rainfall which sustained crops without irrigation. Winter rainfall sustained crops like wheat and Barley.
Between 8000 BC and 6000 BC many Neolithic villages came up in Northern Mesopotamia. One among which was Jarmo. The village of Jarmo had multi-roomed houses. The houses had mud walls and contained two or more rooms. They also had ovens and storage basins. Food production was a major activity. The people of Jarmo cultivated Wheat and Barley.
By 6000 BC food production had become widespread leading to the emergence of three successive Neolithic cultures: Hassuna (6000-5500 BC); Samarra (5500-5000 BC); and Halaf (5500-4500 BC). All three were products of the Northern Mesopotamian environment. With the development of these cultures, food production replaces food gathering and hunting in Mesopotamia. Another feature of this culture was the manufacture of beautiful handmade pottery.
The Hassuna culture was spread over the Northern region of Mesopotamia. The Hassuna Neolithic villages had structures for storing grain. Sickles with stone blades were widely used. Other types of stone tools discovered include javelins. Hassuna pottery was painted and decorated with geometric designs. This is an evidence of hunting but this was now a secondary activity.
The Hassuna culture was followed by the Samarra culture. By this time people were settling along the middle Tigris also. Winter rainfall was scare in these areas which were on the margins of the southern Mesopotamian region. Therefore Samarrans had to rely on irrigation on a small scale to cultivate the land. At Choga Mami the village was also protected by a ditch. All these point towards a more complex social organization.
The Halafian culture represents the most advanced stage of the development of the Neolithic in Northern Mesopotamia. This culture lasted for nearly thousand years. Tiny beads of copper have been found at some Halafian sites. These were made of copper which was found on the surface rather than which was mined. However stones also continued as materials for tool making. The Halafians produced pottery of outstanding quality. The pottery was painted and slightly glazed. It was fired at a very high temperature which gave it a characteristic shine.
The process of settlement in Southern Mesopotamia began a little before 5000 BC. The settlement of Southern Mesopotamia could have taken place also with the help of artificial irrigation. Although there was hardly any rainfall in the region, the soil was really fertile, provided that it was irrigated. The earliest settlements were on the banks of Tigris and Euphrates. Subsequently canals were dug to carry water to the areas of cultivation.
With the settlement of Southern Mesopotamia three new Neolithic cultures developed in the region. The earliest one was the al-Ubaid culture (5000-4000 BC). This was followed by the Uruk Culture (4000-3200 BC) and finally the Jemdet Naser period (3200-3000 BC) which ended with the emergence of Sumerian civilization.
The al-Ubaid culture was the first attempt to adapt to the environment of southern Mesopotamia. Wheat and barley was grown with irrigation, goat and sheep were reared and fish procured from the Euphrates and the Tigris. The date palms in the area would have also supplemented the diet of the people. There was also evidence of the use of metal although on a small scale, which was mainly copper. Metallurgy is a complex process and the first steps might have been taken by the potters who were acquainted with furnaces that would generate temperatures of up to 1200 degree Celsius which was used for firing the pottery. This technical know how could not have been too hard to be transferred to copper. However copper was soft metal and was not much effective in making tools and implements until Bronze was made from alloying tin and copper by the end of the Neolithic.
Although the Halafians had initiated the use of clay for making bricks, it was during the Ubaid period that bricks were used extensively for constructing dwelling places. This was due to the fact that hardly any stones were available for construction in Southern Mesopotamia. The bricks were initially sun dried and not baked. The pottery was made by hand and not by wheel.
The development of Southern Mesopotamia was entirely dependent on the system of irrigation. However small or crude the irrigation system was, it requires that a group of people should pool together their resources and planning and coordination is also necessary. People have to coordinate with each other over a long period of time and for all of this their needs to be a social organization which would govern this cooperation between individuals. It is now recognized that temples played the role of this social organization. From small shrines at the beginning of the Ubaid period the temples grew into massive structures. The religious, social, cultural, economic and political life of the settlements of southern Mesopotamia revolved around them. Excavations held at Eridu have brought to light a huge temple built with mud bricks.
From the time of the al-Ubaid period onwards, temples were the mechanism for upkeep of canals and supervision was done by the temple priests and personnel, who soon accumulated expertise in the matter. This was used for evolving more efficient techniques and as well as for asserting the authority of the temple. Gradually temples were transformed into centres of political control. This process was spread over several centuries.
The next culture in line was the Uruk culture. This culture has yielded us the earliest evidence of wheel, writing and plough. With the Uruk culture we move from prehistory to protohistory. Uruk was Sumerian settlement near the river Euphrates. Uruk period also saw the development of wheel turned pottery which was initially slow wheel turned pottery followed by the fast wheeled turned pottery. Wheels could be made only with metal tools. Metal axes and saws made it easier shape wood into round shapes. In other words, the progress of metallurgy and wheel making was closely interlinked. Wheels were subsequently adapted for use in transportation. Carts were later fitted with a wheel which involved a lot of craftsmanship and explains that there were specialist carpenters in Uruk. Pottery making and metallurgy too became specialized.
In agriculture the introduction of the plough was the main breakthrough. Ploughs required much less labour than digging sticks which was so far being used for the purpose.
A large number of seals have been found in the region. There are mainly two types: stamp seals and cylindrical seals. The seals were most probably used to indicate the ownership of the goods. Stamp seals often depicted animals or plants.
The most outstanding achievement of the Uruk period was the development of writing. There were a lot of transactions which were taking place in Sumeria and people found it difficult to keep track of all stocks and exchanges. So the use of written script was pioneered to maintain durable record of transactions rather than rely on memory alone. Clay tablets were used for writing. Impressions were made on these clay tablets with a hard pointed device. These clay tablets were then dried in sun or baked in an oven to preserve it. The earliest such tablets were the temple accounts and ration lists. They were crude pictures of objects like fish, sheep, goat, ears of barley etc. called Pictograms. This later got simplified and led to the development of the Sumerian cuneiform script.
Towards the end of the Uruk period several settlements in Sumeria had grown into cities and this transition continued into the Jemdet Naser period. Gordon childe calls this phenomenon as ‘urban revolution’.
Division of periods from 4500 BC-2000 BC into different stages or phases
I Sumerian
2 Akkadian
3 Babylonian
Or
1 pre literate
2 proto literate
3 Literate
Or
1 pre dynastic
2 early dynastic 1
3 “ 2
4 early dynastic 3
Early dynastic period starts after the proto literate period
-Al Ubaid
-Al uruk
-Jemdet naser these are the periods of the first stage of the rise and growth of civilization.
The proto literate period finishes at 2750 (will also cover the Jemdet Naser period)
Relationship between environment and origin of sites
a)art and architecture
b)society and economy
c)political structure
d)writing
e)religion rights and rituals
(evolution of this over the last 2000 years)
-Status of women
-punishments and
-division
C)emergence and growth of state
()lugal/king/ his position in the course of time an dthe functions of the state)
e)gods and goddesses