Chronology: ca. 3000-1100 B.C. (note: dates "backward" and "ca." = about)

1. Peoples of the Region: ethnic/linguistic

Map of Middle Eastern Cradle Lands

Modern Map of Area, relief map of modern area

a. ca. 3100-2000 B.C.: southern Mesopotamia

Akkadians (Babylonians and Assyrians) >> semitic

Sumerians >> non-Semitic, non Indo-European

b. ca. 2000-1200 B.C.

other groups move into area (e.g., Amorites and Hittites)

 2. Physical Geography of Region and Consequences

a. urbanization and agriculture: gender roles, public and private

Euphrates and environs

Desert contrast

b. need for large-scale water management (Field with irrigation canal scars) 

c. relationship to centralization of political power over time?

 3. Mesopotamian Religion and Myth

a. Characteristics

i. Polytheistic

ii. Anthropomorphic

iii. Divine Spheres

gods: Enlil (sky); Shamash (justice); Ea (wisdom); Ishtar (love)

Enlil (Sumerian) = Marduk (Babylonian)

b. World-View

e.g., Creation Myths (Enuma Elish)

c. Practice

a. Ritual and its Purpose

do ut des ("I give so that you give")

b. Temples and Priests

ZIGGURATS 

ziggurat at Ur (reconstruction)

reconstructed drawing of ziggurat at Ur

ziggurat at Ur-nammu (note ancient vehicle)

 4. Mesopotamian Political Structure and Kingship

a. city-states and centralized empires or dynasties

Gilgamesh of Uruk (Uruk = Erech) (ca. 2700)

Sargon of Akkad (ca. 2300) (Bronze Age trade)

b. Legitimation and Divine Sanction

Sumerian King List

c. King as legal protector and social reformer

Hammurabi and his Code

stele and closeup

 

 Updated Wednesday, 07-Sep-2005 14:21:27 CDT