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Mesopotamia (from the Greek, "between two rivers") was an ancient region located in the eastern Mediterranean, limited to the northeast by the Zagros Mountains and to the southeast by the Arabian plateau, corresponding to present-day Iraq and parts of Iran, Syria, and Turkey. The “two rivers” are the Tigris and the Euphrates, which originate in the Taurus Mountains in Armenia. The land was known as Al-Jazirah (The Island) by the Arabs as fertile land surrounded by water.
Egyptologist J. H. Breasted (1865-1935) coined the term Fertile Crescent in 1916 to describe the region located at the northern end of the Persian Gulf, associated with the biblical Garden of Eden. Its lands were fertile and easy to implement irrigation techniques and hydraulic complexes. Soil fertility was guaranteed by the flood cycle of the two rivers that soaked the soil with organic material, allowing the development of agriculture and animal husbandry.
With the abundance of water and fertile land, the first human beings decided to settle there, in a phenomenon known as the Urban Revolution. The first cities were born during the process of human sedentary and the pastoral agricultural revolution of the Neolithic cycle.
Cradle of civilization
Mesopotamia is considered the cradle of civilization as it is the region where the first permanent human settlements developed, around 4,000 BC. It was home to many civilizations over thousands of years that contributed significantly to global culture and progress. The Sumerians were the first settlers who settled in the city of Uruk and later managed to occupy the lower region of Mesopotamia. The cultures of Ancient Egypt developed along the Nile River at the same time as the cultures of Mesopotamia. The oldest architectural works in the world can be found in these two regions.
The main events that marked the transition between the periods of Prehistory and the Ancient Age were the creation of the wheel (around 3,500 BC) and the development of writing (from 3,300 BC) that the first sedentary people practiced.
Origin of Mesopotamia
Cities were protected by walls and their highest buildings were temples, called ziggurats, administered by priests who held administrative power in the city. The different Mesopotamian peoples prospered culturally and were in their time one of the great civilizational poles in Eurasia, although centuries later they were little more than a territory disputed by the great empires of late Antiquity, such as the Roman Empire and the Persian Empire.
Over time, these cities grew and aroused greed in neighboring cities. There was then a need to separate religious power from administrative power. This is how the first military commanders emerged. Cities also began to sell surplus production, and this generated the first commercial exchanges in history.
Mesopotamian Civilization
The Mesopotamian population was born from the conquests of two main peoples: the Sumerians and the Akkadians. Then came the Babylonians, Assyrians, and Hittites.
Sumerians
The first people who settled in the region in a sedentary manner were the Sumerians, from the neighboring plateau of Iran. The Sumerian civilization has the oldest and most mysterious historical context among the civilizations of Antiquity. They are believed to have arrived there around 5,000 BC.
By dominating southern Mesopotamia and using the experiences of its ancient inhabitants, they learned the method of draining swamps, digging streams and agriculture. The first cities built by the Sumerians were Quish, Ur, Uruk, Lagash, Nippur and Eridu. Sign of a prosperous agricultural system and extensive trade with neighboring lands.
The Sumerians developed large hydraulic constructions that took advantage of swamps, inhibited river flooding and guaranteed water in periods of drought. Some archaeological discoveries show that Sumer had inhabitants who gradually learned techniques for exploiting river waters.
The Sumerians are credited with developing humanity's first form of writing, cuneiform writing, a type of writing that uses symbols to represent objects or concepts (although writing also developed in Egypt, the Indus Valley, China and independently in Mesoamerica). It was created to maintain control over the accounting of royal palaces.
The political organization was city-states, each city was independent and governed by a patesis, a mixture of military leader and priest. They created laws, collected taxes, and supervised irrigation and drainage canals. They also collected taxes and managed works to store water to be used during dry periods.
Land was considered the property of the gods, and it was up to man to serve them through agricultural work and the construction of ziggurats. The word ziggurat means a multi-story temple and is a modern pronunciation of ziggurtu, an Akkadian term that comes from Babylonian and Assyrian texts. Built as a pyramid-shaped temple, it was a religious structure built 4,200 to 2,500 years ago in major Mesopotamian cities. The most famous ziggurat in Mesopotamia is that of Ur, built around 2,100 BC.
After an extended period of autonomy, Sumerian cities weakened due to struggles for political hegemony. The weakening enabled the invasion of several Semitic peoples from Southeast Asia who spoke Semitic languages, such as Akkadians, Hebrews, Arabs, Ethiopians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Arameans, Canaanites, and Phoenicians.
Akkadians
The Sumerians' rule in Mesopotamia ended with the arrival of the Akkadians, who conquered the cities in the region. Among them came Arabs, Hebrews, and Syrians, who settled north of Sumer and prospered enough to invade it and found the Akkadian Empire.
Akkadian is an ancient warrior state considered ancestral to the Assyrian and Babylonian peoples. Unlike the Sumerians, the Akkadians formed a powerful central government. For this reason, they are known as the state that established the first central kingdom in history. The Akkadians also created the first known regular army under this form of government and warrior society. Its most important city was Akkad, which gave rise to the term Akkadian.
The Akkadian Empire reached its political peak between the 22nd and 14th centuries BC. Around 2,330 BC, the Akkadian king Sargon I unified the Sumerian cities, creating the Akkadian Empire, the first recorded empire. He was able to conquer all the lands of Mesopotamia by abusing the Sumerian civil conflicts.
The main economic source was agriculture, benefiting from irrigation from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The economy revolved around the exchange of metals and barley. Political power remained in the hands of kings, who after death were idolized as gods. However, the Akkadian empire was brief, continuous foreign invasions made it impossible to remain, which ended up disappearing around 2,100 BC.
First Babylonian Empire (1,800-1,600 BC)
With the fall of the Akkadian Empire, Mesopotamia was divided into two distinct regions: Assyria (northern region) and Babylon (southern region). Among the invaders who overthrew the Akkadians were the Amorites, coming from the Arabian desert. They settled in the city of Babylon in Middle Mesopotamia.
The Amorites, also known as Babylonians, settled in the region around 2,000 BC. They occupied Babylon and transformed it into a large urban and commercial center. The Babylonians were a group of Semitic tribes called the Amorites; very primitive tribes that occupied the west of the Euphrates from the second half of the third millennium BC. Babylon was occupied twice, at the end of the third millennium – around 2,122 BC and at the beginning of the first millennium BC. Historians claim that important trade routes passed through around the city and that traders arrived from distinct parts of the world.
They invaded the areas inhabited by the Akkadians and ended up controlling other cities in the region. The height of Babylonian rule occurred under the reign of its famous king Hammurabi (circa 1792-1750 BC). Around the 18th century BC, Hammurabi managed to unify the entire region. The largest urban concentrations in Antiquity emerged precisely during this period. In addition to him, the Babylonian civilization was governed by Nebuchadnezzar who ordered the creation of the Hanging Gardens, the Tower of Babel, and the conquest of Jerusalem.
Hammurabi's Code
The set of laws that ordered this empire became known as the Code of Hammurabi (an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth). The code presented a series of penalties for crimes in all areas of life, domestic or professional, in relation to the ownership of real estate and slaves. This code was based on a principle known as the Law of Talion, that is, whoever committed a crime was punished with a punishment proportional to the damage he had caused. Hammurabi's Code was preceded by other sets of laws in Mesopotamia, such as the Code of Ur Nammu.
Kept in the Louvre Museum, Hammurabi's stele (stone) is considered the oldest written law in history. Hammurabi was an adventurous ruler who expanded the kingdom of Babylon along the fertile Euphrates River and annexed vast lands into Mesopotamia. To control his lands and his subjects, he created a judicial system that kept all the conquered lands together. He combined military and political developments with irrigation and construction projects. He built fortresses, fortifications, and temples dedicated to Marduk, a Babylonian god.
After Hammurabi's death, his empire quickly disintegrated as southern Mesopotamia had no natural, defensible borders, which made it vulnerable to attack. In the 16th century BC, a tribe called the Hittites attacked Babylon from the north. A Hittite army crossed the Taurus Mountains from Asia Minor into Mesopotamia. Attacks by the Hittites who attempted to expand outside Anatolia ended up leading to the destruction of Babylon in 1593 BC, thus ending the ancient dynasty that had been strengthened by Hammurabi. As the region was too far away (1,200 miles from their capital at Hattusas) they withdrew from Babylon.
Around 1,531 BC, the invasion of the Kassites, who first appeared in the Zagros Mountains northwest of present-day Iran, broke the resistance of the Babylonian government. The Kassites plundered and destroyed Babylon and renamed it Kardunias. This government lasted more than five hundred years. It was the longest known dynasty of that state, which ruled throughout the period known as Middle Babylon (1595-1155 BC).
Neo-Babylonians
The Neo-Babylonians, also known as the Chaldean Empire, were a dominant Mesopotamian civilization that rose to power during the late 7th and 6th centuries BC. Their reign marked a significant period in history, characterized by military might, cultural advances, and architectural wonders.
Its roots go back to the ancient city of Babylon. The region was previously ruled by several empires, such as the Assyrians. However, the resurgence of Babylonian power in the seventh century BC led to the establishment of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.
Under the leadership of the later king Nabopolassar, the Chaldeans rebelled against the Assyrians and successfully gained independence from Babylon. Nabopolassar's son, Nebuchadnezzar II, ascended the throne and further expanded the empire's influence and territory. Nebuchadnezzar's reign is often considered the golden age of the Neo-Babylonians, characterized by impressive achievements. He undertook several construction projects, including the legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. He fortified the city of Babylon, making it an impregnable fortress.
In addition to their military might, the Neo-Babylonians were avid patrons of art, literature, and science. They made significant advances in astronomy and mathematics. Its cuneiform writing system facilitated the documentation of knowledge and culture.
Fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire
The Neo-Babylonians faced internal conflicts and external pressures that contributed to their decline. After the death of Nebuchadnezzar II, the empire witnessed a series of weak rulers, leading to instability and vulnerability.
The conquest of Babylon by Cyrus the Great, a Persian king known for his military prowess and diplomatic skills, was a significant historical event that occurred in 539 BC. Cyrus founded the Achaemenid Empire, which would become one of the most significant and influential empires of antiquity. At the time of the conquest, King Nabonidus ruled Babylon. Seeking to expand his empire and assert Persian dominance, Cyrus turned his attention to Babylon.
The exact details of the conquest are recorded on the Cyrus Cylinder, an ancient clay cylinder with inscriptions describing the events from his perspective. According to the cylinder, Cyrus' army entered Babylon without facing much resistance from the residents. The Babylonian god Marduk was credited with favoring Cyrus and ensuring a peaceful transition of power.
Cyrus' reputation as a benevolent ruler and his policies of religious and cultural tolerance contributed to his legacy as a model of just and compassionate leadership.
Cyrus' cylinder
Assyrians
The kingdom of the Amorites weakened after the death of Hammurabi and was succeeded by the Assyrians who occupied the northern region of Babylon. They were among the Semitic tribes who lived in the northern part of Mesopotamia, which corresponds to most of present-day Iraq, as well as parts of Iran, Kuwait, Syria, and Turkey. It had humble beginnings as a nation-state during the second millennium BC. Of all the peoples of the Mesopotamian civilization, they rose to prominence for their military power, especially in the manufacture of weapons.
They formed an extremely militarized society from the end of the second millennium BC and began a process of expansion and conquest in Mesopotamia around 1,200 BC. They conquered all of Mesopotamia, as well as Palestine, Egypt, and part of Persia.
The Assyrians were famous for being fearsome warriors who used violent techniques in combat and for treating their prisoners with extreme brutality. The conquered peoples, in addition to being governed in a tyrannical manner, were forced to pay heavy taxes. This violence was raised by historians as the reason that started numerous revolts that weakened the power of the Assyrians around the seventh century BC.
The most important king of the Assyrians was Ashurbanipal, who was known for being an admirer of erudition and for ordering the construction of the Library of Nineveh (the main city of Assyria). This library brought together thousands of texts in cuneiform writing on various subjects. Much of what is known about Mesopotamia today is due to this library. They were great supporters of science. Latitude and longitude coordinates for navigation, for example, are one of the mathematical inventions developed by the Assyrians.
Assyria has undergone several changes throughout history. Although it was at times an independent state, it also fell to the Babylonian Empire and later the Mittani government. But unlike other nation-states, due to their technological advances in warfare, the Assyrians held onto their lands as other states and empires rose and fell in power.
When the Hittites overthrew the Mittani government, they left a power vacuum that led the region to war and the Assyrian government, which defeated the claimants and occupied Mesopotamia. From the 12th century BC, the Assyrians constantly fought with their neighbors, conquered territories, and plundered prosperous cities. The inscriptions and bas-reliefs left by them contain a lot of information about these wars and violations.
In the ninth century BC, Shalmansar III expanded Assyrian territory to the Mediterranean coast. Ashur Banipal, the famous king of Assyria, conquered Egypt in the seventh century and increased the intensity of the attack on neighboring lands.
The Babylonian Revolt in 626 BC, in combination with an invasion of the Medes under Cyaxares in 615-614 BC, led to the Medo-Babylonian conquest of the Assyrian Empire. The neighbors injured by Assyria joined hands and decided to destroy it. This happened with the union of the Median State, which was established in Iran, and the Chaldean State, which was established in southern Mesopotamia. Assur was sacked in 614 BC and Nineveh in 612 BC. The Assyrian civilization collapsed due to numerous civil conflicts and the death of King Ashurbanipal who, during his administration, controlled Babylon, Syria, Persia, and Egypt.
Hittites
The Hittites were Indo-European people who formed another empire in nearby Mesopotamia. They were led by a king, considered sovereign and divine, who also commanded the army and the priests. The main economic bases were agriculture, mining, and trade. Furthermore, they were pioneers in the handling of iron.
Cuneiform writing and another type of pictographic writing dominated. This language gave rise to other languages spoken in Europe and Asia. The Hittite empire fell under Assyrian rule, which had great military power.
Chaldeans
The weakening of the Assyrians led the Chaldeans to conquer Mesopotamia and found the Second Babylonian Empire, in 612 BC. The empire was brief, and its main king was Nebuchadnezzar, responsible for reconquering Palestine and all of Mesopotamia. He is credited with building the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, considered one of the wonders of the ancient world.
The Chaldean empire was the last developed by a Mesopotamian people. Their rule was weakened after the death of Nebuchadnezzar and, as a result, they were conquered by the Persians, led by Cyrus II in 539 BC.
Characteristics of the people of Mesopotamia
Unlike the more unified civilizations of Egypt or Greece, Mesopotamia was a collection of varied cultures whose only real links were their writing, their gods, and their attitude toward women. The social customs, laws, and even the language of the Sumerian people differ from those of the Akkadian period and cannot be assumed to correspond to those of the Babylonian civilizations. However, it appears that women's rights (during some periods), the importance of literacy, and the pantheon of gods were shared throughout the region, although the gods had different names in various regions and periods.
Policy
Before the concept of king, priestly rulers were believed to dictate law according to religious precepts and receive divine messages through signs and omens. The role of the king was established shortly after 3,600 BC. Unlike the priest-rulers who preceded him, the king dealt directly with the people and made his will clear through laws he invented. Although he continued to honor and appease the gods, the king considered himself a powerful enough representative of those gods to be able to express their will according to their own dictates, using his own voice.
However, even very efficient rulers, such as Sargon of Akkad (r. 2,334-2,279 BC), had to deal with revolts by factions or entire regions that challenged their legitimacy. As Mesopotamia was a very vast region, full of diverse cultures and ethnicities within its borders, a single ruler who tried to enforce the laws of a central government would encounter resistance.
Social systems
The societies of Mesopotamian civilization were divided into the following layers: nobles, priests, military, traders, and slaves (prisoners of war). Political, military, and scientific powers were in the hands of the nobility, priests, and some merchants. Peasants and slaves were forced to serve the ruling class, handing over a large part of their agricultural production. Slaves were used in the hardest work, such as mines.
Economy
The basis of the economy was agriculture, which depended on the floods of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The cultivation of wheat, barley, roots, and fruits, together with the plow and wheeled carts, made the region an economic hub. The monetary system was poorly developed, but barley and metals were used as a reference of value.
The places of agricultural production were directed by temples, ziggurats, and palaces. It was up to the peasants to work on these lands and deliver a large part of the products to the temples. Private properties, free from the control of ziggurats, were cultivated by employees who received payments.
Job market
As Mesopotamia was fundamentally agrarian, the main occupations were agriculture and livestock. Other occupations were those of the scribe, the healer, the artisan, the weaver, the potter, the shoemaker, the fisher, the teacher and the priest or priestess. Both men and women worked.
At the head of society were the kings and priests served by the numerous palace and temple officials. With the institution of standing armies and the expansion of imperialism, military officers and professional soldiers took their place in Mesopotamia's growing and diverse workforce.
Buildings and government
The temple (ziggurat), located in the center of each city, symbolized the importance of the patron deity of that location. Each city had its own ziggurat to honor its patron deity. Larger cities had more than one.
Simple houses were built with bundles of reeds tied together and inserted into the ground, while more complex ones were built with sun-dried mud bricks. Cities and temple complexes, with their famous ziggurats, were built from clay bricks baked in a kiln and then painted.
It was believed that the gods were present in the planning and execution of any construction project. Therefore, reciting extremely specific prayers in a certain order to the corresponding deity was considered extremely important for the success of the project and the prosperity of the house's occupants.
Education system
Mesopotamia was known as a seat of learning. Thales of Miletus (c. 585 BC, known as the "first philosopher") is believed to have studied there. Since the Babylonians believed that water was the “first principle” from which everything else flowed, and since Thales is famous for this claim, it seems likely that he indeed studied in the region.
Intellectual pursuits were highly valued throughout Mesopotamia, and schools (dedicated to the priestly class) are said to have been as numerous as temples, teaching reading, writing, religion, law, medicine, and astrology.
Religion
The Mesopotamian people were polytheistic and worshiped their own gods, the Babylonians, Marduk; the Assyrians, Assur, who represented natural forces (earth, water, fire, and air) and resembled human characteristics: qualities, defects, passions, and anger. Others were An (God of the sky), Enlil (God of wind), Enki (God of water) and Ninhursag (goddess of the earth).
The goddess Ishtar was the only deity worshiped by all people. She helped men in the dilemmas of love and in winning wars. In addition to the gods, they believed in genii (like angels) helpers. These spirits would be responsible for protecting the deities against illness, death, or even evil forces.
The beginning of the world was a victory of the gods over the forces of chaos. Although the gods had won, that did not mean chaos would not return. Through daily rituals, attention to deities, proper burial practices, and simple civic duties, they believed they were helping to maintain balance in the world and keep the forces of chaos and destruction in check. Citizens were obliged to honor the gods with the work they performed daily.
There were more than a thousand deities in the pantheon of gods of Mesopotamian cultures and many stories related to the gods (including the creation myth, the Enuma Elish). It is accepted that biblical stories such as the Fall of Man and the Great Flood (among many others) originated in Mesopotamian tradition, as they first appear in Mesopotamian works such as The Myth of Adapa and the Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest writing in the world. The Mesopotamians believed that they were co-workers of the gods and that the earth was permeated with spirits and demons (demons not understood in the modern Christian sense).
Sciences
In 1922 archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley discovered "the remains of two four-wheeled chariots, together with their leather tires, at the site of the ancient city of Ur. They are the oldest wheeled vehicles in history."
Other important developments or inventions attributed to the Mesopotamians are, among others, the domestication of animals, agriculture and irrigation, common tools, sophisticated weaponry and warfare, the chariot, wine, beer, the demarcation of time in hours , minutes and seconds, religion rites, navigation (sailboats) and legal codes.
The Mesopotamian people had great prominence in the fields of astronomy, mathematics, and law. Observing the sky, priests developed the principles of astronomy and astrology. They knew the properties of planets and stars, and the phases of solar and lunar eclipses. The ziggurats were true observation towers of the heavens. They described calculations of the movement of planets and stars and the creation of sophisticated calendars.
It was the Mesopotamians who created the calendar by dividing the year into 12 months and the week into seven days, each in 12-hour periods. In mathematics, they invented the calculations of square and cubic roots, division, equation, and length quantities. In addition to these, they also divided the circle into 360 degrees. In Law, they created a collection of Sumerian and Semitic laws, with emphasis on the Code of Hammurabi.
Legacy
According to Chapin Metz, an American editor and analyst of the Middle East, the well-being of the community depended on the careful observation of natural phenomena, scientific activities occupied a large part of the priests' time. The Sumerians believed that each of the gods was represented by a number. The number 60, sacred to the god An, was its basic unit of calculation. The minutes of an hour and the notable degrees of a circle were Sumerian concepts. The advanced agricultural system and the refined systems of irrigation and water control that allowed Sumer to obtain surplus production also led to the growth of large cities.
Urbanization, the wheel, writing, astronomy, mathematics, wind power, irrigation, agricultural development, animal husbandry, and the narratives that would eventually be rewritten as the Hebrew Scriptures and provide the basis for the Christian Old Testament, all this came from the land of Mesopotamia.
As noted, Samuel Noah Kramer lists 39 Mesopotamian "firsts" in his book The Story Begins in Sumer, and yet, as impressive as these "firsts" are, Mesopotamian contributions to world culture do not end with them. The Mesopotamians influenced the cultures of Egypt and Greece through long-distance trade and cultural diffusion impacted the culture of Rome and set the tone for the development and spread of Western civilization. Mesopotamia in general and Sumer in particular gave the world some of its most enduring cultural aspects, and although the cities and great palaces are long gone, that legacy continues.
In the 19th century AD, archaeologists of various nationalities arrived in Mesopotamia in search of evidence that corroborated the biblical accounts of the Old Testament. At the time, the Bible was considered the oldest book in the world and the stories contained within its pages were considered original compositions. Archaeologists looking for physical evidence to support the biblical accounts discovered just the opposite, as ancient clay tablets were discovered and it was realized that the markings on them were not drawings, but a form of writing.
Scholar and translator George Smith (1840-1876) deciphered these cuneiform tablets in 1,872 and this opened the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia to the modern world. The story of the Flood and Noah's Ark, the story of the Fall of man, the concept of the Garden of Eden and even Jo's complaints were written by the Mesopotamians centuries before the biblical texts.
The discovery of the Sumerian civilization and the stories of the cuneiform tablets promoted a new freedom of intellectual inquiry in all areas of knowledge. It was now understood that the biblical narratives were not original Hebrew works, that the world was obviously older than the Church claimed, that there were civilizations that had risen and fallen much earlier than previously thought, and that if these claims of the Church and school authorities were false, perhaps others were as well.
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