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Mesopotamia

with thanks to The History Guide
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What is good in a man's sight is evil for a god, What is evil to a
man's mind is good for his god. Who can comprehend the counsel of
the gods in heaven? The plan of a god is deep waters, who can
fathom of it? Where has befuddled mankind ever learned what is a
god's conduct?
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Before Civilization

Between 9000 B.C. and the beginning of the Christian era, western
civilization came into being in Egypt and in what historians call
Ancient Western Asia (modern-day Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Israel,
Jordan, Turkey, south-western Russia, Iraq and Iran). The earliest
permanent settlements occurred between 9000-6000 B.C. and were
accompanied by the domestication of plants and animals. Between
4000-3000 B.C., the first cities appeared in response to the
pressures of population growth, the organizational requirements of
irrigation and the demands of more complex trade patterns.
According to our previous definitions, these societies of Egypt and
Ancient Western Asia correspond to what we would call civilization.

Around 10,000 B.C., many hunter-gatherers living along the coastal
plains of modern Syria and Israel and in the valleys and hills near
the Zagros Mountains between Iran and Iraq began to develop special
strategies that led to a transformation in the human community.
Rather than constantly travelling in search of food, people stayed
in one region and exploited the seasonal sources of food, including
fish, grain, fruits and game. At a community such as Jericho,
people built and rebuilt their mud brick and stone huts rather than
moving on as had their ancestors. In general, these communities
began to focus on seasonal food sources and so were less likely to
leave in search of new sources.

Just why hunters and gatherers in this region of the ancient world
turned to agriculture is difficult to say. And there are a variety
of problems associated with this transformation. For one thing,
specialization in a relatively small number of plants or animals
could spell disaster during times of famine. Some scholars have
argued that agriculture developed out of an increased population
and the development of a political hierarchy. In settled
communities, infant mortality decreased and life expectancy rose.
This change may have occurred since life in a fixed community was
less demanding. The practice of infanticide decreased since
children could now be used in rudimentary agricultural tasks. And
as population growth put pressure on the local food supply,
gathering activities required more coordination and organization
and led eventually to the development of political leadership.

Settlements began to encourage the growth of plants such as barley
and lentils and the domestication of pigs, sheep and goats. People
no longer looked for their favorite food sources where they
occurred naturally. Now they introduced them into other locations.
An agricultural revolution had begun.

The ability to domesticate goats, pigs, sheep and cattle and to
cultivate grains and vegetables changed human communities from
passive harvesters of nature to active partners with it. The
ability to expand the food supply in one area allowed the
development of permanent settlements of greater size and
complexity. The people of the Neolithic or New Stone Age (8000-5000
B.C.) organized fairly large villages. Jericho grew into a
fortified town complete with ditches, stone walls, and towers and
contained perhaps 2000 residents. [93]Catal Hüyük in southern
Turkey may have been substantially larger.

Although agriculture resulted in a stable food supply for permanent
communities, the revolutionary aspect of this development was that
the community could bring what they needed (natural resources plus
their tool kit) to make a new site inhabitable. This development
made it possible to create larger communities and also helped to
spread the practice of agriculture to a wider area. Farmers in
Catal-Hüyük cultivated plants that came from hundreds of miles
away. The presence of tools and statues made of stone not available
locally indicates that there was also some trading with distant
regions.

Agricultural society brought changes in the organization of
religious practices as well. Sanctuary rooms decorated with
frescoes and sculptures of the heads of bulls and bears shows us
that structured religious rites were important to the inhabitants
of these early communities. At Jericho, human skulls were covered
with clay in an attempt to make them look as they had in life
suggesting that they practiced a form of ancestor worship. Bonds of
kinship that had united hunters and gatherers were being
supplemented by religious organization, which helped to regulate
the social behaviour of the community.

Around 1500 B.C., a new theme appears on the cliff walls at
Tassili-n-Ajjer. We see men herding horses and driving horse-drawn
chariots. These practices had emerged more than fifteen hundred
years earlier in Mesopotamia, a desert plain stretching to the
marshes near the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
Chariots symbolized a dynamic and expansive phase in western
culture. Constructed of wood and bronze and used for transport as
well as for warfare, the chariot is symbolic of the culture of
early river civilizations, the first civilizations in Ancient
Western Asia.

Mesopotamian Civilization

The history and culture of Mesopotamian civilization is
inextricably connected to the ebb and flow of the Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers. The earliest communities developed to the north
but since rainfall in that area was so unpredictable, by 5000 B.C.
communities had spread south to the rich alluvial plain. The
economy of these communities was primarily agricultural and
approximately 100-200 people lived in these permanently established
villages. The alluvial plain in southern Mesopotamia ("land between
the rivers") was far more fertile than the north but because there
was little rainfall, irrigation ditches had to be constructed.
Furthermore, the river beds of the Tigris and Euphrates rise and
fall with the seasons and they change their course unpredictably.
Southern Mesopotamia also had its share of flash floods which could
destroy crops, livestock and village homes. Floods and torrential
rains were a significant theme in Mesopotamian literature as
depicted in the EPIC OF GILGAMESH.

The rampant flood which no man can oppose,
Which shakes the heavens and causes earth to tremble,
In an appalling blanket folds mother and child,
Beats down the canebrake's full luxuriant greenery,
And drowns the harvest in its time of ripeness.

Rising waters, grievous to eyes of man, All-powerful flood, which
forces the embankments And mows down mighty trees, Frenzied storm,
tearing all things in massed confusion With it in hurling speed.

Civilization emerged in Mesopotamia because the soil provided a
surplus of food. With this surplus, people could settle down to
village life and with these new settlements, towns and cities began
to make their appearance, a process known as urbanization. With
settlements and a surplus of food came an increase in the
population, a well-defined division of labor, organization,
cooperation and kingship. The emergence of cities involved
interaction between people. Most cities evolved from smaller
farming villages and with the practice of irrigation, which was
necessary for villages distant from the Tigris and Euphrates, a
stable food supply was produced. This, in turn, allowed increases
in the number of people who inhabited each settlement.

Because the land closest to the river was the most fertile, there
was a variation in terms of the wealth of these early farmers,
which led to distinct social classes. At the same time, the
construction of canals, ditches and dikes essential to irrigation
demanded cooperation between different social groups.
Decision-making, regulation and control of all food production and
herding meant cooperation. And because more food could be produced
by less people, some people gave up farming and became craftsmen,
labourers, merchants and officials and this too required
cooperation. The Mesopotamians built massive temples or ziggurats
which housed the priestly class, the human representatives of the
gods. The priests controlled the religious life of the community,
the economy, land ownership, the employment of workers as well as
the management of long distance trade.

Mesopotamian villages and towns eventually evolved into independent
and nearly self-sufficient city-states. Although largely
economically dependent on one another, these city-states were
independent political entities and retained very strong
isolationist tendencies. This isolationism hindered the unification
of the Mesopotamian city-states, which eventually grew to twelve in
number.

By 3000 B.C., Mesopotamian civilization had made contact with other
cultures of the Fertile Crescent (a term first coined by James
Breasted in 1916), an extensive trade network connecting
Mesopotamia with the rest of Ancient Western Asia. Again, it was
the two rivers which served as both trade and transportation
routes.

The achievements of Mesopotamian civilization were numerous.
Agriculture, thanks to the construction of irrigation ditches,
became the primary method of subsistence. Farming was further
simplified by the introduction of the plow. We also find the use of
wheel-made pottery. Between 3000 and 2900 B.C. craft specialization
and industries began to emerge (ceramic pottery, metallurgy and
textiles). Evidence for this exists in the careful planning and
construction of the monumental buildings such as the temples and
ziggurats. During this period (roughly 3000 B.C.), cylinder seals
became common. These cylindrical stone seals were five inches in
height and engraved with images. These images were reproduced by
rolling the cylinder over wet clay. The language of these seals
remained unknown until to 20th century. But, scholars now agree
that the language of these tablets was Sumerian.

Ancient Sumer

The Sumerians inhabited southern Mesopotamia from 3000-2000 B.C.
The origins of the Sumerians is unclear -- what is clear is that
Sumerian civilization dominated Mesopotamian law, religion, art,
literature and science for nearly seven centuries.

[94]Cuneiform Resources The greatest achievement of Sumerian
civilization was their CUNEIFORM ("wedge-shaped") system of
writing. Using a reed stylus, they made wedge-shaped impressions on
wet clay tablets which were then baked in the sun. Once dried,
these tablets were virtually indestructible and the several hundred
thousand tablets which have been found tell us a great deal about
the Sumerians. Originally, Sumerian writing was pictographic, that
is, scribes drew pictures of representations of objects. Each sign
represented a word identical in meaning to the object pictured,
although pictures could often represent more than the actual
object.

The pictographic system proved cumbersome and the characters were
gradually simplified and their pictographic nature gave way to
conventional signs that represented ideas. For instance, the sign
for a star could also be used to mean heaven, sky or god. The next
major step in simplification was the development of phonetization
in which characters or signs were used to represent sounds. So, the
character for water was also used to mean "in," since the Sumerian
words for "water" and "in" sounded similar. With a phonetic system,
scribes could now represent words for which there were no images
(signs), thus making possible the written expression of abstract
ideas.

The Sumerians used writing primarily as a form of record keeping.
The most common cuneiform tablets record transactions of daily
life: tallies of cattle kept by herdsmen for their owners,
production figures, lists of taxes, accounts, contracts and other
facets of organizational life in the community. Another large
category of cuneiform writing included a large number of basic
texts which were used for the purpose of teaching future
generations of scribes. By 2500 B.C. there were schools built just
for his purpose.

[95]Sumerian Civilization Resources The city-state was Sumer's most
important political entity. The city-states were a loose collection
of territorially small cities which lacked unity with one another.
Each city-state consisted of an urban center and its surrounding
farmland. The city-states were isolated from one another
geographically and so the independence of each city-state became a
cultural norm with important consequences. For instance, it was
held that each city-state was the estate of a particular god:
Nannar (moon) was said to have watched over the city-state of Ur;
Uruk had An (sky), Sippar had Utu (sun) and Enki (earth) could be
found at Eridu. Nippur, the earliest centre of Sumerian religion,
was dedicated to Enlil, god of wind (Enlil was supplanted by Marduk
at Babylon). Each city-state was sacred since it was carefully
guarded by and linked to a specific god or goddess. Located near
the centre of each city-state was a temple. Occupying several
acres, this sacred area consisted of a ziggurat with a temple at
the top dedicated to the god or goddess who "owned" the city. The
temple complex was the true centre of the community. The main god
or goddess dwelt there symbolically in the form of a statue, and
the ceremony of dedication included a ritual that linked the statue
to the god or goddess and thus harnessed the power of the deity for
the benefit of the city-state. Considerable wealth was poured into
the construction of temples as well as other buildings used for the
residences of priests and priestesses who attended to the needs of
the gods. The priests also controlled all economic activities since
the economy was "redistributive." Farmers would bring their produce
to the the priests at the ziggurat. The priests would "feed" and
"clothe" the gods and then redistribute the remainder to the people
of the community.

[96]Mesopotamian Civilization Resources With its rather large
pantheon of gods and goddesses animating all aspects of life,
Sumerian religion was polytheistic in nature. By far, the most
important deities were An, Enlil, Enki and Ninhursaga. An was the
god of the sky and hence the most important force in the universe.
He was also viewed as the source of all authority including the
earthly power of rulers and fathers alike. In one myth, the gods
address them in the following manner:

What you have ordered comes true! The utterance of Prince and Lord
is but what you have ordered, do agree with.
O An! your great command takes precedence, who could gainsay it?
O father of the gods, your command, the very foundations of heaven
and earth, what god could spurn it?

Enlil, god of wind, was considered the second greatest power of the
universe and became the symbol of the proper use of force and
authority on earth. As the god of wind, Enlil controlled both the
fertility of the soil and destructive storms. This dual nature of
Enlil inspired a justifiable fear of him:

What has he planned? . . .
What is in my father's heart?
What is in Enlil's holy mind?
What has he planned against me in his holy mind?
A net he spread: the net of an enemy; a snare he set: the snare of
an enemy.
He has stirred up the waters and will catch the fishes, he has cast
his net, and will bring down the birds too.

Enki was god of the earth. Since the earth was the source of
life-giving waters, Enki was also god of rivers, wells, and canals.
He also represented the waters of creativity and was responsible
for inventions and crafts. Ninhursaga began as a goddess associated
with soil, mountains, and vegetation. Eventually she was worshipped
as a mother goddess, a "mother of all children," who manifested her
power by giving birth to kings.

Although these four deities were supreme, there were numerous gods
and goddesses below them. One group included the astral deities,
who were all grandchildren and great-grandchildren of An. These
included Utu, god of the sun, the moon god Nannar, and Inanna,
goddess of the morning and evening star as well as of war and rain.
Unlike humans, these gods and goddesses were divine and immortal.
But they were not all-powerful since no one god had control over
the entire universe. Furthermore, humans were capable of devising
ways to discover the will of the gods and to influence them as
well.

The relationship of human beings to the gods was based on
subservience since, according to Sumerian myth, human beings were
created to do the manual labour the gods were unwilling to do for
themselves. As a consequence, humans were insecure since they could
never be sure of the god's actions. But humans did make attempts to
circumvent or relieve their anxiety by discovering the intentions
of the gods; these efforts gave rise to the development of the arts
of divination, which took a variety of forms. A common form, at
least for kings and priests who could afford it, involved killing
animals, such as sheep or goats, and examining their livers or
other organs. Supposedly, features seen in the organs of the
sacrificed animals foretold of events to come. Private individuals
relied on cheaper divinatory techniques. These included
interpreting patterns of smoke from burning incense or the pattern
formed when oil was poured into water.

The Sumerian art of divination arose from a desire to discover the
purpose of the gods. If people could decipher the signs that
foretold events, the events would be predictable and humans could
act wisely. But the Sumerians also developed cultic arts to
influence good powers (gods and goddesses) whose decisions could
determine human destiny and to ward off evil powers (demons). These
cultic arts included ritualistic formulas, such as spells against
evil spirits, or prayers or hymns to the gods to win their positive
influence. Since only the priests knew the precise rituals, it is
not difficult to understand the important role they exercised in a
society dominated by a belief in the reality of spiritual powers.

The Code of Hammurabi

Mesopotamian men and women viewed themselves as subservient to the
gods and believed humans were at the mercy of the god's arbitrary
decisions. To counter their insecurity, the Mesopotamians not only
developed the arts of divination in order to understand the wishes
of their gods, but also relieved some anxiety by establishing codes
that regulated their relationships with one another. These law
codes became an integral part of Mesopotamian society. Although
there were early Sumerian law codes, the best-preserved
Mesopotamian collection of law codes was that of Hammurabi (fl.18th
century B.C.).

[97]The Code of Hammurabi The [98]CODE OF HAMMURABI reveals a
society of strict justice. Penalties for criminal offences were
severe and varied according to the wealth of the individual.
According to the code, there were three social classes in
Babylonia: an upper class of nobles (government officials, priests,
and warriors), the class of freemen (merchants, artisans,
professionals, and wealthy farmers), and a lower class of slaves.
An offence against a member of the upper class was punished with
more severity than the same offence against a member of a lower
class. The principle of retaliation ("an eye for an eye, a tooth
for a tooth") was fundamental. It was applied in cases where
members of the upper class committed criminal offences against
their own social equals. But for offences against members of the
lower classes, a money payment was made instead.

Mesopotamian society, like any other society, had its share of
crime. Burglary was common. If a person stole goods belonging to
the temples, he was put to death, and so was the person who
received the stolen goods. If the private property of an individual
was stolen, the thief had to make a tenfold restitution. If he
could not do so he was put to death. An offender caught attempting
to loot a burning house was to be "thrown into that fire."

Private individuals were often responsible for bringing charges
before a court of law. To insure that accusations were not brought
lightly, the accuser in cases of murder was responsible for proving
his case against the defendant. If the accuser could not, he was
put to death. Providing false testimony in a murder case meant the
same fate.

Hammurabi's code took seriously the responsibilities of all public
officials. The governor of an area and city officials were expected
to catch burglars. If they failed to do so, public officials in
which the crime took place had to replace the lost property. If
murderers were not found, the officials had to pay a fine to the
relatives of the murdered person. Soldiers were also expected to
fill their duties. If a soldier hired a substitute to fight for
him, he was put to death, and a substitute was given control of his
estate.

The law code also extended into the daily life of the ordinary
citizen. Builders were held responsible for the buildings they
constructed. If a house collapsed and caused the death of its
owner, the builder was put to death. Goods destroyed by the
collapsed must also be replaced and the house itself rebuilt at the
builder's expense.

Slavery was a common feature of Mesopotamian society. Slaves were
obtained by war; others were criminals. Crimes such as striking
one's older brother and kicking one's mother were punished by
condemnation to slavery. A man could pay his debts by selling both
his children and wife into slavery for a specified length of time.
One could become a slave simply by going into debt.

Slaves were used in temples, in public buildings, and in the homes
of private individuals. Most temple slaves were women who did
domestic chores. Royal slaves were used to construct buildings and
fortifications. Slaves owned by private citizens performed domestic
chores. The laws were harsh for those slaves who tried to escape or
who were disobedient. "If a male slave has said to his master, 'You
are now my master,' his master shall prove him to be his slave and
cut off his ear." Despite such harsh measures, slaves did possess a
number of privileges: they could hold property, participate in
business, marry free man or women, and eventually purchased their
own freedom.

The number of laws in Hammurabi's code dedicated to land and
commerce reveal the importance of agriculture and trade in
Mesopotamian society. Numerous laws dealt with questions of
landholding, such as the establishment of conditions for renting
farmland. Tenant farming was the basis of Mesopotamian agriculture.
Ten farmers paid their annual rent in crops rather than money. Laws
concerning land-use and irrigation were especially strict. If a
landowner or tenant failed to keep dikes in good repair he was
required to pay for the grain that was destroyed. If he could not
pay he was sold into slavery and his goods sold, the proceeds of
which were divided among the injured parties. Rates of interest on
loans were watched carefully. If the lender raised his rate of
interest after a loan was made, he lost the entire amount of the
loan. The Code of Hammurabi also specified the precise wages of
labourers and artisans.

The largest number of laws in the Code of Hammurabi were dedicated
to marriage and family. Parents arranged marriages for their
children. After marriage, the party signed a marriage contract.
Without this contract, no one was considered legally married. While
the husband provided a bridal payment, the woman's parents were
responsible for a dowry to the husband. Dowries were carefully
monitored and governed by regulations.

Mesopotamian society was a patriarchal society, and so women
possessed far fewer privileges and rights in their marriage. A
woman's place was at home and failure to fulfil her duties was
grounds for divorce. If she was not able to bear children, her
husband could divorce her but he had to repay the dowry. If his
wife tried to leave the home in order to engage in business, her
husband could divorce her and did not have to repay the dowry.
Furthermore, if his wife was a "gadabout, . . . neglecting her
house [and] humiliating her husband," she could be drowned.

Women were guaranteed some rights, however. If a woman was divorced
without good reason she received the dowry back. A woman could seek
divorce and get her dowry back if her husband was unable to show
that she had done anything wrong. The mother also chose a son to
whom an inheritance would be passed.

Sexual relations were strictly regulated as well. Husbands, but not
wives, were permitted sexual activity outside marriage. A wife
caught committing adultery was pitched into the river. Incest was
strictly forbidden. If a father committed incestuous relations with
his daughter, he would be banished. Incest between a son and his
mother resulted in both being burned.

Fathers ruled their children as well as their wives. Obedience was
expected: "If a son has struck his father, they shall cut off his
hand." If a son committed a serious enough offence, his father
could disinherit him. It should be clear that the Code of Hammurabi
covered virtually every aspect of an individual's life. Although
scholars have questioned the extent to which these laws were
actually employed in Babylonian society, the Code of Hammurabi
provides us an important glimpse into the values of Mesopotamian
civilization.

The Akkadian Kingdom

The Sumerians were not the only people to inhabit the Fertile
Crescent of Mesopotamia. There were other groups of people who
lived in permanent communities and who interacted with the
Sumerians in times of peace and in war. By 2350 B.C.,
Semitic-speaking people united northern Mesopotamia with the
Sumerian city-states and a new capital was set up at Akkad. The
result was a centralized government under the authority of the
king, his royal court, and the high class of priests.

The man most responsible for this development is assumed to be
Sargon. Sargon, whose name is taken to mean "the king is
legitimate," carried out more than thirty battles against the
Sumerian city-states and eventually, these city-states were
incorporated into the Akkadian kingdom.

The foundation of the Akkadian state was economic. Sargon and his
royal court served as the focal point of all economic activity.
Remember, at Sumer, this task was assumed by the priests of the
temple. Sargon brought vast amounts of wealth to the capital city
he also brought a huge number of royal servants and administrators,
thus creating a bureaucratic organization to help rule his kingdom.

The Akkadian kingdom, like most Ancient Near Eastern kingdoms, also
embraced a polytheistic religion. Their gods were anthropomorphic,
that is, the gods took human form. And because the gods took human
form, they also had human qualities: the gods could be foolish,
intelligent, shy, humorous, jealous, angry or silly. Among
themselves, the gods also had unequal status. The gods were derived
from the world of nature for the simple reason that life in
Mesopotamia was controlled or conditioned by the seasons. Theirs
was a world of nature and in order to understand nature, the
Mesopotamians gave human shape to the forces of nature. So, we
encounter An, the sky god, Enlil, the god of air, Nanna, the moon
god and Utu, the sun god. The Mesopotamians believed these gods
were responsible for creating the universe and everything it
contained, including humankind. The gods were also responsible for
the smooth running of that world. The gods ruled the world of men
through their earthly representatives, and in the case of the
Akkadian kingdom, this meant Sargon. Hopefully, you can already
notice the decreased status of the temple priests at Akkad.
Although they still exist, and continue to serve a vital role, the
mediator between the gods and ordinary men and women, is now
Sargon.

Men and women were created by the gods to serve the gods to feed
and clothe them, to honour and obey them. One thing absent from
this religion, however, was that the gods did not specify any code
of ethics or morality. Issues of good and evil were left to men and
women to discover on their own. In the end, the gods gave the
inhabitants of these early river civilizations an answer to the
basic question why are we here? what is our role? And the answer
was equally simple to serve the gods.