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Mesopotamia

33 42 'N 43 30' E / 33.7, 43.5

Mesopotamia (the Greek / of / "middle, between" and / means the country "between two rivers") is a region of the Middle East between the Tigris and Euphrates. It is for the most part in the Iraq today.

It includes the north (north-eastern Syria and northern Iraq today) a plateau region, which is a rainfed area, and south, a region of plains where farming is practiced based exclusively on irrigation.

The word Mesopotamia has evolved over time. In the classical sense of the Greeks and Romans , Mesopotamia means the northern part also called Jezireh since the Arab conquest (c. 634 AD.) for the wetland and irrigated found the word Sawad in texts Arab origin. In Arrian , who wrote a Anabasis of Alexander the Great , one finds for the first time the term Mesopotamia. The term comes from a phrase that exists in local languages, and found in Akkadian form of Birt Narim "Interval River" (from birt, "interval" Narim, "river") or Mast Birtim "Land of the interval (mast," Country "and birtim" interval "). In Aramaic , it is in the form of Beyne Nahrm "between the rivers" (Beynes "between" and nahrein "river"), which refers in all cases, the upper part of the Euphrates.

Currently, the term "Mesopotamia" is generally used in reference to the ancient history of this region to civilization that occupied this space until the last centuries before the Christian era or sixth century before the Muslim era.

Summary

/ / Geography
Main article: Geography of Mesopotamia.
Extension of the Fertile Crescent

The essential notion is that of the Fertile Crescent. This is the area where irrigation is not needed for agriculture. These lands are moist, easy to grow. This crescent is bordered by the isohyet 250. Specifically, this area lies between the Zagros , the Taurus and the Mediterranean coasts and the Persian Gulf. It is in this area that takes place the Neolithic Revolution.

It includes the region that lies to the south, between the rivers Tigris and the Euphrates (in Iraq today). But in this region, it is necessary to use irrigation as rainfall are not significant enough.

The term Assyrian is very commonly used to designate the north of Mesopotamia. Meanwhile, the word Babylon means the south of Mesopotamia, that is to say, the Mesopotamian plain. Indeed, from the middle of the second millennium BC, the region has two political entities, one of which has its capital in Assyria - Assyria is - and one that has as its capital Babylon - c east of Babylonia.

Northern Mesopotamia is a vast desert plateau, while the south is a vast plain alluvial very fertile, moreover, the presence of many branches of river and wetland permit the irrigation. This ideal location made it one of the great centers of civilization.

Chronology

Prehistory

Main article: Neolithic Near East.

The presence of man is attested since prehistory , from the Middle Paleolithic. In Neolithic , circa 7000 , on the site of Jarmo , pottery made his first appearance of clear signs of early domestication gradually animals and plants also appear, and using unbaked bricks demonstrates for the first Once the existence of village life ...

Protohistory

Main article: Protohistory Mesopotamia.

From the Chalcolithic , about 6000 , we note also the use of copper, the use of irrigation in agriculture, the emergence of the seals, stamps, murals, ceramic, painted, incised or decorated, the The first shrine and a widespread use of brick.

Between 6000 and 5000 , there are three successive crops of different types:

Then come two phases where the process of social complexity increases, until the constitution of real states, then the creation of a first form of writing that tilts Mesopotamia in History:

History

Main article: History of Mesopotamia.
Location of major cities of Mesopotamia in historic times

The historical period begins in Mesopotamia around 3400, when the writing is developed. It is divided into several successive periods:

  • Uruk Period recent (3400-2900): The writing develops, but the texts written during this period are still difficult to interpret, and it is paperwork and lexical lists, which tell us nothing about the history events.
  • Period Archaic Dynasties (2900-2340): It is divided into three sub-periods. It is from the middle of the third millennium we are informed about events, primarily through the archives found at Lagash. This is the period of city-states of Lower Mesopotamia.
  • Akkadian period (2340-2180): Sargon of Akkad ended the period of city-states by including them in the first territorial state, which quickly turns into a true empire , particularly through the work of his grandson son Naram-Sin.
  • Neo-Sumerian period (2180-2004): The Akkadian Empire collapsed because of riots and attacks on peoples "barbarians." The Sumerian city-states regain their independence before being unified by the founding kings of the Third Dynasty of Ur , Ur-Nammu and his son Shulgi , which establish a new dominant empire of Mesopotamia.
  • Mid-Babylonian Period (unfixed terminology) (1595-c.1080): The Kassites founded a new dynasty that dominates Babylon for more than four centuries. To the north, the Mitanni has dominion before being supplanted by the kingdom mid-Assyrian. The rivalry between the two entities occupying the northern and southern Mesopotamia appears. This period ends with a serious crisis caused mainly not invasions of Aramaic.
  • Period Neo-Assyrian (911-609): The Assyrians restore their power in the course of the ninth century, and establish an empire dominating the entire Middle East, which experienced its heyday under the Sargonids before collapsing to the late seventh century at the hands of the Babylonians and Medes.
  • Period neo-Babylonian (625-539): The Babylonians to resume their profit part of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, thanks to the action of Nebuchadnezzar II. This kingdom has however a rapid decline, and it passes in 539 under the control of King Persian Cyrus II.
  • Period Achaemenid (539-331): Mesopotamia is dominated Iran, but this does not prevent him from entering a period of great prosperity.
  • Period Seleucid (331-140): The Persian Achaemenid Empire fell under the blows of Alexander the Great , and after his death and the ensuing struggles Mesopotamia is dominated by the Seleucids. Mesopotamian culture knows this period a decline that accelerated in the second century.
  • Period Parthian (140 BC. J.-C.-224 AD.): After much discussion, the Parthian hunt the Seleucids in Mesopotamia during the second century. It was under their reign that disappears definitively the ancient Mesopotamian culture, which persisted until the middle of the temples of Babylonia.

Note: An interlude with the Roman conquests of Trajan (116 AD.) who took the Parthian capital Ctesiphon and came down to the Persian Gulf, with the ambition to regain the empire of Alexander. His successor, Hadrian , abandons his coming from these territories (117). Later, the emperor Septimius Severus finally wrest Northern Mesopotamia to the Parthians during his campaigns of 195-198.

The word Mesopotamia is again used officially in the twentieth century , when the Treaty of Sevres gives the UK a Mandate of the League of Nations entrusting the administration of the former province of the Ottoman Empire. The British Mandate of Mesopotamia then left the place in the Kingdom of Iraq.

Ethnic composition

The third millennium, Lower Mesopotamia is divided between two ethnic groups: the Sumerians , speaking a language unrelated known, and a Semitic people called for convenience the Akkadians (although this term is only used from reign of Sargon of Akkad , at the end of the century XXIV), speaking a Semitic language of Akkadian. If they relate well to other populations that are known for the ancient Near East, mostly Semitic, origin of the Sumerians eludes us, as the time when we must date their disappearance (late III millennium? beginning of the second?). It has also assumed the existence of a people who have inhabited the Lower Mesopotamia before the Sumerians and Semites (named "X People" by SN Kramer ) for multiple names of this region can be explained by either the Sumerian or by Akkadian.

The end of the third millennium saw the emergence of two major ethnic groups: the Amorites , Semites, and Hurrian , a language unrelated current. The first set in the Middle East as a whole dynasties which lasted during the first half of the second millennium, and blend into the Semitic population already present in Mesopotamia, while the latter are mostly found in northern Mesopotamia and Syria.

Other groups of unrelated people identified (because they are poorly known) come from regions of Zagros : the Gutis the Lullubi , and Kassites. The Subarens, head north, may be Hurrian. They are mostly nomads, and numerically insignificant.

At the end of the second millennium, a new Semitic people resumed the path taken earlier by the Amorites: the Syrians. They settled throughout Mesopotamia, and eventually become a major component. Their language is needed in the region during the first millennium.

The first millennium also saw the incursion of Indo-European: the Medes and Persians , which nevertheless remain confined to the Iranian plateau, though the latter take political control of the region after 539, and then the Greeks who take region in 331, and eventually to establish colonies. Later it was another Iranian people, the Parthians , who settled in Mesopotamia. but the population of this region remains predominantly Semitic.

Political organization

From the city-state to empire

Victory Stele of King Naram-Sin of Akkad , XXIII century

Mesopotamia saw the completion of the process of creation of the State , during the fourth millennium with the development of the first micro-state (city-states) in its southern part. It has sometimes imagined the existence of a " primitive democracy "or an" oligarchy ", or a regime led by a" king-priest ". Anyway, at the onset of sources that allow us to analyze the system of political organization of Mesopotamian States, we are dealing with a system monarchy headed by a sovereign, Sumerian EN, ENSI, and LUGAL. The first two terms referring to the religious sphere, they suggest the possible existence of a "priest-king" in some states. The latter clearly refers to a "king", arrum in Akkadian.

After the age of city-states, the first territorial state or empire is developed by Sargon of Akkad to the end of the century XXIV. Therefore, Mesopotamia is led into several kingdoms, before the caesura between Assyria to the north and Babylon in the south is established in the second half of the second millennium. In the first part of the first millennium are developed the first true empire in very large scale, the neo-Assyrian (911-609), the neo-Babylonian (624-539), before the establishment of the empire Persian of Achaemenid , which marks the end of Mesopotamia as a political center of the Middle East for several sicles.Chaque city has its own government

The ideology of power

King Hammurabi of Babylon against the god Shamash , detail of the stele of the Code of Hammurabi , XVIII century

Whatever the size of kingdoms, the ideology of power is based on the same principles. The real ruler of the country is its tutelary deity, which grants kingship to a person who is worthy of him, never his earthly representative, responsible for maintenance of temples in the country and also significant territorial gains. These gods are the tutelary deities of the city-states of the third millennium, then the great god Enlil with the advent of States claiming to dominate the country of Sumer and Akkad , the gods and finally to the more "national" for realms and empires from the end of the second millennium: Ashur in Assyria and Marduk in Babylon.

The story about the long term was seen as cyclical. It is well marked by legislation such as the Sumerian King List , whose chronology is a succession of the reigning dynasty in turn, their rise and their fall was due to the will of the gods. Each crisis is considered the punishment from the gods to rulers ungodly, while prosperity and military success are instead a demonstration of divine favor.

The King and the State

Mesopotamian states are organized around the royal figure. It directs the administration, army, justice, and is responsible for ensuring the smooth running of the worship of gods, is undertaking major projects. It is surrounded by "ministers" in helping its tasks, and an administration officer managing its lands, the collection of taxes, the local justice. This system becomes more complex with the development of larger political entities.

Diplomatic relations

Mesopotamia remained for much of its history divided between several states that have diplomatic relations with them, and have also been in contact with realms outside the country of two rivers. Diplomatic practices are diverse: correspondence courses, agreements, interdynastiques marriages, exchange of gifts. This system stands out from the end of the third millennium, but best seen in the second millennium (notably through the archives of Mari and Amarna letters ).

Letters

Writing

Cuneiform inscription in the palace of Dur-Sharrukin , when neo-Assyrian , late eighth century ( Louvre Museum )

Mesopotamia saw the development of what is currently considered the oldest system of writing in the world. One day before his appearance around 3500. BC This writing system is first linear, then it takes on a wedge in the course of the second half of the third millennium. We then wrote mainly on tablets made of clay, abundant material in Mesopotamia. This support survives very well in the test of time (and even more when it is fired after a fire), and this gives us a quantity of written considerable on ancient Mesopotamia. From the early first millennium, this form of writing is rivaled by the Aramaic alphabet , written on the parchment or papyrus , which support perishable no copy has reached us. This eventually supplant the wedge towards the middle of the first millennium, before the final disappearance of the latter at the beginning of our era.

The scribes

Only a minority of the population was literate. The specialists were writing the scribes. They followed their training to learn to master the cuneiform, and introduction to the Sumerian and the Akkadian (from the end of the third millennium). There were several levels of specialization, ranging from the simple to the literate scribe administration has followed many years of training, often working in the temples.

It is also estimated that some portion of the population in the upper layers, could understand or write cuneiform texts. It is the administrative, political, or merchants.

Libraries

Cuneiform tablets were stored in areas designated for that purpose in the buildings where they were drafted. Sometimes the rooms were reserved for archives. The shelves could be placed in baskets, boxes, or on shelves. A ranking system could be developed, but it often eludes us. You could make classifications of administrative records, but also of literary scholarship, as in the case of the alleged Ashurbanipal Library , found at Nineveh.

Writing

Main article: Mesopotamian Literature.
Tablet sales of properties found to Shuruppak , XXVI century

Written production Mesopotamian reached us consists mainly of administrative texts. Often these accounts related to agriculture, livestock, distribution of rations to workers of the input and output of warehouses.

Besides this, there are texts of more elaborate practice: contracts (loan, sell, lease) or letters. They are invaluable in helping us to better approximate the daily lives of ancient Mesopotamia.

The literary texts are a minority in quantity. They consist primarily of word lists , but also learning texts of certain trades, or descriptions of rituals, to the productions of literature more scholarly texts mythological epic.

A final type that can be distinguished is that of royal inscriptions and texts. These are texts produced by the kings, intended to celebrate their great works. Losers rarely have the opportunity to be heard, it is usually the victors who have the floor. This type of text is from the foundation inscription, to more elaborate narratives like the Assyrian royal annals.

Religion

Main article: Mesopotamian Religion.

Gods

Main article: Mesopotamian mythology.

Mesopotamian gods are mostly very old, and their origin we are often inaccessible. Oldest have a name and a Sumerian Akkadian name. The main gods are:

From the end of the second millennium, the gods 'national' Marduk in Babylon and Ashur in Assyria take a prime place.

Men and gods

All anthropogony Mesopotamian explain that the gods created humans in order to make their servants responsible for their maintenance. Concretely, this conversation happens in worship that is rendered to the gods in what is considered their residence, the temple.

The pious men are basically assured of divine benevolence towards them. However, anyone who offended the gods place under the threat of divine punishment: sickness, disgrace, economic hardship, etc..

Temples

The temples are considered the residences of their main deity land, and often those around them (consort, children, personal divine). They are also the same name as the human residents (in U.S. Sumerian, bitumen (m) in Akkadian). They were also often flanked by a tiered tower ( ziggurat ), landmark of the Mesopotamian civilization, passed down to posterity through the narrative biblical the Tower of Babel.

The temples are made of a cella, housing a statue of God, earthly representation which guarantees the presence of it in this place, and that must constantly be entretenue.Les temples were closed to the people. His loss, particularly after a military defeat and a bag of the temple, is considered a great misfortune.

Because they must ensure the costly maintenance of the gods (and staff), Temples are endowed with land, and sometimes in workshops, rise of commercial operations. This is leading economic agents.

Clergy

The officiating staff is housed in temples near it, in the outbuildings. The staff is divided between the members responsible for its administration, and whoever takes care of the ritual. There are various specializations, depending on the task that one has to perform during rituals.

Priests are often literate, and sometimes long after school. They are the primary repositories of knowledge from Mesopotamia, and it is they who will ensure the survival of this culture to start.

Certain categories of priests exercise outside the temples are the soothsayers, astrologers and exorcists. They are used particularly in the royal palace, the ruler who need their help because the royal office is also a religious function (the king himself is sometimes regarded as a priest).

There was also a female clergy. Some of them lived cloistered in a residence, and could not escape even if they sometimes had the opportunity to conduct their own affairs (through purchases of land in particular).

Science

Mathematics

Main article: Babylonian Numeration.

The digital system used by the Mesopotamians was basic sexagesimal (base 60), with some aspects of a decimal.

Knowledge mathematics of ancient Mesopotamians made great progress during the Babylonian period , after which they were minimal. But it was not until the first millennium that this knowledge is used to its full potential in the field of astronomy.

Astronomy

Main article: Babylonian astronomy.

Separation that is performed between astronomy and astrology is unknown ancient Mesopotamians, like many other peoples before modern times. The astronomical knowledge of Mesopotamia reached a very high level during the first millennium, a time when astronomers "Chaldeans" were famous until Greece.

The Mesopotamians had developed the principle of division of the sky from twelve signs of the Zodiac , which are substantially the same as ours. Similarly, they had already named many constellations. They knew five planets: Mercury (SIHTU), Venus (Delebat) March (Salbanatu), Jupiter (Neberu) and Saturn (Kayamanu).

By the first millennium, the priests Babylonian astronomers had compiled a long list of statements of astral phenomena. In interpreting them, they had come to establish ephemeris for all the stars observed, and almost came to predict eclipses , they had spotted the cyclical aspect.

Medicine

Main article: Medicine in Mesopotamia.

To the Mesopotamians, the disease was a curse from the gods. These masters of all the men were dissatisfied with the behavior of some of them, they punished by sending the "demons" that made them sick, or they themselves were in charge of the task.

To cure a patient, you could engage in practices that seem different but were seen as complementary, the magic and medicine empirically. Long lists techniques tell us about these practices. They come in the form of sentences with a protasis with the patient's condition and an apodosis saying the diagnosis, sometimes after the treatment to be provided. They involve various disciplines ranging from gynecology to cases psychiatric , passing by the Ophthalmology. It also has a long list of product revenue pharmacological.

Law

Mesopotamian law is primarily known to the neophyte by the famous Code of Hammurabi. The latter, with other texts from Mesopotamia and its sister (like Code of Ur-Nammu , the oldest of its kind found, or the Assyrian Laws ), represent only a small fraction of sources we advising on the law in this area. It is also collections of awards intended to be used with many kinds of legal treaties, more than legal codes in the modern sense.

Much of our written sources on Mesopotamian law are numerous legal acts found in different sites in the region of two rivers, which can be added to those found elsewhere in the Middle East, from Susa to Alalakh and Ugarit. These are acts of loans (the basic contract, the most common, and which have inspired other contracts, at least in their form), purchase / sales / leasing of real property, animals or slaves, contracts of marriage or adoption, postage, contracts of companies (mostly commercial), and also has reviews of trials. Found over a large geographical area and over a very long period (since the twenty-first century BC. until the second half of the first millennium BC. ), they present situations varied, and many legal aspects. Thus, each site developed in a given period a recurring type of form for the drafting of a specific legal act. One can nevertheless point to similarities between the different periods completed, indicating the same legal fund.

Beyond the legal aspect, these documents provide a wealth of information that allows us to glimpse, as few other cuneiform documents, the daily life of Ancient Mesopotamia. We can analyze these texts through institutions, social relations, agricultural practices, craft or trade, etc..

Art

Statue of Gudea of Lagash , XXII century

Among the main areas verified art in Mesopotamia, it may be noted:

  • the sculpture : among the works performed in the round, the statues of the period of Gudea of Lagash (XXII century) are among the most remarkable and thereafter, the sculptors have preferred Mesopotamian bas-reliefs, the most famous are those of the Neo-Assyrian palace.
  • the painting : it is fairly documented, as few paintings have been preserved, the most beautiful frescoes have been found in Mesopotamian Mari) (XVIII century), Til-Barsip (eighth century) and just in the capitals of New Assyrian ( Assyria , Kalhu , Nineveh ) (ninth-seventh centuries), their style is very similar to the bas-reliefs.
  • the goldsmith : relatively few high quality jewelry have been unearthed, the most beautiful examples have been excavated from royal tombs of Ur , otherwise you can get an idea of its shape in the representation of jewelry worn by men bas-reliefs.

Architecture

The mud-brick

The base material used to make buildings in Mesopotamia is the clay. It was used for making mud bricks, mixing it with vegetable matter. To this end, we developed brick mold. Exceptionally, the bricks were baked in ovens, making them extremely strong, while raw clay crumbling. Baked brick buildings have frequently been used once abandoned quarry.

Planning

The Archaeology of Mesopotamia was limited to urban centers, and never on rural sites (outside the period prurbaine). And attention was mainly focused on the great monuments (temples, palaces) on residential neighborhoods.

Cities were often protected by a wall, or even in the case of large cities. Their center was often reserved for the palace and the main temple. In northern Mesopotamia, the heart of the city is often an acropolis. Small streets delineated various residential blocks. It does not appear that there was differentiation of social space, the houses of the richest (the largest) alongside those of less privileged classes. The poorest and the marginalized were rather dismissed the outskirts of the city. There were however areas where people clustered in accordance with a common craft.

Residences

Courtyard of the palace of Zimri-Lim at Mari , Upper Mesopotamia, XVIII century

There are three types of homes: those of the common people, those leaders (the palace), and those gods (temples). They bore the same name: E in Sumerian , bitumen (m) in Akkadian. They also worked along the same principle, since they generally were organized around a central space, and were shut in on themselves (and not open to the outside).

Homes could have a conventional floor. They vary depending on financial resources of their owner, and the size of the household. It often took the habit of burying the dead in the family homes where they lived. Most had a central space (covered or not), others consisted of a suite of rooms.

The palace was originally built as houses in larger, sometimes there is also a floor. They end up taking more space, and have a more complex space. Their plan is still very variable from one place to another. The zones are generally distinguished: residential space (with a harem ), reception hall, shops, administrative rooms, etc..

The temples are traditionally regarded as having three main parts: a vestibule, an antechamber and then the "holy of holies' housing the statue of the main deity. These buildings are in fact organized by the same principle as a normal residence, namely around a central space, sometimes on opening shops and government buildings, or libraries. The most important temples had large outbuildings, because of their economic wealth and the size of their staff.

Economy

The "Great bodies"

The economy of ancient Mesopotamia is framed by what is sometimes called the "Great bodies" (in response to A. Leo Oppenheim). This is the royal palace and temples and their dependencies. Indeed, in addition to their political function, they have a significant economic power, which is underlain by a landowner heritage often very important. It is most often the palace has the most advantages. King redistribute land to the temples and his men while keeping most of them on his behalf. The land is allocated to a person against a charge carried by it, to help him survive (sometimes called "fields of subsistence"). Sometimes these lands, granted only temporarily, eventually move permanently to the family patrimony of the holder of the charge. The temples are often of great economic importance, especially in Babylonia from the early first millennium, when the royal power waned and they remained the only organizations roughly stable.

Besides these large organizations, much of the population lived on small farms, or a modest craftsmanship that could be done to his own account. These people do we are not documented by cuneiform archives that we have found, because they lived outside the part of society practicing writing. People working for large organizations could also do business on their own, especially at the commercial level.

Agriculture

Agriculture is the basis of savings-type pre-industrial and ancient Mesopotamia is no exception to the rule.

Much of this region is located below the threshold of rainfall required for the practice of dry farming, it was necessary to develop an irrigation system to develop its land. This first became fairly simple, in the context of small political entities, and then the great kingdoms of Mesopotamia have established channels of development projects on a large scale. The fact remains that irrigation was essentially a business managed locally, without using the central government. Farmers in Lower Mesopotamia faced a problem of salinization of irrigated land, which has sometimes resulted in the uncultivated open spaces.

The cereal dominated Mesopotamia. The barley was the largest crop, but it was also grow wheat Emmer, of millet , and from the middle of the first millennium the rice was introduced into the valley. Cereal productivity of Mesopotamia was able to achieve impressive returns, especially when a long period of political stability has allowed good development of land.

The cultivation of date palm also occupies an important place in the region, since it can use its dates , its leaves or possibly wood. The palms are also a host of gardens that are grown at their feet. The horticulture was indeed common practice in order to obtain agricultural products ( fruits , vegetables and condiments ) complementary to cereals.

Services

The artisanal sector works such as agriculture primarily within large organizations. The craft outside this sphere we are not documented. There were some large factories, particularly in the textile , employing a large number of workers often in unenviable conditions. But small-scale crafts majority.

Most areas are represented in Mesopotamia handicrafts: textiles , woodworking , metalworking , jewelry , basketry , etc..

Trade

Weight as those that were used to facilitate the valuation of goods, XXII century

Trade is often defined as an important activity for the Mesopotamians, as the region where they lived was poor in raw materials (stone, metal, wood quality). In fact, it is mainly the rich who benefited from the long distance trade.

Commercial firms were initially conducted by merchants (DAM.GAR Sumerian, Akkadian tamkru (m)) incurred by a Grand body. From the beginning of the second millennium, it is well documented on commercial systems essentially "private" at Larsa , Sippar , especially Assyria through the archives of the merchants of this city found to Kltepe in Cappadocia , we show the existence a sophisticated and successful trade.

For their part, the Mesopotamians exported mainly manufactured goods, mainly textiles, or they were intermediate between two regions (in exchange for the tin of Iran cons of copper from Anatolia , for example).

A trade also existed at the local level. It concerned mainly the supply of urban agricultural products from the countryside.

Society

Mesopotamian society is divided into two major groups: non-free men and free (slaves).

Freemen

The former are a category where one can also distinguish between two groups (less obvious to spot for the Third Millennium). The first (awlu (m) of the Code of Hammurabi and Assyrian Laws ) consists of staff working within the framework of the "Great bodies", the palace and the temple, which has made this an important place in society. The rest of society (muknum in the Code of Hammurabi, aurayu in Assyrian Laws) lives outside of this circle, within urban or rural communities. Social stratification is not around an ideological society distinguishing classes more prestigious than others, what are the financial resources appear to differentiate, and to have you work with the royal power or temples. It is therefore important to be on good terms with the royal power.

Slaves

Slaves (IR Sumerian, Akkadian (w) hard (m)) occupy the bottom of the social ladder. They are regarded as objects in the service of their master. There are different ways to become a slave: he is not born slaves, the majority of prisoners of war, and there are also free men fell into bondage because of unpaid debts (which can no be only temporary).

Nomads

Part of society is reflected in its lifestyle: the nomads, who occupy an important place throughout Mesopotamian history ( Amorites , Kassites , Suteans , Gutis , Arameans , Chaldeans , etc.).. They live in a tribal framework, organized around large group of tribes led by a great leader. The division between free and unfree also exists in this part of society.

There may be semi-nomadic people, part of their population being sedentary at certain times of the year to do agricultural work while the other engaged in pastoralism. The nomads are sometimes a danger for companies sedentary lifestyle rather precarious making them more vulnerable to setbacks (including climate), which often drives them to be robbers in times of crisis. As a result, they are often described in pejorative terms by urban scholars. But generally they live in symbiosis with the settled world: they are pastors for large organizations, sometimes used as seasonal workers, and they are often valued as soldiers.

Nomadic people often end up being sedentary and adopt sedentary lifestyles, and their leaders are sometimes kingdoms promised great prosperity, as did the Amorites, Arameans and Kassites.

Sexual Differentiation

Stele depicting a woman trying to spin, Suse , VIII century

Man held in Mesopotamian society a higher place than the woman. This is reflected in the codes of laws, which place a lower rank than men. It is an "eternal minor", which passes control of her father than her husband when she is married. The householder is a man, woman involved in household maintenance and education of young children. Agricultural activities are apparently reserved for men, as well as trade and obviously the war, and most trades and crafts, however much women are employed in the textile industry (spinning, weaving) and also industry milk.

Radiation

Because it was the first region of the ancient Near East to be well researched, Mesopotamia has long been considered the "center" of it, the rest being relegated to the "periphery". The discoveries of the Sumerian Civilization, Babylonian and Assyrian seemed to abound in this direction. But it has since uncovered new centers have shown that regions considered as marginal were very advanced from ancient times (including through the archives of Ebla and Mari in Syria , and now Jiroft in Iran ) and had little to envy in contemporary Mesopotamia. The inability to search on the ground of Iraq since the early 1990s has not been without effect on this change of perspective.

The resemblance between the Mesopotamian civilization and its neighbors can be explained by the fact that they constitute a territory which shared a common destiny for the period Neolithic period , phase that Mesopotamia is the last to have experienced. This explains why we find everywhere in this region of Asia a common cultural, political and social organizations similar in spite of its geographical disparity.

Nevertheless, Mesopotamia, and in particular the Lower Mesopotamia has exercised an undeniable influence on the ancient Near East, like any other region. It begins with Uruk period , which saw an expansion of the inhabitants of the future country of Sumer in neighboring regions. Culture developed by the Sumerians, the Akkadians and has a considerable influence. Its writing system, with its teaching methods, its literature are listed in Syria , in Anatolia , the Levant , in Iran and into Egypt in the Amarna period , when the Akkadian is the language of relationships international.

Babylon , by taking this legacy from the second millennium, to acquire a prestigious cultural center incomparable. It is indeed by his name, echoed by the Bible authors and Greek classics , that memory will remain in Mesopotamia before its rediscovery after excavation of the nineteenth century, marking the birth of Assyriology.

Notes

Related articles

Bibliography

  • Collective, From Mesopotamia to Persia, Encyclodia universalis al. "The great history of civilizations," 1999 ( ISBN 2-7028-3080-3 );
  • Michael Roaf, Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East, Brepols, 1996 ( ISBN 2503500463 );
  • Adolf Leo Oppenheim, Mesopotamia: portrait of a civilization, Gallimard, 1970;
  • Jean Bottero , Mesopotamia. The writing, the reason and the Gods, Gallimard, coll. "Folio History, 1997 ( ISBN 2070403084 );
  • Francis Joannes (ed.), Dictionary of the Mesopotamian civilization, Robert Laffont, 2001;
  • Jean-Jacques Glassner, Mesopotamia, Belles Lettres, coll. "Handbook of Civilizations", 2002 ( ISBN 2-251-41017-1 );
  • Margueron, The Mesopotamians, Picard, 2003 ( ISBN 2708406930 );
  • Georges Roux, Mesopotamia, Seuil, coll. "Points History", 1995 (nouv. edition) ( ISBN 2-02-023636-2 );
  • Pierre Amiet, Oriental Antiquity, PUF, Que-sais-je, 2003
  • Pierre Amiet, Introduction to Ancient Oriental Descle Brouwer and Ecole du Louvre, 2000
  • Agnes Benoit, Art and Archaeology: the civilizations of the ancient Near East, Manuals Ecole du Louvre, 2003

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Mesopotamia
History: Uruk period Sumer Dynasties archaic Akkadian Empire Good article Third Dynasty of Ur Kingdom of Babylon Assyria Article quality Achaemenids Article quality Seleucids Parthians Sassanids
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Major cities: Uruk Ur Eridu Lagash Nippur Kish Babylon Tell Brak Mari Assur Nineveh Kalkhu Hard Sharrukin
Politics, society and economy: Agriculture Cities and urban Diplomacy Animals
Culture: Religion Ziggurat Cuneiform Debut writing Literature Medicine


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