Although
Mesopotamia is all the land between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, the earliest traces of civilization appeared in
Sumer, in what is now southern Iraq, and possibly, at
Tell Hamoukar, in what is now northeastern Syria.
The
Uruk period (3800–3200 B.C.) was tremendously creative, with the invention of the wheel and plow; the planting of the first orchards (of dates, figs, and olives); and the development of metal casting. Perhaps most significant was writing: cuneiform.
People built cities with walls—circuits up to five miles—and buildings of mud brick. The most impressive early buildings were temples:
ziggurats. Temple priesthoods dominated society.
In the “
Dynastic period” (2800–2350 B.C.), fierce competition between cities, and perhaps inside them, too, led to the emergence of local strongmen—
lugals—who evolved into kings.
Kings claimed to be the representatives of the gods and to rule by the favor of the gods. This process introduced theocratic kingship. As warfare became more important, large landowners formed a
military aristocracy.
Mesopotamia is a broad, open plain surrounded by deserts and, beyond the deserts, by mountains. The region has no natural frontiers to ward off migrants or conquerors.
Areas beyond Mesopotamia were inhabited by people of lower cultural development who coveted the comparative riches and security of Mesopotamia. After about 2350 B.C., Sumer was several times overrun by outsiders.
Sargon (2371–2316) conquered Sumer from
Akkad to the north, then expanded his holdings, as did his son after him, to the east and west. This first imperial state demanded little of its subjects and, ironically, was itself conquered by Sumerian culture. After Akkadian rule eventually weakened, there was a period of relative independence for Sumerian cities, followed by
Babylonian conquest.
Hammurabi (1792—1750) was the most famous and powerful of the Babylonians (or Amorites). His law code was influential for centuries. Like the Akkadians before them, the Babylonians adopted and spread Sumerian culture.
In religion, people were
polytheists and
syncretistic. Sky gods were generally thought of as male and related to power; earth gods were thought of as female and related to fertility. Individual forces of nature were also invested with divine power:
Animism is a habit of mind that sees nothing as wholly
lifeless. Gods and goddesses differed from humans in supernatural powers and immortality. They were capricious. Religion sought to propitiate them. Religion was pessimistic and fatalistic; it had no ethical dimension at all. This outlook was perhaps related to the geography and politics of the region.
Law was issued by councils of notables in conjunction with priests and kings. Law was not abstract and philosophical. Publishing laws in public places established the important principles that all are subject to the law; that the law belongs to all; that law rules, not men.
In literature, The
Epic of Gilgamesh was a remarkable achievement. The Epic is a Sumerian
work dating to around 2500 B.C. that survives in later versions dating to around 800 B.C. (A
tribute to its dissemination!). Gilgamesh is a tale of the adventures and friendship of King Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu. It contains a mythical account of the civilizing process and a poignant reflection on mortality as the irreducible element in the human condition. There were other works, too, for example, short poems by Enkheduana, Sargon’s daughter and the world’s first known woman writer.
Sciences probably derived from watching the heavens, measuring fields, and regulating irrigation hydraulics. Sumerians developed the decimal and sexadecimal systems (hence, we still have 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, and so on). Sumerians understood place value in numbers, that
is, the difference between 35 and 53. They anticipated Greek developments in mathematics..
Sumerian culture gradually spread over much of western Asia and directly or indirectly influenced all the peoples who emerged within or who conquered those lands, including the later empire-building Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and Turks. Specific Sumerian practices and beliefs were adopted and
adapted for millennia
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