HUMAN SETTLEMENTS LECTURE 2
A BH B H I SH S H E K K . V E NK N K I TA TA RA R A MA M A N I Y ER ER A S S I S TA TA N T P R O F E S S O R
Overview and Timeline of Ancient Mesopotamian Civilization Mesopotamia is one of the cradles of human civilization. Here, the earliest cities in world history appeared, about 3500 BC. c. 5000-3500 BC: The first city-states gradually develop d evelop in southern Mesopotamia. This is the achievement of the Sumerian people. c. 3500: Writing begins to be developed developed.. At first this is based on pictograms, and takes about a thousand years to evolve into a full cuneiform c uneiform script. c. 2300: King Sargon of Akkad starts conquering the first empire in world history. history. The empire reaches its height in c. 2220. c. 2100: The city of Ur becomes the centre of a powe powerful rful Mesopotamian state. state . It soon falls into decline. This marks the decline of the Sumerians as the Amorites Amorites,, a nomadic people p eople,, start moving into Mesopotamia. 1792-49: King Hammurabi of Baby Babylon lon conquers a large empire. Hammurabi is famous for the law code which whic h he issues. His empire begins to decline immediately after his his death. c. 1530: Babylonia is conquered by the Kassites, Kassites , who rule the area for 400+ years. c. 1500: The Mitanni, an Indo-European people, people, conquer northern Mesopotamia, plus areas of Syria and Asia Minor. Minor. After 200 years the kingdom of Assyria conquers northern Mesopotamia from the Mitanni From 1100: Nomadic peoples such as the Aramae Aramaeans ans and the Chaldeans Chaldeans ove overrun rrun much of Mesopotamia.. The kingdoms of Babylon Mesopotamia Babylon and Assyria go into temporary decline.
Ancient River Vall Ancient alle ey Civilizations
ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA Oldest known civilization Cradle of Human Civilization Nebuchadnezzar Ziggurat Hanging gardens
FIRST SUMERIANS Sumerians first arrived in region around 5000 BC ◦
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Typical Paleolithic people motivated by search for game Settled in region and took up farming ◦
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Built dams, dikes, and short canals to use water from the Euphrates Grew barley and dates and raised sheep and goats
SUMERIAN AGRICULTURE irrigation system of Each was crisscrossed by irrigation major canals and minor channels ◦
Designed to bring water from Euphrates to farmland
Farmland divided into square and rectangleshaped plots ◦
Farmers worked land with plows, seed-drills, and stone hoes and received yield of 40:1
Other areas set aside as gardens and fruit orchards Carts pulled by donkeys donkeys and boats on the canals c anals took produce to the urban center itself
The Beginnings of Writing Farmers needed to keep records. The Sumerians were very good farmers. They raised animals such suc h as goats and cows. Because they needed to keep records of their livestock, food, and other things, officials began using tokens. Tokens were used for trade. Clay tokens came in different shapes and sizes. These represented different objects. The number of tokens began to be pressed on the outside of the clay balls. Many experts believe that this is how writing on clay tablets began. A system of writing develops. develops. The earliest form of writing dates back to 3300 B.C. People back then would draw "word-pictures" on clay tablets using a pointed instrument called a stylus . These "word-pictures" then developed into wedge-shaped signs. This type of script was called cuneiform cuneiform (from the Latin Latin word cuneus cuneus which means wedge). wedge). Who used cuneiform? Not everyone learned to read and write. The ones that were picked by the gods were called scribes . Boys that were chosen to become scribes (professional writers) began to study at the age of 8. They finished when they they were 20 years old .
Geography This civilisati civilisation on rose in the valleys between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Some say this Fertile Crescent was the real Garden of Eden.
The layout of cities: There is not enough at the lower lower levels levels of explored mounds to give us a total image of the Mesopotamian city before the Early Dynastic Period. By then a dozen or so cities containing from 10,000 to 50,000 people prospered, both in lower Mesopotamia or Sumer and further north in Babylonia.
SUMERIAN CITY-STATES City-states gradually emerged over next 1000 years ◦
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Ur, Uruk, Lagash, Nippur, Kish, Umma, etc.
Larger than Neolithic settlements and displayed evidence of economic specialization and strong political organization
Included the urban center plus surrounding countryside ◦
Each was also an independent political unit
Lagash In the city-state (or state), kin and tribal loyalties are, by by definition, subordinated and replaced by political ties. What makes a city-state different from an agricultural town is the synergy created by its people interacting with each other on the basis of political relationships rather than traditional blood ties.
Why Did These Cities Develop? Due to the fertile soil in Mesopotamia, farming was very successful. In fact, people were surpluses of food. able to create surpluses This meant that some people could stop farming and begin doing other things, like building a city city..
As cities began to develop, people began to worry about others who might come and invade their city city.. They wanted to protect themselves from enemies, so people in Mesopotamia built walls around their cities.
Historical and Analytical account of cities in Mesopotamia Mesopotamia means “land between rivers”.
Four broad segments of chronolo c hronology gy will suffice to govern our discussion. The first is the so-called Protoliterate Protoliterate Period, Period, from ca.3500 ca.3500 to 3000 B.C. Early Dynastic Period, from 3000 to 2350 B.C. Sumerian Period, from 2350 to 1600 B.C. Assyrian Period, from 1350 to 612 B.C.
1-Protoliterate Period:
During this time , the towns, which had probably evolved evolved from agricultural villages, acquired their battlements of ring walls; and the temple and the ziggurat began to gain architectural definition. Political authority resided in an assembly of male citizens that selected short-term war leaders. 2-Early Dynastic Period:
When the role of these leaders was retained in times of peace as well, kingship, first elective and then hereditary, became established. With it raised the monumental palace, an administrative center which employed employed a large retinue of bureaucrats and entertainers & occupied itself with raising and supplying an army and maintaining the defensive system of the city.
Uruk: a substantial ceremonial hub by 3500 B.C.
3-Sumerian Period:
Ziggur Ziggurat at of Ur Nammu This period saw the rise of empire , the collective rule of several citystates through the might of a sovereign king. king. The first part of the period is dominated by the Third Dynasty of Ur whose prodigious building activity includes the Ziggur Ziggurate ate of Ur-Namm Ur-Nammu u, the high point of that building type.
4-Assyrian Period: The northern region of the two rivers now flourishes at the expense of lower Mesopotamia. The Assyrian by their imposing state reliefs and their palaces, like the one at Khorsabad.
A Sumerian City Sumerian city streets were so narrow that you could hardly get a cart through them. On hot nights, people slept outdoors on the top of their
Narrow Streets
house’s flat roof.
Sumerian houses faced away from crowded streets. Instead, they faced onto courtyards where families ate and children played.
Courtyard Area
CITY CHARACTERISTICS Each city surrounded by walls walls ◦
Permanent garrisons of soldiers stationed in towers tow ers and at each eac h gate
Wide boulevards crossed city, lined by houses of the wealthy ◦
Rest of city made up of narrow, twisting alleys surrounded by small, flat-roofed huts ◦
Homes of farmers, and small craftsmen
A typical Sumerian city with it’s Ziggurat
The first city Cities began to emerge in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) around 4500 years ago . Ur, the capital of ancient Sumeria, was the world’ wor ld’s s first city. It supported a
complex and sophisticated sophisticat ed society. Ur(Iraq): •
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The cities were closed by a wall and surrounded by suburban villages and hamlets. The two monumental centers were the Ziggurat complex with its own defensive wall, overseen by a powerful priesthood, and Palace Palace of the king. Lesser temples were sprinkled here and there within the rest of the urban fabric, which was a promiscuous blend of residential and commercial architecture. Small shops were at times incorporated into the houses. In the later Sumerian period at Ur, Ur, an example of a bazaar was found.
Ur, the capital city of Mesopotamia
LAYOUT PLAN OF UR
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1.Temenos 1.Temenos Precinct 2.Nimin-Tabba Temple 3.Royal Cementery 4.Royal Mausolea
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5.Residential Area 6.City Wall 7.Fortificat 7.Forti fication ion Tower Tower 8.North Harbor 9.West Harbor
along the twisted network of unpaved streets was mostly pedestrian. At Ur, one sees on occasion a low flight of steps against a building from which riders could mount, and the street corners were regularly rounded to facilitate passage. Traffic
width at the very most , would be 3 meters (9 feet) or so, and that only for the few principal thoroughfares thoroughfares that led to the public buildings. These would would be bordered with the houses of the rich. Street
folk lived at the back ,along narrow lanes and alleys all eys. It is hard to imagine much wheeled traffic in this maze, though both service carts (with solid wheels) and chariots c hariots had been in use from an early date. Poorer
Once
walled the land became precious, and the high value of private property kept public space to a minimum. Ample squares or public gardens were very rare. The
houses were grouped into congested blocks, where partition walls were common.
Ur , residential
area southeast of the royal mausolea in the twentieth century century B.C.;P B.C.;Plan lan
The
houses were , for the most one-storey rey structu structures res of part, one-sto mud-brick, with several rooms wrapped around a central court . There were usually no outside windows, windows, no attempt to contribute to a street architecture. The
wealthier classes of Ur lived in ample hoses of dozen or so rooms, arranged on two storeys, stor eys, and whitewashed inside and out.
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1. Courtyard 2. Entry Vestibule 3. Reception Room (Liwan) 4. Private Chapel 5. Kitchen 6. Lavatory 7. Stair case 8. Drain 9.Shop
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Ur , Residential quarter between between the Ziggurat precinct and the West West
Archi chitects designed perfect house plan, rectangles divided neat neatly ly into into ortho orthogo gona nall rooms around a central living space. But the reality of living town played havoc with the conceptual order of the arc hitect. The building lots were not of uniform size. Eac h house was compelled to fit into a predet predetermi ermined ned space. space.
Temple and Ziggurats:
•The temple constituted the heart
of the Mesopotamian city. city. •For the townspeople the fields and
their produce belong to the deity. The seeds, draught animals, and implements of tiling were supplied by the temple, and the harvest was stored on its grounds for distribution to the community. Craftsmen, organized in guilds, offered part of their output to the temple, and so did fishermen with their catch catc h and builders with their labor. •The temple complex was the hub of an economic system that has been described as “theocratic socialism”.
With its own wall around it , it formed the last bulwark against the city’s city’s
enemies
There were two ways wa ys in which whic h this temple differed from others in the city. It stood on a tremendous platform called the ziggurat, and being free of the pressures of density in its ample precinct, its form could afford to be both regular and open.
Uruk
For thousands of years, Nippur was the religious center of Mesopotamia Mesopotamia.. According to Sumerian religion, it was at Nippur where Enlil, the supreme god of the Sumerian pantheon, created mankind.
Although never a capital city, Nippur had great political importance because royal rule over Mesopotamia was not considered legitimate without recognition in its temples. Thus, Nippur was the focus of pilgrimage and building programs by dozens of kings including Hammurabi of Babylon and Ashurbanipal of Assyria.
Map of of Nippur
S E T A G
CANAL
TEMPLE PARK
TEMPLE
Politica oliticall Timeline Timeline
Sumer, 3200-2350 B.C.
Sargon’s Empire, 2350-2320B.C.
he Amorite invasions, 2100-1900 B.C.
The Dynasty of Ur, 2100-2000B.C. 2100-2000B.C.
Reign Reign of Hammurap Hammurapii of Babylon Babylon,, 1792-1750 1792-1750 B.C.
Economic: trade trade and farming farming Sumerians (Mesopotamians) were known to trade with the Egyptians and the Indus Valley civilizations. In later years, these trade routes became Silk Road. Road.
SOCIAL CLASSES Establishment of a social hierarchy hierarc hy where some people had more power, wealth, and privileges than others
Equality originally prevailed in Sumerian city-states ◦
But divisions soon appeared ◦
First group to claim special privileges and status were priests ◦
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Gave up working and began to live off work of others Temples given given huge tracts of land which priests rented in small parcels to farmers ◦
Lived off off rent
The King The Governors
The Aristocracy The Peasantry
SLAVERY Originated with practice of men selling themselves and/or their families to pay off debts ◦
Supplemented by by using prisoners of war as slaves
Demand for slaves increased as civilization progressed ◦
Advance of civilization did not bring same benefits to everyone ◦
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Some benefited a great deal Others saw a deterioration in their situation
Civilization brought important benefits but it also introduced inequality, exploitation, taxes, and slavery
LUGAL Cities originally governed governed by an assembly of adult males
Kings appeared who claimed to be representativess of the gods and who took control representative of most government functions ◦
Called lugals
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Not originally an hereditary position and the king’s
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power was was limited to interpreting the will of the gods But this position would become extraordinarily powerful powerf ul in a relatively short period of time
GENERAL ANARCHY Although an occasional city-state would temporarily control the region from time to time time,, more common were long, anarchic periods where the various city-states fought each other over boundaries and water rights
Constant warfare, shifting alliances, and double-crossess were important characteris double-crosse characteristics tics of ancient Sumer
SARGON THE GREA GREATT – The world’s first empire
From Akkad North of Sumer Originally settled by nomads from Arabia Fairly untouched by Sumerian civilization for centuries
THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE In 2000 BC, the Amorites moved into region from Arabia ◦
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Settled near Babylon and ultimately took it over Amorites/Babylonians Amorites/Bab ylonians prospered and became wealthiest and more powerful people in Mesopotamia
Under King Hammurabi, Hamm urabi, they conquered the region ◦ ◦ ◦
Babylonian Empire Peak of Mesopotamia civilization Produced first written law code
Empire collapsed shortly after Hammurabi’s
death ◦
Victim of new invading tribes and jealously independent spirit of Sumerian city states Hammurabi
Hanging gardens of Babylonia
The ancient city of Babylon, Babylon, under King Nebuchadnezzar II, must have been a wonder to the traveler's eyes. "In addition to its size," wrote Herodotus, a historian in 450 BC, "Babylon surpasses in splendor any city in the known world." Herodotus claimed the outer walls were 56 miles in length, 80 feet thick and 320 feet high. Wide enough, he said, to allow a fourhorse chariot to turn. The inner walls were "not so thick as the first, but hardly less strong." Inside the walls were fortresses and temples containing immense statues of solid gold. Rising above the city was the famous Tower Tower of Babel, a temple to the god Marduk, that seemed to reach to the heavens
Khorsabad:
KHORSABAD
The city was a royal Assyrian foundation, begun in 706 B.C., and abandoned, unfinished, shortly afterward. It covered 2.5 Sq.Km. (almost 1 Sq.mile). There were two arched gates on each side of the square, guarded by stone demons in the form of human-headed bulls. On the North-West North-West side one of the gates had been replaced by a bastion that served as a platform for the royal place.
The Royal place: Room on The administrative court of honor is at the top of the plan, with the great Throne Room the left. The
entrance court is associated with a number of temples grouped along the west side. They They were all served ser ved by single ziggurat that was no other example of this Mesopotamian building type.
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1. Citadel wall 2. Entrance court 3. Court of honor 4. Unexcavated
Khorsabad (the ancient Dur Sharrukin, Iraq), Assyrian city founded by SargonII (721-705 B.C.), Plan
Temple
Entrance Court
Khorsabad , citadel with royal palace
Court Court Of Honor
Citadel Wall
Un-excavated
Khorsabad , citadel with royal palace
Thank you Abhishek K.V.
