MESOPOTAMIAN CIVILIZATIONS.

 

When we mention Mesopotamia, we mean all the civilizations that have occurred in the area between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers in Iraq.

Several civilizations flourished there one after another. The first was the SUMERIAN civilization. The first city of this civilization was “URUK” which came up around 3200 BC. It had a population of 50,000. The Sumerians started the earliest form of written language known as cuneiform tablets.

By 3000 BC the Sumerians controlled the entire Mesopotamia. Their cities were ERICH, ERIDU, KISH, LAGASH, URUK and UR. The first king of a united Sumer was one Etana of Kish. They also produced the world’s first literature which was named the “Epic of Gilgamesh”. This started as poems and tales dating back to 2100 BC, but the final version was written down by the Babylonians in 12^th century BC. This was later lost till it was unearthed at Mosul in Iraq by archaeologists.

The Sumerian civilization fell to the Semitic AKKADIANS in 2334 BC. The Akkadians were led by SARGON THE GREAT. The Akkadian empire lasted for 180 years between 2334 and 2154 BC.

This was the world’s first multicultural empire with a central government. Sargon conquered all of Sumer and also Syria. Under him trade beyond the borders grew and architecture improved. After that there was civil unrest and the Sumerians took control again only to be defeated by the Semitic AMORITES from the Arabian Desert in the West and the ELAMITES from the East in 1950 BC.  

While the Elamites attacked Southern Mesapotamia and took cities like Ur, the Amorites attacked the North and one of the villages captured by them later grew into a great city called Babylon.

Sometime before 1800 BC the Amorites set up their first king in Babylon. However, the Babylonians could get control of entire Mesapotamia only by time of Hammurabi who ruled between 1790-1750 BC. The Babylonian language developed and the Sumerian fell into decline.

Hammurabi was one of the greatest rulers of ancient times. He gave a code of laws to the people and also enforced them. This is the oldest surviving law in the world. The code was originally inscribed on a huge basalt rock. This is now in the “Louvre” museum at Paris. The text of his code runs like the edicts of king Ashoka some 1400 years late.

I rooted out the enemy above and below,

I made an end of war,

I promised the welfare of the land,

I made the peoples rest in friendly habitation,

I have governed them in peace. I have sheltered them in my strength.

 

There were 280 parts of the code with rules and regulations for Babylonian society which was split into 3 classes;

 1. Amelu--Nobles, warriors & officials

2. Mushkinu—Commoners, merchants, craftsmen and farmers,

3. Wardu—Slaves

 

The laws varied according to classes. See the resemblances to our own Manu.

 “ If a noble has broken  another nobles bone, they shall break his bone.”

“If he (noble) has destroyed the eye of a commoner or has broken the bone of a commoner, he shall pay one mina of silver”

 Theft from a noble had to be repaid 30 times, but theft from a commoner only 10 times. If a house collapsed and killed the owner, the builder was put to death. If the house killed the owners’ son, then the builders’ son has to die.

 Surprisingly Hammurabi was concerned about the treatment of women and that was in 1700 BC which is simply amazing.  He enacted laws allowing women to inherit the husband’s house, land and possessions.  He also introduced legal formalities in business transactions. No one could sell property or transfer it without a written contract. Hammurabi also regulated wages and setting down maximum rates of work in various trades.

 Hammurabi did not invent these laws but he assembled the laws prevalent at that time and also added his own to them. The code was inscribed on a huge pillar so that his people would know what their legal rights were. Hammurabi also extended and improved the canal system of Babylon.

 The knowledge of the Babylonians in mathematics was enhanced by their contact with the Egyptians.

By about 1700 AD, the Babylonians were using multiplication tables, square roots and even some algebra. They understood Geometry and the principles later stated as the theorem of Pythagoras.

We derive the 60 minutes in an hour and 360 degrees in a circle from them. The first library in the world was at Babylon where the books were preserved on papyrus rolls.

Babylonians loved poetry and their favourite epic was the “Epic of Gilgamesh” which was originally Sumerian but was absorbed into the Babylonian literature. The legend survives to this day.

Babylon also had the first standing army in the world, so its borders were fully protected from infiltration by any invader.

When this remarkable king did in 1750 BC, he left no capable successor to takeover and Babylon fell on bad times. First to the HITTITES and later to the KASSITES both Indo European (Aryan) races who lived in the regions of Persia.