HIST 2A Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Sumerian Religion, Tutelary Deity, Enlil
Document Summary
Mesopotamia: (cid:862)la(cid:374)d bet(cid:449)ee(cid:374) ri(cid:448)ers(cid:863) (cid:894)tigris a(cid:374)d euphrates(cid:895, fertile crescent, annual floods- floodplain= large scale agriculture, mesopotamia= regional name, population explosion around 4500-3100 bce. Population per 25 sq miles= 1 hunter-gatherer. Population per 25 sq miles= 500 agriculturalists. The sumerian city-states (3300-2350 bce: sumer, city-states- (cid:272)ity (cid:449)as politi(cid:272)ally auto(cid:374)o(cid:373)ous (cid:894)did(cid:374)"t get alo(cid:374)g(cid:895, ur, uruk, eridu, lagash, ur was way larger than jericho or catal huyuk. Working the land: irrigation networks, irrigation contract between king and engineer, (cid:862)cu(cid:374)eifor(cid:373)(cid:863)- wedge-shaped in latin. Reason for writing= provides economic basis (tokens, trades: economic origin- cylinder seals and tokens, transformation, one script- multiple languages, baked clay tablets (where writing was) More people, more problems: shrinking agricultural scale, growing populations, inscription of enmetena (2500 bce, the standard of ur (2500 bce)- battle carts and king represented as larger than others also with connection to divine. Problem with city-states: each of the city-states has own king and own objective and own patron god.
