CLASS110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Absolute Dating, Enkidu, Shulgi
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia = “the Land Between the Rivers”
➔Located in modern day Iraq and Syria
➔Rivers make the low lying land fertile leading to settlement in early times
(very fertile compared to surrounding lands)
Tigris River (Baghdad, Iraq) and Euphrates River (Northern Iraq)
➔Provides water for irrigation and agriculture
Ancient “tell”
➔Ancient site located on higher ground (strategic location
➔Today is in ruin with accumulation of debris
➔A mound or hill where an ancient site is located
Chronology
➔Pre-Dynastic (protoliterate - period of first writing
) 3500-2800 BCE
➔Early Dynastic (old Summerian
) 2800-2350 BCE
➔Dynastic (first ‘empires’
) 2350-1600 BCE
Pre-Dynastic Period (protoliterate)
➔First urban settlements (previous people had been nomadic)
◆People produce their own resources in their own location
➔Settled agricultures
➔Stone and metal artifacts
◆Beginnings of early metal work
◆Previously tools had been made of stone
➔Wheel-made pottery
◆Invention of mechanism to turn wheel
◆Ceramics were “universal material” used for food storage, cooking, eating
e.t.c
➔First written script (cuneiform)
◆Hardened (fired) clay
◆An instrument (usually a reed) can be used to write or sketch in clay while
it is still wet
◆Pictograms= picture writings
● Triangle is the symbol for a woman
● When writing begins it is focused on creating images
Early Dynastic Period (Old Sumerian)
➔Developed cities
➔Sumerians were first developed culture to inhabit Mesopotamia
➔Kings and palaces
◆Royals leave a “rich” legacy because they have control of resources
◆King Gudea- King of Ladash
◆Ur - one of the best Mesopotamian archaeological sites
● Royal Cemetery
○ Metal artifacts
● Royal Palace
● “Royal Standard” of Ur
○ Wooden figures telling a story
○ Unknown what object was
➔Written Records
◆Writing is needed for record keeping (i.e laws and trade contracts)
◆Map of Nippur (ca. 2500 BCE) - one of the earliest maps
◆Cuneiform (NOT a LANGUAGE)
● Script, not language
● Pictograms → Ideograms (using picture symbols combined to
create “words” or new meanings” i.e mountain + woman= slave) →
Phonetic script
● Reed was cut to create triangular shapes
● Mathematics
○ Beginnings of accounting
● Administrative and Legal records
➔Social Stratification
◆Presences of a ruling class (kings, noblemen) and a warrior class
◆Artifacts from royal tombs reveal an upper class with control over
production and use of metal
➔Religion and Gods
◆Polytheistic Religions
◆Cult statues
◆Names of gods and goddesses
● Unu (sun)
● Entil (sky)
◆Ziggurats (Sumerian temples)
● Bricks were often inscribed
● Stairs would be climbed to upmost shrine
◆Priests
➔Temples
➔Irrigation