MESOPOTAMIA

“Land between the rivers”.

FEATURES OF THE MESOPOTAMIAN SOCIETY.

Considered the cradle of civilization.

Urban societies are known from the 6th Millennium BC.

They invented writing: cuneiform script.

CUNEIFORM SCRIPT

The Sumerians wrote on clay tablets.

They used punches to write on the tablets.

Then these tablets were baked to be stored in an archive.

Archaeologists have found thousands of these tablets in the archives.

ARCHITECTURE

The three main buildings were the palace, the temple and the ziggurat.

The temple was a religious center, economic and political. The temple had farmland and herds of sheep, as well as warehouses and workshops.

The palace was organized around an inner courtyard and was usually surrounded by a wall.

The ziggurat is a temple-shaped tower.

It is built on sun-dried brick (ladrillos de adobe).

The ziggurat were considered the houses of the gods. Ceremonies were held outside the building.

To access the ziggurat there was a series of steps up to the chapel at the top of the ziggurat.

ZIGGURAT.

The ziggurat may be a symbolic representation of the union of heaven and earth.

In total 32 ziggurat are known, most of whom are in Iraq and Iran.

The best known is the ziggurat of Ur, rebuilt in the 80s by Saddam Hussein. In rebuilding one of 200 bricks contains the name of the dictator.

ISHTAR'S GATE.

It is one of eight large doors that had the city walls of Babylon.

This gate was dedicated to the goddess Ishtar.

It was built in 575 B.C. by king Nabucodonosor II.

It is made of brick, most of them blue and includes images of dragons, bulls, lions and mythological beings.

The archaeological remains were discovered by German archaeologists between 1902 and 1914.

Most of the archaeological remains were taken to Germany, where they were reconstructed in the Pergamo Museum.

During the time of Saddam Hussein's rule, the government rebuilt a replica of the gate at the original site.

Me at the Pergamo Museum.

HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON.

• One of the seven wonders of the Ancient World.

• They were built by the king Nabucodonosor II around 600 B.C.

• The gardens were constructed to please Queen Amytis who longed for the trees and fragant plants of her homeland.

• It created a series of stone terraces in which trees were planted and various plants for the Queen could remember where she grew up.

SOCIETY

• Mesopotamian society was divided between free men and slaves.

• The society was organized in a pyramid with the king at the very top and slaves at the very bottom.

• The king was the representative of the gods.

• The king was the military commander and participated in religious ceremonies.

• In this photo, the King Naram-Sim of Akad.

• Within the pyramid below the king, we find the priests, government officials, soldiers and traders.

• Further down the pyramid, we find farmers. Their land was owned by the nobility or the church and the farmers had to deliver part of the harvest to the temple and the palace.

• Finally we find the slaves at the bottom. They were mostly prisoners of war.

HAMMURABI'S CODE.

• It was created by the King Hammurabi in 1760 B.C.

• It is one of the oldest law codes known. The articles of the law are written in the stone. At the top the king is receiving the law from the hands of the god.

• The stone measured 2.25 metres and contains 282 laws delivered by the god of justice, Shamash.

MESOPOTAMIAN RELIGION

- The religion was polytheistic. Each city had different gods, though some were common.

- Among these we can see: Aun (sky god and father of the gods); Enki (god of the earth); Nannar (moon goddess); Utu (sun god); Inanna (love goddess); Ea (creator of the men); Enlil (wind god).

In the seventeenth century B.C. King Hammurabi united the State, made Babylon the capital of the Empire and imposed Marduk as a main god.