From Settled Societies to City-States:

Agriculture, Architecture, and Politics in Ancient Mesopotamia

General trajectory

Natufians à Catal Hoyuk à Mesopotamian city-states à Akkadian Empire

c. 4000 bce, city-states emerge in Mesopotamia  

City State Empire

Major Questions and Topics

•Types of sameness created in a civilization? Or, how civilization unified?

•Types of difference created by civilization? Or, how civilization divided?

•Why hierarchies?

•How were hierarchies created? How were they justified?

Civilization

Some Key Terms and Questions for this Section on City-States and Early Empires

c. 3500 BCE

Tigris/Euphrates Sumer/Akkadia

(Mesopotamia and Babylonia)

c. 3500 BCE

Nile River Valley (Ancient Egypt)

c. 2200 BCE

Yellow River Shang and Xia dynasties

(ancient China)

c. 3000 BCE

Indus River Valley Harappan/Vedic

(ancient India)

c. 2500 BCE Aegean Sea

Minoan/Mycenaean (Ancient Greece)

Around 4000 bce, city-states begin to replace settled societies in different regions around the globe

C. 3200 BCE

Norte Chico (Peru/Incan civilization)

Around 4000 bce, city-states begin to replace settled societies in different regions around the globe

…But why these specific places?

Why these specific places?

•  Water – Basic human needs for survival •  Food Source – Animals need water too.

Water attracts animals. Animals become food. •  Climate – Warm and dry – consistent •  Fertile Land – Once humans mastered agriculture, well-watered

land produced food.

Here is a simplistic but handy diagram of how the combination of settlement, agriculture,

and politics led to “civilizations” developing (in Mesopotamia, for our case study)

•  Food production + population growth job specialization supports growth and expansion of civilization.

So happens when these city-state civilizations emerge? ������

One answer: Sameness

Political

•  laws, security, and citizenship

–  e.g. Code of Ur-Nammu (Ur); Code of Hammurabi (Babylon)

•  “Civil Religion,” or patriotism

•  Religion plays important role in politics Social/Cultural

•  Similar customs and norms

•  Beliefs

•  Material life: food, drink, shelter, clothing

•  Writing

So happens when these city-state civilizations emerge? ������

Another answer: Difference

•  Social Classes •  Occupational Classes

•  Advantages to difference: arts and sciences can develop, specialization and technological

innovation, possibly increased material comfort and possibly increased leisure time

Wealthy Merchants

Kings; Priests; Landholders

Field Workers and Trades People

Slaves - Captives from War

ß For example

For example,

compare an artist’s rendering of

the city-state of Uruk

An artist’s rendering of the

“settled society” of Catalhuyuk

Some aspects of city-states: ���public architecture and public space

to

One particularly important type of public architecture in Mesopotamian city-states:

The ziggurat

Code of Ur-Nammu (Sumerian Empire) •c. 2100 bce •the oldest surviving written law code

Some aspects of city-states: ���law codes and people to enforce them

Code of Hammurabi (Babylonian Empire) •c. 1750 bce

Administrative tablet with cylinder seal impression of a male figure, hunting dogs, and boars, 3100–2900 B.C.; Jemdet Nasr period (Uruk III script) Mesopotamia Clay H. 2 in. (5.3 cm)

Here’s an example of a record of a transaction, from Uruk

Some aspects of city-states: ������

record keeping and governmental “bureaucracy”

Stamp seal amulet of a seated woman, 3300–2900 B.C.; Late Uruk/Jemdet Nasr period Iran or Mesopotamia Rhodochrosite 0.85 x 1.02 in. (2.3 x. 3 cm)

Here’s an example of stamp seal from Uruk. Often stamps were used to mark one’s private property.

Why  would  people  want  to  keep  records?  One  important  reason  was  to  keep  tabs  on  private  property,  so  that  disputes  over  property  could  be  se:led.  

Some aspects of city-states: ���Private property

The Royal Standard of Ur: side depicting the king leading a victorious army in war

Some aspects of city-states: ������

Monarchs, and ideas of what makes a good leader���

The king

The Royal Standard of Ur: side depicting the king leading a stable, peaceful society

Some aspects of city-states: ������

Monarchs, and ideas of what makes a good leader��� The king

From isolated city-states to (temporarily) “united” empires: Akkadian, Sumerian, Babylonian 2334 BCE – 1750 BCE

•  Sargon of Akkad – 2300 BCE - controls city states of Kish, Lagash, Ur, Uruk, Umma, Agade & Babylon.

-Declines after 200 years – internal fighting and outside threats • “Sumerian Renaissance” – 2120 bce – 2000 BCE

•  Babylonian Empire – 2000 BC – 1750 BC

Other Mesopotamian Empires, just FYI…for now

Kassites

Hittites

Assyrians

c. 1550 – 1150 bce

c. 930 – 600 bce

c. 1700 – 1100 bce (Not including city of Babylonia during Kassite rule)