MESOPOTAMIA CIVILIZATIONBY- Krishna Dutt Shivani Sharma Abhinav Singh Karthick Krishna Apoorva Gangrade Rudrapriya Yadav Anshula Gumber Narendra Anekar Soumya Gupta

The Land between the rivers…

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Good farming conditions Provided fish and

freshwater Easy to travel Easy to trade (way

goods and ideas moved from place to place)

The world’s first civilizations all began in river valleys

Mesopotamia Civilization

To the north and west, it fades into the plains of Syria

The Tigris and Euphrates rivers sit in the land as dominant physical feature

To the south and west, it fades into the Arabian desert

WHY…???

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THE TIGRIS AND EUPHRATES RIVERS FLOODED ONCE PER YEAR, LEAVING BEHIND FERTILE SOIL

IDEAL FOR FARMING OFTEN CALLED THE “FERTILE CRESCENT” OR AS THE

“CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION”

Probably settled before 5000 B.C.

Lasted for approximately 3000 years

The Mesopotamian plain – mainly alluvial Clay – abundantly and cheaply available building materials. Brick manufacture – sun dried or Kiln burnt

The district was named as Mesopotomia (Messos = middle, potamos = river)

FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT

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SEQUENCE OF CIVILIZATION….(History of Mesopotamia)

SUMERIAN CULTURE, PEAKING IN 3300 BC 4500-2000 BC

AKKADIAN PERIOD 2350 - 2200 BC

BABYLONIAN CULTURE 2000- 1600 BC(Combination of Sumerian and Akkadia)

ASSYRIAN CULTURE 1350 - 612 BC

PERSIAN CULTURE 539 - 330 BC

Priests

Kings and Nobility

Scribes

Craftsmen and Peasants

Slaves

SOCIAL STRUCTURE

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The Sumerians were the first civilization in this area..

IMPACT OF GEOGRAPHY (LOCATION)Unpredictable flooding during periods of little rain / dry summer months

Dug irrigation ditches… brought water to fieldsNo natural barriers for protection…City wall built walls around citiesLimited natural resources, especially building materials

‐ stone, wood, metal

TradeTraded with people around them for theproducts they lacked

Lacked building materials

Used Mud bricks

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Religion and Afterlife Polytheistic religion. Deities were in human forms and represent some natural

phenomenon. Gods were worshipped at huge temples called ZIGGURATS.

• Believed to be homes for gods and goddesses.• Priests were permitted inside the ziggurat• It was their duty to care for the gods and attend

to their needs.

CELLA

ZIGGURAT

SUMMERIAN PERIODFrom about 3000 B.C. many cities grew up in Sumer such as:

Ur Uruk Eridu Mari

The Sumerians became powerful under ruler Ur- Nammu who reigned from 2113-2046 B.C.

He constructed the famous Ziggurat at Ur.City of Ur was at its highest glory and capital of Sumer.

SOCIAL STRUCTURE

GOVERNMET PRIEST,SOLDIERS

MERCHANTSCRAFTMAKERS, LABORERS

SLAVES

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ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTERSTICS Mud was the main building material. Mud was formed into sun brick and built into massive walls Spaces were narrow because of the walling material. Façade of buildings were whitewashed and painted to hide the lack of

attraction of the material. Temples was their major building type.

SUMERIAN PLANNING OF CITY UR

Entire city was surrounded by a canal

The houses are densely packed withnarrow streets between them.

The city was enclosed in wall

Temples were the principal architectural monuments of Sumerian cities.. Mixture of

•residences houses- 1 storey•commercial and industrial buildings

Streets were fronted by courtyard

GREAT ZIGGURAT UR

The temple sits on a three multi-tiered Ziggurat mountain.

Access to the temple is through triple staircase reaching first stage.

The fourth staircase gave access to the second and third stages of the ziggurat and to the temple.

The Great Ziggurat was located as part of a temple complex.

Complex comprised of:- • Ziggurat and its court • Secondary court attached to it and The king was the chief priest of the temple and lived close to it.

Sargon, King of Akkad, conquered the city-states (2300 B.C.) and built an empire.

After his death, other invaders swept into the wide valley tumbling his empire into ruin.

AKKADIANS

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The fifth king of the first Dynasty was Hammurabi(1792-1750B.C.)

Babylonian civilization mainly developed in the central southern region of the Mesopotamia. (Present day Iraq)

BABYLONIAN PERIOD

CITY PLAN OF BABYLON

Babylonians invented the idea of a circle containing 360 degrees and the hour containing sixty minutes.

The king build new walls to protect the city and new canals and dikes to improve crops

Economy was based on agriculture and wool / cloth

Individuals could own land around cities

Grain used as the medium of exchange.

KING HAMMURABI’S BABLYON

Hammurabi’s Legacy: Law codeTo enforce his rule, Hammurabi collected all the laws of Babylon in a code that would apply everywhere in the land.Code of 282 laws inscribed on a stone pillar placed in the public hall for all to seeHammurabi Code was an origin to the concept of “eye for an eye…”Consequences for crimes depended on rank in society (ie. only fines for nobility) Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology

The city of Khorsabad demonstrate Assyrian architecture.

ASSYRIAN PERIOD

Located on the upper Tigris

The cities of Assyria were Nineveh, Dun, Khorsabad, Nimrud and Assur.

During the Assyrian periods, temples lost their importance to palaces

Assyrian kings built walled cities, in which palaces took precedent over religious buildings

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CITY OF KHORSABAD

TEMPLESTATE COURT

ENTRANCE COURT

RAMP

PALACE OF SARGON, KHORSABAD

Khorsabad was designed as the royal capital of Assyria

Built by Sargon II in 720 BCE

It illustrates the main characteristics of Assyrian architecture and planning

At the centre of the city 25acre palace occupied a plateau 55’ above the level of town

The city was built on a flat land and enclosed by a double wall with seven city gates. The palace was located on the north west side of the city

Govt. buildings in the palace area were bordered by a sturby. Rising near the central axis was a 7 stage ziggurat. 143’ sq base

THE PERSIAN EMPIRE In 539 B.C. Babylon fell to the Persian armies of Cyrus the Great.He had hundreds of miles of road built or repaired.He set up a common set of weights and measures and encouraged

the use of coins.

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Mesopotamia, specifically Babylon used a mathematical system based on sixty as all their numbers were expressed as parts of or multiples of sixty.

Some parts of the ‘base-sixty’ system still remain today: 360 degrees in a circle, 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in 1 hour.

Devised a calendar base on cycles of the moon (number of days between the appearance of two new moons was set as a month; 12 cycles made up a year

INTERESTING FACTS

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