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Roashell Bonadie

History 101: World Civilization 1

Dr. Philip A. Oguagha

November 1st 2009

 

Key Factors that contributed to the Development of Civilization in Mesopotamia.

 

Mesopotamia the name that that was known to the Greeks, which means “between two rivers” was a wealthy place, with complex culture that were based on large urban centers populated by interdependent and specialize worker. This kind of society has classified them as being civilized. In order to understand the key factors that contributed to their civilization we must first understand the meaning of Civilization. Civilization is a culture capable of sustaining a great nember of specialist to furnish the economic, social, political and religious need of a large social unit. Other components of civilization are the system of writhing which is originated from the need to keep record, monumental, permanent architecture in place of simple building and art that is not merely decorative. All these characteristics of civilization first appeared together in the southern parts of Mesopotamia in a place called Sumer.

 

Around 6000 B.C.E., after the agricultural revolution had begun to spread from its place of origin on the northern edge of the Fertile Crescent, Neolithic farmers began making their homes in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates River themselves. Although the broad plain created by these rivers received insufficient regular rainfall to support agriculture, the eastern section was able to benefit from both rivers as sources of irrigation. The lower section of this plain was called Babylonia. Babylonia included two geographical areas; Akkad in the north and Sumer, the delta of this river system in the south.

 

Sumer had tremendous agricultural potential as long as its natural environmental problems could be addressed  the rivers sometimes flooded and inhabitants had to drain the swamps, dig canals to bring water to remote fields, and construct safeguard against flooding. There and may other related problems were solved by cooperative effort, yet the Mesopotamians continued to live in awe of their gods.

 

The beginning of civilization in Sumer is associated with the beginning of the Bronze Age, Sumerian metal workers discovered that copper, when combined with tin, produced an alloy, bronze which was harder that copper and provide a sharper edge.  However, between 3500 and 3100 B.C.E., the foundation were established for a complex economy and a social order more sophisticated that any previously developed. This far more complex culture, based on large urban center populated by interdependent and specialized workers, fits the definition of a civilization. During this time other inventions were developed in the form of wheeled vehicles appeared in the form of war chariots which were drawn by donkeys and also the potter’s wheel.

 

Mesopotamia went through different stages of development, which helped in its civilization, one of those periods being the Protoliterate period in Sumer (c.3200-2800 B.C.E.).  By 3200 B.C. E., the urban centers in the region known as Sumer had developed the majority of the characteristics needed to be classified as a civilization. Because these included the first evidence of writing, this first phase of Sumerian civilization, to about 2800 B.C.E., is called the Protoliterate period- the time during which the earliest from of writing was used.

 

The symbols of the oldest Sumerian clay tablets, the world’s first writing, were pictures of concrete things such as a person’s face, a sheep, a star, or a measure of grain. When writing, Mesopotamian scribes used a reed stylus to make wedge-shaped impressions in soft clay tablets. This cuneiform system of writing was adopted by many other peoples of the Near East, including the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Hittites, and the Persians.

 

Another state of development in Mesopotamia that contributed to its civilization was the Old Sumerian Period (c. 2800-2300 B.C.E.). By 28000 B.C.E., the Sumerian cities had fully emerged into complex civilization.  This age was characterized by constant warfare as each city attempted to protect or enlarge its land and guarantee its access to water and irrigation. Each city-state was a theocracy, a state in which the chief local god was believed to be the actual ruler.  Early Sumerian society was highly stratified, with priests and officials of the city god and lesser deities assuming great authority.  Each temple administered extensive land holdings; that land served as the god’s estate on earth. In addition to the temple lands, a considerable part of a city’s territory originally consisted of land collectively owned by clans, kinship groups comprising a number of extended families. By 2600 B.C.E., these clan lands were becoming the private property of great landowners called lugals or great men.  In time, priests, administrators, and ensis began confiscating temple land and other property and asserting their authority over the common people.

 

The Sumerians, like their Mesopotamian successors, made extensive use of the institution of slavery, and slaves are recorded to have worked in many capacities; as farm and urban laborers, as servants in homes and temples, and even in civic positions, such as in public administration.  Slaves in Mesopotamia were not without rights, and in many cases they were treated with care. Slavery was not based on racial characteristics or cultural differences. People of the same culture became enslaved through conquest or to pay off a debt. The treatment of slaves in Mesopotamia seems to have been generally more humane than at other times and places in human history. Also in Sumer women were able to attain high social prominence, usually depending on the rank of their own or their husbands’ families.

 

The Akkadian period (c.2300-2150 B.C.E.) is also a key factor of civilization Mesopotamia. To the immediate north of Sumer was the region of Akkad, inhabited by Semites who had adopted much of Sumerian culture. Sargon I 2370-2315 B.C.E., was the first Akkadian ruler to conquer Sumer and went on to establish an empire that extended from the Persian Gulf almost to the Mediterranean sea-the first true empire in history. Sargon a lugal claimed to look after the welfare of the lower classes and to aid the rising class of private merchants. He was a tireless worker on behalf of his people’s prosperity and expanded his influence in neighboring lands through almost unending campaigns of conquest. However Sargon’s successors were unable either to repel the attacks of hostile mountain peoples or to overcome the desire for independence of the priest-dominated Sumerian cities. As a result, his dynasty collapsed about 2150 B.C.E.

 

The Neo-Sumerian period (c. 2150-2000 B.C.E.) was the last civilization founded in Mesopotamia. In this period order and prosperity were restored by the lugals of the powerful Sumerian city of Ur. By creating a highly centralized administration in Sumer and Akkad, these rulers solved the problem of internal rebellion that had been of great concern for Sargon and his successors. The formerly temple-dominated cities became provinces administered by closely regulated governors. Religion became an arm of the state; at the head of this bureaucratic state stood the lugal or Ur, now considered a living god and celebrated as a heaven-sent authority that brought order and security to the people, who were considered to be his servants. Thousands of records have been preserved from this period, detailing the meticulous regulation of commerce, agriculture, and social standards by the powerful overlords of the city. In addition, Sumerian literature and culture flourished under their direction. Bur the greatness of Ur lasted for little more than one hundred years.

 

Disaster struck Ur about 2000 B.C.E. and for more than two centuries following the destruction of Ur, disunity and warfare again plagued Mesopotamia, along with economic stress, a lack of security, and acute hardship for the lower classes. Many merchants, however, used the absence of state controls to become aggressive capitalists who amassed fortunes that they invested in banking operations and land.

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DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.