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Iraq
ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA
Sumer, Akkad, Babylon, and Assyria
Contemporary Iraq occupies the territory that historians traditionally
have considered the site of the earliest civiliza- tions of the
ancient Near East. Geographically, modern Iraq corresponds to
the Mesopotamia of the Old Testament and of other, older, Near
Eastern texts. In Western mythology and religious tradition, the
land of Mesopotamia in the ancient period was a land of lush vegetation,
abundant wildlife, and copious if unpredictable water resources.
As such, at a very early date it attracted people from neighboring,
but less hospitable areas. By 6000 B.C., Mesopotamia had been
settled, chiefly by migrants from the Turkish and Iranian highlands
.
The civilized life that emerged at Sumer was shaped by two conflicting
factors: the unpredictability of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers,
which at any time could unleash devastating floods that wiped
out entire peoples, and the extreme fecundity of the river valleys,
caused by centuries-old deposits of soil. Thus, while the river
valleys of southern Mesopotamia attracted migrations of neighboring
peoples and made possible, for the first time in history, the
growing of surplus food, the volatility of the rivers necessitated
a form of collective management to protect the marshy, low-lying
land from flooding. As surplus production increased and as collective
management became more advanced, a process of urbanization evolved
and Sumerian civilization took root.
Sumer is the ancient name for southern Mesopotamia. Historians
are divided on when the Sumerians arrived in the area, but they
agree that the population of Sumer was a mixture of linguistic
and ethnic groups that included the earlier inhabitants of the
region. Sumerian culture mixed foreign and local elements. The
Sumerians were highly innovative people who responded creatively
to the challenges of the changeable Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Many of the great Sumerian legacies, such as writing, irrigation,
the wheel, astronomy, and literature, can be seen as adaptive
responses to the great rivers.
The Sumerians were the first people known to have devised a scheme
of written representation as a means of communication. From the
earliest writings, which were pictograms (simplified pictures
on clay tablets), the Sumerians gradually created cuneiform--a
way of arranging impressions stamped on clay by the wedge-like
section of a chopped-off reed. The use of combinations of the
same basic wedge shape to stand for phonetic, and possibly for
syllabic, elements provided more flexible communication than the
pictogram. Through writing, the Sumerians were able to pass on
complex agricultural techniques to successive generations; this
led to marked improvements in agricultural production.
Another important Sumerian legacy was the recording of literature.
The most famous Sumerian epic and the one that has survived in
the most nearly complete form is the epic of Gilgamesh. The story
of Gilgamesh, who actually was king of the city-state of Uruk
in approximately 2700 B.C., is a moving story of the ruler's deep
sorrow at the death of his friend and of his consequent search
for immortality. Other central themes of the story are a devastating
flood and the tenuous nature of man's existence. Laden with complex
abstractions and emotional expressions, the epic of Gilgamesh
reflects the intellectual sophistication of the Sumerians, and
it has served as the prototype for all Near Eastern inundation
stories.
The precariousness of existence in southern Mesopotamia also
led to a highly developed sense of religion. Cult centers such
as Eridu, dating back to 5000 B.C., served as important centers
of pilgrimage and devotion even before the rise of Sumer. Many
of the most important Mesopotamian cities emerged in areas surrounding
the pre-Sumerian cult centers, thus reinforcing the close relationship
between religion and government.
The Sumerians were pantheistic; their gods more or less personified
local elements and natural forces. In exchange for sacrifice and
adherence to an elaborate ritual, the gods of ancient Sumer were
to provide the individual with security and prosperity. A powerful
priesthood emerged to oversee ritual practices and to intervene
with the gods. Sumerian religious beliefs also had important political
aspects. Decisions relating to land rentals, agricultural questions,
trade, commercial relations, and war were determined by the priesthood,
because all property belonged to the gods. The priests ruled from
their temples, called ziggurats, which were essentially artificial
mountains of sunbaked brick, built with outside staircases that
tapered toward a shrine at the top.
Because the well-being of the community depended upon close observation
of natural phenomena, scientific or protoscientific activities
occupied much of the priests' time. For example, the Sumerians
believed that each of the gods was represented by a number. The
number sixty, sacred to the god An, was their basic unit of calculation.
The minutes of an hour and the notational degrees of a circle
were Sumerian concepts. The highly developed agricultural system
and the refined irrigation and water-control systems that enabled
Sumer to achieve surplus production also led to the growth of
large cities. The most important city-states were Uruk, Eridu,
Kish, Lagash, Agade, Akshak, Larsa, and Ur (birthplace of the
prophet Abraham). The emergence of urban life led to further technological
advances. Lacking stone, the Sumerians made marked improvements
in brick technology, making possible the construction of very
large buildings such as the famous ziggurat of Ur. Sumer also
pioneered advances in warfare technology. By the middle of the
third millennium B.C., the Sumerians had developed the wheeled
chariot. At approximately the same time, the Sumerians discovered
that tin and copper when smelted together produced bronze--a new,
more durable, and much harder metal. The wheeled chariot and bronze
weapons became increasingly important as the Sumerians developed
the institution of kingship and as individual city-states began
to vie for supremacy.
Historians generally divide Sumerian history into three stages.
In the first stage, which extended roughly from 3360 B.C. to 2400
B.C., the most important political development was the emergence
of kings who, unlike the first priestly rulers, exercised distinct
political rather than religious authority. Another important feature
of this period was the emergence of warring Sumerian city-states,
which fought for control of the river valleys in lower Mesopotamia.
During the second phase, which lasted from 2400 B.C. to 2200 B.C.,
Sumer was conquered in approximately 2334 B.C. by Sargon I, king
of the Semitic city of Akkad. Sargon was the world's first empire-builder,
sending his troops as far as Egypt and Ethiopia. He attempted
to establish a unified empire and to end the hostilities among
the city-states. Sargon's rule introduced a new level of political
organization that was characterized by an even more clear-cut
separation between religious authority and secular authority.
To ensure his supremacy, Sargon created the first conscripted
army, a development related to the need to mobilize large numbers
of laborers for irrigation and flood-control works. Akkadian strength
was boosted by the invention of the composite bow, a new weapon
made of strips of wood and horn.
Despite their military prowess, Akkadian hegemony over southern
Mesopotamia lasted only 200 years. Sargon's great- grandson was
then overthrown by the Guti, a mountain people from the east.
The fall of the Akkadians and the subsequent reemergence of Sumer
under the king of Ur, who defeated the Guti, ushered in the third
phase of Sumerian history. In this final phase, which was characterized
by a synthesis of Sumerian and Akkadian cultures, the king of
Ur established hegemony over much of Mesopotamia. Sumerian supremacy,
however, was on the wane. By 2000 B.C. the combined attacks of
the Amorites, a Semitic people from the west, and the Elamites,
a Caucasian people from the east, had destroyed the Third Dynasty
of Ur. The invaders nevertheless carried on the Sumero-Akkadian
cultural legacy.
The Amorites established cities on the Tigris and the Euphrates
rivers and made Babylon, a town to the north, their capital. During
the time of their sixth ruler, King Hammurabi (1792-1750 B.C.),
Babylonian rule encompassed a huge area covering most of the Tigris-Euphrates
river valley from Sumer and the Persian Gulf in the south to Assyria
in the north. To rule over such a large area, Hammurabi devised
an elaborate administrative structure. His greatest achievement,
however, was the issuance of a law code designed "to cause justice
to prevail in the country, to destroy the wicked and the evil,
that the strong may not oppress the weak." The Code of Hammurabi,
not the earliest to appear in the Near East but certainly the
most complete, dealt with land tenure, rent, the position of women,
marriage, divorce, inheritance, contracts, control of public order,
administration of justice, wages, and labor conditions.
In Hammurabi's legal code, the civilizing trend begun at Sumer
had evolved to a new level of complexity. The sophisticated legal
principles contained in the code reflect a highly advanced civilization
in which social interaction extended far beyond the confines of
kinship. The large number of laws pertaining to commerce reflect
a diversified economic base and an extensive trading network.
In politics, Hammurabi's code is evidence of a more pronounced
separation between religious and secular authority than had existed
in ancient Sumer. In addition to Hammurabi's legal code, the Babylonians
made other important contributions, notably to the science of
astronomy, and they increased the flexibility of cuneiform by
developing the pictogram script so that it stood for a syllable
rather than an individual word.
Beginning in approximately 1600 B.C., Indo-European-speaking
tribes invaded India; other tribes settled in Iran and in Europe.
One of these groups, the Hittites, allied itself with the Kassites,
a people of unknown origins. Together, they conquered and destroyed
Babylon. Hittite power subsequently waned, but, in the first half
of the fourteenth century B.C., the Hittites reemerged, controlling
an area that stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian
Gulf. The military success of the Hittites has been attributed
to their monopoly in iron production and to their use of the chariot.
Nevertheless, in the twelfth century B.C., the Hittites were destroyed,
and no great military power occupied Mesopotamia until the ninth
century B.C.
One of the cities that flourished in the middle of the Tigris
Valley during this period was that of Ashur, named after the sun-god
of the Assyrians. The Assyrians were Semitic speakers who occupied
Babylon for a brief period in the thirteenth century B.C. Invasions
of iron-producing peoples into the Near East and into the Aegean
region in approximately 1200 B.C. disrupted the indigenous empires
of Mesopotamia, but eventually the Assyrians were able to capitalize
on the new alignments of power in the region. Because of what
has been called "the barbarous and unspeakable cruelty of the
Assyrians," the names of such Assyrian kings as Ashurnasirpal
(883-859 B.C.), Tiglath-Pileser III (745- 727 B.C.), Sennacherib
(704-681 B.C.), and Ashurbanipal (669-626 B.C.) continue to evoke
images of powerful, militarily brilliant, but brutally savage
conquerors.
The Assyrians began to expand to the west in the early part of
the ninth century B.C.; by 859 they had reached the Mediter- ranean
Sea, where they occupied Phoenician cities. Damascus and Babylon
fell to the next generations of Assyrian rulers. During the eighth
century B.C., the Assyrians' control over their empire appeared
tenuous, but Tiglath-Pileser III seized the throne and rapidly
subdued Assyria's neighbors, captured Syria, and crowned himself
king of Babylon. He developed a highly proficient war machine
by creating a permanent standing army under the adminis- tration
of a well-organized bureaucracy. Sennacherib built a new capital,
Nineveh, on the Tigris River, destroyed Babylon (where citizens
had risen in revolt), and made Judah a vassal state.
In 612 B.C., revolts of subject peoples combined with the allied
forces of two new kingdoms, those of the Medes and the Chaldeans
(Neo-Babylonians), effectively to extinguish Assyrian power. Nineveh
was razed. The hatred that the Assyrians inspired, particularly
for their policy of wholesale resettlement of subject peoples,
was sufficiently great to ensure that few traces of Assyrian rule
remained two years later. The Assyrians had used the visual arts
to depict their many conquests, and Assyrian friezes, executed
in minute detail, continue to be the best artifacts of Assyrian
civilization.
The Chaldeans became heir to Assyrian power in 612 B.C., and
they conquered formerly Assyrian-held lands in Syria and Palestine.
King Nebuchadnezzar (605-562 B.C.) conquered the kingdom of Judah,
and he destroyed Jerusalem in 586 B.C. Conscious of their ancient
past, the Chaldeans sought to reestablish Babylon as the most
magnificent city of the Near East. It was during the Chaldean
period that the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, famed as one of the
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, were created. Because of an
estrangement of the priesthood from the king, however, the monarchy
was severely weakened, and it was unable to withstand the rising
power of Achaemenid Iran. In 539 B.C., Babylon fell to Cyrus the
Great (550-530 B.C.). In addition to incorporating Babylon into
the Iranian empire, Cyrus the Great released the Jews who had
been held in captivity there.
Data as of May 1988
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