ARc 103- Mesopotamia

7/28/2019 ARc 103- Mesopotamia

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MesopotamiaIt is the area of the Tigris- Euphrates River System largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran

Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia includedSumer and the Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian empires. In the Iron Age it wascontrolled by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo Babylonian Empire.



Mesopotamia comes from the ancient greek root words (meso )middle" and ( potamia ) "river" and literally means "(Land) betweenrivers".

The history of ancient Mesopotamia begins with the emergence ofurban societies during the Ubaid period (ca. 5300 BC) and endswith either the arrival of the Achaemenid Empire in the late 6thcentury BC, or with the Arab Islamic conquest of Mesopotamia

and the establishment of the Caliphate in the late 7th centuryBC, from which point the region came to be known as Iraq.

Mesopotamia housed some of the world's most ancient highly

developed and socially complex states. The region was famous asone of the four riverine civilizations where writing was firstinvented, along with the Nile valley in Egypt, the Indus Valley inthe Indian subcontinent, and Yellow River valley in China



Archeological cultures

Pre-Pottery Neolithic

Boreal Period (ca. 7200 BC)Jarmo (ca. 7000 bc–ca. 6000 BC)

Pottery Neolithic:

Hassuna(ca. 6000 bc–? BC),Samarra (ca. 5700 BC–4900 BC) andHalaf(ca. 6000 BC–5300 BC)

Chalcolithic or Copper age:

Ubaid period (ca. 5900 BC–4400 BC)Uruk period (ca. 4400 BC–3200 BC)Jemdet Nasr period (ca. 3100 BC–2900 BC)



Early Bronze Age

Early Dynastic Sumerian city-states (ca. 2900 BC–2350 BC)

Akkadian Empire (ca. 2350 BC–2193 BC).Third Dynasty of Ur (ca. 2119 BC–2004 BC)

Middle Bronze Age

Early Babylonia (20th to 18th c. BC)

Early Assyrian kingdom (20th to 18th c. BC)First Babylonian Dynasty (18th to 17th c. BC)

Late Bronze Age

Kassite dynasty, Middle Assyrian period (16th to 12th c. BC)

Iron Age

Neo-Hittite or Syro-Hittite regional states (11th to 7th c. BC)Neo-Assyrian Empire (10th to 7th c. BC)Chaldea, Neo-Babylonian Empire (7th to 6th c. BC)



The first few years of the 20th century saw the beginnings of the serious GermanExcavation in Mesopotamia under the direction of Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft.

From 1899 until the war of 1914 the Germans led by Koldewey and Andraeexcavated thoroughly two sites: Babylon and Ashur. The aims of theseexcavations were twofold:

1.To excavate completely the Babylonian town and2.To reveal the stratigraphical sequence.

Koldewey’s book The Excavation at Babylon (1914)

These excavations were dealing mainly with the Neo Babylonians period of the

6

th

and 7

th

century B.C. but still they were of great interest to the student ofprehistoric archaeology as they were the first complete and scientificallyconducted excavation of a large Mesopotamian site.



Ruins of Babylon



Ashur

Exploration of the site of Ashurbegan in 1898 by Germanarchaeologists. Excavations began in1900 by Friedrich Delitzsch, andwere continued in 1903-1913 by ateam from the German OrientalSociety led initially by Robert

Koldewey and later by Walter Andraebetween 1913-1914. More than 16,000tablets with cuneiform texts werediscovered. Many of the objectsfound made their way to thePergamon Museum in Berlin

More recently, Ashur was excavated by B. Hrouda for the University ofMunich and the Bavarian Ministry of Culture in 1990.During the sameperiod, in 1988 and 1989, the site was being worked by R. Dittmann onbehalf of the German Research Foundation.



Ernst Emil Herzfeld Walter Andrae



Ruins of Ashur

Ashur Royal Grave



In 1903 E.J. Banks, UnitedStates Consul at Baghdad, dugat Bismaya, the ancientSumerian city of Adab nearNippur. His work, in which he

adapted and copied the methodstried out by Koldewey andAndrae was undertaken onbehalf of the University of

Chicago and is summarized inhis Bismaya the lost city of Adab(1912) .

Male bust, perhaps

Lugal-kisal-si, king of

Uruk. Limestone, Early

Dynastic III. From Adab

(Bismaya).

Bismaya/Adab



A French archaeological team underHenri de Genouillac excavated atKish, an ancient city of Sumerbetween 1912 and 1914, finding1400 Old Babylonian tablets whichwere distributed to the IstanbulArchaeology Museum

Later a joint Field Museum and

Oxford university team underStephen Langdon excavated from1923 to 1933, with the recoveredmaterials split between Chicago andthe Ashmolean Museum at Oxford

Excavations at Kish were led initiallyby E. MacKay and later by L. C.Watelin

More recently, a Japanese teamfrom the Kokushikan University led

by Ken Matsumoto excavated atKish in 1988, 2000, and 2001

Kish



One of the interesting find from the site was a new kind ofPolychrome pottery consisting of elaborate lattice work orcheck patterns in black and yellow on red



UrUr was an important city state in ancientSumer. The city's patron deity was Nannathe Sumerian moon god. Before 1918Campbell Thompson began excavating at Ur.But it was Sir Leonard Woolley whoexcavated the remains between 1920-1930.

The site is marked by the ruins of the Great Ziggurat of Ur, which contained the

shrine of Nanna, excavated in the 1930s.The temple was built in the 21st century BC, during the reign of Ur Nammu and wasreconstructed in the 6th century BC byNabonidus

Reconstructed

facade of the

ziggurat.

U.S Soldiers climb the steps of the ziggurat in 2010



A total of about 1,850 burials were uncovered, including 16 that were described as"royal tombs" containing many valuable artifacts, including the Standard of Ur

The Standard of Ur (also known as the "Battle Standard of Ur," or the "RoyalStandard of Ur") is a Sumerian artifact excavated from what had been the RoyalCemetery in the ancient city of Ur.

.



The splendid treasures found at the royal tomb at Ur caused a sensationcomparable with Schliemann's discoveries at Myceane and those of Carterand Carnavon of Tutankhamen tomb. As a result the ruins of the ancient cityattracted many visitors. One of these visitors was the already famousAgatha Christie

It has been reconstructed as a hollow woodenbox measuring 8.50 in wide and 19.50 in long,inlaid with a mosaic of shell, red limestone and

lapis lazuli

There are three panels each representing a scene

The two mosaics have been dubbed "War" and"Peace" for their subject matter, respectively a

representation of a military campaign and scenesfrom a banquet



In 1900 few people knew about Sumerian Culture but by 1930, everyone knewsomething about Sumerians. This was due partly of the sensational nature of UrExcavation and also because of Woolley’s Publication: 1. The Sumerians (1930)

2. Ur of the Chaldees (1929)3. Abraham, Recent Discoveries and Hebrew Origins (1936)

Al Ubaid

The site was first worked by Henry Hall of the British Museum in 1919. Later, Woolley excavated there in 1923 and 1924,followed by Setan Lyodand Pinhas Delougaz in 1937, the latter working for the Oriental Instituteof the University of Chicago. The lower level of the site featured largeamounts of Ubaid pottery and associated kilns, as well as a cemetery andsome finds from the Jamdet Nasr. The temple of Ninhursag at the summitwas on a cleared oval. The wall surrounding the temple was built by Shulgi ofthe Ur III Empire.



Woolley excavated a limestone foundation tablet at the temple which bore aninscription:A-anni-padda King of Ur, son of Mes-anni-padda, has built a temple for Nin- Khursag

This discovery for the first time led Sumerian building to be associated witha historical figure.

In another part of the mound handmade pottery with designs painted in blackon grey -green was found.



In 1931 the 18th International conference of Orientalistsat Leiden discussed the various Mesopotamian finds since1918 and agreed to distinguish three dynastic period:Al’ Ubaid – the earliest- 4000-3500 B.C.Uruk period- the second- 3500-3000 B.C.Jamdet Nasr- the third – 3200-2800 B.C.

Though Leiden Conference had this classification ofphases, however by no means this scheme did accuratelyprovide for the whole prehistory of Mesopotamia

T ll H l f



Tell Halaf

Further north in the fertile crescentdiscoveries of great importance had beenmade. Tell Halaf was excavated by Baron

Max von Oppenheim between 1911-1914and then resumed in 1929

It was a find of a chalcolithic culture, subsequently dubbed the Halaf Culture,characterized by glazed pottery paintedwith geometric and animal designs

Hunting scene from tell halaf (800-850 B.C.)



Samarra and Arpachiyah

Comparable pottery have been found at Samarra by Ernst Herzfeld in hisexcavation in 1912-1914 and same sort of pottery and culture was also foundby Mallowan in his excavation in Arpachiyah in 1933

The Samarra culture is dated to 5500 B.C to 4800 B.C and is considered asthe precursor of the Ubaid Period. Though the present archaeological sitecovered by mudbrick ruins. evidence of irrigation establishes the presence ofa prosperous settled culture with a highly organized social structure. Theculture is primarily known byits finely-made pottery decorated againstdark-fired backgrounds with stylized figuresof animals and birds and geometric designs

The site of Arpachiyah is close to Nineveh andwas occupied in the Halaf as well as Ubaid period.It was excavated by Max Mallowan on behalf ofthe British School ofArchaeology in Iraq alongwith Agatha Christie

T G



Tepe Gawra

The mound at Tepe Gawra was 120 meters in diameter and 22 meters high. Abrief exploratory dig was performed by Austen Layard before 1850.The sitewas formally excavated in 1927, 1931 and 1932 for a total of 8 months by

archaeologists from a joint expedition of the University of Pennsylvania andthe American Schools of Oriental Research, led by Ephraim AvigdorSpeiser

Excavations at Tepe Gawra revealed 16 levels showing that the Tepe Gawra

site was occupied from approximately 5000 B.C. to 1500 B.C. They include theearliest known temple to be decorated with pilasters and recesses

At Tepe Gawra and Arpachiyah, the Halafian period could be accuratelydated below Al’ Ubaid and seemed to take the prehistory of Mesopotamia yet

further back, into the 5th millennium B.C.



From 1931 onwards, Thompson was digging at Kuyunjik and he cut

a section down to the virgin soil from foundations of an AssyrianTemple and his section went through the following strata – Assyrian, Babylonian, Akkadian, Sumerian, Jamdet Nasr, uruk,Al’Ubaid and Halafian. Thus giving a complete cross section of theMesopotamian prehistory and protohistory.

At the very bottom of this section, 70 feet below the surface,Thompson found 11 potsherds decorated with curious scratcheddesigns. Which were classified as Pre- Halafian or Neolithic .



Speiser collating Mesopotamian materials with other finds from theNear East proposed to add two more periods in the Leiden stages anddistinguish the following five periods in Mesopotamian Prehistory that

has been widely accepted.

1. Sakje-Geuzu or Neolithic

2. Halaf- Samarra

3. Al’Ubaid

4. Uruk

5. Jamdet Nasr



In 1929, J.H. Breasted’s Oriental Institute of Chicago began work inIraq and the following year excavated the site of Tell Asmar and Khafaje. These excavations on the east of Baghdad were continued till 1937 underthe direction of Henri Frankfort and Conrad Preusser.

Diyala site, Tell Agrab was excavated by the Oriental Institute between1934-36. The French in 1929 presumed excavation at Telloh. These weredirected first by the Abbe- de- Genouillac and later by Andrae Parrot

Limestone, Khafaje, Early Dynastic II(c. 2700 BC),



It was at Telloh (ancient Girsu) that thefragments of the Stele of the Vultureswere found.

The Stele of the Vultures is amonument from the Early Dynastic IIIperiod (2600–2350 BC) in Mesopotamiacelebrating a victory of the city-state

of Lagash over its neighbour Umma. Itshows various battle and religiousscenes and is named after the vulturesthat can be seen in one of these scenes.

The stele was originally carved out of a single slab of limestone but only sevenfragments are known today and are now on display in the Louvre

Fragment of the Stele of the Vultures



An account of barley rations issuedmonthly to adults and childrenwritten in Cuneiform on clay tablet,written in year 4 of King urukagina

(circa 2350 BC).

The site has sufferedfrom poor excavationstandards and also from

illegal excavations. About50,000 cuneiform tabletshave been recoveredfrom the site



The French and British field expedition transferred their activitiesto Syria. Parrot began work in 1934 at Tell Hariri in Syria

A depiction of the ancient city

of Mari, located in present-day

Syria

Tablet of King Zimri-lIn of Mari, ca.

1780 BC, Louvre Museum

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Tablet_Zimri-Lim_Louvre_AO20161.jpg



Mallowan continued his work in the Khabur district but excavated the TellChagar Bazaar and Tell Brak, in Syria, while Woolley transferred hisattention to Atchana in the Plain of Antioch



The first excavation undertaken directly by the Iraq govt. were thosein the Omayyid capital of Wasit and the Abbasid capital of Samarra.In 1936 the Iraq govt undertook its first prehistoric excavation atTell Uquair, 50miles south of Baghdad and discovered a fine temple of

the uruk period.

At Tell Hassaunah, 20 miles south of Ninneveh, the Iraq departmentof antiquities under Seton Llyod and Sayyid Fuad Safar discovered asmall settlement of Pre-Halaf times with the same pottery as had

been found at the bottom of the great shaft of Ninneveh with its fullevidence, these site complete the picture of the five prehistoricperiods of Mesopotamia-1.Prehalaf or Ninneveh/Hassunaha,2.Halafian,

3.Alubaid,4.uruk and5.Jamdet Nasr.



Who were the Sumerians?

Frankfort argued that there was no real break in the Mesopotamiansequence from Al-ubaid to dynastic times and that the Sumerians werethe Obeidians

Jordan and Contenau argue that the uruk people were the Sumerians andthat they arrive in Mesopotamia and impose themselves on the Pre

Sumerian ObeidiansSpeiser argue for a break in the sequence in uruk B times while otherssee no possibility of labeling any levels as Sumerians until early dynastictimes

Mallowan-‘the whole rest on Speculation rather than proof’

Speiser- “ to identify the individual ethnic elements which cooperated inproducing the civilization of preliterate Mesopotamia is a more hopeless tasktoday than it appeared to be?”

ARc 103- Mesopotamia

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