Theme 1 – WRITING AND CITY LIFE

0. INTRODUCTION
Origins of City Life in Mesopotamia
§ City life began in Mesopotamia, the land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, now in Iraq.
§ The name Mesopotamia comes from Greek: mesos (middle) + potamos (river).
§ This civilisation was known for its prosperity, urban development, literature, mathematics,
and astronomy.
§ After 2000 BCE, its writing system and literature spread across the eastern Mediterranean,
northern Syria, and Turkey.
§ Kings across Mesopotamian regions, including the Pharaoh of Egypt, used Mesopotamian
language and script for communication.

Evolution of Region and Language

§ Initially, the southern urbanised area was called Sumer and Akkad.
§ After 2000 BCE, as Babylon rose, the south became known as Babylonia.
§ From about 1100 BCE, when the Assyrians established their kingdom in the north, the region
became known as Assyria.
§ The earliest language was Sumerian, gradually replaced by Akkadian around 2400 BCE.
§ Akkadian remained dominant till Alexander’s time (336–323 BCE), with regional variations.
§ Aramaic, similar to Hebrew, started inDluencing the region from 1400 BCE and became
widespread after 1000 BCE.
§ Aramaic is still spoken in some parts of Iraq today.

Archaeology and European Interest

§ Archaeology in Mesopotamia began in the 1840s.
§ Sites like Uruk and Mari had long-term excavations for decades — longer than any Indian site.
§ Thousands of buildings, statues, tools, seals, and written documents were unearthed.
§ European interest grew due to Biblical references in the Old Testament, the Dirst part of the
Bible.
§ For example, the Book of Genesis mentions Shinar meaning Sumer as a land of brick-built cities.
§ Europeans viewed Mesopotamia as an ancestral land, and early archaeology aimed to prove the
literal truth of the Old Testament.

The Flood Myth and Archaeological Shift

§ The Bible tells of Noah’s Ark — a man chosen by God to save life from a global Xlood.
§ According to the Bible, the Flood was meant to destroy all life on earth.
§ However, God chose a man, Noah, to ensure that life could continue after the Flood.
§ Noah built a huge boat, an ark.
§ He took a pair each of all known species of animals and birds on board the ark, which survived the
Flood.
§ Similarly, Mesopotamian tradition has a Dlood story with a character called Ziusudra or
Utnapishtim.
§ In 1873, a British expedition sought a tablet narrating the story of the Dlood to match the Biblical
account.
§ By the 1960s, it was understood that the stories of the Old Testament were not literally true, but
may have been ways of expressing memories about important changes in history.
§ Focus shifted to advanced techniques and new questions, like the lives of ordinary people.
§ Interest in proving Biblical literalism faded, and deeper archaeological insights emerged.

1. MESOPOTAMIA AND ITS GEOGRAPHY

Geographical Diversity of Iraq
§ Iraq features diverse environments:
§ North-east: green plains, tree-covered mountains, clear streams; enough rainfall for crops.
§ Agriculture began here between 7000–6000 BCE.
§ North: stretch of dry upland called a steppe, better suited for animal herding than farming.
§ East: tributaries of the Tigris provide routes of communication into the mountains of Iran.
§ South: desert – where the Xirst cities and writing appeared.

The Role of Rivers in Agriculture

§ Despite being a desert, the south was fertile due to the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.
§ These rivers carried silt from the north; when they Xlooded, they deposited fertile soil.
§ After the Euphrates has entered the desert, its water Dlows out into small channels, acting as
irrigation canals for crops like wheat, barley, peas, and lentils.
§ Southern Mesopotamia’s agriculture was among the most productive, even with low rainfall.

Animal Husbandry and Other Resources

§ The steppe, north-eastern plains, and mountains supported sheep and goats, providing meat,
milk, and wool.
§ Fish from rivers and dates from palm trees were also vital food sources.

Beginnings of Urban Life

§ Cities didn’t grow solely due to rural prosperity – other factors also played roles.
§ Earliest cities emerged around 3000 BCE, during the Bronze Age.

Use of Bronze and Tools

§ Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin.
§ Using bronze meant procuring these metals, often from great distances.
§ Bronze tools were crucial for carpentry, drilling beads, carving stone seals, cutting shell for inlaid
furniture, etc.
§ Mesopotamian weapons, like tips of the spear, were also made of bronze.

2. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF URBANISM

The SigniXicance of Urbanism
§ Cities and towns are not deXined just by large populations.
§ When economic activities go beyond food production, it becomes beneDicial for people to gather
in towns.
§ Urban economies include trade, manufacturing, and services in addition to agriculture.
§ City people are thus interdependent i.e. they rely on goods and services produced by others.
§ This leads to continuous interaction among city and village people.

Division of Labour and Specialization

§ For instance, a seal carver needs bronze tools and colored stones, which he cannot procure
himself.
§ The bronze toolmaker depends on others for metals like copper and tin, and charcoal for fuel.
§ Such interdependence reDlects a division of labor, a key feature of urban life.
§ It also necessitates a strong social organization.

Urban Trade and Storage Systems

§ City manufacturers require resources like fuel, metal, stones, and wood from various regions.
§ This creates the need for organized trade and storage systems.
§ Grain and food delivered from villages are stored and distributed in cities.
§ Various activities like toolmaking, pot-making, and seal-cutting must be well-coordinated.
§ Such a system demands leadership and often involves written records.
 THE WARKA HEAD
§ A marble sculpture of a woman’s head made at Uruk before 3000 BCE.
§ Eyes and eyebrows likely had lapis lazuli (blue), shell (white), and bitumen (black) inlays.
§ A groove on top suggests an ornament may have been attached.
§ It is admired for its delicate features of the woman’s mouth, chin, and cheeks.
§ The hard marble used had to be imported, highlighting trade and craftsmanship.

3. Movement of Goods into Cities

§ Mesopotamia was not rich in mineral resources.
§ Most of the southern part lacked stones for tool, seals and jewels.
§ Wood obtained from Iraqi date-palm and poplar was not good for making carts, cart wheels, boats.
§ There was no metal for tools, vessels or ornaments.
§ Ancient Mesopotamians could have traded their textiles and agricultural produce for:
Ø wood,
Ø copper,
Ø tin,
Ø silver,
Ø gold shell and
Ø various stones from Turkey and Iran or across the Gulf.
§ Efficient transport is also important for urban development.
§ The canals and natural channels were routes of good transport between large and small settlements.

4. The Development of Writing

§ When we talk about writing or a script, we mean that spoken sounds are represented in visible signs.
§ The first Mesopotamian tablets written around 3200 BCE contained picture like signs and numbers.
§ These were about 5,000 list of oxen, fish, bread loaves, etc.
§ List of goods that were brought into or distributed from the temples of Uruk.
§ Writing began when society needed to keep records of transactions occurred at different times involved
many people and a variety of goods.

Clay Tablets
§ Mesopotamians wrote on tablets of clay.
§ A scribe would wet the clay and pat into a size he could hold comfortably in one hand.
§ He would carefully smoothen its surfaces with the sharp end of a reed cut obliquely (diagonally/sideways).
§ He would press wedge shaped (uniform) signs on to the smooth moist surface.
§ When a record had ceased (to come to an end) to be relevant, the tablet was thrown away.
§ Each transaction required a separate written tablet.
§ Because of this tablet we know much more about Mesopotamia than we do about contemporary India.
§ By 2600 BCE, letters were uniform and language was Sumerian.
§ Sumerian is the earliest known language of Mesopotamia.
§ Writing was now used not only for keeping records but
Ø Making Dictionaries
Ø Giving legal validity to loud transfer
Ø Narrating the deeds of kings
Ø Changes announced by king in laws
§ By 2400 BCE Sumerian was replaced by Akkadian language.

5. The System of Writing

§ The sound that a cuneiform sign represented was not a single consonant or vowel, but syllables.
§ Thus, the signs that a Mesopotamian scribe had to learn ran into hundreds.
§ So writing was a skilled craft but, more important it was an enormous intellectual achievement.

6. Literacy
§ Very few Mesopotamians could read and write.
§ Not only were there hundreds of signs to learn, many of these were complex.
§ If a king could read, he made sure that this was recorded in one of his boastful inscriptions!
§ For the most part, however, writing reflected the mode of speaking.

7. The Uses of Writing

§ The connection between city life, trade and writing is brought out in a long Sumerian epic poem about the
king Enmerkar, one of the earliest ruler of Uruk.
§ This poem also tells us that, besides being a means of storing information and of sending messages afar,
writing was seen as a sign of the superiority of Mesopotamian urban culture.
§ It was kingship that organised trade and writing.

8. Urbanisation in Southern Mesopotamia: Temples and Kings

§ From 5000 BCE, settlements had begun to develop in southern Mesopotamia.
§ The earliest cities emerged from some of these settlements.
§ These were of various kinds:
Øthose that gradually developed around temples;
Øthose that developed as centres of trade;
Øand imperial cities.
§ It is cities of the first two kinds that will be discussed here.
§ The earliest known temple was a small shrine made of unbaked bricks.
§ Temples were the residences of various gods:
Øof the Moon God of Ur,
Øor of Inanna the Goddess of Love and War.
§ Constructed in brick, temples became larger over time, with several rooms around open courtyards.
§ Some of the early ones were possibly not unlike the ordinary house - for the temple was the house of a god.
§ But temples always had their outer walls going in and out at regular intervals, which no ordinary building
ever had.
§ The god was the focus of worship: to him or her people brought grain, curd and fish (the floors of some early
temples had thick layers of fish bones).
§ The god was also the theoretical owner of the agricultural fields, the fisheries, and the herds of the local
community.
§ In time, the processing of produce (for example, oil pressing, grain grinding, spinning, and the weaving of
woollen cloth) was also done in the temple.
§ Organiser of production at a level above the household, employer of merchants and keeper of written
records of distributions and allotments of grain, plough animals, bread, beer, fish, etc., the temple
gradually developed its activities and became the main urban institution.

Problems
i. Natural:
§ In spite of natural fertility, Agriculture was subject to hazards.
§ Too much water in the natural outlet channels of
§ Euphrates would flood the crop.
§ Some time they would change course together.
§ As per archaeological records villages were periodically relocated in Mesopotamian history.

§ ii. Man-made:
Those who lived in upstream/stretches, could divert so much water into their fields.
§ Sometimes they could neglect to clean out the silt of channel, blocking the flow of water further down.
§ So, the early Mesopotamia countryside saw repeated conflict over land and water.

iii. Warfare
§ Continuous warfare in the region
§ Chief emerged victorious
Ø Distribute the loot to oblige the followers
Ø Prisoners from defeated group were employed as servants to increase their influence.
Ø In time victorious chiefs began to offer precious booty (stolen goods) to the gods.
 Beautification of temples.
§ They would send men and to fetch fine stones and metal.
Organise the distribution of temple wealth in an efficient way to accounting for things that come in and
went out.
§ This gave the king high status and the authority to command the community.
§ Leaders encouraged the settlement of villagers close to themselves. ØTo be able to get an army together.
Ø People would be safe in close territory.
§ As the city was growing it was protected by a defensive wall like in Uruk.
§ 3000 BCE - Uruk grew to 250 hectares.
Ø Dozens of small villages were deserted.

§ 2800 BCE - expanded to 400 hectares.

Ø War captives and local people were put to work for temple or directly for the ruler.
Ø Those who were put to work were paid rations.
Hundreds of rational list have been found:
Ø Name
Ø Quantities of grains
Ø Cloth or oil allotted to them.
Ø It has been estimated that one of the temples took 1500 man working 10 hours a day, for five years
to build.

§ Around 3000 BCE - Bronze tools came into use in Uruk.

Ø Architects learnt to construct brick columns.
Ø Another technological landmark was the potters wheel.

The Seal: An Urban Artefact

§ In India, early stone seal were stamped.
§ In Mesopotamia, cylindrical stone seals, pierced down the center were fitted with a stick and rolled over
wet clay so that a continuous picture was created.
§ They were carved by very skilled craftsmen, and sometimes carry writing:
Ø the name of the owner,
Ø his god,
Ø his official position, etc.

9. Life in the City

§ A small section of society had a major share of wealth.
§ Evidences of jewellery, gold vessels, wooden musical instruments inlaid with white shell and lapis lazuli
are found buried with some kings and queens at Ur.
§ Evidences from legal texts (disputes inheritance matters etc) suggests that in Mesopotamian society
nuclear family was norm.
§ Father was the head of the family.
§ Married son and his family often resided with his parents.
§ A declaration was made about the willingness to marry.
§ Bride's parents giving their consent to the marriage.
§ Then a gift was given by the groom's people to the bride's people.
§ When wedding took place, gifts were exchanged by both parties altogether, and made offerings in a temple.
§ Bride was given her share of the inherit by her father.
§ The father's house, herds, fields, etc were inherited by the sons.

Town Planning in Ur
§ In 1930s, Ur, a town was systematically excavated.
§ Narrow winding streets means that wheeled carts could not have reached many houses.
§ Sacks of grain and firewood would have arrived in donkey-back.
§ There was absence of proper town planning.
§ No proper street drains.
§ Drains and clay pipes were instead found in the inner courtyards of the houses.
§ House roofs sloped inwards and rainwater was channelled via the drain pipes into sumps in the inner
courtyard.
§ A sump is a covered basin in the ground into which water and sewage flow.
§ It was done to prevent the streets from becoming slushy after a downpour.
§ People seem to have swept all their household refuse into streets.
§ This made street level rise.
§ Eventually the threshold of houses had also to be raised.

Superstitions (Recorded in Omen Tablets)

§ A raised threshold: Brought wealth.
§ Front door did not open towards another house: Lucky.
§ If the main wooden door of house opened outwards: The wife would be torment to her husband.
§ A town cemetery with graves of royalty and commoners have been found.

10. A Trading Town in a Pastoral Zone

§ Around 2000 BCE the royal capital of Mari nourished.
§ In the kingdom of Mari both farmers and pastoralists were there.
§ Though most of the territory was used for pasturing sheep and goat.
§ Exchange of cheese, leather and metal in return to grain, metal tools etc.
§ Shepherd may take his flock to water across a sown field, thus ruining the crop.
§ Herdsmen being mobile can raid agricultural villages and seize their stored goods.
§ Settled groups/farmer may deny pastoralists access to river canal water and certain routes.
§ Political System of Mari
§ Mesopotamian society and Culture were open to different people and Cultures.
§ Vitality of the civilization was perhaps due to this intermixing. § The kings of Mari were Amorites.
Ø They dressed differently from original inhabitants.
Ø Respected Mesopotamia god.
Ø Raised a temple at Mari for Dagon: god of steppe.

Economy of Mari
§ Mari is a good example of an urban centre with prospering on trade. § Located on the Euphrates in a
prime portion.
Ø Syria
Ø Lebanon
Ø Mari
Ø Turkey
Ø Wooden, Copper, tin, oil, wine and other goods.

11. Cities in Mesopotamian Culture

§ Mesopotamians valued city life in which people of many communities and cultures lived side by side.
§ After cities were destroyed in war, they recalled them in poetry.
§ The most touching reminder to us of the pride Mesopotamians took in their cities comes at the end of the
Gilgamesh Epic.
§ Gilgamesh is said to have ruled the city of Uruk some time after Enmerkar.
§ A great hero who got a shock when his heroic friend died.
§ He then set out to find the secret of immortality, crossing the waters that surround the world.
§ After a heroic attempt, Gilgamesh failed, and returned to Uruk.
§ There, he consoled himself by walking along the city wall, back and forth.
§ He admired the foundations made of fired bricks that he had put into place.
§ It is on the city wall of Uruk that the long tale of heroism and endeavour gradually end.
§ He takes consolation (comfort) in the city that his people had built.

12. The Legacy of Writing

§ Mesopotamians created a legacy in the world. They did it with the help of:
Ø Mathematics
Ø Astrology
Ø Tradition of time reckoning
§ During 1800 BCE, we have evidence of tablets with multiplication, division, square, square root, tables.
§ Division of years to months according to revolution of the moon around the earth.
§ These time divisions were adopted by successors of Alexander.
§ It was later on transmitted to Roman world.
§ Solar and lunar eclipses were also observed.

An Early Library
§ In the iron age, the Assyrians of the north created an empire.
§ The last Assyrian king Asurbanipal (668-327 BCE)
§ Collected a library at his capital Nineveh.
§ Library contains tablets on history, epics, omen, literature, astrology, hymns and poems.

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