REL 228: History and Culture of the Ancient Near East, spring 2004.                    RJDKnauth
Issues for Mesopotamian Early Dynastic (Sumerian), Akkadian, and Ur III periods (weeks 1-3).

Introductory Issues:

Problems of Interpretation – the nature of our evidence as spotty and ambiguous.
Disputed Chronologies (relative chronology vs. absolute chronology, astronomical data, competing theories.
Scope of course roughly 3 millenia: ca. 3000 BCE (writing established) to 300 BCE (Alexander the Great).
Neolithic background – first “Human Beings” migrate up out of Africa along “rift valley” (incl. Jordan R.).
Syria/Palestine (Levant, modern Israel) crossing point between 3 continents; Egypt/Mesopotamia trade routes.
“Neolithic Revolution” 10000-8000 BCE (hunting/gathering > farming/herding) allows permanent settlement.
Jericho (tower), Catal Huyuk.  Flint, obsidian, trade, pottery (6000 BCE), jewelry, art forms, burials, etc.

Early Bronze Age Mesopotamia - “the land between the rivers” (Tigris & Euphrates)
(Early Bronze = approx. 3rd Millenium BCE: 3000-2000): Early Dynastic, Akkadian and Ur III periods. 

Ca. 3000 BCE “Urban Revolution” – Uruk 3 = Jemdet Nasr period (3200-2900):
Development of agricultural techniques – Irrigation, drainage (vs. salinization of soil), terracing, etc.
Allows (and necessitates) larger urban populations, cooperation, social organization (government).
Allows (and necessitates) greater specialization, accumulation of capital, trade, major architecture.
Allows (and necessitates) the INVENTION OF WRITING!  Allows us greater insight into “civilization.”

Early Dynastic Period – A Flowering of Sumerian Culture (ca. 3000-2300)
Major sources: Sumerian King List (pre/post-flood), various legendary stories, Ebla Archive, etc…
Major cities: Ur, Eridu, Kish, Uruk/Erech/Warka, Lagash, Nippur, Umma, Shuruppak, Mari, Susa (Elam)…
Major (legendary, semi-divine) rulers: Enmerkar, Lugalbanda, Dumuzi, Gilgamesh, Urukagina, Lugalzagesi.
Major resources: mud-brick (little stone or wood), date-palms, fish.  Trade for gold, silver, lapis lazuli.
Prominence of Temples: economic and political power, major structures. City Patron Deities.
Major finds: Royal “death-pit” cemetery at Ur, “standard of Ur,” Umma/Lagash war “vulture stele,” etc.

Old Akkadian Period – Sargon the Great, semitic empire builder at Agade (ca. 2340-2200)
Sargon, Naram-Sin, Shar-Kali-Sharri.
King of Sumer and Akkad, Ruler of the four quarters of the earth, of the black-headed people…
Sargon Birth-Legend (compare Moses); N-S victory stele; deification of kings and the “Fall of Agade.”

Chaos of “Gutian Hordes” (blamed on sacrilege of self-proclaimed “divine” Naram-Sin, long dead)
BUT peaceful architect Gudea of Lagash (poetry, statues).
Utu-Hegal of Uruk expels Gutians. Ur-Nammu governor of Ur under Utu-Hegal, transition to Ur III.

Neo-Sumerian Renaissance: the Ur III Dynasty (ca. 2100-2000)
Ur-Nammu (law code, ziggurat temples – compare biblical “Tower of Babel”), Shulgi.  Deification again. 
Amar-Sin, Shu-Sin, Ibbi-Sin.  Hapless Ibbi-Sin betrayed by “ally” Ishbi-Erra, carried off by Elamites.
Lamentation over the destruction of Ur.  Fall to Ammorites (chaos of Isin/Larsa period). 

Genesis 1-12 (Garden of Eden, flood, tower of Babel, Ur birthplace of Abraham) is set in Mesopotamia.
Note legal precedents from Ur III to Hammurabi and Bible.

Politics of Larsa/Mari/Ashur lead in to Hammurabi's Old Babylonian Period.
Note Old Assyrian trade networks among Hittites.