BISMILLAH

Respectable Directing Staff and Fellow Officers!

All human societies, including our own, tell stories of how the
world began. Such stories are almost much varied in detail, but
they

tend

to

include

some

basic

themes.

Today I will tell you a story of two watery mutinous gods. The
male was Apsu (sweet water god) and female Tiamat (salt water
goddess). From their union there come out a variety of sea giants
and gods. With the passage of time Tiamat tried to take control.
Her descendants become united against her. They choose
Marduk,

the

god

of

Babylon,

to

lead

them.

He started fighting against Tiamat and her evil assistant Kingu. He

killed

them

both.

He divided the ugly dead body of Tiamat into two parts. From half
of her he created the heaven, from the other half the earth. In
heaven he constructed a private residence for his colleagues, the
gods. He, then realized that who will serve them? After that he
used the blood of Kingu to create the first man. This is followed by
other necessary tasks, such as the creation of rivers, plants and
animals.

Gentlemen!
This is not a story but a firm belief of people of Babylon on
Marduk. The Babylonian Myth, the "War In Heaven" Between
Tiamat And Marduk. This story compels me to enlighten the
august house about the great historical region which is the base
of this story, the Cradle of Civilization, Mesopotamia.

The aim of my presentation is to apprise the house regarding

the history, geography, religion and developments in science and
technology in the historical region of Mesopotamia.
The sequence of my presentation is shown as flashed.

The word 'Mesopotamia' is in origin a Greek name mesos

`middle' and 'potamos' - 'river' so it is known as `land between the
rivers.
'Mesopotamia' translated from Old Persian Miyanrudan
means "the fertile crescent".
The Aramaic name is Beth-Nahrain meaning "House of
Two Rivers" and is a region of Southwest Asia.
Mesopotamia included various empires like SUMER,
AKKADIANS, BABYLONIAN and ASSAYRIANS. It was also

controlled by the NEO-ASSAYRIANS and NEW-BABYLONIAN

later.
These

Empires

dominated

Mesopotamia

from

the

beginning of written history to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC, when

it was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire. It fell to Alexander
the Great in 332 BC and, after his death; it became part of the
Greek Seleucid Empire.

Around 150 BC, Mesopotamia was

under the control of the Parthian. In AD 226, it fell to the

Sassanid Persians, and remained under it until the 7th century
Arab Islamic Conquest of the Sassanid Empires.
The oldest known occurrence of the name Mesopotamia
comes from the Anabasis Alexanderi. In modern academic
usage Mesopotamia is usually used to designate the area until
the Islamic Empire, with names like Syria, Jezirah and Iraq.
Fellow Officers!
Mesopotamia was located in the Middle East. It was the alluvial
plain lying between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, composing
parts of Iraq and Syria. Both rivers are fed by many branches and
the whole river system drain a vast hilly area. The term includes
these river plains in totality as well as the surrounding lowland
territories bounded by the Arabian Desert to the west and south

the Persian Gulf to the southeast, the Zagros Mountains to the

east and the Caucasus mountains to the north.
Mesopotamia is famous for the oldest civilizations in the
world. Civilization developed in Mesopotamia is often called the
'Fertile Crescent'. The Fertile Crescent begins on the eastern
shore of the Mediterranean Sea, and curves around like a quarter
moons to the Persian Gulf.
The climate of the region is semi-arid with a vast desert
expanse in the north which gives way to a 15,000 square
kilometers region of marsh, lagoons, mud flats, and reed banks
in the south. The Fertile Crescent is a large arc of fertile land in
the Middle East and land is rich in edible plants fruit, wheat, and
barley.
Some of the best farmland of the Fertile Crescent is in a
narrow strip of land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
These rivers made it possible for farming. The Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers run through present-day lran, lraq and Egypt.
Upper Mesopotamia, also known as the Jezirah, is the
area between the Euphrates and the Tigris from their sources
down to Baghdad. Lower Mesopotamia is the area from
Baghdad to the Persian Gulf.

Mesopotamia is called the cradle of civilization because the

first civilizations began there, about 5,500 years ago in 3500 B.C.
Mesopotamia does not refer to any particular civilization.
Unlike the other early river civilization of this region Mesopotamia
will be characterized by constant warfare and a succession of
shifting empires. The main empires of Mesopotamia were
SUMER, AKKAD, BABYLON and ASSYRIA.
Sumer is the region where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
meet. The first Mesopotamian towns develop here. It is the
Southwestern territory of the valley.
The Sumerian temple priests are the first people to develop
a system of cuneiform writing.
The region can also claim other significant innovations. The
first known potters wheel dating from around this period has
been found in Mesopotamia. A Sumerian ruler Gilgamesh is hero
of the world's earliest surviving work of literature, the Epic of
Gilgamesh.
Gilgamesh is king of Uruk. Uruk is soon making
disappeared by a adjacent city state Ur which was famous later

for its great Ziggurat. Ziggurat, in the Bible was known as the
home of Abraham.
The conqueror of Ur is Sargon - meaning the 'true king'.
The exact location of Akkad, Sargon's capital, is unknown. It may
be in the region where the Tigris and Euphrates come closest to
each other.
He gradually conquers the Sumerian cities Kish, Uruk and
Ur before founding a capital city of his own, Akkad. He then
adopted a new title, 'King of the Nation'. Akkadians adapt the
Sumerian cuneiform to meet the needs of a Semitic Language.
The empire of Sargon and his descendants lasts for some 150
years, before overrun by tribes from the north.
Over the next 1500 years or more, Mesopotamia goes
through many periods of disorder, with small city states struggling
for power or for survival. But there are also times of imperial
stability, when centralized control is reestablished. The two
centers, on which the greatest empires of the region are based,
are Babylon and Assyria.

There are also periods when much of Mesopotamia is

controlled by powers outside the area, notably the Hittites from
the

17th

century.

And

eventually

the

independence

of

Mesopotamia is brought to an end by the Persians, who

overcome Babylon in 539 BC. Thereafter the region of the two
rivers becomes, for the next 1000 years and more, a province
within a series of alien empires.
Those are Persians, the Hellenistic Greeks, the Parthians
and the Sassanian.
The first Hellenistic ruler, Seleucus, makes his capital on
the west bank of the Tigris at the point where it comes closest to
the Euphrates. From 129 BC a site on the opposite bank of the
river is developed by the Parthians as Ctesiphon, a city
subsequently much favoured by the Sassanian emperors.
But it is not until the Muslim Abbasids are established in AD
750 a few miles upstream, at Baghdad. Mesopotamia regains its
full glory as an imperial centre during Muslim period.

Mesopotamian mathematics and science was based on

a sexagesimal numeral system. This is the source of the
60-minute hour, the 24-hour day, and the 360-degree circle.
The Sumerian calendar was based on the seven-day week.
This form of mathematics was instrumental in early mapmaking. The Babylonians also had theorems on how to
measure

the

area

of

several

shapes

and

solids.

The Babylonians are also known for the Babylonian mile, which
was a measure of distance equal to about seven modern miles.
The

Babylonian

astronomers

were

very

skillful

at

mathematics and could predict eclipses and solstices.

Mesopotamian astronomers worked out a 12-month
calendar based on the cycles of the moon.
They divided the year into two seasons: summer and
winter.
The origins of astronomy as well as astrology date from
this time.
They began studying philosophy dealing with the ideal
nature of the early universe and began employing an internal logic
within their predictive planetary systems.
Some scholars have thus referred to this new approach as
the first scientific revolution.

The oldest Babylonian texts on Medicine date back to

the Old Babylonian period in the first half of the 2nd Millennium
BC. The most extensive Babylonian medical text, however, is
the Diagnostic Handbook written by the chief scholar Esagil. He
discovered a variety of illnesses and diseases and explained their
symptoms in his Diagnostic Handbook.
The Babylonians introduced the concepts of diagnosis,
prognosis, physical examination, and prescriptions.
Mesopotamian

people

invented

many

technologies

including metal and copper-working, glass and lamp making,

textile weaving, flood control, water storage, and irrigation.
Palaces were decorated with hundreds of kilograms of very
expensive metals.
Copper, bronze, and iron were used for armor as well as for
different weapons such as maces, swords, daggers and spears.
According

to

recent

hypothesis,

the Archimedes

Screw may have been used by Sennacherib, King of Assyria, for

the

water

systems

at

Babylon and Nineveh in

the

the
7th

Hanging
century

BC.

Gardens

of

Mainstream

scholarship holds it to be a Greek invention of later times.

Later

during

the Parthians or Sassanid periods

the Baghdad battery, which may have been the world's first
battery, was created in Mesopotamia.
Mesopotamian religion was the first to be recorded.
Mesopotamians believed that the world was a flat disc surrounded
by a huge, holed space, and above that, heaven. They also
believed that water was everywhere, the top, bottom and sides,
and that the universe was born from this massive sea. In addition,
Mesopotamian religion was polytheistic.
The Sumerian word for universe is an-ki, which refers to
the god an and the goddess ki. Their son was Enlil, the air god.
They believed that Enlil was the most powerful god. He was the
chief god of the Pantheon, equivalent to the Greek god Zeus and
the Roman god Jupiter.
The origins of philosophy can be traced back to early
Mesopotamian perception, which alive certain philosophies of life,
particularly Ethics,

in

the

forms

of dialectic, dialogues,

Proverbs, hymns, Prose work, and epic poetry.

The

earliest

form

of logic was

developed

by

the

Babylonians, particularly in the precise nature of their social

systems. Babylonian thought was apparent. Logic was employed

to

some

extent

in Babylonian

Astronomy

and

The lonian philosopher Thales was

influenced

by

Medicine.
Babylonian

cosmological ideas.
The architecture

of

Mesopotamia is

the

ancient

architecture of the region of the Tigris and Euphrates River

system surrounding several distinct cultures.
No architectural profession existed in Mesopotamia;
however, scribes drafted and managed construction for the
government,

nobility

or

royalty.

The

study

of

ancient

Mesopotamian architecture is based on available archaeological

evidence, pictorial representation of buildings, and texts on
building practices.
The story of Mesopotamian architecture begins in
southeastern Turkey with the erection of Gbekli Tepe which is a
hilltop protection erected at the top of a mountain edge in
southeastern Turkey in the town of Sanliurfa. It is the oldest
known human-made religious structure. The site contains 20
round structures which had been buried, four of which have been
excavated. Each round structure has a diameter of between 10

and 30 meters and all are decorated with massive, mostly

T-shaped, limestone pillars that are the most prominent feature of
the site. It is tremendously one of clay masonry and of
increasingly complex forms of stacked mud brick. The Sumerians
were the first society to create the city itself as a built form. The
residential areas were grouped by profession. The city always
included a belt of irrigated agricultural land including small
villages. A network of roads and canals connected the city to this
land.
Houses
The materials used to build a Mesopotamian house were the
same as those used today: mud brick, mud plaster and wooden
doors, which were all naturally available around the city. Although
wood could not be naturally made very well during the particular
time period described. The Sumerians had a strict division of
public and private spaces. The typical size for a Sumerian house
was 90 m2.
Palace
The palaces of the early Mesopotamian elites were
large-scale complexes and were often lavishly decorated. These
palaces functioned as large-scale socio-economic institutions,

and therefore, along with residential and private functions, they

housed craftsmen workshops, food storehouses, ceremonial
courtyards, and are often associated with holy places. For
instance, the so-called "giparu at Ur where the Moon
god Nannas priestesses resided was a major complex with
multiple courtyards, a number of shelters, burial chambers for
dead priestesses, and a ceremonial banquet hall. Similarly
complex example of a Mesopotamian palace was excavated
at Mari in Syria,

dating

from

the Old

Babylonian

period.

Assyrian palaces especially at Kalhu/Nimrud and Ninuwa/Nineveh

have become famous due to the pictorial and textual narrative
programs on their walls, all fixed on stone slabs known as
orthostats.
Sumerian temples made use of more advanced materials
and

techniques,

such

as buttresses, recesses,

and half

columns. Temples of the Uruk Period divided the temple

rectangle into tripartite, T-shaped, or combined plans. The
tripartite structure had a large central hall with two smaller
adjacent halls on either side.

Ziggurats
Ziggurats were built by the Sumerians, Babylonians and
Assyrians as monuments to local religions. Ziggurats were huge
pyramidal temple towers built in the Mesopotamia having the form
of a terraced step pyramid of consecutively receding stories or
levels. There are 32 ziggurats known at, or near, Mesopotamia.
Out of which 28 in Iraq and 4 in Iran. Notable ziggurats include
the Great Ziggurat of Ur near Nassiriyah, Iraq, the Ziggurat of
Aqar Quf near Baghdad, Iraq, Chogha Zanbil in Khuzestan, Iran
and

it

is

the

most

recent

to

be

discovered

and

the

Sialk near Kashan, Iran.

Ancient Mesopotamians had ceremonies each month. The
theme of the rituals and festivals for each month is determined by
six important factors:
1. The phase of the Moon (a waxing moon meant great
quantity and growth, while a waning moon was associated with
decline, protection, and festivals of the criminal world)
2. The phase of the annual agricultural cycle
3. The local mythos and its divine Patrons
4. The success of the reigning Monarch
5. Commemoration of specific historical events (founding,
military victories, temple holidays, etc.)

6. Equinoxes It is derived from the Latin aequus (equal)

and nox (night), because around the equinox, the night and day
have approximately equal length) and
Solstices are an astronomical event that happens twice
each year when the Sun reaches its highest position in the sky as
seen from the North or South Pole.
Some songs were written for the gods but many were
written to describe important events. Thus songs were passed on
through many generations as an oral tradition until writing was
more

universal.

These

songs

provided

highly

important

information about historical events.

The Oud is a small, stringed musical instrument used by
the Mesopotamians. The oldest pictorial record of the Oud dates
back to the Uruk period in Southern Mesopotamia over 5000
years ago.
Hunting was popular among Assyrian kings. Boxing and
Wrestling feature frequently in art, and some form of Polo was
probably popular, with men sitting on the shoulders of other men
rather than on horses. They also played Majore, a game similar
to the sport Rugby, but played with a ball made of wood. They
also used to play a board game.

Mesopotamia across its history became more and more

a Patriarchal Society, one in which the men were far more
powerful than the women. Early Mesopotamian society was ruled
by a "council of elders" in which men and women were equally
represented. As for schooling, only royal offspring and sons of the
rich and professionals, such as scribes, physicians, temple
administrators, went to school. Unusual for that time in history,
women in Mesopotamia had rights. They could own property and,
if they had good reason, get a divorce.
Analysis
Conclusion

Now the house is open for QUESTIONS if any