fren Kec g KerriSwi! Se aaa Aa cad y Touches all the corners of NCERT & NCERT EXEMPLAR 7, More than SUFFICIENT for school EXAMS & BOARDS ~% Approved by Rie: TOPPERS prea Kec g eriThis chapter deals with some of the earliest cities of Mesopotamia ie. present-day Iraq, These cities were developed around the temple and were important centres of long-distance trade. Archaeological evidence remains of old settlements, and huge written material has been used to reconstruct the history of people who lived here. We will study the role of pastoral people, settled agriculture and writing in development of cities. Important developments like settled communities, use of metals and increase in trade and commerce with other people from distant lands will also be studied in detail. Mesopotamia is derived from two Greek words mesos meaning middle and Potamas meaning river . Mesopotamia means land between two rivers-Euphrates and [Link] it is part of the Republic of Iraq. Mesopotamia civilization is famous for its prosperity, city life, its vast and rich literature, its mathematics, and astronomy, After 2000 BCE, Mesopotamia's writing system and literature spread to the Eastern Mediterranean, Northern Syria, and Turkey and thus the kingdoms of the entire region started g to each other including the pharaoh of Egypt. In the beginning, the land was called Sumer and Akkad- language Sumerian , Babylonia was the southern region and became important after 2000 BCE Assyria was the region where Assyrians established their kingdom. in the north by about 1100 BCE. LO rag is a land of diverse environments. It has following features. + North east lie green undulating plains, gradually rising to tree-covered mountain ranges with clean streams and wildflowers, with enough rainfall to grow [Link], Agriculture began between 7000 and 6000 BCE. In North-There is a stretch of upland called a steppe, where animals herding offers waters people a better livelihood than agriculture. sheep and goats produced meat, milk and wool in abundance . in the East-tributaries of the Tigris provide routes of communication in to mountains of Iran The South is a desert-the place with the first cities and writing emerged. Ephrates and Tigris carry loads of silt and deposited on the flood fields. The water from Euphrates river flows into small channels after it enters the desert. These channels in the past functioned as irrigation channels. As compared to all the ancient Systems including Roman Empire, agriculture of southern Mesopotamia was most productive. Downloaded from [Link] Telegram/@npadhieakshay YouTube/@padhleakshayMan-made problems such as, people who lived in the upstream stretches of channel would divert water affecting villages in downstream. They also neglected the silt removal from their stretch of their channel and blocking the flow of water further down. So, the early Mesopotamian countryside saw repeated conflicts over land and water. Mesopotamia had natural fertility yet agriculture was prone to hazards which were both natural and man-made. Natural channels of Euphrates would have too much water in one year, resulting in flooding crops. Urban centres involve in various economic activities such as food production trade, manufactures and services. City people will become more specialised in their field of work and become interdependent with other people rather than being self- sufficient. This is called division of labour which is a mark of urban life. The carver of stone seal requires bronze tools, and Downloaded from [Link] coloured stones. The bronze tool maker needs metals, and charcoal. So they depend on the products or services of other people Fuel, metal, various stones, wood ete., come from many places for city manufacturers. There are deliveries of grain and other foo items from the village to the city. Urban economies often require the keeping of written records and akshay In such a system some people commands and those others obey. + Besides crafts, trade and services, an efficient transport is needed for urban development. It should take less time and cost to carry goods from one place to another so that city economy is viable. Telegral Thus, cheapest mode of transport is over water. Riverboats or barges loaded with sacks of grain are moved by the currents of river or wind but when animals transport goods, they need to be fed. The canals and natural channels of ancient Mesopotamia were to equip between large and small settlements. The canals and natural channels were routes for goods transport Euphrates became a world route, umerian hous YouTube/@padhleakshayThe sound that a cuneiform sign represented was not a single consonant or vowel but syllables. Thus the scribe had to learn hundreds of signs. He had to handle a wet tablet and get it written before it dried. So writing was a skilled craft .It conveys visual form of system of sounds of a particular language. + The earliest cities emerged from the settlements that began to develop in Southern Mesopotamia from 5000 BCE various kinds of cities were developed: (i) Cities that gradually developed around temples.(ii) Cities that developed as centres of trade(iii) Imperial cities. Construction and Maintenance of Temples in Mesopotamia Early settlers began to build and rebuild temples at selected spots in the villages. The earliest known temple was a small shrine made of unbaked bricks. Temples were the residence of various gods: Moon God of Ur and for Inanne— the Goddess of Love and Warr, Temples became larger over time with several 1500 men, took 5 years, 10 hours per day rooms around open courtyards. Temples always had their outer wallls going in and out at regular [Link] was the focus of worship and people brought grain, curd and fish to [Link] god was the theoretical owner of the agricultural fields, the fisheries, and the herds of the local community. Role of Kings in Construction and Maintenance of Temples in Mesopotamia. Archaeological records show that villages were periodically relocated in Mesopotamian history because of flood in the river and change in the course of the rivers The chiefs also offer precious booty to the gods to beautify temples He organises the distribution of temple wealth by keeping records. This gave the king high status and authority to command the community. War captives and local people had to work for the temple, or for the ruler. Those who weve put to work were paid rations like grain, oil, and cloth -Hundreds of people were put to work at making and baking of clay cones for temples Life in the City of Ur. # THE ZIGGURAT OF URNAMMU. UR Downloaded from [Link] Telegram/@npadhieakshay ayArchaeological evidence at Uruk, one of the earliest temple towns show that around 3000 BCE, it grew to a huge extent of 250 hectares which was twice as large as Mohenjodaro site. Dozens of small villages were deserted and there was a major population shift. The site was continuously occupied from about 4200 BCE to about 400CE and it had expanded to 400 hectares by about 2800 BCE. It also had a defensive wall around it. There were also technical advances at Uruk around 3000 BCE. Bronze tools came into use. Architects learnt to construct brick columns, as there was no suitable wood to bear the weight of the roof of large halls. People worked to make and bake clay cones that were pushed into temple walls and painted it in different colours creating a colourful mosaic. Achievements in sculpture using imported stone were also seen. One important technological landmark which suited urban economy was invention of potter's wheel which enabled to mass produce similar pots at a time Ur and Mari were the most important imperial cities of [Link] was a town and one of the earliest cities: excavated in the [Link] was one of the earliest cities that was systematically excavated in the 1930s. Narrow twisted streets indicate the wheeled carts could not have reached many of the houses. Sacks of grain and firewood would have reached on donkey back. The narrow winding streets and irregular shaped house plots also indicate the absence of town planning. Ur did not have street drains like Mohenjodaro. and street drains were absent at Ur. Instead of drains clay pipes were found in the inner courtyards of houses. House roofs sloped inwards and rainwater was channelled via the drain pipes in to sumps in the inner courtyards. As recorded in omen tablets at Ur: A raised threshold brought wealth; A front door that did not open towards another house was lucky; If the main door of a house open outwards, the wife would be a torment toher husband. Town cemetery at [Link] graves of royalty and commoners have been found there. Very fewindividuals were found buried under the floors of ordinary houses. A Trading Town in a Pastoral Zone (Life in the city of Mari)After 2000 BCE the royal city of Mari [Link] was located on the upstream of [Link] had both farmers and pastrolists in its communities. Downloaded from [Link] Telegram/@padhieakshay YouTube/@padhleakshayNomadic groups of the western desert filtered into the prosperous agriculturalland. Such groups would come as herders, harvest labourers or hived soldiers andsettled downThese included the Akkadians, Amorites, Assyrians and Armaneans. The kings of Mari were Amorites and raised a temple at Mavi for Dagan, god ofsteppe. Mesopotamian society and culture were open to different [Link] as an important Trade Centre Mavi is a good example of an urban centre prospering on trade. Mesopotamians valued city life . Many communities and cultures lived side by side. After cities were destroyed in war, they recalled them in poetry. a $ * OO ret COL The Epic of Gilgamesh remind us the pride of the Mesopotamians who took in their cities which was written in 12 tablets. Gilgamesh was the ruler of Uruk and a great here who brought Downloaded from [Link] people fro far and wide under his control. He got a shock when his heroic friend died . He then set out to find the secret of immortality, After a heroic attempt, Gilgamesh failed, and returned to Uruk and started admiring the foundations of the city and took comfort in the city that his people had built. + Family Traditions in Mesopotamia legal text shows that In Mesopotamian society, the nuclear family system was the norm. * The father was the head of the [Link] know little about the procedures of marriage * A declaration was made about the willingness to marry by the bride's parents. when the wedding took place gifts were exchanged by both parties who ate together and made offerings in a temple. + The bride was given her share of the inheritance by her father. The father's house, herds, fields ete. were inherited by the sons. The first Mesopotamian tablets which were written around 3200 BCE contained picture like signs Telegram/@npadhieakshay and numbers. These were list of goods of about 5000 oxen, fish, bread loaves, etc, which were brought into or distributed from temples of Uruk, a city in the South, This shows that writing began when society needed to keep records of transactions. Mesopotamians wrote on tablets of clay. A scribe (a person who made copies of manuscripts) would wet the clay and make it into a size he could hold in one hand easily and carefully smoothen its surfaces Then, he would press wedge-shaped (cuneiform) signs on to the smoothened surface while it was still moist. These tablets would be dried in Sun, which would make them hard and indestructible. They were thrown away after a written record became irrelevant. YouTube/@padhleakshayThe cuneiform sign was represented as syllables (like-put, or -la-, or -in-) and notinscriptions like consonant or vowel (like b or a in English). Thus, it made writing a skilled craft because scribe had to learn hundreds of signs and later, he had to handle a wet tablet and get it written before it dried. It was also a huge intellectual achievement to convey the system of sounds of a particular language in visual form There were hundreds of signs to learn in Mesopotamia but most of them were complex. Due to this reason, very few Mesopotamians could read and write. 1f-4 king could read, he made sure that it was recorded in one of his boastful inscriptions. + By 2600 BCE, letters became cuneiform and the language was Sumerian. The connection between city life, trade, and writing is brought out in a long Sumerian epic poem about Enmerkar, one of the earliest rulers of Uruk. In Mesopotamian ir tradition, COU) Uruk was the city of excellence, sometimes simply known as The City. The uses of Downloaded from [Link] writing were: Lkeeping records [Link] dictionaries [Link] legal validity to land transfers [Link] the deeds of kings [Link] the changes a king had made in the customary laws of the land 6Storing information and of sending messages. + Writing was also seen as a sign of superiority of Mesopotamian urban culture. One of the greatest legacies of Mesopotamia to the world is an estimation of time and mathematics. Tablets from around 1800 BCE had multiplication, division tables, square and square-root tables and tables of compound interest. Calandar Telegram/@npadhieakshay ivision of the year into 12 months. sion of month into four weeks The division of day into 24 hours, The division of the hour into 60 minutes Students had to learn and solve problems on area and volume. Time divisions which we follow now came from Mesopotamians, They were adopted by the successors of Alesander and then transmitted to the Roman world, then to the world of Islam and then to medieval Europe. Solar and lunar eclipses were observed and recorded. There were schools where students read and copied earlier written tablets Thus, without writing and urban institutions like schools (where students read and copied earlier written tablets and were trained to become intellectuals), the important and great Mesopotamian achievements would have not been possible. YouTube/@padhleakshay7000-6000 Bc Beginning of agriculture in the Northen Mesopotamian plains. 5000 BCE Earliest temples in Southern Mesopotamia built. 3200 BCE First writing in Mesopotamia, 2700-2500 BCE Early kings, including, possibly the legendary ruler Gilgamesh. 2600 BCE Development of the cuneiform script. 2400 BCE Replacement of Sumerian by Akkadian, 2370 BCE Sargon, king of Akkad, 2000 BCE Spread of cuneiform writing to Syria, Turkey and Egypt; Mari and Babylon emerge as important urban centres, 11800 BCE Mathematical texts composed; Sumerian no longer spoken, 1100 BCE 1000 BCE Establishment of the Assyrian kingdom Use of Iron, 720-610 BCE Assytian empire 668-627 Bee Rule of Assurbanipal 331 BCE ‘Alexander conquers Babylon. Ist century c ‘Akkadian and cuneiform remain in use. 1050s, Decipherment of the cuneiform script Downloaded from [Link] Telegram/@npadhieakshay YouTube/@padhleakshayQuestion : What do you understand by the term Mesopotamia? Answer : It is derived from the Greek language which has to means "the middle river”. Question : What was the land of Mesopotamia civilization at the beginning of recorded? Answer : It was called Sumer and Akkad. Question : When did Babylon become an important city? Answer : After 200 BC. Question : Who had released Babylonia from Assyrian domination? Answer : It was Nabopolassar in 625 BC. Question : Who was the last ruler of independent Babylon? Answer : Nabonidus. Question : Write Geographical feature and extent of Mesopotamia Civilization? Answer : Undulating plains in northeast, flanked by tree-covered mountain ranges, steppe in the North and desert in South- Plains were fertile. Question : What has been mentioned in the Old Testament about Mesopotamia? Answer: Its book of Genesis refers to ‘Shima’ for Sumer i.e. the land of Mesopotamia civilization. This term has meaning therein explained was "a land of brick-built cities". Question : How many types of settlements formed cities in Mesopotamia? Answer : These were of three kinds - 1. settlements developed artistic temples 2. settlements developed as centers of trade and 3. imperial settlement or cities. Question : What were the major hazards to agriculture in Mesopotamia? Answer :1. Frequent floods in quiet channels of the Euphrates (river) and change, of course, causing immersion of agricultural land forever. 2. Misuse of water by the people living in upstream and villages. Downstream. were left without water. 3. Continuous conflicts among groups of farmers on one or other issues. Question : How do you think the clashes/conflicts between war leaders in Mesopotamia would have checked? Answer : It could be possible with the creation of new institutions or practices in society such as the judiciary, the government, etc. A change in the attitude of the community would have checked the clashes between the war leaders. Distribution of water resources later-on reduced the possibility of conflict. Downloatied from [Link] Telegram/@padhieakshay YouTube/@padhleakshayQuestion : Discuss whether city life would have been possible without the use of metals. Answer : Actually, city life first starts with the secondary works, and such power of Occupation is possible where different tools of carpentry, carving, inscription, etc. are readily available. Again tools can only be made of metals that were imported by the people of Mesopotamia from Turkey and Ivan ov across the Gulf. Likewise, exchange was possible because people of those countries were in need of food grains as there was less scope for agriculture but plenty of minerals. On the above premise, we can see that city life in Mesopotamia was impossible without metals which they imported from other countries. Question : Describe the main features of the city of Babylon. Answer : The city of Babylon had played an outstanding role in the ancient history of Mesopotamia. It was Akkad ruler, Sargon, who ruled from 2370 to 2315 BCE. Being situated on the north-west bank of river Tigris it made tremendous progress under Hururabiera. Babylon witnessed the emergence of glorious era of its history under Downloaded from [Link] Keldian ruler Nabopolassor. At that time, it covered an area of more than 850 hectares. Some magnificent features of Babylon were as follows: + Atriple wall was constructed all-around the city to safequard it from any foreign threat. + A massivg Ziggurat was the main center of attraction in Babylon. + It was also a famous commercial center. The city had also made tremendous progress in the field of language, literature, science, medicine, etc. > s = a = 3 = = s s ® = = S = = s = £ COrint AI * me after completing this chapter SCAN THIS. FOR MAGIC *NOTE : Worksheet (Important questions of all typology with answers) is provided as a seperate PDF on website [Link]* YouTube/@padhleakshay