PART II 84 BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

http://www.aina.org/books/eliba/eliba.htm#c6
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BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

 The story of Mesopotamian civilisation, and with it the story of our own civilisation, begins a little over 5000 years ago, in the hot swamps OF Babylonia

 A strange people, the Sumerians, whose ;precise origin is still unknown, 
when the Sumerians arrived. There ready existed thriving villages, some of which became the basis 'later Sumerian cities.

 driven from a homeland in Central Asia by climatic changes

 The two most prominent features of the Sumerian city were its irrigation system and its main temple built on a terrace.

 Originally control of the city-state had been in the hands of all free citizens, who arrived at decisions on major policy in public council. There are always some activities, however, which require on-the-spot decisions, and so the citizens came to appoint a man called the Ensi to direct and coordinate agricultural operations, whilst in times of crisis they would choose a king (Sumerian Lugal, literally 'Big Man') as military leader (5). Although both Ensi and Lugal were originally elected, once a man had been appointed there would be a strong tendency for his position to become permanent and hereditary, and also for the various leading positions in the city-state to be gathered Into one person. Thus the famous Gilgamesh of Erech

 

 land was originally owned by families or clans collectively, and could only be sold by agreement of all the prominent members of the family or clan. The buyers of such land would be members of what was Coming to be the ruling class or nobility, and these people would thereby come to own land as private property in addition to what they held as family property. Such land would be worked by poor landless freemen.

  Sumerians were not the first inhabitants of what we now call Babylonia. Amongst their predecessors it is possible that one group was Semitic

 the term 'Semitic' here requires explanation, Hebrew and Arabic, and, amongst ancient ones, Akkadian and Aramaic. The ancient Semites (using the term as defined) were a people whose original home, as far as we know at present, was the interior of Arabia. From the end of the last Ice Age at about 8000 B.C. down to the present day Arabia  

  The earliest certain movement of Semitic peoples began in the second quarter of the third millennium (i.e. after 2750 B.C.)

 he growing strength of the Semitic element in the population culminated in the coming into power of an Akkadian dynasty. In northern Babylonia the greatest Sumerian centre was the city of Kish, and the last King of Kish had as chief minister a man whom we know under the Semitic name of Sharrum-kin or Sargon, meaning 'true king'

 Sargon ultimately extended his conquests up the Euphrates to North Syria, and possibly even into Asia Minor. He also conquered Elam to the east of Babylonia, and gained control of northern Iraq, the area later known as Assyria. In one of the cities of Assyria there has been found a fine bronze mask which may have represented Sargon himself (13). Sargon's economic and political control of this unprecedently large area produced a marked rise in the standard of living of Babylonia

 

 Sargon ultimately extended his conquests up the Euphrates to North Syria, and possibly even into Asia Minor. He also conquered Elam to the east of Babylonia, and gained control of northern Iraq, the area later known as Assyria. In one of the cities of Assyria there has been found a fine bronze mask which may have represented Sargon himself (13). Sargon's economic and political control of this unprecedently large area produced a marked rise in the standard of living of Babylonia

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The other great ruler of the Dynasty of Agade was the fourth, Sargon's grandson Naram-Sin.Ultimately the dynasty collapsed before the combined pressures of peoples from the northern and eastern mountains, despite the vigorous action taken by Naram-Sin (II).

With the collapse of the central government of Agade, northern Babylonia was occupied by a mountain people called the Gutians, a savage race regarded with marked aversion in later tradition. However, the Gutians probably had little influence in southern Babylonia, which was still predominantly Sumerian both in race and culture, and from this time the cities of this area once again rose to prominence. Under the Dynasty of Akkad, Agade had been the Principal port of the country, but with this eliminated by the Gutian conquest, trade, and the wealth resulting from it, began to flow up the Persian Gulf into the southern cities. One of the cities which flourished at this time and about which we are particularly well informed is Lagash, under its ruler Gudea (12). This ruler's greatest achievement (from his own point of view) was the rebuilding of the temple of the city god, and he left a considerable number of inscriptions relating to this. These inscriptions give us valuable about the international trade of the time. From them we details learn that