This article is completely based on the little knowledge I could gather from seeing the great British Museum in London. I had the rare opportunity to visit the British Museum in London in April 2023, and I was breathless to see the exhibits.
A staggering galaxy of galleries showcases ancient artifacts from civilizations around the world that have existed on Earth to date. I spent three days here from 9 AM to 5 PM, and I think I might still miss a few galleries.
I think no other museum can so responsibly have rare collections of the same depth, breadth, beauty, and significance for generations to come. This mammoth collection must be a heaven and Mecca for history lovers.
Mesopotamia was the settlement of different civilizations, like the Sumerians, the Akkadians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, and the Persians, contemporaneously or one after another. These civilizations lived in this region from seven millennia BC to the middle of the 6th century BC.
The earliest villages (6500–4200 BC) in Mesopotamia were in northern Iraq and Syria, in areas where there was enough rainfall to grow crops and raise animals. Later, irrigation using canals allowed settlements to develop further south. As farming developed, people began to live in one place and developed rituals, religions, and new skills. Houses were built using plaster and sun-dried mud bricks.
As they became settled, communities began to create distinctive styles of pottery and show their status through traded goods and possessions. Rare items, such as obsidian, a type of volcanic glass from Turkey, were traded over long distances.
The Sumerians, therefore, can also be credited with the earliest form of one of the most potent myths of western civilization: the Great Flood. In attempting to prove the historical truth of the Bible, the archaeologists and scholars of the 19th century AD revealed that the biblical narratives matched with interpretations of the literature of the Sumerians. As noted, however, it is not simply in the field of religious studies that the discovery of Sumer changed the way people understand the world in the present. In their many inventions and innovations, the Sumerians laid the groundwork for so many advancements in the daily lives of human beings that, today, it is impossible to imagine life without these things. Somehow, the people of Sumer were able to imagine things that had never existed on earth before and, in expressing their imaginations, invented the future.
In the British Museum, I see that it emphasises a few cultural aspects of Sumerian civilization: pottery and seals, burial systems, temple culture, and writing development. I elaborate here on the same things I see and feel in this museum.
Civilization – Sumerian
Period 6500–1800 BC
Region – Southern Iraq
Founder – Independent small villages
Origin – Exact region is not certain. As per British Museum, North Africa or West Asia spoke Sumerian language
Prominent kings – Gilgamesh, king of Uruk 2700 BC, Eannatum (2500–2400 BC)
Religion – Ancient Mesopotamian religion. As per legend Noah, the prophet was sent here by God and Abraham were raised here. Sumer had cities headed by kings and each city had its own deities. Each city had one grand temple.
Deities – An- the god of the heavens, Enlil- the god of wind and storm, AnKi Enki – the god of water and human culture, Ninhursag – the goddess of fertility and the earth, Utu- the god of the sun and justice, and his father Nanna- the god of the moon.
Language – Sumerian, Pictorial language, and later advanced with cuneiform written on clay tablets.
Fall – In 2334 BC king Sargon of Akkad conquered all of Sumer
Followed by – Akkadian
Monuments – Excavations at Ur
Between 6000-1500 BC crucial advances in development of human civilization took place in Mesopotamia. Small agricultural settlements developed in the world’s first cities and empires. Mesopotamians culture lies between the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates in the land of modern Iraq, north east Syria, and southeast Turkey.
Pottery
The excavators of Eridu and Tell al -‘Ubaid found Ubaid pottery for the first time in the 1910-20.
The site of Tell al -‘Ubaid lies close to the city Ur, and was occupied as early as 5500 BC. It was a cult center for the goddess Ninhursag. ‘Tell’ means settlement mound, while Ubaid is the city name.
The Mesopotamian age is divided into certain periods of various cities. The period naming is associated with excavation site. Period is designated as Halaf period (6000-4800 BC), Samarran period (5500-4800 BC), Ubaid period (5500–3700 BC), Uruk period (4000–3100 BC)…. Third dynasty (2100-2000 BC)…and some more.
The Halaf period (6000–4800 BC) – The period name is derived from the excavation site Halaf. This was the first time that a shared cultural tradition spread across all of North Mesopotamia. Distinctive female figurines, stamp seals, and pottery are found over a large area. Potters of Halaf time produced some of the finest handmade pottery known from the ancient world. Halaf vessels are fixed at high temperatures and painted with detailed patterns.
Bead jewellery was made from precious materials traded over long distances. The black beed obsidian, imported from Turkey. One bead is made from dark clay to imitate the others. The cowrie shells are from the Persian Gulf and were originally coloured with red ochre.
As communities grew, people traded more widely. Stamps and seals were used to document traded goods and may have shown their status. Stamp seals were attractive and could be worn as pendants. In about 4800 BC Halafian sites were abandoned, and they adopted Ubaidian culture.
The Samarran period (5500–4800 BC) – The period name is derived from the excavation site of Samarra. It is known for its finely made pottery decorated with animals, birds, and geometric designs. Samarran pottery probably originated in central Iraq but subsequently spread north and south, influencing the earliest Halaf and Ubaid pottery.
The Ubaid period (5500–3700 BC)- The period name is derived from the excavation site of Tell al -‘Ubaid. It is characterised by large village settlements, multi-roomed rectangular mud-brick houses, and the appearance of the first temples. Ubaid pottery developed in South Mesopotamia about 6000 BC. Around 5200 BC it spread northwards, replacing Halaf pottery styles. During this period, people began making pots by turning them on a wheel. During this time, villages developed where people adopted farming, irrigation, and fishing in rivers and seas (the gulf). In this period, some villages developed in towns such as Eridu and Uruk. People baked clay figurines, seals and pottery.
Uruk period (4000-3100 BC)– The period name is derived from the excavation site of Uruk. This period saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia, and after the Ubaid period, the gradual emergence of cuneiform script. It was during this period that pottery painting declined as copper became popular, along with cylinder seals.
The stone tablets (1, 2 in the picture below) with pictographic writing are from the later Uruk period (3300–3100 BC). The signs include a human head, a sledge, a foot, a hand, and the numbers 1, 2, 3
These stone tablets (3, 4 in the picture below) are replicas of the original and are kept in the Iraqi museum in Kish.
Calcite cylinder seal with an animal-shaped knob. In this, a priest-king, wearing a headband and net robe, feeds flowers to sheep. This is from the late Uruk period and is probably from Uruk.
Early tools were often made of pottery in southern Mesopotamia in 6000–4200 BC. On the north, flint and metal sources were more plentiful.
Burial culture
The site of Ur (modern Tell al-Muqayyar) lies in southern Iraq. The ancient city was inhabited from as early as the Ubaid period (6000–4200 BC) until the 4th century BC. It was highly important, both politically and economically. At various times during its history, the king of Ur ruled not only this city but also the surrounding states.
During the excavations at Ur, hundreds of burials, 16 royal grave goods, evidence of elaborate burial rituals and human sacrifice, houses, public buildings, and temples were found.
The royal graves generally consisted of a stone or brick tomb with ramp access. The body in tomb lay within the chamber, sometimes with few attendants. The bodies of many more attendants, oxen, wheeled vehicles, guards, or soldiers lay near the access ramp as if these were guards. Everyone within the tomb wore jewellery, and rich grave goods were buried with them. The archaeologists believed that they were kings and queens of Ur whose attendants willingly died with them in a ritual of human sacrifice to continue their service to their master in the afterlife. However, few objects found in the royal cemetery are inscribed with the name of a known king or queen and the causes of death, but details of burial rituals that took place at Ur have not yet been discovered .
The grave of Queen Puabi (about 2500 BC 3rd Dynasty) was constructed beside the above grave, leading to the conclusion that the two had been husband and wife. The name of the king is unknown, as his tomb chamber had been robbed, probably at the time that the queen was buried.
There were 63 bodies within the adjacent death pit. Six soldiers, wearing copper helmets and carrying spears, lay at the foot of the access ramp. Just inside the entrance to the pit were six oxen with two four wheeled chariots and drivers. Many of the bodies were women, some were richly adorned with jewellery, and two had musical instruments.
The objects displayed in the case below were excavated from the royal cemetery area at Ur and were found in graves dating to the Early Dynastic III period, 2600–2300 BC.
Most of the royal tombs at Ur and graves that only had single occupants contained a high proportion of imported goods. The rich variety of exotic materials found in graves demonstrates South Mesopotamia’s involvement in an extensive trade network.
Carnelian is likely to have come from the Indus Valley or Iran, Lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, silver from Turkey, copper from Oman, gold from various sources such as Turkey, Iran, Egypt, and Nubia.
Skilled Sumerian craftsmen transformed raw materials arriving at Ur, into beautiful objects by .
The royal tombs are unique in Mesopotamia. They represent a very elaborate version of the Sumerian practice of burial with personal possessions, provisions for the afterlife, and a gift for the gods. This crushed head of a woman was found in the Great Death Pit. An X-ray reveals her age as 18–20 years. Her headdress consists of gold ribbons, pendants, silver ornaments, gold earrings, a collar, and a necklace.
The Great Death Pit was named so due to the large number of bodies found within it. There was little evidence on stone that the bodies belonged to whom. In the pit, there were the bodies of 6 guards and 68 women. Most of the women lay close to each other in rows, but four of them grouped around musical instruments. All these women had elaborate hair dresses, ornaments, and necklaces.
Temple culture
Ur was an important religious centre. A towering temple (called Ziggurat), dedicated to the god moon, Nanna, was constructed by the kings of the Third Dynasty (2100–2000 BC). The image below shows a picture of Ziggurat today. The restored section of the column represents approximately half of its original size. Two similar columns were found at Tell al- ‘Ubaid and may have stood on either side of the temple entrance to the Ninhursag temple. The core was a palm tree stem and was covered by mosaic pieces wrapped in copper.
These heads belonged probably to complete lions. They were made from copper sheet, with details added in stone.These may have acted as guardian figures at entrance of temple.
The objects in this case below adorned the walls and facade of the temple of Goddess Ninhursag at Tell al -‘Ubaid temple. This testifies the great skill of the artists and craftsmen of 2500 BC (Early Dynastic III).
The collapse of the Akkadian government (2150–2000 BC) in southern Mesopotamia was associated with raids by mountain tribes known as Guti. Like most outsiders, the Sumerians regarded them as dreaded barbarians, yet some cities may have recovered rapidly, and some city rulers coexisted with Gutian rule.
One of the most important city was Girsu, within the state of Lagash. Its greatest king, Gudea, has left many monuments of himself. When King Gudea rebuilt a temple, he roofed it with timber brought from the Mediterranean coast and furnished it with material brought from far away, so it is clear that long distance trade was still possible at that time. Gudea was an energetic builder of temples. Peg figures below (2150 BC) were placed in the foundations of temples to commemorate the religious devotion of the Mesopotamian kings.
Utu-Hegal, a king of Uruk, is credited with finally defeating Guti. The state he established was further consolidated by his successor, Ur -Nammu of the third Dynasty of Ur.
Development of writing script –From Pictograph to Cuneigraph
By about 3300 BC (Uruk period), Mesopotamians were writing on moist clay with pointed reeds, using symbols that were natural drawings of objects. In later centuries, they used specially designed cut reed. They produced abstract signs made up of combinations of wedge shaped (cuneiform) impressions. Though rarely found, writings on stone are also found. These clay tablets survive remarkably well in the ground, and hundreds of thousands of such clay objects have been discovered.
Early signs represented animals or objects. The script then simplified and lost its pictorial appearance. Signs could also represent sounds and abstract ideas, and when they came to be written, they turned 90 degrees on their side. In time, standardization produced a writing system that would last for 3000 years,
Temples issued workers (Tablet 14 below) with daily rations of barley beer, the staple drink of Mesopotamia. 3300–3100 BC (Late Uruk period) place of origin is unknown
Extending the signs (Tablet 15 below). In this food issue list, ‘rations’ is written by combing a human head and a bowl. 3300–3100 BC (Late Uruk period). Place of origin is unknown
By about 3100 BC we find documents recording multiple transactions over a period of days, months, or years or involving multiple cities. New users were soon found for writing this in record. The writing quickly spread to neighboring Iran.
The city seal (9) (3000–2700 BC) rolled four times here contains complex graphic symbols for a network of cities in southern Iraq. A five day ration list (10) (3000–2900 BC) each line contains a ration for one day. The sign ‘day’ and the numbers 1–5 are easily identifiable. Undecipherable scripts (11) of that time are also found.
Modifying the numbers (16)– Emmer wheat (wheat seed) is differentiated from barley by writing numbers with extra strokes. This tablet is from the Late Uruk (3300–3100 BC) period. The place of origin is unknown.
Development of cities
One of the most significant developments that took place in Mesopotamia was the creation of cities. Large towns had evolved before 3500 BC but at about this time they expanded rapidly. Between 3500 and 3000 BC Mesopotamia was densely populated and exceptionally prosperous. One of the major cities in southern Mesopotamia was Uruk, which grew until it covered over 5 square KM.
Cities had palaces, residential areas, streets, and canals. The most prominent feature, located in the highest part of the city, was the main temple. Power seems to have been concentrated in temples and religious organizations, which controlled large estates. At Uruk a massive temple was built and rebuilt over centuries. Under the governance of temples, irrigation was organised, trade networks were established, and writing was invented.
Akkadain Empire
Civilization – Akkadian
Period – 3200–2200 BC
Region – Central and Southern Iraq
Founder – King Sargon
Origin – For many centuries, the Sumerians and Akkadians, a semitic people, lived side by side.
Prominent kings – Sargon (2334–2279 BC), Guti (mountain tribes) king Gudea, Utu-hegal king of Uruk defeated Guti tribes, Ur-Nammu
Religion – Adopted from Sumerians. Ancient Mesopotamian religion
Deities – All deities and gods of Sumerians were adopted by the Akkadians, but with different names. For example Enlil was known as An, Sumerian sun god Utu became the Akkadian Shamash.
Language – Akkadian language replaced Sumerian in the entire Near East.
Fall – revolt against Sargon and Sumer reverted to independent city-states
Monuments – Ziggurat and ruined walls of the ancient Sumerian city of Ur in modern-day Iraq
Under the Akkadian dynasty, pyramid-like Ziggurats (temple).
Followed by – Empire eventually split into the Assyrian Empire in the north and the Babylonian empire in the south.
Monuments –
Between about 2300 and 2150 BC the city states of Mesopotamia were unified under one rule. This was Akkadian empire founded by Sargon, as confirmed by the cuneiform writings of this period. Sargon established his capital city, with palace and temples at Akkad (Agade), the location of which has not yet been identified.
Sargon and his successors undertook many military campaigns, and at its greatest extent, the Akkadian empire extended north to Anatolia (south-east Turkey), east into Iran, south to Arabia, and west to the Mediterranean.
Under the Sargon dynasty, scribes adapted the cuneiform script to write akkadian, which became the official language of administration, Deities such as Samash (sun) and Ishtar appeared alongside Sumerian deities in texts and arts.
Epilogue
There were two great contemporary civilizations in the Near East region : the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations. Though Mesopotamian civilization was three millennia older than Egyptian, the artefacts found from the Halaf period (4800 BC) confirm the fact that the Mesopotamians were developed, but Egyptian civilization advancement started later in the period of Menes (3100 BC) and Pharaoh Dojer, who built the first stepped pyramid on the plateau of Saqqara.
If the Mesopotamians were more on the side of science and mathematics, so were the Egyptians.
If the construction of the pyramid of Giza, mummification science, was a miracle, then the concept of maintaining a library by the Assyrians and Hanging Garden, a code of law by Babylonian, was not far behind. Mummification was not at all a custom in Mesopotamia.
Mesopotamians treated their gods above all, Egyptians treated themselves either as gods or messengers of God. They built mortuary temples for their godification. The entire purpose of Egyptian religion was to maintain “maat” (truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice). The temples were made as a means to link the public to God and sustain “maat” through rituals. Mesopotamians built mammoths
ziggurats to appease God and take their blessings. If anything went wrong, they feared, it was the wrath of God. In the later period, Pharaohs buried their statues inside the divine temples: these were called mortuary temples by Egyptologists, while Mesopotamian kings never did so.
There was a culture of marrying sisters, half sisters, or even daughters in Egyptian Pharaohs, it was not in Mesopotamians. In spite of the fact that both civilizations were not very far apart, there was a huge contrast between the two civilizations, and that amazes.
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