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Lecture 3. Rise of Urbanism
HIST 213 Spring 2012
Transition from Stone Age to Bronze Age Important developments in burial tradition: 1. communal graves give way to individual burials with prestige burial gifts signifying status 2. Male graves include weapons and polished metal daggers, signifying warrior status
seated Hassuna figurine Hassunna Culture 6000 BCE (6000-5500 BCE)
• earliest sedentary culture in N. Mesopotamia • wheat and barley • no irrigation • simples house/villages – 2 ha vs. Jericho (4 ha) • painted pottery • kilns
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Samarra Culture (6000-5500 BCE) • contemporary with Hassuna • farming partially based on irrigation (dry land) • pottery dynamic style • T-shaped houses • complex economic features – stamp seals – dedicated artisans • complex religious practice – alabaster figurines dynamically- painted ceramic plates 5500 BCE Alabaster figurines from Tell es-Sawwan
Halaf Culture (5500-4500 BCE) N. Mesa and Syria • new migration? in East – domed round houses in West – rectilinear • shaft-grave burials • fine monochrome pottery • elaborate jewelry
A necklace of obsidian beads, cowrie shells and a stone pendant from Arpachiyah
Halaf Culture
Halaf fertility goddess sculptures ca. 5000 BCE
Elaborately decorated vessels with animals in both animalistic and schematic styles from Arpachiyah
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Ubaid Culture True irrigation farming • grain surplus • gave the people of Sumer the time to develop new skills – inventive and thoughtful – first artisans, traders, priests, scribes and merchants started to appear System of government emerged • organized religious practices • new order of social classes – all the elements of what would come to be recognized as civilization.
• entrance hall, staircase and Ubaid period house living rooms on either side. • This house found at Tell (early phase) Madhhur had been destroyed by fire and abandoned in around 4500 BCE • Household domestic utensils include painted pots, grindstones, hoes – over 3,800 sling bullets were scattered across the floors • Beneath the floor of one of the side rooms the body of an infant had been buried in a pottery jar. • Burial within the family living quarters was a common practice among these early settlers.
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Sumerian Timeline 5900-4000 Ubiad (city of Eridu) 4000-3300 Early Uruk – 70 hectares: population 7,000-10,000 – ------3300-2900 Late Uruk • 200 hectares: population 40,000-50,000 – population explosion indicates greater social organization, plant propagation and irrigation technology 2900-2350 Early Dynastic Period
Aspects of “Civilization”
1. Urbanization – Monumental Architecture 2. Social hierarchy – political – religious – military 3. Writing – Literacy
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Uruk (Warka) Vase alabaster, 1 meter high
• from Uruk III period • stolen from the National Museum of Iraq in 2003
Warka Vase
• depicts procession of naked men carrying farm produce • Goddess Inana • form EN (lord) – indicative of religious/social hierarchy
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Cuneiform
“wedge-shaped writing”
on clay tablets
The Origin of Cuneiform Signs
II. The Development of Writing When it Becomes Cuneiform
. At first, the images were drawn with the pointed end of the stylus
. Cuneiform: the images are created when the edge of the stylus is impressed in the clay
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Evolution of Cuneiform Signs Uruk IV Jemdet Nasr Ur III Neo-Assyrian c. 3200 c. 3100-2900 2112-2004 1st millennium
god
place
person
woman foreign
female slave head mouth
food
How Cuneiform Signs Were Used
I. Logograms: Word Signs
lu = “person, human” ig = “door”
šu = “hand” dingir = “god”
gish = “wood, tree” du = “to go”
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How Cuneiform Signs Were Used
II. The Movement to Syllabograms: Sound Signs
Sumerian Akkadian
= “door” ig daltu ik - šu - du
ikšudu = “they conquered” = “hand” šu qatu
= “to go” du alaku
Development of Writing
• precursor to writing (tokens) • Pictograms and Ideograms
BELIEF
Bee leaf
Epic of Gilgamesh written c. 2600 BCE 12 Tablets preserved by Assyrians in 7th C. BCE • Battle between Gilgamesh and Enkidu • Flood Story • Inability to conquer “Death” • Struggle with Inanna (jealousy)
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What were the differences between nomadic/pastoral cultures and Uruk/Sumer? 1. Increased agricultural efficiency • use of technology (irrigation) 2. Controlled regional territories • anchored in place 3. ruled by theocracies • religious function of kingship 4. centralized economies • taxation and tribute patterns allowing for specialization
5. social stratification • based on wealth and slavery 6. Improved technology • travel and military 7. Long-distance trade • supplementation of agriculture 8. Writing • literature 9. Monumental architecture • organization of population and resources
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