ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA

1. Worship

The ancient Mesopotamians worshipped hundreds of gods. They worshipped them

every day. Each god had a job to do. Each city had its own special god to watch over
the city. Each profession had a god to watch over the people who worked in that
profession like builders and fishermen.
To the Sumerians, each person had a god of their own, who looked after them. Their
own special god talked to other gods on their behalf. Their personal god received a
great deal of their worship time and attention. But no one god was more important than
another. The Babylonians and Assyrians believed in nearly all the Sumerian gods, plus
more gods that each added. Unlike the ancient Sumerians, they believed some gods
were more powerful than others, gods like the god of the sky, the sun, the air, and the
crops. To the Babylonians, Marduk was the most powerful god. To the Assyrians, Ashur
was the most powerful god.

The Sumerians, and later on, the Babylonians (southern Mesopotamia) and the
Assyrians (northern Mesopotamia) all believed that everything good and bad that
happened to them was the result of their gods pleasure or displeasure. They spent a
great deal of time trying to make their gods happy. Their gods were not often happy.
That's why Mesopotamian gods are sometimes referred to as the gloomy gods of
ancient Mesopotamia.

Some of the most important deities of ancient Mesopotamia were:

An (Anu) – Sky god, as well as father of the gods, An was the king of all the gods. There
was no art depicting him, all information about this god was translated from ancient
texts.
Enki (Ea) - God of fresh water, known for his wisdom. He was depicted as a bearded man
with water flowing around him.
Inanna (Ishtar) – Goddess of love, fertility, and war. She was the most important of the
female deities.
Nanna (Sin) – God of the moon and the son of Enlil and Ninlil. He travels across the sky
in his small boat of woven twigs, surrounded by the planets and stars.
 Utu (Shamash) - God of the sun and of justice. Between the time when the sun sets in
the west and rises in the east he is in the underworld, where he decrees the fate of the
dead.

2. Mesopotamian Culture

As the Mesopotamian civilization developed so did their culture. They developed a

variety of festivals, ceremonies, traditions, and much more, which became an
important part in the lives of many. Many of the rituals and ceremonies were based
around certain rites of passage, such as birth and marriage, and these events were
usually celebrated with a banquet that sometimes included music, dancing and food,
though the food available was determined by the social status of the family. For
music, though instruments have been found, it is unknown what kind of music they
played.

In their daily lives, the men would go out and work, usually a specialized job,
examples being a builder or musician, while the women stayed at home and took
care of the house and raised children. The average number of children in each
household was usually around 3 or 4 children, though these are only those who
survived to be a certain age. Infant mortality was high, as was miscarriage. To
protect an unborn child the mother would usually wear protective amulets, with the
symbol of the demon Pazuzu to chase away deities who would wish to cause harm
to the unborn child, as well as perform rituals after the child's birth so certain deities
or demons would not steal their child.

Children were raised according to their gender roles. Boys were raised learning skills
they could use to work and girls were raised to be wives and mothers. Once a child
was of marrying age, families would arrange a marriage. At the marriage ceremony it
is believed that the husband would pour perfume onto the head of his new bride.
After becoming a wife, a woman's role was to cook, clean, and raise children. If a
woman had a job it was usually related to one of her household tasks. They could
become midwives, or sell any surplus of beer or goods that they made for their
families.

Burial customs in ancient Mesopotamia varied. One method was placing the body in
a ceramic jar then covering the top with more ceramic. Since the jars usually found in
excavations are small, possibly household ceramics, it is believed this was a burial
custom for infants or small children, though larger vessels have been found that
were used for adult burials. Other means of burial included using carpets and mats
to wrap the body.
 3. Government

Government In both Sumer and Babylon, there was an unusual form of government
that came pretty close to an early form of democracy. There was a king and nobles
who made the laws and declared war and decided how to honor the gods. Then
there was an assembly of wise men, elected by the people, who could overrule the
king and say, this is not a good law, get rid of it; or the assembly might say we don't
want to go to war, so stop it. Each city-state had its own king and its own assembly.
Government was quite different, however, in ancient Assyria.

Sumerian Laws: The Sumerians did not, to our knowledge, write down their laws.
The king passed a law, and everyone was expected to learn it and obey it. If you
broke the law in Sumer, you would be punished. The punishment was set for each
infraction. If you stole something, you were punished according to what you stole. If
you offended the gods, you were punished. Everyone knew what the punishment
was so there was no escape by saying you didn't know. The thing is, the Sumerians
were organized into city-states. Each city-state had it own royal family and its own
military and its own king and assembly of people. So a king in one city-state might
pass a law, and pretty soon, if it was a good law and stuck around, all the city-states
adopted the same law. So, although they were separate city-states and fought each
other all the time, they also had pretty much the same laws and punishments,
culture, urban life-style, language, and religion. People were free to move from city
to city for trade and also to live.

Babylonian Laws: As the Sumerian city-states weakened, the city-state of Babylon

took over. For a while, ancient Babylon ruled the whole Mesopotamian region in the
south. The government and laws of Babylon were like the government and laws of
Sumer. There was a king and other nobles who ruled with the help of an assembly of
the people. The laws of Babylon were taken from the laws of Sumer. Everyone was
expected to know and obey the laws. To ensure that the laws were followed by
everyone, one of the kings of Babylon, King Hammurabi, had the laws written down
on stone tablets so that, whether they were rich or poor, everyone would be treated
equally under the law. Most of these laws were taken from Sumerian law.

The Assembly in ancient Sumer and Babylon: In both ancient Sumer and ancient
Babylon, kings were not gods. Kings were mortals, just like the common man. In this,
at least, all men were equal in these ancient civilizations. The kings were just as
eager and just as responsible for keeping the gods happy as were the common
people. So, it made sense to these early people that a Council of Elders, an
assembly of wise men (called the Assembly), should be elected so that the people
would have someone to check with, to make sure that what they were planning to do
would not anger the gods. The king sought approval for his actions from thi
assembly, just like everyone else. The assembly might say to a king, 'No king, you
can't do that. That would anger the gods." And the king would not do that. Even the
gods had to seek the approval of the assembly. The gods didn't actually appear in
front of the assembly (and wouldn't that be a neat trick!) but the assembly did
discuss how the gods should behave and arrange themselves in the heavens - which
god could marry whom and who had what job.

Assyrian Laws: Things were quite different in ancient Assyria. Assyria was a
powerful military state in northern Mesopotamia (in what is today northern Iraq). The
Assyrian government was led by a king. The king ruled as the earthly representative
of the god Ashur, the most powerful god to the ancient Assyrians. Military officers
were in charge of local government. The king had other advisers as well, pulled from
the nobles. The most important advisor was the chief of staff. The chief of staff
decided who could talk to the king on any one day, and who couldn't. Scribes were
the only people who could read or write. Like all the ancient Mesopotamians, the
Assyrians liked to keep lists and write things down. At one time, the Assyrian Empire
stretched all the way from Mesopotamia to Egypt. But in ancient Assyria, there was
no assembly that could overrule the king. The king's word was law.

4. Farming & Agriculture

When people are asked today what they think the land in the modeern country of
Iraq is like, most would say desert. And in a sense it is. It doesn't rain much so in
that way it is a desert, but the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is very
fertile. Food crops grow readily if they have water.

When people first moved into the region between the Tigris and Euphrates, they
found living pretty easy. There was wildlife to catch, fish in the rivers, and edible
vegetation growing wild. So they stayed.

Soon they found that they could grow their own food if they tended the land. Then
they figured out how to get river water into the fields, and crops grew in abundance.
Other tribes saw the wealth and food the people of the river valleys had, and started
raiding to take it. So to protect themselves, they started building walls around their
town. Cities grew from these towns.

As they learned how to grow them, the people of the Mesopotamia area planted and
grew wheat, barley, dates, cucumbers, onions, apples and many different herbs and
spices. They also raised sheep goats and cattle. Thus a civilization grew along the
two rivers.
 4. Inventions

The Sumerians were very inventive people. It is believed that they invented the
sailboat, the chariot, the wheel, the plow, and metalurgy. They developed cuneiform,
the first written language. They invented games like checkers. They made cylinder
seals that acted as a form of identification (used to sign legal documents like
contracts.) They told stories about the first super hero (Gilgamesh), and invented
many tools and implements to help with building and farming like hammers and kilns
to bake bricks and pottery. They invented and used a system of math based on the
number 60. Today we still divide an hour into 60 minutes, and put 360 degrees into
a circle. Amazingly enough, we still use some Sumerian words today, words like
crocus, which is a flower, and saffron which is both a color and a spice.The ancient
Mesopotamians created a government that was a combination of monarch and local
councils that advised the king. Elected officials served in the Assembly and helped to
rule the people. Even kings had to ask the Assemby for permission to do certain
things.One of the greatest Babylonian achievements was to write laws down, but
there were always laws. The laws clearly said how you had to behave and what your
punishment would be if you did not behave correctly. The laws were the same for
both rich and poor.The Assyrians were extremely warlike, yet one of the greatest
Assyrian achievements was the library at Ninevah.

5. Interactive Games

The ancient Mesopotamian people loved toys and games. They worshiped their
gods every day, but they also found time to play. They invented a board games that
today we call checkers. Some of their game sused dice. They made toy bows and
arrows, sling shots, boomerangs, hoops, and invented many games that used balls
(throwing, tossing, chasing, rolling). They played a game called button buzz. They
also loved hunting, boxing, wresting, racing, music, dancing, feasting, and story
telling!
 6. Homes

Ancient Sumer: In the cities of ancient Sumer, whether they were rich or poor,
every family had its own house. The rich had large wide houses, the poor had
narrow houses. All of the houses were built at least three stories high. The first floor
was an entryway and courtyard. Children played here, small livestock was kept
here, and if the weather made it possible, meals might be cooked here. The next
two floors were where the family lived. Their sleeping and sitting rooms were on
these two levels as well as food storage. The roof of the house was flat. The people
treated the roof as another floor. During good weather, people would cook and eat
on the roof of the house. This got everyone up away from the streets, yet still out
into the open air.

Ancient Babylon: In Babylon, as in Sumer, many of the houses were designed with
three stories of living space. All had flat roofs. Some roofs were designed with four
wall for privacy. Some had grape arbors for food, privacy, and shelter from the sun.
Even the very poor, who lived in tiny townhouses, typically had three levels of living
space. The courtyard, or first floor, in each house was very important. Behind the
front door, a visitor might find a tiny garden and domesticated animals such as
chickens. In Babylon, people threw their trash out their front door. Now and then, the
city covered the streets with a new layer of clay. This buried the trash, but that made
the level of the street higher. People had to build steps down to their front door, or fill
in the space between the new streets and punch in new doors.

In both Sumer and Babylon, houses were built out of cut sandstone blocks or mud
bricks. In the poorer sections, they would share walls to cut down on construction
costs. In the richer sections, the houses stood alone. All of the houses were
clustered around the ziggurat to make it easy to get to the temple and to leave
offerings to the gods.

Ancient Assyria: Buildings in Assyria were always rectangular. The homes had
doors but no windows and no internal staircases. They got away from clay bricks and
built their homes of stone. The flat roofs were thick layers of earth on top of strong
beams. This made the houses nearly or actually fireproof, and places of security.
The Assyrians were warriors, and their permanent homes reflected this far more than
the homes of the Sumerians and Babylonians.
 7. Music

The ancient Sumerians must have thought music was important because the
remains of instruments have been found by archaeologists in their tombs. They
created a wind instrument made of wood or bone. When you blew into it, it made a
hollow, odd, flute-like sound. They also played hand-held drums, rattles, harps, and
lyres. Music, like everything else, was played in honor of their gods.The ancient
Babylonians continued the Sumerian tradition of music and added to it an instrument
much like a piano.The ancient Assyrians were not interested in music unless it was
war related. They liked drums and horns and anything that made loud, scary noises.

8. Cuneiform

The ancient Sumerians developed a written language called cuneiform.It began as

pictographs, pictures of things that acted as words. Pictographs worked, but hey
were rather cumbersome. Soon, the clever ancient Sumerians started to use wedge-
shaped symbols for objects and ideas instead of pictures.We know a great deal
about the ancient Sumerian civilization from the written records they left behind.
They kept excellent records and lists of things. They listed their household goods.
They listed their court activity. They listed their sales and purchases. They even kept
a list of their kings that was updated from time to time, as new kings came to power.
The Sumerians never invented paper or ink, so they used tools made of wood or stiff
reeds to press the symbols into clay tablets. Many thousands of these tablets have
survived the ages and we can see them today. Some are worn, some are broken,
but many thousands have been found complete. The largest collection of these was
found at the Library of Nineveh. Cuneiform became the written language from as
early as 5000 BC. As the civilization of Sumer started to decline, other civilizations
continued to use the Sumerian written symbols. Thanks to the Sumerians, we know
a great deal about the ancient Mesopotamian civilizations of Babylon and Assyria as
well.