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The essence of this chapter for last-minute revision: definitions, key facts, dates and tables. The full notes, with the whole explanation, are available separately.
1 The chapter in one line each
Writing and City Life
1 · The landBetween the Euphrates and the Tigris, now Iraq
2 · Why citiesTrade and specialisation, never food surplus alone
3 · WritingBegins c. 3200 BCE as temple record keeping at Uruk
4 · Temples and kingsTemple first, then war leaders become kings
5 · Ur and MariOrdinary houses, and trade in a pastoral zone
6 · The legacyMathematics, time, libraries, the first archaeologist
2 Before the cities: the background in six lines
- About 10,000 years ago people shifted from hunting and gathering to settled agriculture
- Crops domesticated: wheat, barley, peas and pulses in West Asia; millet and rice in East and Southeast Asia
- Animals domesticated: sheep, goat, cattle, pig and donkey; about 5,000 years ago they were harnessed to ploughs and carts
- Plant fibres, cotton and flax, and animal wool were woven into cloth
- Settled life brought permanent houses and pottery for storing grain and cooking, and ground and polished stone tools, mortars, pestles, axes and hoes; copper and tin ores came into early use
- Wood, stone and obsidian were already moving long distances, and small communities were growing into small states, a change some scholars call a revolution
3 The land, its names and its languages
| Period | The land was called | Main language |
|---|---|---|
| Earliest recorded history | Sumer and Akkad | Sumerian |
| From c. 2400 BCE | Sumer and Akkad | Akkadian replaces Sumerian, lasting to Alexander’s time (336-323 BCE) |
| After 2000 BCE | Babylonia, once Babylon grew important | Akkadian; Aramaic trickles in from 1400 BCE |
| From c. 1100 BCE | Assyria, in the north | Aramaic widespread after 1000 BCE, still spoken in parts of Iraq |
4 The four zones of Mesopotamia
| Zone | What it was like, and what it gave |
|---|---|
| North-east | Green plains rising to wooded mountains; rain-fed farming from 7000-6000 BCE |
| North | Upland steppe; better for herding sheep and goats than for crops |
| East | Tributaries of the Tigris; routes into the mountains of Iran |
| South | Desert, yet home of the first cities and the first writing, because river silt from floods made irrigated farming the most productive of any ancient system |
5 Numbers and figures worth remembering
250 hasize of Uruk c. 3000 BCE, twice Mohenjo-daro’s later size
260rooms in Zimrilim’s palace at Mari, over 2.4 hectares
30,000tablets in Assurbanipal’s library at Nineveh, about 1,000 texts
- 5,000 of the oldest tablets survive from Uruk, mostly lists of oxen, fish and bread loaves
- 1,500 men, ten hours a day, five years to build one temple at Uruk
- 400 hectares: Uruk by c. 2800 BCE; 850+ hectares: Babylon at its height
- 300 wine jars: what one river boat could carry past Mari; the toll was about one tenth of the cargo’s value
- 10 hectares, under 10,000 people: Abu Salabikh around 2500 BCE
- 1.41421296: a Mesopotamian value for the square root of 2, from a tablet of c. 1800 BCE (true value 1.41421356)
- 12 months, 4 weeks, 24 hours, 60 minutes: the divisions of time we still use, from Mesopotamian astronomy
6 The chapter timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| c. 7000-6000 BCE | Agriculture begins on the northern plains |
| c. 5000 BCE | Earliest temples built in the south |
| c. 3200 BCE | First writing in Mesopotamia |
| c. 3000 BCE | Uruk becomes a huge city; bronze tools spread |
| c. 2700-2500 BCE | Early kings rule, possibly including Gilgamesh |
| c. 2600 BCE | Cuneiform script develops fully |
| c. 2400 BCE | Akkadian replaces Sumerian in speech |
| 2370 BCE | Sargon becomes king of Akkad |
| c. 2000 BCE | Cuneiform spreads to Syria, Turkey and Egypt; Mari and Babylon rise |
| c. 1800 BCE | Mathematical texts composed; Sumerian no longer spoken |
| 1810-1760 BCE | Zimrilim rules at Mari |
| c. 1100 BCE | Assyrian kingdom established |
| c. 1000 BCE | Iron comes into use |
| 720-610 BCE | Assyrian empire at its height |
| 668-627 BCE | Assurbanipal rules and builds his library |
| 625 BCE | Nabopolassar frees Babylonia from Assyrian rule |
| 539 BCE | Achaemenids of Iran conquer Babylon |
| 331 BCE | Alexander conquers Babylon |
| c. 1st century CE | Akkadian and cuneiform still in use |
| 1840s | Archaeology begins in Mesopotamia, with long digs at Uruk and Mari |
| 1850s | Cuneiform script deciphered |
| 1873 | A British newspaper funds a British Museum hunt for the flood tablet |
| 1930s | Ur systematically excavated |
7 Definitions, exactly as they must be written
All definitions in one place
MesopotamiaGreek mesos, middle, and potamos, river: the land between the Euphrates and the Tigris
UrbanismAn economy carrying trade, manufacture and services besides food production, so that people find it worthwhile to cluster together
Division of labourThe constant exchange between specialists that city life depends on, since no city dweller is self-sufficient
CuneiformLatin cuneus, wedge, and forma, shape: the wedge-shaped writing pressed into clay tablets with a cut reed
ZigguratA stepped, tower-like temple platform of a Mesopotamian city
BronzeAn alloy of copper and tin, the main industrial metal of the age, both metals imported from far away
Cylinder sealA pierced stone cylinder rolled over damp clay to leave a continuous picture, and sometimes writing
Nuclear familyA family of a man, his wife and their children, as opposed to a joint or extended household
SumpA covered basin in the ground into which water and sewage flow
SteleA stone slab carved with inscriptions or images
8 People and places to name in an answer
| Name | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Enmerkar | Early ruler of Uruk; a Sumerian poem credits him with organising the first trade of Sumer and with writing on clay |
| Gilgamesh | Ruled Uruk after Enmerkar; hero of an epic on twelve tablets, consoled at last by the city wall he had built |
| Zimrilim | King of Mari, 1810-1760 BCE; his palace of 260 rooms was famous across the region |
| Assurbanipal | Last great Assyrian king, 668-627 BCE; gathered the library at Nineveh |
| Nabopolassar | Freed Babylonia from Assyrian rule in 625 BCE |
| Nabonidus | Last ruler of independent Babylon; the earliest known archaeologist in spirit |
| Sargon | King of Akkad, ruled c. 2370 BCE; Nabonidus had his broken statue repaired |
| Ziusudra / Utnapishtim | Hero of the Mesopotamian flood story, matching the Bible’s Noah |
| Uruk | Called simply “The City”; 250 hectares by c. 3000 BCE, 400 by c. 2800 BCE |
| Ur | Excavated in the 1930s; winding lanes, no street drains, sumps inside courtyards |
| Mari | Trading town upstream on the Euphrates, prosperous through trade rather than arms |
| Abu Salabikh | Small town of c. 10 hectares, model of careful modern excavation |
| Nineveh | Assyrian capital; site of Assurbanipal’s library |
| Alashiya | The tablets’ name for Cyprus, source of copper |
| Inanna, Dagan, Moon God of Ur | Goddess of Love and War; god of the steppe honoured at Mari; god whose house was the temple of Ur |
9 Herders and farmers, in one table
| What made them useful to each other | What caused friction |
|---|---|
| Herders gave young animals, cheese, leather and meat | Flocks crossing sown fields towards water ruined the crop |
| Farmers gave grain and metal tools in return | Mobile herdsmen raided stored village grain |
| Penned flocks manured the fields | Settled villages denied herders access to canal water |
| Herders worked as harvest labourers and hired soldiers | Kings therefore watched the tribes, using night fire signals between camps |
Quick Revision: read this the night before the exam
- Mesopotamia means “between rivers”, the Euphrates and the Tigris, in what is now Iraq
- A food surplus makes a city possible; trade and specialisation create one
- The south lacked stone, metal and strong wood, so scarcity forced long-distance trade
- Water transport was cheap, land transport costly; canals doubled as trade routes
- Writing began c. 3200 BCE at Uruk; cuneiform matured by c. 2600 BCE
- A cuneiform sign stood for a syllable, so only a trained few could read and write
- The temple came before the king; land and water disputes made war leaders kings
- The cylinder seal was rolled, not stamped, and marked ownership, safety and authenticity
- Ur shows housing, Mari pastoral trade, Abu Salabikh modern method
- Gilgamesh takes pride in his city wall, not in sons: the city was the true legacy
- Their maths and the 24-hour, 60-minute day reached us via Greece, Rome, Islam and Europe
- Assurbanipal’s library and Nabonidus’s repairs show them studying their own past
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