One of the most amazing places on earth, this is the place where the first states arose, and then the first empires. The Greeks called this area Mesopotamia, that is " Mesopotamia“, in our country it is more customary to say “Mesopotamia” - a giant river valley in Western Asia, bounded at the edges by the flow of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

The region called Mesopotamia stretches from the mountains of Armenia in the north to the Persian Gulf in the south. In the west it borders on the Syrian-Mesopotamian steppe, and in the east on the mountain ranges of Western Iran.

The middle and southern parts of Mesopotamia are a plain created by river sediments Tiger And Euphrates, which, periodically spilling, fertilize and irrigate the land.

The tiger originates in the mountains of Armenia, south of Lake Van. The sources of the Euphrates lie east of Erzurum at an altitude of 2 thousand meters above sea level. The Tigris flows very fast, and despite the fact that this river is 750 km shorter than the Euphrates, it carries twice as much water as the slow-flowing Euphrates, whose length reaches 2,600 km.

The banks of the Euphrates are lower than the banks of the Tigris, so the Euphrates floods significantly large territory and its flood lasts longer than the Tigris flood, lasting from mid-March to September.

The current Mesopotamia is very different from how this area looked thousands of years ago, during the era of the Sumerian-Akkadian kingdom, because over the past five thousand years the beds of both rivers have changed significantly. Ancient cities of Sumer and Akkad, such as Sippar, Kish, Nippur, Shurup-pak, Uruk And Larsa, were located on the banks of the Euphrates, as the surviving inscriptions indicate. Now the ruins of these cities lie to the east of the modern river bed. The tiger also moved its course. Its current deviated to the northeast.

Thus, the two rivers were closer to each other than they are now. Thus, the area of ​​the plain available for irrigation was somewhat smaller.

The Tigris and Euphrates rivers were the main not only irrigation, but also transport routes of the country; both rivers connected Mesopotamia with neighboring countries, with ancient Armenia (Urartu), Iran, Asia Minor, Syria.

The territory of Mesopotamia - the river valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East

Natural conditions and resources of Mesopotamia

Periodic floods of the Tigris and Euphrates, caused by melting snow in the mountains of Armenia, had a certain significance for the development of agriculture based on artificial irrigation. Sumer, located in the south of Mesopotamia, and Akkad, which occupied middle part countries were somewhat different from each other in climatic terms.

In Sumer, winter was relatively mild, and the date palm could grow wild here. In terms of climatic conditions, Akkad is closer to Assyria, where snow falls in winter and the date palm does not grow wild.

The natural wealth of Southern and Central Mesopotamia is not great. Unless fat and viscous clay - silty river sediments were an excellent raw material in the hands of the primitive potter. By mixing clay with asphalt, the inhabitants of ancient Mesopotamia made a special durable material, which replaced them with stone, rarely found in the southern part of Mesopotamia. Equally characteristic of Mesopotamia is the lack of metal, which made the local population dependent on the northern and eastern metallurgical regions.

Poor and vegetable world Mesopotamia. The ancient population of this country acclimatized cereals, barley and wheat. The date palm and reed, which grew wild in the southern part of Mesopotamia, were of great importance in the economic life of the country. Obviously, the local plants included sesame (sesame), which was used for making oil, as well as tamarisk, from which sweet resin was extracted.

The oldest inscriptions and images indicate that the inhabitants of Mesopotamia knew various breeds of wild and domestic animals. In the eastern mountains there were sheep (mouflons) and goats, and in the swampy thickets of the south there were wild pigs, which were tamed already in ancient times. The rivers were rich in fish and poultry. Various types of poultry were known in both Sumer and Akkad.

The natural conditions of Southern and Central Mesopotamia were favorable for the development of cattle breeding and agriculture, requiring the organization of economic life and the use of significant labor for a long time.

Settlement of Mesopotamia by people

The oldest settlements in the middle part of Mesopotamia appeared in the Late Zeolite era. The tribes that inhabited Mesopotamia in ancient times lived on islands rising among the swamps. They built their settlements on artificial earthen embankments.

By draining the surrounding swamps, they created an ancient artificial irrigation system. As the finds at Kish indicate, they used microlithic tools. These tribes may have belonged to the most ancient ethnic layer of Western Asia.

Mesopotamia is the country where the world's oldest civilization arose, which lasted approx. 25 centuries, from the creation of writing to the conquest of Babylon by the Persians in 539 BC.

Geographical position. “Mesopotamia” means “Land between the rivers” (between the Euphrates and the Tigris). Now Mesopotamia is understood mainly as the valley in the lower reaches of these rivers, and the lands east of the Tigris and west of the Euphrates are added to it. In general, this region coincides with the territory of modern Iraq, with the exception of mountainous areas along the country's borders with Iran and Turkey.

Most of the elongated valley, especially all of Lower Mesopotamia, was covered for a long time with sediments brought by both rivers from the Armenian Highlands. Over time, fertile alluvial soils began to attract people from other regions. Since ancient times, farmers have learned to compensate for poor rainfall by creating irrigation structures. The lack of stone and wood gave impetus to the development of trade with lands rich in these natural resources. The Tigris and Euphrates turned out to be convenient waterways, connecting the Persian Gulf region with Anatolia and the Mediterranean. The geographical location and natural conditions allowed the valley to become a center of attraction for peoples and an area for the development of trade. See also IRAQ.

Archaeological sites. The first information Europeans have about Mesopotamia goes back to such classical authors of antiquity as the historian Herodotus (5th century BC) and the geographer Strabo (at the turn of AD). Later, the Bible contributed to interest in the location of the Garden of Eden, the Tower of Babel, and the most famous cities of Mesopotamia. In the Middle Ages, notes appeared on the journey of Benjamin of Tudela (12th century), containing a description of the location of ancient Nineveh on the banks of the Tigris opposite Mosul, which was flourishing in those days. In the 17th century The first attempts are being made to copy tablets with texts (as it later turned out, from Ur and Babylon) written in wedge-shaped characters, which later became known as cuneiform. But systematic large-scale studies with careful measurements and descriptions of surviving fragments of monuments occurred at the beginning of the 19th century; in particular, such work was undertaken by the English traveler and politician Claudius James Rich. Soon, visual inspection of the surface of monuments gave way to urban excavations.

During excavations carried out in the mid-19th century. near Mosul, amazing Assyrian monuments were discovered. The French expedition led by Paul Emile Bott, after unsuccessful excavations in 1842 on the Kuyunjik hill (part of ancient Nineveh), in 1843 continued work in Khorsabad (ancient Dur-Sharrukin), the majestic but short-lived capital of Assyria under Sargon II. Great success was achieved by the British expedition led by Sir Austin Henry Layard, which, from 1845, excavated two other Assyrian capitals - Nineveh and Kalah (modern Nimrud).

The excavations sparked a growing interest in the archeology of Mesopotamia and, most importantly, led to the final decipherment of Akkadian (Babylonian and Assyrian) cuneiform writing. The beginning was made in 1802 by the German scientist Georg Friedrich Grotefend, who tried to read the ancient Iranian text on a trilingual inscription from Iran. It was an alphabetic cuneiform script with a relatively small number of characters, and the language was a dialect of the well-known ancient Persian language. The second column of text was written in Elamite syllabary, containing 111 characters. The writing system in the third column was even more difficult to understand, since it contained several hundred characters representing both syllables and words. The language coincided with the language of the inscriptions discovered in Mesopotamia, i.e. with Assyro-Babylonian (Akkadian). The numerous difficulties that arose when trying to read these inscriptions did not stop the British diplomat Sir Henry Rawlinson, who tried to decipher the signs. The discoveries of new inscriptions in Dur-Sharrukin, Nineveh and other places ensured the success of his research. In 1857, four Assyriologists meeting in London (including Rawlinson) received copies of a recently discovered Akkadian text. When their translations were compared, it turned out that they coincided in all major positions.

The first success in deciphering the Akkadian writing system - the most widespread, centuries-old and complex of all cuneiform writing systems - gave rise to the assumption that these texts could verify the veracity of biblical texts. Because of this, interest in the signs has greatly increased. The main goal It was not the discovery of things, artistic or written monuments, but the restoration of the appearance of bygone civilizations in all their connections and details. Much has been done in this regard by the German archaeological school, whose main achievements were excavations led by Robert Koldewey in Babylon (1899–1917) and Walter Andre in Ashur (1903–1914). Meanwhile, the French carried out similar work in the south, most notably at Tello (ancient Lagash), in the heart of ancient Sumer, and the Americans in Nippur.

In the 20th century, during the period between the world wars, many new monuments were explored. Among the major discoveries of this period are the Anglo-American excavations at Ur, perhaps especially famous for the finds in the so-called Royal Necropolis, with its incredibly rich, if often brutal, evidence of Sumerian life in the 3rd millennium BC; German excavations in Varka (ancient Uruk, biblical Erech); the beginning of French excavations at Mari on the Middle Euphrates; the work of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago at Tell Asmara (ancient Eshnunna), as well as at Khafaja and Khorsabad, where the French began excavations almost a century earlier; excavations of the American School of Oriental Research (Baghdad) in Nuzi (in collaboration with Harvard University), as well as in Tepe Gavre (in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania). After World War II, the Iraqi government began independent excavations, mainly in the south of the country.
Ethnic groups. Since ancient times, Mesopotamia must have attracted both temporary and permanent settlers - from the mountains in the northeast and north, from the steppes in the west and south, from the sea in the southeast.

Before the advent of writing ca. 3000 BC It is difficult to judge the ethnic map of the area, although archeology provides abundant evidence that all of Mesopotamia, including the alluvial valley of the south, was inhabited long before writing arose. Evidence of earlier cultural stages is fragmentary, and their evidence becomes increasingly dubious as we delve into antiquity. Archaeological finds do not allow us to determine their belonging to one or another ethnic group. Skeletal remains, sculptures or paintings cannot serve as reliable sources for identifying the population of Mesopotamia in the preliterate era.

We know that in historical times all of Mesopotamia was inhabited by peoples who spoke languages ​​of the Semitic family. These languages ​​were spoken by the Akkadians in the 3rd millennium BC, the Babylonians who succeeded them (two groups that originally lived in Lower Mesopotamia), as well as the Assyrians of Central Mesopotamia. All these three peoples are united according to the linguistic principle (which turned out to be the most acceptable) under the name “Akkadians”. The Akkadian element played an important role throughout the long history of Mesopotamia.

Another Semitic people who left a noticeable mark in this country were the Amorites, who gradually began to penetrate into Mesopotamia in beginning of III thousand BC They soon created several strong dynasties, among them the First Babylonian dynasty, whose most famous ruler was Hammurabi. At the end of the 2nd millennium BC. Another Semitic people appeared, the Arameans, who for five centuries posed a constant threat to the western borders of Assyria. One branch of the Arameans, the Chaldeans, came to play such an important role in the south that Chaldea became synonymous with later Babylonia. Aramaic eventually spread as a common language throughout the ancient Near East, from Persia and Anatolia to Syria, Palestine and even Egypt. It was Aramaic that became the language of administration and trade.

The Arameans, like the Amorites, came to Mesopotamia through Syria, but they most likely originated from Northern Arabia. It is also possible that this route was previously used by the Akkadians, the first known people of Mesopotamia. There were no Semites among the autochthonous population of the valley, which was established for Lower Mesopotamia, where the predecessors of the Akkadians were the Sumerians. Outside of Sumer, in Central Mesopotamia and further north, traces of other ethnic groups have been found.

The Sumerians represent in many respects one of the most significant and at the same time mysterious peoples in the history of mankind. They laid the foundation for the Mesopotamian civilization. The Sumerians left a major mark on the culture of Mesopotamia - in religion and literature, legislation and government, science and technology. The world owes the invention of writing to the Sumerians. By the end of the 3rd millennium BC. The Sumerians lost their ethnic and political significance.

Among the most famous peoples who played an important role in the ancient history of Mesopotamia, the most ancient and at the same time constant neighbors of the Sumerians were the Elamites. They lived in the southwest of Iran, their main city was Susa. From the time of the early Sumerians until the fall of Assyria, the Elamites occupied a prominent political and economic place in Mesopotamian history. The middle column of the trilingual inscription from Persia is written in their language. However, it is unlikely that they were able to penetrate far into Mesopotamia, since signs of their habitat were not found even in Central Mesopotamia.

The Kassites are the next important ethnic group, immigrants from Iran, the founders of the dynasty that replaced the First Babylonian dynasty. They lived in the south until the last quarter of the 2nd millennium BC, but in the texts of the 3rd millennium BC. are not mentioned. Classical authors mention them under the name of the Cossaeans; at that time they already lived in Iran, from where they apparently once came to Babylonia. Surviving traces of the Kassite language are too scanty for it to be assigned to any language family.

The Hurrians played an important role in interregional relations. Mentions of their appearance in the north of Central Mesopotamia date back to the end of the 3rd millennium BC. By the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. they densely populated the area of ​​modern Kirkuk (here information about them was found in the cities of Arrapha and Nuzi), the Middle Euphrates valley and the eastern part of Anatolia; Hurrian colonies arose in Syria and Palestine. Initially, this ethnic group probably lived in the area of ​​Lake Van near the pre-Indo-European population of Armenia, related to the Hurrians, the Urartians. From the central part of Upper Mesopotamia, the Hurrians in ancient times could easily penetrate into the neighboring regions of the valley. Perhaps the Hurrians are the main, and it is possible that the original ethnic element of pre-Semitic Assyria.

Further to the west lived various Anatolian ethnic groups; some of them, such as the Hatti, were probably autochthonous populations, others, in particular the Luwians and Hittites, were remnants of the Indo-European migration wave. See also AKCADIAN LANGUAGE; ARAMAIC; SUMERIANS.

Prehistoric cultures. Most important feature information about prehistoric Mesopotamia and its surrounding lands is that they are based on an unbroken sequence of evidence that, layer by layer, leads to the beginning of written history. Mesopotamia demonstrates not only how and why the historical period itself arises, but also what happened in the critical period that preceded it. Man discovered a direct connection between sowing and harvesting ca. 12 thousand years ago. The period of hunting and gathering was replaced by regular food production. Temporary settlements, especially in fertile valleys, were replaced by long-term settlements in which their inhabitants lived for generations. Such settlements, which can be excavated layer by layer, make it possible to reconstruct the dynamics of development in prehistoric times and trace step by step progress in the field of material culture.

The Middle East is littered with traces of early agricultural settlements. One of the oldest villages discovered in the foothills of Kurdistan. The Jarmo settlement, east of Kirkuk, is an example of the application of primitive farming methods. The next stage is represented at Hassoun near Mosul by architectural structures and pottery.

The Hassunan stage was replaced by the rapidly developing Halaf stage, which received its name from the settlement on Kabur, one of the largest tributaries of the Euphrates. The art of making pottery has reached a high level of development in terms of the variety of shapes, the quality of firing of vessels, the thoroughness of finishing and the sophistication of multi-colored ornaments. Construction technology has also taken a step forward. Figures of people and animals were made from clay and stone. People wore not only beads and pendants, but also stamp seals. The Halaf culture is of particular interest due to the vast territory over which it was distributed - from Lake Van and northern Syria to the central part of Mesopotamia, the environs of modern Kirkuk.

Towards the end of the Khalaf stage, probably from the east, carriers of another culture appeared, which over time spread across the western part of Asia from the interior of Iran to the Mediterranean coast. This culture is Obeid (Ubeid), got its name from a small hill in Lower Mesopotamia near the ancient city of Ur. This period saw significant changes in many areas, especially in architecture, as evidenced by the buildings at Eridu in southern Mesopotamia and at Tepe Gavre in the north. From that time on, the south became the center of the development of metallurgy, the emergence and development of cylinder seals, the emergence of markets and the creation of writing. All these were the harbingers of the beginning of a new historical era.

The traditional vocabulary of historical Mesopotamia in terms of geographical names and cultural terms was formed on the basis of various languages. Many toponyms have survived to this day. Among them are the names of the Tigris and Euphrates and most ancient cities. The words "carpenter" and "chair", which were used in the Sumerian and Akkadian languages, still function in Semitic languages ​​today. The names of some plants - cassia, caraway, crocus, hyssop, myrtle, spikenard, saffron and others - go back to the prehistoric stage and demonstrate amazing cultural continuity.

Historical period. Perhaps the most significant thing about the history of Mesopotamia is that its beginning coincides with the beginning of world history. The first written documents belong to the Sumerians. It follows that history in the proper sense began in Sumer and may have been created by the Sumerians.

However, writing did not become the only determining factor in the beginning of a new era. The most important achievement was the development of metallurgy to the point where society had to create new technologies to continue its existence. Copper ore deposits were located far away, so the need to obtain this vital metal led to the expansion of geographical horizons and a change in the very pace of life.

Historical Mesopotamia existed for almost twenty-five centuries, from the emergence of writing to the conquest of Babylonia by the Persians. But even after this, foreign domination could not destroy the cultural independence of the country.
The era of Sumerian dominance. During the first three quarters of the 3rd millennium BC. The South occupied a leading place in the history of Mesopotamia. In the geologically youngest part of the valley, on the coast of the Persian Gulf and in adjacent areas, Sumerians dominated, and upstream, in later Akkad, Semites predominated, although traces of earlier settlers are also found here. The main cities of Sumer were Eridu, Ur, Uruk, Lagash, Umma and Nippur. The city of Kish became the center of Akkad. The struggle for dominance took the form of rivalry between Kish and other Sumerian cities. Uruk's decisive victory over Kish, a feat attributed to the semi-legendary ruler Gilgamesh, marks the establishment of the Sumerians as a major political force and a decisive cultural factor in the region.

Later the center of power moved to Ur, Lagash and other places. During this period, called the Early Dynastic, the main elements of the Mesopotamian civilization were formed.

Dynasty of Akkad. Although Kish had previously submitted to the expansion of Sumerian culture, his political resistance put an end to the Sumerian dominance in the country. The ethnic core of the opposition was made up of local Semites led by Sargon (c. 2300 BC), whose throne name, Sharrukin, meant “rightful king” in Akkadian. To break with the past, Sargon moved his capital from Kish to Akkad. The whole country from then on began to be called Akkad, and the language of the victors was called Akkadian; it continued to exist in the form of the Babylonian and Assyrian dialects as the state dialect throughout the subsequent history of Mesopotamia.

Having consolidated their power over Sumer and Akkad, the new rulers turned to neighboring regions. Elam, Ashur, Nineveh, and even areas in neighboring Syria and Eastern Anatolia were subjugated. Old system A confederation of independent states gave way to an empire with a system of central power. With the armies of Sargon and his famous grandson Naram-Suen, cuneiform, the Akkadian language and other elements of the Sumerian-Akkadian civilization spread.

The role of the Amorites. The Akkadian Empire ceased to exist by the end of the 3rd millennium BC, becoming a victim of unbridled expansion and invasions of barbarians from the north and west. After about a century, the vacuum was filled, and under Gudea of ​​Lagash and the rulers of the Third Dynasty of Ur, a renaissance began. But the attempt to restore Sumer's former greatness was doomed to failure. Meanwhile, new groups appeared on the horizon, which soon mixed with the local population to create Babylonia in place of Sumer and Akkad, and in the north - a new state entity, Assyria. These widespread newcomers are known as Amorites.

Wherever the Amorites settled, they became devoted followers and defenders of local traditions. After the Elamites put an end to the Third Dynasty of Ur (20th century BC), the Amorites gradually began to gain strength in the states of Issin, Larsa, and Eshnunna. They were able to establish their own dynasty in central Akkad, with its capital in the previously little-known city of Babylon. This capital became the cultural center of the region for the entire existence of the Mesopotamian civilization. The first dynasty of Babylon, defined with good reason as the Amorites, ruled for exactly three hundred years, from the 19th to the 16th centuries. BC. The sixth king was the famous Hammurabi, who gradually gained control over the entire territory of Mesopotamia. See also BABYLON AND ASSYRIA.

Alien invasion. The Amorite dynasty lost power over Babylonia, which it held for a long time, after the capital around the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. was plundered by the Hittite king Mursilis I. This served as a signal for other invaders, the Kassites. At this time, Assyria fell under the rule of Mitanni, a state founded by Aryans but inhabited mainly by Hurrians. The foreign invasions were the result of extensive ethnic movements that occurred in Anatolia, Syria and Palestine. Mesopotamia suffered the least from them. The Kassites maintained power for several centuries, but soon adopted Babylonian language and traditions. The revival of Assyria was even more rapid and complete. From the 14th century BC. Assyria was in decline. For a long time, Ashur felt the strength to enter into competition with Babylon. The most striking event in the dramatic reign of the Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta I (late 13th century BC) was his conquest of the southern capital.

This meant the beginning of a brutal and long struggle between the two powerful states of Mesopotamia. Babylonia could not compete with Assyria in the military field, but felt its cultural superiority over the “northern upstarts.” Assyria, for its part, was deeply indignant at these accusations of barbarism. There is no doubt that the historical and cultural traditions of Babylonia have always been a powerful reserve in the struggle waged by this state. Thus, having captured Babylon, Tukulti-Ninurta immediately assumed the ancient title of king of Sumer and Akkad - a thousand years after it was established. This was intended to add shine to the traditional title of the king of Assyria.

The Rise and Fall of Assyria. The center of gravity of the further historical development of Mesopotamia, with the exception of the last decades of its independent history, was in Assyria. The very first sign of this process was expansion, first into Iran and Armenia, then into Anatolia, Syria and Palestine, and finally into Egypt. The Assyrian capital moved from Ashur to Qalah, then to Dur-Sharrukin (modern Khorsabad), and finally to Nineveh. Prominent rulers of Assyria include Ashurnasirpal II (c. 883–859 BC), Tiglapalaser III (c. 745–727 BC), perhaps the most powerful of them all, and the glorious successive rulers Sargon II (c. 721–705 BC), Sennacherib (c. 704–681 BC), Assargadon (c. 680–669 BC) and Ashurbanipal (c. 668–626 BC AD). The lives of the last three kings were greatly influenced by Sennacherib's wife, Nakiya-Zakutu, probably one of the most influential queens in history.

A powerful political and military state arose as a result of military campaigns in the remote mountainous regions of Iran and Armenia and as a result of the struggle against the stubbornly resisting cities of the Arameans, Phoenicians, Israelites, Jews, Egyptians and many other peoples. All this required not only great military efforts, but also economic and political organization, and finally, the ability to control an ever-growing number of heterogeneous subjects. To this end, the Assyrians practiced the deportation of the conquered population. Thus, after the conquest of the Israeli city of Samaria in 722–721 BC. its population was resettled to the most remote provinces of Assyria, and its place was taken by people who were also brought from various regions and had no ethnic roots here.

Babylonia languished under the Assyrian yoke for a long time, unable to throw it off, but never lost hope of liberation. Neighboring Elam was in the same situation. At this time, the Medes, after a long period of formation of their state, conquered Elam and established power over Iran. They offered to help Babylonia in the fight against Assyria, weakened by constant attacks from the north. Nineveh fell in 612 BC, and the victors divided the defeated empire. The northern provinces went to the Medes, the southern ones to the Babylonians, who by that time began to be called Chaldeans.

The Chaldeans, heirs to the traditions of the south, achieved brief prosperity, especially under Nebuchadnezzar II (c. 605–562 BC). The main danger came from Egypt, which saw the Chaldeans, who had strengthened themselves in Syria and Palestine, as a constant threat to their borders. In the course of the rivalry between two powerful empires, independent tiny Judea (the southern kingdom of the Jews) unexpectedly acquired important strategic importance. The outcome of the battle turned out to be favorable for Nebuchadnezzar, who took Jerusalem a second time in 587 BC.

However, the kingdom of the Chaldeans was not destined to live long. The Persian armies of Cyrus the Great at this time wrested power over Iran from the Medes and captured Babylon in 539 BC. and thus opened new chapter world history. Cyrus himself was acutely aware of the unpayable debt that his country owed to Mesopotamia. Later, when the era of Persian rule was replaced by the Hellenistic era, Alexander the Great, the leader of the Macedonian conquerors, wanted to make Babylon the capital of his new empire.

Vase from Uruk. III millennium BC e.

Studying a culture that has left no written sources is reminiscent of interrogating a mute and, what’s more, illiterate person. All information received comes down to drawings and violent gestures. Of course, you can understand something, but much less than you would like. The “testimony” of a culture that had written language and left various kinds of texts as a legacy to its descendants is an order of magnitude richer.

Mesopotamia - between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Reconstruction of a vase drawing from Uruk. Depiction of a sacrifice scene.

It was precisely this threshold at the turn of the 4th-3rd millennia BC. e. ancient Mesopotamia passed away. Before that, majestic temples and powerful fortifications had already been built in Mesopotamia, there was a network of canals, dams, and artificial reservoirs that provided the country with water and saved it from formidable river floods, traders went on long journeys, artisans were famous for their art and finesse of work. By that time, there were large settlements. Some scientists carefully call them proto-cities, others simply call them cities. Judging by archaeological finds, the local population developed complex religious beliefs and also widely practiced magic. Thus, the country had all the signs of civilization, except for one thing - writing.

Cylinder print and impression. Uruk. Mesopotamia. 4100-3000 BC e.

Finally, the Sumerian people created it. A number of scientists believe that there has never been a more significant revolution in the entire history of mankind.

Riddles of cuneiform

The Sumerians created writing at the turn of the 4th-3rd millennia BC. At first it was a set of simple drawings that could only remind the reader of certain information, hint at certain information, but not convey it exactly. Each drawing could represent several concepts

straightaway. The words “bring”, “come” and “direct” were equal to the same sign in writing. Two or three signs could unite, giving birth to a third, completely new one. Thus, the drawings corresponding to the concepts of “lu” (“man”) and “gal” (“big”) merged into the concept of “lugal” (“master”, “lord”, “ruler”). Little by little the number of signs grew, and it became more and more difficult to remember them. Moreover, the further, the more drawings the oldest Sumerian writings lost touch with what they depict. They were squeezed out on wet clay, and it is very difficult to apply curved lines, circles and repeat the design over and over again. Eventually, scribes began to use only straight lines. Their instrument is thin stick- squeezed out something like a wedge on a clay tablet, since it came into contact with the clay at an angle and the pointed tip went deeper. The previous designs became an intricate pattern of small wedges. They turned into diagrams that were completely different from what they were originally drawn from. This transformation took several centuries.

The tradition of such writing itself was called “cuneiform”.

Gradually, cuneiform diagrams began to be used to compose “puzzles.” The Sumerian language is rich in short words of one or two syllables. And when the scribe connected a diagram denoting one concept with a diagram denoting another concept, the result could be read as a combination of sounds, not words. Even if the resulting word was not related to the original concepts of two or more drawings from which it was “made”...

Portrait of the German scientist Georg Grotefend.

Cuneiform tablet. Sumer. 2095-2047 BC e.

Things became more complicated when the Sumerians disappeared from the historical scene, submitting to the tribes of the Akkadians (Eastern Semites). Their language and culture enriched the conquerors. Their writing was adopted by the Akkadians as their own. But they could no longer compose puzzles in Tsgumerian, since the Akkadian language is completely different from Sumerian. An inexperienced reader could become confused about the meaning of the cuneiform diagrams and completely lose the meaning of the text. The letter has become extremely complicated, the “rebus” and “semantic” meaning of each sign in different combinations had to be memorized and interpreted depending on who the text was intended for - a Sumerian or an Akkadian... Huge Sumerian-Akkadian dictionaries arose, and the craft of a scribe required great learning.

All later varieties - Assyrian, Babylonian, etc. - also gravitate towards the Akkadian writing system.

In the XVIII - first half of the XIX century. n. e. Europeans were well aware of the existence of writing in ancient Mesopotamia. Many clay tablets with cuneiform texts have accumulated in museums and private collections. But no one could read them for quite a long time. Only the joint efforts of scientists from different countries contributed to deciphering. However, not everything in the Sumerian language and Sumerian writing is still clear to scientists, and translations can be very approximate.

German Georg Grotefend (1775-1853), Irishman Edward Hinks (1792 - 1866), Englishmen Henry Rawlinson (1810-1895) and William Talbot (1800-1877) in different time made efforts to unravel the cuneiform script. In addition to them, a great many other scientists worked on it with varying degrees of success.

The key to deciphering was the so-called Behistun inscription. At the end of the 6th century. BC e. it was carved by the Persian king Darius I on the Bisutun (or Behistun) rock near the modern city of Hamadan. The inscription tells about the main events in the Persian state in three languages: Assyrian, Elamite and Old Persian. The inscription is decorated with a relief: King Darius trampling on a rebel with his left foot. The winged god of the Persians, Ahuramazda, hovers above the images of people. The inscription and relief are truly enormous. They can be seen from afar. However, copy the inscription for a long time It was not possible, since it was located at an altitude of one and a half hundred meters and serious errors could creep into the copyist’s work due to the great distance.

In 1844, Henry Rawlinson, obsessed with the secrets of the Ancient East, climbed a narrow ledge onto a rock and almost fell off. For some time he hung over the abyss. Rawlinson's life could have been cut short at any second; he was saved by a miracle. However, the Englishman did not lose his enthusiasm. He and his companions built a special bridge, which made it possible to reach the inscription and copy most of it. But Rawlinson, with all his skill and courage, did not dare to get to the Assyrian, the most distant and inaccessible fragment. And even experienced climbers did not dare to do this. Only an unknown local boy made an extremely dangerous ascent for a lot of money and completed the last fragment of the inscription...

Experienced orientalists spent many years deciphering the inscription. At first, an ancient Persian piece of text succumbed to them. Then, using the knowledge gained, it was possible to translate the Elamite fragment. And finally, after incredible effort, the scholars read the Assyrian part. Thus, they had the key to the writing of ancient Mesopotamia. This happened around 1850.

Unraveling the secrets of cuneiform writing became a real scientific revolution. The hills of Mesopotamia contained an incredible number of written monuments. Clay does not rot, does not disintegrate into dust, does not burn, it cannot decay, and water will not wash away the inscriptions pressed on the clay firmament. Consequently, this writing material has the advantage of durability over paper, parchment and papyrus. And what an advantage! Excavations of a single Mesopotamian city, the name of which is known only to narrow specialists, provided archaeologists with a quantity of documents that scientists do not know for entire centuries of medieval history. Western Europe! If we collect in the archives all the papers related to the 50-year reign of Ivan the Terrible (1533-1584) in Russia, then there will be much less of them than what has been preserved from ancient Sippar or Shuruppak... In the archives of ancient Mesopotamia there were tens, hundreds of thousands , and maybe millions of clay tablets. The palace of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal alone gave historians 100 thousand documents! According to the English historian James Wellard, during excavations in the ancient city of Lagash so many inscriptions were found “that the loss of about 30 thousand tablets, stolen by local residents and sold at 20 cents per basket, went virtually unnoticed.”

Portrait of the English scientist Henry Rawlins.

Behistun relief. Fragment. End of the 6th century BC e.

Babylon fell in 538 or 539 BC. e. But after this, Mesopotamia was not devastated, its cities were not destroyed, and its population was not destroyed. It’s just that later the lands of Mesopotamia developed within the framework of another civilization - ancient Persian.

Plaster figurine of a praying woman from Ur. 2500 BC e.

Figurine of a praying man. Alabaster. Telloh. 2400 BC e.

Clay archives have made it possible to see in great detail the lives of people 5,000 years ago.

Adad, the god of storms, in Sumer was known as Ishkur, the Arameans called him Hadad. As a thunder deity, he was usually depicted with lightning in his hand. Since agriculture in Mesopotamia was irrigated, Adad, who controlled the rains and annual floods, occupied important place in the Sumerian-Akkadian pantheon. He and his wife Shala were especially revered in Assyria. Temples of Adad existed in many major cities Babylonia.

Adapa, the main character of the myth about human mortality. Adapa, a half-god-half-man, the creation of the god Ea, was once caught in a storm while fishing. His boat capsized and he ended up in the water. Angry, Adapa cursed the god of storms, causing the sea to be calm for seven days. To explain his behavior, he had to appear before the supreme god Anu, but with the help of Ea he was able to moderate his anger, enlisting the support of two divine intercessors, Tammuz and Gilgamesh. On the advice of Ea, Adapa refused the food and drink offered to him by Anu. Anu thus wanted to turn him completely into a deity and deprive Ea of such an amazing creation. From Adapa's refusal, Anu concluded that he was ultimately only a foolish mortal and sent him to earth, but decided that he would be protected from all diseases.

Anu(m), Akkadian form of the name of the Sumerian god An, meaning "sky". The supreme deity of the Sumerian-Akkadian pantheon. He is the “father of the gods”, his domain is the sky. According to the Babylonian creation hymn Enuma Elish, Anu came from Apsu (primordial fresh water) and Tiamat (sea). Although Anu was worshiped throughout Mesopotamia, he was especially revered in Uruk (the biblical Erech) and Dera. Anu's wife was the goddess Antu. His sacred number is 6.

Ashur, the main god of Assyria, like Marduk the main god of Babylonia. Ashur was the deity of the city that bore his name from ancient times, and was considered the main god of the Assyrian Empire. The temples of Ashur were called, in particular, E-shara (“House of Omnipotence”) and E-hursag-gal-kurkura (“House of the Great Mountain of the Earth”). “Great Mountain” one of the epithets of Enlil, passed on to Ashur when he turned into the main god of Assyria.

Dagan, non-Mesopotamian deity by origin. Entered the pantheons of Babylonia and Assyria during the massive penetration of Western Semites into Mesopotamia ca. 2000 BC The main god of the city of Mari on the Middle Euphrates. In Sumer, the city of Puzrish-Dagan was named in his honor. The names of the kings of the north of Babylonia of the Issina dynasty Ishme-Dagan (“Dagan heard”) and Iddin-Dagan (“given by Dagan”) indicate the prevalence of his cult in Babylonia. One of the sons of the king of Assyria Shamshi-Adad (a contemporary of Hammurabi) was named Ishme-Dagan. This god was worshiped by the Philistines under the name Dagon. The Temple of Dagan was excavated at Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit) in Phenicia. Shala was considered Dagan's wife.

Ea, one of the three great Sumerian gods (the other two being Anu and Enlil). His original name was Enki (“lord of the earth”), but to avoid confusion with Enlil, whose domain was also the earth, he was called Ea (Sumerian “e” “house”, and “e” “water”) . Ea is closely related to Apsu, the personification of fresh water. Because of the importance of fresh water in Mesopotamian religious rituals, Ea was also considered the god of magic and wisdom. In Enuma Elish he is the creator of man. The cult of Ea and his wife Damkina flourished in Eridu, Ur, Lars, Uruk and Shuruppak. His sacred number is 40.

Enlil, together with Anu and Enki, one of the gods of the main triad of the Sumerian pantheon. Initially, he is the god of storms (Sumerian “en” “lord”; “lil” “storm”). In Akkadian he was called Belom ("lord"). As the “lord of storms” he is closely connected with the mountains, and therefore with the earth. In Sumerian-Babylonian theology, the Universe was divided into four main parts: heaven, earth, waters and the underworld. The gods who ruled over them were Anu, Enlil, Ea and Nergal respectively. Enlil and his wife Ninlil (“nin” “mistress”) were especially revered in the religious center of Sumer, Nippur. His sacred number is 50.

Enmerkar, legendary king Uruk and the hero of Sumerian myth. Wanting to conquer the rich country of Aratta, he turned to the goddess Inanna for help. Following her advice, he sent a messenger to the ruler of this country, demanding his submission. The main part of the myth is devoted to the relationship between the two rulers. Aratta eventually gave Enmerkar treasures and gems for the temple of the goddess Inanna.

Etana, the legendary thirteenth king of the city of Kish. Having no heir to the throne, he tried to get the “herb of birth” that grew in heaven. Eta saved the eagle from a snake attacking him, and in gratitude the eagle offered to carry him on his back to the sky. The end of this myth is lost.

Gilgamesh, the mythical ruler of the city of Uruk and one of the most popular heroes of Mesopotamian folklore, the son of the goddess Ninsun and a demon. His adventures are described in a long tale on twelve tablets; some of them, unfortunately, have not been completely preserved. The violent ruler of Uruk and the brutal creation of the goddess Aruru, Enkidu, created to oppose Gilgamesh, became his friend after succumbing to the charms of one of the Uruk harlots. Gilgamesh and Enkidu marched against the monster Humbaba, guardian of the cedar forest in the west, and defeated him with the help of the sun god Shamash. The goddess of love and war, Ishtar, was offended by Gilgamesh after he rejected her love claims, and asked her father, the supreme god Anu, to send a huge bull to kill two friends. Gilgamesh and Enkidu killed the bull, after which they began to mock Ishtar. As a result of the sacrilege, Enkidu died. Falling into despair over the loss of his friend, Gilgamesh went in search of the “secret of life.” After long wanderings, he found a plant that restores life, but at the moment when Gilgamesh was distracted, he was kidnapped by a snake. The eleventh tablet tells the story of Utnapishtim, the Babylonian Noah.

Ishtar, goddess of love and war, the most significant goddess of the Sumerian-Akkadian pantheon. Her Sumerian name is Inanna ("Lady of Heaven"). She is the sister of the Sun god Shamash and the daughter of the Moon god Sin. Identified with the planet Venus. Its symbol is a star in a circle. As a goddess of war, she was often depicted sitting on a lion. As the goddess of physical love, she was the patroness of temple harlots. She was also considered a merciful mother, interceding for people before the gods. Throughout the history of Mesopotamia, she was revered under different names in different cities. One of the main centers of the cult of Ishtar was Uruk.

Marduk, main god of Babylon. The temple of Marduk was called E-sag-il. The temple tower, ziggurat, served as the basis for the creation biblical legend about the Tower of Babel. It was actually called E-temen-an-ki (“House of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth”). Marduk was the god of the planet Jupiter and the main god of Babylon, and therefore he absorbed the signs and functions of other gods of the Sumerian-Akkadian pantheon. In Neo-Babylonian times, in connection with the development of monotheistic ideas, other deities began to be seen as manifestations of various aspects of the “character” of Marduk. Marduk's wife Tsarpanitu.

Naboo, god of the planet Mercury, son of Marduk and divine patron of scribes. Its symbol was the "style", a reed rod used to mark cuneiform marks on unfired clay tablets for writing texts. In Old Babylonian times it was known as Nabium; his veneration reached its highest point in the Neo-Babylonian (Chaldean) empire. The names Nabopolassar (Nabu-apla-ushur), Nebuchadnezzar (Nabu-kudurri-ushur) and Nabonidus (Nabu-na'id) contain the name of the god Nabu. The main city of his cult was Borsippa near Babylon, where his temple of E-zida was located (“ House of Firmness”) His wife was the goddess Tashmetum.

Nergal, in the Sumerian-Akkadian pantheon, the god of the planet Mars and the underworld. The name Ne-iri-gal in Sumerian means “Power of the Great Abode.” Nargal also took on the functions of Erra, originally the god of plague. According to Babylonian mythology, Nergal descended into the World of the Dead and took power over it from its queen Ereshkigal. The center of Nergal's cult was the city of Kuta near Kish.

Ningirsu, god of the Sumerian city of Lagash. Many of his attributes are the same as those of the common Sumerian god Ninurta. He appeared to the ruler of Lagash, Gudea, and ordered him to build a temple to E-ninnu. His wife is the goddess Baba (or Bau).

Ninhursag, mother goddess in Sumerian mythology, also known as Ninmah ("Great Lady") and Nintu ("Lady Who Gives Birth"). Under the name Ki ("Earth"), she was originally the consort of An ("Sky"); from this divine couple all the gods were born. According to one myth, Ninmah helped Enki create the first man from clay. In another myth, she cursed Enki for eating the plants she created, but then repented and cured him of the diseases that resulted from the curse.

Ninurta, Sumerian god of the hurricane, as well as war and hunting. His emblem is a scepter topped with two lion heads. Consort goddess Gula. As the god of war, he was highly revered in Assyria. His cult especially flourished in the city of Kalhu.

Shamash, Sumerian-Akkadian sun god, his name means “sun” in Akkadian. The Sumerian name of god is Utu. Symbol winged disc. Shamash is the source of light and life, but also the god of justice, whose rays highlight all the evil in man. On the stele of Hammurabi he is depicted conveying laws to the king. The main centers of the cult of Shamash and his wife Aya were Larsa and Sippar. His sacred number is 20.

Syn, Sumerian-Akkadian deity of the Moon. Its symbol is a crescent moon. Since the Moon was associated with the measurement of time, he was known as the "Lord of the Month." Sin was considered the father of Shamash (the sun god) and Ishtar, also called Inanna or Ninsianna, the goddess of the planet Venus. The popularity of the god Sin throughout Mesopotamian history is evidenced by the large number of proper names of which his name is an element. The main center of the cult of Sin and his wife Ningal ("Great Lady") was the city of Ur. The sacred number of Sin is 30.

Tammuz, Sumerian-Akkadian god of vegetation. His Sumerian name is Dumuzi-abzu ("True Son of Apsu") or Dumuzi, from which the Hebrew form of the name Tammuz is derived. The cult of Tammuz, worshiped under the West Semitic name Adonai (“My lord”) or under the Greek Adonis, was widespread in the Mediterranean. According to surviving myths, Tammuz died, descended into the World of the Dead, was resurrected and ascended to earth, and then ascended to heaven. During his absence the land remained barren and the herds died. Because of this god's closeness to the natural world, fields and animals, he was also called "The Shepherd."

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Mesopotamian civilization is one of the oldest in the world

General information about Mesopotamia and the peoples inhabiting it

Geographical description

(More detailed description in this)

Map of Mesopotamia III millennium BC.

Ancient Greek geographers called Mesopotamia (Interfluve) the flat area between the Tigris and Euphrates, located in their lower and middle reaches. From the north and east, Mesopotamia was bordered by the outlying mountains of the Armenian and Iranian plateau, in the west it bordered on the Syrian steppe and the semi-deserts of Arabia, and on the south it was washed by the Persian Gulf. Now almost the entire territory where ancient Mesopotamia was located coincides with the territory of the state of Iraq.

The center of development of the most ancient civilization was in the southern part of this territory - in ancient Babylonia. Northern Babylonia was called Akkad, southern Babylonia was called Sumer. Assyria was located in northern Mesopotamia, which is a hilly steppe that extends into mountainous areas.

Ubaid culture

Even before the arrival of the Sumerians in Mesopotamia, there was a peculiar culture called. It existed in the 6th – early 4th millennium BC. and it is believed that the tribes carrying this culture were subarii and they came from the northeast, from the foothills of the Zagros range back in the Neolithic era.

Arrival of the Sumerians

No later than the 4th millennium BC. The first Sumerian settlements arose in the extreme south of Mesopotamia. As already mentioned, the Sumerians were not the first inhabitants of southern Mesopotamia, since many of the toponymic names that existed there after the settlement of the lower reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates by these people could not come from the Sumerian language. The Sumerians found tribes in southern Mesopotamia who spoke a language (the language of the Ubaid culture), different from Sumerian and Akkadian, and borrowed ancient place names from them. Gradually, the Sumerians occupied the entire territory of Mesopotamia (in the north - from the area where modern Baghdad is located, in the south - to the Persian Gulf). But it is not yet possible to find out where the Sumerians came to Mesopotamia. According to tradition among the Sumerians themselves, they came from the Persian Gulf Islands.

The Sumerians spoke a language whose kinship with other languages ​​has not yet been established. Attempts to prove the relationship of Sumerian with Turkic, Caucasian, Etruscan or other languages ​​did not yield any positive results.

Semites (Akkadians)

In the northern part of Mesopotamia, starting from the first half of the 3rd millennium BC. e. Semites lived. They were pastoral tribes of ancient Western Asia and the Syrian steppe. The language of the Semitic tribes who settled in Mesopotamia was called Akkadian. In southern Mesopotamia, the Semites spoke Babylonian, and to the north, in the middle Tigris Valley, they spoke the Assyrian dialect of Akkadian.

For several centuries, the Semites lived next to the Sumerians, but then began to move south and by the end of the 3rd millennium BC. occupied all of southern Mesopotamia. As a result, the Akkadian language gradually replaced Sumerian. However, the latter remained the official language of the state chancellery well into the 21st century. BC, although in everyday life it was increasingly replaced by Akkadian. By the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. Sumerian was already a dead language. Only in the remote swamps of the lower reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates was it able to survive until the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, but then Akkadian took its place there too. However, as a language of religious worship and science, Sumerian continued to exist and be studied in schools until the 1st century. AD, after which cuneiform, along with the Sumerian and Akkadian languages, was completely forgotten. The displacement of the Sumerian language did not at all mean the physical destruction of its speakers. The Sumerians merged with the Babylonians, preserving their religion and culture, which the Babylonians borrowed from them with minor changes.

Amorites

At the end of the 3rd millennium BC. West Semitic pastoral tribes began to penetrate into Mesopotamia from the Syrian steppe. The Babylonians called these tribes Amorites. In Akkadian, Amurru meant "west", mainly referring to Syria, and among the nomads of this region there were many tribes speaking different but closely related dialects. Some of these tribes were called Suti, which translated from Akkadian meant “nomads.”

Kutians and Hurrians

From the 3rd millennium BC in northern Mesopotamia, from the headwaters of the Diyala River to Lake. Urmia, on the territory of modern Iranian Azerbaijan and Kurdistan, was inhabited by the Kutia, or Gutia, tribes. Since ancient times, Hurrian tribes lived in the north of Mesopotamia. Apparently, they were autochthonous inhabitants of Northern Mesopotamia, Northern Syria and the Armenian Highlands. In Northern Mesopotamia, the Hurrians created the state of Mitanni, which in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. was one of the largest powers in the Middle East. Although the Hurrians were the main population of Mitanni, tribes of Indo-Aryan language also lived there. In Syria, the Hurrians appear to have formed a minority of the population. In terms of language and origin, the Hurrians were close relatives who lived in the Armenian Highlands. In the III-II millennium BC. The Hurrito-Urartian ethnic massif occupied the entire territory from the plains of Northern Mesopotamia to Central Transcaucasia. The Sumerians and Babylonians called the country and tribes of the Hurrians Subartu. In certain areas of the Armenian Highlands, the Hurrians persisted in the 6th-5th centuries. BC. In the 2nd millennium BC. The Hurrians adopted the Akkadian cuneiform script, which they used to write in Hurrian and Akkadian.

Arameans

In the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. A powerful wave of Aramaic tribes poured from Northern Arabia into the Syrian steppe, into Northern Syria and Northern Mesopotamia. At the end of the 13th century. BC. The Arameans created many small principalities in Western Syria and southwestern Mesopotamia. By the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. The Arameans almost completely assimilated the Hurrian and Amorite populations of Syria and northern Mesopotamia.

In the 8th century BC. the Aramaic states were captured by Assyria. However, after this the influence of the Aramaic language only increased. By the 7th century BC. all of Syria spoke Aramaic. This language began to spread in Mesopotamia. His success was facilitated by both the large Aramaic population and the fact that the Arameans wrote in a convenient and easy-to-learn script.

In the VIII-VII centuries. BC. The Assyrian administration pursued a policy of forcibly relocating conquered peoples from one region of the Assyrian state to another. The purpose of such “shuffles” is to complicate mutual understanding between different tribes and prevent their rebellion against the Assyrian yoke. In addition, the Assyrian kings sought to populate the territories devastated during endless wars. As a result of the inevitable mixing of languages ​​and peoples in such cases, the Aramaic language emerged victorious, which became the dominant spoken language from Syria to the western regions of Iran, even in Assyria itself. After the collapse of the Assyrian power at the end of the 7th century. BC. The Assyrians completely lost their language and switched to Aramaic.

Chaldeans

Since the 9th century. BC. Chaldean tribes related to the Arameans began to invade southern Mesopotamia, which gradually occupied all of Babylonia. After the Persian conquest of Mesopotamia in 539 BC. Aramaic became the official language of the state office in this country, and Akkadian was preserved only in large cities, but even there it was gradually replaced by Aramaic. The Babylonians themselves by the 1st century. AD completely merged with the Chaldeans and Arameans.

Early states of Sumer

At the turn of the 4th and 3rd millennia BC, approximately simultaneously with the emergence of the state in Egypt, the first state formations appeared in the southern part of the interfluve of the Tigris and Euphrates. At the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. Several small city-states arose on the territory of southern Mesopotamia. They were located on natural hills and surrounded by walls. Approximately 40-50 thousand people lived in each of them. In the extreme southwest of Mesopotamia was the city of Eridu, near it was the city of Ur, which had great value in the political history of Sumer. On the banks of the Euphrates, north of Ur, was the city of Larsa, and to the east of it, on the banks of the Tigris, was Lagash. The city of Uruk, which arose on the Euphrates, played a major role in the unification of the country. In the center of Mesopotamia on the Euphrates was Nippur, which was the main sanctuary of all of Sumer.

In the first half of the 3rd millennium BC. Several political centers were created in Sumer, whose rulers bore the title of lugal or ensi. Lugal means “big man”. This is what kings were usually called. Ensi was the name of an independent ruler who ruled any city with its immediate surroundings. This title is of priestly origin and indicates that initially the representative of state power was also the head of the priesthood.

Rise of Lagash

In the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. Lagash began to claim a dominant position in Sumer. In the middle of the 25th century. BC. Lagash, in a fierce battle, defeated its constant enemy - the city of Umma, located to the north of it. Later, the ruler of Lagash, Enmethen (circa 2360-2340 BC), victoriously ended the war with the Umma.

The internal position of Lagash was not strong. The masses of the city were infringed upon in their economic and political rights. To restore them, they united around Uruinimgina, one of the influential citizens of the city. He removed the ensi named Lugalanda and took his place himself. During his six-year reign (2318-2312 BC), he carried out important social reforms, which are the oldest legal acts known to us in the field of socio-economic relations. He was the first to proclaim the slogan that later became popular in Mesopotamia: “Let the strong not offend widows and orphans!” Extortions from priestly personnel were abolished, natural allowances for forced temple workers were increased, and independence from the tsarist administration was restored. Certain concessions were made to ordinary segments of the population:

• reduced fees for performing religious ceremonies,
• some taxes on artisans have been abolished,
• duty on irrigation facilities has been reduced.

In addition, Uruinimgina restored the judicial organization in rural communities and guaranteed the rights of the citizens of Lagash, protecting them from usurious bondage. Finally, polyandry (polyandry) was eliminated. Uruinimgina presented all these reforms as an agreement with the main god of Lagash, Ningirsu, and declared himself the executor of his will.

However, while Uruinimgina was busy with his reforms, a war broke out between Lagash and Umma. The ruler of Umma Lugalzagesi enlisted the support of the city of Uruk, captured Lagash and reversed the reforms introduced there. Lugalzagesi then usurped power in Uruk and Eridu and extended his rule over almost all of Sumer. Uruk became the capital of this state.

Economy and economics of the Sumerian states

The main branch of the Sumerian economy was agriculture, based on a developed irrigation system. By the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. refers to a Sumerian literary monument called “Agricultural Almanac”. It is presented in the form of a teaching given by an experienced farmer to his son, and contains instructions on how to maintain soil fertility and stop the process of salinization. The text also gives a detailed description of field work in its time sequence. Cattle breeding was also of great importance in the country's economy.

The craft developed. Among the city's artisans there were many house builders. Excavations at Ur of monuments dating back to the mid-3rd millennium BC show a high level of skill in Sumerian metallurgy. Among the grave goods, helmets, axes, daggers and spears made of gold, silver and copper were found, as well as embossing, engraving and granulation. Southern Mesopotamia did not have many materials, their finds at Ur indicate brisk international trade. Gold was delivered from the western regions of India, lapis lazuli - from the territory of modern Badakhshan in Afghanistan, stone for vessels - from Iran, silver - from Asia Minor. In exchange for these goods, the Sumerians sold wool, grain and dates.

Of the local raw materials, artisans had at their disposal only clay, reed, wool, leather and flax. The god of wisdom Ea was considered the patron saint of potters, builders, weavers, blacksmiths and other artisans. Already in this early period, bricks were fired in kilns. Glazed bricks were used for cladding buildings. From the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. The potter's wheel began to be used for the production of dishes. The most valuable vessels were covered with enamel and glaze.

Already at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. began to produce bronze tools, which until the end next millennium, when the Iron Age began in Mesopotamia, remained the main metal tools.

To obtain bronze, they did not add to molten copper. a large number of tin.

Mesopotamia during the era of Akkad and Ur

(this period is described in more detail in a separate map)

Since the 27th century. BC e. The northern part of Mesopotamia was inhabited by the Akkadians. The most ancient city founded by the Semites in Mesopotamia was Akkad, later the capital of the state of the same name. It was located on the left bank of the Euphrates, where this river and the Tigris come closest to each other.

Reign of Sargon the Ancient

Around 2334 BC became king of Akkad. He was the founder of a dynasty: starting with himself, five kings, the son replacing the father, ruled the country for 150 years. He probably adopted the name Sargon only after his accession to the throne, since it means “true king” (in Akkadian Sharruken). The personality of this ruler was shrouded in many legends during his lifetime. He spoke about himself: “My mother was poor, I didn’t know my father... My mother conceived me, gave birth to me secretly, put me in a reed basket and sent me down the river.”.

Lugalzagesi, who established his power in almost all Sumerian cities, entered into a long struggle with Sargon. After several failures, the latter managed to win a decisive victory over his opponent. After this, Sargon made successful campaigns in Syria, in the regions of the Taurus Mountains and defeated the king of the neighboring country of Elam. He created the first standing army in history, consisting of 5,400 people, who, according to him, dined at his table every day. It was a well-trained professional army, whose entire well-being depended on the king.

Under Sargon, new canals were built, an irrigation system was established on a national scale, and a unified system of weights and measures was introduced. Akkad conducted maritime trade with India and Eastern Arabia.

Reign of Naram-Suen

At the end of Sargon's reign, famine caused a rebellion in the country, which was suppressed after his death, around 2270 BC, by his youngest son Rimush. But later he became a victim of a palace coup that gave the throne to his brother Manishtush. After fifteen years of reign, Manishtushu was also killed in a new palace conspiracy, and Naram-Suen (2236-2200 BC), son of Manishtushu and grandson of Sargon, ascended the throne.

Under Naram-Suen, Akkad reached its greatest power. At the beginning of the reign of Naram-Suen, the cities of southern Mesopotamia, dissatisfied with the rise of Akkad, rebelled. It was only suppressed after many years of struggle. Having strengthened his power in Mesopotamia, Naram-Suen began to call himself the “mighty god of Akkad” and ordered himself to be depicted on reliefs in a headdress decorated with horns, which were considered divine symbols. The population was supposed to worship Naram-Suen as a god, although before him none of the kings of Mesopotamia had claimed such an honor.

Naram-Suen considered himself the ruler of the entire then known world and bore the title “king of the four countries of the world.” He waged many successful wars of conquest, winning a number of victories over the king of Elam, over the Lullube tribes living in the territory of modern Northwestern Iran, and also subjugated the city-state of Mari, located in the middle reaches of the Euphrates, and extended his power to Syria.

Fall of the Akkadians

Under Naram-Suen's successor Sharkalisharri (2200-2176 BC), whose name translated means “king of all kings,” the collapse of the Akkadian state began. The new king had to enter into a long struggle with the Amorites pressing from the west and at the same time resist the invasion of the Kutians from the northeast. In Mesopotamia itself, popular unrest began, the cause of which was acute social conflicts. The size of the economy, which subjugated the temple economy and exploited the labor of the landless and land-poor Akkadians, increased incredibly. Around 2170 BC Mesopotamia was conquered and plundered by the Gutian tribes living in the Zagros mountains.

III Dynasty of Ur

By 2109 BC. The militia of the city of Uruk, led by their king Utuhengal, defeated the Kutians and expelled them from the country. Having defeated the Gutians, Utukhengal laid claim to kingship over all of Sumer, but soon dominion over southern Mesopotamia passed to the city of Ur, where the Third Dynasty of Ur (2112-2003 BC) was in power. Its founder was Urnammu, who, like his successors, bore the pompous title “king of Sumer and Akkad.”

Under Urnammu, royal power acquired a despotic character. The tsar was the supreme judge, the head of the entire state apparatus, and he also decided issues of war and peace. A strong central administration was created. In royal and temple households, a large staff of scribes and officials recorded all aspects of economic life down to the smallest detail. Well-established transport operated in the country; messengers were sent with documents to all corners of the state.

The son of Urnammu Shulgi (2093-2046 BC) achieved his deification. His statues were placed in temples, to which sacrifices had to be made. Shulgi issued laws testifying to the existence of the developed judicial system. They, in particular, established a reward for bringing a runaway slave to his owner. Punishment was also provided for various types of self-mutilation. At the same time, unlike the later Laws of Hammurabi, Shulgi was not guided by the principle of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” but established the principle of monetary compensation to the victim. Shulga's laws are the oldest legal acts known to us.

Fall of Ur

Under Shulgi's successors, the Amorite tribes, who attacked Mesopotamia from Syria, began to pose a great danger to the state. To stop the advance of the Amorites, the kings of the Third Dynasty of Ur built a long line of fortifications. However, the internal position of the state was also fragile. The temple economy required a huge number of workers, who were gradually deprived of the rights of free members of society. For example, the temple of the goddess Baba in Lagash alone owned a land area of ​​more than 4,500 hectares. The army of Ur began to suffer defeats in wars with the Amorite tribes and Elamites. In 2003, the power of the Third Dynasty of Ur was overthrown, and its last representative, Ibbi-Suen, was taken captive to Elam. The temples of Ur were plundered, and an Elamite garrison was left in the city itself.

Babylonia in the 2nd millennium BC.

Time from the end reign III The dynasty of Ur until 1595 BC, when the dominance of the Kassite kings was established in Babylonia, is called the Old Babylonian period. After the fall of the Third Dynasty of Ur, many local dynasties of Amorite origin arose in the country.

Around 1894 BC The Amorites created an independent state with its capital in Babylon. From this time on, the role of Babylon, the youngest of the cities of Mesopotamia, grew steadily over many centuries. In addition to Babylon, there were other states at that time. In Akkad, the Amorites formed a kingdom with its capital in Issin, which was located in the middle part of Babylonia, and in the south of the country there was a state with its capital in Larsa, in the northeast of Mesopotamia, in the valley of the river. Diyala, with its center in Eshnunna.

Reign of Hammurappi

At first, the Babylonian kingdom did not play a special role. The first king who began to actively expand the borders of this state was Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC). In 1785 BC, with the help of Rimsin, a representative of the Elamite dynasty in Lapse, Hammurabi conquered Uruk and Issin. Then he contributed to the expulsion from Mari of the son of the Assyrian king Shamshi-Adad I, who ruled there, and the accession of Zimrilim, a representative of the old local dynasty. In 1763, Hammurabi captured Eshnunna and already in next year defeated the powerful king and his former ally Rimsin and captured his capital Larsa. After this, Hammurabi decided to subjugate Mari, which had previously been a friendly kingdom to him. In 1760 he achieved this goal, and two years later he destroyed the palace of Zimrilim, who sought to restore his independence. Hammurabi then conquered the area along the middle Tigris, including Ashur.

Samsuilong's reign

After the death of Hammurabi, his son Samsuiluna (1749-1712 BC) became king of Babylon. He had to repel the onslaught of the Kassite tribes who lived in the mountainous areas east of Babylonia. Around 1742 BC The Kassites, led by their king Gandash, made a campaign against Babylonia, but were able to establish themselves only in the foothills to the northeast of it.

The Fall of Babylon and the Arrival of the Kassites

At the end of the 17th century. BC. Babylonia, which was experiencing an internal crisis, no longer played a significant role in the political history of Western Asia and could not resist foreign invasions. In 1594 BC. the reign of the Babylonian dynasty came to an end. Babylon was captured by the Hittite king Mursili I. When the Hittites returned with rich booty to their country, the kings of Primorye, the coastal strip near the Persian Gulf, captured Babylon. After this, around 1518 BC. the country was conquered by the Kassites, whose rule lasted 362 years. The entire period indicated is usually called Kassite or Middle Babylonian. However, the Kassite kings were soon assimilated by the local population.

Legal acts of Babylonia

In the 2nd millennium BC. Radical changes were taking place in the Babylonian economy. This time was characterized by active legal activity. The laws of the Eshnunna state, drawn up at the beginning of the 20th century. BC. in the Akkadian language, contain tariffs for prices and wages, articles of family, marriage and criminal law. For adultery on the part of a wife, rape of a married woman and abduction of a free person's child, the death penalty was provided. Judging by the laws, slaves wore special brands and could not leave the city without the permission of the owner.

By the second half of the 20th century. BC. include the laws of King Lipit-Ishtar, which, in particular, regulate the status of slaves. Punishments were established for the escape of a slave from the owner and for harboring a runaway slave. It was stipulated that if a slave married a free man, she and her children from such a marriage became free.

Laws of Hammurabi

The most outstanding monument of ancient Eastern legal thought is the Laws of Hammurabi, immortalized on a black basalt pillar. In addition, a large number of copies of individual parts of this code of law on clay tablets have been preserved. The Code of Law begins with a lengthy introduction, which states that the gods gave Hammurabi royal power so that he would protect the weak, orphans and widows from insults and oppression from the powerful. This is followed by 282 articles of law, covering almost all aspects of the life of Babylonian society of that time (civil, criminal and administrative law). The code ends with a detailed conclusion.

The laws of Hammurabi, both in content and in the level of development of legal thought, represented a big step forward compared to the Sumerian and Akkadian legal monuments that preceded them. The Code of Hammurabi accepts, although not always consistently, the principle of guilt and ill will. For example, a difference is established in punishment for premeditated and accidental murder. But bodily injuries were punished according to the principle of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” dating back to ancient times. In some articles of the law, a class approach is clearly expressed in determining punishment. In particular, severe punishments were provided for obstinate slaves who refused to obey their masters. A person who stole or hid someone else's slave was punishable by death.

In the Old Babylonian period, society consisted of full citizens, who were called “sons of the husband” and muskenums, who were legally free, but not full rights people, since they were not members of the community, but worked in the royal household, and slaves. If someone inflicted self-mutilation on the “husband’s son,” then the punishment was imposed on the perpetrator according to the principle of talion, i.e., “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” and the corresponding self-mutilation inflicted on the muskenum was punishable only by a monetary fine. If the doctor was guilty of an unsuccessful operation on the “husband’s son,” then he was punished by cutting off his hand; if a slave suffered from the same operation, it was only necessary to pay the owner the cost of this slave. If, through the fault of the builder, a house collapsed and the son of the owner of the house died in its ruins, the builder was punished by the death of his son. If someone stole the property of the muskenum, then the damage had to be restored tenfold, while for the theft of royal or temple property, compensation was provided for thirtyfold.

In order not to decrease the number of soldiers and taxpayers, Hammurabi sought to alleviate the plight of those sections of the free population who were in a difficult economic situation. In particular, one of the articles of the law limited debt slavery to three years of work for the creditor, after which the loan, regardless of its amount, was considered fully repaid. If due to natural disaster the debtor's crop was destroyed, then the repayment period of the loan and interest was automatically postponed to the next year. Some articles of the law are devoted to rental law. Payment for a rented field was usually equal to 1/3 of the harvest, and for a garden - 2/3.

For a marriage to be considered legal, a contract had to be concluded. Adultery on the part of the wife was punishable by drowning. However, if the husband wanted to forgive his unfaithful wife, not only she, but also her seducer was freed from punishment. Adultery on the part of a husband was not considered a crime unless he seduced the wife of a free man. The father had no right to disinherit his sons if they had not committed a crime, and had to teach them his craft.

Warriors received land plots from the state and were obliged to go on a campaign at the first request of the king. These plots were inherited through the male line and were inalienable. The creditor could take for debts only that property of the warrior that he himself acquired, but did not endow, which was granted to him by the king.

Assyria in the III-II millennium BC.

Position of Assyria in Mesopotamia

Back in the first half of the 3rd millennium BC. e. in Northern Mesopotamia, on the right bank of the Tigris, the city of Ashur was founded. The entire country located on the middle reaches of the Tigris (in Greek translation - Assyria) began to be called by the name of this city. Already by the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. Immigrants from Sumer and Akkad established themselves in Ashur, forming a trading post there. Later, in the XXIV-XXII centuries. BC, Ashur became large administrative center Akkadian state created by Sargon the Ancient. During the III dynasty of Ur, the governors of Ashur were proteges of the Sumerian kings.

Unlike Babylonia, Assyria was a poor country. Ashur owed his rise to the profitable geographical location: important caravan routes ran here, along which metals (silver, copper, lead) and construction timber, as well as gold from Egypt, were delivered from Northern Syria, Asia Minor and Armenia to Babylonia, and in exchange Babylonian agricultural and craft products were exported. Gradually, Ashur turned into a large trade and transshipment center. Along with him, the Assyrians founded many trading colonies outside of your country.

The most important of these colony-factories was located in the city of Kanes (Kanish) in Asia Minor (the modern area of ​​Kul-Tepe, near the city of Kaysari in Turkey). An extensive archive of this colony dating back to the 20th-19th centuries has been preserved. BC. Assyrian merchants brought dyed woolen fabrics to Kanes, the mass production of which was established in their homeland, and took home lead, silver, copper, wool and leather. In addition, Assyrian merchants resold local goods to other countries.

The relations of the members of the colony with the inhabitants of Kanes were regulated by local laws, and in internal affairs the colony was subordinate to Ashur, who imposed significant duties on its trade. The supreme authority in Ashur was the council of elders, and by the name of one of the members of this council, which changed annually, events were dated and time was counted. There was also a hereditary position of ruler (ishshak-kum), who had the right to convene a council, but without the latter’s sanction he could not make important decisions.

Capture of Assyria first by the Babylonians and then by the kingdom of Mitanni

To keep the caravan roads in their hands and seize new routes, Assyria had to have strong military power. Therefore, the influence of ishshak-kum began to gradually increase. But in the second half of the 18th century. BC. Assyria was subjugated by the Babylonian king Hammurabi. Around the same time, Assyria also lost its monopoly in caravan trade.

By the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. weakened Assyria was forced to recognize the power of the kings of Mitanni. Around 1500 BC Mitanni reached the zenith of its power, capturing areas of Northern Syria. But soon the decline of Mitanni begins. The Egyptians first drove the Mitannians out of Syria, and around 1360 BC. the Hittite king Suppiluliuma I defeated them. Then the Assyrian king Ashuruballit I took advantage of the defeat of Mitanni and captured part of the territory of this state. Later, King Adadnerari I of Assyria (1307-1275 BC) fought with Babylonia and conquered the entire territory of Mitanni. After this, he wanted to enter into an alliance with the Hittite king Hattusili III and invited him to consider him his brother. But the answer was insulting: “What is this talk about brotherhood?.. After all, you and I, we were not born of the same mother!”

Rise of Assyria

In the second half of the 13th century. under King Tukulti-Ninturta I (1244-1208 BC), Assyria became the most powerful state in the Middle East. The Assyrian ruler, having captured Babylonia, appointed his governors there and took the statue of the supreme god of the Babylonians, Marduk, to Ashur from the Temple of Esagila in Babylon. During numerous wars, the power of the Assyrian king increased significantly, but the country was exhausted and weakened by internal unrest. One of the texts reports, for example, that in the middle of the 11th century. BC. The king's son and the nobles of Assyria rebelled, threw the ruler off the throne and killed him with the sword.

Period XV-XI centuries. BC. called in the history of Assyria Middle Assyrian. The so-called Middle Assyrian laws, which were the most cruel of all ancient Eastern laws, date back to this time. Initially, land in Assyria belonged mainly to community members and was subject to systematic redistribution. But starting from the 15th century. BC. it became the subject of purchase and sale, although it was still considered the property of the communities.

Slaves at that time were very expensive, and there were few of them. Therefore, the rich sought to enslave free farmers through usurious loan transactions, since the loan was issued under difficult conditions and secured by field, house or family members. But the laws to some extent limited the arbitrariness of the creditor in relation to persons pledged as debt. However, if the loan was not repaid on time, the hostage became the full property of the lender. If the debt is not paid on time, the creditor could do whatever he wanted with the hostage: "beat, pluck hair, hit ears and drill them" and even sell it outside Assyria.

Babylonia in the XII-VII centuries. BC. and Assyrian power

The struggle between Babylon and Elam

At the end of the 13th century. BC e. The decline of Babylonia begins. A century later, the Elamite king Shutruk-Nahhunte I decided that the time had come for reckoning with an old enemy and, attacking Babylonia, plundered the cities of Eshnunna, Sippar, Opis and imposed a heavy tax on them. Shutruk-Nahhunte's son, Kutir-Nahhunte III, continued the policy of plundering Babylonia. The Babylonians rallied around their king Ellil-nadin-ahhe (1159-1157 BC) to liberate the tormented country. However, the war, which lasted three years, ended in victory for the Elamites. Babylonia was captured, its cities and temples were plundered, and the king and his nobles were taken captive. Thus ended the almost six-century reign of the Kassite dynasty, and an Elamite protege was appointed governor of Babylonia.

But soon Babylonia began to gain strength, and under Nebuchadnezzar I (1126-1105 BC) the country experienced a short-term prosperity. A fierce battle took place near the fortress of Der, on the border between Assyria and Elam, in which the Babylonians defeated the Elamites. The victors invaded Elam and inflicted such a crushing defeat on it that after that it was not mentioned in any source for three centuries. Having defeated Elam, Nebuchadnezzar I began to claim power over all of Babylonia. He, and after him and his successors, bore the title “king of Babylonia, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four countries of the world.” The capital of the state was moved from the city of Issin to Babylon. In the middle of the 11th century. BC. semi-nomadic Aramean tribes living west of the Euphrates began to invade Mesopotamia, plunder and destroy its cities and villages. Babylonia again found itself weakened for many decades and, in alliance with Assyria, was forced to fight against the Arameans.

New rise of Assyria

By the end of the 10th century. BC. The Assyrians restored their dominance in northern Mesopotamia and resumed a series of campaigns. By that time, the Assyrian army was superior in size, organization and weapons to the armies of other countries in the Middle East. The Assyrian king Ashurnasir-apal II (Ashurnasirpal) (883-859 BC) passed through the territory of Babylonia and Syria, exterminating the inhabitants of these countries for the slightest resistance. The disobedient were skinned, impaled or tied into entire living pyramids, and the remnants of the surviving population were taken into captivity.

In 876 BC. During one of the campaigns, the Assyrian army reached the Phoenician coast. When in 853 B.C. The Assyrians, under the leadership of their king Shalmaneser III (859-824 BC), made a new campaign in Syria, they met with organized resistance from the states: Syria, Phenicia and Cilicia. At the head of this union was the city of Damascus. As a result of the battle, the Assyrian army was defeated. In 845 BC. Shalmaneser III gathered an army of 120 thousand people and again marched against Syria. But this action was not successful either. However, soon a split occurred in the Syrian union itself, and, taking advantage of this, the Assyrians in 841 BC. undertook another campaign and managed to establish their dominance in Syria. But soon Assyria again lost control over its western neighbor. Under Adad-nerari III, who ascended the throne as a boy, his mother Sammuramat, known in Greek legend as Semiramis, actually ruled for many years. Campaigns in Syria were resumed, and the supreme power of the Assyrian king over Babylonia was established.

Arrival of the Chaldean tribes

Since the 9th century. BC. For many centuries in the history of Babylonia, a large role was played by the Chaldean tribes, who spoke one of the dialects of the Aramaic language. The Chaldeans settled between the shores of the Persian Gulf and the southern cities of Babylonia, in the area of ​​swamps and lakes along the lower reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates. In the 9th century. BC. The Chaldeans firmly occupied the southern part of Babylonia and began to move north, adopting the ancient Babylonian culture and religion. They lived in clans, under the leadership of leaders who sought to maintain independence from each other, as well as from the Assyrians, who were trying to establish their power in Babylonia.

Under Shamshi-Adad V (823-811 BC), the Assyrians frequently invaded Babylonia and gradually captured the northern part of the country. The Chaldean tribes took advantage of this and took possession of almost the entire territory of Babylonia. Later, under the Assyrian king Adad-nerari III (810-783 BC), Assyria and Babylonia had fairly peaceful relations. In 747-734. BC. Nabonassar reigned in Babylonia, who managed to establish stable rule in the central part of the state, but over the rest of the country he exercised only weak control.

Strengthening Assyria under Tiglath-pileser III

The new strengthening of Assyria falls during the reign of Tiglath-pileser III (745-727 BC), who carried out important administrative and military reforms that laid the foundations for the new power of the country. First of all, the governorships were disaggregated, the rights of the governors were limited to collecting taxes, organizing subjects to perform duties and leading military detachments of their regions. The policy towards the conquered population also changed. Before Tiglath-pileser III, the purpose of the Assyrian campaigns was mainly plunder, collection of tribute and the removal of some of the indigenous inhabitants of the captured territories into slavery. Now such people began to be resettled en masse to areas ethnically alien to them, and in their place prisoners were brought in from other areas conquered by the Assyrians. Sometimes the population was left on the land of their ancestors, but was subject to heavy taxes, and the conquered territory was included in Assyria. It paid taxes in agricultural and livestock products, was involved in construction, road and irrigation duties, and was partially obliged to serve in the army (mainly in the wagon train).

A standing army was created, which was at full strength state provision. Its core was the “royal regiment”. The army consisted of charioteers, cavalry, infantry and sapper units. Assyrian warriors, protected by iron and bronze armor, helmets and shields, were excellent soldiers. They knew how to build fortified camps, build roads, and use metal and incendiary weapons. Assyria emerged as the militarily leading power in the Middle East and was able to resume its policy of conquest. The advance of the Urartians into areas previously captured by the Assyrians was stopped.

In 743 BC. Tiglath-pileser set out on a campaign against Urartu, which sought to establish its dominance in Syria. As a result of two battles, the Urartians had to retreat beyond the Euphrates. In 735 BC. The Assyrians made a campaign through the entire territory of Urartu and reached the capital of this state, the city of Tushpa, which they, however, could not take. In 732 BC. Damascus was captured by them. At the same time, Assyria subjugated Phenicia to its power.

Three years later, Tiglath-pileser captured Babylon, after which Babylonia lost its independence for an entire century. However, the Assyrian king refrained from turning it into an ordinary province, but retained the status of a separate kingdom for this country. He solemnly reigned in Babylonia under the name Pulu and received the crown of the Babylonian ruler, performing ancient sacred rites on the day of the New Year's holiday.

The Assyrian Empire now covered all the countries "from the Upper Sea, where the sun sets, to the Lower Sea, where the sun rises" - in other words, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. Thus, the Assyrian king became the ruler of all of Western Asia, with the exception of Urartu and several small regions on the outskirts.

Tiglath-pileser's successors were Sargon II (722-705 BC), Sennacherib (705-681 BC), Esarhaddon (681-669 BC) and Ashurbanipal (669 - about 629 BC) for a hundred years quite successfully maintained a gigantic empire. For a short time, the Assyrians even managed to subjugate Egypt.

The Death of Assyria and the Neo-Babylonian Power

In the last years of Ashurbanipal's reign, the Assyrian state began to disintegrate, and its individual centers began to compete with each other. In 629 BC. Ashurbanipal died, and Sinshar-ishkun became king.

Revolt of Babylonia

Three years later, a rebellion broke out in Babylonia against Assyrian rule. It was led by the Chaldean leader Nabopolassar. In his later inscriptions, he emphasized that he had previously been “a little man, unknown to the people.” At first, Nabopolassar was able to establish his power only in the north of Babylonia.

Having restored the traditional alliance of the Chaldean tribes with Elam, Nabopolassar besieged Nippur. However, pro-Assyrian sentiments were strong in the city, and it was not possible to take it. In October 626 BC. The Assyrians defeated the army of Nabopolassar and broke the siege of Nippur. But by this time, Babylon had gone over to the side of Nabopolassar, and already on November 25, the latter solemnly reigned in it, founding a new, Chaldean (or neo-Babylonian) dynasty. However, a long and fierce war with the Assyrians still lay ahead.

The arrival of the Medes and the destruction of Assyria

Only ten years later did the Babylonians manage to capture Uruk, and the next year Nippur also fell, which, at the cost of great hardships and suffering, remained faithful to the Assyrian king for so long. Now the entire territory of Babylonia was cleared of Assyrians. In the same year, Nabopolassar's army besieged Ashur, the capital of Assyria. However, the siege was unsuccessful and the Babylonians retreated, suffering heavy losses. But soon a crushing blow fell on Assyria from the east. In 614 BC. The Medes surrounded the largest Assyrian city, Nineveh. When they failed to take it, they besieged and captured Ashur and massacred its inhabitants. Nabopolassar, true to the traditional policy of his Chaldean ancestors, came with an army when the battle was over and Ashur was reduced to ruins. The Medes and Babylonians entered into an alliance between themselves, consolidating it with a dynastic marriage between Nebuchadnezzar, the son of Nabopolassar, and Amytis, the daughter of the Median king Cyaxares.

Although the fall of Ashur weakened the position of the Assyrian power, while the victors were busy dividing the spoils, the Assyrians, under the leadership of their king Sinsharishkun, resumed military operations in the Euphrates Valley. But in the meantime, the Medes and Babylonians jointly laid siege to Nineveh, and three months later, in August 612 BC, the city fell. After this, brutal reprisals followed: Nineveh was plundered and destroyed, its inhabitants slaughtered.

Part of the Assyrian army managed to make its way to the city of Harran in the north of Upper Mesopotamia and there, under the leadership of its new king Ashur-uballit II, continued the war. However, in 610 BC. The Assyrians were forced to leave Harran, mainly under the blows of the Median army. A Babylonian garrison was left in the city. But the Egyptian pharaoh Necho II, fearing the excessive strengthening of Babylonia, a year later sent strong reinforcements to help the Assyrians. Ashuruballit II again managed to capture Harran, killing the Babylonians stationed there. However, Nabopolassar soon arrived with the main forces and inflicted a final defeat on the Assyrians.

As a result of the collapse of the Assyrian power, the Medes captured the indigenous territory of this country and Harran. The Babylonians gained a foothold in Mesopotamia and were preparing to establish their control over Syria and Palestine. But the Egyptian pharaoh also laid claim to dominance in these countries. Thus, in the entire Middle East there were only three powerful states left: Media, Babylonia and Egypt. In addition, there were two smaller but independent kingdoms in Asia Minor: Lydia and Cilicia.

Wars of Babylon and Egypt

In the spring of 607 BC. Nabopolassar transferred command of the army to his son Nebuchadnezzar, concentrating control in his hands internal affairs states. The heir to the throne was faced with the task of capturing Syria and Palestine. But first it was necessary to capture the city of Karkemish on the Euphrates, where there was a strong Egyptian garrison, which included Greek mercenaries. In the spring of 605 BC. The Babylonian army crossed the Euphrates and attacked Karkemish simultaneously from the south and north. A fierce battle began outside the city walls, as a result of which the Egyptian garrison was destroyed. After this, Syria and Palestine submitted to the Babylonians. Somewhat later, the Phoenician cities were also conquered.

While in conquered Syria, Nebuchadnezzar in August 605 BC. received news of his father's death in Babylon. He hurriedly went there and on September 7 was officially recognized as king. At the beginning of 598 BC. he made a trip to Northern Arabia, trying to establish his control over the caravan routes there. By this time, the king of Judah, Jehoiakim, prompted by the persuasion of Necho, fell away from Babylonia. Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem and on March 16, 597 BC. took him. More than 3 thousand Jews were taken captive to Babylonia, and Nebuchadnezzar installed Zedekiah as king in Judea.

In December 595 - January 594 BC. unrest began in Babylonia, probably coming from the army. The leaders of the rebellion were executed and order was restored in the country.

Soon, the new Egyptian pharaoh Apries decided to try to establish his power in Phenicia and captured the cities of Gaza, Tire and Sidon, and also persuaded King Zedekiah to revolt against the Babylonians. Nebuchadnezzar, with decisive actions, pushed the Egyptian army back to the previous border and in 587 BC. After an 18-month siege, he captured Jerusalem. Now the kingdom of Judah was liquidated and annexed to the Neo-Babylonian power as an ordinary province, thousands of residents of Jerusalem (all the Jerusalem nobility and part of the artisans), led by Zedekiah, were taken into captivity.

Babylonia under Nebuchadnezzar II and Nabonidus

Under Nebuchadnezzar II, Babylonia became a prosperous country. This was the time of its revival, economic and cultural upsurge. Babylon became the center international trade. Much attention paid to the irrigation system. In particular, a large basin was built near the city of Sippar, from where many canals originated, with the help of which the distribution of water during drought and flood was regulated. Old churches were restored and new ones were built. A new royal palace was built in Babylon, the construction of the seven-story ziggurat of Etemenanki, called the Tower of Babel in the Bible, was completed, and the famous hanging gardens were laid out. In addition, powerful fortifications were erected around Babylon to protect the capital from possible enemy attacks.

In 562 BC. Nebuchadnezzar II died, and after this the Babylonian nobility and priesthood began to actively interfere in the policies pursued by his successors and eliminate kings they disliked. Over the next twelve years, there were three kings on the throne. In 556 BC. the throne went to Nabonidus, who was an Aramean, unlike the Neo-Babylonian kings of Chaldean origin who preceded him.

Nabonidus began to carry out religious reform, putting in first place the cult of the moon god Sin to the detriment of the cult of the supreme Babylonian god Marduk. Thus, he apparently sought to create a powerful power, uniting around himself numerous Aramaic tribes, among whom the cult of Sin was very popular. However, the religious form brought Nabonidus into conflict with the priesthood of the ancient temples in Babylon, Borsippa, and Uruk.

In 553 BC. A war began between Media and Persia. Taking advantage of the fact that the Median king Astyages recalled his garrison from Harran, in the same year Nabonidus captured this city and ordered the restoration of what was destroyed there during the war with the Assyrians in 609 BC. temple of the god Sin. Nabonidus also conquered the Tema region in north-central Arabia and established control of the desert caravan routes through the Tema oasis to Egypt. This path had great importance for Babylonia, since by the middle of the 6th century. BC. The Euphrates changed its course, and therefore maritime trade across the Persian Gulf from the harbors in the city of Ur became impossible. Nabonidus moved his residence to Teima, entrusting the rule in Babylon to his son Bel-shar-utsur.

Fall of Babylon

While Nabonidus was busy active foreign policy in the west, at the eastern borders of Babylon, a powerful and determined enemy appeared. The Persian king Cyrus II, who had already conquered Media, Lydia and many other countries up to the Indian borders and had at his disposal a huge and well-armed army, was preparing for a campaign against Babylonia. Nabonidus returned to Babylon and began organizing the defense of his country. However, the situation in Babylonia had already become hopeless. Since Nabonidus sought to break the power and influence of the priests of the god Marduk and neglected the religious holidays associated with his cult, influential priestly circles, dissatisfied with their king, were ready to help any of his opponents. The Babylonian army, exhausted in many years of wars in the Arabian desert, was unable to repel the onslaught of the many times superior forces of the Persian army. In October 539 BC. Babylonia was captured by the Persians and lost its independence forever.