The culture of Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia) arose around the same time as the Egyptian one. It developed in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and existed since the 4th millennium BC. until the middle of the 6th century. BC Unlike the Egyptian culture, Mesopotamia was not homogeneous; it was formed in the process of repeated interpenetration of several ethnic groups and peoples and therefore was multi-layered.
The main inhabitants of Mesopotamia were Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians and Chaldeans in the south: Assyrians, Hurrians and Arameans in the north. The cultures of Sumer, Babylonia and Assyria reached their greatest development and importance.
Sumerian culture
The basis of Sumer's economy was agriculture with a developed irrigation system. Hence it is clear why one of the main monuments of Sumerian literature was the “Agricultural Almanac”, containing instructions on farming - how to maintain soil fertility and avoid salinization. Cattle breeding was also important. Sumerian metallurgy reached a high level. Already in beginning of III thousand BC The Sumerians began making bronze tools, and at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. entered the Iron Age. From the middle III thousand. BC A potter's wheel is used in the production of tableware. Other crafts are successfully developing - weaving, stone-cutting, and blacksmithing. Widespread trade and exchange took place both between the Sumerian cities and with other countries - Egypt, Iran. India, states of Asia Minor.
The importance of Sumerian writing should be especially emphasized. The cuneiform script invented by the Sumerians turned out to be the most successful and effective. Improved in the 2nd millennium BC. by the Phoenicians, it formed the basis of almost all modern alphabets.
The system of religious and mythological ideas and cults of Sumer partly overlaps with the Egyptian one. In particular, it also contains the myth of a dying and resurrecting god, which is the god Dumuzi. As in Egypt, the ruler of the city-state was declared a descendant of a god and perceived as an earthly god. At the same time, there were noticeable differences between the Sumerian and Egyptian systems. Thus, the Sumerians have a funeral cult, belief in afterlife did not gain much importance. Equally, the Sumerian priests did not become a special layer that played a huge role in public life. In general, the Sumerian system of religious beliefs seems less complex.
As a rule, each city-state had its own patron god. At the same time, there were gods who were revered throughout Mesopotamia. Behind them stood those forces of nature, the importance of which for agriculture was especially great - sky, earth and water. These were the sky god An, the earth god Enlil and the water god Enki. Some gods were associated with individual stars or constellations. It is noteworthy that in Sumerian writing the star pictogram meant the concept of “god”. The mother goddess, the patroness of agriculture, fertility and childbirth, was of great importance in the Sumerian religion. There were several such goddesses, one of them was the goddess Inanna. patroness of the city of Uruk. Some Sumerian myths - about the creation of the world, the global flood - had a strong influence on the mythology of other peoples, including Christians.
IN artistic culture Sumerian leading art was architecture. Unlike the Egyptians, the Sumerians did not know stone construction and all structures were created from raw brick. Due to the swampy terrain, buildings were erected on artificial platforms - embankments. From the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. The Sumerians were the first to widely use arches and vaults in construction.
The first architectural monuments were two temples, White and Red, discovered in Uruk.
Sculpture in Sumer was less developed than architecture. As a rule, it had a cult, “dedicatory” character: the believer placed a figurine made to his order, usually small in size, in the temple, which seemed to pray for his fate. The person was depicted conventionally, schematically and abstractly. without observing proportions and without a portrait resemblance to the model, often in a praying pose.
Sumerian literature reached a high level.
Babylonia
Its history falls into two periods: the Ancient, covering the first half of the 2nd millennium BC, and the New, falling in the middle of the 1st millennium BC.
Ancient Babylonia reached its highest rise under King Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC). Two significant monuments remain from his time. The first of them - the Laws of Hammurabi - became the most outstanding monument of ancient Eastern legal thought. The 282 articles of the code of law cover almost all aspects of the life of Babylonian society and constitute civil, criminal and administrative law. The second monument is a basalt pillar (2 m), which depicts King Hammurabi himself, sitting in front of the god of the sun and justice Shamash, and also depicts part of the text of the famous codex.
New Babylonia reached its peak under King Nebuchadnezzar (605-562 BC). During his reign, the famous “Hanging Gardens of Babylon” were built, which became one of the seven wonders of the world. They can be called a grandiose monument of love, since they were presented by the king to his beloved wife to ease her longing for the mountains and gardens of her homeland.
No less famous monument is also the Tower of Babel. It was the highest ziggurat in Mesopotamia (90 m), consisting of several towers stacked on top of each other, on the top of which was the sanctuary of Marduk, the main god of the Babylonians. Herodotus, who saw the tower, was shocked by its grandeur. She is mentioned in the Bible. When the Persians conquered Babylonia (6th century BC), they destroyed Babylon and all the monuments located in it.
Babylonian achievements in gastronomy and mathematics deserve special mention. Babylonian astrologers calculated with amazing accuracy the time of the Moon's revolution around the Earth, compiled a solar calendar and a map of the starry sky. The names of the five planets and twelve constellations of the solar system are of Babylonian origin. Astrologers gave people astrology and horoscopes. The successes of mathematicians were even more impressive. They laid the foundations of arithmetic and geometry, developed a “positional system”, where the numerical value of a sign depends on its “position”, knew how to square and extract square roots, and created geometric formulas for measuring land plots.
The third powerful power of Mesopotamia - Assyria - arose in the 3rd millennium BC, but reached its greatest prosperity in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. Assyria was poor in resources but rose to prominence due to its geographical location. She found herself at the crossroads of caravan routes, and trade made her rich and great. The capitals of Assyria were successively Ashur, Kalah and Nineveh. By the 13th century. BC it became the most powerful empire in the entire Middle East.
In the artistic culture of Assyria - as in the entire Mesopotamia - the leading art was architecture. The most significant architectural monuments became the palace complex of King Sargon II in Dur-Sharrukin and the palace of Ashur-banapal in Nineveh.
Assyrian reliefs also became widely known, decorating the palace premises, the subjects of which were scenes from royal life: religious ceremonies, hunting, military events.
One of the best examples of Assyrian reliefs is considered to be the “Great Lion Hunt” from the palace of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh, where the scene depicting wounded, dying and killed lions is filled with deep drama, sharp dynamics and vivid expression.
In the 7th century BC The last ruler of Assyria, Ashur-banapap, created a magnificent library in Nineveh containing more than 25 thousand clay cuneiform tablets. The library became the largest in the entire Middle East. It contained documents that, to one degree or another, related to the entire Mesopotamia. Among them was the above-mentioned Epic of Gilgamesh.
Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation
Federal State Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education "NOVOSIBIRSK STATE AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY"
INSTITUTE OF CORRESPONDENCE EDUCATION AND ADVANCED QUALIFICATIONS
Faculty of Correspondence Studies
Department of State and Municipal Administration
Department of History and Political Science
ABSTRACT
in the discipline “Culturology” on the topic:
« Mesopotamian culture»
Completed: Fazylova I.A.
1st year, 3rd group
CipherУ-06074у
Checked by: Lyapina E.I.
Novosibirsk 2006
Introduction 3
1. How the culture arose in the Mesopotamian Tigris and Euphrates,
the main stages of its development. 4
2. The culture of Sumer, its writing, science,
mythological tales, art. 6
3. Culture of Babylon: laws of Hammurabi, writing,
literature, architecture and art. 8
4. Culture of Assyria: military structure, writing,
literature, architecture, art. 12
5. Mythology of Mesopotamia. 14
Conclusion 20
References 21
INTRODUCTION
The study of the culture of ancient peoples is an integral part of culture in our times. The cultural experience accumulated over thousands of years by many peoples is very important. The culture of Mesopotamia was distinguished by a rich cultural life: writing, scientific research, art, literature, architecture - all this left us with many monuments of its genius and distinctive originality. Many ideas, discoveries, and records made by the peoples of Mesopotamia are used today and they are undoubtedly of great importance to scientists in many fields. Also, the study of cultural studies is of great social importance, namely, the creation of a cultured person who is engaged in his own cultural improvement and improvement of the culture of his state.
And since when dealing with any area of culture: art, literature, architecture, etc., you should know the historical development of this area: “development precedents” and interesting facts, then constant interest in the flow of cultural life should be an integral part of the life of every person interested in culture.
In our time, without a doubt, everyone understands the importance and value of studying the historical development of cultural studies. Any person who considers himself an intelligent, cultured person should understand the rapid flow of cultural life and, if possible, participate in its cycle.
A lot of literature describing the life of ancient peoples is of great interest, as it allows us to understand the peculiarities of the life of different peoples, the peculiarities of their decision-making while living in different climatic conditions and under different living conditions (state system).
1 HOW THE CULTURE ARISED IN THE TIGRUS AND EUPHARTES MEOWRATES, THE MAIN STAGES OF ITS DEVELOPMENT
In the IV - III millennium BC. On the territory of Mesopotamia - the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers - a high culture arose and established itself. It was one of the oldest hearths human civilization. In Mesopotamia, various state formations rapidly (by historical standards) replaced each other, including Sumer, Akkad, Babylonia, Assyria, mixed, traded and fought with each other different peoples, temples, fortresses, and cities were quickly erected and destroyed to the ground.
The founders of the entire Babylonian culture were the Sumerians. Many sources testify to the high astronomical and mathematical achievements of the Sumerians, their construction art (it was the Sumerians who built the world's first step pyramid). 0nor authors ancient calendar, prescription reference book, library catalogue. However, perhaps the most significant contribution of ancient Sumer to world culture is “The Tale of Gilgamesh” (“who saw everything”) - the oldest epic poem on earth.
Written in cuneiform, which was the common writing system for the multilingual peoples of Mesopotamia, the poem of Gilgamesh is a great monument to the culture of Ancient Babylon. The Babylonian (actually, Old Babylonian) kingdom united the north and south - the regions of Sumer and Akkad, becoming the heir to the culture of the ancient Sumerians. The city of Babylon reached the pinnacle of greatness when King Hammurabi made it the capital of his kingdom. Hammurabi became famous as the author of the world's first set of laws (from which, for example, the expression “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” came to us).
Ancient Culture Babylon associated with the earthly sphere of existence
man, his worldly concerns. This can be easily explained by the turbulent flow of history between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Culture Assyria It is distinguished by its cruelty and militarized character, which was amazing even for that time. Even the king here is not so much a sacred figure as a military leader. The main theme of Assyrian art is hunting, battles, and reprisals against captives. At the same time, this rigidly naturalistic art is distinguished by amazing expressiveness. Speaking about Assyrian culture, one cannot fail to mention the famous library of King Ashurbanipal (7th century BC). In his palace in Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian kingdom, Ashurbanipal collected a grandiose (especially considering that cuneiform texts were written on clay tablets) library.
The Assyro-Babylonian culture became the heir to the culture of Ancient Babylonia. Babylon, which was part of the mighty Assyrian state, was a huge (about 1 million inhabitants) eastern city, proudly calling itself the “navel of the earth.”
The Babylonians introduced a positional number system and an accurate system of time measurement into world culture. The Babylonians also left to their descendants astrology, the science of the supposed connection human destinies with the location of the heavenly bodies. All this is far from a complete listing of the heritage of Babylonian culture in our everyday life.
2 CULTURE OF SUMERIAN, ITS WRITING, SCIENCE, MYTHOLOGICAL TALES, ART.
The most ancient culture of Mesopotamia is Sumerian-Akkadian. According to most orientalists, the Sumerians are the ancestors of the entire Babylonian culture. Their cultural achievements are great and indisputable: the Sumerians created the first poems in human history - about the “Golden Age”; wrote the first elegies, compiled the world's first library catalogue. The Sumerians are the authors of the world's first and oldest medical books - collections of recipes. They developed and recorded the first calendar for two seasons (winter and summer), divided into 12 months of 29 and 30 days each. Each new month began in the evening when the crescent moon disappeared. We compiled the first information about protective plantings. Even the idea of creating the first fish reserve in human history was first recorded in writing by the Sumerians. They own the first clay map. First strings musical instruments– lyre and harp – also appeared among the Sumerians.
The oldest written language on Earth belongs to the same people - Sumerian cuneiform. It is very decorative and, as researchers believe, originates from drawings. However, old legends say that even before the advent of picture writing, there existed an even more ancient way of fixing thoughts - tying knots on a rope. Over time, pictorial writing improved and changed: from a complete, fairly detailed and thorough depiction of objects, the Sumerians gradually moved to its incomplete or symbolic depiction. The world's oldest written monuments - Sumerian cuneiform tablets - date back to the middle of the 4th millennium BC. Cuneiform is a writing system whose characters consist of groups of wedge-shaped strokes, they were extruded on damp clay. Cuneiform arose as an ideographic rebus script, which later turned into a verbal syllabic script. For a long time, scientists believed that the Sumerian language was unlike any living or dead language known to mankind, and the question of the origin of this people remained a mystery. However, it can now be considered established that the language of the Sumerians, like the language of the ancient Egyptians, belonged to the Semitic-Hamitic language family.
Many monuments of Sumerian literature have been preserved - they are written on clay tablets, and almost all of them have been read. These are mainly hymns to the gods, religious myths and legends, in particular, about the emergence of civilization and agriculture, the merits of which are attributed to the gods.
On Sumerian tablets dating back to around 2800. BC, recorded works of the first known to the world poetess - Enheduanna, daughter of the Akkadian king Sargon. Elevated to the rank of high priestess, she wrote several hymns in honor of the great temples and gods of the Earth.
The most important monument of Sumerian literature is the cycle of tales about Gilgamesh, king of the city of Uruk, the son of a mortal and the goddess Ninsun. The hero of the poem, half-man, half-god, fighting against numerous dangers and enemies, defeating them, learns the meaning of life and the joy of being, learns (for the first time in the world!) the bitterness of losing a friend and the irrevocability of death. The legends of Gilgamesh had a very strong influence on the culture of neighboring peoples, who accepted and adapted them to national life.
The legends of the Flood had an exceptionally strong impact on world literature. They say that the flood was caused by the gods, who planned to destroy all life on Earth. Only one person was able to avoid death - the pious Ziusudra, who, on the advice of the gods, built a ship in advance.
3 CULTURE OF BABYLON: LAWS OF HAMMURABI, WRITING, LITERATURE, ARCHITECTURE AND ART
The heir to the Sumerian-Akkadian civilization was Babylonia. In the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. under King Hammurabi, the city of Babylon united all the regions of Sumer and Akkad under its leadership. Under Hammurabi, the famous Code of Laws appeared, written in cuneiform on a two-meter stone pillar. These laws reflected the economic life, way of life, customs and worldview of the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia. Their worldview was determined by the need for constant struggle with the surrounding tribes. All main interests were focused on reality. The Babylonian priest did not promise blessings and joys in the kingdom of the dead, but in case of obedience he promised them during his lifetime. There are almost no depictions of funerary scenes in Babylonian art. In general, the religion, art and ideology of Ancient Babylon were realistic.
The peoples of Mesopotamia created a rich culture. The culture of Mesopotamia (Mezhdurechye, Mesopotamia), namely, for example, writing, is one of the greatest cultural achievements of that time. The creation of writing contributed to the development of science and art. The creators of writing were the Sumerians. The oldest writing was pictorial. The difficulty of conveying abstract concepts with drawing caused the replacement of pictorial writing with cuneiform.
Icons consisting of wedges began to denote not only individual words, but also syllables.
The cuneiform writing system was complex and cumbersome. The same cuneiform sign had up to a dozen different meanings, and there were over 600 signs in total.
The culture of Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia) arose around the same time as the Egyptian one. It developed in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and existed since the 4th millennium BC. until the middle of the 6th century. BC Unlike the Egyptian culture, Mesopotamia was not homogeneous; it was formed in the process of repeated interpenetration of several ethnic groups and peoples and therefore was multi-layered.
The main inhabitants of Mesopotamia were Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians and Chaldeans in the south: Assyrians, Hurrians and Arameans in the north. The cultures of Sumer, Babylonia and Assyria reached their greatest development and importance.
The emergence of the Sumerian ethnic group still remains a mystery. It is only known that in the 4th millennium BC. The southern part of Mesopotamia is inhabited by the Sumerians and lays the foundations for the entire subsequent civilization of this region. Like the Egyptian, this civilization was riverine. By the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. In the south of Mesopotamia, several city-states appear, the main ones being Ur, Uruk, Lagash, Jlapca, etc. They alternately play a leading role in the unification of the country.
The history of Sumer has seen several ups and downs. The XXIV-XXIII centuries deserve special mention. BC, when the rise of the Semitic city of Akkad, located north of Sumer, occurs. Under King Sargon the Ancient, Akkad managed to subjugate all of Sumer to its power. The Akkadian language replaces Sumerian and becomes the main language throughout Mesopotamia. Semitic art also has a great influence on the entire region. In general, the significance of the Akkadian period in the history of Sumer turned out to be so significant that some authors call the entire culture of this period Sumerian-Akkadian.
Sumerian culture
The basis of Sumer's economy was agriculture with a developed irrigation system. Hence it is clear why one of the main monuments of Sumerian literature was the “Agricultural Almanac”, containing instructions on farming - how to maintain soil fertility and avoid salinization. Cattle breeding was also important. Sumerian metallurgy reached a high level. Already at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. The Sumerians began making bronze tools, and at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. entered the Iron Age. From the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. A potter's wheel is used in the production of tableware. Other crafts are successfully developing - weaving, stone-cutting, and blacksmithing. Widespread trade and exchange took place both between the Sumerian cities and with other countries - Egypt, Iran. India, states of Asia Minor.
The importance of Sumerian writing should be especially emphasized. The cuneiform script invented by the Sumerians turned out to be the most successful and effective. Improved in the 2nd millennium BC. by the Phoenicians, it formed the basis of almost all modern alphabets.
The system of religious and mythological ideas and cults of Sumer partly overlaps with the Egyptian one. In particular, it also contains the myth of a dying and resurrecting god, which is the god Dumuzi. As in Egypt, the ruler of the city-state was declared a descendant of a god and perceived as an earthly god. At the same time, there were noticeable differences between the Sumerian and Egyptian systems. Thus, among the Sumerians, the funeral cult and belief in the afterlife did not acquire much importance. Equally, the Sumerian priests did not become a special stratum that played a huge role in public life. In general, the Sumerian system of religious beliefs seems less complex.
As a rule, each city-state had its own patron god. At the same time, there were gods who were revered throughout Mesopotamia. Behind them stood those forces of nature, the importance of which for agriculture was especially great - sky, earth and water. These were the sky god An, the earth god Enlil and the water god Enki. Some gods were associated with individual stars or constellations. It is noteworthy that in Sumerian writing the star pictogram meant the concept of “god”. The mother goddess, the patroness of agriculture, fertility and childbirth, was of great importance in the Sumerian religion. There were several such goddesses, one of them was the goddess Inanna. patroness of the city of Uruk. Some Sumerian myths - about the creation of the world, the global flood - had a strong influence on the mythology of other peoples, including Christians.
In the artistic culture of Sumer, architecture was the leading art. Unlike the Egyptians, the Sumerians did not know stone construction and all structures were created from raw brick. Due to the swampy terrain, buildings were erected on artificial platforms - embankments. From the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. The Sumerians were the first to widely use arches and vaults in construction.
The first architectural monuments were two temples, White and Red, discovered in Uruk (late 4th millennium BC) and dedicated to the main deities of the city - the god Anu and the goddess Inanna. Both temples are rectangular in plan, with projections and niches, and decorated with relief images in the “Egyptian style.” Another significant monument is the small temple of the fertility goddess Ninhursag in Ur (XXVI century BC). It was built using the same architectural forms, but decorated not only with relief, but also with circular sculpture. In the niches of the walls there were copper figurines of walking bulls, and on the friezes there were high reliefs of lying bulls. At the entrance to the temple there are two wooden lion statues. All this made the temple festive and elegant.
In Sumer, a unique type of religious building developed - the ziggurag, which was a stepped tower, rectangular in plan. On the upper platform of the ziggurat there was usually a small temple - “the dwelling of God.” For thousands of years, the ziggurat played approximately the same role as the Egyptian pyramid, but unlike the latter it was not an afterlife temple. The most famous was the ziggurat (“temple-mountain”) in Ur (XXII-XXI centuries BC), which was part of a complex of two large temples and a palace and had three platforms: black, red and white. Only the lower, black platform has survived, but even in this form the ziggurat makes a grandiose impression.
Sculpture in Sumer was less developed than architecture. As a rule, it had a cult, “dedicatory” character: the believer placed a figurine made to his order, usually small in size, in the temple, which seemed to pray for his fate. The person was depicted conventionally, schematically and abstractly. without observing proportions and without a portrait resemblance to the model, often in a praying pose. An example is a female figurine (26 cm) from Lagash, which has mainly common ethnic features.
During the Akkadian period, sculpture changes significantly: it becomes more realistic, acquires personality traits. The most famous masterpiece of this period is the copper portrait head of Sargon the Ancient (XXIII century BC), which perfectly conveys the unique character traits of the king: courage, will, severity. This work, rare in its expressiveness, is almost no different from modern ones.
Sumerian literature reached a high level. In addition to the above-mentioned “Agricultural Almanac”, the most significant literary monument became The Epic of Gilgamesh. In this epic poem it tells about a man who saw everything, experienced everything, knew everything and who was close to unraveling the secret of immortality.
Pre-Axial Archaic Cultures: Egypt and Mesopotamia
1. Culture of ancient Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia)
2. Culture of ancient Egypt
Literature:
1. Laletin, D.A. Culturology: training manual/ D.A. Laletin. – Voronezh: VSPU, 2008. – 264 p. – Access mode:
http://www.gumer.info/bibliotek_Buks/Culture/lalet/index.php
The Neolithic revolution was carried out unevenly, and its processes were most intense in a few regions. There the first great civilizations of antiquity arose, unique islands of culture that were qualitatively more complex compared to primitive times. The most famous civilizations at present (slide) arose in the interfluve of the Tigris and Euphrates, in the Nile Valley, in the Indus River Valley, in the Yellow River Valley and in Central America.
The first two had the greatest direct influence on the development of European (and therefore Slavic) culture, so we will consider them in more detail.
Culture of ancient Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia)
The ancient Greeks called Mesopotamia (slide) (Mesopotamia, Mesopotamia) the lands lying between the Tigris and Euphrates - two great rivers of antiquity, in the valley of which a culture as high as in Egypt was formed. However, unlike the Nile Valley, where for three thousand years the same people lived and the same state existed - Egypt, in Mesopotamia several peoples and several states changed.
The valley between the Tigris and Euphrates has been inhabited since about 5000 BC. people who, with the help of irrigation structures, made this inhospitable land fertile. This was the beginning of a revolutionary revolution in the history of mankind: from agriculture to the creation of urban culture and the formation of the state.
On the territory of ancient Mesopotamia (now the territory of modern Iraq), three great cultures were formed over the course of three millennia: Sumer and Akkad, Babylon, Assyria (slide).
Recent research by archaeologists and geneticists suggests that it was in the upper reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates that plant domestication began. In the southern regions of Mesopotamia, earlier than in the Nile Valley, already from the 5th-4th millennium BC, urban settlements began to take shape (slide), which became the first states: Ubeid, Ur (slide), Uruk, Lagash, etc. A number of scientists In general, they believe that real cities, where residents are related not by blood, but by functions - craft production, management, trade - first appeared in Mesopotamia, so the Sumerians are the inventors of the city as such.
The uniqueness of the local cultures of Ancient Mesopotamia is largely determined by natural conditions. Current natural conditions not much different from the Neolithic and Sumerian times. Mesopotamia is a former sea bay filled with sedimentary rocks (sand, clay) brought over millions of years by the Tigris and Euphrates. The terrain here is flat, the soils are clay and sandy. The climate is hot, very sunny and arid. At the same time, there are rains, which are irregular and rare in late autumn and winter. The Tigris and Euphrates flood every summer, and the floods occur at unpredictable times; rivers can often change their course: once all the main cities of Mesopotamia were on the banks of the Euphrates, but now their ruins are in the middle of the desert. The lowlands are occupied by swamps, where there are a lot of fish, waterfowl, wild boars and even lions. Between river lagoons and swampy areas where there is no water, lie vast deserts. The soils near the water are very fertile. There are no forests, just as there are no large quantities of stone suitable for construction and minerals in general.
Therefore, the economic culture of Mesopotamia was based on agriculture, in which systems of irrigation canals and reservoirs were of utmost importance. Barley, wheat, and millet were grown not only for consumption in the communities that owned the fields, but also for trade. They also sold wool and leather. Fabrics were made from flax and wool. They grew date palms, grapes, and many fruit trees. They bred goats, sheep, pigs for meat and wool, cattle first as draft animals, and later horses appeared, which were harnessed to war chariots.
The most common local materials were clay, reed, wool, leather and linen. All other materials needed for the craft, including stone and wood, had to be imported. This determined the widespread distribution of trade in Mesopotamia.
Boats and ships were made from reed, they were used for mats, they wove sails for ships, and they used the same mats to strengthen the banks of reservoirs. Clay was used to make a wide variety of pottery, from household utensils to figurines, jewelry and seals; they wrote on clay tablets; Clay was used to make building bricks. The craftsmen used a potter's wheel and covered the vessels with enamel and glaze. Since fuel was scarce, builders mainly used raw bricks, that is, not baked, but sun-dried bricks. Because of this, the vast majority of ancient buildings have survived to this day as clay mounds and hills. Later they learned to make tiles - bricks covered with glaze. They were used for cladding buildings.
Despite the lack of metals and stone, skilled artisans appeared in Mesopotamia who knew how to work with precious metals, with copper, mastered the technology of lost wax casting.
The first civilization was created in the south of Mesopotamia in the 4th - first half of the 3rd millennium BC. Sumerians (slide) are a people whose origins are still unclear. It was they who continued what they started back in the 5th millennium BC. the development of Ubaid culture, turning Uruk, Ur, Lagash and a number of other cities into real states. All the signs of civilization arose there, including state systems with a powerful bureaucratic apparatus of central government and written documentation (slide) in management and economics, a more or less ordered pantheon of gods recognized by all with corresponding myths. Today it has been proven that the creation of the first writing system in history, cuneiform (slide), was determined by the needs of management. Power initially belonged to the priests of various temples, and then a monarchy was established. In the 3rd millennium BC, several centuries (at least eight) before the famous Code of Hammurabi, codes of laws existed in Lagash and Ur. The society had a complex social structure, the lowest in status were slaves.
The Sumerians achieved remarkable skill in construction (slide). Powerful fortresses, step pyramids - ziggurats (slide), majestic multi-story palaces with hundreds of rooms were built from mud brick. Archaeologists have excavated the remains of a royal palace in the city of Kish, which in 2800 BC. exceeded the size of Versailles. Temples were placed on ziggurats.
At first these temples were also centers of power, but secular supreme power quickly passed to the kings. The priests in the temples remained the guardians of the pagan religion and various practical knowledge, soothsayers and sages.
They, in particular, recorded a number of myths about the origin of the world, man and culture, which later became even included in the Old Testament: that man was molded from clay, that a woman was created from a man’s rib, about the global flood, about the existence of the Garden of Eden - Eden (by the way, it was called practically the same), about the enmity of brothers - a cattle breeder and a farmer, parallels to the myth of Abraham. There are myths about how one of the gods invented a hoe and a plow and gave them to man, who then taught him how to farm. Prayers and hymns in honor of significant events, as well as incantations, were also recorded.
Over time, the corpus of these texts became so diverse that it is rightly defined as Sumerian literature. Prayers, spells, myths are written in vivid, emotional language, contain metaphors and comparisons, complex plots. These are not only myths and spells, but also works of art. The most famous of these texts is the poem of Gilgamesh (slide).
The figure of Gilgamesh dates back to the real-life king of Uruk, who eventually became a legend. Gilgamesh tried to make people immortal, not being afraid to come into conflict with the gods to do this.
There are also texts on the tablets in which reflections on “eternal” questions are visible - about good and evil, life and death, the meaning of life (“conversation between master and slave”).
The priests not only worshiped the gods (local and universally recognized as the most important), but also observed the starry sky. Even then, some constellations were identified, and the knowledge that is called astrology today arose. It was the Sumerian priests who began to divide day and night into twelve parts. They invented the sundial (gnomon) and water clock (clepsydra), and began to divide the year into 12 months (in accordance with the phases of the moon). They treated people, accumulating empirical knowledge about diseases, the medicinal properties of herbs and various substances, and the structure of the human body. This is also known from the texts of clay tables that have survived to this day. It turned out that in Europe in the Middle Ages, doctors used many Sumerian recipes without realizing their ancient source.
The systematic use of written documents in the practice of public administration led to the emergence of schools. Archaeologists have unearthed many remains of schools along with “textbooks” and “student notebooks” on clay tablets. Having learned to read and write, the Sumerian received opportunities for a serious career. In schools, as it turned out from deciphered cuneiform texts, they taught not only literacy.
The Sumerian sages began to develop the foundations of mathematics. They used sexagesimal and decimal systems, knew fractions, and calculated areas. complex figures and volumes of bodies of various configurations, equations with unknowns were used. Much of the Sumerians' mathematical knowledge was later forgotten.
Many peoples have always lived in Mesopotamia, and at different periods it was dominated by the Sumerians, their northern neighbors the Akkadians (the culture of these times is called Sumerian-Akkadian), a state centered in Babylon, and the Assyrians with their capital in Nineveh. The immediate direct heirs of the Sumerian-Akkadian culture and civilization were the Babylonians (slide). They, like their neighbors the Assyrians, spoke the Akkadian language, which determined the continuity of the culture.
All the achievements of the Sumerian-Akkadian culture in Babylon were adopted and improved. There, for example, a ziggurat (slide) with a side of 92 meters and a height of about 90 meters was built, which had seven platform steps. It became the basis for the myth of the Babylonian Pandemonium. There were also the famous “Hanging Gardens of Babylon” (slide) - a multi-story royal palace, on the terraces of which numerous trees and shrubs grew, which were watered by a complex water-lifting system. The Babylonians were even more skilled craftsmen than the Sumerians. They knew how to make colorful tiles and decorated buildings and fortress walls with them (slide). Their trade caravans and ships reached a much larger number of harbors and cities. The Code of King Hammurabi (17th century BC) was developed in detail; many Babylonian kings waged successful wars of conquest.
From the 16th century BC. Mesopotamia falls under the rule of Assyria (slide). Therefore, Babylon loses its role as the capital (Nineveh becomes it), but remains the greatest city of the East. The Assyrians fully adopted the Babylonian culture (slide), the successor of the Sumerian-Akkadian one, and continued its traditions, adding to them the traditions and achievements of their tribes. The temples of Babylonia remained the guardians of knowledge, the Assyrians began to use the writing of the Babylonians - the same Sumerian cuneiform in origin.
Basically, the Babylonian pagan religion was preserved, all the main myths continued to be transmitted and lived, defining the picture of the world of Assyro-Babylonian culture. In the religious picture of the world, a clear hierarchy of gods is built with the supreme, most important god at the head, associated with the formation of a despotic monarchy.
The state system, which already had all the features of eastern despotism, became more rigid and ramified. The cruelty of the memorial inscriptions and reliefs glorifying the military victories of the kings is striking.
The builders who erected impregnable fortresses and majestic palaces for kings (for example, Sennacherib, Ashurbanipal in Nineveh, Sargon II in Dur-Sharruken) became even more skillful. Craftsmen made the finest jewelry, complex cylindrical seals for relief imprints and signatures on clay tablets. Sculptures, bas-reliefs and wall paintings became more monumental and at the same time realistic (for example, bas-reliefs in the palace of Ashurbanipal depicting a lion hunt (slide), a dying lioness (slide), the flight of Arab warriors on camels). The ideological content of Assyro-Babylonian monumental art is the exaltation of kings.
The Assyrian kings created real libraries, where the pages of books were numbered, the books themselves were placed in a certain order, there was even a catalog with a card for each book. In the surviving library of Ashurbanipal (slide) there were about 25 thousand clay tables.
In 539 BC. Babylon was destroyed by the Persians (slide). However, the achievements of the Sumerian-Akkadian and the Assyro-Babylonian culture that succeeded it entered the cultures of Egypt and the Middle Eastern Mediterranean. It is known that they were studied by thinkers ancient world, above all the Greek sages. From here they subsequently entered European culture.
"Civilization" in this context refers to a specific society whose culture has reached a certain level development (slide).
Ancient Egyptian culture
Culture Ancient Egypt developed in the Nile Valley. Much more monuments have been preserved from it than from the culture of Mesopotamia, so it has been studied much more fully today. This, like many features of Egyptian culture itself, is explained by natural conditions.
Egypt, unlike Mesopotamia, is not located on a plain of sand and clay, but in a valley that the Nile carved out of the bedrock of northern Africa over millions of years. Its length is about 1000 kilometers, width from 1 to 20 kilometers. Beyond the Nile Valley lie dry deserts that cover 96% of Egypt's area. Before flowing into the sea, the Nile flows along a flat coast and spills into hundreds of branches, forming the famous delta. There is practically no rain, agriculture is possible only due to irrigation from the river. The Nile floods every summer with rare regularity - always on July 19th. Water carries with it large number sludge, which is an effective natural fertilizer; this ensures high fertility of the flooded lands. The main banks of the Nile are cut into stone and have the shape of terraces. Forests, date and coconut palms grow along the banks, papyrus is found in the water near the shores, and there is also a lotus in the delta. Egypt has enough materials for construction and crafts, many deposits of copper, gold, other minerals, and stone. In other words, here, unlike Mesopotamia, there is everything necessary for life. It has been suggested that this explains Egypt’s long self-isolation and not too intense foreign trade.
Another difference from Mesopotamia is the monoethnic population. In the Nile Valley, from very ancient times, there lived people who from ancient times spoke the same language and considered themselves one people. Apparently, this is why the first system of a single national state in history arose here, which lasted many times longer than all others.
This happened around 3300 - 3000. BC Around this time, papyrus scrolls began to be made, a system of hieroglyphs was developed, and counting was mastered. Monumental mastaba tombs are erected for pharaohs, priests, and nobles, in which they try to preserve the mummified bodies of the deceased. At the same time, a special mentality is formed, in which the king is the embodiment of the god Horus, the divine ruler of the Both Lands.
Despite a complex history that included declines and prosperity, foreign conquests and new rises, Egypt maintained the continuity and originality of its culture for thirty centuries (from the 4th millennium BC to 332 BC). Its achievements later, together with those of Mesopotamia, became the prerequisites ancient culture. 332 BC - this is the year of the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great, when the era was primordial, ancient culture gave way to the Hellenistic period.
The most important factor The defining feature of Egyptian culture was religion. Unlike Mesopotamia, religious norms and ideas were incomparably more influential in Egypt. The ancient Egyptians were pagans. They believed that their country was created by the gods. It was believed that they created crafts, art, writing, counting and magic.
The gods were anthropomorphic (resembling people) or combined the features of humans and animals: Anubis - a man with the head of a jackal, Horus - with the head of a falcon, Mut - a woman with the head of a lioness, etc. There were also zoomorphic gods, for example, scarabs - dung beetles, the goddess Bast (Bastet) - a cat, Hathor - a heavenly cow. The most revered gods: Amon (Ra), god of the sun; Anubis - patron of the dead; Horus is the god of the sky, the sun, the patron of royal power; Osiris - lord underground kingdom, who died every autumn and was resurrected in winter; Set is the master of the forces of evil; Isis is the goddess of family love and fidelity, the patroness of wisdom and magic, close to Ishtar-Astarte-Innana, a hypostasis of the single goddess of love. The god of wisdom Thoth, the patron of literature, scribes, doctors and magicians, was highly revered.
During his lifetime, the king of Egypt, called Pharaoh, was considered God. His sculptures were placed in temples, prayers were offered to him. It was believed that even the entire fate of Egypt depended on the earthly and afterlife well-being of the pharaoh.
Ancient Egyptian mythology explained the origin and structure of the world and, most importantly, the place and fate of man in it. The worldview and mentality of the inhabitants of Ancient Egypt included the idea that every person has a soul that can live even after the death of the earthly body. Therefore, many aspects of earthly life were subordinated to concerns about the subsequent fate of the soul. The afterlife was thought to be exactly the same as the earthly one, as a simple continuation of the one known to everyone. everyday life. This is one of the reasons why so many artifacts of ancient culture were preserved in Egypt: they tried to place everything that was necessary for life in the grave. If something did not fit, a model was placed in the grave (for example, a large ship or cart) or this object was painted on the walls of the burial chamber, on the sarcophagus, etc. For the same reason, the Egyptians sought to preserve the body of the deceased. To do this, they developed a technology for mummifying corpses, so effective that mummies have survived to this day.
A number of subjects and images of Egyptian mythology, following the Mesopotamian ones, were included in Christian religion. These are ideas about posthumous judgment, about the possibility eternal life souls in prosperity (for Christians - “in salvation, in eternal bliss”), about the resurrection of God after a painful death. Experts point out that in Christian iconography, the image of Isis with the baby Horus was reincarnated into the Mother of God with the baby Jesus, the overthrowing Set Horus became St. George the Victorious, the jackal-headed Anubis became St. Christopher the Pseglavts.
The Egyptians grew barley, spelled, flax, grapes and many garden fruits. They also bred domestic animals: sheep, goats, donkeys, and later horses and camels. Dogs were used for hunting.
The artisans of Ancient Egypt successfully used the resources of their region and achieved remarkable skill.
Builders and stone cutters erected famous pyramids and temples with wonderful sculptures, bas-reliefs and carvings. The most famous of them: the pyramid of Cheops in Giza (147 meters high) and the sphinx, temples in Karnak, Luxor and Abu Simbel, the mortuary temple of the female pharaoh Hatshepsut. It was the architects of Ancient Egypt who created the classical architectural forms: pyramid, pylon, hall of columns, obelisk (originally symbolizing a sunbeam). Many of the sculptures were remarkably realistic and accurate portraits. For example, the bust of Nefertiti, the wife of Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (Akhenaton), is world famous.
Various copper products made by both casting and forging were found in the tombs. Tools (axes, saws, chisels, etc.), weapons, vessels (jugs, bowls, etc.), statues, and jewelry were made from copper. Later copper was replaced by bronze. The utensils and dyes were carefully finished.
Ancient Egyptian jewelers made in huge quantities all kinds of beads and necklaces made of colored glass, pendants, as well as a variety of jewelry made of gold, copper, electron and semi-precious stones. Many pieces of jewelry masterfully combine gold and colored glass. A masterpiece of jewelry art is the sarcophagus of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, cast in gold and completely replicating the appearance of the pharaoh.
A lot was made of wood: ships, furniture, figurines, agricultural tools, masons' hammers, temple columns, etc.
The masters of Ancient Egypt achieved high skill in leather processing and weaving from flax and wool. A lot of pottery, all kinds of ceramic vessels and sculptures have also been preserved. Typically local was the use of papyrus, from which they built boats and ships, and also made writing material.
The bulk of the population were free people, although there were also slaves. It is believed that foreign warriors captured during wars became slaves. Ordinary workers were subordinate to officials and supervisors. All work was carefully recorded in written documents, which was done by special scribes. All officials, from ordinary people to the highest-ranking nobles, were in the service of the pharaoh. A special class was made up of the priests of numerous temples dedicated to various gods.
The priests very early began to observe the sky in order to determine the changing seasons and predict the floods of the Nile. Ancient maps preserved in Egyptian temples starry sky, where the stars are united into constellations. The priests even knew how to predict solar eclipses. Based on their observations, the priests compiled a solar calendar, which underlies modern European calendars.
The pharaohs have long begun a strict accounting of their possessions, and above all the land; To inventory all lands, they were measured, which required the development of geometry. Geometric knowledge and calculations were used in the construction of pyramids and temples, and in the construction of irrigation systems. The Egyptians used the decimal number system and knew simple fractions. Egyptian mathematics, like Mesopotamian mathematics, did not know proofs and conclusions, axioms and theorems. Each problem solved was unique, and the study of mathematics was reduced to memorizing previously found solutions to problems.
Egyptian doctors knew quite a lot about the structure of the human body. Undoubtedly, this knowledge was largely gained from embalming the dead. The Egyptians understood the role and significance of the brain. Ancient Egyptian texts list many diseases known today. Treatment methods were also developed. True, the doctors were mostly priests, and the treatment included a very large share of prayers and magical procedures.
All this, and above all accounting, required writing. The Egyptians developed a writing system almost simultaneously with the Sumerians. Its basis was and remains hieroglyphs - picture signs. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs were deciphered by the French scientist J.F. Champollion.
Many texts have been preserved on papyrus scrolls and on the walls of tombs and temples. Among them are many business documents, as well as records of important events. The largest volume is of texts related to religion. Thus, information about the earthly life of the buried person was recorded on the walls of the tombs. Original clues were also recorded in the tombs - phrases that were to be pronounced during the trial of the soul in the afterlife. These texts together constituted the so-called Pyramid Texts and the later Book of the Dead. Numerous myths, biographies, fairy tales, historical works, and teachings were also recorded. Treatises of a scientific nature have already been mentioned. Texts of a philosophical nature have also been preserved, for example, “The Conversation of a Disappointed Person with His Soul.” The texts of Ancient Egypt contain vivid and accurate images and have undoubted literary merits.
The culture of Ancient Egypt, like that of Ancient Mesopotamia, was studied by Greek sages and Roman thinkers; it is one of the prerequisites for the formation of the culture of the ancient world.
Based on archaeological finds, it can be judged that the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia were a highly developed society with urban architecture, pictographic documents, extensive trade relations and religion. The ancient history of Sumer is reflected in legends and epics. The most important cultural discovery of the Sumerians was the invention of the cuneiform writing system. Cuneiform developed from pictography.
Religion. Many written texts have religious content. Religious ideas were one of the most important factors in the development of thinking of the population of Mesopotamia. They reflected those natural phenomena whose essence and effect people could not explain to themselves. In addition, in everyday life, man was closely connected with natural phenomena. He had to deal with its life-giving forces, the birth, death of all living things, with natural phenomena that have beneficial and destructive consequences.
Already from 5 thousand BC. a cult of the eternally fruitful and giving birth appears, personified by the mother goddess. A male god was subordinate to her. Numerous clay figurines of them have been preserved.
The religion of Mesopotamia was characterized by great conservatism. The content of prayers and religious equipment have changed very little over 3 thousand years. The transition to agriculture and settled life contributed to the formation of a pantheon of gods. In the 3rd millennium BC. the Sumerians had hundreds of gods. The main place in the pantheon was played by the triad: An - the god of the sky, Enlil - the god of the earth, Enki - the god of water. 4th place was occupied by Ninhursag - the mother of all living things. There were also 2 large groups of gods: the earthly Annunaki and the heavenly Igigi. Over time, the functions of individual gods expanded.
With the rise of Babylon, the god Marduk came to the fore. In Assyria, Ashur became the king of all gods. Adad, the god of weather, rises in the Neo-Babylonian kingdom. The cult of the god of vegetation, the dying and resurrecting Dumuzi, was typically agricultural in nature. This deity was popular throughout Western Asia. There were several gods of the underworld.
Myths and epics. Of all the Mesopotamian myths, the myth of the creation of the world and people, both the Sumerian and Akkadian versions, deserves the greatest attention. It is called “Enuma Eleli”. From this myth we can judge the cosmological ideas of the Sumerians and Akkadians, who influenced antiquity.
Significant fragments of Sumerian mythology are preserved in the biblical text. In fragments, the Sumerian legend about the demigod brothers Emesh and Enten, created by the god Enlil, has come down to us, and in the fragments we can guess the biblical legend about Cain and Abel. Several Mesopotamian accounts of the Flood and the story of the first paradise have also survived.
Of the epic works, the most famous is the poem about Gilgamesh, the semi-legendary hero and ruler of the city of Uruk. The epic reflects many realities of the political history of Sumer. There were other literary genres: hymns, prayers, laments, love lyrics, didactic and philosophical works, fables, proverbs, sayings, works with a political tendency.
Architecture and fine arts. Such a rare species stands close to literature fine arts, like the carvings on cylinder seals. They were usually carved with illustrations of the most popular myths and literary works. The science of carving seals is called glyptics.
The oldest sculptures are clay cult figurines of fertility and cult masks. With the beginning of the construction of temples from 4 thousand BC. sculptures of gods with visible remnants of totemism, and sometimes with a fantastic appearance, are certainly placed in their interiors.
To make sculptures in Mesopotamia, marble, granite, basalt, alabaster, precious and semi-precious stones, as well as ivory and mother-of-pearl were brought from other countries. Images: winged colossi of bulls or lions with human heads, large reliefs with which the walls of palaces were lined. Scenes from the family life of rulers, battle scenes and mythological subjects were usually depicted.
Temple architecture. The temples of that time were huge and majestic buildings without windows, regular rectangular in shape, with walls divided by niches. All structures were erected on embankment platforms to avoid flooding. From the end of the 3rd millennium BC. temples (ziggurats) take on the appearance of stepped towers.
The inhabitants of Mesopotamia knew how to build comfortable and beautiful cities. Their wide streets intersected at right angles and were lined with palm trees and other plants. For a regular supply of water, water pipelines and aqueducts were connected to the cities. Urban hydraulic structures also included dams, embankments and canals.
Education and science. The main centers of literacy were schools at palaces and temples. The school was called “the house of tablets,” the directors were called “the father of the house of tablets,” and the students were called “the sons of the house of tablets.” In addition to regular schools, there were also higher specialized schools. They accepted only literate young people. Subjects such as liturgy, astronomy, natural history, physics, chemistry, and medicine were studied here. Schools and colleges had libraries of “clay books.” Knowledge in the field of mathematics, geometry, astronomy, the appearance of the calendar, knowledge in the field of medicine.
The beliefs of Ancient Mesopotamia influenced such religions as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.
