3: Sumarians and Babylonians, 3000-600 BC, Pivotal Point

Required Reading

* Chapter 1 "Mesopotamia," Text pp.9-27

Overview:

The first two chapters will offer a good introduction to ancient history and the first great civilizations in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Study the map on p.10 (Map 1.2) and be sure that you can identify the Fertile Crescent on a larger map of Asia or the World. Know the significance of this region and how it helped to shape the ancient cultures of 8000 BC down through the Sumarian period. Read the section "The Epic of Gilgamesh" and the excerpt immediately following. Note this most ancient of tales is addressing the Terrible Question as will many more throughout this quarter.

Video Lecture:

3.1 What is Culture? - What are the humanities and why should we study them?

3.2 Geography of the Levant - A familiarity with the basic geography of the Levant will be helpful in our study of the roots of Western culture.

3.3 Agriculture - Agriculture is the culture that makes all other cultures possible. Culture began when nomadic hunter/gatherer societies settled into permanent dwellings.

3.4 Early Cultures - Some basic discoveries and inventions are characteristic of early culture.

3.5 Written Language - Written language is arguably the greatest invention of the human mind.

Questions:

What single factor is credited with giving the opportunity to the ancient Mesopotamian cultures to develop such inventions as pottery, weaving, housing, the calendar and mathematics?

What is cuneiform?

What is significance of the Sumerian ziggurat?

What is Zoroastrianism and why is it important in the development of Western culture? Do you see any elements of Zoroastrianism in Christianity? In Judaism?

Where does Babylonian and Chaldean history intersect with the history recorded in the Old Testament?

Sample Video:

Early Agriculture (RealPlayer required) - This video lecture is a brief sample from the online version of this course. The full web course not only includes Prof. Nickerson's animated lectures but is supported by a full multimedia presentation for each days lesson. Go to the course home page for more information.

On the NET:

A guide and introduction to Assyro-Babylonian mythology.

The Agricultural Revolution in Mesopotamia paved the way for the early cilizations in that region. Agriculure is the culture that makes all other cultures possible.

See part of the Ancient Near East collection on the first level of the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Georgia Tech University.

Arthur A. Brown discusses The Terrible Question and the Epic of Gilgamesh in his essay Storytelling, the Meaning of Life, and The Epic of Gilgamesh.

Find here an English translation of the The Code of Hammurabi. Translated by L. W. King With commentary from Charles F. Horne, Ph.D. (1915)

Here is an entire on-line resource dedicated to the Ancient Near East. It is part of a mammoth WWW project called Exploring Ancient World Cultures edited by Dr. Anthony Beavers, University of Evansville.

Here is a site with a broad range of information about Ancient Mesopotamia organized as an historical outline from the Neolithic (9000 BC) to the late Iron Age (64 AD)

An introductory illustrated reference work on Akkadian the Assyrian-Babylonian language and its "alphabet" known as cuneiform.