introduktion til nærorientalske oldtidskulturer

the Uruk period

Period: 4000 BCE to 3100 BCE

Late chalcolithic/Early bronze age Characteristics:
- the rise of complex society
- urbanization
- mass production
- monumental architecture People:
- 'the man in the net skirt'

Finds of the uruk period

3999 BCE

The warka vase: stratified society
Beveled rim bowls: mass production, rations
Cylinder seals: ownership, transactions
The eanna precient: Riemchen building, Stone-cone temple
The Anu ziggurat area: The white temple (not a real ziggurat)
Tokens, bullae, and numerical tablets: Writing!

the uruk expansion

3700 BCE

ealier part of the 4th mill.

invention of writing

3500 BCE

latter part of the 4th mill.

Jemdet Nasr

Period: 3100 BCE to 2900 BCE

LC/EBA:
Characteristics:
- a middle period
Finds:
- some tablets with writing
- jars with polychrome painting

Wedges

3000 BCE

Cuneiform goes from 'curvy' to wedges

Early Dynastic

Period: 2900 BCE to 2350 BCE

EBA:
Characteristics:
- city-states
- households, and trade
- conflicts, competition, alliances
- more genre in texts (literature)
- language = sumerian
- Fara, Girsu, and Ebla are the main textual sources
People:
- Pu'abi: Queen of Ur, rad burial
- Mesalim: King of Kish, Mediator in the border conflict?
- Lugalzagezi: king of Umma, conquers Ur, Uruk and Lagash. Is defeated by Sargon in 2350
- Uru-inimgina: King of Lagash. interesting reforms. Defeated by Lugalzagezi

ED I

Period: 2900 BCE to 2750 BCE

finds of the ED

2899 BCE

The Ebla Archive - found in situ at palace G
Stele of vultures - Umma/lagash border conflict
Royal cemetery of Ur - human sacrifices, EDIIIa

ED II

Period: 2750 BCE to 2600 BCE

ED IIIa

Period: 2600 BCE to 2450 BCE

Umma/Lagash border conflict

2500 BCE

2500-2350 BCE
conflict about a field
mainly Lagash point of view

ED IIIb

Period: 2450 BCE to 2350 BCE

Old Akkadian period

Period: 2350 BCE to 2200 BCE

EBA:
Characteristics:
- territorial state 'first empire'
- politically unstaple, military might
- deification of kings
- centralised admin
- standardised weights and mesurements
- language = akkadian
People:
- Sargon 'Sharru-kin': conquers Akkad and Sumer. first king.
- Enheduanna: daughter of Sargon. High pristess of Sin in Ur. First known Author in world history.
- Naram-sin: grandson of Sargon. deifies himself. 'king of the four quaters of teh universe'

finds of the akkadian period

2345 BCE

Naram-sin's victry stele: deification, Mountain people are conquered
Bassetki inscription: Naram-sin made patron deity
Votive disc of Enheduanna:
manishtushu's obelisk and stele:

First trade

2300 BCE

With Dilmun, Margan, and Melukha

the Great Rebellion

2230 BCE

against Naram-sin (2254-2218 BCE)
Mentioned on the bassetki inscription

Dark age

Period: 2200 BCE to 2112 BCE

Return to City-states of the ED period.
The Gutian period 2250-2150 BCE
- Gutian mountain tribes. slightly exaggerated by Ur III propaganda
Gudea of Lagash 2150-2120 BCE
- gudea cylinders - longest sumerian text - Lots of temples, 'sumerian' ruler

Ur III period

Period: 2112 BCE to 2004 BCE

EBA
Characteristics:
- Bureaucracy
- ziggurats
- Bala-tax
- administrative reforms
- lawcodes
- yearnames
- Language = sumerian People:
- Ur-nammu
- Shulgi
- Amar-sin
- Shu-sin
- Ibbi-sin

Finds of Ur III

2111 BCE

Almost 120,000 tablets
The Ziggurat of Ur (Ur-Nammu)
Ur-Nammu stele

Isin-Larsa period

Period: 2017 BCE to 1793 BCE

MBA
Characteristics:
- city-states in conflict with other city-states (southern mesopotamia)
- irrigation problems? People:
- Ishbi-erra: first king of Isin (2017-1985) general under ibbi-sin, then takes the power.
- Rim-sin: last king of Larsa (1822-1763) centralises the south, the longest reign in mesopotamia

the old Assyrian period

Period: 1975 BCE to 1725 BCE

MBA
Characteristics:
- trade!
- private family enterprises
- literate merchants and wives
- Anatolia is a bit of a mess (like southern mesopotamia)
- debt-slavery and cancellations

finds of the old Assyrian period

1974 BCE

ca. 20,000 Akkadian private letters
Karum Kanesh

diverging of canals

1900 BCE

Abi-sare, (1905-1895) king of Larsa openly attask Isin and tries to diverge canals to cut Isin off from the water surply.
not an exact date!

Kingdom of upper Mesopotamia

Period: 1808 BCE to 1760 BCE

MBA
Characteristics:
- centralised northern Mesopotamia
- shortlived territorial state
- borders Yamkhad and Eshnunna states People:
- Shamshi-adad (1808-1776)
- Yasmah-addu and Ishme-dagan: sons of Shamshi-adad, loses practically the whole thing except assur and Ekallatum
- Zimri-lim: kicks Yasmah-addu out of mari after Shamshi-adad dies.

Finds of the kingdom of upper mesopotamia

1804 BCE

the Mari archives:
- ca. 20,000 texts and over 1000 letters
- main source of political history of the time
- preserved cause Hammurabi sacked the shit out of the palace of Zimri-Lim

The Mari debagle

1795 BCE

Shamshi-adad conquers Mari in 1795 BCE from Sumu-yaman. installs his son Yasmar-addu as local ruler. his older son gets Ekallatum, while he himself stays in Shubal-enlil.
Royal letters seem to indicate that Yasmah-addu was bad at governing - hilarious letter to his father

Rimsin conquers Isin

1793 BCE

and centralises the south

the old Babylonian period

Period: 1792 BCE to 1595 BCE

MBA
Characteristics:
- territorial state
- mix of war and diplomacy
- math and science 'pythagorean theorem'
- increasing secular power
- privatisation of economy and debt-slavery
- amorite people:
- Hammurabi: king of Babylon (1792-1750) defeats Elam, Larsa, Eshnunna and Mari in 5 years. after his death, his successors quickly lost larger parts of the kingdom
- Mursili I of Hatti sacks babylon, ending the period, and is murdered when he goes home to Hattusha

Hammurabi conquers Larsa

1763 BCE

And everything else

scribal schools in Nippur

Period: 1740 BCE to 1720 BCE

The tiny period where most of the old babylonian school tablets are from.

Dark age 2.0

Period: 1595 BCE to 1475 BCE

very little textual evidence for about 100 years
migration to the north?
new peoples in the south - kassites?

the age of internationalization

Period: 1475 BCE to 1100 BCE

LBA
Characteristics:
- big states and big trade
- international correspondence
- chariotbased war
- internal struggles
- habiru refugees People:
- Tushratta of Mittani
- Kadashman-enlil I of Babylon
- Burnaburiash II of Babylon
- Kurigalsu II of Babylon
- Untash-napirisha of Elam
- Assur-uballit I of Assur
- Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assur
- Supiluliuma I of Hatti
- Hattusili III of Hatti
- Amenhotep III of Egypt
- Akhenaten of Egypt
- Ramses II of Egypt
- Nebuchadnesar of Isin

Finds of the LBA

1470 BCE

Amarna letters: 382. mostly egyptian vassal states to the farao
Tukulti-ninurta's cult pedestal and capital
Uluburun shipwreck
Kudurru-stones
Dur Kurigalzu ziggurat
Al Untash-napirisha ziggurat
Nuzi pottery
Idrimi of Alalakh statue
Texts
Hattusha and Yazilikaya in Anatolia

battle of kadesh

1274 BCE

between egypt and hatti
both claim they win in their propaganda, but egypt seems to have lost territorry in the levant after this so...
Ramses II and Muwatalli II

peace treaty

1259 BCE

between Egypt and Hatti
Very famous, copy in the FN
Ramses II and Hattusili III

Elam Raids Babylon

1155 BCE

Part of the greater bronze age collapse, that seems to put the eastern mediterranean to its knees.
Later Nebuchadnezzar I of Isin (1125-1104) raids Susa and takes back the statue of Marduk

Dark age 3.0

Period: 1100 BCE to 900 BCE

after the bronze age collapse everyone needs a break to get back on their feet.
Alphabetic scripts start to become a thing
We enter the iron age as well

the Neo-Assyrian empire

Period: 930 BCE to 612 BCE

IA
Characteristics:
- first real empire after todays standards
- expansionist: war and terror
- scholars, divination and astrology
- 3 phases: territorial 930-750; imperial 750-612; total collapse 612-600 BCE
- cultural mosaic in the levant people:
- Shalmaneser III
- Assurnasirpal II
- Esarhaddon
- Assurbanipal
- Sargon II
- Sennacherib

finds of neo-assyria

925 BCE

Kalhu/Nimrud: First capital. separate citadel and arsenal. pretty reliefs and gold finds in the tombs.
Shalmaneser's black obelisk and throne base.
The Balawat gates
Dur-Sharrukin/Khorsabad: second capital. built by Sargon II. reliefs
Nineveh: third capital. reliefs, library
Assur: religious capital
Essarhaddon's stele: conquering of Egypt

Sargon II dies

705 BCE

On the battlefield and his corpse is not recovered for burial - very unlucky/bad, so they move the capital away from Dur-Sharrukin

destruction of Lachish

701 BCE

Sennacherib lays siege to Jerusalem and destroys Lachish on that years campaign against Judea

assur-nadin-shumi dies

694 BCE

Sennacheric's oldest son Assur-nadin-shumi is taken to Elam and probably killed, so He makes his youngest his heir

Destruction of Babylon

689 BCE

Sennacherib raids Babylon, in retaliation for his murdered son.

conquering Memphis

671 BCE

Esarhaddon campaigns in upper Egypt and takes Memphis

campaigns in Egypt

667 BCE

in 667, 664-63 BCE Assurbanipal conquers his way down to thebes in Egypt

battle at the river Ulai

653 BCE

Assurbanipal fights the Elamites, and wins the battle. The reliefs from Nineveh are very detailed of what the Assyrian then do to the Elamite king's corpse.

the Neo-Babylonian period

Period: 626 BCE to 539 BCE

IA
Characteristics:
- Building activity
- deportations
- interest in the past
- socio-economics and law
- infrastructure
- conflicts with the levant
- chaldeans
- Language = aramaic
People:
- Nabopolassar
- Nebuchadnezzar II
- Nabonidus
The Egibi family

finds of the neo-bab

620 BCE

The E-temen-an-ki of babylon: the ziggurat + biblical tower of babel
The Ishtar gate: now in Berlin
Plenty of texts
Babylon
Taima Oasis

invasion of assyria

616 BCE

Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, invades Assyria

destruction of Assur

614 BCE

by the alliance of Babylon and the Medes

destruction of Nineveh

612 BCE

very thourough

The Babylonian exile

598 BCE

three deportations of the people from Jerusalem, making Nebuchadnezzar II the most famous of these king (the bible does not like him!)
first deportation in 598-97
2nd in 587-86
3rd in 582

Exile in Tayma

552 BCE

Nabonidus is exiled for 10 years in an oasis in Saudi-Arabia

persian conquest

539 BCE

Cyrus the great conquers Babylon

The Achaemenid period

Period: 539 BCE to 331 BCE

IA
Characteristics:
- different languages - old persian
- bad reputation cause of Orientalism
- satrapies: provinces People:
- Cyrus II
- Cambyses
- Darius I
- Xerxes
- Darius III

finds of the old persian period

535 BCE

The Cyrus Cylinder: royal inscription commemorating Cyrus' conquest of Babylon. paints nabonidus in a negative light and cyrus in a positive light - allowed the jewish people to return fromt their exile. Religious freedom, human rights?
Pasargadae: Cyrus' capital
Tomb of Cyrus in Pasargadae:
Behistun inscription: multilingual, helped with the decipherment of cuneiform
Persepolis: columns
Tombs of Darius and Xerxes

Conquest of Egypt

525 BCE

Cambyses conquers Egypt and then stays there instead of returning to persia

battle of Marathon

490 BCE

Darius invades Greece on a campaign, and they don't like it.

battles of Thermopylae and Salamis

480 BCE

Xerxes invades Greece and they still don't like it. The persian empire doesn't really expand west after that.

battle of Gaugamela

331 BCE

Darius III vs. Alexander the pretty alright