Mesopotamia: Wars and Coups in the Kingdom of Mari

Episode 13: Royalty and Palace Intrigue in Mari

Ancient Mesopotamia: Life in the Cradle of Civilization

Dr Amanda H Podany

Film Review

This lecture concerns successive kings who ruled Mari in Northern Mesopotamia. The kingdom is one of the most studied because the walls of the Mari palace remain intact, along with 22,000 clay tablets related to the administrative of successive regimes.

The first king mentioned is the Amorite Shamshi-Adad. After seizing the Mari throne, he ruled from 1809 to 1776 BC. Shamshi-Adad built an empire known as Ekallatum in northern Mesopotamia and parts of Syria out of seven or eight independent kingdoms that were constantly at war with each other. After his capitol Mari was briefly conquered by a neighboring king, he fled south into exile in Babylon. Following his return to Ekallatum, he recaptured all northern Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, as well as portions of Syria and Anatolia. He then granted himself the title “king of the universe.”

He made his two sons governors of two of the city-states he captured. His correspondence is extremely critical of his youngest son. He castigates him for indecisiveness and shoddy administrative skills, mistreatment of his second wife and excessive drinking and dancing with his servants.

Ekallatum collapsed early in the reign of his older son Ishme-Dagan, who inherited Shamshi-Adad’s. Zimri-Lim, the grandson of the former king, returned from exile to reclaim the throne.

In addition to the exterior walls of Zimri-Lim’s Mari palace, archeologists have also unearthed 22,000 clay tablets revealing the palace interior was divided into workshops, public spaces, bathrooms, as well as a throne room, an archives room, a temple and private living quarters for the royal family. The bathrooms had indoor plumbing for the toilets although bathtubs filled by hand.

The meticulous records that remain reveal that Zimri-Lim was a skilled warrior and meticulous administrator who left his wife Shiptu in charge when engaged in military campaigns. Many of her letters to him concern dreams, visions and prophecies that brought to bear on his military strategy.

Other letters found among the Mari tablets are from two of his daughters with extremely unhappy marriages.

Zimri-Lim was initially an ally of Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC) who ruled Babylon and the two kings supplied each other with troops in several battles. However somewhere between 1760-1757 BC, Hammarabi sacked Mari and burned Zimri-Lim’s palace, forcing it to be abandoned.

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://pukeariki.kanopy.com/video/royalty-and-palace-intrigue-mari

The Role of Refugees in Building the Babylonian Empire

Episode 12: Migrants and Old Assyrian Merchants

Ancient Mesopotamia: Life in the Cradle of Civilization

Dr Amanda H Podany

Film Review

This lecture mainly concerns the foreign refugees that settled n Mesopotamia during the Ur III period. These included the Eblaites from Ebla (west of the Euprates); the Hurrians (from Assyria); the Gutians (from the Zagras mountains on Iran’s western border); the Elamites (from Elam – now western Iran); and the Amorites (originating in the Levant but occupying large portions of southern Mesopotamia from 2000 to 15000 BC).

Only the Amorites, who repeatedly raided Mesopotamian crop land to pasture their herds, posed a serious threat to the Ur III dynasty. During the 21st century BC, King Shulgi and King Shu-Sin constructed one of the world’s first defensive walls to keep them out. This would prove ineffective. When Amorite kings eventually took power in central and northwest Mesopotamia, their territory included a previously insignificant area known as Babylon,

Hamurabi was one of these kings. In 1900 BC, Yamhad (Aleppo in modern day Syria) eventually emerged as the largest Babylonian (Amorite) kingdom.

During this period, Mesopotamia had between 70 and 100 separate kingdoms that  formed military alliances with other powerful kingdoms and engaged in near constant warfare.

King Gilgamesh, who ruled Uruk around 2500 BC, was celebrated in the Akkadian epic poem the Epic of Gilgamesh. According to Podany, his rule was a prelude to the very successful Old Babylonian Period.

Podany spends a significant portion of the lecture discussing the trading colony Assyrian immigrants established in 2000 BC in Kanash in Anatolia (modern day Turkey). The merchants originated from Ashur, the religious capitol of Assyria on the west bank of the Tigris. Ashur tradesmen (usually extended family members) transported tin and fine textiles via donkey caravans from Assyria to Kanash, which they traded for silver (the medium of exchange).

The film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://pukeariki.kanopy.com/video/migrants-and-old-assyrian-merchants

How Alexander’s Conquests Perpetuated Global Greek Influence

Episode 23: Alexander’s Conquests and Hellensim

The Big History of Civilizations (2016)

Dr Craig G Benjamin

Film Review

In this lecture, Benjamin explores how Alexander’s father, Phillip II transformed Macedonia from a rustic outpost to a cosmopolitan kingdom that captured military control of the entire Greek peninsula.

At 21, Alexander assumed the throne following his father’s assassination. A brilliant military strategist, in 334 BC Alexander marched east to conquer Persia and south to conquer Egypt (332 BC). After receiving a rapturous reception for ending Persian occupation, he appointed his boyhood friend Ptolemy to the Egyptian throne and marched into Mesopotamia, the economic heart of the Persian empire.

After conquering Samarkand (modern day Afghanistan) in 329 BC, he crossed the Hindu Kush mountains via the Kyber Pass into the Indus Valley. Although his troops rebelled against a further military push into India (327 BC), the limited excursion successfully opened India to Greek cultural and economic influence.

He withdrew from India to take up residence in Nebuchadnessar II’s palace in Babylon. He died at age 33 from excessive feasting and drinking.

Over the next 50 years, his generals divided up the massive Hellenistic empire he had created. Benjamin believes most modern day Greek influence stems from the half dozen or so Greek cities Alexander established and the generals who succeeded him. Alexandria in Egypt is an excellent example, with its large ethnically diverse population, its major sea trade and its stellar intelligentsia centered around the Alexandrian library.*

Major inventions stemming from this period include gears, screws, rotary mills, the water clock, the water organ, the torsion catapult, a chart to find prime numbers and pneumatics (the use of steam to operate machines and toys). The latter technology would vanish from human culture for 2,000 years until 1763 when James Watts invented the modern steam engine.

Benjamin identifies three major Greek philosophies arising during this period: epicureanism, stoicism and skepticism. The epicureans believed the greatest good was to seek modest, sustainable pleasure by understanding how the world works and limiting desires. The stoics believed that because so aspects of life are beyond human control, happiness is best achieved by aiming for moderation in all things. The skeptics taught that absolute knowledge is impossible.

Over time most Greek-controlled regions gained independence, including Bactria (Afghanistan), Persia and Egypt. Around 250 BC, the Greek city-states regained independence briefly prior to Roman conquest 100 years later. In Egypt, the Ptolemy dynasty ruled until 33 BC, when Egypt fell to Roman rule following Cleopatra’s suicide.

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*The Alexandrian library was destroyed by fire either by Julius Caesar (accidentally) in 48 BC, by the Roman emperor Aurelian in 275 AD, or the emperor Theodosius in 391 AD during his campaign to destroy all the empire’s pagan sites.

The film can be viewed free on Kanopy with a library card.

https://pukeariki.kanopy.com/video/alexanders-conquests-and-hellenism

Ancient History: The Innovations of Mesopotamia

The Sumerian Alphabet

Episode 6: The Innovations of Mesopotamia

The Big History of Civilizations (2016)

Dr Craig G Benjamin

Film Review

This lecture explores the major technological innovations produced by Sumer, the earliest civilization in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), which flourished between 2750 and 2150 BC. Sumer consisted of roughly a dozen city states. Six (Eridu, Kish, Ur, Uruk, Nippur and Babylon) are mentioned in the Old Testament.

Benjamin traces how initially these city-states were ruled (as were most towns and villages) by assemblies of leading male citizens elected for their seniority and status. In each instance, these leaders gave up their power to absolute leaders during periods of crisis. Because Sumer’s city-states were almost constantly at war, they all appointed kings, who in most cases granted themselves absolute power owing to their special relationship with the gods.*

In 2334 BCE, Sargon the Great overthrew the king of Kish, built a massive army and established the world’s first empire, comprising nearly all of Sumer.** The Akkadian Empire collapsed in 2150, in part from a mass uprising of its people and in part from and hostile nomadic invasions. Maintaining a large army is extremely expensive, and Sumerians became very resentful of the massive tribute (taxes) they were charged.

Among the important technologies to come out of Sumer were

• writing – dating from 3200 BC, the first written language involved the use of pictograms depicting animals, weapons and other goods accepted in tribute. Over 200 years, a written alphabet evolved in which letters represented speech sounds rather than objects. The first example of written literature (The Epic of Gilgamesh) dates from 2700 BC.
• the wheel – Benjamin and others speculate the first wheels were potters wheels turned on their side.
• bronze – an alloy made from combining tin and copper, bronze first appeared in 3000 BC. It was used mainly for swords, spears, shields, and armor, as well as jewelry for the ruling elite. A few wealthy farmers used bronze plows.
• shipbuilding – by 3000 BC Sumerian ships were were sturdy enough to sail from the Tigris/Euphrates rivers into the Persian Gulf, and by 2500 they were crossing the Arabian Sea to trade with civilizations in the Indus Valley (modern day Pakistan). Sumer exported woolen textiles, leather and jewelry and imported ivory, pearls and spices.

The Sumerian city-states were the first to demonstrate clear class stratification, consisting of

• kings and the military
• priests**
• nobles owning large tracts of land
• subsistence farmers
• slaves (in some places 50% of the urban population) – in most cases these were either war captives or subjects who couldn’t pay their debts.

Women lost considerable status with the rise of city-states, with most consigned to child rearing and housekeeping. A few were allowed to participate in public life as scribes, priestesses, midwives, shopkeepers and textile workers.

The cities of Sumer saw the first emergence of a middle class engaged in specialized labor and crafts (bronze metallurgy, scribes, potters, textile workers, merchants and traders

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*Sumerians believed all forces of nature had a spiritual aspect and named their first gods after them. In addition, each city-state had its own local god.

**At the peak of Sumerian civilization, Mesopotamia hosted a population of 100,000, the largest on the planet to that point.

This film can be viewed free on Kanopy.

https://pukeariki.kanopy.com/video/innovations-mesopotamia

Debt

Debt: the First 5,000 Years

by David Graeber

Book Review

The primary purpose of Debt: the First 5,000 Years is to correct the historical record concerning the origin of barter, coinage and credit. Incredibly well researched, anthropologist David Graeber’s book is a fascinating read. I found it extremely helpful in gaining some understanding of modern problems with debt and perpetual war. I was particularly intrigued to learn about the 2,600 year old link between war, debt and money creation, as well as the role of violent insurrection in shaping history. Ruling elites are terrified of insurrection. Throughout history, this fear has driven most major reforms.

Debunking Adam Smith

The conventional wisdom, which originates from Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, is that money (i.e. coins) originated out of barter relationships, and that paper money and credit replaced coins when trade became too large and complex to be conducted with coins. As Graeber ably demonstrates, Smith had it backwards. Not only was barter virtually non-existent in prehistoric societies, but coinage itself was an extremely late development. Virtual credit preceded coinage (and barter) by thousands of years in all early civilizations. What’s more, these complex credit-debt arrangements played a vital role in the development of traditional institutions, such as slavery, patriarchy, urbanization and organized religion.

The Myth of Barter

People didn’t barter in early hunter gatherer and agrarian societies because they didn’t need to. Well into the Middle Ages, basic needs were met by family and community mutual obligation networks. There was an expectation extended family, neighbors would provide what you couldn’t provide for yourself.

There was a vital need for credit, however, with the development of farms large enough to feed the entire community. According to archeological evidence, credit first developed around 5,000 years ago when farmers borrowed seed and farm implements from wealthy merchants and repaid the debt with a share of the harvest. When the harvest failed, they repaid it in sheep, goats and furniture. When that was gone, they sold their children and eventually themselves into slavery.

This scheme was difficult to enforce, as many indebted farmers either walked away from their land or launched violent insurgencies. In was for this reason that both Sumeria and early Chinese civilizations launched formal debt forgiveness schemes, in which people regained their lands and debt slaves were free to return to their lands.*

The first money (in the form of precious metals, shells or other tokens) was used to pay the bride price the groom paid the bride’s family, the blood debt incurred when someone was murdered and to buy someone out of slavery.

The Origin of Patriarchy

In the earliest Sumerian texts (3000-2500 BC), women appear as doctors, merchants, scribes and public officials and are free to participate in all aspects of public life. This changes over the next 1000 years, with women becoming closeted to protect the honor of their fathers and husbands. According to Graeber, this pressing need to protect a woman’s reputation arose from a reaction by agrarian peoples (such as the early Israelites) to urbanization and the prostitution that resulted from it. The rise of cities in Sumeria and Babylon was accompanied by the rise of numerous informal occupations – including prostitution – practiced by men and women who had fled slavery. Patriarchy arose simultaneously in ancient China for similar reasons.

War, Debt and Money

Coinage (gold, silver and bronze coins) arose simultaneously between 600 BC and 800 AD (aka the Axial Period) in Greece, Rome, the great plains of northern China and the Ganges Valley for precisely the same reason: it was impossible to finance war with local systems of credit.

In all three civilizations, the first coins were used to pay professional soldiers (aka mercenaries). This would lead to the first market economies, as soldiers spent their coins in local communities, as well as concepts of profit and debt interest. In fact, a vicious cycle was established whereby rulers tried to solve their debt problems through expansionist wars to acquire more land, resources and slaves. In every case, this strategy backfired and the wars only increased their indebtedness.

The appearance of coins and market economies also led to a backlash against materialism and preoccupation with money. All the world’s major philosophic tendencies (Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, prophetic Judaism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Jainism, Taoism, Christianity and Islam) arose during the Axial Period

This period also saw the rise of the first peace movements when early philosophers (eg Socrates and Plato) made common cause with rebels who opposed the violence of war and existing power relationships. According to Graeber these movements were remarkably successful in reducing the brutality and frequency of war. By 600 AD, slavery itself was virtually non-existent.

The Rise and Fall of Credit Economies

Following the fall of Rome, populations fled the cities and lived in smaller communities that reverted to credit economies. Gold and silver were used for temples and cathedrals, and only rich people had access to coins. All the major religions prohibited usury.

Money lending and banking arose to fund the Crusades, with the Knights Templar replacing Jewish moneylenders. After their persecution, torture and extermination by Phillip IV (due to the enormous debt he owed them), the latter were replaced by Venetian and Genoan bankers. The Italian bankers used municipal and government debt bonds as the chief instrument of exchange.

Around 1450, gold and silver bullion and coin (much of it from the New World) were re-introduced to finance vast empires and predatory warfare. This development was accompanied by the return of usury and debt slavery.

The Birth of Capitalism

Graeber defines capitalism as a gigantic credit/debt apparatus pumping maximum labor out of human beings to produce an ever expanding quantity of material goods. He dates its origin to around 1700 (six years after the Bank of England issued the first paper banknotes). Police, prisons and state sanctioned slavery were essential tools in achieving the phenomenal productivity needed to finance political systems based on continual war.

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*”Every seventh year you shall make a cancellation. The cancellation shall be as follows: every creditor is to release the debt he has owing to him by his neighbor” (Deuteronomy 15:1-3). Every 49 years came the Jubilee, when all family land was to be returned to its original owners, and even family members who had been sold as slaves set free (Leviticus 25:9).