History of Assyria: Ashurbanipal’s Library and Gilgamesh

Episode 20: Ashurbanipal’s Library and Gilgamesh

Ancient Mesopotamia: Life in the Cradle of Civilization

Dr Amanda H Podany

Film Review

This lecture concerns the library Assyrian king Ashurbanipal II built at Nineveh (which became the Assyrian capitol in the 8th century BC) in 668 BC. Aside from his military conquest and his prowess in killing lions from his chariot, Ashurbanipal II is best known as an intellectual and arts patron. In addition to his ability to read Akkadian and the classical language Sumerian, he had specialized  knowledge of advanced mathematics and the interpretation of omens.

The library of Ashurbanipal II mainly contained texts about the interpretation of omens, although there also numerous texts concerning the most advanced medical knowledge. It also contained several copies of the Epic of Gilgamesh, the world’s oldest epic poem.

The Epic of Gilgamesh was already 500 years old when Ashurbanipal’s scribes made copies for his library. Gilgamesh was a real king (of Uruk in Sumeria) ruling somewhere around 2600 BC.

The poem concerns his friendship with a wild man named Enkidu. According to the myth, the latter was a wild man tamed by a prostitute. After Gilgamesh and Enkidu fight each other to a draw, they became fast friends and go off on adventures together. After they slay a ferocious creature named Humbaba, the goddess Ishtar falls in Enkidu with him. Infuriated by Enkidu’s rejection, she asks her father the moon god to send the Bull of Heaven after him. After Enkidu dies (as punishment for killing the Bull of Heaven), Gilgamesh is distraught. Determined to thwart off his own eventually death, he sees out Utnapishtim who has been rewarded with eternal life after saving his family from the Great Flood.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/video/5754238/5754280

Akkadia: The World’s First Empire

Episode 8: Lugalgagesi of Umma and Sargon of Kish

Ancient Mesopotamia: Life in the Cradle of Civilization

Dr Amanda H Podany

Film Review

This lecture concerns Mesopotamia’s most famous kings, Lugalgagesi of Umma and Sargon of Kish. Umma continued to have border wars with the city-state of Lagash (see
Mesopotamia’s First Kings/) for several centuries. Around 2350 BC, Lugalgagesi totally sacked Lagash, burning its temples, destroying its treasury and barley fields belonging to one of the temples.

After sacking Lagash, Lugalgagesi declared himself ruler of all the land between the Upper Sea (Mediterranean) and the Lower Sea (Persian Gulf). However in reality, he only controlled a confederation of six southern Mesopotamian city-states: Lagash, Umma, Uruk, Larson, Ur and Zabalam.

King Sargon of Kish* ended Lugalgagesi’s reign in 2334 BC after conquering the cities Lugalgagesi controlled and establishing the Akkadian empire (the world’s first).

The exploits of both kings were recorded in cuneiform script on clay tablets (in both Sumerian and Akkadian**). It was during this period that scribes began using cuneiform to record historical narratives (especially those of kings) as well as for keeping records of transactions.

Sargon is best known for establishing a well-functioning bureaucracy to govern the captured city-states, standardizing the writing system and establishing direct trade links with Dilman (modern day Bahrain) and the Indus Valley.

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

https://pukeariki.kanopy.com/video/lugalzagesi-umma-and-sargon-akkad

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*Like Moses, Sargon was the secret son of a princess who floated him down the river in a reed basket. He was rescued by a different queen who raised him as her own child.

**The wealthy elite of the Akkadian empire spoke both languages.

Uruk: The World’s First Big City

Uruk’s Colonies

Episode 5: Uruk: The World’s Biggest City

Ancient Mesopotamia: Life in the Cradle of Civilization

Dr Amanda H Podany

Film Review

Founded around 40000 BC, Uruk was the first large city in the world. A walled city, it was approximately 260 hectares (the size of a large university campus) and housed 25,000 residents. It had two distinct temple precincts, one dedicated to Inana, the goddess of love, and the other to Anu, the god of the heavens. Each took 100 years to build, and (to keep the population employed) citizens began rebuilding them once they were completed

The economy was mainly based on farming, with most residents owning or working on farms outside the city walls and coming into the city to sleep. With the invention of the plow (pulled by oxen or donkeys) farming became much more efficient. This period also saw the invention of the wheel, the pottery wheel, cylinder seals (used like a signature to authenticate documents), a primitive writing system arsenic bronze. Wealthy began using bronze tools (because they were stronger than stone) and bronze dishes instead of ceramic ones.

Irrigation canals were enlarge until they were enough to accommodate sailing vessels.

There is evidence of a centralized government in Uruk that lived more luxurious lives than commoners but no kings. Although most people were illiterate, central government used the new writing system extensively. Scribes who kept governmental records (on clay tablets) learned to write in special schools. Archeologists have discovered clay tablets with lexicons of the proto-cuneiform* words they were expected to learn. Many are bilingual, with Sumerian** and Akkadian** versions of each word.

Uruk had a string of colonies across Mesopotamia and modern-day Syria and Turkey. They gained some via conquest (the first evidence of Middle East warfare. Others were uninhabited land taken up by Uruk settlers. The main purpose of the colonies wasn’t subjugation and exploitation, as with modern colonialism, but to facilitate trade. There is evidence Uruk traded with Egypt during this period.

Elements of modern Western life that derive from fourth millennium Uruk include

• rectangular houses
• streets
• specialized rooms (ie kitchens)
• marriage
• laws
• courts
• armies
• diplomats
• burial of dead
• written language
• story telling

use of domesticated animals and plants to make clothes

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*Proto-cuneiform – earliest form of writing on Earth, consisting of pictographs or simple drawings.

**Sumerian – language of ancient Sumer (area of southern Mesopotamia from 4500-1900 BC), gradually replaced by Akkadian as a spoken language around 2000 BC, though it continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary and scientific language in Akkadian-speaking Mesopotamian states.

***Akkadian – east Semitic language, now extinct, spoken in ancient Mesopotamia (Akkad, Assyria, Isin, Larsa and Babylonia)/

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

https://pukeariki.kanopy.com/video/uruk-worlds-biggest-city