1

early societies
i
Writing and City Life

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2 THEMES IN WORLD HISTORY

early societies

I
N this section, we will read about early societies which is
often traced to the beginnings of human existence,
from the remote past, millions of years ago. Your teachers
will inform you how humans first emerged in Africa and how
archaeologists have studied these early phases of history from
remains of bones and stone tools.
Archaeologists have made attempts to reconstruct the lives of
early people – to find out about the shelters in which they lived,
the food they ate by gathering plant produce and hunting animals,
and the ways in which they expressed themselves. Other
important developments included the use of fire and of language.
And, finally, you can find out whether the lives of people who live
by hunting and gathering today can help us to understand
the past.
Theme 1, included in the section, deals with some of the
earliest cities – those of Mesopotamia, present-day Iraq. These
cities developed around temples, and were centres of long-distance
trade. Archaeological evidence – remains of old settlements –
and an abundance of written material are used to reconstruct
the lives of the different people who lived there – craftspeople,
scribes, labourers, priests, kings and queens. You will notice
how pastoral people played an important role in some of these
towns. A question to think about is whether the many activities
that went on in cities would have been possible if writing had
not developed.
You may wonder as to how people who for millions of years
had lived in forests, in caves or temporary shelters and rock
shelters began to eventually live in villages and cities. Well, the
story is a long one and is related to several developments that
took place at least 5,000 years before the establishment of the
first cities.
One of the most far-reaching changes was the gradual shift
from nomadic life to settled agriculture, which began around

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 EARLY SOCIETIES 3

10,000 years ago. As you will be informed by your teacher, prior

to the adoption of agriculture, people had gathered plant produce
as a source of food. Slowly, they learnt more about different kinds
of plants – where they grew, the seasons when they bore fruit
and so on. From this, they learnt to grow plants. In West Asia,
wheat and barley, peas and various kinds of pulses were grown.
In East and Southeast Asia, the crops that grew easily were millet
and rice. Millet was also grown in Africa. Around the same time,
people learnt how to domesticate animals such as sheep, goat,
cattle, pig and donkey. Plant fibres such as cotton and flax, and
animal fibres such as wool were now woven into cloth. Somewhat
later, about 5,000 years ago, domesticated animals such as cattle
and donkeys were harnessed to ploughs and carts.
These developments led to other changes as well. When people
grew crops, they had to stay in the same place till the crops
ripened. So, settled life became more common. And with that,
people built more permanent structures in which to live.
This was also the time when some communities learnt how to
make earthen pots. These were used to store grain and other
produce, and to prepare and cook a variety of foods made from
the new grains that were cultivated. In fact, a great deal of
attention was given to processing foods to make them tasty and
digestible.
The way stone tools were made also changed. While earlier
methods of making tools continued, some tools and equipment
were now smoothened and polished by an elaborate process of
grinding. New equipment included mortars and pestles for
processing and grinding grain, as well as stone axes and hoes,
which were used to clear land for cultivation, as well as for digging
the earth to sow seeds.
In some areas, people learnt to tap the ores of metals such as
copper and tin. Sometimes, copper ores were collected and used
for their distinctive bluish-green colour. This prepared the way
for the more extensive use of metal for jewellery and for tools
subsequently.
There was also a growing familiarity with other kinds of produce
from distant lands (and seas). This included wood, stones,
including precious and semi-precious stones, metals and shell,
and obsidian (hardened) volcanic lava. Clearly, people were going
from place to place, carrying goods and ideas with them.
With increasing trade, the growth of villages and towns, and
the movements of people, in place of the small communities of
early people there now grew small states. While these changes
took place slowly, over several thousand years, the pace
quickened with the growth of the first cities. Also, the changes
had far-reaching consequences. Some scholars have described

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4 THEMES IN WORLD HISTORY

this as a revolution, as the lives of people were probably transformed

beyond recognition. Look out for continuities and changes as you
explore these two contrasting themes in early history.
Remember too, that we have selected only some examples of
early societies for detailed study. There were other kinds of early
societies, including farming communities and pastoral peoples.
And there were other peoples who were hunter-gatherers as well
as city dwellers, apart from the examples selected. Timeline I
gives you some hints about those societies and people.

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 T IMELINE - I 5

How to Read Timelines

You will find a timeline like this
one in every section. Timeline i
Each of these will indicate some of
the major processes and events in
world history. (6 MYA TO 1 BCE)
As you study the timelines,
remember—
• Processes through which
ordinary women and men have
shaped history are far more
difficult to date than events
such as a war between kings.
• Some dates may indicate the
beginning of a process, or when
it reaches maturation.
• Historians are constantly
revising dates in the light of
new evidence, or new ways of
assessing old data.
• While we have divided
the timelines on a geographical
basis as a matter of
convenience, actual historical
developments often transcend
these divisions.
• Also, there is a chronological
overlap in historical processes.
• Only some landmarks in human
history have been shown here –
we have highlighted the
processes dealt with in the This timeline focuses on the
themes that follow, which also
have separate timelines. emergence of humans and the
• Wherever you see a*, you will domestication of plants and animals.
also find an illustration related
to the date along the column. It highlights some major technological
• Blank spaces do not mean that developments such as the use of fire,
nothing was happening –
sometimes these indicate that metals, plough agriculture and the
we do not as yet know what
was happening. wheel. Other processes that are shown
• You will be lear ning mor e include the emergence of cities and the
about South Asian history in
general and Indian history in use of writing. You will also find
particular next year. The dates mention of some of the earliest
selected for South Asia
are only indicative of some empires – a theme that will be
of the developments in the
subcontinent. developed in Timeline II.

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 6 THEMES IN WORLD HISTORY

DATES AFRICA EUROPE

6 mya-500,000 BP Australopithecus fossils (5.6 mya)

Evidence of use of fire (1.4 mya)
500,000-150,000 BP Homo sapiens fossils (195,000 BP) Evidence of use of fire (400,000 BP)
150,000-50,000 BP
50,000-30,000 Homo sapiens fossils (40,000)
30,000-10,000 Paintings in caves/rock shelters (27,500) Paintings in caves/rock shelters
(especially France and Spain)
8000-7000 BCE
7000-6000 Domestication of cattle and dogs
6000-5000 Cultivation of wheat and barley (Greece)
5000-4000
4000-3000 Domestication of donkey, cultivation of Use of copper (Crete)
millet, use of copper
3000-2000 Plough agriculture, first kingdoms, cities, Domestication of horse (eastern Europe)
pyramids, calendar, hieroglyphic script*,
writing on papyrus (Egypt)
2000-1900 Cities, palaces, use of bronze, the potter’s
wheel, development of trade (Crete)
1900-1800
1800-1700
1700-1600 Development of a script (Crete)*
1600-1500
1500-1400 Use of glass bottles (Egypt)
1400-1300
1300-1200
1200-1100
1100-1000 Use of iron
1000-900
900-800 City of Carthage established in North
Africa by the Phoenicians from West Asia;
growing trade around the Mediterranean
800-700 Use of iron (Sudan) First Olympic games (Greece, 776 BCE)
700-600 Use of iron (Egypt)
600-500 Use of coins* (Greece); establishment of
the Roman republic (510 BCE)
500-400 Persians invade Egypt Establishment of a ‘democracy’ in Athens
(Greece)
400-300 Establishment of Alexandria, Egypt (332 Alexander of Macedonia conquers Egypt
BCE ), which becomes a major centre of and parts of West Asia (336-323 BCE)
learning
300-200
200-100
100-1 BCE

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 T IMELINE - I 7

DATES ASIA SOUTH ASIA

6mya-500,000 BP Use of fire (700,000 BP , China) Stone age site in Riwat (1,900,000 BP ,
Pakistan)
500,000-150,000 BP
150,000-50,000 BP Homo sapiens fossils (100,000 BP, West
Asia)
50,000-30,000 BP
30,000-10,000 BP Domestication of dog (14,000, West Asia) Cave paintings at Bhimbetka (Madhya
Pradesh); Homo sapiens fossils (25,500
BP , Sri Lanka)
8000-7000 BCE Domestication of sheep and goat,
cultivation of wheat and barley (West Asia)
7000-6000 Domestication of pig and cattle (West Early agricultural settlements (Baluchistan)
and East Asia)
6000-5000 Domestication of chicken, cultivation of
millet and yam (East Asia)
5000-4000 Cultivation of cotton (South Asia); use of
copper (West Asia)
4000-3000 Use of the potter’s wheel, wheel for Use of copper
transport (3600 BCE), writing (3200 BCE,
Mesopotamia), use of bronze
3000-2000 Plough agriculture, cities (Mesopotamia); silk- Cities of the Harappan civilisation, use of
making (China); domestication of horse (Central script* (c.2700 BCE)
Asia); cultivation of rice (Southeast Asia)
2000-1900 Domestication of water-buffalo (East Asia)
1900-1800
1800-1700
1700-1600
1600-1500 Cities, writing, kingdoms (Shang
dynasty), use of bronze (China)*
1500-1400 Use of iron (West Asia) Composition of the Rig Veda
1400-1300
1300-1200
1200-1100 Use of iron, megaliths (Deccan and South
India)
1100-1000 Domestication of the one-humped camel (Arabia)
1000-900
900-800
800-700
700-600
600-500 Use of coins (Turkey); Persian empire (546 Cities and states in several areas, first
BCE ) with capital at Persepolis; Chinese coins, spread of Jainism and Buddhism
philosopher Confucius (c. 551 BCE)
500-400
400-300 Establishment of the Mauryan empire
(c. 321 BCE)
300-200 Establishment of an empire in China (221
BCE ), beginning of the construction of the
Great Wall
200-100
100-1 BCE

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 8 THEMES IN WORLD HISTORY

DATES AMERICAS AUSTRALIA / PACIFIC ISLANDS

6 mya-500,000 BP
500,000-150,000 BP
150,000-50,000 BP
50,000-30,000 BP Homo sapiens fossils, earliest indications
of sea-faring (45,000 BP)

30,000-10,000 BP Homo sapiens fossils (12,000 BP ) Paintings (20,000 BP)

8000-7000 BCE
7000-6000 Cultivation of squash
6000-5000
5000-4000 Cultivation of beans ACTIVITY

4000-3000 Cultivation of cotton, bottle gourd Choose one date

3000-2000 Domestication of guinea pig, turkey,
from each of the
cultivation of maize six columns and
discuss the
2000-1900 Cultivation of potato, chilli * , cassava, possible
peanut, domestication of llama* and alpaca significance of
the process/
1900-1800 event for men
1800-1700
and women
living in the
1700-1600 region.
1600-1500
1500-1400
1400-1300
1300-1200
1200-1100 Olmec settlements around the Gulf of Settlements in Polynesia and Micronesia
Mexico, early temples and sculpture

1100-1000
1000-900 Development of a hieroglyphic script
900-800
800-700
700-600
600-500
500-400
400-300
300-200
200-100
100-1 BCE

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 9 THEME

writing and city life 1

CITY life began in Mesopotamia*, the land between the
Euphrates and the Tigris rivers that is now part of the
Republic of Iraq. Mesopotamian civilisation is known for its
prosperity, city life, its voluminous and rich literature and its
mathematics and astronomy. Mesopotamia’s writing system
and literature spread to the eastern Mediterranean, northern *The name
Syria, and Turkey after 2000 BCE, so that the kingdoms of Mesopotamia is
that entire region were writing to one another, and to the
derived from the
Pharaoh of Egypt, in the language and script of Mesopotamia.
Greek words mesos,
Here we shall explore the connection between city life and
meaning middle,
writing, and then look at some outcomes of a sustained
tradition of writing. and potamos,
In the beginning of recorded history, the land, mainly the meaning river.
urbanised south (see discussion below), was called Sumer
and Akkad. After 2000 BCE , when Babylon became an
important city, the term Babylonia was used for the southern
region. From about 1100 BCE, when the Assyrians established
their kingdom in the north, the region became known as
Assyria. The first known language of the land was Sumerian.
It was gradually replaced by Akkadian around 2400 BCE
when Akkadian speakers arrived. This language flourished
till about Alexander’s time (336-323 BCE), with some regional
changes occurring. From 1400 BCE, Aramaic also trickled in.
This language, similar to Hebrew, became widely spoken after
1000 BCE. It is still spoken in parts of Iraq.

Archaeology in Mesopotamia began in the 1840s. At one or

two sites (including Uruk and Mari, which we discuss below),
excavations continued for decades. (No Indian site has ever
seen such long-term projects.) Not only can we study
hundreds of Mesopotamian buildings, statues, ornaments,
graves, tools and seals as sources, there are thousands of
written documents.
Mesopotamia was important to Europeans because of
references to it in the Old Testament, the first part of the
Bible. For instance, the Book of Genesis of the Old Testament
refers to ‘Shimar’, meaning Sumer, as a land of brick-built
cities. T ravellers and scholars of Europe looked on
Mesopotamia as a kind of ancestral land, and when
archaeological work began in the area, there was an attempt
to prove the literal truth of the Old Testament.

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 10 THEMES IN WORLD HISTORY

According to the From the mid-nineteenth century there was no stopping the
Bible, the Flood was enthusiasm for exploring the ancient past of Mesopotamia. In
1873, a British newspaper funded an expedition of the British
meant to destroy
Museum to search for a tablet narrating the story of the Flood,
all life on earth.
mentioned in the Bible.
However, God chose
By the 1960s, it was understood that the stories of the
a man, Noah, to Old Testament were not literally true, but may have been
ensure that life ways of expressing memories about important changes in
could continue after history. Gradually, archaeological techniques became far
the Flood. Noah more sophisticated and refined. What is more, attention was
built a huge boat, directed to different questions, including reconstructing the
an ark. He took a lives of ordinary people. Establishing the literal truth of
pair each of all Biblical narratives receded into the background. Much of
known species of what we discuss subsequently in the chapter is based on
animals and birds these later studies.
on board the ark,
which survived the
Flood. There was a
strikingly similar
story in the
Mesopotamian
tradition, where the
principal character
was called Ziusudra
or Utnapishtim.

MAP 1: West Asia

ACTIVITY 1

Many societies
have myths
about floods.
These are often
ways of
preserving and
expressing
memories about
Mesopotamia and its Geography
important Iraq is a land of diverse environments. In the north-east lie green,
changes in undulating plains, gradually rising to tree-covered mountain ranges
history. Find out
with clear streams and wild flowers, with enough rainfall to grow crops.
more about
these, noting how
Here, agriculture began between 7000 and 6000 BCE. In the north,
life before and there is a stretch of upland called a steppe, where animal herding
after the flood is offers people a better livelihood than agriculture – after the winter
represented. rains, sheep and goats feed on the grasses and low shrubs that grow
here. To the east, tributaries of the Tigris provide routes of

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 WRITING AND CITY LIFE 11

communication into the mountains of Iran. The south is a desert

– and this is where the first cities and writing emerged (see below).
This desert could support cities because the rivers Euphrates
and Tigris, which rise in the northern mountains, carry loads of
silt (fine mud). When they flood or when their water is let out on
to the fields, fertile silt is deposited.

MAP 2: Mesopotamia:
Mountains, Steppe,
Desert, Irrigated
Zone of the South.

After the Euphrates has entered the desert, its water flows out
into small channels. These channels flood their banks and, in
the past, functioned as irrigation canals: water could be let into
the fields of wheat, barley, peas or lentils when necessary. Of all
ancient systems, that of the Roman Empire (Theme 3) included,
it was the agriculture of southern Mesopotamia that was the
most productive, even though the region did not have sufficient
rainfall to grow crops.
Not only agriculture, Mesopotamian sheep and goats that grazed
on the steppe, the north-eastern plains and the mountain slopes
(that is, on tracts too high for the rivers to flood and fertilise)
produced meat, milk and wool in abundance. Further, fish was
available in rivers and date-palms gave fruit in summer. Let us
not, however, make the mistake of thinking that cities grew simply
because of rural prosperity. We shall discuss other factors by
and by, but first let us be clear about city life.

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 12 THEMES IN WORLD HISTORY

The earliest cities in The Significance of Urbanism

Mesopotamia date
Cities and towns are not just places with large populations. It is
back to the bronze
when an economy develops in spheres other than food production
age, c.3000 BCE.
that it becomes an advantage for people to cluster in towns. Urban
Bronze is an alloy
of copper and tin.
economies comprise besides food production, trade, manufactures
Using bronze meant
and services. City people, thus, cease to be self-sufficient and
procuring these
depend on the products or services of other (city or village) people.
metals, often from There is continuous interaction among them. For instance, the
great distances. carver of a stone seal requires bronze tools that he himself cannot
Metal tools were make, and coloured stones for the seals that he does not know
necessary for where to get: his ‘specialisation’ is fine carving, not trading. The
accurate carpentry, bronze tool maker does not himself go out to get the metals,
drilling beads, copper and tin. Besides, he needs regular supplies of charcoal
carving stone seals, for fuel. The division of labour is a mark of urban life.
cutting shell for Further, there must be a social organisation in place. Fuel,
inlaid furniture, metal, various stones, wood, etc., come from many different places
etc. Mesopotamian for city manufacturers. Thus, organised trade and storage is
weapons were also needed. There are deliveries of grain and other food items from
of bronze – for the village to the city, and food supplies need to be stored and
example, the tips distributed. Besides, many different activities have to be
of the spears that coordinated: there must be not only stones but also bronze tools
you see in the and pots available for seal cutters. Obviously, in such a system
illustration on some people give commands that others obey, and urban
p. 18. economies often require the keeping of written records.

The Warka Head

This woman’s head was sculpted
in white marble at Uruk before
3000 BCE. The eyes and eyebrows
would probably have taken lapis
lazuli (blue) and shell (white) and
bitumen (black) inlays, respectively.
There is a groove along the top of
the head, perhaps for an
ornament. This is a world-famous
piece of sculpture, admired for the
ACTIVITY 2 delicate modelling of the woman’s
mouth, chin and cheeks. And it was
Discuss modelled in a hard stone that
whether city would have been imported from a
life would have distance.
been possible
without the Beginning with the procurement of
use of metals. stone, list all the specialists who
would be involved in the production of such a piece of sculpture.

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 WRITING AND CITY LIFE 13

Movement of Goods into Cities

However rich the food resources of Mesopotamia, its mineral
resources were few. Most parts of the south lacked stones for tools,
seals and jewels; the wood of the Iraqi date-palm and poplar was
not good enough for carts, cart wheels or boats; and there was no
metal for tools, vessels or ornaments. So we can surmise that the
ancient Mesopotamians could have traded their abundant textiles
and agricultural produce for wood, copper, tin, silver, gold, shell
and various stones from Turkey and Iran, or across the Gulf. These
latter regions had mineral resources, but much less scope for
agriculture. Regular exchanges – possible only when there was a
social organisation – to equip foreign expeditions and direct the
exchanges were initiated by the people of southern Mesopotamia.
Besides crafts, trade and services, efficient transport is also
important for urban development. If it takes too much time, or
too much animal feed, to carry grain or charcoal into cities on
pack animals or bullock carts, the city economy will not be viable.
The cheapest mode of transportation is, everywhere, over water.
River boats or barges loaded with sacks of grain are propelled by
the current of the river and/or wind, but when animals transport
goods, they need to be fed. The canals and natural
channels of ancient Mesopotamia were in fact routes of Clay tablets c.3200 BCE. Each
goods transport between large and small settlements, tablet is 3.5 cm or less in
and in the account on the city of Mari later in the chapter, height, with picture-like signs
the importance of the Euphrates as a ‘world route’ will (ox, fish, grain, boat) and
numbers ( )
become clear.

The Development of Writing

OX
All societies have languages in which certain spoken
sounds convey certain meanings. This is verbal
communication. Writing too is verbal communication –
but in a different way. When we talk about writing or a
script, we mean that spoken sounds
are represented in visible signs.
The first Mesopotamian tablets,
written around 3200 BCE, contained
picture-like signs and numbers. These GRAIN,
were about 5,000 lists of oxen, fish, bread FISH
loaves, etc. – lists of goods that were
brought into or distributed from the
temples of Uruk, a city in the south.
Clearly, writing began when society
needed to keep records of transactions NUMBERS,
– because in city life transactions BOAT
occurred at different times, and involved Cuneiform syllabic
signs.
many people and a variety of goods.

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 14 THEMES IN WORLD HISTORY

Mesopotamians wrote on tablets of clay. A scribe would wet

clay and pat it into a size he could hold comfortably in one hand.

A clay tablet written

on both sides in
cuneiform.
It is a mathematical
exercise – you can see
a triangle and lines
across the triangle on
the top of the obverse
side. You can see that
the letters have been
pressed into the clay.

He would carefully smoothen its surfaces. With the sharp end of

a reed cut obliquely, he would press wedge-shaped (‘cuneiform*’)
* Cuneiform is
derived from the signs on to the smoothened surface while it was still moist. Once
Latin words cuneus, dried in the sun, the clay would harden and tablets would be
meaning ‘wedge’ and almost as indestructible as pottery. When a written record of,
forma, meaning say, the delivery of pieces of metal had ceased to be relevant, the
‘shape’.
tablet was thrown away. Once the surface dried, signs could not
be pressed on to a tablet: so each transaction, however minor,
required a separate written tablet. This is why tablets occur by
the hundreds at Mesopotamian sites. And it is because of this
wealth of sources that we know so much more about Mesopotamia
than we do about contemporary India.
By 2600 BCE or so, the letters became cuneiform, and the
language was Sumerian. Writing was now used not only for keeping
records, but also for making dictionaries, giving legal validity to
land transfers, narrating the deeds of kings, and announcing the
changes a king had made in the customary laws of the land.
Sumerian, the earliest known language of Mesopotamia, was
gradually replaced after 2400 BCE by the Akkadian language.
Cuneiform writing in the Akkadian language continued in use
until the first century CE, that is, for more than 2,000 years.

The System of Writing

The sound that a cuneiform sign represented was not a single consonant
or vowel (such as m or a in the English alphabet), but syllables (say,-
put-,or-la-,or-in-). Thus, the signs that a Mesopotamian scribe had

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 WRITING AND CITY LIFE 15

to learn ran into hundreds, and he had to be able to handle a wet

tablet and get it written before it dried. So, writing was a skilled craft
but, more important, it was an enormous intellectual achievement,
conveying in visual form the system of sounds of a particular language.

Literacy
Very few Mesopotamians could read and write. Not only were
there hundreds of signs to learn, many of these were complex
(see p. 33). If a king could read, he made sure that this was
recorded in one of his boastful inscriptions! For the most part,
however, writing reflected the mode of speaking.
A letter from an official would have to be read out to the king. So it
would begin:
‘To my lord A, speak: … Thus says your servant B: … I have carried
out the work assigned to me ...’
A long mythical poem about creation ends thus:
‘Let these verses be held in remembrance and let the elder teach
them;
let the wise one and the scholar discuss them;
let the father repeat them to his sons;
let the ears of (even) the herdsman be opened to them.’

The Uses of Writing

The connection between city life, trade and writing is brought out in a
long Sumerian epic poem about Enmerkar, one of the earliest rulers of
Uruk. In Mesopotamian tradition, Uruk was the city par excellence,
often known simply as The City.
Enmerkar is associated with the organisation of the first trade of
Sumer: in the early days, the epic says, ‘trade was not known’.
Enmerkar wanted lapis lazuli and precious metals for the
beautification of a city temple and sent his messenger out to get
them from the chief of a very distant land called Aratta. ‘The
messenger heeded the word of the king. By night he went just by
the stars. By day, he would go by heaven’s sun divine. He had to go
up into the mountain ranges, and had to come down out of the
mountain ranges. The people of Susa (a city) below the mountains
saluted him like tiny mice*. Five mountain ranges, six mountain *The poet means
ranges, seven mountain ranges he crossed...’ that once the
messenger had
The messenger could not get the chief of Aratta to part with
climbed to a great
lapis lazuli or silver, and he had to make the long journey back height, everything
and forth, again and again, carrying threats and promises from appeared small in
the king of Uruk. Ultimately, the messenger ‘grew weary of mouth’. the valley far below.
He got all the messages mixed up. Then, ‘Enmerkar formed a clay
tablet in his hand, and he wrote the words down. In those days,
there had been no writing down of words on clay.’

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 16 THEMES IN WORLD HISTORY

Given the written tablet, ‘the ruler of Aratta examined the

*Cuneiform letters clay. The spoken words were nails*. His face was frowning. He
were wedge shaped, kept looking at the tablet.’
hence, like nails.
This should not be taken as the literal truth, but it can be inferred
that in Mesopotamian understanding it was kingship that organised
trade and writing. This poem also tells us that, besides being a means
of storing information and of sending messages afar, writing was seen
as a sign of the superiority of Mesopotamian urban culture.

Urbanisation in Southern Mesopotamia:

Temples and Kings
From 5000 BCE, settlements had begun to develop in southern
Mesopotamia. The earliest cities emerged from some of these
settlements. These were of various kinds: those that gradually developed
around temples; those that developed as centres of trade; and imperial
cities. It is cities of the first two kinds that will be discussed here.
Early settlers (their origins are unknown) began to build and rebuild
temples at selected spots in their villages. The earliest known temple
was a small shrine made of unbaked bricks. Temples were the residences
of various gods: of the Moon God of Ur, or of Inanna the Goddess of Love
and War. Constructed in brick, temples became larger over time, with
several rooms around open courtyards. Some of the
early ones were possibly not unlike the ordinary house
– for the temple was the house of a god. But temples
always had their outer walls going in and out at regular
intervals, which no ordinary building ever had.
The god was the focus of worship: to him or her
people brought grain, curd and fish (the floors of some
early temples had thick layers of fish bones). The god
was also the theoretical owner of the agricultural fields,
the fisheries, and the herds of the local community.
In time, the processing of produce (for example, oil
pressing, grain grinding, spinning, and the weaving
of woollen cloth) was also done in the temple. Organiser
of production at a level above the household, employer
of merchants and keeper of written records of
distributions and allotments of grain, plough animals,
bread, beer, fish, etc., the temple gradually developed
its activities and became the main urban institution.
But there was also another factor on the scene.
In spite of natural fertility, agriculture was subject
The earliest known to hazards. The natural outlet channels of the Euphrates would
temple of the south,
have too much water one year and flood the crops, and sometimes
c.5000 BCE (plan).
they would change course altogether. As the archaeological record
shows, villages were periodically relocated in Mesopotamian history.
There were man-made problems as well. Those who lived on the

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A temple of a later
period, c.3000 BCE,
with an open
courtyard and in-and-
out façade (as
excavated).

upstream stretches of a channel could divert so much water into

their fields that villages downstream were left without water. Or
they could neglect to clean out the silt from their stretch of the
channel, blocking the flow of water further down. So the early
Mesopotamian countryside saw repeated conflict over land and water.
When there was continuous warfare in a region, those chiefs
who had been successful in war could oblige their followers by
distributing the loot, and could take prisoners from the defeated
groups to employ as their guards or servants. So they could
increase their influence and clout. Such war leaders, however,
would be here today and gone tomorrow – until a time came
when such leadership came to increase the well-being of the
community with the creation of new institutions or practices. In
time, victorious chiefs began to offer precious booty to the gods
and thus beautify the community’s temples. They would send
men out to fetch fine stones and metal for the benefit of the god
and community and organise the distribution of temple wealth in
an efficient way by accounting for things that came in and went
out. As the poem about Enmerkar shows, this gave the king high
status and the authority to command the community.
We can imagine a mutually reinforcing cycle of development in
which leaders encouraged the settlement of villagers close to
themselves, to be able to rapidly get an army together. Besides,
people would be safe living in close proximity to one another. At
Uruk, one of the earliest temple towns, we find depictions of armed
heroes and their victims, and careful archaeological surveys have
shown that around 3000 BCE, when Uruk grew to the enormous
extent of 250 hectares – twice as large as Mohenjo-daro would be in
later centuries – dozens of small villages were deserted. There had

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been a major population shift. Significantly, Uruk also came to

have a defensive wall at a very early date. The site was
continuously occupied from about 4200 BCE to about 400 CE,
and by about 2800 BCE it had expanded to 400 hectares.
War captives and local people were put to work for
the temple, or directly for the ruler. This, rather than
agricultural tax, was compulsory. Those who were put
to work were paid rations. Hundreds of ration lists
have been found, which give, against people’s names,
the quantities of grain, cloth or oil allotted to them. It
has been estimated that one of the temples took 1,500
men working 10 hours a day, five years to build.
With rulers commanding people to fetch stones or
metal ores, to come and make bricks or lay the bricks
for a temple, or else to go to a distant country to fetch
suitable materials, there were also technical advances
at Uruk around 3000 BCE. Bronze tools came into use for
various crafts. Architects learnt to construct brick
Top: Basalt columns, there being no suitable wood to bear the weight of
stele* showing a the roof of large halls.
bearded man twice.
Note his headband Hundreds of people were put to work at making and baking
and hair, waistband clay cones that could be pushed into temple walls, painted in
and long skirt. In the different colours, creating a colourful mosaic. In sculpture,
lower scene he attacks there were superb achievements, not in easily available clay
a lion with a huge bow
but in imported stone. And then there was a technological
and arrow. In the
scene above, the hero landmark that we can say is appropriate to an urban economy:
finally kills the the potter’s wheel. In the long run, the wheel enables a potter’s
rampant lion with a workshop to ‘mass produce’ dozens of similar pots at a time.
spear (c.3200 BCE).

*Steles Impression of a cylinder seal, c.3200 BCE. The bearded and armed standing figure
are stone slabs with is similar in dress and hairstyle to the hero in the stele* shown above.
inscriptions or Note three prisoners of war, their arms bound, and a fourth man beseeching the
carvings. war leader.

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The Seal – An Urban Artefact

In India, early stone seals were stamped. In Mesopotamia until
the end of the first millennium BCE, cylindrical stone seals, pierced
down the centre, were fitted with a stick and rolled over wet clay
so that a continuous picture was created. They were carved by
very skilled craftsmen, and sometimes carry writing: the name
of the owner, his god, his official position, etc. A seal could be
rolled on clay covering the string knot of a cloth package or the
mouth of a pot, keeping the contents safe. When rolled on a letter
written on a clay tablet, it became a mark of authenticity. So the
seal was the mark of a city dweller’s role in public life.

Five early cylinder seals and their impressions.

Describe what you see in each of the impressions. Is the cuneiform
script shown on them?

Life in the City

What we have seen is that a ruling elite had emerged: a small
section of society had a major share of the wealth. Nothing makes
this fact as clear as the enormous riches (jewellery, gold vessels,
wooden musical instruments inlaid with white shell and lapis
lazuli, ceremonial daggers of gold, etc.) buried with some kings
and queens at Ur. But what of the ordinary people?
We know from the legal texts (disputes, inheritance matters, etc.)
that in Mesopotamian society the nuclear family* was the norm, *A nuclear family
although a married son and his family often resided with his parents. comprises a man,
his wife and
The father was the head of the family. We know a little about the
children.
procedures for marriage. A declaration was made about the
willingness to marry, the bride’s parents giving their consent to the
marriage. Then a gift was given by the groom’s people to the bride’s

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people. When the wedding took place, gifts were exchanged by both
parties, who ate together and made offerings in a temple. When her
mother-in-law came to fetch her, the bride was given her share of
the inheritance by her father. The father’s house, herds, fields,
etc., were inherited by the sons.
Let us look at Ur, one of the earliest cities to have been excavated.
Ur was a town whose ordinary houses were systematically
excavated in the 1930s. Narrow winding streets indicate that
wheeled carts could not have reached many of the houses. Sacks
of grain and firewood would have arrived on donkey-back. Narrow
winding streets and the irregular shapes of house plots also
indicate an absence of town planning. There were no street drains
of the kind we find in contemporary Mohenjo-daro. Drains and
*A sump is a covered
basin in the ground
clay pipes were instead found in the inner courtyards
into which water and of the Ur houses and it is thought that house roofs sloped
sewage flow. inwards and rainwater was channelled via the drainpipes
into sumps* in the inner courtyards. This would have been a way
of preventing the unpaved streets
A residential area
at Ur, c. 2000 BCE. from becoming excessively slushy
Can you locate, after a downpour.
besides the Yet people seem to have swept
winding streets, all their household refuse into the
two or three blind
streets, to be trodden underfoot!
alleys?
This made street levels rise, and
over time the thresholds of houses
had also to be raised so that no
mud would flow inside after the
rains. Light came into the rooms
not from windows but from
doorways opening into the
courtyards: this would also have
given families their privacy. There
were superstitions about houses,
recorded in omen tablets at Ur: a
raised threshold brought wealth;
a front door that did not open
towards another house was lucky;
but if the main wooden door of a
house opened outwards (instead
of inwards), the wife would be a
torment to her husband!
There was a town cemetery at
Ur in which the graves of royalty
and commoners have been
found, but a few individuals were
found buried under the floors of
ordinary houses.

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A Trading Town in a Pastoral Zone MAP 3: The Location

of Mari
After 2000 BCE the royal capital of Mari
flourished. You will have noticed (see Map
2) that Mari stands not on the southern
plain with its highly productive
agriculture but much further upstream
on the Euphrates. Map 3 with its colour
coding shows that agriculture and animal
rearing were carried out close to each
other in this region. Some communities
in the kingdom of Mari had both farmers
and pastoralists, but most of its territory
was used for pasturing sheep and goats.
Herders need to exchange young animals,
cheese, leather and meat in return for grain,
metal tools, etc., and the manure of a
penned flock is also of great use to a farmer.
Yet, at the same time, there may be conflict.
A shepherd may take his flock to water
across a sown field, to the ruin of the crop.
Herdsmen being mobile can raid
agricultural villages and seize their stored
goods. For their part, settled groups may
deny pastoralists access to river and canal
water along a certain set of paths.
Through Mesopotamian history,
nomadic communities of the western desert filtered
into the prosperous agricultural heartland. Shepherds
would bring their flocks into the sown area in the
summer. Such groups would come in as herders,
harvest labourers or hired soldiers, occasionally
become prosperous, and settle down. A few gained
the power to establish their own rule. These included
the Akkadians, Amorites, Assyrians and Aramaeans.
(You will read more about rulers from pastoral societies
in Theme 3.) The kings of Mari were Amorites whose
dress differed from that of the original inhabitants
and who respected not only the gods of Mesopotamia
but also raised a temple at Mari for Dagan, god of the
steppe. Mesopotamian society and culture were thus
open to different people and cultures, and the vitality
of the civilisation was perhaps due to this intermixture.

A warrior holding a long spear and a wicker shield.

Note the dress, typical of Amorites, and different from
that of the Sumerian warrior shown on p. 18. This
picture was incised on shell, c.2600 BCE.

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The Palace at Mari of King Zimrilim (1810-1760 BCE)

Throne room

Audience hall (132)

Inner court
(106)
Outer court (131)

Entrance gate
Well

Scribes’ office with benches and clay bins for

Courtyard 131 storing tablets

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The Palace at Mari of King

Zimrilim (1810-1760 BCE)
The great palace of Mari was
the residence of the royal
family, the hub of
administration, and a place
of production, especially of
Workshops and precious metal ornaments.
kitchen It was so famous in its time
that a minor king came
from north Syria just to see
Kitchen it, carrying with him a letter
of introduction from a royal
friend of the king of Mari,
Zimrilim. Daily lists reveal
that huge quantities of food
were presented each day for
the king’s table: flour,
Royal bread, meat, fish, fruit, beer
suite and wine. He probably ate in
the company of many others,
in or around courtyard 106,
paved white. You will notice
from the plan that the palace
Lavatory
had only one entrance, on the
and
bath
north. The large, open
courtyards such as 131 were
beautifully paved. The king
would have received foreign
dignitaries and his own people
in 132, a room with wall
paintings that would have
awed the visitors. The palace
was a sprawling structure,
with 260 rooms and covered
an area of 2.4 hectares.

ACTIVITY 3

Trace the route from the

entrance to the inner court.
What do you think would
have been kept in the
Painting on wall of 132 storerooms?
How has the kitchen been
identified?

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The kings of Mari, however, had to be vigilant; herders of

various tribes were allowed to move in the kingdom, but they
were watched. The camps of herders are mentioned frequently
in letters between kings and officials. In one letter, an officer
writes to the king that he has been seeing frequent fire signals
at night – sent by one camp to another – and he suspects
that a raid or an attack is being planned.
Located on the Euphrates in a prime position for trade – in
wood, copper, tin, oil, wine, and various other goods that were
carried in boats along the Euphrates – between the south and
the mineral-rich uplands of Turkey, Syria and Lebanon, Mari is
a good example of an urban centre prospering on trade. Boats
carrying grinding stones, wood, and wine and oil jars, would stop
at Mari on their way to the southern cities. Officers of this town
would go aboard, inspect the cargo (a single river boat could hold
300 wine jars), and levy a charge of about one-tenth the value of
the goods before allowing the boat to continue downstream. Barley
came in special grain boats. Most important, tablets refer to
copper from ‘Alashiya’, the island of Cyprus, known for its copper,
and tin was also an item of trade. As bronze was the main
industrial material for tools and weapons, this trade was of great
importance. Thus, although the kingdom of Mari was not militarily
strong, it was exceptionally prosperous.

Excavating Mesopotamian Towns

Today, Mesopotamian excavators have much higher standards of accuracy and care in
recording than in the old days, so that few dig huge areas the way Ur was excavated.
Moreover, few archaeologists have the funds to employ large teams of excavators.
Thus, the mode of obtaining data has changed.
Take the small town at Abu Salabikh, about 10 hectares in area in 2500 BCE with a
population less than 10,000. The outlines of walls were at first traced by scraping
surfaces. This involves scraping off the top few millimetres of the mound with the
sharp and wide end of a shovel or other tool. While the soil underneath was still slightly
moist, the archaeologist could make out different colours, textures and lines of brick
walls or pits or other features. A few houses that were discovered were excavated. The
archaeologists also sieved through tons of earth to recover plant and animal remains,
and in the process identified many species of plants and animals and found large
quantities of charred fish bones that had been swept out on to the streets. Plant seeds
and fibre remained after dung cakes had been burned as fuel and thus kitchens were
identified. Living rooms were those with fewer traces. Because they found the teeth of
very young pigs on the streets, archaeologists concluded that pigs must have roamed
freely here as in any other Mesopotamian town. In fact, one house burial contained
some pig bones – the dead person must have been given some pork for his nourishment
in the afterlife! The archaeologists also made microscopic studies of room floors to
decide which rooms in a house were roofed (with poplar logs, palm leaves, straw, etc.)
and which were open to the sky.

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Cities in Mesopotamian Culture

Mesopotamians valued city life in which people of many
communities and cultures lived side by side. After cities were
destroyed in war, they recalled them in poetry.
The most poignant reminder to us of the pride Mesopotamians
took in their cities comes at the end of the Gilgamesh Epic,
which was written on twelve tablets. Gilgamesh is said to have
ruled the city of Uruk some time after Enmerkar. A great hero
who subdued people far and wide, he got a shock when his
heroic friend died. He then set out to find the secret of
immortality, crossing the waters that surround the world. After
a heroic attempt, Gilgamesh failed, and returned to Uruk. There,
he consoled himself by walking along the city wall, back and
forth. He admired the foundations made of fired bricks that he
had put into place. It is on the city wall of Uruk that the long
tale of heroism and endeavour fizzles out. Gilgamesh does not
say that even though he will die his sons will outlive him, as a
tribal hero would have done. He takes consolation in the city
that his people had built.

The Legacy of Writing

While moving narratives can be transmitted orally, science
requires written texts that generations of scholars can read and
build upon. Perhaps the greatest legacy of Mesopotamia to the
world is its scholarly tradition of time reckoning and mathematics.
Dating around 1800 BCE are tablets with multiplication and
division tables, square- and square-root tables, and tables of
compound interest. The square root of 2 was given as:
1 + 24/60 + 51/602 + 10/603
If you work this out, you will find that the answer is 1.41421296, only
slightly different from the correct answer, 1.41421356. Students had
to solve problems such as the following: a field of area such and such
is covered one finger deep in water; find out the volume of water.
The division of the year into 12 months according to the
revolution of the moon around the earth, the division of the month
into four weeks, the day into 24 hours, and the hour into 60
minutes – all that we take for granted in our daily lives – has
come to us from the Mesopotamians. These time divisions were
adopted by the successors of Alexander and from there transmitted
to the Roman world, then to the world of Islam, and then to
medieval Europe (see Theme 5 for how this happened).
Whenever solar and lunar eclipses were observed, their
occurrence was noted according to year, month and day. So
too there were records about the observed positions of stars
and constellations in the night sky.

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None of these momentous Mesopotamian achievements would

have been possible without writing and the urban institution of
schools, where students read and copied earlier written tablets,
and where some boys were trained to become not record keepers
for the administration, but intellectuals who could build on the
work of their predecessors.
We would be mistaken if we think that the preoccupation with
the urban world of Mesopotamia is a modern phenomenon. Let
us look, finally, at two early attempts to locate and preserve the
texts and traditions of the past.

An Early Library
In the iron age, the Assyrians of the north created an empire, at its height
between 720 and 610 BCE, that stretched as far west as Egypt. The state
economy was now a predatory one, extracting labour and tribute in the
form of food, animals, metal and craft items from a vast subject population.
The great Assyrian kings, who had been immigrants, acknowledged
the southern region, Babylonia, as the centre of high culture and the last
of them, Assurbanipal (668-627 BCE), collected a library at his capital,
Nineveh in the north. He made great efforts to gather tablets on history,
epics, omen literature, astrology, hymns and poems. He sent his scribes
south to find old tablets. Because scribes in the south were trained to read
and write in schools where they all had to copy tablets by the dozen, there
were towns in Babylonia where huge collections of tablets were created
and acquired fame. And although Sumerian ceased to be spoken after about
1800 BCE, it continued to be taught in schools, through vocabulary texts,
sign lists, bilingual (Sumerian and Akkadian) tablets, etc. So even in 650
BCE, cuneiform tablets written as far back as 2000 BCE were intelligible –
and Assurbanipal’s men knew where to look for early tablets or their copies.
Copies were made of important texts such as the Epic of Gilgamesh,
the copier stating his name and writing the date. Some tablets ended
with a reference to Assurbanipal:
‘I, Assurbanipal, king of the universe, king of Assyria, on whom the gods
bestowed vast intelligence, who could acquire the recondite details of
scholarly erudition, I wrote down on tablets the wisdom of the gods …
And I checked and collated the tablets. I placed them for the future in the
library of the temple of my god, Nabu, at Nineveh, for my life and the
well-being of my soul, and to sustain the foundations of my royal throne…’
More important, there was cataloguing: a basket of tablets would have a
clay label that read: ‘n number of tablets about exorcism, written by X’.
Assurbanipal’s library had a total of some 1,000 texts, amounting to about
30,000 tablets, grouped according to subject.

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And, an Early Archaeologist!

A man of the southern marshes, Nabopolassar, released Babylonia from
Assyrian domination in 625 BCE. His successors increased their territory
and organised building projects at Babylon. From that time, even after
the Achaemenids of Iran conquered Babylon in 539 BCE and until 331
BCE when Alexander conquered Babylon, Babylon was the premier city
of the world, more than 850 hectares, with a triple wall, great palaces
and temples, a ziggurat or stepped tower, and a processional way to the
ritual centre. Its trading houses had widespread dealings and its
mathematicians and astronomers made some new discoveries.
Nabonidus was the last ruler of independent Babylon. He writes that
the god of Ur came to him in a dream and ordered him to appoint a
priestess to take charge of the cult in that ancient town in the deep
south. He writes:
‘Because for a very long time the office of High Priestess had been forgotten,
her characteristic features nowhere indicated, I bethought myself day after
day …’
Then, he says, he found the stele of a very early king whom we today
date to about 1150 BCE and saw on that stele the carved image of the Priestess.
He observed the clothing and the jewellery that was depicted. This is how
he was able to dress his daughter for her consecration as Priestess.
On another occasion, Nabonidus’s men brought to him a broken statue
inscribed with the name of Sargon, king of Akkad. (We know today that
the latter ruled around 2370 BCE .) Nabonidus, and indeed many
intellectuals, had heard of this great king of remote times. Nabonidus
felt he had to repair the statue. ‘Because of my reverence for the gods
and respect for kingship,’ he writes, ‘I summoned skilled craftsmen, and
replaced the head.’
ACTIVITY 4

Why do you think

Assurbanipal and
Nabonidus
cherished early
Mesopotamian
traditions?

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TIMELINE
c. 7000-6000 BCE Beginning of agriculture in the northern Mesopotamian plains
c. 5000 BCE Earliest temples in southern Mesopotamia built
c. 3200 BCE First writing in Mesopotamia
c. 3000 BCE Uruk develops into a huge city, increasing use of bronze tools
c. 2700-2500 BCE Early kings, including, possibly, the legendary ruler Gilgamesh
c. 2600 BCE Development of the cuneiform script
c. 2400 BCE Replacement of Sumerian by Akkadian
2370 BCE Sargon, king of Akkad
c. 2000 BCE Spread of cuneiform writing to Syria, Turkey and Egypt;
Mari and Babylon emerge as important urban centres
c.1800 BCE Mathematical texts composed; Sumerian no longer spoken
c.1100 BCE Establishment of the Assyrian kingdom
c. 1000 BCE Use of iron
720-610 BCE Assyrian empire
668-627 BCE Rule of Assurbanipal
331 BCE Alexander conquers Bablyon
c. 1st century CE Akkadian and cuneiform remain in use
1850s Decipherment of the cuneiform script

Exercises
ANSWER IN BRIEF

1. Why do we say that it was not natural fertility and high levels of food
production that were the causes of early urbanisation?
2. Which of the following were necessary conditions and which the causes,
of early urbanisation, and which would you say were the outcome of the
growth of cities:
(a) highly productive agriculture, (b) water transport, (c) the lack of metal
and stone, (d) the division of labour, (e) the use of seals, (f) the military
power of kings that made labour compulsory?
3. Why were mobile animal herders not necessarily a threat to town life?
4. Why would the early temple have been much like a house?

ANSWER IN A SHORT ESSAY

5. Of the new institutions that came into being once city life had begun,
which would have depended on the initiative of the king?
6. What do ancient stories tell us about the civilisation of Mesopotamia?

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