History and Culture of the Ancient Near East
General historical timeline
3350-3100 BCE: Uruk IV / Late Uruk period
3100-2900 BCE: Jemdet Nasr period
2900-2350 BCE: Early Dynastic period
2350-2150 BCE: Old Akkadian period
2100-2000 BCE: Ur III period
2000-1600 BCE: Old Assyrian / Babylonian periods
1650-1180 BCE: Hittite kingdom (1650-1400 Old Kingdom, 1400-1180 New Kingdom / Empire)
1600-1150 BCE: Middle Babylonian period (1400 Kassite)
1400-950 BCE: Middle Assyrian period
950-612 BCE: Neo-Assyrian period
627-539 BCE: Neo-Babylonian period
538-331 BCE: Persian period
331 BCE: Hellenistic period
Geography of Mesopotamia
North: Assyria South: Sumer / Babylonia
Mountainous Fertile
Fast and fierce flow of rivers Calm and lavish flow of rivers
Clay was the basic raw material in Mesopotamia, which they used to build houses and monumental
buildings but also to write on.
The ‘Neolothic / Agricultural Revolution’ (10000 BCE)
The agricultural revolution around 10000 BCE took place in the Neolithic period and is the transition from
a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a sedentary lifestyle. It includes generating control over nature, storage and
accumulation of surpluses, development of agriculture and food production, domestication of animals,
plants and crops and an increase in demography and the social complexity.
Early key sites
Göblekli Tepe (9000 BCE)
- Is located in the south-east of Anatolia (which is modern Turkey, near Urfa)
- Göblekli Tepe was a cult center with a monumental building
- Predates by millennia any other known similar sites
Çatalhöyük (7000-6000 BCE)
- Is located in the south/central Anatolia (which is modern Turkey, the Konya plain)
- One of the earliest ‘cities’ in human history
- Catalhöyük was a cult center and possibly a fertility cult due to ‘mother goddess’ figurines.
Main prehistoric periods / cultures
Halaf (6000-5000 BCE)
- Located in North Mesopotamia / Syria
, - Unique nude female figurines (possible connection to fertility)
- Tell Brak is the key site
Ubaid (6000-4000 BCE)
- Located in South Mesopotamia, later also the North
- Social differentiation (visible in varying house sizes)
- Temples
- Eridu is the key site
Uruk ‘phenomenon’ (4000-3000 BCE)
- Located in the South-East of Mesopotamia
- Urbanization
- Innovations such as writing
- Social complexity (hierarchy, specialization)
- Trade with standardized wheel-made ‘Uruk-bowls’
- Uruk is the key site
Invention of cuneiform writing
1. Tokens representing commercial products
2. Tokens stored in a sphere, which is a sealed clay envelope
3. Seal impression incised on sphere to guarantee authenticity
4. Comparing content of sphere with seal details
5. Tokens are superfluous, a seal is enough
6. Drawing of ideas on clay tablets
7. Creation of syllabary
The rebus principle: Homophony enables the creations of ideograms.
The Uruk IV period (3350-3100 BCE)
- Also known as ‘late Uruk’ or the ‘Uruk phenomenon’
- Followed by the ‘Jemdet Nasr’ transition period of relative decline, leading to the Early Dynastic period
- The beginning of (proto-cuneiform) writing
- Monumental buildings and institutionalized religion, there were large temples where deities were
worshipped such as the Eanna temple of Inanna, the ‘White Temple’
- There was mosaic wall decoration using colored stones in the form of cones
- It ends around 3100 BCE for unknown reasons. The sites are deserted, the Uruk-traditions are
abandoned and the monumental buildings in Uruk are destroyed. Other cities become larger, which
probably led to Uruk’s loss of hegemony.
The Early Dynastic period (2900-2350 BCE)
- Succeeded the ‘Jemdet Nasr’ transition period of relative decline
- Began due to population growth: probably immigrations or nomads settling
- Emergence of the first city-states: constant interaction and sometimes conflicts
- Many local archives with hundreds or thousands of texts in each. These were mostly administrative texts
but also royal inscriptions. Royal inscriptions attest to historical events: building enterprises, wars and
dynasties, which gave the period its name. Examples are the Umma-Lagash conflict and the Reforms of
Uruinimgina.
- It ends around 2350 through a process of military unification: Lugalzagesi of Umma conquered Ur, Uruk
and Lagash and established a large kingdom of Sumerian cities under one rule.
General historical timeline
3350-3100 BCE: Uruk IV / Late Uruk period
3100-2900 BCE: Jemdet Nasr period
2900-2350 BCE: Early Dynastic period
2350-2150 BCE: Old Akkadian period
2100-2000 BCE: Ur III period
2000-1600 BCE: Old Assyrian / Babylonian periods
1650-1180 BCE: Hittite kingdom (1650-1400 Old Kingdom, 1400-1180 New Kingdom / Empire)
1600-1150 BCE: Middle Babylonian period (1400 Kassite)
1400-950 BCE: Middle Assyrian period
950-612 BCE: Neo-Assyrian period
627-539 BCE: Neo-Babylonian period
538-331 BCE: Persian period
331 BCE: Hellenistic period
Geography of Mesopotamia
North: Assyria South: Sumer / Babylonia
Mountainous Fertile
Fast and fierce flow of rivers Calm and lavish flow of rivers
Clay was the basic raw material in Mesopotamia, which they used to build houses and monumental
buildings but also to write on.
The ‘Neolothic / Agricultural Revolution’ (10000 BCE)
The agricultural revolution around 10000 BCE took place in the Neolithic period and is the transition from
a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a sedentary lifestyle. It includes generating control over nature, storage and
accumulation of surpluses, development of agriculture and food production, domestication of animals,
plants and crops and an increase in demography and the social complexity.
Early key sites
Göblekli Tepe (9000 BCE)
- Is located in the south-east of Anatolia (which is modern Turkey, near Urfa)
- Göblekli Tepe was a cult center with a monumental building
- Predates by millennia any other known similar sites
Çatalhöyük (7000-6000 BCE)
- Is located in the south/central Anatolia (which is modern Turkey, the Konya plain)
- One of the earliest ‘cities’ in human history
- Catalhöyük was a cult center and possibly a fertility cult due to ‘mother goddess’ figurines.
Main prehistoric periods / cultures
Halaf (6000-5000 BCE)
- Located in North Mesopotamia / Syria
, - Unique nude female figurines (possible connection to fertility)
- Tell Brak is the key site
Ubaid (6000-4000 BCE)
- Located in South Mesopotamia, later also the North
- Social differentiation (visible in varying house sizes)
- Temples
- Eridu is the key site
Uruk ‘phenomenon’ (4000-3000 BCE)
- Located in the South-East of Mesopotamia
- Urbanization
- Innovations such as writing
- Social complexity (hierarchy, specialization)
- Trade with standardized wheel-made ‘Uruk-bowls’
- Uruk is the key site
Invention of cuneiform writing
1. Tokens representing commercial products
2. Tokens stored in a sphere, which is a sealed clay envelope
3. Seal impression incised on sphere to guarantee authenticity
4. Comparing content of sphere with seal details
5. Tokens are superfluous, a seal is enough
6. Drawing of ideas on clay tablets
7. Creation of syllabary
The rebus principle: Homophony enables the creations of ideograms.
The Uruk IV period (3350-3100 BCE)
- Also known as ‘late Uruk’ or the ‘Uruk phenomenon’
- Followed by the ‘Jemdet Nasr’ transition period of relative decline, leading to the Early Dynastic period
- The beginning of (proto-cuneiform) writing
- Monumental buildings and institutionalized religion, there were large temples where deities were
worshipped such as the Eanna temple of Inanna, the ‘White Temple’
- There was mosaic wall decoration using colored stones in the form of cones
- It ends around 3100 BCE for unknown reasons. The sites are deserted, the Uruk-traditions are
abandoned and the monumental buildings in Uruk are destroyed. Other cities become larger, which
probably led to Uruk’s loss of hegemony.
The Early Dynastic period (2900-2350 BCE)
- Succeeded the ‘Jemdet Nasr’ transition period of relative decline
- Began due to population growth: probably immigrations or nomads settling
- Emergence of the first city-states: constant interaction and sometimes conflicts
- Many local archives with hundreds or thousands of texts in each. These were mostly administrative texts
but also royal inscriptions. Royal inscriptions attest to historical events: building enterprises, wars and
dynasties, which gave the period its name. Examples are the Umma-Lagash conflict and the Reforms of
Uruinimgina.
- It ends around 2350 through a process of military unification: Lugalzagesi of Umma conquered Ur, Uruk
and Lagash and established a large kingdom of Sumerian cities under one rule.
