View source for Mesopotamia

{{Short description|Historical region of West Asia}}
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{{Redirect|The Two Rivers|other uses|Two Rivers (disambiguation){{!}}Two Rivers}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
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| image1   = N-Mesopotamia and Syria english.svg
| caption1 = A map showing the extent of Mesopotamia. Shown are [[Washukanni]], [[Nineveh]], [[Hatra]], [[Assur]], [[Nuzi]], [[Palmyra]], [[Mari, Syria|Mari]], [[Sippar]], [[Babylon]], [[Kish (Sumer)|Kish]], [[Nippur]], [[Isin]], [[Lagash]], [[Uruk]], [[Charax Spasinu]] and [[Ur]], from north to south.
| image2   = Mesopotamia 9 October 2020.jpg|
| caption2 = A modern satellite view of Mesopotamia, October 2020.
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{{History of Iraq}}

'''Mesopotamia'''{{efn|{{langx|tr|Mezopotamya}}; {{langx|grc|Μεσοποταμία}} ''Mesopotamíā''; {{langx|ar|بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن}} {{transl|ar|Bilād ar-Rāfidayn}} or {{lang|ar|بَيْن‌ُ ٱلْنَهْرَيْن}} {{transl|ar|Bayn ul-Nahrayn}}; {{langx|fa|میان‌رودان}} {{transl|fa|miyân rudân}}; {{langx|syc|ܒܝܬ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ}}, {{transl|syc|Bēṯ Nahrēn}}}} is a [[historical region]] of [[West Asia]] situated within the [[Tigris–Euphrates river system]], in the northern part of the [[Fertile Crescent]]. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day [[Iraq]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Seymour |first=Michael |date=2004 |title=Ancient Mesopotamia and Modern Iraq in the British Press, 1980–2003 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/383004 |journal=Current Anthropology |volume=45 |issue=3 |pages=351–368 |doi=10.1086/383004 |jstor=10.1086/383004 |s2cid=224788984 |issn=0011-3204 |access-date=30 April 2022 |archive-date=30 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220430014407/https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/383004 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="miqueletal" /> In the broader sense, the historical region of Mesopotamia also includes parts of present-day [[Iran]], [[Turkey]], [[Syria]] and [[Kuwait]].<ref name="research_gate">{{cite journal|title=Sea Level Changes in the Mesopotamian Plain and Limits of the Arabian Gulf: A Critical Review|date=January 2020|pages=88–110|journal=Journal of Earth Sciences and Geotechnical Engineering|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340066759|volume=10|last1=Sissakian|first1=Varoujan K.|last2=Adamo|first2=Nasrat|last3=Al-Ansari|first3=Nadhir|last4=Mukhalad|first4=Talal|last5=Laue|first5=Jan|issue=4}}</ref><ref>{{citation |title=Ancient Mesopotamia. The Eden that never was |last=Pollock |first=Susan |year=1999 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-57568-3 |series=Case Studies in Early Societies |page=1}}</ref> 

Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the [[Neolithic Revolution]] from around 10,000 BC. It has been identified as having "inspired some of the most important developments in human history, including the invention of the [[wheel]], the planting of the first [[cereal]] [[crop]]s, the development of [[cursive]] script, [[mathematics]], [[astronomy]], and [[agriculture]]". It is recognised as the cradle of some of the world's earliest civilizations.<ref name="historyandpolicy">{{cite web |last=Milton-Edwards |first=Beverley |date=May 2003 |title=Iraq, past, present and future: a thoroughly-modern mandate? |url=http://www.historyandpolicy.org/papers/policy-paper-13.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101208112958/http://www.historyandpolicy.org/papers/policy-paper-13.html |archive-date=8 December 2010 |access-date=9 December 2010 |work=History & Policy |location=[[United Kingdom]]}}</ref>

The [[Sumer|Sumerians]] and [[Akkadians]], each originating from different areas, dominated Mesopotamia from the beginning of [[recorded history]] ({{circa|3100 BC}}) to the [[fall of Babylon]] in 539 BC. The rise of empires, beginning with [[Sargon of Akkad]] around 2350 BC, characterized the subsequent 2,000 years of Mesopotamian history, marked by the succession of kingdoms and empires such as the [[Akkadian Empire]]. The early second millennium BC saw the polarization of Mesopotamian society into [[Assyria]] in the north and [[Babylonia]] in the south. From 900 to 612 BC, the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]] asserted control over much of the ancient Near East. Subsequently, the Babylonians, who had long been overshadowed by Assyria, [[Neo-Babylonian Empire|seized power]], dominating the region for a century as the final independent Mesopotamian realm until the modern era.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Lemche |first=Niels Peter |title=Historical dictionary of ancient Israel |date=2004 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-4848-1 |series=Historical dictionaries of ancient civilizations and historical eras |location=Lanham, Md. |pages=64–67 |chapter=Assyria and Babylonia |quote=}}</ref> In 539 BC, Mesopotamia was conquered by the [[Achaemenid Empire]]. The area was next conquered by [[Alexander the Great]] in 332 BC. After his death, it became part of the Greek [[Seleucid Empire]].

Around 150 BC, Mesopotamia was under the control of the [[Parthian Empire]]. It became a battleground between the [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] and Parthians, with western parts of the region coming under ephemeral Roman control. In 226 AD, the eastern regions of Mesopotamia fell to the [[Sasanian Empire|Sassanid Persians]]. The division of the region between the Roman Byzantine Empire from 395 AD and the Sassanid Empire lasted until the 7th century [[Muslim conquest of Persia]] of the [[Sasanian Empire]] and the [[Muslim conquest of the Levant]] from the Byzantines. A number of primarily neo-Assyrian and Christian native Mesopotamian states existed between the 1st century BC and 3rd century AD, including [[Adiabene]], [[Osroene]], and [[Hatra]].

==Etymology==

The regional toponym ''Mesopotamia'' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|m|ɛ|s|ə|p|ə|ˈ|t|eɪ|m|i|ə}}, {{langx|grc|Μεσοποταμία}} '[land] between rivers'; {{langx|ar|بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن}} {{transl|ar|Bilād ar-Rāfidayn}} or {{lang|ar|بَيْن ٱلنَّهْرَيْن}} {{transl|ar|Bayn an-Nahrayn}}; {{langx|fa|میان‌رودان}} {{transl|fa|miyân rudân}}; {{langx|syr|ܒܝܬ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ}} {{transl|syr|[[Beth Nahrain]]}} "(land) between the (two) rivers") comes from the [[ancient Greek]] root words {{lang|grc|μέσος}} ({{transl|grc|mesos}}, 'middle') and {{lang|grc|ποταμός}} ({{transl|grc|potamos}}, 'river')<ref>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Mesopotamia |volume=18 |pages=179–187 |first=Hope Waddell |last=Hogg}}</ref> and translates to '(land) between rivers', likely being a [[calque]] of the older [[Aramaic]] term, with the Aramaic term itself likely being a calque of the [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] ''birit narim''. It is used throughout the Greek [[Septuagint]] ({{circa|250 BC}}) to translate the Hebrew and Aramaic equivalent ''Naharaim''. An even earlier Greek usage of the name ''Mesopotamia'' is evident from ''[[The Anabasis of Alexander]]'', which was written in the late 2nd century AD but specifically refers to sources from the time of [[Alexander the Great]]. In the ''Anabasis'', Mesopotamia was used to designate the land east of the [[Euphrates]] in north [[Syria]]. 

The [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] term {{transl|arc|biritum/birit narim}} corresponded to a similar geographical concept.<ref>{{citation |last1=Finkelstein |first1=J. J. |title=Mesopotamia |journal=Journal of Near Eastern Studies |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=73–92 |year=1962 |doi=10.1086/371676 |jstor=543884 |s2cid=222432558}}.</ref> Later, the term ''Mesopotamia'' was more generally applied to all the lands between the Euphrates and the [[Tigris]], thereby incorporating not only parts of Syria but also almost all of [[Iraq]] and southeastern [[Turkey]].<ref name=fosterpolingerfoster>{{citation |title=Civilizations of ancient Iraq |last1=Foster |first1=Benjamin R. |last2=Polinger Foster |first2=Karen |year=2009 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton |isbn=978-0-691-13722-3 }}</ref> The neighbouring [[steppe]]s to the west of the Euphrates and the western part of the [[Zagros Mountains]] are also often included under the wider term ''Mesopotamia''.<ref name="canard">{{citation |last1=Canard |first1=M. |title=Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition |year=2011 |editor1-last=Bearman |editor1-first=P. |chapter=al-ḎJazīra, Ḏjazīrat Aḳūr or Iḳlīm Aḳūr |location=Leiden, Netherlands |publisher=Brill Online |oclc=624382576 |editor2-last=Bianquis |editor2-first=Th. |editor3-last=Bosworth |editor3-first=C. E. |editor4-last=van Donzel |editor4-first=E. |editor5-last=Heinrichs |editor5-first=W. P. |editor3-link=Clifford Edmund Bosworth}}.</ref><ref name="wilkinson2000">{{citation |last1=Wilkinson |first1=Tony J. |title=Regional approaches to Mesopotamian archaeology: the contribution of archaeological surveys |journal=Journal of Archaeological Research |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=219–267 |year=2000 |doi=10.1023/A:1009487620969 |issn=1573-7756 |s2cid=140771958}}.</ref><ref name="matthews2003">{{citation |last=Matthews |first=Roger |title=The archaeology of Mesopotamia. Theories and approaches |year=2003 |series=Approaching the past |location=Milton Square |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-25317-8}}.</ref>

A further distinction is usually made between ''Northern'' or ''[[Upper Mesopotamia]]'' and ''Southern'' or ''[[Lower Mesopotamia (region)|Lower Mesopotamia]]''.<ref name="miqueletal">{{citation |last1=Miquel |first1=A. |title=Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition |year=2011 |editor1-last=Bearman |editor1-first=P. |chapter=ʿIrāḳ |location=Leiden, Netherlands |publisher=Brill Online |oclc=624382576 |last2=Brice |first2=W. C. |last3=Sourdel |first3=D. |last4=Aubin |first4=J. |last5=Holt |first5=P. M. |last6=Kelidar |first6=A. |last7=Blanc |first7=H. |last8=MacKenzie |first8=D. N. |last9=Pellat |first9=Ch. |editor2-last=Bianquis |editor2-first=Th. |editor3-last=Bosworth |editor3-first=C. E. |editor4-last=van Donzel |editor4-first=E. |editor5-last=Heinrichs |editor5-first=W. P. |editor3-link=Clifford Edmund Bosworth}}.</ref> Upper Mesopotamia, also known as the ''Jazira'', is the area between the Euphrates and the Tigris from their sources down to [[Baghdad]].<ref name=canard/> Lower Mesopotamia is the area from Baghdad to the [[Persian Gulf]] and includes Kuwait and parts of western Iran.<ref name=miqueletal/>

In modern academic usage, the term ''Mesopotamia'' often also has a chronological connotation. It is usually used to designate the area until the [[Early Muslim conquests|Muslim conquests]], with names like ''Syria'', ''Jazira'', and ''Iraq'' being used to describe the region after that date.<ref name=fosterpolingerfoster/><ref name="bahrani">{{citation |last1=Bahrani |first1=Z. |title=Archaeology under fire: Nationalism, politics and heritage in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East |pages=159–174 |year=1998 |editor1-last=Meskell |editor1-first=L. |chapter=Conjuring Mesopotamia: imaginative geography and a world past |location=London, England |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-19655-0 |author-link=Zainab Bahrani}}.</ref> It has been argued{{by whom|date=January 2025}} that these later euphemisms{{clarify|date=September 2021}} are [[Eurocentrism|Eurocentric]] terms attributed to the region in the midst of various 19th-century Western encroachments.<ref name=bahrani/><ref>{{cite journal|last=Scheffler|first=Thomas|year=2003|title='Fertile crescent', 'Orient', 'Middle East': the changing mental maps of Southeast Asia|journal=European Review of History|volume=10|issue=2|pages=253–272|doi=10.1080/1350748032000140796|s2cid=6707201 }}
</ref>

==Geography==
{{Main|Geography of Mesopotamia}}
[[File:Mosul_river.jpg|thumb|The [[Tigris]] river flowing through the region of modern [[Mosul]] in Upper Mesopotamia.]]
[[File:اهوار العراق ليلا.jpg|thumb|[[Mesopotamian Marshes]] at night, southern Iraq. A reed house ([[Mudhif]]) and a narrow canoe ([[Mashoof]]) are in the water. Mudhif structures have been one of the traditional types of structures, built by the [[Marsh Arabs|Marsh people]] of southern Mesopotamia for at least 5,000 years. A carved elevation of a typical mudhif, dating to around 3,300 BC was discovered at [[Uruk]].<ref>Broadbent, G., "The Ecology of the Mudhif", in: Geoffrey Broadbent and C. A. Brebbia, ''Eco-architecture II: Harmonisation Between Architecture and Nature,'' WIT Press, 2008, pp. 15–26.</ref>]]

Mesopotamia encompasses the land between the [[Euphrates]] and [[Tigris]] rivers, both of which have their headwaters in the neighboring [[Armenian highlands]]. Both rivers are fed by numerous tributaries, and the entire river system drains a vast mountainous region. Overland routes in Mesopotamia usually follow the Euphrates because the banks of the Tigris are frequently steep and difficult. The climate of the region is semi-arid with a vast desert expanse in the north which gives way to a {{convert|15000|km2|sqmi|adj=on}} region of marshes, lagoons, mudflats, and reed banks in the south. In the extreme south, the Euphrates and the Tigris unite and empty into the [[Persian Gulf]].

The [[Aridity|arid]] environment ranges from the northern areas of rain-fed agriculture to the south where irrigation of agriculture is essential.{{sfn|Emberling|2015|p=255}} This irrigation is aided by a high water table and by melting snows from the high peaks of the northern [[Zagros Mountains]] and from the Armenian Highlands, the source of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers that give the region its name. The usefulness of irrigation depends upon the ability to mobilize sufficient labor for the construction and maintenance of canals, and this, from the earliest period, has assisted the development of urban settlements and centralized systems of political authority.

Agriculture throughout the region has been supplemented by nomadic pastoralism, where tent-dwelling nomads herded sheep and goats (and later camels) from the river pastures in the dry summer months, out into seasonal grazing lands on the desert fringe in the wet winter season. The area is generally lacking in building stone, precious metals, and timber, and so historically has relied upon long-distance trade of agricultural products to secure these items from outlying areas.{{sfn|Emberling|2015|p=256}} In the marshlands to the south of the area, a complex water-borne fishing culture has existed since prehistoric times and has added to the cultural mix.

Periodic breakdowns in the cultural system have occurred for a number of reasons. The demands for labor has from time to time led to population increases that push the limits of the ecological [[carrying capacity]], and should a period of climatic instability ensue, collapsing central government and declining populations can occur. Alternatively, military vulnerability to invasion from marginal hill tribes or nomadic pastoralists has led to periods of trade collapse and neglect of irrigation systems. Equally, centripetal tendencies amongst city-states have meant that central authority over the whole region, when imposed, has tended to be ephemeral, and localism has fragmented power into tribal or smaller regional units.<ref>Thompson, William R. (2004) "Complexity, Diminishing Marginal Returns, and Serial Mesopotamian Fragmentation", (Vol 3, Journal of World-Systems Research).</ref> These trends have continued to the present day in Iraq.

==History==
{{Main|History of Mesopotamia|Prehistory of Mesopotamia}}
{{Further|History of Iraq|History of the Middle East|Chronology of the ancient Near East}}
[[File:Statue Gudea Met 59.2.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|One of 18 [[Statues of Gudea]], a ruler around 2090 BC]]

The prehistory of the [[Ancient Near East]] begins in the [[Lower Paleolithic]] period. Therein, writing emerged with a pictographic script, [[Proto-cuneiform]], in the Uruk IV period ({{circa|late 4th millennium BC}}). The documented record of actual historical events—and the ancient history of lower Mesopotamia—commenced in the early-third millennium BC with cuneiform records of early dynastic kings. This entire history ends with either the arrival of the [[Achaemenid Empire]] in the late 6th century BC or with the Muslim conquest and the establishment of the [[Caliphate]] in the late 7th century AD, from which point the region came to be known as [[History of Iraq|Iraq]]. In the long span of this period, Mesopotamia housed some of the world's most ancient highly developed, and socially complex states.

The region was one of the [[River valley civilization|four riverine civilizations]] where [[writing]] was invented, along with the [[Nile]] valley in [[Ancient Egypt]], the [[Indus Valley civilization]] in the [[Indian subcontinent]], and the [[Yellow River]] in [[Ancient China]]. Mesopotamia housed historically important cities such as [[Uruk]], [[Nippur]], [[Nineveh]], [[Assur]] and [[Babylon]], as well as major territorial states such as the city of [[Eridu]], the Akkadian kingdoms, the [[Third Dynasty of Ur]], and the various [[Assyria]]n empires. Some of the important historical Mesopotamian leaders were [[Ur-Nammu]] (king of Ur), [[Sargon of Akkad]] (who established the Akkadian Empire), [[Hammurabi]] (who established the Old Babylonian state), [[Ashur-uballit I]] and [[Tiglath-Pileser I]] (who established the Assyrian Empire).

Scientists analysed [[DNA]] from the 8,000-year-old remains of early farmers found at an ancient graveyard in [[Germany]]. They compared the genetic signatures to those of modern populations and found similarities with the DNA of people living in today's [[Turkey]] and [[Iraq]].<ref name=BBC1>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11729813|title=Migrants from the Near East 'brought farming to Europe'|access-date=10 December 2010|publisher=BBC|date=10 November 2010|archive-date=13 December 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101213144452/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11729813|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Periodization===
[[File:Jarmo to Ubaid 7000-4500.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|After early starts in [[Jarmo]] (red dot, {{circa|7500 BC}}), the civilization of Mesopotamia in the 7th–5th millennium BC was centered around the [[Hassuna culture]] in the north, the [[Halaf culture]] in the northwest, the [[Samarra culture]] in central Mesopotamia and the [[Ubaid culture]] in the southeast, which later expanded to encompass the whole region.]]
[[File:Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia c. 1450 BC.png|thumb|A map of 15th century BC, showing the core territory of [[Assyria]] with its two major cities [[Assur]] and [[Nineveh]] wedged between [[Babylonia]] downstream. The states of [[Mitanni]] and [[Hittite Empire|Hatti]] are upstream.]]
* Pre- and protohistory
** [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic A]] (10,000–8700 BC)
** [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic B]] (8700–6800 BC)
** [[Jarmo]] (7500–5000 BC)
** [[Hassuna culture|Hassuna]] (~6000 BC)
** [[Samarra culture|Samarra]] (~5700–4900 BC)
** [[Halaf culture]]s (~6000–5300 BC)
** [[Ubaid period]] (~6500–4000 BC)
** [[Uruk period]] (~4000–3100 BC)
** [[Jemdet Nasr period]] (~3100–2900 BC)<ref>{{citation |last=Pollock |first=Susan |title=Ancient Mesopotamia. The Eden that never was |page=2 |year=1999 |series=Case Studies in Early Societies |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-57568-3}}.</ref>
* Early Bronze Age
** [[Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia)|Early Dynastic period]] (~2900–2350 BC)
** [[Akkadian Empire]] (~2350–2100 BC)
** [[Third Dynasty of Ur]] (2112–2004 BC)
* Middle Bronze Age
** [[Isin-Larsa period]] (19th to 18th century BC)
** [[First Babylonian dynasty]] (18th to 17th century BC)
** [[Minoan eruption]] ({{circa|1620 BC}})
* Late Bronze Age
** [[Old Assyrian Empire|Old Assyrian period]] (16th to 11th century BC)
** [[Middle Assyrian Empire|Middle Assyrian period]] ({{circa|1365–1076 BC}})
** [[Kassites]] in [[Babylon]], ({{circa|1595–1155 BC}})
** [[Late Bronze Age collapse]] (12th to 11th century BC)
* [[Iron Age]]
** [[Syro-Hittite states]] (11th to 7th century BC)
** [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]] (10th to 7th century BC)
** [[Neo-Babylonian Empire]] (7th to 6th century BC)
* [[Classical antiquity]]
** [[Fall of Babylon]] (6th century BC)
** [[Persian Babylonia|Achaemenid Babylonia]], [[Achaemenid Assyria]] (6th to 4th century BC)
** [[Seleucid Empire|Seleucid]] Mesopotamia (4th to 3rd century BC)
** [[Parthian Empire|Parthian Babylonia]] (3rd century BC to 3rd century AD)
** [[Osroene]] (2nd century BC to 3rd century AD)
** [[Adiabene]] (1st to 2nd century AD)
** [[Hatra]] (1st to 2nd century AD)
** [[Mesopotamia (Roman province)|Roman Mesopotamia]] (2nd to 7th century AD), [[Assyria (Roman province)|Roman Assyria]] (2nd century AD)
* [[Late Antiquity]]
** [[Asōristān]] (3rd to 7th century AD)
** [[Muslim conquest of Persia|Muslim conquest]] (mid-7th century AD)

==Language and writing==
[[File:P1050763 Louvre code Hammurabi face rwk.JPG|upright=.8|alt=Square, yellow plaque showing a lion biting in the neck of a man lying on his back|thumb|The [[Code of Hammurabi]] is a [[Babylon|Babylonian]] legal text composed <abbr>c.</abbr> 1755–1750 BC. It is the longest, best-organised, and best-preserved legal text from the [[ancient Near East]]. It is written in the Old Babylonian dialect of [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]], purportedly by [[Hammurabi]], sixth king of the [[First Dynasty of Babylon]].]]
{{Main|Akkadian language|Sumerian language}}

The earliest language written in Mesopotamia was [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]], an [[agglutinative language|agglutinative]] [[language isolate]]. Along with Sumerian, [[Semitic languages]] were also spoken in early Mesopotamia.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/cultures/mesopotamia_gallery_03.shtml|title=Ancient History in depth: Mesopotamia|publisher=BBC History|access-date=21 July 2017|archive-date=28 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170628234445/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/cultures/mesopotamia_gallery_03.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Subartu]]an,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Finkelstein |first=J. J. |year=1955 |title=Subartu and Subarian in Old Babylonian Sources |journal=Journal of Cuneiform Studies |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=1–7 |doi=10.2307/1359052 |jstor=1359052 |s2cid=163484083}}
</ref> a language of the Zagros possibly related to the [[Hurro-Urartian languages|Hurro-Urartuan language family]], is attested in personal names, rivers and mountains and in various crafts. [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] came to be the dominant language during the [[Akkadian Empire]] and the [[Assyria]]n empires, but Sumerian was retained for administrative, religious, literary and scientific purposes. 

Different varieties of Akkadian were used until the end of the [[Neo-Babylonian Empire|Neo-Babylonian]] period. [[Old Aramaic language|Old Aramaic]], which had already become common in Mesopotamia, then became the official provincial administration language of first the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]], and then the [[Achaemenid Empire]]: the official [[variety (linguistics)|lect]] is called [[Imperial Aramaic]]. Akkadian fell into disuse, but both it and Sumerian were still used in temples for some centuries. The last Akkadian texts date from the late 1st century AD.

Early in Mesopotamia's history, around the mid-4th millennium BC, [[cuneiform]] was invented for the Sumerian language. Cuneiform literally means "wedge-shaped", due to the triangular tip of the stylus used for impressing signs on wet clay. The standardized form of each cuneiform sign appears to have been developed from [[pictogram]]s. The earliest texts, 7 archaic tablets, come from the [[É (temple)|É]], a temple dedicated to the goddess Inanna at Uruk, from a building labeled as Temple C by its excavators.

The early [[logogram|logographic]] system of cuneiform script took many years to master. Thus, only a limited number of individuals were hired as [[scribe]]s to be trained in its use. It was not until the widespread use of a [[syllabary|syllabic]] script was adopted under Sargon's rule<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nz8UDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA23|last=Guo|first=Rongxing|title=An Economic Inquiry into the Nonlinear Behaviors of Nations: Dynamic Developments and the Origins of Civilizations|page=23|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2017|access-date=8 July 2019|quote=It was not until the widespread use of a syllabic script was adopted under Sargon's rule that significant portions of Sumerian population became literate.|isbn=9783319487724|archive-date=14 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414130750/https://books.google.com/books?id=Nz8UDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA23|url-status=live}}</ref> that significant portions of the Mesopotamian population became literate. Massive archives of texts were recovered from the archaeological contexts of Old Babylonian scribal schools, through which literacy was disseminated.

Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as the spoken language of Mesopotamia somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BC. The exact dating being a matter of debate.<ref name="woods">Woods C. (2006). "Bilingualism, Scribal Learning, and the Death of Sumerian". In S. L. Sanders (ed) ''Margins of Writing, Origins of Culture'': 91–120, Chicago, Illinois [http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/OIS2.pdf]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130429121058/http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/OIS2.pdf|date=29 April 2013}}.</ref> Sumerian continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary, and scientific language in Mesopotamia until the 1st century AD.

===Literature===
{{Main|Akkadian literature|Sumerian literature}}
[[File:Tablet XI or the Flood Tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh, currently housed in the British Museum in London.jpg|thumb|The [[Epic of Gilgamesh]], an [[Epic poetry|epic poem]] from ancient Mesopotamia, regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature.]]
Libraries were extant in towns and temples during the Babylonian Empire. An old Sumerian proverb averred that "he who would excel in the school of the scribes must rise with the dawn." Women as well as men learned to read and write,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ONkJ_Rj1SS8C&pg=PA75 |page=75 |title=Women, Crime and Punishment in Ancient Law and Society: Volume 1: The Ancient Near East |isbn=9780826416285 |last1=Tetlow |first1=Elisabeth Meier |date=28 December 2004 |publisher=A&C Black |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-date=22 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200522152934/https://books.google.com/books?id=ONkJ_Rj1SS8C&pg=PA75 |url-status=live }}</ref> and for the [[Semitic languages|Semitic]] Babylonians, this involved knowledge of the extinct Sumerian language, and a complicated and extensive syllabary.

A considerable amount of Babylonian literature was translated from Sumerian originals, and the language of religion and law long continued to be the old agglutinative language of Sumer. Vocabularies, grammars, and interlinear translations were compiled for the use of students, as well as commentaries on the older texts and explanations of obscure words and phrases. The characters of the syllabary were all arranged and named, and elaborate lists were drawn up.

Many Babylonian literary works are still studied today. One of the most famous of these was the [[Epic of Gilgamesh]], in twelve books, translated from the original Sumerian by a certain [[Sîn-lēqi-unninni]], and arranged upon an astronomical principle. Each division contains the story of a single adventure in the career of [[Gilgamesh]]. The whole story is a composite product, although it is probable that some of the stories are artificially attached to the central figure.

==Science and technology==

===Mathematics===
{{Main|Babylonian mathematics}}

[[File:Clay tablet, mathematical, geometric-algebraic, similar to the Euclidean geometry. From Tell Harmal, Iraq. 2003-1595 BCE. Iraq Museum.jpg|thumb|A [[clay tablet]], mathematical, geometric-algebraic, similar to the Euclidean geometry. From [[Shaduppum]] Iraq. 2003–1595 BC. [[Iraq Museum]].]]
Mesopotamian mathematics and science was based on a [[sexagesimal]] (base 60) [[numeral system]]. This is the source of the 60-minute hour, the 24-hour day, and the 360-[[degree (angle)|degree]] circle. The [[Sumerian calendar]] was lunisolar, with three seven-day weeks of a lunar month. This form of mathematics was instrumental in early [[History of cartography|map-making]]. The Babylonians also had theorems on how to measure the area of several shapes and solids. They measured the circumference of a circle as three times the diameter and the area as one-twelfth the square of the circumference, which would be correct if {{pi}} were fixed at 3.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/introductiontohi00eves_0 |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/introductiontohi00eves_0/page/31 31] |title=An Introduction to the History of Mathematics |publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston |last1=Eves |first1=Howard |year=1969 |isbn=9780030745508 }}</ref>

The volume of a cylinder was taken as the product of the area of the base and the height; however, the volume of the [[frustum]] of a cone or a [[square pyramid]] was incorrectly taken as the product of the height and half the sum of the bases. Also, there was a recent discovery in which a tablet used {{pi}} as 25/8 (3.125 instead of 3.14159~). The Babylonians are also known for the Babylonian mile, which was a measure of distance equal to about seven modern miles (11&nbsp;km). This measurement for distances eventually was converted to a time-mile used for measuring the travel of the Sun, therefore, representing time.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/introductiontohi00eves_0 |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/introductiontohi00eves_0/page/31 31] |title=An Introduction to the History of Mathematics |publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston |last1=Eves |first1=Howard |year=1969 |isbn=9780030745508 }}</ref>

==== Algebra ====
{{Main|Algebra|Square root of 2}}
The roots of algebra can be traced to the ancient Babylonia<ref>{{cite book |last=Struik |first=Dirk J. |url=https://archive.org/details/concisehistoryof0000stru_m6j1 |title=A Concise History of Mathematics |publisher=Dover Publications |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-486-60255-4 |location=New York |url-access=registration}}</ref> who developed an advanced arithmetical system with which they were able to do calculations in an [[Algorithm|algorithmic]] fashion. 


The [[Babylonia|Babylonian]] clay tablet [[YBC 7289]] ({{circa|1800}}–1600 BC) gives an approximation of {{math|{{sqrt|2}}}} in four [[sexagesimal]] figures, {{nowrap|1 24 51 10}}, which is accurate to about six [[decimal]] digits,<ref>Fowler and Robson, p. 368. [http://it.stlawu.edu/%7Edmelvill/mesomath/tablets/YBC7289.html Photograph, illustration, and description of the ''root(2)'' tablet from the Yale Babylonian Collection]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120813054036/http://it.stlawu.edu/%7Edmelvill/mesomath/tablets/YBC7289.html|date=2012-08-13}}. [http://www.math.ubc.ca/%7Ecass/Euclid/ybc/ybc.html High resolution photographs, descriptions, and analysis of the ''root(2)'' tablet (YBC 7289) from the Yale Babylonian Collection]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200712173830/http://www.math.ubc.ca/~cass/Euclid/ybc/ybc.html|date=12 July 2020}}.</ref> and is the closest possible three-place sexagesimal representation of {{math|{{sqrt|2}}}}:

: <math>1 + \frac{24}{60} + \frac{51}{60^2} + \frac{10}{60^3} = \frac{305470}{216000} = 1.41421\overline{296}.</math>


The Babylonians were not interested in exact solutions, but rather approximations, and so they would commonly use [[linear interpolation]] to approximate intermediate values.<ref name="Boyer Babylon p30">{{Harvnb|Boyer|1991|loc="Mesopotamia" p. 30}}: "Babylonian mathematicians did not hesitate to interpolate by proportional parts to approximate intermediate values. Linear interpolation seems to have been a commonplace procedure in ancient Mesopotamia, and the positional notation lent itself conveniently to the rile of three. [...] a table essential in Babylonian algebra; this subject reached a considerably higher level in Mesopotamia than in Egypt. Many problem texts from the Old Babylonian period show that the solution of the complete three-term quadratic equation afforded the Babylonians no serious difficulty, for flexible algebraic operations had been developed. They could transpose terms in an equations by adding equals to equals, and they could [[Multiplication|multiply]] both sides by like quantities to remove [[Fraction|fractions]] or to eliminate factors. By adding <math>4ab</math> to <math>(a - b)^2</math> they could obtain <math>(a + b)^2</math> for they were familiar with many simple forms of factoring. [...]Egyptian algebra had been much concerned with linear equations, but the Babylonians evidently found these too elementary for much attention. [...] In another problem in an Old Babylonian text we find two simultaneous linear equations in two unknown quantities, called respectively the "first silver ring" and the "second silver ring.""</ref> One of the most famous tablets is the [[Plimpton 322|Plimpton 322 tablet]], created around 1900–1600&nbsp;BC, which gives a table of [[Pythagorean triples]] and represents some of the most advanced mathematics prior to Greek mathematics.<ref>{{cite web|author=Joyce, David E. |year=1995 |title=Plimpton 322 |url=http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/mathhist/plimpnote.html |quote=The clay tablet with the catalog number 322 in the G. A. Plimpton Collection at Columbia University may be the most well known mathematical tablet, certainly the most photographed one, but it deserves even greater renown. It was scribed in the Old Babylonian period between −1900 and −1600 and shows the most advanced mathematics before the development of Greek mathematics. |access-date=3 June 2022 |archive-date=8 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110308060531/http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/mathhist/plimpnote.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Astronomy===
{{Main|Babylonian astronomy}}
From [[Sumer]]ian times, temple priesthoods had attempted to associate current events with certain positions of the planets and stars. This continued to Assyrian times, when [[Limmu]] lists were created as a year by year association of events with planetary positions, which, when they have survived to the present day, allow accurate associations of relative with absolute dating for establishing the history of Mesopotamia.

The Babylonian astronomers were very adept at mathematics and could predict [[Eclipse cycle|eclipses]] and [[Solstice#Solstice determination|solstices]]. Scholars thought that everything had some purpose in astronomy. Most of these related to religion and omens. Mesopotamian astronomers worked out a 12-month calendar based on the cycles of the moon. They divided the year into two seasons: summer and winter. The origins of astronomy as well as astrology date from this time.

During the 8th and 7th centuries BC, Babylonian astronomers developed a new approach to astronomy. They began studying philosophy dealing with the ideal nature of the early [[universe]] and began employing an internal logic within their predictive planetary systems. This was an important contribution to astronomy and the [[philosophy of science]] and some scholars have thus referred to this new approach as the first scientific revolution.<ref name=Brown>D. Brown (2000), ''Mesopotamian Planetary Astronomy-Astrology'', Styx Publications, {{ISBN|90-5693-036-2}}.</ref> This new approach to astronomy was adopted and further developed in Greek and Hellenistic astronomy.

In [[Seleucid]] and [[Parthian Empire|Parthian]] times, the astronomical reports were thoroughly scientific. How much earlier their advanced knowledge and methods were developed is uncertain. The Babylonian development of methods for predicting the motions of the planets is considered to be a major episode in the [[Assyrian astronomy|history of astronomy]].

The only Greek-Babylonian astronomer known to have supported a [[heliocentrism|heliocentric]] model of planetary motion was [[Seleucus of Seleucia]] (b. 190 BC).<ref>[[Otto E. Neugebauer]] (1945). "The History of Ancient Astronomy Problems and Methods", ''Journal of Near Eastern Studies'' '''4''' (1), pp. 1–38.</ref><ref>[[George Sarton]] (1955). "Chaldaean Astronomy of the Last Three Centuries B.C.", ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'' '''75''' (3), pp. 166–173 [169].</ref><ref>William P. D. Wightman (1951, 1953), ''The Growth of Scientific Ideas'', Yale University Press, p. 38.</ref> Seleucus is known from the writings of [[Plutarch]]. He supported Aristarchus of Samos' heliocentric theory where the [[Earth's rotation|Earth rotated]] around its own axis which in turn revolved around the [[Sun]]. According to [[Plutarch]], Seleucus even proved the heliocentric system, but it is not known what arguments he used, except that he correctly theorized on tides as a result of the Moon's attraction.

Babylonian astronomy served as the basis for much of [[Ancient Greek astronomy|Greek]], [[Indian astronomy|classical Indian]], Sassanian, [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]], [[Syria]]n, [[Astronomy in the medieval Islamic world|medieval Islamic]], [[Central Asia]]n, and [[Western Europe]]an astronomy.<ref name="dp1998">{{Harvtxt|Pingree|1998}}.</ref>

===Medicine===
[[File:Medical recipe concerning poisoning. Terracotta tablet, from Nippur, Iraq, 18th century BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul.jpg|thumb|A medical recipe concerning poisoning. Terracotta tablet, from [[Nippur]], [[Iraq]].]]
The oldest Babylonian texts on [[medicine]] date back to the [[First Babylonian dynasty|Old Babylonian]] period in the first half of the [[2nd millennium BC]]. The most extensive Babylonian medical text, however, is the ''Diagnostic Handbook'' written by the ''ummânū'', or chief scholar, [[Esagil-kin-apli]] of [[Borsippa]],<ref name=Stol-99/> during the reign of the Babylonian king [[Adad-apla-iddina]] (1069–1046 BC).{{sfn|Stol|1993|p=55}}

Along with contemporary [[ancient Egyptian medicine|Egyptian medicine]], the Babylonians introduced the concepts of [[medical diagnosis|diagnosis]], [[prognosis]], [[physical examination]], [[enema]]s,<ref>{{cite journal |title=The History of the Enema with Some Notes on Related Procedures (Part I) |journal=Bulletin of the History of Medicine |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=77 |date=January 1940 |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |last1=Friedenwald |first1=Julius |last2=Morrison |first2=Samuel |jstor = 44442727}}</ref> and [[Medical prescription|prescriptions]]. The ''Diagnostic Handbook'' introduced the methods of [[therapy]] and [[aetiology]] and the use of [[empiricism]], [[logic]], and [[rationality]] in diagnosis, prognosis and therapy. The text contains a list of medical [[symptom]]s and often detailed empirical [[observation]]s along with logical rules used in combining observed symptoms on the body of a [[patient]] with its diagnosis and prognosis.<ref>H. F. J. Horstmanshoff, Marten Stol, Cornelis Tilburg (2004), ''Magic and Rationality in Ancient Near Eastern and Graeco-Roman Medicine'', pp. 97–98, [[Brill Publishers]], {{ISBN|90-04-13666-5}}.</ref>

The symptoms and diseases of a patient were treated through therapeutic means such as [[bandage]]s, [[cream (pharmaceutical)|creams]] and [[pill (pharmacy)|pills]]. If a patient could not be cured physically, the Babylonian physicians often relied on [[exorcism]] to cleanse the patient from any [[curse]]s. Esagil-kin-apli's ''Diagnostic Handbook'' was based on a logical set of [[axiom]]s and assumptions, including the modern view that through the examination and [[inspection]] of the symptoms of a patient, it is possible to determine the patient's [[disease]], its aetiology, its future development, and the chances of the patient's recovery.<ref name="Stol-99">H. F. J. Horstmanshoff, Marten Stol, Cornelis Tilburg (2004), ''Magic and Rationality in Ancient Near Eastern and Graeco-Roman Medicine'', p. 99, [[Brill Publishers]], {{ISBN|90-04-13666-5}}.</ref>

Esagil-kin-apli discovered a variety of [[illness]]es and diseases and described their symptoms in his ''Diagnostic Handbook''. These include the symptoms for many varieties of [[epilepsy]] and related [[ailment]]s along with their diagnosis and prognosis.{{sfn|Stol|1993|p=5}} Some treatments used were likely based off the known characteristics of the ingredients used. The others were based on the symbolic qualities.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Teall |first1=Emily |title=Medicine and Doctoring in Ancient Mesopotamia |journal=Grand Valley Journal of History |date=October 2014 |volume=3 |issue=1 |page=3 |url=https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1056&context=gvjh}}</ref>

===Technology===
Mesopotamian people invented many technologies including metal and copper-working, glass and lamp making, textile weaving, [[flood control]], water storage, and irrigation. They were also one of the first [[Bronze Age]] societies in the world. They developed from copper, bronze, and gold on to iron. Palaces were decorated with hundreds of kilograms of these very expensive metals. Also, copper, bronze, and iron were used for armor as well as for different weapons such as swords, daggers, spears, and [[mace (bludgeon)|maces]].

According to a recent hypothesis, the [[Archimedes' screw]] may have been used by Sennacherib, King of Assyria, for the water systems at the [[Hanging Gardens of Babylon]] and [[Nineveh]] in the 7th century BC, although mainstream scholarship holds it to be a [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] invention of later times.<ref>Stephanie Dalley and [[John Peter Oleson]] (January 2003). "Sennacherib, Archimedes, and the Water Screw: The Context of Invention in the Ancient World", ''Technology and Culture'' '''44''' (1).</ref> Later, during the Parthian or Sasanian periods, the [[Baghdad Battery]], which may have been the world's first battery, was created in Mesopotamia.<ref name="BBC2">{{Citation |last=Twist |first=Jo |title=Open media to connect communities |date=20 November 2005 |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4450052.stm |access-date=6 August 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190517132329/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4450052.stm |archive-date=17 May 2019 |url-status=live}}.</ref>

==Religion and philosophy==
{{Main|Ancient Mesopotamian religion}}
[[File:Lilith Periodo de Isin Larsa y Babilonia.JPG|thumb|upright=.9|The [[Burney Relief]], [[First Babylonian dynasty]], around 1800 BC]]

The [[Ancient Mesopotamian religion]] was the first recorded. Mesopotamians believed that the world was a flat disc,<ref>{{cite book |last=Lambert |first=W. G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dTLWQddp8zwC&pg=PA111 |title=Ancient Mesopotamian Religion and Mythology: Selected Essays |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |year=2016 |isbn=978-3161536748 |page=111 |access-date=8 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220501165046/https://books.google.com/books?id=dTLWQddp8zwC |archive-date=1 May 2022 |url-status=live |department=The Cosmology of Sumer & Babylon}}</ref> surrounded by a huge, holed space, and above that, [[heaven]]. They believed that water was everywhere, the top, bottom and sides, and that the [[universe]] was born from this enormous sea. Mesopotamian religion was [[polytheism|polytheistic]]. Although the [[belief]]s described above were held in common among Mesopotamians, there were regional variations. The Sumerian word for universe is '''an-ki''', which refers to the god [[Anu|An]] and the goddess [[Ki (goddess)|Ki]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hetherington |first1=Norriss S. |title=Encyclopedia of Cosmology (Routledge Revivals) : Historical, Philosophical, and Scientific Foundations of Modern Cosmology. |date=2014 |publisher=Taylor and Francis |location=Hoboken |isbn=9781317677666 |page=399}}</ref><!--stating that the word "an-ki" for "[[universe]]" derives from the two god words for [[Anu]] and [[Ki (goddess)|Ki]] is debatable. There was also a god called "[[Enki#Confuser of languages]]".--> Their son was Enlil, the air god. They believed that Enlil was the most powerful god. He was the chief god of the [[Pantheon (religion)|pantheon]].

===Philosophy===

The numerous civilizations of the area influenced the [[Abrahamic religions]], especially the [[Hebrew Bible]]. Its cultural values and literary influence are especially evident in the [[Book of Genesis]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bertman |first1=Stephen |title=Handbook to life in ancient Mesopotamia |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-518364-1 |edition=Paperback |location=Oxford [u.a.], England |page=312}}</ref>

[[Giorgio Buccellati]] believes that the origins of [[philosophy]] can be traced back to early Mesopotamian [[wisdom]], which embodied certain philosophies of life, particularly [[ethics]], in the forms of [[dialectic]], [[dialogue]]s, [[epic poetry]], [[folklore]], [[hymn]]s, [[lyrics]], [[prose]] works, and [[proverb]]s. Babylonian [[reason]] and [[rationality]] developed beyond [[empiricism|empirical]] observation.<ref>Giorgio Buccellati (1981), "Wisdom and Not: The Case of Mesopotamia", ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'' '''101''' (1), pp. 35–47.</ref>

Babylonian thought was also based on an [[Open system (systems theory)|open-systems]] [[ontology]] which is compatible with [[ergodic]] axioms.<ref name=Sheila/> Logic was employed to some extent in [[Babylonian astronomy]] and medicine.

Babylonian thought had a considerable influence on early [[Ancient Greek philosophy|Ancient Greek]] and [[Hellenistic philosophy]]. In particular, the Babylonian text ''[[Dialogue of Pessimism]]'' contains similarities to the agonistic thought of the [[Sophist]]s, the [[Heraclitean]] doctrine of [[dialectic]], and the dialogs of [[Plato]], as well as a precursor to the [[Socratic method]].<ref>Giorgio Buccellati (1981), "Wisdom and Not: The Case of Mesopotamia", ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'' '''101''' (1), pp. 35–47 43.</ref> The [[Ionians|Ionian]] philosopher [[Thales]] was influenced by Babylonian cosmological ideas.

==Culture==
[[File:Kudurru Melishipak Louvre Sb23 n02.jpg|thumb|King [[Meli-Shipak II|Meli-shipak I]] (1186–1172 BC) presents his daughter to the goddess [[Nanaya|Nannaya]]. The crescent moon represents the god [[Sin (mythology)|Sin]], the sun the [[Utu|Shamash]] and the star the goddess [[Inanna|Ishtar]].{{sfn|Black|Green|1992|pp=156, 169–170}}{{sfn|Liungman|2004|page=228}}]]

===Festivals===
Ancient Mesopotamians had ceremonies each month. The theme of the rituals and festivals for each month was determined by at least six important factors:

# The [[Lunar phase]] (a waxing moon meant abundance and growth, while a waning moon was associated with decline, conservation, and festivals of the Underworld)
# The phase of the annual agricultural cycle
# [[Equinoxes]] and [[solstices]]
# The local mythos and its divine Patrons
# The success of the reigning Monarch
# The [[Akitu]], or [[New Year]] Festival (first full moon after spring equinox)
# Commemoration of specific historical events (founding, military victories, temple holidays, etc.)

===Music===
{{Main|Music of Mesopotamia}}
[[File:The Queen's gold lyre from the Royal Cemetery at Ur. C. 2500 BCE. Iraq Museum.jpg|left|thumb|The Queen's gold [[Lyres of Ur|lyre]] from the [[Royal Cemetery at Ur]]. {{circa|2500 BC}}. [[Iraq Museum]]]]
Some songs were written for the gods but many were written to describe important events. Although music and songs amused [[Monarch|kings]], they were also enjoyed by ordinary people who liked to sing and dance in their homes or in the [[marketplace]]s. 

Songs were sung to children who passed them on to their children. Thus songs were passed on through many [[generation]]s as an oral tradition until writing was more universal. These songs provided a means of passing on through the [[century|centuries]] highly important information about historical events.

===Games===
[[File:Jemdet Nasr Cylinder Seal With Hunting Scene.png|thumb|Jemdet Nasr Cylinder presenting a hunting scene, with two lions and an antelope. {{circa|3100}} to 2900 BC. ]]
[[Hunting]] was popular among Assyrian kings. [[Boxing]] and [[wrestling]] feature frequently in art, and some form of [[polo]] was probably popular, with men sitting on the shoulders of other men rather than on horses.<ref>{{Citation |author=Nemet-Nejat |first=Karen Rhea |title=Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia |year=1998}}.</ref> 

They also played a board game similar to [[senet]] and [[backgammon]], now known as the "[[Royal Game of Ur]]".

===Family life===
[[File:Babylonian marriage market.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|''The Babylonian marriage market'' by the 19th-century painter [[Edwin Long]]]]
Mesopotamia, as shown by successive law codes, those of [[Urukagina]], [[Lipit Ishtar]] and [[Hammurabi]], across its history became more and more a [[patriarchal society]], one in which the men were far more powerful than the women. For example, during the earliest Sumerian period, the ''"en"'', or high priest of male gods was originally a woman, that of female goddesses. [[Thorkild Jacobsen]], as well as others, have suggested that early Mesopotamian society was ruled by a "council of elders" in which men and women were equally represented, but that over time, as the status of women fell, that of men increased.<ref>{{Citation |author=Harris |first=Rivkah |title=Gender and Aging in Mesopotamia |year=2000}}.</ref>

As for schooling, only royal offspring and sons of the rich and professionals, such as scribes, physicians, temple administrators, went to school. Most boys were taught their father's trade or were apprenticed out to learn a trade.<ref>{{Citation |author=Harris |first=Rivkah |title=Gender and Aging in Mesopotamia |year=2000}}.</ref> Girls had to stay home with their mothers to learn [[housekeeping]] and [[cooking]], and to look after the younger children. Some children would help with crushing grain or cleaning birds. Unusually for that time in history, women in Mesopotamia had [[rights]]. They could own [[property]] and, if they had good reason, get a [[divorce]].<ref name="Kramer1963">{{cite book |last1=Kramer |first1=Samuel Noah |url=https://archive.org/details/sumerianstheirhi00samu |title=The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character |date=1963 |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-45238-8 |url-access=registration}}</ref>{{rp|78–79}}

===Burials===
Hundreds of [[grave (burial)|graves]] have been excavated in parts of Mesopotamia, revealing information about Mesopotamian [[burial]] habits. In the city of [[Ur]], most people were buried in family graves under their houses, along with some possessions. A few have been found wrapped in mats and [[carpets]]. Deceased children were put in big "jars" which were placed in the family [[chapel]]. Other remains have been found buried in common city [[graveyard]]s. 17 graves have been found with very precious objects in them. It is assumed that these were royal graves. Rich of various periods, have been discovered to have sought burial in Bahrein, identified with Sumerian Dilmun.<ref>Bibby, Geoffrey and Phillips, Carl (1996), "Looking for Dilmun" (Interlink Pub Group).</ref>

== Economy ==
[[File:Metal production in Ancient Middle East.svg|thumb|upright=1.3|Mining areas of the ancient [[West Asia]].]]

Sumerian temples functioned as banks and developed the first large-scale [[economy|system of loans and credit]]. The Babylonians developed the earliest system of commercial [[banking]]. It was comparable in some ways to modern [[post-Keynesian economics]], but with a more "anything goes" approach.<ref name=Sheila>{{cite journal |url= https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01603477.2005.11051453 |doi= 10.1080/01603477.2005.11051453 |title= Axioms and Babylonian thought: A reply |journal= Journal of Post Keynesian Economics |volume= 27 |issue= 3 |pages= 385–391 |date= April 2005 |last1= Dow |first1= Sheila C. |s2cid= 153637070 |access-date= 7 December 2019 |archive-date= 3 August 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200803222653/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01603477.2005.11051453 |url-status= live }}</ref>

=== Agriculture ===
{{Main|Agriculture in Mesopotamia}}

Irrigated agriculture spread southwards from the Zagros foothills with the Samara and Hadji Muhammed culture, from about 5,000 BC.<ref name="Cengage Learning, 1 Jan 2010">{{cite book |last1=Bulliet |first1=Richard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jvsVSqhw-FAC&pg=PA29 |title=The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History |last2=Crossley |first2=Pamela Kyle |last3=Headrick |first3=Daniel |last4=Hirsch |first4=Steven |last5=Johnson |first5=Lyman |last6=Northup |first6=David |date=1 January 2010 |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=978-0-538-74438-6 |access-date=30 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414161613/https://books.google.com/books?id=jvsVSqhw-FAC&pg=PA29 |archive-date=14 April 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In the early period down to [[Ur III]] temples owned up to one third of the available land, declining over time as royal and other private holdings increased in frequency. The word [[Ensí|''Ensi'']] was used to describe the official who organized the work of all facets of temple agriculture. [[Villein]]s are known to have worked most frequently within agriculture, especially in the grounds of temples or palaces.<ref name="H. W. F. Saggs">{{Cite book |author=Saggs |first=H. W. F. – Professor Emeritus of Semitic Languages at University College, Cardiff, Wales |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BPdLxEyHci0C&pg=PA58 |title=Babylonians |publisher=University of California Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-520-20222-1 |access-date=29 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414130752/https://books.google.com/books?id=BPdLxEyHci0C&pg=PA58 |archive-date=14 April 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The geography of southern Mesopotamia is such that agriculture is possible only with irrigation and with good drainage, a fact which had a profound effect on the evolution of early Mesopotamian civilization. The need for irrigation led the Sumerians, and later the Akkadians, to build their cities along the Tigris and Euphrates and the branches of these rivers. Major cities, such as Ur and Uruk, took root on tributaries of the Euphrates, while others, notably Lagash, were built on branches of the Tigris. The rivers provided the further benefits of fish, used both for food and fertilizer, reeds, and clay, for building materials. With irrigation, the [[food supply]] in Mesopotamia was comparable to that of the Canadian prairies.<ref>Roux, Georges, (1993) "Ancient Iraq" (Penguin).</ref>

[[File:Fertile Crescent.svg|thumb|A map of the Fertile Crescent including the location of ancient Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.]]
The Tigris and Euphrates River valleys form the northeastern portion of the [[Fertile Crescent]], which also included the Jordan River valley and that of the Nile. Although land nearer to the rivers was fertile and good for [[crops]], portions of land farther from the water were dry and largely uninhabitable. Thus the development of [[irrigation]] became very important for [[settler]]s of Mesopotamia. Other Mesopotamian [[innovation]]s include the control of water by [[dam]]s and the use of aqueducts. Early settlers of fertile land in Mesopotamia used wooden [[plow]]s to soften the [[soil]] before planting crops such as [[barley]], [[onion]]s, [[grape]]s, [[turnip]]s, and [[apple]]s. 

Mesopotamian settlers were some of the first people to make [[beer]] and [[wine]]. As a result of the skill involved in farming in the Mesopotamian region, farmers did not generally depend on [[slaves]] to complete farm work for them, but there were some exceptions. There were too many risks involved to make slavery practical, i.e. the escape/mutiny of the slaves. Although the rivers sustained life, they also destroyed it by frequent floods that ravaged entire cities. The unpredictable Mesopotamian weather was often hard on farmers. Crops were often ruined, so backup sources of food such as cows and lambs were kept. Over time the southernmost parts of Sumerian Mesopotamia suffered from increased salinity of the soils, leading to a slow urban decline and a centring of power in Akkad, further north.

=== Trade ===
Mesopotamian trade with the [[Indus Valley civilisation]] flourished as early as the third millennium BC.<ref>{{cite book
 | last1 = Wheeler
 | first1 = Mortimer
 | author-link1 = Mortimer Wheeler
 | year = 1953
 | title = The Indus Civilization
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=9cs7AAAAIAAJ
 | series = Cambridge history of India: Supplementary volume
 | edition = 3
 | location = Cambridge
 | publisher = Cambridge University Press
 | publication-date = 1968
 | page = 111
 | isbn = 9780521069588
 | access-date = 10 April 2021
 | quote = In calculating the significance of Indus contacts with Mesopotamia, it is obvious that the economic vitality of Mesopotamia is the controlling factor. Documentary evidence there vouches for vigorous commercial activity in the Sarginid and Larsa phases [...]
 | archive-date = 10 April 2021
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210410083125/https://books.google.com/books?id=9cs7AAAAIAAJ
 | url-status = live
 }}</ref> Cylinder seals found throughout ANE is evidence of trade between Mesopotamian cities.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wayne |first1=Alexander |last2=William |first2=Violet |title=Trade and Traders of Mesopotamian Ur |journal=Journal of Business and Behavior Sciences |date=February 2012 |volume=19 |issue=2012 |page=2 |url=http://asbbs.org/files/ASBBS2012V1/PDF/A/AlexanderW.pdf}}</ref> Starting in the 4th millennium BC, Mesopotamian civilizations also traded with [[ancient Egypt]] (see [[Egypt–Mesopotamia relations]]).<ref name="Shaw, Ian 1995 p. 109">Shaw, Ian. & Nicholson, Paul, ''The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt,'' (London: British Museum Press, 1995), p. 109.</ref><ref name="Mitchell">{{cite web|last=Mitchell|first=Larkin|title=Earliest Egyptian Glyphs|url=https://archive.archaeology.org/9903/newsbriefs/egypt.html|work=Archaeology|publisher=Archaeological Institute of America|access-date=29 February 2012|archive-date=27 December 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121227081007/http://www.archaeology.org/9903/newsbriefs/egypt.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

For much of history, Mesopotamia served as a [[trade route|trade nexus]] – east-west between Central Asia and the Mediterranean world<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bryce |first1=James |year=1886 |title=The Relations of History and Geography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YIEkAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live |journal=Littell's Living Age |series=5 |location=Boston |publisher=Littell and Company |volume=169 |page=70 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210411224831/https://books.google.com/books?id=YIEkAQAAIAAJ |archive-date=11 April 2021 |access-date=10 April 2021 |quote=There was also an important trade route through central Asia, which coming down through Persia and Mesopotamia to the Levant, reached the sea in northern Syria [...]. These trade routes assumed enormous importance in the earlier Middle Ages, and upon them great political issues turned.}}</ref>
(part of the [[Silk Road]]), as well as north–south between the Eastern Europe and [[Baghdad]] ([[Volga trade route]]). [[Vasco da Gama]]'s pioneering (1497–1499) of the [[Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India|sea route between India and Europe]] and the opening of the [[Suez Canal]] in 1869 impacted on this nexus.<ref>{{cite book
 | last1 = Bulliet
 | first1 = Richard
 | author-link1 = Richard Bulliet
 | last2 = Crossley
 | first2 = Pamela Kyle
 | author-link2 = Pamela Kyle Crossley
 | last3 = Headrick
 | first3 = Daniel R.
 | author-link3 = Daniel R. Headrick
 | last4 = Hirsch
 | first4 = Steven W.
 | author-link4 = 
 | last5 = Johnson
 | first5 = Lyman L.
 | last6 = Northrup
 | first6 = David
 | year = 2009
 | chapter = Interregional Patterns of Culture and Contact
 | title = The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=8kfAAgAAQBAJ
 | edition = 6
 | publisher = Cengage Learning
 | publication-date = 2014
 | page = 279
 | isbn = 9781305147096
 | access-date = 10 April 2021
 | quote = Eurasia's overland trade faded, and merchants, soldiers, and explorers took to the seas.
 | archive-date = 11 April 2021
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210411224830/https://books.google.com/books?id=8kfAAgAAQBAJ
 | url-status = live
 }}</ref><ref>
{{cite book
 | editor1-last = Brebbia
 | editor1-first = Carlos A.
 | editor2-last = Martinez Boquera
 | editor2-first = A.
 | title = Islamic Heritage Architecture
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=q37zDQAAQBAJ
 | series = Volume 159 of WIT transactions on the built environment
 | date = 28 December 2016
 | location = Southampton
 | publisher = WIT Press
 | publication-date = 2016
 | page = 111
 | isbn = 9781784662370
 | access-date = 10 April 2021
 | quote = [...] the Silk Road [...] passed through central Asia and Mesopotamia. When the Suez Canal was inaugurated in 1869, trade was diverted to the sea [...].
}}
</ref>

== Genetics ==
Genetic studies on the modern day people of [[Iraq]] are limited and generally restricted to analysis of classical keys due to the country's modern political instability,<ref name="Zahery">{{cite web |last=Al-Zahery |first=N. |display-authors=et al. |date=2003 |title="Y-chromosome and mtDNA polymorphisms in Iraq, a crossroad of the early human dispersal and of post-Neolithic migrations" |url=http://www.familytreedna.com/pdf/Al_Zahery.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101227053418/http://www.familytreedna.com/pdf/Al_Zahery.pdf |archive-date=2010-12-27 |access-date=2010-12-10}}</ref> although lately, there have been several published studies displaying a genealogical connection between all Iraqis and the neighboring countries, across religious, ethnic and linguistic barriers. Studies indicate that the different ethno-religious groups of Iraq (Mesopotamia) share significant similarities in genetics and that Mesopotamian Arabs, who make up the majority of Iraqis, are more genetically similar to Iraqi Kurds than other Arab populations in the [[Middle East]] and [[Arabia]].<ref name="Lazim et al.">{{Cite journal |author=Lazim |first1=Hayder |last2=Almohammed |first2=Eida Khalaf |last3=Hadi |first3=Sibte |last4=Smith |first4=Judith |year=2020 |title=Population genetic diversity in an Iraqi population and gene flow across the Arabian Peninsula |journal=Nature |volume=10 |issue=1 |page=15289 |bibcode=2020NatSR..1015289L |doi=10.1038/s41598-020-72283-1 |pmc=7499422 |pmid=32943725}}</ref>

There were no significant differences in Y-DNA variation were observed among Iraqi Mesopotamian Arabs, Assyrians, or Kurds.<ref name="Zahery" /> Modern genetic studies indicate that Iraqi Mesopotamian Arabs are more related to [[Iraqi-Assyrians]] than [[Kurds in Iraq|Iraqi Kurds]].<ref name="CS">Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Paolo Menozzi, Alberto Piazza, The History and Geography of Human Genes, p. 242.</ref><ref name="Genetic">{{cite web |title=Cavalli-Sforza et al. Genetic tree of West Asia |url=http://www.atour.com/health/images/genetics.gif |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110614015416/http://www.atour.com/health/images/genetics.gif |archive-date=2011-06-14 |access-date=2010-12-10}}</ref>

Dogan et. al (2017) states that contemporary [[Syriacs|Assyrian]] and [[Yazidis]] from northern Iraq might "have stronger continuity with the original genetic stock of the Mesopotamian people, which possibly provided the basis for the ethnogenesis of various subsequent Near Eastern populations." Among northern Iraqi Assyrians, [[Haplogroup J (Y-DNA)|J]] and [[Haplogroup R (Y-DNA)|R]] subclades were observed at 36% and 41% respectively, where [[Haplogroup R1a|R1a]], [[Haplogroup R1b|R1b]], [[Haplogroup J-M267|J1]] and [[Haplogroup J-M172|J2]] sub-clades accounted for 11%, 30%, 12% and 24%. For Yazidis, R haplogroup subclades dominate, where R1a and R1b account for 9% and 21%, respectively. The high prevalence of R and J macrohaplogroups is attributed to pre-[[Last Glacial Maximum]] events in the Near East.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Dogan |first1=Serkan |last2=Gurkan |first2=Cemal |last3=Dogan |first3=Mustafa |last4=Emin Balkaya |first4=Hasan |display-authors=3 |date=2017 |title=A glimpse at the intricate mosaic of ethnicities from Mesopotamia: Paternal lineages of the Northern Iraqi Arabs, Kurds, Syriacs, Turkmens and Yazidis |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=12 |issue=11 |pages=e0187408 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0187408 |doi-access=free |pmid=29099847 |pmc=5669434 |bibcode=2017PLoSO..1287408D }} {{cc-notice|by4}}</ref>

Many historians and anthropologists provide strong circumstantial evidence to presuppose that Iraq's [[Marsh Arabs]] share very strong links to the ancient Sumerians.<ref name="BMC">{{cite journal |author=Al-Zahery |display-authors=etal |date=Oct 2011 |title=In search of the genetic footprints of Sumerians: a survey of Y-chromosome and mtDNA variation in the Marsh Arabs of Iraq |url= |journal=[[BMC Evolutionary Biology]] |volume=11 |issue=1 |page=288 |doi=10.1186/1471-2148-11-288 |pmc=3215667 |pmid=21970613 |doi-access=free|bibcode=2011BMCEE..11..288A }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Spencer |first=William |url=https://archive.org/details/iraqoldlandnewna00spen/page/17 |title=Iraq: Old Land, New Nation in Conflict |publisher=Twenty-First Century Books |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-7613-1356-4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/iraqoldlandnewna00spen/page/17 17] |url-access=registration}}</ref>

While other studies indicate that the Iraqi-Assyrian population was found to be significantly related to other Iraqis, especially Mesopotamian Arabs,<ref name="Genetic2">{{cite web |last=Cavalli-Sforza |display-authors=et al. |title=Genetic tree of West Asia |url=http://www.atour.com/health/images/genetics.gif |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110614015416/http://www.atour.com/health/images/genetics.gif |archive-date=2011-06-14 |access-date=2010-12-10}}</ref><ref name="BMC" /> likely due to the assimilation of indigenous Assyrians with other people groups who occupied and settled Mesopotamia after the fall of the [[Neo-Babylonian Empire]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tubiana |first=Joseph |date=2012-10-22 |title=Siegbert Uhlig (ed.): Encyclopaedia Aethiopica. Volume 1 |journal=Aethiopica |volume=7 |pages=194–211 |doi=10.15460/aethiopica.7.1.294 |issn=2194-4024 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

==Government==
{{main|History of institutions in Mesopotamia}}
The geography of Mesopotamia had a profound impact on the political development of the region. Among the rivers and streams, the Sumerian people built the first cities, along with irrigation canals which were separated by vast stretches of open desert or swamp where nomadic tribes roamed. Communication among the isolated cities was difficult and, at times, dangerous. Thus, each Sumerian city became a [[city-state]], independent of the others and protective of its independence. 

At times, one city would try to conquer and unify the region, but such efforts were resisted and failed for centuries. As a result, the political history of Sumer is one of almost constant warfare. Eventually Sumer was unified by [[Eannatum]]. The unification was tenuous and failed to last, as the Akkadians conquered Sumer in 2331 BC only a generation later. The Akkadian Empire was the first successful empire to last beyond a generation and see a peaceful succession of kings. The empire was relatively short-lived, as the Babylonians conquered them within only a few generations.

===Kings===
{{Further|List of Mesopotamian dynasties|List of kings of Babylon|List of Assyrian kings}}
[[File:Ashurbanipal in a chariot, wall relief, 7th century BC, from Nineveh, the British Museum.jpg|thumb|A 7th-century BC relief depicting [[Ashurbanipal]], {{reign}}669–631 BC, and three royal attendants in a [[chariot]].]]
The Mesopotamians believed their kings and queens were descended from the city [[Deity|gods]], but, unlike the [[ancient Egyptians]], they never believed their kings were real gods.<ref name="Robert Dalling 2004">{{Citation |author=Dalling |first=Robert |title=The Story of Us Humans, from Atoms to Today's Civilization |year=2004}}.</ref> Most kings named themselves "king of the universe" or "great king". Another common name was "[[shepherd]]", as kings had to look after their people.

===Power===
When Assyria grew into an empire, it was divided into smaller parts, called [[provinces]]. Each of these were named after their main cities, like [[Nineveh]], [[Samaria]], [[Damascus]], and [[Arpad (Syria)|Arpad]]. They all had their own governor, who had to make sure everyone paid their taxes. Governors had to call up soldiers to war and supply workers when a temple was built. He was responsible for enforcing the laws. In this way, it was easier to keep control of a large empire. 

Although Babylon was quite a small [[Sovereign state|state]] in Sumer, it grew tremendously throughout the time of [[Hammurabi]]'s rule. He was known as "the lawmaker" and created the [[Code of Hammurabi]]. Soon [[Babylon]] became one of the main cities in Mesopotamia. It was later called Babylonia, which meant "the gateway of the gods." It became one of history's greatest centers of learning.

===Warfare===
{{See also|Military history of the Neo-Assyrian Empire|Warfare in Sumer}}
[[File:Campaign in southern Iraq of Ashurbanipal - fighting in the marshes.jpg|alt=See caption|thumb|A relief showing a campaign in the [[Mesopotamian Marshes]] of southern [[Babylonia]] during the reign of [[Ashurbanipal]]. Assyrian soldiers are on a boat, chasing fleeing enemies. Some are hiding in the reeds]]

[[File:Denis Bourez - British Museum, London (8747049029) (2).jpg|thumb|The Standard of Ur, 2600 BC, the Early Dynastic Period III. Shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli on wood. Discovered at the [[Royal Cemetery at Ur]], Dhi Qar Governorate, [[Iraq]]]]
With the end of the [[Uruk]] phase, walled cities grew. Many isolated [[Ubaid period|Ubaid]] villages were abandoned, indicating a rise in communal violence. An early king [[Lugalbanda]] was supposed to have built the white walls around the city. As [[city-states]] began to grow, their spheres of influence overlapped, creating arguments between other city-states, especially over land and canals. These arguments were recorded in tablets several hundreds of years before any major war—the first recording of a war occurred around 3200 BC, but was not common until about 2500 BC.<ref>Winter, Irene J. (1985). "After the Battle is Over: The 'Stele of the Vultures' and the Beginning of Historical Narrative in the Art of the Ancient Near East". In Kessler, Herbert L.; Simpson, Marianna Shreve. Pictorial Narrative in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, Symposium Series IV. 16. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art. pp. 11–32. {{ISSN|0091-7338}}.</ref> 

An [[Early Dynastic II]] king (Ensi) of Uruk in Sumer, Gilgamesh (c. 2600 BC), was commended for military exploits against [[Humbaba]] guardian of the Cedar Mountain, and was later celebrated in many later poems and songs in which he was claimed to be two-thirds god and only one-third human. The later [[Stele of the Vultures]] at the end of the [[Early Dynastic III]] period (2600–2350 BC), commemorating the victory of [[Eannatum]] of [[Lagash]] over the neighbouring rival city of [[Umma]], is the oldest monument in the world that celebrates a massacre.<ref>Winter, Irene J. (1985). "After the Battle is Over: The 'Stele of the Vultures' and the Beginning of Historical Narrative in the Art of the Ancient Near East". In Kessler, Herbert L.; Simpson, Marianna Shreve. Pictorial Narrative in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, Symposium Series IV. 16. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art. pp. 11–32. {{ISSN|0091-7338}}.</ref> 

From this point forwards, warfare was incorporated into the Mesopotamian political system. At times, a neutral city acted as an arbitrator for two rival cities. This helped to form unions between cities, leading to regional states.<ref name="Robert Dalling 2004" /> When empires were created, they went to war more with foreign countries. King Sargon, for example, conquered all the cities of Sumer, some cities in Mari, and then went to war with cities in modern-day Syria. Many Assyrian and Babylonian palace walls were decorated with pictures of the successful fights and the enemy either desperately escaping or hiding amongst reeds.

The Neo-Babylonian kings used deportation as a means of control, like their predecessors, the Assyrians. For the Neo-Babylonian kings, war was a means to obtain tribute, plunder, sought after materials such as various metals and quality wood, and prisoners of war which could be put to work as slaves in the temples which they built. The Assyrians displaced populations throughout their vast empire. This practice under the Babylonian kings was more limited, only being used to establish new populations in Babylonia itself. Though royal inscriptions from the Neo-Babylonian period don't speak of acts of destruction and deportation in the same boastful way royal inscriptions from the Neo-Assyrian period do, this does not prove that the practice ceased, or that the Babylonians were less brutal than the Assyrians, since there is evidence that the city [[Ascalon]] was destroyed by [[Nebuchadnezzar II]] in 604 BC.{{Sfn|Beaulieu|2005|p=|pp=57–58}}{{Sfn|Stager|1996|p=|pp=57–69, 76–77}}

===Laws===
{{See also|Mesopotamian marriage law}}
City-states of Mesopotamia created the first law codes, drawn from legal precedence and decisions made by kings. The codes of [[Urukagina]] and [[Lipit-Ishtar]] (the [[Code of Lipit-Ishtar]]) have been found. The most renowned of these was that of [[Hammurabi]], as mentioned above, who was posthumously famous for his set of laws, the [[Code of Hammurabi]], created {{circa|1780 BC}}, which is one of the earliest sets of laws found and one of the best preserved examples of this type of document from ancient Mesopotamia. He codified over 200 laws for Mesopotamia. Examination of the laws show a progressive weakening of the rights of women, and increasing severity in the treatment of slaves.<ref>Fensham, F. Charles (19620, "Widow, Orphan, and the Poor in Ancient near Eastern Legal and Wisdom Literature" (Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 21, No. 2 (April 1962)), pp. 129–139.</ref>

==Art==
{{main|Art of Mesopotamia}}
The art of Mesopotamia rivalled [[Art of Ancient Egypt|that of Ancient Egypt]] as the most grand, sophisticated and elaborate in western [[Eurasia]], from the 4th millennium BC until the [[Persia]]n Achaemenid Empire conquered the region in the 6th century BC. The main emphasis was on very durable, forms of sculpture in stone and clay. Little painting has survived, but what has suggests that painting was mainly used for geometrical and plant-based decorative schemes. Most sculpture was also painted.

The [[Protoliterate period]], dominated by [[Uruk]], saw the production of sophisticated works like the [[Warka Vase]] and [[cylinder seal]]s. The [[Guennol Lioness]] is an outstanding small [[limestone]] figure from [[Elam]] of about 3000–2800 BC, part man and part lion.{{sfn|Frankfort|1970|pp=24–37}} A little later there are a number of figures of large-eyed priests and worshippers, mostly in alabaster and up to a foot high, who attended temple [[cult image]]s of the deity, but very few of these have survived.{{sfn|Frankfort|1970|pp=45–59}} Sculptures from the [[Sumer]]ian and [[Akkadian Empire|Akkadian]] period generally had large, staring eyes, and long beards on the men. Many masterpieces have been found at the Royal Cemetery at [[Ur]] (c. 2650 BC), including the two figures of a ''[[Ram in a Thicket]]'', the ''[[Copper Bull]]'' and a bull's head on one of the [[Lyres of Ur]].{{sfn|Frankfort|1970|pp=61–66}}

From the many subsequent periods before the ascendency of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Mesopotamian art survives in a number of forms: cylinder seals, relatively small figures in the round, and reliefs of various sizes, including cheap plaques of moulded pottery for the home, some religious and some apparently not.{{sfn|Frankfort|1970|loc=Chapters 2–5}} The [[Burney Relief]] is an unusual elaborate and relatively large (20 x 15&nbsp;inches) [[terracotta]] plaque of a naked winged goddess with the feet of a bird of prey, and attendant owls and lions. It comes from the 18th or 19th century BC, and may also be moulded.{{sfn|Frankfort|1970|pp=110–112}} 

Stone [[stela]]e, [[votive offering]]s, or ones probably commemorating victories and showing feasts, are found from temples, which unlike more official ones lack inscriptions that would explain them.{{sfn|Frankfort|1970|pp=66–74}} The fragmentary [[Stele of the Vultures]] is an early example of the inscribed type.{{sfn|Frankfort|1970|pp=71–73}} The Assyrian [[Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III]] a large and solid late one.{{sfn|Frankfort|1970|pp=66–74, 167}}

The conquest of the whole of Mesopotamia and much surrounding territory by the Assyrians created a larger and wealthier state than the region had known before, and very grandiose art in palaces and public places, no doubt partly intended to match the splendour of the art of the neighbouring Egyptian empire. The Assyrians developed a style of extremely large schemes of very finely detailed narrative low reliefs in stone for palaces, with scenes of war or hunting. The [[British Museum]] has an outstanding collection. They produced very little sculpture in the round, except for colossal guardian figures, often the human-headed [[lamassu]], which are sculpted in high relief on two sides of a rectangular block, with the heads effectively in the round, and five legs, so that both views seem complete. Even before dominating the region, they continued the cylinder seal tradition, with designs which are often exceptionally energetic and refined.{{sfn|Frankfort|1970|pp=141–193}}
<gallery>
File:Mask of Sargon of Akkad.jpg|Bronze head of an Akkadian ruler, discovered in [[Nineveh]] in 1931, presumably depicting either [[Sargon of Akkad]] or Sargon's grandson [[Naram-Sin of Akkad|Naram-Sin]].<ref>M. E. L. Mallowan, "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/4241589 The Bronze Head of the Akkadian Period from Nineveh]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200421004953/https://www.jstor.org/stable/4241589|date=21 April 2020}}", ''Iraq'' Vol. 3, No. 1 (1936), pp. 104–110.</ref>
File:Striding lions - Processional Way of Babylon - Pergamonmuseum - Berlin - Germany 2017.jpg|Striding lions from the Processional Street of [[Babylon]].
File:Assyrian Winged Bull.jpg|[[Lamassu]], initially depicted as a goddess in Sumerian times, when it was called ''Lamma'', it was later depicted from Assyrian times as a hybrid of a human, bird, and either a bull or lion—specifically having a human head, the body of a bull or a lion, and bird wings, under the name ''Lamassu''.<ref name="GL109">{{cite book |last1=Leick |first1=Gwendolyn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_pqEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA109 |title=A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology |date=2002 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-64102-4 |pages=109–110 |language=en |access-date=10 March 2022 |archive-date=21 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211121170406/https://books.google.com/books?id=_pqEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA109 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Livius.org">{{Cite web |url=https://www.livius.org/la-ld/lamassu/lamassu.html |title=Livius.org |access-date=10 March 2022 |archive-date=1 June 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140601064047/http://www.livius.org/la-ld/lamassu/lamassu.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
File:Ancient Egyptian, Assyrian, and Persian costumes and decorations (1920) (14741970056).jpg|Assyrian ornaments and patterns, illustrated in a book from 1920
File:Detail, Nebuchadnezzar II's Building Inscription plaque of the Ishtar Gate, from Babylon, Iraq. 6th century BCE. Pergamon Museum.jpg|alt=|Detail of Nebuchadnezzar II's Building Inscription plaque of the Ishtar Gate, from [[Babylon]]
File:Artist’s impression of a hall in an Assyrian palace from The Monuments of Nineveh by Sir Austen Henry Layard, 1853.jpg|alt=|Artist's impression of a hall in an Assyrian palace from ''The Monuments of Nineveh'' by [[Austen Henry Layard]], 1853
File:Ashur god.jpg|alt=|A [[Neo-Assyrian]] relief of Ashur as a [[feather robed archer]] holding a bow instead of a ring (9th-8th century BC)
File:The Assyrian king Shalmaneser III receives tribute from Sua, king of Gilzanu, The Black Obelisk..JPG|alt=|The [[Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III]]. The king, surrounded by his royal attendants and a high-ranking official, receives a tribute from Sua, king of Gilzanu (north-west Iran), who bows and prostrates before the king. From [[Nimrud]]
File:Genien, Nimrud 870 v. Chr. Aegyptisches Museum, Muenchen-4.jpg|alt=|"[[Winged genie]]", [[Nimrud]] c. 870 BC, with inscription running across his midriff.
</gallery>

==Architecture==
{{Main|Architecture of Mesopotamia}}
The study of ancient Mesopotamian architecture is based on available [[archaeological]] evidence, pictorial representation of buildings, and texts on building practices. Scholarly literature usually concentrates on temples, palaces, city walls and gates, and other monumental buildings, but occasionally one finds works on residential architecture as well.<ref>{{Citation |last=Dunham |first=Sally |title=A Companion to the Ancient Near East |pages=266–280 |year=2005 |editor=Snell |editor-first=Daniel |chapter=Ancient Near Eastern architecture |location=Oxford, England |publisher=Blackwell |isbn=978-0-631-23293-3}}.</ref> Archaeological surface surveys also allowed for the study of urban form in early Mesopotamian cities.

Brick is the dominant material, as the material was freely available locally, whereas building stone had to be brought a considerable distance to most cities.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.worldhistory.org/Mesopotamia/|title=Mesopotamia|encyclopedia=World History Encyclopedia|access-date=21 July 2017|archive-date=10 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210410223519/https://www.worldhistory.org/Mesopotamia/|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[ziggurat]] is the most distinctive form, and cities often had large gateways, of which the [[Ishtar Gate]] from Neo-Babylonian Babylon, decorated with beasts in polychrome brick, is the most famous, now largely in the [[Pergamon Museum]] in [[Berlin]].

The most notable architectural remains from early Mesopotamia are the temple complexes at [[Uruk]] from the 4th millennium BC, temples and palaces from the [[Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia)|Early Dynastic period]] sites in the [[Diyala River]] valley such as Khafajah and Tell Asmar, the [[Third Dynasty of Ur]] remains at [[Nippur]] (Sanctuary of [[Enlil]]) and [[Ur]] (Sanctuary of [[Sin (mythology)|Nanna]]), Middle [[Bronze Age]] remains at Syrian-Turkish sites of [[Ebla]], [[Mari, Syria|Mari]], [[Alalakh]], [[Aleppo]] and [[Kultepe]], Late Bronze Age palaces at [[Hattusa]], [[Ugarit]], [[Assur|Ashur]] and [[Nuzi]]. 

Iron Age palaces and temples are found at the [[Assyria]]n ([[Kalhu]]/Nimrud, [[Khorsabad]], [[Nineveh]]), [[Babylonia]]n ([[Babylon]]), [[Urartian]] ([[Tushpa]]/Van, Kalesi, Cavustepe, Ayanis, [[Armavir, Armenia|Armavir]], [[Yerevan|Erebuni]], [[Bastam]]) and [[Neo-Hittite]] sites ([[Carchemish|Karkamis]], [[Tell Halaf]], [[Karatepe]]). Houses are mostly known from Old Babylonian remains at Nippur and Ur. Among the textual sources on building construction and associated rituals, are Gudea's cylinders from the late 3rd millennium, as well as the Assyrian and Babylonian royal inscriptions from the [[Iron Age]].
<gallery>
File:Ishtar Gate.gif|The [[Ishtar Gate|Ishtar gate]] was constructed in about 575 BC by order of King [[Nebuchadnezzar II]]. [[Pergamon Museum]], Berlin
File:Street in Babylon.jpg|The walls of Babylon, in [[Babylon]]
File:Zig front right side.JPG|The [[Ziggurat of Ur]]
File:The ziggurat at Aqar Quf.jpg|The ziggurat of [[Dur-Kurigalzu|Dur-kuriagalzu]] in 2010
File:SumerianZiggurat.jpg|A suggested reconstruction of the appearance of a Sumerian [[ziggurat]]
File:20160105-Abraham house in Ur Iraq.jpg|alt=|The alleged [[Abraham]] house in [[Ur]]
</gallery>

==References==
===Notes===
{{notelist}}

===Citations===
{{reflist}}

===Sources===
* {{Cite book|title=A Companion to the Ancient Near East|last=Beaulieu|first=P. A.|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2005|isbn=978-1405160018|editor-last=Snell|editor-first=D. C.|chapter=World Hegemony, 900–300 BCE}}
* {{cite book |last1=Black  |first1=Jeremy  |first2=Anthony  |last2=Green  |title=Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary  |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=05LXAAAAMAAJ&q=Inana |publisher=The British Museum Press |year=1992  |isbn= 978-0-7141-1705-8}}
* {{cite book |last= Boyer |first= Carl B. |author-link= Carl Benjamin Boyer |title= A History of Mathematics |edition= 2nd |publisher= John Wiley & Sons |year= 1991 |isbn= 978-0-471-54397-8 |url= https://archive.org/details/historyofmathema00boye }}
* {{cite book|last=Emberling|first=Geoff|chapter=Mesopotamian cities and urban process, 3500–1600 BCE|series=[[The Cambridge World History]]|volume=3|title=Early Cities in Comparative Perspective, 4000 BCE–1200 CE|editor-last=Yoffee|editor-first=Norman|editor-link=Norman Yoffee|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SQS7BwAAQBAJ|year=2015|isbn=978-0-521-19008-4|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}
* {{cite book |last=Frankfort |first=Henri |year=1970 |title=The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient |series=Pelican History of Art |edition=4th |publisher=Penguin (now Yale History of Art) |isbn=0-14-056107-2 }}
* {{cite book |last=Liungman |first=Carl G. |title=Symbols: Encyclopedia of Western Signs and Ideograms |date=2004 |publisher=HME Publishing |location=Lidingö, Sweden |isbn=978-91-972705-0-2}}
* {{cite book | last=Pingree | first=David | author-link=David Pingree | year=1998 | contribution=Legacies in Astronomy and Celestial Omens | editor-last=Dalley | editor-first=Stephanie | editor-link= Stephanie Dalley | title=The Legacy of Mesopotamia | publisher=Oxford University Press | pages=125–137 | isbn =978-0-19-814946-0}}
* {{Cite journal|last=Stager|first=L. E.|date=1996|title=The fury of Babylon: Ashkelon and the archaeology of destruction|journal=Biblical Archaeology Review|volume=22|issue=1}}
* {{cite book |last=Stol |first=Marten |year=1993 |title=Epilepsy in Babylonia |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |isbn=90-72371-63-1}}

==Further reading==
* [[Guillermo Algaze|Algaze, Guillermo]], 2008''[[Ancient Mesopotamia at the Dawn of Civilization| Ancient Mesopotamia at the Dawn of Civilization: the Evolution of an Urban Landscape]]''. University of Chicago Press. {{isbn|9780226013770}}.
* ''Atlas de la Mésopotamie et du Proche-Orient ancien'', Brepols, 1996 {{ISBN|2-503-50046-3}}.
* [[Jean Bottéro|Bottéro, Jean]]; 1987. {{in lang|fr}} ''Mésopotamie. L'écriture, la raison et les dieux'', Gallimard, coll. « Folio Histoire », {{ISBN|2-07-040308-4}}.
* {{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/mesopotamia00jean |url-access=registration |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0226067278 |title=Mesopotamia: Writing, Reasoning, and the Gods |date=15 June 1995 |last=Bottéro |first=Jean |translator-first1=Zainab |translator-last1=Bahrani |translator-link=Zainab Bahrani |translator-first2=Marc |translator-last2=Van de Mieroop }}
* Edzard, Dietz Otto; 2004. ''Geschichte Mesopotamiens. Von den Sumerern bis zu Alexander dem Großen'', München, Germany, {{ISBN|3-406-51664-5}}.
* Hrouda, Barthel and Rene Pfeilschifter; 2005. ''Mesopotamien. Die antiken Kulturen zwischen Euphrat und Tigris.'' München, Germany 2005 (4. Aufl.), {{ISBN|3-406-46530-7}}.
* Joannès, Francis (2001). ''Dictionnaire de la civilisation mésopotamienne'', Robert Laffont.
* Korn, Wolfgang; 2004. ''Mesopotamien – Wiege der Zivilisation. 6000 Jahre Hochkulturen an Euphrat und Tigris'', Stuttgart, Germany, {{ISBN|3-8062-1851-X}}.
* Matthews, Roger; 2005. ''The early prehistory of Mesopotamia – 500,000 to 4,500 BC'', Turnhout 2005, {{ISBN|2-503-50729-8}}.
* Oppenheim, A. Leo; 1964. ''Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a dead civilization''. The University of Chicago Press: Chicago, Illinois and London, England. Revised edition completed by Erica Reiner, 1977.
* Pollock, Susan; 1999.'' Ancient Mesopotamia: the Eden that never was''. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.
* Postgate, J. Nicholas; 1992. ''Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the dawn of history''. Routledge: London, England and New York.
* Roux, Georges; 1964. ''Ancient Iraq'', Penguin Books.
* Silver, Morris; 2007. ''Redistribution and Markets in the Economy of Ancient Mesopotamia: Updating Polanyi'', [[Antiguo Oriente]] 5: 89–112.
* [[Henry Smith Williams|Williams, Henry Smith (Ed.)]] 1904, [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51514 The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 01: Prolegomena; Egypt, Mesopotamia], Press of J. J. Little & Company. New York, U.S.A.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Mesopotamia}}
{{Wikivoyage|Ancient Mesopotamia}}
{{Wikivoyage|Mesopotamia (Region)}}
* [https://www.worldhistory.org/Mesopotamia/ Ancient Mesopotamia] – timeline, definition, and articles at World History Encyclopedia
* [http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/ Mesopotamia]&nbsp;– introduction to Mesopotamia from the [[British Museum]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070721235759/http://fax.libs.uga.edu/DS49xB8x1920/ ''By Nile and Tigris, a narrative of journeys in Egypt and Mesopotamia on behalf of the British museum between the years 1886 and 1913''], by Sir E. A. [[Wallis Budge]], 1920 (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; [[DjVu]] & [https://web.archive.org/web/20081121055457/http://fax.libs.uga.edu/DS49xB8x1920/1f layered PDF] format)
* [http://fax.libs.uga.edu/DS69x5xH236M/ ''Mesopotamian Archaeology'']. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050215054649/http://fax.libs.uga.edu/DS69x5xH236M/ |date=15 February 2005 }}, by Percy S. P. Handcock, 1912 (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; [[DjVu]] & {{cite web |url= http://fax.libs.uga.edu/DS69x5xH236M/1f/mesopotamian_archaeology.pdf |title= layered PDF format |access-date= 19 September 2005 |archive-date= 7 October 2005 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20051007220405/http://fax.libs.uga.edu/DS69x5xH236M/1f/mesopotamian_archaeology.pdf |url-status= dead }}&nbsp;{{small|(12.8&nbsp;MB)}})

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