MIDDLE EAST CIVILISATIONS
Sumer and Akkad
Lugal (king) - first one was Enmebaragesi.
Ensi was the
representative of god.
Soon, Lagash and Umma were fighting with each other.
Main lugal was Lugalzaggisi of Umma, whose victories were
stopped by Sargon of Akkad.
He built the capital Akkad near modern-day Baghdad and
unified all separate city-states and started the Akkadian empire of Sumer. He expanded trade. He made Ensi as the deputy
king. He elevated the position of Ishtar from war-goddess to goddess of love.
He took control of Elam. He started historical paintings, rather than
mythological. He changed Sumerian cuneiform to akkadian cuneiform.
Uprising during naram-sin (sargon’s grandson)’s rule. He
manages to control them.
Sumer declines under sharkalisharri.
A guerrilla tribe called Gutians attacked the whole of
Sumer. Gudea was a king who ruled Uruk and made it free from the Gutians. Gudea
called himself servant of god. He built a timple at Eninnu for Ningirsu. Here,
we find the longest Sumerian writing. Utuhegal
destroyed the Gutians.
The next major civilization in Sumer was the Ur III.
Ur-Nammu was the major king. Shulgi and Ibbi-Sin were later kings of the
dynasty.
The 4 creation gods were
Anu (heaven), Ki (earth), Enlil (air), Enki
(wisdom)
The lesser gods were Nanna (moon), Inanna (war, love,
heaven), Utu (sun)
Jules oppert(French) named the language of akkadian
cuneiform as Sumerian. The first cities to be discovered were Assyrian cities,
niveneh, dur sharrukin and calah. Leonard woolley is also a famous
archaeologist related to sumer, he excavated Ur.
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| Ziggurat of Ur, Sumer |
Israelite
·
There
was a land called canaan, where Canaanites lived. Semitic people lived there.
Semitic meant descendants of Shem, son of noah. Shem’s great grandson was
heber, whose descendants were herbrews.
·
In Ur, abram lived. Abram left with sarai to
harran, pilgrimage site of nanna, Sumerian goddess. Here, he adopted eliezer.
With hagar, he had Ishmael and with sarai, had Isaac. Isaac’s son was Jacob,
Israelites’ father. Ishmael was islam’s forefather. Jacob went to canaan from
harran. Jacob, called Israel went to Egypt due to famine in canaan. His twelve
children were twelve tribes.
·
Here,
after a few years, problems were faced by Israelites. During ramses’ rule,
moses an administrator saw that people were suffering. He led them out back to
canaan after most of the Egyptians died. He was given ten commandment by god on
mount Sinai. They settled for a while in
Jordan.
·
The
canannites were Hittites and some others. Early occupation was violent, later
peaceful. In Siloh, built a museum. Baal and Ishtar were major gods and yaheweh
was added by Israelites. They got common enemy, philistines. To protect
themselves, founded a monarchy. Saul became first king around 1000 BC and
pushed the philistines away.
·
David,
saul’s son, conquered Jerusalem of judea from Egypt, where it was called
urusalem and made it capital. It had two hills, western one with citizens,
eastern hill or zion for king.
·
Under
Solomon, Israel allied with Phoenician king hiram. He built a beautiful court.
After solomon’s death, After Solomon’s death around 928 BCE, Israel divided
into two hostile kingdoms. The main group of the 12 tribes of Israel, fed up
with the extravagance of Solomon, rejected the rule of Solomon’s son Rehoboam
and established the northern Kingdom of Israel,with its capital at Shechem and
religious sanctuaries at Dan and Bethel. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin established
the southern Kingdom of Judah, with Jerusalem as capital.
·
Assyria,
and later Babylon started having control over Israel. Finally, Nebuchadnezzar
(Babylonian) destroyed Jerusalem and broke solomon’s court.
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| Abraham attempting to sacrifice his son, Isaac |
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