4. Fertile Crescent


				*Oliver's Site* *4. Fertile Crescent*



	Table of Contents \| 1. Earth \| 2. The Origin of Life and Evolution of Man \| 3. Civilisation \| 4. Fertile Crescent \| 5. Egypt \| 6. Indus Valley \| 7. Yellow River (Haung He/Huang Ho) \| 8. Hittites, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Assyrians \| 9. New World (B. C./Pre-Columban) \| 10. Greeks and Persians \| 11. Rome ( - B. C. - A. D. 96) \| 12. The Messiah/Christus, Jesus, James, Simon/Peter, Saul/Paul \| 13. Rome ( - A. D. 275) \| 14. Rome and Byzantium (Nova Roma) \| 15. Islam \| 16. Charlemagne \| 17. Vikings \| 18. Turks, Crusaders, Mongols, Moors, Explorers and Conquistadors \| 19. Reformation, Enlightenment (1300s -1700s) \| 20. Mid-1700s - early 1900s \| 21. The Great War \| 22. Inter-War Years \| 23. The War in Europe and Africa \| 24. Second World War \| 25. War in the Pacific \| 26. Defeating the Axis in Europe and Africa \| 27. End of Japanese Imperialism \| 28. Ending the War \| 29. Conquest of Space \| 30. Averting Nuclear War \| 31. End of Empire \| 32. Man on the Moon \| 33. Arms Race and Limitation \| 34. Lifting the Iron Curtain \| 35. The 21st Century \| 36. Outer Space \| 37. \| 42.


		*Continued from previous page, 3. Civilisation*



		The Fertile Crescent Cradle of Western Civilisation Timeline Source: Mesopotamia - The Invention of the City by Gwendolyn Leick, 2001. The book presents ten cities Sumer Prehistoric Periods Middle Palaeolithic c. 78,000 – 28,000 BC Upper Palaeolithic c. 28,000 – 10,000 BC Neolithic c. 10,000 – 6000 BC Calcolithic (Copper Age) c. 6000 – 5000 BC Hassuna c. 5500 – 5000 BC Halaf/Ubaid c. 5000 – 4000 BC Uruk c. 4000 – 3200 BC Jemdir Nasir c. 3200 – 3000 BC Early Bronze Age (3500 – 2000 BC) Middle Bronze Age (2000 – 1500 BC) Early Iron Age (1000 – 500 BC) Historical Periods 1. Southern Mesopotamia Early Dynastic I c. 3000 - 2750 Early Dynastic II c. 2750 – 2600 BC Early Dynastic III (Fara) c. 2600 – 2350 BC Dynasty of Akkad c. 2350 – 2000 BC Sargon I King of Sumer and Akkad (2334 – 2279 BC) location of the city of Akkad unknown, sacked by Gutians from Iran after 100 years Dynasties of Ur - Ur III c. 2150 – 2000 BC Old Babylonian c. 2000 – 1600 BC Isin Larsa Dynasties c. 2000 – 1600 BC First Dynasty of Babylon c. 1800 – 1600 BC Hammurabi, King of Babylon 1792 – 1750 Kassite Dynasty c. 1600 - 1155 BC Second Dynasty of Isin 1155 – 1027 BC Second Dynasty of Sealand 1026 – 1006 BC Dynasty of E 979 – 732 BC Assyrian Domination 732 – 626 BC Neo-Babylonian Dynasty 626 – 539 BC 2. Northern Mesopotamia Old Assyrian Period c. 1900 – 1400 BC Middle Assyrian Period c. 1400 - 1050 BC Neo-Assyrian Period Empire c. 934 – 610 BC Post-Mesopotamian Achaemenid Empire 539 – 331 BC Hellenistic Period 331 – 126 BC Seleucid Dynasty 311 – 126 BC Parthian Period 126 BC – AD 227 Sassanian Period AD 224 - 642 Islamic Era (AD 642 - ) Abbasid Dynasty 750 - 1258 Ottoman Period 1516 - 1914 British Occupation 1914 - 1921 Kingdom of Iraq 1921 - 1958 Republic of Iraq 1958 - 2005 The Fertile Crescent is the area from the Persian Gulf between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, to the Levant on the Mediterranean Sea coast, to the Nile Delta on the northeastern African coast The British Museum website about Mesopotamia: http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/menu.html Timeline: http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/time/explore/frame_mes.html See also: http://www.crystalinks.com/mesopotamia.html Sumer Sumer Mesopotamia Mesopotamia and the Bible Was there a Garden of Eden, a paradise as described in the Old Testament of the Bible? This would have been a small area on the Persian Gulf between two rivers, the Tigris in the west and the Euphrates in the east. Several small cities appeared in the region between 4,500 and 3,500 B. C. This civilisation was known as Sumer. Its culture gradually spread northward between the two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, and more cities developed. The ancient Greeks called this region 'Mesopotamia' ('between the rivers'). This area is in Iraq today. Many scholars believe Mesopotamia was the Garden of Eden, the 'cradle of civilisation', from which civilisation spread to the West. Sumer and the Garden of Eden What was the Garden of Eden? Brief cartoon description (2 parts) 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQEPxpWpjv8&feature=relmfu 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GWgHvnufxIil *Mysteries of the Garden of Eden* Episode from the BBC documentary series Decoding the Past https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z_YASKbY50 *Mesopotamia - Return to Eden* Episode from the documentary series Lost Civilisations narrated by Sam Waterston https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h534FTPHQoY&feature=related or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on3cdN3iZqc *The Garden of Eden* Documentary comparing the biblical story with a scientific study of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6epLexw404 Eden and Eridu Excerpt from 1991 BBC documentary Legacy: The Origins of Civilisation with Michael Wood https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z1JLCe1RB0 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx4xP6P-CFg *------* The Appearance of Writing Writing first appeared in the Fertile Crescent - the geographical region between the Tigris River in the east and the Nile River in the west. But which came first? Mesopotamian Cuneiform or Egyptian Heiroglyphs? Scholars disagree. Many believe both first appeared at the same time. Early Mesopotamian Cuneiform Late Mesopotamian Cuneiform *The Birth of Writing* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7JsfwAcCo0 Excerpt about ancient writing from a documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHOnhYCskd0 *Ancient Mesopatamia* *A Coronet* film presentation (1953, 1976) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8v2vRlLL58&feature=related** The First Civilizations Programs # 2 and # 3 of the 1989 lecture series The Western Tradition by Eugen Weber at UCLA 2. The Ancient Egyptians https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CItwOikzu68 3. Mesopotamia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emm4ZC951gY *The Cradle of Civilisation* 1991 BBC documentary with Michael Wood about the ancient region of modern Iraq *from the Legacy* series on civilisation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdBbo6TBLyw The Gardens of Babel** Episode about Mesopotamia from the documentary series Civilisations (English and French) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKs5Wvv1-14 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lESEb2-V1Sg *Ziggurat of Ur Tour* Nasiriyah, Iraq Regular Friday tour by Dhiaf Muhsen (2007) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB7i1h3whn4 *Sumerians et Babylonians* Documentaire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=celYfehb5kQ *Babylon* Documentary about Nebuchadnezzar II (reigned c. 605 - c. 562 BC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb6-bYR8iFo or in 5 clips: 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQIWDPTIYGk 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvT56PJHPfQ&feature=relmfu 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yEPWGUCQYE&feature=relmfu 4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMV6tbnNGHc&feature=relmfu 5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwGZ6XRIRis&feature=relmfu The Hanging Gardens of Babylon Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDRze962yFU&feature=related *The Kings* *From Babylon to Baghdad* Documentary Part 1 ends with Cyrus; Part 2 begins with WW1; the history in between is not available Part 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnQGjmdUGCI -------------- *Origins of Great Ancient Civilizations* Three-lecture survey of Mesopotamia Lecture 2, 3 and 4 of the 12-lecture course ***Origins of Great Ancient Civilizations* by Kenneth W. Harl from The Great Courses 1. First Cities of Sumer - Trade and Writing - The Uruk Period (3100 - 2500 B. C.), Ur - The Proto-Literate Period (3100 - 2800 B. C.) - Early Dynastic Period (2800 - 2300 B. C.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZqZVIRStNQ 2. Mesopotamian Kings, Scribes and Soldiers From city-states to regional kingdoms to territorial empires in the Early and Middle Bronze Age - Sargon of Akkad and the first empire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3El5pftOxkI 3. Hammurabi’s Babylon 1792 - 1750 BC Middle Bronze Age https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL0vsA6GU6A Hammurabi's Law Code Basalt stele with the code of Hammurabi (1792 - 1750 BC) in the Akkadian language in cuneiform script excavated in Susa, Iran in 1901. Law Code Stele of King Hammurabi (1792 - 1750 B. C.) Beth Harris and Steven Zucker visiting Le Louvre, Paris https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w5NGOHbgTw Hammurabi and the Earliest Written Laws Excerpt from a lecture by Gregory Aldrete from The Great Courses https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIJZN4N8bnQ The Code of Hammurabi Audio (75:06) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zHP3J4Bdts Hammurabi's Babylon Lecture # 4 of 12 by Kenneth W. Harl from the course Origins of Great Ancient Civilizations (from The Great Courses) Hammurabi's Code of Law; Ziusudra, Atrahasis, Gilgamesh; Babylon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL0vsA6GU6A ------- From out of the Mesopotamian Mud** Lecture # 2 by Gregory Aldrete from the course History of the Ancient World (Removed from You Tube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwLlFmK8_9o&feature=relmfu *Cultures of the Ancient Near East* Lecture # 3 by Gregory Aldrete from History of the Ancient World (Removed from You Tube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ_78_iG-ig&feature=relmfu Metal production in Ancient Middle East Source: Regs productoras de metales en la Edad Antigua en Oriente Medio.svg with modifications by Phirosiberia Bronze Age Transformations of the Mediterranean World *A Perspective from the Countryside* Lecture from Steven R. Falconer at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia in 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ5RhZBOEGM Enuma Elish The Sumerian/Mesopotamian/Babylonian Story of the Creation *The Parts of the Whole* *Lecture # 1. of a 24-lecture course, Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible), by* Christine Hayes, Yale U., Fall 2006 - Introduction to the Hebrew Bible and Its radical ideas - Common myths about the Bible - An overview of the structure of the Bible You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo-YL-lv3RY Yale U.: http://oyc.yale.edu/religious-studies/rlst-145/lecture-1 Transcript: http://oyc.yale.edu/transcript/968/rlst-145 Entire text of the seven tablets http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/enuma.htm ----------------- The Epic of Gilgamesh A tablet with the Epic of Gilgamesh written in cuneiform Tablet V of the epic *Overview* (2 clips) 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2TYgCytbLY&feature=related 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI7hR3HghIs&feature=relmfu *Poem* (12 clips) Prologue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6KfBf7MiFw&feature=relmfu 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHInCYIGq3E 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxauXl43eG4&feature=relmfu 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT1OufYJnoU&feature=relmfu 4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zwVo-sZXig&feature=relmfu 5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN3GztjYfQc&feature=relmfu 6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R00X_Tdacw&feature=relmfu 7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CRbFzV8kdM&feature=relmfu 8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cGKm7maHgw&feature=relmfu 9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxy_SJ6RCFw&feature=relmfu 10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHJvM36RvIs&feature=relmfu 11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSxHO_RUjT8&feature=relmfu Le fantôme d'Uruk À la recherche du roi Gilgamesh Terra X Doku (2007) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW2IvsZg7X0 ou https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4KBCQ24Dgc Gilgamesh Journeys to the End of the World Lecture by Steve Tinney at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, January 8, 2014 Great Voyages Lecture Series https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46Xst2do8p4 *Epic of Gilgamesh* *Discussion on the weekly Thursday BBC radio programme In Our Time* hosted by Melvyn Bragg With guests Andrew George, Frances Reynolds and Martin Worthington 3 November 2016 BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b080wbrq You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AVh9WwnvAM Entire text of the Epic of Gilgamesh http://www.aina.org/books/eog/eog.pdf http://king-of-heroes.co.uk/the-epic-of-gilgamesh/reginald-campbell-thompson-translation/ http://www.civ.strangegirl.com/fullgilgamesh.html Online audio reading of Tablet V in Old Akkadian: http://www.openculture.com/2015/10/hear-the-epic-of-gilgamesh-read-in-the-original-akkadian-language.html About the recently discovered Tablet V in Kurdistan: http://www.openculture.com/2015/10/20-new-lines-from-the-epic-of-gilgamesh-discovered-in-iraq-adding-new-dimensions-to-the-story.html** From the latest published page of the Wikipedia entry (021116): 'The earliest Sumerian poems are distinct stories, rather than parts of a single epic, dating from circa 2100 BC. 'The Old Babylonian tablets (circa 1800 BC) are the earliest surviving tablets for a single Epic of Gilgamesh narrative. 'The older Old Babylonian tablets and later Akkadian version are important sources for modern translations, with the earlier texts mainly used to fill in gaps (lacunae) in the later texts. 'Although several revised versions based on new discoveries have been published, the epic remains incomplete. 'Analysis of the Old Babylonian text has been used to reconstruct possible earlier forms of the Epic of Gilgamesh. 'The most recent Akkadian version (circa 1200 BC), also referred to as the 'standard' version, consisting of twelve tablets, was edited by Sin-liqe-unninni and was found in the Library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh.' Note: Wikipedia is a public Online encyclopaedia; anyone can add or remove details from an entry. The accuracy of the details posted cannot be taken for granted and must be thoroughly checked. ------------------------ Cyrus the Great The Cyrus Cylinder *The Cyrus Cylinder* (front side shown in the above photo) is a barrel-shaped cylinder made from baked clay and measures a maximum 8.9 inches by a maximum 3.9 inches.** Photo Source: Prioryman The cylinder is covered with a declaration in Akkadian cuneiform script on behalf of the Persian ruler Cyrus II the Great (ruled 559 - 530 BC), founder of the Achaemenid Empire (559 - 330 BC), and dates from Cyrus' conquest of the Neo- (New) Babylonian Empire c. 539 BC. It was discovered in Babylon in 1871 and is today in the British Museum. *The Cyrus Cylinder* *The Discovery and Creation of an Icon* A Lecture by John E. Curtis at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C. 12 April 2012 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2qKQngMszM The Cyrus Cylinder from Ancient Babylon and the Beginning of the Persian Empire Lecture by John E. Curtis at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, New York 20 June 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qIoEevJ6qE Full text: Full text read aloud (audio): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S4ZC-5GwMY Achaemenid Empire of Cyrus the Great spread from the Aegean Sea to Central Asia ------------------ The Bisotun (Behistun) Inscription The Bisotun (Behistun) Inscription - texts and low reliefs carved from a cliff face of Mount Bisotun (Behistun) in present-day Iran. The three separate inscriptions, each in a different languages - Old Persian, Elamite and Late Babylonian Akkadian - were written in cuneiform script and recount the conquests of King Darius I (the Great) of Persia (ruled 522 BC - 486 BC). The eventual decipherment of Old Persian in the mid-1800s simplified the translation of the Late Babylonian Akkadian. Cracking the Code *An excerpt from a lecture by David Neiman from the course Cradles of Civilization, Los Angeles, California (2000)* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEow07oohUo ---------- The Cyrus Cylinder The British Museum The Cyrus Cylinder was inscribed in Babylonian cuneiform. The Cyrus Cylinder was inscribed on the orders of Persian King Cyrus the Great (559 - 530 BC) after he captured Babylon in 539 BC. The cylinder encourages freedom of worship throughout the Persian Empire and allows deported people to return to their homelands. It was found in Babylon (in modern Iraq) in 1879 during a British Museum excavation. 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iokGgmrOj4Q&t=158s						Hamoukar A 7,000-year-old city in northern Mesopotamia An archeolgical site in the Jazira in northeastern Syria near the Iraqi border contemporary with the Ubaid and the early Uruk civilisations Hamoukar Redrawing the map of the World's Earliest Cities Clemens Reichel, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago (2007) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP_moNR5J6k



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