MESOPOTAMIAN SLIDE PRESENTATION

VEGETATION MAP OF MESOPOTAMIA

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE MIDDLE EAST

THE REEDS ARE STILL THERE TODAY, AND STILL USED BY THE INHABITANTS.

MARSH DWELLERS TODAY IN IRAQ

WHY DID THE PRODUCERS PUT SO MANY HOLES IN THE HELMET?

THE STANDARD OF UR

THE ORIGINAL STANDARD OF UR WAS ABOUT 11 INCHES LONG.

Above is an image of a cast of a Babylonian school tablet. The original is from the Babylonian city of Nippur and dates to the Hammurabi Dynasty (circa 1900-1600 B.C.E.).

MOUT ARARAT, TURKEY. THIS IS THE SUPPOSED SITE WHERE NOAH’S ARK LANDED.

THIS IS FROM ONE OF ASHURBANIPAL’S FEASTS.

ASSURNASIRPAL II

ASHURBANIPAL THE KING

BLACK OBELISK. WHAT MIGHT IT BE TELLING US?

This cast is a replica of a stone tablet (known as the Philadelphia Tablet). It was cast from molds made off the original tablet. This tablet is dated to the Uruk iii period (3100 2900 B.C.E.). There was a symbol that meant 1 sheep, another that meant 10 sheep, another for 1 unit of wine and another that meant 1 day’s work, etc. Dozens of items were counted this way and transactions recorded by pressing shapes into wet clay. To count 3 sheep and 2 units of wine, you had to use the symbol for 1 sheep, three times and the symbol for 1 wine twice. Quantities and things were tightly linked and only things that had economic importance to the leaders and accountants were symbolized. As society became more and more complex, the system became more unwieldy.

NUMERICAL TABLET

NUMBERS

LIST OF PROFESSIONS

WINGED BULL OF BABYLON (ASSURBANIPAL)

A BULL HARP

By about 2400 BCE, Hurrians - people who spoke the Hurrian language - expanded southward from the highlands of Anatolia. They infiltrated and occupied a broad arc of fertile farmland stretching from the headwaters of the Habur River to the foothills of the Zagros Mountains.

From about 1500 BCE the Hurrian kingdom of Mittani, centered around the headwaters of the Habur River, was the dominant power among the small states of northern Mesopotamia and Syria.