#come together

Ancient Worlds - BBC Two

Episode 1 “Come Together”

TheEuphrates is the longest river in southwest Asia and one of the most historically important rivers in the world. The Euphrates rises in Turkey and flows southeast across Syria and through Iraq. Along with the river Tigris, it provided much of the water that supported the development of ancient Mesopotamianculture.

The Tigris Euphrates valley was the birthplace of the ancient civilisations of Assyria, Babylonia,Sumer and the Akkadian Empire. The ancient Greeks called that region Mesopotamia “the land between two rivers” (Tigris/Euphrates). People had occupied that marginal land for 1.000 years before the first cities appeared. They arrived as pastoralists with their herds; they stayed on as farmers close to the river banks in scattered communities of 1.000 or 2.000 people at most. Around 3.100 BC Southern Mesopotamia experienced a growth in the number and size of settlements, suggesting strong population growth. People left the security of their family compounds and tribal villages and they came together with other strangers to create something far more complex: a city, a society, a civilisation. Many of these city-states were located along canals of the Euphrates and the Tigris. A similar development, although on a smaller scale than in Lower Mesopotamia, took place in Upper Mesopotamia in the second part of the 3rd millennium BC.

All the ancient civilisations of the world have flourished near the river beds The Tigris Euphrates river system is one of the four river civilisations where writing was invented, along with the Nile valleyinEgypt (Nile River), the Indus Valley civilisation in the Indian subcontinent (Indus River), and the Yellow RiverinChina.

Ancient Worlds - BBC Two

Episode 1 “Come Together”

Mari (modern Tell Hariri, in Syria) was an ancient Mesopotamian city on the western bank of the Euphrates river and one of the hegemonic states of the area during the 3rd and early 2nd millennia BC. The city flourished as a trade center; it was strategically important as a relay point between the Sumerian cities of lower Mesopotamia,Babylon, the Levant,EgyptandPersia.

Archaeologists have discovered a wealth of prestigious palaces and temples, art schools and an exceptional quantity of administrative archives dating back to the last periods of the city. More than 25.000 clay tablets in Akkadian language written in cuneiform were discovered (The Mari Tablets). 

TheRoyal Palace of Mari was the royal residence of the rulers of the ancient kingdom. King Zimri-lim (reigned from about 1779-5 to 1761 BC) expanded the palace which was possibly the largest at the time. It contained more tan 200 rooms, several statues and exquisite artefacts. The throne room was designed like a temple, its walls covered with brilliantly coloured frescoes. The palace even had its own ice-house so that the king’s honey-sweetened wine could be served cold.

Mari was destroyed by Hammurabi, king of Babylon(this is known from the numerous state archives tablets that recount Hammurabi turning on his old ally king Zimri-lim). After this destruction the city was inhabited sporadically but it never regained its former status.

Mari, Tell Hariri, Syria

Ancient Worlds - BBC Two

Episode 1 “Come Together”

Thegold helmet of Meskalamdug (c. 2400 BC)

The helmet was found in the Royal Tombs of Ur, in PG 755 by the British archaeologist Leonard Woolley. It belongs to the early dynastic period, the first Dinasty of Ur.

King Meskalamdug was not mentioned on the Sumerian king but his son, Mesannepada was the first king listed. Many of the artifacts found in tomb PG 755 bear the name of Meskalamdug but the cylinder seal of Meskalamdug was found in a larger tomb (PG 1054). Woolley believed that the smaller tomb was not the tomb of king Meskalamdug, but it perhaps belonged to his grandson, an elite, but not necessarily a king. The distinctive helmet was the kind of helmet usually worn by lords and kings and it had a ceremonial purpose.

The helmet was made from a single piece of gold and fashioned to look like hair. In the back of the helmet there is a small hollow bump, used to hold the hair of its owner (in a bun) and it has holes in the ears.

The helmet on the picture (British Museum) is an electrotype copy of the original helmet -which was in Baghdad, in the National Museum of Iraq.

The British Museum, London, UK

Ancient Worlds - BBC Two

Episode 1 “Come Together”

One of the earliest images of the development of agriculture.

Fragment of a vessel from the Temple of ShamashatMari, Syria. The staetite relief depicts a man tending to a plant. (Early dynastic period I, c. 2900 BC).

Agriculture, growing crops rather than raising livestock, pre-dates the first cities by thousands of years. But at some point agricultural activity in Mesopotamia became more intensive and on a larger scale than had ever been seen before. The geography of southern Mesopotamia is such that agriculture is possible only with irrigation and good drainage, a fact which had a profound effect on the evolution of early civilisation. The need for irrigation led the Sumerians, and later the Akkadians, to build their cities along the TigrisandEuphrates and the branches of these rivers. The farmers built dams and dug canals to bring the water to the crops, on which all their lives now depended. The social consequences of this cooperation were profound; those farmers were planting the seed from which the tree of civilisation would grow.

The city of Mari, situated on the right bank of the Euphrates river, flourished in the 3rd millennium BC. Excavations discoved an enormous palace, with nearly 300 rooms and two floors and also an archive over 20.000 tablets in Akkadian language written in cuneiform. The temple of Shamash was dedicated to the Sun god, who was regarded among Mari’s most important deities.

National Museum of Damascus, Syria

Richard Miles Archaeologist

ONE DAY, ONE IMAGEAlabaster “Eye Idols” from the ancient site of Tell Brak, north Mesopotamia -Syria- (c. 3500-3300 BC)