5.2 The near east: 3000 to 1500 b.c.  (Page 2/5)

The timber resources of Lebanon were already considerably depleted by 2,000 B.C. but they have continued to be exploited right down to the present time. Olive oil, grain, grapes, sheep and cattle were products in antiquity. Slaves had always been used some, but after 2,000 B.C. large numbers were imported from Egypt, so that it was soon not uncommon for households to have three. (Ref. 88 , 213 )

Iraq and syria

1. mesopotamia, proper

The term "Sumerian" has been coined by scholars from the place name of "Sumer" which by the third millennium was used to mean southern Mesopotamia as apposed to Akkad, the northern part. Sumeria was a city civilization and the important cities of Ur, Uruk, Larsa, Eridu and Kish had populations ranging from 15,000 to 250,000. One or more temple communities constituted a city, with priest administration and work-gangs to operate the irrigation system. The land of the city was divided into several categories, with some fields owned by the gods and worked on their behalf, some fields rented out annually to individuals and others awarded to individuals, rent-free.

The first dynasty of Ur has been dated archaeologically and historically from the King- lists (royal genealogical tablets found on the site) to about 2,700 B.C., but there was a high civilization at Ur before this, perhaps with the city functioning under the suzerainty of the Erech Dynasty. At least what appears to have been a royal cemetery has been excavated, dated prior to the first dynasty of Ur, in which the ritual of burial included human sacrifice, varying from six to seventy or eighty people, sometimes including asses and carts with grooms and various women's bodies. There was no evidence of violence; the men and women sacrificial attendants probably simply drank a drug and went quietly to sleep. Nothing like human sacrifice was ever mentioned from the later Sumeria. At any rate, the actual, historical first dynasty of Ur was that of Mes-an-ni-pad-da of about 2,700 B.C. and it lasted supposedly for 177 years. During the later part of this time, at about 2,600 B.C. it had succeeded in conquering various surrounding areas, under King Urukagina. This was followed by the usurpation of neighboring Umma by King Lugalzaggesi. Situated on the flat lands of the lower Euphrates, Sumer had no natural defenses and the cities became tempting objects of plunder to the barbarous people around. About 2,300 B.C. Sumeria was conquered by the neighboring Akkadians under their great leader, Sargon I. The Sumerian culture seemed to continue in the new, combined empire, however, and a "Golden Age of Ur" resulted. Sargon wrote of ships laden with goods in harbor at his capital and there were caravans of 200 donkeys traveling 12 to 15 hours a day plying between Armenia and Iraq. From 2,112 to 2,015 B.C. Ur remained the capital of this great empire, ruled by the five kings of the third dynasty. Iraq had a population of between four and five million at that time.

One of the characteristic features of each great Sumerian city was the ziggurat and that of Ur has been the best preserved. It has been suggested that if the Sumerians came originally from the Caucasus, one might assume that they felt that their gods had to have a mountain to stand or live on, and so they built the ziggurats, as substitutes. Ur was destroyed sometime after 2,000 B.C. and then for awhile it was under Isin lordship, then under the city of Larsa and finally under the Elamites who came from south Persia. The Elamite prince, Warad-Sin, who became king of Ur, rebuilt and enlarged the temples of the ancient city and his successor, Rim-sin served as king of Larsa also, and during his reign the population of the "old town" of Ur, that is, within the original walls, included an estimated 4,250 houses, probably with 34,000 people. The whole city, then, must have exceeded 250,000 and may have been twice that large. It was a manufacturing center with raw materials imported, sometimes from overseas via the Persian Gulf. Gold, copper ore, hard woods, ivory, pearls and precious stones were all brought by ship and recorded in bills of lading. (Ref. 238 , 28 , 213 )