The document provides information on education and libraries in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. It discusses the time periods and locations of both civilizations, as well as their economic activities, natural resources, and approaches to education. Libraries were important in both societies for preserving knowledge and intellectual works.

1. EGIPT AND MESOPOTAMIA
Education in the ancient Egipt, in Mesopotamia, and the importance of
libraries.
JUNE 7TH, 2014
INSTITUTO TECNOLÓGICO DE MORELIA SPMETH1A
Mónica Herrera García

2. 1
INDEX
1. EGIPT ............................................................................................................................. 2
a. TIME LOCATION .................................................................................................... 3
b. GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION .................................................................................. 4
c. NATURAL RESOURCES ...................................................................................... 5
d. ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES ...................................................................................... 6
e. HEALTH ................................................................................................................... 7
f. FOOD........................................................................................................................ 8
g. LINGUISTIC HERITAGE ....................................................................................... 9
h. GOVERNMENT AND RELIGION.......................................................................10
i. WAR CONFLICTS ................................................................................................11
j. INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITIES .............................................................................12
k. IMPORTANT EDUCATORS OR PEDAGOGIST OF THE PERIOD ............13
l. EDUCATIONAL APPROACHES ........................................................................14
2. MESOPOTAMIA .........................................................................................................15
a. TIME LOCATION ..................................................................................................16
b. GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION ................................................................................17
c. NATURAL RESOURCES ....................................................................................18
d. ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES ....................................................................................19
e. HEALTH .................................................................................................................20
f. FOOD......................................................................................................................21
g. LINGUISTIC HERITAGE .....................................................................................22
h. GOVERNMENT AND RELIGION.......................................................................23
i. WAR CONFLICTS ................................................................................................24
j. INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITIES .............................................................................25
k. IMPORTANT PEDAGOGISTS OR EDUCATORS DURING THE PERIOD26
l. EDUCATIONAL APPROACHES ........................................................................27
3. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE LIBRARIES..............................................................28
4. BIBLIOGRAPHY. ........................................................................................................29

3. 2
1. EGIPT

4. 3
a. TIME LOCATION
Egypt began its march to civilization rather late compared with some regions of the
Near East. Yet once it had taken root, the great civilization of the Nile proved to be
most durable of all, spanning more than three thousand years from the appearance
of the first unified kingdom to the final eclipse of ancient Egyptian culture in the
early Christian era.
For most of its ancient history, Egypt was ruled by kings, or pharaohs, who in
ancient times were grouped into thirty-one dynasties. Egyptologists now tend to
count the Macedonian and Ptolemaic dynasties as numbers thirty-two and thirty-three,
and they have also added a thirty-fourth, the so-called Dynasty “0”, to
account for a handful of very early kings. The dynasties in turn are subdivided into
several periods, three of which are regarded as the peaks of Egyptian civilization:
the “Old Kingdom” (the earliest pyramid age); the “Middle Kingdom”(virtually
synonymous with a single great dynasty, the Twelfth) and the “New Kingdom”(the
age of the great warrior-pharaohs, such as Thutmose III and Ramesses II).
Features of civilized life, such as agriculture and towns, only appear in Egypt in the
sixth millennium BC, some two thousand years later than in Anatolia, Mesopotamia

5. 4
and Syria-Palestine. This may be owning to Egypt’s rich natural resources rather
than any cultural retardedness: the savannas adjoining the Nile Valley remained
home to an abundance of plants and animals until these areas became desert, by
approximately 2000BC. The seeds of Egyptian civilization lie in a number of late
Neolithic cultures that emerged approximately 5000 BC and, over the next
thousand years or so, developed into distinctive regional cultures in Upper and
Lower Egypt. In the late fourth millennium BC, the autonomy of the northern culture
was eroded by the rise of an aggressive rival in Upper Egypt. The development of
this southern culture is traced through a number of stages named after
archaeological sites: Badarian, Naqada I, Naqada II and Naqada III. Collectively
these make up the “Predynastic” and “Protodynastic” periods.
The Naqada II period saw the growth of a prosperous and unified culture in Upper
Egypt, with political power consolidated in towns such as Hierakonopolis, Naqada
and This. Classic Egyptian concepts of divine authority began to evolve, including
the ruler’s identification with the sky god Horus. By the later Predynastic Period,
the southern kingdom’s cultural penetration of Lower Egypt would be followed,
gradually but inevitably, by a political takeover of the north.

6. 5
b. GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION
Egypt lies at the
northern end of the
longest river in the
world: the Nile, which
rises in the East
African highlands and
flows into the
Mediterranean more
than four thousand
miles away.
The Nile in Egypt has
two main parts: the
Valley and the Delta,
corresponding to the
ancient divisions of
the country into
Upper and Lower
Egypt. The Valley,
some 660 miles long,
is a remarkable
canyon that is an offshoot of the African Great Rift Valley. The floodplain occupies
4250 square miles and ranges in width from just one and a quarter miles at Aswan
to eleven miles at el-Amarna.
The silt left by the branches formed a broad triangle of fertile land that covers some
8500 square miles. The Greeks called this land the “Delta”, because its shape
reminded them of the inverted fourth letter of their alphabet. The Delta is fifty-seven
feet above sea level near Cairo and is fringed in the coastal regions by lagoons,
wetlands, lakes and sand dunes. In parts of the eastern Delta there are
conspicuous low hills known as “turtle backs”. These sandy “islands” in the
surrounding silty plain were rarely submerged by the annual inundation and in
Predynastic times (to approximately 4000BC) villages and burial grounds became
established on their slopes. From the Old Kingdom (approximately 2625-2130BC)
onward, the apex of the Delta was close to Memphis, the ancient capital. It is now
fifteen miles north of Cairo.

7. 6
The Nile divides the eastern margin of the Sahara into the Western Desert and the
Eastern Desert. The Western Desert covers about two-thirds of Egypt, and its most
striking features are a series of rocky desert plateau and sandy depressions, in
which nestle lush
oases. The Eastern
Desert,
characterized by the
prominent Red Sea
Hills, was important
in pharaonic times
for its minerals. The
Sinai, essentially an
extension of the
Eastern Desert
across the Gulf of
Suez, was also a
major source of
minerals, especially
copper. Wheat,
barley, sheep and
goats were
domesticated in the
Near East at least
two thousand years
before they appeared in the Nile Valley.
The Western Desert, which was not as dry as it is today, has yielded the oldest
evidence of humankind in Egypt.

8. 7
c. NATURAL RESOURCES
As well as benefiting
from a rich agriculture,
Egypt provided its
inhabitants with fine
quality stone for
building monuments
and carving statues
and with supplies of
gold from Nubia and
the Eastern Desert.
Stone came from a
variety of sources.
White limestone was
carefully cut from
special quarries such
as Tura near
Memphis. The
limestone was
specially used to cover
the walls of temples
and mastaba tombs as
it was good surface for
bas-relief carvings.
Yellow sandstone
came from Gebel es-
Silsila, and red and
yellow quartzite (often
used for statuary) from
Gebel el-Ahmar. There was schist for statues from Waldi Hammamat. Alabaster,
used in buildings and for small objects, was found in the Eastern Desert were the
main quarry was at Hat-nub.Granite from the Aswan area provided material for
buildings, sarcophagi, and statuary.
The quarries and mines were a royal monopoly. Some were situated in remote
parts of the desert. None was worked continuously; when the king decided that he
wished to build or adorn a temple, an expedition was organized and dispatched to
the quarry.
Even by the New Kingdom their only tools were copper or bronze. In earliest times
only stone had provided tools and weapons. Stone continued as the most
important material for these purposes for many years, and even in the Middle
Kingdom, it was retained, whenever appropriate, alongside metal. Flint was the
traditional stone used for many of these items.

9. 8
They also searched in the deserts for the semiprecious stones used by the
jewelers. Some as turquoise, malachite, and emerald, came from the eastern
mines, while carnelian, amethyst, and jasper came from Nubia or the Eastern
Desert. Other natural stones included garnets, green feldspar, and obsidian. Lapis
lazuli was imported from the region known today as Afghanistan via the Euphrates
River region.
The Egyptians regarded gold as one of their most
precious substances, a divine metal that ensured
eternal life. Used for royal and noble burial goods
as well as for jewelry, gold also became a form of
currency by the New Kingdom. Gold was found
both in Egypt and Nubia in the quartz present in
the eastern and southeastern mountains. Wadi
Hammamat and the area to the east of Edfu were
both important gold working areas. The Royal
Treasury owned all the mines, and the mining
expeditions were directed by officers and
soldiers; only state workers were allowed to mine
and handle the gold. Pure silver, regarded as a
type of gold, did not occur in Egypt and was
imported from the north or east. Following their
conquests in Asia the Egyptians had greater
access to it, but silver never became as popular
as gold.
The country was also not particularly rich in
copper. In predynastic times little use was made
of ti except for small decorative objects, but by
Dynasty 2 copper was used for statues of kings
and gods. Gradually it became an increasingly
popular metal in the Old and Middle Kingdoms for
objects such as weapons, tools for carpentry and stoneworking, statuary, jewelry,
mirrors, razors, vases and furniture fittings.

10. 9
d. ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES
From earliest times people were aware that in order to control and regulate the Nile
waters and to organize an efficient irrigation system to benefit all the communities
in the Delta and Nile Valley they would have to act communally.
This need gave people a common goal and was an important incentive for the
unification of Egypt as a state, despite the geographical problems of controlling
such a long, narrow, inhabited area. King Menes unified Egypt in approximately
3100BC, but it is evident that an earlier southern ruler, Scorpion, had started this
process.
The irrigation system was complex; it used the Nile flood and its attendant deposits
of rich black mud to cultivate the land as far as possible on either side of the river.
Earth dikes were built to divide the land into compartments of varying sizes, and
when the river rose the water was diverted into these areas through a system of
canals. It was kept there until the black silt was deposited, and once the river level
fell any remaining water was drained off from these compartments. The remaining
rich soil could be plowed and sown with crops.
Most of the population worked on the land. The peasant worked either with his
family or in a gang and cultivated crops for the state and for his own needs. The
state organized the irrigation system and also the storage of the country’s food
supply in granaries. Officials who controlled these aspects were responsible to the
king who in theory owned all the land.
Egypt’s main crop was cereals. Knowledge of their cultivation was introduced from
the Near East in Neolithic times. The farmers grew two kinds of wheat (spelt and
emmer) as well as barley, and these provided the Egyptians with the basic

11. 10
requirements for their staple diet of bread and beer. Stages in the production of
these cereals are depicted in many tomb scenes to ensure an ample food supply
for the deceased in the next life.
Once the Nile waters had receded in the autumn, seed was scattered on the earth
and the plowed into the soil by a peasant who either used a wooden hoe or
followed a plow dragged by two cows. Next, sheep and pigs were set loose on the
plowed area to trample the ground. The harvest was gathered in the spring. The
men worked together in a group and cut the stalks with wooden sickles fitted with
flint blades. Once the short sheaves had been made into bundles, donkeys carried
them to the threshing floor where animals trampled the stalks and separated the
ripe grain from the husks. It was then further separated with a brush and winnowed
by using a wooden scoop to throw it into a high wind before it was sieved. The
byproduct, straw, was set aside for making brick while the corn itself was
measured and kept in sacks in large silos.
The other major product of Egypt was linen. This textile was widely used for
clothing and other domestic purposes as well as for mummy badges. It was
produced from flax, and tomb scenes often show this being gathered. Peasants
worked together in the fields to pull the flax fibers before they bundled them; then
they prepared the material for spinning and weaving.
Cotton cultivation was introduced into Egypt from Nubia during the Coptic Period,
and from the nineteenth century AD it became one of Egypt’s major industries.
Cereals and lien (which was produced to an extremely high quality) were Egypt’s
main exports in antiquity.
The Egyptians were also market gardeners. Whereas irrigation was carried out
only once a year in antiquity (it is now continuous), allowing the fields to be
watered and cultivated, the orchards and gardens near the cultivated basins or
compartments could be used all the time because the river regularly fed them with

12. 11
water. The gardeners were assiduous in transporting water to these areas, either
bringing it from the Nile in two large pots suspended from a yoke or using a shaduf.
The shaduf, introduced in the New Kingdom, had a bucket on one end of a rope
that was lowered into the river; this was counterbalanced by a weight at the other
end of the device.
In the gardens near their houses and on the mud dikes the peasants grew beans,
lentils, chickpeas, fenugreek, radishes, onions, cucumbers, lettuces and herbs.
Plants also produced perfumes, dyes, and medicines; oil came from castor oil
plants, Arabian moringa, and the olive tree. Flowers, including cornflowers,
chrysanthemums, and lotus, were also grown in gardens for the production of
bouquets and garlands. Fruits that added variety to their diet included figs, grapes,
sycamore figs and dates, and pomegranates.
Wine production was another major industry. The vine may have been introduced
to Egypt from Asia before 3000BC. Grapes could be picked throughout the year to
provide table grapes and grape juice, but there were regular heavy vintages when

13. 12
the grapes were picked and processed before the wine was poured into amphorae
(tall jars with pointed bases) where it was left to age.
The production of papyrus was also important. It was used for writing paper, ropes,
sails, baskets, mats, and sandals. There had always been huge thickets of papyrus
in the marshlands, particularly in the Delta, and later it was grown in cultivated
fields. Laborers cut down the papyrus stems and transported them to workshops
where they were turned into the required products.
In earliest times there was
abundance of animal life in Egypt.
Once hunting had given way to
farming, people began to
domesticate animals. In predynastic
times dogs were trained to hunt and
guard the herds. By the time of the
Old Kingdom donkeys, cows, oxen
and sheep were used for a variety of
agricultural and other tasks, and pigs
were later introduced for trampling
the sown fields.
There were two breeds of oxen in
ancient Egypt, and cows and bulls
roamed the grasslands. Other
animals, kept for meat, milk, and
leather or as sacrificial beasts,
included goats, gazelles and oryx. By

14. 13
selection of the animals in temple herds the Egyptians were able to improve breeds
of sheep and cattle. Birds were also specially bred and fattened for the table. They
included geese, ducks, cranes and pigeons.
Although land cultivation was very important, the population was small enough to
ensure that they were not forced to overwork the land. Large areas of marsh were
left for hunting and fishing. Fishermen used traps and nets to take a wide variety of
fish and nobles made their catches with harpoons. Birds were hunted with
boomerangs and with civets, mongooses, and wold cats; large clap nets were used
to trap quantities of geese and wild duck.

15. 14
e. HEALTH
For Egyptians, good health meant wholeness, integration and preservation.
Healing, for them, was the search of wholeness, not just for our bodies, but for our
souls, our minds, our spirits, our relationships, and for the environment around us.
Today’s familiar sign for prescription, Rx, was originated in Ancient Egypt. In the
2nd century, Galen used mystic symbols to impress his patients. Accordingly, he
borrowed the eye of Heru (Horus) from the Egyptian allegory.
The eye symbol has gradually evolved into today’s familiar sign for prescription,
Rx, which is used throughout the world no matter which language is used.
Many of the Egyptian remedies and prescriptions have been passed on to Europe
via the writings of Pliny, Dioscorides, Galen and other Greek writers.
It is evident that the medical science of the Egyptians was sought and appreciated
in foreign countries. Herodotus told us that Cyrus and Darius both sent to Egypt for
medical men. In later times too, they continued to be celebrated for their skill:
Ammianus says it was enough for a doctor to say he had studied in Egypt, to
recommend him. Pliny also mentioned medical men going from Egypt to Rome.
The care which the Egyptians
took of their health was a
source of astonishment for
foreign observed, particularly
Greeks and Romans. Pliny
thought that the large number
of doctors meant that the
population of Egypt suffered
from a great number of
diseases. Herodotus, on the
other land, reported that there
were no healthier people than
the Egyptians.
Ancient sources refer to the
Egyptians, as the healthiest
race of the ancient world.
Herodotus wrote, in the 5th
century BC:
“Of all the nations of the world, Egyptians are the happiest, healthiest and
most religious”.
To heal a person, is to bring that person back into tune, by the deliberate
summoning-up of the specific harmonic phenomena pertinent to the case. Magic

16. 15
for Ancient Egyptians was the profound understanding of cosmic resonance, as
opposed to the current shallow notion, tat magic is a synonym for superstition.
The Ancient Egyptians were reputed to be the cleanest people in the ancient world.
The squalid appearance and unrefined habits of Asiatic Greeks and Romans, with
their long beards, were often the subject of ridicule to the Egyptians. Their
abhorrence of the bearded and long-haired Greeks was so great, that, according to
Herodotus, “no Egyptian of either sex would on any account kiss the lips of a
Greek, make use of his knife, his spit and cauldron, or taste the meat of an animal
which has been slaughtered by his hand”.
Warm as well as cold baths were used by the Egyptians. Egyptians felt obliged to
wash their hands several times a day, but most importantly before and after each
meal. It is common knowledge now that hand washing is an essential preventative
measure. Even the most modest of Ancient Egyptian dwellings had a bathroom of
sorts; these could vary from a very simple installation all the way to the extreme
refinements of the richest villas.
The Egyptians priests took several complete baths every day. They also shaved
their whole body, including eyelashes and eyebrows. It was the same concern for
purity that inspired them to observe chastity. A healthy soul could hardly develop in
a body that was not clean.

17. 16
Circumcision of male children was originated in Ancient Egypt, prior to any other
country. The procedure signifies cleanliness as being holiness. This Ancient
Egyptian practice was adopted later by other “religions” and races.
The names and titles of more than a hundred doctors were determined from
archeological findings, with sufficient detail to uncover an overall picture of the
medical practice. The name of Imhotep has become forever linked with Egyptian
medicine, who was later deified and identified with Asklepios, the Greek god of
healing.
As far back as the Old Kingdom, the medical profession was highly organized, with
doctors holding a variety of ranks and specialties. The ordinary doctor was
outranked by the Overseer of doctors, the Chief of doctors, the Eldest of doctors
and the Inspector of doctors. A distinction was made between physicians and
surgeons.
There were eye doctors, bowel specialists (Guardians of the Anus), physicians who
specialized in internal diseases who know the secret and specialize in the body
fluids, nose doctors, sickness of the upper air passages, doctors of the abdomen,
and dentists.
Childbirth was basically the province of the midwives. Herodotus saw in that a sign
of scientific advancement, and the result of truly profound knowledge.
Ta-urt is the Egyptian patroness of women in pregnancy, childbirth, and after birth.
She represents much more than our common understanding of a midwife.
Midwives, among the Ancient and Baladi Egyptians, possess the physical and
metaphysical knowledge of bringing a new baby into the world –body and soul, and
the impact on the mother throughout the entire process.
Some surgical tools and instruments are depicted in tombs and temples, such as:
- The Tomb of Ankh-mahor at Saqqara. Which contains several unique
medical and surgical reliefs. Among them was a flint knife which some
considered as evidence of its remote origin. The most recent surgical
research is vindicating the flint instruments of antiquity. It has been found
that for certain neurological and optical operations, obsidian possesses
qualities that cannot be matched by the finest steel, and an updated version
of the old flint knife is coming back into use.
- On the outer corridor wall of the temple at Kom Ombo, a box of surgical
instruments is carved in relief. The box includes metal shears, surgical
knives, saws, probes, spatulas, small hooks and forceps.
Surgical operations were performed by the Ancient Egyptians, even in predynastic
times. Mummies were found having very neatly cut parts of their skulls, indicating
the nature of the operations; and sometimes the severed section of the skull had
knit to the parent bone, proving that the patient had survived to the operation.

18. 17
Although no surgical scars have been reported in mummies (apart from
embalmers’ incisions=, there are thirteen references in the Smith Papyrus to
“stitching”.
The short life span of the ancient Egyptian was due to such diseases as
tuberculosis and respiratory ailments as bronchitis and pneumonia. They also
suffered from parasites absorbed through unclean waters, the dangers of
childbirth, snake bites, polio, rheumatism, scoliosis, appendicitis, meningitis, small
pox, malaria, measles and cholera.
Aspiring doctors underwent many years of hard training at the temple schools,
where they were taught how to cure illnesses and set broken bones. The latter
were treated with rational, medical methods such as plant, animal, mineral
substances and surgical techniques, although the unfamiliar or unknown was
remedied with magic or Heka. Intricate surgery, dream analysis, faith healing,
amulets, herbs and recipes consisting of the most ghastly ingredients were used in
curing illnesses.

19. 18
From funerary work, the process of mummification, first-hand knowledge of human
anatomy was acquired, and autopsies were performed as part of the learning
process of the healers. Doctors were trained and specialized in particular fields,
such as the head, internal maladies, gynecology and ophthalmology; texts were
consulted and observations made.
Female doctors exercised their skills and knowledge under the supervision of Lady
Pesheshet, the earliest female physician in history (5th Dynasty). Perhaps the
earliest ophthalmologist was named Iry; he was an oculist and physician to royalty
during the 6th Dynasty.
Dentists filled teeth with mineral cement or a mixture of resin and malachite. Loose
teeth were bound with silver of gold wire as examined mummies have proven. It
appears that silver wire was used during the Late Period. Dentists were in high
demand –tooth decay was a great problem as a result of consuming bread and
cakes mixed with sand from the grinding process. Studies of mummies dated to the
4th Dynasty show surgically-produced holes under a molar that was used to drain
an abscess.
Surgery was successful in the treatment of broken bones as well as in the brain

20. 19
area, where intricate operations were practiced. The pulse was referred to as “the
voice of the heart”, as the ancient Egyptians were cognizant of the fact that the
heart and pulse were synchronized.
Papyrus records of antidotes and cures have been discovered which give a pretty
good picture of the medical beliefs and practices of the times. These texts were
frequently consulted as reference material for treatments which demonstrated the
ancient Egyptian knowledge of medicine, healing, anatomy and autopsy.
One such papyrus, dated 3600 years ago, tells of 100 remedies and antidotes.
Over half involved the use of smoothing honey which cleansed, drid wounds and
accelerated the healing process. The “Ebers Papyrus” contains nearly 900
prescriptions, charms, spells and invocations for any aliment, this papyrus
discusses twelve cases with the relevant spells and has an entire section devoted
to diseases of the eye.
The “Edwin Smith Papyrus” was written in 1700BC and contains 48 surgical
operations, scientific diagnosis and treatments for wounds, fractures, dislocated
and broken bones. These injuries were understood and treated with clinical
methods. Magic was almost exclusively absent in this papyrus. However, it is
believed that the data contained is also based on older texts written during the 3rd
Dynasty. Some scholars believe that Imhotep himself authored this text.
The “London Papyrus” includes medical and magical wisdom believed to have
belonged to the Paraoh Khufu of the 4th Dynaty. The “Gynecological Papyrus”,
dated 1825BC, deals with such treatments as contraception, detecting
pregnancies, evaluating fertility, determining a baby’s gender, bladder problems
and all medical cases related to pregnancy and the female reproductive system.
Many of the ancient Egyptian herbal treatments were highly prized and soon
spread throughout the Mediterranean area as they were practiced with successful
results. Belladonna, poppy and thyme were effective pain relievers and sedatives.
Powdered root of the mandrake plant was used to calm an upset stomach, cure
insomnia, control fear and depression. Henbane was not only used as calming
antidote but like mandrake, was also used in love potions as an aphrodisiac.
Herbs such as myrrh, frankincense, cassia, thyme, opium, juniper, aloe, castor oil
and fennel are mentioned in medical papyri. Garlic was very popular as it helped in
the digestive process, induced vitality and strength while dispelling evil spirits.
Garlic and onions were believed to induce endurance and were consumed
regularly. Raw garlic was taken as a remedy for respiratory ailments. Honey and
milk were prescribed for respiratory and throat ailments. To calm a persistent
cough and moisten dry lungs, a very common problem in the dry climate of the
desert, a concoction of dried figs, dates, aniseed, honey and water was simmered
into a thick mixture and taken as an effective remedy. Tannic acid from the acacia
nut helped heal burns and coriander was prescribed for stomach illnesses as it was

21. 20
thought to contain digestive properties. Henna and saffron were used to mend
small wounds.
The medical potions included such ingredients as blood and fat of an animal,
powdered bones, hooves and horns dissolved in water, milk, beer or wine. Milk and
wine were specifically thought to contain medicinal qualities on their own.
Treatments were inserted into a body cavity and ointments made of honey or fats
along with special diets were often prescribed. Natron was used as an effective
cleanser, disinfectant and healing agent.
The mud of the Nile was incorporated into potions which was believed to rapidly
had wounds. The Nile River was believed to possess healing and rejuvenating
properties. However, one must wonder about the hygienic properties of the Nile.

22. 21
f. FOOD
The kitchen was located at the back of the house and would be covered by a roof
of straw or branches to simultaneously block out the scorching Egyptian heat and
allow the escape of cooking fumes. In villas, the kitchen was located entirely
outside the house. A grain storehouse would serve the kitchen, sometimes being
located alongside it or on the roof where it could be reached by stairs.
Tools used by the ancient Egyptians were fairly basic. If there was no fixed oven, a
portable one would be used. This would take the shape of a circular pottery disc
with a hole in the bottom where the fire was lit. If that was not available, ancient
Egyptians would simply use a canon, a small campfire surrounded by a few stones
used to hold the cooking vessel.
Although there is much that we do not know about ancient Egyptian ways of
cooking, the depictions, wall paintings, tools, and cooking vessels discovered over
the years left us a general picture of the methods used. In addition to ovens and
burners, there were also various pots with two handles for cooking, as well as
plates, pans, pitchers, stone and clay urns, baskets to hold food, sieves, and
pestles for grinding. Other implements used included knives to cut meat and
butcher hooks.
Fertile Egyptian soil and the Nile River were main factors in helping the ancient
Egyptians to cultivate a variety of plants and rear livestock. Food sources were
diverse, and ancient Egyptians made good use of the different kinds of fish,
vegetables, poultry, and fruits.
The staple diet of
most Egyptians
consisted of bread
and beer in addition
to what produce the
land yielded, such
as onions, garlic,
lentils, leeks, turnips,
radish, lettuce, and
cucumbers.
Since the
Predynastic period,
ancient Egyptians,
rich or poor,
consumed various
breads made from
different grains.
Flour would

23. 22
generally be mixed with a yeasting agent, salt, and spices, and sometimes with
eggs and butter. The bread could also be filled with legumes of vegetables or
sweetened with honey or dates. The ancient Egyptians also used a fair share of
legumes such as beans, chickpeas, and lentils as well as vegetables such as peas,
lettuce, garlic, onions, and leeks. Dates were the most common fruit, in addition to
figs, grapes, pomegranates, watermelon and plums, all of which appear in
depictions of daily life dating back to the New Kingdom.
Depictions of daily life show the process of making dairy products such as cheese
and butter as well as the extraction of oils like sesame, castor, and radish. The
pharaohs frequently used herbs and spices such as aniseed, thyme, cumin,
cinnamon, fennel, fenugreek, and mustard.
Types of food eaten give a clearer picture of the different social levels in the
ancient Egyptian hierarchy. In the poorest stratum fell the peasants whose staple
diet was bread and beer, and a few simple dishes of vegetables the land
generously yielded to them. When they had meat, it was mainly that of smaller
farm animals since larger livestock were used in agriculture.
Members of the middle or working classes like construction workers, ship-builders,
and laborers were one rung higher in the social ladder, and their professions
entitled them to daily rations. Their food varied between meat and fish with plates
of vegetables, fruit, as well as the common factor of bread and beer.
Egyptians lucky enough to be born into the upper class lived a life of luxury. This
tables were weighed down with various dishes of meat, fish, and game besides all
they desired of vegetables, fruit, breads, and pies. The drink of choice was wine.
The pharaohs were in many senses, gourmets, and the abundance of food sources
in Egypt allowed them to vary their dishes in kind and amount, particularly on
special occasions and al feasts and banquets. But while the ancient Egyptians
loved luxury, when it came to food they were apparently inclined toward
moderation, a prime indication being the lithe bodies depicted in wall paintings and
statues.
Ancient Egyptians ate while seated at small tables laden with different kinds of
meat, poultry, vegetables, fruits, and loaves of bread. Peasants would sit on a
straw mat while the nobles would generally sin on stools or chairs, both eating with
their fingers. Ladies and children would sit on cushions placed on the ground.
Although pharaohs, too, are commonly depicted eating with their fingers, here are
depictions of utensils such as different-shaped plates and bowls for soups and
other foods including sweet goulash, compote, appetizers and cream, as well as
cutting knives, spoons and forks. Forks were used for cooking, not for eating.
Members of the family would probably not meet at breakfast. When the lord of the
house finished washing and dressing, he would be offered a piece of bread and a

24. 23
glass of beer and perhaps a slice of meat and a piece of pie. Main meals were
taken at noon and in the evening, with a lighter meal consumed in the afternoon,
between four and five.
As an agricultural society, ancient Egyptians held celebrations in honor or
Renenutet, the goddess of harvest, and Min, the god of fertility, both of which were
held in the summer. During the month of Keihak, feasts for the ploughing of the
land were held, and the god Osiris was celebrated for being resurrected after death
like the land which dies and then is reborn every season.
Other special occasions that included food were royal feasts like coronations and
anniversaries as well as the feasts of the dead in which families brought food to the
burial places of the deceased. Annual feasts to
honor the gods were also held as well as other
local celebrations specific to each region.
One of the most important religious
celebrations was the New Kingdom Beautiful
Feast of Opet. The feast, which was
important because it renewed the legitimacy of
Opet, would continue for almost a month, and the
king would present many sacrificial offerings
including meat, poultry, fruit, milk, bread, and beer
as well as flowers and perfume.
A celebration generally associated with the
Ancient Egyptians is the Feast of the Harvest,
commonly known today as Sham al-Nessim.
Sham al-Nessim symbolized rebirth, and the
ancient Egyptians believed that this day
marked the beginning of creation. This
particular celebration was famous for its
variety of foods which included full, ripe green
chickpeas that symbolized the coming of
spring, and lettuce, which was popular because of its connection to the Min, god of
fertility and reproduction.

25. 24
g. LINGUISTIC HERITAGE
Ancient Egyptian is the
oldest and longest
continually attested of the
world’s languages. Recent
discoveries have
demonstrated the
existence of Egyptian
hieroglyphic writing with
phonograms as well as
ideograms around
3250BC, roughly
contemporary with the
comparable development
in Mesopotamian
cuneiform, and the last
documents composed in
Coptic, the final stage of
the language, date to the
18th century AD. This extraordinary lifespan of five thousand years is preserved in
a wealth of written material, making it possible to trace the development of the
language through at least three millennia of its history.
Egyptian belongs to the Hamito-Semitic family of languages. It has affinities with
Hamitic languages such as Beja, Berber, and Oromo, and with all the Semitic
languages, including Akkadian, Arabic, and Hebrew. Common Hamito-Semitic
features include consonantal root structures; lexical morphology; two genders,
masculine and feminine; plural; independent and suffix forms of the personal
pronouns; the stative verb form; and non-verbal sentences.
Ancient Egyptian is commonly divided into five historical stages, known as Old,
Middle, and Late Egyptian, Demotic, and Coptic. Significant differences in grammar
separate the first two of these from the last three, so that the stages can be
grouped into two major historical phases, Egyptian I and Egyptian II.
Old Egyptian can be said to begin with the first known instance of a complete
sentence, from a cylinder seal of the pharaoh Peribsen, near the end of the 2nd
Dynasty.
Prior to this, the language is represented solely by proper names, titles, and labels.
Some of the latter, however, contain phrases, demonstrating the existence of
several grammatical features that characterize the later language: in this case,
nisbe formation, adjectival modification, nominal verb forms, and genitival
relationships expressed by direct juxtaposition, including that between a verb and
its subject and consequent vs word order.

26. 25
The first extensive Egyptian texts are inscriptions in the tomb of Methen, whose
career spanned the end of Dynasty III and the beginning of Dynasty IV. Early old
Egyptian is represented by secular texts of Dynasty IV and early Dynasty V and the
Pyramid Texts of late Dynasty V to Dynasty VI; late Old Egyptian is distinguished
from its predecessor mostly by the appearance of the “pseudo-verbal”
constructions subject –hr-stp and subject –r-stp.
The transition between Old and Middle Egyptian is gradual rather than sharp.
Some late Old Egyptian texts contain Middle Egyptian features; conversely, some
of the Coffin Texts and other early Middle Egyptian documents are marked by the
retention of Old Egyptian morphological and grammatical features largely absent
from later texts. Middle Egyptian proper exhibits three major sub-stages: classical,
late and traditional. Classical Middle Egyptian is the language of most texts of the
Middle Kingdom, including the classical literature of ancient Egypt. Late Middle
Egyptian, in use from the Second Intermediate Period through the New Kingdom,
exhibits some features of its successor, Late Egyptian. By the time the latter
appeared in writing, Middle Egyptian had ceased to be a living language. Middle
Egyptian was retained for monumental inscriptions and some religious texts until
the end of hieroglyphic writing, in the form known as Traditional Middle Egyptian,
which is primarily an artificial construct whose grammar was influenced by that of
the contemporary language.
Late Egyptian began to
appear in texts from the
time of Akhenaten
(Dynasty XVIII) and
became the standard
written language in the
succeeding dynasty. It
is attested in two forms,
literary (retaining some
features of Middle
Egyptian) and
colloquial. The latter
exhibits some changes
between its earlier and
later stages, essentially
Dynasties XIX-XX and
Dynasties XX-XXVI,
respectively.
Demotic, first attested in
its distinctive written
form about 650BC, developed directly out of Late Egyptian. It has three major sub-stages:
early, Ptolemaic, and Roman. For the last three centuries of its existence,

27. 26
until the mid-fifth century AD, it existed alongside Coptic, essentially two different
written forms of the same language.

28. 27
h. GOVERNMENT AND RELIGION
Although it had a brief flirtation with monotheism, ancient Egyptian religion was
centered on many gods. There were gods of fertility, gods of the sun, gods of
creation and pretty much everything else that affected the everyday lives of ancient
Egyptians. But apparently the gods were not static. They changed names, merged
with other gods and took on a variety of roles in their long existence.
To please the gods and to ensure a safe and successful journey to the afterlife, the
Egyptians had many spells, prayers and practices to follow. They had trained
priests in glorious temples and pharaohs who were closer to the gods than any
other mortal.
There is no doubt that the pharaoh was the gods’ favorite mortal. Only the king of
all Egypt could be sent to the afterlife from the specially designed and much-labored-
on pyramid.
In many cases, such as Khufu, their entire life was spent overseeing the
construction of their final resting place. He would have priests design a tomb that
aligned with certain stars and spells and prayers carved into the walls. The
Pharaoh would be laid in the burial chamber with many valuable treasures, so he
could take them on his journey. Ramesses II, served long enough as leader of
Egypt to transform from man to god. He professed to have harnessed the power of
Set, Horus, Re and Amun.
The priests were very important in carrying out all the important funerary spells,
documenting the Pharaoh's relationship with the gods and all other forms of
worship. They were the middle man between the Earth and the heavens.
With money, came the ability to pay for safe passage to the afterlife. Government
officials and military leaders were among the nobility group that could afford the
expense of a proper tomb and funeral practices such as embalming.
Commoners may not have received the same privileges, but they paid tribute to the
gods and worshipped them all the same. For fishermen and farmers, keeping the
gods happy was essential to a decent catch or crop.
Egyptians were in awe of the gods and paid their respects diligently. Common
households could contain the statues of protective gods and goddesses. Also a
family wishing to have children sometimes had small statues of fertility gods.
Farmers, being under control of the temples, paid tribute by taking some of their
harvest to the temple of their town.

29. 28
The close association between ancient Egyptian religion and government meant
that schools were attached to temples and those attending were educated by
priests.
Festivals were another way for people to celebrate the Gods. During a festival for a
particular god or goddess a procession was held with a statue carried through the
streets.
Some temples were more than just a place of worship or education in religious
matters, they were literally a home on earth for the appropriate god or goddess. No
one but the highest priest or pharaoh was allowed into the inner sanctums.
By far the most important part of Egyptian religious belief, was that of the afterlife.
Rituals such as mummification and being buried with protective spells and prayers
were treated very seriously. It was considered essential that the body be preserved
so that it could reunite with the soul and maintain the individual’s identity in the
afterlife.

30. 29
Proof of how seriously the Egyptians took their own death can be seen in the
construction of the pyramids. Never has such effort been applied to a construction
that will serve no purpose other than to house the dead.
The highest priest in ancient Egypt and the man closest to the gods was the
pharaoh. The temples reflected his bond with the otherworldly in the forms of
statues and reliefs depicting him larger than life; greater than just a man.
The priests of ancient Egypt had a variety of roles:
- Temple worship - Ancient Egyptian priests were guardians and caretakers of
their temples. It was there job to appease the gods and goddesses that
resided there. Reading prayers and anointing statues were two of the main
rituals.
- Administration - Everyone from overseers, soldiers and scribes reported to
the priests of their respective temple. They would know the facts and figures
for all important aspects of Egyptian economy in their region.
- Education - Because they had to read important prayers and spells it was
essential they were educated in reading and writing. This also qualified them
to teach and the temple was a place of education for those able to afford it.
- Festivals - When celebrating a festival, a priest carried the temple statue in
a public procession.
Daily rituals:
* Break of dawn - As the sun first appeared in the morning, priests sung the
morning hymn in tribute to the gods. The most senior priest would draw back the
bolt on the doors which housed the gods. Incense was lit at this stage.
* Purification - Priests were required to be cleaned before temple work began.
Gods were also symbolically purified before being dressed and cosmetics applied.
* Offerings - Meat, bread, fruit, vegetables and beer were all laid before the gods.
All produce came from surrounding landowners and farmers and was premium
produce, fit for a god.
After the pyramids, Egyptian temples were the next most impressive of ancient
Egypt's architecture. It was the place that represented a god on Earth. They played
diverse roles.

31. 30
 Priests: Temples were Egyptian priest central. The walls were adorned with
hieroglyphs of spells and prayers honoring gods and pharaohs. These were written
by the priests.
Schools: Education was expensive but for those who could afford to have their
boys educated, they would be sent to a temple where they were instructed by a
priest.
Administration: The Egyptian temples owned the land and farmers were required
to pay tribute in the form of part of their harvest.
Egyptian temples were sacred to the point that only a select few saw the inner
sanctum. The deeper into the temple, the less access was granted. The Egyptians
believed that the gods resided in the deepest chambers. It was their home on
Earth. It was this innermost chamber that housed a statue of the god, or goddess,
for that particular temple.
The outer courtyards however were frequented by priests and commoners alike.
This is where the general population left their tributes.
The hypostyle halls were the next stage beyond the courtyards. They were a forest
of columns. The columns were of differing styles and designed to hold up large
sandstone-slab ceilings, as well as provide decoration.
The decorative reliefs on the walls were not reserved for the gods. They were
equally represented by images of the Pharaoh. This demonstrated his closeness to
the gods and god-like stature of his own position.
Light was used in temples to illuminate reliefs, writings and architectural design
with very deliberate engineering. If the building was built to face a particular
direction the light would shine through gaps in the ceiling at a particular time of
day, creating a desired effect.
These are some of the Egyptian temples:
♥ Temple of Karnak: Located near Luxor, this large complex is unique for its
diversity. Temples were built there from the Middle Kingdom right through to
Ptolemaic times. Approximately thirty pharaohs contributed to build it, giving
it many different styles. While a temple represents a particular god, Karnak
represents the triad of Amun-Re, his consort Mut and their son Khons. The
Amun-Re precinct of the temple complex is open to the public.
♥ Cave of Artemis - This name was given during the Greek rule for the below
ground temple. It sits behind a series of tombs and is a monument to the
goddess Pakhet.
♥ Kom Ombo - This temple has been divided into two halves in terms of
worship. One half worships the god Horus, while the other worships Sobek,

32. 31
who was represented by a crocodile. Inside the temple are mummified
crocodiles.
♥ Deir el-Bahri - Another series of mortuary temples that are nestled in cliff
faces. It was here that the successful queen-pharaoh Hatshepsut has her
temple.
♥ Dendra Temple Complex - The 40,000 square meter complex is surrounded
by a thick mud brick wall. The main temple of Hathor was originally
constructed in the Middle Kingdom of ancient Egypt but influenced by many
generations all the way up to the Romans.
The ancient Egyptians believed in the body having a Ka, or spirit and after death
the body would be reunited with the Ka. But only with the right procedures and
spells in place.
After death the deceased faces a panel of judges where they will account for their
time on earth. He is then led by Anubis, the jackal-faced god, to the scales where
his heart will be weighed against the feather of Maat, the Goddess of Truth and
Justice. This is perhaps the most important trial in the deceased journey and is well
documented in illustrations in Ancient texts.
If the heart outweighs the feather, it is heavy with the evil doings of the deceased.
This outcome is not a good one and it will be devoured in the jaws of Amuut and he
will face an eternity of oblivion.
If the heart does not outweigh the feather, the deceased will be able to pass
through to Osiris. Illustrations on funerary scenes show that an Ibis-headed god,
Thoth, is recording the results.
It is Horus that leads the deceased through to Osiris. Osiris waits with Isis and
Nephthys and greets the deceased into the afterlife.
The deceased would now continue to live in the afterworld as they did in life. Their
possessions would make the journey too, which is why the tombs were full of items
important for the individual. Food would be provided to provide nourishment to the
deceased.
Spells were needed from the Book of the Dead. These were essential to pass
through the many obstacles sent to test the deceased as they transitioned from life
to death and then back to life again.
Eventually, they could continue to enjoy life as an invisible spirit moving among the
living, but without the pain and hardships of the living world.

33. 32
What we call the Egyptian Book of the Dead was known to the Egyptians as Reu
nu pert em hru translated that means The Chapters of coming forth by day. It is a
collection of chapters made up of magic spells and formulas. It was illustrated and
written on papyrus. These papyri were commissioned by the deceased before their
death. Like most products these text came in different qualities.
This collection of funerary chapters began to appear in Egyptian tombs around
1600 BC. It can be thought of as the deceased's guidebook to a happy afterlife.
The text was intended to be read by the deceased during their journey into the
Underworld. It enabled the deceased to overcome obstacles and not lose their
way. It did this by teaching passwords, giving clues, and revealing routes that
would allow the deceased to answer questions and navigate around hazards. It
would grant the help and protection of the gods while proclaiming the deceased's
identity with the gods. The Papyrus of Ani is one of the finest and most complete
examples of this type of Egyptian funerary text to survive.
Some brief excerpts from the Book of the Dead are:
1-The funeral procession of the royal scribe Ani (from the papyrus of Ani
c.1400BC). The Egyptians believed that the human soul used the first night after
death to travel into the afterlife. However, the body, which the Egyptians believed
was an essential element to the afterlife had to be mummified to preserve it for
eternity. The mummification process took 72 days to perform properly. This was
the time to put finishing touches on the tomb and to pack all the deceased's worldly
possessions, which surely would be needed in the afterlife.
In this picture we see servants or hired hands carrying Ani's home furnishings,
Servants are dragging a chest on which Anubis is sitting, inside the chest is more
of Ani's worldly possessions or perhaps his canopic jars. All of these objects will be
placed in the tomb for his use in the afterlife. In front of them are eight male
mourners dressed in white. Ani's mummy rides on a funerary boat which is being

34. 33
drawn by oxen. Very hard to see in this picture are the
goddesses Isis and Nephthys who are usually shown in this scene protecting the
dead. Ani's wife mourns at his side. The man wearing a leopard skin and turned
back towards Ani's mummy is a priest, he is burning incense.
There are men carrying more of Ani's belongings. The group of women in clothed
in blue are a party of paid, professional mourners who wail and pat dirt on their
heads. This was an Egyptian show of mourning. The cow and calf are food
offerings that will be used for the funeral feast. Ani's mummy stands before
the entrance of his tomb, in the protective embrace of Anubis. His wife mourns at
his feet. Behind her are offerings and three priests. One reads from a papyrus,
while the other two are about to perform an important ceremony called the
"opening of the mouth and eyes." This ceremony was thought to restore the
mummy's ability to see, breathe, eat and drink.
2-Entering the afterlife (from the
papyrus of Hunefer c.1370BC).
Hunefer's mummy stands before the
entrance of his tomb, in the
protective embrace of Anubis. The
two women are probably family
members, they are patting dirt on
their heads, and this was a sign of
mourning. Behind them are three
priests. The priest wearing the
leopard skin (a sign of priesthood)
burns incense and presents offerings
of food and drink, while the other two
are about to perform the important
ceremony of "opening of the mouth". This ceremony was thought to restore the
mummy's ability to see, breathe, eat and drink.

35. 34
3-The hall of Maat (from the papyrus of Hunefer c.1370BC). The Hall of Maat is
where the judgment of the dead was performed. This was done by weighing
one's heart (conscience) against the feather of Maat (truth and justice). Here we
see Anubis leading Hunefer to the scales of Maat. Anubis weights Hunefer's heart
against the feather to see if he is worthy of joining the gods in the Fields of
Peace. Ammut is also present, as a demon waiting to devour Hunefer's heart
should he prove unworthy. Thoth stands to the right of the scales recording the
results. Having passed this test Hunefer is now lead by Horus to meet the King of
the dead, Osiris. The throne of Osiris rests on a pool of water from which a lotus
flower is growing, upon the lotus stand the four sons of Horus. Behind the throne of
Osiris stands Isis and her sister Nephthys.
4-“Sekhet-Hetepet” The fields of
peace (from the papyrus of Ani
c.1400BC). Ani pays his respects
to the gods who dwell in Sekhet-
Hetepet (Fields of Peace) and asks
the gods to help him to enter into
Sekhet-Hetepet so that he may
"become a khu, drink, plow, reap,
fight, make love, never be in a
state of servitude and always be in
a position of authority therein".
The main use for ancient Egyptian
masks was in a funerary sense. It
is believed that the preservation of
the individuals face was important

36. 35
for a successful journey to the afterlife. In case of physical damage, the mask
would protect the person's image and create immortality for them. This was an
important factor in gaining acceptance into their afterworld existence.
Government and religion were inseparable in ancient Egypt. The pharaoh was the
head of state and
the divine
representative of
the gods on earth.
Religion and
government brought
order to society
through the
construction of
temples, the
creation of laws,
taxation, the
organization of
labor, trade with
neighbors and the
defense of the
country's interests.
The pharaoh was
assisted by a
hierarchy of
advisors, priests,
officials and
administrators, who
were responsible for
the affairs of the
state and the
welfare of the
people.
Ancient Egypt could
not have achieved
such stability and
grandeur without
the co-operation of all levels of the population. The pharaoh was at the top of the
social hierarchy. Next to him, the most powerful officers were the viziers, the
executive heads of the bureaucracy. Under them were the high priests, followed by
royal overseers (administrators) who ensured that the 42 district governors carried
out the pharaoh's orders. At the bottom of the hierarchy were the scribes, artisans,
farmers and laborers.

37. 36
The pharaohs began ruling Egypt in 3000 B.C., when Upper and Lower Egypt were
united. During the Old Kingdom (2575-2134 B.C.), they considered themselves to
be living gods who ruled with absolute power. They built pyramids as testimony of
their greatness but left no official records of their achievements.
By the Middle Kingdom, the pharaohs no longer considered themselves to be living
gods, but rather the representatives of the gods on earth. They left records of their
deeds, but these were no more than a string of titles and laudatory epithets.
To reinforce their image as powerful divine rulers, the pharaohs represented
themselves in writings and sculptured reliefs on temple walls. They often depicted
themselves as warriors who single-handedly killed scores of enemies and
slaughtered a whole pride of lions. Similar depictions were repeated by one
pharaoh after another, which leads one to question the validity of the scenes.
Not all the pharaohs were men, nor were they all Egyptian. Before the Greco-
Roman Period, at least three women ascended the throne, the most important
being Queen Hatshepsut. Over several periods, Egypt was dominated by foreign
powers that appointed a king from their own ranks. Exactly how successive
pharaohs were chosen is not entirely clear. Sometimes a son of the pharaoh, or a
powerful vizier (head priest) or feudal lord assumed the leadership, or an entirely
new line of pharaohs arose following the collapse of the former monarchy.
Bureaucracy is not a modern invention; it was conceived by the Egyptians over
5,000 years ago. The creation of a bureaucracy in the Old Kingdom was a key
factor in the inception of the Egyptian civilization. The king was the supreme head
of state. Next to him, the most powerful officer in the hierarchy was the vizier, the
executive head of the bureaucracy. The position of vizier was filled by a prince or a
person of exceptional ability. His title is translated as "superintendent of all works of
the king".
As the supreme judge of the state, the vizier ruled on all petitions and grievances
brought to the court. All royal commands passed through his hands before being
transmitted to the scribes in his office. They in turn dispatched orders to the heads
of distant towns and villages, and dictated the rules and regulations related to the
collection of taxes.
The king was surrounded by the court, friends and favored people who attained
higher administrative positions. The tendency was to fill these positions on the
basis of heredity.

38. 37
i. WAR CONFLICTS
Throughout most of its history, ancient Egypt was unified under one government.
The main military concern for the nation was to keep enemies out. The arid plains
and deserts surrounding Egypt were inhabited by nomadic tribes who occasionally
tried to raid or settle in the fertile Nile river valley. The Egyptians built fortresses
and outposts along the borders east and west of the Nile Delta, in the Eastern
Desert, and in Nubia to the south. Small garrisons could prevent minor incursions,
but if a large force was detected a message was sent for the main army corps.
Most Egyptian cities lacked city walls and other defenses.
The first
Egyptian
soldiers carried
a simple
armament
consisting of a
spear with a
copper
spearhead and
a large wooden
shield covered
by leather hides.
A stone mace
was also carried
in the Archaic
period, though
later this
weapon was
probably only in
ceremonial use,
and was
replaced with
the bronze battle
axe. The spearmen were supported by archers carrying a composite bow and
arrows with arrowheads made of flint or copper. No armour was used during the
3rd and early 2nd Millennium BC. The major advance in weapons technology and
warfare began around 1600 BC when the Egyptians fought and defeated the
Hyksos people, who ruled Lower Egypt at the time. It was during this period the
horse and chariot were introduced into Egypt. Other new technologies included the
sickle sword, body armour and improved bronze casting. In the New Kingdom, the
Egyptian military changed from levy troops into a firm organization of professional
soldiers. Conquests of foreign territories, like Nubia, required a permanent force to
be garrisoned abroad. The Egyptians were mostly used to slowly defeating a much

39. 38
weaker enemy, town by town, until beaten into submission. The preferred tactic
was to subdue a weaker city or kingdom one at a time resulting in surrender of
each fraction until complete domination was achieved. The encounter with other
powerful Near Eastern kingdoms like Mitanni, the Hittites, and later the Assyrians
and Babylonians, made it necessary for the Egyptians to conduct campaigns far
from home. The next leap forwards came in the Late Period (712-332 BC), when
mounted troops and weapons made of iron came into use. After the conquest by
Alexander the Great, Egypt was heavily Hellenized and the main military force
became the infantry phalanx. The ancient Egyptians were not great innovators in
weapons technology, and most weapons technology innovation came from
Western Asia and the Greek world.
These soldiers were paid with a plot of land for the provision of their families. After
fulfilment of their service, the veterans were allowed retirement to these estates.
Generals could become quite influential at the court, but unlike other feudal states,
the Egyptian military was completely controlled by the king. Foreign mercenaries
were also recruited; first Nubians (Medjay), and later also Libyans and Sherdens in
the New Kingdom. By the Persian period Greek mercenaries entered service into
the armies of the rebellious pharaohs. The Jewish mercenaries at Elephantine
served the Persian overlords of Egypt in the 5th century BC. Although, they might
also have served the Egyptian Pharaohs of the 6th century BC.
As far as had been seen from the royal propaganda of the time, the king or the
crown prince personally headed the Egyptian troops into battle. The army could
number tens of thousands of soldiers, so the smaller battalions consisting of 250
men, led by an officer, may have been the key of command. The tactics involved a
massive strike by archery followed by an infantry and/or chariot attacking the
broken enemy lines. The enemies could, however, try to surprise the large
Egyptian force with ambushes and by blocking the road as the Egyptian campaign
records informs us.
Within the Nile valley itself, ships and barges were important military elements.
Ships were vital for providing supplies for the troops. The Nile river had no fords so
barges had to be used for river crossings. Dominating the river often proved
necessary for prosecuting sieges, like the Egyptian conquest of the Hyksos capital
Avaris. Egypt had no navy to fight naval battles at sea before the Late Period.
However, a battle involving ships took place at the Egyptian coast in the 12th
century BC between Ramesses III and seafaring raiders

40. 39
j. INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITIES
The characteristics of ancient Egyptian technology are indicated by a set of
artifacts and customs that lasted for thousands of years. The Egyptians invented
and used many simple machines, such as the ramp and the lever, to aid
construction processes. They used rope trusses to stiffen the beam of ships.
Egyptian paper, made from papyrus, and pottery were mass-produced and
exported throughout the Mediterranean basin. The wheel, however, did not arrive
until foreign influence introduced the chariot in the 16th century BC. The Egyptians
also played an important role in developing Mediterranean maritime technology
including ships and lighthouses.
The word paper comes
from the Greek term for
the ancient Egyptian
writing material called
papyrus, which was
formed from beaten strips
of papyrus plants.
Papyrus was produced as
early as 3000 BC in
Egypt, and sold to ancient
Greece and Rome. The
establishment of the
Library of Alexandria
limited the supply of
papyrus for others. As a
result, according to the
Roman historian Pliny,
parchment was invented
under the patronage of
Eumenes II of Pergamon
to build his rival library at
Pergamon.
Egyptian hieroglyphs, a phonetic writing system, served as the basis for the
Phoenician alphabet from which later alphabets were derived. With this ability,
writing and record keeping, the Egyptians developed one of the —if not the— first
decimal system.
The Ancient Egyptians had knowledge to some extent of sail construction. This is
governed by the science of aerodynamics. The earliest Egyptian sails were simply
placed to catch the wind and push a vessel. Later Egyptian sails dating to 2400
BCE were built with the recognition that ships could sail against the wind using the
side wind. Queen Hatshepsut oversaw the preparations and funding of an

41. 40
expedition of five ships, each measuring seventy feet long, and with several sails.
Various others exist, also.
Egyptian knowledge of glassmaking was advanced. The earliest known glass
beads from Egypt were made during the New Kingdom around 1500 BC and were
produced in a variety of colors. They were made by winding molten glass around a
metal bar and were highly prized as a trading commodity, especially blue beads,
which were believed to have magical powers. The Egyptians made small jars and
bottles using the core-formed method. Glass threads were wound around a bag of
sand tied to a rod. The glass was continually reheated to fuse the threads together.
The glass-covered sand bag was kept in motion until the required shape and
thickness was achieved. The rod was allowed to cool, then finally the bag was
punctured and the rod removed. The Egyptians also created the first colored glass
rods which they used to create colorful beads and decorations. They also worked
with cast glass, which was produced by pouring molten glass into a mold, much
like iron and the more modern crucible steel.
The Egyptians were a
practical people and this
is reflected in their
astronomy, in contrast to
Babylonia where the first
astronomical texts were
written in astrological
terms. Even before
Upper and Lower Egypt
were unified in 3000
BCE, observations of
the night sky had
influenced the
development of a
religion in which many of
its principal deities were
heavenly bodies. In
Lower Egypt, priests
built circular mud-brick
walls with which to make
a false horizon where
they could mark the
position of the sun as it
rose at dawn, and then with a plumb-bob note the northern or southern turning
points (solstices). This allowed them to discover that the sun disc, personified as
Ra, took 365 days to travel from his birthplace at the winter solstice and back to it.
Meanwhile in Upper Egypt a lunar calendar was being developed based on the

42. 41
behavior of the moon and the reappearance of Sirius in its heliacal rising after its
annual absence of about 70 days.
After unification, problems with trying to work with two calendars led to a merged,
simplified civil calendar with twelve 30 day months, three seasons of four months
each, plus an extra five days, giving a 365 year day but with no way of accounting
for the extra quarter day each year. Day and night were split into 24 units, each
personified by a deity. A sundial found on Seti I's cenotaph with instructions for its
use shows us that the daylight hours were at one time split into 10 units, with 12
hours for the night and an hour for the morning and evening twilights. However, by
Seti I's time day and night were normally divided into 12 hours each, the length of
which would vary according to the time of year.
Key to much of this was the motion of the sun god Ra and his annual movement
along the horizon at sunrise. Out of Egyptian myths such as those around Ra and
the sky goddess Nut came the development of the Egyptian calendar, time
keeping, and even concepts of royalty. An astronomical ceiling in the burial
chamber of Ramesses VI shows the sun being born from Nut in the morning,
traveling along her body during the day and being swallowed at night.
During the Fifth Dynasty six kings built sun temples in honor of Ra. The temple
complexes built by Niuserre at Abu Gurab and Userkaf at Abusir have been
excavated and have astronomical alignments, and the roofs of some of the
buildings could have been used by observers to view the stars, calculate the hours
at night and predict the sunrise for religious festivals.

43. 42
k. IMPORTANT EDUCATORS OR PEDAGOGIST OF THE
PERIOD
Education in Egypt was largely vocational an apprenticeship served within the
family trade or craft usually under the boy's father. We know something of the
system from the craftsman's community of Dier el-Medina. Boys were taught skills
by their father in the hope of at least on son winning a place in the official corps of
tomb-builders. Those youths who were most likely to be accepted were designated
children of the tomb. They were attached to one of the gangs to do odd jobs and
run, but no doubt primarily to watch and learn until such time as a place became
available for them. Offspring who failed to achieve one of these coveted, lucrative
positions had to leave the village, either to set up as craftsmen elsewhere or to
seek a different type of job.
A more formal, academic education was reserved for those who trained to be
scribes. Elementary schooling for these privileged children, mostly boys, began at
about five years of age and consisted of repeated recitation of lessons as well as
the copying of standard texts. The basic proper may have been a book called
Kemty, which means' completion. The form and style of the surviving copies of this
work indicate that it was composed in the Middle Kingdom, although it was still
used a thousand years later. The reason for its continued popularity as a teaching
book was the simplicity of its language and the fact that the text was set out in
vertical columns rather than horizontal lines, so that the signs were easier for
young children to copy. The contents of the Kemty consisted of model letters
phrases and expressions useful to scribes assorted wisdom texts giving advice to
would be scholars.

44. 43
Having mastered the basics, the student could progress to more advanced text.
The majority of these were classics of Egyptian literature; in particular the wisdom
texts full of pronouncements on morals and behavior for young men who hoped to
achieve some position in life. sage Imhotep wrote such a work, now lost, in the
Third Dynasty and the latest surviving example, the instructions of
Onkhsheshongy, is probably Ptolemaic. These wisdom texts are couched in the
form of a discourse from a learned master, father or teacher to his pupil, A fair
amount of the advice they contained inspired the scholar to diligence. In the words
of the scribe Amenemope, pass on day in idleness or you will be beaten. The ear
of a boy is on his back. He listens when he is beaten.
The final years of scribal training were probably vocational, wither working with a
master or attending on of the specialized schools run by the major employers of
scribes such as the royal palace, government departments, the army or temples, In
these schools the trainee would receive knowledge applicable to jobs future
employment: mathematics surviving for tax assessors, ritual practices or medicine
for future priests, and so on.
At the other end of the social scale and at the lowest level of an Egyptian
household were the servants and salves who performed all the mundane duties,
but who received little reward. To a certain extent the whole of Egypt was in a state
of servitude, for the structure of society was hierarchical and everyone owned duty
to someone at a higher level, and ultimately to Pharaoh, who was the embodiment
of the State, Nevertheless. At the bottom of the heap it becomes difficult to
differentiate be teen the oppressed peasant laborer and those officially designated
as slaves.
Unskilled peasant farmer were attached to an estate belonging to Pharaoh, the
government, a temple or a rich landowner. Their pay was barely more than
subsistence or, they cultivated land, a large percentage of the harvest was taken in
rent and taxes, and this group of people was the main target of Corvee duty.
Forced labor raised specific tasks such as the upkeep of irrigation system
construction of public buildings and cultivation of land, for this work no pay at all
was received, only keep. All but the official classes were obliged to undertaker the
Corvee, but anyone who cloud afford to do so would pay for exemption this
ensuring that the weight of the burden fell on the poor. If, however, the Corvee
workers attempted to run away from their labour, they were classed as fugitives
and, if caught sentenced to permanent servitude spending the time between jobs
on prison, their children then seem to have inherited the parents' status as State
servants.
The Prince's School was the most respected of all of the schools and gave the very
best Ancient Egyptian education. There the sons of the Pharaoh, members of the
royal family, nobles and high officials, would receive education. There was also a
scheme which allowed recommendations when young boys who showed great

45. 44
promise were also allowed in the Prince's school. The Vizier had overall control of
the Prince's school and therefore the education of the next Pharaoh, nobles and
court officials. Curriculum included:
Religious Training
Music and Ceremonial Dance
Reading and Writing and Hieroglyphs
Mathematics and Geometry
History, Geography and Cartography
Science, Astronomy, Astrology, and Medicine

46. 45
l. EDUCATIONAL APPROACHES
The ancient educational system in Egypt was administered and controlled by the
intellectual priests in the theocratic form of government who prevent the multiplicity
of culture. The core curriculum comprised of science, mathematics, medicine,
geometry, and humanities that were in the hands of the Egyptian priests who
taught in formal schools.
There were two types of formal schools for the privileged youth: one for the
scribes, the other for the priest trainees. When a child reached the age of five, he
enters the learning center for writing and continues his studies in reading until he
reach the age of sixteen or seventeen. The learner, at the age of thirteen or
fourteen, would undergo practical training in offices for which they were being
prepared. Methods of instruction and discipline were very strict in order to achieve
the same cultural formation and transmission. Any willful deviation from the
Egyptian culture was strictly forbidden. Exercises and rote memorization were the
typical methods of instruction.
In previous years the Egyptian priests taught their students in temple schools
concerning rudiments of writing, sciences, mathematics, and architecture aside
from religion.
Children would
more and more
frequently were
found lending a
hand with the less
onerous tasks and
gradually acquiring
practical skills and
knowledge from
their elders.
By precept and
example, parents
would instill into
them various
educational
principles, moral
attitudes and views
of life. Thus from a
tender age they
would receive their basic education in the bosom of the family. For girls, this was
usually all the schooling they would get, but for boys it would be supplemented by
proper training in whatever line they chose, or was chosen for them.

47. 46
Education, of course, covers both the general upbringing of a child and its training
for a particular vocation. The upbringing of boys was left largely in the hands of
their fathers, that of girls was entrusted to their mothers. Parents familiarized their
children with their ideas about the world, with their religious outlook, with their
ethical principles, with correct behavior toward others and toward the super-natural
beings in whom everyone believed. They taught them about folk rituals and so
forth.
Educational principles are summarized in a number of ancient Egyptian treatises
now commonly called the Books of Instruction. The advice given in them was
designed to ensure personal success consonant with the needs of the state and
the moral norms of the day.
Truth-telling and fair dealing were enjoined not on any absolute grounds, but as
socially desirable and at the same time more advantageous to the individual than
lying and injustice, whose consequences would rebound against their perpetrator.
The Books of Instruction contain rules for the well-ordered life and elements of
morality that include justice, wisdom, obedience, humanity and restraint.
They mostly took the form of verses addressed by a father to his son as he
stepped into his shoes or started to help his aging parent. Similar admonitions
were delivered by a king to his heir. Most of these books were compiled by senior
officials: humbler scribes, like Ant, only played a part in later times.
Many copies were made of these Books of Instruction, since they also served as
teaching texts in the schools for scribes. Seven complete and five partial texts have
survived, while the existence of others is known from fragments. The one which
appears to be the oldest is by the celebrated, vizier, architect and physician to the
3rd-dynasty pharaoh Djoser.
This text has not survived, but is mentioned in the Harper's Song in the tomb of
King lnyotef. Another is the Instruction Compiled by the Noble and Royal Prince
Hordjedef for His Son. The two authors of these very ancient books were held in
such esteem as to be deified. Of other educational treatises perhaps 3 the most
important is the Instruction of Ptahhotep, City Administrator and First Minister
during the reign of His Majesty Djedkare Isesi, Ruler of Upper and Lower Egypt
during the 5th dynasty. The following passages deal with the art of 'elegant and
effective speech'.
You should only talk when you are sure you know your subject. He who would
speak in council must he a word-smith. Speaking is harder than any other task and
only does credit to the man with perfect mastery.
Be prudent whenever you open your mouth. Your every utterance should be
outstanding, so that the mighty men who listen to you will say: "How beautiful are
the words that fly from his lips"

48. 47
Nevertheless Ptahhotep rates fair dealing higher than learning: You may tell a wise
man from the extent of his knowledge, a noble man by his good deeds.
In contrast to the hierarchic structure of Egyptian society in those days, this
injunction to respect the opinions and knowledge of simple folk has quite a
democratic ring:
Do not boast of your knowledge, but seek the advice of the untutored as much as
the well-educated.
Wise words are rarer than precious stones and may come even from slave-girls
grinding the corn.
Ptahhotep urges his readers to exercise justice and warns against intriguing for
self-aggrandizement, bribery, extortion of debts from those unable to pay and
insatiable accumulation of property. His manual abounds in concrete advice on
how to behave in various situations - at banquets, in the exercise of high office,
towards friends, wives, petitioners, paupers and so on.
The spiritual high-point in this
genre is reached in the
Instruction of Amenemope at
the end of the 2nd
millennium BC, some of
which is closely comparable
with passages in the Old
Testament Book of Proverbs.
It includes, for example, this
call for justice and
forbearance toward the poor
and widows:
Do not covet the boundary-stone
in the field nor shift the
surveyor's rope; do not covet
a cubit of your neighbor's
land nor tamper with the
widow's land-bounds.
Covet neither the poor farmer’s property nor hunger after his bread; the peasant's
morsel will surely gag in the throat and revolt the gullet.
If the poor man is found to owe you a great debt, divide it three ways; remit two
parts and let the third stand. That, you will see, is the best way in this life;
thereafter you will sleep sound and in the morning it will seem like good tidings; for
it is better to be praised for neighborly love than to have riches in your storeroom;

49. 48
better to enjoy your bread with a good conscience than to have wealth weighed
down by reproaches.
Never let a powerful man bribe you to oppress a weak one for his own benefit.
There is a similar foretaste of Christian morality where Amenemope urges
consideration toward the afflicted:
Mock not the blind nor deride the dwarf nor block the cripple's path; don't tease a
man made ill by a god nor make outcry when he blunders.
In the surprisingly developed moral code revealed by these excerpts, virtue will be
rewarded for reasons that can be summarized as follows: behave justly toward
your god, your king, your superiors and your inferiors too; in return you will enjoy
health, long life and respect.
When judging the dead, god will deal with you in accordance with your past
conduct. Those you leave behind, too, will be glad to acknowledge your good
deeds by reciting life-giving words and by bringing gifts to ensure your life eternal
... The supreme aim of the Egyptian moral system was to help maintain harmony
and order in the world created by god and maintained by the king.
Alongside the inculcation of general rules of morality there was, of course, formal
vocational training. Young men did not usually choose their own careers.
Herodotus and Diodorus refer explicitly to hereditary callings in ancient Egypt.
This was not in fact a system of rigid inheritance but an endeavor, as one Middle
Kingdom stele puts it, to pass on a father's function to his children. Several other
sources confirm that this happened with the consent of the king or his
plenipotentiaries. Thus we find throughout Egyptian history a tendency for even the
highest offices to remain in the same families.
Towards the end of the Middle Kingdom, for example, there was a virtually dynastic
line of viziers, and in the Ramessid period the offices of the supreme priests of
Amun were passed on from father to son. It was in any case common practice for
an official to take on his son as an assistant. so that the succession became more
or less automatic. This was also the implication of joint rule at the royal level. A son
was commonly referred to as 'the staff of his father's old age', designed to assist
him in the performance of his duties and finally to succeed him. Even if the
Instructions of Ant declare that 'offices have no offspring.
From an early age they would be going out to the fields, boys and girls alike, to
lend a hand in simple tasks like gathering and winnowing the corn, tending poultry
and in time cattle, and so forth. Fishermen, boatmen and others would also take
their young folk along with them for practical experience.
Pictures of craftsmen at work, on the other hand, rarely show children present.
There is one of a boy handing a leg of meat to a butcher; other examples show a

50. 49
lad helping an older man to smooth down a ceramic vessel, and a boy playing in a
row of musicians. In the army youngsters were used as grooms and batmen.
Writings of the Roman Period contain some interesting data about the training of
weavers and spinning-girls. A test was probably given at the end of the
apprenticeship. At this time weavers usually sent their children to be taught by
colleagues in the same trade. The master undertook, if he failed to get his pupil
through the whole course, to return whatever payment the father had advanced for
the apprenticeship.
Kingdom each scribe taught his successor - usually his son - individually. From the
First Intermediate Period onwards there is evidence of whole classes run for
trainees in this field. In the New Kingdom they existed in the capital city of Thebes
(there was one in the Ramesseum, for example, and a second purportedly at Deir
el-Medina) and in later times such institutions were run at other centers too. These
were not of course true schools in the sense of independent bodies with full-time
teachers. All major offices such as the royal chancelleries, military headquarters
and the
The ancient Egyptians nevertheless held education in high regard and saw it as a
privilege. A few talented individuals without formal schooling still managed to
acquire sufficient knowledge to shine in their own field. And there were of course
plenty who tried, as everywhere, to compensate for their lack of education by
intriguing or currying favor in high places - sometimes as high as royalty.

51. 50
2. MESOPOTAMIA

52. 51
a. TIME LOCATION
Mesopotamia
is one of the
cradles of
human
civilization.
Here, the
earliest cities
in world
history
appeared,
about 3500
BC.
Mesopotamia
was not only
the oldest
urban
civilization,
but also the
most
urbanized
society of
antiquity.
Form the mid-fourth
millennium
BC onwards,
cities were in
existence in
Babylonia
(southern
Mesopotamia
), and despite
many
vicissitudes
they never
disappeared entirely from the landscape. Urbanism may have emerged only later
in Assyria (northern Mesopotamia), but soon some Assyrian cities became gigantic
in extent. At their most flourishing, the most important Mesopotamian cities
dwarfed their contemporaries in the rest of the ancient world, to the amazement of
Greeks, such as Aristotle, who could not consider Babylon to be a city, but only as
the equivalent of a nation because of its enormous dimensions.

53. 52
b. GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION
"Mesopotamia" is a Greek word meaning, "land between the Rivers". The region is
a vast, dry plain through which two great rivers, the Euphrates and Tigris, flow.
These rivers rise in mountain ranges to the north before flowing through
Mesopotamia to the sea. As they approach the sea, the land becomes marshy,
with lagoons, mud flats, and reed banks. Today, the rivers unite before they empty
into the Persian Gulf, but in ancient times the sea came much further inland, and
they flowed into it as two separate streams.
The land is too dry to grow many crops on. As a result, much of it has been - and is
still - home to herders of sheep and goat. These nomads move from the river
pastures in the summer to the desert fringes in the winter, which get some rain at
this time of year. At various times they have had a large impact on Mesopotamian
history.

54. 53
Near the rivers themselves, the soil is extremely fertile. It is made up of rich mud
brought down by the rivers from the mountains, and deposited over a wide area
during the spring floods. When watered by means of irrigation channels, it makes
some of the best farmland in the world.
The marshy land near the sea also makes very productive farmland, once it had
been drained. Here, the diet is enriched by the plentiful supply of fish to had from
the lagoons and ponds.
It is this geography which gave rise to the earliest civilization in world
history. Agriculture is only possible in the dry climate of Mesopotamia by means of
irrigation. With irrigation, however, farming is very productive indeed. A dense
population grew up here along the Tigris and Euphrates and their branches in the
centuries after 5000 BC. By 3500 BC, cities had appeared. The surplus food grown
in this fertile landscape enabled the farming societies to feed a class of people who
did not need to devote their lives to agriculture. These were the craftsmen, priests,
scribes, administrators, rulers and soldiers who made civilization possible.
Surrounded by mountains in the north and east and desert in the west and
bounded in the south by the Persian Gulf, ancient Mesopotamia was shaped by its
two rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates. These provided water for agriculture and daily
life and were the main highways for communication. Major environmental
differences divided Mesopotamia unto two distinct regions, the northern plains of
Assyria and the southern Babylonian alluvium. Further differences split Babylonia
into a northern river plain (Akkad) and a more southerly delta plain (Sumer). These
geographical contrasts were mirrored by cultural, political, and economic
distinctions. Marshes divides Babylonia from Elam, the eastern alluvial plain and
adjacent Zagros Mountains, a land whose history frequently intertwined with that of
Mesopotamia. At times, cities and states beyond the desert and the mountains
were also involved with Mesopotamia, while mountain and desert fringes were
home to tribal groups who frequently raided their settled neighbors.

55. 54
c. NATURAL RESOURCES
Mesopotamia soon became a very powerful and a resource which filled area for
these people. In the beginning, natural wildlife and vegetation kept them fed while
they began to build their new world. They wove baskets from the weeds that grew
on the riverbanks, since their land was in between two rivers, and made pottery
from the wet clay or mud they found. Even though it did not rain much, the settlers
soon learned that if you irrigated land correctly, crops grew quite quickly. They
were very intelligent and built canals to bring water to the land from the rivers. This
is how they got their drinking and bathing water. They also used it to help grow
crops. Sumerians were able to use timber, metals and stones they found from the
nearby mountains for building. They used what they had, and used the resources
available to them as best they could. Being friendly and trading with neighboring
lands was also very important because there were resources that were not
available to them, that were in countries close by.
The fertile land along the rivers
was used for producing such
crops as wheat, barley,
sesame, and flax. They also
planted dates, cucumbers,
apples, onions, and a variety of
spices. They raised sheep,
goats, and cows. They
slaughtered many of their
animals, but also knew how to
use the wool from sheep, and
took milk from their cows.
People soon learned how to
pound wool and goat hair into
felt, or weave it into cloth. Even
though they were able to stay in
one place and farm, hunting
was still a very important food source. Sumerians hunted wild birds and kinds of
deer and gazelle for food. Some other creatures living in Mesopotamia were fish,
duck, goats, sheep and pigs. They were able to tame these animals, to eat.
The land is too dry to grow many crops on. As a result, much of it has been - and is
still - home to herders of sheep and goat. These nomads move from the river
pastures in the summer to the desert fringes in the winter, which get some rain at
this time of year. At various times they have had a large impact on Mesopotamian
history.

56. 55
Near the rivers themselves, the soil is extremely fertile. It is made up of rich mud
brought down by the rivers from the mountains, and deposited over a wide area
during the spring floods. When watered by means of irrigation channels, it makes
some of the best farmland in the world.
The marshy land near the sea also makes very productive farmland, once it had
been drained. Here, the diet is enriched by the plentiful supply of fish to had from
the lagoons and ponds.
It is this geography which gave rise to the earliest civilization in world
history. Agriculture is only possible in the dry climate of Mesopotamia by means of
irrigation. With irrigation, however, farming is very productive indeed. A dense
population grew up here along the Tigris and Euphrates and their branches in the
centuries after 5000 BC. By 3500 BC, cities had appeared. The surplus food grown
in this fertile landscape enabled the farming societies to feed a class of people who
did not need to devote their lives to agriculture. These were the craftsmen, priests,
scribes, administrators, rulers and soldiers who made civilization possible.
The vast herds
of sheep which
constituted such
a large segment
of the herding
sector in the
ancient
Mesopotamian
economy
provided the
bulk of the raw
material needed
for the textile
industry. In
contrast to this
relatively
unpromising
situation, a
wealth of
information exists in cuneiform sources on the Mesopotamian textile industry
during the Ur III period. With linen playing a quantitatively small if elite role and
cotton unknown until the late periods, wool was by far the most important material
used for the manufacture of textiles in Mesopotamia.
Animal bone was used throughout the Old World for making a wide variety of tools
and non-utilitarian objects from the Paleolithic era onwards. For the most part

57. 56
studies of bone objects in Mesopotamia give no indication of which animals were
most exploited. However, it is most likely that sheep/goat, followed by cattle,
equids and swine provided the bulk of the bone used to fashion implements and
decorative fixtures.
Clay is a major constituent of the sediment deposited whenever the Tigris and
Euphrates flood their banks. A wide range of other utilitarian items, including
spindle whorls, sling balls, mullers, hammers, hoes, axes and sickles, as well as
figurines, beads and cones for wall decoration were made of clay.
Alongside baked mudbrick and limestone, the most durable material available in
ancient Mesopotamia was without doubt bitumen or asphalt. Various sources of
bitumen were exploited in antiquity, principally in the area of modern Khuzistan on
either side of the Karun River, in the east Tigris region heading towards the Zagros
Mountains, around Ur, near Mosul and in the Hit-Ramadi area on the Middle
Euphrates. One of the domains for which we have the most information concerns
the use of bitumen in boatbuilding and repair. Given the importance of water
transport in a area like southern Mesopotamia this is certainly one of the most
significant contexts in which bitumen was put to use.
A wide variety of pendants, seals, beads, vessels and architectural elements were
made of limestone throughout southern Mesopotamia’s ling history. During the
Uruk and Jamdat Nasr periods most of the important religious buildings at Uruk,
including the Limestone Temple, the Stone Cone Temple, the Riemchengebäude,
Temple-Palace E and the Stone Building incorporated important elements of white,
grey-white and yellow-white limestone in their fabric.

58. 57
d. ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES
In agriculture, the
Mesopotamians
grew a variety of
crops, including
wheat, barley,
onions, grapes,
turnips, and apples.
They kept cattle,
sheep and goats;
they made beer and
wine.
The rivers Tigris
and Euphrates, and
their branches,
made life possible
for the
Mesopotamians.
However, they
could be wild rivers,
and floods were
frequent. The
Mesopotamians
were the first
people to attempt to
control water on a
large scale by the
use of an integrated
system of dams,
reservoirs, canals,
drainage channels
and aqueducts. Maintaining, repairing and extending this system was seen as one
of the prime duties of a king. The water control system was built up generation by
generation, covering an ever wider area and involving an ever denser network of
waterways.
Farming was still important, but other jobs became important too. Bakers made
bread from many families. Weavers spun wool and wove it into cloth. Leather
crafters made sandals. At least 12 of the towns grew into true cities where
thousands of people lived and worked.
As a result of the large and concentrated population which grew up in
Mesopotamia, farming was carried out by peasants rather than by slaves (mass
slavery tends to be a response to a shortage of labor). In early times these were

59. 58
bound to the land as serfs; later, most became free farmers, able to buy and sell
their plots.
Farming in Mesopotamia depended on a lot on The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
These people also depended on the two rivers for fresh water or places to bathe
and water their livestock. The Tigris River was rough and flew fast; on the other
hand, the Euphrates could easily be used by ships to get across the lands. This
was important for trading and travelling purposes.
The plain of Mesopotamia was created in comparatively recent times by the mud
brought down by the rivers. This means that the region is very short of useful
minerals such as stone for building, precious metals and timber.
This had the effect of stimulating trade with neighboring regions, and beyond. Early
in Mesopotamia's history food surpluses and craft goods were exchanged for
mineral resources. Later, Mesopotamian merchants ventured further afield, with
trading contacts being developed with peoples in Syria and Asia Minor in the west,
and in Iran and the Indus civilization, in the east.
With the coming of the Bronze Age, in about 3000 BC, an added incentive to trade
was the desire to acquire the copper and tin needed to make this valuable metal.
Once Mesopotamian states started to equip their soldiers with bronze armor and
weapons, this hunger intensified. However, these minerals are only found in widely
scattered locations, so the search for them involved developing long distance trade
routes.
The Bronze Age came to an end in the centuries after 1000 BC; Mesopotamian
trade, however, continued to expand. By this date urban civilizations had become
established in north Africa, southern Europe, Asia Minor, Syria and the Levant,
Arabia, Iran and India. Their increasing demand for sophisticated and exotic trade
goods stimulated international commerce. The only land through which all trade
routes could cross from Europe to Asia, and from Africa to Asia, was Mesopotamia.
Major long-distance trade routes now traversed the region.
Furthermore, the first millennium BC saw the rise of great empires, with
Mesopotamia at their heart. These fostered trade by building roads for military
purposes, and encouraging the spread of an international language throughout the
region, Aramean.
The tax was a payment for the privilege of working the land, which belonged to the
god or goddess of the city (each urban center being the home of specific deity).
The representatives of the local god or goddess were the city's ruler, its priests,
and its palace authorities. Although private ownership of land did exist, many of the
fields and pastures were in the hands of the temple and the palace. Both the
religious and secular authorities increased their holdings by purchasing land or by
confiscating it from those who failed to pay their taxes.

60. 59
By around 3000 BCE an established system of distribution existed in the city-states
of Sumer. As goods came into temples and palaces, they were placed in jars,
baskets, or rooms, to which were affixed clay seals. Records of amounts were kept
by placing clay counters or tokens into spherical clay containers, known as bullae,
much as paper records today are placed in file folders. With the invention of writing
at the end of the fourth millennium, a written record of the content of each bulla
was incised or impressed onto its surface. Eventually, the written record, incised on
a clay tablet, replaced the bullae.
Sumerian priests and palace officials oversaw the use to which the food and goods
collected as tax were put. Some of the yield was stockpiled for times of famine,
while some was reserved as seed for the next year's crop. A portion of the tax was
used as offerings in religious ritual. Taxes also went toward financing the
construction and maintenance of irrigation canals and public buildings. They paid
for wars, which in turn brought back booty and tribute as additional revenues for
each Sumerian city-state.
Additionally, some of the
goods were used for
trade, an important part of
the economy of each
Sumerian city-state. Food,
which was sent to other,
less productive regions of
the Near East; pottery;
and textiles were all
important trade goods. In
exchange, the Sumerian
cities received stone and
timber for building and
metal for tools and
weapons, as well as
jewelry, perfumes, exotic
animals, and other luxury items that became part of the personal wealth of religious
and government officials or were given out as gifts to others to buy their support.
Finally, although many of the city's households produced enough food, clothing,
and other goods to feed their members even after paying their taxes, others did not
and depended on the collected tax to meet their needs. Among those dependent
upon tax stores were a city-state's ruler, its priests and priestesses, and its
government bureaucrats, along with their families. Others were craftspeople who
produced cloth, pottery, and metal tools and weapons. The tax freed both the
Sumerian elite and the craftspeople from the necessity of providing for at least
some of their own needs and thus gave them the time to perform their duties and
work.

61. 60
Payment in kind was not the only method of settling a tax bill in ancient Sumer.
There was also a labor tax. Known in modern times as a corvée, the labor
obligation meant that the members of a household had to work a certain number of
days in the fields controlled by its temple and palace, in digging or cleaning out
irrigation canals, and in constructing public buildings. Of all the taxes, the corvée
was the most burdensome. Farmers found themselves bringing in the harvest of
the temple and the palace while their own crops languished in the fields. Worse still
was military service that sometimes sent men away from their farms for months at
a time, sometimes never to return if they were killed in battle.
Women and children, on the other hand, were employed in large weaving factories,
in addition to performing agricultural labor. Textiles were a Sumerian economic
mainstay, used for gifts, religious offerings, and trade items. Thus hundreds and
sometimes thousands of women and children in each city-state plucked the wool
from sheep and spun it, wove it, and washed the final cloth product. Women were
also responsible for brewing beer from stores of grain.
The Sumerian tax burden had the beneficial effect of improving production
efficiency so that the number of items a worker could produce increased. For
instance, in order to turn out more ceramic bowls and pots faster, craftspeople
moved from forming pottery solely by hand to using molds and potter's wheels. The
rise of centers that specialized in making particular goods, such as pottery, metals,
or textiles, contributed to increased production efficiency. Such centers, for
example, appeared toward the end of the fourth millennium BCE in the southern
city-state of Uruk. To what extent these centers were set up and run by the priests
and bureaucrats remains unknown. It is possible that the centers came into
existence not because of official sponsorship but because they were located in
areas that, unlike other regions, had access to the resources necessary for the
items they produced.
By the middle of the third millennium BCE the distributive economy of the
Sumerian city-states centered on the great household, often referred to by the
Greek term oikos. A great household could be a temple, a palace, or a large,
wealthy estate. Each oikos controlled the production, labor, and consumption of its
members, who unlike those of the traditional small household were not kinfolk.
Small kin-based households still existed, but most of the economic activity was
now in the hands of the oikoi.
The head of an oikos could be a man or a woman. These oikoi leaders were
among the highest-ranking members of Sumerian society, and thus Sumerian
kings and queens headed their own oikoi, as did prominent government officials
and wealthy merchants. Each oikos had its own fields, pastures, herds, orchards,
workshops, and storage depots. Each also had managers and a labor force. The
latter were recruited from the large pool of city residents; by the third millennium
BCE some 80 percent of southern Mesopotamians are estimated to have lived in

62. 61
the cities. Oikos laborers were often specialists—farmhands, animal handlers,
cooks, gardeners, brewers, potters, weavers, and metalworkers. With such
material and human resources, an oikos was able to meet most of the needs of its
members.
In exchange for
this labor the
oikos provided
its members with
certain basics—
oil, beer, wool,
and flour and, on
special
occasions, milk,
fruit, salt, and
fish. Age,
gender, and the
type of work
determined how
much an oikos
member
received.
Generally, oikos
members had to
process these
distributions further: thus they had to make the flour into bread and the wool into
cloth. Each oikos also gave out plots of land to its highest-ranking members; the
higher the rank, the larger the land grant. Among those eligible for land were
political leaders, priests and priestesses, scribes, canal inspectors, managers,
soldiers, and skilled artisans. In addition to these grants, an oikos also rented out
land to nonmembers of the household for a share of the plot's crops.
In order to manage the finances of the empire, the Akkadians introduced a
common accounting practice in all their conquered territories. Accounting had to be
done using the same cuneiform signs and tablets having the same shape and
layout. Additionally, since payment was in kind, the Akkadians standardized
weights and measures by introducing the gur. One gur was equal to about 43
gallons of barley. Valuing goods by comparing them to a quantity of barley, the
most common grain that was grown in Mesopotamia, had been a longtime practice
of the Sumerians. The gur would continue to be used, at least in Mesopotamia, for
the next two millennia.
The Akkadians were succeeded by other states, such as the Third Dynasty of Ur
and the Old Babylonian kingdom, who each in turn ruled much of Mesopotamia,
north and south. No matter the state, the old Sumerian distributive economy

63. 62
remained in place in each Mesopotamian city. Payment in kind likewise survived,
though it was supplemented by occasional payments in silver; along with weights
of barley, weights of silver were used to determine the value of goods. The corvée
still operated, though labor obligations were eased by the presence of slaves, who
were either those captured in war or those enslaved when they failed to meet their
tax payments. The oikoi continued to be the managers of at least local economies.
To the north of Mesopotamia were Anatolia and the Hittites, who appeared around
1800 BCE and lasted until around 1200 BCE Beginning in about 1650 BCE the
Hittite kingdom expanded from its central Anatolian homeland to conquer all of
Anatolia, including Armenia in the west and part of the Levant. Unlike the
Mesopotamians, the Hittites had few cities, and their domestic economy revolved
around small, self-sufficient farming communities that provided most of their own
needs and owned all farmland in common. Hittite agriculture, however, did not
produce surpluses; indeed, the Hittites often had food shortages, which they made
up either through tribute collected from those that they had conquered or through
trade.
If the Hittites did not have food to trade, they did have metals. Mining of tin, silver,
and iron were lucrative. Tin was important in the manufacture of bronze, and thus
there was always a ready market for it. Enough silver was produced that the
Hittites used it as a medium of exchange. Iron was a novelty item because it was
almost as rare as gold, whose only source at this time was Egypt. Iron was also
more for show than utility. Weapons and tools made from it at this period were no
stronger than those made from bronze, and thus it was more often used to make
jewelry and statutes, both of which were prized trade goods.
The Hittites acquired copper for manufacturing bronze in the same way that they
acquired many of their resources: They conquered those who had it, in this case
Isuwa in western Anatolia, Maintaining the army was a major expense for the
Hittites, but as with other military states, an army allowed the Hittite kingdom to
bring in loot from successful campaigns and to ensure that those conquered paid
regular tribute, either in silver or as payment in kind. Additionally, the army could
protect essential Hittite trade routes from others who might try to charge Hittite
merchants a toll for use of these routes. Instead, any tolls exacted were collected
by the Hittite kingdom.
The waning of the Hittites around 1200 BCE saw the emergence in Armenia of the
kingdom of Urartu, which reached its height during the eighth century BCE Like
other ancient Near Eastern societies, Urartu had an economy that depended on
agricultural production, with part of the harvest from its rich farmlands going to
trade. Additionally, the mining and export of copper, silver, and iron was an
essential part of the Urartu economy. Besides unworked metal, Urartu traded metal
tools, weapons, and jewelry, which were esteemed for their craftsmanship as far
away as northern Italy. The kingdom's economy also benefited from its geographic

64. 63
position, which allowed it to control the trade routes that connected northern
Mesopotamia and Elam to the Mediterranean. Urartu exacted a toll in payment of
kind from the traders who used these routes.
Urartu may have had a distributive economy, since its administration centers,
fortresses located in a mountainous region of the kingdom, held large storage
facilities for grain and wine. Conversely, rather than being redistributed, these
stored goods may have been meant to feed the inhabitants of a fortress during the
occasional siege by Urartu enemies. The kingdom also probably had a labor tax,
since it undertook the construction of aqueducts and other large works projects
using workforces, most likely made up of corvée draftees.
The most persistent attackers of the Urartu mountain fortresses were the
Assyrians, for whom loot and tribute played an extremely important role in the
economy. From their northern Mesopotamian home the Assyrians conquered the
remainder of Mesopotamia and much of the Near East in the 11th century BCE For
400 years they would exact tribute from their subject peoples. Like previous
conquerors, the Assyrians appear to have left much of the economic structure of
their conquests in place, demanding an annual tribute, which was paid in silver or
in kind and which was sent to the Assyrian capital. In some cases the collection of
the tribute was in the hands of a native ruling family; the Assyrians then sent
expeditions to bring the tribute to Assyria. In other instances, perhaps where the
original ruling family proved resistant to paying the tribute, the Assyrians placed
one of their own in charge. This governor then saw to the collection and delivery of
the tribute.
Trade also was important to Assyria and may have dictated some of its expansion.
More directly, through military control of much of the Near East, Assyria controlled
almost all the trade routes and thus the flow of the majority of Near Eastern trade.
It thus had ready access to copper, silver, wood, and other valuable resources as
well as much of the luxury trade enjoyed by the Phoenician cities, which paid
Assyria a handsome tribute. Proceeds from tribute and trade had to be large in
order to make up for the Assyrian policy of exempting from taxation their home
cities, such as Nineveh. The corvée also did not apply to the Assyrian homeland.
Instead, conquered cities had to supply laborers when required as well as soldiers
for the army.
Among the most lucrative tributes collected by the Assyrians was that from the
Phoenician city-states, such as Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, and Arvad. Of all the ancient
Near Eastern economies, that of the Phoenicians was the most dominated by
trade. The stretch of the Levant coast on which the Phoenicians lived was narrow,
mountains rising not far inland. Thus there was little arable land for agriculture.
Importing food became a top priority of the Phoenicians in order to sustain the
populations of their cities.

65. 64
With several natural ports, which became the sites of their cities, and an
abundance of cedar and other trees for lumber, the Phoenicians began seafaring
early. With their freedom from Egyptian rule in the 12th century, they built one of
the largest trading empires in history over the next five centuries. Their goods were
shipped all over the Mediterranean and even into the Atlantic to the Canary Islands
and Britain. To what extent these commercial ventures were private enterprises
and or were state-financed is unknown. Luxury items, such as jewelry, fine cloth,
and perfumes, were among their trade items, but the most highly prized were
metals. Thus they brought copper from Cyprus, iron from Crete, gold and lead from
Morocco, and possibly tin from Britain. All of these imports were used in trade for
food and other goods, many of which were traded in their turn.
Around 950 BCE Tyre bought a large agricultural area from Israel, freeing the
Phoenician city from having to import food. As a result, Tyre could use its full range
of trading stock to enrich itself. It quickly became the wealthiest of the Phoenician
city-states and, indeed, one of the wealthiest cities in the ancient Near East. The
collapse of the Assyrian state around 600 BCE freed the Phoenician city-states
from having to pay tribute. The respite was temporary, for within a century the
Phoenicians found themselves paying tribute to a new state, Persia.
Among the most lucrative tributes collected by the Assyrians was that from the
Phoenician city-states, such as Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, and Arvad. Of all the ancient
Near Eastern economies, that of the Phoenicians was the most dominated by
trade. The stretch of the Levant coast on which the Phoenicians lived was narrow,
mountains rising not far inland. Thus there was little arable land for agriculture.
Importing food became a top priority of the Phoenicians in order to sustain the
populations of their cities.
With several natural ports, which became the sites of their cities, and an
abundance of cedar and other trees for lumber, the Phoenicians began seafaring
early. With their freedom from Egyptian rule in the 12th century, they built one of
the largest trading empires in history over the next five centuries. Their goods were
shipped all over the Mediterranean and even into the Atlantic to the Canary Islands
and Britain. To what extent these commercial ventures were private enterprises
and or were state-financed is unknown. Luxury items, such as jewelry, fine cloth,
and perfumes, were among their trade items, but the most highly prized were
metals. Thus they brought copper from Cyprus, iron from Crete, gold and lead from
Morocco, and possibly tin from Britain. All of these imports were used in trade for
food and other goods, many of which were traded in their turn.
Around 950 BCE Tyre bought a large agricultural area from Israel, freeing the
Phoenician city from having to import food. As a result, Tyre could use its full range
of trading stock to enrich itself. It quickly became the wealthiest of the Phoenician
city-states and, indeed, one of the wealthiest cities in the ancient Near East. The
collapse of the Assyrian state around 600 BCE freed the Phoenician city-states

66. 65
from having to pay tribute. The respite was temporary, for within a century the
Phoenicians found themselves paying tribute to a new state, Persia.
In the early sixth century BCE, under the Achaemenid Dynasty, Persia subjugated
an even larger area than the Assyrians, ruling over the region from Asia Minor and
the Mediterranean to India. Initially, as with the Assyrians, local economic
institutions of the Persian Near East remained unchanged. Indeed, in
Mesopotamia, for example, the distributive economy remained unchanged, and the
labor tax remained in force; likewise, the Phoenician city-states continued their
profitable trading. Throughout the entire Persian domain, payment in kind for taxes
continued, even though currency in the form of coinage began to appear.
The Achaemenids divided their empire into provinces, called satrapies. The
governor (satrap) of each was responsible for collecting taxes, some of which were
sent to the Achaemenid capitals (Susa, Ecbatana, and Persepolis) as tribute. The
tribute payment was partially in silver and partially in kind and was calculated on
the basis of the affluence of the people and the agricultural yield of each satrapy.
During the reign of Xerxes I (519–465 BCE), for instance, the eastern satrapy of
Media was assessed a tribute of 100,000 sheep in addition to a large sum of silver.
The province also had to provide enough pasture for 50,000 royal horses. The king
exempted the Persian heartland from this taxation, although Persians, like
residents in the satrapies, were subject to a military corvée.
Trade was also an
important part of the
Persian economy,
and since the state
contained many
important trade
routes, the Persians
controlled much of
Near Eastern trade.
To make it easier for
traders and their
goods to move
along these routes,
the Persian king
Darius I (r. 522–486
BCE) improved the
roads by
straightening and
maintaining them,
thus increasing the
amount of trade traffic. He also posted soldiers along the roads to deter bandits
who preyed on trade caravans.

67. 66
Agriculture saw innovations that increased productivity and thus brought in more
taxes to the royal treasury. The construction of underground channels brought
water from the mountains to dry regions, thus enlarging the amount of arable land.
Rice, imported from India, was planted in wet areas that previously had not been
usable for agriculture.
Another important economic innovation during the sixth and fifth centuries BCE
was banking, which now appeared for the first time in the Near East. Two banking
houses, Egibi and Sons and Murashu and Sons, operated in Babylonia at this time.
These and other banks extended credit in the form of loans to individuals and to
businesses that needed capital to pay taxes or to finance new commercial
enterprises. Loans per se were nothing new. In both northern and southern
Mesopotamia, oikoi, particularly temples, had always loaned barley, dates, or other
food to their own members when necessary. The borrower would then repay the
loan in kind at the next harvest. Most of these loans had no interest, though if a
borrower failed to repay a loan, the lender might add a penalty of up to 25 percent
to the loan.
The banks that appeared in the Persian-controlled Near East were private
organizations that operated as profit-making businesses. They not only issued
loans but also engaged in real estate transactions and underwrote promising
business ventures. Still, loans were at the heart of this banking business, and
these loans often carried high interest rates, sometimes 20 percent a month. With
such high interest, the amount of a debt could rise quickly beyond an individual's
ability to repay. When a borrower defaulted on a loan, a lender could take
possession of the person's property. The banker could also seize the borrower and
sometimes his or her family and sell them into slavery to help recoup the loan.
Loans became a necessity for many under Xerxes I, who raised taxes steeply. The
Persian king also demanded that more of each year's tribute be paid not in kind but
in gold and silver. The result of these royal measures was that merchants and
landowners had to take out loans to pay their taxes. Often, in order to pay the
exorbitant interest rates, borrowers had to allow lenders the right to work their land
or run their businesses. It was then the lenders who reaped the profits and often
gained possession of their clients' assets.
With the conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great (356–323 BCE), Near Eastern
economies, especially those along the Mediterranean coast, came increasingly
under the influence of first the Greeks and eventually the Romans. But through the
last centuries BCE and the first centuries CE ancient Near Eastern economies
retained much that had emerged from the Sumerian cities of the fourth millennium
BCE.

68. 67
e. HEALTH
Mesopotamian
medicine is
above all known
from a text
called the
Diagnostic
Handbook,
dated to 11th
century BC
Babylon. This
shows that
Mesopotamian
doctors had
developed
rational
techniques of
diagnosis,
prognosis,
physical
examination,
and
prescriptions.
Diagnosis and
prognosis were
based on rules
of empirical
observation and
logical reasoning (as in modern medicine).
Doctors used bandages, creams and pills in their treatments. As in all ancient
societies, medicine and religion went hand in hand, and exorcism was also
regularly resorted to.
The people Babylonian people of ancient Mesopotamia were highly religious with
all of their sciences structured as a part of theology. The primary function of the
practitioners of Babylonian science was to placate the Gods and gain their favor for
their people. In the medical branch of Babylonian medicine, persons who dealt with
diseases were exclusively priests, and originally trained as such. Because of the
religious nature of medical knowledge, it was kept from the mind of the ordinary
citizen. Many religious texts containing medical knowledge from this culture are
inscribed with warnings such as: "May he who knows instruct him who knows. And

69. 68
may he who knows not, not read this." and "he who does not keep the secret will
not remain in health. His days will be shortened."
In addition to being trained in their specialty. Physician priests belonged to a very
high level of Babylonian society. Because they were also priests, the physi cians
belonged to the most highly educated class of society. They could read and write,
were aware of art and tradition.
Three types of priests dealing with sick people. The first, was the baru ö a seer, a
priest specializing in divination. Knowledgeable of omens and how to interpret
them. The baru would make a diagnosis and prognosis of sick people in addition to
his other tasks foretelling the future. He would interpret omens such as a flickering
flame, a drop of oil in water or the organs of a sacrificed animal in order to foretell
the fate of a patient. One of the most important omens read was that of a sacrificed
sheep’s liver. Models were made of livers. With any abnormality in the surface of
the sacrificed animal’s organ interpreted by the baru to hold a particular meaning. It
was felt that a patient’s fate depended largely on the baru’s conclusions.
The second class of Babylonian physician was the ashipu ö the exorcist or
incantation priest. An ashipu performed rights intended to drive evil spirits out of a
patient and reconcile the patient with his or her God. Again, sick people were note
the ashipu’s only realm of professional concern, but represented a large portion of
his daily work. The final kind of physician was the asu ö physicians in the strictest
sense of the word. Asus were knowledgeable of charms, drugs and surgical
procedures.
Like other priests, physician priests were members of the King’s court and also
those of high officials such as the governors of provinces. We know that the
number of physician priests was very small, as there are records of constant
requests for physicians to be sent from the court to a remote ill person of high
status. Poorer ill people of lower status had to find other means with which to
obtain medical experience, as even though there was a scarce amount of
practitioners for the general public, their services were expensive and therefore
unobtainable for most of the population. One of these ways (which is still practiced
today in poor countries) was to bring to the sick to a public market place or place
them in front of their homes and people who would pass by would ask the sick
person about their condition. If the passerby knew of someone with the same
problems or of a possible diagnosis, they would advise the ill of a remedy.
The fees that Babylonian physicians were paid were determined by his success,
the type of operation as well as the social status of the patient. Very early on
priests were perceived as being very powerful because of their high social status,
knowledge of medicines and poisons, and because of their ability to interpret
omens. People were afraid of them, and as a result the Code of Hammurabi was
written around 2000 B.C. This set of laws formulates the earliest known system of
medical ethics as well as rules for payment and medical malpractice:

70. 69
If a physician has treated a nobleman for a severe wound and has cured him, or
opened an eye-abscess of a nobleman and has cured it, he shall take ten shekels
of silver.
If he has treated a nobleman for a severe wound and has caused him to die, or
opened an eye-abscess of a nobleman and has caused the loss of the eye, the
physician’s hands shall be cut off.
If a physician has treated the severe wound
of a slave of a poor man and has caused
his death, he shall render slave for slave.
If a physician has cured a shattered limb, or
has cured a diseased bowel, the patient
shall give the doctor five shekels of silver.
Given these laws, it might seem surprising
that any physicians practiced at all given the
primitive state of medicine, but evidence
suggests that these laws were merely on
paper and rarely if ever enforced. This is not
to say that physicians were not concerned
about the possibility of their failure.
Physicians did not work on the 7th, 14th,
19th, 21st, and 28th days of the month
because these dates were considered
unlucky. In addition, it was considered
unethical for a physician to attend to a
hopeless case. From the evidence that we
have, we know that surgery was rarely
performed in Mesopotamia, possibly due to
the Code of Hammurabi. Drugs were tested on slaves before they would be given
to members of the royal family. It is possible that this was done because of the high
political involvement of priests in Babylonian society, in order to prevent the
poisoning of the King or his family. Another interpretation of this is simply that
slaves were used for medical testing because medical practitioners were well
aware of the narrow limits of their knowledge.

71. 70
f. FOOD
Mesopotamians ate a lot of barley.
Mesopotamian cooks ground barley
seeds into flour. They mixed the flour
with other ingredients to make flat
bread, which they served with olive
and sesame oil. Sometimes they
boiled the grain to make gruel or
mush.
Farmers also grew grapes, peas,
garlic, beans, lettuce, cucumbers,
apples, and figs. Groves of date
palms provided sweet fruit.
Large herds of sheep and goats
contributed milk and cheese. There
were also pigs, chickens, and cows,
but meat was considered a special
treat.
Mesopotamians hunted wild creatures
including dives, ducks, geese,
gazelles, oryx, ibex, wild bulls, boars,
hares, wild sheep and onagers, a kind
of donkey. They fished in the rivers
and in the Persian Gulf. In addition to
using hooks and lines, they trained
pelicans to catch fish. Some farmers
raised fish in ponds. Since there were
no refrigerators, fishermen dried,
salted, or pickled their catch.
Mesopotamians used many spices including mustard, coriander, and cumin to
flavor their food. They loved garlic and onions.
As in most cultures, the rich and powerful were served the most interesting dishes.
Most middle and lower class people ate simply. Beer was a favorite drink. People
The staple crop of ancient farmers around the world was always grain: wheat,
barley, rice, or corn. In Mesopotamia, the chief crop was barley. Rice and corn
were unknown, and wheat flourished on a soil less saline than exists in most of
Mesopotamia. Thus barley, and the bread baked from its flour, became the staff of
life.
Mesopotamian bread was ordinarily coarse, flat, and unleavened, but a more
expensive bread could be baked from finer flour. Pieces of just such a bread were,

72. 71
in fact, found in the tomb of Queen Puabi of Ur, stored there to provide her spirit
with sustenance in the afterlife. Bread could also be enriched with animal and
vegetable fat; milk, butter, and cheese; fruit and fruit juice; and sesame seeds.
Though bread was basic to the Mesopotamian diet, botanist Jonathan D. Sauer
has suggested the making of it may not have been the original incentive for raising
barley. Instead, he has argued, the real incentive was beer, first discovered when
kernels of barley were found sprouting and fermenting in storage.
Whether or not Sauer is right, beer soon became the ancient Mesopotamian’s
favorite drink. As a Sumerian proverb has it: “He who does not know beer, does
not know what good.” The Babylonians had some 70 varieties, and beer was
enjoyed by both gods and humans who, as art shows, drank it from long straws to
avoid the barley hulls that tended to float to the surface.
There was even a goddess of brewing, named Ninkasi, who was celebrated in a
Sumerian hymn that dates to about 1800 B.C.E. Using the details of the brewing
process recorded in this hymn; in 1989 the Anchor Brewing Company of San
Francisco duplicated the recipe. According to one expert, the beer dubbed
“Ninkasi” “had the smoothness and effervescence of champagne and a slight
aroma of dates,” which had been added as an ancient sweetening agent of all
classes enjoyed it with their meals.
The gardens of
Mesopotamia,
watered by
irrigation canals,
were lush with
fruits and
vegetables, whose
ancient names
survive in
cuneiform
dictionaries and
commercial
records. Among
the fruits were
apples, apricots,
cherries, figs,
melons,
mulberries, pears,
plums,
pomegranates, and
quinces. The most
important fruit crop,

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especially in southern Mesopotamia, was the date. Rich in sugar and iron, dates
were easily preserved. Like barley, the date-palm thrived on relatively saline soil
and was one of the first plants farmers domesticated.
Should you wish to sample a fruitcake fit for a Sumerian king or queen, the recipe
survives: one cup butter, one-third cup white cheese, three cups first-quality dates,
and one-third cup raisins, all blended with fine flour. As for vegetables, the onion
was king, along with its cousin, garlic. Other vegetables included lettuce, cabbage,
and cucumbers; carrots and radishes; beets and turnips; and a variety of legumes,
including beans, peas, and chickpeas, that could be dried for storage and later use.
Together, the vegetables served as the basic ingredients for soup. Cooking oil, for
its part, came from sesame seeds.
Curiously, two mainstays of the Mediterranean diet—olives and grapes (as well as
wine)—were seldom found in Mesopotamian cuisine, largely because of the salinity
of the river-valley soil and the absence of significant rainfall needed for their
growth. Even honey was a luxury item since the Mesopotamians, unlike the
Egyptians, did not keep bees but relied on hives found in the wild.
Our contact with ancient Mesopotamia mostly takes place in the rarified
atmosphere of museums, but to appreciate Mesopotamian daily life our
imagination must breathe in the pungent aroma of the seasonings that once rose
from ancient stoves and filled the air of once-populous cities. Coriander, cress, and
cumin; fennel, fenugreek, and leek; marjoram, mint, and mustard; rosemary and
rue; saffron and thyme once comprised the odoriferous litany of the Mesopotamian
cook. Cumin, in fact, still echoes the Babylonian name, kamu¯nu, by which it was
known 4,000 years ago.
According to legend, prosperity came to Mesopotamia when the gods “made ewes
give birth to lambs, and grain grow in furrows.” Sheep played an important role in
the Mesopotamian economy. Shepherds tending their flocks are among the earliest
images on seal-stones, and woolly rams are proudly pictured on the Royal
Standard of Ur. The Sumerians, in fact, used 200 different words to describe
sheep. Like goats and cows, ewes produced milk that was converted into butter
and cheese, but sheep were also slaughtered for meat.
Beef was in short supply because meadowlands for grazing large herds were
limited. The meat supply, however, was augmented by pork from pigs that foraged
in marshlands. Game birds, deer, and gazelle were hunted as well. On farms,
domesticated geese and ducks supplied eggs, while from the rivers and the sea,
and from canals and private ponds, came some 50 types of fish, a staple of the
Mesopotamian diet.
Generally, meats were dried, smoked, or salted for safekeeping, or they were
cooked by roasting, boiling, broiling, or barbecuing. Housed at Yale University in
New Haven, Connecticut, are the Yale Culinary Tablets, a collection of 35 recipes

74. 73
that seem to have survived from a “cordon bleu” cooking school that operated in
Babylonia around 1700 B.C.E. Among the more exotic recipes is one for partridge
sprinkled with vinegar and rubbed with salt and crushed mint.

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g. LINGUISTIC HERITAGE
At the time when civilization first arose in Mesopotamia, the population was divided
into two distinct groups: those who spoke Sumerian (a language unrelated to any
modern language), and those who spoke Semitic dialects (related to modern
Arabic and Hebrew). It was the Sumerian-speakers who lived near the great rivers,
and it was they who built the first cities. Their language therefore became the first
to be written down in world history.
The first script to be used was cuneiform, developed at the time of the early cities
in the centuries after 3500 BC. Cuneiform ("wedge-shaped" writing) was written on
clay tablets. with triangular-tipped stylus tools being pressed onto wet clay.
Cuneiform symbols
probably originated as
pictograms, though by
3000 BC they had already
become highly stylized.
There were thousands of
these symbols, and
learning to write in
cuneiform was a long and
rigorous process.
In the centuries after 2000
BC, Sumerian increasingly
fell out of everyday use. In
its place, a succession of
Semitic dialects became
the dominant language of
the region: Akkadian,
Aramaic and Aramean.
The waxing and waning of
these languages reflected population movements within Mesopotamia, as well as
the rise and fall of ruling dynasties to which they gave rise. For a while, Sumerian
retained importance as the language of administration, religion and high culture,
but gradually it became confined to the courtyards of the temples - much like Latin
was used in the monasteries of Medieval Europe long after the rest of society had
abandoned it.
In the first millennium, the cuneiform script fell out of use, apart from in the
temples. It was replaced by the alphabetical Aramean script. This was far easier to
learn than cuneiform, and literacy became much more widespread. Aramean
became the international medium of communication in the region, and well beyond.
The peoples who inhabited the southern portion of ancient Mesopotamia, Sumeria,
developed the earliest forms of writing in the world. The languages spoken and

76. 75
written in this region revolutionized human communication and forever changed
civilization. The earliest forms of writing, first pictograms and then cuneiform,
facilitated communication between the common languages of the day. Much like in
today's society, language was nearly as powerful back than as it is now, but
perhaps even more profoundly. True complex civilization, as we know it, began
once language and writing developed, which then spread throughout the world. It is
therefore imperative that we examine the beginnings of language and its major
impact on civilization. This analytical essay will focus on two of the 15 known
languages of the Southern areas of Mesopotamia, but also incorporate material
culture information of the Mesopotamian region in an endeavor to demonstrate
that, more than anything else in history, the invention of writing was definitely one
of the most compelling forms of evidence for complexity. Let us now explore the
language and communication of the southern Mesopotamian people.
The most-spoken
languages were
Sumerian in Sumeria
and Akkadian in Akkad.
When the Semitic
peoples known as the
Arameans later moved
into the Mesopotamian
valley, new languages
were also introduced
such as Aramaic.
Akkadian, also known
as Babylonian-Assyrian,
is the oldest Semitic
language in the world.
While this language
was predominantly
used in the Northern
portion of Mesopotamia,
it has an approximate
three dialects. Elamite
comes from Elam, the
area in Southeast
Mesopotamia, which
you can locate on the
map above, and Hittite
was from the peoples
north of Akkad. For the
purposes of this
analysis, we shall be focusing on the language and writings from 3500 to 2000 BC.

77. 76
The peoples who inhabited the land at the southernmost area in between the Tigris
and Euphrates rivers were known as the Sumerians. The Sumerian or eme-ĝir
language can be classified into five time categories, but the following three shall be
our focus: Archaic Sumerian from 3100-2500 BC; Classical Sumerian from 2500-
2200 BC; Neo-Sumerian of 2300-2000 BC The Sumerians were the dominant
cultural group for the majority of the aforementioned years.
The Akkadians were the peoples who inhabited the Northern portion of
Mesopotamia and who were the minority for some time under the Sumerians. This
Akkadian or lišānum akkadītum language is also divided into different periods in
time. For the purposes of this examination, we will focus on: Old Akkadian, which
was used from approximately 2500 to 1950 BC Around the year 2000 BC it
became the dominant language of Mesopotamia, around the time when the
Akkadian people also seized political power in the region.
The ramifications of the invention of writing have had a profound impact on
civilization. Archaeologists have uncovered a prodigious amount of material
culture, that is, physical evidence found at sites that can shed further light about a
culture. The archaeological and antiquarian research conducted in Mesopotamia
yielded many important material culture finds; pictographs and cuneiform.
Pictographs were the earliest writing form invented in which everyday objects are
depicted through signs. These were made by writing on wet clay tablets with an
instrument, a calamus, probably made out of a reed. This calamus was a pointed
stylus, and this is important to remember for the tip of the stylus changes with the
development of script. The clay would then harden and the imprint would remain.
Barley, a very important crop was given this symbol shown in the image below.
This writing had a few drawbacks, however, mainly that it was not useful for
representing more abstract thoughts, and therefore scribes would use pictographs
like ideograms, in a similar vein to that of modern Chinese character. Perhaps you
may wonder why clay was being used instead of paper. Clay and mud were
available in abundance in Mesopotamia, whereas trees were not. Clay has the
added benefit of great preservation and materials made from wood decay with
time, leaving little to no evidence of their existence.
Evolving from the pictographs, which were not very user-friendly, the Sumerians
created a new writing form which was also comprised of writing on clay tablets.
The tip of the calamus was now first triangular in shape and then finally blunt and
wedge-shaped, and as they were described by Roman writers as being cuneus or
"wedge-shaped," the name stuck. The earliest form of cuneiform emerged circa
3200 BC. By around 2,800 BC, the early usage of symbols had developed into the
standard cuneiform script to record Sumerian. According to some researchers,
cuneiform was, and is, a "very complicated system comprising signs for words,
syllables and vowels. On linguistic grounds, it cannot be linked to any other known
language". Although Sumerian was the dominant language spoken and written
during the time, cuneiform was also used to write Akkadian, the other widely-

78. 77
spoken language and lesser used languages like Elamite, Hittite, and Urartian.
Akkadian cuneiform used both syllabograms and ideograms (that were favoured by
the Sumerian writers). The other languages used the Akkadian cuneiform as a
reference point for their writings (Durand, 25). That was the beauty of cuneiform- it
was a sort of universal writing system for all the languages of the region. Most
Sumerian myths were written in cuneiform, and we shall go into further detail later
on. Cuneiform was used so widely that it survived even into the first century of the
Common Era.
As is evident from the material culture from areas such as Uruk; physical
communication in Mesopotamia began with the use of bullae and tokens. Tokens
indicated a certain idea to another person in relation to an economic exchange and
they were placed inside bullae which were vessels used to transport the tokens. A
bulla was often sent with characters on the side which depicted a bull or an item of
food. Also, cylinder seals were used on vessels, doors and also receipts. After
using these methods of imparting information, it appears that people found it more
convenient to write the characters depicting the objects instead of using bullae and
tokens. The majority of early writings focused on accounts, receipts and other
forms of documentation about the economy. These included marriage settlements,
inheritance deeds, loan agreements, court decisions et cetera. Archaeologists
have discovered hundreds of these types of ancient writing, but they are not
exactly what many would call extremely interesting reads. The scribes that wrote
administrative documents began to write numerous types of literature. Scribes,
using cuneiform to write in usually either Sumerian or Akkadian, also began to
write for educational purposes and eventually, historical accounts. Cuneiform
writing began to document astrological examinations and medical procedures.
Mesopotamia is also known for having had numerous myths and legends including:
Splendid Storm King, Enuma Elish, and the well-known Epic of Gilgamesh.
Although this was written as a Babylonian myth, it was nevertheless written in
Sumerian cuneiform.
The epic was written on clay tablets, a photo of one of these many tablets is shown
below in the Akkadian language and in the cuneiform script. There is debate
amongst some scholars about the time in which these writings were made. Some
believe that this epic was written during the Third Dynasty of Ur, which was from
around 2119 to 2004 B.C.E. The goddess Inanna and other gods of the
Mesopotamian pantheon are present in the stories. The story of Utnapishtim and
the Flood may remind many of the Judeo-Christian myth of Noah and the Flood.

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h. GOVERNMENT AND RELIGION
Cities such as Ur, Uruk, and Nippur were similar. They spoke the same language
(Sumerian). They worshiped many of the same gods. Each one had a temple in the
center of town. Orchards and fields stretched out beyond the city walls. These
cities did not all belong to one nation, however. Each one was a city-state, a
separate country.
The ruling classes of these city-states
were rivals. They argued
over trade, land, and water
rights. Armies marched out to
fight against their neighbors. The
middle and lower classes did not
always support these battles.
Politically, the early Sumerian
cities each formed its own city-state,
composed of the city itself
and the farmland for several
miles around. These city-states
were fiercely independent from
one another, and warfare
between them was frequent.
The king was held to be the
earthly representative of the
patron god of the city. To disobey him was to disobey the god. One of the chief
roles of the king was as high priest of the patron god. He was seen as the
shepherd of his people, and his duty was to provide justice and order, to protect
property, and of course to defend the people from attack.
From time to time, one of these city-states would succeed in conquering its
neighbors. Powerful and extensive states would thus be formed, which endured for
a generation or two. However, holding such conquests together was hard, in the
face of invasions from the surrounding mountains or deserts, or from rebellions
from within. Mesopotamia would soon fall back into its normal patchwork of small
states.
As time went by, however, a simpler pattern of larger states gradually evolved.
From the early 2nd millennium, southern Mesopotamia was usually unified under
the control of various dynasties ruling from the large city of Babylon. As a result,
this region came to be called Babylonia. Sometime later, northern Mesopotamia
came to be dominated by the Assyrians.
In the first millennium BC, Mesopotamian civilization pioneered the first true
multinational empires in world history. The Assyrian empire was the earliest of

80. 79
these. Such was the ferocity of its rule - using, amongst other instruments of policy,
the uprooting of entire populations and settling them hundreds of miles away - that
it seems to have successfully weakened local feelings of independence. This
paved the way for other empires to follow in its wake: first, Babylon, under its
famous king Nebuchadnezzar, and then the huge Persian empire, which ruled a
realm far wider than Mesopotamia. In fact, the rise of the Persian empire marked
the end of Mesopotamian self-rule in the Ancient World; from now on it would be
governed by foreigners.
One of the governing innovations which the Assyrians introduced was the division
of their empire into provinces. Previously, defeated kings had tended to keep their
thrones, so long as they were loyal to the conqueror. If the king was not to be
trusted, his place would be taken by a rival likely to be more loyal. However, such
subordinate kings could never be truly trusted. The Assyrians therefore developed
the practice of appointing one of their own officials as governors of a province. He
had the job of seeing that the province remained peaceful; of raising taxes and
forwarding them to the capital; of making sure the province met its military
obligations, and so on. The provincial system thus established was taken over by
the Babylonian empire, then by the Persians. From them it was adopted by
Alexander the Great and his successors, and then by the Romans and all later
empires.
One of the major contributions of ancient Mesopotamia to government practice was
the development of written law codes. The most famous of these is the Code of
Hammurabi, written about 1780 BC. However, this code drew on earlier codes
going back to the Sumerian city-states of the 3rd millennium BC.
The role of the king was established at some point after 3600 BCE and, unlike the
priest-rulers who came before, the king dealt directly with the people and made his
will clear through laws of his own devising. Prior to the concept of a king, the
priestly rulers are believed to have dictated the law according to religious precepts
and received divine messages through signs and omens; the king, while still
honoring and placating the gods, was considered a powerful enough
representative of those gods to be able to speak their will through his own dictates,
using his own voice.
This is most clearly seen in the famous laws of Hammurabi of Babylon, but a ruler
claiming direct contact with the gods was quite common throughout Mesopotamian
history, most notably in the Akkadian king Naram-Sin who went so far as to
proclaim himself a god incarnate. The king was responsible for the welfare of his
people and a good king, who ruled in accordance with divine will, was recognized
by the prosperity of the region he reigned over. Still, even very efficient rulers, such
as Sargon of Akkad, had to deal with perpetual uprisings and revolts by factions, or
whole regions, contesting his legitimacy. As Mesopotamia was so vast a region,
with so many different cultures and ethnicities within its borders, a single ruler

81. 80
attempting to enforce the laws of a central government would invariably be met
with resistance from some quarter.
Mesopotamian religion was polytheistic; more than 2,000 gods and goddesses
have been identified. The chief of the gods varied from period to period. For the
Sumerians, it was Enlin, the Sky God. For the Babylonians, it was Marduk. For the
Assyrians, Ashur was the supreme god. Other notable gods and goddesses were
Ishtar, goddess of love and fertility, Tiamat, god of the sea and chaos, and Sin, the
moon god.
Mesopotamian cosmology viewed the world as a flat disc, with a canopy of air
above, and beyond that, surrounding water above and below. The universe was
held to have come out of this water.
The Mesopotamians had a rich store of myths and legends. The most famous of
these today is the epic of Gilgamesh, due to the fact that it contains a legend of the
flood which has various similarities with the Biblical account of Noah's Ark.
In ancient Mesopotamia, the meaning of life was for one to live in concert with the
gods. Humans were created as co-laborers with their gods to hold off the forces of
chaos and to keep the community running smoothly. According to the
Mesopotamian creation myth, the Enuma Elish, life began after an epic struggle
between the elder gods and the younger. In the beginning there was only water
swirling in chaos and undifferentiated between fresh and bitter. These waters
separated into two distinct principles: the male principle, Apsu, which was fresh
water and the female principle, Tiamat, salt water. From the union of these two
principles all the other gods came into being.
These younger gods were so loud in their daily concourse with each other that they
came to annoy the elders, especially Apsu and, on the advice of his Vizier, he
decided to kill them. Tiamat, however, was shocked at Apsu's plot and warned one
of her sons, Ea, the god of wisdom and intelligence. With the help of his brothers
and sisters, Ea put Apsu to sleep and then killed him. Out of the corpse of Apsu,
Ea created the earth and built his home (though, in later myths 'the Apsu’ came to
mean the watery home of the gods or the realm of the gods). Tiamat, upset now
over Apsu's death, raised the forces of chaos to destroy her children herself. Ea
and his siblings fought against Tiamat and her allies, her champion, Quingu, the
forces of chaos and Tiamat's creatures, without success until, from among them,
rose the great storm god Marduk. Marduk swore he would defeat Tiamat if the
gods would proclaim him their king. This agreed to, he entered into battle with
Tiamat, killed her and, from her body, created the sky. He then continued on with
the act of creation to make human beings from the remains of Quingu as help-mates
to the gods.
The gods, in turn, took care of their human helpers in every aspect of their lives.
From the most serious concerns of praying for continued health and prosperity to

82. 81
the simplest, the lives of the Mesopotamians revolved around their gods and so,
naturally, the homes of the gods on earth: the temples.
Every city had,
as its center, the
temple of the
patron god of that
city. The most
famous holy city
was Nippur
where the god
Enlil legitimized
the rule of kings
and presided
over pacts. The
patron god or
goddess of a city
had the largest
temple in the city,
but there were
smaller temples
and shrines to
other gods
throughout. The
god of a
particular temple
was thought to literally inhabit that building and most temples were designed with
three rooms, all heavily ornamented, the innermost being the room of the god or
goddess where that deity resided in the form of his or her statue. Every day the
priests of the temple were required to tend to the needs of the god.
The gods of every city were accorded this respect and, it was believed, they
needed to make the rounds of the city at least once a year in the same way a good
ruler would ride out from his palace to inspect his city regularly.
The gods could even visit each other on occasion as in the case of the god Nabu
whose statue was carried once a year from Borsippa to Babylon to visit his father
Marduk. Marduk, himself, was honored greatly in this same way at the New Year
Festival in Babylon when his statue was carried out of the temple, through the city,
and to a special little house outside the city walls where he could relax and enjoy
some different scenery. Throughout this procession, the people would chant the
Enuma Elish in honor of Marduk’s great victory over the forces of chaos.
The Mesopotamians not only revered their gods but also the souls of those who
had gone on to the underworld. The Mesopotamian paradise was the land of the
immortal gods and was not given the same sort of attention the underworld

83. 82
received. The Mesopotamian underworld, where the souls of departed humans
went, was a dark and dreary land from which no one ever returned but, even so, a
spirit who had not been honored properly in burial could still find ways to inflict
misery on the living. As the dead were often buried under or near the home, each
house had a small shrine to the dead inside where daily sacrifices of food and drink
were made to the spirits of the departed. If one had done one’s duty to the gods
and others in the community, but still suffered some unfortunate fate, a
Necromancer was consulted to see if perhaps one had offended the spirits of the
dead in some way. The famous Sumerian poem Ludlul bēl nēmeqi of 1700 BCE
makes mention of this when the speaker, Tabu-Utul-Bel in questioning the cause of
his suffering, says how he consulted the Necromancer, “but he opened not my
understanding.” Like the Book of Job, the Ludlul bēl nēmeqi asks why bad things
happen to good people and, in Laluralim’s case, asserts that he did nothing to
offend fellow man, gods or spirits to merit the misfortune he is suffering.
Divination was another important aspect of Mesopotamian religion and was
developed to a high degree. A clay model of a sheep’s liver, found at Mari,
indicates in great detail how a Diviner was to go about interpreting the messages
found in that organ of the sheep. To the Mesopotamians, divination was a scientific
method of interpreting and understanding the messages from the gods in earthly
contexts. If a certain type of bird acted in an unusual way it could mean one thing,
while if it acted in another, the gods were saying something different. A man
suffering with certain symptoms would be diagnosed by a diviner in one way while
a woman with those same symptoms in another, depending on how the diviner
read the signs presented. The great rulers of the land had their own special
diviners while the less affluent had to rely on the care provided by the local diviner.
The people of Mesopotamia relied on their gods for every aspect of their lives, from
calling on Kulla, the god of bricks, to help in the laying of the foundation of a house,
to petitioning the goddess Lama for protection, and so developed many tales
concerning these deities. The myths, legends, hymns, prayers and poems
surrounding the Mesopotamian gods and their interaction with the people
introduced many of the plots, symbols and characters which modern-day readers
are acquainted with such as the story of the Fall of Man (The Myth of Adapa) the
tale of the Great Flood (The Atrahasis) the Tree of Life (Inanna and the Hulappu
Tree) the tale of a wise man/prophet taken up to heaven (The Myth of Etana) the
story of creation (The Enuma Elish) the quest for immortality (The Epic of
Gilgamesh) and, perhaps best known, the Dying and Reviving god figure who is
famously depicted through Inanna's Descent to the Underworld. These tales,
among many others, became the basis for later myths in the regions the
Mesopotamians traded and interacted with, most notably the land of Canaan
(Phoenicia) whose people, in time, would produce the narratives which now
comprise the scriptures known as the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.

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i. WAR CONFLICTS
Warfare was endemic in early Mesopotamian society, as cities quarrelled over land
and water rights. The Sumerian city-states organized the first true armies (as
opposed to warrior bands) in history. Their elite soldiers were armed with bronze
armour and weapons, and less-well armed but more mobile troops were deployed
slings and bows and arrows.
In the 2nd millennium BC, Mesopotamian armies adopted a new piece of military
technology, the horse-drawn chariot. This was an innovation imported from the
nomads of the steppes to the north.
Ancient Mesopotamian warfare reached its peak with the great empires of the first
millennium. Military state that it was, Assyria was the pioneer of a new era of large-scale
warfare. By then, iron was coming into common use in weaponry and
armour, and Assyria was the first state to develop a true standing army, manned by
full-time professional soldiers. Siege warfare was developed, and for the first time
incorporated such engines of war as battering rams, mining and even siege towers.
The Assyrians also introduced mounted cavalry on a large scale, demoting chariots
to a secondary role.
The empires of Babylon and Persia adopted Assyrian military practices en masse.
The first war in recorded history took place in Mesopotamia in 2700 BCE between
Sumer and Elam. The Sumerians, under command of the King of Kish,
Enembaragesi, defeated the Elamites in this war and, it is recorded, “carried away
as spoils the weapons of Elam.” At approximately the same time as this campaign,
King Gilgamesh of Uruk marched on his neighbors in order to procure cedar for

85. 84
construction of a temple. While it has been argued that Gilgamesh is a
mythological character, the archaeological evidence of a historical King
Enembaragesi, who is mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh, lends weight to the
claim that the latter was also a real historical figure. The region of Sumer
traditionally looked upon Elam as `the other' to the point where, in the Ur III Period
of Sumer's history (2047-1750 BCE) King Shulgi of Ur constructed a great wall to
keep the Elamites and Amorites at bay.
Warfare certainly did not begin in 2700 BCE, however. The earliest pictographs of
armies at war come from the kingdom of Kish, dated to about 3500 BCE. Jericho,
which, along with Uruk, has a claim to the title of the world’s oldest city, has
provided archaeologists with solid evidence that a fortified city stood on the site
before 7000 BCE. The walls of the fortress were 10 feet thick and 13 feet high
surrounded by a moat 30 feet wide and 10 feet deep. The simple bow was in use in
Mesopotamia as early as 10,000 BCE and cemeteries from northern Mesopotamia
to Egypt attest to early warfare on a fairly significant scale. War in ancient
Mesopotamia was waged by infantry shock troops until the introduction of the
composite bow from Egypt.
By 1720 BCE, Egypt had been conquered by the Hyksos, a Semitic people of
unknown origin, who introduced superior technological advances into Egypt. Along
with the war chariot, bronze weapons, and new tactics, the Hyksos brought the
advance of the composite bow. Prior to the coming of the Hyksos, the Egyptian
army had used "simple bows of wood or cane with a range of around 33 feet while
the composite bow was "capable of delivering a mighty blow out to 656 feet". The
development of the composite bow would change the way in which war was waged
in that shock troops who were massed closely together made easy targets for
archers while looser formations invited decimation by opposing shock troops. This
led to changes in battle formations generally and the development of military
tactics.

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j. INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITIES
Numerous technological advances can be attributed to the Mesopotamians:
irrigation, the plough, the sail, clay bricks, the potters wheel, metal-working
(including metal armour and weaponry), writing, accounting, filing, glass and lamp
making, weaving and much more.
The Mesopotamians
developed
mathematics to a more
advanced level than
any contemporary
people, and in so
doing laid many of the
foundations for modern
mathematics. They
developed a number
system based on base
60, which has given us
the 60-minute hour,
the 24-hour day, and
the 360-degree circle.
The Sumerian
calendar was based on
the seven-day week.
They developed
theorems on how to
measure the area of
several shapes and solids, and came close to an accurate measure of the
circumference of circles.
The Mesopotamians used a number system with the base 60. They divided time up
by 60s including a 60 second minute and a 60 minute hour, which we still use
today. They also divided up the circle into 360 degrees.
They had a wide knowledge of mathematics including addition, subtraction,
multiplication, division, quadratic and cubic equations, and fractions. This was
important in keeping track of records as well as in some of their large building
projects.
The Mesopotamians had formulas for figuring out the circumference and area for
different geometric shapes like rectangles, circles, and triangles. Some evidence
suggests that they even knew the Pythagorean Theorem long before Pythagoras
wrote it down. They may have even discovered the number for pi in figuring the
circumference of a circle.

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A major branch of Mesopotamian science was astronomy. Mesopotamian priests
could predict eclipses and solstices, and worked out a 12-month calendar based
on the cycles of the moon. Mesopotamian astronomical knowledge was later to
have a major influence on Greek astronomy.
As with most pre-modern cultures, astronomy and astrology were inextricably
bound together: the movement of the heavenly bodies was seen as having a direct
influence on the affairs of men. This was a powerful stimulus for priests to work out
as exactly as they could the movement of the planets and stars.
Using their advanced math, the Mesopotamian astronomers were able to follow the
movements of the stars, planets, and the Moon. One major achievement was the
ability to predict the movements of several planets. This took logic, mathematics,
and a scientific process.
By studying the phases of the Moon, the Mesopotamians created the first calendar.
It had 12 lunar months and was the predecessor for both the Jewish and Greek
calendars.
The main forms of Mesopotamian
art which have come down to us
are sculptured figures in stone
and clay. Few paintings have
survived, though most sculpture
was also painted.
Mesopotamian sculpture comes
in all sizes, and appears in the
round or as reliefs. It often
depicts animals, such as goats,
rams, bulls and lions, as well as
mythical creatures such as lions
and bulls with men's heads.
Others show gods and
goddesses, as well as priests and
worshippers. Most human figures
from the early period have large,
staring eyes, and, on men, long
beards. As time goes by the
figures become increasingly
realistic. Under the Assyrian and
Babylonian empires, sculpture
takes on a colossal form, with
giant statues guarding the royal
palaces.

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On a smaller scale, cylinder seals come from all periods of Mesopotamian history.
Many are beautifully executed, with highly complex and sophisticated designs.
Mesopotamian temples were designed to a rectangular plan. Early examples were
constructed atop a small earthen platform; as time went by, these platforms
became taller and taller, giving rise to the classic Mesopotamian ziggurat.
Ziggurats probably represented the sacred mountain where gods and men could
meet. They were brick-built temple-mounds, taking the form of a layered platform.
They resembled step pyramids with a flat roof, on which a shrine would be built.
Access to this shrine was by a broad staircase or ramp.
Surrounding the central temple building was a complex of ceremonial courtyards,
shrines, burial chambers for the priests and priestesses, ceremonial banqueting
halls, along with workshops, storehouse and administrative buildings, as temples
were main centres of economic and administrative activity in ancient Mesopotamia.
The palaces of even the early Mesopotamian rulers were large and lavishly
decorated. Along with the royal family and its domestic servants, these complexes
housed craftsmen's workshops, food storehouses, ceremonial courtyards and
shrines.
In later Mesopotamian history, the palaces of the Assyrian and Babylonian
monarchs were truly awe-inspiring. Like their predecessors, they were laid out
around a series of large and small courtyards. The largest of these led off to the
throne room, of a size and majesty designed to stun visitors. The palace walls were
decorated with carved stone slabs on which pictorial and textual depictions of
cultural scenes or the the Kings' deeds. Gates and important passageways were
flanked with massive stone sculptures of mythological figures. Outside, these
palaces were often adjoined to expansive gardens and parks, stocked with wild
animals for hunting.
The materials used to build a Mesopotamian house were the same as those used
today: mud brick, mud plaster and wooden doors. These all used materials
naturally available in the locality.
Most large houses had a square centre room with other rooms leading off it. There
were great variations in the size and materials used, which may suggest they many
were built by the inhabitants themselves.
The homes of the poor were probably built of materials such as mud and reeds,
which have long since perished. They may have been situated in the ancient
equivalent of shanty towns outside of the city walls, but there is very little
archaeological evidence for this.

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About 3500 BC, the Sumerians moved into Mesopotamia. These people, who may
have come from the area around the Caspian Sea, had some good ideas. They
built better roads. They created wheels and put them on carts. They improved the
canal system and introduced new farming methods.
With improved irrigation, farmers produced more food than townspeople could eat.
In their new carts, they carried the harvest to storehouses to be saved from one
season to the next. Traveling over new roads, they exchanged extra food with
neighboring peoples for
wood, metal, and stone.
Mesopotamian traders built
rafts out of cedar logs,
loaded them with cargo and
floated downstream.
Carrying grain, pottery, and
woolen cloth up into the
mountains was hard.
The flat sledges they tried
first would not carry much.
Around 3500BC Sumerians
put logs under the sledges.
That made them easier to
pull. Next they attached
runners to the loads, which
helped even more. Over
time the runners wore
notches in the logs. When
someone carved away the
wood between the notches, the first cart was created.
Next someone thought of cutting holes through the sides of carts. When an axle
was threaded between the holes, it turned with the wheels. Later, axles were
fastened to the bottoms of carts and only the wheels turned.
With carts farmers could harvest and store large amounts of grain more quickly
and easily. Traders could carry more goods and travel farther. Soldiers, in chariots,
could carry more weapons.
The Mesopotamians made many technological discoveries. They were the first to
use the potter's wheel to make better pottery, they used irrigation to get water to
their crops, they used bronze metal (and later iron metal) to make strong tools and
weapons, and used looms to weave cloth from wool.

90. 89
k. IMPORTANT PEDAGOGISTS OR EDUCATORS DURING THE
PERIOD
Schools were run by the priests and school was very tough. Only boys could go to
school. (If a girl wanted to learn to read and write that was ok, but she had to be
taught by her parents or a tutor hired for that purpose.) In school if a student
messed up they would be whipped. The Sumerians believed that you only learned
something if the lesson was reinforced with a beating.
The students
were not
maimed or
crippled, but
they were
certainly sore.
Even with this
punishment,
children
wanted to go
to school.
After all, if you
knew how to
read and write
you could
always get a
job, and
maybe even
get to be a
priest.
Few people in
Mesopotamia
could read or write. Schooling was provided at temples or academies or at the
homes of priests and bureaucrats. Students studied languages, arithmetic,
accounting and Sumerian literature. Textbooks were cuneiform tablets.
The elders of Mesopotamia knew the importance of their civilization and wanted to
pass along its history to future generations and other cultures. Because of this,
record-keeping was one of the first signs of education. Boys attended schools,
which were normally attached to temples, and learned how to perfect cuneiform by
"writing" the history of the land. Girls were not allowed to go to school, and that
educational flaw led to a less-detailed history than might have otherwise been
recorded.

91. 90
Starting a practice that would continue throughout the early Egyptian civilizations,
priests dominated the educational landscape in Mesopotamia. The education of
young boys at the time was designed to lead them either to a calling as a scribe or
a priest. The library was the center of the schooling atmosphere, and many records
of the time were created under the supervision of priests and kept in libraries.

92. 91
l. EDUCATIONAL APPROACHES
A large amount of ancient
Mesopotamian literature
has come down to us,
much of it found in royal
libraries dating from
Assyria and late
Babylonian times. The
literature is written in
cuneiform script, and
contains prayers, hymns,
myths, epic poetry,
collections of proverbs,
works on theology,
philosophy, politics and
astrology, books of spells,
historical records and
many other kinds of texts.
In Ancient Mesopotamia
there were 4 classes of
people. The Kings and
Priests were at the top of
the class. The Upper
Class were the wealthy.
The Lower Class were
paid for their work. The
Slaves were at the bottom of the class system.
The Kings and Priests. The kings and priests, also known as the amelu class, were
very powerful. The priests controlled the society because they owned most of the
land, and a lot of business, including shipping fleets. They were also the doctors
and they ran the schools and the libraries in their temples.
The Upper Class. The upper class were known as the mushkina class. They were
mostly business people who owned land or manufacturing companies. They wore
lots of jewellery. The men grew long hair and had beards and moustaches. The
women wore their hair braided or up in a fancy way.
The Lower Class. The lower class worked for a living. They were farmers, skilled
workers who made such things as pottery and spun thread, and merchants who
sold goods.

93. 92
The Slaves. Priests owned slaves who worked for them in the temples, and
wealthy families owned slaves who worked for their family. Slaves worked to pay
off debts. People became slaves if their parents or husbands sent them, or they
could be born into slavery. They could also buy their way to freedom. Young
female slaves started out as ladies' maids and when they got older they did jobs
that were harder and required more strength and skill like housekeeping, grinding
corn, collecting water and cooking. Male slaves did manual labour depending on
what their owners needed, like building or yard work.
Generally, only boys went to school. Some really wealthy families could send girls
as well. The schools were attached to the temples and were called edubbas,
meaning tablet house.The teacher was called ummia, meaning expert. Students
went to school from sunrise to sunset. Students learned reading, writing, scribing
and mathematics. Scribing was an important job and it was a good skill to learn.
The written language was called cuneiform which means wedge-shaped. They
wrote it on clay and used tools to carve it. There were over 600 characters
students had to memorize in order to be able to scribe. Unless they did a perfect
job, students would get punished by being whipped. Students also learned
cuneiform numbers. It must have been confusing since 1 and 60 were the same
symbol. They used 10 as a base, just like we do. Sometimes they also learned
about heroes and had music lessons.
Mesopotamia was a cradle of education within the setting of its cultural values too.
In those days life was simpler and peasants taught their children the practical
things of life like growing food and nurturing livestock. Living was hard for these
impoverished people, and without these elementary education practices they could
not survive. Their aristocratic counterparts were Scribes and Priests dominated the
Mesopotamian educational and intellectual spheres. Every temple had its own local
cradle of education known as a library where acolytes studied under the watchful
eyes of strict mentors. Learning was achieved through oral repetition,
memorization and one-on-one instruction. The most difficult part of all was believed
to be the meticulous duplication of ancient scripts in every tiniest detail. Training of
priests took many years under stern disciplinarian conditions.
The Sumerians, created the first known formal education system (schools). These
schools taught the skills of a scribe. A scribe was basically a professional writer.
Learning to be a scribe was a possible pathway to the most powerful profession in
ancient Mesopotamia - a priest. Priests needed to know how to read and write to
keep the records of the ziggurat and to monitor the sun, moon, stars and planets.
Scribes could also go to work for the government or for business owners.
The path of a scribe was not easy, however. First, you had to be a member of a
wealthy family. It is unlikely that you could get into scribe school if you were the

94. 93
son of a lowly farmer. By the way, scribes were almost exclusively males. Second,
you had to attend school for many years to learn the written language (cuneiform),
the number system (based on the number 60), and the methods and conventions
of a scribe. Much of scribe school consisted of memorizing and copying cuneiform
texts from one tablet to another. Scribe teachers ran a tight ship too. Beatings were
not uncommon for students that did not perform well or misbehaved.
No, it was not easy, but the student that could make it through school and become
a scribe earned the right for many rewards. Scribes were some of the most
powerful people in Mesopotamia because they controlled information and
knowledge. Anytime you can do something that most people cannot, you have a
good chance to be respected, powerful, and possibly very wealthy.
The invention of writing was the dawn of the information revolution. This great
technological advance allowed news and ideas to be carried to distant places
without having to rely on a messenger's memory. Like all inventions, writing
emerged because there was a need for it. In Mesopotamia, it was developed as a
record-keeping vehicle for commercial transactions or administrative procedures.
There are also texts that served as "copy books" for the education of future
scribes. Eventually, cuneiform script was used to produce some of the greatest
literary works in recorded history.

95. 94
3. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE LIBRARIES
Although in some
cases the Egyptians
used solid rocks,
walls of temples and
libraries, soft and
baked clay tablets,
sheets of wax, skin
of the trees and
leaves as a writing
material to save the
record of their
accomplishments,
yet generally they
have used the
fragile Papyrus.
Consequently, most
of the records
pertaining to the
establishment of
libraries and their
contents could not survive in their actual form and shape. Nevertheless, the
Archeologists have discovered various documents at various places about the
establishment of libraries in the ancient Egypt as back as 2000 B.C. Moreover, we
learned much of the religion, industries, sports, amusements of the ancient
Egyptians from the coloured printing of monuments, walls of temples, walls of
Palaces and Tombs.
Libraries have come down to us from as far back as 2000 BC. Likewise other
ancient nations, the Egyptians attached their libraries with the temples, as it is
evident from the discovery of the library of Edfu which was attached with a temple.
It is not known how many roles were preserved in that library. Anyhow, the
catalogue was inscribed on the walls to indicate the collection of the library and the
catalogue of Edfu library consisted of 21 subjects. Besides the catalogue, some
sacred texts, drawings and writings have also been discovered. This temple was
established in the name of Horus the god of Sun.
It is also to point out that the libraries in these temples consisted of the religious
materials as well as material on Science, Medicine and Magic. As such in most of
the cases the library contained all kinds of material to serve the community. The
best example of these kinds of libraries is library of Abu Simbel. This temple was
located on the upper part of Nile where different kinds of people use to work. The
material was collected in order to meet the demands of the workers. There were
Medical Libraries which were known as Magic Libraries and the Librarians were

96. 95
called learned men of the Magic. Although in some cases the Egyptians used solid
rocks, walls of temples and libraries, soft and baked clay tablets, sheets of wax,
skin of the trees and leaves as a writing material to save the record of their
accomplishments, yet generally they have used the fragile Papyrus. Consequently,
most of the records pertaining to the establishment of libraries and their contents
could not survive in their actual form and shape. Nevertheless, the Archeologists
have discovered various documents at various places about the establishment of
libraries in the ancient Egypt as back as 2000 B.C. Moreover, we learned much of
the religion, industries, sports, amusements of the ancient Egyptians from the
coloured printing of monuments, walls of temples, walls of Palaces and Tombs.
Libraries have come down to us from as far back as 2000 B. C. Likewise other
ancient nations, the Egyptians attached their libraries with the temples, as it is
evident from the discovery of the library of Edfu which was attached with a temple.
It is not known how many roles were preserved in that library. Anyhow, the
catalogue was inscribed on the walls to indicate the collection of the library and the
catalogue of Edfu library consisted of 21 subjects. Besides the catalogue, some
sacred texts, drawings and writings have also been discovered. This temple was
established in the name of Horus the god of Sun.
It is also to point out that the libraries in these temples consisted of the religious
materials as well as material on Science, Medicine and Magic. As such in most of
the cases the library contained all kinds of material to serve the community. The
best example of these kinds of libraries is library of Abu Simbel. This temple was
located on the upper part of Nile where different kinds of people use to work. The
material was collected in order to meet the demands of the workers. There were
Medical Libraries which were
known as Magic Libraries and
the Librarians were called
learned men of the Magic.
The private libraries were
usually established in separate
buildings by the people usually
with low income. They
preserved their books in the clay
jars and arranged them in
Almirahs. Some families used
the rolls of leather.
In nutshell the history of the
libraries in Egypt is as old as the
history of civilization but as the
Egyptian use to preserve their
knowledge on fragile Papyrus,

97. 96
so with the passage of time even the names of the libraries vanished. It is beyond
imagination that the nation having the knowledge of Chemistry, Physics,
Philosophy, Metaphysics and Mathematics before the Great Flood of Noah, would
have the large number of libraries at its credit.
Libraries were called “the remedies’ treasure for the soul”. In fact, they healed
ignorance, the most dangerous illness and the origin of all the others.
With many societies placing so many of their ideas into written form, it was only a
matter of time that the works would require some sort of organization. Research
has shown that as early as 700 B.C., the first library classification system may
have existed in Nineveh to accommodate their standardized writing.
However, these discoveries weren’t made until thousands of years later, in 1850,
when workmen of Sir Austen Henry Layard at Nineveh found clay tablets in the
ruins of the palace of Assur-bani-pal that had fallen from shelves.
What was interesting about
the tablets was that they had
been arranged in order.
Researchers examining the
ancient method determined
that the people of Nineveh
had formed what would be
considered a library. In fact,
some believe that the great
library of Nineveh owed its
existence to Assur-bani-pal.

98. 97
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EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL SPORT. CANADA: MEYER & MEYER
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 Shuter, J. (2001). Ancient Egypt. UK: Heinemann Lbrary.
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 David, A. (1998). Handbook to Life in Ancient Egypt. New York: Oxford
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