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hello and welcome today we're going to
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be talking about early advanced
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civilizations in this particular case
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the focus is on the Mesopotamia region
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meza taymiyah is an area bordered by two
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rivers running through it the Tigris and
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Euphrates River and this is in
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modern-day Iraq the towns you see here
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are in or I should say cities / towns
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are red circles or was one of the first
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as you can see in the lower right hand
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corner
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so why Mesopotamia well for one the land
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is very fertile around the rivers
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because of the periodic River River
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periodically the rivers would overflow
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their banks and of course with it would
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come all the silt that was particularly
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fertile along with nutrients so what
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makes Mesopotamia special well for one
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thing elaborate artificial irrigation
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this is man-made or human-made
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irrigation and those digging of trenches
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to move water around and so on
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we have walled walls we have walled
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palaces temples unpaved roads one-story
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mud big buildings the only way to access
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those buildings interesting enough was
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through the through a doorway there are
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no windows doors initially were unknown
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that you'd enter through a place in the
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the roof but eventually doors will come
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in these are very crowded cities with
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little in the way of public squares
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there might be one public square in the
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very center of the city
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where there would be a marketplace so if
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you were flying in a helicopter over
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this city it would just look like a
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really large walled building very there
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might be a few spots where there would
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be roads through the buildings but look
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you know literally people would go
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through other people's homes to get to
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theirs
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so you don't have the side streets and
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everything you might have like three
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major streets in the city the rest would
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look like rooftop and here's another
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interesting twist we see this in some
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civilizations bearing family under the
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house we know for example the Mayans did
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this in Central America so did the
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people in Mesopotamia so grandma dies
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you dig a hole in your barrier right on
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you that way you know it's always good
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to keep family close right now another
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thing about Mesopotamia it is considered
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at least at the moment although it's
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been back and forth between Egypt China
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and Mesopotamia who invented the first
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writing but one reason why the
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Mesopotamians by the way could get the
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award for first writing is because they
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wrote on material that last the test of
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time the Chinese used bamboo sticks the
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Egyptians used papyrus both the jury ate
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over time although they have spawned
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some very ancient writing on bamboo
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the Mesopotamians use clay tablets and
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they would dry of course very hard over
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time and they use a cuneiform style of
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writing which means wedge-shaped and if
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you have ever seen that it's a very
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distinctive style of writing it's not
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like Egyptian writing so you have a
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series of wedges and then make shapes
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with the wedges and that is their
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writing and this occurred around 3200 BC
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II or for those who prefer the old
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dating system BC they would use the
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cuneiform writing for records like
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business records tax records and so on
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education so children would have access
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to some of this written material and for
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stories like the Epic of Gilgamesh
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Mesopotamia had a government which
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coordinated labor efforts to have a
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proper advanced civilization you need
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somebody to call the shots at the top
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about well we need to dug this trench
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first or build that building first and
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so on the government was very much
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involved in irrigation building and
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water distribution Mesopotamia brought
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us quite a few innovations that have
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lasted the test of time literally time
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the 12-month year is courtesy of the
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Mesopotamians it could have been a
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four-month year but no they opted for
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the 12 month here an hour hour to this
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day as 60 minutes thank you to the
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Mesopotamians and each minute is 60
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seconds you can seeing a trend here
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everything's divisible by 12 as well
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and there you have it
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now Mesopotamia this is at the time
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Babylonia at the time of Hammurabi and
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of course you see at the very center is
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the small city-state of Babylonia they
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it's a little on the large side and then
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eventually it expanded beyond this red
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area to the more beige area we have
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Samaria and uh in in Samaria or Sumer
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that's in the southern part of this
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region around 3,000 BCE or which is the
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first city in the region a reach is
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65,000 you can see or right here at the
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bottom where the pointer is okay and the
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first city is a messy place waste
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disposal optional so it could be a
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little stinky it would have its own
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special smell Mesopotamia the first
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Empire Mesopotamia was a cod from 2372
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2315 BCE Sargon's the founder and in
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order to support his army and his empire
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he would move around his empire with his
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prefectural army and this professional
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army would basically impose itself on
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whatever city that he was visiting at
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the time and they'd have to feed him and
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everything and this is the way he
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collected his taxes a little different
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nowadays right we use currency currency
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did not exist at that time so the only
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way he could he could think of to feed
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his army and keep his empire going
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was to travel around with this
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professional army can you just imagine
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how much fun that was when they came to
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visit then there's a Babylonian Empire
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this is the first of two Babylonian
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empires from 1792 to 1595 it unifies
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Mesopotamia under one centralized
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bureaucracy with regular taxation again
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we still don't have coinage
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what we have is taxation in the form of
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collecting grains and so on farm goods
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if you will we also get Hammurabi with
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the Babylonian Empire he ruled from 1792
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to 1750 and this is actually the little
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steel a it's a rock with carvings on it
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and the left is Hammurabi and to the
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right is the god Marduk handing him the
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laws and Hammurabi's laws are
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interesting in that it's the first law
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code that has come down to us from
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ancient times it deals with a lot of
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different things and these stones were
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created to put in each city town village
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or whatever in order that people know
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the law the law is now out in the open
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you can see it and then of course the
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symbolism here is the gods chose him
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Hammurabi your ruler but to establish
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the law they've they're giving him the
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law we have cultural unity through law
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so the purpose of this law is many fold
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one of which of course is to have some
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central law of the land but by doing so
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you create a unity through law everybody
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has the same law code everybody follows
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the same laws and everything
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the penalties are the same and so on and
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so forth no matter where you are within
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the Empire and it has a certain unifying
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experience for the population so what
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did it cover well in the beginning of
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the law code it says to promote the
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welfare of the people justice to prevail
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destroy the wicked so again to promote
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good behavior if you will
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it covered murder business slavery
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marital relations wages and prices it
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used the principle of lex talionis
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principle of retaliation if someone does
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this to you then this will happen to
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them kind of an eye for an eye so to
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speak you damaged my eye accidentally or
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know I'm damaging yours punishment is
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based on social position of the
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perpetrator and victim so if you're a
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peasant and you're killed by a nobleman
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the mobile men might pay a fine of some
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kind maybe some grain or whatever but on
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the other hand if you were a peasant you
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killed a nobleman you would pay with
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your life so you have class distinctions
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of being considered in this legal system
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though the goddess ishtar seen here is
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the goddess of love and war which i
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think is an interesting combination when
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you think about it that's one of the
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gods
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we had the Assyrian Empire and you know
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goddess Ishtar was one of the great
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goddesses it's just an example of the
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kind of gods and how they're portrayed
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the Assyrian Empire was the first empire
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to really branch out in a big way
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although the Babylonian Empire did in
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fact reach Israel it never managed to
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conquer Egypt but if you look at the
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Assyrian Empire not only did they
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conquer all of us of potamia and Syria
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and Israel Jordan these are all
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modern-day countries but also Egypt as
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well and Egypt was a major power at the
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time so they must have been a formidable
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force to take on and beat the Egyptians
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not only a formidable military force but
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also when you think about it they must
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have been very organized to take out the
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Egyptians because one of the things that
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protected the Egyptians as we'll see
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later is the desert between and you see
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the arrow here this is the main core of
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Egypt along the Nile but there's a huge
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desert here between themselves and Judah
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and they managed to get their army
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through there and conquer all of Egypt
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also note here on this map Lydia Lydia
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is a Greek Kingdom as well and we'll run
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into them a little later as you can see
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the Assyrians have this huge huge Empire
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it continued to grow until it just
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simply collapsed it the Assyrians
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didn't have the manpower if you will to
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control all this area there were just
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too few Assyrians they were by the way
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for all accounts a very brutal warrior
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race
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asure and Nineveh nineveh's way in the
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north and assures actually on the
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northern side too if we looked at the
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map we were looking at earlier they are
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very warlike their army is very
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organized and they have no mercy about
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them they will give you a chance to
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surrender them first and if you don't
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surrender they storm your city put
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certain people to death and then the
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rest they'll take as slaves or either
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put your leadership most likely to death
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plus anybody else against in their way
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okay
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they had infantry cavalry chariots
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engineers they were very innovative
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there's one scene you see a scene in the
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bottom left or they're using a a war
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device namely a ram to break down a wall
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but they also used inflated skins animal
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skins to cross a river and and we have
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pictures of these on a troll stone that
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was carved these are things that you
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know are actually accessible in the
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historical record their chariots in the
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bottom right were also very advanced and
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very fast and that gave him a certain
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edge in battle
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also punishment of those who either
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rebelled against their rule well either
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rebelled or resisted their takeover this
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is what happened to them they would
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literally stretch them out over the
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ground and just lay them there for the
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Sun to cook to death
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very nasty now the interesting thing
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about the Assyrians is they did use
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Babylonian law and administrative
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techniques to run their empire this is
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probably one reason why their empire
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didn't collapse so quickly because of
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all these administrative ideas that
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they're using so they actually adapted
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they just didn't think they had all the
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answers they were very inquisitive
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people and very quick to change if they
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saw something that worked for them they
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controlled Mesopotamia Syria Anatolia
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Palestine in Egypt and ruled literally
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through terror if you made the mistake
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of rebelling against the Assyrian army
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well you can look in the bottom photo
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here and see what you got to look
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forward to they would as I said tie you
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to the ground and stake you out and that
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would be it
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[Music]
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Hanging Gardens of Babylon of course is
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something and this is the second
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Babylonian Empire where the Hanging
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Gardens of Babylon were made and there's
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some debate whether these Hanging
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Gardens were actually in Babylon rather
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the reference of the Hanging Gardens of
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Babylon might be hanging gardens of the
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Babylonian and of Empire some believe
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that the Hanging Gardens actually might
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be up in the area of where Nineveh was
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and for that reason the it also has
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possibly believed that the Assyrian King
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Sennacherib was the one who created the
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Hanging Gardens of Babylon in the first
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place in Nineveh it there is some
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historical evidence but this evidence
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may very well have been severely damaged
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by the recent incursion of Isis into the
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region
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Isis apparently took great joy in
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destroying anything they considered
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pagan any objects that we had of carved
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stone that was had people on it they
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just destroyed it's a real tragedy
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archaeological and historical tragedy
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the Garden
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was created for his wife Sanok Rob's
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wife who it was claimed was the most
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beautifully perfect woman in the world
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so if you have the most beautifully
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perfect woman in the world why shouldn't
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he she have the most beautiful perfect
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garden in the world right this is the
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Assyrian winged bull you would see this
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very commonly displayed the actual I
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believe this a version of this was
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actually destroyed when they actually
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showed a film of these guys taking
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jackhammers to it and destroying it and
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this was symbolic of the royal family
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who was not necessarily a god and and as
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I said earlier the Syrians were too few
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in number to rule so many people sooner
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or later almost all at once there were
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rebellions all over the Empire and the
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Assyrians were just overwhelmed and just
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literally there's Empire fell apart so
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internal rebellion brought this in part
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out now up to this point when you think
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about is the most successful Empire Bar
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None switching over to the Hebrew
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civilization these are nomadic people
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from Mesopotamia but they are unique in
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the region and that they believe in one
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God so they're not these are not
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multiple gods they are not pagans
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they also use simple laws to apply to
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all equally that's the difference
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between Hammurabi's code which
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differentiated by class in the Hebrew
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world everyone is equal no matter how
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elite you are and Lex talionis is used
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the law of retaliation and they also
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derive a unique national identity the
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belief in the same religious faith the
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belief in one God the belief and
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circumcision as a way of identifying
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it's kind of like a a mark of that you
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are God's chosen by doing this of course
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it only applies to males during the
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Assyrian Empire of the Jews rent a fall
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foul of the Assyrians and new Babylon if
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you will and the net result was their
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dispersion and this is where the
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so-called missing 12th tribe of Israel
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disappears during this time and this
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actually shows the dispersion and it may
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very well be that that yellow line you
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see there could be the 12th tribe being
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sent further into the interior separated
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from the others
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new Babylon was from 602 539 BCE
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Nebuchadnezzar was the ruler and
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controlled Mesopotamia Syria and
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Palestine did not obviously control
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Egypt destroyed by the Medes in 539 no
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surprises there and the Medes eventually
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become part of the Persian Empire
