Ancient
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamian
Timeline from 5000 to 250 BC
Mesopotamia:
an introduction
Geographical and climatological background, including an
introduction to the people (Sumerians, Akkadians, etc), the
divine world, economy, Assyriology and archaeology. [From Akkadian Language by John Heise]
Pre-history
in Mesopotamia
The Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods. [From Akkadian
Language by John Heise]
Proto-history
in Mesopotamia
Sumerian kings, the Flood story, first cities (Jemdet
Nasr), the Old Sumerian Age, and the Early Dynastic
period. [From Akkadian Language by John Heise]
The
Bronze Age in Mesopotamia
The Empire of Sargon, plus the neo-Sumerian, Old Babylonian,
Old Assyrian and late Bronze Age periods. [From Akkadian
Language by John Heise]
The
Iron Age in Mesopotamia
The New Assyrian period and the New Babylonian empire. [From
Akkadian Language by John Heise]
The
Sumerians 2900-1800 BC
In an area now in Kuwait and northern Saudi Arabia, a
mysterious group of people, speaking a language unrelated to
any other known language, began to live in cities, and began
to write... [World Civilisations
website]
Gilgamesh c2700
BC
Gilgamesh, a historical king of Uruk in Babylonia who lived
about 2700 BC, was the subject of numerous stories and myths -
some of which were written down on clay tablets which still
survive. [World Civilisations website]
The
Akkadians 2340-2135 BC
The Akkadians were a Semitic people, originally living on the
Arabian peninsula, who migrated north and came into conflict
with the Sumerian city-states. In 2340 BC, the great Akkadian
military leader, Sargon, conquered Sumer and built a capital
city called Akkad (later known as Babylon). [World
Civilisations website]
The
Old Babylonian period (Amorites) 1900-1530 BC
Around 1900 BC, a group of Semites called the Amorites gained
control of most of the Mesopotamian region and based their
capital in Babylon, which was originally called Akkad. [World
Civilisations website]
The
Code of Hammurabi c1792-1750 BC
An early example of legislation. Translated by L.W. King
(1910). Edited with footnotes by Richard Hooker. [World
Civilisations website]
The
Hittites 1600-717 BC
The invasion of the Hitties ended the Old Babylonian empire in
Mesopotamia. Although little is known about their origins, the
Hitties ruled a huge area stretching from Mesopotamia to Syria
and Palestine. [World Civilisations website]
The
Kassites 1530-1170
In the second millenium BC, Indo-European peoples began
vast and chaotic migrations out of Europe towards Persia and
India - migrations powered by the stunning new technology of
horses and chariots. These invasions displaced many peoples
who began to migrate in many directions, and some headed
towards Mesopotamia - among them the Kassites. [World
Civilisations website]
The
Assyrians 1170-612 BC
The Assyrians were Semitic people in the northern reaches of
Mesopotamia. Under the monarch, Shamshi-Adad, they attempted
to build their own empire, but Hammurabi soon crushed the
attempt. [World Civilisations website]
The
Chaldeans (Neo-Babylonian period) 612-539 BC
Suffering mightily under the Assyrians, the city of Babylon
finally rose up against its hated enemy, the city of Nineveh,
capital of the Assyrian empire, and burned it to the ground.
Mesopotamia
and the Persians
By 486 BC, the Persians controlled all of Mesopotamia and, in
fact, a vast area stretching from Macedon (north-east of
Greece) to Egypt, from Palestine and the Arabian peninsula
across Mesopotamia and all the way to India. [World
Civilisations website]
Ancient culture
Cuneiform
The earliest writing in Mesopotamia was a picture writing
invented by the Sumerians who wrote on clay tablets using long
reeds. [World Civilisations website]
The
Cuneiform writing system
A detailed explanation [From Akkadian Language by John Heise]
Sumerian
riddle T-shirt
The University of Pennsylvania is selling T-shirts with a
cuneiform riddle found on an ancient clay tablet at Ur.
The
Akkadian language
An introduction to Babylonian and Assyrian cuneiform
texts. [From Akkadian Language by John Heise]
Akkadian
linguistics
Explanation of the grammatical system. [From Akkadian Language
by John Heise]
The
Sumerians: mythology and religion
by Christopher Siren
Babylonian
mathematics
School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St
Andrews, Scotland
Archaeology
Stolen
Stones: the Modern Sack of Nineveh
A case of archaeological vandalism in the great imperial
capital? [Archaeological Institute of America]
Bismya
or The Lost City of Adab
Full text of the book by Edgar James Banks (New York, 1912)
detailing the rediscovery and excavation of the lost city of
Adab
The
Samarra' Archaeological Survey
Samarra', 125 km north of Baghdad, on the east bank of
the Tigris, was the capital of the Abbasid Caliphs. With the
remains of collapsed pisé and brick walls still visible,
Samarra' is now one of the largest archaeological
sites in the world.
The
holy city of Nippur
In the desert a hundred miles south of Baghdad, Iraq lies a
great mound of man-made debris 60 feet high and almost a
mile across. This is Nippur, for thousands of years the
religious centre of Mesopotamia. [Oriental Institute
excavations report]
The
palace of Ashurnasirpal II
An animated fly-through of the palace [University of
Pennsylvania]
Artifacts
from ancient Iraq
Virtual Museum Online - The Assyrian Gallery
Photographic
archives: Iraq
Oriental Institute
MUSEUMS
The
royal tombs of Ur
Travelling exhibition from University
of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
Assyrian
gallery
from the collection of the Oriental
Institute Virtual Museum
Early Islamic period
The
Arab conquest and the coming of Islam
The
golden age of Arab and Islamic culture
by Gaston Wiet. From "Baghdad: Metropolis of the Abbasid
Caliphate", University of Oklahoma Press
Baghdad
under the Abbasids
(c.1000 CE)
A contemporary description of the city in its heyday
Civil
war and the Umayyads
From the death of the Prophet to the end of the Ummayad Dynasty
(661-750 CE). By Richard Hooker [World
Cultures website]
The
Abbasid Dynasty (750 to 1258 CE)
by Richard Hooker [World
Cultures website]
The
Golden Age of Arab and Islamic Culture
by Gaston Wiet, from "Baghdad: Metropolis of the Abbasid
Caliphate", chapter 5. University of Oklahoma Press
Ottoman period
The
Ottoman period 1534-1918
[US Library of Congress]
The
Ottomans
[World Civilisations website]
Twentieth
century
The
First World War and the British Mandate
[US Library of Congress]
Iraq
as an independent monarchy
[US Library of Congress]
Republican
Iraq
[US Library of Congress]
Coups,
coup attempts, and foreign policy
[US Library of Congress]
The
emergence of Saddam Hussein 1968-79
[US Library of Congress]
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