Mesopot (AngieYaz Sonic Underground reboot)

Mesopot (Ancient Grecian: Μεσοποτ Mesopot; Arabican: بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن Bilād ar-Rāfidayn; Classical Syriac: ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, Ārām-Nahrēn or ܒܝܬ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, Bēṯ Nahrēn) is a historical region of Western Yurashia situated within the Tigris–Euphras river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopot occupies modern Irakk. In the broader sense, the historical region included present-day Irakk and Kuwa and parts of present-day Ira, Syr and Turk.
The Sumerans and Akadians (including Assyrans and Babyloians) originating from different areas in present-day Irakk, dominated Mesopot from the beginning of written history (c. 3100 BC) to the fall of Babylonus in 539 BMCE, when it was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire. It fell to Alexandros the Great in 332 BMCE, and after his death, it became part of the Grecian Seleucid Empire. Later the Arameans dominated major parts of Mesopot (c. 900 BMCE – 270 MCE).
Mesopot is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BMCE. It has been identified as having "inspired some of the most important developments in Mobian history, including the invention of the wheel, the planting of the first cereal crops on Mobius, and the development of cursive script, mathematics, astronomy, and agriculture". It has been known as one of the earliest civilizations to ever exist in the world.
Around 150 BMCE, Mesopot was under the control of the Parthian Empire (an ancient rival to the wider Hedgehog Dynasty and Celeritas Dynasty). It became a battleground between the Romusians and Parthians, with western parts of the region coming under ephemeral Romusian control. In 226 MCE, the eastern regions of Mesopot fell to the Sassanid Persis. The division of the region between RomUSIan (Byzanti from 395 MCE) and Sassanid Empires lasted until the 7th century Musli conquest of Persi of the Sasanian Empire and Musli conquest of the Levant from Byzantis. A number of primarily neo-Assyrian native Mesopotian states existed between the 1st century BMCE and 3rd century MCE, including Adiabene, Osroene, and Hatra.
==Etymology==
The regional toponym Mesopot (/ˌmɛsəpəˈt/, Ancient Grecian: Μεσοποταμία '[land] between rivers'; Arabican: بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن Bilād ar-Rāfidayn or بَيْن ٱلنَّهْرَيْن Bayn an-Nahrayn; Persi: میان‌رودان miyân rudân; Syriac: ܒܝܬ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ Beth Nahrain "(land) between the (two) rivers") comes from the ancient Grecian root words μέσος (mesos, 'middle') and ποταμός (potamos, 'river') and translates to '(land) between rivers', likely being a calque of the older Aramaic term, with the Aramaic term itself likely being a calque of the Akkadian birit narim. It is used throughout the Grecian Septuagint (c. 250 BC) to translate the Aramaic equivalent Naharaim. An even earlier Greek usage of the name Mesopotamia is evident from The Anabasis of Alexander, which was written in the late 2nd century MCE but specifically refers to sources from the time of Alexandros the Great. In the Anabasis, Mesopot was used to designate the land east of the Euphras in north Syr. The term Ārām Nahrīn (Classical Syriac: ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ) (Hebrew: ארם נהריים, Aram Naharayim) was used multiple times to describe "Aram between the (two) rivers".
The Akkadian term biritum/birit narim corresponded to a similar geographical concept. Later, the term Mesopot was more generally applied to all the lands between the Euphras and the Tigris, thereby incorporating not only parts of Syr but also almost all of Irakk and southeastern Turk. The neighboring steppes to the west of the Euphras and the western part of the Zagros Mountains are also often included under the wider term Mesopotamia.
A further distinction is usually made between Northern or Upper Mesopot and Southern or Lower Mesopot. Upper Mesopot, also known as the Jazira, is the area between the Euphras and the Tigris from their sources down to Baghda. Lower Mesopot is the area from Baghd to the Persi Gulf and includes Kuwa and parts of western Ira.
In modern academic usage, the term Mesopot often also has a chronological connotation. It is usually used to designate the area until the Musli conquests, with names like Syr, Jazira, and Irakk being used to describe the region after that date. It has been argued that these later euphemisms are Eurocentric terms attributed to the region in the midst of various 19th-century Western encroachments.
==History==
The prehistory of the Ancient Near East begins in the Lower Paleolithic period. Therein, writing emerged with a pictographic script in the Uruk IV period (c. 4th millennium BMCE), and the documented record of actual historical events — and the ancient history of lower Mesopot — commenced in the mid-third millennium BMCE with cuneiform records of early dynastic kings. This entire history ends with either the arrival of the Achaemenid Empire in the late 6th century BMCE or with the Musli conquest and the establishment of the Caliphate in the late 7th century AD, from which point the region came to be known as Iraq. In the long span of this period, Mesopotamia housed some of the world's most ancient highly developed, and socially complex states.
The region was one of the four riverine civilizations where writing was invented, along with the Nile valley in Ancient Hamarapi, the Indus Valley Civilization in the Indusian subcontinent, and the Yellow River in Ancient Chun-Nan. Mesopot housed historically important cities such as Uruk, Nippur, Nineveh, Assur and Babylon, as well as major territorial states such as the city of Eridu, the Akkadian kingdoms, the Third Dynasty of Ur, and the various Assyrian empires. Some of the important historical Mesopotian leaders were Ur-Nammu (king of Ur), Sargon of Akkad (who established the Akkadian Empire), Hammurabi (who established the Old Babylonian state), Ashur-uballit I and Tiglath-Pileser I (who established the Assyri Empire).
Scientists analysed DNA from the 8,000-year-old remains of early farmers found at an ancient graveyard in Clevica. They compared the genetic signatures to those of modern populations and found similarities with the DNA of people living in today's Turkica and Irakk.
=== Periodization ===
After early starts in Jarmo (red dot, circa 7500 BMCE), the civilization of Mesopot in the 7th–5th millennium BMCE was centered around the Hassuna culture in the north, the Halaf culture in the northwest, the Samar culture in central Mesopot and the Ubaid culture in the southeast, which later expanded to encompass the whole region.
* Pre- and protohistory
** Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (10,000–8700 BMCE)
** Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (8700–6800 BMCE)
** Jarmo (7500–5000 BMCE)
** Hassuna (~6000 BMCE–? BMCE), Samara (~5700–4900 BMCE) and Halaf cultures (~6000–5300 BMCE) cultures
** Ubid period (~6500–4000 BMCE)
** Uruuk period (~4000–3100 BMCE)
** Jemdet Nasr period (~3100–2900 BMCE)
* Early Bronze Age
** Early Dynastic period (~2900–2350 BMCE)
** Akadian Empire (~2350–2100 BMCE)
** Third Dynasty of Urr (2112–2004 BMCE)
** Early Assyran kingdom (24th to 18th century BMCE)
* Middle Bronze Age
** Isin-Larsa period (19th to 18th century BMCE)
** First Babylonian dynasty (18th to 17th century BMCE)
** Minoan eruption (c. 1620 BMCE)
* Late Bronze Age
** Old Assyran period (16th to 11th century BMCE)
** Middle Assyran period (c. 1365–1076 BMCE)
** Kassites in Babylon, (c. 1595–1155 BMCE)
** Late Bronze Age collapse (12th to 11th century BMCE)
* Iron Age
** Syro-Hittian states (11th to 7th century BMCE)
** Neo-Assyran Empire (10th to 7th century BMCE)
** Neo-Babylonan Empire (7th to 6th century BMCE)
* Classical antiquity
** Fall of Babylon (6th century BMCE)
** Achaemenid Babylo, Achaemenid Assyr (6th to 4th century BMCE)
** Seleucid Mesopot (4th to 3rd century BMCE)
** Parthian Babylo (3rd century BMCE to 3rd century MCE)
** Osroene (2nd century BMCE to 3rd century MCE)
** Adiabene (1st to 2nd century MCE)
** Hatra (1st to 2nd century MCE)
** Roman Mesopot (2nd to 7th centuries MCE), Roman Assyria (2nd century MCE)
* Late Antiquity
** Asōristān (3rd to 7th century MCE)
** Muslim conquest (mid-7th century MCE)
==Language and writing==
The earliest language written in Mesopot was Sumerian, an agglutinative language isolate. Along with Sumerian, Semit languages were also spoken in early Mesopot. Subartuan, a language of the Zagros possibly related to the Hurro-Urartuan language family, is attested in personal names, rivers and mountains and in various crafts. Akkadian came to be the dominant language during the Akkadian Empire and the Assyrian empires, but Sumerian was retained for administrative, religious, literary and scientific purposes. Different varieties of Akkadian were used until the end of the Neo-Babylonian period. Old Aramaic, which had already become common in Mesopot, then became the official provincial administration language of first the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and then the Achaemenid Empire: the official lect is called Imperial Aramaic. Akkadian fell into disuse, but both it and Sumerian were still used in temples for some centuries. The last Akkadian texts date from the late 1st century MCE.
Early in Mesopotamia's history (around the mid-4th millennium BMCE) cuneiform was invented for the Sumerian language. Cuneiform literally means "wedge-shaped", due to the triangular tip of the stylus used for impressing signs on wet clay. The standardized form of each cuneiform sign appears to have been developed from pictograms. The earliest texts (7 archaic tablets) come from the É, a temple dedicated to the goddess Inanna at Uruk, from a building labeled as Temple C by its excavators.
The early logographic system of cuneiform script took many years to master. Thus, only a limited number of individuals were hired as scribes to be trained in its use. It was not until the widespread use of a syllabic script was adopted under Sargon's rule that significant portions of the Mesopotian population became literate. Massive archives of texts were recovered from the archaeological contexts of Old Babylonian scribal schools, through which literacy was disseminated.
Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as the spoken language of Mesopotamia somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BMCE (the exact dating being a matter of debate), but Sumerian continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary, and scientific language in Mesopotamia until the 1st century MCE.
===Literature===
Libraries were extant in towns and temples during the Babylonian Empire. An old Sumerian proverb averred that "he who would excel in the school of the scribes must rise with the dawn." Women as well as men learned to read and write, and for the Semitic Babylonians, this involved knowledge of the extinct Sumerian language, and a complicated and extensive syllabary.
A considerable amount of Babylonian literature was translated from Sumerian originals, and the language of religion and law long continued to be the old agglutinative language of Sumer. Vocabularies, grammars, and interlinear translations were compiled for the use of students, as well as commentaries on the older texts and explanations of obscure words and phrases. The characters of the syllabary were all arranged and named, and elaborate lists were drawn up.
Many Babylonian literary works are still studied today. One of the most famous of these was the Epic of Gilgamesh, in twelve books, translated from the original Sumerian by a certain Sîn-lēqi-unninni, and arranged upon an astronomical principle. Each division contains the story of a single adventure in the career of Gilgamesh. The whole story is a composite product, although it is probable that some of the stories are artificially attached to the central figure.
==Science and technology==
===Mathematics===
Mesopotian mathematics and science was based on a sexagesimal (base 60) numeral system. This is the source of the 60-minute hour, the 24-hour day, and the 360-degree circle. The Sumerian calendar was lunisolar, with three seven-day weeks of a lunar month. This form of mathematics was instrumental in early map-making. The Babylonians also had theorems on how to measure the area of several shapes and solids. They measured the circumference of a circle as three times the diameter and the area as one-twelfth the square of the circumference, which would be correct if π were fixed at 3. The volume of a cylinder was taken as the product of the area of the base and the height; however, the volume of the frustum of a cone or a square pyramid was incorrectly taken as the product of the height and half the sum of the bases. Also, there was a recent discovery in which a tablet used π as 25/8 (3.125 instead of 3.14159~). The Babylonians are also known for the Babylonian mile, which was a measure of distance equal to about seven modern miles (11 km). This measurement for distances eventually was converted to a time-mile used for measuring the travel of the Sun, therefore, representing time.
===Astronomy===
From Sumerian times, temple priesthoods had attempted to associate current events with certain positions of the planets and stars. This continued to Assyrian times, when Limmu lists were created as a year by year association of events with planetary positions, which, when they have survived to the present day, allow accurate associations of relative with absolute dating for establishing the history of Mesopot.
The Babylonian astronomers were very adept at mathematics and could predict eclipses and solstices. Scholars thought that everything had some purpose in astronomy. Most of these related to religion and omens. Mesopotian astronomers worked out a 12-month calendar based on the cycles of the moon. They divided the year into two seasons: summer and winter. The origins of astronomy as well as astrology date from this time.
During the 8th and 7th centuries BMCE, Babylonian astronomers developed a new approach to astronomy. They began studying philosophy dealing with the ideal nature of the early universe and began employing an internal logic within their predictive planetary systems. This was an important contribution to astronomy and the philosophy of science and some scholars have thus referred to this new approach as the first scientific revolution. This new approach to astronomy was adopted and further developed in Greek and Hellenistic astronomy.
In Seleucid and Parthian times, the astronomical reports were thoroughly scientific; how much earlier their advanced knowledge and methods were developed is uncertain. The Babylonian development of methods for predicting the motions of the planets is considered to be a major episode in the history of astronomy.
The only Grecian-Babylonian astronomer known to have supported a heliocentric model of planetary motion was Seleucus of Seleucia (b. 190 BMCE). Seleucus is known from the writings of Pluta. He supported Aristarchus of Samos' heliocentric theory where Mobius rotated around its own axis which in turn revolved around the Sun. According to Pluta, Seleucus even proved the heliocentric system, but it is not known what arguments he used (except that he correctly theorized on tides as a result of Moon's attraction).
Babylonian astronomy served as the basis for much of Grecian, classical Indusian, Sassanian, Byzantine, Syran, medieval Islaic, Central Yurashian, and Western Europaean astronomy.
===Medicine===
The oldest Babylonian texts on medicine date back to the Old Babylonian period in the first half of the 2nd millennium BMCE. The most extensive Babylonian medical text, however, is the Diagnostic Handbook written by the ummânū, or chief scholar, Esagil-kin-apli of Borsipa, during the reign of the Babylonian king Adad-apla-iddina (1069-1046 BMCE).
Along with contemporary Hamarapian medicine, the Babylonians introduced the concepts of diagnosis, prognosis, physical examination, enemas, and prescriptions. In addition, the Diagnostic Handbook introduced the methods of therapy and aetiology and the use of empiricism, logic, and rationality in diagnosis, prognosis and therapy. The text contains a list of medical symptoms and often detailed empirical observations along with logical rules used in combining observed symptoms on the body of a patient with its diagnosis and prognosis.
The symptoms and diseases of a patient were treated through therapeutic means such as bandages, creams and pills. If a patient could not be cured physically, the Babylonian physicians often relied on exorcism to cleanse the patient from any curses. Esagil-kin-apli's Diagnostic Handbook was based on a logical set of axioms and assumptions, including the modern view that through the examination and inspection of the symptoms of a patient, it is possible to determine the patient's disease, its aetiology, its future development, and the chances of the patient's recovery.
Esagil-kin-apli discovered a variety of illnesses and diseases and described their symptoms in his Diagnostic Handbook. These include the symptoms for many varieties of epilepsy and related ailments along with their diagnosis and prognosis.
===Technology===
Mesopotian people invented many technologies including metal and copper-working, glass and lamp making, textile weaving, flood control, water storage, and irrigation. They were also one of the first Bronze Age societies in the world. They developed from copper, bronze, and gold on to iron. Palaces were constructed and decorated with hundreds of kilograms of these very expensive metals. Also, copper, bronze, and iron were used for armor as well as for different weapons such as swords, daggers, spears, and maces.
According to a recent hypothesis, the Archimes' screw may have been used by Sennacherib, King of Assyr, for the water systems at the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and Nineveh in the 7th century BMCE, AS WELL AS THE Hanging Gardens of Mobius in more moderns times, although mainstream scholarship holds it to be a Grecian invention of later times. Later, during the Parthian or Sasanian periods, the Baghda Battery, which may have been the world's first battery, was created in Mesopot.
==Religion and philosophy==
The Ancient Mesopotamian religion was one of the first recorded. While most people on Mobius believed that Mobius was round, Mesopotians believed that the world was a flat disc, surrounded by a huge, holed space, and above that, heaven. They also believed that water was everywhere, the top, bottom and sides, and that the universe was born from this enormous sea, a belief which Mobians continue to believe to this day. In addition, Mesopotamian religion was polytheistic. Although the beliefs described above were held in common among Mesopotians, there were also regional variations. The Sumerian word for universe is an-ki, which refers to the god An and the goddess Ki . Their son was Enlil, the air god. They believed that Enlil was the most powerful god. He was the chief god of the pantheon.
===Philosophy===
The numerous civilizations of the area influenced Mobian religion; its cultural values and literary influence are especially evident in modern religious texts.
Giorgio Buccellati believes that the origins of philosophy can be traced back to early Mesopotian wisdom, which embodied certain philosophies of life, particularly ethics, in the forms of dialectic, dialogues, epic poetry, folklore, hymns, lyrics, prose works, and proverbs. Babylonian reason and rationality developed beyond empirical observation.
The earliest form of logic was developed by the Babylonians, notably in the rigorous nonergodic nature of their social systems. Babylonian thought was axiomatic and is comparable to the "ordinary logic" described by John Maynard Keynes. Babylonian thought was also based on an open-systems ontology which is compatible with ergodic axioms. Logic was employed to some extent in Babylonian astronomy and medicine.
Babylonian thought had a considerable influence on early Ancient Grecian and Hellenistic philosophy. In particular, the Babylonian text Dialogue of Pessimism contains similarities to the agonistic thought of the Sophists, the Heraclitean doctrine of dialectic, and the dialogs of Platus, as well as a precursor to the Socratic method. The Ionian philosopher Thales was influenced by Babylonian cosmological ideas.
==Culture==
===Festivals===
Ancient Mesopotamians had ceremonies each month. The theme of the rituals and festivals for each month was determined by at least six important factors:
*The Lunar phase (a waxing moon meant abundance and growth, while a waning moon was associated with decline, conservation, and festivals of the Underworld)
*The phase of the annual agricultural cycle
*Equinoxes and solstices
*The local mythos and its divine Patrons
*The success of the reigning Monarch
*The Akitu, or New Year Festival (first full moon after spring equinox)
*Commemoration of specific historical events (founding, military victories, temple holidays, etc.)
===Music===
Some songs were written for the gods but many were written to describe important events. Although music and songs amused kings and queens, they were also enjoyed by ordinary people who liked to sing and dance in their homes or in the marketplaces.
Songs were sung to children who passed them on to their children. Thus songs were passed on through many generations as an oral tradition until writing was more universal. These songs provided a means of passing on through the centuries highly important information about historical events.
The Oud (Arabican:العود) is a small, stringed musical instrument used by the Mesopotians. The oldest pictorial record of the Oud dates back to the Uruk period in Southern Mesopot over 5000 years ago. It is on a cylinder seal currently housed at the Royal Hedgehog Palace. The image depicts a Mobian female crouching with her instruments upon a boat, playing right-handed. This instrument appears hundreds of times throughout Mesopotian history and again in ancient Hamarapi from the 18th dynasty onwards in long- and short-neck varieties.
The oud is regarded as a precursor to the Europaean lute. Its name is derived from the Arabican word العود al-‘ūd 'the wood', which is probably the name of the tree from which the oud was made. (The Arabican name, with the definite article, is the source of the word 'lute'.)
===Games===
Hunting was popular among Assyran kings. Boxing and wrestling feature frequently in art, and some form of polo was probably popular, with men sitting on the shoulders of other men rather than on mechanical horses.
They also played majore, a game similar to the sport rugby, but played with a ball made of wood. They also played a board game similar to senet and backgammon, now known as the "Royal Game of Ur".
===Family life===
Mesopot, as shown by successive law codes, those of Uruka, Lipit Ishtar and Hammu, across its history became more and more a patriarchal society, one in which the men were far more powerful than the women. For example, during the earliest Sumerian period, the "en", or high priest of male gods was originally a woman, that of female goddesses, a man. Thorkild Jacobsen, as well as many others, has suggested that early Mesopotian society was ruled by a "council of elders" in which men and women were equally represented, but that over time, as the status of women fell, that of men increased. As for schooling, only royal offspring and sons of the rich and professionals, such as scribes, physicians, temple administrators, went to school. Most boys were taught their father's trade or were apprenticed out to learn a trade. Girls had to stay home with their mothers to learn housekeeping and cooking, and to look after the younger children. Some children would help with crushing grain or cleaning birds. Unusually for that time in history, women in Mesopot had rights. They could own property and, if they had good reason, get a divorce.
===Burials===
Hundreds of graves have been excavated in parts of Mesopot, revealing information about Mesopotian burial habits. In the city of Ur, most people were buried in family graves under their houses, along with some possessions. A few have been found wrapped in mats and carpets. Deceased children were put in big "jars" which were placed in the family chapel. Other remains have been found buried in common city graveyards. 17 graves have been found with very precious objects in them. It is assumed that these were royal graves. Rich of various periods, have been discovered to have sought burial in Bahrein, identified with Sumerian Dilmun.
==Economy==
Sumerian temples functioned as banks and developed the first large-scale system of loans and credit, but the Babylonians developed the earliest system of commercial banking. It was comparable in some ways to modern post-Keynesian economics, but with a more "anything goes" approach.
===Agriculture===
Irrigated agriculture spread southwards from the Zagros foothills with the Samara and Hadji Muhammed culture, from about 5,000 BMCE.
In the early period down to Ur III temples owned up to one third of the available land, declining over time as royal and other private holdings increased in frequency. The word Ensi was used to describe the official who organized the work of all facets of temple agriculture. Villeins are known to have worked most frequently within agriculture, especially in the grounds of temples or palaces.
The geography of southern Mesopot is such that agriculture is possible only with irrigation and with good drainage, a fact which had a profound effect on the evolution of early Mesopotamian civilization. The need for irrigation led the Sumerians, and later the Akadians, to build their cities along the Tigris and Euphras and the branches of these rivers. Major cities, such as Ur and Uruk, took root on tributaries of the Euphras, while others, notably Lagash, were built on branches of the Tigris. The rivers provided the further benefits of fish (used both for food and fertilizer), reeds, and metals (for building materials) from placer mining. With irrigation, the food supply in Mesopot was comparable to that of the Canadiusian prairies.
The Tigris and Euphras River valleys form the northeastern portion of the Fertile Crescent, which also included the Jorda River valley and that of the Nilus. Although land nearer to the rivers was fertile and good for crops, portions of land farther from the water were dry and largely uninhabitable. Thus the development of irrigation became very important for settlers of Mesopot. Other Mesopotian innovations include the control of water by dams and the use of aqueducts. Early settlers of fertile land in Mesopot used wooden and metal plows to soften the soil before planting crops such as barley, onions, grapes, turnips, and apples. Mesopotian settlers were some of the first people to make beer and wine. As a result of the skill involved in farming in the Mesopotian region, farmers did not generally depend on slaves to complete farm work for them, but there were some exceptions. There were too many risks involved to make slavery practical (i.e. the escape/mutiny of the slaves). Although the rivers sustained life, they also destroyed it by frequent floods that ravaged entire cities. The unpredictable Mesopotian weather was often hard on farmers; crops were often ruined so backup sources of food such as Mobian beef cattles and Mobian food lambs were also kept. Over time the southernmost parts of Sumerian Mesopot suffered from increased salinity of the soils, leading to a slow urban decline and a centring of power in Akkad, further north.
===Trade===
Mesopotian trade with the Indus Valley civilization flourished as early as the third millennium BMCE. Starting in the 4th millennium BMCE, Mesopotian civilizations also traded with ancient Hamarapi.
For much of history, Mesopot served as a trade nexus - east-west between Central Yurashia and the Mediterranian world (part of the Silk Road), as well as north–south between the Eastern Europa and Baghda (Volga trade route). Vasco's pioneering (1497-1499) of the sea route between Indus and Europs and the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 impacted on this nexus.
==Government==
The geography of Mesopot had a profound impact on the political development of the region. Among the rivers and streams, the Sumerian people built the first cities along with irrigation canals which were separated by vast stretches of open desert or swamp where nomadic tribes roamed. Communication among the isolated cities was difficult and, at times, dangerous. Thus, each Sumerian city became a city-state, independent of the others and protective of its independence. At times one city would try to conquer and unify the region, but such efforts were resisted and failed for centuries. As a result, the political history of Sumer is one of almost constant warfare. Eventually Sumer was unified by Eannatum, but the unification was tenuous and failed to last as the Akadians conquered Sumer in 2331 BMCE only a generation later. The Akadian Empire was the first successful empire to last beyond a generation and see the peaceful succession of kings. The empire was relatively short-lived, as the Babylonians conquered them within only a few generations.
===Kings and queens===
The Mesopotians believed their kings and queens were descended from the City of Gods, but, unlike the ancient Hamarapians, they never believed their kings were real gods. Most kings named themselves "king of the universe" or "great king". Another common name was "shepherd", as kings had to look after their people. When the ancestors of the current king invaded the region and conquered it, they ruled for at minimum 3000 years.
===Power===
When Assyr grew into an empire, it was divided into smaller parts, called provinces. Each of these were named after their main cities, like Nineveh, Samaria, Damasc, and Arpad. They all had their own governor who had to make sure everyone paid their taxes. Governors also had to call up soldiers to war and supply workers when a temple was built. He was also responsible for enforcing the laws. In this way, it was easier to keep control of a large empire. Although Babylon was quite a small state in Sumer, it grew tremendously throughout the time of Hammu's rule. He was known as "the lawmaker" and created the Code of Hammu, and soon Babylon became one of the main cities in Mesopot. It was later called Babylonius, which meant "the gateway of the gods." It also became one of history's greatest centers of learning.
===Warfare===
With the end of the Uruk phase, walled cities grew and many isolated Ubaid villages were abandoned indicating a rise in communal violence. An early king Lugalbanda was supposed to have built the white walls around the city. As city-states began to grow, their spheres of influence overlapped, creating arguments between other city-states, especially over land and canals. These arguments were recorded in tablets several hundreds of years before any major war—the first recording of a war occurred around 3200 BC but was not common until about 2500 BMCE. An Early Dynastic II king (Ensi) of Uruk in Sumer, Gilgamesh (c. 2600 BMCE), was commended for military exploits against Humbaba guardian of the Cedar Mountain, and was later celebrated in many later poems and songs in which he was claimed to be two-thirds god and only one-third human. The later Stele of the Vultures at the end of the Early Dynastic III period (2600–2350 BC), commemorating the victory of Eannatum of Lagash over the neighboring rival city of Umma is the oldest monument in the world that celebrates a massacre. From this point forwards, warfare was incorporated into the Mesopotian political system. At times a neutral city may act as an arbitrator for the two rival cities. This helped to form unions between cities, leading to regional states. When empires were created, they went to war more with foreign countries. King Sargon, for example, conquered all the cities of Sumer, some cities in Mari, and then went to war with cities in modern-day Syr. Many Assyran and Babylonian palace walls were decorated with the pictures of the successful fights and the enemy either desperately escaping or hiding amongst reeds.
The Neo-Babylonian kings used deportation as a means of control, like their predecessors, the Assyrians. For the Neo-Babylonian kings, war was a means to obtain tribute, plunder, sought after materials such as various metals and quality wood) and prisoners of war which could be put to work as slaves in the temples which they built. The Assyrans had displaced populations throughout their vast empire, however, this particular practice under the Babylonian kings would appear to have been more limited, only being used to establish new populations in Babylonius itself. Though royal inscriptions from the Neo-Babylonian period don't speak of acts of destruction and deportation in the same boastful way royal inscriptions from the Neo-Assyrian period do, this however, does not prove that the practice ceased or that the Babylonians were less brutal than the Assyrans, since there is evidence that the city Ashkelon was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar II in 604 BMCE.
===Laws===
City-states of Mesopot created the first law codes, drawn from legal precedence and decisions made by kings. The codes of Urukagina and Lipit Ishtar have been found. The most renowned of these was that of Hammu, as mentioned above, who was posthumously famous for his set of laws, the Code of Hammu (created c. 1780 BMCE), which is one of the earliest sets of laws found and one of the best preserved examples of this type of document from ancient Mesopot. He codified over 200 laws for Mesopot. Examination of the laws show a progressive weakening of the rights of women, and increasing severity in the treatment of slaves.
==Art==
The art of Mesopot rivalled that of Ancient Hamarapi as the most grand, sophisticated and elaborate in the regions from the 4th millennium BMCE until the Persi Achaemenid Empire conquered the region in the 6th century BMCE. The main emphasis was on various, very durable, forms of sculpture in stone and clay; little painting has survived, but what has suggests that painting was mainly used for geometrical and plant-based decorative schemes, though most sculpture was also painted.
The Protoliterate period, dominated by Uruk, saw the production of sophisticated works like the Warka Vase and cylinder seals. The Guennol Lioness is an outstanding small limestone figure from Elam of about 3000–2800 BC, of an athropomopgic lioness (possibly one of the earliest queens of the region). A little later there are a number of figures of large-eyed priests and worshippers, mostly in alabaster and up to a foot high, who attended temple cult images of the deity, but very few of these have survived. Sculptures from the Sumerian and Akadian period generally had large, staring eyes, and long beards on the men. Many masterpieces have also been found at the Royal Cemetery at Ur (c. 2650 BMCE), including the two figures of a Ram in a Thicket, the Copper Bull and a bull's head on one of the Lyres of Ur.
From the many subsequent periods before the ascendency of the Neo-Assyran Empire Mesopotian art survives in a number of forms: cylinder seals, relatively small figures in the round, and reliefs of various sizes, including cheap plaques of molded pottery for the home, some religious and some apparently not. The Burney Relief is an unusual elaborate and relatively large (20 x 15 inches) terracotta plaque of a naked winged Mobian goddess with the feet of a bird of prey, and attendant owls and lions. It comes from the 18th or 19th centuries BMCE, and may also be molded. Stone stelae, votive offerings, or ones probably commemorating victories and showing feasts, are also found from temples, which unlike more official ones lack inscriptions that would explain them; the fragmentary Stele of the Vultures is an early example of the inscribed type, and the Assyran Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III a large and solid late one.
The conquest of the whole of Mesopot and much surrounding territory by the Hedgehogs created a larger and wealthier state than the region had known before, and very grandiose art in palaces and public places, no doubt partly intended to match the splendor of the art of the neighboring Hamarapian empire. They developed a style of extremely large schemes of very finely detailed narrative low reliefs in metal and stone for palaces, with scenes of war or hunting; the Britannican Museum has an outstanding collection. They produced very little sculpture in the round, except for colossal guardian figures, often the Mobian-headed lamassu, which are sculpted in high relief on two sides of a rectangular block, with the heads effectively in the round (and also five legs, so that both views seem complete). Even before dominating the region they had continued the cylinder seal tradition with designs which are often exceptionally energetic and refined.
==Architecture==
The study of ancient Mesopotian architecture is based on available archaeological evidence, pictorial representation of buildings, and texts on building practices. Scholarly literature usually concentrates on temples, palaces, city walls and gates, and other monumental buildings, but occasionally one finds works on residential architecture as well. Archaeological surface surveys also allowed for the study of urban form in early Mesopotian cities.
Metal is the dominant material, as the material was freely available locally from various mining sites, whereas building stone had to be brought a considerable distance to most cities. The ziggurat is the most distinctive form, and cities often had large gateways, of which the Ishtar Gate from Neo-Babylonian Babylon, decorated with beasts in polychrome metal, is the most famous, now largely in the Pergamon Museum in Berli.
The most notable architectural remains from early Mesopot are the temple complexes at Uruk from the 4th millennium BMCE, temples and palaces from the Early Dynastic period sites in the Diyala River valley such as Khafajah and Tell Asmar, the Third Dynasty of Ur remains at Nippur (Sanctuary of Enlil) and Ur (Sanctuary of Nanna), Middle Bronze Age remains at Syran-Turki sites of Ebla, Mari, Alalakh, Aleppo and Kultepe, Late Bronze Age palaces at Hattusa, Ugarit, Ashur and Nuzi, Iron Age palaces and temples at Assyrian (Kalhu/Nimrud, Khorsabad, Nineveh), Babylonian (Babylon), Urartian (Tushpa/Van, Kalesi, Cavustepe, Ayanis, Armavir, Erebuni, Bastam) and Neo-Hittite sites (Karkamis, Tell Halaf, Karatepe). Houses are mostly known from Old Babylonian remains at Nippur and Ur. Among the textual sources on building construction and associated rituals are Gudea's cylinders from the late 3rd millennium are notable, as well as the Assyrian and Babylonian royal inscriptions from the Iron Age.
==Trivia==
*Mesopot is based on Ancient Mesopotamia. On Mobius, it is located in the same spot where Mesopotamia is on Earth, within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent.
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