Six Neolithic cultures of Mesopotamia

Introduction

The transition from Mesolithic to bronze age civilisation first took place in Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia broadly corresponds to present day Iraq. Sumerian civilisation which is one of the earliest known bronze age civilisation is a product of Mesopotamia. For this reason Mesopotamia has a special significance in a discussion on the transition from neolithic to bronze age.

Geography of Mesopotamia:

Two major rivers flow through the country. These are the Euphrates and the Tigris. These rivers flow from north to south and discharge their waters into Persian gulf. Thus it can be divided into two distinct regions: north and south.

Northern Mesopotamia stretches from the Zagros mountains to the middle Tigris. On the west this region is bound by Syrian desert.

Southern Mesopotamia lies roughly between the middle Tigris and the Persian Gulf. In the east in is bordered  by Iran. In the west there is a long stretch of desert which merges with Arabian desert. The region virtually experiences no slope as the land is just 20 meters above the sea level. Southern Mesopotamia is an arid zone with scanty rainfall. However, the two rivers provide possibilities for cultivation and therefore for habitation in this region.

Early in the history the southernmost part of Mesopotamia was known as Sumeria.The area lying between Sumeria and northern Mesopotamia was called Akkad. In fact Sumeria and Akkad together constituted Southern Mesopotamia. From c. 2000 onwards they both together are referred to as Babylonia.

Ancient Mesopotamia
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The Six Neolithic Cultures Of Mesopotamia.

Northern Mesopotamian cultures.

1) Hassuna (6000-5500 BC )

2) Samarra ( 5500-5000 BC )

3) Halaf ( 5500-4500 BC )

All these three cultures were products of the northern Mesopotamian environment. Cultivation was mainly based on winter rainfall. Another feature of these cultures was the manufacture of beautiful handmade pottery.

Hassuna Culture

Hassuna culture got it's name from where it was first identified, the site of Tell Hassuna. The houses in this culture were multi-roomed. All houses had structures for storing grains. Sickles and stone blades were heavily used. Heavy javelins have also been discovered from this culture. Pottery in this culture was painted and was decorated with geometrical shapes. As many as four hundred people lived in one village of this culture.

Samara Culture

This culture is known for their technique of artificial irrigation. Since winter rainfall was scarce in this area, people had to depend upon irrigation systems and such is evident at the site known as Choga Mami. Here, rudimentary canals were dug to carry the water to fields. The population of the village had raised to 1000 people.One more important thing about this culture is that their villages were protected by ditches, which shows that people were protective of their surplus produce and their territory. Cultivation of wheat and barley was prevalent at this time.

Halafian Culture

This culture represents the most advanced stage of development in the neolithic in northern Mesopotamia. This culture was first identified the site of Tell Halaf. Though tiny bead of metal ( copper ) have been excavated from these sites but at this time various types of stones were the main material for making tools. The Halafians produced pottery of outstanding quality. It was the most attractive pottery produced in ancient Mesopotamia. The pottery was painted and was fired at very high temperatures to give them a shinny look. It has also been found that they used burnt clay to make bricks.

Southern Mesopotamian cultures.

1) al-Ubaid Culture

2) Uruk culture

3) Jamdet Nasr

al-Ubaid Culture

This culture marked the first attempt to adapt to the environment of southern Mesopotamia. Initially advantage was taken of natural channels to irrigate crops, but it should be noted that the entire southern Mesopotamian civilisation was based on the brilliant artificial irrigation channels the had built. People cultivated wheat and barley, reared goats and sheep Date palm which grows extensively in this area would have helped them in their diet.

This cultures marks the advent of metal as people used copper to make copper tools, though not on a very large scale. This must be noted that it had given birth to the specialised miners and metallurgists. Since this work required a lot of skill, it couldn't have been done without expertise. Gordon Childe has termed these specialists as " Roving Specialists " since they went place to place in search of metal and promoting the use of it.

Pottery was made by hand at this time, there is no sign of wheel turned pottery.

Temples had gained the political and economical authority over the people by this time. As it was their responsibility to regulate irrigation in the farms of people.  Priests were considered as political head of the village. they maintained the surplus records which was stored in the temples to serve the people who were indulged in other activities rather than agriculture, to serve those people who maintained temples. We see a large network of canal system which they had used for irrigation, since it was the only major source of water, it was taken care off very well. Excavations conducted at the site Eridu, near al-ubaid have bought to light a huge temple built with mud bricks. Till this time we do not see any difference in the burials of people. Everyone is buried in the same manner, be it priest or a farmer. So we can say that it was a complex society but there were no such social stratification.

Uruk Culture

This culture marks the advent of important things like, wheel, plough, writing. Writing is something that is very important for a civilisation, though the writing in this culture was photographic, but it paved the way of making records and remembering things. Priests maintained the transactions for rations on a clay tablet ( which they used a paper ), which they later used to burn and make them hard. Seals, and stamps have also been found in this culture which George Roux calls " art in miniature ". These seals could have been used as trade coins or as a mark of authority and power. With the advent of wheel, wheel turned pottery came into picture which was earlier made by hand,wheel was later used in transport. The workmanship deployed in making these wheels show that there were specialised carpenters who couldn't arrange in any other occupation else than this. By this time plough had overtaken sickle which implied for more ease in agriculture, this resulted in the produce of more surplus.

Jamdet Nasr

Jamdet Nasr culture marks the formation of city states which had begun at the time when Uruk culture was ending. Urban revolution as marked by Gordon childe resulted in the formation of temple states where all the political authority over everything was in the hands of priests, as Anna Scheinder says.

Kinship, law, Bureaucracy were strictly in the hands of priests. The status of the temples was such that the temple was considered as the political building of the state. Now the writting was not photographic, people had developed Cuneiform script and could write in that script. One of the most important evidence of that is the "kinglist" which have been found, describing the monarchical history of the place, is written in cuneiform script. The epic Gilgamesh has also been found written in the same script.

By this time, there had emerged a new class, which was the soldier class. the soldiers of the tribe ensured that the tribe don't fight as a whole, it was the responsibility of the warriors to protect their tribe and go to war. Chief of the tribe lead the warriors in the war, this gave importance to the position of chief.