Ancient History/Ancient Near East/Mesopotamia

File:00%.svg Introduction - Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is an ancient Greek word meaning "land between the rivers". Between 5000 BCE and 500 BCE, it was home to successive waves of cultures, borrowing and cooperating with one another for resources, ideas and culture, as well as competing with one another militarily for land and prestige. 60px|caption File:00%.svg Section 1 - Background Here is some background information useful for any study into Mesopotamia. Introduction Geography 60px|caption File:00%.svg Section 2 - First Civilizations Near the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers on the Persian Gulf is a marshy, low-lying region that in ancient times was the home of the first cities — the land of Sumer. Here, the city-states of Ur, Uruk and others competed for land, power, and prestige while trying to fend off barbarians. These cities became the ancient Greece of the region — providing written language, architecture, religion, and cultural norms to the societies that followed. Old Babylonian Period Sumer & the First Cities The Akkadian Empire Ebla The Lullubi The Guti The Sumerian Renaissance 60px|caption File:00%.svg Section 3 - The Amorites and Babylon Babylon was the first city-state to assemble a true kingdom around itself in Mesopotamia. Located at a point not far from modern-day Baghdad, the Babylonians used the river for communication and control in a wide empire that spread across the river valleys. The Amorites The Babylonian Empire The Kassites 60px|caption File:00%.svg Section 4 - Upper Mesopotamia Assyria was named after its first capital, Assur, and referred to an area of Northern Mesopotamia, as opposed to the Southern Mesopotamia of Sumer, Akkad and Babylonia. Assyria The Hurrians and the Mitanni Empire 60px|caption File:00%.svg Section 5 - The Neo-Assyrian Empire Assyria believed in military domination of its enemies. The kings of Assyria conquered lands from the Hittites, Egyptians, and Medes, as well as all the minor kingdoms between. They rate negative attention in sources as widely spread as the Bible and Hittite archives for their cruelty and villainy. 60px|caption File:00%.svg Section 6 - The Neo-Babylonian Empire (Chaldea) Insert summary here. 60px|caption <<Return to Ancient History table of contents