The Ancient Near East: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Phoenicia, Israel 9The Sumerians, Akkad, Babylonia, and Assyria
Even with written records, political relations between
the Sumerian city-states are difficult to reconstruct. As
populations increased, struggles over boundaries and
trading rights grew more violent, and by 2300 B.C.
inter-city conflicts engulfed all of Mesopotamia. At
times, a king would claim to rule over more than one
city or over Sumer as a whole. There may therefore
have been no Sumerian Empire, or if there was, its exis-
tence could have been brief. According to his inscrip-
tions, Lugalzaggeszi of Umma (c. 2375 B.C.) achieved
control over the entire region only to have it taken
from him by a non-Sumerian, Sargon of Akkad (reigned
c. 2350–2300 B.C.).
The Akkadian triumph marked the beginning of a
new imperial age. The unification of southern and cen-
tral Mesopotamia provided Sargon with the means to
conquer the north together with Syria. Though Akka-
dian rule was brief, it transmitted elements of
Mesopotamian culture throughout the Middle East, and
Akkadian, a Semitic language, became standard
throughout the Tigris and Euphrates valleys. But the
brevity of Sargon’s triumph set a pattern for the politi-
cal future. For a millennium and a half, the rulers of dif-
ferent regions in succession achieved hegemony over
all or part of Mesopotamia. This was normally achieved
by force combined with the careful manipulation of al-
liances and ended when the ruling dynasty fell prey ei-
ther to the divisive forces that had created it or to
invasions by people from the surrounding highlands.
Throughout its history, Mesopotamia’s wealth and
lack of natural defenses made it a tempting prize for
conquerors.
After the overthrow of Sargon’s descendents by a
desert people known as the Guti and a brief revival of
Sumerian power under the Third Dynasty of Ur, Baby-
lon became the chief political and cultural center of the
region. Under Hammurabi (ruled c. 1792–1750 B.C.)
the Babylonians achieved hegemony over all of
Mesopotamia, but a series of invasions after 1600 B.C.
led to a long period of political disorder. The invaders,
the most important of whom were Hittites, an Indo-
European people from central Asia Minor. Their
influence was otherwise impermanent, but a rivalry
soon developed between Babylon and Assyria, a king-
dom in the northern part of the valley centered first on
the city of Ashur and later on Nineveh.
The Assyrians, a fierce people who spoke a dialect
of Akkadian, may have been the first people to coordi-
nate the use of cavalry, infantry, and missile weapons.
Not only were their armies well organized, but their
grasp of logistics also appears to have surpassed that of
other ancient empires. Though in other respects a
highly civilized people whose literary and artistic
achievements continued the traditions of Sumer and
Babylon, they waged psychological warfare by cultivat-
ing a reputation for horrific cruelty. They eventually
defeated the Babylonians and after 933 restored the
achievements of Sargon by establishing an empire that
stretched from Egypt to Persia. In spite of these violent
political alterations, Mesopotamia remained culturally
homogeneous for nearly three thousand years.Mesopotamian Culture, Law, and Religion
Though capitals and dynasties rose and fell, the land
between the rivers remained captive to the annual
floods and to the consequent need for cooperation, su-
perlative engineering, and frequent redistribution of
land. The Mesopotamians’ highest intellectual achieve-
ments were therefore practical rather than speculative.
The development of writing is a prime example of their
talents. The Mesopotamians were also the first great
mathematicians. Using a numerical system based on
sixty instead of the modern ten, they produced refer-
ence tables for multiplication, division, square roots,
cube roots, and other functions. Their greatest achieve-
ment, however, was the place-value system of notation
in which the value of each digit is determined by its po-
sition after the base instead of by a separate name. This
makes describing large numbers possible and is the ba-
sis of all modern numeral systems.
The Babylonians also created one of the first com-
prehensive legal codes. Named after Hammurabi, it is
almost certainly a compendium of existing laws rather
than new legislation and reflects a legal tradition that
had been developing for centuries. Its basic principles
were retribution in kind and the sanctity of contracts.
In criminal cases this meant literally “an eye for an
eye, a tooth for a tooth,” if the social status of the par-
ties was equal. If not, a defendant of higher status
could usually escape by paying a fine. Blood feuds,
private retribution, and other features of tribal law
were, however, forbidden. This same sense of retribu-
tive justice extended to the punishment of fraud and
negligence. A builder whose house collapsed and
killed its occupants could be executed; tavern keepers
who watered their drinks were drowned. Craftsmen
were required to replace poor workmanship at their
own expense, and farmers who failed to keep their
ditches and levees in good repair were sold into slav-
ery if they could not compensate the victims of their