Ancient Civilizations: The Sumerians And The Assyrians

In the ancient eastern civilization, different groups of people occupied the Mesopotamia region, In the following paragraphs, we will learn about the Sumerians, Babylonians and the Assyrians, the documents historians used to uncover the three societies mentioned above that conquered Mesopotamia and the impact the groups had on ancient eastern civilization.

Sumerians occupied upper Mesopotamia from CA. 3000-2350 BCE, the Sumerians are known to have come up with the earliest form of writing known as the cuneiform. The discovery of the tablet that contained the poem of The Epic of Gilgamesh aided historians in determining the method Sumerians used to write texts; cuneiform. Moreover, The Epic of Gilgamesh, “contained by far the most detailed

King Hammurabi transformed Babylon into a powerful city in the lower Mesopotamia region. The code of Hammurabi is a set of laws(documents) that governed the lives of the of the Babylonians, and by reading the codes of Hammurabi historians learn about the different social classes, and gender inequality in the early Babylonian society. Moreover, Babylon was in the Mesopotamia region, the region was vulnerable due to lack of natural defenses, and the fact that Mesopotamia was in the fertile crescent, made it a prime target to its surrounding neighbors, as we will come to find out in the following paragraph.

King Hammurabi viewed himself as “a shepherd, chosen by god Enlil to prevail justice in Babylon” (Brophy, 27-28), therefore, King Hammurabi came up with the codes of Hammurabi. The codes of Hammurabi were a one-sided set of rules that favored the “awilu”-a free man, probably an owner of private land and with a status higher than that of a commoner” (Brophy,

In the text, historians learn that Ashurnasirpal was proud of his victories, and the vicious tactics he used to expand the Assyrian empire. He “constructed a palace, of which he incorporated long cuneiform inscriptions celebrating his conquests and proclaiming his majesty and that of the chief Assyrian god, Ashur” (Brophy, 57). Moreover, Ashurnasirpal II brags about his merciless military conquests, “Against these men, unto whom no-one among the kings my father had come near my warriors flew like birds; 260 of their fighting men I cut down with the sword, I cut off their heads, and I formed them into pillars” (Brophy, 59). The accidental survival of this written source is a proof of evidence for historians on how the Assyrians took control of