✍️ Writing and City Life – Class 11 History Ch-1 Notes
🌍 Meaning of Mesopotamia
- The word Mesopotamia comes from two Greek words: Mesos (middle – मध्य) and Potamos (river – नदी).
- It refers to the fertile land between the Tigris (दजला) and Euphrates (फरात) rivers.
🏙️ Mesopotamia
- Located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, this region is now part of modern Iraq.
- Urban life began here for the first time in history.
- Famous for: prosperity, urban life, rich literature, mathematics, and astronomy (खगोलविद्या).
📜 Sources of Historical Information
- Buildings, sculptures, seals, ornaments, tools, coins, clay tablets, and written records.
🗣️ Language of Mesopotamia
- Sumerian (earliest), followed by Akkadian, and later Aramaic.
- From 1400 BCE, Aramaic (similar to Hebrew – हिब्रू) became widespread and is still spoken in some parts of Iraq.
🗺️ Geographical Location
- Present-day Iraq Republic.
- Southern part: Sumer and Akkad (later called Babylonia).
- Northern part: Known as Assyria after Assyrian conquest.
- Important cities: Uruk, Ur, Mari (from 3000 BCE).
- Steppe grasslands supported pastoralism (पशुपालन) more than farming.
- Tools were made of bronze (कांसा).
- Famous artifact: Warka Head (marble sculpture of a woman).
- Special features: division of labour, social organization, urban economy.
- Rich in food resources but lacked minerals → imported from Turkey, Iran, Gulf regions.
- Transport & trade via rivers, especially Euphrates (called the world trade route).
- Writing developed mainly for accounting and transactions (हिसाब-किताब, लेन-देन).
🌾 Agriculture & Climate
- Tigris and Euphrates rivers brought fine fertile soil during floods and irrigation.
- Farming also done in desert areas using river branches (like canals).
- Crops: Wheat, barley, peas, lentils.
- Southern Mesopotamia → most fertile but less rainfall.
- Steppe region → mainly animal rearing (भेड़-बकरी पालन).
🏛️ Earliest Cities
- Cities started around 3000 BCE (Uruk, Ur, Mari).
- Ur city: Narrow lanes, poor drainage, superstitious beliefs in construction.
- Mari city (2000 BCE): Became royal capital, very prosperous due to trade. Remains include Zimrilim’s palace and temples.
✍️ Writing System
- First clay tablets found from 3200 BCE.
- Used cuneiform (कीलाकार लिपि) written with reed stylus on wet clay.
- Tablets dried in the sun.
🔑 Features of Writing
- Signs were used for sounds (ध्वनि), not just single letters.
- Hundreds of signs → scribes had to memorize them.
- Writing done on wet clay tablets.
- Only skilled scribes could write.
- It gave a visual form to sounds of language.
🪧 Cuneiform Script
- Word comes from Latin “Cuneus” (wedge – कील) + “Forma” (shape – आकार).
⏳ Time Measurement & Mathematics
- Greatest contribution of Mesopotamia.
- People knew multiplication, division, square root, compound interest (चक्रवृद्धि ब्याज).
- Time division:
- 1 Year = 12 Months
- 1 Month = 4 Weeks
- 1 Day = 24 Hours
- 1 Hour = 60 Minutes
🏙️ Types of Mesopotamian Cities
- Cities developed around temples (मंदिर).
- Cities developed as trade centres (व्यापार केन्द्र).
- Royal cities (शाही नगर).
🏗️ Urbanization / Settlement of Cities
- Cities were not just residential places, but centres of economic activities (आर्थिक गतिविधियाँ).
- When food production increased and surplus (अधिशेष) was available, other economic activities developed → leading to town settlements.
- Urban economy included: trade, production, and services (सेवाएँ).
- Cities were not self-sufficient; people depended on each other for goods and services.
- Thus, village and urban life were interconnected.
🌆 Features of Urban Life
- Division of labour (श्रम-विभाजन).
- Interdependence among people through exchange (लेन-देन).
- Manufacturers needed fuel, metals, stones, wood → brought from distant places.
📦 Transport of Goods in Cities
- Despite rich food resources, Mesopotamia lacked minerals (खनिज संसाधन).
- South Mesopotamia faced shortage of stones, metals, and quality wood.
- They imported: wood, copper (ताँबा), tin (राँगा), silver (चाँदी), gold (सोना), shells (सीपी), and stones from Turkey, Iran, and Gulf countries.
- In exchange, they exported cloth and agricultural products.
🚤 Transport System
- Waterways (जलमार्ग) were the cheapest and easiest means of transport.
- Rivers were the main routes for trade and communication.
🏛️ Temples of Mesopotamia
- Early temples were simple houses; difference was in their outer walls (दीवारें) that bent inwards and outwards at intervals.
- Main deities: Ur (Moon God – चंद्र देवता) and Inanna (Goddess of Love & War – प्रेम एवं युद्ध की देवी).
- Built with mud bricks (कच्ची ईंटें).
- Over time, temples became larger, with open courtyards and surrounding rooms.
- Temple = house of the deity (देवता का घर).
🙏 Worship of Deities
- Temples were the centre of religious life.
- People offered grain, curd (दही), fish to deities.
- The deity was considered the owner of fields, fisheries, and cattle (पशुधन).
- Near temples, surplus produce was converted into finished goods:
- Oil extraction (तेल निकालना)
- Grinding grains (अनाज पीसना)
- Spinning & weaving woolen clothes (ऊन कातना व बुनना)
👑 Rulers of Mesopotamia
- Time division developed here was later adopted by Alexander’s successors, then spread to Rome, Islamic world, and Medieval Europe.
- Gilgamesh (गिल्गेमिश) – Ruler of Uruk, a great warrior, expanded his kingdom widely.
- Ashurbanipal (असुर बनिपाल) – Assyrian king who collected clay tablets from Babylonia and set up a library at Nineveh.
- Nabopolassar (नैबोपोलास्सर) – Freed Babylonia from Assyrian rule in 625 BCE.
- Babylon remained a major city until defeated by Alexander in 331 BCE.
- Nabonidus (नैबोनिडस) – Last ruler of independent Babylon.
✨ Summary:
Mesopotamian cities were of three types (temple-based, trade centres, royal cities). They were centres of urban economy, trade, transport, temples, and rulers’ power. Temples played both religious and economic roles, while rulers like Gilgamesh and Nabopolassar made Mesopotamia politically strong.
