Group 2 HISTCIV A51 June 20, 2018

Mesopotamia: Return to Eden

The three main ideas or topics seen throughout the documentary ​Mesopotamia: Return to

Eden were divided by the civilizations who were world leaders during that time, namely

Babylon, Assyria, and Sumer.

Babylon

During the year 586 BC the armies of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, led an attack on

Jerusalem that raided homes and burned King Solomon’s temple. More than 10,000 Israelites

were led across 500 miles of desert in chains into the city of Babylon.

While the walls of Babylon now have “Saddam Hussein” on it, it used to be stamped with

“King Nebuchadnezzar”. Babylon was a melting pot of different peoples and races, and a land of

gods and idols – and amidst these the people of Israelites became desperate to represent and

preserve their Jewish identity. And although the they came to Babylon in chains, the Babylonians

were lenient and allowed them to practice their customs and religion freely. Out of these

circumstance, the Hebrew scribes decided to write down their customs, traditions, and history

within their captivity; and thus, the first Bible was written.

The Bible would reflect stories from Babylon and even the Mesopotamian civilization.

Stories about the Tower of Babble, the people, the city were reflected and found in the Bible.

One Babylonian innovation that changed civilization was the rule of law as they were the first

civilization to have a legal code in a carved stone.

Assyria

Before Babylon, Assyria, called “The Land Bathed in Blood”, existed as an earlier

civilization in the 7th century BCE, where details about this civilization are only a handful. The
Assyrian society is known to be patriarchal where women and ordinary people had low ranking

positions. Known for their ferocity in battle, they were known to besiege and war against many,

with kings known to be merciless warriors who show their power by taking cities, stacking up

the heads of the leading citizens outside the gate, or by taking the kings of the city and flaying

them alive or nailing them to walls.

Despite being one of the greatest civilizations of its time, not much was discovered until

Austen Henry Layard found the royal palace of Nineveh in Iraq in 1852. Out of this giant

discovery, Layard found the great library of Nineveh, which held 22,000 clay tablets that were

written the Assyrian’s cuneiform writing where Assyrian life and practices were learned.

Sumer

Sumer was the earliest civilization among the three. The Epic of Gilgamesh was

unearthed in the ruins of Sumer, which predates any story mentioned in the Bible as it was told

over 5000 years ago. The epic is very similar to the story of Noah’s Ark.

Here in Sumer, the government, the wheel, and gardening were created, thus making the

Sumerian Civilization the first civilizations. The Sumerians, used mud bricks to build shelter

then to make temples called Ziggurats. The 60 second minute was introduced in Sumer and also

the stereotype of the troubled teenager. Among all these inventions and stories, the greatest thing

that the Sumerians did for mankind was, Writing, which was etched in clay.

What makes the Sumerians such a great civilization is because the things that they have

introduced are still being used today and those things made mankind to the way it is now. They

showed us on how a great civilization lives and what they have passed on to us will surely stay in

the minds of mankind for eternity.