Get access risk-free for 30 days, By the time of the conquest by the Roman Empire (116 CE), Mesopotamia was a largely Hellenized region, lacking in any unity, which had forgotten the old gods and the old ways. If this is taken to be the transition from the 4th to the 3rd millennium bce, it must be remembered that this applies only to part of Mesopotamia: the south, the Diyālā region, Susiana (with a later script of its own invented locally), and the district of the middle Euphrates, as well as Iran. What is known of these events fits altogether into the modest proportions of the period when Mesopotamia was a mosaic of small states. In contrast with the arid plateau of Mesopotamia stretched the rich alluvial plain of Chaldea, formed by the deposits of the two great rivers that encircled it. |
The reason was its abundant supply of water, whereas the great plain on the western side had to depend on streams flowing into the Euphrates. While some of the area was like this, some of Mesopotamia was actually a temperate region that was full of life and abundance. [13] [1] In modern times it has been more generally applied to all the lands between the Euphrates and the Tigris,[citation needed] thereby incorporating not only parts of Syria but also almost all of Iraq and southeastern Turkey, and parts of southwestern Iran. The heart of Mesopotamia lies between the two rivers in southern Iraq. [7] [11] Mesopotamia is located in the Fertile Crescent, land in and between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers usually known as modern day Iraq and Eastern Syria. Bertman writes, "Under Sassanian domination, Mesopotamia lay in ruins, its fields dried out or turned into a swampy morass, its once great cities made ghost towns" (58). Excavation in Mesopotamia had moved away from the capital cities to include the "provinces." [17] [17] [11] The specifically political events in Mesopotamia after the flourishing of the archaic culture of Uruk cannot be pinpointed. The Pallacopas, called Pallukkatu in the Neo-Babylonian texts, started from Pallukkatu or Falluja, and running parallel to the western bank of the Euphrates as far as Iddaratu or Teredon, (?) All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. After Cyrus II (d. 530 BCE) took Babylon, the bulk of Mesopotamia became part of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, and this period saw a rapid cultural decline in the region, most notably in the loss of the knowledge of cuneiform script. Along with the improvement of tools, the first evidence for water transport (a model boat from the prehistoric cemetery at Eridu, in the extreme south of Mesopotamia, c. 4000 bce ), and the development of terra-cottas, the most impressive sign of progress is the constantly accelerating advance in architecture. On the islands in the middle of the swamps were pasture for domesticated livestock and arable land for farmers. Whichever kingdom or empire held sway across Mesopotamia, in whatever historical period, the vital role of the gods in the lives of the people remained undiminished. Mesopotamia would soon fall back into its normal patchwork of small states. Modern scholars assume the ability to assess the sum total of an "ancient Mesopotamian civilization"; but, since the publication of an article by the Assyriologist Benno Landsberger on "Die Eigenbegrifflichkeit der babylonischen Welt" (1926; "The Distinctive Conceptuality of the Babylonian World"), it has become almost a commonplace to call attention to the necessity of viewing ancient Mesopotamia and its civilization as an independent entity.