Two thousand years ago ancient civilizations such as the roman empire in

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two thousand years ago ancient civilizations such as the roman empire in
the west and the han dynasty in the east had risen to prominence in the
modern middle east the parthian empire ruled ancient persia and the
surrounding regions from their main capital and test fun
these cultures are known to was as being almost unfathomably ancient
but what was ancient to them
six thousand years ago four thousand years before august is created the
roman empire one of the first true urban settlements and managed in the
ancient region of summer
it's people's accomplishments sowed the seeds for civilization to spread
first to the ancient near east and then the entire world welcome to our
series on the ancient near east beginning with the period from iraq to a
cat
beginning in the aftermath of the last ice age ten thousand years ago the
human population of mesopotamia and several other regions gradually
began to adopt a more settled mode of living
this was a lifestyle which contrast it with the early a ways in which
humans had survived most commonly by functioning as hunter gatherers
they would begin to cultivate modify plant and harvest crops in the earliest
forms of agriculture and herd animals
many humans gradually began to live in this manner in small village
communities while others retained their primal hunter gatherer lifestyle
however over the thousands of years following be glacial retreat
agricultural lifestyles increased in popularity in ancient mesopotamia the
increased surpluses of food generated by agricultural production would
soon leads to the blossoming of civilizations first seats
at this point it is important to detail the unique geographical and
environmental state of mesopotamia and to understand how this affected
the development of civilization that
the name itself literally means land between rivers specifically the tigris
and euphrates
the latter of these watercourses was given the name puranam by the

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native americans a word meaning great rushing flood a phenomenon
which would define the relationship of the native people with their gods
and land
consequently many prominent mesopotamian deities such as and do the
chief go into the pantheon were related to wind and storms the faithful
have some i would seek to appease the gods to stave off the common
devastating and inexplicably flash floods which struck the region may
worse by the flat nature of the tigris euphrates plane
for instance on one occasion in some marion myth and little destroyed all
of humanity with a flood simply because they were too noisy showing the
arbitrary and often capricious nature of the mesopotamian gods
early village settlements in the land between rivers required most or all of
the population to be engaged in the production of food
this was known as the obeyed period which lasted from around six
thousand five hundred to three thousand eight hundred b c of which era
do is a prominent settlement however the increasing food surplus allowed
the maintenance of full time specialized workers who were not engaged in
agriculture such as much
trump's weavers metallurgist and craftsman
it is worth noting that the taxation and redistribution of food supplies led to
the formation of governments
the first true city of the mesopotamian area is disputed but most historians
believe that it was the famous urban center at iraq who's urban way of life
was indisputably superior to all of it's surrounding contemporaries huge
buildings were present as well as social hierarchy high officials and
temple sponsored craft workshops
this early city developed a stratified society and was initially not ruled by a
king as we know them but as a high priest of the temples
there were two of these temple complex as a newark the yana district and
the older and district
this protein kings power was derived from his leading role in the temple
itself representing the various gods and goddesses of summer

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just below the priest king in status where the keepers scribes priests and
administrators who's activities were meant to ensure the communities
organization and cohesion
at the bottom of the hierarchy worthy produces such as farmers and
fishermen
the very first systems of writing also developed in this period possibly as a
memory aid for the recording of tributes taxes and distributions of surplus
food and were mainly based on simple symbols rather than representing
a spoken language
from three thousand five hundred bc onwards the influence of iraq over
the surrounding areas became increasingly clear to see
the buildings of the ascendant city and it's iconic and pioneering mass
produce pottery and tools also found themselves in settlements all across
the near east from syria to iran such as sousa
the people who brought them probably settled in existing towns with
existing populations made colonies of their own on unoccupied land or
even invaded other settlements violently from their dominant position in
iraq
the latter phenomenon occurred at tell have a car were native architecture
was burned and destroyed followed by the construction of buildings in the
iraq styles the earliest noted occurrence of organized warfare
the pseudo colonial effort may have been attempted in order to obtain
resources which were not present in resource poor mesopotamia such as
would obsidian stone or metals rather than it being a conscious effort to
forge an empire
a testing to the far reaching nature of a civilization at this time it is also
thought that they had a presence in egypt as well who's to i was in the pre
dynastic period began to be constructed in the iraq nice and buttress style
however around the year two thousand nine hundred b c it seems that the
iraq colonies such as have bouba kabira abruptly disappear from outside
southern mesopotamia
meanwhile iraq itself appears to have been raised in some devastating

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event and gradually lost his hedge your monique status
we do not know exactly what happened to end the iraq period with it could
have been that those colonized individuals rebelled against iraq or a civil
war occurred between different factions in the city
over the centuries following the decline of iraq a number of the marion city
states emerged and grew in size
this created a political map which would have appeared similar to ancient
greece and it's network of city states
the city states mostly consisted of an urban center and a hinterland
consisting of various villages
examples of such city states included look gosh oh my
nick her every do lhasa and iraq itself which retained its power but not it's
hegemony
in the centuries from two thousand nine hundred to around two thousand
three hundred and fifty b c known as the early to gnostic period the
population of summer grew dramatically possibly to immigration from
other regions or increasing agricultural productivity
this strange the resources of the various city states and necessitated
territorial expansion leading to continuous into city conflicts over border
regions the military leaders during these small scale wars were often
elected by a popular assembly in a form of primitive democracy though
this
soon unraveled into a dynastic system
these military leaders are said to have been the first kings or new girls
literally great men also in this period another dominant structure emerged
to rival the temple the palace house of kings
the iconic gilgamesh is thought to have been a historical king of iraq in the
early dynastic period possibly raining around two thousand eight hundred
to two thousand five hundred b c though the tail also could have been
based on a mythical figure
we have a documented account of one of the many border conflicts over
a one hundred and fifty year period from two thousand and five hundred

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to two thousand three hundred and fifty b c
the kings of like gosh wealthy on account of their prosperous agriculture
and position on a trade route to sousa wrote their accounts of a
continuous border conflict with than west neighbor the city of omagh
owing to the prominence of agriculture in the economies of ancient
mesopotamia these two rival city states engaged in a conflict over the
region of good ghana which was rich in fields and pasturelands
one victorious king and not tim of like gosh betrayed trade himself as a
champion of his respective local god
ning good to have like ash and shadow of obama were depicted as the
launch of the conflict using the kings of the various cities as their deputies
interesting to note that this initial borderlands between obama and the
cash was reportedly drawn by and lil of nipper the supreme god and this
again indicates his prominence in mesopotamian religion
due to the amount of victory inscriptions by the kings of the gosh during
this period it can be inferred that they were dominant
while the temple had largely lost it's political dominance over some and
city states to the king's at this point the economic and ideological position
of the temple remained strong they were a total institution comprising
spaces dedicated to the gods only accessible by high priests leo
officials courtyards for camino gatherings storehouses for the
accumulation and distribution of food surpluses archives and workshops
another example of the ideological dominance of religion is that while the
king would lead the military action the outcome would be credited to and
determined
by the will of the city god the concept of city gods is worth further
discussion
during this time of relative equilibrium between the many city states have
lower mesopotamia each political entity how was one of the sumerian
gods for instance a was the home of nana god of the moon and wisdom
while iraq housed in anna goddess of war and fertility
most prominent was the long lasting city of nipper which sat on the border

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between summer and a cat to the north
it's patron god was and live considered as the supreme god of the
mesopotamian pantheon
many perspective kings of cities such as a containing less oh gods
commonly sorts the recognition of nipper due to it's prominent religious
position
the period of labyrinthine diplomatic and military relations between the
many some marion city states gradually began to give way to additional
centralization in the region by the late third millennium bc
why this happened is not known but it is possible that the rule is in this
period had heard of the now unified old kingdom of egypt which ruled the
entirety of the nile river valley and built the famous pyramids and wished
to emulate that power and wealth
for a century and a half whom i had been humbled by their more powerful
neighbor of lukasz but this was soon to change a dynamic new ruler look
out and guess he ascended to the kingship in omagh and began to
expand his realm hungering for revenge against the gosh
he first conquered the prominent cities of and iraq before defeating his
rival sacking the city and plundering it's temples of rich goods
having established is territorial kingdom by two thousand and three
hundred and fifty b c look elsa guess he moved his capital to the
prestigious city of iraq as that blushing be third dynasty of that city
however his new kingdom would not last for long and soon a figure from
the north of summer would create the first true empire in history
ah series on the history of mesopotamian civilizations will continue so
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