Ancient Mesopotamia Script
By Ms. Holmes, Mrs. Ross & Mr. Ingraham
Opening Statement:
Bailiff : “All rise for the honorable Judge ______.”
Judge ______“ Please be seated. The court is now in session.”
Lawyer______“Good morning ladies & gentlemen of the jury. (My partner and) I will prove to you today that ancient Mesopotamia was truly a civilization. (We) I plan to show you evidence from all four components, (we) I will show you evidence from ancient Mesopotamia’s government system, learning system, religious beliefs, and method of writing. By the end of (our) my court case today, you will feel like you were a part of this great civilization. You will know and believe that Mesopotamia was a true civilization.
Lawyer ______”Let us begin with the Writing of the ancient Mesopotamians, for my first witness let me call Queen Amytise to the stand.”
Judge ______“Queen Amytise, please take the stand.”
Bailiff ______“Do you promise to speak the truth, the whole truth before all the gods of the universe”.
Witness ______“I do.”
Lawyer ______“Good Morning, your highness.”
Witness ______“And good morning to you, too!”
Lawyer ______“Could you tell a little about yourself to the court.
Witness ______“My husband Nebuchadnezzar II. He is king and I am his wife.”
Lawyer ______“I see, well today we subpoenaed you to discuss the writing of ancient Mesopotamia can you read and write?”
Witness ______“By all the gods, no. Neither can my husband. In Ancient Mesopotamia only the scribes are trained to read and write.”
Lawyer ______“Who are these scribes then? Are they nobles?”
Witness ______“No, but they are important members of Babylonian society. They belong to the middle class and they record laws, and business transactions, and some are writing the story of my husband’s, the king, and even poems.”
Lawyer ______“How do they record all this information?”
Witness ______“They use a wedge shaped stylus and write on clay tablets. However, some carve on stone.”
Lawyer ______“Please carefully examine this Exhibit “A” ( Cuneiform writing) is this the writing of Mesopotamia to which you refer?”
Witness ______“Yes, that’s it.”
Lawyer ______“Please explain to the jury what it looks like?”
Witness ______“The impressions look like designs made of little triangles and so it is called cuneiform.”
Lawyer ______“Your Honor, I would like this entered into the record as Cuneiform writing.” Other picture exhibits should be presented at this time.
Judge ______“Bailiff would you please admit this as Exhibit A”
Lawyer ______“Thank you, Queen Amytise. Your Honor at this time I have no further questions of this witness.
Judge ______“You may step down.”
Lawyer ______“Now I would like to discuss the Government or leadership in ancient Mesopotamia. For my second witness I would like to call another Akkadian ruler King Sargon.”
Judge ______“King Sargon you may take the stand.”
Bailiff ______“Do you promise to speak the truth, the whole truth before all the gods of the universe”.
Witness ______“I do.”
Lawyer ______“What is your name?”
Witness ______“King Sargon.”
Lawyer ______Where are you from?
Witness ______“The city-state of Akkad.”
Lawyer ______“That is very interesting, please tell the court what a city-state is.”
Witness ______“A city-state is a city or village and the farmlands around it ruled by its own government leader “
Lawyer ______“And you are the king of a city-state?”
Witness ______“Yes, I am the ruler of Akkad and Akkad conquered the other 12 city-states between the Tigris & Euphrates rivers an area known as Mesopotamia.”
Lawyer ______“What are your other accomplishments as ruler in Mesopotamia?”
Witness ______“Well I King Sargon I united the 12 city-states and stopped them warring among themselves.”
Lawyer ______“Great, did you do anything else?”
Witness ______“Yes I promoted trade and the building of more dikes and canals to improve the life’s of the people in each city-state. To support all this I set up a system of taxation where everyone supports their government’s projects on their behalf by paying taxes in crops or other goods so that the burden of these improvements is shared among many.”
Lawyer______“Now King Sargon may I direct your attention to this Exhibit “B” (The Ziggurat) and ask you to explain to the court what you see.”
Witness ______“Certainly, it look like a representation of one of the public buildings in Mesopotamia. I think its from the city-state of Ur.”
Lawyer ______“That must have taken years to construct to build? Do you mind telling the court what is it made of?”
Witness ______“Certainly in Mesopotamia there is little stone everything city walls, palaces, temples, and housing are built of sun-dried bricks. The bricks are easily made of river mud, but as the king I had to use my authority to order that sun-dried bricks were made for a construction project and again order the workers to construct it.”
Lawyer ______“Where would we find a building like this.”
Witness ______“It is a representation of a temple. Some were seven stories high and each higher level is smaller than the one below it. We call them ziggurats and they would be located in the center of the city-state.” The other picture exhibits demonstrating leadership would be shown & explained at this time.
Judge ______“Bailiff would you please admit this as Exhibit B”
Lawyer ______“Your honor I have no further questions for this witness”
Judge ______”You may step down.”
Lawyer ______“Now for my witness on Mesopotamian Religion I would like to call King Hammurabi”
Judge ______” King Hammurabi would you please take the stand.”
Bailiff ______“Do you promise to speak the truth, the whole truth before all the gods of the universe”.
Witness ______“I do.”
Lawyer ______“Now King Hammurabi, as king of Babylon you must be very familiar with the Religion of the Mesopotamian city-states.”
Witness ______“Why yes I am.”
Lawyer ______“Can you tell us a little about the beliefs of the people of Mesopotamia.”
Witness ______“Certainly, my people are very religious and worship many gods, I think you call that polytheism. If fact each city-state has a huge temple called a ziggurat with is dedicated to their special god. We have already discussed them, but on the top is the altar to the chief god of the city-state.”
Lawyer ______“Very interesting, could you explain more about the gods of Mesopotamia?”
Witness ______“Well there are many. You see we worship the gods of nature we have Enlil, the god of winds, storm, and rain all important things to our many farmers in the lower classes and Ea, the god of the waters and wisdom which is certainly important to our scribes, the nobles, and me.”
Lawyer ______“Do you have a personal favorite god?”
Witness ______“Yes, the god who is most special to me is Shamash, the sun god.”
Lawyer ______“May I ask why?”
Witness ______“Shamash gave me the authority to write down the laws for the people of Mesopotamia.”
Lawyer ______“Would you please examine this. Exhibit “C”(stone stela image). Could you please explain what it shows?”
Witness ______“Why this is from a boundary marker. There were many like it in Mesopotamia. The Image shows me receiving permission to write laws. It took 282 to cover every aspect of life. They deal with family, trade, and work and provide equal justice and fair treatment within each social class. Perhaps you have heard of them they are called the Code of Hammurabi and I am most proud of them.”
Lawyer ______“Are they the famous ‘Eye for an Eye Laws’?”
Witness ______“Exactly and they are most fair because if you should cause an injury to someone you will be given the same injury.”
Lawyer ______“I see, what about accidents?”
Witness ______“Accidents? What are they?”
Lawyer ______“Never mind. Other exhibits concerning religion should be presented at this time.
Judge ______“Bailiff would you please admit this as Exhibit C”
Lawyer ______Wonderful! Your Honor, I’m finished here!
Judge ______” King Hammurabi you may step down from the witness stand.”
Lawyer ______“Your Honor if I may I would like to call Queen Kayah to the stand to discuss the learning and knowledge that the ancient peoples of Mesopotamia may have processed.
Judge ______Queen Kayah you may take the stand.
Bailiff ______“Do you promise to speak the truth, the whole truth before all the gods of the universe”.
Witness ______“I do.”
Lawyer ______“Queen Kayah we have already introduced boundary markers to the court could you explain why they were needed and what were these stone markers used for?”
Witness ______“The land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers is very flat in fact it is so flat that is called a flood plain, because these two rivers over flow their banks each spring. The area has not natural boundaries so we mark of land in iqus or acres.”
Lawyer ______“And you Mesopotamians came up with this system of land measurement.”
Witness ______“Oh we invented more than that. We invented another system of measurement called the quart. We invented ships with sails so that boats could move up river against the current. That made transporting trade goods easier on the rivers. For traveling over land we invented the wheel and the wheeled cart.”
Lawyer ______“I see is this an example of a wheeled card?” (Exhibit “D” horse & cart)
Witness ______“Yes, and you can see by using an oxen, donkey, or horse heavy items can be easily moved from place to place.” Other picture exhibits of Innovation/ invention should be shown at this time.
Judge ______“Bailiff would you please admit this as Exhibit D”
Lawyer ______“Thank you Queen Kayah. I have no further questions.
Judge ______“You may step down.”
Closing Statement:
Lawyer ______“Your honor, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, this concludes our case for Mesopotamia. Thank you for listening and we hope you learned a lot from our presentation. Now please direct your attention to our powerpoint, which will sum up for you the examples of Mesopotamia’s writing, government, religious beliefs, and their extensive knowledge or learning. We know that you, the jury and judge, now must realize beyond a shadow of a doubt that ancient Mesopotamia was truly a civilization.”
Judge ______Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you are to decide if the advanced society of Mesopotamia is truly a civilization. You must weigh the facts as presented and render your judgement of the lawyers case.
After Discussion
Judge ______“Has the jury reached a decision”
Answer all: “Yes”
Judge ______“What is your decision”
Answer all: “Mesopotamia (is/is not) a civilization
Judge ______“Case dismissed.”