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Review Questions for Mesopotamia
NOTE: Be efficient in your responses – in most cases you don’t have to write lengthy answers, just very focused ones. Lists are okay in some cases. Be sure to draw on the text, lectures and video.
1.Describe the environment adjacent to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
2.When were the first agricultural villages established in the northern fringes of the floodplain? What do we learn about trade and social complexity from Hassuna, Tell as-Sawwan (a Samarran site) and Halaf? When does Halafian pottery appear? What does its distribution suggest?
3. Why wasn’t the southern floodplain occupied by farmers as early as the northern region? When is it settled? What is ‘Ubaid? When did it occur? What had to happen before it could occur?
4.Where and when was Eridu established? Describe what happened there. What was the early temple like? What functions did it serve? What was significant about the T-shaped structure at the earlier site of Tell as-Sawwan? What were the tholoi? What is the significance of the temple institution in Mesopotamia?
5.Discuss ideas on the POSSIBLE relationships between irrigation and the temple institution.
6.What had developed in southern Mesopotamia by 4500 BC? Characterize ‘Ubaid at this time.
7.Review the page in your text devoted to temples. What are ziggurats? What was their symbolic value to the ancient Mesopotamians? What was involved in building a new temple? Where was it typically located in relation to the previous temple? What did temple administrators do?
8.When did the Uruk period occur? The Early Dynastic period? What major developments occurred in each of these periods? Describe Uruk. Describe the Anu Ziggurat and White Temple. How do they mark a transition in Mesopotamian society?
9.Discuss the economic specialization of the 4th millennium B.C. What was the significance of the beveled-rim bowls made during this time period? What sort of trade can be documented for this period?
10.What were the major innovations, technological and otherwise, of the 4th millennium B.C.? When did they first appear?
11.What changes occurred in the Early Dynastic period? How many people may have resided in Uruk at its peak?
12.Prepare an outline that shows the development of early writing systems, beginning with the tokens and running through the development of cuneiform. As always, be sure you know the meaning of all terms in the text in bold print. What is the significance of Gilgamesh?
13. Carefully study the systems model for the development of civilization that was handed out in class – be familiar with the various positive and negative feedback loops and be able to explain their significance. Start with the three positive-feedback processes associated with the establishment of agricultural communities along the rivers. This exercise is a good one for testing your understanding of how civilizations develop.
14.Be familiar with the primary and secondary traits of civilizations (on the first page of the lecture notes). Why are some considered primary and others secondary?
15. A key to the development of civilization in Mesopotamia was high agricultural productivity. Written records on clay tablets provide data on just how productive it was. What do they tell us about yield ratios for grain?