Ancient Mesopotamia | Early Civilizations | World History | Khan Academy

Aug 9, 2023

Ancient Mesopotamia | Early Civilizations | World History | Khan Academy

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Why is Mesopotamia considered the “cradle of civilization”? Sal explains the history of the early empires on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

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Content

0.16 -> in other videos we talk about how 10 to

2.639 -> 15 000 years ago you have the emergence

6.08 -> of agriculture

8 -> primarily around river valleys and it's

11.04 -> no surprise that agriculture first came

13.2 -> about around river valleys because the

15.519 -> rivers would flood making the soil the

18.24 -> soil around them fertile they would

20.16 -> provide fresh water for crops and for

22.72 -> the people who would live near them

24.48 -> later on the rivers could be useful for

26.64 -> transporting things like crops and so

29.679 -> it's not surprising that our first

31.76 -> significant civilizations also emerged

34.96 -> where the first agriculture emerged and

37.28 -> our first civilizations we'll see in

39.2 -> ancient egypt along the nile we will see

42 -> it in the indus valley along the indus

44.719 -> river we'll see it in china along the

47.76 -> yellow and yangtze rivers and we'll also

50.399 -> see it in mesopotamia along the tigris

54.16 -> and euphrates rivers and what we're

56.8 -> going to focus on in this video in

58.8 -> particular is mesopotamia

61.92 -> now the word mesopotamia literally comes

65.119 -> from mesos between and patamos i'm

68.159 -> probably not pronouncing it right rivers

70.479 -> so the area between rivers is literally

73.28 -> what mesopotamia is referring to and

75.68 -> it's may it's primarily modern day iraq

79.28 -> now the reason why this is particularly

81.119 -> interesting and it's called the cradle

82.88 -> of civilization

84.64 -> is not only is it one of or perhaps the

87.28 -> first place that agriculture developed

89.92 -> it was at the the crossroads of many

92.4 -> other early civilizations notice it's

94.4 -> right in between the indus valley

96.159 -> civilization here the and then the

98.32 -> ancient egyptians and other

100 -> civilizations that were emerging in the

102 -> area and so it's not surprising that

103.92 -> this was a a

105.84 -> a geography that had significant

107.6 -> developments in terms of technology in

109.52 -> terms of architecture in terms of

111.439 -> religion in terms of writing

115.04 -> and the first civilization we believe

117.6 -> that emerged in mesopotamia are the

120.079 -> sumerians

121.84 -> sumerians

124.399 -> and sumer and sumerians it's most

126.96 -> associated with this region right over

129.36 -> here of let me circle it

132.64 -> this region right over here of southern

135.68 -> mesopotamia and we currently think that

138.319 -> this civilization started to emerge

140.16 -> around 4000 bce you can see it on this

143.04 -> timeline here in orange

145.92 -> and they developed things as basic as

149.12 -> the wheel the first wheel that was ever

151.04 -> discovered was 3500 bce in sumeria they

155.68 -> are famous for their architectural

157.2 -> structures this is a picture here of a

158.959 -> ziggurat which was at the center of many

161.36 -> of the sumerian and as we'll see

162.879 -> mesopotamian cities this would have

165.2 -> required an incredible amount of labor

167.36 -> to produce and at the top of these they

168.72 -> had temples to their gods and their gods

171.36 -> it was a pilot they had a polytheistic

173.76 -> religion and their gods took human form

178.64 -> also in in amongst the sumerians is

181.76 -> where we think one of the first

183.76 -> written languages developed it wasn't

185.44 -> the first you also have the egyptian

186.8 -> hieroglyphics and we think written and

188.4 -> written language emerged amongst the

190.64 -> harappans and the indus valley

192.239 -> civilization and amongst the chinese but

194.48 -> it was one of the first languages this

196.239 -> right over here is an example of a

198.64 -> cuneiform tablet

200.56 -> this is a cuneiform tablet

202.8 -> written in the script

204.44 -> cuneiform developed by these ancient

208 -> sumerians

209.599 -> now when you talk about mesopotamia

211.92 -> you'll talk about sumerians but we'll

213.12 -> also talk about other civilizations that

215.519 -> emerge in particular let me write them

217.599 -> all down you have the sumerians

219.44 -> you'll also hear something called

220.879 -> acadian and as we'll see acadian is both

224.72 -> a language and an empire that will

227.519 -> emerge in mesopotamia over the the

231.68 -> roughly 3000 years bce

235.36 -> the two primary primary languages are

238 -> acadian which is considered a semitic

241.04 -> language it's related to modern semitic

243.519 -> languages like arabic and hebrew and the

246.64 -> reason why they're called semitic is

248.239 -> because they're spoken or they're

249.68 -> purported to be spoken by the

250.959 -> descendants of shem who was noah's son

254.48 -> in the hebrew bible so you have the

256.799 -> language acadian which is semitic and

259.199 -> then you have the other language which

260.56 -> is sumerian and as we get into the third

264.639 -> millennium bce the sumerians start to

268 -> have a lot of interaction with

269.84 -> acadian-speaking people and

271.68 -> acadian-speaking people are initially

273.44 -> associated primarily with northern

276 -> mesopotamia

277.44 -> and we believe the first empire true

280.88 -> empire perhaps the first empire in the

283.04 -> world emerged from acadia and it was

286 -> called the acadian empire and if we

288.8 -> scroll

290.88 -> down over here

292.72 -> we can see how the the acadian empire

295.759 -> spread we believe that the town of akkad

298.88 -> which the acadian empire is named for

300.72 -> some place in this region right over

302.639 -> here and the first significant ruler who

304.8 -> really spread that empire was sargon

307.44 -> often referred to as sargon the great

310.96 -> and you can see

312.8 -> you can see that that would have been

314.639 -> established around the middle of the

317.12 -> 23rd or actually the 24th century bce so

321.6 -> around 2350 you have sargon establishing

324.639 -> what might be the first dynastic empire

326.88 -> in the world the acadian empire and he

328.96 -> was able to take control of both

331.36 -> northern and southern mesopotamia so

333.6 -> even the sumerians

335.36 -> were under the control of the acadians

337.36 -> and as we'll see over time you have a

339.44 -> lot of mixing between the acadian

341.199 -> language the sumerian language acadian

343.44 -> gets written in the cuneiform script and

346.32 -> starting it around this period sumerian

348.32 -> starts to die as a spoken language and

350.08 -> acadian really becomes dominant

353.039 -> now the acadian's rule for a little over

356.08 -> a hundred years

358.08 -> and then you have several other empires

359.759 -> it can get confusing the way i've

361.36 -> structured this timeline is this top

363.36 -> line right over here is southern

364.84 -> mesopotamia and this bottom line right

367.039 -> over here is northern mesopotamia so

369.28 -> this orange shows you where the

370.56 -> sumerians were raining some people think

372.8 -> that they might have been the first

374 -> empire this bottom line here you can see

376 -> the acadian speakers but they were

377.36 -> fragmented until you have sargon the

380.08 -> great establishing the acadian empire

382.639 -> now you briefly you briefly then have a

385.52 -> short-term

386.919 -> neo-sumerian empire but the next

389.36 -> significant empire that's often talked

391.44 -> about when associated with mesopotamia

394.24 -> is the babylonian empire so babylon the

397.6 -> babylonian empire was centered at

399.039 -> babylon right over here

401.44 -> and it really became a significant

404.319 -> empire under the ruler humarabi

409.199 -> is perhaps most known you can see how he

411.039 -> was able to spread the empire the

413.599 -> the dark the dark brown is what he had

415.919 -> with his empire when he took rule and

417.52 -> the light brown is what he was able to

419.039 -> spread it to so once again both north

420.88 -> and south and he's perhaps most famous

423.599 -> for his famous code of homurabi which is

426.319 -> depicted here and it wasn't the first

428.96 -> written code but it was one of the

430.8 -> earliest and you could view it as almost

432.319 -> like a proto-constitution

434.639 -> and it was based on things that the

436 -> sumerians had before but they've even

437.919 -> influenced things like uh biblical laws

440.56 -> things that come down to modern codes of

443.12 -> law today

445.039 -> now after the babylonians the other

447.84 -> significant empire that would have

449.759 -> control over significant portions of

451.84 -> mesopotamia is the assyrian empire and

455.12 -> the assyrian empire is named for their i

458.08 -> guess you could say their home base the

460.08 -> town of asur you can see it in this map

462.72 -> here when we show the acadian empire and

464.879 -> both the babylonians and the assyrians

467.12 -> were acadian speaking so at this point

469.36 -> now and as we get into the later syrian

471.52 -> period we'll start to have aramaic be a

473.52 -> more significant language another

475.199 -> semitic language but as you can see here

477.52 -> the assyrian empire at its peak

479.599 -> controlled much of the modern day middle

483.039 -> east now the assyrian empire would

485.44 -> eventually collapse in the 7th century

488.4 -> bce and would be taken over by the

490.68 -> neo-babylonian empire

492.4 -> and i have a map

493.759 -> of that

495.68 -> right over here which also controlled

497.84 -> much of the modern middle east probably

499.84 -> the most famous ruler of the

501.44 -> neo-babylonian empire was nebuchadnezzar

503.759 -> ii from the hebrew bible famous for

506.96 -> taking the the the early jewish people

511.12 -> captive the famous babylonian captivity

513.68 -> but eventually they would be overthrown

516.159 -> in they will be overthrown in the 6th

518.88 -> century bce by the persians and cyrus

522.56 -> the great and that will actually be the

523.919 -> end of the babylonian captivity

525.839 -> according to biblical accounts but the

528.24 -> big picture is that mesopotamia

531.2 -> is called the cradle of civilization for

533.6 -> good reason not only do we have these

535.839 -> technological and architectural

537.76 -> advancements their religion their

539.92 -> writing has influenced civilization

542.399 -> since

543.36 -> for the last five six seven

546.48 -> thousand years well i'd say definitely

549.12 -> the last 5 000 years and a lot of these

552.56 -> ideas that came out of mesopotamia like

554.88 -> written codes of law and the

556.399 -> technologies and the and

558.48 -> and all the rest

560 -> follow with us today

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GQdh2eGP-Y