class 11
history writing and city life
chapter 2 notes
Answers
Answer:
I. Ancient Mesopotamia
Geography:
City life began in Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia is derived from the Greek words ‘mesos’, meaning middle, and ‘potamos’, meaning river.)
It is a flat land between the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers that is now part of the Republic of Iraq.
In the north, there is a stretch of upland called a steppe, where animal herding offers people a better livelihood than agriculture
Agriculture began between 7000 and 6000 BCE.
Soil was very fertile here but agriculture was threatened because of natural causes.
Ur, Lagash, Kish, Uruk and Mari were some of its important cities.
The excavation work started 150 years ago.
Urbanisation
Mesopotamian civilization was based on definite plan.
Cities and towns are develop when an economy develops in spheres other than food production that it becomes an advantage for people to cluster in towns.
Urban economies comprise besides food production, trade, manufactures and services.
There is social organisation in place
Helpful for the city manufacturers.
The division of labour is a mark of urban life.
Mesopotamian & Writing Modern Writing
1. Mesopotamian Writing:
The first Mesopotamian tablets, written around 3200 BCE, contained picture-like signs and numbers.
Writing began when society needed to keep records of transactions – because in city life transactions occurred at different times, and involved many people and a variety of goods
Mesopotamians wrote on tablets of clay.
2. Modern Writing: The greatest legacy of Mesopotamia to the world is its scholarly tradition of time reckoning and mathematics, calender.
III. Political Factors
From about 1100 BCE, when the Assyrians established their kingdom in the north, the region became known as Assyria. The first known language of the land was Sumerian.
Writing was used not only for keeping records, but also for making dictionaries, giving legal validity to land transfers, narrating the deeds of kings, and announcing the changes a king had made in the customary laws of the land.
It can be inferred that in Mesopotamian understanding it was kingship that organised trade and writing.
Religious Factors
Early settlers (their origins are unknown) began to build and rebuild temples at selected spots in their villages. The earliest known temple was a small shrine made of unbaked bricks. Temples were the residences of various gods.
Temples were centres of religious activities. They were dedicated to different gods and goddess.
(5000 BCE – Settlements began to develop in southern Mesopotamia)
IV. Social Factors
1. Life in the City – Mesopotamian society the nuclear family was the norm, although a married son and his family often resided with his parents. The father was the head of the family.
A ruling elite had emerged
Had a major share of wealth
Followed nuclear family system and patriarchal system
Condition of women
System of marriages
2. Ur – was a town, one of the earliest cities. It is often compared with Mohenjodaro
3.In Mesopotamian tradition, Uruk was the city par excellence, often known simply as The City.
V. Economic Factors
Urbanism
Trade
Record of transaction
Writing began in Mesopotamia in 3200 BCE.
Writing became as a records of transactions
2600 BCE the letters became cuneiform and language was Sumerian
VI. Cultural Factors
1. System of Writing:
Writing was skilled craft
It conveyed in visual form of system of sounds of a particular language