Time Periods

Question 1

Uruk Period

Answer 1

3200 BC first evidence of writing/cuneiform to keep track of commodities, first development of cities/emergence of urban societies, literature is economic/business related

Question 2

Early Dynastic Period

Answer 2

2600 BC conflicting city-states, political fragmentation/warfare, first evidence of literary texts (but mostly still economic/business related)

Question 3

Old Akkadian Period

Answer 3

2350BC Sargon the Great expanded the area of influence and conquered most of Babylonia; introdution of Akkadia

Question 4

Ur III Period

Answer 4

2100 BC Neo-Sumerian Time, Sumerian Renaissance; political consolidation, records from the temple kept track of commodities, literary pieces mostly Sumerian

Question 5

Old Babylonian

Answer 5

1800 BC Hammurabi’s Code produced and unification of Mesopotamia; Sumerian literary text prominent during this time (classic period), Scribe of Schools copied texts; period ended with sacking of Babylon by the Hittites

Question 6

International Period

Answer 6

1600-1200 BC El-Amarna/Akhetaten - city in Egypt which houses a vast library of cuneiform documents in Akkadian; four great powers & diplomacy

Question 7

Middle Babylonian

Answer 7

1300 BC Kassites ruled Babylon; high point/flowering of Akkadian literature, Akkadian as a diplomatic language, trade/interaction with Egypt (coincides with International Period)

Question 8

Neo-Assyrian Empire

Answer 8

700 BC conquerors, expansion, first imperial entity

Question 9

Neo-Babylonian Empire

Answer 9

550 BC “inherited” the Neo-Assyrian empire, overlaps in texts/shared culture with Neo-Assyria, literary creativity; fell to Cyrus the Great and marked the end of Mesopotamia as a political center