1.
Ziggurat of Ur
–
The Ziggurat of Ur is a Neo-Sumerian ziggurat in what was the city of Ur near Nasiriyah, in present-day Dhi Qar Province, Iraq. The structure was built during the Early Bronze Age, but had crumbled to ruins by the 6th century BCE of the Neo-Babylonian period when it was restored by King Nabonidus and its remains were excavated in the 1920s and 1930s by Sir Leonard Woolley. Under Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, they were encased by a reconstruction of the façade. The ziggurat of Ur is the best-preserved of those known from Iran and Iraq and it is one of three well preserved structures of the Neo-Sumerian city of Ur, along with the Royal Mausolea and the Palace of Ur-Nammu. The ziggurat was built by King Ur-Nammu who dedicated the great ziggurat of Ur in honour of Nanna/Sîn, the massive step pyramid measured 64 m in length,45 m in width and over 30 m in height. The height is speculative, as only the foundations of the Sumerian ziggurat have survived, the ziggurat was a piece in a temple complex that served as an administrative center for the city, and which was a shrine of the moon god Nanna, the patron deity of Ur. The construction of the ziggurat was finished in the 21st century BCE by King Shulgi, during his 48-year reign, the city of Ur grew to be the capital of a state controlling much of Mesopotamia. Many ziggurats were made by stacking mud-bricks up and using mud to seal them together, the remains of the ziggurat were first discovered by William Kennett Loftus in 1850. The first excavations at the site were conducted by John George Taylor in the 1850s, after World War I, preliminary excavations were performed by Reginald Campbell Thompson and Henry Hall. The site was excavated in the 1920s by Sir Leonard Woolley by appointment of the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. The remains of the ziggurat consist of a solid mass of mud brick faced with burnt bricks set in bitumen. The lowest layer corresponds to the construction of Ur-Nammu, while the two upper layers are part of the Neo-Babylonian restorations. The façade of the lowest level and the staircase were rebuilt under the orders of Saddam Hussein. The ziggurat was damaged in the First Gulf War in 1991 by small arms fire, four bomb craters can be seen nearby and the walls of the ziggurat are marred by over 400 bullet holes. As of 2008, the site is under the supervision of curator Dief Mohssein Naiif al-Gizzy
Ziggurat of Ur
–
Reconstructed facade of the ziggurat. The actual remains of the Neo-Babylonian structure can be seen
Ziggurat of Ur
–
Reconstruction of Ur-Nammu's ziggurat, based on the 1939 reconstruction by Woolley (vol. V, fig. 1.4)
2.
Dhi Qar Province
–
Dhi Qar Governorate is a governorate in southern Iraq. Prior to 1976 the governorate was known as Muntafiq Governorate, dhi Qar was the heartland of the ancient Iraqi civilization of Sumer, and includes the ruins of Ur, Eridu, Lagash, Larsa, Girsu, Umma, and Bad-tibira. The southern area of the governorate is covered by Mesopotamian Marshes, an Nasiriyah witnessed some of the heaviest fighting and some of the stiffest resistance against invading U. S. forces in 2003. The population is approximately 2,000,000, predominately Shia Arab, the southern marshes have traditionally been home to many Marsh Arabs. As of 2007, the area is poor, with an unemployment rate of 31%
Dhi Qar Province
–
Dhi Qar Governorate ذي قار Dhi Qar Province
3.
Iraq
–
The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. The main ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds, others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, around 95% of the countrys 36 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish, two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws, the area has been home to successive civilisations since the 6th millennium BC. Iraq was the centre of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian and it was also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires. Iraqs modern borders were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations when the Ottoman Empire was divided by the Treaty of Sèvres, Iraq was placed under the authority of the United Kingdom as the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. A monarchy was established in 1921 and the Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Britain in 1932, in 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Baath Party from 1968 until 2003, after an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Husseins Baath Party was removed from power and multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005. The American presence in Iraq ended in 2011, but the Iraqi insurgency continued and intensified as fighters from the Syrian Civil War spilled into the country, the Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name, one dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for city, UR. An Arabic folk etymology for the name is rooted, well-watered. During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿajamī, for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the south of the Hamrin Mountains. The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In English, it is either /ɪˈrɑːk/ or /ɪˈræk/, the American Heritage Dictionary, the pronunciation /aɪˈræk/ is frequently heard in U. S. media. Since approximately 10,000 BC, Iraq was one of centres of a Caucasoid Neolithic culture where agriculture, the following Neolithic period is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations
Iraq
–
Cylinder Seal, Old Babylonian Period, c.1800 BCE,
hematite. The king makes an animal offering to
Shamash. This seal was probably made in a workshop at
Sippar.
Iraq
–
Flag
Iraq
–
Victory stele of
Naram-Sin of Akkad
Iraq
–
Bill of sale of a male slave and a building in
Shuruppak, Sumerian tablet, circa 2600 BCE
4.
Mesopotamia
–
In the Iron Age, it was controlled by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires. The Sumerians and Akkadians dominated Mesopotamia from the beginning of history to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC. It fell to Alexander the Great in 332 BC, and after his death, around 150 BC, Mesopotamia was under the control of the Parthian Empire. Mesopotamia became a battleground between the Romans and Parthians, with parts of Mesopotamia coming under ephemeral Roman control. In AD226, eastern part of it fell to the Sassanid Persians, division of Mesopotamia between Roman and Sassanid Empires lasted until the 7th century Muslim conquest of Persia of the Sasanian Empire and Muslim conquest of the Levant from Byzantines. A number of primarily neo-Assyrian and Christian native Mesopotamian states existed between the 1st century BC and 3rd century AD, including Adiabene, Osroene, and Hatra, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. The regional toponym Mesopotamia comes from the ancient Greek root words μέσος middle and ποταμός river and it is used throughout the Greek Septuagint to translate the Hebrew equivalent Naharaim. In the Anabasis, Mesopotamia was used to designate the land east of the Euphrates in north Syria, the Aramaic term biritum/birit narim corresponded to a similar geographical concept. The neighbouring steppes to the west of the Euphrates and the part of the Zagros Mountains are also often included under the wider term Mesopotamia. A further distinction is made between Northern or Upper Mesopotamia and Southern or Lower Mesopotamia. Upper Mesopotamia, also known as the Jazira, is the area between the Euphrates and the Tigris from their sources down to Baghdad, Lower Mesopotamia is the area from Baghdad to the Persian Gulf and includes Kuwait and parts of western Iran. In modern academic usage, the term Mesopotamia often also has a chronological connotation and it is usually used to designate the area until the Muslim conquests, with names like Syria, Jazirah, and Iraq being used to describe the region after that date. It has been argued that these later euphemisms are Eurocentric terms attributed to the region in the midst of various 19th-century Western encroachments, Mesopotamia encompasses the land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, both of which have their headwaters in the Armenian Highlands. Both rivers are fed by tributaries, and the entire river system drains a vast mountainous region. Overland routes in Mesopotamia usually follow the Euphrates because the banks of the Tigris are frequently steep and difficult. The climate of the region is semi-arid with a vast desert expanse in the north which gives way to a 15,000 square kilometres region of marshes, lagoons, mud flats, in the extreme south, the Euphrates and the Tigris unite and empty into the Persian Gulf. In the marshlands to the south of the area, a complex water-borne fishing culture has existed since prehistoric times, periodic breakdowns in the cultural system have occurred for a number of reasons. Alternatively, military vulnerability to invasion from marginal hill tribes or nomadic pastoralists has led to periods of trade collapse and these trends have continued to the present day in Iraq
Mesopotamia
–
Known world of the Mesopotamian, Babylonian, and Assyrian cultures from documentary sources
Mesopotamia
–
Map showing the extent of Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
–
One of 18
Statues of Gudea, a ruler around 2090 BC
Mesopotamia
–
One of the
Nimrud ivories shows a lion eating a man. Neo-Assyrian period, 9th to 7th centuries BC.
5.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
–
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
6.
Ubaid period
–
The Ubaid period is a prehistoric period of Mesopotamia. The name derives from Tell al-Ubaid where the earliest large excavation of Ubaid period material was conducted initially by Henry Hall, in South Mesopotamia the period is the earliest known period on the alluvial plain although it is likely earlier periods exist obscured under the alluvium. In the south it has a long duration between about 6500 and 3800 BCE when it is replaced by the Uruk period In North Mesopotamia the period runs only between about 5300 and 4300 BCE. It is preceded by the Halaf period and the Halaf-Ubaid Transitional period, the term Ubaid period was coined at a conference in Baghdad in 1930, where at the same time the Jemdet Nasr and Uruk periods were defined. This phase, showing clear connection to the Samarra culture to the north and these people pioneered the growing of grains in the extreme conditions of aridity, thanks to the high water tables of Southern Iraq. Ubaid 2 —, after the site of the same name. Ubaid artifacts spread also all along the Arabian littoral, showing the growth of a system that stretched from the Mediterranean coast through to Oman. Spreading from Eridu the Ubaid culture extended from the Middle of the Tigris and Euphrates to the shores of the Persian Gulf, and then spread down past Bahrain to the copper deposits at Oman. At this time, increased aridity led to an end in semi-desert nomadism, and there is no evidence of presence in the area for approximately 1000 years. That might be due to the 5.9 kiloyear event at the end of the Older Peron, but in the north, stone and sometimes metal were used. Villages thus contained specialised craftspeople, potters, weavers and metalworkers, although the bulk of the population were labourers, farmers. During the Ubaid Period, the movement towards urbanization began, agriculture and animal husbandry were widely practiced in sedentary communities. There were also tribes that practiced domesticating animals as far north as Turkey, the Ubaid period as a whole, based upon the analysis of grave goods, was one of increasingly polarised social stratification and decreasing egalitarianism. Bogucki describes this as a phase of Trans-egalitarian competitive households, in which some fall behind as a result of social mobility. Ubaid culture originated in the south, but still has connections to earlier cultures in the region of middle Iraq. The appearance of the Ubaid folk has sometimes been linked to the so-called Sumerian problem, stein and Özbal describe the Near East oecumene that resulted from Ubaid expansion, contrasting it to the colonial expansionism of the later Uruk period. The earliest evidence for sailing has been found in Kuwait indicating that sailing was known by the Ubaid 3 period, Ubaid house Tell Zeidan Martin, Harriet P. The Early Dynastic Cemetery at al-Ubaid, a Re-Evaluation, pottery Kiln Sites at al Ubaid and Eridu
Ubaid period
–
Pottery jar from Late Ubaid Period
Ubaid period
–
Ubaid period
Ubaid period
–
Geography
7.
Iron Age
–
The Iron Age is an archaeological era, referring to a period of time in the prehistory and protohistory of the Old World when the dominant toolmaking material was iron. It is commonly preceded by the Bronze Age in Europe and Asia with exceptions, meteoric iron has been used by humans since at least 3200 BC. Ancient iron production did not become widespread until the ability to smelt ore, remove impurities. The start of the Iron Age proper is considered by many to fall between around 1200 BC and 600 BC, depending on the region, the earliest known iron artifacts are nine small beads dated to 3200 BC, which were found in burials at Gerzeh, Lower Egypt. They have been identified as meteoric iron shaped by careful hammering, meteoric iron, a characteristic iron–nickel alloy, was used by various ancient peoples thousands of years before the Iron Age. Such iron, being in its metallic state, required no smelting of ores. Smelted iron appears sporadically in the record from the middle Bronze Age. While terrestrial iron is abundant, its high melting point of 1,538 °C placed it out of reach of common use until the end of the second millennium BC. Tins low melting point of 231, similarly, recent archaeological remains of iron working in the Ganges Valley in India have been tentatively dated to 1800 BC. By the Middle Bronze Age, increasing numbers of smelted iron objects appeared in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, African sites are turning up dates as early as 1200 BC. Modern archaeological evidence identifies the start of iron production in around 1200 BC. Between 1200 BC and 1000 BC, diffusion in the understanding of iron metallurgy and use of objects was fast. As evidence, many bronze implements were recycled into weapons during this time, more widespread use of iron led to improved steel-making technology at lower cost. Thus, even when tin became available again, iron was cheaper, stronger, and lighter, and forged iron implements superseded cast bronze tools permanently. Increasingly, the Iron Age in Europe is being seen as a part of the Bronze Age collapse in the ancient Near East, in ancient India, ancient Iran, and ancient Greece. In other regions of Europe, the Iron Age began in the 8th century BC in Central Europe, the Near Eastern Iron Age is divided into two subsections, Iron I and Iron II. Iron I illustrates both continuity and discontinuity with the previous Late Bronze Age, during the Iron Age, the best tools and weapons were made from steel, particularly alloys which were produced with a carbon content between approximately 0. 30% and 1. 2% by weight. Steel weapons and tools were nearly the same weight as those of bronze, however, steel was difficult to produce with the methods available, and alloys that were easier to make, such as wrought iron, were more common in lower-priced goods
Iron Age
–
Archaeological artifact from the work developed in the area of
Citânia de Briteiros
Iron Age
Iron Age
–
Cross or cruzado in Citânia de Breteiros
Iron Age
–
A pedra formosa
8.
Sumer
–
Living along the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, Sumerian farmers were able to grow an abundance of grain and other crops, the surplus of which enabled them to settle in one place. Proto-writing in the dates back to c.3000 BC. The earliest texts come from the cities of Uruk and Jemdet Nasr and date back to 3300 BC, modern historians have suggested that Sumer was first permanently settled between c.5500 and 4000 BC by a West Asian people who spoke the Sumerian language, an agglutinative language isolate. These conjectured, prehistoric people are now called proto-Euphrateans or Ubaidians, some scholars contest the idea of a Proto-Euphratean language or one substrate language. Reliable historical records begin much later, there are none in Sumer of any kind that have dated before Enmebaragesi. Juris Zarins believes the Sumerians lived along the coast of Eastern Arabia, todays Persian Gulf region, Sumerian civilization took form in the Uruk period, continuing into the Jemdet Nasr and Early Dynastic periods. During the 3rd millennium BC, a cultural symbiosis developed between the Sumerians, who spoke a language isolate, and Akkadian-speakers, which included widespread bilingualism. The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian is evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a scale, to syntactic, morphological. This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the 3rd millennium BC as a Sprachbund, Sumer was conquered by the Semitic-speaking kings of the Akkadian Empire around 2270 BC, but Sumerian continued as a sacred language. Native Sumerian rule re-emerged for about a century in the Neo-Sumerian Empire or Third Dynasty of Ur approximately 2100-2000 BC, the term Sumerian is the common name given to the ancient non-Semitic-speaking inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Sumer, by the East Semitic-speaking Akkadians. The Sumerians referred to themselves as ùĝ saĝ gíg ga, phonetically /uŋ saŋ gi ga/, literally meaning the black-headed people, the Akkadian word Shumer may represent the geographical name in dialect, but the phonological development leading to the Akkadian term šumerû is uncertain. Hebrew Shinar, Egyptian Sngr, and Hittite Šanhar, all referring to southern Mesopotamia, in the late 4th millennium BC, Sumer was divided into many independent city-states, which were divided by canals and boundary stones. Each was centered on a dedicated to the particular patron god or goddess of the city. The Sumerian city-states rose to power during the prehistoric Ubaid and Uruk periods, classical Sumer ends with the rise of the Akkadian Empire in the 23rd century BC. Following the Gutian period, there is a brief Sumerian Renaissance in the 21st century BC, the Amorite dynasty of Isin persisted until c.1700 BC, when Mesopotamia was united under Babylonian rule. The Sumerians were eventually absorbed into the Akkadian population, 2500–2334 BC Akkadian Empire period, c. 2218–2047 BC Ur III period, c, 2047–1940 BC The Ubaid period is marked by a distinctive style of fine quality painted pottery which spread throughout Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf. It appears that this culture was derived from the Samarran culture from northern Mesopotamia and it is not known whether or not these were the actual Sumerians who are identified with the later Uruk culture
Sumer
–
Map of Sumer
Sumer
–
The
Samarra bowl, at the
Pergamonmuseum, Berlin. The
swastika in the center of the design is a reconstruction.
Sumer
–
Fragment of
Eannatum 's
Stele of the Vultures
9.
Specials (Unicode block)
–
Specials is a short Unicode block allocated at the very end of the Basic Multilingual Plane, at U+FFF0–FFFF. Of these 16 codepoints, five are assigned as of Unicode 9, U+FFFD � REPLACEMENT CHARACTER used to replace an unknown, unrecognized or unrepresentable character U+FFFE <noncharacter-FFFE> not a character. FFFE and FFFF are not unassigned in the sense. They can be used to guess a texts encoding scheme, since any text containing these is by not a correctly encoded Unicode text. The replacement character � is a found in the Unicode standard at codepoint U+FFFD in the Specials table. It is used to indicate problems when a system is unable to render a stream of data to a correct symbol and it is usually seen when the data is invalid and does not match any character, Consider a text file containing the German word für in the ISO-8859-1 encoding. This file is now opened with an editor that assumes the input is UTF-8. The first and last byte are valid UTF-8 encodings of ASCII, therefore, a text editor could replace this byte with the replacement character symbol to produce a valid string of Unicode code points. The whole string now displays like this, f�r, a poorly implemented text editor might save the replacement in UTF-8 form, the text file data will then look like this, 0x66 0xEF 0xBF 0xBD 0x72, which will be displayed in ISO-8859-1 as f�r. Since the replacement is the same for all errors this makes it impossible to recover the original character, a better design is to preserve the original bytes, including the error, and only convert to the replacement when displaying the text. This will allow the text editor to save the original byte sequence and it has become increasingly common for software to interpret invalid UTF-8 by guessing the bytes are in another byte-based encoding such as ISO-8859-1. This allows correct display of both valid and invalid UTF-8 pasted together, Unicode control characters UTF-8 Mojibake Unicodes Specials table Decodeunicodes entry for the replacement character
Specials (Unicode block)
–
Replacement character
10.
Sumerian language
–
Sumerian is the language of ancient Sumer and a language isolate which was spoken in southern Mesopotamia. During the 3rd millennium BC, an intimate cultural symbiosis developed between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism. The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian is evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a scale, to syntactic, morphological. This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the third millennium BC as a Sprachbund, then it was forgotten until the 19th century, when Assyriologists began deciphering the cuneiform inscriptions and excavated tablets left by these speakers. It succeeds the proto-literate period, which spans roughly the 35th to 30th centuries, some versions of the chronology may omit the Late Sumerian phase and regard all texts written after 2000 BC as Post-Sumerian. The term Post-Sumerian is meant to refer to the time when the language was already extinct, the extinction has traditionally been dated approximately to the end of the Third Dynasty of Ur, the last predominantly Sumerian state in Mesopotamia, about 2000 BC. The standard variety of Sumerian is called eme-ĝir, a notable variety or sociolect is called eme-sal. Eme-sal is used exclusively by female characters in some literary texts, in addition, it is dominant in certain genres of cult songs. The special features of eme-sal are mostly phonological, but words different from the language are also used. Sumerian is a language, meaning that words could consist of a chain of more or less clearly distinguishable and separable affixes and/or morphemes. Sumerian distinguishes the grammatical genders human/non-human, but it not have separate male/female gender pronouns. The human gender includes not only humans but also gods and in cases the word for statue. Sumerian has also claimed to have two tenses, but these are currently described as completive and incompletive or perfective and imperfective aspects instead. There are a number of cases, absolutive, ergative, genitive, dative/allative, locative, comitative, equative, directive/adverbial. The naming and number of the cases varies in the scientific literature, the different homophones are marked with different numbers by convention,2 and 3 being often replaced by acute accent and grave accent diacritics respectively. For example, du = go, du3 = dù = build, Sumerian is a split ergative language. It behaves as a language in the 1st and 2nd person of present-future tense/incompletive aspect. Similar patterns are found in a number of unrelated split ergative languages
Sumerian language
–
26th century BC Sumerian document
Sumerian language
–
This proto-literate tablet records more than just the transfer of land – the beginning of the transition from a pictograph to phonetic writing system can be seen here.
Walters Art Museum,
Baltimore. ca. 3100 – 2900 BC.
Sumerian language
–
Letter sent by the high-priest Lu'enna to the king of
Lagash (maybe
Urukagina), informing him of his son's death in combat, c. 2400 BC, found in
Telloh (ancient Girsu)
Sumerian language
–
Geography
11.
Akkadian language
–
Akkadian is an extinct East Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the writing system, which was originally used to write the unrelated Ancient Sumerian. The language was named after the city of Akkad, a centre of Mesopotamian civilization during the Akkadian Empire. The mutual influence between Sumerian and Akkadian had led scholars to describe the languages as a sprachbund, Akkadian proper names were first attested in Sumerian texts from around the mid 3rd-millennium BC. From the second half of the third millennium BC, texts written in Akkadian begin to appear. By the second millennium BC, two variant forms of the language were in use in Assyria and Babylonia, known as Assyrian and Babylonian respectively, for centuries, Akkadian was the native language in Mesopotamian nations such as Assyria and Babylonia. However, it began to decline during the Neo-Assyrian Empire around the 8th century BC, by the Hellenistic period, the language was largely confined to scholars and priests working in temples in Assyria and Babylonia. The last known Akkadian cuneiform document dates from the 1st century AD, Akkadian belongs with the other Semitic languages in the Near Eastern branch of the Afroasiatic languages, a family native to East Africa, which then spread to West, Northwest and Northeast Africa. Within the Near Eastern Semitic languages, Akkadian forms an East Semitic subgroup and this novel word order is due to the influence of the Sumerian substratum, which has an SOV order. Additionally Akkadian is the only Semitic language to use the prepositions ina and ana, other Semitic languages like Arabic and Aramaic have the prepositions bi/bə and li/lə. The origin of the Akkadian spatial prepositions is unknown, in contrast to most other Semitic languages, Akkadian has only one non-sibilant fricative, ḫ. Akkadian lost both the glottal and pharyngeal fricatives, which are characteristic of the other Semitic languages, until the Old Babylonian period, the Akkadian sibilants were exclusively affricated. Old Akkadian is preserved on clay tablets dating back to c.2500 BC and it was written using cuneiform, a script adopted from the Sumerians using wedge-shaped symbols pressed in wet clay. As employed by Akkadian scribes, the cuneiform script could represent either Sumerian logograms, Sumerian syllables, Akkadian syllables. For this reason, the sign AN can on the one hand be a logogram for the word ilum, additionally, this sign was used as a determinative for divine names. Another peculiarity of Akkadian cuneiform is that many signs do not have a phonetic value. Certain signs, such as AḪ, do not distinguish between the different vowel qualities, nor is there any coordination in the other direction, the syllable -ša-, for example, is rendered by the sign ŠA, but also by the sign NĪĜ. Both of these are used for the same syllable in the same text
Akkadian language
–
An Akkadian inscription
Akkadian language
–
Cuneiform writing (Neoassyrian script) (1 = Logogram (LG) "mix"/syllabogram (SG) ḫi, 2 = LG "moat", 3 = SG aʾ, 4 = SG aḫ, eḫ, iḫ, uḫ, 5 = SG kam, 6 = SG im, 7 = SG bir)
Akkadian language
–
The
Deluge tablet of the
Gilgamesh epic in Akkadian.
Akkadian language
–
Geography
12.
Arabic language
–
Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
Arabic language
–
The Galland Manuscript of
One Thousand and One Nights, 14th century
Arabic language
–
al-ʿArabiyyah in written Arabic (
Naskh script)
Arabic language
–
Bilingual traffic sign in
Qatar.
Arabic language
–
Examples of how the Arabic root and form system works.
13.
City-state
–
A city-state is a sovereign state that consists of a city and its dependent territories. A great deal of consensus exists that the term applies to Singapore, Monaco. A number of small states share similar characteristics, and therefore are sometimes also cited as modern city-states. Occasionally, other states with high population densities, such as San Marino, are also cited. Several non-sovereign cities enjoy a degree of autonomy, and are sometimes considered city-states. Hong Kong and Macau, along with independent members of the United Arab Emirates, most notably Dubai, scholars have classed the Viking colonial cities in medieval Ireland, most importantly Dublin, as city-states. In Cyprus, the Phoenician settlement of Kition was a city-state that existed from around 800 BC until the end of the 4th century BC. The success of regional units coexisting as autonomous actors in loose geographical and cultural unity, as in Italy and Greece. However, such small political entities often survived only for short periods because they lacked the resources to defend themselves against incursions by larger states, thus they inevitably gave way to larger organisations of society, including the empire and the nation-state. In the history of Mainland Southeast Asia, aristocratic groups, Buddhist leaders, the system existed until the 19th century when colonization by European powers, and Thailands resulted in the adoption of the modern concept of statehood. In the Holy Roman Empire the Free Imperial Cities enjoyed a considerable autonomy, some, like the three Hanseatic cities of Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck, pooled their economic relations with foreign powers and were able to wield considerable diplomatic clout. Under Habsburg rule the city of Fiume had the status of a Corpus separatum, a later city-state, though lacking sovereignty, was West Berlin, being a state legally not belonging to any other state, but ruled by the Western Allies. They allowed – notwithstanding their overlordship as occupant powers – its internal organisation as one state simultaneously being a city, though West Berlin maintained close ties to the West German Federal Republic of Germany, it was legally never part of it. But the idea of leaving the United States proved too radical even in the turmoil of 1861 and was poorly received, the war, and especially conscription, was nevertheless often unpopular in the city, sparking the deadly New York Draft Riots. The neighboring City of Brooklyn, in contrast, was staunchly Unionist, the Free City of Danzig was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig and nearly 200 towns in the surrounding areas. It was created on 15 November 1920 under the terms of Article 100 of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles after the end of World War I. Its territory of 28 km2 comprised the city of Fiume and rural areas to its north, with a corridor to its west connecting it to Italy, the Shanghai International Settlement was an international zone with its own legal system, postal service, and currency. The Klaipėda Region or Memel Territory was defined by the Treaty of Versailles in 1920 when it was put under the administration of the Council of Ambassadors
City-state
–
Monaco, an example of a city-state.
City-state
–
The
Republic of Ragusa, a maritime city-state, was based in the
walled city of
Dubrovnik.
City-state
–
Overview of Singapore's financial district
14.
Dhi Qar Governorate
–
Dhi Qar Governorate is a governorate in southern Iraq. Prior to 1976 the governorate was known as Muntafiq Governorate, dhi Qar was the heartland of the ancient Iraqi civilization of Sumer, and includes the ruins of Ur, Eridu, Lagash, Larsa, Girsu, Umma, and Bad-tibira. The southern area of the governorate is covered by Mesopotamian Marshes, an Nasiriyah witnessed some of the heaviest fighting and some of the stiffest resistance against invading U. S. forces in 2003. The population is approximately 2,000,000, predominately Shia Arab, the southern marshes have traditionally been home to many Marsh Arabs. As of 2007, the area is poor, with an unemployment rate of 31%
Dhi Qar Governorate
–
Dhi Qar Governorate ذي قار Dhi Qar Province
15.
City
–
A city is a large and permanent human settlement. Cities generally have complex systems for sanitation, utilities, land usage, housing, a big city or metropolis usually has associated suburbs and exurbs. Such cities are associated with metropolitan areas and urban areas. Once a city expands far enough to another city, this region can be deemed a conurbation or megalopolis. Damascus is arguably the oldest city in the world, in terms of population, the largest city proper is Shanghai, while the fastest-growing is Dubai. There is not enough evidence to assert what conditions gave rise to the first cities, some theorists have speculated on what they consider suitable pre-conditions and basic mechanisms that might have been important driving forces. The conventional view holds that cities first formed after the Neolithic revolution, the Neolithic revolution brought agriculture, which made denser human populations possible, thereby supporting city development. The advent of farming encouraged hunter-gatherers to abandon nomadic lifestyles and to settle near others who lived by agricultural production, the increased population density encouraged by farming and the increased output of food per unit of land created conditions that seem more suitable for city-like activities. In his book, Cities and Economic Development, Paul Bairoch takes up position in his argument that agricultural activity appears necessary before true cities can form. According to Vere Gordon Childe, for a settlement to qualify as a city, it must have enough surplus of raw materials to support trade and a relatively large population. To illustrate this point, Bairoch offers an example, Western Europe during the pre-Neolithic, when the cost of transport is taken into account, the figure rises to 200,000 square kilometres. Bairoch noted that this is roughly the size of Great Britain, the urban theorist Jane Jacobs suggests that city formation preceded the birth of agriculture, but this view is not widely accepted. In his book City Economics, Brendan OFlaherty asserts Cities could persist—as they have for thousands of years—only if their advantages offset the disadvantages, OFlaherty illustrates two similar attracting advantages known as increasing returns to scale and economies of scale, which are concepts usually associated with businesses. Their applications are seen in more basic economic systems as well, increasing returns to scale occurs when doubling all inputs more than doubles the output an activity has economies of scale if doubling output less than doubles cost. To offer an example of these concepts, OFlaherty makes use of one of the oldest reasons why cities were built, in this example, the inputs are anything that would be used for protection and the output is the area protected and everything of value contained in it. OFlaherty then asks that we suppose the protected area is square, the advantage is expressed as, O = s 2, where O is the output and s stands for the length of a side. This equation shows that output is proportional to the square of the length of a side, the inputs depend on the length of the perimeter, I =4 s, where I stands for the quantity of inputs. So there are increasing returns to scale, O = I2 /16 and this equation shows that with twice the inputs, you produce quadruple the output
City
–
1908 map of
Piraeus, the port of
Athens, showing the grid plan of the city
City
–
Ancient
Ur of
Sumer in present-day Tell el-Mukayyar in
Iraq, one of the world's earliest cities
City
–
Mohenjo-daro, a
World Heritage site that was part of the
Indus Valley Civilization
City
–
A map dating 1669 showing the location of
Multan, Pakistan
16.
Euphrates
–
The Euphrates is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia, originating in eastern Turkey, the Euphrates flows through Syria and Iraq to join the Tigris in the Shatt al-Arab, which empties into the Persian Gulf. The Ancient Greek form Euphrátēs was borrowed from Old Persian Ufrātu, the Elamite name is ultimately derived from the Sumerian Buranuna, possibly through the Akkadian name. In Akkadian the river was similarly called Purattu, which has been perpetuated in Semitic languages, the Elamite, Akkadian, and possibly Sumerian forms are suggested to be from an unrecorded substrate language. The earliest references to the Euphrates come from texts found in Shuruppak and pre-Sargonic Nippur in southern Iraq. In these texts, written in Sumerian, the Euphrates is called Buranuna, the name could also be written KIB. NUN. or dKIB. NUN, with the prefix d indicating that the river was a divinity. In Sumerian, the name of the city of Sippar in modern-day Iraq was also a written UD. KIB. NUN, the Euphrates is the longest river of Western Asia. It emerges from the confluence of the Kara Su or Western Euphrates, the same figures are given by Isaev and Mikhailova. The length of the Shatt al-Arab, which connects the Euphrates, both the Kara Su and the Murat Su rise northwest from Lake Van at elevations of 3,290 metres and 3,520 metres amsl, respectively. At the location of the Keban Dam, the two rivers, now combined into the Euphrates, have dropped to an elevation of 693 metres amsl, from Keban to the Syrian–Turkish border, the river drops another 368 metres over a distance of less than 600 kilometres. The Euphrates receives most of its water in the form of rainfall and melting snow, discharge in these two months accounts for 36 percent of the total annual discharge of the Euphrates, or even 60–70 percent according to one source, while low runoff occurs in summer and autumn. The discharge regime of the Euphrates has changed dramatically since the construction of the first dams in the 1970s, data on Euphrates discharge collected after 1990 show the impact of the construction of the numerous dams in the Euphrates and of the increased withdrawal of water for irrigation. Average discharge at Hīt after 1990 has dropped to 356 cubic metres per second, the seasonal variability has equally changed. The pre-1990 peak volume recorded at Hīt was 7,510 cubic metres per second, the minimum volume at Hīt remained relatively unchanged, rising from 55 cubic metres per second before 1990 to 58 cubic metres per second afterward. In Syria, three rivers add their water to the Euphrates, the Sajur, the Balikh and the Khabur and these rivers rise in the foothills of the Taurus Mountains along the Syro–Turkish border and add comparatively little water to the Euphrates. The Sajur is the smallest of these tributaries, emerging from two streams near Gaziantep and draining the plain around Manbij before emptying into the reservoir of the Tishrin Dam. The Balikh receives most of its water from a spring near Ayn al-Arus. In terms of length, drainage basin and discharge, the Khabur is the largest of these three and its main karstic springs are located around Ras al-Ayn, from where the Khabur flows southeast past Al-Hasakah, where the river turns south and drains into the Euphrates near Busayrah
Euphrates
–
The Euphrates near
Halabiye (
Syria); the site can be seen in the background on the left bank
Euphrates
–
View of the
Murat River
Euphrates
–
Ferry across the Euphrates River to
Kahta, Turkey
Euphrates
–
Crossing the Euphrates River
17.
Persian Gulf
–
The Persian Gulf is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Indian Ocean through the Strait of Hormuz, the Shatt al-Arab river delta forms the northwest shoreline. The Persian Gulf was a battlefield of the 1980–1988 Iran–Iraq War and it is the namesake of the 1991 Gulf War, the largely air- and land-based conflict that followed Iraqs invasion of Kuwait. The gulf has many fishing grounds, extensive coral reefs, and abundant pearl oysters, the body of water is historically and internationally known as the Persian Gulf. Some Arab governments refer to it as the Arabian Gulf or The Gulf, the name Gulf of Iran is used by the International Hydrographic Organization. The Persian Gulf is geologically young, having been formed around 15,000 years ago. Its length is 989 kilometres, with Iran covering most of the northern coast, the Persian Gulf is about 56 km wide at its narrowest, in the Strait of Hormuz. The waters are very shallow, with a maximum depth of 90 metres. Various small islands lie within the Persian Gulf, some of which are the subject of territorial disputes between the states of the region. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the Persian Gulfs southern limit as The Northwestern limit of Gulf of Oman and this limit is defined as A line joining Ràs Limah on the coast of Arabia and Ràs al Kuh on the coast of Iran. The Persian Gulf and its areas are the worlds largest single source of crude oil. Safaniya Oil Field, the worlds largest offshore oilfield, is located in the Persian Gulf, large gas finds have also been made, with Qatar and Iran sharing a giant field across the territorial median line. Using this gas, Qatar has built up a substantial liquefied natural gas, the oil-rich countries that have a coastline on the Persian Gulf are referred to as the Persian Gulf States. In 550 BC, the Achaemenid Empire established the first ancient empire in Persis, consequently, in the Greek sources, the body of water that bordered this province came to be known as the Persian Gulf. In the travel account of Pythagoras, several chapters are related to description of his travels accompanied by the Achaemenid king Darius the Great, to Susa and Persepolis, and the area is described. This water channel separates the Iran Plateau from the Arabia Plate, has enjoyed an Iranian Identity since at least 2200 years ago. Before being given its present name, the Persian Gulf was called many different names, the classical Greek writers, like Herodotus, called it the Red Sea. In Babylonian texts, it was known as the sea above Akkad, the name of the gulf, historically and internationally known as the Persian Gulf after the land of Persia, has been disputed by some Arab countries since the 1960s
Persian Gulf
–
Persian Gulf from space
Persian Gulf
–
A historical map of the Persian Gulf in
a Dubai museum with the word Persian removed
Persian Gulf
–
Picture depicting extent of early civilizations around the Persian Gulf, including Lackhmids, and Sassanids.
Persian Gulf
–
Picture depicting the Achaemenid Persian empire in relation to the Persian Gulf.
18.
Nasiriyah
–
Nasiriyah is a city in Iraq. It is situated along the banks of the Euphrates River, about 225 miles southeast of Baghdad and it is the capital of the Dhi Qar Governorate. Its population 2003 was about 560,000, making it the fourth largest city in Iraq and it had a religiously diverse population of Muslims, Mandaeans and Jews in the early 20th century, but today its inhabitants are predominantly Shia Muslims. Nasiriyah was founded by the Muntafiq tribe in the late 19th century during the Ottoman era and it has since become a major hub for transportation. Nasiriyah is the center of a date-growing area, the citys cottage industries include boat-building, carpentry and silver working. The city museum has a collection of Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian. The ruins of the ancient cities of Ur and Larsa are located nearby, Nasiriyah was founded in 1872 by Nasir al-Saadun Pasha, the sheikh of the Muntafiq tribal confederation, after whom the city was named. During that same year, it became the center of the Muntafiq sanjak. Nasir Pasha was the head of the Sunni Muslim al-Saadun clan, at the time of Nasiriyahs founding, Muntafiq power in the Basra Vilayet had increasingly given way to Ottoman centralization. However, Nasir Pasha was appointed by the Ottomans as the head of the vilayet, in the early 20th century, Nasiriyah had a population of roughly 10,000. It was a center of trade in Ottoman Iraq and imported foreign goods via commerce with Baghdad. The chief commodities Nasiriyah produced included leather, grain and ghee, the town contained about 600 well-built stone houses, but most buildings and homes were constructed from mud brick. There were about 350 shops in Nasiriyah as well as five khans, the area surrounding the town was abundant in date palms and grain fields. The town was not protected by a wall like other major administrative centers, during World War I, the British conquered the city, controlled at the time by the Ottoman Empire, in July 1915. Some 400 British and Indian and up to 2,000 Turkish soldiers were killed in the battle for Nasiriyah on 24 July 1915, in 1920, Nasiriyah had 6,523 inhabitants. The Iraqi Communist Partys first cell was founded in Nasiriyah by Yusuf Salman Yusuf in the 1930s and it was also the birthplace of Fuad al-Rikabi, who founded the Iraqi Baath Party in the 1950s. At the time, the Iraqi Baath consisted mostly of people from Nasiriyah, in March 1991, following the American withdrawal at the wars end, the Shia population of Nasiriyah took part in the revolt against the rule of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. The revolt was subdued by the Iraqi military with heavy loss of life
Nasiriyah
–
Nasiriyah town centre
Nasiriyah
–
Spice shop in Nasiriyah
Nasiriyah
–
Flickr - Kindergarten students from Mumsuna school in Nasiriyah attend the opening of
Ziggurat of Ur in 2009 (it had been closed following the U.S. invasion in 2003)
19.
Recorded history
–
Recorded history or written history is a historical narrative based on a written record or other documented communication. Recorded history can be contrasted with other narratives of the past, for broader world history, recorded history begins with the accounts of the ancient world around the 4th millennium BC, and coincides with the invention of writing. Examples of written texts, however, can be found dating as far back as 1750 BCE in Ancient Mesopotamia, for some geographic regions or cultures, written history is limited to a relatively recent period in human history because of the limited use of written records. Because of these limits, recorded history in different contexts may refer to different periods of time depending on the historical topic. The question of the nature, and even the possibility, of a method for interpreting recorded history is raised in the philosophy of history as a question of epistemology. Prehistory traditionally refers to the span of time before recorded history, prehistory refers to the past in an area where no written records exist, or where the writing of a culture is not understood. Protohistory refers to the period between prehistory and history, after the advent of literacy in a society but before the writings of the first historians. Protohistory may also refer to the period during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing, more complete writing systems were preceded by proto-writing. Early examples are the Jiahu symbols, Vinča signs, early Indus script, earliest recorded history, which varies greatly in quality and reliability, deals with Pharaohs and their reigns, made by ancient Egyptians. Much of the earliest recorded history was re-discovered relatively recently due to archaeological dig sites findings, since these initial accounts, a number of different traditions have developed in different parts of the world in how to handle the writing and production of historical accounts. In China, the earliest history was recorded in oracle bone script which was deciphered, the Zuo Zhuan, attributed to Zuo Qiuming in the 5th century BCE, is the earliest written of narrative history in the world and covers the period from 722 to 468 BCE. The Classic of History is one of the Five Classics of Chinese classic texts and it is traditionally attributed to Confucius. Zhan Guo Ce was a renowned ancient Chinese historical compilation of materials on the Warring States period compiled between the 3rd and 1st centuries BCE. Sima Qian was the first in China to lay the groundwork for professional historical writing and his written work was the Shiji, a monumental lifelong achievement in literature. His work influenced every subsequent author of history in China, including the prestigious Ban family of the Eastern Han Dynasty era, Herodotus of Halicarnassus has generally been acclaimed as the father of history composing his The Histories written from 450s to the 420s BCE. However, his contemporary Thucydides is credited with having first approached history with a historical method in his work the History of the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides, unlike Herodotus, regarded history as being the product of the choices and actions of human beings, saint Augustine was influential in Christian and Western thought at the beginning of the medieval period. Through the Medieval and Renaissance periods, history was studied through a sacred or religious perspective
Recorded history
–
Linear A etched on tablets found in Akrotiri,
Santorini.
Recorded history
–
Sumerian inscription in monumental archaic style, c. 26th century BCE
Recorded history
–
Oracle bone of the
Shang dynasty, ancient China
20.
Sin (mythology)
–
Sin /ˈsiːn/ or Nanna was the god of the moon in the Mesopotamian mythology of Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia. Nanna is a Sumerian deity, the son of Enlil and Ninlil, the two chief seats of Nannas/Sins worship were Ur in the south of Mesopotamia and Harran in the north. A moon god by the name was also worshipped in pre-Islamic South Arabia. The original meaning of the name Nanna is unknown, the earliest spelling found in Ur and Uruk is DLAK-32. NA. The name of Ur, spelled LAK-32. UNUGKI=URIM2KI, is derived from the theonym. He was also the father of Ishkur, the pre-classical sign LAK-32 later collapses with ŠEŠ, and the classical Sumerian spelling is DŠEŠ. KI, with the phonetic reading na-an-na. The technical term for the crescent moon could refer to the deity. Later, the name is spelled logographically as DNANNA, the Semitic moon god Suen/Sin is in origin a separate deity from Sumerian Nanna, but from the Akkadian Empire period the two undergo syncretization and are identified. The occasional Assyrian spelling of DNANNA-ar DSuen-e is due to association with Akkadian na-an-na-ru illuminator, lamp, the name of the Assyrian moon god Suen/Sîn is usually spelled as DEN. ZU, or simply with the numeral 30, DXXX. He is commonly designated as En-zu, which means lord of wisdom, during the period that Ur exercised a large measure of supremacy over the Euphrates valley, Sin was naturally regarded as the head of the pantheon. It is to this period that we must trace such designations of Sin as father of the gods, chief of the gods, creator of all things, and the like. The wisdom personified by the moon-god is likewise an expression of the science of astronomy or the practice of astrology and his wife was Ningal, who bore him Utu/Shamash and Inanna/Ishtar. The tendency to centralize the powers of the leads to the establishment of the doctrine of a triad consisting of Sin/Nanna. Sin had a made of lapis lazuli and rode on a winged bull. The bull was one of his symbols, through his father, Enlil, Bull of Heaven, along with the crescent, on cylinder seals, he is represented as an old man with a flowing beard and the crescent symbol. In the astral-theological system he is represented by the number 30 and this number probably refers to the average number of days in a lunar month, as measured between successive new moons. An important Sumerian text tells of the descent of Enlil and Ninlil, pregnant with Nanna/Sin, there, three substitutions are given to allow the ascent of Nanna/Sin. The story shows some similarities to the known as The Descent of Inanna
Sin (mythology)
–
Impression of the
cylinder seal of Ḫašḫamer,
ensi (governor) of Iškun-Sin ca. 2100 BC. The seated figure is probably king
Ur-Nammu, bestowing the governorship on Ḫašḫamer, who is led before him by a lamma (protective goddess). Sin/Nanna himself is indicated in the form of a crescent.
Sin (mythology)
–
Reconstruction of the
Ziggurat of Ur, the main shrine to Nanna, based on the 1939 reconstruction by
Leonard Woolley (Ur Excavations vol. V, fig. 1.4)
21.
Akkadian
–
Akkadian is an extinct East Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the writing system, which was originally used to write the unrelated Ancient Sumerian. The language was named after the city of Akkad, a centre of Mesopotamian civilization during the Akkadian Empire. The mutual influence between Sumerian and Akkadian had led scholars to describe the languages as a sprachbund, Akkadian proper names were first attested in Sumerian texts from around the mid 3rd-millennium BC. From the second half of the third millennium BC, texts written in Akkadian begin to appear. By the second millennium BC, two variant forms of the language were in use in Assyria and Babylonia, known as Assyrian and Babylonian respectively, for centuries, Akkadian was the native language in Mesopotamian nations such as Assyria and Babylonia. However, it began to decline during the Neo-Assyrian Empire around the 8th century BC, by the Hellenistic period, the language was largely confined to scholars and priests working in temples in Assyria and Babylonia. The last known Akkadian cuneiform document dates from the 1st century AD, Akkadian belongs with the other Semitic languages in the Near Eastern branch of the Afroasiatic languages, a family native to East Africa, which then spread to West, Northwest and Northeast Africa. Within the Near Eastern Semitic languages, Akkadian forms an East Semitic subgroup and this novel word order is due to the influence of the Sumerian substratum, which has an SOV order. Additionally Akkadian is the only Semitic language to use the prepositions ina and ana, other Semitic languages like Arabic and Aramaic have the prepositions bi/bə and li/lə. The origin of the Akkadian spatial prepositions is unknown, in contrast to most other Semitic languages, Akkadian has only one non-sibilant fricative, ḫ. Akkadian lost both the glottal and pharyngeal fricatives, which are characteristic of the other Semitic languages, until the Old Babylonian period, the Akkadian sibilants were exclusively affricated. Old Akkadian is preserved on clay tablets dating back to c.2500 BC and it was written using cuneiform, a script adopted from the Sumerians using wedge-shaped symbols pressed in wet clay. As employed by Akkadian scribes, the cuneiform script could represent either Sumerian logograms, Sumerian syllables, Akkadian syllables. For this reason, the sign AN can on the one hand be a logogram for the word ilum, additionally, this sign was used as a determinative for divine names. Another peculiarity of Akkadian cuneiform is that many signs do not have a phonetic value. Certain signs, such as AḪ, do not distinguish between the different vowel qualities, nor is there any coordination in the other direction, the syllable -ša-, for example, is rendered by the sign ŠA, but also by the sign NĪĜ. Both of these are used for the same syllable in the same text
Akkadian
–
An Akkadian inscription
Akkadian
–
Cuneiform writing (Neoassyrian script) (1 = Logogram (LG) "mix"/syllabogram (SG) ḫi, 2 = LG "moat", 3 = SG aʾ, 4 = SG aḫ, eḫ, iḫ, uḫ, 5 = SG kam, 6 = SG im, 7 = SG bir)
Akkadian
–
The
Deluge tablet of the
Gilgamesh epic in Akkadian.
Akkadian
–
Geography
22.
Assyria
–
Assyria was a major Mesopotamian East Semitic-speaking kingdom and empire of the ancient Near East and the Levant. Centered on the Tigris in Upper Mesopotamia, the Assyrians came to rule powerful empires at several times. Assyria is named after its capital, the ancient city of Aššur. In the 25th and 24th centuries BC, Assyrian kings were pastoral leaders, Assyria can also refer to the geographic region or heartland where Assyria, its empires and the Assyrian people were centered. The indigenous modern Eastern Aramaic-speaking Assyrian Christian ethnic minority in northern Iraq, north east Syria, southeast Turkey, in prehistoric times, the region that was to become known as Assyria was home to a Neanderthal culture such as has been found at the Shanidar Cave. The earliest Neolithic sites in Assyria were the Jarmo culture c.7100 BC and Tell Hassuna, during the 3rd millennium BC, a very intimate cultural symbiosis developed between the Sumerians and the Akkadians throughout Mesopotamia, which included widespread bilingualism. The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian, and vice versa, is evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a scale, to syntactic, morphological. This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the third millennium BC as a sprachbund and it is highly likely that the city was named in honour of its patron Assyrian god with the same name. The city of Aššur, together with a number of other Assyrian cities, however it is likely that they were initially Sumerian-dominated administrative centres. In the late 26th century BC, Eannatum of Lagash, then the dominant Sumerian ruler in Mesopotamia, similarly, in c. the early 25th century BC, Lugal-Anne-Mundu the king of the Sumerian state of Adab lists Subartu as paying tribute to him. Of the early history of the kingdom of Assyria, little is known, in the Assyrian King List, the earliest king recorded was Tudiya. According to Georges Roux he would have lived in the mid 25th century BC, Tudiya was succeeded on the list by Adamu, the first known reference to the Semitic name Adam and then a further thirteen rulers. The earliest kings, such as Tudiya, who are recorded as kings who lived in tents, were independent semi-nomadic pastoralist rulers and these kings at some point became fully urbanised and founded the city state of Ashur in the mid 21st century BC. During the Akkadian Empire, the Assyrians, like all the Mesopotamian Semites, became subject to the dynasty of the city state of Akkad, the Akkadian Empire founded by Sargon the Great claimed to encompass the surrounding four quarters. Assyrian rulers were subject to Sargon and his successors, and the city of Ashur became an administrative center of the Empire. On those tablets, Assyrian traders in Burushanda implored the help of their ruler, Sargon the Great, the name Hatti itself even appears in later accounts of his grandson, Naram-Sin, campaigning in Anatolia. Assyrian and Akkadian traders spread the use of writing in the form of the Mesopotamian cuneiform script to Asia Minor, the Akkadian Empire was destroyed by economic decline and internal civil war, followed by attacks from barbarian Gutian people in 2154 BC. The rulers of Assyria during the period between c.2154 BC and 2112 BC once again fully independent, as the Gutians are only known to have administered southern Mesopotamia
Assyria
–
Letter sent by the high-priest Lu'enna to the king of
Lagash (maybe
Urukagina), informing him of his son's death in combat, c. 2400 BC, found in
Girsu.
Assyria
–
Overview map of the Ancient Near East in the 15th century BC (Middle Assyrian period), showing the core territory of Assyria with its two major cities
Assur and
Nineveh wedged between
Babylonia downstream (to the south-east) and the states of
Mitanni and
Hatti upstream (to the north-west).
Assyria
–
Assyrian attack on a town with archers and a wheeled battering ram, 865–860 BC
Assyria
–
Jehu, king of
Israel, bows before Shalmaneser III of Assyria, 825 BC
23.
Babylonia
–
Babylonia was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in central-southern Mesopotamia. A small Amorite-ruled state emerged in 1894 BC, which contained at this time the city of Babylon. Babylon greatly expanded during the reign of Hammurabi in the first half of the 18th century BC, during the reign of Hammurabi and afterwards, Babylonia was called Māt Akkadī the country of Akkad in the Akkadian language. It was often involved in rivalry with its older fellow Akkadian-speaking state of Assyria in northern Mesopotamia and it retained the Sumerian language for religious use, but by the time Babylon was founded, this was no longer a spoken language, having been wholly subsumed by Akkadian. The earliest mention of the city of Babylon can be found in a tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad. During the 3rd millennium BC, a cultural symbiosis occurred between Sumerian and Akkadian-speakers, which included widespread bilingualism. The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian and vice versa is evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a scale, to syntactic, morphological. This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the millennium as a sprachbund. Traditionally, the religious center of all Mesopotamia was the city of Nippur. The empire eventually disintegrated due to decline, climate change and civil war. Sumer rose up again with the Third Dynasty of Ur in the late 22nd century BC and they also seem to have gained ascendancy over most of the territory of the Akkadian kings of Assyria in northern Mesopotamia for a time. The states of the south were unable to stem the Amorite advance, King Ilu-shuma of the Old Assyrian Empire in a known inscription describes his exploits to the south as follows, The freedom of the Akkadians and their children I established. I established their freedom from the border of the marshes and Ur and Nippur, Awal, past scholars originally extrapolated from this text that it means he defeated the invading Amorites to the south, but there is no explicit record of that. More recently, the text has been taken to mean that Asshur supplied the south with copper from Anatolia and these policies were continued by his successors Erishum I and Ikunum. During the first centuries of what is called the Amorite period and his reign was concerned with establishing statehood amongst a sea of other minor city states and kingdoms in the region. However Sumuabum appears never to have bothered to give himself the title of King of Babylon, suggesting that Babylon itself was only a minor town or city. He was followed by Sumu-la-El, Sabium, Apil-Sin, each of whom ruled in the same manner as Sumuabum. Sin-Muballit was the first of these Amorite rulers to be regarded officially as a king of Babylon, the Elamites occupied huge swathes of southern Mesopotamia, and the early Amorite rulers were largely held in vassalage to Elam
Babylonia
–
The extent of the Babylonian Empire at the start and end of Hammurabi's reign
Babylonia
–
Old Babylonian
Cylinder Seal,
hematite, The king makes an animal offering to
Shamash. This seal was probably made in a workshop at
Sippar.
Babylonia
–
Geography
24.
Lunar deity
–
In mythology, a lunar deity is a god or goddess associated with or symbolizing the moon. These deities can have a variety of functions and traditions depending upon the culture, even though they may be related, they are distinct from the solar deity. Lunar deities can be male or female, but are usually held to be the opposite sex of the corresponding solar deity. Some form of worship can be found in most ancient religions. Many of the most well-known mythologies feature female lunar deities, such as the Greek goddesses Phoebe, Artemis, Selene, male lunar gods are also frequent, such as Sin of the Mesopotamians, Mani of the Germanic tribes, and the Japanese god Tsukuyomi. These cultures usually featured female Sun goddesses, there are also many lunar deities that were prevalent in Greek and Egyptian civilizations. For example, Ibis and Chonsu of Thebes were both lunar deities, Thoth was also a lunar deity, but his character is considerably more complex than Ibis and Chonsu. Set represented the Moon in the Egyptian Calendar of Lucky and Unlucky Days of papyrus Cairo 86637, the original Proto-Indo-European lunar deity appears to have been a male god. In subsequent traditions, the number of male moon deities seem to vastly outnumber female ones, which appear to be an exclusively eastern Mediterranean invention. Several goddesses, like Artemis or Hecate, did not originally have lunar aspects, and only acquired them late in antiquity, due to syncretism with Selene/Luna, the de facto Greco-Latin lunar deity. In traditions with male gods, there is evidence of such syncretism. In Greece proper, remnants of male gods are also seen with Menelaus. Also of significance is that many religions and societies are oriented chronologically by the Moon as opposed to the sun, one common example is Hinduism in which the word Chandra means Moon and has religious significance during many Hindu festivals. The moon is also worshipped in witchcraft, both in its form and in Medieval times, for example, in the cult of Madonna Oriente. It features prominently in art and literature and also the influence of the moon in human affairs remains a feature of astrology and theology
Lunar deity
–
The Hindu
Chandra, riding his celestial chariot.
Lunar deity
–
Physical lunar features
25.
Ur-Nammu
–
Ur-Nammu founded the Sumerian 3rd dynasty of Ur, in southern Mesopotamia, following several centuries of Akkadian and Gutian rule. His main achievement was state-building, and Ur-Nammu is chiefly remembered today for his code, the Code of Ur-Nammu. Year-names are known for 17 of Ur-Nammus 18 years, but their order is uncertain, among his military exploits were the conquest of Lagash and the defeat of his former masters at Uruk. He was eventually recognized as a significant regional ruler at a coronation in Nippur, and is believed to have constructed buildings at Nippur, Larsa, Kish, Adab and he was known for restoring the roads and general order after the Gutian period. Ur Nammu was also responsible for ordering the construction of a number of stepped temples, called ziggurats and he was succeeded by his son Shulgi, after an eighteen-year reign. His death on the battle-field against the Gutians was commemorated in a long Sumerian poetic composition, in 1925, a shattered nine-foot tall limestone pillar was discovered in Mesopotamia. Under the remote supervision of Leonard Woolley, it was reconstructed by the Penn Museum, in 1985, Jeanny Canby determined that it had been pieced back incorrectly. She removed the plaster filler of the stele, and added the rearranged pieces she found in the museums storeroom and its an amazingly intimate scene for a royal monument, she said. Sumerian king list Site drawings of the built by Ur-Nammu at Ur to the moon god Nanna. Nabonidus dedication to the Ziggurat The Code of Ur-Nammu at Britannica Foundation Figurine of King Ur-Nammu at the Oriental Institute of Chicago The Ur-Nammu Stela
Ur-Nammu
–
Stela of Ur-Nammu
Ur-Nammu
–
A brick stamped with the name of Ur-Nammu of Ur
26.
Nabonidus
–
Nabonidus was the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, reigning from 556–539 BC. Modern perceptions of Nabonidus reign have been colored by accounts written well after his reign as king of Babylon, most notably by the Persians. As a result, Nabonidus has often described in very negative terms in both modern and contemporaneous scholarship. However, an accumulation of evidence and a reassessment of existing material has caused opinions on Nabonidus and he said in his inscriptions that he was of unimportant origins. Similarly, his mother Addagoppe, who lived to an old age and may have connected to the temple of the moon-god Sîn in Harran. He certainly did not belong to the ruling dynasty, the Chaldeans. He came to the throne in 556 BC by overthrowing the young king Labashi-Marduk, Nabonidus took an interest in Babylons past, excavating ancient buildings and displaying his archeological discoveries in a museum. In most ancient accounts, he is depicted as a royal anomaly and he left the capital for the desert oasis of Tayma in Arabia early in his reign, from which he only returned after many years. In the meantime, his son Belshazzar ruled from Babylon, Nabonidus is most revered and is known as the first archaeologist. He was also the first to date an archaeological artifact in his attempt to date Naram-Sins temple during his search for it. Even though his estimate was inaccurate by about 1500 years, it was still a good one considering the lack of accurate dating technology at the time. ). Although Nabonidus personal preference for Sîn is clear, the strength of this preference divides scholars, in any case, there is no sign of the civil unrest during his reign that would have been indicative of trouble. Part of the propaganda issued by both the Marduk priesthood and Cyrus is the story of Nabonidus taking the most important cultic statues from southern Mesopotamia hostage in Babylon, till the end of the month Ulûlu all the gods of Akkad -those from above and those from below- entered Babylon. The gods of Borsippa, Cutha, and Sippar did not enter, however, modern scholarship has provided an explanation for this action. In Mesopotamia, gods were supposed to be housed inside their statues, but this only happened if they received the right kind of attention. So Nabonidus took special care of these statues and made sure that their personnel had to come along with him. Assyrian and Babylonian sources of the first millennium frequently allude to the removal of statues from the temples as the result of a city being conquered. Spoliated statues were carried off to the land of the victorious power where they remained in captivity until a turn of events would allow them to be restored to their shrines
Nabonidus
–
Nabonidus in relief showing him praying to the moon, sun and Venus (British Museum)
Nabonidus
–
Terracotta cylinder by Nabonidus concerning repairs on the temple of
Sîn,
British Museum
Nabonidus
–
Granite stele of the Babylonian king Nabonidus. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul Archeological Museums,Turkey.
27.
Babylon
–
Babylon was a major city of ancient Mesopotamia in the fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The city was built upon the Euphrates and divided in parts along its left and right banks. Babylon was originally a small Semitic Akkadian city dating from the period of the Akkadian Empire c.2300 BC, the town attained independence as part of a small city-state with the rise of the First Amorite Babylonian Dynasty in 1894 BC. Babylon grew and South Mesopotamia came to be known as Babylonia, the empire quickly dissolved after Hammurabis death and Babylon spent long periods under Assyrian, Kassite and Elamite domination. After being destroyed and then rebuilt by the Assyrians, Babylon became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 609 to 539 BC, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. After the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the city came under the rule of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Roman, and Sassanid empires. It has been estimated that Babylon was the largest city in the world from c.1770 to 1670 BC and it was perhaps the first city to reach a population above 200,000. Estimates for the extent of its area range from 890 to 900 hectares. The remains of the city are in present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometres south of Baghdad, comprising a large tell of broken mud-brick buildings, the English Babylon comes from Greek Babylṓn, a transliteration of the Akkadian Babili. The Babylonian name in the early 2nd millennium BC had been Babilli or Babilla, by the 1st millennium BC, it had changed to Babili under the influence of the folk etymology which traced it to bāb-ili. The Gate of God or Gate of El being from the Aramaic Hebrew Bab for Gate and El for God and this being similar to the Hebrew word for confusion Balal. In the Bible, the name appears as Babel, interpreted in the Hebrew Scriptures Book of Genesis to mean confusion, the modern English verb, to babble, or to speak meaningless words, is popularly thought to derive from this name, but there is no direct connection. The remains of the city are in present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad, comprising a large tell of broken mud-brick buildings and debris. The site at Babylon consists of a number of mounds covering an area of about 2 by 1 kilometer, oriented north to south, along the Euphrates to the west. Originally, the river roughly bisected the city, but the course of the river has since shifted so that most of the remains of the western part of the city are now inundated. Some portions of the city wall to the west of the river also remain, remains of the city include, Kasr—also called Palace or Castle, it is the location of the Neo-Babylonian ziggurat Etemenanki and lies in the center of the site. Amran Ibn Ali—the highest of the mounds at 25 meters, to the south and it is the site of Esagila, a temple of Marduk which also contained shrines to Ea and Nabu. Homera—a reddish colored mound on the west side, most of the Hellenistic remains are here
Babylon
–
A partial view of the ruins of Babylon from
Saddam Hussein 's Summer Palace
Babylon
–
Plan of Ruins of Babylon, 1905
Babylon
–
Babylon in 1932
Babylon
–
The
Queen of the Night relief. The figure could be an aspect of the goddess
Ishtar, Babylonian goddess of sex and love.
28.
Urban planning
–
Urban planning is also referred to as urban and regional planning, regional planning, town planning, city planning, rural planning or some combination in various areas worldwide. It takes many forms and it can share perspectives and practices with urban design, urban planning guides orderly development in urban, suburban and rural areas. Practitioners of urban planning are concerned with research and analysis, strategic thinking, architecture, urban design, public consultation, policy recommendations, implementation and management. Urban planners work with the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, civil engineering. Early urban planners were often members of these cognate fields, today urban planning is a separate, independent professional discipline. The discipline is the category that includes different sub-fields such as land-use planning, zoning, economic development, environmental planning. There is evidence of planning and designed communities dating back to the Mesopotamian, Indus Valley, Minoan. Archeologists studying the ruins of cities in these areas find paved streets that were out at right angles in a grid pattern. The idea of a planned out urban area evolved as different civilizations adopted it, beginning in the 8th century BCE, Greek city states were primarily centered on orthogonal plans. The ancient Romans, inspired by the Greeks, also used orthogonal plans for their cities, city planning in the Roman world was developed for military defense and public convenience. The spread of the Roman Empire subsequently spread the ideas of urban planning, as the Roman Empire declined, these ideas slowly disappeared. However, many cities in Europe still held onto the planned Roman city center, cities in Europe from the 9th to 14th centuries, often grew organically and sometimes chaotically. But many hundreds of new towns were built according to preconceived plans. Most of these were realized from the 12th to 14th centuries, from the 15th century on, much more is recorded of urban design and the people that were involved. In this period, theoretical treatises on architecture and urban planning start to appear in which questions are addressed and designs of towns. During the Enlightenment period, several European rulers ambitiously attempted to redesign capital cities, during the Second French Republic, Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann, under the direction of Napoleon III, redesigned the city of Paris into a more modern capital, with long, straight, wide boulevards. Planning and architecture went through a shift at the turn of the 20th century. The industrialized cities of the 19th century grew at a tremendous rate, the pace and style of this industrial construction was largely dictated by the concerns of private business
Urban planning
–
Urban planning designs settlements, from the smallest towns to the largest cities. Shown here is
Hong Kong from Western District overlooking
Kowloon, across
Victoria Harbour.
29.
Water resource management
–
Water resource management is the activity of planning, developing, distributing and managing the optimum use of water resources. It is a sub-set of water cycle management, ideally, water resource management planning has regard to all the competing demands for water and seeks to allocate water on an equitable basis to satisfy all uses and demands. As with other resource management, this is possible in practice. Water is a resource for all life on the planet. Of the water resources on Earth only three percent of it is fresh and two-thirds of the freshwater is locked up in ice caps and glaciers. Of the remaining one percent, a fifth is in remote, inaccessible areas and much rainfall in monsoonal deluges. As time advances, water is becoming scarcer and having access to clean, safe, at present only about 0.08 percent of all the world’s fresh water is exploited by mankind in ever increasing demand for sanitation, drinking, manufacturing, leisure and agriculture. Due to the percentage of water remaining, optimizing the fresh water we have left from natural resources has been a continuous difficulty in several locations worldwide. Much effort in water management is directed at optimizing the use of water. Examples include rare species or ecosystems or the long term value of ancient groundwater reserves. Agriculture is the largest user of the freshwater resources, consuming 70 percent. It assessed the current availability of water for agriculture on a global scale and it found that a fifth of the worlds people, more than 1.2 billion, live in areas of physical water scarcity, where there is not enough water to meet all their demands. Regarding food production, the World Bank targets agricultural food production and water management as an increasingly global issue that is fostering an important. The authors of the book Out of Water, From abundance to Scarcity and How to Solve the Worlds Water Problems, which laid down a six-point plan for solving the worlds water problems. To avoid a water crisis, farmers will have to strive to increase productivity to meet growing demands for food, while industry. As the carrying capacity of the Earth increases greatly due to technological advances and this rapid urbanization happens worldwide but mostly in new rising economies and developing countries. Cities in Africa and Asia are growing fastest with 28 out of 39 megacities worldwide in these developing nations, the number of megacities will continue to rise reaching approximately 50 in 2025. With developing economies water scarcity is a common and very prevalent issue
Water resource management
–
Air
Water resource management
–
Visualisation of the distribution (by volume) of water on Earth. Each tiny cube (such as the one representing biological water) corresponds to approximately 1000 cubic km of water, with a mass of approximately 1 trillion tonnes (2000 times that of the
Great Pyramid of Giza or 5 times that of
Lake Kariba, arguably the heaviest man-made object). The entire block comprises 1 million tiny cubes.
30.
Flood control
–
Flood control refers to all methods used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters. Flood relief refers to methods used to reduce the effects of flood waters or high water levels, Flooding can be exacerbated by increased amounts of impervious surface or by other natural hazards such as wildfires, which reduce the supply of vegetation that can absorb rainfall. Periodic floods occur on many rivers, forming a region known as the flood plain. During times of rain, some of the water is retained in ponds or soil, some is absorbed by grass and vegetation, some evaporates, floods occur when ponds, lakes, riverbeds, soil, and vegetation cannot absorb all the water. Water then runs off the land in quantities that cannot be carried within stream channels or retained in ponds, lakes. About 30 percent of all precipitation becomes runoff and that amount might be increased by water from melting snow, River flooding is often caused by heavy rain, sometimes increased by melting snow. A flood that rises rapidly, with little or no warning, is called a flash flood, flash floods usually result from intense rainfall over a relatively small area, or if the area was already saturated from previous precipitation. Even when rainfall is light, the shorelines of lakes. Coastal areas are flooded by unusually high tides, such as spring tides, especially when compounded by high winds. It damages property and endangers the lives of humans and other species, rapid water runoff causes soil erosion and concomitant sediment deposition elsewhere. The spawning grounds for fish and other wildlife habitats can become polluted or completely destroyed, some prolonged high floods can delay traffic in areas which lack elevated roadways. Floods can interfere with drainage and economical use of lands, such as interfering with farming, structural damage can occur in bridge abutments, bank lines, sewer lines, and other structures within floodways. Waterway navigation and hydroelectric power are often impaired, financial losses due to floods are typically millions of dollars each year, with the worst floods in recent U. S. history having cost billions of dollars. There are many effects of flooding on human settlements and economic activities. However, flooding can bring benefits, such as making soil more fertile, periodic flooding was essential to the well-being of ancient communities along the Tigris-Euphrates Rivers, the Nile River, the Indus River, the Ganges and the Yellow River, among others. The viability for hydrologically based renewable sources of energy is higher in flood-prone regions, some methods of flood control have been practiced since ancient times. These methods include planting vegetation to retain water, terracing hillsides to slow flow downhill. Other techniques include the construction of levees, lakes, dams, reservoirs and this is the method used for remote sensing the disasters
Flood control
–
A
weir was built on the
Humber River (Ontario) to prevent a recurrence of a catastrophic flood.
Flood control
–
Flood blocking the road in
Jerusalem
Flood control
–
Air
_but_2500_-_6000_y.o..JPG)
_(14767185992).jpg)
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ur". Encyclopædia Britannica. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 783=784.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). 
