ABSTRACT
Assyria and Babylonia – the two parts of Mesopotamia – were different in manyways: there were different ecological and economical situations, different dialects of the Akkadian language and different historical developments. Northern Mesopotamia, which comprises the highlands of the Syrian djezira as well as the foothills and hilly flanks of the Taurus and Zagros mountains, has a wetter climate, allowing for dry-farming. It belongs to the eastern part of the ‘Fertile Crescent’ that stretches from Palestine through Syria and Northern Mesopotamia to South-east Iran. It was here in the north that the first farming villages in Mesopotamia emerged around 8000 BCE. In the flat alluvial plain of Southern Mesopotamia, agriculture needed artificial irrigation. Settlements occurred later here than in the north. During the third millennium BCE, the Sumerian culture developed in the south starting from urban centres such as Uruk or Ur. The population of Southern Mesopotamia consisted of a mixture of Sumerian-and Akkadian-speaking groups together with peoples from the east and (later) Amorites from the west. The Sumerian culture was an urban one based on agriculture and irrigation and with a social structure characterised by functional stratification and strong institutional ties and loyalties. Over the centuries the Sumerian political units developed from city states to larger administrative networks. This development reached its peak in the empire of Ur III towards the end of the millennium. Under the kings of Ur, most of Mesopotamia was under Sumerian control.
