Culture of Ancient Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia). The religious system of the ancient two rivers

worldview and religion.

In ancient Mesopotamia, as in ancient Egypt, myths played an important role in the perception and explanation of the surrounding reality, as well as in the preservation and transmission of culture. Sumerian mythology is one of the oldest. Myths about the creation of the world, oh global flood were born Sumerians. The mythology of Mesopotamia mainly reflects the ideas of the peoples who lived in irrigation agriculture, as well as sedentary hunters and cattle breeders (cosmogonic myths).

The most significant phenomenon of Akkado-Babylonian and Mesopotamian mythology in general was the theogonic poem "Enuma Elish" - a myth about the creation of the world, the origin of man, his role on earth.

Religion in ancient Mesopotamia did not constitute a coherent system, but consisted of separate local cults: each large city had its own patron who protected the interests of its inhabitants. Along with this, common cosmic deities were revered throughout Mesopotamia. Therefore, we can talk about a certain continuity in the development of the mythology of the religion of the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians and Assyrians, who inhabited Mesopotamia at that time. The first state The gods appeared in 3000 BC. as different cities: Kish, Uruk, Lagash, Ur, etc. - acted as the unifiers of their region. The conquerors who came to Babylonia - Akkadians, Amorites, Kassites, Arameans, Chaldeans - borrowed the local pantheon, replenishing it with their deities. At the end of the 3rd millennium BC. e. in connection with the strengthening of a single despotic state, local cults merged into a common pantheon for the whole country.

Deities were associated with various aspects of life. In a country whose whole life depended on agriculture, deities - the patrons of fertility, agricultural labor, and a generous harvest - enjoyed special reverence. The supreme deities were considered the sky god Anu (father of the gods), the earth god Enlil (wind, air and at the same time the determinant of fate, the creator of cities, the inventor of agricultural tools), water - Enki (Ea is the world ocean, the keeper of the deities. Wisdom, adviser to the gods), wars Nergal (ruler of the underworld), Adad (storm, thunder, lightning), Ninurta (vegetation, victorious war), the goddess of love and fertility - Ishtar (she was also the patroness of the city of Uruk) “was in charge”. Because agriculture, the time of river floods was closely associated with the observation of the sun and moon, they became objects of worship. The sun became the personification of the god Shamash (justice), Sin - the moon, Ishtar - the planet Venus. Of great importance was the cult of dying and resurrecting deities of vegetation, cattle breeding (Tammuz).

Each of the deities was dedicated to its own temple, which became the center of the city-state. The Sumerians believed that the city-states were owned and ruled by the gods themselves. Therefore, peasants and slaves cultivated special plots of land either to temples or to landowners who paid part of the crop as rent. Few people had the right to own land. Rents, gifts, offerings, as well as crops received from the lands, belonged to the gods, were used for the needs of temples and to help the poorest citizens. In addition to priests and priestesses, each temple had a large staff of officials, scribes, artisans, cooks, and cleaners. Temples had great amount slaves that they got after the division of trophies.

The veneration of the gods was carried out through the performance of magnificent ceremonies, solemn processions, magic spells and actions. The ancient inhabitants perceived their gods not as spiritual entities, but as completely material entities. Like quite a mother. in essence, they fed God, brought gifts, built a house for him - a temple. A pantheon of gods, like a human. society had a hierarchical structure i.e. the main gods and minor deities subordinate to them were distinguished. Each god, depending on his position, was assigned def. quantity of food, gifts, volume of services, size of the temple premises. The essence of cult actions was aimed at consolidating the ruling elite, ruling the country, into a cat. leading role the priestly corporation played, not the state. bureaucracy headed by the king.

The funeral cult did not receive such significant development in Mesopotamia as in Egypt, and there was no idea that the soul of a deceased person should return to the sculpted likeness of a living body. Another feature that distinguished the Babylonian religion. system from the Egyptian, was the weak development of the ideology of deification royal power. The attempts of some rulers of the 3rd millennium BC, in particular Naram-Suen, Shulgi and others, to deify their personality did not continue. Even Hammurabi didn't dare to do that. (on a pillar with laws, he is depicted as a humble petitioner before the formidable god Shamash.)

During the period of the rise of Babylon (beginning of the 1st millennium), Marduk was declared the supreme deity - the patron of this city, the king of the gods, the creator of the existing world: heaven and earth, plants and animals, man himself, combining the functions of the main gods of Babylonia. Along with the supreme deity, 7 main gods were recognized, which served as the basis for the modern seven-day week. They formed the council of elders in the pantheon of the gods. The gods were portrayed as patrons of the king, which contributed to the formation of the ideology of the deification of strong royal power.

The spiritual life of the Mesopotamian city-states was distinguished by the fact that each city had its own symbolic image in the form of an animal, its god, the planet that patronized it, the day of the week, especially revered. Special meaning had the number seven. There were seven most important cities, seven planets, gods and seven days of the week.

The religion of the ancient peoples of Mesopotamia illuminated the existing social order: the ruler of the city-state was considered a descendant of the gods, not only royal power was deified, but also the cult of dead kings. However, unlike Egypt in Mesopotamia, the cult of the dead and the idea of ​​deifying the king did not receive such development and scope as in Ancient Egypt.

Knowledge.

Scientific knowledge was inscribed in the religious worldview. Specialized knowledge was kept secret by closed priestly castes.

The Sumerian priests made systematic observations of nature. Based on these observations, it was found that the year is 365 days, 6 hours, 15 minutes, 41 seconds. The Sumerians already in 3 thousand BC. found that the morning and evening stars are the same planet. On this basis, appropriate forecasts and predictions were made regarding economic activities and events in the general life of the state, as well as rulers. By the 1st millennium BC the Babylonians already knew five planets. The Sumerians knew how to determine the length of the lunar month, the time of the spring and autumn equinoxes. On this basis, they created a system of zodiac signs - 12 constellations, the basics of their symbols have been preserved to this day. From the 7th century BC. in Babylon there was an official position of court astronomer. His task was to systematically record the most important changes and phenomena in the sky.

Astrology was developed in Mesopotamia. Babylonian astronomers for the first time in the history of mankind calculated the laws of circulation of the Sun, Moon and other planets; repeatability of eclipses; established a seven-day week (each day was patronized by a deity and its symbol - the luminary) and, in general, they were significantly ahead of the Egyptians in astronomical observations.

The Sumerians were the first to develop and record the farmer's calendar, and left the first information about protective plantings. The inhabitants of Ancient Mesopotamia were able to determine the exact time, orient the walls of cities and towers to 4 cardinal points, connected the Tigris and Euphrates by shipping channels exactly along the 33rd parallel.

The Sumerians and Babylonians were excellent mathematicians. Mathematics of Mesopotamia was more than high level than the Egyptian. Here they knew the decimal count, they also used the hexadecimal basis of the count, from which the division of the circle into 360 degrees arose, the hour into 60 minutes, and the minute into 60 seconds. The Sumerians and Babylonians knew exponentiation, extracted roots, used fractions, and mastered the technique of solving quadratic equations. They solved linear and quadratic equations in two unknowns, and even solved problems that reduced to cubic and biquadratic equations. They introduced into use large numerical values, which were not used in Europe even in the 18th century. The Babylonians knew a theorem known as the Pythagorean theorem. They also knew the laws of geometry very well. In ancient Babylon, they knew how to calculate percentages, measure the area, volume of various geometric shapes.

The medical ideas of the peoples of Mesopotamia were quite developed. Already in those days they performed surgical operations, knew the healing properties of various herbs, were able to diagnose diseases by outward signs and treat them with ointments, powders and tinctures, and the recipe was often quite complex. In the era of King Hammurabi (XVII century BC), there was already a certain specialization, in particular surgery and the treatment of eye diseases.

However, unlike the Egyptians, due to the prohibition of anatomy, knowledge of anatomy was not very deep.

Education.

In the cities there were schools for scribes and schools for the children of the rich. On clay tablets, a description of the system of education and punishment in the Sumerian school was preserved, which was used approximately four thousand years ago. At school, children were taught cuneiform writing, fluent reading of cuneiform signs, counting and arithmetic rules. Some especially gifted students had knowledge in algebra and geometry.

Libraries and archives were created at schools, large temples and palaces - one of the greatest achievements of Babylonian and Assyrian culture. Even in the ancient cities of Sumer, scribes (the first educated people and the first officials) collected literary, religious, scientific texts and created repositories, private libraries.

One of the most large libraries of that time - the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (VII century BC), which kept all the most important works of Babylonian and Assyrian literature. The library contained about 30 thousand clay tablets recording the most important historical events, laws, literary and scientific texts. The collection of Ashurbanipal was not only the largest for its time: it was hardly the first real, systematically selected and arranged library in the world. The books were placed in a certain order, the pages were numbered. There were even original catalog cards, which outlined the contents of the book, indicating the series and number of tablets in each series of texts. The library was found in 1849-1854. on the site of Nineveh during excavations of the Ku-yunjik hill on the left bank of the Tigris.

Ancient Greek geographers called Mesopotamia (“the country between the rivers”) a vast area in the Tigris and Euphrates basins, which was distinguished by exceptional fertility and an advantageous geographical position at the intersection of the most important trade routes. In this area lived numerous nations who spoke in different languages. The first states arose in the southern part of Mesopotamia, where the Sumerians lived - a people of mysterious origin and language. The ancient Sumerian cities - Ur, Uruk, Lagash, Nippur arose at the end of the 4th millennium BC. e. At the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. Babylon became the largest city in Mesopotamia, and the state of Assyria arose in the eastern part of Northern Mesopotamia with its center in the city of Nineveh. The cultural achievements of the Sumerians were assimilated and developed by the Babylonians and Assyrians.

One of the most outstanding achievements the ancient Sumerians had the invention of writing - cuneiform. Sumerian cuneiform was borrowed by many peoples of Asia Minor. The rich Sumerian literature was represented by poems, lyrics, myths, hymns, epic tales. Special Genre represented laments - works about the death of Sumerian cities as a result of raids by neighboring tribes. The most famous monument of Sumerian literature is the cycle of epic tales about the hero Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, who sought immortality for himself and other people. The poem contains a story about a global flood, then repeated in the biblical book of Genesis. In the literature of the peoples of Mesopotamia significant place occupied by works that tell about the life of the gods, the creation of the world, for example, the epic "When at the top ...", compiled in the 2nd millennium BC. e. and dedicated to the main Babylonian god Marduk. By the 7th century BC e. the most famous Assyrian work goes back - "The Tale of Akihar", a wise scribe and adviser to the Assyrian kings. Its text was very popular in the East and even in Europe (in Russia this work was known as "The Tale of Akira the Wise").

One of the greatest achievements of Babylonian and Assyrian culture was the creation of libraries. The largest of them was founded by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (VII century BC) in his palace in the city of Nineveh. It was the first systematic collection of books in the world where clay books were placed in a specific order. Clay was the main writing material in ancient Mesopotamia. Even man, and he, according to the ancient Sumerian myth, was created from clay.

formed in Sumer certain type temple architecture, characterized by the use of high artificial platforms on which the central temple was installed. Such Temple towers - ziggurats - were an indispensable accessory of every city. One of the most ancient was the ziggurat of the moon god Sin, 18 m high, which was discovered by archaeologists in the city of Ur. However, the most famous was the sanctuary of the Babylonians Esagila - the Temple of the god Marduk. It was a square building, which adjoined a seven-step ziggurat 91 m high - Etemenanki. Named in the Bible Tower of Babel, he became a symbol of immoderate human pride.

great success the architects of ancient Mesopotamia achieved in the construction of palace complexes. An example is the palace of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II (7th–6th centuries BC), part of which was the famous Hanging Gardens, which in ancient times was called the “wonder of the world”.

The specificity of the Mesopotamian culture lies in the fact that it was strongly imprinted environment. Life in Mesopotamia was endangered due to the unpredictability of the floods of the Tigris and Euphrates, so a person was not inclined to overestimate his strength, and recognized the veracity of death. The people of Mesopotamia did not have a developed funeral cult, such as in ancient Egypt. On the contrary, the value of life stimulated a person to live wisely and meaningfully in order to leave a memory of himself in the hearts of people. The Sumerians, and then their successors - the Babylonians and Assyrians - were able to pass on many amazing achievements to other peoples. The Sumerians knew moon calendar set the length of the solar year. They invented a wheel for a wagon, a potter's wheel and colored glass, bronze, they were the first to put a sail on a boat. The Sumerians created legal codes; around 2300 BC e. the first professional army was formed; around 2000 B.C. e. arithmetic was created, which was based on the sexagesimal calculus system.

In the 19th century BC e. The laws of the king of Babylon Hammurabi were written down, where the idea of ​​the divine origin of laws and the idea of ​​appealing to an objective judge were affirmed. The Code of Laws of Hammurabi has become a model of legislation for many states of the Middle East.

The material and spiritual values ​​accumulated by the peoples of Mesopotamia had a huge impact on the culture of neighboring peoples. The influence of Mesopotamian literature on the formation of Old Testament plots was especially great. These include: the idea of ​​paradise - the garden of the gods; the plot of the creation of man from dust (clay), and women - from the rib of a man; a description of the global flood and the salvation, by the will of the gods, of a single person on a pre-built vessel (“Noah's Ark”). And there are many such plots included in the culture of other peoples.

Thus, the culture of Mesopotamia, which existed simultaneously with the Egyptian, had peculiar features. Many of its elements have entered the culture of modern peoples.

In the history of world culture, the Mesopotamian civilization is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, in the world. It was in Sumer at the end of the 4th millennium BC. e. humanity for the first time left the stage of primitiveness and entered the era of antiquity, here begins true story humanity The transition from primitive to antiquity, "from barbarism to civilization" means the emergence of a fundamentally new type of culture and the birth of a new type of consciousness.

The spirit of Mesopotamian culture reflected the crushing power of nature. The man was not inclined to overestimate his strength, observing such powerful natural phenomena like a thunderstorm or an annual flood. The Tigris and Euphrates often flooded violently and unpredictably, destroying dams and flooding crops. Heavy rains turned the solid surface of the earth into a sea of ​​mud and deprived a person of freedom of movement. The nature of Mesopotamia crushed and trampled on the will of man, constantly made him feel how powerless and insignificant he was. In such an environment, a person was fully aware of his weakness and understood that he was involved in the game of monstrous irrational forces.

Interaction with natural forces gave rise to tragic moods, which found expression in people's ideas about the world in which they lived. Man saw order in it, cosmos, not chaos. But this order did not ensure his safety, as it was established through the interaction of many powerful forces, potentially diverging from each other, periodically entering into mutual conflicts. Therefore, all present and future events arose and were controlled by a single will of natural forces united together, the hierarchy and relationships of which resembled a state. With such a view of the world, there was no division into animate or inanimate, living and dead. In such a universe, any objects and phenomena had their own will and character.

In a culture that viewed the entire universe as a state, obedience had to be the first virtue, because the state is built on obedience, on the unconditional acceptance of power. Therefore, in Mesopotamia, the "good life" was also the "obedient life." The individual stood at the center of expanding circles of power that limited his freedom of action. The circle of power closest to him included his own family: father, mother, older brothers and sisters, and disobeying the older members of the family was only the beginning, a pretext for more serious offenses, because outside the family there are other circles of power: the state, society , gods.

This well-established system of obedience was the rule of life in ancient Mesopotamia, because man was created from clay, mixed with the blood of the gods and created for the slave service of the gods, to work instead of the gods and for the gods. Accordingly, a diligent and obedient slave could count on signs of mercy and rewards from his master. And on the contrary, a careless, disobedient slave, of course, could not even dream of it.

Euphrates, i.e. in Mesopotamia. Or, say, comparing the biblical description of the creation of the world in the Book of Genesis with the Babylonian poem "Enuma Elish" ("When Above"), we can be convinced that cosmogony, the creation of man from clay and the rest of the creator after hard work coincide in many details.

Mesopotamian spiritual culture a huge impact on the culture of many ancient Eastern peoples, mainly in Western Asia. And in subsequent eras, the spiritual heritage of the ancient peoples of Mesopotamia was not forgotten and firmly entered the treasury of world culture.

The culture of Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia) arose at about the same time as the Egyptian. It is worth noting that it developed in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and existed from the 4th millennium BC. until the middle of the VI century. BC. Unlike the Egyptian culture of Mesopotamia, it was not homogeneous; it was formed in the process of repeated interpenetration of several ethnic groups and peoples, and therefore was multilayer.

The main inhabitants of Mesopotamia were Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians and Chaldeans in the south: Assyrians, Hurrians and Arameans in the north. The culture of Sumer reached the greatest development and importance. Do not forget that Babylonia and Assyria.

The origin of the Sumerian ethnos is still a mystery. It is only known that in the IV millennium BC. the southern part of Mesopotamia is inhabited by the Sumerians and lay the foundations for the entire subsequent civilization of this region. Like the Egyptian, this civilization was river. By the beginning of the III millennium BC. in the south of Mesopotamia there will be several city-states, the main ones being Ur, Uruk, Lagash, Jlapca, etc. It is worth noting that they alternately play a leading role in uniting the country.

The history of Sumer knew several ups and downs.
It should be noted that the XXIV-XXIII centuries deserve special mention. BC when the elevation occurs Semitic city of Akkad north of Sumer. Under King Sargon the Ancient of Akkad, I succeed in subordinating all Sumer to her power. Akkadian replaces Sumerian and becomes the main language throughout Mesopotamia. It is important to know that Semitic art also has a great influence on the entire region. In general, the significance of the Akkadian period in the history of Sumer turned out to be so significant that some authors call the entire culture given period Sumero-Akkadian.

Culture of Sumer

The basis of the economy of Sumer was agriculture with a developed irrigation system. Hence it is clear why one of the main monuments of Sumerian literature was the "Agricultural Almanac", containing instructions on farming - how to maintain soil fertility and avoid salinization. Don't forget that importance had also cattle breeding. metallurgy. Already at the beginning of the III millennium BC. the Sumerians began to manufacture bronze tools, and at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. entered into iron age. From the middle of the III millennium BC. potter's wheel is used in the production of dishes. Other crafts are successfully developing - weaving, stone-cutting, blacksmithing. Extensive trade and exchange takes place both between the Sumerian cities and with other countries - Egypt, Iran. India, the states of Asia Minor.

It should be emphasized the importance Sumerian writing. The cuneiform script invented by the Sumerians turned out to be the most successful and effective. Improved in the II millennium BC. Phoenicians, it formed the basis of almost all modern alphabets.

System religious and mythological ideas and cults Sumer partly echoes the Egyptian. In particular, it also contains the myth of a dying and resurrecting god, which is the god Dumuzi. Just as in Egypt, the ruler of the city-state was declared a descendant of a god and was perceived as an earthly god. With all this, there were noticeable differences between the Sumerian and Egyptian systems. So, the Sumerians have a funeral cult, faith in afterworld did not take on much importance. Equally, the priests among the Sumerians did not become a special layer that played a huge role in public life. In general, the Sumerian system religious beliefs seems less complicated.

As a rule, each city-state had ϲʙᴏ its patron god. At the same time, there were gods who were revered throughout Mesopotamia. Behind them stood those forces of nature, the significance of which for agriculture was especially great - sky, earth and water. These were the sky god An, the earth god Enlil and the water god Enki. Some gods were associated with individual stars or constellations. It is noteworthy that in Sumerian writing, the pictogram of a star suggested the concept of "god". It's important to know that great importance in Sumerian religion had a mother goddess, patroness of agriculture, fertility and childbearing. There were several such goddesses, one of them was the goddess Inanna. patroness of the city of Uruk. Some myths of the Sumerians - about the creation of the world, the Flood - had a strong influence on the mythology of other peoples, including Christian ones.

AT artistic culture Sumerian leading art was architecture. Unlike the Egyptians, the Sumerians did not know stone construction and all structures were created from raw brick. Due to the swampy terrain, buildings were erected on artificial platforms - embankments. From the middle of the III millennium BC. the Sumerians were the first to widely use arches and ϲʙᴏdy in construction.

The first architectural monuments were two temples, White and Red, discovered in Uruk (end of the 4th millennium BC) and dedicated to the main deities of the city - the god Anu and the goddess Inanna. Both temples are rectangular in plan, with ledges and niches, decorated with relief images in the "Egyptian style". Another significant monument will be a small temple of the goddess of fertility Ninhursag in Ur (XXVI century BC). It is worth noting that it was built using the same architectural forms, but decorated not only with relief, but also round sculpture. In the niches of the walls there were copper figurines of walking gobies, and on the friezes there were high reliefs of lying gobies. At the entrance to the temple there are two statues of lions made of wood. Everything ϶ᴛᴏ made the temple festive and elegant.

In Sumer, a ϲʙᴏ-shaped type of cult building developed - a ziggurag, which was a stepped, rectangular in plan tower. On the upper platform of the ziggurat there was usually a small temple - "the dwelling of the god." The ziggurat has for thousands of years played roughly the same role as Egyptian pyramid, but unlike the latter, it was not an afterlife temple. The most famous was the ziggurat (“temple-mountain”) in Ur (XXII-XXI centuries BC), which was part of a complex of two large temples and a palace and had three platforms: black, red and white. Only the lower, black platform has been preserved, but even in this form, the ziggurat makes a grandiose impression.

Sculpture in Sumer was less developed than architecture. As a rule, it had a cult, "initiatory" character: the believer placed a figurine made to his order, most often small in size, in the temple, which, as it were, prayed for his fate. The person was depicted conditionally, schematically and abstractly. without respect for proportions and without a portrait resemblance to the model, often in the pose of a prayer. An example is a female figurine (26 cm) from Lagash, which has mostly common ethnic features.

In the Akkadian period, sculpture changes significantly: it becomes more realistic, acquires personality traits. by the most famous masterpiece of this period there will be a portrait head made of copper of Sargon the Ancient (XXIII century BC), which perfectly conveys the unique traits of the king's character: courage, will, severity. This rare expressive work is almost no different from modern ones.

Sumerian reached a high level literature. In addition to the "Agricultural Almanac" mentioned above, the most significant literary monument became the Epic of Gilgamesh. In ϶ᴛᴏy epic poem tells about a man who saw everything, experienced everything, knew everything, and who was close to unraveling the mystery of immortality.

By the end of the III millennium BC. Sumer is gradually falling into decay, and eventually conquered. Do not forget that Babylonia.

Do not forget that Babylonia

Its history is divided into two periods: the Ancient, covering the first half of the 2nd millennium BC, and the New, falling in the middle of the 1st millennium BC.

The Ancient One should not forget that Babylonia reaches its highest rise under the king Hammurabi(1792-1750 BC) Two significant monuments remain from his time. The first one is Laws of Hammurabi became the most outstanding monument ancient Eastern legal thought. 282 articles of the Code of Law cover almost all aspects of the life of Babylonian society and constitute civil, criminal and administrative law. The second monument will be a basalt pillar (2 m), on which King Hammurabi himself is depicted, sitting in front of the god of the sun and justice Shamash, and also a part of the text of the famous codex is imprinted.

New Do not forget that Babylonia reached its highest peak under the king Nebuchadnezzar(605-562 BC) The famous "Hanging Gardens of Babylon", become one of the seven wonders of the world. They can be called a grandiose monument of love, since they were presented by the king to his beloved wife, in order to alleviate her longing for the mountains and gardens of her homeland.

Not less than famous monument will also Do not forget that the Tower of Babel. It was the highest ziggurat in Mesopotamia (90 m), consisting of several towers stacked on top of each other, on the top of which there was also the saint of Marduk, the main god of the Babylonians. Seeing the tower, Herodotus was shocked by its greatness. It is worth noting that it is mentioned in the Bible. When the Persians conquered Do not forget that Babylonia (VI century BC), they destroyed Do not forget that Babylon and all the monuments that were in it.

Achievements deserve special mention. Do not forget that the Babylonians gastronomy and mathematics. It should not be forgotten that the Babylonian astrologers calculated with amazing accuracy the time of the Moon's revolution around the Earth, compiled a solar calendar and a map of the starry sky. Names of the five planets and twelve constellations solar system are of Babylonian origin. Astrologers gave people astrology and horoscopes. Even more impressive were the successes of mathematicians. It is worth noting that they laid the foundations of arithmetic and geometry, developed a "positional system", where numerical value sign depends on its "position", they knew how to square a power and extract Square root, created geometric formulas for measuring land.

Assyria

The third powerful power of Mesopotamia - Assyria - arose in the 3rd millennium BC, but reached its peak in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. Assyria was poor in resources, but achieved exaltation thanks to ϲʙᴏ geographic location. It is worth noting that she was at the crossroads of caravan routes, and trade made her rich and great. The capitals of Assyria were successively Ashur, Calah and Nineveh. By the XIII century. BC. it became the most powerful empire in the entire Middle East.

In the artistic culture of Assyria - as in the whole Mesopotamia - the leading art was architecture. The most famous architectural monuments were the palace complex of King Sargon II in Dur-Sharrukin and the palace of Ashur-banapala in Nineveh.

The Assyrian reliefs, decorating the palace premises, the subjects of which were scenes from royal life: religious ceremonies, hunting, military events.

It is important to note that one of best examples Assyrian reliefs is considered "It is important to know that the great lion hunt" from the palace of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh, where the scene depicting the wounded, dying and killed lions is filled with deep drama, sharp dynamics and vivid expression.

In the 7th century BC. the last ruler of Assyria, Ashur-banapap, created in Nineveh a magnificent library, containing more than 25 thousand clay cuneiform tablets. The library has become the largest in the entire Middle East. It contained documents that in one way or another concerned the entire Mesopotamia. Among them was kept the above-mentioned "Epic of Gilgamesh".

Mesopotamia, like Egypt, has become a real cradle of human culture and civilization. Sumerian cuneiform and Babylonian astronomy and mathematics - ϶ᴛᴏ is already enough to speak of the exceptional significance of Mesopotamian culture.