Mesopotamia

This is my last stick of gum
I'm gonna cut it up so everybody
Else gets some
Except for Ashurbanipal
Who says my haircut
Make me look like
A Mohenjo Daroin
Hey Ashurbanipal!
I'm a Mesopotamian!
- The Mesopotamians by They Might Be Giants

Basic Information

Mesopotamia (Greek: "(the land) between the rivers") refers to the region of the tigris-euphrates river system in the fertile crescent of the ancient world.

It is from this place and time that we get Mesopotamian Mythology and where the Tower of Babel was meant to have been built.

Kingdoms of Mesopotamia

These are the big ones, the main cultures and empires:

• Sumer - 3000 BC to 2233 BC
• Akkadian Empire - 2300 BC to 2200 BC
• Assyria - 2025 BC to 609 BC
• Babylonia - 1900 BC to 1600 BC
• Neo-Babylonian Empire - 626 BC to 539 BC

There were a number of minor ones as well, individual city-states.

They were eventually conquered by the Achaemenid Empire.
Who were in turn conquered by Alexander the Great and his successors the Seleucid Empire.
After that the Roman Empire (and later Byzantine Empire) battled over the territory with the Parthians or Sassanid Empire.

People of Mesopotamia

• Kings of Mesopotamia
  • Sargon of Akkad aka Sargon the Great, first king of the Akkadian Empire
  • Hammurabi - sixth king of Babylonian Empire, creator of the Code of Hammurabi (one of the oldest sets of laws in history)
  • Ashurbanipal - last great king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire
  • Gilgamesh - arguably a culture hero, a king of Uruk who was later deified.
• Miscellaneous Mesopotamians
  • Ea Nasir - a particularly bad businessman, about whom the oldest known complaint was lodged
  • Enheduanna - priestess, princess, poet and history's first novelist
• Our Mesopotamian Mythology page lists a number of mythical figures from the era/region.

Inventions of Mesopotamia

• Agriculture
• Astronomy
• Atrenian Scorpion-Grenades
• Baghdad Battery
• Beer
• Brick
• Bronze
• Chariot
• City - there were earlier prototypes, but as far as we can tell, this is where the technology matured.
• Composite Bow
• Cursive Script
• Empire
• Horned Helmet
• Law (the Code of Hammurabi)
• Mathematics
• Postal Service
• Potter's Wheel
• School
• Slavery
• Sport
• Taxes
• Temple
• Wheel
• Writing
• Ziggurat

Major Cities

• Akkad
• Assur
• Babylon
• Eridu
• Nineveh
• Nippur
• Ur
• Uruk

Note-worthy minor city: Hatra, home of the Atrenian Scorpion-Handlers.

See Also:

Sources

Bibliography

1. Wikipedia

2. Video: TED-Ed on Sumeria

3. Non-Fiction Book: Osprey Man-At-Arms Series: Ancient Armies Of The Middle East by Terence Wise and Angus McBride

4. Song: The Mesopotamians by They Might Be Giants

Game and Story Use

• The birthplace of civilization. All the oldest stories start here.
• The OSR RPG Blood and Bronze is all about Ancient Mesopotamia and killing things therein.
• Mesopotamian Mythology has lots of cool demons, and angry gods. There's lots of characters whose names ring a bell, but the details are often unknown, so it sort of hits that sweet spot where the players are interested but the GM still has plenty of room to improvise.
  • Those gods and demons have also featured in a number of ancient astronaut theories, so you can fit them easily into a conspiracy theory or occult weirdness game.
• Games set in other corners of the Ancient World (such as Ancient Rome) can spice things up by including a travel chapter in Mesopotamia, or just a few transplanted characters.