Introduction to Pastoral Zones: Mari’s Flourishing Capital and Unique Agricultural Landscape

After 2000 BCE the royal capital of Mari flourished in the unique setting of Pastoral Zones. Mari stands not on the southern plain with its highly productive agriculture but much further upstream on the Euphrates.  Some communities in the kingdom of Mari had both farmers and pastoralists, but most of its territory was used for pasturing sheep and goats.

Pastoral Zones and Prosperity: Interplay Between Herders and Farmers in Mesopotamia

• Economic Interdependence and Tensions in Pastoral Zones: Herders need to exchange young animals, cheese, leather and meat in return for grain, metal tools, etc.
  • The manure of a penned flock is also of great use to a farmer. 
  • Yet, at the same time, there may be conflict. 
  • A shepherd may take his flock to water across a sown field, to the ruin of the crop. 
  • Herdsmen being mobile can raid agricultural villages and seize their stored goods.
  • For their part, settled groups may deny pastoralists access to river and canal water along a certain set of paths.

• Cultural Infusion and Prosperity: 
  • Nomadic Influx and Settlement in Pastoral Zones: Through Mesopotamian history, nomadic communities of the western desert filtered into the prosperous agricultural heartland. 
    • Shepherds would bring their flocks into the sown area in the summer. 
    • Such groups would come in as herders, harvest laborers or hired soldiers, occasionally become prosperous, and settle down. (Refer to Figure)
• The Rise to Power: A few gained the power to establish their own rule. These included the Akkadians, Amorites, Assyrians and Aramaeans. 
  • Amorite Rule in Pastoral Zones: The kings of Mari were Amorites whose dress differed from that of the original inhabitants and who respected not only the gods of Mesopotamia but also raised a temple at Mari for Dagan, god of the steppe. 
• Cultural Diversity and Trade Prosperity in Pastoral Zones: Mesopotamian society and culture were thus open to different people and cultures, and the vitality of the civilisation was perhaps due to this intermixture. 
  • Mari is a good example of an urban center prospering on trade. 
  • Boats carrying grinding stones, wood, and wine and oil jars, would stop at Mari on their way to the southern cities. 
• Metallic Wealth and Economic Prosperity in Pastoral Zones: Most importantly, tablets refer to copper from ‘Alashiya’, the island of Cyprus, known for its copper, and tin was also an item of trade. 
  • As bronze was the main industrial material for tools and weapons, this trade was of great importance. 
  • Thus, although the kingdom of Mari was not militarily strong, it was exceptionally prosperous.

Urban Pride and Epic Tales: Mesopotamian Cities and the Legacy within Pastoral Zones

• Celebrating Diversity and Urban Pride: Mesopotamians valued city life in which people of many communities and cultures lived side by side. 

• After cities were destroyed in the war, they recalled them in poetry. 

• The most poignant reminder to us of the pride Mesopotamians took in their cities comes at the end of the Gilgamesh Epic, which was written on twelve tablets. 

• Gilgamesh’s Quest for Immortality: Gilgamesh is said to have ruled the city of Uruk, including the surrounding Pastoral Zones, sometime after Enmerkar. 

• A great hero who subdued people far and wide, he got a shock when his heroic friend died. 

• He then set out to find the secret of immortality, crossing the waters that surround the world, including the Pastoral Zones.

• After a heroic attempt, Gilgamesh failed and returned to Uruk. 

• There, he consoled himself by walking along the city wall, back and forth. 

• He admired the foundations made of fired bricks that he had put into place. 

• It is on the city wall of Uruk that the long tale of heroism and endeavor fizzles out. 

Pastoral Zones to Scholarly Legacy: Mesopotamian Contributions in Writing, Mathematics, and Time Reckoning

• Mesopotamian Legacy: Perhaps the greatest legacy of Mesopotamia to the world is its scholarly tradition of time reckoning and mathematics. 
• Mesopotamian Mathematical Marvels: Dating around 1800 BCE are tablets with multiplication and division tables, square- and square-root tables, and tables of compound interest. 
  • The square root of 2 was given as 1 + 24/60 + 51/602 + 10/603 in Pastoral Zones.  If you work this out, you will find that the answer is 1.41421296, only slightly different from the correct answer, 1.41421356. 
  • Students in Pastoral Zones had to solve problems such as the following, a field of area such and such is covered one finger deep in water; find out the volume of water. 
  • The division of the year into 12 months according to the revolution of the moon around the earth, the division of the month into four weeks, the day into 24 hours, and the hour into 60 minutes – all that we take for granted in our daily lives – has come to us from the Mesopotamians  in Pastoral Zones.
• Transmission of Mesopotamian Time Divisions: These time divisions, originating in Pastoral Zones, were adopted by the successors of Alexander and from there transmitted to the Roman world, then to the world of Islam, and then to medieval Europe. 
• Astronomical Observations: Whenever solar and lunar eclipses were observed, their occurrence was noted according to year, month and day. 
  • So too there were records about the observed positions of stars and constellations in the night sky.
• Mesopotamian Advancements in Pastoral Zones: None of these momentous Mesopotamian achievements would have been possible without writing and the urban institution of schools, where students read and copied earlier written tablets.
  • Some boys were trained to become not record keepers for the administration, but intellectuals who could build on the work of their predecessors.

Conclusion

• The emergence of early societies marks a pivotal chapter that illuminates the remarkable journey of human civilization. 
• The story of early societies, rooted in Pastoral Zones, is one of human innovation and adaptation. These ancient communities cultivated the land, harnessed the elements, and created the intricate tapestries of language, art, and culture. 
• The birth of agriculture, the development of written language, and the construction of monumental architecture, rooted in Pastoral Zones, are but a few milestones in this remarkable journey. 
• As we reflect on the emergence of early societies in world history, particularly in Pastoral Zones, we recognize the invaluable lessons they offer—lessons of adaptation, cooperation, and the boundless potential of the human spirit to overcome obstacles. 

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