Basra

The city of Basra, in southern Iraq, is rooted in the very long history of the area. Let's begin our visit to Basra by having a look at it's historical background.

SUMER

One of the first great civilizations was the Sumerians. They were skilled farmers in the area that is now southern Iraq, at the end of the Persian Gulf. The Sumerians had a unique language, which continued in use as a sacred language for many centuries, and are known to have really liked beer and music. There was a shortage of wood and building stone, but an abundance of clay.

Along with those on the Levant, the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, Sumer was an early independent city-state. Nearby city-states of the Sumerians were Ur, Uruk and, Eridu. The Bible tells us that Abraham was originally from Ur. But Abraham was not Sumerian because the Sumerians were not Semitic by ethnicity.

One of the best-known artifacts of ancient times is the Standard of Ur. I have seen this in the British Museum, one side is about war and the other about peace. It was originally made of wood, which was reconstructed when it was found.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ur#/media/File:Standard_of_Ur_-_peace_side.jpg

The modern excavation of Ur took place during the 1930s, and amazed the world at what was found. The excavation was a joint venture between the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ur#/media/File:Ur-Nassiriyah.jpg

Here is a Sumerian queen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puabi#/media/File:Reconstructed_sumerian_headgear_necklaces_british_museum.JPG

There are three ancient ways of writing from the Middle East. The Egyptians developed hieroglyphics, writing with pictures. The Sumerians used what is known as cunieform. Cunieform means "wedge-shaped" writing. This is because writing was done by pressing the end of a reed against a tablet of soft clay. The third way of writing, from the ancient Middle East, is by an alphabet,  which was developed much later by the Phoenicians, a sea-faring people who lived in what is now Lebanon.

Here are some examples of cunieform writing, which began to be used about 3000 B.C., in Sumer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuneiform_script#/media/File:Sumerian_26th_c_Adab.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuneiform_script#/media/File:Letter_Luenna_Louvre_AO4238.jpg

The Sumerians had the oldest known code of law, the Code of Ur-Nammu.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Ur-Nammu#/media/File:Ur_Nammu_code_Istanbul.jpg

Early astronomy took major steps in Sumer, they may have been the first to identify the planets which move against the background of the stars.

Most important to us today, the Sumerians were adept mathematicians. It was they who came up with the idea of a numbering system with a base, and using places. In our base-ten number system, for example, the first column to the right is the ones place, the second column the tens place, the third column the hundreds place, and so on.

The Sumerians used a base-sixty number system. Sixty is the lowest number that is factored by every number from one to six. This number system of the Sumerians is why today we have sixty seconds in a minute, and sixty minutes in an hour. It is also why there are 360 degrees in a circle.

AKKAD

Akkad, just to the north of Sumer, may have been the first empire, from the 24th to the 22nd Centuries B.C. The Akkadians ruled all of Mesopotamia. This was the land around and between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, which was such a center of early civilization. Mesopotamia means "the land between the rivers". The remnants of the Akkadian Empire would later form Assyria, in the north, and Babylon, in the south. The Akkadians, unlike the Sumerians, were Semitic, and this is from where Abraham got his ethnicity.

There was a city of Akkad, also known as Agade, but it's location is not yet certain. Maybe someday it will be found and excavated, just as Ur was. Sumer had only an abundance of clay, and good agricultural lands, and so the conquests of Akkad, which took over and had an inter-relationship with Sumer, could have been to gain access to metals, timber and, building stone. The Akkadian language, which also used cinieform script, spread throughout this part of the Middle East, and gradually replaced the Sumerian language.

Akkad is known for it's great king, Sargon, which may have been the world's first emperor. Sargon followed the Sumerian religion, conquered as far as the Mediterranean Sea, and successfully put down revolts against his rule. He may have led the first naval expeditions in history. The time after Sargon is often referred to as the "Sargonic Dynasty". Much later, there was an Assyrian ling, Sargon II, that was named for Sargon. He was the Assyrian king who conquered Babylon, and took the "Ten Lost Tribes" of Israel into exile.

Sargon's grandson was the Akkadian king Naram-Sin, who was also a great conqueror. He ruled what is now Syria.

The Akkadian Empire lasted about 180 years. It's collapse coincided with the end of the Old Kingdom in Egypt, and may have been related to change in climate. There was a Sumerian revival next, known to history as the Third Dynasty of Ur. This just preceded the beginning of the Second Millennium B.C. The founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur is known as Ur-Nammu, another well-known name of ancient history.

Among the oldest of Sumerian cities was Nippur. Akkadian conquerors thought it to be very important. Naram-Sin rebuilt it's temple and walls. Nippur would later be superseded in importance by Babylon.

OBSERVATIONS CONCERNING ANCIENT TIMES

I have made a number of observations about ancient times, particularly in the Middle East.

1) There is nothing new about the science of archeology. The first archeologist was probably Nabonidus, who was the last king of Babylon. He spent quite a bit of time exploring and documenting the remains of civilizations which had come before his.

2) There were many more walls around cities than we see today. Walls are built for protection, but the need for that protection may change or diminish over time. When that happens, the wall becomes a ready source of stone for the construction of other buildings.

3) In times past, there was not the regard for ancient ruins that we have today. When a new settlement was being built, and there were ruins nearby, they were plundered as a source of stone. It may even have been considered that the memory associated with those ruins were being honored by incorporating their building stone into new buildings. An ideal example of this is stone being taken from the ruins of Memphis to build Cairo. A stone might be part of several buildings over thousands of years.

4) We consider it to be better to be the conqueror, rather than the conquered, but over the long term that may bot be the case. When one kingdom conquers others, it actually puts itself at risk of being absorbed into the nations that it has conquered. This is particularly true when a smaller nation manages to conquer a larger one. If occupation troops begin marrying local women, the conqueror may eventually disappear into the conquered. Whatever happened to the Hyksos? They were a warlike people, who even managed to rule Egypt for some time, but seem to have simply disappeared into history. India in particular has a history of simply absorbing invaders, and making them into part of the mix.

5) Warfare in ancient times depended heavily on mercenaries. We read in the Bible of each tribe of the Israelites contributing soldiers for war, but this was the exception rather than the rule. There were professional soldiers who fought for whoever paid them. Greece seems to have arisen suddenly as a great civilization in both military and intellectual terms, but the fact is that Greeks had been studying and serving as mercenaries in other countries for quite some time, and brought their knowledge back home. Germanic tribes managed to topple Rome simply because they had the military experience of having served for so long as mercenaries for Rome.

6) Remember my principle of "Archeological Representation", that we saw by the posting by that name on the world and economics blog. The more technically advanced a society is, the more distorted will be it's "archeological footprint".

7) The concept of nationalism is a relatively recent development. When people went to war in ancient times, they were not fighting for their nation but for their god. A nation was just the collection of people who followed that god. The thought of a world war over political or economic ideology would be utterly nonsensical to the ancients. Even around the beginning of the Twentieth Century, there were people in remote areas who were not sure, and were not greatly concerned with, which nation they belonged to. The tribe or the religion was more important. I see the Franco-Prussian War as being a turning point toward modern secularism. The many small German-speaking states across central Europe had long been divided between Protestant and Catholic. The French, who were historically Catholic, didn't think that the southern German-speaking states would join Prussia against them, because the southern German-speakers were more Catholic. But for the first time nationalism, usually based on language or secular ideology, had turned out to be more important than religion.

BASRA

The city of Basra, in the south of Iraq, began as a military base in the year 636. It became an intellectual center of the Abbassid Caliphate. The famed medieval traveler, Ibn Battuta, visited Basra.

I see the present city of Basra as the modern heir of the great civilizations that were in the area, starting with Sumer and Akkad. This is possibly the most natural location in the world to build a city. A reason that Basra is not in the same place as Ur is that the shoreline of the Persian Gulf has retreated southward since ancient times. But it is in approximately the same place today, relative to the Persian Gulf coast, as Ur was when it was probably the greatest city in the world.

Basra, in accord with it's origin as a military base, has always been in the center of conflict. It was involved in the conflict between the Ottomans and the Persians, to the east. It was an important port during both World Wars of the Twentieth Century. It was close to the battlefront during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, and suffered artillery shelling. I remember the news, during the Iran-Iraq War, that shelling had started a massive fire in a petrochemical facility that shrouded the city in toxic smoke. Basra was the center of an uprising against Saddam Hussein, following the Gulf War of 1991.

Here are some scenes around the center of Basra. We can almost imagine the legend of Sinbad the Sailor setting out on a voyage into the Indian Ocean, where he will encounter monsters, mysterious islands and, fantastic wealth.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.5215528,47.8373104,3a,75y,123.47h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPSraFdLEoffyaXbwcO6Uid5W1jVirQQ3JViBr0!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPSraFdLEoffyaXbwcO6Uid5W1jVirQQ3JViBr0%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya185.51027-ro0-fo100!7i7680!8i3840

Here is more of Basra, some distance from the city center.

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.5075201,47.8393107,3a,75y,349h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOD2NKZlGv61Bv-IqcrU-8N2LdzK8AFK5AjJlhD!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOD2NKZlGv61Bv-IqcrU-8N2LdzK8AFK5AjJlhD%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya100.100006-ro-0-fo100!7i8268!8i4134

This is to the west of the city.

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.4915136,47.7932417,3a,75y,108.33h,91.69t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPLTfsRV8kQKm26sqAwQX87Cyoldx34vtxv5En1!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPLTfsRV8kQKm26sqAwQX87Cyoldx34vtxv5En1%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-1.6885552-ya108.33021-ro-0-fo100!7i4096!8i2048

When Abraham left Ur, on his way to the Promised land, he lived temporarily in a place called Haran. Abraham did not travel alone, and some of his relatives remained there. It was to this area that Jacob, Abraham's grandson, would travel to work for his relative, Laban, and marry his two daughters, Leah and Rachel, to whom would be born the twelve sons who would each be the founder of one of the tribes of Israel.

Most people believe that the town and ruins of a place called Harran, in what is now southeastern Turkey, is where Haran was located, it is in about the right location, although this has not yet been proven by any archeological finds.

What is more certain is that Harran is the location of the last stronghold of the Assyrian Empire, after the capital of Nineveh had fallen to it's enemies. The Egyptians were former enemies of Assyria, but were warily watching the rise of Babylon. In an apparent effort to help balance the power of Babylon with that of Assyria, the Egyptians established a base near Harran.

The Bible describes Pharaoh Necho (Necho II) leading his army across part of the territory of Judah, well after the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel had been exiled, on his way to support the Assyrian stronghold at Harran. Judah's King Josiah, a great and wise king, insisted that he stop. Necho replied that he was only on his way against Egypt's enemies and had no quarrel with Judah.

But Josiah insisted on confronting the passing Egyptians. Josiah was killed in the battle, Judah was occupied by Egypt until Babylon took over, and this seems to have begun the downward spiral that led to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Babylonians, and the Jews being taken into exile in Babylon. Unlike the "Ten Lost Tribes", exiled by the Assyrians, these Jews would return from exile to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple.

Notice how the scattering of the "Ten Lost Tribes" across the Assyrian Empire, which ended the ancient Kingdom of Israel, and the later exile of the remaining Jews in Babylon are reversals of Abraham's original journey from Ur to the Promised Land. Ur was in what had become Babylon, and he would have crossed what would later become Assyria on the way to the Promised land, after living temporarily in Haran.

Babylon was actually very old, but had faded in importance. The Babylon that became a great empire, and took the Jews into exile is actually what is referred to as Neo-Babylon. It was revitalized by an influx of settlers, known as Chaldeans, and overthrew their Assyrian rulers. The famed king, Hammurabi, was of the original Babylon.

Remember that, as we saw above, the last king of Neo-Babylon, Nabonidus, was also an early archeologist, and he took note of the old cities within his realm.

This is what Harran looks like today. This is not near Basra, but is along the route that Abraham would have taken from Ur to the Promised Land.

https://www.google.com/maps/@36.8631752,39.0307794,3a,75y,328h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOY-FL6Q2lnRQQgxb9FGXFyRsmBhkIBqyTpfgw!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOY-FL6Q2lnRQQgxb9FGXFyRsmBhkIBqyTpfgw%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi0-ya266.5-ro-0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352