Since the rise of Assyriology in the 19th century, the study of Mesopotamian civilization for more than 100 years has allowed Westerners to experience the cultural shock of knowledge and belief, and at the same time begin to re-examine their own cultural origins, re-understanding the relationship between ancient Greek and Hebrew civilization and earlier Mesopotamian civilization. In recent years, the exhibition of Mesopotamian civilization has also met with the audience in many places in the country.
Recently, it was | by Guangxi Normal University Press My book The Heritage of Mesopotamia published by Cogito focuses on the spread and influence of Mesopotamian civilization. This article addresses Mesopotamia's contact with the Greek world before the Persian conquest through physically similar artistic themes.
From the 30000 BC to about 1500 BC
During the early Helladic period (c. 3000–2000 BC), ceramic seals appeared in Greece and Anatolia that were roughly conical, often rounded in the lower part and engraved with simple geometric patterns. They are most likely related to the bookkeeping chips widely used in southern Mesopotamia, the plains of Susiana and the upper Euphrates valley. If, as guessed a long time ago, the Greek cone seal indicates that "centuries ago ... the preservation of a tradition passed down from the East", then these seals were the precursors of the bookkeeping system required by the court-centric economy, which may have been triggered by merchants passing knowledge between the (in general) Near East and the Middle Sea of the East.
Multiple "belly button-shaped" pans made of copper or bronze have been found in two tombs of Sipal on the banks of the Euphrates and Ashur in the middle reaches of the Tigris River, each with a raised relief in the center, as well as raised concentric rings and long handles. They are related to the improvised "frying pans" common in the cities of southern Mesopotamia. Quite a few pans with reliefs and rings have been found on the IIg floor of northwestern Anatolia, including the city of Troy. The evidence, dating back to about 2500 BC to 2250 BC, clearly indicates that these specialized goods originating in Mesopotamia came to a distant region that was the site of the Greek-speaking peoples that later began.
A bronze pan with a "navel" from an ancient tomb in Ashul, 0.52 meters long. Troard has a similar pan
Two inscriptions have been found in the Eastern Mediterranean with the names of Naram-sin, the kings of Ashnuna and Assyria. One of them is said to have been found around 1894 on a white stone on the island of Kythera, but it is no longer found: "For his life, Naram Sim, son of Ipiq-Adad, offered sacrifices to his master, the god Mishar of Dur-Rimush." The site of Kourion in Cyprus has a seal bearing the name of one of Naram-Sing's servants. This is King Naram-Sing, who ruled not only over Ashnona around 1950 BC, but also as King of Assyria. He proclaimed himself the supreme title of "King of the Quartets", which means that he conquered vast areas and was worshipped as a god all his life. His conquests allowed Ashnuna to trade in northern Syria and Anatolia, through which Naram-Sin could come into contact with the Aegean world. However, it is possible that both inscriptions came to the West much later as ancestral treasures, so they cannot be reliable evidence of this period.
Many roller seals have been found in the Aegean Sea with motifs in the style of ancient Babylonian (early 20000 BC) or Mitanni (mid-20000 BC). They come from the Greek Mycenaean ruins and the Minoan ruins in Crete. Although these seals have traveled to many places and their designs are often repainted in the Levant, they still bring Mesopotamian art to the Aegean region.
Documentary evidence of Mesopotamian civilization having contact with the Minoan culture of Crete comes mainly from the sites of Mesopotamian civilization, and cuneiform clay tablets found in royal archives found in Mari in the middle reaches of the Euphrates River refer to Cretans, which date back to around 1800 BC. According to these clay tablets, Cretan goods were transported to the courts of Mari and Babylon. Cretan wine vessels and weapons have also been found in Mari, their shells often inlaid with precious stones and metals. There is a passage that reads that shoes from Crete were given to Hammurabi, king of Babylon; There is also a passage that says that a Cretan ship (or a model of a ship) was built in Mali. More text shows that an overseer and translator of a Cretan merchant in Ugarit worked together to trade Mesopotamia with the Aegean region. Artifacts unearthed in Ugarit have confirmed the presence of Cretan goods in Ugarit. Documented accounts found in Kanish indicate that many of the Assyrian trading colonies in central Anatolia lasted until at least 1800 BC, and that the Assyrians likely had similar trading colonies in northern Syria. The seals on the locks of the villages of Karahuyuk near Konya and Phaistos in Crete show the similarities between these administrative systems, which may have arisen under the influence of trade with Assyria.
A. Old Assyrian cuneiform Akkadian clay tablets from Kültepe; B. Linear script from Knossos B Mycenaean Greek clay tablets
In the Levant, such as in Byblos and Araraach, clay cuneiform writing was used, suggesting that the still-uncracked linear form A, the predecessor of linear B (used for writing during the Mycenaean period in Greece), may have developed in Crete under Near Eastern influence. Assyrian merchants used simplified Akkadian cuneiform, which consisted of about 68 symbols, mostly simple syllabic marks, written from left to right on clay tablets, often with lines wrapped. The linear A is also written from left to right on clay tablets, wrapped with lines and consists of about 100 symbols, mostly simple syllabic marks. In Mesopotamia, Syria and Anatolia, clay tablets for both linear A and linear B are dried in the sun. These writing methods probably spread from Mesopotamia to Crete and the Mycenaean region of Greece. The main reason for supporting this influence is that, as far as we know, Mesopotamia had seals and writings long before the Aegean Sea, just as cities and courts that needed seals and writing preceded the Aegean Sea.
Late Bronze Age (c. 1500–1100 BC)
In the early part of this period, the courts of Crete and Greece were in their heyday, with their own craft skills and traditions in architecture, pottery, gemstones and metalworking, all free from Mesopotamian influence. However, evidence of other effects can be found in the text. At this time, the practice of writing international agreements in Akkadian cuneiform spread from Mesopotamia to all parts of the Near East, including Egypt.
Northern Syria has been important for the peoples of the eastern Mediterranean to enter the center of power in Mesopotamia. A 13th-century BC Akkadian document found in the archives of Ugarit explicitly mentions trade with Crete: "From this day on, Ammistamru, son of the king of Ugarita, exempts Siginu's son Sinaranu. ...... His ship was exempted when he came here from Crete. He had to bring gifts to the king..."Mycenaean pottery vessels were found mainly in the coastal areas of Syria and Palestine, but rarely inland or in eastern Anatolia. The shipwreck at Ulu Burun near Kas in southern Turkey in the late 14th or early 13th centuries BC partly suggests that international exchanges may have occurred, as the ship carried goods from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Cyprus and the Aegean region. However, the non-perishable artefacts found in Greece and the Aegean region, possibly from Mesopotamia, are small objects such as beads, pendants, plaques and roller seals, which may have been brought indirectly to the Aegean region by intermediaries from Cyprus or the eastern Mediterranean coast. This is particularly evident from a collection of hidden roller seals found in the palatial Mycenaean building of Thebes in Piotian around 1220 BC. Although the engravings of these seals were Mesopotamian , several were re-engraved in the local style of Cyprus, indicating that Cyprus was an important part of the network connecting Mesopotamia with mainland Greece, but these seals had little effect on the local seal pattern. In contrast, we can see the influence of Cretan art on the frescoes of West Asia such as Ararach and Mari. The hills of Braq in Syria have a lenticular-shaped seal with patterns undoubtedly influenced by the shape and pattern of the late Minoan carving style, caricature-like showing the three life periods of a cow: herbivory, childbirth, and lactation.
A. Boxwood writing panels with ivory hinges found at the wreck of Ulublon, 14th century BC; B. Bronze pen from Hatusha around the same period
Recently, a scribe's seal engraved with Luvid hieroglyphics was found in the city of Troy. Since scribes may have learned Luwi from Mesopotamian manuals, and Luwi from this period was also written in cuneiform, the presence of Luwi in such a distant western region is profound, combined with the evidence below. High on the Karabel Pass near Smyrna, there is a rock relief showing a monarch dressed as a Hittite king writing Luwi in hieroglyphics. He was probably a vassal of Tuthari IV, whose identity was King Tarkaššanawa of Mira, and his seals decorated with silver reliefs were inscribed with hieroglyphics in Luwi and cuneiform in Akkadi. It now appears that his state, located north of the Maender River, controlled the main road from the Anatolian hinterland west to Miletus. The city of Miletus is mentioned in Hittite texts in both linear and cuneiform tablets of the city of Pylos, where female artisans from Miletus worked, although the city was far from the west coast of mainland Greece. One of the brothers of the Mycenaean king of Pylos lived in Miletus, although the Mycenaeans may have lost control of the city during the reign of Tuthhari IV.
Minoan style seals found in the Brack Hills in northeastern Syria
For a long time, the Brief Writings of Amarna, written in cuneiform but found in Egypt, show that Babylon, Assyria, Anatolia, Cyprus, and the Kingdom of Egypt were closely linked. Messengers frequently traveled between capitals, intermarried royal families, and exchanged many precious gifts. As we learned more about the geography of the Hittite, so did the relationships documented in these letters. Books and official accounts found in the Hittite capital of Hattushah confirm the scope of these relationships. Based on letters written in cuneiform by the pharaoh to Tarhunda-radu, king of the Kingdom of Arzawa, we can infer that scribes trained in pure literature in Akkadian often roamed the courts, although Takhunda-Radu scribes said that Hittite was easier to master than Akkadi. Now, there is reason to believe that Apasas, the capital of the kingdom of Alzaba, is the ancient city of Ephesos, a large coastal city in Ionia. Whether or not the kings of Ahiava and Alzawa received letters from the Hittites or Akkadians, scribes who studied according to the traditional Mesopotamian cuneiform syllabus were present at their courts. The connection between Akkadian and Hittite written languages is so strong that early Hittite royal inscriptions are traditionally written in cuneiform script, both Akkadian and Hittite. Therefore, these letters clearly show that the knowledge in the Akkadian manual spread to the west coast of Anatolia. We know from the clay tablets found in the Amarna region that the scribes who wrote and translated letters from abroad were well versed in traditional literary works such as the mythology of Adapá, the myth of Nergal and Erishkigal. In Hatusha, the scribes knew very well the Gilgamesh and the legend of King Agad in three different languages.
A. Petroglyphs near Smyrna (Izmir) with images of King Mira in the Hittite style and remains of Luvid hieroglyphics, 13th century BC; B. Silver relief of the same king's seal with Akkadian cuneiform and Luvid hieroglyphic inscriptions
Such knowledge was spread to the royal palaces of rulers eager to improve international relations, making it clear that the Greek centers of power in the Mycenaean period were heavily influenced by the Babylonian academic tradition. Other expertise comes with it. A letter from Pharaoh asking the king of Cyprus to send an expert in bird divination to Egypt, which was already common in Mesopotamia and adopted by the Hittites and later compiled into written manuals such as the Book of Omen on Clay tablets.
Early Iron Age (c. 1100–900 BC)
In Greece, there may have been only scribes and the like at Mycenaean court engaged in writing, so writing seems to have become extinct, although it has always existed in Cyprus. Later, the Cyprus and Anatolians claimed kinship with the Assyrians based on the presumed bloodlines of Bronze Age kings, but these sources do not necessarily record their historical relationship.
However, artifacts unearthed in archaeology have built a framework within which this period can be observed. By the second half of the 11th century BC, the Phoenicians had inherited the coastal regions of Canaan and re-established a trade network between mainland Greece and the Near East; The damage to the network in coastal areas is not as severe as previously thought. This brought the Greeks into contact with the Phoenician alphabet and eventually adopted it, along with trained scribes who mastered the methods of academic training that had existed long ago in Mesopotamia. Like the Bronze Age, this new network extended to Mesopotamia, because it was the Assyrian period, especially the heyday of great kings such as Tigra-Palasa I (1115-1077 BC); Tigra-Palassa I traveled to the coastal city of Phoenicia in the Levant during his campaign in Anatolia near the upper Euphrates, where he received gifts from the monarchs of Byblos, Sidon and Egypt. Under Ashur-dan II (932–912 BC) and his successors, Assyria expanded its empire westward; Agreements and other contracts were initially negotiated in Akkadian with interpreters. The palatial court of the Assyrian kings had a great demand for specialized commodity production, and because the Greeks, especially the Greeks on the island of Eupeia, were active in the Levant during this period, they must have understood the intellectual wealth and material goods contributed by Mesopotamia.
A gold necklace unearthed in Lefkandi
Archaeological evidence links the island of Eupea in particular to trade with Mesopotamia or Mesopotamian influence. In Lefkandi, on the island of Yopea, a 10th-century BC tomb with a gold necklace with a fine-grained pendant "exactly matches the gold necklace of Babylon from about 2000 BC", so it may have arrived on the island of Yopea a long time ago, although this type of necklace has just as much in common with a necklace from Syria, and this necklace from Lefkandi may have come from there. The shape of mulberry-shaped three-pronged gold earrings is known to have originated in Assyria, although they are also used in northern Syria. Equally convincing is a fragment of an original geometric pattern of ceramic cups from the site of the Naboo Temple in Nineveh, which, although not prominent in shape, is typical of the island of Yoboa, decorated with a series of semicircles suspended from the beak.
Gold jewelry unearthed in Lefkandi with Mesopotamian elements in design and technology
At the end of the Bronze Age, the people known as Danuna in the Amarna Book, and also known as the Denyen in the Egyptian accounts of the maritime peoples, came here from Adana in Silesia. In the mid-8th century BC, there is a bilingual inscription in Kalatepe, northeast of Adana, referring to the "family" of Mopsos in Phoenician in phonetic script and Luvi in hieroglyphics. Mapsos is a common name, found in both linear B and Hittite; It cannot therefore be inferred that there were many Greek speakers in Silesia before the Dark Ages. However, Mycenaean and Iron Age Greek pottery have been unearthed on major sites in Silesia; From the end of the Bronze Age until the 8th century BC, Luwi hieroglyphs were used here; Later, it is almost certain that during the time of Ashurbanipa there were Ionians in this area. Although the historical connection between the Danaoi-Greeks in the Iliad and Danaoi-Greeks in the Near East, or between the prophet Mopsos in Homer's epic and the Morpsos family in Silesia is often passionately suggested, it now seems that such a connection is not necessarily possible.
Cups painted with overhanging semicircular motifs on the Yopea peninsula have been found in the Naboo Temple of Nineveh, Tyre and Galilee
Silesia and its large cities of Adana, Tarsus, Mersin and Kelenderis survived the difficult times from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. Silesia is still almost unknown to the outside world, but the roller seals in the Adana Museum illustrate the exchanges between many countries. These seals span from the end of the third millennium BC to the Achaemenid period and are designed in Mesopotamia, the Levant, Cappadocian and Syrian styles, with Egyptian and Cypriot motifs.
Neo-Assyrian period (c. 900–612 BC)
Traditionally, historians and archaeologists believe that the contact between the Greeks and the Assyrians was hostile. They believe that the Levant lacked Greek archaeological material due to the westward invasion of Ashurna Silpa II and Samanese III in the 9th century BC, which hindered trade. This interpretation obscures a wide variety of relationships, drawing inspiration from only two invalid, ordinary impressions. The first impression is that the traditional view is that the Assyrian war machine brutally opposes neighboring regions; This one-sided view has largely been superseded. The second is also the traditional view, that is, the Greeks are a maritime people, practicing democratic politics, and are at odds with the despotic regimes in the east; But in fact, at this time, the Greek city-states were also ruled by tyrants or kings, and were not a unified maritime power.
However, some incomplete cuneiform sources mention that the Greeks carried out pirate raids in certain areas along the Levant, so the Assyrian soldiers took force against them. Many cuneiform sources documenting the Greek-Assyrian conflict date back to the time of Sargon II at the end of the 8th century BC, and most of the sources may refer to the same battle, so it cannot be assumed that the relationship between Assyria and Greece is largely conflictual. The name of Yamani, the Ashtu king of the Sargon period, reflects the Philistine pride in Greek origin. There are many Mycenaean features in their early culture.
On the stele, the finger of the Assyrian king Shamshi-Adad V points into the distance, and the stele is 2.18 meters high; B. Samu-Ramat stele found in Turkey, 1.40 m high
In 696 BC, after Sennacherib sent an army to Silesia to quell the rebellion, Berossos said he rebuilt Tarsus "in the image of Babylon." Assyrian texts contain reproductions of Babylonian architectural themes, indicating that the sources used by Berossos are based on original accounts. Sennacherib installed in a temple an Assyrian-style statue of the god Sandon of Tarsus, which has been equivalent to the Babylonian god Marduk since the Hittite period. Roman coins from Tarsus indicate that the god Sandton was still worshipped during Hadrian's time; After the evacuation of the Assyrians, the locals did not remove the statue. Until the time of St. Paul's life, the local people still worshipped the god. Cuneiform sources clearly show that Sennacherib was concerned with paying constant tribute to Assyria, not reducing the activities of the Greeks on the southern coast of Anatolia. This does not contradict the artifacts unearthed in Tarsus, as there are no obvious archaeological sequence faults. The Greeks remember that Sennacherib left a statue of himself on the battlefield to commemorate the victory, and he also ordered the inscription of his bravery and heroism in the "Chaldeans" script to enlighten the future. Whether or not the king's name is correct, the statue may have been one of the famous stone tablets erected by the Assyrian Empire to mark Assyrian interests. This may be the same stele erected by "Sardanapalos" that eyewitnesses say centuries later, a Greek variant of the royal names Assarhadon and Ashurbanipa, which are often referred to in legends in conjunction with other Assyrian legends. According to Strabo, the stele is carved with a stone statue with the fingers of his right hand showing "pinched together", and he translated the Assyrian inscription into Greek:
Sadanapala, son of Anakyndaraxes, built Anchiale and Tarsus in one day. Eat, drink, and be merry, because everything else isn't worth the action!
"This action" means snapping your fingers. Diodoros Sikelos of Sicily provided another version of the inscription and said that the Chaldean inscription was translated into Greek.
A. Bronze Mshushu Dragon from Samos, 0.105 m high; B. Small figure of Pazuzu from Assyria, 7th century BC, 0.146 m high
C. Bess's Egyptian statue; Bass on the Ugarite roller seal, late Bronze Age
Greeks and Mesopotamians met in Syria and the Levant. Excavations indicate that Syria's northern coastal region is a cosmopolitan metropolis, in part because of the easy access to Mesopotamia via the Orontes River. However, while archaeologists focus on this area, especially the city of Armina, they should not overlook the importance of other ports further south in Syria, because until the beginning of the 20th century, Syrian and Palestinian coastal ports served the various trade routes to Mesopotamia.
Berossos mentions a tradition that Sennacherib "built a temple in Athens and erected a bronze statue with his own glorious deeds." It is generally believed that these deeds would not be true, but the mention of bronze statues is reminiscent of the many bronzes that may have originated in Mesopotamia, enshrined in Greek temples in Athens, Delphi, Olympia, Rhodes, and Samos. Some are part of the furniture or container that was originally attached, and some may be figurines used to make wishes. The Temple of Hera in Samos has a group of bronzes representing wishes, alongside dogs standing, which is associated with the worship of Gula, the healing goddess of Babylon, often symbolized by dogs. Dog burials in eastern Mediterranean regions such as Samos are similar to those excavated near the ruins of the Temple of Gula in Isin, Mesopotamia. Also found in Samos is a damaged image of the mušhuššu-dragon, originally associated with the god Aishnena but later absorbed by Marduk, the city god of Babylon; After Sennacherib sacked Babylon in 689 BC, the image was absorbed by the Assyrian god Ashur. These items indicate that Mesopotamia had a particularly close connection with Samos. Characteristic of the Near East, the image of Hera after bathing and changing clothes appears in the annual samus worship procession, reminiscent of the Babylonian New Year, the Akita festival.
Lotus and bud pattern: A. frescoes at the palace of Tukulti Ninuta I; B. floral pattern on the sill plate of Sennacherib, c. 700 BC; C. Painted decoration on Corinthian vases, c. 700 BC; Cut decoration on Urartu bronze
The roaring lion who strode forward: A. Pottery plaques of Babylon, early 2000 BC; B. Painting decoration on a round vase of aromatic oil in the Corinthian style, c. 700 BC; C. The pedestal of the pillar in the Sennacherib Palace in Nineveh, as shown by the statue of Ashurbanipa
Mesopotamian roller seals have also been found on the ruins of these Greek temples. It has long been speculated that Assyrian textiles were also introduced to Greece, which inspired elaborate ornaments, such as lotus flowers and palm leaf chains on vases in eastern Greece. It has been suggested that the floral ornaments, rosettes and lions on Corinthian pottery inherit Assyrian themes, and that the shape of the Corinthian long-necked vase containing primitive incense oil may have been derived from the Assyrian ceramic shape system. A real Assyrian bottle and a bottle imitating Assyrian glazed vessels were found in the city of Tarsus, the latter probably from a Greek manufacturing center such as Rhodes, although "Syrian and Phoenician factories may also have produced such bottles". Gold ornaments from mainland Greece and Ionia clearly reflect Mesopotamian influences and represent the transmission of craft traditions from the early Assyrian dynasty to later generations.
A. The roller seal shows that both Gilgamesh and Enchi were killing Humbaba; B. A stone head of Hombaba in a temple on the hills of Lima
C. Decorative bronze markings on shields from Olympia; Statue of the Selinonte region of Sicily, Perseus and the Snake-Haired Monster, 575–550 BC
The giant monster Humbaba, which appears in the epic poem Gilgamesh, is related to a series of masks that appear in Tilins and Sparta, as well as in the Levant, Cyprus and Egypt. These masks were probably hung on the doorway outside the house in accordance with Mesopotamian and Phoenician customs. Perhaps under the influence of the demonic image of Pazuzu in Mesopotamia, the wrinkles and strange appearance of the mask inspired the representation of the snake-haired monster Gorgon in Greek art. For example, a Greek sculpture on the site of Selinunte in Sicily shows Perseus, like Gilgamesh, depicted killing the Mudusa (note the gender change). The Greek masquerade is also associated with the Egyptian statue of the god Bes, which is now believed to have taken the name of the Akkadian meaning "dwarf", probably introduced to Egypt from Mesopotamia during the Amarna period and became a portrait. Cyclops such as Polyphemus appears on the seal of Mesopotamia, the hydra killed by Hercules resembles the multi-headed animal of Mesopotamian mythology and art, and Hercules' series of actions in literature are much like the actions of the Sumerian god Ninurta in early cuneiform texts, which were later appropriated to the god Nergale.
Mesopotamian and Greek singers had more than just themes in common. Some Greek instruments such as the liel, harp, lute, drums and cymbals also originated in Mesopotamia and are found in modern recital halls. The so-called "Pythagorean system" was also formalized and recorded in Mesopotamia in the middle of the Bronze Age, and probably came to Greece with related instruments. Jan Brikos argues that the law of mean was discovered by the Babylonians and transmitted to Greece through Pythagoras, but cuneiform evidence does not confirm this assertion.
Guangxi Normal University Press | I think about The Legacy of Mesopotamia, published by Cogito
(This article is excerpted from Guangxi Normal University Press, |.) I think about Cogito's book The Legacy of Mesopotamia, written by A.T. Stephanie Dalí, an Assyrian scholar and senior fellow at the Institute of Oriental Studies at Samor College, University of Oxford, UK. Reyes is a scholar of classics. ）