HIST 4100 – 01/02 – ONLINE: Ancient World Civilizations

A collection of ancient Mesopotamian texts in English.

This 1994 article by David H. Price seeks to recover Karl Wittfogel's "hydraulic hypothesis" -- that large-scale irrigation led to the rise of social organization, state administration, kingship, and despotism.

Provides the texts to some of the worlds's oldest writings, including the Code of Hammurabi and the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Discovered in 1950 on a clay tablet in Ugarit, Syria, the tune is here performed on the lyre by Michael Levy.

Examines the rise of the city of Ur, the building of ziggurats, and the beginnings of agriculture, writing, and kingship (59 mins).

British Museum Curator and Assyriologist, Irving Finkel's videos on the achievements of Babylonian culture as revealed through items in the British Museum.

In this recreation of ancient smelting, copper is refined from malachite using only charcoal, unfired clay, and blowpipes (4 mins).

British Museum Curator and Assyriologist Dr. Irving Finkel discusses a cuneiform tablet in which the god Enki instructs Atra-Hasis to build a circular ark to save the world from a great flood (5 mins).