Mesopotamia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see
Mesopotamia (disambiguation)
.
Map showing the extent of Mesopotamia
This article is part of
a series
on the
History of
Iraq
Ancient Iraq
Sumer
Akkadian Empire
Babylonia
Assyria
Neo-Assyrian Empire
Neo-Babylonian Empire
Classical Iraq
Achaemenid Assyria
Seleucid Babylonia
Parthian Babylonia
Sassanid Asuristan
Medieval Iraq
Abbasid Caliphate
Ottoman Iraq
Mamluk Iraq
Modern Iraq
British Mandate
Kingdom of Iraq
Republic of Iraq
(
1958-1968
)
(
1968-2003
)
(
2003-2011
)
Iraq portal
V
T
E
Mesopotamia
(from the
Ancient Greek
: Μεσοποταμία: "[land] between rivers";
Arabic
:
د لب
نيدفارلا
(
bilād
al-rāfidayn
);
Syriac
:
ܬܝܒ
ܢܝܪܗܢ
(
beth nahrain
): "land of rivers") is a toponym for the area of the
Tigris–
Euphrates river system
, corresponding to modern-day
Iraq
and to a lesser extent northeastern
Syria
,
southeastern
Turkey
and smaller parts of southwestern
Iran
.
Widely considered to be the
cradle of civilization
in the West,
Bronze Age
Mesopotamia
included
Sumer
and the
Akkadian
,
Babylonian
and
Assyrian
empires, all native to the territory of modern-
day
Iraq
. In the
Iron Age
, it was controlled by the
Neo-Assyrian
and
Neo-Babylonian empires
. The
indigenous Sumerians and Akkadians (including Assyrians and Babylonians) dominated Mesopotamia from
the beginning of written history (c. 3100 BC) to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC, when it was conquered by
the
Achaemenid Empire
. It fell to Alexander the Great in 332 BC and, after his death, it became part of the
Greek
Seleucid Empire
.
Around 150 BC, Mesopotamia was under the control of the
Parthians
. Mesopotamia became a
battleground between the Romans and Parthians, with parts of Mesopotamia coming under ephemeral
Roman control. In AD 226, it fell to the Sassanid Persians, and remained under Persian rule until the 7th
century Arab
Islamic conquest
of the
Sassanid Empire
. A number of primarily neo Assyrian and Christian
native Mesopotamian states existed between the 1st century BC and 3rd century AD,
including
Adiabene
,
Osroene
and
Hatra
.
Contents
[
hide
]
1
Etymology
2
Geography
3
History
o
3.1
Periodiza
tion
4
Language and
writing
o
4.1
Literatur
e
5
Science and
technology
o
5.1
Mathema
tics
o
5.2
Astrono
my
o
5.3
Medicine
o
5.4
Technolo
gy
6
Religion and
philosophy
o
6.1
Philosop
hy
7
Culture
o
7.1
Festivals
o
7.2
Music
o
7.3
Games
o
7.4
Family
life
o
7.5
Burials
8
Economy and
agriculture
9
Government
o
9.1
Kings
o
9.2
Power
o
9.3
Warfare
o
9.4
Laws
10
Art
11
Architecture
12
References
13
Further reading
14
External links
Etymology
map showing the
Tigris–Euphrates river system
, which defines Mesopotamia
The regional toponym Mesopotamia comes from the
ancient Greek
root words μέσος (
meso
) "middle" and
ποταμός (
potamia
) "river" and literally means "(Land) between rivers". The oldest known occurrence of the
name Mesopotamia comes from the
Anabasis Alexandri
, which was written in the late second century AD
but specifically refers to sources from the time of
Alexander the Great
. In the
Anabasis
, Mesopotamia was
