Amorite Kingdoms and the Sumerian Renaissance - Ancient Mesopotamia DOCUMENTARY

[Music] in our previous episode we discussed the rise and fall of the first empire in history the Akkadian Empire it's great rulers from Sargon - nah Ramson broke the mold and set in motion a way of running a state which would be emulated for thousands of years to come from this point forward the Empire would be the prominent form of government however before another could rise in the region a Dark Age had to be overcome after the fall of a CAD the GU Tian's had established their own dynasty and hegemony in the Euphrates River Valley which would set the stage for what was to come welcome to our video on the brief sumerian renaissance and the eventual rise of babylon with the shattering of a caddy and supremacy by the mid 22nd century bc a period of fragmentation once again occurred a series of kings from the region of gu tiem reigned for most a century from the former Akkadian capital and had relatively symbolic authority over the southern region of Sumer while the period was one of uncertainty for government and trade the sumerian south managed to gain considerable economic advantage from the limited tribute exact it by the guty and kings in a CAD several great native sumerian rulers reigned in this era including Gudea who ruled the powerful city of lagash from 2144 to 21:24 bc he seemed to have been a peaceful and humble ruler using the title of MC rather than the more grandiose luo girl despite his vast power seeing himself as a representative on earth of his city God Ning gusu to which he dedicated many honest prayers and statues he was also a social reformer canceling debt and allowing women to inherit and own family property if their husbands were to perish the man who would end the period was to haggle of the fifth Arak dynasty he formed a coalition of Sumer and faced the great Guti and king tiragon in battle luring him into a trap and defeating him after arresting two of the guti unknown voice tiragon fled on his war chariot and attempted to escape but was captured and executed by you two Eagle who now established a brief period of Eirik hegemony however in 2112 BC an MC named earn ammu overthrew the Uruk ahjummoni and established the third dynasty of earth five kings of this new nascent Empire ruled until 2004 BC and consolidated their rule through efficient and extensive administrative Talent rather than constant expansionism the third dynasty established the first directly controlled economy while the traditionally independent city-states of Sumer and Akkad lost their autonomy for the first time and sea were not native representatives of the larger Empire but appointed governors under the rule of the Kings as a this was similar to the way Ionian Greek cities were initially administered by the Persian appointed tyrants after their conquest of Lydia where governors were installed in Ephesus Halicarnassus and other cities in the region in addition the native Sumerian gods were replaced by the deified kings of Earth this loss of autonomy and the disruption of traditional religious practices is likely to have engendered significant anger towards the ur kings and it is hinted in the sources that many rebellions occurred but were not documented by the ruling dynasty despite this the cities of Sumer experienced great prosperity during the third dynasty with the construction of new canals promoting new trade routes throughout the realm most long-lasting of all earth achievements was the earth cigarette which survives to this day 4100 years later calculation of soil richness and other estimates for the optimal production of goods were also taken drastically increasing economic efficiency in the centrally controlled system all of this prosperity benefited the large cities but also allowed other smaller sin to prosper and grow one of these newer cities was formerly a small and obscured town but had grown to become one of the economic provincial cause of the 3rd dynasties Empire Babylon like all empires the 3rd dynasty of Earth began to decline around the end of the 21st century BC famine drought and invasions by a new nomadic group the amorite began to take its toll and the Empire ceased to exist in 2004 BC when a series of conflicts with their eastern neighbors came to its conclusion with Elam as the victor who then destroyed earth into this Mesopotamian vacuum of power came evermore amirite tribes now with royal ambitions these nomadic semi pastoralists whose name literally means people of the West supposedly originated in the Highlands region west of the middle Euphrates these Amer rights were the very same people whom the Israelites supposedly defeated in the biblical texts their lifestyle before the migrations into the river valleys consisted of seasonal migrations from semi-arid areas in the winter and wet areas in the summer to tend their herds conflict between these settled civilizations in Mesopotamia and the amorite began as early as the reign of Akkadian king shark alley Sheree in whose reign a battle was fought with the nomads as attested to by his 12th year name significant numbers of amirite smoothing into the Tigris Euphrates region as mentioned before was a key factor in the decline and fall of the third dynasty of earth with their initial mass settlement in the Mesopotamian region being dated to this period the amorite invasions of the Near East took place in several phases during the first they invaded and dominated Palestine in the second they thrust north and invaded the Syrian region including Ebla Mary yam hot cat nur and take a lot M finally they invaded northern and southern Mesopotamia taking root and establishing dynasties in issen Lhasa and Babylon upon encountering the sophisticated and seemingly splendorous civilization which had developed in the Euphrates Tigris region they must have wanted to become a part of it and never left welding so well into the local populations that after a few decades they were indistinguishable from the natives we know that this period was one of warfare between these scattered Near Eastern Kingdoms but we do not know the details of most of these realms the most prominent known amirite kingdom in the north was eventually centered on the ancient city of mary during the third dynasty period Mary was nominally a vassal of the earth Kings and enjoyed prosperity but suffered a sharp decline after its fall and Mary itself was even abandoned near the end of the 19th century BC a ruler of amirite similar to a descent named yang get limb conquered many cities in the region of Mary on the middle Euphrates carrying on the momentum he took the old city itself as his capital in 1830 BC and established the third mariette kingdom under the so called Lim dynasty his son jeden Lim inherited the throne and would begin Mary's most prosperous century he introduced the Babylonian language and writing style as the administrative standard introduced the old Akkadian practice of year names pursued military conquests against neighboring states and nomadic tribes constructed irrigation systems and constructed fortresses to consolidate territorial gains the dynamism of this new amirite dynasty established Mary as the dominant state on the middle Euphrates however over extension would soon have dire consequences this period of fragmentation in ancient Mesopotamia was one of constant warfare and the Mary ruler attempted to expand towards the Haber River which brought him into conflict with the kingdom of upper Mesopotamia under its ruler sham Shia dad after suffering some defeats to their new yet her limb was assassinated in a palace coup orchestrated by his son during 1795 BC and then two years later marry itself was conquered sham Shia dad was himself one of the great rulers of the amorite period he also belonged to a family of amirite tribal chiefs who had long fought against the aforementioned yang kid limb and the state of eshnunna to the southeast at one point during a time of weakness for the upcoming ruler Shang Xie dad had to flee to the rising state of Babylon due to his home city of the Calla tongue being threatened by neighboring domains however after a few years of exile he returned to power in a kal Atem and subjugated the old assyrian region and asar itself he removed a Syrian King Aerys iam from the throne and declared himself king of Assyria and this region was then assigned to his eldest son ich meet again with a capital at a Calot on one of the key moments in sham Shia dad's reign came when he managed to conquer the internally squabbling Lim dynasty of marry where he proceeded to appoint his youngest son yes Maha do as Co ruler in this region meanwhile sham Shia dad himself constructed an entirely new city named Shoebat Enlil this established an almost tri ARCIC system of government with his sons acting as both Co Kings and practical governors of important regions we also know about the contrasting relationship between sham Shia dad and his two sons in relation to their position he favored his elder son ich meet again who was viewed as a competent and able administrator of his province and often left him to rule his region independently meanwhile the younger son yes Madhu was viewed as immature incompetent and in constant need of guidance from his father and brother on one occasion he constructed many statues of the gods in Mary without taking into account the recurring costs of the cattle needed for sacrifices however it is possible that these strains could have been exacerbated or even caused by sham Shia dad's constant requests for the economic resources of Mary from the provision of troops for his many military endeavors to the supplying of technical and administrative specialists for his many public works projects Mary's subordinate status drained the city consistently having conquered Mary sham Shia dad now acquired a western border with the powerful Kingdom of Young had with its capital at Aleppo worried about this potential threat a marriage alliance was forged between the Empire based at Schubert and Lille and the Kettner which was to the south of Jung had in this period of his supremacy it is speculated that one of the vassals of sham Shia dad may have been the amorite king of nascent Babylon Hammurabi despite the brief period of prosperity which is strangely administered Empire enjoyed it was not to last the turrican nomads from the Zagros Mountains penetrated deep into northern Mesopotamia and many regions in the empire rebelled on top of this sham Shia dad's ally in the powerful kingdom of eshnunna died and was replaced by a hostile ambitious King meanwhile yam had began to launch attacks from the West as his reign progressed more authority was delegated to his sons and family and finally in 1776 BC sham Shia dad perished the merry segment of his Empire collapsed almost immediately under the incompetent youngest son who was expelled being replaced by a supposed claimant of the Lim dynasty Zimri Lim meanwhile ich meet again retained control only of a drastically reduced Assyrian region consisting mainly of a sir Akala term and the immediate vicinity over the next few decades he would engage in a rivalry with Zimri Lim unfortunately for ish madigan he was cut off from the prosperous Sumerian and Anatolian trade routes by the expansionary Lim dynasty and this made his influence weakened even further the continuous bouts of warfare between the rivals eventually drew in other powers from the wider region eager to gain from the conflict such as Larsa Babylon isint and others eventually this fragmentation of power caused a wider period of warfare to erupt in the region when the eshnunna Kingdom began to rapidly expand to the north and west it was opposed by zimri Lim of Mary yam had and Babylon and over the subsequent years its progress was rolled back and the annexed cities were abandoned while its peripheral gains had been erased ash Nana was still too powerful to attack directly at this point a new phase of the conflict began when Elam struck ash Nona from the east tipping the balance of power they besieged the capital city initially supported by Mary and Babylon however when the Elamites threatened to expand their power into these regions as well they turned against Elam and managed to defeat them this victory ended the period of region-wide warfare but would also set the stage for the next hegemon to ascend to prominence a murabbi of babylon our series on the history of the Mesopotamian civilizations will continue so make sure you are subscribed to our channel and have pressed the bell button we would like to express our gratitude to our patreon supporters and channel members who make the creation of our videos possible now you can also support us by buying our merchandise via the link in the description this is the kings and Generals channel and we will catch you on the next one

Channel: Kings and Generals

Views: 603,174

Keywords: Amorite, Kingdoms, Sumer, Sumerian Renaissance, ancient, mesopotamia, Rise, Ancient, Mesopotamia, Fertile Crescent, civilization, Akkad, Babylon, Uruk, Urartu, historical documentary, animated history, documentary, animated historical documentary, kings and generals, ancient mesopotamia, ancient history, history channel, ancient civilizations, ancient cultures, history lesson, documentary film, historia civilis, roman empire, military history, world history, rome, kingdoms of sumeria

Id: bX9SVkixxtk

Length: 14min 44sec (884 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 27 2019