Class 11 History Chapter 2 WRITING AND CITY LIFE

Class 11 History Chapter 2 WRITING AND CITY LIFE

Textbook	NCERT
Board	CBSE Board, UP board, JAC board, HBSE Board, Bihar Board, PSEB board, RBSE Board, UBSE Board
Class	11th Class
Subject	History
Chapter	Chapter 2
Chapter Name	Writing and city life
Topic	WRITING AND CITY LIFE NCERT Notes for Class 11 History Chapter 2
Medium	English
Especially Designed Notes for	CBSE, ICSE, IAS, NET, NRA, UPSC, SSC, NDA, All Govt. Exam

NCERT Notes for Class 11 History Chapter 2 WRITING AND CITY LIFE, (History) exam are Students are taught thru NCERT books in some of state board and CBSE Schools. As the chapter involves an end, there is an exercise provided to assist students prepare for evaluation. Students need to clear up those exercises very well because the questions with inside the very last asked from those.

Class 11 history chapter 2 writing and city life: Notes

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is derived from two Greek words mesos meaning middle and Potamas meaning river. Mesopotamia means land between two rivers-Euphrates and Tigris. Today it is part of the Republic of Iraq.

• Mesopotamia civilization is famous for its prosperity, city life, its vast and rich literature, its mathematics, and astronomy.

Mesopotamian civilizations

Major Civilizations include the Sumerian, Assyrian, and Akkadian, Babylonian Civilizations.

Babylon: After 2000 BCE, When Babylon became an important City, the team Babylonia was used for the Southern Region. Babylon is located near the South of Baghdad in what is now Iraq. Babylon was an influential City and a Center of Mesopotamian Civilization.

Assyrians: From about 1100 BCE. When the Assyrians established their Kingdom in the north. The Region became known as Assyria.

Sumer: Sumer is the earliest Known Civilization in the historical Region of Southern Mesopotamia. Sumer Region was known for its language, governance, and architecture. The first known language of the land was Sumerian.

Akkadian: Akkadian was the first ancient Empire of Mesopotamia after the long-lived Civilization of Sumen. Sumerian language was gradually replaced by Akkadian around 2400 BCE When Akkadian Speaks arrived.

Mesopotamia and Its Geography

Iraq is a land of diverse environments. It ha following features.

• North east lie green undulating plains, gradually rising to tree-covered mountain ranges with clean streams and wildflowers, with enough rainfall to grow crops. Here, Agriculture began between 7000 and 6000 BCE.
• In North-There is a stretch of upland called a steppe, where animals herding offers people a better livelihood than agriculture. Sheep and goats produced meat, milk and wool in abundance
• In the East-tributaries of the Tigris provide routes of communication in to mountains of Iran
• The South is a desert-the place with the first cities and writing emerged. Euphrates and Tigris carry loads of silt and deposited on the flood fields.
• The water from Euphrates river flows into small channels after it enters the desert. These channels in the past functioned as irrigation channels.
• As compared to all the ancient Systems including Roman Empire, agriculture of Southern Mesopotamia was most productive.
• Apart from agriculture, Mesopotamian sheeps and goats produced meat, milk and wool in abundance. They grazed on the steppe (grassland), the North-Eastern plains and the mountain slopes.
• Further, fish was available in rivers and date palms gave fruit in summer.
• Mesopotamia had natural fertility yet agriculture was prone to hazards which were both natural and man-made.
• Natural channels of Euphrates would have too much water in one year, resulting in flooding crops.
• Man-made problems such as, people who lived in the upstream stretches of channel would divert water affecting villages in downstream. They also neglected the silt removal from their stretch of their channel and blocking the flow of water further down.
• So, the early Mesopotamian countryside saw repeated conflicts over land and water.

The Significance of Urbanisation

• When an urban economy develops in different fields like trade, manufactures and services other than the food production, it creates an atmosphere for people to live in towns.
• Urban centres involve in various economic activities such as food production trade, manufactures and services.
• City people will become more specialised in their field of work and become interdependent with other people rather than being self-sufficient. This is called division of labour which is a mark of urban life. The carver of stone seal requires bronze tools, and coloured stones.
• The bronze tool maker needs metals, and charcoal. So they depend on the products or services of other people.
• There must be a social organisation in cities
• Fuel, metal, various stones, wood etc., come from many places for city manufacturers. There are deliveries of grain and other food items from the village to the city.
• Thus organized trade and storage is needed.
• Urban economies often require the keeping of written records and In such a system some people commands and those others obey.

Movement of Goods into cities

• Food resources were abundant in Mesopotamia but it lacked mineral resources. most parts of south lacked stones used for making tools, seals, and jewels.
• The wood of date palm and poplar trees of Iraqi was not good for making carts, wheels or boats and there was no metal for tools, vessels or ornaments.
• So they imported wood, copper, tin, silver, gold, shell, stones from Turkey and Iran.
• They exported their textiles and food resources
• Transport is also important for urban development
• Besides crafts, trade and services, an efficient transport is needed for urban development. It should take less time and cost to carry goods from one place to another so that the city economy is viable.
• Thus, cheapest mode of transport is over water. Riverboats or barges loaded with sacks of grain are moved by the currents of river or wind but when animals transport goods, they need to be fed.
• The canals and natural channels of ancient Mesopotamia were to equip between large and small settlements.
• The canals and natural channels were routes for goods transport

Construction and Maintenance of Temples in Mesopotamia

• Early settlers began to build and rebuild temples at selected spots in the villages.
• The earliest known temple was a small shrine made of unbaked bricks.
• Temples were the residence of various gods: Moon God of Ur and for Inanna the Goddess of Love and War.
• Temples became larger over time with several rooms around open courtyards.
• Temples always had their outer walls going in and out at regular intervals.
• God was the focus of worship and people brought grain, curd and fish to god.
• The god was the theoretical owner of the agricultural fields, the fisheries, and the herds of the local community
• Production processes such as oil pressing, grain grinding, spinning and weaving of woollen cloth done in the temple.
• Thus temple became the main urban institution by organizing production, employing merchants and keeping records of the distribution and allotments of grain, plough animals, bread, beer, fish etc.

Role of Kings in the Construction and Maintenance of Temples in Mesopotamia

• Archaeological records show that villages were periodically relocated in Mesopotamian history because of flood in the river and change in the course of the rivers.
• There were man made problems as well. Those who lived on the upstream stretches of a channel could divert so much water in to their fields that villages of downstream were left without water.
• There was continuous war fare in Mesopotamian villages for land and water.
• The victorious chiefs distributed the loot among their followers and took prisoners from the defeated groups and employed them as their guards or servants.
• The chiefs also offer precious booty to the gods to beautify temples
• He organises the distribution of temple wealth by keeping records. This gave the king high status and authority to command the community.
• War captives and local people had to work for the temple, or for the ruler.
• Those who were put to work were paid rations like grain, oil, and cloth
• Hundreds of people were put to work at making and baking of clay cones for temples Life in the City of Ur.
• It has been estimated that one of the temples took 5 years to build with 1500 men working 10 hours a day.
• Rulers made people to fetch stones or metal ores, make or lay bricks for temple and go to other far away countries to get suitable materials.

Development in Urban Economy

• Archaeological evidence at Uruk, one of the earliest temple towns show that around 3000 BCE, it grew to a huge extent of 250 hectares which was twice as large as Mohenjodaro site.
• Dozens of small villages were deserted and there was a major population shift.
• The site was continuously occupied from about 4200 BCE to about 400CE and it had expanded to 400 hectares by about 2800 BCE. It also had a defensive wall around it.
• There were also technical advances at Uruk around 3000 BCE. Bronze tools came into use. Architects learnt to construct brick columns, as there was no suitable wood to bear the weight of the roof of large halls.
• People worked to make and bake clay cones that were pushed into temple walls and painted it in different colours creating a colourful mosaic.
• Achievements in sculpture using imported stone were also seen. One important technological landmark which suited urban economy was invention of potter’s wheel which enabled to mass produce similar pots at a time.

Life in the City

• A ruling elite (small section of society) emerged in Mesopotamia which had a major share of wealth.
• This is supported by the evidence available at Ur where enormous riches (jewellery, gold vessels, wooden musical instruments inlaid with white shell and lapiz lazuli, ceremonial daggers of gold, etc) were buried with some kings and queens.
• Ur and Mari were the most important imperial cities of Mesopotamia.

Ur was a town and one of the earliest cities excavated in the 1930s

• Ur was one of the earliest cities that was systematically excavated in the 1930s.
• Narrow twisted streets indicate the wheeled carts could not have reached many of the houses.
• Sacks of grain and firewood would have reached on donkey back.
• The narrow winding streets and irregular shaped house plots also indicate the absence of town planning. Ur did not have street drains like Mohenjodaro. and street drains were absent at Ur.
• Instead of drains clay pipes were found in the inner courtyards of houses.
• House roofs sloped inwards and rainwater was channelled via the drain pipes in to sumps in the inner courtyards.
• People had swept their house hold refuse in to the streets. This made street level rise, and overtime the thresholds of houses had to be raised. So that no mud would flow inside after rains.
• Light came into the rooms not from windows but from doorways opening in to courtyards.
• Superstitions about houses. As recorded in omen tablets at Ur:
  • A raised threshold brought wealth;
  • A front door that did not open towards another house was lucky;
  • If the main door of a house open outwards, the wife would be a torment to her husband
• The graves of royalty and commoners have been found there. Very few individuals were found buried under the floors of ordinary houses.

A Trading Town in a Pastoral Zone (Life in the city of Mari)

After 2000 BCE the royal city of Mari flourished.

• Mari was located on the upstream of Euphrates.
• Mari had both farmers and pastrolists in its communities.
• Agriculture and animal rearing were carried out in this region.
• Most of the region was used for pasturing sheep and goats.
• Both herders and farmers had a contradictory relationship. Herders exchanged animals, cheese, leather and meat in return for, metal tools etc. with the farmers.
• On the other hand, they also had conflict. A shepherd might take his large group of animals to water across a sown field that resulting in ruining of the crop.
• Herdsmen could raid villages and seize their stored goods. Settled groups might deny pastoralists access to river and canal water in some places.
• Nomadic groups of the western desert filtered into the prosperous agricultural land.
• Such groups would come as herders, harvest labourers or hired soldiers and settled down
• These included the Akkadians, Amorites, Assyrians and Armaneans.
• The kings of Mari were Amorites and raised a temple at Mari for Dagan, god of steppe.
• Mesopotamian society and culture were open to different cultures.

Mari as an important Trade Centre

• Mari is a good example of an urban centre prospering on trade.
• Wood, copper, wine, tin, oil, etc. were carried in boats along the Euphrates between the south and Turkey, Syria and Lebanon.
• Boats carrying grinding stones, wood, and wine and oil jars, would stop at Mari on their way to southern cities.
• Officers of this town would go abroad, inspect the cargo and levy a charge of about one-tenth the value of the goods.

Thus, although the kingdom of Mari was not militarily strong but it was exceptionally prosperous.

Cities in Mesopotamian culture

Mesopotamians valued city life . Many communities and cultures lived side by side. After cities were destroyed in war, they recalled them in poetry.

• The Epic of Gilgamesh remind us the pride of the Mesopotamians who took in their cities which was written in 12 tablets.
• Gilgamesh was the ruler of Uruk and a great hero who brought people fro far and wide under his control.
• He got a shock when his heroic friend died . He then set out to find the secret of immortality.
• After a heroic attempt, Gilgamesh failed, and returned to Uruk and started admiring the foundations of the city and took comfort in the city that his people had built.

Traditions in Mesopotamia

• Family Traditions in Mesopotamia legal text shows that In Mesopotamian society, the nuclear family system was the norm.
• The father was the head of the family
• We know little about the procedures of marriage
• A declaration was made about the willingness to marry by the bride’s parents.
• when the wedding took place gifts were exchanged by both parties who ate together and made offerings in a temple.
• The bride was given her share of the inheritance by her father.
• The father’s house, herds, fields etc. were inherited by the sons.

The Development of Writing

• Writing is a form of verbal communication in which spoken sounds are represented in visible signs.
• The first Mesopotamian tablets which were written around 3200 BCE contained picture like signs and numbers.
• These were list of goods of about 5000 oxen, fish, bread loaves, etc, which were brought into or distributed from temples of Uruk, a city in the South.
• This shows that writing began when society needed to keep records of transactions. Mesopotamians wrote on tablets of clay.
• A tablet is a flat slab of stone, clay, or wood used especially for inscription.
• A scribe (a person who made copies of manuscripts) would wet the clay and make it into a size he could hold in one hand easily and carefully smoothen its surfaces.
• Then, he would press wedge-shaped (cuneiform) signs on to the smoothened surface while it was still moist.
• These tablets would be dried in Sun, which would make them hard and indestructible. They were thrown away after a written record became irrelevant.
• Every minor transaction was made on a new tablet and due to this, hundreds of tablets were found in Mesopotamian sites which helped in knowing more about Mesopotamia than India.

The System of Writing

• The cuneiform sign was represented as syllables (like-put, or -la-, or -in-) and not like consonant or vowel (like b or a in English).
• Thus, it made writing a skilled craft because scribe had to learn hundreds of signs and later, he had to handle a wet tablet and get it written before it dried.
• It was also a huge intellectual achievement to convey the system of sounds of a particular language in visual form.

Literacy

• There were hundreds of signs to learn in Mesopotamia but most of them were complex. Due to this reason, very few Mesopotamians could read and write.
• If a king could read, he made sure that it was recorded in one of his boastful inscriptions.

The Uses of Writing

By 2600 BCE, letters became cuneiform and the language was Sumerian. The connection between city life, trade, and writing is brought out in a long Sumerian epic poem about Enmerkar, one of the earliest rulers of Uruk. In Mesopotamian tradition, Uruk was the city of excellence, sometimes simply known as The City. The uses of writing were:

The Legacy of Writing

One of the greatest legacies of Mesopotamia to the world is an estimation of time and mathematics. Tablets from around 1800 BCE had multiplication, division tables, square and square-root tables and tables of compound interest.

Calendar

• The division of the year into 12 months.
• The division of month into four weeks
• The division of day into 24 hours,
• The division of the hour into 60 minutes.

Students had to learn and solve problems on area and volume. Time divisions which we follow now came from Mesopotamians. They were adopted by the successors of Alexander and then transmitted to the Roman world, then to the world of Islam and then to medieval Europe.

• Solar and lunar eclipses were observed and recorded.
• There were schools where students read and copied earlier written tablets

Thus, without writing and urban institutions like schools (where students read and copied earlier written tablets and were trained to become intellectuals), the important and great Mesopotamian achievements would have not been possible.

Class 11 history chapter 2 writing and city life: Timeline

7000-6000 BCE	Beginning of agriculture in the Northern Mesopotamian plains.
5000 BCE	Earliest temples in Southern Mesopotamia built.
3200 BCE	First writing in Mesopotamia.
2700-2500 BCE	Early kings, including, possibly the legendary ruler Gilgamesh.
2600 BCE	Development of the cuneiform script.
2400 BCE	Replacement of Sumerian by Akkadian.
2370 BCE	Sargon, king of Akkad.
2000 BCE	Spread of cuneiform writing to Syria, Turkey and Egypt; Mari and Babylon emerge as important urban centres.
1800 BCE	Mathematical texts composed; Sumerian no longer spoken.
1100 BCE	Establishment of the Assyrian kingdom
1000 BCE	Use of Iron.
720-610 BCE	Assyrian empire
668-627 BCE	Rule of Assurbanipal.
331 BCE	Alexander conquers Babylon.
1st century CE	Akkadian and cuneiform remain in use.
1850s	Decipherment of the cuneiform script.

Class 11 history chapter 2 writing and city life: Summary

Class 11 history chapter 2 writing and city life: Points to be remember

• Mesopotamia: It is derived from the Greek words mesos, meaning middle, and potamos meaning river.
• Tablet: A flat piece of stone, clay or wood that has writing on it.
• Division of Labour: A system where no one remains self-dependent. In fact, the people depend upon each other for their needs.
• Cuneiform: Derived from the Latin words ‘cuneus’ meaning ‘wedge. Wedge shaped symbols represent the syllables and sound of a word.
• Steles: These are stone slabs with inscriptions or carvings.
• Nuclear Family: Composite family including husband, wife and their children.
• Sump: It is a covered basin in the ground into which water and sewage flow.

NCERT Notes for Class 11 History

NCERT Notes for Class 11 History
Chapter 1 From the Beginning of Time
Chapter 2 Writing and City Life
Chapter 3 An Empire Across Three Continents
Chapter 4 The Central Islamic Lands
Chapter 5 Nomadic Empires
Chapter 6 The Three Orders
Chapter 7 Changing Cultural Traditions
Chapter 8 Confrontation of Cultures
Chapter 9 The Industrial Revolution
Chapter 10 Displacing Indigenous Peoples
Chapter 11 Paths to Modernisation

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