Antrahasis

An epic poem originally dating from Mesopotamia's Sumerian period (the second millennium b.c.) and perpetuated by the Babylonians and other peoples who later dwelled in the region. The most complete written copy, made by a Babylonian scribe, dates from circa 1700 to 1650 b.c. A fragment, representing about a fifth of the work, was discovered in 1876; more came to light in 1965, and about 80 percent of the original has now been recovered. one of the most important of the Mesopotamian creation stories, the tale of Atrahasis also provides biblical scholars with a link between the ancient Mesopota-mian and Hebrew cultures, as the story of Noah and the flood from the book of Genesis is clearly based on the Atrahasis.

   According to legend, Atrahasis was the pious king of the Sumerian city of Shuruppak, lying northwest of the Persian Gulf. He was forced to deal with a series of epic, dramatic events when the powerful storm god, Enlil, decided to destroy the human race because he felt that people had become too noisy and annoying. As his instrument of destruction, Enlil chose a great flood. However, Ea, god of wisdom and freshwater, felt bad for the humans. Behind Enlil's back, Ea went to Atrahasis and warned him of the coming deluge. The god told the man to dismantle his house, use the materials to build a big boat, and try to save as many plant and animal species as possible by loading them onto the ark. "I loaded her with everything there was," Atrahasis later recalled. "I loaded her with all the seeds of living things, all of them. I put on board the boat all my kith and kin. I put on board the cattle from open country and all kinds of craftsmen." Then the floods came and covered the land far and wide, drowning all those humans and animals that were not in Atrahasis's boat. Finally, on the seventh day, the storm subsided and Atra-hasis looked out at the ruined world. "Silence reigned, for all of humanity had returned to clay," he says.

   The flood-plain was as flat as a roof. I opened a porthole and light fell on my cheeks. . . . Tears ran down my cheeks. . . . The boat had come to rest on [the top of] Mount Nimush. . . . When the seventh day arrived, I put out and released a dove. The dove went; it came back, for no perching place was visible to it, and it turned around. [Later] I put out and released a raven. The raven went and saw the waters receding. And it ate . . . and did not turn round. Then I put all [on board the ark] out to the four winds [i.e., in all directions] and I made a sacrifice [to the gods].

   After the catastrophe, some gods were glad that humanity had survived, but Enlil was upset that Ea had interfered in his plans to destroy the human race. Fortunately for Atrahasis and his family, the tactful Ea convinced Enlil that saving humanity was a good thing. Enlil decided to commemorate the event by giving Atrahasis and his wife - but no other humans - the gift of immortality.

Figure 2: The location of Babylonia made it vulnerable to floods from the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.

The oldest known copy of the epic of Atrahasis can be dated by its scribal identification to the reign of Hammurabi's great-grandson, Ammi-Saduqa (1646–1626 B.C.E.), but also various Old Babylonian fragments exist. The story continued to be copied into the first millennium B.C.E. The Atrahasis story also exists in a later fragmentary Assyrian version, the first one having been discovered in the library of Ashurbanipal.

In 1965, W.G. Lambert and A.R. Millard published additional texts belonging to the epic written around 1650 B.C.E. which constitute our most complete surviving recension of the tale. These texts greatly increased knowledge of the epic and served as the foundation for the first English translation of the full Atrahasis epic, by Lambert and Millard in 1969. A further fragment has been recovered in archaeological work at the Mesopotamian city of Ugarit.

Figure 3: Cuneiform tablet with the Atra-Hasis epic in the British Museum / Wikimedia Commons

Jayakarta/Batavia

Image of Batavia, capital of the Dutch East Indies in what is now North Jakarta, circa 1780

Note: Article Extracted from the Catholic Encyclopedia 

When the Portuguese took possession of the island of Java, of which Batavia is the capital, they brought the Christian religion with them; but the Dutch, having conquered Java in 1596, set about the destruction of Catholicism. Nevertheless, the memory has been preserved of a Friar Minor who was expelled from Batavia in 1721, and attempted to continue his apostolic labours in China. It was with difficulty that a priest could enter Java, and, if recognized, he was hunted out. When in 1807 Louis Napoleon became King of Holland, Pius VII divided all the Dutch territory outside of Europe into three prefectures, two in the West Indies and the third, with Batavia for its seat, in the East Indies. At this period the Dutch missionaries James Nelissen and Lambert Preffen set out for the Sunda Islands, and reached Batavia, 4 April, 1808. The Government gave them at first a ruinous Calvinist place of worship, and then added to this act of generosity sufficiently to enable them to erect a church, which was blessed, under the title of Our Lady of the Assumption, 6 November, 1829. Nelissen died 6 December, 1817, and Preffen succeeded him in this prefecture.

Jakarta Neo-Gothic style "The Church of Our Lady of the Assumption" Cathedral in the afternoon. One of the most beautiful historical building in Jakarta.

On the 20th of September, 1842, Gregory XVI (see Pope Gregory XVI) raised the Prefecture of Batavia to a vicariate Apostolic, and Monsignor Groof, titular Bishop of Canea, and previously prefect Apostolic of Surinam, became the first vicar Apostolic. A coadjutor was given him, 4 June, 1847, in Monseigneur Pierre-Marie Vrancken, titular Bishop of Colophon, who succeeded him in 1852. The Dutch Government, however, did not leave the first missionaries in peace, and Monsignor Groof, together with Father Van den Brand, a missionary priest, was expelled. Monsignor Vrancken died in 1874, and Pius IX then entrusted the mission of Batavia to the Dutch Jesuits. The first Jesuit vicar Apostolic was Monsignor Claessens (1874-93), who was succeeded by Monsignor Staal (1894-97) and Monsignor Luypen, the present (1907) incumbent of the office. The Jesuits energetically set about the development of the mission, which then comprised the islands of Java, Sumatra, Borneo, the Sunda group, Timor, the Celebes, and the Moluccas.

Father's Day

The idea of setting aside a day especially for fathers was at least partially inspired by the success of MOTHER'S DAY, established in 1914. Sonora Smart Dodd from Spokane, Washington, was listening to a Mother's Day sermon in church and decided that the nation's fathers deserved a similar day of recognition. One of six children raised by her father after her mother's death in 1898, Dodd began working through Protestant churches and local groups in Spokane to promote the holiday. She circulated a petition suggesting the third Sunday in June as an appropriate time and urging people to wear a ROSE that day in honor of their fathers.

Because the petition was originally circulated among ministers and church organizations, the earliest observances took place in churches and modeled themselves on Mother's Day rituals. Father's Day was also seen as a good opportunity to underscore the "masculine" side of Christianity and to remind fathers of their obligation to look after their families' spiritual welfare.

Dodd formed a committee to promote the new celebration by getting political endorsements, answering inquiries from around the country, and staging local celebrations, but the idea was slow to catch on. By the 1920s Father's Day had more or less died out as a local event, and Dodd herself moved on to other projects. But after studying at the Art Institute of Chicago and working as a fashion designer in Hollywood, she returned to Spokane in the early 1930s and resumed her campaign, focusing on the holiday's 25th anniversary observance in 1935. This time she had more success, and Father's Day enjoyed a resurgence-at least in eastern Washington.

The rest of the country, however, regarded it as just another excuse for a holiday. What did fathers want with sentimental gifts and greeting cards? But then the Associated Men's Wear Retailers of New York City took up the cause, recognizing its commercial potential. They set up the National Council for the Promotion of Father's Day in 1938. The council coordinated the efforts of florists, tobacconists, stationers, and men's clothiers across the country to promote Father's Day. "Give Dad Something to Wear" was its slogan, and its goal was to boost sales by increasing the demand for Father's Day gifts.

President Calvin Coolidge had recommended that Father's Day become a nationwide observance as early as 1924. But it wasn't until 1972 that President Richard Nixon signed a proclamation to that effect. By the time Dodd died in 1978 at the age of 96, the Father's Day Council estimated the holiday to be worth more than $1 billion in retail sales.

SYMBOLS AND CUSTOMS

Necktie

What Mother's Day did for the florist industry, Father's Day did for the necktie industry. Along with tobacco, shirts, and other typically masculine gifts, neckties appeared on the earliest Father's Day greeting cards, and retailers wasted no time in turning the holiday to their advantage. Knowing that many people regarded Father's Day gifts as a joke, they designed ads showing fathers surrounded by ridiculous or tacky gifts, and then suggested the purchase of a classic silk necktie or pair of socks. Although their ploys were not difficult to see through, such advertising campaigns made it increasingly difficult to ignore Father's Day altogether.

As early as 1920 the custom of giving ties to fathers as a token of affection had already become a standing joke. The women who chose them often showed questionable taste. But the thought of giving flowers was even more laughable, and at least neckties were a more masculine, less sentimental gift. Along with socks, pipes, cigars, and shirts, neckties have somehow managed to retain their standing as the classic Father's Day gift.

Rose

Just as the carnation became a symbol for MOTHER'S DAY, the rose was suggested as the official Father's Day flower by Sonora Dodd in her 1910 petition to the Spokane Ministerial Association. It would be appropriate, she thought, if people wore a white rose in remembrance of a father who had died and a red rose as a tribute to a living father. Although more than sixty years passed before the holiday was officially established, the rose never encountered any real competition as the symbolic flower of Father's Day.

FURTHER READING

Henderson, Helene, ed. Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary. 3rd ed. Detroit: Omnigraphics, 2005. Ickis, Marguerite. The Book of Religious Holidays and Celebrations. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1966. Schmidt, Leigh Eric. Consumer Rites: The Buying and Selling of American Holidays. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.

Armenian Christianity

The nature and characteristics of the paganism which preceded Christianity in Armenia are practically unknown to us. Attempts have been made to identify its gods with those of Greece, but all we know are the names and the sanctuaries of its pagan deities. Obscurity likewise shrouds the beginnings of Christianity in the country. Native historians of a rather late period would have us believe that several of the Apostles preached in Armenia, and that some of them, as St. Bartholomew and St. Thaddeus, died there. A popular legend ascribes to the latter the evangelizing of the land. Although the very ancient writers of the country, such as Korioun, Agathangelus, etc., do not even mention the name of Thaddeus, yet the legend, which apparently came at a late period from a Greek source, has so prevailed that even today the head of the Armenian Church claims to be occupying the "throne of St. Thaddeus". Although legendary, this tradition witnesses that Christianity at a rather early date passed from Syria over into Armenia. The letter of Meruzan to Dionysius of Alexandria (A.D. 248-265) confirms us in the belief that Christianity had already penetrated into Armenia before the time of St. Gregory the Illuminator. However, it is around St. Gregory that the story of Christianity's growth in Armenia centers; for in him Armenia had its apostle. Born of the royal stock of the Arsacides, and brought in early infancy to Cesarea of Cappadocia because of a Persian persecution of the Armenians, he was there instructed in the Christian Faith.

After its inclusion in the two world empires of the day, the Armenian kingly line in the Byzantine (western) territories of Armenia was suppressed first, followed by the forced ending of the kingly line in the Persian territories in 428. Since that time Armenia has been the subject of a long line of subjugations: to the Persians,

Arabs, Turks, and most recently the Russians. The first three overlords had no regard for the Christian traditions of the people, and the last had little desire for any cultural independence or (in communist period) for any religious renaissance. The religious literary and political aspirations of the Armenians have been sustained through long centuries of endurance in extraordinary ways. In the 20th century this involved the survival of genocide under Turkish rule (1915­-22) and political suffocation under the Soviets. The reestablishment of a free political base in the modern Republic of Armenia (much diminished in territorial size from Antiquity) and the well-developed Armenian diaspora in the United States have proven to be bright lights in the turn of Armenian fortunes in modern times.

Among many outstanding Armenian Christian leaders throughout the ages must be counted St. Nerses (d. 373),

who was the sixth catholicos and a direct descendant of St. Gregory. He was educated in Cappadocian Caesarea and served at the royal Armenian court before becoming a priest after the death of his wife. After his election as catholicos ca. 363, he initiated a large-scale reform of the church; issuing many canons after the Council of Ashtishat in 365,concerning fasting regulations, and the forbidding of marriages in kindred degrees. His stand against the Arians, the resistance of many of the court nobles to the spread of Christianity, and the use of monastics in the evangelization process,are described in the 5th-century historical writings of P’awstos Buzand. Nerses founded hospitals and orphanages set under church supervision. King Arshak III deposed him after being the focus of Nerses’ criticism for a dissolute life. His successor King Pap restored him in 369, but in turn decided to dispose of him when he too was criticized for immorality; which he did by the expedient of poisoning Nerses during a banquet. He was succeeded by his son,St. Isaac (Sahak) the Great, who was catholicos between ca. 397 and 438 and who was the last descendant of the bloodline of Gregory the Illuminator. It was during the reign of Pap that Armenia first stopped seeking the recognition of the metropolitans of Cappadocian Caesarea for the appointment of its catholicoi, and thus assumed an autonomous ecclesiastical existence.

St. Mesrob Mashtots (ca. 361­-439) was for a long time the assistant bishop to St. Isaac and became the locum tenens after his death, for six months before his own death. He invented the distinctive national Armenian script, which was widely adopted after 406, as part of his lifelong concern to remove Syrian dependence in Armenian church life and establish national traditions and styles. From the 5th century onwards there was a large effort led by St. Mesrob and his disciples to translate Christian literature from other cultures into it, chief among which were the translations of the Bible in 410 (using Syriac manuscripts and later Greek exemplars) as well as key liturgical texts. In patristic times many of the church’s writings were translated into Armenian, and as a result some theological texts now survive only in the Armenian versions that were made in Antiquity.

Important examples of this are the Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching of St. Irenaeus and several of the opera of St. Ephrem the Syrian. Armenia first entered international Christian debate in the time of Mesrob, whose disciples had been to Melitene to study Greek, and who were well aware that the city’s bishop,

Acacius of Melitene, had written in the strongest terms after the Ephesine council of 431 to protest the Constantinopolitan and Alexandrian denigration of the works of Mar Theodore Mopsuestia, a leading light of the Syrian Church. 

Proclos, patriarch of Constantinople 434­-46, wrote a Tome to the Armenians which became an important standard of christological orthodoxy in Armenia and was long used afterwards as a significant reason to negate the influence of Chalcedon.

Because of the political unrest in the country during a rebellion of 451, there were no Armenian representatives at the Council of Chalcedon, though the Armenian Church authorities were kept apprized of developments and approved the Henoticon of Emperor Zeno at the Council of Dvin in 506. In 518 the Byzantine Church condemned the Henoticon, but it was not until 555, two years after Justinian’s revisionist christological council, that the Armenian hierarchy decided that it would not endorse Chalcedon as a significant,

ecumenical synod, nor adopt the “twonature after the Union” theology which it had proposed as a standard. At that time the Armenian synod issued a censure of the Byzantine Church, explicitly condemning the theological errors of “both poles” of the debate: namely, Severus of Antioch,

and Eutyches, on the one hand, and Theodore Mopsuestia, Nestorius, and the Council of Chalcedon, on the other. Since that time Armenian Christianity has often been categorized by commentators in the Byzantine Orthodox tradition as among the “Oriental Orthodox” anti-Chalcedonians,

or “Monophysites,” but this is a misleading oversimplification on both fronts. The formal christological position of the church is to endorse the Christology of the first three ecumenical councils, prioritizing St. Cyril of Alexandria’s early formula:

“One Physis of the Word of God Incarnate” (Miaphysitism, which meant in Cyril’s hands “One concrete reality of the Incarnate Word of God,” not so much an endorsement of a “singularity of nature” which is often meant by the later term “Monophysitism”).

Seventh-century Byzantine emperors tried to reconcile the ecclesiastical division with Armenia, but their efforts were hindered by the Arab Islamic overrunning of the regions after the late 8th century. The ecumenical moves to rapprochement from this time are described in a very important Armenian Church history known as the Narratio de rebus Armeniae (Garitte 1952).

What is Aramaic Primacy?

photo:Manuscript on parchment of the book is Peshitta: Syrian Aramaic translation of the Bible. 

 The term Aramaic Primacy is used, informally, to refer to the claim that the New Testament was originally written not in Koine Greek but in a dialect of Aramaic. This theory is more commonly referred to as “Peshitta Primacy,” referring to the ancient Aramaic manuscripts of the Bible, a collection known as the Peshitta. The Aramaic Primacy Theory is drastically different from the consensus of historians and New Testament scholars, who hold that the original works of the New Testament were in fact written in Greek. A large number of researchers suggest that the Gospels of Mark and Matthew may have drawn from earlier Aramaic sources, but the claims of Aramaic Primacy go far beyond this.

Certain denominations hold to Aramaic Primacy as an article of faith, such as the Assyrian Church of the East. George Lamsa, a proponent of the Nestorian heresy, was instrumental in advancing the view that the New Testament was originally written in Aramaic. As with other views running contrary to general scholarship, Aramaic/Peshitta Primacy is primarily supported by the work of a single author, in this case, Lamsa. Both contemporaries of Lamsa and later scholars have concluded he frequently confused then-modern Syriac with ancient Aramaic, two languages that are extremely similar. More problematic is Lamsa’s translation of the Bible from the Aramaic, published in full in 1957. His translation work is inaccurate and filled with subtle changes to the text that undermine the doctrines of the Trinity and the deity of Christ, among others.

Textual scholars have examined the Peshitta and found clear evidence of influence from later translations. The dialect used in the Peshitta is from a later time period than that of Jesus and His disciples. The Peshitta utilizes phrases that obscure wordplay and metaphor; this is expected of a translation but not an original autograph. The massive number of biblical manuscripts available makes it possible to recognize variations, translation choices, and so forth, over time and geography. In other words, all available evidence points to the Peshitta’s being a later translation, not an original manuscript. Peshitta Primacy, or Aramaic Primacy, is not supported by evidence or scholarship. Despite the traditional view of Syriac churches, certain segments of Messianic Judaism, and the Hebrew Roots Movement, the New Testament was not originally written in Aramaic.

Cyprus Problem

Half a century after Cyprus’ independence from Great Britain in 1960, the Cyprus question is still unresolved. The island remains divided between the internationally recognized Greek-Cypriot Republic of Cyprus and the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus where 40,000 Turkish troops are stationed, since Turkey’s invasion in the summer of 1974. Cyprus became an Ottoman dominion in 1571 and passed to Great Britain with the Congress of Berlin in 1878, in exchange for London’s help in annulling the San Stefano Treaty and keeping Macedonia in Ottoman hands. Under the British, Greek-Cypriots prospered but remained committed to the unification with Greece, following the example of Crete.

In 1931 Greek-Cypriots revolted but were left unaided by Greece, which was recovering from the Asia Minor catastrophe and did not want to upset its relationship with Britain at a time of rising Italian revisionism in the Mediterranean. The British easily suppressed the revolt, exiled Greek-Cypriot leaders, and marginalized the bourgeois nationalists, leaving the church as the main political representative of the Greek-Cypriot community. Following World War II, against a rising communist party, the church, headed by the newly appointed, young, ambitious, and charismatic Archbishop Makarios, seized the leadership of the anticolonial struggle. With Greek public opinion on Makarios’ side, the Greek government, after much initial hesitation, brought the matter to the United Nations General Assembly in 1954, where the Greek position was soundly defeated, having failed to secure the support of the United States. Makarios turned to Georgios Grivas, a military officer with strong nationalist and anticommunist views, who organized the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (NOCF; Ethniki Organosi Kyprion Agoniston, EOKA) to fight the British. NOCF/EOKA’s campaign started in April 1955 and was met with violence by the British and the increasingly assertive Turkish-Cypriots. Makarios was exiled  to the Seychelles but it was evident that British rule was coming to  an end.  The United States pressed for a diplomatic solution as the unrest threatened the unity of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization  (NATO) and the Western alliance in the crucial area of the eastern  Mediterranean, where the Soviet Union began antagonizing Western interests through the support of Arab nationalism. However, the  Greek-Cypriots failed to secure their primary goal of Cyprus’ unification with Greece. Faced with the unyielding opposition of Turkey  and the Turkish-Cypriots, British manipulation, and Greece’s foreign dependence and military weakness, a compromise was reached  among the governments of Britain, Greece, and Turkey first in Zurich  and then in London that, in 1960, granted Cyprus its independence,  guaranteed by the three countries, and provided enhanced political  rights to the Turkish-Cypriots.

A street riot in Nicosia during the Battle at Nicosia Hospital in 1956

Makarios was elected president of the new Republic of Cyprus but was forced to share power with his Turkish-Cypriot vice president. Amid rising frustration among many Greek-Cypriots and against the advice of the Greek government, in November 1963, Makarios suggested a constitutional revision to curtail the rights of the Turkish-Cypriots. In protest, the latter withdrew from all of the republic’s institutions and isolated themselves in limited ethnic enclaves protected, after 1964, by a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force. Twice provoked by attrocities against TurkishCypriots, Turkey threatened to invade but was restrained by the United States--first in 1964 and then in 1967. Makarios’ relations with Athens deteriorated, especially after the coup in 1967, and Washington was openly hostile to his leadership. In July 1974, the Greek junta overthrew Makarios but failed to assassinate him. This gave Turkey a good enough reason to realize what was long in the planning, a full-scale invasion of the island to secure its geostrategic interests and protect the Turkish-Cypriot community. Cyprus was violently divided, with Turkish-Cypriots remaining in the northern 36 percent of the island and the Greek-Cypriots being pushed to the southern and less developed part of the island. The international community did not recognize the partition of the island although it failed to effectively confront Turkey.

Since 1974, the Greek-Cypriot south has prospered, taking advantage of a liberal economic regime and the devastation caused by a civil war in neighboring Lebanon. More recently, the tables have turned as the Republic of Cyprus became a member of the European Union (EU) in 2004, and thus acquired a veto in Turkey’s relations with the EU. Apart from the cost to lives and properties, the size of the collateral damage to Greece and Hellenism caused by the conflict over Cyprus is difficult to underestimate. As a result, the remaining Greek communities of Turkey, especially the prosperous Istanbul (Constantinople) Greeks, were uprooted. Greece redirected valuable resources to its defense against the Turkish threat, and Greek public opinion was radicalized in ways that remain relevant to the present day. Cyprus seriously complicated the postwar efforts at domestic modernization of Greece, destroyed the Greek­Turkish friendship, and poisoned Greece’s relations with its Western allies, especially the United States. The dispute gave rise to a new age of anticolonial nationalism and enhanced the electoral appeal of nationalists and populists alike, especially on the Greek left. Even the preeminent postwar Greek leader Konstantinos Karamanlis, who signed the Zurich­London compromise in an effort to put Cyprus behind and refocus on Greece’s domestic development, saw his pre-junta administration suffer because of his reluctance to play the nationalist and anti-Western card.

Reference:

1.UK's murky role in Cyprus crisis, By Jolyon Jenkins, BBC Radio 4's Document

2.History of Cyprus from 1878 to the present.

3.Operation Atilla

Source

1.1974 coup d'état

2.Letter by the President of the Republic, Mr Tassos Papadopoulos, to the U.N. Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, dated June 7, which circulated as an official document of the U.N. Security Council

Sanballat

Sanaballetes). A Horonite.

Darius III’s satrap in Samaria (JosAJ 11.302), Sanballat was already an old man at the time of Alexander’s invasion (JosAJ 11.311). He was the father of Nicaso and father-in-law of Manasses, the brother of the high priest of Jerusalem, Iaddus (JosAJ 11.302–3; but Nehemiah 13:28 says that Sanballat’s son-in-law was son of the high priest Eliashib and grandson of Jehoiada).666 The mixed marriage was frowned upon and Sanballat planned to make Manasses high priest of a new temple he was to found on Mount Gerizim (JosAJ 11.310).

But the war between Alexander and Darius intervened, and after the battle of Issus Sanballat abandoned Darius and brought 8,000 men to Alexander at Tyre (JosAJ 11.321), thus retaining his position and gaining permission for the construction of the temple on Mount Gerizim. At this point the classical sources speak of the appointment of Andromachus in CoeleSyria, presumably as strategos (C 4.5.9).

Sanballat died before Alexander had completed the siege of Gaza (JosAJ 11.322–5).

The remainder of Josephus’ story, which has Alexander coming to Jerusalem and revering the Hebrew god, is dismissed by many scholars as fiction (Bickerman 1988: 5).667 244 The value of the details of Sanballat’s administration of Samaria and submission to Alexander is also uncertain (cf. Briant 1048).

Berve ii.349 no. 695.

Chalcolithic period

The development of Mesopotamia in the 7th–5th millennium BC was centered around the Hassuna culture in the north, the Halaf culture in the northwest, the Samarra culture in central Mesopotamia and the Ubaid culture in the southeast, which later expanded to encompass the whole region.

An archaeological period (literally “copper-stone” age) that refers to increased use of metallurgy, especially of copper, toward the end of the Neolithic period. In Mesopotamia, the Chalcolithic period lasted approximately from the sixth to the fifth millennia B.C. Pilot sites are Tepe Gawra and Tell Arpachiya in the north, and Eridu and Tell Awayli in the south. For southern sites, the term Ubaid period is also used, and for the north, Halaf period. In this phase, all the achievements of the preceding period were further developed; horticulture and agriculture spread, and more and more people adopted a sedentary lifestyle. The archaeological evidence points to increased settlement size, increased specialization and professionalization, and higher labor inputs. All ecological niches and their wild resources (fish, water fowl, game, wild legumes) were exploited, and new cultigens were planted in fields and gardens, making use of hydro-technological inventions such as field irrigation.

Female statuette, Samarra culture, 6000 BC

The Chalcolithic period also saw the introduction of fundamentally new technologies. Particularly striking is the hand-painted, sometimes glazed potteryshowing an unparalleled degree of perfection. Pottery sets, found in many graves, were probably used in rituals and banquets where status could be displayed. Metallurgy was less developed in Mesopotamia than in neighboring countries such as Iran. Gold was introduced, and arsenic bronze appeared in the upper Euphrates region in the Ubaid period. There is some evidence from Tell Awayli of a weaving loom.

   Stone was also worked with more sophistication; it was now possible to work stones with a hardness of 4 to 7 on the Moh’s hardness scale. The presence of exotic stones, such as lapis-lazuli from Badakhshan or turquoise from Central Asia, points to an interlinking supply system. Exchange of goods seems to have been an important factor of Chalcolithic socioeconomics, as was the practice of seals and sealing documents. Some scholars propose that Chalcolithic communities were on the way to forming states (“incipient statehood”), given the whole-scale application of traditional inventions, efforts at maximizing energy output, and increasing full-time sedentarization.

Family Society in Mesopotamia

The basic constituent of Mesopotamian society was the patriarchal family. Administrative documents from the major sites recorded people’s names and affiliation, but it is still difficult to get a clear picture of the family sizes and patterns of residence at any given period.

   From the archaeological record, it appears that extended families encompassing several generations and more than one couple with children were common in later prehistoric periods . This can be deducted by the size of habitations, the number of fireplaces, and the number of individuals buried beneath the floor of houses. Such extended families formed productive units, pooling their labor and sharing resources. On the other hand, nuclear families, consisting of a couple with their (young) children, also existed, especially within larger groupings. There is no doubt that the several forms of family organization developed early, in response to different subsistence activities and social configurations. They persisted into later, historical periods. There is evidence from the Early Dynastic period that large households (oikos) were common , which included not only the members of the family but also servants and slaves . They could generate substantial revenues from enterprise, both commercial and agricultural. The land held by such a household could only be sold if all the male adults agreed, as sale contracts from the Akkad period document.

   The large state organizations  and the temples employed people of all ages and genders. Women and their children would work together in the manufactories of the Third Dynasty of Ur, for instance, producing textiles. Small family units could work on plots assigned to them by these organizations for a fixed percentage of the harvest. When a family experienced crop failures and could not meet their obligations, they had to take loans of silver or grain at often usurious rates. If the loans could not be paid either, the head of the family could pledge his own labor, and that of any of his children or his wife, or, in a more desperate move, sell them into slavery to raise capital. Excavations at Nippur have shown how in the Old Babylonian period wealthy, professional families lived in spacious houses, with domestic slaves, which in later, more difficult times were partitioned and occupied by poorer, more numerous families. In the Neo-Babylonian period, family firms, such as the Murashu or the Egibi, could conduct lucrative banking and investment business that continued for several generations. Such a practice can also be observed in the early second-millennium import-export family businesses at Assur.

   Some literary texts as well as proverbs allow some insights into the emotional comfort of family life. In the Old Babylonian version of the Gilgamesh epic, the “innkeeper” Siduri advises the hero to seek solace in the embrace of his wife and delight in the presence of his children. The 12th tablet of the epic describes the unhappy fate of the dead who have no children to offer libations for them, and it praises the lucky father of many sons who has an exalted position in the netherworld. Proverbs warn of the disruptive presence of pretty slave girls in the house and admonish the young to show respect for their elders.

References:Family

koban

Dutch East India Company coin. Gold Koban coin, Japan, countermarked for use in Indonesia. Dated 17th Century. (Photo by: Photo 12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

The koban gold coin (not to be confused with koban meaning police box) was an Edo Period Japanese flat, thinly beaten coin, oval in shape.

The gold koban were produced from metal mined from Sado Gold Mine on Sado Island and each koban was equal in value to one ryo, which in turn was equal to three koku of rice – a koku being the estimation of rice needed to feed one person for one year (about 150kg).

The Tokugawa currency gradually became debased over the centuries leading to inflation, which was one of the reasons the Tokugawa regime was in deep financial trouble by the time Commodore Perry arrived in 1853. The koban was replaced in the Meiji Period with the Yen based on Western standards.

Koban at Sado Gold Museum, Aikawa