History/Cultural Background
Mesopotamia was the home of the first civilizations, which included the Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian empires. V. Gordon Childe described a civilization as “a culture capable of sustaining a substantial number of specialists to cope with the economic, social, political, and religious needs of a populous society.” According to Childe, “Civilizations also have writing systems, monumental architecture, and art representative of the people and their activities. All of these characteristics of civilization first appeared in Mesopotamia.”
Mesopotamia is located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Access to the rivers provided the resources necessary to make a substantial living. Because of the location, the Mesopotamians created irrigation systems and became an agricultural society. The production of food opened doors to trade and allowed Mesopotamia to become economically stable. Because of the surplus in food, the population grew rapidly. The growth in population compelled the need for other occupations. According to Joshua J. Mark, other occupations “included scribes, healers, artisans, weavers, potters, shoemakers, fishermen, teachers, and priest or priestess.” They built cities and established governments headed by kings. The government eventually became a monarchy run by the kings. They controlled the irrigation systems and the food supply.
Mesopotamians were skillful inventors. They invented many of the objects and systems we use today. According to Mark, they are credited with “the invention of cuneiform the first writing system, the wheel, sophisticated weaponry, demarcation of time into hours, minutes, and seconds, religious rites, the sail boat, irrigation, and t...
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Mark, Joshua J., Mesopotamia: Building and Government, http://www.ancient.eu.com/Mesopotamia. Middleton, J. Richard, The Liberating Image: The Mesopotamian Challenge to Biblical Faith
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Rayment, W. J., Mesopotamia: The Rise of the First Civilization: The Gods of Mesopotamia. http://www.indepthinfo.com/history-ancient/mesopotamia.htm. Thinkquest, Food of Mesopotamia
http://library.thinkquest.org/C005446/text_version/English/mesopotamia.html.
Imagine a world without the wheel. Picture a world without math. Now, without knowing time. Well, these are some of the many contributions that the Mesopotamians made to society.
The ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt began to develop circa 3,000 B.C. Located near rivers, the lands offered fertile soil and an excess of crops that drew in many people. As more people arrived, the small settlements flourished into large, thriving civilizations. Many aspects of Mesopotamia and Egypt, such as their cities, their strongly organized government, and their religion, greatly contributed to the success of these two civilizations.
Before the beginning of history, people from across the land gradually developed numerous cultures, each unique in some ways while the same time having features in common. Mesopotamia and Egypt are important to the history of the world because of religious, social, political and economic development. Mesopotamia was the first civilization, which was around 3000 B.C., and all other countries evolved from it. Mesopotamia emerged from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The soil was rich and agriculture was plentiful. The Semitic nomads occupied the land around Akkad. The Sumerians established the city-states. Villages became urban centers. Because of the formation of the city-states everything flourished. However, Mesopotamian agriculture lacked stones; therefore mud brick became their major building block. Their diet consisted of fish from the rivers. The rivers were flooded frequently destroyed the cities. Mesopotamians made their living from crops and pottery.
...he people of Mesopotamia felt they helped maintain balance in the world and kept the forces of chaos and destruction with the blessings of all their female goddesses and their religions. Mesopotamian also have along with them the teaching resulting to expectations that one would honor one’s elders and treat people with respect, as what the citizens of the land were also to do and to honor the gods throughout their lives. Each female deity has special style and qualities that contribute to the development and the creation of arts, religion and culture in Mesopotamia. In addition, the influence of the Mesopotamian goddesses to the region and cities in such place made the people and civilization live a life of righteousness with specific path to follow in order to be guided and live a blissful and worthy lives which can be observed until this modern days of the world.
The first civilization to rise was the Mesopotamia, located in present day Iraq, between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, and Egypt, along the Nile River. It’s split in two ecological zones. In the south Babylonia (irrigation is vital) and north Assyria (agriculture is possible with rainfall and wells). By 4000 B.C.E., people had settled in large numbers in the river-watered lowlands of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Archaeologists have shown that large-scale irrigation appeared only long after urban civilization had already developed, meaning major waterworks were a consequence of urbanism (population). Mesopotamia cities were made of people called the Summerians in the land of Sumer located on the south of Babylonia. The Summerian city was one of
Mesopotamia was the first primordial, and influential cradle of civilization. Nestled in the valleys of the vehement Tigris-Euphrates Rivers around the time of the Lower Paleolithic period
One of the first intelligent ancient civilizations was ancient Mesopotamia-which was cultivated nearly 5,000 years ago. “Mesopotamia’s god and goddesses were associated with the forces of nature (Fiero 19).” Mesopotamians believed that their world was controlled
Mesopotamians were lovers of knowledge and great scientists. Their understanding of astronomy and mathematics allowed them to develop a calendar, and established the 60 minute hour. Some historians believe that Sumerians only knew of a hand full of stars and didn’t draw so much focus to the sky as later civilizations. Other historians believe that they had a great understanding of the stars and even had knowledge of the planets in the solar system. Historian and author Zecharia Sitchin claims that various art works imprinted on clay tablets depict the planets in our solar system.
Of the first civilizations, Mesopotamia and Egypt left behind the most widely available documented look at the past (92). Interestingly enough, the basis for societal rank was comparable between these two civilizations. But despite similarities in social stratification, Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilization had very dissimilar views on life and the afterlife.
The Mesopotamian geography affected their society because Mesopotamia was located on an open plain without protection from foreign intrusions. Egypt, on the other hand, was centered on the Nile River ad protected by natural boundaries. This allowed Egypt?s kingdom for prosper and last for thousands of years. Mesopotamia was not considered a nation or country, it was considered a region between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers that established a number of highly organized city-states. Since each city-state was independent there was no capital of Mesopotamia.
Mesopotamia’s first invention was a form of writing called cuneiform which was written on clay tablets with a sharp reed called a stylus. This permitted for recording events and writing formal laws. The Sumerians, a civilization in Mesopotamia designed the wheel which was used to help transfer heavy objects to and from places. They also began constructing daggers, spears and chariots, which has led to their successful wars. The Mesopotamians were also responsible for the first laws and the discoveries of glass, sailboats, and ziggurats. With interest high in religion and mythology, Sumerians and their successors worshiped gods and goddesses just like Egyptians, Greeks, and Aegean cultures.
Centuries before Julius Cesar, Galileo, Aristotle, Socrates, and albert Einstein; There was an ancient civilization that arose out of nowhere. They Settled upon the Tigris, and Euphrates Rivers, known as the fertile crest of Mesopotamia. These settlers are known as the Sumerians. The Sumerians were an agricultural society, who lived off their crops and the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers to trade goods. So when presented the terrible question “Why they existed?” The Sumerians believed that they existed to serve their gods by worship and dedicated work. Through the Sumerian Literature, architecture, and artwork the Sumerians let their purpose be known.
The constructions of the temple-palace had large scale implications for the Mesopotamian landscape. It served as a symbolic entity for the city and towns that it was located in due to the tremendous height of these buildings that served as beacons that loomed over villages. These temples were perceived by many individuals who resided in these villages as homes for the deities. A wide cross section of villagers from various social backgrounds belonged to a particular temple in which they would worship. “The temple community comprised a cross section of the population: officials, priests, merchants, craftsmen, food-producers and slaves.” (174 Temple-Palace) Due to the great spiritual investment that was placed within these temples it prompted much time and labor to be invested into their construction. These temples also served as an outlet in which to take care of underprivileged citizens who were poor, orphaned or physically incapable of earning a living. Besides the fact that these temples provided support to the community it also supported the government sector as well. “The activities of the temple coordinated the construction of irrigation canals that often involved the cooperation of several communities.” (174 Temple-Palace) The temple-palace served a variety of integral roles to the villages and cities located within Mesopotamia. Temples intially did not immediately serve all these features within communities in Mesopotamia. Through examining specific periods on the Mesopotamian plain we will further understand how the temple-palaces evolved over the centuries within Mesopotamia and how they eventually became centralized within the community.
A civilization is the starting point of a society. Civilizations have existed for millions of years and are the basic unit of structure for a society. Civilizations were the base of great societies such as Egypt and Rome. If not for civilizations these societies would not have flourished or even existed.
Ancient Mesopotamia was one of the first of the ancient civilizations. It formed in present-day northeastern Egypt, in the Fertile Crescent. The Fertile Crescent is a crescent-shaped region of good farmland created by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The first people to settle in Mesopotamia made important contributions to the world, such as wheeled vehicles, and an early form of writing called Cuneiform. Later, the Phoenicians here developed an alphabet much like the one we use today. Also, the Sumerians of this region developed algebra and geometry. Most importantly, the Sumerians made extensive irrigation systems, dikes, and canals to protect their crops from floods. The Great Hammurabi of Babylon, another empire in the Fertile Crescent, made the Code of Hammurabi. It was the first significant set of laws in history. Also, the Hittites and the Lydians settled in Mesopotamia. The Hittites developed a way to produce strong plows and weapons. The Lydians created a system of coined money. The contributions from the region of Mesopotamia in ancient times are still used today and are very useful.