Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia was an ancient land that reached across what is now Iraq to what are now eastern Syria and southeastern Turkey. But the name itself comes from Greek, meaning “between rivers.” Mesopotamia is often considered the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The word Mesopotamia refers to this region and the early societies within it. More than 5,000 years ago, people in Mesopotamia developed what is thought to have been the world’s first writing system. They pushed styluses – specially pointed sticks – into soft clay tablets, leaving marks in the clay as symbols. When the clay hardened, it became a permanent record. Some clay tablets have survived to this day. They hold clues to the lives of these people. Mesopotamia is part of the “Fertile Crescent,” an arc of land through the Middle East connecting with Egypt in the west. The cultures of Mesopotamia are considered civilizations because their people: had writing, had settled communities in the form of villages, planted their own food, had domesticated animals, and had different orders of workers. Compared with the lives of most people at that time, civilization in Mesopotamia was sophisticated and unusual. The shift from hunting and gathering to civilization allowed Mesopotamians to diversify. Farmers in Mesopotamia grew more than their personal needs. Their surplus food allowed others to specialize in new duties. Some made tools. Some built homes or cooked food. Some became priests or leaders. Still more peop...

The character and influence of ancient Mesopotamia Questions as to what ancient Mesopotamian civilization did and did not accomplish, how it influenced its neighbours and successors, and what its Benno Landsberger on “Die Eigenbegrifflichkeit der babylonischen Welt” (1926; “The Distinctive Conceptuality of the Babylonian World”), it has become almost a commonplace to call attention to the necessity of viewing ancient Mesopotamia and its civilization as an independent entity. Ancient Mesopotamia had many languages and bce. With the Hittites, large areas of Anatolia were infused with the bce onward. Contacts, via bce, so that links between Syrian and Palestinian scribal schools and Babylonian civilization during the Amarna period (14th century bce) may have had much older predecessors. At any rate, the similarity of certain themes in The achievements of ancient Mesopotamia The world of The achievement of the civilization itself may be expressed in terms of its best points—moral, bce, Mesopotamian bce. Technical accomplishments were perfected in the bce, an artificial stone often regarded as a forerunner of Writing pervaded all aspects of life and gave rise to a highly developed Above all, the The Before the first excavations in Mesopotamia, about 1840, nearly 2,000 years had passed during which knowledge of the ancient Middle East was derived from three sources only: the ce, although these sources had served to stir the imagination of poets and artists, down to Sardanapalus ...

lamassu from Dur Sharrukin, Iraq Mesopotamia, Region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East, constituting the greater part of modern bce. The Achaemenids were overthrown by Alexander the Great in the early 4th century bce, and Mesopotamia was ruled by the c. 312 bce until the mid-2nd century bce, when it became part of the Parthian empire. In the 7th century ce the region was conquered by Muslim Arabs. The region’s importance declined after the Mongol invasion in 1258. Rule by the Ottoman Empire over most of the region began in the 16th century. The area became a British mandate in 1920; the following year Iraq was established there. Related Article Summaries

The American author Thornton Wilder once wrote, “Babylon once had two million people in it, and all we know about `em is the names of the kings and some copies of wheat contracts and the sales of slaves” ( Our Town). Wilder was writing fiction, of course, not history, and there was much about Mesopotamian history still unknown at the time he wrote his play; still he was wrong about what the modern world, even the world of his day, knew about the people of Mesopotamia. We actually know a good deal more than just the names of kings and the sales of slaves. Every teacher was a scribe, & one of the most important disciplines taught in every Mesopotamian school was writing. The upper class included merchants who owned their own companies, scribes, private tutors, and, in time, high-ranking military men. Other occupations of the upper class were accountants, architects, astrologers (who were usually priests), and shipwrights. The merchant who owned his own company, and did not need to travel, was a man of leisure who could enjoy the best Scribes were highly respected and served at court, in the temple, and in the schools. Every teacher was a scribe, and one of the most important disciplines taught in every Mesopotamian school was writing. Only boys attended school. While Private tutors were also held in high regard and were paid well by the wealthy families of the cities to help their sons excel at their school work. Private tutors not in the employ of a school (which was often ...

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Top: Centre: The Bottom: Years active 10th millennium-6th century BC The architecture of Mesopotamia is ancient architecture of the region of the The study of ancient Mesopotamian architecture is based on available Scholarly literature usually concentrates on the architecture of temples, palaces, city walls and gates, and other monumental buildings, but occasionally one finds works on residential architecture as well. Building materials [ ] Anu/White Temple Sumerian masonry was usually mortarless although • Patzen 80×40×15cm: Late • Riemchen 16×16cm: Late • Plano-convex 10x19x34 cm: The favoured design was rounded bricks, which are somewhat unstable, so Mesopotamian bricklayers would lay a row of bricks perpendicular to the rest every few rows. The advantages of plano-convex bricks were the speed of manufacture as well as the irregular surface which held the finishing plaster coat better than a smooth surface from other brick types. Bricks were sun baked to harden them. These types of bricks are much less durable than oven-baked ones so buildings eventually deteriorated. They were periodically destroyed, leveled, and rebuilt on the same spot. This planned structural life cycle gradually raised the level of cities, so that they came to be elevated above the surrounding plain. The resulting mounds are known as Babylonian temples are massive structures of crude brick, supported by Decoration [ ] As time went on, however, later Assyrian architects began to shake themselves fre...

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Mesopotamia is thought to be one of the places where early civilization developed. It is a historic region of West Asia within the Tigris-Euphrates river system. In fact, the word Mesopotamia means "between rivers" in Greek. Home to the ancient civilizations of Sumer, Assyria, and Babylonia these peoples are credited with influencing mathematics and astronomy. Use these classroom resources to help your students develop a better understanding of the cradle of civilization.

Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin (Copyright) Among the many inventions of the Mesopotamians were: • The wheel • Mass-produced ceramics • Mathematics • Time • • Cylinder seals and envelopes • Mass-produced bricks • • The map • The sail These ten represent only a small fraction of the technological, cultural, and scientific advancements pioneered in ancient • The First Schools • The First Case of 'Apple Polishing' • The First Case of Juvenile Delinquency • The First ' • The First Bicameral Congress • The First Historian • The First Case of Tax Reduction • The First ' • The First Legal Precedent • The First Pharmacopoeia • The First 'Farmer's Almanac' • The First Experiment in Shade-Tree Gardening • Man's First Cosmogony and Cosmology • The First Moral Ideals • The First 'Job' • The First Proverbs and Sayings • The First Animal Fables • The First Literary Debates • The First Biblical Parallels • The First 'Noah' • The First Tale of Resurrection • The First 'St. George' • The First Case of Literary Borrowing • Man's First Heroic Age • The First Love Song • The First Library Catalogue • Man's First Golden Age • The First 'Sick' Society • The First Liturgic Laments • The First Messiahs • The First Long-Distance Champion • The First Literary Imagery • The First Sex Symbolism • The First Mater Dolorosa • The First Lullaby • The First Literary Portrait • The First Elegies • Labor's First Victory • The First Aquarium ( History Begins at Sumer, Contents) These 39, developed between c. 5000...