Mesopotamia Life

The first civilizations and the rise of empires began with small groups or villages existing with the use of hunting, fishing, and foraging. (William J. Duiker and Jackson J. Spielvogel, World History, vol. 1, 1) Within a few thousand years, people learned how to cultivate food crops and this led to an increase in population. Increased food production resulted in larger communities. The cities began to expand their cultural and religious developments leading to the beginnings of civilization. (Duiker, World History, 1) The first civilizations emerged in Mesopotamia and Egypt during the fourth and third millennia B.C.E and had various components in common. Each of these civilizations was established in a river valley so they were able to provide and produce the agricultural resources needed to survive and uphold the population. (Duiker, World History, 1) Mesopotamia developed in the valley between the Tigris and Euphrates River known as “the land between the rivers.” These rivers provided irregular and catastrophic flooding for the city-state. They created an intensive irrigation system to improve their agriculture. The first people to create Mesopotamian civilization were known as the Sumerians. These people were the first city builders and created the major city’s named Eridu, Ur, Uruk, Umma, and Lagash. These cities were built with surrounding walls and defense towers. A six-mile-long wall enclosed the city of Uruk. Mesopotamia lacked

Mesopotamia is located in the Fertile Crescent, between the Tigris River and the Euphrates River. On the Southeast side of Mesopotamia is Sumer and the Persian Gulf. To the east of Mesopotamia are where the Zagros Mountains are located.To the Northwest side of Mesopotamia are where the Taurus Mountains are

Mesopotamians government had a set of laws. They did not write them down, however. If a citizen broke a rule. Their punishment was based on the crime that they committed. For example, if you killed someone, the government would kill you. Next, Mesopotamia worshipped many gods. This was called polytheism. The builders of Mesopotamia would build ziggurats, or temples, to worship the gods. They would kneel and pray to the gods. They worshipped 7 gods in total.They also built and created their own tools.

Sometimes in our generation, people take for granted the things the originally invented by ancient civilizations. Somewhere around 3500 B.C. in southwest Asia the first of the River Valley Civilizations were born. The ancient River Valley Civilizations of Egypt, China, and Mesopotamia all made key contributions to future societies. (OI) Two contributions from each of the Mesopotamian Civilizations that influenced future civilizations.

The civilization was located in Eastern Turkey and was called the land of the Fertile Crescent combined with Euphrates, and Tigris. It’s borders include Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, etc. The people adapted to their environment from water of the Nile river, food from the drylands, and structures built from trees with other objects that can create buildings and other structures. Some physical features include wealthy, thriving, seasonal, peaceful, and large. The climate in mesopotamia was very warm. Parts of the land receives enough rain for crops to grow. Southern Mesopotamia has hot summers and little rain. All in all, Mesopotamia experienced moderate rainfall and the usual temperature was often over 43 degrees

However, in Mesopotamia, the males subjugated the women. To stop married women from tempting other men, they were forced to cover their bodies, except for their faces, with veils. Women in Mesopotamia were often arranged into marriages, without a say on the subject. The Mesopotamian women had little impact on their society, while certain Egyptian women were able to gain highly influential positions in their society. One Egyptian woman even became the Queen of Egypt, alongside her son. Due to Egypt being less strict towards the women, Egyptian women were able to have a greater influence on their society. Although both civilizations were patriarchal, they varied on how strict they were towards women.

There were three social classes in Mesopotamia. There was the aristocracy, the working class, and the slaves. The aristocracy was made up of the rich and powerful who owned much land. The working class was made up of high priests,

The Mesopotamian culture had three group of people live in that area. Each group kept marriage, social class, and religion important. The three groups are Sumerians than Akkadians and next Babylonians.The sumerians build ziggurats which are religious and they also wrote a prayer for every god. The Akkadians had a ruler Sargon and wrote a law code Ur-nammu. A father in the time periods between Akkadians and Babylonians, a father wrote advice to his son about had to live and rules. The babylonians wrote a different law code called hammurabi code. Each of these things show that marriage, social class, and religion is important.

How high up you were on the social class pyramid determined your wealth (Conlin et al., 2017). The higher up you were, the wealthier you were (ibid). The social class pyramids for Mesopotamia and Teotihuacán were the same. Farmers, slaves, and servants were on the bottom, scribes, merchants, and artisans were next, government officials and priests were after that, and Kings were at the top (Conlin et al., 2017). Women and men both played a part in society, though men were respected more (ibid). Mesopotamia had several complex technologies including the wheel, chariot, and sailboat (Conlin et al., 2017). Mesopotamia was known for using bronze to make tools and weapons (ibid). Mesopotamia had several different buildings including ziggurats, temples, and pyramids (ibid). Teotihuacán was not as technologically advanced as Mesopotamia, but still had some complex technologies. They had murals that represented different aspects of religion (Jarus, Owen). They had ziggurats, temples, and pyramids just like Mesopotamia (ibid). Research shows that Teotihuacán didn’t make wheels, nor did they use metal

First off, Mesopotamia was the first ancient civilization and it reigned from around 3500-1600 BC, it is also near modern day Iraq. Mesopotamia used a weight system for trade and exchange, for example 1 shekel is 11 grams. From our five sources of ancient Mesopotamia, the most important things I pulled from them are women are low on the social class, fairness was taken very seriously, and the start of child support/support for women. These are the reasons that women are low on the social class, fairness is taken very seriously, and there was a portion of child support/support for women.

Mesopotamian cities were built around places and temples that were dedicated to the god or goddess of that city. Most of the people in Mesopotamia lives in a town or city rather citizens

Mesopotamians developed specialized crafts and supported private entrepreneurship. They also were involved in foreign and domestic trade.

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Massachusetts in 1809 and was orphaned by the time by the age of 2 (Fisher ix).

It is undeniable that the natural environment of ancient Mesopotamia had a profound effect on the earliest civilizations known to the world. Humankind’s ability to control irrigation waters directly correlates with the rise of mass agriculture. With this mastery of their river environment, early farmers were capable of supporting large urban populations. However, in Mesopotamia the Tigris and Euphrates rivers were both a source of life as well as destruction for early societies. In many ways, the geography of ancient Mesopotamia fostered a sense of catastrophic determinism within the Sumerians, Akkadians, and Babylonians. The scarcity of resources as well as the untamable nature of their deluge environment led these early people to

Through the archeological discoveries, we can infer some details into the lives of the people who originated in the cities of Mesopotamia. The root word of Mesopotamia refers to ‘between rivers’, this infers to the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, figure 1. Because the environment influenced people to settle, we can see a change in their political, social, and economic structure as they begin to form a complex society. This is the period where we see a complex engineering system as people started to develop canals and other technologies for a more efficient agricultural development. An early culture to settle in the lowlands of Mesopotamia were the Hassuna culture, their civilization were characterized by “small settlements with a few hundred inhabitants, who lived in rectangular houses with several rooms” (Feuerbach, 2015). Another culture to settle in this area were the Samarran culture; even