Mesopotamia is Greek for "between the rivers", and it was the region between the Euphrates and the Tigris that became the area known as Mesopotamia. The need for self-defence and irrigation led the ancient Mesopotamians to organize and build canals and walled settlements, and after 7000 bc the settlements grew, becoming cities by the 4th millennium bc.
Mesopotamia was a region, rather than a state, and consisted of a number of consecutive civilisations:
Sumerians (3250-2330BC );
Akkadians (2330-2000BC);
Isin-Larsa (2000-1750BC);
Assyrians (1750-1600BC);
Kassite-Hittite (1600-1150);
Middle Assyro-Babylonian (1150-750);
Late (Neo-) Assyro-Babylonian (750-500);
Persians (539-331BC);
In 331BC, Mesopotamia was conquered by Alexander the Great and continued under Greek rule.
Sumerians
The Sumerians were responsible for creating the first cities, developing the first writing system, building empires and monumental buildings, art and architecture, crafts, and religious and ethical thought flourished. The Sumerian language became the prevailing speech of the land, and they developed the cuneiform script, a system of writing on clay. This script was to become the basic means of written communication throughout the Middle East for about 2000 years.
The Sumerians invented the following technologies: irrigation, (canals, dikes, weirs, reservoirs), maps, surveys, and plans using levelling instruments and measuring rods, Sumerian sexagesimal system of numbers, which featured a useful device of so-called place-value notation that resembles the present-day decimal system; measures of length, area, capacity, and weight, metallurgy, fulling, bleaching, and dyeing of textiles, and the preparation of paints, pigments, cosmetics, and perfumes. In the field of medicine, surgery was well known and often practiced along with pharmacology. They invented the Babylonian social structure, economic organization, arts and crafts, science and literature, judicial system, and religious beliefs and the concept of a library including categorisation of literature.
Common artefacts available from this time include: clay cuneiform tablets, stone sculptures, highly decorated pottery, musical instruments (harps, lyres), use of gold, silver, tin, lead, copper and bronze, stellae, friezes and wall-hangings, stelae and plaques, statues and statuettes, and bowls and vases. |
