MESOPOTAMIA - THE CREATORS OF CIVILISATION

The ancient region of Mesopotamia has fascinated, enthralled and perplexed historians and scientists for thousands of years. Unlike the ancient empire of Greece, or even Egypt, it was not a united nation. Made up of a vast collection of varied cultures, city-states and beliefs, Mesopotamia was a land of multiple empires and diverse civilisations. It is perhaps thanks to this variety that Mesopotamia gave birth to what we recognise as civilisation today.

The list of Mesopotamian innovations is endless, and it is difficult to contemplate how modern life would be without them. Mesopotamia was home to the first ever cities, writing took form there and the oldest wheeled vehicles in the world were found in Mesopotamian ruins. Animals were domesticated, humanity came on leaps and bounds in agriculture, innovative new tools were crafted, weapons were swung and wine was drunk. Mesopotamians were the first people to study the night sky, track the Moon and declare that there were 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in a minute.

Mesopotamia was driven by religion, and it was one of the few things that united the lands that made up the region. From this religion sprang customs, moral codes and social hierarchy. In many ways the Mesopotamians were ahead of their time, as women were regarded as individuals in their own right, free to own land, file for divorce and run businesses.

The Mesopotamian version of the Creation story declared that the world was formed when the gods achieved victory over the forces of chaos, and the same could be said in the creation of Mesopotamia itself. With its kings, taxes and trade, it was a triumph of man’s ability to conquer and thrive, and it set the blueprints for countless cities, countries and empires that followed.

What it was like to live there

The word ‘Mesopotamia’ means ‘between the rivers’, which literally describes the location of the region. Mesopotamia lay between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which today flow through modern day Turkey, Iraq and Syria. All the regions of Mesopotamia experienced different geography, which led to variation in how people there lived. Lying between two rivers had some risks as the land was subject to frequent and unpredictable flooding, which could play havoc with farmers’ crops. These floods went hand in hand with periods of drought. However, the swelling rivers helped to create very fertile soil that supported plants even with minimal rainfall, and allowed boats to be used as a quick means of transportation. Mesopotamians became skilled farmers and traded their crops for resources they were lacking, such as building materials like wood, metal and stone. The people took advantage of the ready supply of water by building canals to support the trade network and were able to flourish in spite of the lack of natural resources in some areas.

The rise of civilisation

Three of the major cultures that arose in Mesopotamia :

SUMERIANS. The southernmost region of Mesopotamia, Sumer comprised modern day southern Iraq and Kuwait. Sumer was first inhabited in approximately 4500 BCE, or possibly even earlier. It is in Sumer that the first cities in the world were established, starting with Uruk. Sumerians believed that their cities represented god’s triumph over chaos.

BABYLONIANS. Meaning ‘gate of the gods’, Babylonia lay in central southern Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq). Its earliest days are a mystery lost to rising sea levels, but from 1792 BCE the famous king Hammurabi came into power and the city of Babylon – built upon the Euphrates river – became the beating heart of Mesopotamia.

ASSYRIANS. Located in the Near East, the ancient kingdom of Assyria comprised regions of Iraq, Syria and Turkey. It drove technological, scientific and warfare developments in Mesopotamia. The Assyrian empire gradually expanded to unite most of the Middle East, increasing their power and wealth to become a formidable force.

The world’s first cities

With its reliable source of food, people gathered in Mesopotamia and formed the very first cities.

Mesopotamia was home to some of the very first cities in existence, leading many to link it to the birth of true civilisation. The origin of these cities is still unknown today, although many theories exist. One suggestion is that the development and building of temples created a place where people would gather, and thus served as points of contact between different groups of people.

Others believe that people sought sanctuary from natural disasters. As the Mesopotamians were able to develop technology to help them control the nearby rivers, such as levees, they could ensure a good crop. They had no need to be nomadic, and were able to settle in one place comfortably. It is for this reason that all the early cities were built along the two major rivers.

From the moment the Sumerians began to form these cities, it forever altered human history. People went from being ruled by nature, to attempting to control it and make it work for them. By 4500 BCE the first recorded city rose in the form of Uruk. However, the only urban structure at this point was the temple, which regulated all economic and social matters. The central purpose of these early cities was to help regulate trade, as southern Mesopotamia was reliant on outside resources. This need encouraged the spread of urbanisation. However, communication between the cities was difficult, so each city developed into an individual city-state. This led to territorial disputes and, inevitably, war.

In order to keep their cities protected, the Mesopotamians built fortifications, and walled cities rose. Migration to these cities increased, and more buildings were erected. Cities gradually expanded and rulers were proclaimed, who then began looking outwards for trade and conquest.

Towering temples

Ziggurats were temples built on high, stepped platforms. Although they originated in Sumerian cities in 2000 BCE, they gradually spread to all of Mesopotamia, including Babylonia and Assyria. The stepped towers were mainly constructed from sun-dried bricks layered between reeds. It is believed that many ziggurats featured a shrine at the top, but no examples of this remain.

Although their exact purpose cannot be verified, it is known that ziggurats were linked to religion, and each ziggurat was connected to large temple complexes. There was a belief in Mesopotamia that the gods resided in the Eastern mountains; therefore building high temples would more closely connect the people with god, linking heaven with Earth.

A practical purpose of the high platforms was to escape any rising floodwater that rushed into the lowlands. The structure of the ziggurat, which was accessible only by three stairways, also ensured that the rituals conducted within remained secret and sacred.

Seven ways Mesopotamia changed the world

The phrase ‘the foundations of civilisation’ is often used while talking about Mesopotamia. But what exactly does this mean? Is civilisation simply people living together, or does it involve more? Agriculture had emerged by 8000 BCE, and art was produced for thousands of years before Mesopotamia rose. However, Mesopotamia took these aspects of human culture and transformed them into civilisation as we know it today.

Brought together by a common goal – to find food – the Mesopotamians developed some of the earliest writing known to man, borne out of necessity to record accounts and crop yields. However, it later developed to represent more abstract ideas. As people were gathered together, spiritual practices were also refined, and the population began to share a common belief system. With this established, the priests, who claimed to be able to communicate with the gods, took their place at the top of the social hierarchy, and slowly a class system developed. This emphasis on religion inspired moral codes, which led to formal rules and, in turn, punishment for those who disobeyed.

A steady food supply meant the Mesopotamians could pursue other aspects of life, such as technology and science. They made ground-breaking advancements in the areas of mathematics and medicine. However, this social structure also revealed the darker aspects of humanity, such as war, slavery and expansion, and with so many people gathered together, diseases spread rapidly.

As the civilisation developed, it inevitably had an influence on other cultures. It is believed that Babylonian astronomy influenced Greece, India and even China. The early Mesopotamian codes of laws also had a profound effect on lawmaking in the Near East, and the introduction of taxes and a standing army influenced countries worldwide. In fact, historians are still exploring the huge impact that Mesopotamia had on the ancient world, and the world we live in today.

The creation of writing

Writing began in Mesopotamia towards the end of the 4th millennium BCE as a way to record crucial information about crops and taxes in pictorial form. These early tablets developed into a script, which bears close resemblance to writing today. This system of writing is commonly known as cuneiform and comprised of wedge shaped marks in clay. Gradually the number of characters used in cuneiform decreased from 1,000 to around 400, which ensured more clarity in the script. By 2500 BCE cuneiform was advanced enough to portray emotions such as fear and hope.

Health care

Medicine in Mesopotamia involved a combination of religious rituals and physical treatments. Mesopotamia had specific doctors with their own offices, beds and equipment and generally fell into two categories – the ashipu, who practised religious medicine, and the asu, who used herbal remedies. Generally these two doctors would work together to treat an ailment. The ingredients used in the various treatments ranged from turtle shell and snakeskin to figs and seeds. Mesopotamian doctors recorded their methods of treatment and diagnosis in medical texts like the Treatise of Medical Diagnosis and Prognosis.

Thou shalt obey

Law codes as we know them were first seen in Mesopotamia. One of the earliest is the Code of Hammurabi, which features 282 laws dealing with a huge variety of issues in great detail, from marriage to theft. For example, if a man rents a boat to a sailor and it is wrecked, the sailor has to give the man a new boat. Although it is the most well-known, the Code of Hammurabi was pre-dated by other law codes, such as the code of Lipit-Ishtar and those written by the Sumerian king Ur-Nammu, who described the purpose of his laws as protecting the weak from the mighty.

Only the strong shall lead

Mesopotamia was made up of several city-states which each had their own leaders and government, with kings ruling over individual regions. This led to a lot of internal fighting between different kings for land and resources. The first kings were the leaders of armies, who then went on to continue to lead during peacetime. Because of the strong emphasis on religion, the kings often served as high priests and therefore were linked to the divinity of god, and claimed to be god’s representatives on Earth. Some of these kings, such as Sargon, sought to unite many of the city-states under one leader and capital.

Mesopotamian money

Mesopotamians used silver rings thousands of years before the first coins were made. In around 2500 BCE a ‘shekel’ of silver became the currency of Mesopotamia, with one month of labour being worth one shekel, and a slave worth between ten and 20. Prior to this, clay tokens in a variety of sizes and shapes were used for trade and barter. There were at least 16 different types of these tokens that represented various things, such as rope, sheep’s milk, perfume and honey.

A wheely late invention

The wheel was actually invented at a surprisingly late point of human history, with the oldest example from Mesopotamia dating to 3500 BCE, in the Bronze Age. It is likely that the wheel was developed individually by different cultures around the same time. Evidence shows that Mesopotamians used this invention for pottery first, before adapting the design for transport with chariots. Wheels did offer advantages to transportation, but they took a great deal of time to make as smooth as possible, so sledges were still commonly used alongside the wheel.

The basis of time

The Mesopotamians were trailblazers in their concept of time. They were the first in recorded history to use a base 60 numerical system that led to our 60-second minutes and 60-minute hours. Many believe that this helped the Babylonians make such impressive advances in mathematics, as 60 has many divisors. They also used a lunar calendar, which comprised 12 lunar months, at an average of 29.5 days each. This left the Mesopotamians short by around 11 days a year, so they added seven months in each 19-year period to keep the seasons aligned.

In "How it Works - Book of Incredible History", editor in chief Jon White, Imagine Publishing, UK, 2016, excerpts pp. 10-16. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.