Mesopotamia Research Paper

Beginning with Mesopotamia, according to McKay Mesopotamia was part of the Fertile Crescent, which was where the first agriculture developed (McKay, 35). Moving from Mesopotamia to the city-state Sumer, many farmers brought with them their farming tools and trade abilities so that they could successfully farm in warmer, more arid climates (McKay, 35). Irrigation was a major part of the process and was needed for them to succeed. As the civilization grew, people built temples in Mesopotamia, where farmers would use them to store food items and animals. To the Mesopotamian people, the belief of Polytheism, which is that of many Gods controlling the earth and world, brought a distinct outlook on life (McKay, 36). Sumerian

The two rivers had a delta which was called the Fertile Crescent. This was because of its crescent-like shape and because of how fertile it was due to the two rivers depositing rich silk into it, giving it the ability to support agriculture. The two rivers were incredibly important to the ancient Sumerians because it supplied them with water for their irrigation systems. They were able to also dump their sewage as well. The water gave them mud to use as clay for building. The river led them to the concept of regional government, which was used to manage their irrigation systems, consequently resulting in them creating a city-state. Unlike the Chinese and Harappan people, the Sumerians left behind records that we today are able to decipher. Their writing system was called ‘cuneiform’, which they wrote on clay tablets. This tell us that the Sumerians were civilized and organized. Unlike the Chinese, they utilized their time to learn how to read and write instead of fighting

During 3000 BC, Sumerian was the first cyclical empire, even though they came to a fall the Sumerian people made an impact on Western Civilization. This empire kept history alive, but never forgotten. The wheel was one of their many inventions which are still used today for cars, and manual labor like wheel barrels and lawnmowers. The epic poem Gilgamesh is still a book read today in English classes. This epic poem is inspiring and was an actual historical figure. The Sumerians contributed several ideas, the first organized religion temples and priests. The Sumerians also gave us the biblical story of the Garden of Eden, which was a story about a river dividing itself into 4 river heads, two of the four being the Tigris and the Euphrates River. The water supply was an accommodating way of trade. The Sumerians were the first international traders. They also invented writing, the Sumerians wrote of cuneiform blocks, now student can write on paper but it was a start being able to write thoughts down. The Sumerians had countless clever ideas; they also invented the potter’s wheel, which was used for making pottery to store food and goods. The plow was used for farming and the sailboat was used for traveling up or down the river, for trading or

In conclusion there is many reasons why Mesopotamia and Egypt develop into a successful civilization some of them are the nile river floods that people depended on for food and water and the rivers that provided resources such as transportation, trade and plants or pharaoh that the Egyptians believed in and thought he had absolute power or the sumerians and akkadians that were polytheistic and believed in many gods and keeping the gods happy for their own happiness, also Hammurabi code that concerned to a daily life laws like making justice or destroying evil and wicked all of these reasons made Mesopotamia and egypt successful

Time after time throughout history we see civilizations succeeding by rivers such as Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus Valley and the Yellow River. One of the things the rivers provided in Mesopotamia was the “ground is extremely fertile”. The Mesopotamians used the river for irrigation and the rich soil to produce and abundance of resources to support a large population.

One of the cultures of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia developed into successful civilizations is by their water sources. In document 1, the river Nile in Egypt flooded every year, which gave the land around it soft fertile ground, great for planting crops. Most people lived near the river. In document 2, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which was also called the Fertile Crescent, provided food, transportation, and plants. They were especially populated since the area had deserts and mountains. Another reason is their rulers. As stated in document 3, the ancient Egyptian looked at their ruler, the pharaoh, as one of their gods in a human form, serving them well and deciding what’s best for the country. Quoting document 4, the people of Mesopotamia

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

One of the biggest challenges there was an uncontrollable water supply. When snow from the Zagros mountains melted, it fed the rivers and made them floodThey had solutions, oo. They learned to build levees and created a form of irrigation for crops to flourish. They learned to build canals, but they needed to be cleaned regularly. Overall, they learned to build for the better. The canals proved to be a game changer for them. The canals needed to be cleared of silt frequently, so people of different villages teamed together for the job. Eventually they began to live together, forming the first Sumerian city states. But why were they called city states? The villages had grown into small country-like places, so we call them city states because they are basically cities and are like states. Think about it like the United States. Each state has its own capital city, right? Each of those cities is like a city-state. They are cities within a much larger piece of land, or a state. They are called Sumerian city states because they were located in the lands of

The overflow, flooding, or lack thereof of the rivers as well as weather differences contributed greatly to the economic stability of each country. As previously stated, Mesopotamians were farmers. The flooding of the Tigris and the

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

This led to the settlement of villages and surplus crops. Sumerians, being the earliest people of Mesopotamia led to the settlement of villages and surplus crops. They established this by channeling water from the rivers to bring water to the land. People could now focus on other activities as in; building and working metals, pottery making and weaving. Some people became

In regards to Sumer, it flourished in the area of Mesopotamia, or as the Greeks called it, the “Land between Rivers” (Cole, et al 7). Specifically, these rivers were the Tigris and Euphrates. Despite being surrounded by waterways, Sumer existed in an extremely arid climate, which left the soil sandy and summer weather unbearably hot. The rivers presented a series of problems. Not only were the Tigris and Euphrates”noted for their violence and unpredictably”, but also “both were prone to flooding” (Cole, et al 7). Despite these adversities, Sumer still managed to grow into the “first urban society” (Cole, et al 7). Residents in this area quickly learned simply irrigation tactics, overtime these channels became more complex and allowed for decent farming. “They also constructed dikes and levees to control the seasonal flooding” (Cole, et al 8). As the Sumerians learned how to control the environmental elements that challenged them, the population in the urban areas began to grow. Specifically, by 3100 B.C.E., the area of Uruk had

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

Despite the fact that ancient Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations grew up rather close together, both civilizations evolved in vastly different ways. The influence of geography cannot be underestimated. Although both civilizations were located in what is now the Middle East, ancient Sumerians lived in a constant state of instability and fear, due to the threat of flooding. In contrast, the Egyptians enjoyed the fertility conveyed by the relatively controlled flooding by the nearby Nile. For the Mesopotamians, the natural world constantly threatened to flood their crops and their homes: "floods and torrential rains were a significant theme in Mesopotamian literature as depicted in the Epic of Gilgamesh" (Kries, 2006, Lecture 2).

Mesopotamia was a successful farming community early on. Utilizing the Tigris and Euphrates rivers this community was able to create a successful way of farming through the use of irrigation and drainage ditches (Duiker & Spielvogel, 2010). Once the use of irrigation became large scale and widely used it was possible to support a larger community base and thus encouraged expansion throughout the civilization.