The Contributions of Mesopotamia to modern-day Civilisation

Mesopotamia did not consist of one main tribe like Egypt which spoke the same language and had the same culture. Mesopotamia is different, it consisted of many tribes who rose to power from one age to the other. At First, Sumerians were at the peak of power; they dominated the southern part of the country. They were conquered by the Sammites.  It was a question of the survival of the fittest between various numbers of tribes.

The Kassites and Hittites from the North overrun And conquered the Semmites and at different times the Hykos, Assyrians and Chaldeans rose to prominence and prominence. Despite being constantly at war against each other, the different tribes of Mesopotamia whose civilisation can be traced as far back as the Egyptian Civilisation contributed ably to innovate and create the regions between Rivers Tigris and Euphrates are naturally protected from all attacks because all invaders except those from North Northwest would have to cross the Rivers, there were also abundant if fertile soul bite rivers deposited fertile soil on the land and the area suitable for cultivation was more extensive in Egypt and there was always available cheap transport along the rivers making them. This factor contributed to the Mesopotamia tribe’s growth and Contributions to modern civilisation.

1. WRITING

They developed a form of writing that was based on sounds, they used wedge-shaped letters and wrote on wet clay tablets with sharpened sticks. The writing was allowed to dry in the hot desert (Arabian desert) Sun if required after a long time or quickly cleaned off; if required only for a short length of time. The clay tablets were however heavy and difficult to store. The form of writing was known as Cuneiform. King Assursbanipal collected a large library of clay tablets from Babylon 

2. AGRICULTURE

The waters of the River Tigris and Euphrates were not as far from the surface as that of theatreefloods, so it was not necessary to lift the water to the land. Instead, excess water flowed into the land and the people had to build canals to redistribute the water from dams to keep excess water off the land. They invented a seed-planting machine which is similar to the modern-day Jethro Tul in Early nineteenth-century Britain. They also use ploughs drawn by oxen.

3. TRANSPORT

The Sumerians in the South introduced the use of wheeled carts made of iron which is later known as chariots. Such Carts were drawn by horses and used both for ordinary transport and war, this wheeled chariot was used in the Battle of Kadeshby the Hittites.

4. ASTRONOMY

They made many advances in astronomy and discovered the planets Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn. The Chaldeans in particular studied the eclipses of the sun and the moon and made charts of the twelve most important constellations.

5. ASTROLOGY

They started the science of astrology and could interpret Characters and happenings looking just at the star, they could also foretell events looking at the moon

6. SCHOOLS

Schools were established  by Mesopotamia to study and gather more knowledge, many subjects were taught in the school including science, astronomy, astrology and writing which was considered the most important subject in the Mesopotamia

7. Building Arts &  Crafts 

Just like the Egyptians, the Mesopotamians were great builders, they carved large statues and built a large temple in the hours of their gods. They worked with a variety of metals and used gold, silver and ivory. They built the hanging garden of Babylon which is part of the seven wonders of the Ancient World.

8. LAW 

They have a good system of written laws. King Hammurabi collected written codes of laws. It was the first written code to regulate the lives and activities of the citizens.