Civilization in Mesopotamia

In the ancient times, the Greeks called the area of the world’s first civilization ‘Mesopotamia’ which means, “The land between the two rivers.” This name was given because; Ancient Mesopotamia is where the first foundations of ancient city -states were laid. Ancient Mesopotamia was located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Fertile Crescent, which today is known as modern Iraq. Its location played a large role in its flourishing civilizations. The soil in this area was incredibly fertile, allowing for agricultural technology to thrive and support the growing population. Around 3500 B.C the world’s first civilization was established in southern Mesopotamia, and the people who did so were known as ‘Sumerians.’ The Sumerians were the first great civilization to utilize the overabundance of resources that Mesopotamia had to offer .The Sumerians learnt how to control the Tigris and Euphrates rivers by constructing levees and irrigation canals. As a result, a stable food supply existed, and the Sumerian villages evolved into self-governing city-states. They grew crops such as; wheat, rye, barley, flax seeds, sesame, fruits and vegetables. At the centre of the city-state there was a temple which was called a ‘Ziggurat’, surrounded by courts and public buildings. Radiating from the all-important city were the two-story houses of the priests and merchants, or the upper class; the one-story homes of government officials, shop keepers and craftspeople, and the lower class homes of farmers, unskilled workers and fishermen. Since there wasn’t any building stone and very little timber in Sumer, the people constructed their own homes, public buildings, and city walls out of sun-dried mud bricks. In 3200 B.C.E the Sumerians invented “Cuneiform,” the first ever writing system. Cuneiform means ‘wedge-shape’. This is because, scribes used a reed to mark symbols onto wet clay tablets, thus giving the symbols a peculiar or wedge- shaped appearance. Writing