MESOPOTEMIAN CIVILISAZTION
Civilizations born along rivers
By roughly 6000 to 8000 years ago, agriculture was well
under way in several regions including Ancient Egypt,
around the Nile River; the Indus Valley civilization;
Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers;
and Ancient China, along the Yellow and Yangtze rivers.
This is because the regular river floods made for fertile
soil around the banks and the rivers could also supply
fresh water to irrigate crops. It’s no coincidence that as
agriculture allowed for denser and denser populations
along with more specialized societies, some of the
world’s first civilizations developed in these areas as
well.
•Mesopotamian civilizations formed on
the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates
rivers in what is today Iraq and Kuwait.
•Early civilizations began to form around
the time of the Neolithic Revolution—
12000 BCE.
•Some of the major Mesopotamian
civilizations include the Sumerian,
Assyrian, Akkadian, and Babylonian
civilizations.
•Evidence shows extensive use of
technology, literature, legal codes,
philosophy, religion, and architecture in
these societies.
Overview
•Mesopotamian civilizations formed on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is
today Iraq and Kuwait.
•Early civilizations began to form around the time of the Neolithic Revolution—12000 BCE.
•Some of the major Mesopotamian civilizations include the
• Sumerian, Assyrian, Akkadian, and Babylonian civilizations.
•Evidence shows extensive use of technology, literature, legal codes, philosophy, religion, and
architecture in these societies.
Associated with Mesopotamia are ancient cultures like the Sumerians, Assyrians,
Akkadians, and Babylonians. Learning about this time period can be a little
confusing because these cultures interacted with and ruled over each other over
the course of several thousand years. These terms can also be associated with
city-states, languages, religions, or empires—depending on the time and context
we are looking at
• We believe Sumerian civilization first took form in southern
Mesopotamia around 4000 BCE—or 6000 years ago—which would
make it the first urban civilization in the region. Mesopotamians are
noted for developing one of the first written scripts around 3000 BCE:
wedge-shaped marks pressed into clay tablets.
• This cuneiform—another way to say wedge-shaped—
script was also adapted by surrounding peoples to
write their own languages for roughly 2000 years, until
Phoenician, which the letters you are reading now are
based on, began to become the dominant script in the
first millennium BCE. Cuneiform is also the script that Epic of Gilgamesh
one of the world’s first great works of literature, The
Epic of Gilgamesh, was written in.
• Mesopotamians used writing to record sales and
purchases, to write letters to one another, and to tell
stories. The incredibly important invention of the
wheel is also credited to the Sumerians; the earliest
discovered wheel dates to 3500 BCE in Mesopotamia.
Cuneiform
Sumerians built ships that allowed them to travel into
the Persian Gulf and trade with other early
civilizations, such as the Harappans in northern India.
They traded textiles, leather goods, and jewelry for
Harappan semi-precious stones, copper, pearls, and
ivory.
RELIGION IN SUMERIA
Sumerian religion was polytheistic—or worshipped multiple gods—
many of which were anthropomorphic—they took human-like form.
Temples to these gods were constructed atop massive ziggurats which
were in the centers of most cities. These structures would have taken
thousands of people many years to construct.
SUMERIAN WARRIORS GOING TO WAR
The depictions, in mosaic, were made using lapis lazuli, red limestone, and shell set in
place with bitumen
