Question

Write down an essay on the topic 'Mesopotamia Civilization'.

Answer 1

Mesopotamia is the Greek word for the land between the rivers. It was in the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates that the first civilization began. The first to develop an urban civilization in Mesopotamia were the Sumerians, who colonized the marshlands of the lower Euphrates, which, together with the Tigris, flows into the Persian Gulf. The Sumerians origin to obscure; they spoke a language that was replaced by a Semitic tongue that was only known to priests and thus gradually they disappeared as a distinct people. However their cultural achievements endured. Akkadians, Babylonians, Elamites, and others adapted to Sumerian religious, legal, literary and art forms.

Through constant toil and imagination, the Sumerians transformed the swamps into fields of barley and groves of the date palms. Around 3000 B.C, their hut settlements gradually evolved into twelve independent city states, each consisting of a city and its surrounding countryside. Among the impressive achievements of the Sumerians is a symbol of writing on clay tablets to represent ideas; elaborate brick houses, palaces, and temples; bronze tools and weapons; irrigation works; trade with other peoples ; an early ,religious and political institutions, codes of law medicinal drugs and a lunar calendar. Hence it can be said that Mesopotamia is a major part of the western civilization and is the starting point of much of the history of Asia.





I hope it help u .......

Answer 2

Mesopotamia is the Greek word for the land between the rivers. It was in the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates that the first civilization began. The first to develop an urban civilization in Mesopotamia were the Sumerians, who colonized the marshlands of the lower Euphrates, which, together with the Tigris, flows into the Persian Gulf. The Sumerians origin to obscure; they spoke a language that was replaced by a Semitic tongue that was only known to priests and thus gradually they disappeared as a distinct people. However their cultural achievements endured. Akkadians, Babylonians, Elamites, and others adapted to Sumerian religious, legal, literary and art forms.

Through constant toil and imagination, the Sumerians transformed the swamps into fields of barley and groves of the date palms. Around 3000 B.C, their hut settlements gradually evolved into twelve independent city states, each consisting of a city and its surrounding countryside. Among the impressive achievements of the Sumerians is a symbol of writing on clay tablets to represent ideas; elaborate brick houses, palaces, and temples; bronze tools and weapons; irrigation works; trade with other peoples ; an early ,religious and political institutions, codes of law medicinal drugs and a lunar calendar. Hence it can be said that Mesopotamia is a major part of the western civilization and is the starting point of much of the history of Asia.

Firstly, religion lay at the center of Mesopotamia life. Every human activity political, military, social, legal, artistic was generally subordinate to an overriding religious purpose. Religion was the Mesopotamia frame of reference for understanding nature, society, and themselves; it dominated and inspired all other cultural expression and human activities. Wars between citizens for example were interpreted as conflicts between the gods of those cities, and victory ultimately depended on divine favor not on human effort. The cities of Mesopotamia were sacred communities dedicated to serving divine masters, and people hoped that appeasing the gods would bring security and prosperity to their cities. The Sumerians erected ziggurats which was a huge multilevel mound on which temples were built. It was about 70 feet high and staircases connected to its level which led to the top platform on which stood a majestic temple. The ziggurat was surrounded by low walls enclosing offices and houses for the priests and shops were potters, weavers, carpenters, and tanners performed their crafts. The temple was the cultural and economic heart of the city. A particular city belonged to a god who was the realer owner of the land and the real ruler of the city and temple. These temples were built to accommodate the gods and their families. The gods was offered shelter, food, clothing and homage of dutiful servants. The temple was a vital part of the city life. This was so because they perform economic activities such as collecting rents operated businesses and received contributions for festivals. Hence, the gods which were invisible to human eyes but omnipresent controlled the entire universe and everything in it. The moon, the sun and the storm, the city, the irrigation works, and the fields which were all directed by a god. They were four gods which were the moon (namar), sky (uruk), sun (utu) and earth (enki). The supreme deity was the god of the sky who was the source and active principle in all authority. Decisions however, were made and confirmed by an assembly of gods, of which the other more prominent were the god of storm, the element of force in the world, mother earth, the spirit of fertility; and the god of the waters of the earth whose attributions also were creativity, knowledge and skill. Hence, gods and men were related in myths such as those which told the creation and life after death. This created the emergence of writing, astrology and mathematics.