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Essay on the Mesopotamian civilization

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Essay on the Mesopotamian civilization
Mesopotamia is an ancient civilization located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. It has a hot, dry, climate. Mesopotamia was started in 5,300 B.C. and ended 2,900 B.C. There are 5 features to every civilization, they are: stable food supply, specialization of labor, system of government, social levels, and a highly developed culture. There are 8 features under culture they are: art, architecture, writing, literature, music, religion, technology, and leisure and recreation. The three most important are stable food supply, writing, and a system of government.

Out of the three a stable food supply is the most important. A stable food supply is the most important because in order to keep a civilization they need to have a surplus of food in case of a bad famine. In case of a drought they have an irrigation system. It is made out of canals, gates, and artificial lakes. They grew barley, wheat, vegetables, and grapefruits. A stable food supply satisfied the needs of the people because not everyone had to be a farmer. Since not everyone had to be a farmer some people traded. In order to remember what they had sold they wrote tallies. Tallies started writing.

The first kind of writing was cuneiform. Cuneiform was symbols. Pictographs came after cuneiform and they were pictures. Letters were made because they couldn't describe everything. Some of the letters we use today. Writing satisfied the needs of the people by you could write letters to people without talking to them. With writing you could write laws and rules. Writing laws and rules started a system of government.

The first people that rules were priest. They ruled the temples. After getting in a lot of wars the people decided they needed short military leaders. They decided that they needed long time leaders. The people voted on kings to rules. The kings looked over the temples and ordered new canals. A system of government satisfied the needs of the people by laws protected them. They had the military to protect them also. They had taxes for everything they bought.

There are five inventions the Mesopotamians thought of that influenced my life today. The five inventions are the wheel, irrigation system, bulla, sailboat, and the plow. The wheel influenced my life because you don't have to walk from place to place. The irrigation system influenced my life because during a drought there is still water so crops can grow and we can still have fresh food. The bulla started writing. The people made tallies but it got harder to keep track of so the people made writing. In school we use writing frequently. With the sailboat you can travel on water faster. On a sailboat people go fishing or enjoy a cruise. The plow is used to turn over dirt to get planting easier. Mesopotamia is a great civilization.

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