Mesopatonmia and early society In the new forming world

Essay by theurgeCollege, UndergraduateA+, February 2006

download word file, 4 pages 4.0

1.Mesopotamia

Fertile river beds, lush plant life, temperatures that ranged from cool to hot throughout the year, and seasonal flooding. When this is thought about in your mind, you may think its Pennsylvania, but its not, its some where that no one without background knowledge could believe, and that is dead in the center of present day desert ridden Iraq. At the time well before Christ, there was a magnificent civilization, actually one of the first major civilizations coming together, and that is ancient Mesopotamia, a civilation of rich culture and society, and one civilization that if not ever in existence would make the religion we practice and the world we love in a totally different place.

During Mesopotamias history, there was a vibrant culture and society. To begin with lets start all the way back in 6000 BC. It is believed that by this time, Mesopotamia was largely settled by peoples who have migrated from the Turkish and Iranian highlands.

The first area that can be talked about is Sumer, the ancient name given to southern Mesopotamia. Civilized life in summer emerged because of the fact that the river flooding created fertile land, in effect attracting all types of people who could farm. Also, the volatility of the rivers necessitated a form of collective management to protect the marshy, low-lying land from flooding. As surplus production increased and as collective management became more advanced, a process of urbanization evolved and Sumerian civilization took root. Sumer was a mixture of linguistic and ethnic groups that included the earlier inhabitants of the region. The culture in Sumer was one of a mixture of tradions of native inhabitants and the people who brought their culture with them when they settled. The Sumerians were also highly innovative people, because the responded...