Mesopotamia: The Cradle of Civilization
Between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (modern Iraq), humanity invented civilization itself.
Why Here?
Fertile Crescent: Rich soil from river flooding enabled agriculture.
Irrigation: Controlling water allowed surplus food production.
Surplus → specialization: Farmers could support priests, craftsmen, soldiers, scribes.
Cities emerged: Uruk may have been the world's first city (3500 BCE, 40,000 people).
Major Civilizations
- First writing (cuneiform)
- First cities
- First law codes
- Ziggurats (temple pyramids)
- Sargon of Akkad: first empire builder
- United Mesopotamia under one ruler
- Hammurabi's Code: 282 laws carved in stone
- "An eye for an eye"
- Advanced mathematics (base-60 system — we still use 60 seconds/minutes)
- Military superpower
- Brutal but effective administration
- Library of Ashurbanipal preserved ancient texts
Inventions
Writing (3400 BCE): Cuneiform on clay tablets. Originally for accounting, expanded to literature, law, science.
The wheel (3500 BCE): First for pottery, then transportation.
Mathematics: Place-value notation, algebra, geometry for surveying.
Astronomy: Predicted eclipses, mapped constellations, created the zodiac.
Time: 60-second minute, 60-minute hour, 360-degree circle.
Law codes: Written laws applied (theoretically) to all.
Literature
Epic of Gilgamesh: World's oldest known literature. A king seeks immortality, learns wisdom.
Enuma Elish: Babylonian creation myth.
Legacy
Mesopotamian innovations spread to Egypt, Greece, and beyond. Our hours, minutes, and legal traditions trace back to these river valleys.
Civilization began here.
Related Reading
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