Mesopotamia holds a significant place and value in terms of history. It is significant on account of its cultural, political, architectural, and geographical existence. The region consisted of modern day multiple countries. The overall region was spread across the Mediterranean and mountainous areas of the region. It is amongst one of the first few river civilizations based and established along the major rivers of that region. The word Mesopotamia in itself means “between rivers” (Armstrong,3). Based on its rich cultural affiliations and influences its traces and influences can be traced in the other Middle Eastern civilizations as well and notably the Egyptian culture. The early civilizations of the world were characterized by the presence of rivers and as a result were called the river valley civilizations.
It was a civilization that was spread far and wide and was considerably heterogeneous in its outlook. It consisted of all the requirements that make up for a civilization. The region entailed River Euphrates and Tigris(Hunt, 8). The presence of rivers was significant on multiple accounts. In the first aspect it provided better means of farming through the presence of large amount of water. On the second front it enabled protecting the regions and enjoying a territorial significance against other rival civilizations. However the presence of deserts was a weak line with regard to the geographical situation and edge being enjoyed by the Mesopotamian warriors and the deserts left the areas exposed for any inward attack from any intruding warriors.
The civilization was gifted on account of temperate climate. It had rivers, fertile lands (Bertman,4), mountainous regions, and plateaus and offered a lot for the farmers. As a result of this fertility it offered occupations to the farmers and other harvests that made a living out of it. On account of its rich geographical existence and offering large amount of farming options, it was called the Fertile Crescent.
Within the Mesopotamian civilization, numerous Empires came to reign. Out of these one of the founding ones was that of Sargon of Akkad(Suzuki,10). He ruled in the era around 2300 B.C and he is considered as one of the few initial rulers who had a formidable control and large amount of region under his control. The reign of Akkad lasted for nearly two centuries and came to an end after 2100 B.C.
The regions within the Mesopotamian civilization enjoyed considerable authority and centralization of government. Each encompassing its own rulers and designated governors and representatives making it a more organized civilization with people’s representation. With a dynastic outlook of society, the families were in rule and authority generation after generation and the overall outlook of society and ruling elite form a authoritarian and feudal system.
Babylonian Empire was another significant part of the Mesopotamian civilization. They came into power after 2000 B.C (Mueller, 225). One of the significant features of Babylonian Empire was establishment of city of Babylon. The city was significant on multiple accounts and it was established around the river of Euphrates. The reign of Babylonians produced notable rulers of the entire Mesopotamian civilization and each of these was significantly famous on account of their charisma and ability to rule over large region and keep the multiple areas under their control. They managed keeping a control over the region through enactment of various severe laws and law codes. Hammurabi was one of them famous and talked about ruler from that era who went on to rule from late 17th century to middle of the century (1790 to 1750 B.C) (Leech, 16). the effectiveness of his policies were based on the grounds and facts that they were completely uniform and unlike past where multiple laws were existent in its ruling and practices, which led to disharmony and unevenness, the laws introduced by Hammurabi in his reign were effective towards bringing the entire region under the control and removing any ambiguity that may arise from different laws and different codes in practice. Other notable figures and periods of this glorious civilization included the Kassite, Ashurnasirpal the Second, the era of Bronze usage and various other notable figures and epochs of history (McIntosh, 332).
The civilization was unique on multiple accounts, not just the pattern of ruling and the life styles but the cultural transformation, and the writing patterns made up for the novelty of the civilization. It is considered amongst the first very few civilizations that had enacted a comprehensive writing system in their daily activities. This writing system came about in form of Cuneiform (Woodard,53). The people of Mesopotamia were considerably creative in their outlook and they explored the means of artificial irrigation to gain maximum from the yields and seasonal farming. Many revelations have been made on account of the architectural and historical experts interests and excavation of the lands. One similar area that has been investigated by the archaeologists is Hatra that gave a considerable insight into the living pattern of the people and the means adopted by them for making a livelihood and harvesting. Apart from the artificial means of irrigation, they explored various tools and devices that were useful to plough and grind. One of these devices was the wheel along with other tools that enabled extracting rare metals from stones and precious naturally existing material .
The outlook of social standing was hierarchical as well with the top tier consisting of kings followed by the nobles who had earned their place as a result of attachment and affiliations with the king. Next in line were the religious communities on account of strong religious affiliations of the civilization. The masses encompassed the farmers’ peasants, scribes and slaves that were assigned for the duty of serving the upper class individuals. Hence there were three broad classes within the civilization and were depictive and representative in form of the ruling class, the nobles and the commoners. Apart from these three classes, they had distinct category of slaves that were appointed for special services.
The entire civilization was held integrated through the religious bond. Their religious worship places were specially designed in a pattern of Ziggurat that was designed in a hierarchical and ascending pattern. Their religion was polytheistic in its nature and they worshiped multiple gods each represented in gigantic appearance and caricatures. The overall study of their civilization and religious following reveals that they had multiple gods and each was characterized with power and authority in different discipline.
Epic of Gilgamesh: this makes up for one of the characteristic component and feature of the Mesopotamian culture and civilization. Crafted in the Cuneiform script gives an insight into how developed and progressive the overall cultural and writing aspects were in the Mesopotamian civilization. It is being considered as one of the very few original pieces of writings and scriptures that have lived on till modern times in their original form. Plenty can be derived and read into the overall pattern and living styles of the Mesopotamian rulers and individuals from the piece of art through its investigative and critical study. The content of the story is reflective of the organized social system that was based on the vice and virtue along with the geographical elements. Overall the tale gave an insight into multiple aspects of society and the civilization as a whole. Cuneiform is considered amongst the first few formal systems that extended the overall journey of writing. On account of its rich culture it is believed that the Thales of Miletus had affiliations and background from the same civilization (Dalley).
The region was broadly the part of present day Iraq and parts of Turkey and Syria that we see on the map in present day (Rassam, 9). The social system had fair amount of justice and consideration for the women. The married women could appeal on account of the husband’s neglect and formal government’s representatives would look into it and determine the overall cause of conflict and in each case the husband and wife were given a chance to present their cases and grievances against one another. Based on the hearing decisions would be made.
Hence Mesopotamia stands in the history as a civilization that was richly embedded with culture, religion, ruling elites and rulers’ authority, art and architecture and established designs of cities patterns.
Works Cited:
Armstrong, Linda. Mesopotamia. Lorenz Educational Press, 2002.
Bertman, Stephen. Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. Oxford University Press, 2005.
Dalley, Stephanie. Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others. Oxford University Press, 2000.
Hunt, Norman Bancroft. Living in Ancient Mesopotamia. Infobase Publishing, 2008.
Leech, Bonnie Coulter. Mesopotamia: Creating and Solving Word Problems. The Rosen Publishing Group, 2007.
McIntosh, Jane. Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspectives. ABC-CLIO, 2005.
Mueller, Kathleen. Revelation: Hold Onto Your Faith. AuthorHouse, 2011.
Rassam, Suha. Christianity in Iraq: Its Origins and Development to the Present Day. Gracewing Publishing, 2005.
Suzuki, Jeff. Mathematics in Historical Context. MAA, 2009.
Woodard, Roger D. The Ancient Languages of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Aksum. Cambridge University Press, 2008.
