ANCIENT

MESOPOTAMIA

Brendon Carrington 0011890

Mesopotamia was located between the Tigris and Euphrates river. Mesopotamia is fittingly
Greek for between the rivers. Today Mesopotamia would be located in three different nations,
Iraq, Syria and Turkey. It was a land ruled by many nations in ancient times, such as Sumerians,
Greeks, Persians and many more. It is also the area in which many famous bible stories are set,
some being the Garden of Eden and the Tower of Babel (Babylon). The land it covered was very
seldom touched by rainfall, so people had to rely on the two rivers to be their water supply. Some
early architecture in Mesopotamia would be the dams and canals that were built to help distribute
water deeper inland. These waterways provided connection and support to many villages, which
led them to be able to raise cattle and sheep and live comfortably. Although the canals were
simply dug outs in the dirt, their functionality was above par.

Example of water canals

Writing
One other Mesopotamian artistic invention was Cuneiform, invented by the Sumerians,
which developed sometime around 3500 BCE. This was the first record of a writing system and
was etched on clay tablets. The writing in Mesopotamia at its first stages of development was
purely representational. A picture of a horse, meant horse and a picture of wheat, meant wheat,
and so on. As functionality was brought more into play, the use of pictures to represent nouns,
mostly, was becoming less and less efficient. Therefore evolution of the cuneiform took place
and made more abstract in its symbolism, so as to get concepts across more easily. A still
developing civilization was in need of a more erudite form of writing. The language became
phonetic and semantic in its final development.

Picture of timeline of Cuneiform

Architecture
The buildings the Mesopotamians used to build, such as schools, businesses, temples and
palaces, were built with reeds. Reeds were natural products that were good at binding together to
form pillars, beams and arches. This building material along with branches and mud were used to
build most buildings around 4000 BCE. The basic building block was the mud brick, which
was made of mud and small segments of reeds. The binding took place when they would leave
out the mixture in a particular shape in the sun and everything dried. The bricks were stamped
with the reigning kings name and then transported and in the building process, were mortared
with more mud. Around a millennium later, the large temples and tombs were built with the
same mud brick, using around seven million bricks for one edifice. Ziggurats were one such
behemoth that required so many resources.

Mud brick

Ziggurat made of mud brick

Significance of ziggurats and theocracy

A ziggurat held a very intimidating stature, and rightfully so, as they were built to
house the gods of their respective cities. It would also provide protection from the yearly floods
of the two rivers. The Sumerians were so religious that they operated under a theocracy, a state
governed by priests in the name of their god. The priest being a god-like figure and the ruler of
the city. Ziggurats were massive temples where, at the top of the construct, the cella, all
communication between the king (local god) and the gods. It was also where priests, servants
and worshippers came to do the bidding of these gods, which were usually bouts of offerings and
sacrifices. They did these offerings and sacrifices thoughtlessly, because of the belief that doing
so would please the gods and in turn give them protection and success. Ziggurats also stored
food for the people of the city as well as distributed it. They were also the center of celebration
and usually surrounded by the marketplace in their cities.

References
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?ParagraphID=arc#1515
Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries: The Archaeological Evidence
By Peter Roger Stuart Moorey

http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/m/mesopotamian.html
http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/cuneiform-writing-system-ancient-mesopotamia-emergenceand-evolution