Iraq Civilisation
Land between the rivers
by Basim Obaidi
Mesopotamia (land between the rivers)
The area of the Tigris-Euphrates river system is largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, as well as some parts of northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey,and southwestern Iran. It’s called the land between rivers (Mesopotamia). It consisted of the old civilizations, kingdoms and Empires such as Sumer, the Akkadian Empire, Amorites, Babylonian, Assyrian, and Elam.
· Sumer and the Sumerians
Sumer, Land of the Lords of Brightness, was a civilization and historical region in southern Mesopotamia, modern Iraq. It is the earliest known civilization in the world, and is known as the Cradle of Civilization. By perhaps 5000-2800 BC the Sumerians had developed core agricultural techniques including large-scale intensive cultivation of land, organized irrigation, and the use of a specialized labor force. The surplus of food created by this economy allowed the population to settle in one place instead of migrating after crops and grazing land. It also allowed for a much greater population density, and in turn required an extensive labor force and division of labor). The Sumerian cities were (Eridu, Kish, Uruk, Ur, Lagash, Nippur, Ngirs).
Society in Sumer
Mesopotamia became more and more a patriarchal society, one in which the men were far more powerful than the women The society was rule by a "council of elders" in which men and women were equally represented, such as scribes, physicians, temple administrators, went to school. Most boys were taught their father’s trade or were apprenticed out to learn a trade.Girls had to stay home with their mothers to learn housekeeping and cooking, and to look after the younger children. Some children would help with crushing grain or cleaning birds. Unusual for that time in history, women in Mesopotamia had rights. They could own property and, if they had good reason, get a divorce.
Sumerian achievement
This Sumer was first civilisation led to the development the writing in 3500 BC, and that’s led to invent the technology, and it was included, the wheel, cuneiform, arithmetic and geometry, irrigation systems, the adoption of the wheel was beginning of the Chalcolithic period fall into the Ubaid period. The Ubaid period (ca. 6500 to 3800 BC) is a prehistoric period of Mesopotamia, it’s culture had a long duration beginning before 5300 BC and lasting until the beginning of the Uruk period 4000 BC which was one of the Sumer city later on, so the Ubaid culture was the factor to developed urban Sumerian achievement. The Sumerians developed a complex system of metrology 4000 BC. This metrology advanced resulting in the creation of arithmetic, geometry, and algebra. From 2600 BC onwards, the Sumerians wrote multiplication tables on clay tablets and dealt with geometrical exercises and division problems.
· Akkad (Akkadian)
The Akkadian Empire was an empire centered in the city of Acad. The Akkadian state was the predecessor of the ethnic Akkadian states of Babylonia and Assyria. Akkadian cultural synergy with Sumerians, it reached the height of its power between the 24th and 22nd centuries BC following the conquests of king Sargon of Acad, and is sometimes regarded as the first manifestation of an empire in history Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as the spoken language of Mesopotamia somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BC (the exact dating being a matter of debate),but Sumerian continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary and scientific language in Mesopotamia until the first century AD. Mesopotamian religion was the first to be recorded. Mesopotamians believed that the world was a flat disc, surrounded by a huge holed space, and above that heaven. They also believed that water was everywhere, the top, bottom and sides, and that the universe was born from this enormous sea. In addition, Mesopotamian religion was polytheistic.
· Babylonia (Old Babylonian period, and Neo-Babylonian Empire)
The First Babylonian Dynasty was during the third millennium BC, And Second Babylonian Empire was a period of Mesopotamian history which began in 626 BC and ended in 539 BC. Babylonian was an ancient
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