Introduction to Mesopotamia

Life in the land between the rivers started in 4,000 BCE but Ancient Mesopotamia grew quickly and by 2,500 BCE there were more than half a million people in Ancient Mesopotamia. Ancient Mesopotamians have created so many common day items that we now take for granted. Just to name a few of the items that the Mesopotamians invented are bricks, jewelry, pottery, cylinder seals, writing, and boats. The Mesopotamians believed in many gods, the most important god varied for the different cities.

Mesopotamia is a region of southwest Asia in the Tigris and Euphrates river on a modern day map near Iraq, Kuwait, and Syria or the Middle East, which includes parts of southwest Asia and lands around the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Mesopotamia is also called the Fertile Crescent, or the Cradle of Civilization. Some things that the Mesopotamians created are the concept of time, math, the wheel, sailboats, maps, writing, pottery, hydraulic engineering, chariot, plow, textile mills, mass produced bricks, metallurgy, and mathematics. Hydraulic Engineering is the same thing as irrigation and Metallurgy is using copper to make useful items like spearheads to chisels. The natural barriers of Mesopotamia are the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and Taurus and Zagros Mountains, Assyrian and Arabian Deserts, and the Persian Gulf. (SS)

Mesopotamia Timeline