Mesopotamian Arts & Sciences

Arts

Sculpture

Mesopotamian sculptures were mostly created for religious and political purposes. Commonly used materials included clay, metal, and stones. Sculptures were often made to look like gods or royalty. Statues were often made larger than life to show the importance of the sculpture's figure. Popular figures that were made into statues were animals, royalty and gods, and warfare icons.

Mesopotamian sculptures do not look like modern day sculptures. In my eyes, they are not as realistic as sculptures today. New sculpture styles have been developed since the Mesopotamian times. I'm not completely sure because I could not find any information on the topic, but I assume that there are very few original Mesopotamian statues that have survived natural disasters, and are still in tact. Mesopotamian statues are artifacts, and like most other artifacts, it is extremely rare to get an authentic Mesopotamian sculpture, and if you do get one it will be very expensive. (HL)

Jewelry

The people of Mesopotamia used many materials in making jewelry. Some of these sparkling jewels included basic gemstones like copper, gold, silver, and electrum, along with the not-so-basic gemstones like agate, carnelian, chalcedony, crystal, jasper, lapis lazuli (which was valued higher than any other material, even gold), onyx and sardonyx. People also used shells and pearls. Wearing jewelry in Mesopotamia is a lot more common than you might think. Women, men, and children all wore jewelry. You might think that jewelry is exclusive to royalty, but that is not true. Even non-wealthy people and people of different races wore jewelry. Fun fact- Babylonians would wear a stone called bloodstone to protect themselves from their enemies and bloodstone was also used in divination. Archeologist Leonard Wooley found jewelry when he discovered the royal tombs of Ur. Because royalty was buried there, the jewelry was very expensive. Jewelry was an important part of Mesopotamian culture, and a part of modern culture. What would we do without the Mesopotamian's inventions? (HL)

Pottery and Jewelry

Pottery is an important part of Mesopotamian culture. Pottery was mainly used for storing food/water and ritual purposes. Mesopotamians first started to make pottery by hand and then they began to use a pottery wheel once that was invented. Archeologists could determine what a piece of pottery’s purpose was by the design on it. Also, the color of the pottery determined the era that it was made in. Clay was the main material that pottery was made out of and was also used for monumental buildings and tablets to record history and legends. It’s amazing that we still have pieces of these ancient artifacts to teach us about Mesopotamian culture.

Pottery wasn’t the only form of art in Mesopotamia, jewelry was very popular too. Mesopotamia was where the tradition of jewelry making started, about 4,000 years ago. It was common for everyone in a city to wear jewelry because Mesopotamia was so wealthy. Both men and women wore jewelry. Not all precious metals and gemstones were found in Mesopotamia, some were brought in from other countries. Often, the jewelry had different designs that had different meanings. We have a lot of Mesopotamian jewelry today because people were often buried with their jewelry. Both arts of jewelry and pottery teach us about Mesopotamian civilization. (JN)

Cylinder Seals

Sciences

Math

In the picture above, the clay tablet has several multiplication problems on it. This one of the many discovered clay tablets from Mesopotamia.

From 2600 BC onwards, the Sumerians wrote multiplication tables on clay tablets and dealt with geometrical (Relating to geometry) exercises and division problems. The earliest traces of the Babylonian numerals also date back to this period. To differentiate between their numerous gods, the Mesopotamians assigned numerical values to these gods. Anu, the god of heaven, was allotted the number 60, and thus in their calculations, they used the sexagesimal (Related to 60) system. That is, they used 60 the same way we use 10 in our decimal system. Their mathematics enabled Sumerians to divide into fractions and multiply into the million, to calculate roots or raise numbers several powers. The 360 degree circle, the foot and it's 12 inches, and the "dozen" as a unit, are but a few examples of how Sumerian Mathematics is still evident in our lives today." (LT)

Astronomy

It was a common Mesopotamian belief that gods could and did indicate future events to mankind. This indication of future events were considered to be omens. The Mesopotamian belief in omens pertains to astronomy and its predecessor astrology. because it was a common practice at the time to look to the sky for omens. The ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia developed a complex system of metrology (the scientific study of measurement) from 3000 BC. For example, a farmer would look up at the sky in the spring, and see the changes in space. Every year you would see the same thing in space as you did the previous year at the same day. That's when they new to start planting their crops. From a very early time, the Mesopotamians had charted the movements across the sky of the sun, moon, planets and stars. They were able to predict celestial events, such as eclipses, using that knowledge. Babylonian astronomy was the study or recording of celestial objects during early Mesopotamia. These records can be found on Sumerian clay tablets, inscribed in cuneiform, dated to around 1000 BCE. From a very early time, the Mesopotamians had charted the movements across the sky of the sun, moon, planets and stars. They were able to predict celestial events, such as eclipses, using that knowledge. (LT)

Since the middle of the 19th century, following the discovery of the ruins of Nineveh, Babylon and other cities, hundreds of thousands of clay-baked tablets covered with cuneiform inscriptions have been excavated from this region and it is likely that more large repositories of cuneiform tablets may still be hidden under the desert sands. The decipherment and study of these tablets opened the door for late 19th-century historians and scholars to a new and fascinating culture, whose existence before then had only been darkly hinted to by sparse references in biblical and classical sources.

A few thousands of these tablets contain texts on ancient astronomy and astrology and the study and analysis of these tablets have shown that the astronomer-priests of Mesopotamia observed the heavens with great interest and attention and were further advanced in these sciences than their neighbors. The legacy of these astronomer-priests was to greatly influence the practice of astronomy and astrology in the surrounding regions and evidence for this has been found in Egypt, the Eastern Mediterranean, the Indian subcontinent and perhaps even in the Far East. The Babylonian practice of dividing the circle in 360 degrees and its sexagesimal parts, the day in 24 hours and the zodiac in 12 signs have remained in use around the world until the present day.

Writing

Writing is one of the most important inventions of all time. The first written language was called Cuneiform. Cuneiform was a writing system used by the Sumerians and Mesopotamians. Cuneiform was the first form of writing in history that was not in pictographs. The word Cuneiform is from latin and french origin. The meaning behind Cuneiform means wedge shaped. Cuneiform has been around since 3000-4000 BCE. The Mesopotamians used reed stylists to write Cuneiform on their clay tablets.The Cuneiform language evolved into Akkadian, which is a The first story, the epic of Gilgamesh was written on a clay tablet in Cuneiform. Cuneiform was used to record everything from shopping lists to who was the king at the time. Today people have a hard time reading Cuneiform since nobody speaks the language anymore. Cuneiform is the oldest written language and has changed history as we know it. The Mesopotamians were the first to write using a written language and humans never turned back. (AF)

Boats

The Mesopotamian's created the first boat and it was an incredible invention.5000 years ago the Mesopotamians invented the first boat. The boat was a sailboat and people used it for trade and transport. The Sumerians made their sail out of cloth and the body of the boat of reed, papyrus, and wood. Researchers have found ceramic boat models at Ubaid sites. Ubaid is a period of time in Mesopotamian, The boats went in the direction of the wind. So whichever way the wind was blowing that was where the boat took you. The boat was an incredible invention and the Mesopotamians created the first one. (AF)

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