Arts

Sculptures  

In Mesopotamia sculptures were made of different materials, specifically metal, stone, and sometimes even silver! While there were different types of themes of sculptures of Mesopotamia, in the ancient Near East animal sculptures were thought to express power. That's why ancient Mesopotamian people made statues of animals. Different animals and symbols or objects mean different things.

Another type of Mesopotamian sculptures are sculptures of humans. Males in sculptures usually stood up right with their hands together in prayers and wore woolen skirts . Women on the other hand, could be positioned in a variety of different positions,(this could mean that women were equal to men) 

A different type of sculpture is wall carvings. The Assyrians are very well known for their wall carvings. They have carvings of their war camps, military life, daily life, even what they did with their prisoners. The art of wall carving was very specific and clearly showed what people wore, did, and packed to battle. We know they invented the first floaty because the wall carvings show us soldiers floating across the river laying on an inflatable bladder. The Wall carvings can tell us a lot of different things that the Assyrians made. Wall carvings are like book illustrations to us.   (S.K)

There are some videos below for some Mesopotamian art projects.

Jewelry

In ancient Mesopotamia, jewels were a possession only had by few, owned only by important people in civilization. Usually, jewels were a sign of wealth, or importance. But, jewels were just used as decoration for important people. They didn’t get any use besides a neat little decoration.

That was until people had the idea of jewelry. It was a purpose for the riches of Mesopotamia, besides decoration or trade. Now, the Mesopotamians could wear their jewels on themselves. They could make necklaces, or rings, or just have jewels studded on their clothes.

Jewelry was a new way to express yourself, but was reserved for only the most important of Mesopotamians. Only people like priests, or royalty like kings and other such people. They were so important to Mesopotamia because most of the resources had to be imported from other places, making them special. (R.S.)

Pottery

One of the most known inventions of ancient Mesopotamia is pottery. Pottery was used for storing food as well as ritual purposes. The oldest piece of pottery found was from 7000 BC. It was found in Hassuna(  northern Mesopotamia, now known as northern Iraq). 

One way to identify how old a piece of pottery is is the style and look of the pottery. Just like clothes or hairstyles pottery style changed over the years. Another way is to see how fragile the pottery is. Older pottery was made of clay only and was very fragile. Later Mesopotamians found out they could cover the pottery they made with alkaline glaze(a natural glaze) so it was less fragile and harder to break.  (S.K)

Cylinder Seals

In ancient Mesopotamia, writing consisted of using something sharp to engrave markings on a clay tablet. You can imagine that after a while, writing your name would become a little repetitive. The system of writing was complex, and name writing just as complex as the rest of the language. So, people decided to make an easier way to write their names. Since ancient Mesopotamian’s names never change, they made a stamp-like object called a Cylinder Seal to write their names.

Since, as stated above, Mesopotamian’s names didn’t necessarily change in writing, they made the cylinder seal to imprint their names on their writing. Even just with this simple change, it made things much easier for the people of Mesopotamia, just by not having to carve their names.

Soon though, cylinder seals were more than just their names imprinted in clay. They were personalized marks to show who you were. They were decorated with symbols, creatures, and other shapes and objects. But, as writing became easier, with paper, ink, and other easier forms of writing, cylinder seals became obsolete. People still use stamps to this day, however, which are very similar to cylinder seals, so cylinder seals still have slight representation even today. (RS)

Sciences

Math

We have proof that the development of a complex math system in Sumer is from about 3000 BCE. There was  multiplication and division tables, square roots and cube roots, and division problems from around 2600 BCE and forward. Later Babylonian tablets were from about 1800 to 1600 BCE that were as fractions, algebra, geometry. (DTH)

Astronomy

For the ancient mesopotamians astronomy were a matter of life and death, they needed to know exactly when to plant and harvest. A little later in time they used astronomy to know what the weather was that day. (DH)

Writing

The Sumerians one day thought of a great idea and the whole idea was to create a sort of record system so that people in the future could know what they had invented. For example the population how to build the boats they invented or the buildings they had. But it turns out it was a great way to start a language and to talk to each other they it called Cuneiform. I think that writing and language was a great idea and that if the world would start again I would want a language.  The Sumerians were very smart and for 3000 BC this is a great accomplishment for them and their people. Cuneiform cool name right it also means wedge shape. (PB)

Boats

The Mesopotamians had very cool boats, which were really advanced for their time. Like inventing the first boat is pretty good for the technology they had, they figured out how to overcome leaks, holes, and rowing issues. To deal with the leaks and holes they started off with reeds and then took goat skin and put it on it  and inflated it this solved their leaking problems. To fix issues with the strength of the paddles they used wood to make the paddles strong and reliable coated with anything sticky. They all did this to cross the Tigris and Euphrates river and you have to think about how long it takes to build these too. (PB)