Guide to Ancient Mesopotamia - Essay Example

7 November Assignment A civilization is referred to a complex culture in which a large number of people live together and share a variety of elements in their day-to-day lifestyle. They carry out businesses together, live in harmony and establish a set of rules for the entire community follows. There are a number of characteristics that constitute the making of a civilization and in the rich historical past of the world, there have been a number of civilizations that have given birth to modern day cultures. The Mesopotamian civilization is considered to be one of the most important civilizations in the world however many historians have questioned the aspect of Mesopotamia being a civilization in the first place. This paper aims to look at all the factors that are successful in calling the cradle of activity in Mesopotamia as a civilization and how the various economic, social and political aspects of life in Mesopotamia come into play when looking at the model. In order to constitute a civilization, a well-knit combination of the following factors must be present. They are – a socially well structured community with an urban environment as well as a rural environment with intensive agricultural activities being able to support the population at large; proper division of labor; a market economy with or without trade of some kind sustaining livelihoods of many; a structured form of a government regulating the activities taking place in the area; defined territories; written laws; a powerful establishment of the military; intrinsic support towards arts and culture constituting creativity in both the work as well as the leisure part of life; a culture with a written language system. These are some of the very important aspects that a civilization constitutes and as we discuss these factors throughout the scope of this paper, we may come across a few more aspects of life that are enough to term Mesopotamia as a proper civilization and a lap of rich culture. (Duiker, W., and J. Spielgovel, p. 7) In order to constitute a civilization, firstly, a culture requires a population that may have migrated from various parts of the world but is living together at the time of the civilization being formed in a large well-structured community. A population of more than 5000 people at the time assisted in establishing the Mesopotamian civilization and at the time, almost 5000 years ago, this number seemed to be a lot more than the value it holds today. With such a vast population at the time, it was believed that a number of problems would be faced by the community including social and economic problems like sanitation, health, food and water, clothing as well as educational issues. A civilization thus has a large number of people when living together might be prone to a number of socio economic problems as was seen in Mesopotamia. People faced epidemics and there was shortage of food and water, however they were all countered at one point or another by the brainchild of people living in the area. Soon, agricultural activities were harnessed well enough to provide for the people. People belonging to the region of Sumer first created the civilization which has come to be known as the Mesopotamian civiliation and with time they had established a number of cities along the rivers that bordered the area. These were known as city states and as they expanded, they came to be known as empires. The characteristics of the life in them have been explained further with a focus on how Mesopotamia is actually regarded to be a civilization. Archaeologists over the years have dug up a large amount of remains in the form of daily use objects from the area around the Mesopotamian civilization, which is ample proof to understand the lifestyle of the people living in that area at the time. Nomadic tribes living there were able to form settlements which today can be seen in the modern day structures of Iraq and Syria. This civilization is known to be so because it was one of the first societies to have provided proof of people living in close proximity to one another and carrying on trade and other such activities with one another to sustain their lifestyles. Language Writing Styles: The people living in the region of Mesopotamia were known to have a written language; they did not succumb to only drawings and scratches on tablets and walls but had a pictorial as well as a symbolic language and there have been evidence of them using these symbols and pictures in order to communicate with one another. Kings, priests, merchants and artisans’ alike living in the area made use of this writing system in order to depict their thoughts to one another. The civilization also had a very distinct religious life; people believed in Gods and there were a hierarchy in society where the priests were considered to be God’s children and were the caretakers of all the property that belonged to Him. In Mesopotamia, religion was considered to be polytheistic; in other words, the people worshipped not one or two but many gods and goddesses are part of their daily rituals and routine. They believed god to be henotheistic or superior to every other living being in their environment. Every god that they believed in had a separate temple, rituals and ceremonies and festivals to be performed with different priests and there were many such temples that could be found in the civilization. Furthermore, the people believed in the superiority of the gods as well as they ranked them according to their order of importance. The fact that the people of Mesopotamia had a language to start with emphasizes on the point that it was very much a civilization, since it qualifies this test of civilization. Another factor, which is important in deciding whether a civilization can be considered as one, is its political and domestic structure in place. Mesopotamia had a very good political structure; a culture is said to be called a civilization once it has a political structure with a form of government that rules the activities taking place in the region; it may have written laws and people that are experienced to preside over the proceedings where one individual may infringe upon another’s rights and thus decide what is right and what is not so according to the society and the circumstances at the time. The power, responsibility and authority of a large number of aspects of life need to be divided in a proper manner among the people belonging to the culture so as to maintain harmony and a peaceful living among the people. At the time, in the civilization, the leaders were considered to be kings or gods and they presided over the important matters. The division of labor in the region was divided into the following categories – the top, middle and the lower strata of society. The top strata consisted of government officials, priests and noblemen; merchants, artisans, craftsmen and farmers and any other people that engaged in work activities contributing to the economic aspects of society fell under the second or the middle class and the third or the lower class consisted of slaves and prisoners of war. Apart from these people, there was a proper law that protected the rights of people that were considered to be free citizens also known as Commoners. There was thus a very distinct differentiation among people belonging to different classes in society. The lower classes of people were often looked down upon too. Moving on to livelihood, as discussed in the social classes, there were a number of activities taking place that constituted the region to be a civilization. Most important of all, irrigation and agriculture sustained the lives of most of the people living in the region. The area was surrounded by flood plains and had a vast irrigation system that was very modernly and excellently built to support the food grains and crops throughout the year. The soil in the region was extremely fertile and the entire civilization relied on it greatly for the purpose of its food and water. This is one of the main reasons why Mesopotamia is considered to be a civilization because only where there is food and water will the region see a flocking of human beings and animals; when that happens, people begin to settle down and form their communities and societies, giving way to complex towns and villages in the future gradually. The economic structure in Mesopotamia was thus excellent as it mostly stemmed from the agricultural system; people believed in the barter system for quite some time as merchants and farmers began to trade their goods for other goods and other people followed suit. Thus activity flourished in the area and it soon gave rise to the modern system of exchanging money or a purchasing power for obtaining goods and services. The value of all these objects was very highly thought of. Materialistic aspects of life began to flourish as well as artisans and craftsmen evolved into architects and builders; laborers spent a great deal of time following instructions from those that had nourished their thinking abilities to formulate a proper plan to make Mesopotamia one of the greatest modern cities that there even have been. Buildings were begun to be built and soon the structure of a town came into being. Hirst, K) Archeologists have been lucky to unearth palaces that formed a part of the Mesopotamian civilization; these palaces were decorated with precious stones and gems and had furniture made of ivory. This gave the impression that there was a class of people living in the civilization that believed in luxurious living. These palaces were used as institutions to inculcate social as well as economic subjects of life into people and were also used as workshops, storehouses and even shrines. People living together in the region thus knew how to corporate their thoughts into something massive and at the time, thinking in the manner that they did and using the available resources like they did is simply commendable and thus the region deserves to be called nothing less than a proper fully fledged civilization. Individuals lived in houses that were made of bricks, mud and plaster; everyone had a home to live in and the wealthy even had homes that were two stories in height as compared to the one storied homes of the poorer. Some of them were so palatial that archaeologists and historians are surprised to find such a vast level of development in the people at the time. The Mesopotamians believed a great deal in art and laid a lot of emphasis on creating and storing a value in beauty. Intellect was also clearly rampant among the people and pleasant sights of literature, poetry, sculptures and jewelleries among other things are proof that the people lived a healthy and full life, not devoid of any kind of pleasure or leisure. Clothes, accessories like bracelets, neckpieces and anklets made of stones, beads and clay formed the fashion among men and women alike. They even were sure to dress their gods well. The people believed in sculpting and making models as well as tablets of symbols as part of their art and heritage which may be seen in museums in the world today. The art mostly reflected the lives of the people living in the era and age at the time, and their customs and beliefs that they shared with one another. Therefore, Mesopotamia is termed to be a civilization because that is the place where a large number of tribes that were nomadic in nature began to settle down and build their homes. A relatively large society formed the home of a large number of people and developed to a great extent; people had their livelihood and settled well in the area. They gave birth to children and formed generations of happy people involved in daily activities not to forget art and architecture that the world today is taking inspiration from. They soon formed small towns and villages and were supported by the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. People began to be civilized in terms of writing systems, adopted a language for themselves and gave shape to their culture; in short they were the early men of a modern society. Works Cited Duiker, W., and J. Spielgovel. World History. 5th ed. Vol. 1, p. 7, n.p., 2006. Print. Hirst, K. "Guide to Ancient Mesopotamia." About.com Archaeology. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2012. . Read More