Mesopotamia: A Guide to the Geography and Culture of This Ancient Land

Mesopotamia is a Greek name in origin stemming from mesos, meaning "middle" and potamos, meaning "river." So, therefore Mesopotamia means "land between the rivers." This name refers to the area of land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and watered by their tributaries. It's the area roughly comprising modern Iraq and part of Syria. The deltas of the rivers were called the lands of Sumer and Akkad in the third millennium. Sumer is the more southern area, and Akkad is the area around modern Baghdad, where the Euphrates and Tigris rivers are rather close to each other. In the second millennium both regions together were called Babylonia and the territory in the north (between the Tigris and Great Zab rivers) was called Assyria, which bordered the mountains.

Since prehistoric times, people have had many usages for the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. They used them as water ways for inland navigation and the rivers flooded the banks yearly, producing fertile land. The Tigris River is rough and fast-flowing, and it can hardly be used for irrigation. The Euphrates River, however, is more easily used for traveling by ships and its banks are more suitable for irrigation, as it has less violent floods.

Because of the shape of Mesopotamia and the surrounding area along with the low precipitation in the central desert regions and the high rainfall in the mountains, this area has been called the "fertile crescent." After 8000 B.C., the environments in the Near East became more "attractive" for human settlements, and the use of agriculture expanded gradually further to the northern and western regions. Mesopotamia has gone through many times of climatic change, and this is said to be because of many different causes, such as sociological changes and changes in the natural environment.

The deltas in Mesopotamia were perfectly suitable for food production, and their economy was highly based on agriculture, particularly the cultivation of barley. Barley was used as a means of payment, and also for natural beverages, specifically beer. Other products were oil (sesame seeds, linseed), flax, and wheat. Also, many herds of cattle, sheep, and goats grazed the meadows. Wool production was large and this provided a production of an assortment of textile fabrics. The very southern part of the land had a different economy, though, mainly from producing dates and fishing. Trade and barter were commonly performed, using minerals such as copper, tin, silver, and diorite.

The two cultural groups that formed early Mesopotamia were also the Sumerians and the Akkadians. They lived peacefully together. Actually, it seemed that Mesopotamian sources in all time periods seem to be free of racial or ethnic stereotypes. The Sumerians were the people responsible for the first monumental temples and palaces, the founding of the first city states, and they also most likely created the invention of writing, with their first written signs being pictographic. The Akkadians may have been present in Mesopotamia since the time when the Sumerians arrived or they may have came into that region later on.

The people in Mesopotamia believed that the universe was basically two or three layers and it usually consisted of a "heaven" and an "earth." Sometimes, though, it also consisted of such things as a "netherworld" or a "sky" or "atmosphere." They also believed that the supernatural universe was populated with divine beings - gods and demons, which were portrayed as superior to humans, and since they were considered more powerful, they didn't have human miseries and mishaps and had endless lives. In the temples, the gods were represented as statues (deities). These deities also have a constellation or a star representing their higher powers. The gods had a human appearance, a body, were male or female, they needed food and to be washed and dressed, and other human qualities. they also could be aggressive, cheerful, clever, skillful, ambitious, and other such traits.

Many mathematical and astronomical sciences owe their beginnings to the people of Mesopotamia. They developed the sexagesimal system, which was used for all different types of calculations and is still used around the world for clocks. The architecture and art in this area are rather impressive, with one of the greatest achievements being the ziggurats, which were temple structures.

Overall, the culture of Mesopotamia was rather impressive. The people presented many new ideas and thoughts to the rest of the world, being the first people to discover and create many different things and ideas. Without these early civilizations and what they discovered so early in the times of the world, we may not have been as advanced in all sorts of subjects as we are today in the modern world.

Works Cited:

Heise, John. "Mesopotamia (geography, climate, people, religion, trade, Assyriology, and Archaeology." Mesopotamia. 17 Feb. 1996. 18 Jan. 2005 .

Kjeilen, Tore. "Mesopotamia." Encyclopedia of the Orient. 2005. 18 Jan. 2005 .

Robinson, Jr., Charles Alexander. The First Book of Ancient Mesopotamia and Persia. New York: Franklin Watts, Inc., 1962.