Room 613 Talk

Mesopotamia by Emelie V.

5,000 years ago, an incredible event occurred. The world today would not be the same if the land “between two rivers” had not been settled by the Sumerians, and 1,900 years later fallen under the Assyrians, reign. Mesopotamia, or the land “between two rivers”, was formed in 3,000 B.C. and fell in 1600 A.D. It was located between the Euphrates River and the Tigris river, hence the land “between two rivers”. Mesopotamia was situated in, present day Iraq. It consisted of six well known civilizations. The Sumerians, the Babylonians, the Nineveh, the Akkians, the Ureridu, and the Assyrians. All these civilizations had specialized workers, writing, and cities, all societies must have these three key essentials, these six nations were no exception. Mesopotamia was the birth place of civilization, which is how it got its nick-name the “Cradle of Civilization”.

Sumer was the first civilization ever. The people of Sumer, who were called Sumerians, wrote on clay tablets with symbols. They left the tablets in the sun to dry and become permanent. Sumerian’s also used pictographs to tell stories. Sumerians invented the plow, the wheel, the cart, and sun dried bricks mixed with straw to make them stronger to build their houses. They used animals such as sheep and goats for milk yogurt and cheese. We can also thank the Sumerians for inventing schools and education. In addition they had a specialized worker called a scribe, who was an expert in writing and worked for the king. In the center of Sumer there stood a large building. It was called a Zigerat, and it was a place to worship gods, which Sumer had many of. Sumer dominated some of southern Mesopotamia.

The Assyrians were all in all very violent people. They seemed to be always bloodthirsty and war hungry. The Assyrians were everyone’s enemy. Even their favorite sport, lion hunting, was violent. Kings of Assyrian often boasted at how many lions they killed with there spears. Many of the Assyrian’s artwork found showed men on horses throwing spears at lions and cheering. Because of their violence the Assyrians conquered most of Mesopotamia. Much like Rome this led to there fall, the land was too big for the Assyrians to defend. In 1612 A.D. the Babylonians invaded Assyrians and the emperor fell and there was no more Mesopotamia. We can thank, the Sumerians, Assyrians and Mesopotamia for our cities, ourare writing and our jobs. The Sumerians started the first civilization in Mesopotamia and the Assyrians ended it but there were more to come, many many more.