Widely Known as "the Cradle of Civilization", the Mysterious and Equally

Widely known as "The Cradle of Civilization", the mysterious and equally

intriguing area in the middle east known as Mesopotamia has provided modern civilization with more than we may know. From material inventions like the wheel or the tank, to moresubstantial influences such as Hammurabi's Law Code, Mesopotamian civilization is responsible for many Ð''firsts' in human pre-history. In this essay I will focus on two of themost important influential aspects of Mesopotamian culture one being the development of the State, and secondly the invention of written language.

The name Mesopotamia, which in Greek means "between the rivers," refers to a

region of land in the Middle East surrounding the Tigris and Euphrates rivers stretching

from the Persian Gulf in the south to the mountains of Armenia in the north.(3)

As a part of the Fertile Crescent, the soil in this region and particularly in the alluvial plain was, due to silt left from flooding, extremely fertile. Because of poor drainage, this silt also left large amounts of salt in the soil which caused many problems, ultimately leading to the invention of irrigation in 5000 B.C. which made farming in the area possible.(2) Although Mesopotamia was not the origin of food production, its emergence in this area plays a very important role in the creation of modern civilization. As population in the area grew and food production increased, a new economy based on irrigation and trade lead to the formation of a new kind of society - the State.(2)

A state, by definition, is a "social and political unit featuring a central government,

extreme contrasts of wealth, and social classes."(2) In southern Mesopotamia around

3700 B.C. the "social landscape"(2) was being drastically changed. Due to

advancements in irrigation, Ubaid communities were spreading along the Euphrates,

linked by advanced social and economic networks (2) Raw materials that could not be

found in southern Mesopotamia like hardwood and stone were imported using the rivers. As populations, cities and economies grew, so did "social differentials" with the separation of a "non-food-producing" group (priests, political leaders etc.) from the general population of farmers and herders who supported them.(2) As population pressures continued to increase, "land became scarce private property that was bought and sold"(2) resulting in a small portion of the population owning much of the land. This separation lead to the formation of the city-state, with the earliest being Sumer and Elam around 3500 B.C.(2) By 2800 B.C., Uruk - the capital of Sumer and the largest Mesopotamian city at the time, had a population of roughly 50,000. As communities began fighting over water and land, people moved to the cities for protection and by 2600 B.C. "Mesopotamia had a well- defined class structure, with complex stratification into nobles, commoners, and slaves."(2) The emergence of these highly advanced forms of society resulted in yet another great Mesopotamian invention - writing.

Evidence of temple records of economic activity show that writing was invented in 3600 B.C., by the Sumerians of Mesopotamia.(2) As Sumerian city-states continued to advance, economic activities were continually hampered by a lack of record-keeping

means.(4) Originally, the Sumerians developed a system of stone and clay tokens to

keep track of their dealings.(4) This was soon replaced by markings made on soft

clay