Ancient Mesopotamia

In Mesopotamia, there were many inventions. People had to invent many things that we take for granted today. This paper will address three of Mesopotamia's best creations. These are wheels, canals, and cuneiform. These led to the creation of many things we have today. Mesopotamia was a time of true wonder.

Wheels were a great invention of the Mesopotamians. According to thesun.co.uk,  at first, wheels were heavy and solid. They were attached to the axle so that the entire assembly turned with each other. Then Sumerians added them onto a fixed axle and made the wheels lighter, with spokes. This turned wheels into a great invention! It enabled the creation of chariots and plows. Chariots helped them move faster while plows broke up soil for farming.  Wheels evolved to help humans make things we take for granted today such as cars, buses, and trains. Wheels were a great invention.

Another important invention of the Mesotamanians were canals or irrigation. According to The Technology of Mesopotamia, Wonder-Literature Anthology page 101, they settled in Mesopotamia because there was plenty of water to survive in the desert region from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. It allowed people to grow crops and gave them water to drink. When it flooded, their crops got watered, but sometimes it would flood so much that their houses and crops would be ruined. They had to think of a way to control water. They began to make canals out of baked bricks and reeds. According to www.giftednassau.com, they dug trenches piling up dirt on both sides. Later if they needed to water their crops, they would create breaks in the canal leading to them. According to oceanservice.noaa.gov, they are still used today for irrigation, and other human uses. If canals weren't invented then we would have the same problem as Mesopotamians, too little or too much water.

The final invention I am going over is cuneiform. Before cuneiform, things were represented using pictographs. During the time of Mesopotamia people needed a way to keep track of trade records and agriculture. Then cuneiform developed. Cuneiform is symbols written on a clay tablet with a stylus. Mesopotamians wrote it by using a pointed stick or reed stylus to scratch characters onto a clay tablet, or a bone or metal stylus on stone for more durability. It was harder to do but lasted longer than the usual way. Cuneiform helped them to keep track of trade and agriculture. They even ended up writing Hammaburis code in cuneiform! If cuneiform wasn't invented when it was, we might not have writing today.

Mesopotamia was a time of true wonder. Inventions were made. Things were created that we take for granted. Some of these are wheels, canals, and cuneiform. Without these great inventions of the time, things could look very different today. Therefore, Mesopotamians were a brilliant race of people, and we can all learn a little something from them.

References

below.

     ↓
    ↓
     ↓
    ↓
     ↓
    ↓
     ↓
    ↓
     ↓
    ↓
     ↓
    ↓
     ↓
    ↓
     ↓
    ↓
     ↓
    ↓
     ↓
    ↓
     ↓
    ↓
     ↓
    ↓
     ↓
    ↓

}}

This article "Ancient Mesopotamia" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Ancient Mesopotamia. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

---