The Makings of a Civilization (Literally)

The Mesopotamians were some of the earliest architects of civilization. As the first society to transition from a nomadic, hunter-gatherer life to an agricultural one, they pioneered farming, cities, and intellectual life. It’s a massive leap, so how did they do it? What exactly did they invent that set them apart from the other societies at the time? 

Let’s first talk about the most important thing: irrigation systems! What? Watering plants? But just as rolling wheels define a car, this is what defined the first civilizations. Many different societies gained the ability to farm at around the same time, but the Mesopotamians were the first with a complex irrigation system. It meant that agriculture was no longer limited to the banks of rivers, and that more food could be produced. Before, people had to move with their food sources, but now they could control the food that grew and be able to stay put while still having enough to eat. Basins stored water for future use, and canals brought the water to fields. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which provided Mesopotamian farmers plenty of fertile soil, also had a double-edged sword. The rivers constantly flooded, so Mesopotamian farmers had to construct canals to divert water from fields. Though this water could be stored as well, ever-increasing their cities’ agricultural potentials.

Another sector that the Mesopotamians greatly developed was pottery. Although pottery had already existed before their time (the earliest known pottery was found in China around 20,000 years ago, while early Mesopotamian settlements only emerged around 10,000 BCE), the Mesopotamians were the first to mass-produce it. Remember when I said that rolling wheels define a car? Well, you can kind of thank the Mesopotamians for that, too. The first wheels were actually pottery wheels. It helped them create round pots and jars very quickly and uniformly, and contributed to their growing industry of mass-produced claywork. On top of that, to build their sprawling cities, they also began a new method of making clay bricks more efficiently. While bricks used to be shaped by hand before being fired in the kiln, they began to use molds to pack clay into, allowing for less time to be spent making each brick.

All of the inventions I have mentioned were all very practical and industrial. On the other hand, the Mesopotamians also made many contributions to the sciences and humanities. The precise science of observing and tracking the gliding paths of celestial bodies, or astronomy, was first developed by them. They were also the first to put pen to paper, or rather, stylus to tablet. Cuneiform, their writing system, was used to keep track of religious activities, astronomical events, and commerce. Cuneiform evolved from an earlier system used by them to tally numbers and keep track of values during trade, later developing symbols to represent syllables and words. Their early written works hold significant historical value, including the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Law Code of Hammurabi. Speaking of the Code of Hammurabi, it was the first instance of codified law, or law that was written down.

So physically and intangibly, the Mesopotamians developed a lot of ideas and technology that are still in use today. They built their cities in ways reminiscent of ours today, armed with trade, commerce, construction, and law. Even if advanced farming isn’t something that we think about every day, we sure do live off of it. Although much of how we do things today are far more advanced (we farm with tractors, mass produce items in factories, and look at the stars using satellites), we have to remember that they were the ones who started it all.

Joe, Jimmy. “Mesopotamian Record-Keeping: How It Was Invented and Its Users.” Timeless Myths, 11 Jan. 2022, www.timelessmyths.com/history/mesopotamian-record-keeping/.

Mark, Joshua J. “Mesopotamian Inventions.” World History Encyclopedia, 20 Oct. 2021, www.worldhistory.org/article/1859/mesopotamian-inventions/.

National Geographic Society. “Early Agricultural Communities.” Education.nationalgeographic.org, 19 Oct. 2023, education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/early-agricultural-communities/.

Patel, Samir. “Top 10 Discoveries of 2012 - the First Pots - Archaeology Magazine.” Archaeology Magazine, Feb. 2013, archaeology.org/issues/january-february-2013/collection/top-10-2012-neolithic-china-pottery/top-10-discoveries-of-2012/.