Concept in Definition ABC

Archeology allows us to know the great civilizations of antiquity. There is a common agreement on what can be considered the first civilization: Mesopotamia.

Towards the year 6000 a. C, specifically in the area of ​​the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (currently occupied by Syria, Iran and Iraq) the first cities appeared. For the first time in history, the human being abandoned nomadism, settling in nuclei of population. The area of ​​Mesopotamia, which in Greek means between two rivers, had favorable conditions: abundance of water, wide plains and a weather warm. These conditions made it easier for humans to have agricultural and livestock activities to start a sedentary life.

This kind of life allowed building of adobe houses, temples and protective walls. Cities begin to develop. The best known are Ur, Uruk and Lagash. Society began to organize itself into trades. The technique advanced especially thanks to the invention of the wheel, the cart, the mastery of metals and ceramics. Precisely in ceramics the first written information appears, basically administrative data related to harvests. There is also evidence of the first

regulation, the code of Hammurabi, regarded as the first legislation.

Mesopotamia is a vast extension and in it each city was independent, that is why we speak of city-states. There is no single people that dominated the area, but there were several: Assyrians, Babylonians, Adacians, Sumerians ...

Studying the Mesopotamian civilization is not simply interesting for a historical question, but its importance lies in the fact that it was the first social organization of humanity. Its urban model and its scheme Social is the germ of the civilizations that developed later, especially the Greek. One of the elements that governed the life of the different peoples is the belief in the gods, divinities inspired by the phenomena of nature.

In the study of this civilization, ceramics have a special meaning. On the one hand, it is an artistic manifestation, a support for writing and a key element for the economy, since in the pots they could be conserved food and drinks. In this way, it was possible to create a production with surpluses, establishing more diverse and complex relationships among its inhabitants.

Mesopotamia as a civilization disappeared after the invasion of Babylon by the Persians in the Vl century BC. C. Later, in the year 331 a. C Alexander the Great incorporates this region into the domain of the Greeks. And from the Vll century d. C the Arabs settled in the lands bathed by the Tigris and Euphrates.

Themes in Mesopotamia