Mesopotamia, The Oldest Civilization in The World By Sumerians

UNGKIT.COM - Sumer is the oldest civilization in the Mesopotamia region (south of modern Iraq) which developed around 4000 BC. The nation is famous for inventing cuneiform writing, inventing the wheel and building independent city-states, such as Uruk and Ur.

The name Mesopotamia was used by ancient Greek and Latin writers, such as Polybius in the 2nd century BC and Strabo in the 60th century BC-20 AD.

Mesopotamia, a historical region in West Asia located in the area of ​​two large river systems, the Euphrates and the Tigris. Mesopotamia was the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution dating back to around 10,000 BC.

The area has been identified as inspiring some of the most important developments in human history, including the invention of the wheel, the first cereal plantations and the development of cursive script, mathematics, astronomy and agriculture.

This region is also known as the birthplace of some of the world's earliest human civilizations, including the Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians, and Babylonians.

The history of Mesopotamia began with the rise of a civilization, believed to be the oldest center of civilization in the world, led by the Sumerians. The Sumerians built several famous ancient cities, including Ur, Ereck, Kish, and others.

The arrival of an imperialist figure from another nation, the Akkadians, led by Sargon the Great, who also inhabited the Mesopotamian region, resulted in a political conquest, but not a cultural one. In fact, in many ways, Sumerian and Akkadian cultures acculturated, leading to this era of leadership often being called the Sumerian-Akkadian Period.

Sumerian intervention cannot be underestimated, as it occurred when Akkadia was under pressure from the Guttis, a Sumerian people who supported Akkadia, allowing them to maintain their power in the "land between the two rivers."

One of the most valuable legacies of Ancient Mesopotamian civilization is the codex of Hammurabi. This codex, composed of black stone blocks, was discovered in Susa in 1901 during an expedition led by French archaeologists led by M. de Morgan.

On the top of the block, now in the Louvre Museum in Paris, is a relief depicting King Hammurabi of Ancient Babylon (1728-1686 BC) receiving a code from Shamash, the Sun god and patron deity of justice.

Comparison with the codex of Exodus 21-23 reveals a close parallel. The interdependence between the two codes cannot be definitively determined, but an indirect influence seems highly plausible.

Archaeological surface surveys have also enabled studies of the urban layout of early Mesopotamian cities. Brick was the most widely used building material because it was readily available and affordable, while building stone had to be imported from places quite far from most of these cities.

The ziggurat, the most prominent building form, and cities often had large gates. The most famous of these gates is the Ishtar Gate of Babylon, built during the Neo-Babylonian era. It is decorated with animals carved into multicolored bricks, much of which is now in the collection of the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. (*)