Mesopotamia and Wealth Essay

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Period 6B, 08/28/13
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Mesopotamia was one of the earth’s earliest civilizations. They did not just start out with power and wealth. They did not have phones, internet access or robots to complete their work for them, while the peoples themselves rested idly by the fire. The peoples who resided in that area of Mesopotamia (which is present-day Iraq), worked hard and strived to even survive. They had to figure out on their own how to accumulate any power. The power and wealth that Mesopotamians had, had been earned by their writings and monumental constructions. That also contributed to their social structures. One way that the people of Mesopotamia earned their power and wealth was with their writings. Writing first appeared in Mesopotamia before 3300B.C. This form of writing is believed to have been first used to keep track over property such as sheep or wagon wheels. After a long while, people realized that the marks represented certain symbols that were repeated to form a special, ancient type of writing – cuneiform. Cuneiform kept track of many important happenings in Mesopotamia, and if you were privileged enough to learn it, then it would be considered an extremely rare accomplishment. Having some of the population able to understand and write in cuneiform meant that they were gradually getting smarter and more developed. Secondly, a course that caused Mesopotamia to acquire wealth and power was their monumental constructions. The people would build extravagant temples in order to show their devotion to the believed divinities that protected their community. They believed that by showing their devotion to the divinities and gods by building the temples, they would be wealthy and have no harm pass to them or their families. Also they had built ziggurats, which are compounds of mud-bricks. The ziggurats are shaped as pyramid-towers of sorts, and the symbolic purpose of these unique buildings have yet to be discovered. Amidst Mesopotamia’s wealth and power, there was a social structure to go along with it. First you have the king, who created the laws for the people,
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