ANC: Lesson - Mesopotamia: Technology and Economy

Assyrian Clay tablet with cuneiform pushed in using a diagonally-cut rod

Mesopotamia: Technology and Economy

The rivers not only defined Mesopotamian religion but also its technology. They made flooding useful with irrigation systems. By developing an irrigation system, they could divert the flood water to outer farms, which meant they were able to grow more crops, thereby increasing population and freeing hands for other jobs; which, in turn, led to the creation of more city-states within Sumer. The region of Sumer was ideal for agriculture, but it lacked other necessities used by Sumerians for construction. This region was not known for the trees needed for the elaborate construction projects that the Sumerians built. Therefore, the city-states often traded with one another as well as went to war against each other.

60 sec = 1 minute. 60 mins = 1 hour. 360 degrees = 1 circle.

Dysentery, the other river problem, was also tackled with technology: cuneiform and beer. Cuneiform is a writing system made by creating lines and wedges in clay. One of the first things they wrote down with Cuneiform is a recipe for beer. Today, we know that alcohol damages the brain and liver, but we also have the benefit of germ theory and filtered water. However, the people of ancient Mesopotamia realized if they drank beer (boiled and fermented water) they avoided the negative effects of drinking straight from the rivers. Of course, Cuneiform was used for many other functions: it kept track of taxes and debt, it spread laws created by the kings such as Hammurabi’s Code, and it allowed people to express their creativity in literature as in the Epic of Gilgamesh (which unsurprisingly featured upset gods, diseases, and a flood). 

Mesopotamian people were some of our earliest mathematicians and astronomers. When they looked up at the night sky in their ziggurats, they invented early Zodiac symbols. They also realized that 60 seconds make a minute, 60 minutes make an hour, and 360 degrees make a circle. This is called base-60 math (since everything is around a “base” of 60: minutes, hours, and circles). Today we still use these standardized times.

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