You really like your cell phone, right? But have you ever wondered about ancient Mesopotamians technology? Well, the technology is a material and non-material culture element. It is a non-material culture element because their art was made according to their beliefs and religion. But the technology was also a material culture element because, for example, people used pottery to serve, prepare, and store food. Pottery is an art and crafts which also comes into technology.

The key issue that Mesopotamians´ technology advance was their division of labor. People could specialize in jobs, which only happen when a civilization has a food surplus. In early Mesopotamia, around 3000 BCE, an industrial revolution happened including water management, pottery, carpentry, metalworking, and architecture. One of the most important to the rise of civilizations was the water management, irrigation and flood control. Irrigation includes canals to irrigate fields and a basic water storage system. The water storage helped during droughts, which killed many crops, animals and people alike. Imagine cities today with no sewer system! Another great leap was pottery. Potters in Mesopotamia already had the skill to make complex designs. Carpentry was also crucial. When better carpenters appeared, better boats could be built, increasing trade routes. What would Mesopotamians think if they saw the Titanic? Metalworking was also important. Mesopotamians trained to make swords for war or jewels for kings. And finally, architecture! People built houses out of mudbrick and had roof timbers. After a house was abandoned, the timbers were taken away because wood was scarce. These are, in my opinion, the key factors of Mesopotamian technology, which, I think, help you value and understand Mesopotamia.

Mesopotamians not only used their technology for growth, they also used it to decorate walls and temples. Mesopotamians had multiple different arts and types of crafts. One of their crafts was pottery; the first was created around 7000 to 6000 B.C. It was used for preparing, storing, and serving food. A certain type of pottery was found on the northern Mesopotamia. A pot could have many decorations. The one from the northern Mesopotamia was designed with carved lines and lightly fired. They also used art to glorify and please their gods. Literature was also important because they used it as religious worship. The arts reflected the values and beliefs of their society. Some of their art elements were music and architecture. Today we’ve got most of the art forms they had but with a much larger variety. For Mesopotamians art was a form of entertainment based on their beliefs and culture which is also true nowadays. Mesopotamians enjoyed as dancing, and music. Some of their most popular sports were wrestling and boxing, which are a type of art that is still popular today. Even thought Mesopotamian culture happened a long time ago, our arts crafts and hobbies are still alike in our times.

Now that you have discovered all about Mesopotamian technology, you will find out about how Mesopotamians felt. Sixth graders in 2007-2008 have a positive world view. Sometimes life is a bit hard but problems are eventually solved. They know freedom and have no outside forces apart from family and other important people in their society. Their future looks positive and most probably will turn up so. Most students call Brazil home and the ones from other countries mostly plan staying a long time in Brazil. However, life in ancient Mesopotamia didn’t have the same points. While the division of labor, a way of people specializing jobs and spreading in trade and growth, helped people in their day-a-day life it all depended in the social class. A priest would have choices a farmer in the fields would have to obey the government and still deal with problems such as deeds to pay, support a family and please the gods. Overall, the world view of Mesopotamians, in a scale from one to ten living in Mesopotamia would have a six. Transferring to a deeper scale, the median empire and civilization, the world view was different. The Medes lived in a critical location between the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea. In a few generations the Medes built a great empire, which stretched from India to the Mediterranean Sea.  Their world view was good. But after a while their view dropped. It all was caused by war all over the empire, and after only 75 years of ruling the Median empire fell.

By A.L.P. and I.S.

Pictures: "Hassuna pottery" 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassuna&h=398&w=450&sz=36&hl=pt-BR&start=4&tbnid=Viu_TTMOpCd_TM:&tbnh=112&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhassuna%2Bpottery%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Dpt-BR April 26, 2007