hello my name is Kylie and welcome to ancient history the ancient
Mesopotamians part 1 in this video we will take a look at where the word
Mesopotamia comes from where this area was located in relation to modern
countries and some interesting facts about this ancient civilization in the
second part of this video series the ancient Mesopotamians part 2 we will
examine some key points about their culture art and religion are you ready
to learn about this exciting ancient culture let's get ready to dig deep into
their past
the word Mesopotamia is pronounced Mesopotamia a Greek word that means
between two rivers let's take a look at how this word is broken down into its be
me the first part of the word comes from the Greek mesos meaning middle the
second half of the word also comes from a Greek word
potamos this means river you'll see why this makes sense when we look at a
map showing where this region once existed Mesopotamia existed from the
beginning of written history in circa 3100 BC to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC
remember circa means about because historians and archaeologists aren't
sure about the exact dates it existed in what is now part of the eastern
Mediterranean region beautiful it roughly corresponds or matches up to
what is today parts of Iraq Iran Syria and Turkey Mesopotamia was a
civilization that existed during the time that the Jewish Scriptures were
written Abraham the first Jewish patriarchs lived in a city in
Mesopotamia before he migrated to the promised land
the tribes of Israel were captured and sent into exile to babylon which also
was a city in mesopotamia ancient mesopotamia was bordered by the
Euphrates and Tigris Rivers ancient Mesopotamia wasn't one country or city
rather it was a collection of different small groups that shared a few common
characteristics these characteristics were their riding alphabet her script
most of their religions and the gods they worshiped their shared value of
learning and reading and their attitudes towards how women will be treated many
historians scientists and archaeologists call ancient Mesopotamia the cradle of
civilization because they believe this area and its
people saw the invention of many things we now know of as a common part of our
world now for example the wheel how a city is organized many different tools
for farming weapons riding and even how we tell time is thought to have started
in this region why do you think they chose the word cradle hmm perhaps you
can compare inventing something like the birth of a new baby archeologists have
been interested in ancient Mesopotamia for a very long time
there are records going back over a hundred and seventy-five years that show
that they have been excavating artifacts and materials their expeditions which
were still happening today have found amazing artifacts and information they
believe the area was very fertile meaning it was perfect for growing any
kind of crop they have also deduced or figured out that hunter-gatherers were
able to stop roaming around to find food because of this rich soil crops could be
grown and they could stay in one place therefore starting in small villages as
more and more people did this the villages turned into cities how did they
figure this out archaeologists have dug down sometimes as deep as 50 feet into
the ground and found artifacts like pottery tools and leftover bits from
where cooking fires were one of the best places they found these items are
ancient garbage dumps yeah they have to dig so deep because after thousands of
years the sites are buried by dirt debris and even other cities natural
disasters floods fires and new construction covered the old sites up
the sites from ancient Mesopotamia show the early people who live there were
very good at farming another way they deduced this is that the sites were near
the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers the land around rivers is often covered in river
sediment which is fertile soil washed up onto the
land when the river temporarily floods as the hunter-gatherers began to create
settlements and then cities city-states much like the ancient Greeks and Romans
had began to form the Sumerian people did this in about 5,000 to 3500 BC as
these city-states started to form their writing began to develop starting at
about 3,500 BC pictograms were used these were simple picture outlines very
much like Egyptian hieroglyphics over the next thousand years or so these
pictures began to be written in a much more simpler form called cuneiform and
became an alphabet cuneiforms are letters of an alphabet this area is also
referred to as the Fertile Crescent the word Fertile means the ground has a rich
soil that will support the planting of crops and is excellent for farming the
word Crescent means shaped like a slice round piece of a circle think about the
moon that is only half way to be in full that is a crescent you can see where
this area is and how it is shaped like a crescent on a map so why is this region
known as the Fertile Crescent it is because the two rivers that flow through
this desert region in the Middle East the Euphrates and the Tigris provided
water and silt that farmers could plant their crops in silt is the mud that is
left behind after floodwaters recede but this area is still a desert and the
rivers are unpredictable the rivers don't always flood the
surrounding land when the farmers need it so through a lot of really really
hard work and invention the farmers learned how to irrigate their crops by
bringing the water to the areas that needed it they dug these long ditches
built dams and storage ponds to control where and when the water would flow they
did this all by hand much of this activity is still going on to this very
day I can't even imagine how hard working in the desert must be
with all this farming inventing new ways to get water to crops and a population
growing settlements began to grow to more and more people came together to
live and work with one another many of the cities that developed had huge
temples called ziggurats ziggurats could as well be a tall as a seven story
building and was made of mud and bricks these huge structures served as places
for religious worship places where workers made things and where
governments started to form all this activity needed to be organized and
people needed to learn how to live cooperatively with one another
when people come together to start deciding on rules laws and other
decisions a government is formed a government is an organized system of
people who use and discuss and decide upon how their rules and laws are made
as time went on more and more decisions had to be made in order to keep the
cities peaceful safe and supportive of this life now some of the famous city
states and empires that existed during this period of time are the Sumerians
the Akkadians the Assyrians the Babylonians the Achaemenid Empire
because this is an overview we won't go into too much detail in this video about
each city-state but you can read more about them at the library or a research
online in the second part of this video series you will learn more about the
culture of the ancient Mesopotamians be sure to practice what you've learned
about this fascinating time in history using our fun online games and quizzes
until next time remember to think about history and to always be clever