Mesopotamia

Much of what we take for granted about the structure and lifestyle in contemporary Western culture had to derive from somewhere. What few realise is that the building blocks of much of our metropolitan existence were laid in ancient Mesopotamia, as many as 6,000 years ago. It was there that the world first saw “large scale human communities whose experiments in modes of living, warfare, craft production, administration and social interplay gave rise to a phenomenon that we today characterise as ‘civilisation.’” Scholars cite the emergence of the city as central to these developments, a complex series of interrelationships that Mesopotamia first experienced. As the complexity and scale grew, empires rose and fell, until in the middle of the third millennium BCE Mesopotamia boasted the first nation-state the world had seen. Certainly, the society we know owes a lot to this ancient heritage.

City-States

Experts identify Uruk in Lower Mesopotamia as “the first genuine city in the world,” defining it as “a large agglomeration of people… living in a well defined place that contained designated structures and spaces for the execution of a broad range of social functions.” The Neolithic development of agriculture and domestication had seen once-nomadic people settle into villages, but the continuing advance of transport and infrastructure technologies had even greater potential. One writer describes the early Sumerian peoples as best placed to exploit these ongoing developments, their geographic placement giving “Sumerian cities a head start on all the rest of the world in creating a civilisation.” This was most prominent during the Early Dynastic period, from 2900 BCE to 2350 BCE, when “much of the population moved into about two dozen cities.” These ‘City-States’ were self reliant, self-governing enclaves that contained tens of thousands of people at one time. What they pioneered would set the pattern for following generations, and indeed millennia.

Craft Specialisation

What made these new social centres a model of things to come was less the scale than the structure that emerged. As agricultural practices were refined, less and less people were constrained to working in the fields at food production. Those freed from farming began to specialise in other trades, developing their skills. “Craftsmen refined techniques inherited from earlier generations and experimented with new ways of doing things.” A number of skill sets soon developed into distinct occupations. Craft specialisation is one of the hallmarks of urbanisation, and it was occurring in Mesopotamia around 3500 BCE.

Trade and Economics

With new forms of productivity emerging, there would naturally be a need to find ways of converting the products of this labour into usable or desirable commodities. The alluvial floodplains of Mesopotamia lacked stone, timber and metals that were essential for the thriving society, and so trade was an essential development. Mesopotamian economic practices paved the way for such contemporary ideas as share dividends, bearer’s cheques and the karum, an administrative organisation for traders, like a professional council.

Law

In fact, many of these decidedly ‘modern’ principles were codified in law, another factor which we have the Mesopotamians to thank for. Hammurabi’s Law Code is one of the most well known ancient documents, and in it not just trade practices but social relations, criminal justice and public conduct were regulated. ‘Lugals’ or early Sumerian Kings pre-dated Hammurabi and they created much of what we now call social legislation to protect and prosper their subjects.

Literacy

Most crucially, these developments were made possible by the emergence of a comprehensive and lasting form of communication – writing. Scholars note its emergence in ancient Uruk, and call it “the city’s ultimate cultural invention.” The plentiful clay of the Mesopotamian lowlands was perfect for marking with sharpened reeds, and simple pictograms soon developed into complex symbols which could represent ideas as well as concrete objects. What is more, these records, both mundane and profound, were considerably more durable than their equivalents that soon emerged in other cultures such as China and Greece. The papyrus, leather and silk those peoples chose for their records would not survive anywhere near so well as the robust cuneiform tablets, making Mesopotamian literature both some of the oldest and best preserved. These documents “represent our oldest known writing system” and contained detailed records, contracts and cultural works such as poems and collected wisdom. “Mesopotamians relied on writing to communicate complex ideas about the world, the gods, human beings and their relationships with one another.” What we take for granted, from the simple shopping list to the legal contract and all the amassed works of fine literature, find their origin in these ancient scratchings and earliest documents. What is more, the development of literacy spurred on another of Mesopotamia’s gifts to the contemporary world – bureaucracy.

Government

With a systematic way of keeping records, Mesopotamian society soon created “a complex bureaucracy that could oversee the organisation of labour and other resources, keep track of economic production, and manage surpluses.” The idea of delegated authority, whereby any individual could be considered an agent of some greater power (such as the King) was firmly established by the reign of Hammurabi (around 1790 BCE). Thus, authority structures such as those our civilisations are built on today have their roots in ancient Mesopotamia. Just as agents of the government hold us accountable, these early societies were controlled to an extent by a growing web of public servants. “Sumerian cities were centers of political and military authority, and their jurisdiction extended into the surrounding regions.” The ‘Lugal,’ or ‘King’ would direct and rule the affairs of a city in this manner, and later Lugals would be hailed as Kings not just of their ‘household’ but the whole land – national leaders.

Social Hierarchies

With the growth of power structures came the emergence of distinctions between people inhabiting various levels of influence. Combined with the specialisation of vocations and the trade in exotic goods, a social stratum began to develop, creating a complex urban environment. Often these hierarchies were formed based upon religious importance. The priests and religious stewards, artisans producing devotional crafts and the managers and merchants of a city occupied a more distinguished place than the average farmer. One researcher noted that the nobles and high priests were considerably more privileged than the commoners, mostly peasant farmers, simple tradesmen and labourers. Popular myths grew around the Sumerian Lugal Sargon purporting that he had overcome humble peasant origins to rule the known world, illustrating an aspiration still present today in the ‘common man’ for a rise to prestige and prominence. It seems that even ‘the American dream’ had its beginnings in Mesopotamia!

Genesis of Modernity

While it is certain that there is a vast difference between the world we know now and the city states of Mesopotamia several millennia ago, there are still clear points of similarity. What we take for granted in the way our society is organised, from economics and vocation to writing and a legal system all found their genesis in this ancient people. The Mesopotamians began what we accept as an everyday reality, establishing patterns of inhabitancy, social structure and organisation that would outlast the very cities that instituted them. While ancient, they were incredibly modern. Or perhaps, our modernity is more aged than we care to admit.