Word: mesopotamia
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...with their new invention: the wheel. Furthermore, they could record these deeds in the world's first written language. Along the Lower Nile, Egyptians were beginning to construct monumental buildings and decorate stone palettes and other objects with hieroglyphs; craftsmen worked skillfully with copper and silver. In China and Mesopotamia merchants were keeping track of their accounts with primitive numbering systems. In the southwestern Pacific, islanders were sailing double-hulled canoes, having mastered the rudiments of offshore navigation...
...Mesopotamia the fertile land between the Tigris and Euphrates, the Chalcolithic people were building the first large city-states -- Uruk, Ur and Eridu Larsa -- in what is now southern Iraq. All grew to be thriving and fiercely competitive commercial centers. City life was centered around a ziggurat, or temple, that served as both a place of worship and a storehouse for surplus food. For the first time people were divided into several distinct social classes according to status and occupation...
...surrounding countryside, newly developed irrigation systems nourished the barley, wheat, flax and other crops that fed the growing cities. Period drawings from Sumer, part of Mesopotamia, provide the earliest known evidence of wheels -- essentially wooden planks rounded at the ends and fitted together in a circle -- which were used on ox-drawn carts and, later, chariots. Sailing ships embarked on distant trading missions. By 3000 B.C., the world's first written language, cuneiform, had appeared on small clay tablets, replacing the strings of marked clay tokens that merchants had previously used to keep track of their transactions. And at least...
...discovery gives a glimpse into a murky period of European history. In the Bronze Age, central Europe was a relatively primitive place compared with the kingdoms of Egypt and the great city-states of Mesopotamia. The land was populated largely by preliterate farmers, living in small communities, who supported themselves with mixed agriculture and hunting. Without any written records, scientists trying to draw a picture of the ancient Europeans have had to rely on what they could discover from excavations. "We have lots of cemeteries and lots of settlements," says Peter Wells, director of the Center for Ancient Studies...
...Kurds' ethnic roots reach back thousands of years to the dawn of Mesopotamia. They were not actually called Kurds until the 7th century, when most of them converted to Islam. Numbering between 14 million and 28 million, most Kurds are devout Sunni Muslims who speak a western Iranian language related to Farsi. Kurdistan has no official borders, but stretches from the Zagros Mountains in Iran through parts of Iraq, Syria and eastern Turkey. Most Kurds today are farmers who live in small villages noted for their competitive clan structure and unruliness. They have at times even earned a reputation...