Division of Labor
Mesopotamia was the first known region to have a division of labor. A division of labor means that various people had various occupations. Of course, with a division of labor, there was a social hierarchy. Kings were at the top of the social hierarchy in Mesopotamia, obviously because they ruled certain areas. Below them were priests. Religion was huge in ancient Mesopotamia, so it made sense for the priests to be in an upper class. Then there were merchants who traded items to make their living. Bartering is always an important part of society, so the middle class consisted of mostly them. After that, there were farmers and laborers. They are basically the lower end of merchants, because they too, offer their products, but benefit less from it. And at the bottom were slaves. In ancient Mesopotamia, most slaves were war prisoners, or criminals. Slaves mostly just did work requiring physical strength. Criminals who became slaves, can buy themselves out of slavery by paying their debt. Gender roles were also a main part of ancient Mesopotamia. Women were basically just housewives, who made clothes, tended their children and husbands, and basically did anything to support their husbands. They weren't highly represented, but they were able to own property, and bear witness to criminal cases. They could also become priestesses, which was a high end job. Men on the other hand, were eligible to become a king, a warrior, a builder, and were the heads of their households. So in other words, Mesopotamia was patriarchal.
City Structure
In Mesopotamia, various buildings were made in the cities. Housing in Mesopotamia is similar to how it is today. The poor lived in small houses, and the rich lived in larger houses. Most houses consisted of two floors, made of mud bricks, and lacked windows. Another building type was a Ziggurat. They were used as temples for priests to house their Gods and Goddesses. Other important aspects of the city, were trading and the protection of the city. Trade was huge in Mesopotamia. One reason being that many people in Mesopotamia relied on trading to make their living. Another reason was that Mesopotamia lacked natural resources, so they had to trade with other regions to get resources. Their means of travel for trading, was by foot, by donkey, and by boat. And their main resources were textiles, and grain products. Most trade took place at the docks of major trading cities, because it made trade convenient. Most Mesopotamian cities were protected by a wall, and militants. This was mostly because there was a constant fight between most city states mostly for land.
Achievements
Writing is one of the biggest achievements in Mesopotamia. Their first known form of writing were pictograms. Pictograms were used to visual communicate basic ideas. Later on, the Mesopotamian people used more advanced writing called cuneiform. There were people known as scribes, who recorded daily events in society, using cuneiform. Without them, most information about Mesopotamia would likely have been lost, because the most we know about Mesopotamia comes from cuneiform script. Another significant achievement from ancient Mesopotamia was art. Art was pretty much exclusively meant for high rulers, or deities. Art came mostly in the form of statues and relief sculptures. There were no known artists, because the purpose of the drawing meant more than the artist itself. But probably the most important achievement in Mesopotamia, was their technology. One of their technological discoveries was pottery. While clay was used before, they nearly perfected the craft by using fires, and pottery wheels. They also discovered smelting. Early on, they used hammers to shape metals, but once they discovered smelting, shaping metals became a lot easier. Another discovery they made was weaving. At the time, the only materials they had were flax and wool. Allegedly, hundreds of women were employed at the palace to weave cloths.
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