Mesopotamia: Society

ambience: Orchestral Andelousian Music

Looking out over the vast, empty plain that is now southern Iraq, it’s hard to believe that it once teemed with thriving cities, date orchards and sheep farms.

Mesopotamia was one of the world’s earliest civilization thousands of years ago, and it still holds surprises today. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by DuPont. Elizabeth Stone, an anthropologist at the State University of New York, says that for those who study ancient cultures, Mesopotamia is an ideal spot.

“They made everything out of mud. They built the houses out of mud bricks, which didn’t last very long, and so then they would knock them down and build another one on top of them. And so their cities wind up being these huge mounds. And so you can dig through them. But the other key thing about them was that they were highly literate, they started writing, again, around 3500 B.C., before anybody else wrote. But the key thing is they wrote on clay tablets, they didn’t write on paper, they didn’t write on material that decayed. And so when we excavate people’s houses, for example, you’ll often find a pot in the corner that’ll have all the tablets in it that we would keep in a safe deposit box. Everything about their inheritance texts, sales texts, so you know everything about them.”

The Mesopotamians were wealthy, and instead of burying their riches in tombs, they used them for public works projects.

“They were living in an area where there was really nothing but water and dirt, which can be very productive agriculturally when you use the water for irrigation, which they did, but they had no raw materials, and so one of the key things with them is trade. They had a lot of sheep, and probably the same way as we import Persian rugs today, they would export textiles in antiquity that other people wanted.”

It turns out that the Mesopotamians were also very ingenious when it came to making things that they didn’t have. We’ll hear about the earliest artificial stone in our next program. Pulse of the Planet is presented by DuPont, bringing you the miracles of science, with additional support provided by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.

Mesopotamia: Society

We know more about the civilization of Mesopotamia than any other ancient culture. Listen and find out why.
Air Date:08/10/2000
Scientist:
Transcript:

ambience: Orchestral Andelousian Music

Looking out over the vast, empty plain that is now southern Iraq, it's hard to believe that it once teemed with thriving cities, date orchards and sheep farms.

Mesopotamia was one of the world's earliest civilization thousands of years ago, and it still holds surprises today. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by DuPont. Elizabeth Stone, an anthropologist at the State University of New York, says that for those who study ancient cultures, Mesopotamia is an ideal spot.

"They made everything out of mud. They built the houses out of mud bricks, which didn't last very long, and so then they would knock them down and build another one on top of them. And so their cities wind up being these huge mounds. And so you can dig through them. But the other key thing about them was that they were highly literate, they started writing, again, around 3500 B.C., before anybody else wrote. But the key thing is they wrote on clay tablets, they didn't write on paper, they didn't write on material that decayed. And so when we excavate people's houses, for example, you'll often find a pot in the corner that'll have all the tablets in it that we would keep in a safe deposit box. Everything about their inheritance texts, sales texts, so you know everything about them."

The Mesopotamians were wealthy, and instead of burying their riches in tombs, they used them for public works projects.

"They were living in an area where there was really nothing but water and dirt, which can be very productive agriculturally when you use the water for irrigation, which they did, but they had no raw materials, and so one of the key things with them is trade. They had a lot of sheep, and probably the same way as we import Persian rugs today, they would export textiles in antiquity that other people wanted."

It turns out that the Mesopotamians were also very ingenious when it came to making things that they didn't have. We'll hear about the earliest artificial stone in our next program. Pulse of the Planet is presented by DuPont, bringing you the miracles of science, with additional support provided by the National Science Foundation. I'm Jim Metzner.