THE CONTRIBUTION OF CIVILIZATION 'Mesopotamia to the HISTORY OF MANKIND
1) THE GIFT OF AGRICULTURE
Agriculture was the great discovery of the Neolithic man. A discovery that changed the destinies of man and walked toward the formation of the first great civilizations.
The first organized form of agriculture that we know is that sort in the lowlands of Mesopotamia, land of Sumer. It was obtained through irrigated agriculture a titanic effort from the man who harnessed the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers by raising funnel, who challenged and won their destructive force.
The Tigris and the Euphrates brought their fertile flood in spring and created, with their floods, a swampy plain where living conditions were difficult, if not impossible.
Human ingenuity was to meet the challenge of nature and make this swampy plain, but rich in humus fertilizer, the cradle of civilization.
2) The first urban centers
The city has been the crucible of civilization. When the Neolithic village was transformed into an urban center organized politically do not know. We know that in the fourth millennium BC, in the lowlands of Mesopotamia, there are a number of cities with a complex organization that we have given the name of the state. These cities
fixed the model of political and social organization that also will feature, with appropriate variations, all the successive civilizations.
At the top of the city-state was a priest-king, who had absolute powers that derived not from the people they manage, but by the god of which he was a priest and era il vero ed unico signore di tutto: uomini e cose.
L'uomo, in questi centri urbani, era solo un essere vivente indistinto. Non aveva diritti. Nemmeno quello all'esistenza. La sua vita era al servizio del tempio ed apparteneva al dio della città, che lo aveva creato per svolgere questa funzione.
3) LA SCRITTURA
Con l'invenzione della scrittura l'uomo fece un grande balzo in avanti sulla strada della sua evoluzione come animale sociale. Lasciava la preistoria ed entrava nella storia. La sua memoria del passato non doveva più essere affidata al ricordo delle generazioni, che la trasmettevano oralmente da padre in figlio e da nonno a nipote, ma veniva affidata allo scritto che era più attendibile e più long-lasting and, above all ensure the effective cumulative knowledge.
This effect has enabled and ensured the tremendous cultural evolution of man that made him absolute ruler of nature and is projecting the celestial spaces in search of the truth about his fate and those of the cosmos, who in vain sought through intuition and myth when it appeared for the first time to civilization.
4) WHEEL
The key feature of 'man is his ability to solve problems-skills in order to facilitate its existence. This was true when the first stone was polished and it is true today when he invented the microwave oven. The solution of a problem has always been a prerequisite for the solution of the next.
When organized in stable communities, the man began to manufacture of pottery for cooking, water conservation, etc.. The first pottery was molded by hand, but soon he realized that if used as a support, a piece of round wood, and made him turn and molded the clay, it takes on a more perfect and more homogeneous. Thus it was that was invented the potter's wheel.
And that was the premise to the invention of the wheel of the wagon. This invention when matured in the mind of man leaned out the idea of \u200b\u200bthe axis holding the two wheels. The wheel created the conditions not only to revolutionize transportation, but also to disrupt the art of war.
5) OBSERVATION OF THE STARS
The observation of the stars of the first activities was a heavenly man "caught." He watched the stars and not so much not only to admire the extraordinary beauty and ask the first questions about the reason for its existence and that of the cosmos.
He watched them because he understood that the agricultural activities were tied to fixed times which could not be removed or revolutionized and he had no knowledge of the passing of time.
knew and saw that the days were alternated. He knew and saw that the moon appeared and disappeared for long periods. He knew and saw that the cold and warm periods alternated. He knew and could see that if the seed was planted in a certain period, the yield was more abundant, but did not know how to determine with certainty because this period had no reference point.
The observation of stars was born to meet the need of finding a point of reference, immutable and give an order to spend time staring at the seasons of the various agricultural activities: the time of sowing, harvest time, the time working the fields, etc..
6) THE INVENTION OF MATHEMATICS The mathematics
began as a practical need for a company that became wealth producing ever larger and which should be taken into account. The first operations were simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
But the curiosity of the human mind did exceed this level, and soon began to develop very complex (even for our day) as the Pythagorean theorem, the cubic equations, and so on.
In their ancient history, civilizations of Mesopotamia developed a very advanced mathematics, but were unable to get to the development of a mathematical science. Give an order to all the knowledge they had developed and accumulated in this field was an operation of mind that went beyond their ability to pensiero, che era, e rimase per millenni, pre-logico.
7) LA VISIONE PESSIMISTICA DELLA VITA
L'uomo mesopotamico aveva una visione pessimistica della vita. Credeva di essere stato creato per servire gli dèi e i loro rappresentanti in terra: i re-sacerdoti.
Era l'ambiente stesso che lo portava a queste conclusioni. Da solo era impotente contro una natura che non era stata benigna. Ogni pezzo di suolo coltivabile era stato strappato agli straripamenti primaverili dei fiumi Tigri ed Eufrate con enormi sforzi collettivi che venivano attribuiti alla volontà degli dèi.
Gli dèi avevano creato tutto sin dalle origini. Ogni oggetto, ogni attrezzo era stato creato dagli dèi. La funzione dell'uomo was to produce for the temple. Except for the small pleasures, he should not expect anything from life.
Neither had hopes of improving his position in the hereafter. The vision that lay ahead was an eternity of suffering even more. The gods were not benign. They were terrible and the most ruthless and had total dominance over him.
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