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Ancient Mesopotamia, located in the Fertile Crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, witnessed the emergence of cities and empires primarily due to the vital role of agriculture. The rich alluvial soil and access to water sources allowed the Mesopotamians to develop sophisticated agriculture and by irrigation systems, which produced the food surplus required for the growth of cities.
This surplus not only sustained larger populations but also supported the development of specialized labor, leading to the emergence of artisans, craftspeople, and merchants. This laid the groundwork for social stratification, the concentration of wealth, and the formation of powerful city-states and empires and, above all, civilization.
Mesopotamian civilization gave birth to numerous inventions and innovations that continue to shape our lives today, including:
- writing
- the wheel
- recorded legal codes
- mass-produced ceramics and bricks
- mathematics
- timekeeping
There were numerous other Mesopotamian inventions which affected the course of history and many of which still shape civilization as we know it today.
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About the Author
![Jan van der Crabben]()
Jan is the Founder and CEO of World History Encyclopedia. He holds an MA War Studies from King's College, and he has worked in the field of history-related digital media since 2006.
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Uploaded by Jan van der Crabben, published on 12 June 2023. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.
