how trade affected the rise of Ancient Mesopotamia

Posted on by Muhammed

In this essay I’m going to write about how trade affected the rise of Ancient Mesopotamia and the benefits of trade.
Trade developed in Mesopotamia because the early settlers learned how to irrigate the fertile land and grow more food than they could eat. They used the extra food to trade for goods for needed resources. Ur, a city- state in Sumer, was a major centre for trade. The Mesopotamians built docks along the sides of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers so that the ships could easily dock and unload the trade goods.The two rivers made the transport of goods easy and quick. Different types of boats were used to transport and trade, depending on the cargo and the distance.
Trade developed from people’s need. The early Mesopotamia civilization had plenty of valuable resources for example wool, timber, limestone, reed, cooper, flax, grains, and ivory. They traded these valuable goods to bring in some much needed resources like building stones from Africa to built walls around towns for protection against invasions from other tribes, gold from Egypt, cedar from Lebanon, and also honey, raisins, spices and bitumen ( material used for ship building).
Through trade the early settlers were exposed to new ideas, cultures, languages, and cuisine. Trading led to new innovations in selling and buying goods. They used barley for local trade. Because barley was heavy, they used lead, copper, bronze, tin, and silver to buy things away from their local area
Trade affected the economy of the Mesopotamia. As more and more people started to come and settle down due to the extra food and water supply and good source of natural resources. Small settlements grew into towns and then expanded into big cities. All these factors made Mesopotamia into a strong and developed civilization

Benefits of living near water in Ancient Mesopotamia

Posted on by Muhammed

In this essay I am going to write about some of the benefits the early settlers of Mesopotamia had while living near the two rivers.
From the North, Mesopotamia was surrounded by two rivers namely the Tigris and the Euphrates. Living between the two rivers generally meant dry climate with occasional rain storms but it also did have some great advantages.
There was a continous source of water from the rivers that flowed down from the North. Rivers give fresh water to drink. People can not live without water and being near a river was important because it meant survival. Due to yearly flooding of the rivers in spring when the snow melted from the mountains, the soil near the river banks became rich in nutrients that made it very fertile for growing crops and agriculture.
Even though the early settlers had water and fertile land for farming but the flooding caused major damage to the crops. To overcome this problem they dug canals to shape the path of the water and created a complex irrigation system. This helped the farmers to grow extra food such as wheat, barley, dates, flax, and grapes.
Apart from farming, the settlers also had fish and other water fowl like ducks and geese, that were abdundent in the marshes where stands of tall reeds wes harvested for housing materials and mats. Northern Mesopotamia was made up of hills and plains. Early settlers used wood, metals and stones from the mountains to make wheels, plow, sailing boats and copper tools.
The Tigris and Euphrates were not only used as a water source and for irrigation purposes but they were also important for transportation and trade. Mesopotamia was a cross roads for trade between Iran, Asia, Arabia, and India. They traded the wool and leather goods that they got from domisticating goats, sheeps and oxen (from the slopes and hills), barley, wood, copper tools, ivory, reeds, grains and wine to get the things they needed.
For transportation the settlers constructed variety of boats for carrying different types of goods. There were gulf boats that were very big and traveled long distances, rafts, coracles that were built from animal skins and then covered with bituman, and river boats that were constructed from bundles of reeds tied together with ropes.
The river banks also had deposits of clay and mud which were used to make bricks for building, constructing and also for making pottery.
All these factors helped the small settlements to grow into towns and big cities.