{"id":5254,"date":"2013-07-29T09:00:19","date_gmt":"2013-07-29T13:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tripcentral.ca\/blog\/?p=5254"},"modified":"2020-06-22T17:36:05","modified_gmt":"2020-06-22T21:36:05","slug":"ancient-mesopotamia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tripcentral.ca\/blog\/ancient-mesopotamia\/","title":{"rendered":"Ancient Mesopotamia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cities. Writing. Law. Trade. And even beer. So many of today\u2019s concepts have evolved from ancient Mesopotamia, the civilization dating back to 8000 BC. Derived from the Greek language, Mesopotamia means \u201cbetween the rivers,\u201d referring to the bordering Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The ancient Sumer (4000-2000 BC), Assyria (1000-600 BC), and Babylon (600-540 BC) societies have left a legacy of innovation that has significantly influenced modern-day life.<\/p>\n

\"Images<\/a>

Images courtesy of The Trustees of the British Museum<\/p><\/div>\n

Background<\/span><\/p>\n

Archaeological discoveries have revealed human settlements dating back to around 8000 BC.\u00a0 Because of the society\u2019s settlement by the rivers, the fertile land gave way to sustainable agriculture.\u00a0 By 3500 BC, an advanced civilization was established leaving remains of temples, mosaics, and stone carvings to be found.\u00a0 Two major innovations materialized during this time: the development of cities and the invention of writing.\u00a0 Cities gave rise to social and economic structures, law, and trade while writing emerged to compliment the city-structure as a means of documentation. The writing system began as pictograms and progressed into a type of script called cuneiform written on clay tablets. Many literary, artistic, intellectual, and scientific advancements can be attributed to this culture, as well as the notion of deities, attitudes towards women, and punishment. The Mesopotamian area now occupies present-day Iraq, north-eastern Syria, and south-eastern Turkey.<\/p>\n

ROM Exhibit<\/span><\/p>\n

The British Museum in collaboration with the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), presents Mesopotamia: Inventing Our World<\/a>, an exhibit running from June 22 to January 5 at the ROM.\u00a0 This is the only Canadian stop on the international tour.\u00a0 Over 170 artifacts from this ancient culture are on display.\u00a0 \u201cMesopotamia was a true frontrunner, with great cities of sizes not achieved by Paris or London until the Industrial Revolution; empires that controlled most of the known world of that time; and technological achievements still shaping our lives,\u201d said Dr. Clemens Reichel, the ROM\u2019s curator and professor of Mesopotamian Archeology at the University of Toronto in a press release.<\/p>\n

Some of the show\u2019s highlights include gold jewellery, such as the \u201cHeaddress with gold leaves\u201d from the King\u2019s Grave (2500 BC), carefully carved statues of kings, such as \u201cAshurnasirpal ll (883-859 BC), and artifacts from Babylon, such as the \u201cStriding Lion\u201d (605-562 BC), a terracotta relief from the palace of King Nebuchadnezzar ll.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the ancient society reflecting some of mankind\u2019s earliest \u2018highs\u2019 and \u2018lows\u2019, we are still able to learn from Mesopotamia,\u201d said Dr. Reichel. Visit the ROM to witness artifacts from the earliest urban civilization and learn about the origins of ideas that we may overlook today.<\/p>\n

For Toronto hotels<\/a> close to the ROM, or escorted tours<\/a> of historic cities, visit our website<\/a> or call us toll-free at 1-800-665-4981.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cities. Writing. Law. Trade. And even beer. So many of today\u2019s concepts have evolved from ancient Mesopotamia, the civilization dating back to 8000 BC. Derived from the Greek language, Mesopotamia means \u201cbetween the rivers,\u201d referring to the bordering Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The ancient Sumer (4000-2000 BC), Assyria (1000-600 BC), and Babylon (600-540 BC) societies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":8032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":""},"categories":[3551],"tags":[],"modified_by":"Iris Sinilong","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tripcentral.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5254"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tripcentral.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tripcentral.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tripcentral.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tripcentral.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5254"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.tripcentral.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22224,"href":"https:\/\/www.tripcentral.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5254\/revisions\/22224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tripcentral.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tripcentral.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tripcentral.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tripcentral.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}