Mesopotamian Inventions: Creating the Future

"Mesopotamian inventions include many items taken for granted today, most of which were created during the Early Dynastic period (circa 2900-2350/2334 BCE) or developed from achievements of the Uruk period (circa 4000-3100 BCE). The Sumerians are credited with the earliest inventions, which were further developed in the Akkadian period (circa 2350/2334-2154 BCE) and then by later Mesopotamian civilizations. Among the many inventions of the Mesopotamians were:"

"Scholar Samuel Noah Kramer lists 39 'firsts' that appeared in ancient Sumer, were developed by later cultures, and are more or less familiar to people in the present day: The First Schools The First Case of 'Apple Polishing' The First Case of Juvenile Delinquency The First 'War of Nerves' The First Bicameral Congress The First Historian The First Case of Tax Reduction The First 'Moses' The First Legal Precedent"

" The First Pharmacopoeia The First 'Farmer's Almanac' The First Experiment in Shade-Tree Gardening Man's First Cosmogony and Cosmology The First Moral Ideals The First 'Job' The First Proverbs and Sayings The First Animal Fables The First Literary Debates The First Biblical Parallels The First 'Noah' The First Tale of Resurrection The First 'St. George' The First Case of Literary Borrowing Man's First Heroic Age The First Love Song The First Library Catalogue Man's First Golden Age"

Ancient Mesopotamian civilizations produced numerous foundational technological, cultural, and scientific inventions. Many key developments originated in the Early Dynastic period or evolved from Uruk-period achievements. Sumerian innovations provided initial models that Akkadian and later Mesopotamian cultures expanded and refined. Inventions and cultural creations encompassed education, law, literature, agriculture, religion, administration, and science. Samuel Noah Kramer cataloged thirty-nine Sumerian "firsts," including schools, legal precedents, cosmologies, literary genres, and administrative tools. These innovations shaped subsequent societies and contributed enduring institutions, narratives, and practices recognizable in many aspects of the modern world.

Read at World History Encyclopedia