Why Mesopotamia deserves to be called a civilization Essay - 1

Why Mesopotamia deserves to be called a civilization - Essay Example This paper aims to look at all the factors that are successful in calling the cradle of activity in Mesopotamia as a civilization and how the various economic, social and political aspects of life in Mesopotamia come into play when looking at the model. In order to constitute a civilization, a well-knit combination of the following factors must be present. They are – a socially well structured community with an urban environment as well as a rural environment with intensive agricultural activities being able to support the population at large; proper division of labor; a market economy with or without trade of some kind sustaining livelihoods of many; a structured form of a government regulating the activities taking place in the area; defined territories; written laws; a powerful establishment of the military; intrinsic support towards arts and culture constituting creativity in both the work as well as the leisure part of life; a culture with a written language system. These are some of the very important aspects that a civilization constitutes and as we discuss these factors throughout the scope of this paper, we may come across a few more aspects of life that are enough to term Mesopotamia as a proper civilization and a lap of rich culture. (Duiker, W., and J. Spielgovel, p. 7) In order to constitute a civilization, firstly, a culture requires a population that may have migrated from various parts of the world but is living together at the time of the civilization being formed in a large well-structured community. A population of more than 5000 people at the time assisted in establishing the Mesopotamian civilization and at the time, almost 5000 years ago, this number seemed to be a lot more than the value it holds today. With such a vast population at the time, it was believed that a number of problems would be faced