Lesson 7: The Innovations of Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is often called "the cradle of civilization." It was here that people first settled in large numbers, created laws, established a system of government, and developed a common culture.

The Mesopotamians were also the first people to use a system of writing. They kept track of their farming and trading by making marks on wet clay with sharp reeds. When the clay dried, a permanent record was created. This is known as cuneiform (wedge-shaped) writing because the marks were shaped like long, thin triangles, or wedges.

Mesopotamia has left us with other important innovations as well, such as units of measurement like the foot, the pound, and ounces. Until the metric system was introduced, these units of weight and length were widely used in Canada and many other countries.

The Mesopotamians also had a highly accurate lunar calendar that allowed them to divide the year into weeks, and the day into hours and minutes. This paved the way for the invention of the sundial, which allowed the Babylonians to measure time on an individual basis.

In Mesopotamia all numbers were expressed as parts or multiples of sixty. Some parts of the base-sixty system still exist today, such as 360 degrees in a circle, sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour.

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