Early_Civilizations

May 7, 2010 5 Paragraph Essay The earliest humans hunted animals and gathered plants for food. When farming developed, people settled in towns and cities. In early Mesopotamian civilizations, religion and government were closely linked. Kings created strict laws to govern the people. New empires arose in Mesopotamia around 900B.C. these civilizations included the Assyrians and the Chaldeans. They used powerful armies and iron weapons to conquer the region. There were many characteristics of these civilizations. Some of the characteristics I am going to share with you are writing, government, and technology. The earliest form of writing found was the hieroglyphics. The earliest forms of hieroglyphics are dated from 3300 and 3200 BC. In about 3200 BC temple officials in Sumer develop a reliable and lasting method of keeping track of the animals and other goods which are the temple's wealth. On lumps of wet clay the scribes draw a simplified picture of the item in question. They then make a similar mark in the clay for the number counted and recorded. When allowed to bake hard in the sun, the clay tablet becomes a permanent document. In the beginning, people didn't need any government, because there were so few people. Mostly people lived just with their own family or with one or two other families, and the older men and women decided what to do, without any system for deciding. If you didn't like how things were being done, you could always go out on your own, or join another family nearby. During the Old Stone Age and the Middle Stone Age, everyone lived this way. However, the number of people started growing and they had to have another form of government. Shortly after, kings and queens started ruling. Then there was all the forms of government we have today. The earliest humans had little to no resources to get smart, therefore making it hard for them to learn. Stone tools and fire were most likely the earliest forms of technology, as when they were first invented it would have revolutionized their way of life (e.g. able to cook and eat meat safely, not just berries etc.) The first form of computing or robotics however was a computer made by Charles Babbage in the 1930's. These are all some characteristics of early civilizations in respect to writing, government, and technology. This paper explains what little they had, and they still used it to change everything up. We should learn from them and use all the resources we have to help make the world a better place!!