Q. What is the meaning of Mesopotamia?
Answer -
The name Mesopotamia is derived from two Greek words Mesos and Potamos
1. Meaning of Mesos - Middle
2. Potamos meaning – river
Thus Mesopotamia means the region between two rivers.
Question - Mesopotamian civilization developed between which two rivers?
Answer -
the fertile region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
Question – Which grasslands were famous for animal husbandry in Mesopotamia ?
Answer -
steppe grasslands
Question – What was the script of Mesopotamia?
Answer -
cuneiform script, it had hundreds of symbols
Question - What items did the people of Mesopotamia export?
Answer -
Textiles and agriculture related products
Question: Cities have developed only on the basis of rural prosperity. Explain this in the context of Mesopotamia.
Answer -
- The economy of cities is not self-sufficient; they have to depend on other towns or villages for goods or services produced by them.
- People of cities depend on villages for food items and grains. In Mesopotamia, stone coin makers, stone carvers, engravers used to import them from outside.
- Things needed for urban manufacturers such as fuel, metal, different kinds of stones, wood, etc. come from different places.
Question - How was division of labour a characteristic of urban life? Explain.
Answer -
- Division of labour means different people have different occupations
- Kings were at the top of the social hierarchy in Mesopotamia
- Religion was recognized in ancient Mesopotamia, so it made sense for priests to be in the upper class
- Barter has always been an important part of society, with merchants trading goods to make a living.
- After that farmers and labourers were involved in the production of those products which gave less profit
- At the bottom were slaves
Question: Mari was an urban centre and trading place, explain with examples.
Answer -
- Mari city was situated at a very important trading place, so it prospered on the basis of trade
- Wood, copper, tin, oil, wine and many other kinds of goods were brought and taken from Mari Nagar by boats.
- Trade was carried out via the Euphrates River to the south and the highlands of Türkiye, Syria, and Lebanon
- Ships carrying grinding stones, mills, timber and casks of wine and oil to the southern cities would stop at Mari.
- Ships leaving Mari had to pay a 10 per cent charge
Question – Explain the development of the art of writing in Mesopotamia on the basis of evidence.
Answer -
- The written tablets found in Mesopotamia are from around 3200 BC.
- About five thousand lists of bulls, fish and breads etc. were found from the temples of Uruk, the southern city of Mesopotamia, which could be of external and internal transactions.
- Writing may have been necessary because society needed to keep a permanent record of its transactions
- Mesopotamians wrote on clay tablets, which were made by wetting and kneading clay and then shaped it into a strip that could be held in the hand
- After making the surface smooth, cuneiform markings were made on the moist smooth surface with the sharp tip of a reed stick. When the plates dried in the sun and hardened, they were carefully kept.
- Around 2600 BC the letters became cuneiform and the language was Sumerian. Writing was used to make dictionaries, to give legal recognition to the transfer of land, to describe the actions of kings, to reveal those changes in the law. Sumerian was gradually replaced by Akkadian after 2400 BC.
Question - Nomadic herders were a threat to urban life. Explain with reasons.
Answer -
- In Mesopotamia, many waves of nomadic groups from the western desert used to come to its fertile and rich mainland region.
- Shepherds would often cross sown fields to provide water to their sheep and goats, causing damage to the farmer's crops
- Nomadic shepherds would often attack the villages of farmers and loot their grain and money
- Herders were allowed to move around within the state, but their activities were strictly monitored.
Question - Very few people in Mesopotamia were literate. Explain. Very few people in Mesopotamia could read and write.
Answer -
- Not only were there hundreds of symbols and signs in their language, understanding them was also a very complex task.
- It was not easy to write on wet strips, that is why only people of a particular class were literate
- For this reason the level of literacy was very low in Mesopotamia.
