Our first unit in World History that we did was over the Ancient River Civilizations. We learned how each civilization had its own buildings and languages as well as ways to protect themselves from outside forces as well as how they would have farmed. After learning about each of them we were given the task of creating a persuasive essay about which civilization would give been the best and that has the biggest impact today on our modern civilizations. Below you can read my persuasive essay over how I believe the Mesopotamian Civilization has had the biggest impact on the world today.
Adrianna Rodencal
Ms. Bockelman
World History
August 31, 2019
Ancient River Valley Civilizations
Some people believe that the Ancient River Valley Civilizations were some of the first four big civilizations that still have an impact on us today. Those for Ancient Civilizations were Ancient Egypt, Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient India, and Ancient China. They had a few things that were in common like their social class ranks and also the similar ways that they first came up with languages that were in pictures. One of the major things in common was that they were around rivers and valleys which is why they are called the Ancient River Valley Civilizations. Out of all four of these Ancient Civilizations, I believe that the Ancient Mesopotamia Civilization has had the biggest impact on modern-day civilizations.
Mesopotamia helped create many tools that we still use today. They were one of the first to start using dikes to help prevent flooding from the Tigris and Euphrates as well as move the water around to different places. Along with dikes the Ancient Mesopotamians came up with our 60 minute hours and other times which we use 60 for. This number system was used a lot by the Sumerians and was derived from that. As you know we still use 60 as the number for our timing system. The writing, like the other ancient civilizations, consisted of pictures. Ancient Mesopomatian’s writing language was called Cuneiform. We don’t use Cuneiform now but the letters that the pictures represented we do use. Our modern-day Alphabet was used with the Ancient Mesopotamians.
When you look at all of the Ancient Civilizations they have all contributed to things that we still use today. In Ancient Egypt it is thought that they are one of the first civilizations to create and use a “solar calendar” which consists of 12 months, each month having 30 days. It sounds familiar because with a little bit of change it’s the calendar we use today. It is a big achievement that we still use today but they didn’t create anything else that we use a lot in modern times. In Ancient India, they began using mathematics like algebra and geometry for building and working through life. We take classes and us often us math to solve problems but we do not always rely on it as we do time or words. Lastly, in Ancient China, they had created a few things that we still use. They starting making “books” by binding bamboo together. There are many books around in modern times but the style of binding has changed. They also created the magnetic compass which we have used and upgraded to fit with modern times. With creations from China, we have adapted them to fit into our modern lifestyle.
Ancient Mesopotamia has created many big things like the Alphabet, timing, and dikes which we use a lot in our modern age. Because of that, I believe that Ancient Mesopotamia is the civilization that has had the biggest and longest impact on history out of all the other Ancient Civilizations.
Later on, towards the end of the first semester, we were talking about the Middle Ages and how Medieval cities would have started. Many of them had their own cathedrals because religion was the base of many things. Having a cathedral would have been like having a water tower now in all of the cities. As an assignment, everyone in the class had to pick a different Medieval Western City and create a brochure for that time period with facts and visuals trying to get people to “tour” the city.
