Science in human civilization :The ancient civilization of Mesopotamia

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This is know as the land between the rivers -Tigris and Euphrates in what is now Iraq in the middle East .The area was peopled by the Sumerian between 1000 and 5000BC and their civilization seemed to have developed bat the same time with that of Egypt .Each has as slight influence over the other .Some aspect of science had manifested themselves in their civilization .Their writing for example was crucial to the growth of abstract science and it's transmission .They wrote on clay ,tablets with sharpend tools .The writing took the form of picture symbol which at the initial stage represented objects but later stood for sounds .There were about 200 signs  with each representing a number of words having similar sounds and homonyms

Their early medicine manifested itself in a combined form of magic and science .They had the belief that all ailments were caused by the gods and so they could consult the gods before they would administer any drug. But like several other ancient civilization they used herbs in treatment hence roots,stems,fruit , leaves etc were used to cure diseases such as dropsy bernia, fever ,itch and other skin diseases Unlike in Egypt , however ,no major operative surgery was carried out and specialist were rare .The Mesopotamians were also interested in animals and and plants .They classified animals species into fish , serpent,birds and four legged animals.Hundred of different animals and about 25 varieties of plants were found in some Guineform tablet that were archaeologically discovered from the area .These were legacies which they heatqueathed to modern biology .

It seems also that they were the first to introduce the idea of map making.The archaeological discoveries has revealed such maps indicating the cities of Nippur,Babylon , Syria and other territories surrounded by the Persian gulf ,this arts of map making was later copied by Arabs and European and is still being used today .The Mesopotamians were àlso good builders.They used sun-dried bricks hardened by fire in building their houses and temples (Ziggurats).Their building was however not as huge as those of Egypt due to lack of stone quarries .The people also engaged in trade with the outside world .As such they developed a first class system of weight and measurements . They use barter and established rules for mortgage ,loans and ratio of interest . Their astronomy was to the supernatural not well advance in fact ,it was limited to the supernatural .it was belief that the heavens was placed there by the gods to control the activities of human being .They were however ,able to work out calendar which had 360 days with the regular series of months of 29 and 30days .This calendar formed the basic of the first Greek and Roman calendar as well as the Julian calendar that is in use today . In the field of mathematics ,they adopted twelve months instead of ten as their unit in counting.They also practiced fractions, value of squares ND cubes and sorted out so many difficult problem by Algebra

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