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The Mesopotamian’s Achievements Mesopotamian achievements are the most advanced among the River Valley civilizations. Mesopotamia established a set of laws to amend by. Also, Mesopotamia developed a writing system and a calendar/time system as well. In addition, the Mesopotamians had extraordinary advances in technology. Laws were established in Mesopotamia to follow and keep order. According to Document 4, a primary source, it describes a famous set of laws called the Code of Hammurabi, that was cruel and had harsh punishments, but a fair system where everyone, the poor or powerful, got punished the same and equal. This set of laws was very fair and “stopped the powerful taking over the weak”. This system of laws was known as the “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” principle. A system to keep records was also developed by Mesopotamians, which included a system of writing and a calendar/time system. According to Documents 1 and 3, Document 1 being primary and Document 3 being both primary and secondary, the first document describes the writing the Mesopotamians developed, called cuneiform. The third document describes how ancient Mesopotamian astronomers studied stellar bodies, such as stars and planets, to create a calendar. The Mesopotamians used both cuneiform and the calendar to record events. Mesopotamians wrote down what event happened in cuneiform and wrote the date so they know when it happened. Some extraordinary inventions were the ones the Mesopotamian invented. According to Document 1and 2, both a secondary source, the first document states that Mesopotamia “contributed immensely to industrial technology” by inventing useful objects like the wheel. The second document talks about the ziggurat, a temple built to the gods that looked like huge squares of different size placed on top of each other starting from the largest to the smallest.
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