History/Cultural BackgroundMesopotamia was the home of the earliest civilizations, which included the Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian empires. V. Gordon Childe described a civilization as "a culture capable of supporting a significant number of specialists to meet the economic, social, political, and religious needs of a populated society." According to Childe, “civilizations also have writing systems, monumental architecture, and works of art representative of people and their activities. All these features of civilization first appeared in Mesopotamia. “Mesopotamia is located between the Tigris and the Euphrates. Access to rivers provided the resources needed to make a substantial living. Due to its location, the Mesopotamians created irrigation systems and became an agricultural society. Food production opened the doors to trade and allowed Mesopotamia to become economically stable. Due to the surplus of food, the population increased rapidly. Population growth has made it necessary to create other professions. According to Joshua J. Mark, other professions "included scribes, medicine men, artisans, weavers, potters, shoemakers, fishermen, teachers, and priests or priestesses." They built cities and established governments headed by kings. The government eventually became a monarchy ruled by kings. They controlled irrigation systems and the food supply. The Mesopotamians were skilled inventors. They invented many objects and systems that we use today. According to Mark, they are credited with "the invention of cuneiform, the first writing system, the wheel, sophisticated weapons, the demarcation of time into hours, minutes and seconds, religious rites, the sailboat, the irrigation, etc. .. middle of paper......el D. ed., Tower of Babel: The New Oxford Annotated Bible, New York: NY,Oxford University Press.Mark, Joshua J., Ancient History Encyclopedia: Sumer, http: //www.ancient.eu.com/sumer.Mark, Joshua J., Mesopotamia: Building and Government, http://www.ancient.eu.com/Mesopotamia. Middleton, J. Richard, The Liberating Image: The Mesopotamian Challenge to Biblical Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2005. Millard, Alan, Eerdman's Handbook of the Bible: Other Creation Stories, Grand Rapids: MI, 1992.Millard, Alan, Eerdmans Handbook to the Bible: Other Creation Accounts, Grand Rapids: MI, 1992. Rayment, WJ, Mesopotamia: The Rise of the First Civilization: The Gods of Mesopotamia http://www. inownedinfo.com/history-ancient. /mesopotamia.htm Thinkquest, Food of Mesopotamiahttp://library.thinkquest.org/C005446/text_version/English/mesopotamia.html.