Greg MD Blog

2/12/2018
*I had written this essay for my English class over a year in a half.*

How do we get people interested in our past history? Ancient Civilization has influenced modern culture in many ways today. Mesopotamia, Egypt, and The Mayans made a contribution to their innovation that affect our daily lives today. As we bring our past to connect with our future, it’s essential for us to learn, their influence and accomplishment.

Ancient Civilizations developed social standings that pertain to our modern society. As we progress or evolve in our communities, we must give to the Ancient Civilization for innovation such as law, women equal rights, education, medicine, and architecture, as well as tools. Mesopotamia was ‘A World First” and progressive when it came to Women Equal Rights. During that time, women were able to do the same as men by owning land, having their own businesses, and making contracts in trade. Education was critical to them. They learned techniques in how to read and write in cuneiform, which aided them to study Religion and Medicine and helped them to establish the Laws. The King of Babylon (Hammurabi) established law around 1772 B.C., called “Code of Hammurabi.” It was imperative as their population grew. They had to create law and order to minimize chaos and to protect the weak. One thing that Mesopotamia emphasized was respecting people and their elders. This is the difference between today’s Civilization and 5000 years ago.

Egyptians began their Civilization at the Nile River. They had developed a system for ditches to carry water to cultivate their growing crops by using the river. That was very important for their culture because they depended on that food source to feed their people. The lower class did physical labor and farm the land to supply the food. They made sure that the Egyptian workers were fed well because they were labor forces to build pyramids for the Pharaohs. Their architectural design helped create monuments that would influence style today but defines their cities. When we explore the pyramids, we discover Heioglyphics inside the tomb. That gave us more inside of the Pharaoh’s life and their social standings. Egyptians had three different levels of class for their social status. The elite were the Pharaohs that believed once they die, they would become a God. The Pharaohs were the ones who established Law and Order for all people, except the slaves were not equal. The women of Egypt were advanced, they ruled many countries. One famous ruler was Cleopatra, who was a badass. Men and Women back then had the same fundamental human rights, but today the freedom of speech for women is limited, and there is a lack of equal pay. They developed a writing technique in communication by expressing symbols for words or ideas. It is called Hieroglyphics. With all the development, their future was bright and hopeful, but their still a lack of equality between nationality, women, and others today!

The Mayans are known for their technology, creation of the calendar, the invention of writing skills in the Americas, the development of Zero, Astronomy, and growing Maize (Yellow Corn). How did they achieve making the calendar? They were precise and acute, knowing the pattern for the season. By using the accuracy of the calendar, The Mayans established when to plant and when to harvest their crops. The timing was so critical in many ways to demonstrate success for their crops. Today, we use the calendar all over the world, to schedule appointments, establish birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, and holidays. The calendar month of October is number 10. You can see without it would not be possible to have months 10, 11, and/or 12 in our calendar year: that would only make 9 months in a year! How did these mathematicians come up with zero? Today without one significant number (0), we could go beyond the number 9. If we add 1 plus 9, that will give us 1 without the 0 bringing us back to number 1. Our technology today is based on codes that require zero in the formula: Computers, Operating Software, and to express languages.

Without the contribution of Mesopotamians, Egyptians, and The Mayans, what would our lives be like? The innovations they developed years ago show the impact of how it affects our lives today. The two most significant changes we utilize the most are Mathematics and Astronomy (Calendar). This shows us how life goes in a full circle.