Us History
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Ziggurats were a form of temple to the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians of ancient Mesopotamia. The Mesopotamian ziggurats were not places for public services or ceremonies. They were believed to be dwelling places for Gods. Only priests were allowed to go inside to care for and attend to the Gods, which made them very powerful in Sumerian culture. They were significant because it is believed that the ziggurat was a symbolic representation of the primeval mound upon which the universe was thought to have been created. They believed the ziggurats were like a bridge between heaven and earth.
Cuneiform is a writing systems developed about 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia by the Sumerians. We named it cuneiform because it means wedge shaped in Latin. It was written with wedge shaped sticks pressed into clay tablets, which were then baked to preserve them. It is significant because is the first known use of abstract forms to represent words. It is believed it came from former pictorial and symbolic representations of words and ideas. Its also significant because its our record of calendars, crops, and temples and the transition to the Hammurabi Code that helped spread literacy.
Minoan Civilization was a civilization in Crete in the Aegean Sea, around 2000 BC. The Minoans were mostly mercantile people involved with oversea trade and had no military that we know of and the most efficient bureaucracy. They had great social organization, culture, art and commerce. Their visual art was incredible and they exported their culture as well as their goods. Their lack of military was probably the end of their civilization. Their incredibly huge and beautiful palaces show their lifestyles, with the mother goddess as its main element.