Sami Zahzouhi Many historians consider Mesopotamia to be the cradle of civilization with its birth around 3,500 B.C.E.

Mesopotamia was located between the Tigris-Euprhates river valley and encompassed the regions of Sumer, Akkadia, Assyria, and Babylon. Throughout its history, Mesopotamia made unprecedented breakthroughs in human achievement and became famous for its Hanging Gardens of Babylon, armies that conquered the Middle East, and 20 story terracing ziggurats. Although Mesopotamia was relatively complex for its time, it did not witness the breakthrough that Karl Jaspers describes as in his characteristics of the Axial Age. The Mesopotamians were blessed, yet cursed by their environment. The abundant rivers and marshlands naturally provided the soil with rich nutrients, thus earning the land the nickname of the Fertile Crescent. Although Mesopotamia lied within the Fertile Crescent, the arid climate produced dangerous and chaotic natural forces. Dramatic changes in high temperatures caused tornados and sandstorms. In addition, the Tigris and Euphrates would flood irregularly and destroy crops and ravished entire villages. The Mesopotamians equated the unpredictability of their nature with their gods. Their goals became to appease the gods in enslaving themselves in return for more stable weather. Since they were uncertain of the weather, Mesopotamians engineered their environment to help stabilize and protect their harvests by building irrigation ducts and ziggurats. Little did they know, artificializing their environment would only make it inadvertently harder to reach stability. Irrigation ducts were made possible by the high water table produced by the Tigris and Euphrates. Although irrigation was a reliable source to watering fields, salt sediment would remain, thus, it would slowly degrade the fertility of the soil with each subsequent watering

reduce the quantity of crops grown. Eventually entire fields would die and any form of vegetation would cease growing. The Mesopotamians realized this change season after season, yet chose to continue their farming process in favor of experimenting with alternative methods or moving somewhere else. They determined that it would be too risky to abandon their fields and practices and opted rather to keep operating their system no matter how flawed it was. Using sunbaked mud bricks to construct ziggurats was another way Mesopotamians engineered their environment to help stabilize their civilization. Although ziggurats were primarily constructed as giant temples to worship the gods, Mesopotamians found a practical use for them in securely warehousing harvests from unexpected storms or floods. Mesopotamians in each town would pool their crops together as an offering to satisfy the gods in hopes that the gods would reciprocate by extending the stability of the town. People met their global responsibilities, but did not enjoy the fruits of their labor since they sacrificed as much as they could to the gods. The constant labor required to construct and maintain irrigation ducts and ziggurats inhibited the systems ability to feed itself. Mesopotamian civilization contained morals; however, they were underdeveloped. Morality originates in experience of social order versus natural chaos. Once a civilization acquires a sense of predictability with order and reason, morals become useful. It seemed that Mesopotamians recognized the use of morals, but could not decide ones were right or wrong. Hammurabis Code best encapsulates Mesopotamias moral system. The Code was a legal system founded by the sixth Babylonian king, Hammurabi, in 1772 B.C.E., and established a structural base for a legal system. As the rule An eye for an eye suggests, the code was rather primitive. As a matter of fact, the code was not really a legal code; it was more of an unorganized written record of Hammurabis legal decisions left behind for his successors to

imitate. Since Hammurabi was able to conquer the cities of Mesopotamia, stabilize them, and maintain order, his code was followed as rules of thumb so that the least confusion would result and order would be kept. People did not consider situations or reflect on actions when referring to the code, but instead followed it to the letter. Hammurabis Code serves as a metaphor for Mesopotamian morality; it was present, but it was still in the early stages of development. Mesopotamian artistic and intellectual traditions are embodied by their artwork and literature. The Righteous Sufferer, a poem written in Akkadia, is about a man who is unaware of why he unjustly suffers. Although he is faithful to the gods and does his duties, he is still the victim of unwavering affliction. Ultimately, he determines that the morals of man are unaligned with those of the gods. The poem demonstrates that Mesopotamians were unaware of themselves and debated act externally rather than internally. Another poem, the Dialogue of Pessimism, is a dialogue between a master and his slave, in which a master proposes to act upon his immediate wants, such as having sex, committing crimes, and building a house, while the slave responds with a reason why the master should not follow his propositions. This dialogue demonstrates that Mesopotamians mostly made thoughts only for themselves based on their immediate desires with little or no consideration of the consequences. The artwork below depicts statues formed during the Babylonian age. The people look rather weak and defenseless by their pose with their hands all held together in a religious manner. These statues show how Mesopotamians believed that they were slaves to the gods and helpless to their will. Therefore, they believed that they had little control over themselves. Their bug-eyed faces do not express much cognition or awareness, but rather that they are in a state of just being alive.

Mesopotamian civilization almost exemplifies Jaspers Axial Age, but falls short. Although its people built irrigation ducts and ziggurats, they were mostly indistinct from nature for they were tied to the anarchic climate of their region. The gods they worshiped were all derived from nature. When disaster struck, such as in the depletion of crops, Mesopotamians did not seek causes, but rather remained headstrong to their traditions and standard operating procedure in hope of extending the stability of their system. Their long term satisfactions were not often met when their unpredictable weather took away their self-control and made them unaware of future possibilities. Ultimately the transcendence that is characteristic of axiality was not fully met as the Mesopotamian environment and traditionalist society limited its development of internal resource to rise above self and world.