What was everyday life like in Mesopotamia?

What was everyday life like in Mesopotamia?

The staples of Mesopotamian life were bread, beer and onions. Breakfast might include a porridge or a soup as well as bread with beer to wash it down. People also drank water and milk, though milk spoiled quickly in the hot climate. After breakfast, those who worked in or around their homes began their workday.

What was the main building material for Mesopotamian homes?

Mesopotamian families were responsible for the construction of their own houses. While mud bricks and wooden doors comprised the dominant building materials, reeds were also used in construction.

How do Mesopotamians make a living?

Most Mesopotamian commoners were farmers living outside the city walls. Even city dwellers might own a small bit of land for a garden. Besides farming, Mesopotamian commoners were carters, brick makers, carpenters, fishermen, soldiers, tradesmen, bakers, stone carvers, potters, weavers and leather workers.

What food did Mesopotamians eat?

The Mesopotamians also enjoyed a diet of fruits and vegetables (apples, cherries, figs, melons, apricots, pears, plums, and dates as well as lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, beans, peas, beets, cabbage, and turnips) as well as fish from the streams and rivers, and livestock from their pens (mostly goats, pigs, and sheep.

What did Mesopotamian houses look like?

Ancient Mesopotamian houses were either built of mud brick or of reeds, depending on where they were located. People lived in reed houses near the rivers and in wetland areas. In drier areas, people built homes of sun-dried mud bricks. Mud brick homes had one or two rooms with flat roofs.

What is the only complete legal code to survive from the ancient world?

The Code of Hammurabi was one of the earliest and most complete written legal codes and was proclaimed by the Babylonian king Hammurabi, who reigned from 1792 to 1750 B.C. Hammurabi expanded the city-state of Babylon along the Euphrates River to unite all of southern Mesopotamia.

What materials did Mesopotamians use?

Early on they used copper, bronze and gold, and later they used iron. Palaces were decorated with hundreds of kilograms of these very expensive metals. Also, copper, bronze, and iron were used for armor as well as for different weapons such as swords, daggers, spears, and maces.

What was the main occupation of the Mesopotamians?

agriculture
The people of Mesopotamia’s civilization were mostly engaged in agriculture. The Euphrates and Tigris rivers provided the most of the water.

What did poor Mesopotamians eat?

For the regular folk, some common meals consisted of beer, milk, or water with bread, vegetables, fish, and some fruits. The poor usually had lower quality bread, fish, and vegetables with water. The upper class could usually afford a lot more meat, cheese, butter, more fruits, and wine.

How did Sumerians bathe?

Mesopotamian Hygiene and Perfume Sumerians washed themselves in alkali solutions while the Hittites cleaned themselves with ash of the soapwart plant suspended in water. By 3000 B.C., Egyptians and Mesopotamians were using perfumes as body scents and bathing oils rather than incense.

Did Sumerians wear makeup?

Eye makeup. In ancient Sumer (now southern Iraq) and ancient Egypt, everyone—men, women, children, babies—wore kohl eyeliner. Conjunctivitis is an inflammation of the cover of the eyeball and can be caused by bacteria, viruses, or even an irritation. Only later did the evil eye become the subject of superstition.

What was the daily life like in ancient Mesopotamia?

Daily life in ancient Mesopotamia cannot be described in the same way one would describe life in ancient Rome or Greece. Mesopotamia was never a single, unified civilization, not even under the Akkadian Empire of Sargon the Great.

Why did people in ancient Mesopotamia have flat roofs?

All had flat roofs. Some roofs were designed with four wall for privacy. Some had grape arbors for food, privacy, and shelter from the sun. Even the very poor, who lived in tiny townhouses, typically had three levels of living space. The courtyard, or first floor, in each house was very important.

How tall was the average house in ancient Mesopotamia?

All of the houses were built at least three stories high. The first floor was an entryway and courtyard. Children played here, small livestock was kept here, and if the weather made it possible, meals might be cooked here. The next two floors were where the family lived.

When was the first permanent structure built in Mesopotamia?

The architecture of Mesopotamia is ancient architecture of the region of the Tigris – Euphrates river system (also known as Mesopotamia), encompassing several distinct cultures and spanning a period from the 10th millennium BC, when the first permanent structures were built in the 6th century BC.