Isaac Newton once said, "The only reason I have seen further is by standing on the shoulders of giants." He implied that our technological improvements and advancements did not happen overnight, but started from ancient times and were improved by us. Mesopotamia was the place that had a myriad of natural resources and allowed people to focus more on inventing new technologies, rather than working all day to grow food. Ancient Mesopotamian inventions have contributed to the modern world by providing the foundation for many technologies we consider necessary. The Sumerians were not the first people to live in Mesopotamia, but the Assyrians, Babylonians and Chaldeans were also the first to use their "free time" and create something that could benefit them in the long term. In our modern world, technology is evolving at an unprecedented rate. Today's modern, cutting-edge technology will end up being tomorrow's antiques (dhwty). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay To find out what we have inherited from the Sumerians we must take a brief look around us and ask ourselves 'what is something that is 'an inseparable piece of my life?' Some might claim their cell phone, others might claim their car as something they can't do without. If we take an in-depth look at these two separate elements we see that they have something in common: wheels. The cell phone's hard drive has disks inside, and the car uses an engine with pistons and car tires. The wheel is so fundamental to our daily lives that many people don't realize that someone had to invent it. The wheel also had an impact on the literate world due to the symbolic meanings of the circle of life and death which was a fundamental principle in the religions of the Sumerians and Egyptians (Dawkins 50). The wheel was not like any of the other primitive technologies such as writing and animal husbandry, even though they appeared relatively at the same time around the world. The Sumerians were the first to implement the wheel into their daily lives in order to benefit from it. Archaeologists have found ancient Inca toys with wheels, but the question is, why didn't the Inca use wheels properly (Dawkins 67)? The first wheel ever found in history was in an archaeological dig in Mesopotamia around the Bronze Age in 3500 BC (dhwty). The driving force that pushed the Sumerians to invent the wheel was to make more effective tools out of bronze to help them hunt and fight (dhwty). Some historians argue that the need for wheels was not due to the development of the Bronze Age, but to the need to produce more pottery. The structure, which included the wheel, was an axle that allowed it to turn (dhwty). This complex combination verifies the two scenarios of pottery and tool axe. Some historians claim that the wheel was invented first in Mesopotamia and then spread to the rest of the world (dhwty). In contrast, other historians argue that the wheel was invented in multiple places at the same time due to archaeological excavations in Slovenia that found a wheel around the same time the Sumerians had the wheel (dhwty). Ultimately the wheel pioneered a new way of transporting humans, but the absence of roads made the wheel less usable than animals, who could endure more travel time and less maintenance (dhwty). Applications of the wheel in Sumerian life were in irrigation systems, agriculture, mining, and pottery. Its ability to participate in any application has made it theunique wheel for humanity and awarded it the title of the best achievement possessed by humanity (dhwty). Homo sapiens noticed that you can move a heavy object more easily if it has a circular shape. The Sumerians placed huge objects on circular wooden logs to transport them (Snowden). After the Sumerians, the Egyptians built chariot wheels with spokes, to reduce friction and make them last longer, just like modern bikes (Snowden). The Egyptians transmitted their designs to Celtic areas, the British Isles, and added layers of iron to the wheels, like horseshoes, to make them last longer. The first iron-wheeled wagon was found in Edinburgh, Scotland (Snowden Jackie). Celtic wheels remained the same for centuries so much so that even the first Ford cars released were designed with iron spiked wheels. In the 19th century there was a need for more durable wheels and the American scientist Robert William Thomson invented the pneumatic tire (Snowden). Thompson's wheel had the center wheel surrounded by plastic and his model became the new universal car tire (Snowden). Wheels are something found everywhere in our lives and the progress we have made from the first wheel to today is remarkable. Mesopotamia comes from the Greek 'meso' in the center and rivers 'potamia'; the country between the two rivers, Tigris and Euphrates (Bhugra). The land near those rivers was fertile and the Sumerians considered it a gift from the Gods. However, the rivers overflowed every spring; resulting in crops being washed into the Mediterranean Sea. Sumerian engineering understood the problem and decided to build irrigation canals, not only to let water flow into cities and farms, but also to provide a safety mechanism for the city: an alternative route for the water that destroyed the crops. Water supply was not ordinary, but high temperatures rarely made the land unsuitable for agriculture for a period of eight months in the year (Bhugra). Irrigation canals made those risky places safe places for farmers to cultivate the land. The Sumerian canals were not made with manpower, but with the use of machinery. The most important machine used by the Sumerians for digging canals was called a swape: a machine composed of gears and a large shovel that was used to dig canals from a distance (Bhugra). The canals were governed by laws that required farmers to keep clean and reinforce adjacent canals with mud. In case of flood, most of the time farmers were ordered to dig new canals to barricade the city and their farms from excess water (Bhugra). In 714 BC, Armenia invaded the Sumerian Empire and saw the canals and how the natives took care of them and decided to bring Sumerian engineers to Armenia so they could build their canals (Bhugra). Crops that the Sumerians could produce in abundance were onions, garlic, grapes, wheat, and pomegranates. The above-mentioned canals allowed farmers to trade more effectively with other cities, so the demand arose for multiple crops at the same time. In 2000 BC, a farmer had the idea of ​​tying his ox with a stick and letting it walk in a straight line while he threw seeds into the ditches formed; this was the creation of polwing (Bhugra). What allowed plowing to become the primary method for agriculture was both its effectiveness and its easy-to-duplicate design. After the Sumerians, the next Mesopotamian civilization that contributed a lot to our modern world is Ancient Egypt. To see how the Egyptians have influenced our lives, we must look in the mirror and ask ourselves: why are we still alive? One of the greatest contributions to our modern world is medicine. Egyptian medical practice isconsidered so advanced that only modern doctors could debunk it, and it took centuries. The philosophy behind their practice was that they understood that diseases can be cured with medicines, the healing potential of massage and the explicit value of the importance of cleanliness (Joshua EM). The Egyptians were more effective at treating injuries because they knew exactly what caused them and what the best treatment might be (Joshua EM). However, for diseases it was much more difficult to get a correct diagnosis. The ideology behind someone getting sick is that they committed a sin, were haunted by a ghost or if a spirit/God wanted to teach someone a lesson (Joshua EM). “The first doctor was a magician, because the Egyptians believed that illnesses and diseases were caused by an evil force entering the body” (Joshua EM). The way the Egyptians tried to cure diseases was different on each occasion. If the illness was caused by a spirit/God entering the body, aromatherapy and massage were used to please the Gods and provide protection to the person. If the disease was diagnosed as an evil spirit that was inside the body, spells and potions were used to banish the demon (Joshua EM). All these techniques were fully described in the medical texts found written on papyrus. Very few Ancient Egyptian medical texts survived the destruction caused by floods and fires. More specifically, the Chester Beatty Papyrus describes the treatment of cancer using the cannabis plant, as it is said to be the first medicine according to Herodotus, and diseases affecting the anorectal (anus and rectum) (Joshua EM). The Perhin Medical Papyrus describes instructions for treating fertility problems, pregnancy tests, and birth control techniques (Joshua EM). The Ebers papyrus alternates cases of cancer and uses new treatments which it mentions are not effective, diabetes, depression and contraceptive methods (Joshua EM). The Edwin Smith Papyrus is the oldest papyrus describing surgical techniques on patients and dates back to 1600 BC (Joshua EM). The Demotic Magical Papyrus is nicknamed "the bible" of spells and magic potions (Joshua EM). The papyri were dedicated to one topic and tried to adapt to all the treatments available to them. The Heart Medical Papyrus deals jointly with respiratory tract infections and digestive problems while the London Medical Papyrus activates healing treatments for eye, skin and burn injuries (Joshua EM). The name Papiro was given by the organization that discovered it. Due to the close connection between medicine and religion, doctors were considered priests of Per-Ankh. The place where they carried out most of their practice was the "House of Life". Every temple in Egypt had a building attached so that people, after going to the temple, could worship the gods and then go to the doctor. Imhotep (2600 BC) was one of Pharaoh Djoser's chief officials and a physician who was crowned god of medicine, although he was a human. He became known as the creator of secular medicine because of his arguments that diseases were not punishments from the Gods, but occurred naturally (Joshua EM). The first known female doctor was also Egyptian. Merit-Ptah was the chief physician of the palace in 2700 BC. The Egyptians saw doctors and priests and it was not difficult for them to have a woman in that profession. This situation has attracted many women to migrate to Egypt and become practitioners. The example of Agnodice of Athens (400 BC) who moved to Egypt to become a doctor because women in Athens were not respected in the medical field is famous (Joshua EM). Dentistry was first practiced in Egypt, but the way archaeologists found itthey discovered it was through the teeth of mummies and very few medical papyri. It is not known why such an everyday activity received so little attention from historians of the time. The first dentist on record was Hesyre (2600 BC), while people were doing it before 4000 BC (Joshua EM). The first priority of all practitioners was to relieve their patients' pain and use stimulants to relax them. The documented ingredients were honey, herbs, cannabis and opium; the latter was used before surgery. The Egyptians regularly performed surgeries; the tools used in their charts were so effective that doctors still use them today (Joshua EM). After every medical operation or treatment the doctor always changed the patient's diet because the Egyptians recognized that diet had an impact on their health. Most of what we know about Egyptian technology we read papyri and as we looked at them we never wondered how they made papyrus and how they laid the foundation for our paper. The papyrus 'Cyperus Papyrus' is a plant found in abundance in the Nile River Delta and for years it was part of the natural vegetation, until men found another use for it and cultivated it (6500 BC) (Joshua EP). When asked to name the applications of papyrus, most would say paper, but the Egyptians thought differently. Their first application of papyrus was in their diet as a bountiful crop. After working with papyrus, they had the idea of ​​taking the plant's fibers and turning them into ropes, basket shoes, and even boats. Papyrus as a flower was offered in temples as a gift to a God. And it was also the political symbol of the northern part of Egypt. When craftsmen discovered that it was possible to turn the plant into papyrus paper, the value of papyrus skyrocketed (Joshua EP). Papyrus takes its name from the Egyptian "papuro" meaning royal, because the land near the river, which was abundant, belonged to the pharaoh. The difficulty with producing papyrus paper was not only due to the rarity of the material but also the process of producing it. The process by which the Egyptians produced papyrus is almost the same process we use today in our factories to produce paper. The stem was cut into thin strips so that layers formed, then they were pressed and water flowed out as the layers dried and stuck together (Joshua EP). Producing papyrus paper was a very exclusive job and only people with experience could work the plant to produce paper. Anyone willing to make papyrus paper had to first practice the technique on wood and ostraca (Joshua EP). However, the craftsmen had another problem to deal with: the length of each papyrus. The Egyptian papyri were found to be 20 meters long, or one hundred and ten pages of modern A4 paper (Joshua EP). In case something went wrong in the manufacturing process, the papyrus paper would have to be cut and a new paper had to be made from scratch. They were not for everyday use but only for government documents, spells and medical texts (Joshua EP). While excavating Egyptian ruins, archaeologists came across a material known in the old world, glass, but their glass had something different. Researchers have shown that the Egyptians were not the first to try to make glass, but they are credited with incorporating glass into art and culture (Sohn). Traces of glass as a material date back to the Sumerians, but the Egyptians discovered the formula to make glass clear and suitable for artistic use; The formula is made up of silica sand (a type of quartz), lime, soda and powders to make it cleansing (Sohn). The first vases ofglass were introduced by Thutmose I after his military expansion into the Middle East. Before Tuthmosis I, silver was used to make beads for necklaces and other decorations (Egyptian glass). Thanks to the easily accessible materials needed to make glass, Tuthmosis II, the descendant of Thutmosis I, increased the scale of glass production and allowed more people to bring their own ideas into the glassmaking process. At that time, Faiencing was the process invented by those craftsmen and their process is still used today (Egyptian glass). The Egyptians looked at the glass and saw something different from vases and pearls. They saw some new properties and found applications in engineering, the best known being cold cutting. Cold cutting is a technique invented by the Egyptians to cut stone and wooden logs with high precision and still used today to cut pipes (Egyptian glass). If it were for the purifying glass the Egyptians knew how to produce, they would have increased their wealth by trading in the Mediterranean Sea. Egyptian glassmakers most likely sold and sent their glass to workshops throughout the Mediterranean (Sohn). Glass had a property that no other material had at the time, it could change shape simply by melting it. If something went wrong during transportation, it could simply be remelted and the product would be ok, unlikely clay products that would be thrown away (Sohn). The glass trade was favored because the craftsmen who received the piece of glass had full discretion on how to handle the material and no limits from the manufacturer, on the contrary clay products could not undergo physical modifications but only paintings (Sohn). However, we haven't even touched on glass's most important contribution to our modern world. The material that allowed us to use our three-pound "jelly" inside our heads to understand what is happening in the macroworld and the microworld (Dartnell 11). Glass was the material that allowed Aristotle to demonstrate that the earth was round, Hippocrates to become the father of medicine, Hipparchus to create the Antikythera mechanism (Dartnell 11). Glass was used in science by scientists who wanted to observe something not visible to the naked eye. They found that if a lens had an internal curve, it would be easier to see farther away objects and if the lens had an external curve, it would be easier to see smaller objects (Dartnell 12). The newly invented technique of using glass led to the scientific revolution and allowed Newton and Galileo to become the fathers of physics, Copernicus to prove that the geocentric model of the church galaxy was wrong, and Kepler to further expand the world of biology. (Dartnell l9). Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Scientists used the old blueprints left by their predecessors and managed to lift the dark blanket of the Middle Ages. Before the Industrial Revolution, scientific discovery was a privilege of the rich and all projects were made so that the rich could impress their peers at house parties (Dartnell 30). Benjamin Franklin is considered the science that liberates the mansions and gives them to the people, after his well-known experiment proved that lighting is not the power of God but only electricity. Alessandro Volta managed to produce that fearful event of electricity by inventing the battery and demonstrating once and for all that science is for everyone.(Dartnell 36). The miracle of science is how something as small as a piece of glass from Egypt affected the world. In.