1. Briefly characterize the cultural contributions of the Ancient Near East. Be sure to discuss developments in many areas: invention, religion, law, science, and literature.
             There were many of cultural contributions of the Ancient Near East. These cultures gave us our modern religion, the wheel, pottery, farming techniques, each of these contributions are still used this day.
             In the Ancient Near East they had an ideal climate for agriculture. They grew a wide variety of things from grain, barley, and wheat. All that was needed to raise a crop to spread seeds in a semi moist place for the crops to grow. There is evidence of simple crops dating back to the 8th or 9th millennium BC. They have found evidence of the tool the sickle made out of bone and flint that date somewhere between c. 9000 and 7000 BC in the Palestinian sites. The sickle is still used today. There is proof that irrigation was used to get water from the crops dating back to the 7th Millennium BC.
             In the 2nd century BC religion in many areas relied on the different gods. Polytheism was the major practice. They believed that there was a god for all aspects of life water, fertility, crops, and death. There were many aspects that in life you had to complete all the different rituals so that you can be happy in the afterlife and only the king or emperor would go to heaven or eternity. The practice of monotheism began with the Hebrews and in four centuries concord the entire Roman Empire and many outlying regions. The intensity of the faith and the strength in which Christians held to their views helped them in this effort. There is no evidence that supports the practice that polytheism came first before monotheism. There is proof that through out religion there was an effort to combine unity and multiplicity in the conception of the divine.
             During the years of civilized life in Mesopotamia and Egypt there were many advances made in the area ...