--- title: Mesopotamia: wheels, laws and empires — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Mesopotamia: wheels, laws and empires», a lesson of the history course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Once there were cities, people needed ways to move goods, settle quarrels and rule large lands, and Mesopotamia tried all three. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/4-mesopotamia-wheels-laws-and-empires/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [History](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/) / Mesopotamia: wheels, laws and empires # Mesopotamia: wheels, laws and empires Lesson 4 of the history course of Mova's primary school: 18 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/history/4-mesopotamia-wheels-laws-and-empires/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/4-mesopotamia-wheels-laws-and-empires/0/) — Once there were cities, people needed ways to move goods, settle quarrels and rule large lands, and Mesopotamia tried all three. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/4-mesopotamia-wheels-laws-and-empires/1/) — The wheel appeared about 5,500 years ago, first for potters and soon for carts, though people had already farmed and built towns for thousands of years before it. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/4-mesopotamia-wheels-laws-and-empires/2/) — Think of your school rules pinned on the wall so nobody can say they did not know. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/4-mesopotamia-wheels-laws-and-empires/3/) — King Hammurabi of Babylon had about 280 laws carved on a tall stone for everyone to see, though they were harsher on the poor and on slaves than on the rich. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/4-mesopotamia-wheels-laws-and-empires/5/) — Babylon grew into a famous city with blue-tiled gates, the Assyrians ruled from great palaces, and finally the Persians built the largest empire the world had yet seen. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/4-mesopotamia-wheels-laws-and-empires/6/) — Wheels appeared about 5,500 years ago; potters used spinning wheels, and soon wheels were put on carts. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/4-mesopotamia-wheels-laws-and-empires/7/) — The wheel was not the first invention: people had farmed, built towns and made pottery for thousands of years before it. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/4-mesopotamia-wheels-laws-and-empires/8/) — About 4,300 years ago Sargon of Akkad conquered the cities of Mesopotamia and made one of the first empires, many peoples ruled by one king. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/4-mesopotamia-wheels-laws-and-empires/9/) — King Hammurabi of Babylon, about 3,750 years ago, had about 280 laws carved on a tall stone so everyone could see them. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/4-mesopotamia-wheels-laws-and-empires/10/) — Some of Hammurabi's laws said the punishment should match the harm, an eye for an eye, but the laws were harsher on poor people and slaves than on the rich. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/4-mesopotamia-wheels-laws-and-empires/11/) — Babylon was one of the largest and most famous cities of the ancient world, with mighty walls and the blue-tiled Ishtar Gate. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/4-mesopotamia-wheels-laws-and-empires/12/) — Old writers said Babylon had Hanging Gardens on terraces (wide steps of earth, one above another), one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, but no one has found clear remains, so some historians doubt they were there. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/4-mesopotamia-wheels-laws-and-empires/13/) — Mesopotamia had little wood, stone or metal, so merchants traded grain and cloth for timber, copper and precious stones from far away. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/4-mesopotamia-wheels-laws-and-empires/14/) — Mesopotamian priests watched the stars and the moon and kept records of them for centuries, which helped them make calendars and predict what the sky would do. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/4-mesopotamia-wheels-laws-and-empires/15/) — The Assyrians built a strong, feared empire with great palaces at Nineveh decorated with stone pictures of lion hunts. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/4-mesopotamia-wheels-laws-and-empires/16/) — The Assyrian king Ashurbanipal collected a huge library of clay tablets; baked clay does not rot or burn away easily, so many survive, which is how we can still read the Epic of Gilgamesh. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/4-mesopotamia-wheels-laws-and-empires/17/) — About 2,500 years ago the Persian king Cyrus the Great took Babylon and built the largest empire the world had yet seen. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/4-mesopotamia-wheels-laws-and-empires/18/) — The Persian Empire was well organised and fairly tolerant for its time, not the monster army shown in the film 300. - ← previous: [Mesopotamia: the first cities and writing](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing/) - next →: [Ancient Egypt: the Nile and the pharaohs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/5-ancient-egypt-the-nile-and-the-pharaohs/) - ↑ back to [History](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/)