<P> They were also one of the first Bronze age people in the world . 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 . </P> <P> According to the assyriologist Stephanie Dalley, the earliest pump was the Archimedes' screw, first used by Sennacherib, King of Assyria, for the water systems at the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and Nineveh in the 7th century BCE . This attribution, however, is refuted by the historian of ancient water - lifting devices Olseon in the same paper, who still credits, as well as most other scholars, Archimedes with the invention . </P> <P> Perhaps the most important advance made by the Mesopotamians was the invention of writing by the Sumerians . With the invention of writing came the first recorded laws called the Code of Hammurabi as well as the first major piece of literature called the Epic of Gilgamesh . </P> <P> Although archaeologists don't know for sure who invented the wheel, the oldest wheel discovered was found in Mesopotamia . It is likely the Sumer first used the wheel in making pottery in 3500BC and used it for their chariots in around 3200 BC . </P>

In what ways was the hellenistic age an age of science and technology