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Ziggurat in Sumer

Sumer

Summer is the site of the earliest known civilization, located in the southernmost part of Mesopotamia between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, in the area that later became Babylonia and is now southern Iraq from around Baghdad to the Persian Gulf. Sumer was affected by its geography because civilization was started by the food surpluses provided by the Fertile Crescent, and new building techniques resulted from natural resources available to Sumerians. The two rivers the Sumerians settled between constantly flooded, covering much of the Sumer fields. The floods stared each year when the snow melted in the Caucasus Mountains in the north. As a water table of the area has risen over the centuries, remains of the Sumerian civilization have become buried underwater. The silt carried by the flood waters left the farmlands fertile so crops could be grown all year around. The lad had no minerals and practically no stone. Sumer had hot climate with only a little rain, less than 8 inches in the winter months. The summers were hot and dry, with average temperature of 94°F.The Sumerians adapted to these conditions and used them to their own advantages producing crops by using irrigation and keeping animas that were suited to the environment.

Ancient Sumerians are believed to have invented the wheel, perhaps while spinning clay to make pottery containers on a simple wheel. Wheels were also used in transport, on a cart pulled by donkeys, and later on war chariots. Sumerians also created mathematical symbols based on the number 60. For example a circle represented 360 degrees. They created a lunar calendar based upon the lunar month. We still refer to months today. Their first form of writing was made up of pictures. Over the years the pictures were simplified, with symbols being used to represent the 'sounds' of the pictures.

Sumerians were the first to devolve their own language and writing, as far as scientist knows, because it's not related to any other languages. Sumerian writing was called cuneiform. Its earliest records date back around 3000 BCE, after about 2000 BCE. It was no longer spoken, but it continued in use as a literary language until cuneiform writing died out. Cuneiform was written on tablets of damp clay. Each word-picture represented an object. Writing developed a good way to keep records of products and accounts of trade. It was later became used to record literature and history. By 2500 BCE libraries were established at Shuruppak and Eresh, and schools had been established to train people how to use and keep track of temples, state bureaucracies, legal documents, and business accounts. Proof of this writing was found in present day Iran. Sir Henry Rawlinson interprets some writing after finding the Rock of Behistun in present-day Iran.

Sumerian language was found in Indo-European and Semitic language groups. Other empires used the same language and writing and you can see that. Fifteen hundred cuneiform symbols were reduced in the next thousand years to about seven hundred, but it did not become alphabetic until about 1300 BCE. Sumerian language was spoken in Mesopotamia throughout BCE and survived as an esoteric, private, written language until the death of the cuneiform tradition around the time of Jesus Christ.

Sumerian believed that the universe was ruled by immortal and superhuman power in human form. They had four main gods and goddesses. These gods were An, the god of heaven, Ki, the goddess of earth, Enlil, the god of air, and Enki, the god of water. Heaven, earth, air, and water were regarded as the four major components of the universe. There was a god for almost every natural component.

Each important god had Ziggurats, temple, dedicated to them. The Ziggurats was made of many layers, and was shaped as a mountain, because there were no mountains in the Mesopotamia region. The gods were worshipped by the people of the cities as the protector and ruler of the city-state. The Sumerians believed that humans were created to take care of the gods with food and shelter. Sacrifices were made daily. Religion was the central organizing principle of each city-states, each city belonged to a different large temple.

The Sumerian had Social classes, which were in order, Upper class (nobles, priests, government officials and warriors), Freeman class (merchants, traders, and artisans), and then Slaves. Women didn't have no rights or a class. They were controlled by men, because the was physically stronger. Women had no rights even if they was widows, they would just be in control by their husbands father, brother, or even sometimes sons. If women cheated on her husband and slept with another man, she would be killed, but the man would be in prison. Slaves were the majority of the population. Sumerian slaves were prisons from other countries caught in war.

Most Sumerians stayed illiterate and without power, while kings, once elected by common people, became monarchs. The monarchs were viewed as agents of and responsible to the gods. It was the religious duty of his people to accept his rule as a part of the plan of the gods. Governments drafted common people to work on community projects, and common people had to pay taxes to the government in by a percentage of their crops, which the city could either sell or use to feed its soldiers.

Early in Sumerian civilization, eighty to ninety percent of those who farmed did it on land they considered theirs, rather than public property. Farming took stamina, strength, good health, good luck, organization, and the ability to get along with people, and of course, some farmers were more successful than others. The farmers who couldn't harvest enough food exchanged with other farmers, for the exchange of money. When Sumerians lost their land, they and their descendants might become sharecroppers, working on the lands of successful landowners in exchange for giving the landowners a portion of the crops they grew.

By the 23rd century BC the power of the Sumerians had declined to so much that they couldn't longer defend themselves against foreign invasion. The Semitic ruler Sargon I, Sargon the Great, succeeded in conquering the entire country. Sargon founded a new capital, called Agade, in the far north of Sumer and made it the richest and most powerful city in the world. The people of northern Sumer and the conquering invaders became known as the Akkadians. The land of Sumer got the name Sumer and Akkad.

Section Review:

1.Who were the Sumerian conquered by?

2.What were the different society classes and how did they help the country?

3.How did some of the Sumerian developments contribute to the world today?

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