Comparing the Teotihucans and the Sumerians
Written language was an important milestone in human history. It enabled the recording of history, dreams and tragedy. It allowed for commercial and historical record keeping. It allowed human beings to imprint thoughts on paper, for sharing, later review or just for fun. What about societies that never developed a written language? Could such a society rival one with that has? When advances of Sumerian city-states are compared to that of Teotihuacan there are a few instances where the Mesoamerican city appears to be more advanced. However, if ranked these appearances do not place Teotihuacan ahead of any one of Sumer's Mesopotamian city-states.
The formations of Sumerian city-states were the first signs of urbanization in Mesopotamia. Canal construction required stronger leadership than the typical Neolithic villages could execute. To do this, aristocratic councils of elders were formed to work with religious leaders. It was here that the political power of religious leaders and the organization of what might have been an early, and strictly relative group of "intellectuals" centralized. Situated between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, Sumerian cities such as Uruk grew from small villages to populations of nearly 50,000. In 2600 B.C.E., around the time of Gilgamesh, Sumer had a population of 500,00 people with almost 4/5 of them in urban areas. (45, 54.)
As farming procedures improved and therefore allowed for surplus, the Sumerian civilization began to grow not only in numbers, but also in the complexity of how it functioned on every level; its religious leaders became more powerful, its degree of specialization more complex and inventions and discoveries came fast...
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...bly higher rate of population density. The Sumerians would not have planned their cities to that extent because there was no need to. In addition, while Teotihuacan still quarried obsidian rock, Sumer was developing metal weapons.
Teotihuacan religious and administrative officials are clearly members of an advanced society. They built and sustained an empire of nearly one hundred thousand for centuries without the need for written language. They had to have conducted commercial transactions on verbal agreement alone. Their government somehow maintained order, probably ruthlessly, despite the lack of written law. Each generation for the centuries of the empire's success was politically socialized adequately enough for the empire to continue, all without writing down a single word.
Bibliography:
Spodek,Howard Ancient Civilizations pgs 98-210
Without the Mesopotamians we would not have all the luxury we have today. Could you ever imagine a world without writing? You may think, life would not be so bad without it, but without writing we would not have stories, we could not write to the bank, we could not text. Two major contributions made to society were the first forms of writing known as Cuneiform and Hammurabi’s Code.
Although fluctuations in power had been present in Mesopotamian culture for thousands of years, it was during the Early Dynastic Period (2900-2350 B.C.) that the greatest competition emerged between the major Sumerian city-states such as Uruk and Ur. As the city-states warred against each other, an Akkadian, who named himself Sargon or
These individual states traded with each other. They would most likely trade things specific to that area. They also had a very multifaceted and planned irrigation system. Last but not least they were all tiny domains that were actually well prearranged. On their own they were fairly solid and had a very organized government. Although they were then all united by King Menes. The citizens were fairly obedient and did what they were told to do by their god, the pharaoh. They felt as if bad things would happen if they went against a god. The government became one hundred percent centralized and they controlled every single last one of the resources in the vast region in which we call the Nile River Valley. Just imagine being a part of this structured civilization. Now the Mesopotamia civilizations were a little different, well a lot. Although they had similarities. They did have slight similarities though. Mesopotamia was made of many independent states. They never became united and stayed this way as to what feels like the end of time. In earlier times this probably seemed like a good idea although later they realize that it is now. This separation made the region tremendously susceptible to attacks. The Mesopotamians apparently never heard the saying there is no I in team! Although, despite all of this separation the region worked together in order to do massive projects which included things like
Ancient Mesopotamian societies had great shifts as cities and rulers rose and fell, rose and fell again, gaining land and enemies as they advanced The area Mesopotamia occupied is an immense, dry plain through which two rivers, the Euphrates and Tigris, course. These rivers rise from tributaries in the mountain ranges to the north before flowing through Mesopotamia to the sea. As they reach the land close to the sea, the land becomes swampy, with lagoons, mud flats, and reed banks, but in ancient times the sea advanced much further inland; and they poured into it as two separate streams, whereas today they join as one before reaching the sea. A close cultural cooperation was established between the Sumerians (who spoke a language that was more isolated) and the Semitic Akkadian speakers, which included extensive bilingualism in its culture. This took place around the third millennia BC and as the fourth millennia dawned Mesopotamia saw an increase in its population. By aspiring and adjusting to the changing world around them the people of Mesopotamia created government and states. Order began to develop in the territories, and due to the efficiency of its military and political structure their authority began to spread and empires grow. One of these city states Sumer was first permanently settled between c. 5500 and 4000 BC. Sumer a city-state coming to power in prehistoric time, prior to the cultures ability to leave much historical record, however in the twenty- third century BC writing came into being which has given historians their first glimpse into some of the earliest Mesopotamian cultures.
A civilization without any written language would be at a loss. Its ability to communicate and record anything because before man could speak they wrote words down to communicate. Writing is important for civilization because it helps us do things we need everyday, like It helps us create business transactions, It helps us write treaty's, It helps us choose what foods to eat, It helps us give directions. Communicate with others without writing would be no solid form of communication. This impact is in two ways: 1. The ability to accurately record history. That is, to know for sure exactly what someone said or did. This is critically important for passing down knowledge between generations, as it allows for the accumulation of more knowledge than could possibly be kept via oral histories. 2. The impact of this is that writing allows for a system society with a much larger gain of knowledge base than otherwise possible. What we see as technology is really predicated on a foundation of writing. Writing allows for the accurate description of an idea, and one which does not depend on all carriers of that written idea to understand even a little of that idea. Most importantly, writing is required for specialization of a society like, in order to have farmers, merchants, political bureaucrats, soldiers, etc, one must haves in writing. Otherwise, everyone is a hunter-gatherer or farmer. Why was writing so
The school system of the Sumerians set the educational standards for Mesopotamia culture and other cultures to follow. Their studies included mathematics, botany and linguistics. Some students tha...
Writing is perhaps the most important building block of communication - after verbal speech, of course. Writing, like most of human civilization, has its roots in ancient Mesopotamia. The first writing systems began in a style known as cuneiform (Cuneiform, 2013). These wedge-shaped markings have their roots in Sumerian culture and were used predominantly for record keeping and accounting. At the archaeological site of Uruk in what is modern day Iraq, a great wealth of knowledge has been gained from the artifacts located there. Uruk was a ceremonial site and is home to the world’s oldest known documented written documents (Price and Feinman, 2013). The documents discovered list quantities of goods that may have been stored at Uruk, leading archaeologists to believe that writing in this part of the world was developed primarily to keep lists of transactions and stockpiled quantities of goods located at the site.
The first civilization to rise was the Mesopotamia, located in present day Iraq, between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, and Egypt, along the Nile River. It’s split in two ecological zones. In the south Babylonia (irrigation is vital) and north Assyria (agriculture is possible with rainfall and wells). By 4000 B.C.E., people had settled in large numbers in the river-watered lowlands of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Archaeologists have shown that large-scale irrigation appeared only long after urban civilization had already developed, meaning major waterworks were a consequence of urbanism (population). Mesopotamia cities were made of people called the Summerians in the land of Sumer located on the south of Babylonia. The Summerian city was one of
The main differences between Sumerian and Egyptian geography is the flooding of the rivers and invasions they suffered. Sumer was a Mesopotamia, a land between two rivers. The two rivers were the Tigris and Euphrates River. Egypt had only one river, the Nile River. It was usual to rivers flood; the Tigris and Euphrates had very unpredictable flooding. Different from these rivers the Nile was very much predictable. Flooding in Sumer caused a lot of death, so people would start building their houses further from the rivers and they would also build irrigation ditches. However, in Egypt the river wasn’t a bad thing. Sumer suffered many invasions; to prevent this they made armies and built walls around the cities. Egypt suffered any invasions because of its location,
Humans have been using written language to communicate ideas with one another since as early as 3200 BCE in Mesopotamia. Since then, every great civilization has had a written language, each with its own unique characteristics. However, it was the writin...
2) The Assyrians and Hittites changed the political landscape of Western Asia by their superior military organization and their technology. They created new technology and weapons for the military, like launched stone projectiles, armored spearmen, cavalry equipment, and chariots. With these new technologies, military organizations became very strong, and had a better chance of beating their enemy.
The factors of irrigation, inherent topography, and useful bronze-age technical innovations paved the way for the agricultural revolution to occur in the land of Sumer and Akkad. The people of the Tigris and the Euphrates basin, the ancient Sumerians, using the fertile land and the abundant water supply of the area, developed sophisticated irrigation systems and created what was probably the first cereal agriculture. This historical factor resulted in an excess of production of cereals, dates, and other commodities. The consequence of excess is the emergence of a productive peasant agricultural system and a redistributive economy that fuels the progress of civilization.
Both societies had started out in the same way, as city-states. A city-state is a city that with its surrounding territory forms an independent state. The creators of Mesopotamian society were the Sumerians; around 3000B.C.E. they had established a number of independent cities in southern Mesopotamia (Spielvogel 7). In 750 B.C.E. the Greek society began to bombard, and it all started with the polis, or city-state (Spielvogel 60).
The constructions of the temple-palace had large scale implications for the Mesopotamian landscape. It served as a symbolic entity for the city and towns that it was located in due to the tremendous height of these buildings that served as beacons that loomed over villages. These temples were perceived by many individuals who resided in these villages as homes for the deities. A wide cross section of villagers from various social backgrounds belonged to a particular temple in which they would worship. “The temple community comprised a cross section of the population: officials, priests, merchants, craftsmen, food-producers and slaves.” (174 Temple-Palace) Due to the great spiritual investment that was placed within these temples it prompted much time and labor to be invested into their construction. These temples also served as an outlet in which to take care of underprivileged citizens who were poor, orphaned or physically incapable of earning a living. Besides the fact that these temples provided support to the community it also supported the government sector as well. “The activities of the temple coordinated the construction of irrigation canals that often involved the cooperation of several communities.” (174 Temple-Palace) The temple-palace served a variety of integral roles to the villages and cities located within Mesopotamia. Temples intially did not immediately serve all these features within communities in Mesopotamia. Through examining specific periods on the Mesopotamian plain we will further understand how the temple-palaces evolved over the centuries within Mesopotamia and how they eventually became centralized within the community.
In the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, many civilizations have developed. One of these civilizations was ancient Sumer, the first civilization to have a written language. Written language was used in ancient times to keep records of information such as profit gained from goods and taxes. Writing has existed since 3,200 B.C. Since ancient Sumer, writing has developed in flourished all over the world in places like Mesoamerica, Egypt, China, and eventually Western Civilization. Written language has become extremely important because it allows us to communicate with others, record information, and spread ideas.