Sumerian Civilization Research Paper

Human history has dated back to two million years ago with the beginning of the Stone Age Period, which lasted from two million years ago to 10,000 B.C.E.. In this period, human began to develop technologies, and skills such as making tools, traveling across water, planting, domesticating animals, etc.. However, it was not until 5,000 years ago had human begun to keep written record of history. This unfolds a momentous page of human history: the rise of civilization from ancient villages. The first two civilizations that came about were the Sumer and Indus Civilization. The Sumer Civilization (3300-1900 B.C.E) was the world's first civilization developed in southeastern Mesopotamia, an area of land between the Tigris and Euphrates

With Ur and Uruk, the world's first great cities, the Sumer Civilization flourished with a huge contribution to trade by the invention of the first wheeled vehicles. They traded as far as Egypt and Indus Valley. God and goddesses had important role on daily life of the Sumerians. The people believed that gods, whose behavior had no difference from that of common people, had absolute rule over every aspect of life. "The Sumerian gods... revealed themselves in and through the phenomena of the physical world." The Sumerians practices their religious belief by celebrating and sacrificing tribute to gods in the ziggurat (a temple to god). They also accomplished one of the most important element of a civilization: inventing the first writing system called cuneiform. This

As archaeologists had found, there are few signs of weapons in the cities, suggesting that the Indus had few enemies and did not use army and war to expand and enrich their cities. Instead, they thrived on trade with their main partner is Mesopotamia. The Indus had no great buildings; however, the structures stood for thousands of years. Moreover, archaeologists found a lot of little hand-crafted toys, and believed that the first dice was invented by the Indus. These evidence showed that the Indus had very high handcraft skill. Therefore, beside farming and trading, craft workers and builders were popular in Indus Civilization. Life of the Indus was peaceful; everyone lived together and there were no deep gaps between the rich and the poor. The Indus had their mother goddess, and honored cows as special animals because of theirs meat and milk. The Indus had their own writing system; however, their writing still cannot be understood