While researching Sumerian culture I learned many interesting things that I was not aware of before. Many little known facts about Sumer will change the way that people feel about other ancient societies. Many advances that are not attributed to Sumeria, often were pioneered by this advanced culture long before others. Most people don't even know much about the origan of the Sumerian culture.
The people who originally lived in Sumer in 4000 BC were not really Sumerians. Sumers original inhabitants were in fact
Ubaidians. The Ubaidian culture was already quite advanced for that time, and had a large variety of unique farming techniques. Between 4000 and 3000 BC Sumer was infiltrated by many nomadic tribes. This constant movement of peoples caused a cross-fertilization of culture. Technology from many different regions were becoming centralized in
Sumer. So were different theological viewpoints. During this millennium the people that we think of as Sumerians moved into Sumer. These people originated near the Caspian sea and did not even arrive in Sumer until 3300 BC. When these people ended up in Sumer it created the worlds first "high civilization". All who lived in Sumer were now recognized as
Sumerian, because Sumerian was the common language.
Sumer, like most early middle-eastern nations, was in the fertile crescent. These small waterways provided excellant irrigation, and transportation. Sumer was one of the first large civilizations that had a very developed textile industry.
Wool sheared from goats and sheep was made into garments. The usage of linen was reserved for only high priests and other dignitaries. Flax and wool was used for everyone else. Farming was also a very predominant industry in this nation. All of the mixed culture taught the
Sumerians about many different farming methods. Sickles and other tools aided in the farming. The harvested grain was preserved in granaries and pots. This allowed grain to be shipped without spoiling or molding. All of the waterways in
Sumeria allowed products to be shipped up and down rivers to other destinations. One popular shipping method was called the "Turnip". The turnip was a buoy shaped boat that was attached to a long rope. The turnip would float along in the water, while the merchant rode on horseback on a near by road. Transportation methods increased in efficiency and new types of them arrived during the Sumerian rule, for instance, more types of boats were invented, and the
Sumerians introduced the sail to the world of travel. The wheel was also first implemented in the Sumerian nation.
When these advanced forms of transportation were not available, people still used donkeys with baskets strapped to their sides. Iron working was used to create tools that aided
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 Epic of Gilgamesh is generally regarded as the greatest literature about tales of a great king. The Epic of Gilgamesh served to show us a lot of things. The time period of BCE is very blurry, and this story attempts to describe many different things in not only Sumerian beliefs, but also Sumerian's culture as a whole. Like many stories from BCE the truth itself is questionable, even though a lot of the information is fact. The factual information that Gilgamesh teaches us about Sumerian Civilization is that had had many craftsman and artistic skills, and also a strong belief in Gods.
With the lack of canals or other means of transportation, it was almost impossible for many farmers to reach distant cities or waterways to get their goods to market.
Before the beginning of history, people from across the land gradually developed numerous cultures, each unique in some ways while the same time having features in common. Mesopotamia and Egypt are important to the history of the world because of religious, social, political and economic development. Mesopotamia was the first civilization, which was around 3000 B.C., and all other countries evolved from it. Mesopotamia emerged from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The soil was rich and agriculture was plentiful. The Semitic nomads occupied the land around Akkad. The Sumerians established the city-states. Villages became urban centers. Because of the formation of the city-states everything flourished. However, Mesopotamian agriculture lacked stones; therefore mud brick became their major building block. Their diet consisted of fish from the rivers. The rivers were flooded frequently destroyed the cities. Mesopotamians made their living from crops and pottery.
Mesopotamia’s first invention was a form of writing called cuneiform which was written on clay tablets with a sharp reed called a stylus. This permitted for recording events and writing formal laws. The Sumerians, a civilization in Mesopotamia designed the wheel which was used to help transfer heavy objects to and from places. They also began constructing daggers, spears and chariots, which has led to their successful wars. The Mesopotamians were also responsible for the first laws and the discoveries of glass, sailboats, and ziggurats. With interest high in religion and mythology, Sumerians and their successors worshiped gods and goddesses just like Egyptians, Greeks, and Aegean cultures.
Civilizations began specializing with ceramic pottery, metallurgy, and textiles. These crafts help discover new ways for communicating with the creation of cylindrical stone seals. The seals were engraved with images and rolled over wet clay to be reproduced. A more specific civilization existing within the Mesopotamian were the Sumerians. For several centuries’ Sumerian law, literature, art, science, and religion were the Mesopotamians primary practices. Cuneiform the Sumerian language was the more important advancement made by the civilization. During the Neopalatial period, Minoan trade networks extended across the eastern Mediterranean, and Minoan influence was widespread, especially in the Aegean Sea. This influence seems to have come
The historian Helen Chapin Metz writes:’’The precariousness of existence in southern Mesopotamia led to a highly developed sense of religion. Cult centers such as Eridu, dating back to 5000 BCE, served as important centers of pilgrimage and devotion even before the rise of Sumer. Many of the most important Mesopotamian cities emerged in areas surrounding the pre-Sumerian cult centers, thus reinforcing the close relationship between religion and
The climate Sumerians lived in was a harsh environment. The Sumerian people believed their gods were merciless because of the harsh conditions. Most of the Sumerian people were located between two rivers, the Euphrates and Tigris, now known as Iraq. Which is where the Sumerians would develop into an enormous state with many cities. Each of the cities had its own ruler, which could have been considered a king. Each city had an approximate population of 10,000 people. Each city was centered around a temple. The Sumerian people lived in mud brick huts. They had sheep and goats, some of the people were fishermen, farmers, and pastors. The Sumerians developed trade routes along the two rivers. The trade between Sumerians, soon started attracting other civilizations with their cultures. With that many civilizations adopted Sumerian culture and mixed with their own. At the time the location seemed perfect, but an unpredictable flood would soon happen in the upper portion of the state called the Fertile Crescent. The Fertile Crescent had small waterways, which provided an excellent irrigation and
The archaic Sumerian standards can be considered the first implementation of descriptive distancing discourse in written language. First and foremost, standards were designations of official titles; additionally, later Sumerian and Akkadian texts used the names of deities, rulers, regions, cities, et cetera in conjunction with standards [Sumerian 2]. The titles used are also enhanced through the use of modifiers; two such modifiers (seen with the titles Unkin and Ga) are Gal (which means great, chief, superior, and master) and Nun (which means prince, princely, and loft) [Sumerian 8]. The Egyptian status titles in Nubia were not quite as blunt as those in Sumer; while there was some parallelism in the form of titles such as “prince” or “godly” there were implementations that had heavy
The Sumerian culture emerged around 4000 B.C, among the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now known as Southern Iraq. They invented their own writing which is known as Cuneiform. There wasn’t any organized set of Gods in Sumer because each city/ state had its own patrons, temples, and priest/kings. The Sumerians were well known for their metalwork and invention of the wheel, plow, and writing system. Also from the building of many cities along the river in lower Mesopotamia.
Job Specialization – The Sumerians, during the time when they were most successful, had many types of jobs and many different people specializing in each job. Some of the most important jobs were: construction, because of the regular seismic activity and floods; fine masons, who were very valued for their work; traders who went out and traded things such as leather, pottery, and metal wares with nearby societies; and of course all the other people who farmed, made pottery, and everyone else who allowed the trade to happen.
Considering the environment as everything around us, nature probably has the biggest impact on life in recent time as well as in Mesopotamia. In ancient Mesopotamia, the Tigris and Euphrates river provided sources of life in an otherwise desolate area of the world. The people would use the tough reeds to build many things, ranging from boats to houses. The fertile silt from the rivers' flooding provided land that was very good for agriculture, which led to many thriving empires. Those are definitely the most prominent and easy to explain interactions between humankind and nature in ancient Mesopotamia.
Sumerians occupied upper Mesopotamia from CA. 3000-2350 BCE, the Sumerians are known to have come up with the earliest form of writing known as the cuneiform. The discovery of the tablet that contained the poem of The Epic of Gilgamesh aided historians in determining the method Sumerians used to write texts; cuneiform. Moreover, The Epic of Gilgamesh, “contained by far the most detailed
The Mesopotamian art work above is a relief sculpture plaque made out of stone-like material. The plaque has a distinct narrative that has been divided into three registers, and which is read from the bottom register upwards, in a left to right motion. In addition, there is a vertical rectangle cut in the middle of the plaque which might suggest that something belonged there.
Considered by many to be the birthplace of civilization, Mesopotamia was a large society situated in the Fertile Crescent of western Asia and northeast Africa roughly between the years of 5000 BCE and 3000 BCE. Credited with a panoply of influential achievements, chief among them likely being the creation of the first known system of writing (cuneiform), it is truly a monument to early human achievement (Backman 6-7). However, one oft-overlooked aspect of the Sumerian society that would also go on to impact many societies that would rise in its wake is its emphasis on religion, and the ubiquitous and organized nature of theology throughout the empire. Despite being polytheistic – a form of theism that has since largely fallen out of favor