Chapter 4 - The Sumerians

The Sumerians

Chapter 4 -1

City-States

Sumerian Religion

Cradles of Civilization

Sumerians (and other people in Mesopotamia) organized themselves into city-states.

After the Neolithic Period, mankind starts farming. Areas with ideal locations for farming become the birthplaces of the first true civilizations.

Sumerian religion was polytheistic. Poly- means "many", which makes sense, since they worshiped many gods. These gods usually represented major parts of Sumerian life: wind, water, crops, death, ect.

City-states each had their own rulers (kings or priests), laws, armed forces, and typically had fortifications like the ones seen here.

Because wood and stone were hard to come by, most buildings were made of mud bricks.

Any questions?

Sumerian city-states claimed to have local gods too- gods specifically for their city. Because of this, there were countless deities and mythic figures Mesopotamians would revere and worship, depending on where they lived.

Today we will look at Mesopotamia (specifically a part called Sumer)

Technological Advances

TIME ITSELF

Cuneiform

Wheels

Why Here?

Ziggurats

Mesopotamia was an ideal location because of a couple factors. First, you won't freeze to death here. Second, you have the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers here.

*breathes in*

These rivers would flood often, sometimes carrying away homes and livestock. But more often, they'd deposit silt on the banks. Silt is extremely rich bits of soil.

In order to get "closer" to the gods, Mesopotamians built ziggurats, massive temples dedicated to their gods. Sumerians believed their gods actually lived at the top of ziggurats.

Some priests ruled their city-states from ziggurats, but were mostly replaced by kings later on...

BOI

Sumerian illustrations showed wheels at 3500 B.C. Wheels are extremely helpful and were used on carts...and eventually chariots.

First form of writing ever. Used to keep track of crops and trade, later used to record stories and history. Carved into clay tablets.

Oldest recorded story in the world, the Epic of Gilgamesh, was written in cuneiform.

Nah, but Sumerians did give us:

• 60 seconds in a minute
• 60 minutes in an hour
• 24 hour days
• 12 month years

Their calendar was based around ceremonies and their farming.

People learn to irrigate, or direct water to their crops.

Hard to pronounce, and to live without!

We have our food... now what?

Food Surplus- Having extra food saved up

Family Structure

Sumerian Society

Men farm, women tend to take care of the household. Laws say parents take care of kids, kids take care of parents when they're old.

Made decisions, ran city-states, fought in wars when needed.

Higher populations can be supported

Specialization- Not everyone needs to be a farmer! People can specialize and do different jobs!

Largest class (forgive my diagram), did most of the work, paid taxes in some form.

*woosh*

Also means we need to trade more! Need metal from Turkey, lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, not to mention timber, tools, and foods from other city-states nearby.

People captured in war or that couldn't pay debts. Worked for those in the upper class.