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Sumerian Society
The first civilization in Mesopotamia to develop was the Sumerians. They
learned to live together in small cities that were completely independent. Each
city-state was like its own small country. It included homes, farms and a market,
a palace and temple. Each city-state had to have all the things necessary to
meet everyone’s needs.
People in each community worked together to survive. The Sumerians were
interdependent. Interdependent means people depend on each other to survive.
Each person did a different job to help everyone else out. When people focus
one job it is called specializing. When people specialize, they learn to do it better
than anyone else because they focus so much on it.
Kings
Many times, city-states would argue with one
another over land or resources. This led to wars
between the city-states. When a war was fought,
one leader was chosen to lead the city-state’s
army. This leader was called a lugal, or big man.
Lugals would sometimes not give up their power
after a war and stayed the king of that city-state.
Then, when the king died, his son would take
over for him.
Several citizens come before a
Sumerian king.
Kings in Sumerian cities were important to
making sure the city-state was safe. Kings were responsible for making sure the
city walls were built and kept-up. When there was a battle, the king had to lead
his troops himself. From winning a war, the king would capture gold and
treasures to help make his city-state rich.
Other than protecting the city-states, kings in Sumer had other
important responsibilities. People believed that kings were
chosen by the gods to rule so kings had some religious power.
They were expected to build temples in the city-state for worship
and sacrifice to the gods.
Sargon was one of
Mesopotamia’s
great kings.
When people in the city-state disagreed, it was the king who
judged their cases. The laws a king wrote helped people live
together peacefully and treat each other fairly. Kings also
collected taxes to pay for government work.
Priests
People in Sumerian city-states were very religious. They believed in many
different gods who controlled all parts of the world and nature. Temples built in
the city-states were important buildings because they showed respect to these
gods.
Priests were people who worked in the temples.
Priests conducted religious ceremonies, made
sacrifices, and advised people in religious
matters.
Sumerians believed that the gods would get
angry if they were not taken care of well. An
angry god may cause floods, earthquakes, or
other natural disasters to destroy the city-state.
Priests were supposed to keep the gods happy
by feeding them daily, singing and playing music
to relax them, and caring for the god’s temple.
Sumerians built large temples
called Ziggurats like this one in
the center of their city-states.
When people wanted to make the gods happy, they would bring gifts of riches
and foods. Priests would offer these gifts to the gods by placing them in front of
special statues. At the end of the day, the “leftovers” that had not been eaten
were given to the king or the priests themselves to eat.
Traders & Merchants
People from all over Mesopotamia and even lands farther away had goods to
trade with one another. Traders and merchants made that possible.
Traders traveled to foreign lands to trade goods from Mesopotamia with other
cultures. Some traveled in caravans, or groups of people and animals that travel
together, across the Syrian Desert. Others sailed trade ships across the Persian
Gulf. The travel was often very dangerous.
Traders brought back gold, precious stones, cedar and Cyprus wood, and other
valuable materials to the city-states. Wood was used to strengthen mud-brick
buildings. One stone, obsidian, was used to make tools. These materials helped
many people in Mesopotamia meet their needs.
Merchants in the Sumerian city-states would gather these goods from other lands
in a market place called a bazaar. Also, goods produced by skilled workers from
within the city-state were sold here. Members of the community could shop for
all that they needed in the bazaar.
Artisans
Making many of the things that people need require very skilled workers.
Artisans are those skilled workers who produce practical objects that all people
needed. Artisans made the weapons soldiers used to defend the city, the tools
that farmers used to grow crops, and many other useful things.
Sumerian cities had many types of artisans. Metalworkers
made useful tools and weapons out of metals that others
mined. Stonecutters made statues and cut stone for some
buildings. Potters made oil lamps, cups, bowls, and other
useful objects from clay. Other artisans such as
leatherworkers, goldsmiths, and carpenters created many
other important things for people in Sumer.
Creating these important tools and objects was not always
easy work. Artisans had to study for a long time to become
good at their craft. They trained with other artisans who did
the same job for a long time before setting out for business on their own.
Because it took so much time to learn how to do just one thing, artisans had to
trade their goods with other people to get the things they needed to survive.
Focusing on how to do one thing very well like the artisans did is called
specializing.
An artisan spins yarn
for a weaving.
Farmers
Growing food for all of the people in the city-state was the work of the farmers.
Farmers worked on large fields just outside the city-state’s walls. They
depended on the fertile soil of the land between the two rivers to make crops
grow. They irrigated their fields by making canals to carry water into the fields.
The food they harvested kept the city alive.
Many farmers worked on small plots that they rented
from richer farmers. A few farmers where able to buy
their own small plots of land. However, rent and taxes
made it difficult for all farmers to become very wealthy.
Mesopotamian farmers did
difficult work for little pay.
Farmers grew wheat and barley which could be turned
into bread, flour, or porridge. They also grew onions,
garlic, peas, lettuce and cucumbers. Fruit trees such
as apple and pomegranate were planted around the
fields. Some farmers raised livestock like sheep,
cows, and oxen which provided wool, milk, meat, and
labor.
Scribes
Sumerians learned to keep records by developing a system of writing called
cuneiform. This system was very complex and took years and years to learn.
Because it was so hard, most people did not know how to read and write.
Scribes were people who specialized in how to read and write. They then would
read and write for others.
Scribes were important to the government because they kept
records of all the taxes paid and laws made. In the temple,
scribes wrote down the sacrifices made for the priests.
Doctors used scribes to write prescriptions and records.
Scribes wrote orders for military officers to send to their
troops. Even commoners used scribes to write letters and
read important documents.
Scribes did not write on paper. They used soft clay tablets
and wrote with pointed sticks in the clay. When the clay
hardened, their document was preserved.
A cuneiform tablet
shows Sumerian
writing.
Sumerian city-states were very successful communities. Everyone had to work
together to survive. Each person had a different job to do and that made it
possible to get more work done faster. Sumerians show us what is possible
when people worked together interdependently.
WORKS REFERENCED
Schomp, Virginia. Ancient Mesopotamia: The Sumerians, Babylonians, and
Assyrians. Scholastic: New York, 2004.