Download 4th Period – Sumer – characteristics of a

4th Period
Sumer – Characteristics of a Civilization
Introduction
-Sumer: located in southern Mesopotamia
-Tigris River and Euphrates River flow thru
Mesopotamia and empty into Persian Gulf
-Sumer made up of 12 city-states
-city-state is a city ruled like a country
Characteristics
Of a civilization
1. stable food supply
2. social structure
3. government
-farming
-invented the plow (wood) to turn
up the soil so seeds could be
planted
-built dams, canals, irrigation
systems to water crops regularly
-very top: king
-near top: priests, landowners,
Government officials
- middle: merchants, farmers,
Artisans(craftsmen),
Fishermen
-bottom: slavery
-head of government is the king
-Sumerians believed their gods
Chose their kings
-kings led army into battle
-warriors drove chariots into
Battle –pulled by horses
-king appointed officials to help
Him
- Obeying the wills of gods was
Very IMPORTANT to the
Sumerians
4. Religion
-believed in many gods (Polytheism)
-worshipped in temples called ziggurats
-believed the gods lived at top of ziggurats
-believed the gods climbed down the
Steps of ziggurats to get to earth
-sacrificed people, animals, fruits and
Vegetables to the gods
5. Arts
-wrote songs
- gave feasts
-played music for the gods
-played a harp called a LYRE
6. Technology - they invented wheel
- they created the arch in buildings
- invented plow, sailboat, water clock
7. Writing
- they invented a writing called cuneiform
-cuneiform started out as pictographs
which were pictures that stand for real
objects
-a stylus – a sharp pointed tool- was used
To write with (reed, bone, wood)
-clay tablets used for paper
Cuneiform invented 2400 BCE
-a professional writer/reader: scribe