Download Name: Global 1: Ferrara Cuneiform: The ancient Sumerians

Name: ________________________ Global 1: Ferrara Cuneiform: The ancient Sumerians believed in education. Record keeping was very important to them. They wanted their sons to learn how to read and write. Their written language began as pictographs, pictures of things that acted as words. Pictographs worked, but they were rather complicated. Soon, the Sumerians started to use wedge­shaped symbols for objects and ideas instead of pictures. It is known today as Cuneiform. Directions: Using the table below translate and write your name or a favorite line from a poem or song in Cuneiform, using the space below. Sumeria, Views on Death The Mesopotamian views of an afterlife... were grim and stark: sickness and death were the wages of sin. Although the dead were buried in Mesopotamia, no attempts were made to preserve their bodies. According to Mesopotamian mythology, the gods had made humans of clay, but to the clay had been added the flesh and blood of a god specially slaughtered for the occasion. God was, therefore, present in all people. The sole purpose of humanity's creation was to serve the gods, and work for them. Offended gods withdrew their support, thereby opening the door to evil. The main strands of Sumero­Akkadian thought held no prospect of an afterlife, at any rate of a kind that anyone might look forward to. In the Gilgamesh epic, the aging folk hero, haunted by the prospect of his own death, sets off to visit Utnapishtim, who, with his wife, was the only mortal to have achieved immortality. There was no judgment after death, a common fate awaiting the good and the bad alike. Death was conceived of in terms of appalling grimness, unrelieved by any hope of help. The dead were, in fact, among the most dreaded beings in early Mesopotamian religion. In a myth called "The Descent of Ishtar to the Underworld," the fertility goddess decides to visit kur­nu­gi­a ("the land of no return"), where the dead "live in darkness, eat clay, and are clothed like birds with wings." She threatens the doorkeeper: "If thou openest not that I may enter I will smash the doorpost and unhinge the gate. I will lead up the dead, that they may eat the living." Given this background, it is not surprising that offerings to the dead were made in a spirit of fear; if not propitiated they would return and cause all kinds of damage. The Babylonians did not dissect bodies, and their approach to disease and death was spiritual rather than anatomical or physiological. They did not speculate about the functions of organs but considered them the seat of emotions and mental faculties in general. The heart was believed to be the seat of the intellect, the liver of affectivity, the stomach of cunning, the uterus of compassion, and the ears and the eyes of attention. Breathing and life were thought of in the same terms. The Akkadian word napistu was used indifferently to mean "the throat," "to breathe," and "life" itself. Primary Author: Robert A. Guisepi Portions of this work Contributed By: F. Roy Willis of the University of California Hammurabi was the 6th king of the city of Babylon and
began his rule around 1792 BC. He was a priest­king, but also
a successful warrior­general. He defeated Sumer, Akkad, and
other city states to the south of Babylon. Around 1760 BC, he claimed the title of the first king of the Babylonian Empire. Eventually, his empire included most of Mesopotamia. Under his rule , Babylon grew into a diverse, busy city that attracted people from all over (much like New York City today). Babylon
was the world’s first true metropolis, and an important center of trade. Hammurabi’s Legacy: Hammurabi worked hard to improve his capital city and his empire. He spent a great deal of resources on expanding irrigation systems. He also strongly encouraged astronomy, mathematics, and literature. But his greatest legacy ­ his most impressive lasting achievement ­ was the creation of a written code of law. Hammurabi knew that a code of laws was needed to unite all the diverse people of his empire. Although Hammurabi’s Code was not the first code of laws (Historians have found record of laws dating four hundred years earlier.), this code is the best preserved and most controversial set of laws of ancient Mesopotamia. The code applied to everyone in the empire. There were different laws for rich and
poor, and for men and women. The laws had a principle of retaliation. The codes were engraved on stone in cuneiform and copies were placed all over the empire. The code had 282 specific laws. They let us see clearly how Mesopotamian society was organized and governed.